Dark Pegasus Video Review: Ring of Honor — Final Countdown Tour: Dayton

Ring of Honor — Final Countdown Tour: Dayton by J.D. Dunn Twitter.com/jddunn411 Brightkite.com/jddunn411 Facebook.com/jddunn411 Examiner.com Oooh, new DVD theme music. Truly the start of a new era. This would be the first DVD produced in-house by ROH. Ari called it a “mixed bag,” which is true but also very kind. Gone is Lenny Leonard, who did a lot of the production stuff as part of the myriad of promotions he works on. Replacing him on commentary is Chris Hero, and Prazak slides over to the play-by-play position (not that there’s any difference anymore). The audio is up-and-down. You have the option of turning the commentary on and off. Leave it on, and you can’t hear the crowd. Leave it off, and it there’s nothing but awkward silence in parts. Speaking of awkward, the editing really needs work. Part of the reason is the hard camera position is so blurry, but another part of it is that the editor just doesn’t seem to have a feel for the flow of watching wrestling. It’s one of those things that you don’t notice until it’s done badly. Nice transitions, though. All that said, I think the new control they have makes it worth it. Think of it as taking one step back so they can take two steps forward. September 18, 2009 From Dayton, Ohio. Your hosts are Dave Prazak and Chris Hero. Opening Match: Eddie Edwards (w/Shane Hagadorn) vs. Brent Albright. This is a fine performance by Edwards, who gets overshadowed by his partner in terms of singles performances. If you’ve ever seen him in 2CW or in some of his other indie performances, you know that he is an accomplished performer – all of the Benoit technique with a fraction of the intensity. They trade various armbars on the mat, and Edwards hits a flying Codebreaker to send Albright to the floor. Back in, Edwards works him over, pilfering quite a bit of dickishness from Richards’ act. That Richards boy down the street has been a bad influence on you Eddie… I approve. Albright catches Edwards going for a springboard DDT and turns it into a belly-to-belly suplex. Nice. That sets up an exploder to the floor and a tope that wipes out both Edwards and Hagadorn. Back in again, Edwards takes him down into the half-crab, but Albright reverses to the Crowbar. Hagadorn distracts the ref while Davey Richards runs down. The American Wolves hit the superkick/German combo, and Edwards gets the win at 14:42. I’m glad to see the Wolves actually getting singles wins out of their tandem too. Too often, tag team wrestlers are singles fodder. Edwards looks like he’ll be just fine if the team ever breaks up. **3/4 The Dark City Fight Club cuts a promo from the parking lot about reclaiming their momentum. The Dark City Fight Club vs. The House of Truth (w/Truth Martini). The DCFC are babyfaces here, which is an odd choice. I know that the tag division is stacked on the heel side, but it’s not like there’s a dearth of babyfaces – you’ve got Steenerico, the Young Bucks, and the Briscoes. The story is when it’s a fair fight, they slaughter the HOT. If the HOT can get the numbers advantage, though, they cheat like bastards to gain the edge. Jon Davis brutalizes them once he gets the hot tag. POUNCE!!! The DCFC hit a wheelbarrow/Ace Crush combo, but HOT jumps Chavis. Able hits him with the Ki Krusher, and HOT work in a Sliced Bread DDT. That gets two. Josh Raymond goes all crazy with a Shooting Star Spear. Now that’s just stupid. It only gets two. Raymond goes up again, but by that time, Davis has recovered, and Raymond jumps right into Project Mayhem at 11:57. The HOT have a plethora of interesting moves and a certain indie charm. I don’t know if they’ll make much of a mark, but they’re fun to watch. Glad to have the ass-kicking DCFC back. Not sure about this babyface thing, though. **3/4 Claudio Castagnoli says Tyler Black got scared and bowed out. He doesn’t blame Black. He sometimes scares himself with his awesomeness. In truth, Castagnoli-as-mild-mannered-Eurosnob is pretty cool. Jimmy Rave (w/Prince Nana) vs. Grizzly Redwood. Grizzly takes a hard bump very soon into the match, catching his ribs on the ring apron. Back in, he tries to fight back but runs right into a spear. Grizzly reverses Ghanarhea to a small package for two and mounts a comeback, so Rave nails him with a chain for the DQ at 3:27. I’m noticing a lot more upset DQs lately. Not that it’s good or bad either way. * Jimmy tries to strangle Grizzly with the chain, so Necro Butcher runs down and buries Jimmy under chairs and garbage. The refs get in his way, so Necro DESTROYS one with a chairshot. They should really pay Necro’s violence off with some sort of punishment, otherwise it’s just random violence for no real reason. I know that’s what Necro is all about, but that kind of unfettered lawlessness needs some counterbalance. Claudio Castagnoli vs. Davey Richards (w/Shane Hagadorn). This was supposed to be Claudio vs. Tyler Black. I can’t remember why Black wasn’t at the show – either injury or travel problems. Black’s loss is ROH’s gain, though, as they get to showcase Davey as a potential babyface (albeit one by default). This is the first time he’s really played this role since 2006. Claudio works the back for the most part, but Davey roars back with kicks and an INSANE rolling suicida. Back in, Davey hits the handspring kick for two. Claudio catches him in a freakin’ no-hands airplane spin, though. Big pop for that. Claudio hits a German Suplex, but Davey comes out of it with the Kimura. Claudio makes the ropes. This time, Davey hits the German into the Kimura, but Claudio makes the ropes again. Claudio catches him with a wicked flying kick. Davey with the reverse kick, but Claudio hits the pop-up European uppercut. That sets up the Ricolabomb, but Davey counters in mid-move to the Code Red! ONE, TWO, THREE! Davey makes it a sweep for the Wolves at 15:55. The crowd loves both guys to death after the match, but Davey gets the “Next World champ” chant. Fantastic work all around. Claudio seems to have regained his fundamental sense of purpose. Davey was Davey. ***3/4 The Briscoe Bros. vs. The Young Bucks. Well, this should be interesting. The Bucks open up with a series of doubleteams on Mark’s arm. Jay tags in and gets more doubleteams. A front flip neckbreaker drops Jay right on his head, which would be the first time that a Briscoe was crippled by someone other than himself. The Bucks hit that spiffy fake-out into a corkscrew plancha move, but Jay makes them pay with a vicious spinebuster on Matt. Matt comes back with a nifty twisting neckbreaker on Jay. Jay gets his knees up to block More Bang for Your Buck, though, and the Briscoes finish Matt with the Doomsday Device at 18:01. This was, not surprisingly, pretty spotty, but in a good way. The comparisons to the Hardy Boyz are valid as the Bucks not only have some great tandem maneuvers, but they bump extraordinarily well for their opponents. ***1/4 Rasche Brown vs. Silas Young. New trend, the matches are JIP (slightly after the bell). Silas looks like he might actually give Rasche a match early, but Rasche makes with the power moves. The Burning Hammer finishes at 3:10. Another in a long line of Rasche squashes. 1/2* Colt Cabana & Petey Williams vs. Austin Aries & Rhett Titus. Rhett Titus joins in on the Colt Cabana comedy hour early. Aries gets all serious, though, and turns the tide for his team. Rhett busts out the “sexiest suplex in wrestling.” Rhett gets busted open at some point, and the faces work in the swinging Ace Crusher doubleteam. Aries clips Petey’s knee and goes to work on it with LOCOMOTION KNEEBREAKERS! Petey plays face-in-peril as the heels work over his knee. He blocks a charge, though, and backdrops Rhett to the floor. SPLAT! That was a harsh landing. Aries charges, but Petey sends him into Rhett with the heat-seeking missile. Colt gets the hot tag and moonsaults on the heels. Petey has to save him from the Last Chancery, though. A series of reversals leads to Petey hitting Aries with the Canadian Destroyer. The fans want to see the Destroyer on Rhett, but he blocks. Boooo! Colt sneaks in and finishes him with the Colt .45, though (17:49). Could have done without the knee work that didn’t go anywhere, and it seemed like Colt was hogging the spotlight when they wanted Petey (check out the reactions for the Destroyer and Colt .45, respectively). It’s just a good comedy match to cleanse the pallet before the main event, though. **1/2 Chris Hero training video. Good add. Bryan Danielson vs. Chris Hero (w/Shane Hagadorn). Danielson was Hero’s first opponent all the way back in 2006 when Hero was part of the CZW invasion. Like that match, this one largely takes place on the mat early with Danielson viciously working over Hero’s arm. He switches up and goes to the legs eventually, just because he can. The gist of it is that he can do anything he wants to Hero any time he wants. Hero eventually catches him with a fluke roaring elbow that knocks Danielson to the floor, though. Hero controls for a little while, but it just seems to piss Danielson off. Dragon hits a diving headbutt to Hero’s shoulder, but Hero comes off the top with a blockbuster, though. To the floor, Hero tries to balance on the barricade, but Danielson shoves him into the crowd. PLANCHA!!!! Word to the wise: don’t try to catch the pro-wrestlers when you’re in the audience and they dive out into you. Just get out of the way. Back in, Danielson unleashes the TRAPPED ELBOWS! Repeatedly! Hero hulks up but runs right into a lightning legline. CATTLE MUTILATION! Hero makes the ropes. He goes for a powerbomb, but Danielson punches out of it and turns it into the face-stomp. That sets up the Triangle Choke, but Hero powers out and slams him. They slug it out with kicks and elbows, a battle that Hero eventually wins cleanly. The final elbow is enough to knock Danielson cold, and Hero gets the surprising win at 24:09. Even though he got thoroughly dominated, Hero was still made to look good as he was able to weather Danielson’s storm and keep coming back. The finish was good from a kayfabe perspective, but the fans looked more puzzled than anything when the ref counted the pin. Hopefully, Hero can maintain the standard of work that he’s set over the last half of 2009. ***1/2

The 411: Another good show as ROH starts to reclaim some of the momentum they lost over the summer. As with most of the shows of 2009, it's not a matter of having bad wrestling but more an issue of the shows being less than the sum of their parts. This flowed nicely, though, and despite some of my problems with the production of the DVD, the show came off well. Worth it for the matches involving the former Kings of Wrestling and the Briscoes/Bucks match. Thumbs up.

Final Score:  7.5   [ Good ]