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Dark Pegasus Video Review: Ring of Honor — Final Battle 2005
May 19, 2007 | Posted by
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| Ring of Honor — Final Battle 2005 by J.D. Dunn So, let’s catch up with the goings-on in 2005. Bryan Danielson, one of the ROH originals, finally won the title after years of trying. Of course, he immediately became an asshole afterward. Speaking of assholes, Nigel McGuinness has been tormenting poor Claudio Castagnoli and keeping the Pure Title just out of reach. Meanwhile, Jay Lethal had enough of being Samoa Joe’s protégé and turned on him during a respect match at the last show. Christopher Daniels returned after a 16-month absence but found a resentful BJ Whitmer, his former stablemate, waiting for him. Elsewhere, Generation Next finished off the Embassy at “Steel Cage Warfare,” and now Austin Aries and Roderick Strong are focused on winning the ROH Tag Team Titles. Tonight, NOAH aces KENTA and Naomichi Marafuji are visiting, so this show will have quite the international flavor. Quickie sequence off a Rave wristlock to start. MCAT grabs a bow-and-arrow before settling on a headlock. Rave shoves him off, but Milano swings around and catches him in a modified Octopus. He ties Rave in the ropes with a Paradise Lock and dropkicks him to the floor. Back in, MCAT settles into a chinlock, but Rave backs him to the corner and drives his shoulder to the gut. Rave avoids Milano’s effort to slip over him and hits him with a lariat in the back of the head. One of the worst Northern Lights Suplexes in wrestling history follows as Milano just kind of flops facefirst on the mat. He makes up for it with the running dropkick from the floor to the apron. That’s an incredible move. Back inside, Rave grabs a neck vise and tilt-o-whirls into the Crippler Crossface. Why don’t they make a big deal about him stealing that one? MCAT makes the ropes, allowing Nana to get his own shots in. He turns to talk to the crowd, though, so Milano hits a sliding dropkick to send him to the crowd barrier. He adds an enzuigiri to Rave and sentons him. The flying crossbody gets two, but Rave catches him with the uranage backbreaker and Ghanarrhea for two. Milano cartwheels into a clothesline and hits a standing Shining Wizard that probably should have been the end, but Rave counters the Tiger Driver to a running knee and finishes with the Greetings from Ghana (the Pedigree) at 14:45. Sloppy spots dragged this one down, but it was definitely an energetic opener that got the crowd in it. **3/4 This was supposed to be Colt vs. Homicide, but the Notorious 187 has an injured shoulder. Azrieal wants to do a comedy match, but Colt is now deadly serious thanks to nearly getting killed by Homicide. Azrieal tries to use Colt’s own “try to shoulderblock me” trick, but Colt slaps him into next week. Colt tries to twist Azrieal’s head off and tells the crowd to expect no mercy. Azrieal comes back with a Cradle Shock for two, but Colt hits a flying shoulderblock and missile dropkick to set up a WICKED lariat at 7:19. Azrieal’s new character seems to be more of a babyface version of Eddie Gilbert, which is never a bad thing. Using Azrieal as a substitute was actually a great booking move because it established the difference between the old, happy-go-lucky Colt and the new, darker Cabana. It was pretty awkward, though. *3/4 After the match, Homicide and Ricky Reyes interrupt to explain that he’s gonna be out for six months thanks to Steve Corino. Homicide warns Cabana not to interfere in his vendetta with Corino or he’ll get fucked up…and that’s a shoot. Since Nigel is a big cheater, two referees have been assigned to this one to ensure things are fair. Nigel does a lot of showboating and mocks Claudio early. Claudio gets sick of that and skids a palm strike right off Nigel’s forehead. Nigel backs Claudio to the corner and uses a closed fist as Todd Sinclair is trying to separate them, but he claims Claudio used a fist on him. Outside official Paul Turner corrects the record, though, giving a warning to Nigel. Claudio grabs a headlock to shield Nigel from the ref’s view and gives him a closed-fist punch to the face, so Nigel tries the same thing and gets caught by Turner. That costs him a ropebreak. See, THAT’S how you work stipulations. They exchange holds, and Nigel pushes off the ropes to get out of a wristlock. The inside ref misses it, but the outside ref catches him and takes away his second ropebreak. Nigel is flustered, so Claudio is able to get two off a backslide and two more off a Majestral Cradle. Nigel ducks to the floor to quell Claudio’s momentum. Claudio gets sick of his stalling, so he tries a suicida, but Nigel pulls the second ref in the way. Ah, now Nigel can get away with all his cheating because he only has to outwit Todd Sinclair. Make your own joke. Claudio also injures his shoulder on the dive, allowing Nigel to take over and work the arm. He actually wraps Claudio’s arm around the ropes, costing Claudio a ropebreak. An armbar forces Claudio to use his second break. Claudio blocks the handstand mulekick, though, and roars back with forearm uppercuts. He can’t hit the Ricolabomb because of the injured shoulder, but he backdrops out of the Hammerlock Divorce Court. Nigel blocks a superplex, but Claudio follows up with an uppercut and Nigel’s own Tower of London. ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Nigel uses his last ropebreak to save the title. He rebounds but “accidentally” takes out the referee with a clothesline. Nigel grabs his trusty iron, but Claudio blocks. Nigel tries to improvise with the Eddy Guerrero trick of tossing the weapon to his opponent and pretending to be knocked out. The ref is still out, though, so basically he just gave Claudio a weapon. Claudio smashes Nigel with it as Todd Sinclair recovers. ONE, TWO, THREE! New Pure Champion at 14:37. Oh, but outside official Paul Turner recovers and tells Sinclair about Claudio’s cheating, and they reverse the decision, handing the title back to Nigel. A lot of people were upset about the Dusty Finish, but this was the best one since Jericho-HHH, and it was creatively worked. Both guys really sold the psychology of the match and stipulations too. Good stuff. ***1/2 Nana knocks out Corino’s personal ring announcer, triggering a brawl. Corino avoids a corner charge and starts ripping at Shelley’s face. To the floor, Shelley reverses a whip and sends Corino to the barrier. Back in, Shelley works the shoulder with a hammerlock. They slug it out to a draw, but Shelley recovers first. Shelley is SO underutilized in TNA. Nana distracts the ref while Shelley stomps Corino’s shoulder and wedges a chair in the corner. He tries to send Corino’s shoulder into the chair, but Corino reverses, sending Shelley headfirst into the chair. Corino slugs his way back but winds up in a cross-armlock. Corino makes the ropes and catches Shelley going up. Shelley fights him off, though, and comes off with a single-arm DDT for two and then floats over into another cross-armlock. Corino makes the ropes and gets a desperation enzuigiri and STO. Nana grabs Corino, but a heel doubleteam backfires, and Corino hits the Northern Lights Bomb on Shelley. Nana takes out the ref, which is not a DQ for some odd reason, and gets chased outside by Corino. Steve readies the arm for a lariat, but Shelley blocks and reverses to a rollup for the upset win at 11:06. Breezy little **1/2 match that had no real story behind it. In fact, it just served to get Corino out to the ring for… Homicide rushes the ring and stomps Corino down immediately following the bell. He grabs a big bottle of DRANO, but Colt Cabana makes the save and tells Homicide that’s a little over the line. Homicide makes good on his promise and “fucks Cabana up” by dumping the Drano in Cabana’s mouth. Cabana induces his own vomiting as the ROH students make the save. Now THAT’S a heel beatdown. So, just to recap: Lethal hates Joe for making more money than he does and keeping him in his shadow, Daniels and Joe hate each other for costing each other the ROH Title as well as stuff that happened in TNA, Whitmer hates Daniels for leaving him in the lurch back in the Prophecy days. Lethal ducks out of the ring so Joe can’t get at him. That leaves Whitmer vs. Joe. Joe no-sells and moidalizes him with kicks. Yeah, Bugs Bunny was on this morning when I got up. Jay refuses a tag, so Lethal tags Daniels in. Joe dominates but gets kicked from the outside by Lethal. Jay tosses Joe into the railing and assumes his spot in the match. Whitmer low-bridges the ropes, spilling Daniels to the floor. Whitmer and Lethal form a tentative partnership, isolating Daniels, as they take turns choking him out. Lethal hits his floating dropkick to the back of the head. The Arabian Press misses, allowing Lacey to choke Daniels on the ropes as Whitmer distracts the ref. Allison has enough of that and tosses Lacey in for a brief catfight. Whitmer gets tagged with an enzuigiri, forcing him to tag to Joe. Lethal gets distracted, jawing with Joe, allowing Daniels to tag him in. OH, IT’S ON! Joe destroys Lethal and screams, “I’m rich, bitch!” Whitmer finally cuts Joe off and hits an Exploder. Joe comes back with the DVD for two, but Lethal breaks up the count. Daniels drops Lethal with the Flatliner and gets caught calling for the moonsault. Lethal fights off the Iconoclasm and hits a spinebuster for two. Indeed, Daniels comes back with a uranage and hits the Best Moonsault Ever. Whitmer breaks up the count but gets tossed by Joe, leaving Joe vs. Daniels to slug it out. Lethal and Whitmer try to interfere and get caught by Joe and Daniels in stereo nearfalls. Lethal swings the X-Division title at Joe, but Joe ducks and gives Daniels the Musclebuster on the X-Title. The ref is distracted on the outside, so Whitmer smashes Joe with a chair, knocking him out of the match. Lethal dropkicks Whitmer away and finishes Daniels with the flying headbutt at 15:04. Lethal runs away before Joe can get his hands on him. ***1/4 We cut into this match to see Steve Corino complaining about how dangerous Homicide is and says he’s leaving ROH because it’s an unsafe working environment. I can’t help but think we’ve been through this before. We come back to find Reyes firing kicks at Andrews. Davey fires back and hits a Stunner, but Reyes holds on and grabs a Dragon Sleeper to finish at 2:19. Reyes smashes the Top of the Class Trophy, but Austin Aries chases him out of the ring. Aries says Rocky Romero carried Reyes anyway and the only time Reyes is over is when he’s drunk. OH SNAP! Reyes lets Smokes drag him to the back but promises this ain’t over. This was the first step in the resurgence of the ROH tag division, which was arguably in the gutter ever since Dan Maff left the promotion after his “car accident.” I know Mamaluke is a legitimately good shooter, but those “Manson lamps” of his just make him look goofy. He starts with Roderick, and they do a nice little sequence, exchanging chops and rollups. Mamaluke counters a schoolboy to a triangle choke. Strong powers out, though, and Rinauro tags himself in and gets killed by doubleteams from GenNext. Roderick fires off a series of chops and lets Aries hit the corner dropkick. Aries gets backdropped to the apron where Mamaluke yanks him off the apron on Aries’ slingshot attempt. He starts slamming Aries’ head into the barrier repeatedly. VICIOUS~! Mamaluke tags in and hits a backdrop suplex into a cross-armlock. Aries rolls to the ropes. Mamaluke mocks Strong by holding Aries’ hand out. Rinauro tags in and covers Aries, so Strong chops him in the gut to break it up. Strong is so much cooler as a grumpy ass-kicker rather than a genial babyface. Mamaluke grabs a leglock, but Aries counters to a neck vise. Mamaluke hits his own weak chop and gets booed for it. Strong gets the hot tag and cleans house, hitting Rinauro with the Butterfly into a backbreaker. He tries the press backbreaker, but Rinauro counters to a rana for two. Aries tags in, but Mamaluke breaks up the 450-splash with a superplex. Rinauro adds a springboard splash for two. Strong comes back in and destroys Mamaluke with the tilt-o-whirl backbreaker. Strong gets dropkicked to the floor, and the champs set up for their doubleteam spiked DDT on Aries. Strong takes out Rinauro with a flying kick, allowing Aries to hit the Brainbuster on Mamaluke and finish Rinauro with the 450-splash to pick up a title in his second straight Final Battle at 18:20. At first, I thought this was way too long, but with most of it being GenNext fiendishly kicking the crap out of Rinauro, it was quite entertaining. Sadly, this was Mamaluke and Rinauro’s best match, but it was much too late to do any good. Long live the new champs. ***1/4 Danielson wins a test of strength, but Marufuji rolls through, steps on Danielson’s hands, and spanks him. See, Marufuji can be just as much of a dick as Danielson. They chop it out, a battle that Danielson loses. Marufuji misses a dropkick and gets Jackknifed for two. They both go for dropkicks and stare each other down. Danielson offers a handshake and slaps Marufuji in the face, so Marufuji slaps him back and chops his chest. Danielson backs off a bit but puts Marufuji in a Dragon Sleeper. Marufuji flip flops out of a wristlock and nearly slips up on a slingshot dropkick. Marufuji slows things down with a front facelock and a shinni no make, then into a CFCW into a Dragon Sleeper. That’s a lot of segues. Danielson knees him in the head to get out of it. They brawl on the floor with Marufuji going into the barrier. Back in, Danielson grabs a Mexican Surfboard but refuses to do it again because the fans want it. Instead, he goes with a bridging figure-four leglock. Marufuji makes the ropes, but Danielson slaps him around and spikes him with a DDT. The traditional figure-four works the leg even more, and they slap each other around from the hold. Marufuji gets out of it, and things get chippy as they slap each other in the face. Danielson rips at Marufuji’s face. IHTFR! He backflips Tiger Mask-style over Marufuji, but the challenger catches him with a dropkick. Marufuji kicks him in the head to mock him, pissing Danielson off. Man, these guys are dicks! I love it! Danielson drops Marufuji to the floor and hits a suicida (nearly breaking his own ribs on the guardrail). A Stampedish missile dropkick from Danielson sets up a Butterfly Suplex for two. He sets up for a Backdrop Suplex, but Marafuji slips between his legs and crotches him into the tree-of-woe. Danielson tries to fight out of it but takes a dropkick to the face. He one-ups that with a spectacular springboard Van Terminator to Danielson while he’s in the tree-of woe. Fuck you, Van Dam! Danielson roars back with a rolling elbow and locks in the Cattle Mutilation. Marufuji makes the ropes only to get super…dramatic pause…backdropped by Danielson. CATTLE MUTILATION! Danielson rolls him over into the cover for two and goes for the Regalplex. SHIRANUI! Both guys are spent. Marufuji misses a superkick but backflips out of a German Suplex attempt. They go into a series of nearfall reversals until Danielson is able to flip Marufuji onto his shoulders and keep him down for a flukish three count at 23:44. Marufuji gets the “please come back” chant in the loss. The finish actually mirrors one from the Dynamite/Tiger Mask feud, so you know these guys did their homework, and it was something different, rather than the “Holy shit! Big move!” wins you usually see. This was disappointing to many, and while it wasn’t the MOTYC that many were expecting, it was still a high-quality match. ***3/4 Think we’ll see some stiff kicks in this one? These two actually teamed up in NOAH earlier in the year, and the result was pretty sweet. Thankfully, Ki goes back to his warrior persona rather than the gangsta gimmick that he’d played for the previous two years. The difference is like night and day in terms of match quality. They tie up stiffly and back into a corner where Ki suddenly snaps on a hanging armbar. Ki actually dominates early with a headscissors and a stiff chop up against the ropes. Even Kenta has to take a moment to sell that one. They start throwing stiff kicks at one another. A flying clothesline gets two for Kenta, and he works in that move where he slingshots back in and then mockingly gives Ki a little love tap in the head. Ki comes back with a Kappou Kick to take over. After about a half dozen kicks to the face, Ki locks in a bodyscissors. Kenta makes the ropes and comes back with a sunset flip, but Ki counters to his brutal double-stomp. Ki works the ribs with a reverse bearhug and then just kicks Kenta to the floor. Outside, he rams Kenta to the railing to the delight of at least one fan in the front row. Back in, Ki drop toeholds him on the ropes and hits a double-stomp to the back of the neck. That gets two. Kenta comes back with a powerslam and a missile dropkick for two. Ki tries to chop Kenta back to buy time, but Kenta grabs his arm, counters to a Butterfly Suplex, and floats over into a cross armlock. How can you not love pro-wrestling?! Ki is near the ropes, though. Kenta gets two off Falcon Arrow and sets up for a superplex, but Ki knocks him back into the tree-of-woe and delivers a sickening double-stomp to the face! GHETTO STOMP, BITCH! Ki pays homage to the Kobashi/Joe match earlier in the year with a series of machine gun chops in the corner. Kenta fires back with his trademark kick sequence, but Ki cuts him off with a springboard enzuigiri. Ki goes up, but Kenta BOUNDS to the top and delivers a SUPER FALCON ARROW! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! They struggle to their feet and slug it out with slaps to the face. Kenta wins that and gets two in a spot that mirrors Ki’s win over Joe a few years ago. Kenta bounces off the ropes and goes for a huracanrana, but Ki catches him and counters to the Ki Krusher for two. The Tidal Wave knocks Kenta silly, but Kenta reverses another Ki Krusher to a Tiger Suplex. ONE, TWO, THR-NO! Kenta fires off a series of palm strikes, but Ki backs off and hits a gun packet dropkick to the chest. That sets up another double-stomp for two. The Phoenix Splash misses for Ki, opening him up for the Go 2 Sleep (Fireman’s Carry to a Knee Strike). It only gets two, but Kenta builds up steam and hits a flying knee strike to the head of a staggered Low Ki to pick up the win at 25:02. The crowd chants “Five-Star Match.” I can’t go quite that far, but this was still and awesome match filled with brutal kicks and manly violence that just made you cringe every time you see them. Ki very nearly returned to 2002 form here, and Kenta was game as always. The only knock I have on it is that there are at least three or four spots where you say, “Okay, that should be the end of the match,” but they keep going and raising the bar to where the finish can’t possibly live up to the build. The lightning knee is a pretty damned good attempt, though. Easy MOTYC. ****1/2 |
The 411: A very fun show that had a lot of lighthearted matches, a crazy heel beatdown with Homicide trying to kill Cabana, the start of GenNext's title reign, and a MOTYC. What else can you ask for really? Enthusiastic thumbs up. |
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| Final Score: 8.0 [ Very Good ] legend |
