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ROH WRESTLING DVD REVIEWS

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*** Official OWW.com ROH DVD Reviews by Brad Dykens ***
March 31, 2006 - SUPER CARD OF HONOR - Chicago, Illinois

The first ever Ring of Honor triple-shot continued with this "Supercard" which included more top notch ROH action picking up right where they left off the night before in Detroit. Jim Cornette started the show waving his Louisville baseball bat around daring any CZW wrestler to show up so he can knock one out of the park. BJ Whitmer was with him with a cast around his ankle from the botched Super-power-bomb the night before that should have killed Jimmy Jacobs. Cornette put a couple ROH Students under masks and called them "hardcore" wrestlers (what is this WWE, now?) and fed them to the dogs -- the dogs being represented on this night by Samoa Joe & Adam Pearce -- in a quick squash match to send a message to CZW.

Ricky Reyes won the Four Corner Survival match against Delirious, Shane Hagadorn, and the debuting Flash Flanagan. I still don't like Reyes. I really love watching Delirious. I want to see more of Flash Flanagan ( 5 / 10 ).

Jimmy Rave & Alex Shelley passed their second test by defeating Claudio Castagnoli & Jimmy Yang, taking them one step closer to a future tag title shot. Rave & Shelley are a great tag team and I hope they keep teaming up in ROH. I don't really know why Yang & Castagnoli were paired up as they had zero chemistry ( 6.5 / 10 ).

After the match, Chris Hero showed up and stole the microphone and taunted the ROH fans with his heckling. Hero began carelessly tossing steel chairs towards the ring. This was the show were one of those chairs actually hit ringside photographer Mary Kate Grosso and sent her to the hospital, but that was not included on the DVD. Hero was thrown out of the building by ROH students.

Ace Steel finally got his revenge on Chad Collyer stemming from an incident back in August where Collyer viciously bloodied Steel during a match in Chicago Ridge. This was a First Blood match and Steel was taking his psycho gimmick to new levels. I expected the finish to be a little more intense but everything in between was very well done ( 7 / 10 ).

Matt Sydal & AJ Styles defeated Austin Aries & Jack Evans in another incredible tag team match. Sydal was the star of this match, having his nose busted and bloodied at some point, and leading his team to victory over his Generation Next stable-mates ( 8 / 10 ). Sydal & Styles are now in line for another tag title shot against Aries & Strong.

Next up was the highlight of the show for me personally as they put all six Dragon Gate wrestlers into the ring for a huge 6-Man War. Do Fixer (Dragon Kid & Genki Horiguchi & Ryo Saito) vs Blood Generation (CIMA & Nauki Doi & Masato Yoshino) put on a breath-taking performance for the ROH crowd who were on their feet from start to finish. This was one of those rare special occasions in ROH where the action literally spoke for itself and the commentary was cut off. It was incredible, and just when you thought the action couldn't get any hotter they took it up another notch. It was somewhat reminiscent of Steamboat vs Savage at WrestleMania 3 as there was a series of multiple near falls within a short period of time. Both teams received a thunderous standing ovation after the match, and for good reason ( 9.5 / 10 ).

The pace slowed down, but that by no means meant the fun let up for a second. SHIMMER Women's Athletes took the stage with a unique 6-Woman Mayhem match. ROH regulars Lacey, Daizee Haze and Allison Danger were joined by the debuting Rain, MsChif and Cheerleader Melissa. The girls went at it and represented SHIMMER very well, showcasing all their talents and hopefully making viewers want to buy some of SHIMMER incredible DVD's. MsChif pulled off an upset and scored the victory in the end ( 7.5 / 10 ).

Homicide squashed ROH Student Mitch Franklin but his night was not over so quickly. Colt Cabana showed up, still nursing a concussion, and engaged in a lengthy brawl with Homicide. This got violent when a steel ladder was introduced from under the ring and Homicide put Cabana's head between the ladder and repeatedly smashed it with a steel chair. These two will settle their feud once and for all in a Chicago Stret Fight tomorrow night.

Chris Hero found his way back into the building and brought Necro Butcher with him. Adam Pearce & Claudio Castagnolie quickly hit the ring to defend Ring of Honor. Pearce and Butcher had an extensive brawl which concluded with both men crashing through a Table! Jim Cornette joined the craziness and was true to his promise when he whacked Chris Hero with the baseball bat! Samoa Joe showed up as well and helped BJ Whitmer & Adam Pearce chase the CZW invaders away from the ring. Cornette got the crowd pumping when he thanked "The Home Team" for coming to ROH's rescue. One thing I found strange here was Hero & Castagnoli disappeared while Pearce & Necro brawled. Then Castagnoli did not return for the "Home Team" celebration.

Samoa Joe took on his mortal enemy Christopher Daniels and the severely out of his league Jimmy Jacobs in a Triple Threat match. Jacobs was quick to point out that Joe vs Daniels was not the Match of the Year, but instead he and Lacey were. God bless Jimmy Jacobs for competing after taking the craziest bump of all time the night before in his match with Whitmer. The match ended with Samoa Joe picking up the 1-2-3 to win ( 7 / 10 ).

The main event was a 56-minute classic ROH World title contest between Champion American Dragon and Roderick Strong, this was Roderick Strong's third opportunity at the championship, and just like on the two previous occasions, he came within an inch of achieving his dream of winning the ROH title ( 8.5 / 10 ). Dragon now prepares to face Lance Storm on the final night of this very successful triple shot weekend.

Final Thoughts: It was not the thrill-ride like the previous DVD but this was still a really fun DVD with a ton of must-see stuff. I got to say I enjoy the CZW involvement a lot more when it doesn't involve the no-brains garbage wrestlers (Zandig, Wifebeater, etc). It certainly makes CZW look a lot better when they have a decent wrestler like Chris Hero leading the charge. If you would like to purchase this or any other ROH DVD, please check out ROHwrestling.com ---- if you need some convincing, you can check out streaming video of various ROH matches for free at www.ROHVideos.com



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