The ROH Man Up Breakdown

Ring of Honor — Man Up by J.D. Dunn Original Airdate: November 30, 2007 From Chicago, Ill. Your hosts are Dave Prazak and Lenny Leonard. Nigel McGuinness stops by to promise to ascend to title contentions. One of those “Age of the Fall” mutants does a run-in but gets tackled. Four-Corner Survival: Nigel McGuinness vs. Claudio Castagnoli vs. Naomichi Marufuji vs. Chris Hero (w/Sweet ‘n’ Sour Inc.). Nigel and Marufuji do a brief sequence before Hero begs to get in. Hero does a little exhibition but has to run once Claudio tags in. He sneaks back in and tags in Marufuji. Marufuji and Claudio do dueling claws. That was goofy. Hero gets tagged in and is forced to do wrestle Castagnoli. He takes him down and immediately tags Nigel in. Nigel and Claudio shake hands, and we get our first real wrestling sequence. Hero tags in once he sees Claudio is down. The former Kings of Wrestling brawl on the outside, so Marufuji wipes them out with a somersault plancha. Claudio and Hero fight into the crowd, so Nigel dives off the top onto them. Back in, Marufuji and Nigel exchange uppercuts. SUPERKICK! SHIRANUI! ONE, TWO, THRE-Chris Hero makes the save at the last second. The rules are out the window at this point, and Prazak even comments on it. Claudio hits Hero with the Apo Mari Waterslide for two. Claudio and Hero fall out of the ring, allowing Marufuji to curbstomp Nigel’s face into the mat. ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Nigel sets up and hits the Tower of London! ONE, TWO, THR-NO! Hero makes the save and hits Nigel with the Cravat Cutter. DOUBLE STOMP! ONE, TWO, TH-Claudio hauls him off and hits a German Suplex. Claudio Giant Swings Hero and nails him with a European Uppercut. Marufuji jumps him and counters the Ricolabomb to a rollup for two. Claudio blocks the Shiranui, but Marufuji sets him up for the coast-to-coast dropkick. Nigel cuts him off and starts firing off lariats. Claudio hits Marufuji with the Ricolabomb, but Hero dives on top of Todd Sinclair to break up the pin attempt. Claudio gets pissed but nails Nigel with an uppercut. Nigel rebounds and CLOCKS him with the Jawbreaker Lariat at 17:59. This accomplished what it set out to do, which was put Nigel over as a legit contender again and shine a spotlight on the more sports entertainmenty Chris Hero. I could have done without dropping the rules. If you want to book a Four-Way Fray, just do that instead. ***1/2 Bryan Danielson describes the toll his injuries have taken on his family. He wouldn’t trade it for anything because this is the life he always wanted. Best-of-Three Series: Matt Cross (w/The Resilience) vs. Rocky Romero (w/The No Remorse Corps). The Resilience is facing the No Remorse Corps here. It’s actually kind of like an amateur wrestling match in that respect. Romero charges him, and they exchange chops. Cross sends him to the outside and fakes Romero out on a fauxicida. He hits the Flagpole Press. Back in, Romero takes Cross down into a cross armlock, but Cross makes the ropes. Cross hits a springboard doublestomp into a moonsault for two. Romero catches Cross with a Buzzsaw Kick to put the NRC ahead at 4:41. That was a lot of action packed into four minutes. **1/4 Best-of-Three Series: Austin Aries (w/The Resilience) vs. Davey Richards (w/The No Remorse Corps). The NRC fakes out Aries, pretending that Strong would start and then substituting Richards at the last second. Aries outwrestles Richards and takes him down into a headlock. Richards counters to a headscissors, and he already knows that YOU CAN’T HEADSCISSOR AUSTIN ARIES! Aries misses his dropkick but rolls through a sunset flip and hits his dropkick. All is right with the world. Aries hits a powerdrive elbow, but his Brainbuster is countered to the Northern Lights Suplex for two. Richards mocks the Pendulum Elbow, so it misses. Aries shows him how it’s done. Aries backflips out of a German, but Davey rolls him down into the Crossface. Aries desperately fires back to avoid the DR Driver. Richards wins a slugfest, but Aries hits a Roaring Elbow. SUICIDA! Aries slingshots in for two. A quebrada gets two more. Richards comes back with a VICIOUS handspring kick. It looked awesome from the angle they showed. Aries blocks a Buzzsaw Kick, though, and counters to a backdrop suplex. Aries goes up but gets caught. FULL-ROTATION GERMAN SUPERPLEX! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Aries unleashes a flurry in the corner. The corner dropkick misses, and Richards nails him with a clothesline. Aries backflips out of another German and punts him in the head. BRAINBUSTER! That sets up the 450-splash at 11:55. ***1/4 Best-of-Three Series: Erick Stevens (w/The Resilience) vs. Roderick Strong (w/The No Remorse Corps). Strong helped train Stevens, which is why their career paths always seem to cross. Stevens unloads a flurry of chops and hits the Oklahoma Stampede for two. A Northern Lights puts Strong on the floor. Like an idiot, Stevens turns to play to the crowd and gets clocked with a forearm. Strong drops him on the apron with a backdrop suplex. Strong stretches Stevens out against the ringpost. Stevens tries to fight back, but Strong pummels him. Strong hits a Fallaway Slam and a pendulum backbreaker. Stevens fights back and hits the Choo-Choo. Yeah, I didn’t like it when the Godfather did it. I don’t like it here. Just call it an avalanche and be done with it. Stevens blocks the Tiger Driver, and they chop it out. Wanna chop it out, bitch? Let’s chop it out. Strong no-sells a release German suplex but runs into the cradle lariat. Doctorbomb! ONE, TWO, THR-NO! Strong counters another one. Stevens hulks up after a superplex but turns into a Half-Nelson Backbreaker. ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! They battle on the top, and Stevens hits a top-rope powerslam! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Shades of Buzz Sawyer there. Stevens calls for a top-rope Doctorbomb, but Roderick blocks. Stevens blocks the Half-Nelson Superplex but falls victim to Splash Mountain and the Tiger Driver at 22:57. Stevens gets a big round of applause in the loss. Stiffer and more violence-oriented than the Aries/Richards portion but just as good. ***1/2 Recap of the formation of the Hangman’s Three. They staple Delirious’ mask to his head. OUCH! ROH World Title: Takeshi Morishima vs. Bryan Danielson. The robe and eyepatch make Dragon look like Baron Von Danielson. These two met at Manhattan Mayhem II where Danielson nearly lost his eye to a stiff shot from Morishima. This would be Morishima’s first real test on PPV. Danielson rushes him, but Morishima keeps taking him down. He stomps a mudhole in Danielson’s face and hits a running boot. Danielson turns the tide with a suicida. Back in, Danielson fires off a bunch of European uppercuts. Morishima counters a missile dropkick to a powerbomb, but Danielson counters *that* to a Triangle Choke. Morishima makes the ropes, though. Danielson grabs a bow-and-arrow but can’t keep the big guy up long. Morishima blocks a schoolboy and squats down for two. Danielson tries to choke him out, but Morishima powers up. Morishima blocks a small package but falls victim to a backdrop superplex. ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Danielson tries the elbows, and then the stump-puller stomps, and then the Triangle Choke elbows. Morishima is like a brick wall, though, and he powers Danielson up and slams him down to take the starch out of him. BIG LARIAT! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Morishima hauls him up. BACKDROP DRIVER! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Morishima, who had promised not to go after the eye, rips off the eyepatch and punches Danielson in the eye. Big boos for that. He hits a Backdrop Driver and starts elbowing Dragon right in the eye. Referee Paul Turner stops the match at 12:43 to protect Danielson’s well-being. The ending makes Morishima look like a total dickhead heel for trying to injure Danielson’s eye again. The psychology around the eye and the fact that Morishima is just an unstoppable Hoth creature added to the drama. ***3/4 ROH World Tag Titles, Ladder War: The Briscoe Bros. vs. Kevin Steen & El Generico. This would be ROH’s first and, if you believe Gabe, only ladder match. The Briscoes toss the ladder into the ring right away, and everyone brawls out into the crowd. Jay and Generico slug it out on one side, Mark and Steen on the other. Jay NAILS Generico with a chairshot as Steen goes low on Mark. Mark gets distracted by some AotF kids, allowing Steen to nail him. Mark comes back with a springboard Ace Crusher off the barrier. Jay and Generico get to the ring, and Generico dropkicks Jay right in the face. Generico makes the first real attempt at going up, but Jay yanks him down and hits the sitout gourdbuster. Generico sells it like the Rock taking the Stunner on a trampoline. Mark avoids the packaged piledriver and goes up, but Steen yanks him down and knocks him into the barrier. The Briscoes recover and toss Generico from one side of the ring though the ladder. That necessitates the introduction of a bigger ladder, which is lucky because I don’t think anyone could have actually reached the belts from the smaller one. Jay goes up, but Steen tips over the ladder and sends Jay through the broken one. Um. Okay. OUCH! Steen superkicks Mark, but Mark MANS UP! Steen superkicks Mark again, but Mark MANS UP! Steen kicks him in the nuts. Mark does not MAN UP this time, not surprisingly. Steen drags him back in, but Mark utilizes Redneck Fu. Generico jumps him from behind, though, and Yakuza Kicks a ladder into Jay’s mug. Steen decides he feels homicidal and Awesome Bombs Mark though a ladder on the outside. Steen goes up, but it’s Steen so he can’t go very fast. Jay powers his way past Generico and shoves him into the ladder. The ladder tips out from under Steen, sending him down… straight down. Mark adds an Exploder to Generico, putting him through the ladder. Mark puts a ladder on top of Generico and hits the SSP on it. I’m not a big fan of that spot, but it makes sense in the context of Mark’s insanity. Jay climbs up the other side but puts Steen through a table. Mark goes up, but the ladder is more unstable than he is. Generico shoves the ladder out from under him, so Jay calls for the maintenance ladder – the one heavy duty ladder in the whole place. Generico boots Mark in the back of the head, so Jay boots Generico. That sets up a Doomsday Device with Jay going *under* the open ladder! Okay, that was cool. Steen brings in another ladder and knocks the Briscoes off. He sets it up between the corner and the big ladder and package piledrivers Mark through the bridged ladder! Generico crawls up and gets his hand on the belts. Jay has a little trouble setting up the ladder for the next spot. Ooh. Minus a little for that because Generico has to wait for him instead of going up and getting the titles. Jay drags him down and gives him the Jaydriller though another bridged ladder. Well, that’ll make up for it. Cool visual as Steen goes up and reaches for the belts, but Jay reaches up and grabs his wrist. They slug it out furiously from the top of the ladder. Jay wins that battle, knocking Steen through the ladder below. Jay has the belts in his grasp, but he can’t get them undone from where he is. Steen manages to climb up the other side and give him a run for his money, but Jay fights him off and yanks the titles down for the win at 27:22. The intimate setting meant that there weren’t many “Jeff Hardy” spots, but they made up for it with intensity and hatred. The fans were chanting “Match of the Year” and this match has generated a lot of buzz. I don’t know if I’ll go that far, especially since Nigel/Dragon set the bar pretty high, and we’ve seen tons of ladder matches before. I would rank this on par with some of the TLC matches the Hardyz, E&C, and the Dudleyz had, though. It’s just hard to keep raising the bar after all these years. ****1/2 A tearful Steen shoves Generico down and storms out. That leaves the Briscoes alone. Tyler Black, Lacey and Jimmy Jacobs come down to confront the Briscoes. It turns out they are the Age of the Fall. Necro Butcher runs in with a barbed-wire fist and lays out the Briscoes. Sadly, due to time (and no doubt content) restraints, we don’t get Jimmy’s blood-drenched promo. The scene just fades out. The 411: ROH PPV does it again. The worst match on the card was Matt Cross versus Rocky Romero at a measly **1/4, so you know this was pretty good. In terms of the number of great individual matches, this was easily the best PPV of the year. I don’t think it’s quite as cohesive as “Driven” (which, oddly enough, was segmented between two venues). In the future, I think they’d benefit from some sort of story that runs throughout the show the way the WWE and TNA do. You know, *some* sports entertainment is a good thing. Anyhoo, that’s a minor quibble. Thumbs up for another great PPV from the little promotion that could.