Dark Pegasus Video Review: Ring of Honor — Double Feature: The Hunt Begins

Ring of Honor — Double Feature: The Hunt Begins by J.D. Dunn Twitter.com/jddunn411 Brightkite.com/jddunn411 Facebook.com/jddunn411 I’m separating these into two separate reviews. Easier for me. Easier for you. Pads my stats. April 17, 2009 From Montreal, Canada Your hosts are Lenny Leonard and Dave Prazak Tyler Black ponders his inability to defeat Bryan Danielson and Jimmy Jacobs’ constant interference in his life. Black wants him out of ROH once and for all. Opening Match, Grudge Match: Tyler Black vs. Jimmy Jacobs. Black hits the ring hard and destroys Jimmy until Jimmy calls for a timeout. There are no timeouts in wrestling. Jimmy eventually slips off Tyler’s shoulder into the End Time. Tyler rams him into the corner to break, but Jimmy takes over with a flying choke. Jimmy is a great “bitch” fighter, pulling out a lot of eye pokes, back rakes and hair pulls. Tyler blocks the Contra Code and counters to the F5. Jimmy catches him in the End Time but gets dumped to the floor. Back in, Jimmy goes for the Contra Code but gets tossed back to the mat. A series of nearfalls follows, and Tyler dumps Jimmy to the floor to cut it off. A somersault plancha wakes up the crowd. Back in, Tyler does that backflip thing off a missed dropkick and gets speared out of his boots. ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Jimmy finally hits the Contra Code. ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Up top, Jimmy tries a huracanrana, but Tyler blocks and alley oops him into the top turnbuckle. End Time, but Tyler just powers up and tosses him away. That sets up the superkick for the underwhelming win at 15:48. This should have been paid off long ago, and Tyler should have moved up. Instead, Tyler is going back and forth between the main event and trying to polish off Jimmy Jacobs. **1/2 Four-Corner Survival: Austin Aries vs. Roderick Strong vs. Kenny Omega vs. Jay Briscoe Aries tells Omega that he’s up against main-event talent now. Lots of rollups early, and then Aries tosses everyone. Kenny Omega busts out the STOP sign, but Aries punches him to no-sell. Omega tries again and knocks Aries to the floor. I’m sure that was supposed to get a pop from his countrymen, but no one cares. This crowd is DEAD. Roderick and Jay refuse to celebrate and turn their aggressions on Omega. Goofy spot where Omega sunset flips in, forcing a German Suplex, but Aries bounces off the ropes á la Nigel McGuinness and breaks up the pin with a neckbreaker. Roderick and Jay get into it over breaking up each other’s pinfalls. Omega fights Aries off the top and learns a valuable lesson: if you’re going to do a moonsault, look back to see where your opponents are. Instead, Omega does a blind moonsault and lands in the crowd. Well, at least he got a reaction. Jay and Roderick are brawling on the outside, so Aries ducks a swing from Omega and wipes them out with the Heat-Seeking Missile. Back in, Omega catches him with a flash backslide to pick up the win at 10:18. Omega had one really impressive outing in a triple threat when he debuted, and ROH has used that as a reason to push him to the moon. He’s a good hand, but I don’t think he deserves a lot of the wins he’s getting. **3/4 Brent Albright & Colt Cabana vs. Claudio Castagnoli & Jimmy Rave (w/Prince Nana & Ernie Osiris). Apparently, Claudio is not an official member of the Embassy, just an associate. The fans get on Jimmy Rave with a “Rock ‘n’ Rave” chant. Colt doesn’t get quite as much heat for his wacky antics. He and Claudio do a wacky European wrestling sequence before Colt plays face-in-peril. Brent gets the “hot” tag and cleans house. The match breaks down, and Colt moonsaults off the apron on the Embassy. Colt hits the butt bump on Claudio, but Rave tags himself in. Brent goes for the suplex on Rave, but Nana pulls a Bobby Heenan and pulls Brent’s legs out from under him, putting Rave on top for the win at 12:18. This did nothing for me. Colt’s super-fantastic-funtime-hour offense has its place, but a little goes a long way in some situations. **1/4 Bryan Danielson, Kevin Steen & El Generico vs. The American Wolves & Sylvain Grenier (w/Shane Hagadorn). Native Montrealian, Sylvain interrupts the Wolves’ call for the American national anthem and then sings it himself. Kevin Steen busts a mad promo on him en Francais. This is all babyfaces early, and the fans are all over Sylvain for not being able to wrestle. Here’s what I wonder: can Sylvain actually wrestle? He was always stuck in tag matches, and those rarely went over ten minutes. Think about it. A ten minute match. The WWE tends to be based around traditional tag formula (face-in-peril, hot tag, etc.). They also heavily book the ending sequence, so figure the last 2 minutes. The first quarter of the match is babyface dominated to get the fans in it. So figure 4 1/2-5 minutes. If Sylvain’s partner and he split the work for the rest of the match, that means Sylvain only has to come up with about 2 1/2 minutes worth of quality material on any given night. I’d like to think *I* could do that. Then again, I can’t pull off the fauxhawk. Generico is the face-in-peril here, but the fans care more about ripping Sylvain for his vanilla offense. I guess that answers my earlier question. Danielson gets the hot tag and cleans house. CUE THE HIGHSPOTS! Everyone starts diving out to the floor. Back in, Edwards and Danielson go at it, and they seem a bit off. Danielson ends that by using FIGHTING SPIRIT to roll through the German Suplex into a lightning legline. Steen and Grenier then proceed to stink up the joint for a bit. What in the hell was with that sunset flip spot? Finally, Danielson locks up Edwards in the Cattle Mutilation, Generico drops Richards on his head with the Turnbuckle Brainbuster, and Steen turns Sylvain over in the Sharpshooter for the submission at 22:32. Kind of an off night, but the crowd loved the babyfaces, so it was the dead silence that met most of the matches. Everyone popped for the Turnbuckle Brainbuster, which is cool to see. ***

The 411: They put these on as part of a "Double Feature" for a reason. This show is definitely not worth buying on its own. In fact, even with the main show talent, it feels like a "Do or Die" show from years past. The wrestling isn't technically bad or anything, but the atmosphere (and occasional douchebaggery) of the crowd drags this down. Thumbs down.
Final Score:  4.5   [ Poor ]