wrestling / Video Reviews
Dark Pegasus Video Review: Ring of Honor — Supercard of Honor IV
July 16, 2009 | Posted by
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| Ring of Honor: Supercard of Honor IV by J.D. Dunn Twitter.com/jddunn411 Brightkite.com/jddunn411 Facebook.com/jddunn411 As usual, Prazak’s razzing of Leonard for seemingly innocuous comments steals the show. Rhettski the Jetski gets knocked around for a while but uses Stevens’ Mohawk to take over. Cheating abounds from the man with shoulders like boulders. The crowd gets on Titus for being both “gay” and a “virgin.” Stevens blocks the Muff Driver and hits an avalanche in the corner. I CHOO CHOO CHOOSE YOU! That sets up the press into a clothesline at 6:37. I miss “Dr. Death clone” Erick Stevens. At this point, he’s just taking up space. And why would you put him over the much more marketable Rhett Titus when he hasn’t done anything interesting in months? ** Shane Hagadorn has apparently been promoted to “Director of Ringside Operations” with the exodus of Larry Sweeney. Pretty standard until Magno tries to bounce off the ropes and nearly snaps himself in half when the top rope breaks. That’s what you get for not bringing in Dunn & Marcos. See, this is how you know wrestling is fake. In any normal sport, they separate everyone and repair the playing field. Hell, in basketball, they have to somebody run out there with a mop every few minutes. You know how awkward it is to have two luchadores and no ropes? Thankfully, they’re good enough to take it to the mat for a bit. Steen plays face-in-peril thanks to the bum knee. Everyone does their best, but, um, there is no top rope. That makes things difficult. Prazak brings up the interesting question of whether or not Steen could force a break of a submission hold if he makes it to the broken rope. Steen eventually rolls to a tag, and it’s a donnybrook! Magno is not afraid to use the middle rope for his lucha antics. Hero loads up his “Misawa elbowpad,” though, and knocks him cold at 14:20. They did their best, but the top rope laying in the middle of the ring was too distracting. **1/4 MANLY! The fans are chanting “This is awesome!” during the prematch routine. Well, now it *has* to be good. Even at ten minutes, it feels way too short. They trade MANLY strikes early. Nakajima targets Roderick’s leg. Roderick comes back with (what else) a backbreaker, but it’s on his bad leg. Nakajima locks in the Anklelock, which I thought could have been a bigger part of the match. Roderick makes the ropes. A frustrated Nakajima hauls him up, but Roderick hits him with the gutbuster. CHOPS by Roderick! THRUST KICK in response! Roderick hits the press gutbuster and the Yakuza. That knocks Nakajima loopy enough for the Tiger Driver at 9:31. I’m not a big fan of the “adrenaline burst” psychology because it renders everything that went before it moot. Stiff shots and intensity made this match (but then you probably knew this going in). **3/4 Bobby reveals that he has Kamala’s markings painted on his chest. That leads to a bonding between the two, and Kamala attacks Hagadorn instead. Bobby adds the cannonball, and they go eat at Abdullah the Butcher’s rib joint. No match, but any time Bobby gets revenge on Hagadorn, it’s a good day. [N/R] Blue Demon’s “You can’t see me” taunt is pretty good. All you need to know is that everyone hates Claudio. Albright, especially, wants to get his hands on him. Generico and Blue Demon are just along for the ride. Generico does get in a few good shots on Claudio, including a somersault plancha. Eventually, Brent and Claudio wind up in the ring together, and Brent goes for the Crowbar. Claudio makes the ropes, and Brent is so keyed up that he shoves the ref aside. That allows Claudio to hit a low blow and pick up the win at 9:11. The whole weekend was a waste of Blue Demon. The issue was just about Claudio and Brent, and the other two were superfluous. **1/4 Prazak: Just like Hacksaw and Nikolai doing battle. Kozlov tries to start a “Russia” chant and is puzzled when a handful of the ROH faithful actually respond. Dragon keeps going for the Mexican Surfboard, but Kozlov constantly weasels to the ropes. Danielson actually sells the stop sign. Finally, Kozlov suplexes Danielson from the ring to the floor to get a clear advantage. Cossack Kicks follow. Danielson goes for Cattle Mutilation, but Kozlov blocks and hits an enzuigiri. That sets up a frogsplash, but it only gets two. CATTLE MUTILATION BY KOZLOV! In Russia, cattle mutilate you! Danielson squirms out and hulks up (seriously). Kozlov cuts his comeback off with, what else, a Russian leg sweep. To be extra cheeky, he drapes Danielson in the Russian flag and goes for the frogsplash. Danielson rolls out of the way and finishes with the Cattle Mutilation at 15:16. Danielson just let him riff for a while before finishing Kozlov off. I’d like to see what they’d put together with a few more matches with one another. ***1/4 D-Lo is in no mood for Colt’s brand of shenanigans and tomfoolery. That’s unfortunate because they have an otherwise bland match. On the plus side, it is filled with a lot of nice little moments like D-Lo getting out of the Billy Goat’s Curse by tapping Colt’s ankle in a way that Colt thinks signals a submission but is out of view of the referee. Colt drops the hold thinking he’s won, but the ref didn’t see it, so he’s not calling it. The finish sees Colt come off the top for a double ax-handle, but D-Lo uses the tried-and-true foreign object to knock him out and get the pin at 11:03. Kind of a Catch-22 as they couldn’t do a comedy match without the fans warming up to D-Lo (which is the opposite of what they want). **1/4 YES! For those who don’t know, Davey is KENTA’s disciple, and the two have similar styles and personalities. KENTA is at least respectful of the sport enough not to try to injure people, though. Davey has no such compunction. Great spot as Davey goes for a leapfrog, but KENTA anticipates it and hits a flying Yakuza Kick to knock his dick in the dirt… so to speak. Davey takes over with the Dragon Screw in the ropes, but he refuses to lock in the figure-four because that’s just what the fans want him to do. KENTA comes back with kicks (of course). Extended battle of strikes follows… for like five minutes… each minute more awesome than the last. They fight to the apron, and KENTA hits a Falcon Arrow from the apron to the floor! SPLAT! Davey struggles to get back in the ring. BUSAIKU KNEE! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Go2Sle—no! Davey blocks it. Davey gets fired up and takes KENTA down into the Texas Cloverleaf. KENTA makes the ropes and reverses to a small package. ONE, TWO, TH-NO! Alarm Clock, but KENTA blocks the follow-up kick and turns it into the Go2Sleep. Davey counters that to a crucifix! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Davey sets up for the handspring kick, but KENTA scoops him up into the Inverted Go2Sleep! ONE, TWO, THREE! KENTA proves he’s still the master at 18:17. Every bit as awesome as I was hoping for. Stiff strikes, playing off each other’s usual offense, playing off the spots they did in previous matches, upping the level of intensity. The fans chanted “Fuck WrestleMania” and “Match of the Year” during the match, and while I think it was clearly topped on that show, I still put this in the Top Five so far. ****1/2 Prazak and Leonard describe Jacobs and Aries as ‘frenemies’ and then both deny that they got that from The Hills. Aries and Jacobs isolate Black, but fisticuffs erupt when Jacobs gets in the way of the Pendulum Elbow. Necro gets the hot tag and hits the Necrocanrana on Aries. Butcher goes after Jacobs, so Aries rakes his back. Necro no-sells because he’s wearing a shirt. Ha ha. Jacobs shoves the ref aside and punts Necro in the crotch. That sets up the End Time. Black makes the save. Black sets up for the Bucklebomb on Aries, but Jimmy spears him before he can get it done. That sets up Aries’ Brainbuster at 11:02. This was not so bad, even though it seems like we’ve been seeing some variation of these matches for years now. It was rather meaningless fodder, though, especially at 11 minutes. **3/4 Leonard’s commentary nicely tries to bridge the gap to allow Nigel to segue back to babyface-hood once he loses the title. This goes pretty much how you’d expect it, and Nigel gives a gutty performance. They don’t cut it short, and Nigel does his best to put Lynn over. Nigel still works in the lariats, but he can’t capitalize on his work like he usually does. Lynn teases getting counted out off a lariat but darts in at 19. Back in, Lynn avoids the crotched lariat and puts Nigel in the Lynndon Dungeon! Nigel makes the ropes and, after a series of reversals, puts Lynn in the London Dungeon. Lynn reverses again, but Nigel is in the ropes again. Nigel tries the Jawbreaker lariat, but Lynn cuts him off with his own. CRADLE PILEDRIVER! ONE, TWO, THRE-foot on the ropes. Nigel hits the lariat, but he’s in so much pain that he can’t cover. In fact, Lynn is able to take him down into the cross armlock. Nigel makes the ropes. Nigel hulks up and goes for the lariat, but Lynn ducks, spins him around, and finishes with the Cradle Piledriver at 19:08. Lynn’s victory is a bit tainted by the fact that Nigel was wrestling with two limbs, but both guys gave 100-percent effort out there, and this was a worthy match for the title to change hands. ***1/2 |
The 411: Not the "OMG!: blowaway show that it has been in the past, Supercard still gives us a fantastic Match of the Year Candidate in Davey vs. KENTA and a huge title change. The undercard is filled with some not-so-good-but-memorable moments (the broken-rope match, Bobby vs. Kamala). It doesn't quite live up to past years, but this is still a pretty good pick up. Recommended. |
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| Final Score: 8.0 [ Very Good ] legend |
