The first time I saw Matt Classic wrestle I didn't realize it was Colt. It wasn't until he wrestled as Colt after he did Classic and pulled the mask out of his trunks that I realized.
AIW Absolution 7 1.Jim Thorne vs. Rickey Shane Page (No Ropes Barbed Wire):* The stipulation and RSP pretty much made this match as good as it was. Jim Thorne looks like a sack of poo in this match while RSP was willing to actually allow himself to go into the barbed wire with some force. Not good. Was hoping for some insanely awesome violent moments and it didn’t live up to it for me. Oh and at the end of the match they tried getting across the same story that they did last year with RSP and Vincent Nothing about how RSP had so much potential and had to go be the REAL Rickey Shane Page. The difference was that that match was REALLY, REALLY GOOD. This match not so much
2. Submission Squad vs. Da Latin Crime Syndicate (Impromptu Brawl):N/R This really wasn’t a match. It was just 3 members of the SS and 2 from the LCS hitting each other with chairs for the most part. It wasn’t fun.
3. Drake Younger vs. Ethan Page vs. Davey Vega vs. Arik Cannon vs. Façade vs. Eddie Kingston (6 Way Scramble):*** Well this is what I expected out of this kind of match. That isn’t a bad thing because these guys put on a really fun match. Façade served his purpose and hit a couple high flying spots. This helped show off Ethan Page, who I now want to see more of because I was quite impressed. Drake Younger didn’t really do a whole lot and neither did Davey Vega. That’s not saying they did badly I just literally mean they didn’t do a whole lot outside Drake jumping on a bunch of people. The ending was highlighted by Eddie Kingston and Arik Cannon trading backdrop drivers and I loved every bit of it.
4.Colin Delaney vs. Marion Fontaine (Bare Knuckle Brawl):N/R This wasn’t really a match. Let me say that everything up until the sound of the bell was entertaining. The video prior to it was funny. Colin’s entrance with him running around the ring with an American flag jacket and Arik Cannon was entertaining. Then the bell rang. This was 3x3 rounds and that made the rounds too short to really do anything. The first round was like a normal beginning to a match so by the time the round was over almost zero contact was made between them. Round 2 was a little better but I still wouldn’t call it good. Overall I wouldn’t call this a good segment. I’m really hoping things pick up from here because I have two “matches” that were more segments and one match that wasn’t very good.
5.Youthanazia vs. AEROFORM vs. The Batari:**1/2 Weird. I like all 3 tag teams in this match but this just wasn’t doing it for me. I was hoping that this would be that really fun 3 way tag match that I loved from the likes of The Olsens, Aeroform, and The Irish Airborne. Didn’t feel like they accomplished a lot here.
6.Duke vs. Jock Sampson(Texas Bullrope Match):**1/2 Pretty much just a big bloody brawl. Not that good but still better than the opener as far as bloody brawls go. The best part of the match was the big table spot and in this kind of match a big spot kinda makes or breaks it for me.
7.ACH vs. Adam Cole:***1/4 This match begins with pretty much the coolest Roman Knuckle Lock I have ever seen in independent wrestling. People’s enjoyment of that will vary. They go all around the outside. ACH tries bashing Coles hands against tables to break the lock. ACH also tries to use his insane athleticism to get out of the lock but Cole has none of it. Cole plays more of the veteran role early on but after the awesome Knuckle Lock around the building they just seem like two good wrestlers trading moves. Which if I could have heard the crowd at all, not sure whose fault that would be the fans or SMV, would have helped in me buying into the finishes. Still pretty good match here and once again ACH has a strong performance in AIW and Adam Cole is Adam Cole.
8.BJ Whitmer vs. Bobby Beverly:**3/4 Decent match right here. BJ Whitmer with RAGE goes right after Bobby Beverly but as soon as Chest Flexor distracts BJ Whitmer, Beverly goes on the offense. So we had the veteran against the young heel champion with his evil manager. Good stuff. It was sorta sad seeing Beverly in what I would say is poor shape. I thought he was on his way to being a top prospect in the Midwest but he was rocking a beer belly. BJ on the other hand has to be in the best shape of his life.
9.Irish Airborne vs. Briscoe Brothers:*** I don’t hate on the Briscoes at all. They usually seems like they are going through the motions and while they didn’t go all out here they had a fun match with The Irish Airborne. Wasn’t a ton of a story here but when you have two good brother tag teams then the match probably won’t be bad. I don’t know why I included brothers but it doesn’t diminish its accuracy. There was a point where Dave Crist got tossed out of the ring and dived right into the guardrail. I didn’t seem the point in that and it really irked me. It looked like he took a big bump after looking like the guardrail just killed him and then he would come back like he had gotten tossed outside the ring like a normal person. What’s the point in making that spot look bigger than it is when he is just going to bounce back like it was no big deal? The finish was little anticlimactic for me since it involves two finishers but the more devastating finisher went first and the weaker looking one ended it. But let me reiterate that the action outside of this was still pretty good and makes me happy that The Irish Airborne may get another shot in ROH.
10.Tim Donst vs. Johnny Gargano vs. Shiima Zion vs. Eric Ryan:***1/2 Favorite match of the night. My only real gripe with it is that Eric Ryan got eliminated so quickly. He is the current champion and though he is bland he should look like a big shot or at least a bigger shot than he seemed here.Otherwise they built Shiima being an asshole coming in as the ex-champ and being cocky as could be. The only reason he is able to eliminate Eric Ryan is because he isn’t paying attention which allows Zion to hit the 450 splash. I always hate how people do really quick eliminations in these sort of matches but they spread them out which was a plus for me. They built their way to Donst vs. Gargano and that was sure the right call. Donst is one of the most underrated guys out there and after seeing this match and Night 2 of KOT promotions might finally try and make him a big deal. He will never be known as Tim FUCKING Donst in CHIKARA but everywhere else he will be, or at least should be, and that’s awesome. Gargano and Donst were the best wrestlers in the ring and they exchange finishers and took it to each other for the gold. While Gargano isn’t Shawn Michaels they are both the best wrestlers on their company’s biggest stage. Gargano vs. Danielson is the match that made me get my first AIW show and I’ve always made to pick up at least a few shows a year from them.
-The angle after the match should be mentioned. A new heel stable known as Nixon shows up wearing suits and Nixon masks and reveal themselves to consist of the returning Chris Dickenson, Ricky Shane Page, Eric Ryan, and Bobby Beverly. Quite an interesting group I would say and they declare war on AIW by taking out half the roster as they try to get in the ring and Chris goes and rips the plate off the title that had just been on the line. They are eventually run off by the roster. Kinda sloppily done but the idea gets across. Then Tim Donst gets on the mic and says something along the lines that he is going to kill bitches dead.
OVERALL:Going into this show I really wanted to like this show. This is AIW’s biggest show and though the main event and the post-match angle felt big the first half of the show was really hard to get into IMO. I saw a review where the guy liked the two bloody matches and if I had I would absolutely give it a recommendation. I didn’t enjoy those matches though so I can’t really do that. There are no matches to go out of your way for which would have also helped counteract some of the boring beginning stuff. The second half was at least solid throughout with Adam Cole vs. ACH, the special attraction tag, and the main delivering but again it is hard to get into a show that starts really slow and kicks into high gear too late.
Quick Thoughts: Solid, consistent fun show from DGUSA, they did a great job of setting the pace for the weekend shot with some very good to great matches and some solid CZW Showcase Matches.
Low Ki vs. Bobby Fish- Solid, very stiff opener.
Ricochet vs. Mike Cruz- Very good match here between two strong workers.
Samuray Del Sol vs. Masato Yoshino- Great debut for Del Sol, they complimented each other's styles well.
CIMA & Masaaki Mochizuki vs. The Scene- Solid Tag match, The Scene did well against the vets.
PAC vs. AR Fox- Very good match. Love how they started with the ground game and slowly built towards the high spots, making them feel bigger down the stretch.
Ronin vs. Mad Blankey vs. DUF (Elimination Match)- Crazy, Balls to the wall match as you would expect from these teams. Everyone got some good offense in and it's truly a shame that Uhaa got injured in this match. Too much action to call here, great stuff.
CZW Showcase Match: Danny Havoc vs. Lucky tHURTeen- Solid Deathmatch here, par the course from these guys.
CZW Showcase Match: DJ Hyde vs. Drake Younger- DJ heeling it up, Another solid deathmatch here between these guys with good use of the light tubes and some good back and forth and a equally good finish.
EDIT:
Completely unrelated to the review, I just have to say that it's weird as hell seeing CIMA talk in fluent Spanish lol. I know that a lot of the Dragon Gate talent speaks Spanish because of their Mexican roots but it's rare that you actually see them in Mexico these days so you don't hear it as often as compared to say, Ultimo Dragon.
just ordered the King of Trios 2012 set. Can't wait for it to get here. Been a long time since I order from smartmark. How's there shipping time these days?
Got 2 matches left on Dragon Gate: Open the Freedom Gate. Should post that review tomorrow. Really enjoying going back through all my Dragon Gate events.
Well here's an amusing story. Thanks to my fiend parking in a construction zone my car was towed away. But luckily itwas just moved to a spot a few blocks away. Now here's the bad part, at some point the doors were left unlocked. I live in Philadelphia.... It was broken into. Going to miss that GPS. But there is one very hilarious thing about this tragedy:
I left a few $5 Wrestling DVDs in my car. The thief didn't even bother with them.
6-Way Match ***1/4
Hulk/Kendrick **3/4
4-Way Match **3/4
YAMATO/Richards ****
Jigsaw/Kingston **1/2
Yoshino and Doi/Dragon Kid and Shingo ****1/4
4-Way Elimination ***1/2
How awesome was Dragon Gate USA at the start? This is clearly the worst of their 3 shows up until this point, and yet it's still a very good show. Nothing offensive at all. Weird in that a few of the matches (Hulk/Kendrick and Jigsaw/Kingston) could have been better with more time, but I feel that they got the perfect amount of time for this card. The tag match is a really easy to watch spot fest. And for the second show in a row, the main event seems like bit of a step back. Obviously it was for the title so it had to go on last, but something just seemed wrong with it being the main event.
Not sure where else to put this question; be aware this includes a minor spoiler from CZW's Tangled Web.
I don't follow Czw regulary, but watch individual shows from time to time. Watched Tangled Web earlier today and the chokeslam Tremont took off that thing where he got stuck in the wire looked very bad. Anyone knows any health update (I know this show happened quite some time ago), what injuries he suffered, or how many stitches he needed?
No problem. I think the worst thing that happend was he got cut up bad and I wouldnt go as far as concusion but with the way the bump was I wouldnt 100% rule it out.
Figured I'd give this a shot, since I've seen a few people do it before: I've got a few wrestling DVDs listed on ebay, the auctions ending in about 3 days. Take a look, and please place a bid if any of these strike your fancy.
Kevin Steen vs Mathieu St-Jacques - 4th Street Death Match - 12/3/2010 ***3/4
Kevin Steen vs Michael Style - 1/8/2011 **
Kevin Steen vs Franky The Mobster - 4/16/2011 **1/2
Kevin Steen vs Paul London - 5/13/2011 ****1/4
Kevin Steen vs El Generico - 8/6/2011 ***3/4
Kevin Steen vs Pee Wee - 10/1/2011 ****
Overall: Long story short, the London and Generico matches delivered and there's a couple of other really good matches. The London match was like watching the London of old and far and away the best post WWE London match.
I'm selling my NSPW masters if anyone is interested in buying them. This, Golden Opportunity IV with that awesome SSB match and Steen/Storm I talked about in the MOTYC Thread and Kickoff 2012 with Finlay/Estrada on that I reviewed in here the other week. PM me.
I watched the New Jack/Balls Face Off. Wouldn't recommend it. Overall, It comes off as a work, and has very little structure interview wise. The interview is about an hour long, and about 50 minutes of it is New Jack yelling at Balls. The end sees them brofisting and making up. Like I said, came off looking really worked. I would have felt really let down if I bought it tbh. I was unaware that there was heat between them, and the interview didn't help understand it.
This was a horrible show. It would be bad even for a B-show, but this is Final Battle we're talking about, and when you have a major show where only 3 matches enter the *** territory, and when 2 out of 3 major promoted matches suck donkey balls, and those 2 matches are your semi and main event, then you can imagine the level of awfulness here. There was a shitload of depressing and uninspiring wrestling. The Tag Titles match is one of the worst matches ever, anywhere, it was such a mess in every sense of the word. The Davey/Eddie main event was as almost as horrible, it was 45 minutes of bland, uninteresting, uninspiring, boring and tired wrestling. The match was re-started numerous times in terms of structure and pacing, killing all the previous work in process… Just awful! Eddie was tolerable, but Davey was just cringeworthy and generally awful. The booking was actrocious too, I mean 3 and a half hours into the show they decide to wrestle a 45 min main event? GET! THE! FUCK! OUT! What a bad main event this was, my God… One of the worst in ROH history. I hate it when American Junior wrestlers (especially Davey) try to pull Kobashi vs. Kawada, it comes across as a cheap copy, and this is where they failed massively. This match had no depth, charm, the structure was bad, the storytelling too… It was just baaaaad. You can only exchange strikes so much.
The Davey/Eddie superplex > vertical suplex out of the ring spot got a legitimate laugh out of everyone I was sitting near at Final Battle.
The last 2 matches felt like they lasted 2 hours and were just an embarrassment.
It was the last ROH show I went to and that is not a coincidence.
The only rating I disagree with on you there is the TV title match. I might put that closer to ***. I liked it a lot but I'm a big mark for both Generico and Lethal.
No DQ
Kevin Steen vs. Jimmy Jacobs *** (good storytelling; brutal finish)
Team Ambition vs. Adam Cole & Eddie Edwards **3/4 (definition of meh…)
A solid show, but definitely not anniversary worthy. The HoT tag was the clear MOTN. The main event was mostly good, but had some too obviously contrived moments, it felt like you're watching synchronized swimming at one point.
Yeah, the last two matches were horrible, bland and mind fucking. The TV Title match was solid, but nothing more, IMO, despite me loving Generico and The Prodigy to death.
Ring of Honor is pretty much the new age Smoky Mountain Wrestling. So it really cracks me up when someone like Davey works an overblown attempt at trying to recreate the way original ROH main events used to be. It's like this horrible melting pot of styles that makes an Ian Rotten death match seem appealing.
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