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ROH WRESTLING DVD REVIEWS

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*** Official OWW.com ROH DVD Reviews by Brad Dykens ***
June 24, 2006 - CHI-TOWN STRUGGLE - Chicago Ridge, IL

It was supposed to be Colt Cabana's night. It was time for Colt Cabana to step up and live his dream. The dream of carrying the company he help build on his shoulders. It was to happen in Cabana's hometown, the city of Chicago.

Irish Airborne continued their ascension up the ranks of the ROH Tag Team division with a victory over Top of Class Trophy owner Shane Hagadorn and his partner du jour Trik Davis (out of IWA Mid South). The crowd was totally into Jake and David Crist and showered them with loud chants of "Irish Airborne!" throughout the match. The Crist's have developed an amazing finishing move and have a great future with Ring of Honor ( 6.5 / 10 ).

Roderick Strong faced off with the one and only Lacey's Angel left in ROH, Jimmy Jacobs. Both men had extremely grueling matches the previous night and I thought maybe they would take it down a notch but they really kicked each other's ass in this match. Roderick Strong won the match, much to the disgust of Lace at ringside ( 7 / 10 ). Lacey has been demanding that Jimmy Jacobs start winning or else she'd leave him. Stay tuned.

The Embassy was slightly modified on this night, as Alex Shelley was out of action with a shoulder injury. Jimmy Rave teamed up with Conrad Kennedy III, who wrestled Nigel McGuiness the night before in Detroit. Jimmy Rave got major biggest toilet treatment before the match, probably the most ever! -- I still find that hilarious after almost a full year. After some broken glass ended up in the ring the night before I thought they would phase this out but fortunately it's still going strong! The Embassy had to deal with the Briscoe Brothers, who were greeted by the Chicago fans with enthusiastic chants of "Welcome Back! Welcome Back!" -- The Briscoes were back to their usual explosive nature and had the Embassy begging for mercy. The Briscoes won, and I'll give you one guess who got pinned ( 6.5 / 10 ).

Delirious, the man billed from the "Edge of Sanity," was given perhaps his biggest test when he went head-to-head with cult favorite Samoa Joe. The bell rang and Delirious did his "gone crazy" shtick, running wildly around the ring taking hats right off the heads of fans and sliding in and out of the ring like a maniac. After about a minute of this, Delirious slid into the ring and ran straight into Samoa Joe's shoulder and quickly dropped to the mat! The methodical dissection of Delirious then began, as Samoa Joe smacked, whacked, and stretched the lizard man. They did the Hogan/Andre WrestleMania 3 spot where Delirious tried to slam Joe but his legs and back gave out. They played David vs. Goliath for a short period and then Delirious miraculously body-slammed Joe to the mat! Another minute later, Samoa Joe secured victory after his patented Muscle-buster ( 7.5 / 10 ).

After the match, CZW's Necro Butcher showed up and wanted to fight Joe and they circled the ring with fists up. Claudio Castagnoli appeared and chop-blocked Joe's knee and they started to double team Joe. Spyder Nate Webb was there for CZW as well, and this bought out Adam Pearce, B.J. Whitmer and Ace Steel to defend the ROH ring.

This morphed into some kind of unscheduled non-sanctioned brawl between CZW's Necro Butcher, Claudio Castagnoli and Nate Webb against ROH's Adam Pearce, B.J. Whitmer and Ace Steel. I guess this is your Cage of Death preview. By the way, Death Before Dishonor 4 is the next show and it features the Cage of Death match between ROH and CZW. It will be the culmination of six months of build-up where a lot of blood, sweat, and profanity was shed. As I've said in the past, I'm not a big fan of big nonsense brawls like this but there is something unusually special about the ROH vs. CZW feud that makes these wars very fun to watch. Lots of chairs were dented, and a couple tables were broken. Necro Butcher placed a crown of thorns (barbed wire) onto B.J. Whitmer's head and Claudio smashed it with a steel chair! Whitmer was then pinned giving CZW yet another victory over ROH ( 8 / 10 ). CZW may have won the battle, but will they win the war at DBD4?

During intermission, the Briscoe Brothers got some interview time -- by the way the Briscoes should NEVER be given interview time -- and basically told KENTA that it was time to "Man Up."

ROH Legend Homicide has promised to become a champion in ROH before the end of 2006 or else he will QUIT! Continuing his pursuit, Homicide challenged Nigel McGuinness for the ROH Pure Championship. They have been pushing the fact that none of the ROH titles have changed hands in 2006, and it's become a bit of a competition between Pure Champion Nigel McGuinness, World Champion American Dragon, and World Tag Team Champions Aries and Strong on who will be the first to lose their belts. It's very unique and could lead to some interesting situations. Anyway, McGuinness found out the "geeks" over at the ROH message board (who, by the way, LOVE my reviews) were predicting that he would be the first, which didn't set well with him. This match was a perfect example of Homicide's unique ability to adapt to any style at any given time. They ended up on the floor and Nigel McGuinness suplexed Homicide through a table -- not exactly "pure" wrestling -- and slid back into the ring. Fortunately Homicide got back into the ring in the nick of time to continue the match. They eventually ended up fighting in the isle and Nigel, being fully aware of the rules, sprinted back to the ring just in time but unfortunately leaving Homicide to be counted out. Homicide took a flying fit, throwing stuff around and flipping everybody off and walked straight out of the building yelling "F#&% this company!" -- ( 7.5 / 10 ) With this controversial loss, Homicide now surpasses the city of Montreal for the most screw-jobs in the history of pro-wrestling.

Pro Wrestling NOAH superstar KENTA has gone from being a special attraction to a full-fledged member of the ROH roster, but that doesn't mean his appearances aren't still pretty damn special. Some, if not all, of his ROH matches end up on everybody's match of the year lists. Personally, I am thrilled every time I get to see one of his matches. KENTA faced Austin Aries on this show and it was yet another phenomenal performance in an ROH ring. KENTA won with his finishing move called the Go-To-Sleep ( 8.5 / 10 ).

Colt Cabana got a second chance at achieving his dream of becoming ROH World Champion and carrying the company on his shoulders. His first opportunity was squashed in five minutes when a momentary lapse in concentration cost him the match in the most disappointing of circumstances. Colt Cabana made it his goal to work his way back up the ROH ladder and earn this second chance in his hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Cabana started out by attempting to throw the champion off his game with some hilarious circus antics. You can't do what Cabana does unless you have a firm knowledge of the inner workings of a wrestling match. American Dragon did his best to stay in charge of his senses, and eventually tried to use Cabana's own tricks against him. Dragon got tough and was doing his surf-board routine and a group of CZW fans started chanting "Same Old Shit!" at him. Dragon tossed fuel on the fire by going back for another surf-board move. In a funny spot, Cabana grabbed the referees shirt and the referee started counting 1, 2, 3, 4....... and Cabana let go and yelled "I have 'til five... AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH" just as Dragon wrenched back on the surf-board hold. At about the half way mark, it really started getting physical and the Chicago fans got behind their hometown hero. For a few brief moments, Cabana made the crowd "believe" when he actually applied the Cattle Mutilation on Dream; he even hit repeated elbow-shot to Dragons head, and on top of that he hit a Lariat and the Colt 45. But suddenly, out of nowhere, Dragon rolled Cabana up for the shocking 1-2-3 to cause a near riot in Chicago ( 9 / 10 ).

Final Thoughts: I think this just might be my longest review ever. I have said enough! Buy the darn DVD, man!

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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