Dark Pegasus Video Review: Ring of Honor — Supercard of Honor III

Ring of Honor — Supercard of Honor III by J.D. Dunn March 29, 2008 From Orlando, Fla. Your hosts are Dave Prazak and Lenny Leonard. Opening Match: Delirious vs. Go Shiozaki. Delirious’ game of red-light/green-light with the fans is hilarious. Go backs Delirious to the corner, and Delirious begs not to be chopped. Go thinks about it, so Delirious tells the ref to disqualify him if he does. Delirious tries to trick Go with the old “look over there” routine, but Go ducks his clothesline and chops him in the chest. Go hits a series of chops and goes after the mask, but referee Paul Turner tells him not to. Delirious fights back and gets two off a senton. PANIC ATTACK! Shiozaki catches him with a High-Angle German Suplex for two. Delirious suckers him into the Cobra Stretch. Go makes the ropes and rolls through a small package attempt. He finishes Delirious with the Go Flasher at 12:14. Delirious did a great job of getting Go’s chops over and being goofy without sacrificing a lot of credibility. **1/2 We join Larry Sweeney and Shane Hagadorn enjoying life in the locker room. Sweeney says it’s time to do some business. The YRR (w/Random Broads) vs. Bushwhacker Luke, Dingo & Alex Payne. The YRR disrespected Bushwhacker Luke, so Luke recruited a couple of jobbers to help him get revenge. For whatever reason, “Sugarfoot” Alex Payne is incredibly over. I’m guessing it’s because Sweeney called him “Sugartits” that one time. He plays face-in-peril as Kenny King and Chasyn Rance yank him off the apron. King hits him with a uranage backbreaker, and Rinauro adds a flying elbowdrop. Payne counters a suplex to a DDT and tags Dingo. Dingo cleans house and headscissors Rinauro down. Payne wipes out the other two with a flying crossbody. Luke rings King’s bell and uses Payne as a battering ram to knock out the other YRR members. They stop to strut, and the YRR jump them from behind. Sal hits the Sydal Clothesline on Dingo, King adds the running knees, and Rance hits the enzuigiri. That sets up Rinauro’s springboard spinning kick at 8:13. As long as it’s not overdone, stuff like bringing in Bushwhacker Luke can be a lot of fun. No need for long-term angles, though. The YRR were in control for most of the match, so this was better than you might expect. **1/2 Okay, so now that we’ve gotten the “crap” out of the way, let’s get to the awesome. Rocky Romero and Davey Richards successfully defend their titles for a PPV match (SPOILER). Larry Sweeney comes out to renew his offer of a buyout to only them. Roderick Strong storms out and reiterates his objections to the offer. That brings out Erick Stevens, and we get… FIP World Heavyweight Title: Roderick Strong vs. Erick Stevens. These two had a MOTYC at Redefined. Roderick’s chest is bleeding before the match even begins. Stevens shoves down Referee Kentucky Jordan (awesome name, btw). The ref stirs, so Roderick slugs him. Strong takes it to the floor and slugs the everloving crap out of Stevens against the guardrail. He locks Steven’s neck in a chair and shoves him into the post. Now, Stevens is busted open. Back in, Strong wedges a chair in the corner, but Stevens reverses and tosses Strong into the chair headfirst. Stevens sets up a chair, but Roderick chops him and sets up for the Half-Nelson Suplex on the chair. Stevens blocks and drops Roderick’s face right on the chair with a TKO. SICK! I love it! Fans chant, “FIP!” Strong is bleeding from both the chest and head now. Stevens bites at his head, drawing chants of “You sick fuck!” Strong blocks a charge and hits a lariat, but Stevens comes back with his own to knock Strong for a flip. Strong ducks another swing and hits a flying boot to the face. They slug it out, and both guys knock each other out. Strong grabs the chair and LEVELS him with a chairshot. Roddy calls out Richards and Romero, and the No Remorse Corps shave Stevens’ Mohawk. Prazak busts out a variation of the “raped of his dignity” line. Great segment. No match, though. Would be about [****]. Relaxed Rules Match: Jimmy Jacobs & Tyler Black (w/Lacey & Rain) vs. The Briscoes. Jacobs renews the offer to Austin Aries to join the AOTF. Lot of offers being bandied about. Rain, you know as Payton Banks in TNA. She joined the AOTF at FIP’s Redefined show. This has a tough act to follow. The Briscoes toss Black and Jacobs into the crowd and bust out a trampoline. MARKIE! JAYEEE! AND WE ARE… THE SPIRIT SQUAD! Mark springboards off the trampoline and wipes out the AOTF. Jimmy rides an equipment box into Jay, but he tries again and gets booted in the head. The Briscoes regroup and toss Jimmy through a bunch of chairs. They get a table and set it up near the entrance. Mr. Milo Beasley tries to interfere, so Mark goes up and splashes him through the table! Of course, he also took himself out of the match with that spot. Back to the ring, Jimmy tries to smother Jay with a plastic bag. Black comes down and hits the Paroxysm. That sets up a senton for two. Jacobs takes a sick Flatliner to the buckle. Jay hits a DVD and goes for the Jaydriller, but Black breaks it up. The AOTF hit the Doomsday Contra Code! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Jay kicks out. Oh, come on. Who buys that? Mark returns and shoves Black off the ropes. The Briscoes set Jimmy up for the Springboard Doomsday Device, but Jimmy rolls through the clothesline into the End Times. Lacey and Rain yank Jay to the floor, and Mark is forced to submit at 15:06. Awesome finish to a typical Briscoe brawl. Every few months, they seem to do one of these matches where they brawl out into the crowd and use a bunch of chairs and then Mark does a crazy spot. They’re starting to lose their punch. ***1/2 In the back, a bloody Erick Stevens promises not to stop until he has his belt back. Elsewhere, the Age of the Fall celebrate their win. Next stop, recruiting future ROH champion Austin Aries. After that, it’s on to the tag belts. Lacey promises that she has a back-up plan if Jimmy’s plan falls through. Hmm… Kevin Steen & El Generico vs. BxB Hulk & Shingo. BB Hulk gets over by sheer force of entrance coolness. Steen mocks him and gets even more over. Hulk goes 50-50 with Generico and uses his quickness to dazzle Steen. Unfortunately, none of his offense has much effect on Steen, so he tags in powerhouse Shingo. Shingo and Steen trade shoulderblocks, but no one budges. Steen finally just tosses Shingo to the floor, and Generico hits a double jump somersault plancha. Steen and Generico isolate Hulk. Steen cuts off a tag and then mocks the hot tag situation. What a dick. I love it. Shingo gets the hot tag and hits Steenerico with the DDT/Flatliner combo. He gets two off a Sky High, and then Hulk gets two off the Standing SSP. Well, now either one guy is legal or the other guy is. They can’t both get two counts. Generico tries to loft Hulk up to Steen as he did in the previous night’s match, but Hulk dropkicks Steen off the top rope. BB hits a dropsault, but Steen no-sells and levels him with the lariat. He takes Shingo over the top with a clothesline, leaving Hulk and Generico. Generico NAILS him with the Yakuza and hits a Half-Nelson Suplex. That sets up Steen’s Swanton. ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Steen misses a moonsault, and Shingo hits him with the Blood Fall (Burning Hammer). Hulk hits Generico with the pump-handle driver. Shingo and Hulk team up for their Doomsday Springboard Wheel Kick. Steen makes the save but gets wiped out by a moonsault from Hulk. That leaves Shingo alone with Generico. Generico survives a Super DVD and no-sells a lariat. Shingo finally gets serious and finishes with the Last Falconry at 17:49. These were two of the top performing teams of the previous night, so it’s probably no surprise that they had a match that was on par with the previous night’s action. I like the powerhouse/quick guy dynamic from both teams, and Generico seemed more vicious than he has since the feud with the Briscoes. **** In the back, we see Stevens finishing the job started by the No Remorse Corps as he shaves the rest of his Mohawk. ROH World Heavyweight Title: Nigel McGuinness vs. Austin Aries. These two had a great match at the PPV, and then Aries had to work his way back into contention. Nigel attacked Aries in FIP, upping the ante. They trade mat holds early, and Nigel hits a back elbow to an unsuspecting Aries. Aries tries to set up for the Last Chancery (I guess they’ve dropped “the Horns of Aries” as the finisher name). Nigel heads out, and Aries considers hitting him with a suicida – the same move that knocked Nigel senseless back in December. Nigel sees him coming, though, and runs away. Back in, Aries briefly locks in the Last Chancery and knees Nigel in the head. He targets Nigel’s leg, but Nigel grabs a handful of face to come back. Nigel tosses Aries’ shoulder into the post. Now, Nigel has the opening to go after the shoulder. Aries comes back with the tomahawk chop, but his shoulder is hurt. He goes for the Brainbuster, but he can’t lift Nigel up. Nigel is able to block and hit an arm-wringer to put Austin down. That sets up the London Dungeon, but Aries is in the ropes. Aries catches him in the Last Chancery, but Nigel rakes the eyes to get out of it. Nigel goes for the Tower of London, but Aries rakes the eyes this time. Nigel gets it on the second try, but it only gets two. The flying lariat misses, and Aries locks in a Tarantula Headscissors. Aries hits the running dropkick on the outside and then hits THREE MORE back in the ring. Nigel tries a headstand, so Aries hits ANOTHER dropkick to the face. Aries charges, but Nigel turns around and LEVELS him with a lariat. They tease a double KO, but they both make it up at nine. They slap it out, and Aries blocks cuts off the Jawbreaker Lariat. The 450-splash misses, though, and Nigel locks in the London Dungeon. Aries starts to move to the ropes, so Nigel yanks him back to the middle of the ring and reapplies it. Aries reverses to a rollup for two and then applies the Last Chancery. Nigel reverses that to the London Dungeon and pulls Aries to the center of the ring. Aries reverses to another rollup and punts Nigel in the face. That sets up the Brainbuster and 450-splash! ONE, TWO, THRE-foot on the ropes. Everyone thought that was it. Nigel ducks out and threatens to walk, so Aries tries his suicida. Nigel ducks out of the way, sending Aries into the railing. Aries is out, so Nigel sets him up on the railing and hits a lariat just to piss people off. Aries is seemingly unconscious, so Nigel rolls him in and covers. ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Starting to reach overkill at this point. A short-arm lariat gets two. Nigel sets up for another lariat, but Aries counters to a Crucifix Bomb. Nigel staggers back and rebounds with the Jawbreaker Lariat for the win at 24:44. This one was fantastic, but it ran out of steam about 3-4 minutes early when Aries missed that suicida. The fans were on fire before that, and they just seemed (comparatively) deflated afterwards. Nevertheless, this was a fine match, and there were a few times that it legitimately seemed like Aries had won the title. **** After the match, Aries is still recovering as the Age of the Fall come down. Jacobs offers to be Aries’ personal Jesus. Aries doesn’t answer, so Lacey offers to show him the benefits of membership. Jimmy really doesn’t like that and tries to keep her from going. She assures him that she knows what she’s doing, but now here comes Tammy Sytch to question Aries’ sanity if he is truly considering picking Lacey. Aries answers by leaving with Lacey in hand. That leaves Tammy alone with the AOTF. Black and Jacobs hold her while Rain slaps her around. The Briscoes make the save. Nigel McGuinness begs for more competition. Dragon Gate Six-Man: Dragon Kid, CIMA & Ryo Saito vs. Genki Horiguchi, Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino. Doi, Yoshino and Horiguchi make up the Muscle Outlaw’z. Kid, CIMA & Saito are Typhoon. Leonard notes that this is basically a rematch of the first Supercard of Honor main event only with CIMA and Horiguchi switching allegiances. Dragon Kid and CIMA do a reversal of their usual roles with Kid headscissoring CIMA into a cannonball. The Outlaw’z take over on Dragon Kid, and Yoshino puts him in a Mr. Salty. He lets that go in favor of a crucifix for two. Saito tries to help out, but it backfires. Kid gets out of trouble with the 619. CIMA cleans house, but his Mad Splash finds the knees. Dragon Kid works in his multi-rotation headscissors. Typhoon works in the stretcher doublestomp, and CIMA adds a lungblower. The Outlaws catch up with them and hit the missile dropkick into a senton spot. Doi blocks a huracanrana and holds DK for Yoshino’s dropkick. Yoshino and Dragon Kid both lock in Octopus Stretches and take shots at each other. Are there opium dens in Japan? There must be to come up with something like that. Doi and Saito make the save. They work in the sunset flip into a powerbomb spot. Everyone rattles off finishers. Typhoon tries the stacked huracanrana spot, but Doi counters to a powerbomb on Dragon Kid. ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! CIMA sets Yoshino on top and hits the Super Perfect Driver (Super Fisherman’s Buster). ONE, TWO, THR-NO! Yoshino blocks a powerbomb, but CIMA hits a Schwein. That’s followed by a German Suplex from Saito. Dragon Kid goes for the kill with a springboard huracanrana. Doi sets up for Super Doi Fives, but Dragon Kid elbows out of it. Doi stays with it and hits it anyway. Sliding kick! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Horiguchi hits Dragon with the Axe Piledriver, and Doi finishes with the Muscle Driver at 25:44. Whew! This was not quite on the level of their marvelous match two years ago, but it was close to their 2007 match, which was also excellent. Spotfests can be tremendous fun if there is creativity and execution to them, and Dragon Gate always seems to bring that. ****1/4 After the match, Genki Horiguchi has to ruin everyone’s fun by getting pissed at his partners for shaking hands. Yep, he’s “that guy.” Sweeney celebrates and cackles. The gist: it’s on!

The 411: Hey, it's called a supercard for a reason. Outside of the first few matches, this one is about as stacked as any card in wrestling history, let alone ROH history. As far as wrestling is concerned, this is on par with Bash '89, Canadian Stampede, and Backlash '00. It even has some angle advancement with the Lacey/AOTF/Austin Aries triangle. The only things keeping it out of the elite shows of all time are the fact that a lot of the matches are similar due to the Dragon Gate all having a similar style and that it doesn't have a huge emotional blowoff. Best show of the year so far, though, and probably in the top five ROH shows. Enthusiastic thumbs up.

Final Score:  9.5   [  Amazing ]