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Thursday, April 26, 2007

ROH: Fifth Year Festival Reviews Part 2

Fifth Year Festival-Dayton 2/23/07 ***

Making these reviews shorter.

McGuiness speaks for Morishima, the two beat up irish Airborne. The first match is abotut o come up and Jimmy Rave attacks McGuiness before Colt Caban can make the save. Yep, complicated opening.

Jimmy Jacobs & Brent Albright vs. Colt Cabana & Nigel McGuiness **3/4
Albright and Jacobs work over McGuiness leg thanks to raves heel hook. Once McGuinness nails the lariat Cabanas in. This is a pretty basic back and forth tag match that had ntohing wrong with it but I found myself less then enthused while wathcing it. I did like the scene where Colt used Jacobs as a missile on jacobs own tag partner. The ending had Jacobs hit with the rebound lariat as he was strangling Colt with a guitar string.

BJ promo. Eh.

Sterling Keenan vs. Jimmy Rave **
It's like an extended Superstars amtchw here the jobber gets some offense. Some nice moves here and there but nothing to speak about. Rave wins with heel hook.

Daizee Haze vs. Lacey **3/4
Starts out as a brawl and I was seriously thinking of skipping this match but I stuck with it and it got better. The whip itno the barricade on Daizee was brutal looking. Plus bending her over the steel. Lacey nails a beautiful belly to back supelx much like Bull Nakano use to do. Some stiff slaps and moves. jacobs sneaks in and spears Daizee for Lacey to win. I like thier Shimmer vol. 1 match much more but this was good.

Delirious, out with injury, ignores Becky bayless questions. Aries cuts a good promo in the back about Strongs faction and his match against Matt Sydall.

Jay Briscoe vs. Homicide vs. Christopher Daniels ***
5 years to the date ROH pays tribute to their first shows main event(Bryan danielson vs. Low Ki aka Sen Shi vs. Chris Daniels) with this triple threat match featuring Daniels as well as two wretslers who were on that very show. Note, that match is my favorite triple threat match of all time. This one is good. Doesn't have that slow build as Cide just sort of punches his way in the beginning. Fast, hot opening. Back and forth amongst the three with everyone having good spots. jay really shows that despite the lack of age and experience he's just as good if not better then Homicide and Daniels. Theres a nice sequence where Jay reverses a whip on Cide who monkey flips Daniels but daniels lands on his feet and takes down Jay. Daniels does a boston crab and camel clutch on both men at the same time which was a nice spot. i think he did it in that first triple threat match(I should go back and watch it). Homicide wins with the Hamada Cutter.

Austen Aries vs. Matt Sydall-Open the Brave Gate Title ***
First time a Dragon Gate title is defended in the US. Aries and Sydall ahve a great opening but something ahppens and it just sort of rolls forward without so much spark. Might be Aries ankle injury. Also Sydall seemed a little slow to react to certaint higns. But nontheless a very good one on one match. Sydall wisely targets Aries weak point. Theres a good sequence on the apron/floor in the middle of the match. Sydall nails the Here It Is Driver and his shooting star press to retain.

Delirious saves Aries from a sneak atatck by Roderick Strong and Davey Richards. Lacey congratulates jacobs for trying to end Colts career and talks about her own victory against Daizee.

Tank Tolland vs. Mitch Franklin
Chris Heroes agent introduces Tank as Chris' personal trainer. Tank squashes Mitch.

Pelle Primeau vs. Mark briscoe vs. Matt Cross vs. Claudio Castignoli vs. Shingo vs. Roderick Strong ***1/2
Fans were hailing this match online and while I liked it best on this show I would nto consider it match of the year. There's a fast paced opening with everyone involved. Shingo and Cross exchange and Strong tries helping but cross takes them both out.very fast until it slows down to the point where a number of wretslers are working over Pelle. Nice Strong bit where he holds Pelle up for the delay suplex and then sets him down onto his feet only to smack him across the face. Pelle gets a headscissers take down off Double C. This is where the match gets fast paced again. Aries chases Strong out of this match. Mark Briscoe with shooting star to floor. Double C gets the win with his uppercut.

Samoa Joe vs. Davey Richards ***1/2
Good opening. Richards tries taking control early but joe just pepeprs him with strikes including a vicious kick to the head. Davey tries his handspring kick but Joe just walks away from it. Joe keeps the offense most of the match as Richards tries hard to fight back. Richards hits a nice tornado DDT onto the apron. Joe is pretty much unstoppable here. He puts on the choke twice trying to end the match. Richards gets out and fully turns heel with the lowblow, the mocks, and his attempts at taking control of this match. But Joe uses his msucle buster on apron for victory. This match should've had about seven mroe minutes because I got really itno it after Richards got out of the hold and wanted it to go longer. Second afve match on the DVD.

Joe cuts promo. Graphic about big ROH matches.

BJ Whitmer vs. Morishima-ROH World Title ***
Morishima assaults BJ at the beginning. Morishima looks like a complete monster pretty much dogging BJ in his hometown. Hits powerbomb on the floor. Nice. Inside its rpetty much Morishima trying to beat the life out of Whitmer while Whitmer fights back. gets an exploder on the huge man but not nearly enough. backdrop driver-lariat-backdrop driver wins it. Simple but good.

Briscoes talk tag titles. Aries talking to some people unseen. Least favorite of the fifth year festival shows thus far.


Fifth Year Festival-Chicago 2/24/07 ***1/4

Turns out Aries was talking to three non ROH regulars about helping them earn a spot.

Brent Albright vs. Claudio Castignoli ** 3/4
Solid opener. both men work good together but it was another situation where I wans't too into what was going on. The opening was nice with Larry Sweeny and Double C trying to sway the "hitman." Albright wins with the half nelson suplex.

MsChif & Serena Deeb vs. Allison Danger & Sara Del Rey **3/4
nice opening with Deeb showcasing her talents. Fans were behind her. Sara and Allison try to take control but can't MsChif, who I really like, is in. Strike exchange with Allison who ducks the spinning back hand. They work over MsChif and even tie her up, upside down, between the roeps showing how flexible MsChif is. Danger spears her in this position. msChif hits the yoshitonic(sunset flip powerbomb). Del Rey hits her finisher on Deeb for the victory.

Very good Colt Cabana promo.

CJ Otis vs. Trick Davis vs. Matt cross vs. Shingo ***1/4
Very good four corners match. Davis and Cross have a good opening exchange. otis and Shingo have an exchange afterwards. The match starts to become Shingo and Otis working over Trick Davis. Davis uses a tornado lung blower and tags Cross who nails a springboard dropkick on his way in. Cross starts to build momentum unti davis sto;ps it. This is back and forth four-way fight. Shooting star leg drop for Cross to earn victory. I like Shingo more and more, Cross is good, and was surprised by CJ Otis.

Aries recruits Matt Cross for his tag match later that night.

Jimmy Rave vs. BJ Whitmer ***
I'm a mark for both men and I thought it was a good match. Knee tot he abck by rave sends BJ crashing into the barricade at the beginning. BJ fights abck and nails a combination suplex and northernlights. Rave mocks afns while gaining control of the match. Slow paced and back and forth. Rave reverses an attempted pwoerbomb on the esxposed floor. Whitmer tries super powerbomb as well but only able to get a jackknife pwoerbomb. Rave uses a roll up and the roeps for leverage to win.

Briscoes vs. Matt Sydall & Christopher Daniels-Tag titles ****
Briscoes delievr my second favorite match of this set thus far. great, hot, exciting opening with all four men. Goes into a tag formula with them each working over members of each team for peroiods of time. The mocking, show boating, and everything workd well.Champs work over Jays midsection for a while toards the final act before Jay tags Mark and gets to the break down. It's lots of back and fortha tcion with everyone hitting their signatures. Briscoes with guillotine leg drop and shooting star press combo for the victorya nd to earn the titles.

Lacey and Jimmy Jacobs backstage.

Matt Cross & Austen Aries vs. No Remorse Corps. ***
Cross and Aries with a quick attack. Strong tricks Richards itno rushing in, to takie the heat off himself. Aries and Cross hold early control. They work well even doing some of ries and Strongs old tag moves. The NRC take control and start holding onto the match working over both men. First Cross and then Aries when he gets tagged in. Cross gets hot tag. Does an insane springboard twisting pklanche onto Strong and hurts hismelf. Aries with his finisher combo on Richards for the win.

NRC attacks the two and Strong uses the Gibson driver on the broken barricade on Cross. Delirious with the save.

Great moments graphic.

Colt Cabana vs. Jimmy Jacobs-Windy City Death Match **1/2
Violent, bloody, and decent. i just don't like Colt Cabana as a hardcore wrestler. Lots of scissors, tables, chairs, broken wood, and rail road spike. Daizee Haze, Lacey, Brent Alrbight and Whitmer get involved. Colt with his finisher on both Jimmy and Lacey to win.

Morishima & Nigel McGuiness vs. Samoa Joe & Homicide ***
I was expecting so much more. Starts off with nice wretsling by Cide and McGuinness. Starts of pretty basic. Cide and Joe sue a pair of diving moves to the floor on the two and it becomes a big brawl around the ring and crowd. Interetsing to see Morishima do this style of wrestling as it's not done in his home promotion of NOAH. once back in the ring its back to formula. I ntoiced though off spots, slow reactions, and noticible set ups for upcoming moves. Which really dog this match which had a lot of nice thigns going for periods of time. Match ends when McGuiness uses the rebound lariat on Joe.

Joe cuts promo on his farewell tour.

So far I have been udnerwhlemed. good shows but not quite memorable enough for me to say they have good replay value.

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