The Furious Flashbacks – ROH Unified

Posted by Arnold Furious on 03.31.2009

Who’s the best wrestler in the world today?

The Furious Flashbacks – ROH Unified

Who’s the best wrestler in the world today?

The main story heading into the “Unified” show was that the ROH Pure title was to be abandoned and merged with the ROH World title. The Pure title had run its course and despite attempts to keep the belt going for 2 years it simply wasn’t cutting it as a second title. The idea had been to have a secondary belt for people who wrestled a more technical style but increasingly the ROH fans demanded complete performances from wrestlers in the company. So if they were only adept at one style they generally got hounded out. See John Walters or Matt Stryker. Both very solid technical competitors but the fans found them lacking in other areas. The Pure title was designed for wrestlers like this and the fans were now not wanting to see that kind of style. So they decided to make a show of it. ROH World champion Bryan Danielson faced off against Pure champion Nigel McGuinness. Winner take all. The build up included Nigel suggesting that he was the uncrowned ROH champion. Both guys were wrestling heel leading into the title match but the match would take place in Nigel McGuinness’ backyard…

August 12th 2006. We’re in Liverpool, England. Hosts are Dave Prazak & Lenny Leonard.

VIDEO RECAP – Adam Pearces announces the title unification bout between Danielson & McGuinness. Nigel reminds us that Danielson retained his title in their last title vs title match by count-out. The title match will take place until Pure title rules. Danielson wants re-starts for double decisions and NO TIME LIMITS! This confirms someone MUST win. Danielson adds edge by refusing to shake Nigel’s hand.

BACKSTAGE Nigel says it’s a “night of firsts” as they’ve gone “International” and the two big singles belts become unified. Nigel has held the Pure title since August 2005, almost an entire year, since Dragon Gate Invasion. He’s “in it to win it”.

ELSEWHERE Generation Next have had their title belts returned to them. Aries warns the Briscoes it’s their last chance at the belts tonight. Gen Next have held the titles since December 2005 themselves.

Sidenote – I dig the atmosphere of doing a show in the UK. Good venue too.

Colt Cabana v Spud v Matt Sydal v Jonny Storm

Spud gets booed for being English. Ah, the “I didn’t pay to see you” reaction. Although some of the crowd sings along to his entrance music. Crowd is way into Colt. He’d be the biggest star on show here…until he and Evan Bourne got into the WWE. Colt and Storm goof around. They probably know each other from working UK shows. There’s a nice spot where Colt works Storm’s legs apart and then gently shoves him over. Storm does a lovely head balance into an armbar while Colt tries to figure the headstand out. Sydal-Spud and the American has a clear edge there. They run a bunch of comedy spots where Cabana faaces off against everyone and uses his size to win. He embraces the “easy” chant too until Storm hits him with a diving rana. Hehe, it doesn’t matter what Spud does he gets booed. Although that stops when he hits a sick dive and basically back bumps it from the top rope to the floor. Ow. They run the WCW 1996 dives spot. Damn you cruiserweights! Hey, I’ll dive first, then the other guy, then the other guy, then you…ok…go! I’m getting so jaded in my old age. The spotfest continues at a pace. There’s really no time to type it all up. Suffice to say; hijinks and much fun had by all. Colt gets in the most amusing thing for me when Spud breaks up a Storm pinfall on him and Colt repays the favour by punching him in the eye. HAHA. STAY OUTTA MY BIDNIZ MIDGET! Storm gets in the Fantastic Four. Sydal gets in the standing moonsault. Wonderwhirl on Spud. Learn the names of the moves Prazak! Sydal kills the already prone Spud with the SSP for the win. **1/2. The spottiest spotfest you’re ever likely to spot. No semblance of a match in there but everything was slick.

POST MATCH Chris Hero arrives through the audience to HUGE heel heat. The somewhat impatient crowd even give Hero a toiletpapering. The crowd give him zero chance to speak and head into the “shut the fuck up”. Has no ROH fan ever heard of a promo? That’s where the heel says annoying stuff and gets over. Colt Cabana hasn’t either because he gets bored of listening and runs him off. “Your kind is not welcome”. People from Ohio?

PROMO TIME – Prince Nana. He’s basically just here to introduce Jimmy Rave but in the process runs down England for not respecting royalty. Bit of a cookie cutter promo from Nana. I’d have thought he’d have come up with something more entertaining.

Jimmy Rave v Davey Richards

Rave gets the FULL ON toilet papering. Holy crap. Were they having a sale at the local Aldi? I dig the “toilet paper” chant. Rave has been demoted to a sideshow act and enhancement talent by this point. On the other side of things Davey was fresh to the company and was using Rave as a stepping stone. No prizes for guessing who wins this one. Interesting that ROH would use such standard and WWF-esque booking! I’ve lost count of the amount of guys they’ve had go stale and yet remain over that end up as enhancement. A bunch of scallys irritate Rave to begin with…then the rest of the audience. Isn’t it past your bedtime? They do some nice mat wrestling where Davey rides and Rave tries to escape. If any of that was planned I’d be amazed. Those kids are really grating at me. I think its from all those 3CW shows where a bunch of pikey kids would repeatedly chant “who are ya” for two hours and assorted other football stuff. Davey unloads with heavy kicks. DAMN. There are worse people you can copy than KENTA. Crowd rag on the kids in the balcony with a “past your bedtime” chant. Haha. I don’t know what’s more tragic; that the kids feel the need to continue making unfunny comments towards the ring LOUDLY or that the crowd feel the need to rise to it as a clique. Say what you like about Jimmy Rave but I respect his capacity to learn and how easy he finds it to get over as a heel. He also has a decent chop. This match is basically Rave’s cheating versus Davey’s violent moveset. It works out pretty even, especially compared to Davey’s dominance in their first two meetings. Although as soon as Davey gets a run of moves together Rave looks in trouble. They both spill over the top with the Scott Lost suplex spot. Davey has a nice snap to his moves combined with a Puro style that gets him over easy with an Indy crowd. His kicks and suplexes make him easy to like. Hey, I like him. He makes a point of kicking Jimmy a lot and dropping him on his head with a Saito suplex AND a lariat in quick succession. They forget where they are, which is a bit awkward and Rave hits the running knee for 2. This is really picking up now. SHORT KICKS! Damn, Davey is a vicious little bastard isn’t he? HANDSPRING GAMENGIRI! Give this guy a better opponent now! They fuck up the Ligerbomb once before Davey hits it again for 2. Er, if it wasn’t the finish…what was the point of re-doing it? Sigh. If it’s not INTEGRAL to the match then you don’t need to repeat the spot. That’s the bottom line right there. Rave hits the spear and a Northern Lights bomb…for 2. They run an awkward second rope Ghanarea. And wouldn’t you know…it doesn’t finish. Why debut an advanced version of one of your top moves and not get the finish with it? That doesn’t make sense either. D.R. DRIVER II! Goodnight, Jimmy Rave. ***.

Ok, need a separate paragraph to talk about this. Problemo uno; you don’t need 23 minutes to showcase a new comer against a guy who isn’t in his league. Yes, it was a nice showcase for Davey Richards, who’s a terrific talent, but it didn’t need 23 minutes just so he could get all his spots in and throw Rave a bit of coverage too. 10 minutes tops. Problemo dos; because they were trying to throw so much stuff into the match they ended up fucking stuff up. And that doesn’t help the forward advancement of Richards. It doesn’t do much for Rave either but his ROH career is pretty much toast by this point. Problemo tres; I know ROH loves to put on an all-action show but some of the high spots were a little beyond what is essentially a job match. Say what you like about Rave, again, but he was just there to lose. Nothing more. So why debut that second rope Ghanarea? Despite all these issues it’s a decent match but I think it makes ROH look bush league for doing it all wrong like that. It would have been *** anyway at 10 minutes with the chaining and some of the spots in the run in. Frustrating.

BACKSTAGE – is it just me or did the Briscoes turn into hillbillies at some point? Their gum chewing promo from this show is the dumbest I’ve ever heard them sound. “We takin’ dem belts back”. I think they’re aiming for ‘street’ but they sound stupid.

BJ Whitmer v Claudio Castagnoli

Claudio is in a jerkish mood. He jumps BJ pre-bell and chokes him with his own ring jacket. BJ makes a comeback and TOPES Claudio destroying the rail in the process. BJ seems really over here but he does look like he’s just going through the motions. One thing BJ does have a habit of doing is crowd brawls. I don’t really dig crowd brawls. I think they’re passé. I guess I saw one too many ECW shows where they brawled all over the building. At least BJ gets a suplex in on the “hard wood floor”. Back in the ring the momentum picks up a bit. BJ hits a rolling suplex into a Northern Lights for 2. Crowd rather optimistically chant “this is awesome”. Are we watching the same match? Claudio comes back with the rolling forearm and the RICOLA BOMB…for 2. BJ blocks another into a sunset flip and rolls through the pin to make sure. **1/4. Crowd seemed to like it way more than I did. Maybe it was the interactive nature of the fight in the front row?

POST MATCH Chris Hero runs in and the Kings of Wrestling beat down BJ. Colt Cabana runs down for the save. Colt grabs the mic and demands Hero get his ass in the ring for an “officially sanctioned match”.

Colt Cabana v Chris Hero

Hero runs instead but Colt retrieves him. Hero wrestles a smart match and picks his spots. Although I get the feeling he’s just trying to work spots into a match rather than have a match that the spots fit into. Does that make sense? I like both guys but this is a fine example of a match that DID need time to develop a storyline and for once ROH don’t give it the time it needs. Hero goes after the usual neck related mayhem with some of his new moveset thrown in for good measure. They run a nice spot where Hero misses a moonsault but adjusts to land on his feet. All the time Colt is setting his sights and levels him with a lariat. Colt with the butt-butt and a quebrada for 2. Hero gets serious with a back suplex and a big boot for 2. Colt is finding it tough to wrestle from the underdog status and when he takes over it all goes a bit by the numbers too. They haven’t quite found the dynamic for this match. They do have a nice finish though with Hero gettting countered out of the cravat into the Colt 45. Like Colt was waiting for Hero to go back to the well so he could teach him a wrestling lesson. **. Disjointed.

BACKSTAGE Bryan Danielson talks about the unification of the belts. He says Nigel has done a lot of talking but Danielson is the best wrestler in the world.

SUWA/Go Shiozaki v Doug Williams/Jody Fleisch

No offence to Jody but he’s out of his league here. SUWA tries to cane the ring announcer because he’s a fantastic jerk. This has the benefit of being the first match on the card that I want to see. Doug v Go to start and Go’s chaining in the opening moments is the best thing on this card so far. He is the future of Pro Wrestling NOAH! Jody gets heat for tagging in then a smaller “Jody” chant. He does some nice chaining with Go too. SUWA slaps Jody in the forehead and that gets him a chant of his own. Jody lands on his head off a shoulderblock. Jody pops back up with a Hurricane kick. SSP TO THE FLOOR! I’ve seen him gob that a few times. Hit it perfectly this time. Doug grabs SUWA and takes over on him. Jody back in with a dropsault. The difference between Doug and Jody is that Jody doesn’t have the skills to keep someone touch close and he gets picked off because of that. Communication problems occur, which is strange because Jody used to work in Japan for Michi Pro. Doug gets back in and knees Go off the apron. Go ends up isolated, which is where Doug & Jody work so well together because the mixture of styles keeps the opponent off balance. Doug grinds away with submission moves while Jody is significantly flashier. Go knows he can overpower Jody though and picks him off again. No doubting Fleisch is the weak link on the UK Team. Go breaks out the Tabletop suplex for 2. SUWA directs traffic for heel behavior and elbow drops Jody’s groin. Go looked reluctant to help but did so anyway. Jody nips up and hits kicks SUWA while he’s up top then follows with a loose super rana. Hot tag to Doug. Well, as hot as you’d expect. He takes SUWA apart with suplexes and high impact moves. SUWA is able to duck out though and tag Go who leads with a missile dropkick. That girly style one where you flatback the bump. The impact on that is pretty good though. Fisherman buster gets 2. Doug gets an assist from Jody and hits a German suplex for 2. Moonsault from Jody and Doug adds the BOMB SCARE…for 2. Doug is suprisingly slow to follow up and gets caught in a FISHERMAN SUPERPLEX! Didn’t cradle all the way to the mat but I imagine the bump would suck with the cradle. At least for whoever took it. Doug doesn’t really sell it anyway and hits two SAITO SUPLEXES. SUWA in and Jody fucks up the 720 DDT only for Go to level him with the dragon suplex and Doug lariats him to leave everyone down. Doug & Go start trading strikes, which is handy seeing as they’re both competitors in NOAH. MOONSAULT from Go gets 2. SUWA miscues on Go and the tenuous partnership is left hanging by a thread. Go avoids Chaos Theory and hits a superkick. They counter again in the corner; CHAOS THEORY!! Doug gets the pin on Go Shiozaki and picks up the win for Team UK. ***1/2. A very solid formula tag outing. Everyone played their roles well.

POST MATCH SUWA gets all pissy and canes everyone, including Go. So they beat him up and Go superkicks him out of the ring.

BACKSTAGE BJ Whitmer talks about slaying his demons that have haunted him for 7 months; beating Necro Butcher in the no-rope barbed wire match. And now beating Claudio Castagnoli too. So he’s out to set some new goals and he’s after a title.

FWA title – Robbie Brookside (c) v Chad Collyer

Collyer has spent so much time in the UK that he almost qualifies as a local talent. He’s a good guy too. I think of every wrestler I’ve met he’s the one that’s been most willing to give up his time. Especially if there’s a lengthy chat about wrestling to be had. Brookside is a guy that really hasn’t been given a chance anywhere outside of Europe (and Japan to a lesser extent). He used to tag with William Regal back in the World of Sport days. Jimmy Bauer gets on commentary to bury Collyer saying he “never got over”. What the fuck is that? Collyer brings the old school heel antics here. Probably not the audience that enjoys that kind of thing. Which is probably where Bauer was coming from but hey, Adam Pearce is the exact same guy with less talent! Collyer’s technical rounding is really solid but Brookside is no slouch so the chaining is quite entertaining once they get going. I guess the ROH fans want something a little more dynamic in terms of their heel/face structure than “shut up kid” and clapping yourself. If they’d just decided to come out here and have a match they’d have probably gotten over on talent alone. But then it must be hard to get out of the mentality that wrestling crowds are different from show to show. And the best way to test the waters is the old fashioned heel/face structure. Misguided in front of an ROH crowd regardless of the country though. They keep going with the old school matwork with Chad cheating, naturally. Crowd does seem disinterested here, which is a pity. Robbie blows his knee out and Collyer hooks up the Texas Cloverleaf. Brookside gets out and hits the Iconoclasm for the win. Wow, was that ever underwhelming. **. Just seemed out of place on this card. Solid mat wrestling and all that but really didn’t belong here.

ROH tag titles – Generation Next (c) v Briscoe Brothers

Big pops for both teams. I know I’ve been critical of tag team wrestling and what it’s become but one team that my criticisms don’t really apply to is Aries & Strong. They put so much thought into their whole approach. Its beautiful. The crowd remains lively as we get underway. The feeling out process is entertaining. Strong & Jay are smooth. Aries gets a tag and he has HUGE love from this crowd. The champs are the ones who get their team work going first but the Briscoes have been teaming their entire lives. Jay goes for the headscissors on Aries. Oh dear. You know that doesn’t work! The champs isolate Jay for some chopping. WOOO! Jay gets all pissed off and now it’s a contest! Those chops served to wake up Jay’s desire to win those belts back. The Briscoes start to get their teaming going and pick off Strong, who is slightly the weaker link. After all Aries is a former world champion. Strong uses the power of the CHOP to gets the tag. So far Gen Next have had the edge. They have the more explosive small moves and, so far, the better teaming. For the most part the teams here trade offence both showing they have a compendium of brutal offense tricks at their disposal. The Briscoes start to turn the heat up by not only hitting the abusive moves but also do it in tandem. Adding a springboard spin kick to a Doomsday setup. But the champs come right back with a double team backbreaker and the CHOP BRAINBUSTER! I love that shit. It’s awesome because they’re taking a signature move from each guy and transforming it into a tag team move. It makes perfect logical sense.

Crowd thinks this is awesome. But they thought Claudio’s match was awesome earlier and it really wasn’t. The Briscoes have their own team moves though, which have been worked out over hundreds of matches. So the most complex of double teams looks smooth as silk. Mark knows his spots. Jay comes off as more of a ring general; setting stuff up. A little like the dynamic the Hardyz had early in their career where Matt told Jeff what to do. Aries starts bringing the awesome by suplexing one Briscoe at the other. Strong hot tags and gets one Briscoe to set him up for an Enzuigiri on the other. Very cool. Its like they take spots you’d only usually see in a speciality match and plan them out to happen in a regular tag match. After all; a tag match is a speciality match sometimes! If you want to avoid formula then that’s what you do. The champs go for the same chop brainbuster from earlier but the Briscoes recognise it and cut the move off. Double team neckbreaker with springboard follows. Cool. Mark wants the Cutthroat Driver but Strong gets out. Jay breaks up the next double team with the YAKUZAAAAA KIIIIICK! That gets 2. Tags stopped happening a while ago. At least they have cool spots planned. Jay gets picked off for an assortment of cool double teams…for 2. Twice. Just when you think it’s over and there’s no more left in the tank Jay hits himself a suicide dive. SPIKE JAYDRILLER! Aries saves by punting Jay in the eyebrow. Aries escapes a Cutthroat Driver on the ramp so Mark counters into a DDT instead. Strong is left to fight 2 on 1. DOOMSDAY DEVICE…for 2. They go for another on Aries but he counters into the REVERSE RANA! Strong powerbombs Mark to set up the 450 Splash and the champs retain! Or was it Jay? I can’t tell them apart half the time. ****. Well they certainly had a classic there. Total mayhem for the second half. If you can ignore the lack of tags for it that was pretty cool.

Title unification match – ROH champion Bryan Danielson (c) v ROH Pure champion Nigel McGuinness (c)

Both guys are over but Nigel has that ‘returning hero’ vibe about him. Danielson starts getting heat with his usual antics and that just solidifies the British crowd behind Nigel even more. We’re reminded this is under Pure title rules and any screwy double finish results in a re-start. There MUST be a winner. DQ or countout causes the belts to switch. They trade slaps early. Crowd only choose to remind Danielson that he’s been “bitchslapped”. They run some nice slow paced counters to start. Both guys showing their technical prowess and agility. Nigel goes down hurt with a bad arm early and Danielson goes after it like a shark smelling an injured arm. Nigel decides to tough it out rather than use an early rope break. Part of Danielson’s strategy must surely be to absorb those rope breaks. Logically Nigel is better adjusted to the conditions of the match and less likely to accidentally use a rope break. So if he can take some of them away it gives him leeway. CROSS ARMBREAKER! Nigel has to use a rope break and Danielson stops off to remind the referee that he has UNTIL FIVE to break. Nigel comes back with his back kick into the Final Cut in the corner but that must surely hurt him just as much by using that damaged arm. Eye for eye is the approach as Nigel aims to pick off Danielson’s arm. Nigel hooks a Cobra Clutch and Danielson is put in position to use a rope break but he refuses. Danielson wrestles his way out and hits a Step Kick. Danielson teases the surfboard… “screw you people” and stomps the hamstrings. Oh, you bastard! Superplex and the Swandive headbutt gets 2. CATTLE MUTILATION! And he’s already worked the arm to set this up. Nigel is forced into using rope break #2. Danielson goofs around too much though and gets caught up top into the TOWER OF LONDON. Rope break for Danielson. CATTLE MUTILATION from Nigel! Danielson doesn’t want to use up another rope break so quickly but has to. Nigel really caught Danielson cold there. Two quick rope breaks in succession. Danielson, cocky as ever, was too busy taunting the crowd after grinding out two rope breaks himself. They spill outside and Danielson leans on a table on Nigel’s neck to try and get him counted out. Nigel beats the count but only because Danielson is too cocky and gives him too long. It’s been a story of Danielson’s mistakes already.

Duelling chants now! Both guys are appreciated but there’s a slight edge towards Nigel. Nigel headstands but gets dropkicked in the face and ROLLING FOREARMED…for 2. CROSSFACE CHICKENWING! This beat James Gibson when he won the strap. Danielson bodyscissors Nigel but Nigel still has enough strength to get the ropes but he’s out of rope breaks now. Danielson stops off to threaten to kill everyone in the audience. Danielson with a popped off German but Nigel gets a knee up on the swandive. That’s going to the well. Danielson’s second Swandive. This time Nigel saw it coming after getting a good look at the last one. Another mistake from Danielson. SLAP OFF! Holy shit. Tonnes of slaps in that. Nigel avoids the dragon suplex and dumps Danielson on the ropes for the diving LARIAT! Cool spot. Crowd shows its appreciation for “ROH”. Danielson pops his foot on the rope to save his strength on the kickout and we’re into a world without rope breaks. They tussle up top and Danielson gets the CHICKENWING and Nigel has no way out from the top rope! Nigel manages to get his arm free – TOWER OF LONDON! Danielson is on the ropes but, of course, that doesn’t matter and he has to kick out. They battle over the ring post and Nigel gets dragged into it THREE TIMES AND IS BUSTED HARDWAY! I love how they did that because Danielson was holding both of Nigel’s hands so you KNOW it was hardway. Nigel is staggered so Danielson adds in one of his wacky SUICIDE DIVES. This has gone psychotic. Nigel doesn’t know where he is. He barely beats the countout loss. Nigel is FIRED UP! Danielson is shitting himself because the bloodied Nigel looks pissed off. HEADBUTTS! Holy shit, Nige! Nigel goes for the rebound lariat but can’t get back in. Danielson knocks him into the ropes again. REBOUND LARIAT! ONE-TWO-TH…NO!

Danielson rolls through the pin into the CATTLE MUTILATION! And there’s no rope breaks AND Nigel is busted. He’s losing blood fast. Nigel gets the ropes but it doesn’t make any difference. Nigel wrestles out and gets Danielson on his back for 2. Danielson with ELBOWS! NIGEL IS TAKING A BEATING TO THE FACE. The ref asks him if he quits but he’s not responding. It’s over. Crowd chants “bullshit”. Speaking of misjudging your audience btw…but still it was a great match. ****1/2. Not match of the year or anything like that but one hell of a fight. I don’t much like the ending and by the crowd’s response they don’t like it either. The hardway spot on the post was sick and some of the countering was slick.

POST MATCH Bryan Danielson calls this the hardest title match he’s had. He tells Nigel he deserves a shot at the now unified world title. “One more time” chants the crowd and Nigel accepts the challenge. Nigel leads the crowd in an “ROH” chant.

We get a report on Austin Aries getting a serious injury at the end of the tag match.

BACKSTAGE Nigel McGuinness says he just had the toughest match of his life tonight. He says he didn’t take the belt but he has another shot and he’ll bring that and more next time.

The 411: They certainly knew how to close out this show! Two great and hugely entertaining matches to finish off the night. Danielson-McGuinness is a low end MOTYC and the tag match that preceeded it is a fine example of what the new world of tag team wrestling looks like. If anything its even more energised than the respective gentlemen’s singles matches. The midcard isn’t much fun beyond the Puro v UK guest match but it’s a solid enough card to earn a big thumbs up.

Final Score:  8.0   [ Very Good ]