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ROH Presents - Return Engagement
By Garoon and Ziegler | August 4, 2008
The Machine Guns & Kota Ibushi go for victories before taking hiatuses from ROH.
April 19, 2008 – Chicago Ridge, Illinois
Introduction
BG Says: Jake’s schedule is going to keep him from doing ROH reviews, so I’ll be going solo for a while. They’ll still be posted under the Garoon & Ziegler name much in the same way that Siskel & Ebert retained its name for a while after Siskel was unable to continue. Luckily for us Jake isn’t on his deathbed.
The weekend’s Video Wire starts with a clip of the Briscoe Brothers celebrating their fifth ROH tag title win. Next up are clips from the Kevin Steen vs. Nigel McGuinness ROH World Championship match. That’s followed by Steen’s post-match meltdown and Claudio Castagnoli’s title challenge. Next is a clip of Chris Hero’s attempted attack on Daizee Haze and Delirious’s save. The next night Haze returned the favor and Brent Albright refused to hurt her. Delirious is obviously enamored with Haze. They show clips of Kota Ibushi’s first two matches and hype his next two. Finally we get some previously unseen material wherein Castagnoli catches up with McGuinness backstage and asks what needs to be done for him to get a title shot. McGuinness says he needs a tag partner for Detroit. Castagnoli accepts.
The show starts with a Motor City Machine Guns promo. Sabin says “you know what” a lot while talking about getting a rematch against the Briscoe Brothers tonight. Shelley’s part of the promo is much more entertaining. It’s interesting that they’re calling this a match to decide who the best tag team in the world is when they lost just the night before.
The Briscoes come back by reminding the Machine Guns that they won their match against them last year. Neither of these teams has ever beaten Jimmy Jacobs & Tyler Black, so I think there will definitely be a question over who’s the best team in the world.
MATCH #1: Austin Aries vs. Silas Young
BG Says: I have to agree with Ziegler that Young’s entrance makes him look like a huge goof right out of the gate. Also he sometimes looks like a thin Jim Duggan. They lock up and Young puts on a headlock. Aries hits a pair of armdrags into an armbar. Young goes back to the headlock. He puts on a cloverleaf. Aries rolls through and puts on a headlock. He hits a knee kick out of the head scissors. He follows Young to the floor with the Heat Seeking Missile. Back in the ring Young swats away a dropkick. He hits a knee to the gut for 1. Aries gets a sunset flip for 2. Young hits a gutbuster for 2. Aries hits elbows and knees. He hits a missile dropkick. He hits the dropkick in the corner. Young hits a backbreaker and a clothesline for 2. He hits the Finlay roll but the Arabian Press hits knees. Aries hits the Finlay Roll. He hits the kick to the head and the brainbuster before putting on the Last Chancery for the win at 5:51. This was pretty sloppy but the stretch got the crowd hot for the show.
Rating: *¾
Jimmy Jacobs walks out to the ring applauding for Aries. He assumes Aries has joined the Age of the Fall. He tells Aries that even though he’s glad to have him on board he doesn’t want him touching Lacey anymore. Aries says that kissing Lacey doesn’t mean he’s joining up with Jacobs, it means she’s leaving the Age of the Fall. He calls Jacobs a word that rhymes with wussy while implying that he’s banging Lacey. He says the Age of the Fall is BS and tells Jacobs to stay away from him and Lacey. Jacobs repeats “she loves me,” as he charges to the back.
JZ says: Young looks like such a goofball bouncing around singing his own entrance music. That song sucks to begin with, and really, you don’t see Triple H singing along with Motorhead. Anyway, this match was a fine opener and kept Aries strong.
Rating: **¼
MATCH #2: Mitch Franklin vs. Alex Payne
BG Says: Franklin and Payne do some basic stuff but get cut off by Jimmy Jacobs on the microphone. Jacobs wants to show Aries that the Age of the Fall is about action, not talking, and he sends the Necro Butcher to destroy the students with a chair and barbed wire. Franklin and Payne both take a pretty nasty beating. Necro pins them both while telling Takeshi Morishima that he’ll see him at the Hammerstein Ballroom. You see Bryan Danielson and Morishima got to choose each other’s opponents for the NYC show. Morishima chose Naomichi Marufuji for Danielson while Danielson chose Necro for Morishima.
JZ says: Anytime someone can break up a match between two boring students I’m all for it. Plus it works for what Jacobs was doing on this show, so good for it.
Rating: *
MATCH #3: Adam Pearce & Brent Albright vs. Claudio Castagnoli & Pelle Primeau
BG Says: Castagnoli and Pearce start. Pearce asks for Primeau so the little man tags in. They struggle through a feeling out process so Pearce dumps Primeau on his head. Castagnoli helps Primeau hit a head scissors takedown. He helps Primeau take both opponents down. Pearce hits a backbreaker. Albright tags in and hits the Air Raid Crash for 2. Pearce tags in and chops Primeau around. He hits a powerbomb. Albright tags in and hits a kneedrop. He hits a backbreaker and a fall away slam. He knocks Castagnoli off the apron. Pearce comes in illegally and chokes Primeau. He and Albright hit the Hart Attack. Albright hits a German suplex for 2. Pearce hits a splash off the top for 2. Albright tags in and gets rolled up for 2. He comes back with strikes. Pearce tags in and eats a forearm. Castagnoli tags in and cleans house. He hits Albright with the giant swing. He hits Pearce with a clothesline. He hits Albright with the Match Killer for 2. Primeau hits Pearce with the Thesz Press and a double stomp. He hits a dropkick from the apron to the floor. Albright hits Castagnoli with a powerslam as Shane Hagadorn attacks Primeau. Pearce hits Albright with his briefcase by mistake and Castagnoli is able to hit the Ricolabomb for the win at 9:19. Fun match. If they ever decide to put Castagnoli back in the midcard there’s definitely potential in a more permanent team with Primeau. Albright walks out on his teammates after the match.
Rating: **½
In the back Kevin Steen has some words for Nigel McGuinness. He says he’s actually decided to work out for this match. He walks very slowly on a treadmill, which is obviously much more strain on his body than he’s used to. He gets winded cutting his promo and turns off the machine. He also says that, since McGuinness will do whatever it takes to win, he won’t be afraid to cheat to get the title.
JZ says: This was a fun tag team match, as Claudio and Pelle work very well together as a team. They continued the Albright face turn, which is going over very well with the crowd, so this was good stuff all around.
Rating: **¾
MATCH #4: Daizee Haze vs. MsChif vs. Lacey vs. Ashley Lane
BG Says: Lacey is still sporting the goth gear. MsChif and Lane start. MsChif screams to intimidate Lane. She gets a roll up for 2. Lane comes back with armdrags. Haze tags in and gets caught with an armdrag. These two could not look less comfortable in that ring. Lacey hits Haze with a cheap shot and Lane takes advantage. Lacey tags in and her knee “gives out.” Lane tags back in and eats a chinbreaker. MsChif tags in and puts on a standing stretch. Lane’s body is fantastic. MsChif hits a clothesline. Lacey tags in and knocks Haze off the apron. MsChif and Haze double-team Lacey. Everyone ends up on the floor and MsChif dives onto all of them. Lane hits MsChif with a crossbody for 2. She hits an elbowdrop for 2. MsChif comes back with the Desecrator for the win at 10:31. MsChif was the only one in there that looked like she had any idea what she was doing. I don’t understand why Lacey and Haze sometimes work like they’ve never wrestled before.
Rating: *¼
Jacobs comes back out to address Lacey. He wants her to tell him that Aries’s words were all lies. Lacey gives him the old break up song and dance and leaves him in the ring. Aries meets her at the ramp and gives her a big kiss. What a bitch. Jacobs sits down and cries in the ring. Tyler Black, Allison Wonderland and Joey Matthews try to console him but he’s having none of it.
JZ says: I know I’m hard on the women’s division sometimes, but this match only proves why. Lacey and Haze looked awful out there, and Lane looked like she only knew how to do an armdrag. MsChif screams a lot. This was like amateur hour.
Rating: ¾*
MATCH #5: Chris Hero vs. Delirious
BG Says: Delirious mocks Hero to start. Hero slugs him down. Delirious hits a head scissors takedown. He gets a crucifix pin for 2. He gets a headlock takedown. He hits a headbutt to the chest. He hits another to the gut. Hero comes back with a dropkick. He drops Delirious on his butt for 2. He stomps on the butt. The crowd asks Bobby Dempsey to do the Truffle Shuffle so Larry Sweeney makes him hide under the ring. Delirious gets a sunset flip for 2. Hero hits a senton for 2. The match slows way down as Hero sticks to stomping Delirious around the ring. Delirious blocks an elbow with a headbutt. He hits a DDT. He hits an enziguiri and the heart punch in honor of Haze. He hits a head scissors takedown. Hero hits the roaring elbow. He hits another for the win at 9:51. What started as a promising match got boring down the stretch. Still, it was decent.
Rating: **¼
JZ says: It feels like these two have wrestled countless times. I like how this match started, with Delirious doing all the headbutts, but it never really got that interesting beyond that. Still, these two are pros and generally fun to watch.
Rating: **½
MATCH #6: Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin vs. The Briscoe Brothers
BG Says: The tag titles are not on the line because ROH thought it would be fun to telegraph the winner. Mark and Sabin start. They trade holds on the mat. Sabin hits a head scissors takedown. Mark hits a Samoan drop and a senton. Jay tags in and gets rolled up for 2. Sabin hits an arm whip. Shelley tags in and hits a kneedrop for 2. Sabin tags in and dropkicks the knee and the face for 2. Shelley tags in and hits a back suplex for 2. He puts on an octopus stretch. They trade roll ups with the help of their partners. Sabin sends Mark to the floor and kicks Jay while Shelley holds him in the abdominal stretch. The Machine Guns clothesline each other by mistake. Jay hits a leg lariat and Mark hits a double stomp. They hit the double shoulder tackle. Mark tags in and hits a second rope kneedrop for 2. He hits a couple more and tags to Jay. Jay hits a back elbow for 2. Mark tags in and gets double-teamed. Sabin tags in and hits a senton. He throws Shelley into both Briscoes and clotheslines Jay to the floor. That was neat. He fakes a dive but Shelley hits a diving knee for realsies. The referee stops Sabin from diving so Sabin dives over him onto everyone. In the ring Shelley hits Mark with a low blow. Mark hits Sabin with a chinbreaker. Jay tags in and hits a clothesline. He hits a dropkick for 2. Mark tags in and beats on Sabin in the corner for 2. Jay tags in and hits a spinebuster. Mark tags in and they throw Sabin into the air. He hits a couple of kicks for 2. He puts on an abdominal claw and rolls Sabin up for 2. Jay tags in and throws Sabin into another dropkick from Mark for 2. Jay hits a dropkick for 2.
Mark tags in and puts on a chinlock. Sabin fights out and hits a bulldog. He hits Jay with an enziguiri. Shelley tags in and cleans house. He hits Mark with a swinging DDT. Mark blocks the frog splash with his knees. Sabin hits the Ace Crusher and Shelley puts on the Border City Stretch. Mark gets to the ropes. Mark hits both opponents with a moonsault press. Jay tags in and hits Sabin with a superkick. Shelley hits a leg lariat. Sabin hits an enziguiri. Mark hits a leg lariat. Jay hits the DVD for 2. Mark hits a guillotine kneedrop. Shelley counters the Doomsday Device to a victory roll for 2. He hits Jay with the Skull F*cker. Sabin tags in and catapults Jay into a superkick from Shelley. Shelley hits the Swanton Bomb over Sabin’s knees. The Machine Guns hit a kick sandwich. Sabin hits a tiger suplex but Mark dumps Shelley on him to break the pin. That was pretty contrived. Mark dives onto Shelley on the floor. Jay hits Sabin with a lariat. He hits the Jay Driller for 2. Mark helps him hit the Doomsday Device for 2 when Shelley makes the save. Mark misses a shooting star press. Shelley tags in and hits Sliced Bread #2 for 2. Sabin hits Jay with a German superplex. Shelley hits Mark with super Sliced Bread #2 for the win at 23:40. This was nearly as fluid as their first match. Most of the intricate spots were contrived looking. Still the action was non-stop and they brought completely different offense than they used in the first match. I actually preferred the MCMG vs. the AotF match from the night before, but you really have to hand it to a team that goes 3 for 3 in making their ROH matches ****+ must-see events, and to Mark for wrestling a great match with a bad injury.
Rating: ****¼
Everyone makes nice after the match and the commentators demand a tiebreaker be signed. The Machine Guns leave just before the Age of the Fall runs out and attacks the Briscoes. Terrible luck for the Briscoes there. Jacobs has his minions hold Mark up and he stabs his hand.
Dave Prazak runs outside the building to find out what happened to Mark. You can’t see anything but you can hear Jay saying that he has to rush Mark to the hospital.
JZ says: Those who say this match is better than their first are nuts. However, it’s still a really great match, and it’s impressive how different it was from the first one. The Briscoes wrestled a very technical match, which was a nice change of pace from the brawls they’ve become known for. Those who say that’s all they can do need to check out this match.
Rating: ****½
MATCH #7: Kota Ibushi vs. El Generico
BG Says: They lock up and Ibushi forces Generico to the ropes. Ibushi stuffs a takedown attempt but Generico gets a wristlock. They knuckle up and criss cross a bit. Ibushi hits a dropkick. He kicks Generico’s back for 2. His standing moonsault hits knees. Generico’s been doing his homework. He hits a bodyslam for 2. He hits an elbowdrop for 2. He hits a leg lariat for 2. He hits a crossbody for 2. He hits a backbreaker for 2. He hits a backbreaker and the split legged moonsault for 2. They trade strikes until Ibushi hits a hurricanrana. He hits a couple kicks. Generico hits a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. He climbs the ropes but Ibushi cuts him off with a handspring kick. He follows Generico to the floor with a moonsault press. Generico tries to slingshot into the ring but Ibushi catches him with a DDT. He hits a standing corkscrew moonsault for 2. Generico kicks his leg and hits a Blue Thunder Bomb for 2. He hits a SICK Michinoku Driver for 2. Ibushi comes back with strikes. Generico hits a big boot. Ibushi ducks a big boot and hits a roundhouse kick and a German suplex for 2. He climbs the ropes and hits the double moonsault for 2. Lenny Leonard sounds kind of dumb going crazy for that move even though he’d seen it three times before. Generico hits the Yakuza kick. He hits a splash off the top for 2. Ibushi hits a leg lariat and climbs the ropes. Generico rolls through a sunset bomb and hits a dropkick. He hits another Yakuza kick. Ibushi hits a super reverse hurricanrana for 2. That’s silly. He finishes Generico off with a phoenix splash at 16:02. This was very similar to the match Generico had with Taiji Ishimori in Germany this year. That match was great and this one was no different. Thanks in part to the insane crowd and in part to the payoff that was Ibushi’s win this was definitely the best match of his American tour.
Rating: ****
Sweet & Sour Incorporated has a meeting in the back without Albright. Sweeney blames the tag team loss on Albright and then congratulates Hero for winning. Albright storms in all upset over the finish to the tag match. He wants to know what’s in the briefcase. Sweeney calms him down with promises of some of the finer things in life.
JZ says: This was as good as any of the other matches Ibushi had on his four-show tour. It was another of those “I’ll sell when I feel like it” matches, but it was fun and the crowd was super hot, so it did the job.
Rating: ***¾
MATCH #8: Jack Evans, Ruckus & Jigsaw vs. Tyler Black, Joey Matthews & Zach Gowen
BG Says: Jacobs was originally scheduled for this match but his freak-out necessitated Gowen’s presence. Matthews and Evans start. Evans gets a roll up for 2. Matthews comes back with an armbar. He slaps Evans but Evans comes back with a kick. Ruckus tags in and hits a snap suplex. He flips Black onto Matthews and then hits a moonsault on Matthews. Evans hits a standing shooting star on Matthews. Black tags in and gets double-teamed by Ruckus and Jigsaw. They flip Evans onto Black for 2. Gowen stiffs the crap out of Jigsaw in the corner, getting 2 for Black. Matthews tags in and hits a stiff lariat for 2. Evans tags in and hits a springboard kick. Gowen and Black pull him to the floor. Gowen tags in and hits a springboard senton for 2. He hits a dropkick in the corner. Black tags in and hits a bodyslam. Matthews tags in and hits a facebuster for 2. He puts on an abdominal stretch. Evans hits a springboard back flip something or other. Ruckus tags in and cleans house. Black cuts him off so he dives onto Matthews and Gowen on the floor. Jigsaw hits Black with a superkick and then dives onto everyone. Evans follows suit. In the ring Jigsaw hits the STO. Matthews hits a double arm DDT. Ruckus hits a bulldog. Gowen hits a Lionsault. Evans hits the scariest Blockbuster ever. Black hits a turnbuckle powerbomb and the Small Package Driver for the win at 11:40. This was all over the place, with the Vulture Squad being unable to hit anything clean (or safely) and Gowen having the same problem when he wasn’t beating up Jigsaw in the corner. The home stretch was fun, if nothing else.
Rating: **¾
Jacobs comes out and sends his crew to the back. He shows off the scars from his barbed wire match against BJ Whitmer in IWA-MS. He calls Aries out to the ring. Aries runs out and they brawl. The Age of the Fall comes back out and Aries can only hold them off for so long. Gowen destroys Aries with his cane. The crowd chants for the Briscoes but they’re at the hospital. Jacobs gears up cut Aries’s throat with the spike but Lacey runs out and begs him not to. Jacobs goes after her instead but then breaks down and cries before he can hurt her. Black isn’t happy about this development but the entire crew follows Jacobs to the back.
JZ says: I just hate the Vulture Squad so much. This match was also overshadowed by the Jacobs storyline running through this show. It also made me watch Ruckus and Jigsaw work.
Rating: **
MATCH #9: ROH World Championship Match – Nigel McGuinness vs. Kevin Steen
BG Says: Steen kicks McGuinness low during his entrance. They trade strikes on the floor as McGuinness tends to his groin. Steen goes to the eyes. Back in the ring McGuinness goes for the Jawbreaker Lariat so Steen shoves him back to the floor. He whips McGuinness into the barricade. McGuinness crotches Steen on the middle rope and rams him into the post. He hits an armdrag. Steen tries to fight back but McGuinness stays on the arm. He puts on a cobra clutch. Steen escapes and hits elbowdrops. He misses the somersault legdrop. He goes for the Sharpshooter but McGuinness scrambles to the ropes. Steen bites McGuinness’s chest, presumably to make it hurt more when he hits chops. He hits a clothesline in the corner. He misses a cannonball and McGuinness gets 2. Steen puts on the Sharpshooter. McGuinness gets to the ropes. He hits a hammerlock takedown. He puts on the London Dungeon. Steen gets to the ropes. Steen turns the handstand kick into a powerslam. He hits a senton. He hits the cannonball. McGuinness hits the second rope lariat for 2. He hits a running European uppercut and a lariat for 2. McGuinness puts on the London Dungeon. Steen escapes and puts on the Sharpshooter. McGuinness gets to the ropes. Steen hits the pumphandle neckbreaker. He climbs the ropes and hits the Swanton Bomb. He climbs again and hits a frog splash for 2. They trade forearms until Steen hits a superkick for 2. He gets a pin with his feet on the ropes for 2. He hits the package piledriver for 2. They fight to the apron where McGuinness hits the corner combo, sending Steen through a table. Back in the ring McGuinness hits a lariat for 2. Steen blocks a package piledriver and gets a roll up for 2. McGuinness goes to the eyes to block the Sharpshooter. He hits the Jawbreaker Lariat and grabs a handful of tights for the win at 18:08. I dug that Steen used cheap tactics and all of his best offense here. He said he’d throw everything at Nigel and he did just that. McGuinness didn’t do anything particularly special except cheat right back, and I think that made this match that much better than their first.
Rating: ****
In the back Delirious tries to cut a promo but he’s too messed up. Daizee Haze walks up and gives him a massage, exciting him way too much. Haze gets freaked out and bails.
JZ says: I liked this one about as much as I liked their previous match. Steen is just super over and Nigel is really on a roll as champion. Steen will one day win the title no doubt, but Nigel is just amazing right now.
Rating: ****
Overall
BG Says: There are 3 fantastic matches on this show and that’s really all I ever need to see to give a DVD a recommendation. The rest of the matches aren’t much, but the show is also notable for turning Jacobs into a main event commodity, more than any match possibly could.
JZ says: Any show with two matches at four stars or higher and another one that’s pretty close is an easy recommendation. It also has the Jimmy Jacobs storyline thread running throughout, which was great stuff and as good as anything ROH has done. Excellent show here.
Topics: ROH Reviews |
August 4th, 2008 at 3:40 am
If it’s possible, maybe have guest spots to replace Jake until his schedule permits a comeback? I liked reading a dual review, as it’s always nice to have more input on a match and more sides to look at it from.
Good review, but I’m actually in the camp that thinks this MCMG vs. Briscoes match was better than last years. And I LOVED last years. I was floored by the fact that it really felt like they were working as a team, which probably sounds stupid, but let me explain.
When Sabin pulled Shelley away, and nailed an Ace Crusher, I loved it. Maybe it’s been done elsewhere, but that’s the first time I’ve ever seen it and I just absolutely loved that little touch. It’s one thing to do awesome double teams and work together, but this was an even better touch. Not to mention that it really did look like MCMG’s were making moves up as they went in the match. Yeah, I know they talk plenty of the match out, but when Jacobs went for that Blockerbuster and Sabin caught him, positioned him and then hit the Dominator/Ace Crusher combo, it really felt like they called it on the fly and just improvised. I love that kind of stuff. I loved that it wasn’t as long, too. Don’t get me wrong, long matches are not a bad thing at all. I just thought last year’s match seemed to go just a little longer than they really needed. Same with this year vs. AotF. I might not be completely accurate, but didn’t they have like 3 quadruple-down spots? I can think of 2 for sure.
Either way, keep up the good work. These are always a fun read.
August 4th, 2008 at 6:32 am
Hey Brad, you mentioned Generico-Ishimori from Germany, did you see the whole 16 Carat Tournament? I would love to see a review of that show from you, since I was there live.
Greetings
August 4th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
I found this show to be a little too heavy in the Jimmy Jacobs department for my tastes. They seemed to rush through 4 shows worth of angle advancement in just one show. I think it would’ve flowed better if they had Aries turning down Jacobs and then Jacobs sending Necro to destroy the students on this show. While this is a good show on it’s own merits, this show is the spiritual successor to Good Times, Great Memories and I can’t help feeling disappointed. That’s mostly due to the Morishima/Shingo match from last year, which was one of my favourite matches of 2007. I hope that will be the template for Shingo’s first defence of the Dream Gate title against Cyber Kong, but with Shingo prevailing. Guns/Briscoes was tighter this year, still great. It seems like their trying to recreate Dragon and Strong with Nigel and Steen. If they had kept Steen’s second shot for Toronto, that match would’ve been pushed up another notch, and it is already fantastic. One quick note, since I am rambling: the STO by Jigsaw was actually the Ranhei, which I have been waiting for an American wrestler to lift from Madoka since I saw it on Suicidal Dragon’s youtube page.