What’s All The Hubbub: ROH Manhattan Mayhem II

Video Wire: After plugging ROHvideos.com, Larry Sweeney and Tank Toland are here to whip Bobby Dempsey into shape. Chris Hero and Matt Sydal are here as well. Dempsey shows up, but he has Doritos and maple syrup (hidden in a Diet Pepsi bottle), so Tank gets in a wheel chair and has Bobby pull him around a track. Sweeney also hypes up Hero’s upcoming match with Claudio Castagnoli. Bobby is being abused by having ice dumped on him.

We see Roderick Strong and Rocky Romero of the No Remorse Corps beating up Jack Evans. The Resilience of Austin Aries, Erick Stevens and Matt Cross make the save, but Jack says he doesn’t need their help, and promises to find people to have his back.

Takeshi Morishima retained his ROH World Title against Castagnoli and Brent Albright, so we get highlights, including a superplex from each challenger. Bryan Danielson gets his rematch in Manhattan.

The Battle of St. Paul and Good Times, Great Memories are plugged. Also, Delirious is here to plug the ROH Academy.

And now, on with the show!

Adam Pearce, Brent Albright, and BJ Whitmer, collectively known as The Hangmen Three, are in the back. Whitmer is shaving Shane Hagadorn’s head. Pearce hypes the six-man tag against Delirious, Nigel McGuinness, and Pelle Primeau.

Jigsaw & Mike Quackenbush vs. Erick Stevens & Matt Cross
Jigsaw is a masked wrestler who does lucha. Guess what’s on his mask? Quackenbush (henceforth called Quack) is a jack of all trades and runs the CHIKARA Wrestle Factory. Stevens is a powerhouse and Cross is a gymnast. All four men are babyfaces. Quack and Stevens have a battle of power vs. experience, before tagging in their partners. Jigs dominates with his wrestling but gets cocky with a headscissors and Cross drops him down face first. That allows the Resilience to double team the less experienced Jigsaw, making them sort of the obligatory heels. Cross eats knees on a split-legged moonsault, allowing Quack to make his hot tag. Quack makes fools out of his opponents by setting Stevens up for a backslide, and turning each time Cross tries a chop so that he ends up chopping his partner. The CHIKARA team controls thing for a bit, but that ends abruptly when Jigsaw tries the Jig-N-Tonic (think an Alabama Slam lift, and then you drop your opponent on his shoulders while pinning him), but Stevens lariats Jigs and Cross turns it into a powerbomb. Jigs kicks out of Cross’ Sky Twister Press and tags in Quack, who gains control and nearly beats Cross with a series of lucha style holds. Stevens has enough and fights both men off before hitting Jigsaw for the pin.

The match was a very fun opener and had one really cool spot with the Jig-N-Tonic counter. However, there were a few problems. There’s a very poor segment where Jigs hits a Frankensteiner that Stevens sells poorly (leaping off after the rana), followed by Quack missing a Swanton, followed by a double pin. Two of the things were just flukish, but the double pin is a little silly. Also, Cross seems to forget who’s legal, pinning when he’s not legal and going outside when he is legal. Still, a slightly above average outing from four talented guys.
Match Rating: **3/4

Mitch Franklin vs. Jimmy Jacobs
Jacobs is having only his second match back after several months off due to a knee injury in a cage match with nemesis BJ Whitmer. Crowd welcomes him back, but the warm reception wouldn’t last long. Mitch is the current Top of the Class Trophy holder. Jacobs let’s Mitch look really good, perhaps too good considering he’s much lower on the card. For his part, Mitch has a lot of nice offense, and takes a few shots on Jacobs’ leg. Jacobs gets a few nice spots, including a dropkick that smashes Mitch’s head into the post, and a surfboard stretch where he repeatedly slams Mitch into the mat. He finishes with a tree of woe dropkick, a top rope senton, and the guillotine choke. Solid outing.
Match Rating: *1/2

Jack Evans hypes up the triple threat match with Austin Aries and Roderick Strong. He also says he found someone to motivate him, and that someone is caw-cawing in the background. And we know this man.

Adam tries to talk, but the crowd gets on his case. Adam hypes BJ’s new attitude and talks about stapling Delirious’ mask to his face.

Brent Albright, BJ Whitmer & Adam Pearce w/Shane Hagadorn vs. Nigel McGuinness, Delirious & Pelle Primeau
The lizard man comes out early to try and take on all four men by himself. His teammates come in and it’s a brawl off the bat. Nigel is obviously the biggest star of this match, while Pelle is the weak link. He does get to look good on his brief flurries of offense, but he’s just too small and too inexperienced to really have any hope. For the Hangmen, Albright and Whitmer are the muscle while Pearce is the brains. They spend most of the match working over Delirious. Their offense is very pedestrian aside from the heel edge, but the formula is great. Delirious finally makes a hot tag to Nigel who cleans house, taking out all of the Hangman Three and Hagadorn for good measure. Nigel and Pelle get a nice Tower of London, double stomp combination, but Nigel made the cardinal mistake of tagging in Primeau. All six men hit their big moves, and Whitmer gets the final say with the Adrenaline Spike on Pelle, ending his losing streak.

This was actually very similar to one of those multi-man tags that they have on RAW every so often. Very good formula. Nigel and Albright looked like absolute beasts while Pearce and Whitmer definitely got hugely over as heels by abusing Pelle after the match. Probably more fun live than on the DVD though, because it’s pointless to boo chinlocks on the TV. Good match though.
Match Rating: ***

Ring of Honor President Cary Silken and NOAH representative Ryo Nakata are out to announce the return of several NOAH stars for Glory by Honor Weekend, such as KENTA, Naomichi Marufuji, and Takeshi Morishima. But the BIG news is that MITSUHARU MISAWA will be coming to Ring of Honor.

Delirious cuts a promo on the Hangman Three. He’s very angry and he wants revenge.

PAC vs. Davey Richards
PAC is a British import and standout high flyer, among other abilities. He’s making his American debut for the company and the fans are expecting him in all of his flippy glory. He’s in there against uber-prick Davey Richards. According to live reports, this was AWFUL. Reportedly, it is edited for DVD release, and ROH rarely does that, so that lends some credence to the lack of quality. However, since I don’t go to New York regularly, I didn’t see this live, so I’ll rate what’s here.

Technically speaking, there’s nothing wrong with what’s shown here, as it’s some very nice chain wrestling. However, the crowd doesn’t want chain wrestling. Davey is partly to blame as he doesn’t seem interested in pleasing the crowd. However, there comes a point where people aren’t booing the characters, but booing the match. This is a case of the latter. When a guy with the hype of PAC makes his debut, you should set the match up to play to his strengths. PAC notices the crowd’s unrest and starts adding flips to basic moves to try and pop them, but the crowd recognizes it as a patronizing maneuver. It doesn’t help that those flips are of the RVD kind where they really add nothing to the moves. A corkscrew SSP on the outside meets some mild acceptance, but the crowd just isn’t happy. PAC starts to become sloppy down the stretch as the boos obviously get to him.

That’s not the least of the problems in this match. Davey is so desperate for legitimate heel heat that he goes above and beyond to emulate Chris Benoit. The chops, the headbutts, the clothesline, and the rolling Germans all make an appearance. This would have been in bad taste regardless, but with it being two short months after the tragedy, it’s just ridiculous. The match also has a terrible ending as Davey hits a Tombstone Piledriver, but opts not to even try to pin him, and instead applies the Kimura. Why would you apply a submission after a knockout move? Between Davey’s deliberate and low attempts to get heel heat and PAC’s obvious pandering, this match is an example of how not knowing your audience and trying to play to them can ruin a decent (if unspectacular) match.
Match Rating: 1/2*

Jack Evans comes into the ring before his match and dances for the crowd. He says that last time he was in New York (in February), he was going to star his own group. Problem: he doesn’t have the best work ethic. So he brings up his hype machine, the returning Julius Smokes. Smokes gets a big welcome and decides that the name for Evans’ group will be The Vulture Squad. Perhaps it’s ignorance of the culture, but Smokes does nothing for me. I find him to be annoying, and not in the “annoying heel” kind of way.

Jack Evans w/Julius Smokes vs. Roderick Strong vs. Austin Aries
This is 3/4 of the original Generation Next, the last fourth being Alex Shelley. Strong and Aries were ROH Tag Team Champions for almost a year. Strong turned on Aries and officially broke up the group. Strong then went after Evans to prove that he is the best of Gen Next. Aries and Evans double team Strong in the early going, but that devolves when Evans takes the first big shot on Aries. Evans eats a powerbomb on the floor and that allows Aries and Strong to fight for a bit. Strong sets up a table but neither man goes through it. Evans tries to make a comeback and hits a standing phoenix splash on both men to try a double cover. Aries saves Evans from going through the table but eats the press gutbuster for his troubles. Strong applies the Strong Hold but Evans kills him with an inverted rana.

The referee takes a bump and Aries hits a Super Brainbuster when Evans goes for the 630° Senton. Aries heads up top for the 450° Splash, and Strong shoves him off and through the table. Davey Richards comes down and they beat Evans, but Smokes welcomes the chocolate member of the Vulture Squad, Ruckus. Ruckus hits some flippy offense on the Corps and Evans takes them out with a springboard 450° plancha. Aries comes in but Smokes orders the Squad to beat him up to. That brings out Stevens and Cross. Stevens hits the gorilla press powerslam on Evans as things devolve into a braw. Cross hits the Sasuke Special on everyone. That leaves Aries and Strong to fight it out, but Strong goes low and uses a chair. The sick kick connects but Stevens uses the chair to save Aries from the Gibson Driver, and Aries hits the Brainbuster and 450° Splash to finish off Strong as apparently the match is still going.

I don’t like this match. You had a ref bump, run ins, brawling between seven guys, and the formation of a new faction all in one match. Did Russo take over ROH booking for the day? Even before all of the shenanigans, the match was disjointed and not all that good. This should have been called angle advancement. Some people will have enjoyed this match and all of its extra stuff, but I am not one of them. This is probably the lowest rating I will ever give an Austin Aries match.
Match Rating: 1/2*

We get halftime, and Rebecca Bayless is here to interview Jimmy Jacobs. Jacobs says that the time off gave him time to realize that he has a new purpose in Ring of Honor.

The Resilience is in the back and Aries says that all bets are off in the war with Evans and Strong.

Eddie Edwards vs. Ruckus
Edwards is now one half of your ROH Tag Team Champions with Davey Richards. At this point though, he is only “that guy that graduated from the ROH academy”. This is basically at exhibition for Ruckus, which means I’m not going to enjoy it. He does a lot of moves with the words “twisting” and “flipping” in the name. When somebody makes Evans look like a sound psychologist by comparison, then he is a spot monkey. Not to say that Ruckus’ offense isn’t impressive, but it’s entirely unconvincing. Edwards doesn’t do anything to impress either. Removing my bias, it’s a decent extended squash.
Match Rating: *

Chris Hero w/Larry Sweeney, Sara Del Ray & Bobby Dempsey vs. Claudio Castagnoli
And now we get another match between former partners. Claudio and Hero were the Kings of Wrestling and held the three top tag team championships in independent wrestling at one point. It was a team very much in the vein of Los Gringos Locos, with Hero playing the heat machine and Claudio playing the workhorse. Hero gets made to be a fool for the early portion of the match as he is more concerned with his “athletic displays” and running away than trying to fight. Once he gets on offense, the quality changes depending on what he’s doing. His sentons and big boots still look too weak to do any damage. It’s telling when Del Ray hits a harder kick than any of Hero’s. Speaking of Sara, Daizee Haze comes out here to neutralize her.

However, Hero does enough of his wrestling moves to break up the monotony of his strikes. His Cravat Breakers are fun and his Crash Landing Suplex looks great. But his best moments come when he blocks Claudio’s signature moves with simple counters, showing his familiarity. Claudio, on the other hand, works his butt off. His European Uppercuts look nice as does his bicycle kick, but Hero doesn’t like to receive stiff strikes either. He shows his power with the Alpamare Waterslide and the Match Killer, and shows his athleticism with the top rope headscissors and even a tope suicida. The rope walk elbow and big swing help keep things lighthearted. Claudio finishes things with a diving European Uppercut and the Riccola Bomb for a clean victory. Definitely a fun match as long as you can get over the fact that my 10-year old sister hits harder than Chris Hero.
Matching Rating: ***1/4

Post match Claudio celebrates and Hero falls over on Bobby Dempsey. The crowd cheers Bobby and Hero hugs him….before slapping him around. Hero completely oversells the match as if it was the most exhausting beating of his life.

Claudio says he proved to everybody that he is the better wrestler. He had me convinced.

ROH World Championship Match: Takeshi Morishima © vs. Bryan Danielson
The champ is a giant of a man with a mean streak who uses his weight and strength to overwhelm his opponents. Bryan Danielson is under 200 pounds but is a brilliant strategist and brilliant technical wrestler who can do it all really. Both are tweeners and each have their supporters in the audience. Think Vader against Owen Hart. Usually, Bryan is an arrogant son of a gun, but tonight, he’s giving up over 100 pounds and is competing for what he views as the top prize in the sport. So he comes here with a clear strategy.

Dragon spends the first several minutes dodging Shima and kicking away at the legs. Shima finally catches him in the corner and starts whaling at him. An errant boot or fist early on changes the entire complexion of the match, as it fractures Bryan’s orbital bone and detaches his retina. It becomes extremely apparent that something is wrong after a corner boot. Shima continues to pummel at the skull. Shima tosses him outside to continue the beatdown. Dragon decides his had enough of that and forces him into the crowd before diving out onto him with a somersault. Dragon goes back to the leg and even uses a chair before they go back into the ring. Dragon hits a missile dropkick but is clocked with a lariat.

Danielson starts slapping the champ in an ill-advised move, but then makes a brilliant move by dodging a flying butt smash and kick the thigh in mid-move. Shima escapes a leglock and hits a few big moves, but Dragon swats away a missile dropkick before applying a heel hook. A Half Boston Crab counter to a Lou Thesz Press is next, and it is one of the best false finishes of the match, but Shima rolls to his back and kicks at Dragon’s eye. Dragon avoids a Backdrop Driver and gets nearfalls off of the small package and the school boy but gets caught with a seated senton when he tries a sunset flip. Dragon manages to hit a Bridging German Suplex for 2, and then tries the elbows. Shima gets to his feet and Dragon kicks at the legs and Shima crumbles. The crowd BITES that and Dragon kicks in Shima’s head before applying Cattle Mutilation.

However, Dragon’s focus on the legs makes the Cattle Mutilation not nearly as effective and Shima gets the ropes. Danielson then decides to try something crazy with a backdrop superplex, but Shima lands on top of him in a scary moment. Dragon tries to fight but gets drilled with a lariat. Bryan kicks out of that, but not out of the Backdrop Driver. Shima retains in an outstanding contest. An injured Dragon did everything he could to cut the giant down, but ultimately, he wasn’t good enough on this night. There were a few small things (the chair is legal?) and one big thing (Dragon messing up royally on the first leglock, likely due to his injury) that kept the match from being perfect. So those negatives bring the rating to about ****1/4 (J.D. Dunn’s rating), but I have to give Dragon credit for carrying Shima to such a fantastic dramatic contest with that nasty injury. Anybody that thinks that Ring of Honor is only about spotfests needs to watch this. It’s storytelling at its finest and the crowd bites on it, and it’s a great display of Bryan’s heart. Great, great match.
Match Rating: ****3/4

Post match the crowd pays respects to both men, chanting “Best in the World” at Danielson. Bryan says that the best in the world is the guy, whoever he is, that holds the ROH Championship, and apologizes for letting the crowd down. Class act. The crowd chants “Thank you Dragon!” In a way, the eye injury was the best thing ever for Bryan, as it allowed him to drop his heel character with the inspirational comeback and truly become the guy in Ring of Honor.

Larry Sweeney promises that the issue with Claudio is not over.

ROH World Tag Team Championship 2 out of 3 Falls Match: Jay & Mark Briscoe © vs. El Generico & Kevin Steen
Well, they sure have a tough act to follow. These two have been feuding for the entire summer in some of the most violent matches in Ring of Honor history, but the belts have stayed around the waists of the Briscoes. In an interesting statistic, the Briscoes have won 6 straight falls in 2/3 Falls matches. The match starts out as a crazy brawl, with Mark in particular taking a nasty bump when Generico belly-to-bellys him into the guardrail. The Briscoes manage to isolate Generico as the match starts to settle down into a traditional tag team match. Once again, we have that strange Midnights-RnRs formula with Steen playing an obnoxious Robert Gibson. Steen ends up saving his partner and Steenerico gets a heat segment on Jay, even bloodying him up. Jay tags in Mark who regains control with his hot tag. Steen makes his own save by spinebustering Jay onto Mark and tagging in Generico. A tornado DDT and wrist-clutch neckbreaker over the knee gets a nearfall for Generico as things start to devolve a bit. The Briscoes get the first fall when Jay hits a press DVD, Mark hits a moonsault, and Jay hits a Frog Splash on Generico.

The second fall doesn’t start off well for the challengers as the Briscoes double hip toss Generico out of the ring and onto Steen, making him a non-factor for a while. Now they can get their revenge on the real antagonist, Steen. Defiant as ever, Steen blows snot at them, and then proceeds to take the beating of his life. For the first time, Steen is stuck playing the partner in peril, and we get to see that he has heart to go along with the attitude. Generico slowly makes his way to the apron and pulls down the ropes to make Mark fall out to floor, and Steen takes him out with a somersault plancha. Jay hits a death valley driver on the apron to Steen in a sick move, and then takes a sick bump of his own as Generico dives from outside of the ring, through the ropes and catches him with a tornado DDT on the floor. Generico goes to the apron and crowd gives him some support, but Mark jumps out and ranas him to the floor.

Mark and Steen trade blows and Steen starts getting some cheers. Generico and Jay come in and slug it out but Jay hits the sit-out gourdbuster. Generico tries the turnbuckle Brainbuster, but gets caught with Mark’s springboard ace crusher and Jay’s legdrop, but he still kicks out. Steen saves Generico from the springboard Doomsday Device and Generico gets a victory roll that probably should have gotten a fall, but it only gets 2. Steen tags in and eats knees on a Swanton Bomb. Steen then takes out the Briscoes, powerbombing Mark on the apron and Jay on the guardrail. The Splash-Swanton combo only gets 2, and again, it probably should have gotten a 3 count. Generico hits a corner kick on Mark and moonsaults out onto Jay. Steen hits a lariat but misses a moonsault, and then gets hit with a series of double teams culminating in the Springboard Doomsday Device, but Steen miraculously kicks out. Huge rub kicking out of that move.

Generico saves his partner and hits Mark with his somersault coast to coast tree of woe dropkick. Steenerico tries the Assembly Line but Jay saves his brother from the Brainbuster, and then the Briscoes hit their own Assembly Line with the Jay Driller into the Cutthroat Driver, which gets the academic finish. Nonstop balls-to-the wall action and showed some of the early signs that Steen could be a great babyface. My only real issue is that after the Splash-Swanton combo, you knew the Briscoes were winning because there just wasn’t much left in Generico and Steen’s arsenal. They literally hit everything but Generico’s Turnbuckle Brainbuster. Great match and a fantastic showcase of both team’s abilities.
Match Rating: ****

Post match a disappointed Generico shakes hands with the Briscoes, and Steen takes issue with it. Generico mans up and DEMANDS that Steen show respect and shake the Briscoe’s hands. The fans want it and Steen finally shakes their hands…but goes low with kicks to the groin. Steen grabs a ladder as Generico looks on in disbelief. Steen pummels the Briscoes with the ladder and Generico reluctantly joins in when Steen threatens to kill him. Steen grabs the belts and poses with it, but the real story is in Generico’s expression. He clearly wants the tag titles, but he wants to do it fair and square. Steen convinces Generico to walk out with him and the titles as the show ends.

The 411: This is a tough show to rate. On the whole, the show is average. The two squash matches are decent but they are squashes. Richards vs. PAC is an experiment in pissing off a crowd, and the Generation Next war ended up being an overbooked mess. Claudio vs. Hero and the six-man tag are fun but nothing special. However, the double main event is well worth going out of your way four. Danielson vs. Morishima, in particular, is one of the most dramatic title matches in ROH history. So buy the show, but don't expect it to be as good as others.

Final Score:  8.0   [ Very Good ]