*** ROH DVD Reviews by Brad Dykens ***
October 21, 2007 – San Francisco, California
CHAOS AT THE COW PALACE
INTRODUCTION: The DVD started with a promo from Nigel McGuinness expressing his pride on recently becoming ROH World champion. McGuinness also pointed out that he never thought about what it would be like AFTER he won the championship. McGuinness talked about Samoa Joe’s legacy, and said that his legacy has just gotten started. The legendary Cow Palace was made famous by the Roy Shire promotion from the 50s all the way up to the 80s. It was also the site of Eddie Guerrero’s one and only WWE World title victory. On this particular weekend, San Francisco played host to one of the biggest fiascos in the history of pro-wrestling. A massive fan convention was promoted and arranged by a couple of pathetic idiots, and the entire thing turned out to be the most disastrous events in the history of earth. I don’t even know what happened to the criminals who put this event together but they should be in jail. Ring of Honor was not an official part of this convention, but they just happen to be in town taking advantage of so many wrestling fans being in one place at the same time. It turns out Ring of Honor was the silver lining on an otherwise abysmal weekend for thousands of wrestling fans.
SINGLES MATCH
Chris Hero w/Larry Sweeney vs. Human Tornado: The Survival of the Fittest champion, Chris Hero, didn’t waste time taking advantage of the bragging rights that he earned two days earlier in Las Vegas when he defeated Claudio Castagnoli in the SOTF finals. Hero was beaming with confidence, even more than usual, as he wrestled California’s own, Human Tornado. Chris Hero did a fine job of making the Tornado look good enough to hopefully get invited to the east coast for future ROH events. Hero forced Tornado to submit via the Hangman’s Clutch. Larry Sweeney jumped into the ring and proceeded to insult and degrade the history of San Francisco wrestling until Claudio Castagnoli hit the ring to chase the Sweet & Sour kids away.
FIP WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH
Roderick Strong (c) vs. Claudio Castagnoli: Claudio Castagnoli cut a promo saying Ring of Honor was honored to be in San Francisco at the legendary Cow Palace, inciting a loud “ROH!” chant. Castagnoli said that he wanted to make some more history tonight (by winning the FIP title). Despite their physical differences, these two actually had a lot of good chemistry. Roddy won with a Gut-buster, followed by a Gibson-driver, to retain his FIP World championship!
SINGLES MATCH
“Scrap Iron” Adam Pearce w/Shane Hagadorn vs. Karl “Machine Gun” Anderson: Adam Pearce would be slightly less entertaining if he didn’t have that foolish man-servant, Shane Hagadorn, hanging around all the time. I never noticed this before, but Karl Anderson totally has an old-school look about him. He would have fit in with any promotion from the 1970s or 1980s. It was a good showing by Mr. Machine Gun but Adam Pearce was victorious at the end of the bout. Shane Hagadorn did his job and patted his mentor on the back for a job well done. Delirious ran down and Adam Pearce pushed Shane Hagadorn in his path of fury. Pearce retreated while Delirious proceed to bite Hagadorn’s forehead until the blood began to flow! Brent Albright ran down to attack Delirious and before you could say “Crippler Ray Stevens” another match had begun.
GRUDGE MATCH
Delirious vs. Brent Albright w/Adam Pearce: Adam Pearce stuck around ringside, while his bloodied man-servant was helped backstage by some members of Cow Palace security. Delirious is working his way through the HANGMEN 3 faction, trying to get his hands on Adam Pearce, but isn’t having much luck with that mission! The problem is that he’s going to war all by himself against four very large angry men. I want to go on record that I absolutely hate the orange Anvil-like beard that Delirious has grown. He should totally dye it green! Delirious applied the Cobra-stretch, but Brent Albright escaped and cinched in the Crowbar submission. After a couple more reversals, Delirious looked to have the match won but Adam Pearce got up on the apron to distract the referee. Delirious went after Pearce, but was nailed by Albright with a Half-nelson-suplex – giving Albright the victory! Delirious needs to reload, and get some more guns to back him up!
TAG TEAM MATCH
The No Remorse Corps (Davey Richards & Rocky Romero) vs. Tony Kozina & T.J. Perkins: As I’ve said in previous ROH DVD reviews, T.J. Perkins is also known by thousands of fans by the masked gimmick he uses in Mexico and TNA – PUMA! Ironically, Tony Kozina has also wrestled under a mask in Full Impact Pro as the Canadian Cougar. All four of these guys are very familiar with the west coast. This match was way more exciting than it should have been. Nice work by all four guys, but it was the No Remorse Corps who had their arms raised after the final bell.
IN THE RING
The Age of the Fall (Jimmy Jacobs & Necro Butcher): Jimmy Jacobs hit the ring with Necro Butcher following as their disturbing theme “music” played over the loud speakers. Jimmy Jacobs challenged Richards & Romero to either leave the ring now, or become the next stepping stones on their quest to face the Briscoe brothers. Richards & Romero looked at each other and then threw picture-perfect stereo drop-kicks to signal the start of the match.
TAG TEAM MATCH
The Age of the Fall (Jimmy Jacobs & Necro Butcher) vs. The No Remorse Corps (Davey Richards & Rocky Romero): They fought intensely for several minutes, in an out of the ring, until Jimmy Jacobs used the Guillotine-choke to render Davey Richards unconscious. The Age of the Fall take one step towards challenging for the ROH World Tag Team titles.
BEST OF THREE SERIES – MATCH #2
“American Dragon” Bryan Danielson vs. Austin Aries: It is my believe that this best of three series was booked for the sole purpose of putting Austin Aries back on the map as a main event super star in Ring of Honor. Aries won the first match of the serious, which naturally means that Dragon was going to win this second bout to even the series. But in ROH, you just never know! Austin Aries and American Dragon are the two guys who have the most ROH-blood running through their veins. The announcers explained that they are fighting to see who the ACE of Ring of Honor was. They seemed to use just about everything to try to put each other away, but it was a simple but effective Small Package from Danielson that finished off Aries in the end. Bryan Danielson once again proved why he is known world-wide as the MASTER OF THE SMALL PACKAGE!
ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH
Nigel McGuinness (c) vs. Jay Briscoe w/Mark Briscoe: I think every ROH champion has to go through at least one Briscoe brother during their reign on top. Usually it’s the older brother Jay who gets the opportunity because his baby brother Mark gets injured at least six times a year. Mark was in his brother’s corner, but was nursing one of his many injuries, looking to get back into the ring to defend his ROH World Tag Team title as soon as possible. Nigel McGuinness is on top of the world, living out his dream of wearing the ROH World championship. Jay successfully worked over Nigel’s leg until he pretty much lost use of the injured limb. Nigel fought back like a true champion and nailed a devastating Tower of London on the ring apron and then made Jay tap out with an Elbow-lock submission hold to retain the ROH World title.
POST-MATCH CHAOS AT THE COW PALACE!: After the match, Bryan Danielson went to the ring to confront the ROH champion. Nigel took him down with a European Uppercut and they fought away from the ring. Meanwhile, the Age of the Fall attacked Jay Briscoe in the ring, and Mark Briscoe tried to help but he got his ass kicked too. Then suddenly, Davey Richards & Rocky Romero hit the ring to fight the Age of the Fall. Could the No Remorse Corps be turning babyface? Austin Aries showed up and took out the No Remorse Corps and did a suicide dive on everybody. Aries looked like he was helping the Age of the Fall. Jay Briscoe did a flip dive over the top rope onto a group of wrestlers. Next up, Davey Richards did a psychotic Shooting Star Press off the top rope to the floor, taking out everybody in the process. Chris Hero & Larry Sweeney plowed their way through the crowd and entered the now-empty ring and Sweeney narrated on the microphone as Hero demonstrated his superior athletic capabilities. Claudio Castagnoli hit the ring and shut Hero down with an electric Ricola-bomb! Castagnoli grabbed the microphone when the dust cleared and thanked San Francisco for being an amazing crowd. They just created a whole bunch of Claudio marks in one night!
BONUS MATERIAL: In additional to the usual ROH Video Wire, this DVD includes a bonus match featuring some of the stars of SHIMMER Women’s Athletes. Portia Perez vs. Alicia vs. Daizee Haze vs. Sara Del Rey in a 4-WAY that was taped on July 28 at “Race to the Top: Night 2.” It goes without saying you will enjoy this match very much!
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