Dark Pegasus Video Review: Ring of Honor — The Chicago Spectacular, Night Two Posted by J.D. Dunn on 04.27.2007
Can ROH have a better Survivor Series match than the WWE?
Ring of Honor — The Chicago Spectacular, Night Two by J.D. Dunn
December 9, 2006
From Chicago, Ill.
Your hosts are Dave Prazak and Jimmy Bower.
Shane Hagadorn sucks up to Adam Pearce about his promo the previous night (which was pretty awesome). Pearce tells him to take care of Pelle Primeau. See, the joke is Hagadorn has kind of a man crush on Pearce, and both guys are clueless to how gay the things they say are.
Lacey gets through the language barrier and offers Shingo money to hurt Colt Cabana.
Speaking of Colt, he's out to complain about Lacey stomping on his nuts the previous night. Sexual function is good, urination, not so much. He calls out Jimmy Jacobs, and they brawl until Lacey grabs Colt's junk again and twists. OKAY, THAT'S NOT FUNNY! Daizee Haze comes down and heart punches Lacey, triggering a big brawl with all of the participants in tonight's main event. Colt says he wants his match with Shingo added to the main event to make it an eight-man elimination.
Opening Match: Ace Steel vs. Tank Toland.
The fans mock Toland with a chant of "steroids." Sadly, he does not talk about his "freaks and peaks." Very WWE-ish match. Steel stops to make fun of Toland for failing the WWE's wellness program. Bower gets bored with the match and starts begging Lenny Leonard to come back and replace him. The fans are having fun, though, chanting "yay/boo" depending on whether Ace or Tank are hitting moves. Ace gets a corner dropkick and a twisting senton for two. Toland hits a Dominator into a DDT, which I know has a better name, but I can't think of it off the top of my head. It only gets two anyway. Ace tries an Argentine Knee Rack, but it doesn't take. Toland catches him and tries for a spinebuster, but Steel rolls him into a small package for the win at 8:25. Just a quick exhibition to get Toland out there in front of the hometown crowd. *3/4
The Prophecy announces that Sydal is injured, so they won't be able to defend the titles. Matt Cross will sub for Sydal. Daniels and Danger look like they've had just about enough of Sydal's cocky attitude.
Six-man Mayhem: Kikutaro vs. Jake Crist vs. Dave Crist, vs. CJ Otis vs. Pelle Primeau vs. Trik Davis.
You think Jerry Lynn sweated out a paternity test when he first saw CJ Otis? I always thought Trik Davis was black. I could not have been more wrong on that one. He looks like Beck. Kikutaro and Dave Crist start, with Kikutaro working in his usual comedy, including the unsynchronized kicks and thigh slaps (see, because when you kick someone, you slap your thigh to make the cracking sound…well, you have to see it to appreciate it). They work in the trainwreck spot with everyone diving out on one another. Kikutaro opts for a slap, though. Funny bit with Kikutaro whipping Todd Sinclair into Trik. Otis winds up in there with Jake Crist and hits a pair of forearms. Jake and Dave team up for the Irish Air Raid to finish Otis, with Dave letting his brother pick up the win at 8:17. Hmm. Interesting that Dave would just hand his brother the win like that. Lots of fun comedy and spots in this one. See, this is what "Wrestling Society X" should have been. ***
After the match, Shane Hagadorn comes out and offers to shake Pelle's hand. It's all a ruse, though, as Adam Pearce reappears and jumps Pelle from behind. They team up for a spiked piledriver, and Pearce calls out Homicide. Pearce tosses Hagadorn to the wolves and runs away as Homicide comes down.
Homicide vs. Shane Hagadorn (w/Adam Pearce).
Homicide calls for an impromptu match and dismantles Hagadorn quickly, finishing with the Cop Killa at 1:44. Pearce tries to get in a few shots, but Homicide chases him away. Homicide changes their match later tonight from a Strap Match to a Cage Match. 1/4*
Samoa Joe vs. Mark Briscoe.
This is a revisiting of one of the big feuds from late 2003. Bower disavows Joe's comments about Pro Wrestling NOAH and says ROH and NOAH have a great relationship. Mark assures us that he is not Kurt Angle (Joe's rival in TNA at the time), but he grabs an anklelock early anyway. They botch something as it looks like Mark tried to leapfrog Joe on a backdrop, but Joe got his head up. Ugly spot. Mark charges right into STJoe. The enzuigiri gets two, and Joe settles into a chinlock. Joe snaps off a powerslam and locks in the abdominal stretch to kill some more time. They do a little boxing sequence, and Mark tosses Joe over with a T-Bone Suplex. Joe slaps his way back and turns Mark inside out with a lariat. Mark slingshots into a doublestomp and goes up, but Joe blocks and hits a Musclebuster. He hauls Mark up and screams "NOAH!" before finishing with a stiff lariat at 9:58. After the match, Joe calls out NOAH again and dares the promotion to come get him. I was expecting more, but this was basically another squash for Joe. Nigel McGuinness comes out and answers the call because he's a NOAH loyalist. Hard to hear what Nigel was saying (although he does get in a dig about Zero-One), but the gist is he'll face Joe at some point in the future (which wound up being early 2007). **3/4
Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. Christopher Daniels & Matt Cross (w/Allison Danger & Matt Sydal).
This, of course, was supposed to be a title match, but Sydal wussed out. Daniels holds his own early, but Cross tags in and gets caught in the GenNext corner. Both Cross and Strong go for dropkicks and miss each other. Bower ponders what ever happened to Donavan Morgan. Hey, what did happen to Donovan Morgan? Cross does a really cool fakeout dive on Strong but gets jumped by Aries. He tosses Aries and gets cute with another fakeout, but GenNext catch him and toss him into the barrier. Back in, Strong hits a fallaway slam to set up Aries' slingshot twisting press. Strong gets the slingshot suplex, but Cross flips out of a backdrop suplex and hits the enzuigiri. HOT TAG TO DANIELS! Daniels destroys GenNext and hits the Arabian Press on Strong. That allows Aries to take Daniels down with a suicida, though. Cross shoves Aries into the pile and hits a Shooting Star Plancha after much wrangling to get the group into position. Back in, Blue Thunder gets two, and the makeshift Prophecy hit the Sidewinder on Aries. Strong comes in with a double clothesline and hits Cross with the Tigerbomb. Aries dropkicks Daniels and tosses him into a VICIOUS boot from Strong. Cross avoids the Doomsday Dropkick and reverses to a rana on Strong! ONE, TWO, THR-NO! Strong sets up Cross with a Waterwheel Slam, and Aries finishes with the 450-splash after disposing of Daniels. (18:48) ***3/4
Lacey tells a busted-open Jimmy Jacobs to finish off Colt and BJ, and she doesn't care if it kills him. Jimmy gets emo and says BJ may have broken his eye, but Colt was the one who broke his heart.
Steel Cage Match: Homicide vs. Adam Pearce.
This is a last-ditch effort to derail the Homicide express before he takes on Bryan Danielson at "Final Battle 2006." Homicide hits a corner clothesline, but Pearce goes low. Homicide hits the Triple Verticals and calls for his ghetto fork. A fan tosses a fork in, but Todd Sinclair confiscates it before Homicide can get to it. Crowd gets on Sinclair with a "You fat fuck!" chant. Shane Hagadorn runs down and slams the cage door in Homicide's face. Homicide is busted open but grabs a sleeper hold anyway. Pearce backdrops out of it but pauses and gets catapulted into the mesh. No Pearce is bleeding. They fight on the top, and Pearce gets crotched. They slug it out, and Sinclair gets knocked down on Pearce's backswing. Homicide goes to check on him and picks his pocket of the fork. Crowd chants, "Fork him up!" and that's just what Homicide does. Homicide stabs him in the head with a fork, but Pearce powerbombs him into the cage and grabs it. They fight on top again, and Pearce hiptosses him off the top rope. Homicide comes back with the Tornado DDT, but Pearce hits a spinebuster and locks in the figure-four leglock. That doesn't actually have any context in the match, but it's always welcome. They take turns rolling it over, drawing the "yay/boo" chants from the crowd, depending on who is in control. Homicide hits a superplex but gets flapjacked into the cage. Pearce takes his time going up and gets Ace Crushered. A lariat finishes at 15:23. Homicide continues on to "Final Battle." This had a good deal of brutality without being mindless. Pearce is underrated as a wrestler because of his style, but he had good chemistry with Homicide. ***3/4
Jay Briscoe vs. Davey Richards.
They slug it out with forearms to start. MANLY! Jay sends Davey to the floor with a spinning leg lariat but crashes and burns on a pescado. Richards kicks him into the audience. Back in, Richards gets two off a crossbody and hits a running knee for two more. Jay comes back with a clothesline and locks in the Stretch Plum. Richards makes the ropes but gets kneed in the gut. They fight over a suplex, and Davey suplexes him all the way over the top rope to the floor. Back in, Davey hits the springboard missile dropkick and drops Jay on his head with a backdrop suplex. The German Suplex gets two, and Davey starts to get frustrated. Davey misses a charge but backflips off the ropes. Sweet! Jay sees him coming, though, and catches him with a DVD. Richards presses him into the Alarm Clock (press into a kick) and hits a sick hammerlock DDT. He puts Jay on top, but Jay counters to a super facebuster. ONE, TWO, THR-NO! Davey calls a spot. Geez, couldn't they come up with a better camera angle on that?! Richards takes him down into the Chimeralock, but Jay makes the ropes. They slug it out again, and Richards hits a sloppy handspring enzuigiri. Jay rightly shrugs it off and hits a kick, adding "Fuck you! Motherfucka!" Mark Briscoe comes down to ringside to get his bro to "man up." Jay gets the knees up to block an SSP. The Falcon Arrow gets two, but the Jaydriller finishes moments later at 15:11. Intense back-and-forth match that made both guys look like a million bucks. Minus a bit for the spot-calling and some moves that didn't work out quite right, but this was another excellent match. ****
8-Man Elimination Tag: Bryan Danielson, Jimmy Jacobs, Jimmy Rave & Shingo (w/Lacey) vs. Delirious, BJ Whitmer, Colt Cabana & Nigel McGuinness (w/Daizee Haze).
Cabana demands the ref check Shingo's mullet. Lots of offense involving Shingo's mullet for some reason. You don't see a lot of mullet-related offense post-1992. Danielson gets caught in the babyface corner, and everyone gets their shots in. He drags BJ to the heel corner, and they all get their shots in. The match breaks down, and Jimmy pulls out a spike to use on BJ. Colt makes the save, and BJ winds up with the spike. He takes a swing at Jimmy, but Jacobs dives out of the way, and Whitmer spikes Lacey! Jimmy carries Lacey to the back, apparently eliminating himself from the match. Nope. He's back now. He grabs a chair and smashes BJ's ankle with it for the DQ. NOW he's eliminated. (8:52)
Whitmer's ankle is devastated, so Jimmy Rave applies the Stepover Anklelock for the submission at 9:31.
Nigel comes in and levels Jimmy with a lariat for two. Danielson and Shingo distract Nigel long enough for Rave to jump him from behind. The heels isolate Nigel and work over his leg that was injured the previous night by Jimmy Rave. They do good work, but Nigel isn't exactly a sympathetic face-in-peril. Nigel gets fired up and fights back. Danielson sacrifices himself as Nigel bounces off the ropes and hits a lariat. Jimmy is able to jump Nigel from behind and get him to submit in the Stepover Anklelock at 15:32.
Shingo and Cabana go next. Rave tries to help out, but a heel miscommunication leads to Shingo nailing Rave. Colt gets caught in the CFCW, but Delirious helps him out, and they sandwich Danielson with clotheslines. Delirious hits Danielson with a suicida (and nearly smashes his own face in on the landing). In all the confusion, Colt is able to roll up Shingo at 17:58.
Colt puts Rave in the Billygoat's Curse, and Delirious takes Danielson down into the Cobra Stretch so he can't make the save. Rave makes the ropes anyway. Colt goes for the Colt .45, but Danielson sneaks in and kicks him in the nuts. Does Colt have a magnet in his crotch that draws heels to attacking him there? Rave rolls Colt up at 19:07.
That leaves Delirious alone in a two-on-one. They toy with him in between working Delirious over. He tosses Rave into Danielson, though, and they work in a spot where Danielson repeatedly gets both guys' shoulders driven into his midsection. Delirious rolls up Rave for two, but the numbers catch up with him. Danielson chokes Delirious with his own tassels, and HE HAS 'TIL FIVE! Rave applies the Stepover Anklelock, but Delirious makes the ropes. Danielson stops to play to the fans, and Delirious flips Rave over and gets the rollup pin at 26:00.
Danielson is upset and gets really aggressive. CFCW! That doesn't work so he sets up for the backdrop superplex. Delirious shifts his weight into a crossbody for two. A rollup gets two more. A slugfest goes Delirious' way, but he misses a flying clothesline, and Danielson rides him down into Cattle Mutilation. Delirious makes the ropes, but Danielson stretches him out for the exposed elbows. Delirious counters to some of his own, but Danielson hits a pair of rolling elbows and gets that backdrop superplex. ONE, TWO, TH-NO! Danielson tries the elbows again, but Delirious is in the ropes. Tiger Suplex gets two, and Danielson floats over into the Cattle Mutilation. Delirious counters to a rollup and then the Cobra Stretch. Danielson fades but powers up and does the Bret Hart counter for two. Delirious rolls through and hangs on. He launches Danielson back on his head with the Cobra Clutch Suplex! ONE, TWO, THR-foot on the ropes. Delirious reapplies the Cobra Stretch, and Danielson has no choice but to tap 32:59. HUGE pop for Delirious finally getting a victory over Danielson. Curious booking, as you'd think they'd want Danielson to look invincible going into the big match with Homicide. Instead, they make a new star at the expense at the match they've been building to. Great moment, though, and another fine match in a series of them to end the show. ***3/4
Davey Richards says he always learns something after he loses. He says tonight taught him that he needs someone to watch his back. Hmm.
Delirious celebrates with the fans, and we're out.
The 411: Considerably better than Night One, with the last four matches hitting the "very good/great" mark. The crowd was hotter too, and it made everyone pick up their effort. This had a little bit of everything from comedy to wild brawling to big booking moments like Delirious getting his win over Danielson.
