Dark Pegasus Video Review: Ring of Honor — Third Anniversary Show, Part Three

Ring of Honor — Third Anniversary Celebration, Part 3
by J.D. Dunn

February 26, 2005

From Chicago Ridge, Ill.

Your hosts are Jimmy Bower and Mark Nulty.

Note: The pre-show matches are not included on the DVD. They are part of the “Do or Die IV” disc.

Pre-Show Match: Allison Danger vs. Lacey vs. Daizee Haze vs. Traci Brooks.
The heels make Brooks and Haze start. They do some okay mat wrestling, but Haze tries to get too ambitious with her reversals. The heels tag in and drill the hell out of each other with a series of forearms. Lacey scurries out of the ring, and things go down hill as Haze doesn’t seem sure of what to do. Allison takes over as the crowd starts to get back into it. Maybe that’s because Lacey’s to is slipping off, exposing her bra. Allison and Traci get into an argument, which turns to fisticuffs. Traci gets the hot tag and cleans house on Lacey, knocking her to the floor. Allison has words with Lacey on the outside for not backing her up. They’re so distracted that Daizee is able to come off the top onto them. They catch her, and some lucky fans get a lapful of Daizee Haze. Back in, Allison takes Traci out with an STO, but Lacey is able to counter another one to a DDT for the win at 10:48. This ranged from horrible (the parts with Daizee) to pretty good (the parts with Lacey and Allison on offense). *1/4

Pre-Show Match: Dunn & Marcos vs. Delirious & the Golden Vampire #A
The Golden Vampire #A is some guy in a Conquistadorish outfit. He sets the tone for the match early on by going for a rolling heel pick several times and making himself dizzy, drawing a “holy shit” chant from the crowd. Delirious and Marcos do a funny little sequence involving air guitar and high fives. You really have to see it because recapping doesn’t do it justice. Golden Vampire tries the Undertaker’s Rope Walk Forearm, but Dunn simply armdrags him off the ropes. Delirious eventually takes over on Dunn and goes for D’Lo Brown’s running powerbomb. I say D’Lo’s because he stops to do the headshake. Marcos counters to a sitout facebuster, and the match breaks down. Dunn & Marcos finish the Vampire when Marcos drops Dunn on the Vampire with an Electric Chair move at 9:01. This was just goofy fun – something wrestling could use a lot more of. **1/4

Austin Aries and Jack Evans open the show, promising to win tonight and then win the Trios Tournament the next week.

Opening Match: Fast Eddie Vegas (w/the Embassy) vs. Matt Sydal.
Just 24 hours earlier, Vegas and Sydal were a tag team known as the Air Devils. Vegas turned on Sydal in their very first match and joined the Embassy. Sydal busts out some quick moves before Fast Eddie hits him with a powerslam. It’s odd that the Embassy is made of so many vanilla wrestlers that get by on being arrogant. Sydal shows why he is considered the heir apparent to AJ Styles with a stage dive that takes out the entire Embassy. Eddie injures himself on a Fallaway Powerslam, allowing Sydal to stay on the advantage. Nana gets on the mic and distracts Sydal long enough for Eddie to recover and hit a Tombstone Piledriver for the win at 10:08. **1/4

Alex Shelley vs. Jack Evans.
Shelley recruited Evans into Generation Next to join him in taking all the spots of the veteran wrestlers. Then, at Final Battle 2004, Austin Aries and Roderick Strong turned on Shelley and tossed him from the group. Evans stayed with the group and told Shelley to mind his own business. Of course, Shelley can’t do that because he’s a babyface now. Shelley offers Evans one last chance to do the right thing, but Jack slaps him in the face. Nulty goes off on an analogy about Alex Shelley being like Aaron Burr. You know, *I* get it, but the idea of an analogy is to make things easier to understand. Jack “Alexander Hamilton” Evans does a lot of flippy stuff before getting stretched out by Shelley. Evans comes back with some highspots and sweeps Shelley’s leg out from under him as he’s going for Sweet Chin Music (Shawn Michaels lifted Shelley’s catchphrase on Raw). Shelley eventually does hit that superkick to spin Evans end over end. Shelley blocks a 630-senton and finishes with an Inverted Single-leg Crab at 13:48. Evans’ bumping makes another guy look like superstar, and unlike Danielson and Joe the previous night, Shelley really benefited. Austin Aries runs down, and they break Shelley’s arm with a chair. **3/4

Good Times, Great Memories (Live!): Colt’s special guest is none other than Bobby Heenan! Heenan demands the fans chant “Weasel” instead of “Brain” and then reminisces. Jim Cornette interrupts the fun, saying he wants Bobby to die so that Corny can finally be the greatest manager alive. Corny even brought a couple of guys to get the job done — BJ Whitmer and Dan Maff. Bobby ain’t “the Brain” for nothing, though. Bobby retorts with one of my favorite lines: When you go to bed, I’m still up, and when you get up, I’ve been up so you’ll never outsmart me. Brain already has a couple of guys, so we get…

BJ Whitmer & Dan Maff (w/Jim Cornette) vs. Colt Cabana & Nigel McGuinness (w/Bobby Heenan).
Corny begs for an hour to get ready, prompting Heenan to call him yellow. Well, Jim Cornette has eaten dinner with Vince McMahon and flown on jets with Ric Flair, so he says it’s going to happen right now! A total old-school tag match follows as Maff and Whitmer drop their brawler personas in favor of flustered heels. Heenan cheats gleefully, and the heels get even more flustered. The finish sees Cornette’s interference backfire, and Heenan past him with a set of brass knuckles. Colt grabs the tennis racket and finishes Maff with it at 16:34. Everyone here completely changed their style to do a throwback. It would be like the cast of “Reservoir Dogs” deciding to put on a version of “Our Town.” Damned if it didn’t work, though. Heenan thanks the crowd after the match. **3/4

Best-of-Five Series, Match #3, Falls Count Anywhere: Bryan Danielson vs. Homicide (w/Julius Smokes).
Homicide leads the series 2-0. That probably tips the end of this one. This thing spills to the crowd early. They reverse small packages around on the gym floor, and some doofus tries to start a mocking “holy shit” chant. See, that only works if what they’re doing is totally awesome or completely lame. Remember that for next time. Or, just keep your piehole shut and watch two of the best in the world as they try to entertain you instead of trying to impress your friends. The crowd actually does work in a “holy shit” chant off a snap suplex on the floor, which is much more relevant, if a bit generous. Homicide refuses to tap to a surfboard, so Danielson busts out an Airplane Spin and REVERSE ROTATION! I don’t know if she’ll hold, Cap’n! Dragon dropkicks Homicide out of a chair for two. Things trickle back to the ring where Danielson hits a Roaring Elbow and a Diving Headbutt for two. Smokes breaks up Cattle Mutilation. They slug it out, and Smokes’ interference backfires, allowing Danielson to hit a Snap Cradle Suplex to pick up the win at 19:33. Some good spots, but a lot of the in-the-crowd brawling meandered. ***

Spanky talks about how he and James Gibson were held back in the WWE, but he wants to be Gibson’s partner for the Trios Tournament. Jimmy Jacobs interrupts and tries to explain how the Contra Code is different than Sliced Bread #2. Spanky gets pissed and demands that he stop using the move. It’s almost like “Seinfeld.” If your engine malfunctions, Spanky, don’t take it to Puddy.

Cactus Jack says he might not be in ROH for a while, but he’s leaving Ebestus Jack in his place. Okaaaay.

Spanky vs. Jimmy Jacobs.
This is one of the rare occurrences where ROH’s booking gets repetitive because AJ Styles and Jimmy Rave are basically having the same feud. What’s odd is Jacobs is supposed to be the heel here (the role played by Rave in the main feud), but the difference is Jacobs isn’t doing it to mock Spanky. He’s just doing it because that’s his move, and then Spanky crawls back to ROH with his tail between his legs and demands the loyalist Jacobs not use it. Jacobs counters Sliced Bread #2 to a rollup for two. Spanky hits a 3/4-Nelson facebuster but gets speared by Jacobs. Jimmy hits an Unprettier to set up a senton for a close, close two. Spanky counters the Contra Code to a superkick and finishes with Sliced Bread #2 at 10:48. After the match, Jacobs toys with the idea of suckerpunching Spanky, but he shakes his hand instead. **3/4

James Gibson vs. Puma.
It didn’t take long for Gibson to regain the form that made him one of the top indy prospects back in 1999. They trade reversals early, and Puma hits a baseball slide into a rana. Puma fires off a Dragon Screw to take an early advantage. He works the leg, but Gibson hits a cannonball off the apron. Gibson slows things down with a chinlock, but Puma reverses to a sleeper. Puma peppers Gibson with kicks and locks in an arm & headscissors in the ropes. Gibson drops down to block a Tiger Suplex, so Puma grabs a Dragon Sleeper. Nice. Gibson turns into it and counters to a suplex. Puma reverses a Tombstone to his own and drops an elbow. Gibson blocks a series of kicks and spikes Puma down into the Butterfly Lock for the submission at 12:58. Solid Dynamite/Tiger Mask-ish match-up. **1/2

CM Punk (w/Tracey Brooks) vs. Jimmy Rave (w/Prince Nana & Fast Eddie)
Punk laughed at Nana when Spanky refused to join the Embassy, so Nana is pissed. Rave is coming off a huge upset win against AJ Styles. Punk attacks from behind, but Punk chases him off. Punk is in his hometown, so he’s extra over tonight. He even busts out the Garvin Stomp and a delayed vertical suplex that gets a near 40 count! Nana trips up Punk, so Tracey trips up Rave on the other side. Punk rolls through a Shining Wizard and grabs a half-crab. Nana distracts the ref while Rave goes low to take over. Rave spends the rest of the match working the ref with the old “hide the foreign object” trick. Clearly, Rave has seen that JYD/Lawler match from the early 1990s because this is a move-for-move copy. Nice to see Rave learning from the classics. Punk hits a Shining Wizard out of nowhere, but Rave wraps the shoelace around Punk’s throat and applies a sleeper to hide it. That’s enough to put Punk out for another upset win in front of Punk’s hometown fans at 15:21. Oh, but Rave drops the shoelace while celebrating, and Referee Todd Sinclair finds it and restarts the match. Punk recovers and schoolboys Rave for two. He clotheslines Rave to the floor and hits a somersault plancha. Back in, Rave counters a rolling forearm to Ghanarrhea for two. Punk catches him with the rolling forearm and sets up for the Reverse Pepsi Plunge, but Rave counters to a sunset flip bomb. Now, Rave sets up for the Pepsi Plunge, but Punk counters to a Super Samoan Drop into the Anaconda Vice. The crowd screams “TAP! TAP! TAP!”, but Fast Eddie climbs up on the apron to distract the ref. Nana slips the air freshener in to Rave who sprays it in Punk’s eyes and gets the pin at 21:10. After the match, Tracey slaps Rave in the face, so Nana jumps her from behind, starting a tradition of woman-beating. Rave gives her the Rave Clash for good measure before Colt Cabana makes the save. Good old-school heel fun from Rave, and this is booking that could only be done with him (well, okay, Alex Shelley too). ***1/4

Ring of Honor World Championship: Austin Aries vs. Samoa Joe.
Aries won the title from Joe in a big upset at Final Battle 2004. In order to keep his title, Aries formed a partnership with Joe’s rival Mick Foley, handing Mick a chair during a confrontation with Joe. After successfully fending off Colt Cabana, Aries agreed to give Joe his rematch, so here we are. Joe spends the first few minutes overpowering Aries at every turn. Aries displays a lot of personality, foreshadowing his TNA run. Some of his stuff is reminiscent of Randy Savage in Memphis. Joe tumbles out on him with a tope and hits a pair of Olé kicks. Aries is busted open, so Joe brings him back in and rips at the cut from an STF. Finally, Aries snaps Joe’s neck on the top rope and slingshots in to a splash for two. A quebrada gets two more, and Aries fires off a series of corner dropkicks for two. Joe catches him with an STO and snap powerslam, but Aries hits his Crucifix Bomb. That’s what set up the series of moves from his win in December. Joe counters the brainbuster to a Muscle Buster, though. ONE, TWO, THRE—NO! Aries gets his foot on the ropes at the last possible moment. BRAINBUSTER BY ARIES! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Aries misses the 450-splash, and Joe knocks him silly with a series of knees. COQUINA CLUTCH! Oh, but when Joe falls back to his shoulders to ground Aries, Aries rolls him over on his shoulders for the pin (a la Bret Hart) at 17:12. This was basically an extended version of that Razor Ramon/1-2-3 Kid match with Joe absolutely killing Aries for 10 minutes before Aries came back and got a flukish win. In the WWE, this would make Aries look like a pussy, but in ROH, it just makes him look like a smart wrestler who saw his opening and took it. Fine match here. ***3/4

The locker room empties to give the fans of Chicago a standing ovation.

The Embassy celebrates their big wins, and Nana reveals it wasn’t air freshener but bug spray that Rave sprayed in Punk’s eyes.

The 411: Another easy winner from ROH. None of the matches fell below average. There was some good nostalgic entertainment with the Cornette/Heenan confrontation. The Homicide/Danielson series continues to be hot, and the final two matches were booked perfectly. Not much to complain about. Thumbs up for Ring of Honor's Third Anniversary Celebration, Part 3.
Final Score:  8.0   [ Very Good ]