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DVD REVIEW: RING OF HONOR UNDENIABLE PPV - NIGEL MCGUINNESS' ROH TITLE WIN, JAY BRISCOE VS. NECRO BUTCHER & MORE

 
Welcome back to another Cynical DVD View. This time out, I’m taking a look at ROH’s Fourth PPV, Undeniable, a show that I feel as if I’ve waited absolutely ages for.

First things first. The disc arrived in an average, bog-standard DVD case.  Bah. Those PPV slipcases were especially nice… major disappointment! Aside from that, the artwork is horrendous, and one of the least interesting efforts from ROH in some time.

-Dave Prazak and Lenny Leonard are in the ring to introduce the show, emanating from Edison, NJ. Crowd is amazingly hot. Also in the ring, is Claudio, who’s awaiting the entrance of Chris Hero. Hero and Sweet ‘N’ Sour Inc emerge, and Larry Sweeney reveals he isn’t going to allow Hero to wrestle, until there’s more money on the table and their demands or met. Erm, okay. So the match is off. Somewhat bizarre opening.

-Following the intro, The Age of the Fall are in the middle of the ring. Necro is described as the one in the wife beater, as if you couldn’t guess which one would belong to that particular title. They also have a whole bunch of supporters in the front row of the crowd, decked out with black bandanas. Jimmy cuts a promo where he weakly describes the motives of his faction, whom he claims “aren’t a faction”. This stuff still makes no sense, but at least they are a strong group of characters. They issue a challenge, to which the Vulture squad respond….

Jimmy Jacobs & Tyler Black vs. Ruckus & Jack Evans

This is a little messy, and chaotic at times, but still a very entertaining opening match. There’s the usual highspots you would expect from Evans, although the aim here is quite blatantly to put over the threat of the Age of the Fall. Black and Jacobs gel superbly. Aside from Ruckus, these guys all come across like stars here. It’s pretty short though, and Evans is forced to tap by Jacobs to his guillotine, following some really nice double-team action. Decent opener.

-Backstage, Morishima is scheduled to give an interview, but he isn’t in
the mood, so instead he throws a chair around. This is cool, as it
suggests that for the first time, he’s genuinely rattled entering into a
title defense.

-A promo for Erick Stevens, narrated himself, is shown. Not bad, puts over his babyface credentials, whilst being very similar to the one they
featured on the first PPV, that hyped the debut of Brent Albright.

Sara Del Rey vs. Daizee Haze

Good action. It’s unusual to see Del Rey playing a more traditional heel
role, and not being dominant. Haze controls the majority of what is a
short, but fast-paced effort. During the bout, we’re distracted from the
action by Claudio returning to ringside, and acting Del Rey’s cohorts.
Dempsey eats an uppercut, but Claudio is eventually felled by the Hero’s welcome. Meanwhile, Haze picks up the shock win, with a roll-up. The action was nice while it lasted, and established the in-ring prowess of the women’s wrestlers in ROH. Bryan Danielson comes to the ring to a huge pop, and challenges Hero to a match, which amazingly he accepts.

Bryan Danielson vs. Chris Hero

As the fans chant “you’re gonna get your f**k’n head kicked In”, Hero has Bobby Cruise announce that that is, “pure speculation”, which is
stunningly funny. Fans are all over Hero during the feeling out process
early in this. Lots of slow, but absorbing mat-work in the early going, as
Dragon attempts all manner of holds and submissions, whilst Hero showboats anytime he dodges something. After gaining momentum following a couple of groovy big boots, Hero pulls his headband over his eye, like it’s an eye-patch, mocking Dragon (who had to wear such a patch, at the last PPV, Man Up). That’s absolute gold it is. Hero’s heat period largely consists of ridiculous struts and poses, accompanied by some actual wrestling.

When Dragon makes his comeback, the two engage in some exciting back-and-forth action, as Danielson pulls out a variety of different strategies. He locks on the Cattle Mutilation, but Hero reaches the ropes. Hero comes back with a couple of incredible forearm shots, but can’t finish him off, and steals a couple of Dragon’s staples, the small package, and Cattle Mutilation!

Dragon fights back, and incensed, stomps the bejeesus out of Hero’s head until the referee awards him the bout via stoppage. 

This was an exciting effort from both guys, and a nice change of pace for Bryan Danielson, who’s last two PPV efforts have been complete epics. I imagine Hero’s character translates really well to any PPV viewers who aren’t familiar with the product.

-Adam Pearce is in the ring and mysteriously calls out Kevin Steen. He
sounds like a hypnotist. Steen has a seat in the ring, while Pearce gives
us a Hangman Three history lesson, and then attempts to manipulate Steen into joining the Hangman “four”. El Generico is then dragged to the ring by Whitmer and Albright, as Pearce continues with his persuasive tones.

Steen objects though, which really pops the crowd, and takes on all of the Hangman Three, but is eventually outnumbered. Official babyface turn for Steen. Delirious makes the save and we’re set for a six-man tag. Hot set-up.

Brent Albright, Adam Pearce & BJ Whitmer vs. Delirious, El Generico, and Kevin Steen

Good, traditional tag team action, that see’s Steen and Generico as pretty much babyfaces on PPV for the fist time. Whitmer looks akin to a Mr Kennedy action figure, where you aren’t quite sure what’s wrong. The beginning is hectic, until it settles down, with wild brawling. Delirious takes a beat-down, as they build up to the hot tag. Steen is way over with the fans, and maximizes the crowd response with some hot highspots.
There’s a cool moment where Generico takes down Albright by comically leaping on top of him, as it’s the only way he can do it. The last few minutes of this are great fun, with the structure breaking down into a typical ROH tag-team sprint. Steen hits Whitmer with a gut-buster that puts Chris Jericho to shame, but is caught in a huge Pearce Spinebuster.  Delirious then targets Pearce’s ear, biting at him. Hmm, tasty. But Albright catches him in a half-nelson suplex for the win. Fundamentally sound, and really enjoyable, sensible action distinguished this one. The angle that took place beforehand was perfectly played.

-Backstage Nigel is preparing for his title shot. Builds up his “man-of-the-people” image, informing us that for him, it isn’t all about
being a big TV star, what drives him is still what drove him to become a
wrestler in the first place. It’s the fact that he is living his dream, is
able to call himself a professional wrestler, and wants to make the most
of this opportunity. Really good promo work from Nigel here, that superbly positions him as the ultimate babyface underdog, and a humble guy to boot.

Roderick Strong vs. Austin Aries

They show a clip of Strong originally turning on Aries prior to the
entrances. This feud has bugged me for the past year, as I really don’t
think it’s been well handled, and the rivalry between the two completely
muted by the factions. However, this feels like the first time that a
match between the two is a really big deal.

In the early going, Strong spits all over Aries, which is absolutely
disgusting but a No Remorse Corps trait. Here, they’re going for the
methodical approach, with both looking to embarrass and out-maneuver each other with superior grappling. This makes much more sense here, than it did way back at Supercard of Honor 2, where Aries, who should have been enraged and hot, instead worked this style. Aries utilises some Hogan-style back-rakes, which hey, if Hogan can do it…

In a superb moment, Strong does the old spot where he pulls his opponent by the legs off the ropes, and flips them high into the air, landing across their back. But here, as Aries is flying towards the mat, Strong flings a knee out for the backbreaker. All of Strong’s offence translates as devastating, as each time he has the advantage, it’s thanks to the remorseless nature of one of his hard-hitting moves.

The fight spills to the outside, where Aries regains control, but as usual, one of his explosive spots doesn’t go to plan. Great stuff, with the counters the two have for each other being a highlight, as you would expect them to know each other inside out.

The amount of back-breakers performed is fairly insane. Aries brilliantly counters a Tiger Driver with a hurracanrana, which looks sweet, but even better is Roderick moving as Austin attempts his high-angle dropkick, leaving Aries to land hard, face-first on the mat. The funky third camera angle is noticeable during this match too, really adding to the battle at times. ROH should really be adopting this much more often. Strong kicks out of the 450, which is really surprising, even after Strong has set up a table, which you assume would come into play for the finish.

Towards the end, Roddy hits an insane running big-boot, that is indescribably vicious. Aries too though, survives Strong’s finishers, turning up the heat to levels that these two deserve. Aries hit’s the brain buster through the table to the floor, followed by a second 450 splash (which he lands awkwardly with his knees across the mid-section) for the win. Absolutely fantastic war between these two, that you would hope is a feud ender. Both guys looked fabulous, and Strong’s loss did him no harm whatsoever. Aries continues to carry himself like a main eventer, as he has done for much of 2007.

Tag Team Title Match
The Briscoes vs. Davey Richards & Rocky Romero

This match was taped in Dayton, as The Briscoes and The Age of the Fall are supposedly being kept apart due to their intense hatred for one
another. Fair enough.

Fluid, enjoyable mat work between Mark and Davey in the early stages of this. Davey continues to impress, and is a great fit as Romero’s tag
partner. As we’ve come to expect from the Briscoes, after several minutes of great back-and-forth grappling, they hit a couple of maniacal dives and high spots, including an awesome one where on the apron, Jay tries to bounce Rocky’s head off the ring-post, but as he runs him across, Romero leaps off the apron onto Mark on the outside. Back in the ring, the No Remorse Corps have the advantage and wear down Jay. Davey really heels it up with his arm work, which is crisp and looks to have a helluva impact.

When Mark makes the tag, it’s absolutely scintillating stuff, and the
brothers break out some of those furious combos and team work they’re
famous for. The crowd pulsate energy too, as all four do a fantastic job
towards the end. The final few minutes of this are completely and utterly
thrilling, and unpredictable, as they go into what appears to be a legit
finishing stretch, only to slow down somewhat, when the NRC survive, as
the challengers then attempt to finish the Briscoes off. The champs
slaughter Richards with a sickening Doomsday Device for the victory. Super effort, and the best of the night thus far.

They built up the Doomsday Device expectedly, and throughout this battle we were treated to some riotous, unpredictable action. A fine example of why some regard the Briscoes just as highly as they do. During the Briscoes celebrations, the Age of the Fall splice in shots of themselves covered in Jay’s blood, which I suppose is quite nifty.

ROH World Title Match
Nigel McGuiness vs. Takeshi Morishima ©

Lenny Leonard does a brilliant recap of the McGuiness title quest as Nigel makes his way to the ring. This has a genuinely huge, main event
atmosphere, and the commentators really drive the value of the belt home.
Nice reversals at the outset, as they both attempt to stamp their
authority. Morishima is the early victor, forcing the challenger to the
outside, where he wisely brutalises Nigel’s arm. Rather nicely, he sticks
with this, really focusing on that limb, and thus, attempting to take
Nigel’s favoured lariats away from him. Morishima attempts a Backdrop
driver, which Nigel avoids, hitting a couple of Lariats, which is annoying, because he doesn’t sell the arm, WHATSOEVER!

Nonetheless, Nigel continues to throw every type of Lariat you could possibly imagine, which I guess doesn’t bode well for the match, if you’re one of those folk who believe he already hits too many of them. The champ manages to hit his Backdrop driver, which only gets a two-count, as the crowd really come alive. It’s at this point, they really sense the title change coming. Nigel recovers, and fells the champ with a superplex, then a whole succession of Lariats. But Morishima throws one of his own that’s devastating (and a minor problem here- every Morishima one is more impact looking).

He can’t get the Backdrop Driver though, and Nigel hits the Jawbreaker Lariat! But he only gets a two-count, for a believable near fall that had the crowd believing it was over. They ferociously boo the kickout. Morishima teases a super-backdrop driver, but thankfully, can’t hit it. The two go into a savage, stiff strike exchange, that Nigel wins, before hitting an enormous Lariat, but the Champ hulks up, kicking out at one!
Just after, Nigel hits another Jawbreaker, this time getting the three count! The fans go absolutely ape-sh**, as the locker room empties to celebrate the title change. Absolutely amazing moment.

Bryan Danielson attempts to ruin it, but everyone else steps in to remove him, most notably Austin Aries. Morishima insists on handing the belt to Nigel himself, in what is a classy moment for a now-former-champ who carried himself with unequalled class and pride throughout his fine reign. Julius Smokes is in the background between the two the entire time though, and I wish he’d stayed out the back, as his buffoonish grin is distracting.  Morishima actually looks pretty emotional.

I would still regard their first encounter, at Fighting Spirit as by far
their best. However, this was probably on par with the Live in Tokyo
rematch, and gains points for the emotional ending. Make no mistake, this
was one passionate, intense fight. For me, it was flawed in the sense that
I really enjoyed the pounding Morishima dished out on Nigel’s arm, but it
was almost entirely disregarded by Nigel, who dished out tons of (hit or
miss to terms of how they looked) lariats. But this was compensated for by the array of fantastic spots, and the great sense of drama that they built
throughout this.

Bonus Materials

Claudio Castagnoli vs. Jigsaw

A match that makes no sense whatsoever if you put it in context with the
PPV, but taken as a bonus, it’s nice to see Claudio wrestle on the show.
However Prazak attempts to explain the situation of him being laid out
earlier and taken to hospital, whereas I think he’d have been better just
ignoring the issue. Also strange because I assume Jigsaw’s going to be
staring at that ceiling here, which sinks any momentum he gained the night
before by joining the Vulture squad. Good, solid basic holds and
back-and-forth stuff from these two. Claudio attempts to neutralise the
speed of his faster opponent. After a few big power moves, Smokes is
treated to an amazing “Hey, baby” from Claudio. Worth the price of
admission.

There’s a few really subtle, tasty counters sprinkled
throughout this, and Jigsaw’s style caters well to Claudio big spots. The
attempts by the fans at making vulture noises though, are terrifyingly
bad. During the giant swing, it appears that Jigsaw has to hold his
trousers up, which is surely an unforeseen difficultly. The closing
minutes of this match really put Jigsaw over, as he pulls out a whole
bunch of interesting counters and highspots, in what is his most
impressive performance in ROH thus far. Really good little match.

Davey Richards & Rocky Romero vs. Erick Stevens & Matt Cross

The Stipulation here is that whomever eats the fall, is out of ROH for
sixty days. Good news for non-fans of Matt Cross then. What you would
expect from these four, and the fans are fairly into the NRC, which for
me, is hardly surprising, as although Stevens has really grown on me, The
Resilience as a group, just doesn’t capture my imagination. Extended heat
period on Cross, who largely sells it well, something I’ve thought he
needed to improve upon. Stevens is showing a lot more personality too.
As usual, Richards convinces as a mean ol’ bastard, and the exchanged between him and Stevens towards the end of this are the highlight.

The crowd pretty much dies during this match at points though, which isn’t helped when Cross and Richards completely botch a reverse hurracanrana. Late in the day, Davey hits an unexpected, and dangerous shooting star press to the outside. Romero hits Cross with a knockout kick to head to pick up the win.

Not a bad match, but hard to get into. There has been so much
interaction between these guys through the year, and it’s varied so much
in quality, that it’s sometimes hard to invest your emotions in the feud.

Necro Butcher vs. Jay Briscoe

Obviously, this is an Anything Goes match. Necro attacks Jay off the bat,
and I swear that he gets filthier looking every time I see him. With his
face-like-pair-of-stained-underwear, Necro takes the action into the
crowd, where they dangerously flail about amongst the fans. I always fear
for the merchandise buying fans at this point, as they attempt to save
their acquisitions. Jay is very good indeed at reducing the action down to
a simple series of stiff punches, and basic brutality, and he goes over
the top, absolutely unloading with chair shots.

Necro bleeds horribly of course, like a bottle of ketchup has exploded, though at least the blood covers his entire face from us. With the Age of The Fall’s version of Beast Man laid our, Jay sets about gathering a few chairs from the fans, oooh about twenty or so, which he stacks about the ring. Stupidly, he doesn’t really do much with this advantage though, and Necro fights back  crotching him on an open chair, and power bombing him on the pile of steel.

It occurs to me that Necro probably gets colour before he leaves
his house/trailer in the morning. Insanely, Necro performs a top-rope
hurracanrana onto all the chairs, nearly breaking his own neck. Ouch. Jay
also survives a cross-body, as the crowd rally behind him. At one point,
Jay hit’s a Death Valley Driver off the apron, and through a table, but
amazingly, it only gets a two count.

A fisherman’s suplex onto a chair is also not quite enough to slay the monster who comes back with a bunch of stiff punches that floor Briscoe. Jay out punches him however, but while he has him down, the lights go our, and the other members of The Age of The Fall appear at the entranceway, with Mark, who’s bleeding badly, and wrapped in barbed wire. With Jay distracted, Necro whacks him with a chair, then deposits him across the top of two chairs with a disturbing backbreaker for the win.

“Disturbing” is probably the best way of describing this, which can only
be loosely regarded as a “match”. It’s in fact an absolutely brutal,
horrific fight between two guys making everything they do look as
sickening and painful as possible. And it works. Yes, it drags a fair bit
towards the end, and in general, it isn’t the sort of thing you can do too
often, but it fits in the context of the feud. The visual of Mark wrapped
in barbed wire was pretty grotesque too, and this whole episode really
does advance the feud superbly.

-Undeniable Preview.

This is a Larry Sweeney hosted segment hyping the PPV, and it’s pretty
good. We’re treated to some highlights of the Morishima/Nigel feud,
including the closing moments of their impressive Live In Tokyo encounter.

Chris Hero is also featured in an, erm, “sparring” session. Which is
really just him hugging Sweeney, and beating up a student. As is the norm
with Ring of Honor, there’s some good ideas here, and it’s nice that
they’re doing these extra things, but, production issues aside, they still
lack those dramatic highlight reels that really sell a feud.

-There’s a full-length version of the Smashing Pumpkins’ “Doomsday clock”, accompanied by a whole bunch of highlights. It would have been nicer to have some footage of the band themselves, or an actual music or something, but still, nice that it’s here.

So………?

Excellent DVD. The main show itself is extremely enjoyable throughout,
although perhaps not unmissable. However, with the extra bonus features it suddenly becomes an incredibly attractive prospect, especially as you get the crazy Jay/Necro street fight. I would rate the PPV as on a par with Respect is Earned, their first, but not up to the ridiculously lofty
heights of Driven or Man Up!

Thus, newcomers would be wise to stick with those shows first, though I’d certainly recommend the whole PPV series.  Nigel vs. Morishima is a great top-liner, but while the match wouldn’t be a must-see if say, Nigel lost, with the emotion of the ending, it pushes it up that extra level. The Briscoes tag effort is probably on a par with the World title match too, with Roderick Strong vs. Austin Aries not far behind. But the undercard, while featuring nothing exceptional, also contains no stinkers, and is a well-balanced batch of encounters. And this indeed may be the show’s best strength, it’s superbly put together, bar a few minor quibbles, and adds up to a hugely satisfying experience. I think only the most jaded of ROH fans could fail to enjoy this presentation. Not their best, but on frequent occasions, very close to it. Big thumbs up then.

Thanks for taking the time to read this wacky review/rant/gibberish. I
would hope it had at least as much depth as a Repo Man match. If you have any comments, I welcome and encourage all feedback. please get in touch at bazilalfonso@hotmail.com.

Until bell-time, thanks again.