Csonka’s Kevin Steen ROH 18th Anniversary Collection Review

Csonka’s Kevin Steen 18th Anniversary Collection Review

OFFICIAL RESULTS
– From ROH Border Wars 5.12.12: Kevin Steen defeated Champion Davey Richards @ 24:27 via pin [****¼]
– From ROH Final Battle 2012: Champion Kevin Steen defeated El Generico @ 28:00 [****¼]
– From ROH War of the Worlds 5.17.14: Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Kevin Steen @ 12:50 via pin [***¾]

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Kevin Steen vs. Champion Davey Richards: Jimmy Jacobs is out with Steen as Corino joins commentary, They face off as the crowd is already into this, wanting Steen to win. Steen teases the package piledriver, they trade, as Richards dumps Steen and follows with a suicide dive. They brawl on the floor, with Richards controlling as they roll back in and Steen cuts off Richards with the draping DDT. Steen controls on the floor, repeatedly slamming Richards to the barricades. He crotches Richards on the post, and does it again. Steen bites him as they work to the apron. Richards counters into an apron XPLODER, and back in, covers for 2. Richards follows with kicks, and looks to ground things, attacking the leg with submissions holds. Richards then follows with kicks, and the crowd hates him, chanting “fuck you Richards & same old shit.” Steen fires back, but Richards dumps him, takes out Jacobs until Steen hits the apron bomb. He hits another and back in, Steen hits the cannonball for 2. He heads up top, but is favoring his leg and Richards cuts him off, and they battle up, top trading head butts until Steen’s senton eats knees. Richards follows with a German, lariat and covers for 2. He follows with strikes, kicks, they trade and Steen cuts him off with a lariat. They trade, Richards unloads with a flurry until Steen hits the OG last shot for 2. Steen puts in Richards’ mouthpiece and they trade again. Eye rake by Steen, but Richards takes out the knee but runs into a pop up powerbomb and the sharpshooter follows. Richards makes the ropes, Steen favors his knee, but fires up until Richards follows with dragon screws and works the leg in the ropes. He follows with a top rope double stomp and another for 2. The ankle lock follows; Steen escapes and cradles him for 2. Richards counters and follow with the DR driver for 2. Steen struggles to his feet. Richards follows with Kawada kicks and Steen slaps the shit out of him, they trade and the F-cinq for 2. The moonsault follows and the delayed cover gets 2. Steen continues to rally, Richards counters the package piledriver and follows with the running kick for 2. Richards head kicks Steen, Steen spits at him so he kicks him again. Steen counters into an ankle lock, but Richards counters and he gets the ankle lock. Steen fights, counters and gets the sharpshooter. Richards counters out and gets the ankle lock back. but Steen fights to the ropes and sends Richards to the exposed buckle. The sleeper suplex and package piledriver finally connects and we have a new champion! Kevin Steen defeated Champion Davey Richards @ 24:27 via pin [****¼] To me, Davey Richards was such a frustrating performer at times, for as skilled as he was, he was often really uneven in his performances, but he brought it here in this match. It’s great overall, with a great crowd and a strong story of Steen fighting through all the work Richards did to his leg all because the ROH World title meant so much to him (as this was said to be his one and only chance at Richards’ title), which was nicely juxtaposed against Richards’ work out of desperation as he feared losing the championship.

LADDER WAR: Champion Kevin Steen vs. El Generico: This is ladder war. They brawl the bell, Generico scores with the tornado DDT, helluva kick and a tope. Back in and Generico has a ladder. He nails Steen, throws it at him and then bites Steen’s hand. He follows with a ladder shot, another but Steen fires back, rakes the eyes and backdrops Generico through a ladder. Steen then talks some shit and beats down Generico with the ladder. The ladder assisted cannonball follows, and Steen continues with ladder shots. Steen just doesn’t give a shit and wants to hurt this young man. Steen takes a bow as he abuses Generico, promising to fucking break Generico. To the floor and Steen continues to dominate the action, talks shit to the fans and back in, Steen cuts off Generico and whips him into a ladder. Steen gets a bigger ladder, nails Generico and Generico is down on the floor. Steen looks to climb, but Generico grabs at him, pulls him down and follows with an XPLODER onto another ladder. Generico looks to climb, Steen stops him but Generico kills him with a sleeper suplex onto a ladder. He climbs and Steen topples over the ladder, Generico hits the buckles and they trade, Steen cuts off the lucha arm drag and dumps him. Steen climbs, Generico stops him and is dumped again. Generico fires up, is dumped, Steen follows and whips him to the barricades. He makes a ladder bridge, gets a table and nails Generico with it. He sets it on the ladder bridge, and Generico counters the powerbomb and backdrops Steen through the table/ladder bridge. Generico calls for an even bigger ladder, slides it in and back in, Steen cuts him off with F-cinq through a table at ringside. Steen climbs, Generico slowly joins him, and sets up another ladder, hitting Steen to cut him off. They make a three ladder bridge and The powerbomb onto it follows. Generico battles back, hitting the package piledriver and slowly starts to climb as the crowd allies him. Steen manages to cut him off, and adds another ladder to the contraption, which now involves four ladders. He climbs, Generico follows, they trade and Steen low blows Generico; the package piledriver through the ladders follows and… he’s dead, Jim. Steen retains. Champion Kevin Steen defeated El Generico @ 28:00 [****¼] This was great and everything you want from a Steen vs. Generico match. I know some came away disappointed, because while a great match, the 2010 Final Battle is the superior Final Battle Clash between these two and the “SteenWolf” PWG match is also better. The ladder war gimmick I actually think hurt the match a bit, as the match is usually a tag affair, and with singles, you get that unwanted downtime. But while some may find it disappointing that it wasn’t a 5 star match, it’s still great, violent, paid tribute to their history, and I find it to be a great way to definitively end their ROH story and to send Generico back to Mexico to care for the little orphans. But in some form or another, they were destined to do this forever.

Kevin Steen vs. Shinsuke Nakamura: They shake hands, Steen attacks and they trade as Nakamura takes control and drops Steen. Good vibrations follows and Steen tells him to calm down, fearing Nakamura is having a seizure. He follows with chops, a back elbow and elbow strikes. Steen controls, and the suplex follows for 2. He follows with a dropkick for 2. Steen delivers chops, dumps Nakamura and then misses the apron cannonball as Nakamura casually walks away from it. Nakamura follows with knee strikes, taking control. He misses an apron knee drop, and Steen follows with an apron bomb. Back in and they trade, lighting each other up until Nakamura hits an enziguri. Steen quickly cuts him off with the DDT, and the running senton gets 2. Steen misses the cannonball, Nakamura works good vibrations until Steen cuts him off and he does good vibrations and follows with the cannonball for 2. Nakamura counters back with the spin kick, knee strikes and covers for 2. Nakamura delivers grounded knee strikes. follows with the guillotine, and Steen counters until Nakamura locks on the sleeper. Steen escapes, countering into a suplex and both men are down. Nakamura counters the package piledriver and the backstabber follows, and the reverse XPLODER connects. Steen counters boma ye into a pop up powerbomb for 2. Nakamura fights of the package piledriver, they work up top and Steen hits the avalanche twister for 2. Steen is shocked. Nakamura slips out of the package piledriver and hits boma ye, and another boma ye for 1! Nakamura hits one more and picks up the win. Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Kevin Steen @ 12:50 via pin [***¾] This was a very good match, more of a Nakamura style match than the typical Steen match, but it flowed really well and it was fun to go back and se a motivates Nakamura, even if it wasn’t a top tier match. Sometimes when you get two talented guys in the ring together, good things happen with ease, and this seemed to be the case here. Nakamura looked great in victory, Steen looked like a valiant face fighting off the big Boma Ye knees until the third finally took him out. A few months later, in August, Steen signed with WWE. The crowd was great here.

The 411 on Wrestling Podcast returns to the 411 Podcasting Network for episode 106. On the show, 411’s Larry Csonka &, Jerome Cusson, & Ian Hamilton break down the uncertain state of NXT UK, how the brand will continue through the current pandemic & then talk Dark Side of The Ring: Brawl For All. The show is approximately 121-minutes long.

* Intro
* Looking at the Uncertain State of NXT UK w/Ian Hamilton: 2:00
* >Dark Side of the Ring: Brawl For All Review w/Jerome Cusson: 1:12:03

* iTunes
* Spotify
* Stitcher
* Google Play

– End Scene.

– Thanks for reading.

8.5

The final score: review Very Good

The 411

Clocking in at around 80-minutes, the Kevin Steen ROH 18th Anniversary Collection is rather great and shines light on some of his great work for that company. It’s not the very best of Steen in ROH, but is worth the watch.