Dark Pegasus Video Review: Ring of Honor - Death Before Dishonor II, Part One Posted by J.D. Dunn on 07.24.2006
Samoa Joe ends his feud with Homicide, and the Saints and Briscoes go at it in another classic.
Death Before Dishonor 2, Part One
From Milwaukee, Wisc.
Your hosts are Jimmy Bower and Mark Nulty.
Local legend Baron Von Raschke opens the show, welcoming all the citizens to Ring of Honor. Generation Next interrupts and threatens to make a name for themselves at his expense, but The Second City Saints make the save. Jack Evans winds up taking the claw.
Four-way match: Delirious vs. Trent Acid vs. Matt Sydal (w/Daizee Haze) vs. Ace Steel.
Acid has a target on his chest thanks to his proclamation that he is the "master of the multi-person match." Lots of spots in this one, as you'd probably expect, given the participants. Sydal has an impressive arsenal of spots, as usual. Acid hits a moonsault into the crowd early. Steel plays power man of the match with a powerslam on Delirious. They work in the Tower of Doom spot with Acid hitting a Poisoned Rana on Sydal to top it off. Ace hits Acid with the Implant DDT and then hits a Super Spinal Shock. Sydal takes him out with a sickening pescado when Steel wasn't ready. That leaves Acid alone with Delirious, and Acid finishes with the Reverse Impaler at 9:14. **
Pure Title: Doug Williams vs. Alex Shelley.
Long feeling out process to start. Alex Shelley's personality overshadows the fact that these two are actually much more evenly matched than you might give them credit for. Shelley tries to play mindgames, but Williams is always one step ahead of him. Both men run through their rope breaks fairly quickly. Shelley goes after the neck in anticipation of the Border City Stretch. He even works in a double stomp to the neck off the top. Shelley blocks the Chaos Theory and kicks out of another one, but a third attempt puts him down for good at 16:49. Still, Williams has to face Shelley's linemate Austin Aries tomorrow, and the damage to the neck would come into play. I never really had the feeling that Shelley had a chance, dragging down the suspense a bit. ***
BJ Whitmer & Dan Maff vs. Low Ki & Rocky Romero (w/Julius Smokes). Alison Danger comes out before the match and offers Maff and Whitmer one more chance to rejoin the Prophecy before things get ugly. They refuse, so Ki and Romero come out to destroy them. This would be the start of Ki's gangsta period, which is considerably worse than his earlier work. It didn't help that he hung around with the Havana Pitbulls who stepped up their work. Low Ki goes low on Maff to show that he is, in fact, a heel. Nulty tries to work in some Lawler-ish lines, but his Ben Stein-like delivery doesn't help. The ex-Prophecy members dominate until Romero tosses Maff into the post, injuring his shoulder. The Rottweilers target the arm in between stiff kicks. Maff plays the part of a rather plump Ricky Morton, which is a mistake because part of the charm of the formula is that the skinny, weak guy gets his ass kicked. How can you root for Maff to make the tag when you know he's such a bad ass, especially when the announcers are talking up how much punishment Maff can take? They work in the false tag spot with Smokes distracting he referee, but Maff spears Smokes and gets the tag. Whitmer cleans house and goes for the Exploder '98 on Ki, but Ki counters to the Dragon Clutch. Maff spears Ki to break it up. He goes for the Burning Hammer on Romero, but Low Ki shoves Whitmer into him. Romero locks in the jujigatame on Maff's injured arm for the win at 16:50. Alison Danger comes back and says that if the Rottweilers continue to look this good, maybe she'll invite them to join the Prophecy. She berates Maff and Whitmer until they shove her into Homicide. Oops. Homicide gives her the Cop Killa. **3/4
In the back, Alison's neck is secured and she's taken away on a table.
Danny Daniels vs. Chad Collyer.
No real story here. They're both wrestlers. Daniels takes the advantage early with a swinging gutbuster. Daniels has, to this point, been primarily a brawler with the New Carnage Crew, but he's actually a better wrestler. Collyer comes back with a belly-to-belly into the turnbuckle. Things get disappointingly sloppy as Collyer botches a rana. Collyer catches Daniels with a Dragon Screw and finishes with the Texas Cloverleaf at 8:26. This would have been much better if they did Collyer's style of match instead of Daniels'. **
Austin Aries, Jack Evans & Roderick Strong (w/Alex Shelley) vs. John Walters, Matt Stryker & Jimmy Jacobs (w/Ricky Steamboat).
The babyfaces bring out Steamboat to neutralize Shelley. Since Steamboat is there, everyone has to throw in as many armdrags as possible. GX isolates Stryker and works his leg. Stryker gets a single-arm DDT on Aries and makes the tag, but GX triple teams Jimmy Jacobs to take over on him. Evans irritates everyone but hits his usual amazing stuff, including a corkscrew senton legdrop. Aries cuts off a tag at the last moment, and Strong drops a Picture Perfect Elbow on Jacobs for two. GX tripleteams Jacobs with a neckbreaker drop/stomp for two. Jacobs actually gets a blind, false tag, which you almost never see. Jacobs fights out of trouble, tossing Evans onto Strong and Aries. Walters and Stryker clean house on Evans with an Electric Chair Lungblower. Aries hits Stryker with the 450-splash, but Jacobs saves with a senton. Shelley grabs Stryker's leg from the outside, prompting a brawl between he and Ricky Steamboat. Walters slaps on a depraved Indian Deathlock/Neck vise combination for the submission at 16:47. ***3/4
Ring of Honor Championship: Samoa Joe vs. Homicide (w/Julius Smokes & the Rottweilers).
This is Homicide's last shot at Samoa Joe. Smokes and the Rottweilers make their presence known immediately, distracting Joe and giving Homicide the advantage. Nulty tells Bower to have them removed, but in storyline terms he's just an announcer. Oh, my God! He's shooting! Anyway, the ref clears the ringside area. Once it's a fair fight, it's all Joe. He hits Homicide with the Facewash as Bower recounts Homicide's failed attempts at taking the title. Homicide does even less wrestling here than he has in their previous 2004 brawls. This time he just goes all out with the desperate cheating — clawing the eyes, choking, raking the back. Every time Joe starts firing back, Homicide goes to the eyes. Joe gets some intermittent offense, but Homicide stays on him. Homicide takes things outside but stops to taunt the crowd, allowing Joe to come back with a kick and a belly-to-belly suplex. Joe hits the Olay Kick and takes things back inside. He catches Homicide charging with an STO. A Tigerbomb gets two for Joe! Homicide comes back with a neckbreaker and a weak piledriver. He hits a trio of lariats, which he had been using as a finisher, but they only get two. Joe catches Homicide on top and delivers the MUSCLE BUSTER! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Homicide kicks out of the Muscle Buster! Homicide staggers around right into the ISLAND DRIVER! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Joe gets pissed and kicks him in the face, setting up the COQUINA CLUTCH! Homicide is out of it at 24:01. Joe has to be dragged off Homicide so he doesn't choke him to death. The Rottweilers hit the ring and beat Joe down. Low Ki and Romero take turns spitting on the title. Although obviously not as technically sound nor particularly hard-hitting as their previous bouts, this was a fitting end to the nearly year-long feud that consumed both men. What the match lacked in actual wrestling, it made up for in intensity and storytelling. Tack on another 1/4* for the post-match antics and call it ****1/4.
Ring of Honor Tag Team Championship, 2/3 Falls: The Second City Saints vs. The Briscoe Brothers. First Fall: Anyone else ever notice how much Dave Prazak's voice sounds just like Gary Michael Capetta? The SCS seem to have the Briscoes number, defeating them twice for the titles, once at "Reborn" and once at "Round Robin Challenge III." The first fall opens very slowly and low-tech with the Saints working Mark's arm. They dominate for a long stretch in the first fall with Mark unable to get out of trouble for nearly ten minutes! Finally, Jay distracts Punk long enough for Mark to hit a pescado onto him. The Briscoes then go to work on Punk. The fans are solidly behind the SCS because they're the hometown boys. The Briscoes settle back into the heel role, ripping off the turnbuckle pad to expose the steel. Eventually, Punk lands on his feet off a monkey flip and ducks a lariat in order to make the hot tag to Cabana. The SCS slap the Crab/Chinlock combo on Mark. No one pays attention to Jay, though, so he boots Cabana in the face and hits the Jaydriller for the first fall win at 20:12.
Second Fall: Interesting thing about the 2/3 falls formula from former Briscoe manager: generally, you want the babyfaces to dominate the first fall to get the crowd in it and get a quick win. In the second fall, you have the heels isolate one guy and beat the hell out of him until the fans can't take it anymore, then you pin him. Then, in the third fall, you build to the hot tag with the fans desperately hoping the face-in-peril will be able to tag out. Obviously, they're not doing that formula here. In fact, it looks a bit like the old All Japan formula because Punk rolls to the floor at the start of the second fall, even though he should rightfully have to start the second fall. That makes it a handicap match for several minutes. Cabana takes a long beating until he blocks the Springboard Decapitation by pulling Jay's head in the way. Cabana rolls up Jay with a Rolling Crucifix at 26:43. Smart finish there.
Third Fall: Punk is still out of it, and Cabana basically hit a flukish move, so the Briscoes maintain control. The Briscoes hit Cabana with a Springboard Doomsday Device, but Punk finally crawls back in to make the save. Cabana is still stuck in the wrong corner, though, and the Briscoes continue to isolate him. Jay ducks an enzuigiri, but it hits Mark. HOT TAG TO PUNK! Punk cleans house and hits Welcome to Chicago on Mark. Jay boots him in the face and goes for the Jaydriller, but Punk counters to a Waterwheel Slam, and Cabana hits a frogsplash. Mark backdrops Punk onto Cabana and Jay and then hits the Shooting Star Plancha to the floor! Back in, Punk hits a Shining Wizard, but Mark blocks the Pepsi Plunge and hits the Springboard Ace Crusher. Mark finds Cabana and hits the Cutthroat Driver! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Punk makes the last-second save. PEPSI PLUNGE! ONE, TWO, THREE! Punk and Cabana retain at 37:28! The storyline evoked bits of southern-style wrestling as well as Baba's All Japan. By the end, they were just letting it all hang out. The fans were out of it after a long night, just popping for the spots they liked rather than rooting for anyone, but that's the only flaw in an otherwise epic tag match. ****1/2
The 411: Two tremendous matches and no bad matches. It's hard to go wrong there. Ring of Honor got very lucky with Punk and Joe's ability to carry the promotion through rough waters, but they did it in spades, putting on great matches in the ring and showing an ability to tell a long-term story.
