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DVD REVIEW: RING OF HONOR PROVING GROUND

On paper, Proving Ground doesn’t leap off the page at you, scratching at your corneas, urging you to buy. However, that said, there is plenty here that’s appealing enough to arouse one’s interest and ensure that only the most hardened cynic would suggest this show comes over as a chore.

One thing though- the cover artwork is abysmal . Every so often ROH seemingly goes through a barren period in terms of cover art, and it sure looks like that time’s reared it’s head again. Final Battle 07 was bad enough, but since then it’s been increasingly shoddy, to the point where Proven Ground could be mistaken for a cheap knock off.

-The Show begins outside the building in Boston, as Becky Bayless is attempting to interview Austin Aries, who’s having a cig by the looks of things. Awful start to the show, just terrible .Aries being shrouded in darkness is neat, thanks to the recent twists in his character, but c’mon, this is unintelligible, cheap looking stuff.

King and Blade are of course, the FIP Tag Team Champions, although (thankfully), those belts are not on the line, but in my view, they should neither be worn nor acknowledged here. The YRR gimmick seems to consist of the members having hot ladies around them, and claiming to be “Young, rich, and ready for action”. I have a feeling that we won’t really get to go deep enough into their gimmick to make anything off it, so they just appear to be Special K without the pills. Here’s the problem though… on commentary, Prazak and Leonard discuss Blade and King becoming tag Champs in FIP, by beating the Briscoes. In ROH they’re veritable no-bodies, at this point, and opening match act. Yet elsewhere, they’ve beaten ROH’s top babyface tag team, who are bonafide ROH main eventers. Whilst ROH fans often know their Indy’s, I still think it’s ridiculous that they’re putting themselves in the position where they have to acknowledge such stuff. These guys clearly aren’t on a par with the Briscoes, who should, in terms of perception, be protected against such information being promoted.

That said, this is a pretty good piece of tag action, with the YRR proving pretty dominant. Pelle eats a helluva lot of punishment, while Edwards is ridiculously over. Big pop when he makes a hot tag. Blade still looks like a clone of Charlie Haas. The YRR end up successful, and cleanly, but do so in a way that remains positive for Edwards and Primeau who looked really improved in defeat.

-The leader of the YRR, Sal Rinauro cuts a weak promo, until the Briscoes come out and slap Jason Blade around, before his unit run off. Jay gets on the microphone, and calls them “little bitches”, which is typically comical. They seem to find it hard to know what to say here, knowing that they need to emphasize that they aren’t feeling so good about losing the FIP tag belts, but stating that their focus is on the ROH tag titles tonight. Overly complicated, especially as there’s no need for the FIP tag belts to be discussed at all on an ROH show.

How refreshing is it, to see Daizee take on someone other than Lacey or Sara Del Rey, in a ROH ring? They start out with some neat mat-work, methodically, but involving, before “business picks up”, with the Haze chopping the nuts of Alexa. The rowdy fans are fairly into this one, which is nice, because it’s well-executed stuff. Alexa attempts to gain control, but loses momentum, and ends up caught with a missile drop-kick! Haze goes for the Heart Punch, but it’s countered with a horrible German Suplex! Horrible in the sense that Thatcher completely folds her up in the process. Ouch. Haze kicks out though, and gets the win with a Heart Punch followed by the Mind Trip.

Short showcase for the Haze, but smooth and enjoyable while it lasted. Thatcher was impressive with what little she had to do.

-Backstage Erick Stevens cuts a promo on being overlooked, and how nobody expected him to take the FIP title. Builds up the combined challenge of Aries and Bryan Danielson across two nights. Okay promo.

As much as I love Claudio, some of his less significant singles bouts leave me cold, and considering I just don’t “get” Ruckus, I’m cynical about this one. Castagnoli ignites the crowd with his “hey!” chants, which Ruckus playfully goes along with. This is all smiles, and cute, flashy wrestling. The Big Swiss dude dominates from early on, until Ruckus hits one of those moves I hate, where the crowd aren’t sure who was the guy hitting the spot, and who was the recipient. Ruckus succeeds with a multiple handspring splash on the floor in the aisle, which looks like it probably hurt him a lot more than his opponent. The best moment of the match occurs when Ruckus shoots for a Rolling Suplex, but Claudio reverses it into one of his own. Ruckus builds momentum and hit’s a few big moves, but can’t finish him, and the bout sort of fizzles out entirely, until Claudio reaches up his sleeve and pulls out a Giant Swing. He gets the win with a running European Uppercut.

Mercifully short. Ruckus can do some impressive moves, but too often they come across as silly, light, and rehearsed. It just doesn’t look like he’s in a fight. Why would you ever flip several times across the floor, to nail a splash, that see’s your own knees take most of the impact. There’s a place for this sort of gymnastic stuff, but ROH should be really careful about how they utilize Ruckus.

 Daniel Puder vs. Mike Bennett

The full Sweet ‘N’ Sour entourage come to the ring. Ridiculous amount of chanting for Dempsey, who is made to kneel down and provide a seat for the injured Chris Hero. Hilariously, he supposedly picked up the injury attempting to break the World Record for Consecutive back flips. Just amazing stuff.

Good promo from Sweeney, making an open challenge, which brings out Claudio for his troubles, but he’s removed by officials thanks to a “restraining order”. Bennett answers, and he’s billed as big deal by Sweeney, which is funny stuff. Puder takes him down and makes him tap in well under a minute.

-Bryan Danielson’s music hits, and the fans come alive. He challenges Puder to a bout, which the fans are seriously into, but Sweeney refuses to let it happen, until the money is right. Claudio returns (again), and chases Puder off, while Hero forces Dempsey to carry him back stage.

Obviously there wasn’t really a match involved here, but nice anticipation for a potential Puder/Dragon match, while keeping Claudio’s focus on the group as a whole.

Yep, he’s in the ring, so they decide to have this one right away, which I’m admittedly looking forward to. Albright cuts a fairly lame promo, but in an interesting touch, insists that he’ll only shake Dragon’s hand if he beats him. They go for some tentative takedowns at the beginning, which Albright gets the advantage in. They both jostle for control in a stand-up position, while occasionally sprawling to avoid takedowns. Interesting stuff, though the crowd are a bit dire. They work this slow pace for a few minutes, but it’s well done, with Albright’s more basic holds helping reinforce Dragon’s comeback attempts because the crowd anticipate his more intricate grappling. In a nice moment, Albright unloads a few cheap shots, which brings out the anger in his opponent, and is especially cool as it reminds Albright that Dragon can’t be toyed with. Albright uses his superior leg strength to force his way out of a Surfboard attempt, in a top notch spot, then takes control of the match. Albright lacks intensity as the bout progresses, but he still looks good here, methodically and logically working over Danielson’s arm. The fans are quiet, which is ironic as this is good material, given the usual snotty ROH fan attitude to “Sports Entertainment”, in comparison to the pops for Bobby Dempsey.

Dragon fights back briefly, but is stopped in his tracks with a nifty Full-Nelson Suplex. Albright doesn’t capitalise though, but a couple of minutes later is able to apply a Cross-Armbreaker. Dragon turns it into Cattle Mutilation, but Albright rolls through, and also survives the subsequent elbow shots. Albright gets the Crowbar on though, but it’s countered with a Fujiwara Armbar. Albright reverses and pulls out a Cattle Mutilation of his own! They do a double down, and on recovery, Dragon pummels Albright with some hard forearms and kicks. Dragon misses a Diving Head butt though, and is dumped with a Half-Nelson Suplex. The fans are really into this stage of the match, which is absolutely no surprise. Danielson locks in a Triangle Choke, and throws some simultaneous elbows for good measure, which is enough to Submit his larger foe. Afterwards, Albright keeps his heat by refusing to shake his conqueror’s hand.

Really enjoyable contest. They kept the back-and-forth stuff to a minimum for the most part, keeping it simple with a pace that was sympathetic for Danielson, who is really over in his current role. Albright is missing something, in the charisma stakes, but has a crazy amount of potential. He looked good working a body-part, and the last few minutes played to his strengths and allowed him to show off some of his nimble counters. Maybe not a match you’d buy the DVD for, but one worth repeat viewing if you do. Reminiscent of Bret Hart’s style of TV and PPV matches In the early nineties.

Jimmy Jacobs and Lacey accompany Necro to the ring. Jacobs cuts a decent promo. Steen emerges hot and they go for brawling in the centre of the ring. After getting the advantage over his opponent, Steen blows snot at Lacey, which is um, gentlemanly. They brawl around the ring, and exchange some stiff shots. After a couple minutes of this, Necro wraps Steen up in the mats on the floor, which looks completely bizarre, then jumps off the top rope onto him. The fans chant for “Mr Wrestling”, Steen. Necro discovers the ultimate weapon, in Bobby Cruise’s shoe, and repeatedly nails Steen in the head with it. Back in the ring, Necro does some of his usual chair spots, until Steen is able to drive Necro’s face into the steel. They end up on the outside again (of course!), and continue butchering each other with stiff chops and punches. Necro sets up three chairs by the barricade, perfectly for a move of the apron. Steen ends up kicking Necro onto them, and going for a big dive, but The Age of the Fall’s beast moves. Ouch. Stiff action, but there’s a lot of setting up of props in this stop-start contest. In the ring, Necro Backbreakers Steen across the top of two chairs, but it isn’t enough to keep him down. Fans are really hot at this point, though it’s not to my taste at all. The French Canadian star battles back, tossing his hobo opponent off the top and onto a chair, elbow first. Eek. Steen hit’s a Swanton off the top onto the chair, but Necro summons his bum strength to kick out of the cover. Steen hit’s two super kicks, which Necro doesn’t go down for. Thinking this is Bum-fighting Necro offers his head for a chair shot, to which Steen delivers a revoltingly stiff shot. Low-blow, package Piledriver later, and Necro’s crawling back into his box.

Good victory for Steen, as he really can’t be affording to lose to Necro, and the last few moments of this were really well designed. It brought out the stronger characteristics of both guys. The rest of the match however, was sluggish and needlessly dangerous. Admittedly, Hardcore stuff just isn’t my style, but even with that said, this felt like an attempt to replicate the Masato Tanaka/Mike Awesome fights, but without the intensity or pace. That’s gotta be put down to Necro Butcher’s ambling awkwardness.

-Becky Bayless interviews Steen backstage, who is catching his breath following his match. He apparently is confused and messed up after the encounter, which is effective in selling the madness of a match with Necro.

Rinauro comes to the ring with the whole YRR entourage. Delirious comically outwrestles him at the beginning. Rinauro’s put on a bit of muscle since his ROH Tag Champion days. Delirious crazily thrusts towards all the ladies in Sal’s faction which is amusing. Back and forth stuff, with Rinauro doing a fair bit of stalling and working the crowd when he gains control. This is actually pleasant, and better than running through the usual Indy spots I expected. Delirious pulls out his typical sequences. Delirious nails an elevated clothesline that see’s Rinauro almost impale himself backwards with his wacky landing. Lots of fun head butts from Delirious, who picks up the victory in fairly short order with the Cobra Stretch.

Not bad at all. They kept it short, which helps with Sal not being an ROH regular. He looks a lot better than back in the day.

Big response from the fans for Generico, as you would expect. Roderick jumps his opponent from behind at the start, which is probably the only heellish thing he’ll do in the match. I’m proved wrong, when minutes later, he shouts “Shut Up ass-hole” at a guy chanting “Rod……rick”. Strong takes charge and wears Generico down with stiff forearms, his trademark chops, and a couple of holds. Generico fights back, but is caught with a backbreaker. Roddy’s actually doing a very good job as the bad guy here. He locks on a Surfboard, then follows with a body scissors. Measuring his prey, he actually stalks Generico at times, something he should be doing more often in his matches. Generico counters a chop with a Headscissors, in a nice, fluid spot. He goes up top, hitting a big cross body, then gets a couple of near-falls. Roddy again uses a Backbreaker as a desperate counter to stop his opponent’s momentum, which works really well here. They tease something happening on the apron, which wakes the crowd up a little, but instead Generico strikes with a huge big boot while Roddy is prone on the top rope. Again, Strong comes back out on top, and hits a Gut-buster followed by a Tiger Bomb for the win.

Very good bout, and one in which Roderick was excellent. I’m often critical about his performances, because as a heel, he tends to structure matches in which he works like a Babyface. But that wasn’t the case here, where he dominated but still enabled Generico to look err…strong, It also told a neat, compact story, and featured a balanced mixture of spots, and old-fashioned storytelling. It was however, obvious that Generico would not be getting the win.

 -Brent Albright and BJ Whitmer attack Generico and claim they’ll take the belts tonight.

-Backstage Generico is suffering, and tells Steen about the Hangman 3 beat-down, while Steen is distracted, on the phone with his mom. Steen cuts a decent promo on how he intends to break Albright’s neck the following night. During this, Generico makes bizarre noises.

The fans love Aries. Stevens comes out to Pantera, which I can’t recall him doing before. Suits him though. They start out with a slow, feeling-out process. Nice dynamic they have here, with Aries being the finer mat-wrestler, but Stevens balancing that somewhat with a weight and strength advantage, that gives him a higher degree of believability. That’s an important factor on this show, as he’s taking on one of the best grapplers in ROH history, and on the subsequent show, will be taking on Bryan Danielson, perhaps THE finest in company history. Stevens gains the psychological advantage, by ousting Aries from the ring. Aries takes his time returning. It isn’t long before the two get all Macho and go Vader on each other, with Stevens knocking Aries’ facial follicles through the air, and Aries retaliating with the stiffest Shoulder Block you’ll see all year. There’s a lot going on in this bout, and it’s bloody great.

The fans are into the action, but of course there’s a small contingent of vocal ones being obnoxious. Aries and Stevens meanwhile, simply have a great match. Aries is more vicious than normal, showing great invention in his efforts. His strikes are super-tough, Steven’s power game is exploited, and the guy looks more impressive than I can ever remember. Both guys end up down, as the double count is made, but they survive it. Stevens hit’s the Flying Shoulder block, followed by his nasty Power slam, but Aries holds on, pulling out one of his crazy dives just moments later. Unlike Nigel though, Stevens doesn’t emerge Pizza-faced, which is only a good thing! Stevens ends up in the crowd, and Aries takes the opportunity to perform a ridiculous Cross-body over the guardrail. Neither guy makes it back into the ring in time, forcing us to a double-count out. Stevens objects though, wanting the match to continue, to give the fans their money’s worth. Obviously this is designed to further put him over as the courageous champion, but hell, it works.

Aries immediately launches at him with a dropkick, and completely unloads on him with a series of strikes. But he can’t hit the Brainbuster, and Stevens throws him off, but finds himself trapped in a Crucifix! Aries hits the Brainbuster, but the 450 splash is blocked! Stevens with a Release German, but is caught with a clothesline. This is super-hot stuff. A TKO isn’t enough to put Aries away, and a duel of strikes emerges. In an absolutely breathtaking spot, Stevens counter a Brainbuster attempt, and elevates Aries up into a Suplex. But while up their, Aries repeatedly knees the Champ’s noggin, until Stevens drops to one knee, then to the mat, where he applies the Horns of Aries. Fabulous. Stevens breaks free, and tosses Aries into the air, hitting a mid-air clothesline. At this point I’m utterly flabbergasted. A Doctor Bomb thirty seconds later, and Stevens finally puts Aries away. Afterwards, Aries does not shake Stevens hand.

Stunning match, and my favourite of Steven’s career thus far. He really has improved leaps and bounds, and brought his end of the “big Match” vibe. This is probably the first time I’ve been genuinely invested in an FIP title match that took place on a Ring of Honor card. Aries’ actions at the end are really the beginning of his Age of the Fall storyline and add a huge dimension to his character.

 -A clip informs us that Nigel McGuiness has recovered from his injuries, and is currently in NOAH.

ROH World Tag Team Titles (Ultimate Endurance Match)

Sensational match, and one that completely exceeds expectations. The bout kicks off with a wild brawl around the ringside area, as the Briscoes take it to Jimmy Jacobs and Tyler Black. Everyone goes into the sequences of dives, including BJ Whitmer and Brent Albright, which is actually a fine way to start this sort of zany battle. Vulture Squad member Mercedes Martinez battles with Lacey to the back. The Vulture Squad are easily the most exciting aspect of the bout early on actually, throwing some distinct, unique and dazzling spots, into a fine performance. The Briscoes are the favourites with the fans though, and they particularly enjoy anything that sees Neo-Emo’s, AOTF take a pasting. The Hangman 3 enjoy a few moments of battering the Briscoes, during which Albright is impressive showing his strength. He’s had a great night. The Vulture’s are eliminated first, by the Hangmen, which disappoints the fans. But just prior to this, Jack did pull off a stunning move, when he countered the Springboard Doomsday Device with a Reverse ‘Rana. Unbelievable spot.

The crowd soon heat up again though, when BJ and Jimmy end up squaring off inside the Squared circle once more, and both produce spikes, harking back to their wonderful year-long feud. But instead, they each turn the spikes on the Briscoes, in a heel act of unity that is completely sensible, yet rare in wrestling. Obviously, the blood flows at this point. BJ is looking way too much like Christopher Walken with his short hair a dark colour. Before long, the alliance between the Hangmen and AOTF crumbles, with Whitmer taking Black down with an Exploder. Taking advantage of this, the Briscoes start kicking ass, and produce a ladder. Crazy Mark Briscoe hit’s a stunning Splash off the top, and onto BJ, to eliminate him and Albright.

The fans are of course, now 100per cent behind the challengers, as Black and Jacobs hold them off with some nice double-team combos. The action between these four is at times, incredible. Particularly great, is a sequence where Black and Mark jostle for supremacy in order to achieve a move off the turnbuckle. Jay hits two Falcon Arrows on Jimmy, who kicks out, but finds himself isolated. Black saves him in the nick of time, and tosses Mark off the top rope, straight into a DDT from Jacobs. He locks on the Guillotine, but Jay powers out. Really tough, original combinations from these guys. The challengers finally hit the Springboard Doomsday, but the three count is broken up! Tyler chucks Mark to the outside, and wipes him out, while in the ring, Jimmy nails the Contra Code, which Black follows up with a Phoenix Splash for the win! The fans are shocked that The Age of the Fall win so convincingly, but it’s great booking.

Extremely impressive main event. It didn’t set anyone’s world on fire, but it was a really enjoyable battle, chock full of tasty moments. The Age of the Fall looked very impressive in their victory, and there was a lot of history going on in here, with the Briscoes, and Whitmer, that made this fascinating. The Vulture Squad are a hugely entertaining team when Ruckus is left out of the mix.

-In a super-dumb segment, Becky Bayless is backstage, with the YRR, who are all partying with their chicks. Sal Rinauro isn’t so happy however, having suffered his loss to Delirious. Suddenly he plants one on Becky though, who seems to enjoy the attention, and they writhe on the floor. Some of ROH’s backstage segments are getting worse these days. It’s a good thing their in-ring product is so good.

This is one of those “sleeper” shows that ROH is pretty famous for delivering. In conception, there isn’t anything especially earth-shattering that says, must-see, but in execution, almost everything exceeds expectations. This is particularly true of Aries/Stevens, which is a strong title match, of standard that one Morishima set during his ROH World title run. If you liked his defences against the likes of Steen and Albright, you’ll surely enjoy this. It isn’t just a “Proving Ground” for Stevens, he more than proves himself, stepping out as an attraction in his own right. The top match is well booked too, and a nice contrast to the FIP bout. Generally, this is a great strength of this show, the overall pacing and flow. On a more weakly choreographed card, the likes of the opener could have been crowd-killing, but here, it’s perfectly acceptable. The Boston fans were not the best by any means here, and especially quiet for the majority of the fine American Dragon match. Guess they wasted their energy on Bobby Dempsey chants… Nonetheless, a genuinely great little show, with the only weak points being the backstage material (aside from Steen promos), and the Claudio/Ruckus bout. Quick, buy it in the current sale!

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 or look for me at www.myspace.com/michaelwrestlingetc

Until bell-time, thanks again.