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Originally Posted by roh_fan_107
DOES ANY ONE KNOW WHERE I CAN FIND A REVIEW OF ROH"ENTER THE DRAGON".
THANKS, JONATHAN
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As is custom, this show starts with a promo by Bryan Danielson, on his first show since wining the ROH World Championship. He talks about how ROH means wrestling freedom, and the tradition of the title and the former titleholders. This brings out Austin Aries to do some hype for their main event. Then Steve Corino arrives backstage, where Colt Cabana informs him that they’re teaming up tonight.
Claudio Castagnoli v. Nigel McGuiness. Nigel is the Pure Champion here, but that title is not on the line. Claudio continues the big push that happened on the last few shows, wining this match with lots of European-style wrestling mixed with modern brawling, via a backslide.
Corino and Cabana are still arguing backstage.
Ricky Reyes v. Matt Stryker. Stryker gets a few kicks to the leg, then Reyes destroys him and chokes him out.
Jade Chung cuts a promo talking about being free from Nana and Rave, and she vows to counter any plans Nana and Rave have in the future to mistreat people like they mistreated her.
ROH Tag Title Match: BJ Whitmer and Jimmy Jacobs (with Lacey) v. Sal Rinauro and Tony Mamaluke. The New Lacey’s Angels really go out of their way to put over the new champions here, being outwrestled in the early going, then taking some crazy bumps and after getting just the right amount of heat, Rinauro is able to clean up and the champs retain when Mamaluke powerbombs Jacobs as Rinauro nails him with a top rope Russian legsweep, to finish a hot fast-paced and heated match.
Jim Cornette cuts a promo talking about the state of tag team wrestling, saying that he wants ROH to return tag team wrestling to the prominent position it was at in the 1980s. That explains the three long tag matches on this show.
Roderick Strong v. Jimmy Yang. This is clearly a match just thrown together to get these two on the card. They work a nice double babyface match, with Strong being put over strongly (I’m sorry but I couldn’t think of another way to say it) when he went backbreaker crazy. Yang is now 0-3 in ROH, which is why I’d have put Strong against someone else, as Yang now looks like a loser and I’m not sure I’d care about his matches from now on, or buy him beating anyone significant.
Clips are shown of the Homicide v. Corino match at Bitter Friends Stiffer Enemies in 2003. Then Corino comes out with Colt Cabana for the next match, dressed as CM Punk, complete with ‘I Love Beer’ written across his chest. He gets his ring announcer to run through a list of people who’s careers have been ruined by the ‘evil empire’ (WWE), consisting of all the wrestlecrap gimmicks you can think of, then ending with Punk.. They then do a 5-bell salute for their dead careers, saying that they wanted to do a 10-bell salute, but Vince trademarked it.
Steve Corino and Colt Cabana v. Low Ki and Homicide. This match is weird, because the crowd clearly treat Cide and Ki as faces and Corino and Cabana as heels, but the match was booked the opposite way and nobody thought to change it up. Therefore heat segments get no heat, heels cheating gets huge cheers, and the hot tag gets absolutely zero reaction. Cabana teases a heel turn on Corino, not saving him at first from an STF, but then he does make the save, and after far too long the match ends with Corino hitting the Northern Lights Bomb on Homicide, and when Cide got his foot over the ropes, Cabana shoved it off before the referee saw so the 3-count was made.
Dave Prazak interviews Nigel McGuiness, who says Claudio’s win was a fluke, and he’s gonna beat Samoa Joe in his Pure Title rematch on the next show.
Davey Andrews and Shane Haggadorn v. Derek Dempsey and Pelle Primeau. After about 2 minutes, Prince Nana interrupts to cut a promo and bring out Abyss, who destroys all of them.
Abyss (with Prince Nana) v. Jack Evans (with Jade Chung). Abyss kills Evans in a short squash with the Black Hole Slam. Nana then sets Abyss onto Chung, but Roderick Strong makes the save, clearing the ring with chairshots.
Alex Shelley and Jimmy Rave v. Samoa Joe and Jay Lethal. This is a huge example of the ’simple but effective’ type of match. Joe is a merciless killing machine. Lethal is a great underdog babyface. Rave and Shelley bring comedy, great bumps, cheating like bastards and getting lots of heat. And it all ties together really well for a fun and enjoyable tag match, which I would have down as the best match on this show. It ends when Lethal hits Rave with the Dragon Suplex, and Joe nails Shelley with the Muscle Buster for the clean win.
ROH World Title Match: Austin Aries v. Bryan Danielson. These two have a long history together in ROH, and that, plus the fact that Aries is a former ROH Champion, gives this match the big match atmosphere that Danielson’s first title defence needs. Danielson shows a lot of signs of his vicious wrestling ’shooter’ type gimmick, bending the rules to his advantage and adding a sadistic side to his work, which Aries sells really well. Danielson is very good at wrestling smart matches, and this is no exception, as he beats on Aries’ arm right throughout the match, ending with the crossface chickenwing, while stomping on the back of the knees as well, for the tapout victory.
The DVD then ends with Steve Corino cutting a promo to hype his ROH World Title shot against Danielson on the next show. He says that him as ROH Champion would be a nightmare for them.
This was one of those shows where lots of things were solid, but there’s nothing spectacular. A decent show rather than a great one, with the last two matches clearly being the cream of the crop.
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