What's All The Hubbub: ROH Driven

Posted by Aaron Hubbard on 05.12.2009

Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuiness? Bryan Danielson vs. KENTA? Yeah, you want this.

ROH Driven

So, Respect is Earned served as the introduction to Ring of Honor, but didn’t exactly set the world on fire. With the characters and storylines set in motion by the first show, this show should be able to deliver.

BUT FIRST! BONUS DISC!

Driven Preview: Bryan Danielson and Nigel McGuinness hype up their match at the PPV, and we get a look at the closing minutes of their match at Unified. I approve. The Briscoe Brothers accept the challenge of Kevin Steen & El Generico. Elsewhere, Larry Sweeney and Brent Albright give short promos.

ROH Video Wire : Strangely, this is the exact same video wire as the one on Respect Is Earned. I’m not gonna recap it again.

The Minnesota Home Wrecking Crew (Lacey & Rain) w/Jimmy Jacobs vs. MsChif & Daizee Haze
LACEY! “We don’t need losers like you cheering for us! Sit down and shut up!” I love Lacey. Jacobs gets a ton of cheers. I love how MsChif scares the Crew with her screams. Lacey gives the best performance (to no surprise), as she is a talented, crisp worker and has a ton of heel personality, but MsChif is impressive as well. Haze plays a decent Ricky Morton, but it’s nothing to write home about. There’s a smart moment where Haze rolls up Rain for a cover before making the hot tag, showing that if she could have pinned her, she would have. MsChif makes a good comeback, but Lacey prevents the Desecrator on her partner and hits the lungblower. The Crew drill MsChif with a double Unprettier to get the win. Very solid but a little too obvious with it’s choreography, and still nothing special. But Lacey is great!
Match Rating: **

Nigel McGuinness vs. Chris Hero w/Larry Sweeney, Bobby Dempsey & Tank Toland
Nigel is the uber-serious powerhouse babyface right now, while Hero is in his full-on goofy comedy heel mode. That leads to a bit of a strange match where Nigel is trying to have an actual wrestling match, while Hero is trying to do a comedy match with his indy flips and such. Technically, there’s nothing wrong with that. But you can tell the difference between two styles working together to make a coherent match, and a match that only has two styles because the guys are both trying to do something different. This is a case of the latter. Nigel doesn’t really seem to sell, but then again, Hero has some of the most unconvincing strikes this side of Jigsaw. Hero does work in a few actual wrestling moves, like his cravat neckbreaker and a leg hook backdrop suplex, which look much better than anything else he does. Sweet n Sour saves Hero from the Jawbreaker Lariat before getting chased off by Claudio Castagnoli, and Nigel wins with the Tower of London. If Nigel was a little more light-hearted or Hero a little more serious, this match could have been really good. As it is, it’s just a fun exhibition of two of ROH’s most entertaining acts, and enjoyable only because of the talents of the two individuals and not because it’s actually good. It also goes a few minutes too long.
Match Rating: **1/2

Adam Pearce and Shane Hagadorn come out so that Pearce can berate the fans for calling him Repo Man and for hyping his “ridding of Colt Cabana”. I recall Colt winning that. Pearce decides that Chicago is no longer his hometown, which the crowd likes. He asks for “some chump to beat on”. That brings out ROH World Champion Takeshi Morishima.

ROH World Championship Match: Takeshi Morishima © vs. Adam Pearce w/Shane Hagadorn
I don’t see this lasting long. Pearce dominates with cheap tactics and panders to the crowd to make up for his lack of talent. Pearce does hit an impressive suplex on the big man, but misses a splash and gets run over. Pearce tries a sunset flip but Shima sits on him. Pearce makes a comeback long enough to put on a Repo Man mask before getting hit with Backdrop Driver for the three. Hagadorn comes in and eats a lariat and the Backdrop Driver, and Shima pins him for good measure.
Match Rating: 1/2*

KENTA vs. Bryan Danielson
This bonus disc lives or dies by this match. Given the talent involved, I’d be very surprised if it didn’t deliver. KENTA is the real best pure striker in the game, and Bryan is the self-proclaimed “Best Wrestler in the World”. A case could be made for either man. Bryan has gone out of his way to master as many styles as possible, but his forte is catch wrestling and strong style strikes. KENTA isn’t as versatile, but he does his style better than anyone. This is the third match between the two. The second is considered to be one of the best matches of 2006, although I can’t tell you, since the show is sold out on ROHwrestling.com.

Bryan controls early with his mat wrestling. He gets a sick pin cover by forcing an arm down to the mat with his foot, but KENTA gives him a warning kick and follows up with a slap to the face. This sets up the story of the match: Bryan is the better wrestler, but KENTA is the better striker, so he tries to make Bryan lose his cool and start striking. To his credit, Bryan refuses to play into that game, only striking when KENTA isn’t expecting it and going right back to his holds. One of the things I like about Dragon’s character at this point is that he doesn’t have a lot of continuity in his wrestling. He is just showing off his technical skill. It’s a very different approach and to someone who is unfamiliar with Bryan’s work, it would look like poor psychology.

Dragon makes a crucial mistake by getting over confidant and slapping KENTA, which allows KENTA to make his comeback, taking time to kick at Bryan’s shoulder that put him on the shelf for five months. Dragon decides to get a bit more high impact with a German Suplex, a backbreaker, and a belly-to-belly from the apron to the floor. A humorous side story occurs when Bryan breaks a hold at four, and the fans say “I have ‘till five!” Bryan refuses to say it, despite holding on until four several times, only to finally say it off of Cattle Mutilation, which gets a HUGE pop from the crowd. Dragon gets a sick straight-jacket release belly-to-belly suplex that leads into a fighting spirit exchange, but KENTA abruptly ends that with the Busaikou Knee. KENTA has a great moment where he runs cross-corner to hit a powerbomb into the buckles and tumbles outside from exhaustion. KENTA works in his combination, but Bryan counters to an O’Connor Roll, and KENTA counters with a rear naked choke for a false finish. The two men steal each other’s finishers (KENTA nearly no-selling his own Go To Sleep), and then counter each other’s finishers. Dragon tries the MMA elbows, but KENTA gets to his feet and finishes with the Go To Sleep. Now, if KENTA can still be on his feet just minutes before after the Go To Sleep, then why can’t Bryan? If KENTA wanted to not be pinned by his own finisher, he would have been better served to get a foot on the ropes or even kick out for 2 then to do what he did here.

This is a great match. You have the story of “wrestler vs. striker”, as well as the history of the two opponents. The action is crisp and exciting and original. Bryan shows his arrogance by showing off his technical ability rather than using a clear strategy. The match does have the one major issue though. I usually contend that fighting spirit isn’t bad, since it is usually only done with strikes and suplexes that couldn’t finish the opponent anyway, and tells a story. However, a move such as Go To Sleep should never be “no sold” (KENTA did sell it, but he should have been knocked out). Still, Bryan brings out the best in KENTA. Bryan doesn’t like to work a formula, and he forces KENTA to break his. If you want great wrestling, here it is, but it’s not a classic.
Match Rating: ****1/4

And now, the main program!

Daze Prazak welcomes us to the Pay-Per-View, but is interrupted by Erick Stevens & Matt Cross of The Resilience and Delirious. Stevens challenges The No Remorse Corps to a six-man tag RIGHT NOW! Delirious….says something. “No Remorse Corps, it’s time for war!” God bless that lizard man.

We get a video recap of Respect is Earned in the opening video package, and then the NRC of Roderick Strong, Rocky Romero & Davey Richards rush the ring as Prazak joins Lenny Leonard on commentary.

Erick Stevens, Matt Cross & Delirious vs. Roderick Strong, Rocky Romero & Davey Richards
Brief character/style breakdown:
--- Stevens is a powerhouse babyface in the same vein as Davey Boy Smith.
--- Cross is a former gymnast who is very athletic but is a spot monkey.
--- Delirious is a masked lizard-man who speaks in tongues and has a lucha-style.
--- Strong is a prick who uses chops and backbreakers to destroy opponents.
--- Romero is a Cuban Low Ki with more personality and less talent.
--- Richards is a SUPER prick who wrestles like he is doing Dynamite Kid and Tiger Mask’s greatest hits.

As for the match: this rocks your face. Everybody looks good, and Stevens and Cross in particular stand out. Each man plays to his strengths and it makes for a nonstop action. Stevens’ power offense, in particular his full rotation German Suplex, TKO, and Gorilla Press Powerslam, serve as highlights, while Cross’ high flying, such as a Sasuke Special, inverted rana, and PERFECT SSP, compliments it well. Delirious works in his signature spots like Shadows Over Hell and the Panic Attack, but sadly, no Bizarro Driver or Chemical Imbalance II.

Still, Strong gets perhaps the spot of the match with a SICK backdrop suplex on the apron to Delirious. Romero works fairly well, hitting his kicks and working the ankle lock, but also hitting a DDT off the second rope on Cross that looks so fake it’s sad. Richards gets a tornado DDT off the apron on the floor before finishing off Cross with the DR Driver (butterfly brainbuster) for the win. Normally, I’d give a little more insight, but these Scramble Tags are so fast-paced and action packed that there isn’t much to analyze. The match rules though.
Match Rating: ***3/4

Post match, the NRC puts the beatdown to Matt Cross, but Austin Aries, (fresh off his run in TNA as Austin Starr) comes into save the day. He announces his new contract with Ring of Honor. “I guarantee this: you will not find more action, you will not find more excitement, and you will not find more passion anywhere in this industry than you will right here in ROH, and you know why? Because we are exactly what we say we are. We are ROH, I’m Austin Aries, and WE ARE WRESTLING.” I’m sold.

The moment is GREAT, but is hurt by two things. 1) Dave Prazak’s call “This isn’t gonna make air anyway.” That comment was stupid and shouldn’t have made air anyway. 2) The audio for this was very poor and I had to listen to the promo a few times to understand everything. ROH, you MUST improve that. And recently, they have.

The Briscoe Brothers are here to Man Up and give us a look at Ring of Honor’s first shows in Japan.

Claudio Castagnoli vs. Matt Sydal
Sydal you may know as Evan Bourne from WWE. Castagnoli is a large man from Switzerland that was once under WWE’s employ, but never got to show up. They were tag team partners at Respect is Earned, but lost to the Briscoes. Sydal blamed Claudio for the loss and thus we have this match. Hooray for logic. This match is a beautiful clash of styles, as Claudio has a lot of power based offense, while Sydal is a wonderful high flyer. Claudio is able to treat Sydal as a rag doll, but also serves as a base for Sydal to do some incredible acrobatics off of.

This match doesn’t have much in the way of psychology aside from the standard big man/little man story (little guy gets thrown around, but makes comebacks via his creativeness and quickness). There’s a couple of nice moments where Claudio avoids Sydal’s turnbuckle clothesline and Sydal catches Claudio’s bicycle kick, showing they have scouted each other. The real appeal is in the moves, and there are a lot of good ones. For the most part, everything is set up well and the match has good flow to complement the nonstop action. There is a poor moment when Sydal hits his standing moonsault oot of a nearfall exchange without doing anything that would have logically kept Claudio down long enough to hit the move, but it is the exception, not the rule.

The match’s build is a perfect crescendo, and peaks with a trio of spectacular moves before finishing. First, Claudio counters a tilt-a-whirl headscissors by tossing Sydal in the air like a pizza, only for Sydal to rotate in mid-air and catch him with the headscisors anyway. Then Claudio lifts Sydal into an electric chair, rotates him for a powerbomb (in a nice bit of foreshadowing), and Sydal leaps to stand on his shoulders before drilling him with a hurracanrana. The finish comes Sydal comes off the ropes to try a second rana, but Claudio rolls through IN MID-AIR to powerbomb Sydal for the three count. All three spots have strikes in between to set them up, and the last two play right into each other. The match is under ten minutes but has enough action to fill twenty at a WWE pace. Every bit as good as the opener.
Match Rating: ***3/4

Post match, Sweet & Sour Inc (comprised of Larry Sweeney, Bobby Dempsey, Tank Toland, and Chris Hero) come down to ringside. Hero and Claudio are former ROH Tag Team Champions as The Kings of Wrestling. He tries to convince Sydal to sign up with Sweet & Sour, but Claudio gets in between and tells him not to do this. “This guy is a scumbag.” (Followed by fan chants of “You’re a scumbag”.) Claudio rips up the contract and fights off Dempsey and Hero, but Sydal saves Sweeney. Hero drills Claudio with the Hero’s Welcome (roll of the dice) and then applies the Hangman’s Clutch (STF, with a cravat). Larry says, “This is a great moment for Sweet & Sour, Inc., for the history of professional wrestling…” He certainly has a gift for hyperbole.

Jimmy Rave says that he has been on more ROH shows than anyone else in the roster, and hypes his feuds with Nigel McGuiness, CM Punk, (Yes, THAT CM Punk), AJ Styles, (Yes, THAT AJ Styles) and Generation Next. He warns ROH World Champion Takeshi Morishima that he will become champion tonight.

BJ Whitmer vs. Naomichi Marufuji
Marufuji is coming off a win against Rocky Romero at Respect is Earned, while BJ is coming off of a loss to Morishima at the same show. He lost in four minutes. Fuji (as I’ll be calling him) is a former GHC Jr. Heavyweight AND GHC Heavyweight Champion and one of the top junior heavyweights in the world. Whitmer was trained by Harley Race and can always be counted on for a good match. They are portrayed as mostly equal, which does two things. 1) It gives Whitmer a chance to redeem himself after the quick loss to Shima, and 2) Reinforces just how devastating the Backdrop Driver is sold as in ROH. As I said, Whitmer didn’t lose to Shima so quickly because he’s bad, but because Shima’s finisher is DEATH. The fact that he can have such a competitive match with Fuji goes a long way to proving just that. It’s booking 101.

Whitmer is a good opponent for Fuji as he has a style similar to Pro Wrestling NOAH star Jun Akiyama and has in fact worked for said promotion before. He works a lot of stuff in, such as a tope suicida, a top rope superplex, and a German Suplex into a dragon suplex. Fuji works in a few cool spots as well, including a slingshot DDT on the apron, a straight-jacket suplex, and his coast to coast dropkick. The match is purely competition for the sake of competition, but each man has something to prove. Fuji wants to show the American audience how good he is, while Whitmer is looking to redeem himself after his loss. Fuji does a good job protecting the Shiranui, attempting the move twice before finally catching Whitmer with it, and that gets the win. The match advances Whitmer’s losing streak while giving Marufuji another win. Solid, but not as good as the two previous matches, and that’s okay.
Match Rating: ***

Rebecca Bayless is in the crowd to hype Ring of Honor live events in Boston, New York, Dayton, Edison, and back in Chicago.

Brent Albright vs. Pelle Primeau
Oh yay! This should be great. Brent is a big guy who kills people with suplexes and submissions. Pelle is pastier, scrawnier and more fragile than Colin Delaney. Guess who wins this? Brent throws Pelle around for a bit before drilling him with the half-nelson suplex in a NASTY bump. Albright opts not to cover him, and instead throws him in the air before catching him in the crowbar which gets an instant submission. EPIC squash! I award a full star for the greatness of that.
Match Rating: *

We get a video package asking us to visit www.rohwrestling.com that shows several of the legends and current stars that have made their way through ROH.

ROH World Tag Team Championship: Jay & Mark Briscoe © vs. Kevin Steen & El Generico
Steen and Generico initiated a violent brawl with the champs at the first PPV, hence this match. These guys have so much talent and personality that they can have a good match in their sleep. Which is largely what they do here. Generico follows the Code of Honor as he is mostly a babyface, but you can expect no such respect from Steen. It is that interesting dynamic that makes this match a little unusual. The Briscoes’ characters are tweeners (they are LOVED by ROH though). They come off as bullies when beating up Generico, but also come of as fiery babyfaces when facing Steen. Imagine the Midnight Express vs. The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express if Robert Gibson was an obnoxious prick. It’s strange, but it works.

The Briscoes control a good portion of the match with their double teams as usual. Steen provides several high flying moves, including a somersault legdrop, a step up enzugiri, and a swanton, but also brings the high impact, with a sit-out powerbomb and a pumphandle neckbreaker over the knee, showing how talented he is. However, he is so obnoxious and takes so many cheapshots that any good will he would gain from his athleticism is negated. Steen could get over in a month in WWE. He is great as a heel, but is goofy and talented enough to become a lovable babyface.

The standard tag rules degenerate and Generico take an UGLY bump as the Briscoes hit a double hip toss that sends him into about the fourth row of chairs. Steen responds by powerbombing Mark into the crowd. Mark saves his brother from the Assembly Line, and then puts Steen through a table with a double stomp in a gratuitous spot. Generico survives a press DVD, but the springboard spike Jay Driller puts him away. Very good match that would have been a solid title defense, but it only serves as a catalyst for the rest of the feud.
Match Rating: ***1/2

Post match Steen assaults the Briscoes with a ladder and tells Generico that he needs to be more like him. I wonder what that could set up?

Larry Sweeney informs us that Sydal is perfect for a Wheaties Box and plugs Sara Del Ray. He promises that Claudio will not get his hands on Sydal or Hero until the money is right and all conditions are met to his liking. Cue the comedy as Dempsey is training his abs with Tank Toland. He gets to 100 seated crunches, but of course he uses his hands. Tank calls him a fat disgusting loser and tells him to do it without his hands. He puts it on “sissy Sally weight”, prompting Hero to call him Sally Dempsey. Bobby tries, and Tank brings out the motivation…Death by Chocolate! Bobby goes for it… “Who’s a Cookie Monster?” OH MAN… Bobby fails. “NO COOKIE FOR YOU!” Bobby all but cries. I give that segment ****1/2.

ROH World Championship Match: Takeshi Morishima © vs. Jimmy Rave
These only get about four minutes to work with, but they make them count. Shima drills Rave with a lariat right off the bat and beats him up and sends him to the floor. Rave sends Shima into the guard rail and quickly connects with a spear. Shima flies but gets caught with a belly-to-belly. Shima stops a superplex and hits a missile dropkick and a cartwheel avalanche. Rave tries a sunset flip and avoids Shima’s sitting counter and connects with a knee to the face for a nearfall. Shima avoids a Pedigree but gets caught in the heel hook. Shima is too close to the ropes though. Shima then kills Rave with a sideslam, lariat and the backdrop driver. Very action packed match with a good story. Rave used his quickness and his smarts to create opportunities to trap the beast, and was always going for the win. Ultimately, Shima’s dominating power was too much, but Rave gave one Hell of an effort. As action packed as you can get in that short amount of time.
Match Rating: **1/4

This gives ROH an excuse to give us an “unexpected” main event in Philadelphia. But first, Adam Pearce is here to talk about “need”. He sends his manservant Shane Hagadorn needs Pearce to know how much he respects him. This is a very strong promo from Adam. He talks about how BJ Whitmer has found himself needing to pander to the audience that has a bloodthirsty need to be a part of something they can’t do on their own. He tells us that he knows what Whitmer needs, and in time, we will know how he satisfies his needs. He hugs Whitmer, and then decks him. Odd.

“WELCOME TO PHILADELPHIA!”

ROH World Championship #1 Contender’s Match: vs. Nigel McGuinness vs. “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson
To steal a line from J.D. Dunn: Virtuosity: the mastery of all technical elements of a performing art to such a degree that the ability to perform becomes nearly second nature. Artistry: the ability to transcend the technical conventions of genre, redefining the art in the process. I just can’t think of a better way to sum up the match than those definitions. This match has EVERYTHING. Wrestling? Check. MMA? Check. Brawling? Check. Highspots? Check. Power? Check. Striking? Check. Blood? Check. Drama? Check. Hot crowd? Check. But it is not merely how many styles that the match has, but the quality of each style and the transitions from one style to the next that makes this as good as it is. The crowd’s chant of “This is wrestling” is accurate, not just for the match’s intensity and execution, but because of it’s time capsule like quality of all styles of sports entertainment.

The match starts out with a handshake. The two men jockey for position, and then have a brief exchange of amateur wrestling, which Dragon controls. Dragon gives Nigel a clean break. The early part is a great game of human chess. Nigel tries different holds but Dragon manages to get out of them, but at a realistic pace instead of the lightning fast chain wrestling you see in the X-Division. Nigel decides to abandon that strategy, since Dragon is clearly the better, and asserts his size and power advantage with shoulder blocks. Dragon doesn’t take that long and goes into a double leg takedown and working a guard sequence. Dragon starts getting a little cheaper by grinding his fist into Nigel’s head. Nigel counters with a keylock pinning combination, trying to get a sneak roll-up.

Dragon offers a handshake but then slaps Nigel across the face to end the politeness. Dragon starts hitting strikes, but Nigel responds with a slap of his own. Nigel gets the first high impact blow with a mule kick and works at the arm for a bit. Dragon quickly gets out of that and works at a stranglehold. Nigel remembers that the wrestling isn’t working at this point and clocks Dragon with a lariat to send him outside. Thus ends part one of the match.

Nigel controls with European Uppercuts, but Dragon quickly ends that by assaulting him with a table and a chair. Dragon tries to bring it back inside where he can wrestle, but Nigel hits a lariat that sends Dragon into the crowd, and follows with a dive onto Dragon. Nigel tries another uppercut but pays for it as Dragon hits a suplex on the guardrail and then on the floor. Dragon finally has a clear advantage after a match where the momentum has shifted with almost every move. The brawling segment was set up by wrestling, and provides an opportunity to go back to wrestling. Thus ends part two.

Back inside Dragon goes after the back, but rather than stay focused, he decides to take advantage of a weakened Nigel and be a bully. That doesn’t go well as it fires Nigel up and Nigel connects with a third lariat. Nigel makes his comeback and gets 2 off of another lariat, which has worked very well for him. Nigel still sells the back, which allows Dragon to make a brief comeback, until he tries a leapfrog and gets caught with a powerbomb (which keeps Nigel from lifting him with his back). Nigel goes after the back with a sick Half Boston Crab. Dragon gets the ropes, and then counters an attempt at a mule kick and connects with a backdrop suplex. It only gets 2, but one has to wonder if it would have finished if Dragon had been more focused. Dragon tries the crossface chickenwing w/bodyscissors, but Nigel fights. He manages to fight through the pain to lift Dragon for the Tower of London, taking care to sell his back first. He is unable to cover due to the back, and this finishes the back psychology. Now it’s time for the homestretch.

The fans start “this is awesome” as Nigel drills Dragon with forearms and straddles Dragon on the ropes before hitting a lariat, but Dragon gets the foot on the ropes. Dragon hits an enzugiri and they two men stare down. They trade slaps and then running headbutts. Nigel hits a lariat and Dragon gets a great blink and you’ll miss it bladejob that I honestly just caught for the first time here. The blood pours and the two block each other’s finishers. Dragon gets the MMA elbows to put him out, and Cattle Mutilation for good measure. The crowd is MOLTEN and start chanting “Thank you BOTH”. A brilliant chess game between two of the best and most versatile workers in the business that masterfully incorporated all major styles of wrestling. I have no problem giving this the full boat.
Match Rating: *****

The 411: The PPV portion of this is FANTASTIC. The opening six-man, Claudio vs. Sydal, and Briscoes vs. Steenerico are all well worth going out of your way for. And of course, Danielson vs. McGuinness is a classic in every sense of the word. The bonus disc is mostly forgettable, but you get the closing minutes of another Nigel-Dragon classic, and a fantastic Bryan Danielson vs. KENTA match. Easy recommendation.

Final Score:  9.5   [  Amazing ]