Wrestling’s 4R’s PPV Edition 12.02.07: ROH Man Up 2007
Posted by Larry Csonka on 12.02.2007
ROH delivers yet another PPV of the year candidate!
ROH MAN UP PODCAST~!
411's back with another huge podcast broadcast! Larry and the Wife have returned to breakdown the ROH Man Up PPV, with the Column of Honor's Ari Berenstein as their special guest! The three discuss Danielson almost being blinded as Morishima retains the ROH Title, the NRC outlasting the RESILENCE and the Briscoe's MANNING UP against Steen and Generico, as well as the debut of the Age of the Fall in what was another great PPV effort from ROH!
Check out the latest podcast of Larry and the Wife below!
TO STREAM: Simply press the play button on the podcast player.
TO DOWNLOAD: Right click on the DOWNLOAD HERE link below and then save the mp3 file to your computer.
Check out Dunn's MAN UP Breakdown as well as Part I of THE COLUMN OF HONOR where Ari breaks down the show, with some extra thoughts NOT on the Podcast.
How the 4R's of wRestling Work!
Here is a quick explanation of the 4R's. I will take the 4 main shows (5 if I go RetRo) of the week: TNA Impact, WWE Raw, ECW on Sci-Fi and WWE Smackdown. If we have a PPV, that show will get a special PPV edition of the R's all to its own. I then group my feelings on the shows in various categories: The Right, the wRong and the Ridiculous. The Right is stuff that worked very well: a great promo, a great match and so on. PuRgatoRy is a section between the right and wrong. It shows equal traits from both sides that cannot be ignored and need discussed. It is not a bad place per say, as things can get remedied or go the wrong way the very next week. The wRong is what it sounds like: bad matches, bad or boring promos and so on. The Ridiculous is stuff that had no right on TV: Stupid angles, Diva searches and so on. And there is always a possibility of a 5th R, which is as bad as they come, unless you are TNA. They have a special R all of their own, the 6th R; the Russo-FN-Riffic~! This column is supposed to be analytical, and at the right time very critical of the shows, it was the whole reason it was created. This is not a "mark" column, nor a "smark" column, my goal is to analyze the show from many different fronts, reward the good and call out the bad. There are also occasions where I will bring out a 5th or even a 6th R to the column, so beware of those~! I will not apologize for my opinions, they are as they are, whether very positive or negative.
ROH MAN UP 2007~!:
The Matches:
FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL: Nigel McGuinness defeated Chris Hero, Claudio Castangoli and Marufuji @ 18:10 via pin ***¼
NRC vs. THE RESILENCE – BEST of THREE SERIES: Rocky Romero (NRC) defeated Matt Cross (The Resilience) @ 5:00 via pin **
NRC vs. THE RESILENCE – BEST of THREE SERIES: Austin Aries (The Resilience) defeated Davey Richards (NRC) @ 12:45 via pin ***
NRC vs. THE RESILENCE – BEST of THREE SERIES: Roderick Strong (NRC) defeated Erik Stevens (The Resilience) @ 14:00 via pin ***¼
ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE LADDER WAR: The Briscoe Brothers defeated Kevin Steen and El Generico @ 26:18 ****½
The Right:
PRODUCTION - For the Driven AND Respect is Earned PPV's I discussed production, which I was not happy with. I had said:
I am sure Gabe and crew have been all over the tape and taken notes and tried to fix these things for the already shot 2nd PPV, and if so and if they have been fixed, there will be a big congrats and "right" from me the next time. I imagine the pressure of getting show #1 off the ground were amazing, which is why I have been rather reserved in discussing these issues. As I said, I am sure they know what went right and what didn't and are working to fix them. Overall though this was my only wrong on the show, and for long time followers of the column, having only one wrong and no ridiculous is a great feat. But I cannot reward the production until it gets better.
And improve on production they did. The picture was clearer than it had been in the past, which is something that had been an issue. But the biggest improvement was sound. The commentary was perfectly balanced this last time. On top of that, al of the work on the house mice was not only audible, but about PERFECTLY audible. To me that had been a big problem in the past, a good example was the Aries promo from DRIVEN, in which I could only understand half of this "huge, and important" return promo. That all being said, the production improved, they got rid of the very lame pre-match video package created by a 13-year old with MS-Paint and had some newer spiffy intro stuff with a box showing off video of their moves and their "goals" in ROH. A great turn around as far as production goes, I said I would reward if and when it improved so there you go!
FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL - We opened up the PPV this time with FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL, pitting Nigel vs. Claudio, vs. Marufuji, vs. Hero. Once again ROH picked a hot way to open up the show, which is very important in my opinion. Hero tried his best to stay away from Claudio, and also was able to do his wacky celebration/show off festival, which is hilarious. The action was great, it all flowed well and built and built until the climax. The pin saves were excellent and not forced, and it all worked. The only criticism would be the dropping of the rules about half way through, I wish they would have done more of a scramble style match, but other than that, nothing to complain about, this was a damn fine opener. I feel that the match had two goals, and they were to advance Claudio vs. Hero; which I feel it did. The second part was to make Nigel a legit world title contender once again. That was also accomplished. Also, SWEENEY is nothing but awesome. That man should have been born 20-years ago.
NRC vs. THE RESILENCE – BEST of THREE SERIES: Austin Aries (The Resilience) vs. Davey Richards (NRC) - The second match in the series was Aries vs. Richards. I loved how all the teams were out there and they went instantly from one match to another, it made for a great flow on the show. I also loved that Strong faked being the #2 guy, and as soon as Aries confirmed that he was in, he sent Richards into the bout. They set a good pace, had a good build and they delivered very well. In the end this was a very strong back and forth match, a match that was worked so well that even in loss Richards came off looking like he belonged in Aries' league, but at the same time kept Aries' star aura about him. This is a great example of booking a match that helps both guys, and keeps the star a star, with out hurting the credibility of the "lesser" talent. Good work to the guys and ROH here.
NRC vs. THE RESILENCE – BEST of THREE SERIES: Roderick Strong (NRC) vs. Erik Stevens (The Resilience) - With the series tied a 1-1, we moved onto Strong vs. Stevens. They had more of a technical affair to begin the match, which was a different feel from the other matches. More deliberate and stiff than the other bouts, and again, delivered, maybe a bit better than the Aries vs. Richards bout. In the end this was a very strong back and forth match, a match that was worked so well that even in loss Stevens came off looking like he belonged in Strong's league, but at the same time kept Strong's star aura about him. And once again, this is a great example of booking a match that helps both guys, and keeps the star a star, with out hurting the credibility of the "lesser" talent. Good work to the guys and ROH here.
ROH TITLE MATCH: - This was all set up well as they had Bryan Danielson cut a promo, which may have been a video wire interview. He explained his injury, that he had to go to the doctor and he had surgery. His mom was crying, and his sister called and they were scared and furious that he would scare them like that. He was down about it, and he had to rethink things and visited his dad. They talked about his options about life without wrestling, back to school, back to the mill, but then his dad said this is what he always wanted. Danielson stated that wrestling is his life, and all of the injuries are what he wanted because they happened in wrestling. So tonight, he was going for the ROH title, and he planned on bringing it home, because it is what he wanted. The eye will not stop him, because his passion will take him through this. This was to be his night, and while he may not be the best in the world anymore, he has more heart than anyone else in this sport and vowed to prove it in the ring. Some background as well is that Morishima promised that he would fight with honor and not attack the injured eye of Danielson. HA HA HAAAAAAAA! This match was an excellent big vs. little man battle. They also already have such a good chemistry, that they never felt like they were forcing anything. Morishima played GOZLILLA while Danielson was doing everything in his power to stop him. Small packages, surf board and bow and arrow tries, MMA elbows, the triangle choke, Cattle Mutilation, anything he could use he did. Morishima nailed not one, but two backdrop drivers, and when Danielson was not finished, the eye patch was ripped off and Morishima landed repeated and relentless strikes to the eye and the official stopped the match, "saving Danielson's sight. In the end this was an excellent match, showing that in the right circumstances that a ref stoppage can work; and this was it. They worked the story, they worked the eye, they worked the MMA stuff and it all worked in the end. This is very fresh and exciting stuff to watch because it is so different from everything else on PPV.
ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE LADDER WAR - And now we come to the match that this PPV was all set around, the Briscoe Brother looking to end their feud with Kevin Steen and El Generico. They went wild from the bell as they brawled all around ringside, using chairs and just kicking the shit out of each other with no remorse. They stayed away from the ladders early, in place of bloodletting, and once they got into the ring it really became war. I have to say that all four men worked very hard. Steen was a bad ass and took great bumps, Generico apparently has no spine as he flopped around like a stunned snake at times, Jay continues to work extremely hard while Mark seems to still have no regard for his personal safety. Someone asked how I would "analyze" the match, and as I told Ari, it is hard to breakdown a great ladder match and easy to breakdown a bad one. This one was great, intense spots, variations on old themes vamped up, the Doomsday Device, with the dive through the ladder, which needs to find its way into every ROH highlight video ASAP and it all worked. In the end this was just a tremendous ladder match, a perfect main event for the show and more validation for the Briscoe's, who have owned 2007 in the eyes of many people. Now if I had to nitpick, there were some issues that held the match back, for me personally. Re-watching it, it does seem that Ari was right in that they edited the beginning portions a bit. Secondly, even though they used plastic chairs, I am not down with all of the unprotected chair shots. Thirdly, I hope that Gabe stays true and either never does this match or holds another on off for a LONG time, because while there was tremendous reward to the bout, the risk was almost too much as I am surprised that no one was seriously injured. Finally, they had a true TNA moment at the end as the one belt did not want to come down from the dealy holding it up. Steen did well to try and recover and climb again to cover, but to me, it hurt the end a bit. But in the end, it didn't take away a lot, and was a tremendous ladder match.
Enter the Hangmen's Three and the Age of the Fall… - ROH continues the episodic part of their PPV's by tying them all together, ala GOOD wrestling "TV." The fact is that we all know 99.9% of "hardcore" ROH fans will buy the PPV, so we don't give a shit about them. No offense, we give a shit about Joe Q. Casual fan that has never watched ROH as that is going to check one of these shows out for the first time. ROH has been stringing things together, and one of those things has been the back-story and now formation of the Hangman's Three. On this show we saw highlights of a four-corner survival, with Delirious, Pearce, Nigel and Whitmer. Nigel took the win over Whitmer. After the match, Pearce attacked Delirious, and Brent Albright came in to help Pearce, who cuts a cool promo on Delirious, about Delirious hiding behind his mask. Hagadorn hands Pearce a staple gun and tries to staple it to his head, so that he may permanently hide behind the mask. This is when Whitmer, who lost again, looks to stand up to Pearce. Pearce plays mind games with him again, Whitmer then turned on Delirious and nailed the Adrenaline Spike on him. They then stapled the mask to the head of Delirious, and thusly the Hangmen Three were born. I liked this because it played off of Pearce's promos from the first two PPV's perfectly. That's episodic TV.
Now this next part is classic storytelling/episodic TV, and that is when you finish one major feud, you just right into another one. The PPV began with a crazed masked fan rush the announcers and start yelling about the Age of the Fall, and they quickly shot to the opening video because this was NOT PART OF THE SHOW! After the Briscoe's defended their tag team titles in LADDER WAR, screaming came over the PA. There were THUGS like the one from the opening in the crowd trying to piss off the Briscoe's. It was then that Tyler Black and Jimmy Jacobs appeared, distracted the Briscoe's and then NECRO BUTCHER comes from the crowd and attacks them with BARBED WIRE wrapped around his fist…and the Age of the Fall is born. They all beat down Mark and Jay as Lacey is out with them. We saw a PACKAGE DRIVER by Black, while Necro says, "If you let me out of my cage, I'll pile bodies to the sky!" I love that man. But the most important part is that they ended with the hook. I have seen people complaining about this, and they are fools because this is a PERFECT example of booking episodic TV. Project 161 is revealed, they beat down Jay and Mark, they then tie Jay to the belt hanging deal, start to hang him and the show ends! THE SHOW ENDS and you're wondering WHAT HAPPENED TO THIS MAN? It was perfect because that casual fan, that doesn't follow ROH DVD's doesn't know and THEY will want to turn back in. That is the way to do it.
Purgatory:
NRC vs. THE RESILENCE – BEST of THREE SERIES: Rocky Romero (NRC) vs. Matt Cross (The Resilience) - The first match, in this best of three series was Matt Cross vs. Rocky Romero. A nice little thing was before the match, the camera caught Aries giving strategy tips to Cross. "Watch the kicks and arm submissions" and the like. Ari made the point that this is something you often see, even in regular tag teams, and it is small things like this that we appreciate. They had a fine bout, Cross got to show off his SKILLZ while Romero worked the kicks, strikes, knees and arm submissions, like Aries warned young Matt Cross about. Romero eventually got a German and kicks that KO'd Cross and won the bout. Now I am sure it will seem nitpicky, but I just did not like the abrupt ending of the match. It made sense with the pre-match talks Aries gave Cross, commentary played it up well, but I disliked it because I was really digging the match, and it ended in what I thought was an anti-climatic fashion. Then again, if this is one of my few complaints, that's a good thing.
The wRong:
NADDA~!
The Ridiculous:
NADDA~!
Closing Thoughts:
Overall I will go with a 9.6 out of 10 making this is the PPV of 2007, and there is nothing Turning Point or Armageddon can or will do about that to change anyone's mind. This will sound like a broken record, but it is the truth. I have only given a handful of shows/DVD's a 9 or above, somewhere in the realm of 3-6 total, in four-years. Two of these are ROH PPV's. This is without a doubt your PPV of the year. Respect is Earned was an excellent debut on PPV, and if there was a bit of a drop off that could be understood; it was a hell of a show. But ROH was not only able to follow it up with a show comparable to that, they actually left it in the dust. And to top that off, they improved on THAT show. There is just a quality on this show that you aren't getting from WWE and or TNA PPV, especially when you consider offerings like Hard Justice, Summerslam and Unforgiven. No DQ's in the title matches, no swerves for the sake of swerves, no ones wife involved; just solid and simplistic angles leading to good matches in the end. That is what a wrestling company should be, and all too many times it isn't. As long as you can get past the cosmetic hang ups a lot of long time WWE fans have, and what I mean is that this is not WrestleMania. These are not huge buildings; these are not "name stars." But it delivers as if it was. If you are constantly complaining about WWE and or TNA, if you just want wrestling that will deliver and not insult your intelligence, then Ring of Honor is for you. Danielson vs. Morishima rocked and my descriptions of Ladder War probably don't do it justice, you just have to see it for yourself. I wish MANY BUYS on this show~!
2007 PPV Rankings:
-ROH MAN UP 9.6
-ROH Driven 9.25
-WWE Backlash 8.5
-ROH Respect is Earned 8.25
-WWE WM XXIII 8.0
-WWE Royal Rumble 8.0
-TNA Bound for Glory 7.75
-TNA Slammiversary 7.5
-WWE Survivor Series 7.4
-TNA Victory Road 7.4
-TNA No Surrender 7.3
-TNA Sacrifice 7.25
-TNA Final Resolution 7.0
-TNA Lockdown 7.0
-WWE Cyber Sunday 6.75
-WWE One Night Stand III 6.5
-TNA Genesis 6.25
-WWE New Year's Revolution (RAW) 6.0
-WWE Great American Bash 6.0
-TNA Against All Odds 6.0
-TNA Destination X 5.5
-WWE Judgment Day 5.5
-WWE Vengeance 5.0
-WWE No Mercy 4.5
-WWE No Way Out (SD) 4.0
-WWE Unforgiven 4.0
-WWE Summerslam 4.0
-TNA Hard Justice 4.0
2007 TOP PPV Match Rankings:
-(ROH Driven) #1 CONTENDER'S MATCH: Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness ****¾
-(ROH MAN UP) ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE LADDER WAR: The Briscoe Brothers vs. Kevin Steen and El Generico ****½
-(WWE Royal Rumble) LAST MAN STANDING WWE TITLE MATCH: Cena vs. Umaga ****¼
-(WWE Backlash) LAST MAN STANDING WORLD TITLE MATCH: Batista vs. The Undertaker ****¼
-(WWE Backlash) WWE TITLE MATCH: John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Randy Orton vs. Edge ****¼
-(TNA Sacrifice) TEXAS DEATH MATCH: Chris Harris vs. James Storm ****¼
-(ROH Respect is Earned) ROH TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Mark and Jay Briscoe vs. Matt Sydal and Claudio Castagnoli ****¼
-(ROH MAN UP) ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Bryan Danielson vs. Takeshi Morishia ****
-(ROH Driven) ROH TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Jay & Mark Briscoe vs. Kevin Steen & El Generico ****
-(WWE Cyber Sunday) WORLD TITLE MATCH: Batista vs. The Undertaker ****
-(WWE No Mercy) LAST MAN STANDING WWE TITLE MATCH: HHH vs. Randy Orton ****
-(WWE Royal Rumble) The Royal Rumble Match ****
-(WWE WM XXIII) WWE TITLE MATCH: John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels ****
-(WWE ONS III) LADDER MATCH: The Hardy's vs. TWGTT ****
-(TNA Slammiversary) KING OF THE MOUNTAIN MATCH: Angle vs. Harris vs. Cage vs. Joe vs. AJ ****
-(TNA Destination X) NWA TITLE MATCH: Christian Cage vs. Samoa Joe ****
-(TNA Bound for Glory) Christian Cage vs. Samoa Joe ****
-(TNA Genesis) #1 CONTENDER'S LADDER MATCH Christian Cage vs. Kaz ****
-(TNA Lockdown) LETHAL LOCKDOWN MATCH (Team Cage vs. Team Angle) ****
-(WWE WM XXIII) MONEY IN THE BANK III ***¾
-(WWE Summerslam) WWE TITLE MATCH: John Cena vs. Randy Orton ***¾
-(TNA Final Resolution) 30-MINUTE IRON MAN MATCH: Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe ***¾
-(TNA Victory Road) MATCH OF CHAMPIONS: Joe and Angle vs. Team 3D ***¾
-(TNA Victory Road) Ultimate X ***¾
-(ROH Respect is Earned) Bryan Danielson and Takeshi Morishima vs. KENTA and Nigel McGuinness ***¾
-(ROH Driven) Roderick Strong, Davey Richards & Rocky Romero vs. Delirious, Erick Stevens & Matt Cross ***¾
2007 PPV MVP AWARDS: This is a little added deal here, as I feel that there are some other things that should be mentioned from the PPV's. Not every PPV will have one, it just depends on who I think steps up and deserves some extra recognition.
-Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker: A Rumble to Remember – WWE Royal Rumble
-JBL: Solo Commentating – WWE No Way Out
-AJ Styles and Rhino: Elevation X – TNA Destination X
-Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker: "They still got it!" – WWE WrestleMania XXIII
-AJ Styles: Almost Dies for his Craft – TNA Lockdown
-The Main Events: "We can step up." – WWE Backlash
-Harris and Storm: Redemption – TNA Sacrifice
-Matt, Jeff, Shelton and Charlie: "Taking a Risk." – WWE ONS III
-Jeff Jarrett: "Thank you Jill" – TNA Slammiversary
-Christopher Daniels: The Ultimate X reunites XXX – TNA Victory Road
-Ring of Honor Makes Major PPV Impact - ROH Respect is Earned
-Kurt Angle: The Angle Triathlon – TNA No Surrender
-Bryan Danielson and Nigel McGuinness – ROH Driven
-HHH: Three Matches on Two Torn Quads – WWE No Mercy
-Sting: I'm 48 and Ripping Shit Up –FTW~! – TNA Bound for Glory
-Taker and Batista Do It Again – WWE Cyber Sunday
-Kaz: Welcome to the Big Leagues Kid – TNA Genesis
-Remember Me Deadman?: Edge Returns – WWE Survivor Series
-Mark, Jay, Kevin and El: Four Sick Fucks – ROH MAN UP
