ROH DVD Discussion/Ratings/Rankings

[Diablo4life]

I will be at DBD, also. I have been to every NY show since FB 2007.

Can't wait for this weekend. I will be picking up quite a few DVD's. They better get moving with the 6.26 DVD,I want to see Aries/Jacobs so bad.

 

[Soulpower]

I already reviewed Respect is Earned II, so I'll just give out my ratings for the matches.

The Vulture Squad (Jigsaw and Ruckus) vs El Generico and Kevin Steen:***

Claudio Castagnoli vs Davey Richards:**

Brent Albright, Pelle Primeau and Delirious vs Chris Hero, Adam Pearce and Eddie Edwards:**1/2

Erick Stevens vs Roderick Strong (Fight Without Honor):****

Nigel McGuiness vs Go Shiozaki (ROH Title Match):***1/2

The Age of The Fall vs Bryan Danielson and Austin Aries:****1/2

Thoughts?

 

[Soulpower]

I managed to buy a couple of ROH shows (Southern Navigation and A New Level), and since I'm done watching one of them, here's a review.

ROH:Southern Navigation

Chris Hero vs Pelle Primeau

Not a good way to start the show. Pelle got some offense in (Mostly headscissors), but Hero got the relatively easy win after hitting a Roaring Elbow followed up by a Big Boot. Post-match, Sara Del Ray shows her new found mean-streak by attacking a ring boy.

Match Rating:*1/2

Rhett Titus & Rex Sterling vs. Mitch Franklin & Sean Denny

Our second straight bad match (Not a good start for the show). Sean Denny showed off some of his power, though he wasn't in the ring all that long. Titus and Sterling got the win when he hit Splash Mountain (Crucifix Sit-Out Powerbomb) on Franklin.

Match Rating:*1/2

We get video footage of Jimmy Jacobs "attacking" Lacey outside of a gym.

Nigel McGuinness vs. Brent Albright vs. Claudio Castagnoli vs. Damien Wayne (Four-Corner Survival, Non-Title)

This is where the show started to pick up. Other than a minor botch on an Armdrag at the start, Damien held his own against some of ROH's bigger names. We got some teases between Claudio and Nigel (Who would face off the next night), and McGuiness continued to be a great heel, by only tagging at the most convenient moments. Albright won the match via Ref Stoppage when he hit the Repeated Knees on Wayne.

Match Rating:***

We get a Jacobs/Black promo. Nothing really mind-blowing to see here.

Back in the ring, Austin Aries calls out Jimmy Jacobs, but gets Erick Stevens instead. Aries doesn't want to wrestle Erick, but since Stevens insisted, Austin decided to hit him with an Elbow to start the match.

Austin Aries vs Erick Stevens

Good match, albeit a short one (At most it got 7 minutes). A back and forth match between the two which ended when Aries made Stevens submit to The End Time. Post-match, Aries once again calls out Jacobs, and claims that Jimmy gave him hate by doing what he did to Lacey.

Match Rating:**1/2

Jack Evans vs Necro Butcher (No-DQ)

This is a rematch from Final Battle 07, and it followed a similar patter. Jack Evans gets beat up.. a lot! Jack Evans hits the 630, but takes his time going for the pin, which allows Necro to kick out. He punches out Evans a couple of times (Including once when Jack went for a springboard move), then hit the Backbreaker on two chairs to get the win.

Match Rating:**1/2

We get an update on Mark Briscoe's injury, and we get an announcement stating that Austin Aries will be Jay Briscoe's tag team partner at the next show (As chosen by Jay Briscoe)

Jay Briscoe vs Jimmy Jacobs (Relaxed Rules)

Before the start, Aries runs down to beat-down Jacobs. Tyler Black follows suit, and he and Aries fight all the way to the back.

Wild brawl as expected. Funny moment in the match when Jay puts the bell over Jacobs head and rings it. Jimmy gets the win when Necro interrupts a Jay Driller attempt, which leads to Jacobs hitting a DDT on a pile of chairs, followed by the End Time.

Post-Match, Aries comes back out and manages to get him some of Necro and Jimmy. Damien Wayne and a couple of ROH students run out to restrain Aries.

Match Rating:***1/2

Bryan Danielson vs Tyler Black

Another great match, and one that was just as good as their Breakout match (I actually liked this one more). Black takes over early, showing that he's improved since their last mach. Danielson manages to make a comeback, and starts bending Tyler's body in all sort of unnatural ways. Bryan Danielson gets the win after making Black submit to The Heel Hook.

Match Rating:****1/2

Dave Prazak announces that we have a NEW SHIMMER'S Champion, as MsChif defeated Sara Del Ray for the title. As of now, MsChif is still the champ, and is now a part of the AoTF.

Takeshi Morishima, Naomichi Marufuji & Go Shiozaki vs. Roderick Strong, Rocky Romero & Davey Richards

Another great match. Action from start to finish, with very little rest spots. Highlights include Morishima mocking Roimero's "Azucar" dance, and a weird (Yet cool looking) spot where all three of the NOAH wrestlers for a type of pyramid on top of Davey Richards. The NRC do a similar spot, but it doesn't quite turn out as awesome as when Team NOAH did it. The boys from NOAH get the win after Marufuji hits The Shiranui on Romero.

Match Rating:****

Overall Thoughts:This is one of ROH's best efforts of they year. It started slow, but once we got to the Four-Corner Survival, in turned into a great show. The last two matches make this a must-buy, and the face that it had a LOT of angle advancement made for a well paced show. Overall, this show gets an 8/10, and an easy thumbs up.

 

[Soulpower]

Finally got done watching A New Level. Of course, this was ROH's debut in the FAMOUS Hammerstein's Ballroom. Did the show live up to the hype? Is it one of the best shows of the year? Read on!

Erick Stevens vs Gou Shiozaki vs Roderick Strong (FIP Title Match)

The crowd hot, as they were for most of the night. Great choice for an opener. It only got 6 minutes, but it was 6 minutes of non-stop action. Lots of Chops, lots of high-impact moves by all three men. Roderick gets the win via a HEEL Roll-Up on Stevens as he was attempting the Doctor Bomb on Gou.

Match Rating:***1/2

Kevin Steen and El Generico vs Davey Richards and Rocky Romero

We are 2 for 2 so far. This was another fine match, with Steenerico being INSANELY over in NYC, and with the NRC being dicks (A role which they played almost perfectly). Steen and Generico get the win following the Package Pildriver-Brainsbuter Combo on Davey.

Match Rating:***3/4

Chris Hero and Brent Albright vs The Vulture Squad vs Delirious and Pelle Primeau

Pretty much a spotfest. Delirious gets the win for his team after hitting The Chemical Imbalance II by Hero (This was after Albright accidentally hit a Half-Nelson Suplex on Chris).

Match Rating:**1/4

Post-Match, Sweeney is IRATE at Albright, but says that all will be forgiven if he beats down Bobby Dempsey. Albright thinks about for a moment.. Then he destroys Sweet and Sour.Inc (NEW YORK CITY APRROVES!!). Hagadorn is Powerbombed to the outside and through a table. Sweeney manages to escape, but the damage has been done.

Segment Rating:*****

Bryan Danielson vs Naomichi Marufuji

This is a big moment for Danielson, who was in the main event of ROH's first show, and now finds himself in ROH's biggest show to date. Do I really need to talk about this match? Its Danielson, its Marufuji, its greatness. Danielson gets the win via The Cattle Mutilation to a HUGE pop.

Match Rating:****

The second half of the show starts with Daizee Haze. She announces an ROH record for attendance. Delirious comes out and tries to ask her out for a date. Rhett Titus comes out, interrupts and scares Daizee away. Delirious is left alone in the ring, along with the dulcet tones of the NYC faithful chanting... YOU GOT COCK-BLOCKED!!

Necro Butcher vs Takeshi Morishima (Relaxed Rules)

Squash! That's all there was to this match. Necro got some offense, but Morishima sold none of it. Morishima hits a Backdrop-Driver from the top through a chair, but Necro kicks out. Takeshi hits another Back-Drop Driver (The regular version) to get the win. Necro gets a nice round applause after the match.

Match Rating:**

Jay Briscoe and Austin Aries vs Tyler Black and Jimmy Jacobs (ROH Tag Titles)

Wild brawl/match. Aries and Jacobs just about killed themselves in this match when they were together. Necro interferes, but Mark Briscoe makes his return (Still with the injured hand) and fights him off. He teams up with Jay to hit the Springboard Doomsday Device on Tyler for the win.

Match Rating:***3/4

Post-Match, The AoTF beat-down Aries and Jacobs threatens to kill him with the Railroad Spike. Jacobs doesn't do it, and says he'll let Aries live, only so he has to carry the burden of what happened to Lacey.

Nigel McGuiness vs Claudio Castagnoli

*Sigh*. This actually wasn't that bad of a match, but when its only about the 4th or 5th best match on the card, its easy to understand why this match was has gotten so much hate. It was a slow-paced match, but it sped up considerably in the latter parts (The hot crowd throughout the match helped). Nigel gets the win via The London Dungeon in what was a good, albeit underwhelming match.

Match Rating:***

Overall Thoughts:Not the show of the year that some people were expecting. In fact, unless you're a completist, or someone who wants the show for historic purposes, I wouldn't recommend going out of the way to pick this up, especially when Southern Navigations was the better overall show. Score it a 7/10, and a mild thumbs up.

 

[Headfirst For Hardcore]

I haven't seen the DVD yet, but live, I loved Claudio vs Nigel. I'd rank the matches like this...

1. You got Cockblocked
2. Danielson vs Marufuji
3. Steen & Generico vs NRC
4. Claudio vs Nigel
5. Stevens vs Strong vs Go
6. Scramble
7. AOTF vs Aries & Briscoe
8. Takeshi vs Necro

I remember not being able to see anything during the AOTF tag, and Aries messing up a table spot.

It wasn't an amazing show, but everything was storyline driven and wasn't too bad. The crowd probably made the show better by tons.

 

[Montana]

Battle For Supremacy: Before watching this dvd, i was prejudging the show, with it having one of the worst cards of the year, however ROH never really puts on a bad show. So i was pretty optimistic about this one.

1. Shane Hagadorn & Tank Toland vs. Silas Young & Mitch Franklin
Typical opener for ROH now a days. I actually enjoyed this for what it was. Good to see Tank Toland back for this, he was pretty entertaining. **1/2

2. Tyler Black vs. Delirious

This would actually kinda lead into the next Ohio show, Age of Insanity. Pretty good match til the end. ***

3. Brent Albright vs. Claudio Castagnoli vs. Jay Briscoe (Three Way Dance)
This match was going pretty good, three good wrestlers in this one and they did there thing. ***1/4

4. Bryan Danielson vs. Erick Stevens

Again, Good match, although the crowd hated the ending and so did I. I can't recall a similar reaction to a match like this ever from the crowd. ***1/2


5. Necro Butcher vs. Austin Aries

Prehaps the highlight of the dvd was Necro grabbing the microphone, saying he wants to talk and then punching aries in the face. That was pretty cool. Not really much of a match in the end. ***

6. Kevin Steen & El Generico vs. Jimmy Jacobs & Joey Matthews

I thought this could have been better. A little slow to start. Good pyschology and mind games, but ended a little early. ***

7. Roderick Strong vs. Chris Hero

I heard this was a match of the year contender, and it was a damn good match, however didn't live up to the hype for me. Pretty easily match of the night. ***3/4-****

8. ROH World Champion Nigel McGuinness vs. NWA Heavyweight Champion Adam Pearce (Title vs. Title Match)

This match i wasn't expecting much, and didnt get too much from a wrestling perspective, although this may have been my favorite match on the card. Pearce got a lot of heat, Nigel went to face for the night representing ROH, and really a fun match, the crowd was into it. ***1/4 - 1/2


So theres my little analysis for the show. Nothing out of this world wreslting wise. A good first half to the show, and i didn't think the 2nd half lived up to ROH's normal standards for the second half. Still a solid show though. Most of the matches were about three stars or better. The show didn't really feature anything better than 4 stars. Not the worst show of the year, but probably around the 15th overall rank this year. 7/10

PS A new level in my book was about a 8/10

 

[Ballin]

Has anyone done the 5 DVD grab bag ROH has on their shop? I'm thinking about it but I dont want 5 crappy dvds. It's only 25$ so it might be worth it.

 

[Headfirst For Hardcore]

Has anyone done the 5 DVD grab bag ROH has on their shop? I'm thinking about it but I dont want 5 crappy dvds. It's only 25$ so it might be worth it.

I got it once, two of them like a year ago. I got some pretty good stuff from what I remember, here's what I got.
FIP The Usual Suspects
IWA-MS Sunday Bloody Sunday
The Best of the Briscoe Brothers
The Best of the Rottweilers
The Best of the Second City Saints
Shoot Interview with Tom Pritchard
Shoot with One Man Gang
Shoot with Jushin Liger
Shoot with some other guy (I have to check)

so expect a couple of shoot interviews, tossed in with FIP and Best Of's.

 

[Ballin]

I got it once, two of them like a year ago. I got some pretty good stuff from what I remember, here's what I got.
FIP The Usual Suspects
IWA-MS Sunday Bloody Sunday
The Best of the Briscoe Brothers
The Best of the Rottweilers
The Best of the Second City Saints
Shoot Interview with Tom Pritchard
Shoot with One Man Gang
Shoot with Jushin Liger
Shoot with some other guy (I have to check)

so expect a couple of shoot interviews, tossed in with FIP and Best Of's.

Ok thanks. Im going with:

Supercard of Honor III
Respect is Earned II
and the Grab Bag.

I would get The Life and Times of Mr. Perfect from ROH but WWE's is cheaper and even comes with a shirt.

 

[Soulpower]

I'm almost done watching Northern Navigation, but I have to say this.. This is probably one of the best ROH shows of the year. Steen vs McGuiness, Strong vs Marufuji and Danielson vs Castagnoli are all around the **** mark. Hell, even Stevens vs Shiozaki is almost four stars. Just a damn good show all around, and I still have to watch AoTF vs Jay Briscoes and Aries.

 

[Soulpower]

I'm done watching Northen Navigation, here are my thoughts/ratings.

Chris Hero defeats Ruckus:**

Decent opener, but it was basically a squash. Ruckus got a little bit of offense in, but you never thought he had a chance of winning the match. The one thing that stood out was how over Chris Hero was in Toronto.

Delirious defeats Kenny Omega:**1/4

Another solid match, Kenny looked good in the match, and I want to see him get booked in ROH a bit more. Delirious gets the win with the Cobra Stretch.. Not for nothing, but I'm getting tired of Delirious' constant use of the headbutt.

Sara Del Ray vs Jennifer Blake:*

Squash! Other than Blake's attempt at the Kobashi chops, this was a nothing match that was there just to give Del Ray something to do. Sara wins with the Axe Kick.

Go Shiozaki vs Erick Stevens:***1/4

Damn fine match which makes want to the watch their FIP encounter. You could tell the match was going to end in a draw, but it doesn't change the fact that this was a fun and hard-hitting match. Post-Match, Lance Storm comes out to praise ROH and talk down to SnS. SnS attack Storm and Stevens, but both of them manage to lock in the Single Leg Crap on different SnS members (I believe it was Hero and Pearce).

Bryan Danielson vs Claudio Castagnoli:****

Great match. Unlike their match at Vendetta II (Which was mostly a comedy match), this one had a much more serious tone. The fans were firmly behind Danielson and they were booing CC every time he did anything. Danielson gets the win when he reverse the Pop-Up European Uppercut into a Backslide.

Naomichi Marufuji vs Roderick Strong:****

Way too much shit happened here for me to recap. Marufuji gets the win with The Shiranui, in another great match.

Kevin Steen vs Nigel McGuiness (ROH Title Match):****

Indeed, it is the third straight 4-star match. This was easily the best encounter between the two. You had a rabid fan, some good selling on Steen's part, and Nigel just being a dick whenever possible. Nigel wins with the Lariat from the second rope. Steen's post-match promo (Though he didn't say anything) just added to how big of a loss it was for Steen.

Jay Briscoe and Austin Aries vs Tyler Black and Jimmy Jacobs (No DQ):***

No idea why this went on last. Necro Butcher interfered, but Mark Briscoe showed up to even the odds and basically makes this a 3 on 3 match. There were a couple of times in the match where absolutely nothing happened, and we also missed some of the action on the outside which hurt the match. Jay and Aries (And Mark?) get the win following a Doomsday Device and a Jay Driller on Black.

Overall Thoughts:The show started off slow, but once Go vs Stevens went on, this became a great show. 3 matches get 4 stars, while two of them get 3 or higher. Needless to say, ROH's Toronto debut was a success, and an easy thumbs up. Get this show, now!

 

[Ballin]

I received my dvds today, my grab bag included:
ROH Suffering is Inevitable: Best of Roderick Strong
ROH SS Series with Brad Armstrong
FIP Heatstorke 05 Night 1
AZW Battleclash III
UWA The Faded Line (2 disc)

and on top of that I got Respect is Earned and Supercard of Honor from this year... I got some good wrestling to watch.

 

[Montana]

Looks like a pretty good grab bag. I see death before dishonor has came out on dvd. The cover looks great. Im quite sure that will be one of the years top dvds.

Quick Thoughts on Up for Grabs.

Solid show. I think this is one of those DVD's thats good for someone who's never seen ROH before. There one main storyline for the show, and top of that they really focus on the fueds going on at the moment. Most all of the roster is showcased in a good way, with some good promos. The Dvd started off strong with some really good first round matches. Steenerico vs Nigel/Go was a exciting match. That was followed by Team Work vs the NRC. Both those matches were almost 4 stars about 3.75 I'd say. Not bad for first round. The second round matches werent anything to write home about. The low point in the DVD was Shane Hagadon vs Sugarfoot. I like both these guys, however this match was just plain bad. Should not have been on the dvd. Sugarfoot the babyface wanted to act like Cena, and he's not going to get over liek that. Shane Hagadorn was throw'd off by Sugarfoot's sudden offensive attacsk. The match was short though,so it really didnt hurt the show. Claudio and Eddie Edwards was a nice 3.5 star match. Edwards got a chance to showcase some of his offensive arsenial. The triple Threat was a nice brawl for the fans. Then the very very good main event, finals to the tourney. They set the match up perfectly and everything worked in this match. I'd give it a solid 4.25 stars. Overall i'd give the DVD a 8.25/10


My 2008 Ratings so far....

SOH III 10/10

Death Before Dishonor 9.75/10

Final Battle 2008 9.5/10

Rising Above 9.5/10

Glory By Honor 7 - 9.5/10

6th Anniversary 9.5/10

The Tokyo Summit 9.25

Northen Navigation 9.25/10

Allstar Extravangza 4 - 9.25/10

Vendetta II 9/10

Driven 2008 -9/10

Dragon Gate Challenge 9/10

A New Level 9/10

Take no prisoners- 9/10

Respect is Earned II 8.75/10

Age of Insanity 8.5/10

Injustice 8.5/10

Tag Wars 8.5/10

Return Engagement 8.5/10

Bound by Hate 8.5/10

New Horizons 8.5/10

Proving Ground 8.25/10

Southern Navigation 8.25/10

Battle of the Best 8.25/10

Up for Grabs 8.25/10

Bedlam In Beantown 8/10

Eye of the Storm 8/10

Ring of Homicide 8/10

Breakout 8/10

Fueling the Fire 8/10
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Transform 7.75/10

Without Remorse 7.5/10

Return of the 187 7.5/10

Night of the Butcher II 7.5/10

The French Connection 7/10

Wrestling at the Gateway 7/10

Escalation 7/10

Battle for Supremacy 7/10

Double Feature 6.5/10

Rating Scale:

10 - Awesome Classic Show
9.5 Great Great show, missing a little something
9 - Very Good show
8.5 - Pretty Damn Good
8 - Good Show (worth watching again/wouldn;t be mad if i spent 15$ on the dvd)
7.5 - Has its ups and downs, overall good show
7.0 - Solid Show
6.5 - ok show, needs work though
6.0 - Not that good.
5.0 - Bad show

 

[Headfirst For Hardcore]

I received my dvds today, my grab bag included:
ROH Suffering is Inevitable: Best of Roderick Strong
ROH SS Series with Brad Armstrong
FIP Heatstorke 05 Night 1
AZW Battleclash III
UWA The Faded Line (2 disc)

and on top of that I got Respect is Earned and Supercard of Honor from this year... I got some good wrestling to watch.

UWA Hardcore is freakin great, it is (or was) the Canada ROH. You're lucky that you only got 1 Shoot, pretty nice all around.

 

[Soulpower]

The one thing that stood out to me from Up for Grabs was the post-match promo from Jacobs and Black after the finals. Both men were getting hit with a shitload of garbage, and Jacobs just continued cutting the promo and used the situation to add more fuel to the fire.. Just an awesome segment.

Also, its funny.. ROH fans are supposed to be "smart fans", yet they were throwing garbage because AoTF won the titles instead of Steenerico.