Dark Pegasus Video Review: Ring of Honor — Death Before Dishonor V, Night One

Ring of Honor — Death Before Dishonor V, Night One by J.D. Dunn August 10, 2007 From Boston, Mass. Your hosts are Dave Prazak and Lenny Leonard. The Briscoes are ready to MAN UP for their Street Fight. Opening Match: Davey Richards vs. Jack Evans. Davey jumps Jack right away and NAILS him with a clothesline. Jack kicks his way back but gets powerbombed into the Stretch Muffler. They take it to the floor where the crowd gets on Davey. Jack springboards into a flying kick, but Davey hangs him out to dry once they get back in. Evans sends Richards to the floor with a headscissors, but Davey cuts off his Space Flying Tiger Drop with a high kick. Jack comes back with a springboard backflip elbow and a high knee. He hits the handspring elbow and a springboard spinning kick. He follows that up with a springboard corkscrew plancha. Normally, I like a little less springboard in my match, but Jack makes it work. Jack reverses the DR Driver to a small package, but Davey stays on top with a German Suplex and then the Strait-jacket Suplex, both for two. He stops to argue with the ref, so Jack hits a reverse rana for two. Jack gets crotched on the top rope but knocks Richards into the tree-of-woe and hits the kneedrops. That sets up the 450-splash, but Roderick Strong runs out and shoves him off the top for the lame DQ at 11:15. Not sure why they couldn’t just give Jack the clean win en route to his big showdown with Roderick. The match was the usual “Jack gets his ass kicked in between highspots formula,” and Davey was more than willing to provide a fun ass-kicking. **3/4 The Resilience makes the save, but Jack doesn’t want their help and promises to make good on his threat to form his own faction. SHIMMER #1 Contender’s Match: Lacey vs. Daizee Haze. Daizee nails her with a dropkick off the handshake and then dropkicks the back of Lacey’s head into the barrier. Unless it’s a headboard, it’s just not worth, huh, Lacey? Sara Del Rey comes out to watch. She seems unimpressed. Lacey staggers around the outside but sees Haze go up to the top and shoves her off before she can come off. Back in, Lacey hits a few chops and a spinkick. Lacey works in the Royal Butterfly to taunt Del Rey, but Haze rolls her up for two. Haze comes back with the missile dropkick for two. Lacey’s Implant DDT is reversed to a rollup for two. A German Suplex gets two more. The Heart Punch sets up the Mind Trip, but Lacey reverses it to a Lungblower and finishes with the Implant DDT at 8:06. **1/4 Pure Wrestling Match: Chris Hero (w/Sweet ‘n’ Sour Inc.) vs. Nigel McGuinness. This was a glorious example of how awesomely entertaining Hero can be. S&S come up with some new rules they’d like to suggest: Don’t’ interrupt Hero, British people lose all ropebreaks, no touching Sweeney, and no closed fists or clotheslines. Hero puts the match on hold for a brief display of his athletic acumen. Finally, they tie up, but the lights go out, and someone starts yelling about “Project 161.” The lights come back, and security escorts the man out of the arena. Hero informs the crowd that, during the blackout, Nigel used all three of his ropebreaks. Nigel outwrestles Hero and puts him in a wristlock, but Sweeney has the ref distracted as Hero uses the ropes to pull himself out of the hold. Nigel works in the Artful Dodger, but Hero takes him down into a hammerlock. Toland puts Nigel’s foot on the ropes to cost him a ropebreak, and Hero points out to the ring announcer what a waste of a ropebreak that was. Great moment as Hero backs Nigel to the ropes and takes a cheapshot over the ref’s back, so Nigel nails him with a closed fist to earn a warning. Hero responds in kind, but the ref doesn’t see it because he was informing the ring announcer about the warning. Nigel fires back again, but this time Sinclair had turned around and takes away another ropebreak from Nigel. AWESOME! S&S get involved, taking a few cheapshots on Nigel on the outside. Hero tries to force Nigel to use his final ropebreak, but Nigel is tough. Nigel gets pissed and takes things to the outside where he tosses Dempsey into Hero. Poor Bobby flops over on Hero, and Sweet ‘n’ Sour Inc. barely get him off in time to get Hero in before the 20-count. Nigel covers, but Sweeney puts Hero’s foot on the ropes, sacrificing a ropebreak. Hero hits a forearm, but Sweeney puts Nigel’s foot on the ropes, costing Nigel a ropebreak. Ha ha! Brilliant. Hero slaps on the Cravat Stretch for the submission at 19:59. The wrestling was just okay, but that was some Guerrero-level cheating there. Highly entertaining. ***1/2 After the match, Toland shoves Dempsey into Nigel, and Nigel DESTROYS him with the Jawbreaker Lariat. Kevin Steen makes El Generico lace up his boots while he delivers a promo on the Briscoes. Six-man Mayhem: Delirious vs. Brent Albright vs. Matt Cross vs. Pelle Primeau vs. Eddie Edwards vs. Jigsaw. Delirious chases Brent Albright out of the ring, which is just so wrong, considering Albright is the big monster heel. I guess Delirious is the Damien to his Andre. Jigsaw, Edwards, Primeau, and Cross do a brief blowjob sequence just to get all their usual moves in. Albright and Delirious, the only two guys who really have anything going at this point, go at it. Delirious bites his way out of a choke. The whole thing turns into a fracas. Cool spot as four of the guys brawl on one side, and Albright lands on the other. Cross is in the ring, so he fakes out Albright and races across to the other side for a somersault plancha. They all start trading moves until Albright gets pissed and starts killing bitches dead with suplexes. Delirious cheapshots Albright and then runs off, leading Albright on a chase to the back. Cross takes that opportunity to hit the Shooting Star Legdrop on Edwards at 10:46. Fast-paced and action-packed. Not a lot of flow or good sense or anything, but it was fun for a spotfest. I think Gabe finally realized that the Resilience was becoming a joke with all these losses. **3/4 Austin Aries & Erick Stevens vs. Roderick Strong & Rocky Romero. Aries and Romero briefly go at it before all four guys wind up on the outside to brawl. Things settle down with Aries playing face-in-peril. Boring heat sequence until Aries comes back with the Stroke and does the Jarrett pose before tagging in Stevens. That’s really unprofessional to do in the middle of a hot tag sequence. Well, it’s unprofessional to air your personal grievances anytime, I guess, but particularly right in the middle of a match where you’re supposed to be selling a beatdown. Stevens cleans house on Romero, but Strong helps break up the Choo-Choo Avalanche, and Romero hits a knee to give the NRC the advantage again. Stevens plays face-in-peril for a while before getting pissed and hulking up. Aries appears to re-injure his leg on a corner dropkick, so Stevens has to go it alone for a while. Romero sets Aries on top for the Diablo Armbar, but Aries rolls him onto his back on the landing. Nice. Romero sets him up again, but Aries gives him the Brainbuster and finishes with a gimpy 450-splash at 18:05. For a feud that’s supposed to be built on hatred, these guys really felt sluggish. The match didn’t really have any flow, either, despite some good work at the heart of it. **1/2 Shane Hagadorn says he relishes the opportunity to learn from Adam Pearce. Mmm…relish. He hints that something big is on the horizon. Bryan Danielson vs. Matt Sydal (w/Larry Sweeney). Sweeney is upset because he offered American Dragon Sydal’s services in the 8-man tag, but he never got Sydal’s share of the $10,000. Dragon says he invested it on Sydal’s behalf, but he offers to hand it over now if he loses. If he wins, though, he gets Sydal’s share. Dragon, of course, just abuses Sydal early. Sydal makes a few brief comebacks to keep things interesting, but Danielson is always a step ahead of him. Danielson stretches him out with a Mexican Surfboard, ripping at his nose and bending him all the way back over. Take that, circa 1997 WCW luchadores who used that move in such vanilla fashion! He finally just dares Sydal to hit him, and Sydal does, knocking the former champ silly. Sydal sends Danielson to the floor and hits a twisting dive. This match has a weird structure because both guys are basically heels, but Danielson played the babyface for the first few minutes, then they switched off as people started rooting for poor Sydal to make a comeback. Back in, Danielson cuts off a dive with a missile dropkick. CATTLE MUTILATION! Sydal is in the ropes, though. Sydal avoids a missile dropkick and hits the standing moonsault for two. Danielson goes for the elbows, but Sydal reverses to the Here-It-Is Driver. ONE, TWO, TH-NO! Danielson gets the knees up to block the SSP, and now he’s PISSED. He locks in a Triangle Choke and starts elbowing Sydal into unconsciousness. That gets the submission at 13:41. Too one-sided to be anything special. Sydal got a handful of rooms near the end, but no one really bought his nearfalls. Certainly didn’t suck, though. **3/4 After the match, Sweeney berates Sydal for losing. They argue up the aisle but finally make up. ROH World Title: Takeshi Morishima vs. Claudio Castagnoli. Claudio tries the finesse route early, but Morishima steamrolls over him. CC takes a different tack with the apron powerbomb attempt. It doesn’t work out, but the Giant Swing gets a few rotations. The champ is too big to get up in the Ricolabomb. Morishima takes over on him and hits the Ole buttbump on the outside. The sleeper nearly puts Claudio out, but he powers up. Morishima hits the rolling hipblock, but Claudio roars back with uppercuts and a suicida. Back in, Claudio still can’t hit the Ricolabomb, so he improvises the Strait-jacket Flip Rollup for two. APOMARI WATERSLIDE! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! The crowd thinks that was three. Morishima goes nuts on Claudio in the corner, shoving referee Todd Sinclair aside as he does. Morishima covers, but there’s no one to count. Claudio goes for the Ricolabomb but collapses, putting Morishima on top for two. Great spot there. Claudio hits a superplex and a diving European Uppercut. RICOLABOMB! ONE, TWO, THRE——NO! The fans thought that was it and chants, “Fuck you, Sinclair!” Claudio fires off a few more uppercuts but gets mowed down with a lariat. Claudio gets in a few more but runs into a hipblock and another lariat. That sets up the Backdrop Driver for the Morishima win at 15:20. The fans do not like that decision at all. This match ROCKED thanks to the fans’ willingness to buy Claudio’s nearfalls. ***3/4 In the back, Brent Albright congratulates Morishima on a successful defense, but he says he was scouting Morishima during that match. Boston Street Fight: The Briscoe Bros. vs. Kevin Steen & El Generico. Steen looks like he’s coming ready for business, so this should be violent. Big-ass brawl in the aisle to start. Jay and Steen brawl into the crowd. Mark hops off the top onto Generico, who was in the crowd. Steen is waiting for him with a chairshot, though, which would have looked much more effective had Mark not started clearing out debris for the next spot immediately after taking it. Generico flapjacks Mark’s face on a chair and gets jumped by Jay. Generico seems to hurt his shoulder at some point. Steen brainbusters Mark on a chair. Cool spot as Steen knocks Jay silly with a chairshot and prepares to hit him with a dive off the barrier, but Mark spies him from the crowd and runs in to hit him with an Ace Crusher. Steen wakes up and launches a section of the barrier at the Briscoes, but they duck out of the way. Jay and Steen brawl near the timekeeper’s table, and Steen hits him with an errant shoe. Where in the hell did that come from? Generico Michinoku Drivers Mark on that piece of barrier as Jay puts Steen through the table. Steen sets up to Package Piledriver Jay through another table, but Jay blocks. Steen and Jay finally make into the ring and slug it out. Steen draws blood and wipes it all over his face. Ew. Generico and Mark hop in, and they all hit big moves, drawing a big pop from the crowd. Everyone recovers and grabs chairs. They all hit each other with chairshots in a goofy spot. Mark recovers and tries to Cutthroat Driver Generico through a couple of chairs. Generico blocks and goes for a Brainbuster, but Jay breaks it up. The Briscoes toss Generico through the chairs in a crazy spot. Steen jumps in and Fisherman’s Busters Mark through a chair. The Briscoes hit a Splash Mountain Neckbreaker doubleteam on Generico! ONE, TWO, THRE-Steen pulls the ref out but gets wiped out by Mark’s over-the-top plancha. The Briscoes hit the Springboard Doomsday Device on Generico. Steen makes the save again. Mark crawls up a ladder, but Generico turns the tables on him with a Springboard Ace Crusher. The Jaydriller is blocked by Steen, and he goes right to Jay’s nuts with a knee. That sets up the Packaged Piledriver on the ladder at 18:18. Great fucking brawl. If not for some contrived spots (Mark actually had to have the ref hold the ladder for him at one point) and a bit of overkill on the dangerous stuff, this would be a surefire contender for MOTY. ****1/4 After the match, Steen promises to take the tag titles in the steel cage match.

The 411: Like many shows this year, this had a lackluster undercard but blowaway matches at the top of the card. As long as they have great matches in the right place, though, I'm a happy guy. Definitely try to catch the Briscoes/Steen & Generico match, especially in the context of their feud. Thumbs up.
Final Score:  8.0   [ Very Good ]