Dark Pegasus Video Review: Ring of Honor – Scramble Cage Melee

Ring of Honor — Scramble Cage Melee
by J.D. Dunn

August 28, 2004

From Boston, Mass.

Your hosts are Jay Bower and Mark Nulty.

The Ringcrew Express cut a promo from the top of the ring truck.

In the back, Prince Nana welcomes back Jimmy Rave, his blue chipper, and berates Oman Tortuga for being a loser.

Jay Lethal vs. Alex Shelley (w/Aries, Strong & Evans)
Shelley was really starting to come into his own as a heel at this point. Lethal was just getting started as a serious star and actually turned down a spot in GenNext. He shows some good stuff early, but Shelley targets his leg throughout the match, and Lethal is never able to recover. Shelley shows real star potential here, working very crisply with innovation and exhibiting good personality. Lethal gets his Dragon Suplex, but it only gets two, and Shelley gets a Dragon Screw. Shelley doublestomps Lethal’s knee in a sickening spot and follows up with the figure-four. Lethal makes the ropes. A sloppy sequence sees Shelley wind up with an STF, but again, Lethal makes the ropes. Shelley gets a rollup with a handful of tights out of nowhere for the victory at 12:44. Didn’t really like the ending and the match was a bit one-sided, but Shelley’s legwork was tight. **1/2

The Carnage Crew cackle about the violence that’s going to happen in the Scramble Cage.

Contender’s Ring
1. Austin Aries
2. Bryan Danielson
3. John Walters
4. Alex Shelley
5. Jay Briscoe (suspended)

Jimmy Rave (w/Prince Nana & The Outcast Killaz) vs. Angel Dust (w/Special K).
Rave is kind of the Marcus Alexander Bagwell of Ring of Honor in that the fans turned on him because of his good looks and inexperience in the ring, so they made him a heel. There is a running inside joke that he’s using the Rave Clash, a copy of the Styles Clash, because AJ Styles was pulled from Ring of Honor by TNA. The “inside” part of it comes from the fact that Teddy Hart complained that AJ asked him not to do the move (which Hart apparently was using first) when they were on the same roster. Angel Dust is in the midst of a face turn, so he’s “more serious” here. Angel Dust misses a springboard flipping neckbreaker, and Rave gives him a hard powerbomb. Rave takes Angel Dust to the floor and does the “fake out the front row” spot where he pretends he’s going to throw him over the barrier and then stops short. Angel Dust makes him pay for it by booting him over the top. Back in, Angel Dust hits an Electric Chair Driver, so Nana gets on the house mic and distracts Angel Dust until Rave can recover and hit the Rave Clash at 10:50. **1/4

Ace Steel vs. Roderick Strong (w/Aries, Shelley & Evans).
GenNext attacked the Second City Saints after their brutal brawl with Dan Maff & BJ Whitmer to set this up. They come out very scrappy with one another, but Roderick eventually goes the cowardly route, ducking out of the ring after he slaps Ace. Steel busts out an Anaconda Vice (kind of like a reverse Crippler Crossface) and starts to work over Strong’s arm. Strong, of course, goes after the back, so it’s just a race to see who will injure the other person enough to get the win first. Ace wins a slap fight to come back and counters a cross-armed powerbomb into a Crucifix Armscissors for the tapout at 9:35. GenNext attacks Steel after the match, but Colt Cabana runs in and makes the save. He says he doesn’t want to wait for Austin Aries, he wants him right now. **1/4

Colt Cabana vs. Austin Aries (w/Strong & Shelley).
Jack Evans was injured in the brawl and dragged to the back by Ace Steel. This is decidedly different than Aries’ 70+ minute epic with Bryan Danielson. Cabana threatens to turn it into a comedy match early. Fortunately, he’s a pretty good wrestler too, so he doesn’t have to rely on goofy antics. They’re just the icing on the cake. Aries avoids a corner charge about five minutes in and takes over on Cabana’s shoulder. He goes for megaheat by stealing Cabana’s goggles and wearing them himself. Cabana avoids a suicide dive, but he gets cocky and accidentally chops the ringpost. GX buries him under one of the barrier plates, and Aries comes off the apron with a legdrop. Cabana is busted open and can’t see. At one point, he even rolls up the referee. Cabana comes back with jabs and the Schwein Neckbreaker. Aries stays on top, though, hitting a brainbuster and locking in the Rings of Saturn. Cabana refuses to tap, but he passes out from the pain and blood loss at 16:09. To make matters worse, they sandwich Colt’s arm, and Aries hits a 450-splash on it. CM Punk and Ace Steel return to make the save. The match was good and made better by the commentary that put over the storyline of Cabana’s bloodloss where other announcers would have brought it up and let it drop. ***

Ring of Honor Tag Championship: The Havana Pitbulls (w/Julius Smokes) vs. Izzy & Dixie (w/Special K)
Special K are subbing for Maff & Whitmer and are now “serious,” which doesn’t mean much more than they offer to shake hands. The challengers do their usual stuff, much of which involves the use of the words “flipping” or suicidal. Romero and Reyes dominate with their crisp New Japan moveset. Reyes hits a spinebuster on Izzy and locks in the sasurigatame. Dixie makes the save but gets caught in the Pitbulls corner. The Pitbulls finish with the Decapitation Knee Drop at 13:15. It was kind of like a tag version of Pegasus/Sasuke with Special K throwing as many flying moves as they could, but the Pitbulls were just too tough and too vicious to overcome. After the match, Special K threatens to explode as Lacey and Becky get into it. **1/2

Pure Title: Doug Williams vs. John Walters.
Before the match, Samoa Joe comes out to bitch about the existence of the Pure Title and says it means nothing compared to his title. Bower and Nulty compare Walters to the Boston Red Sox and their penchant for choking. That’s interesting, considering the outcome of the Series. Oddly enough, while they go back and forth for the first little bit, neither man tries to get the other man to use up his rope breaks, which seems to be the usual tactic for these matches. Walters gets the first big move with a kneebreaker across his shoulder and a follow-up Sharpshooter. That forces Williams to use a rope break. Walters forces him to use another one off an Indian Deathlock. Williams gets desperate and tries to grind the match to a halt with a front facelock. Walters lifts him over the ropes, costing him a rope break. Williams comes in with a nice slingshot neckbreaker. Williams locks in a crossface and evens things up where rope breaks are concerned. He forces Walters to use his final break with a chinlock as Bower again references the Red Sox choking. Williams goes for the win with a Dragon Suplex, but Walters catches him with a dropkick going up top. Williams rolls him up for two and hits the CHAOS THEORY, but it only gets two. Walters slingshots Williams into the ropes and grabs a legvine in the ropes for the submission at 18:46. Walters picks up the win and the title in front of his hometown crowd. I was looking for them to cut loose near the end, but it didn’t quite happen. It was more “make your opponent use his rope breaks and get the submission” with very little in between. What was here was fun, though. ***

Non-Title: Samoa Joe vs. CM Punk vs. Homicide (w/Julius Smokes).
Punk and Joe take turns desecrating Homicide’s Yankee shirt to impress the Boston crowd. Lots of the usual meaningless triple-threat match tradeoffs until Homicide decides to bring in a fork. Funny moment as Punk and Homicide struggle for the fork on the mat and Joe just stomps on their fingers and takes the fork away. Homicide takes a beating from Joe with a powerslam into a jujigatame. Joe no-sells a headbutt and hits a running tope to the floor. OLAY KICK! Joe takes that fork out of his boot and stabs Homicide in the head. Punk, meanwhile, has been chillin’ on the other side of the ring, but he ambushes Joe during a second Olay Kick. Punk wisely drags the bloody Homicide into the ring, but Homicide roars back with a pair of Dragon Screws and a figure-four leglock. Joe breaks up the figure-four but takes a backdrop driver to take him out again for a bit. Homicide and Punk botch a spot and wind up going through a table before they’re ready, so Homicide improvises with a piledriver on the floor! Joe recovers and locks Homicide in an STF while stabbing him with the fork! It segues to a crossface, but Joe’s hands keep slipping off because there’s so much blood. All three men hit each other with moves for a triple KO tease. They recover and start using each other’s finishers (Homicide with the Hammerlock DDT on Punk, Joe with the Ace Crusher on Homicide, and Punk with the knees and Coquina Clutch on Joe). Now, they take turns countering their own finishers as Punk squirms out of a Homicide Pepsi Plunge and Homicide fights out of a Joe Ace Crusher. Punk goes up and hits the PEPSI PLUNGE ON JOE! Homicide is cagey, though, taking out Punk with a lariat and getting the pin on Joe himself at 19:39. I’m not a big fan of triple threats, but this one had some great moments like Punk lying in wait for Joe to try the second Olay kick, everyone hitting secondary finishers then having their own finishers used on them and then countering finishers. After the match, GenNext swarms CM Punk and destroys him. Ace Steel tries to make the save but gets more of the same. Colt Cabana finally makes the real save, sacrificing his own shoulder to hit a quebrada on the foursome. ***1/2

Alison Danger is positively giddy with the prospect of the deaths of Maff & Whitmer. This was straight out of the Sherri Martel promo playbook, which isn’t a bad thing in this case.

Scramble Cage Match: Alter Boy Luke vs. Oman Tortuga vs. Diablo Santiago vs. Fast Eddie vs. Dan Maff vs. BJ Whitmer vs. Jack Evans vs. Dunn vs. Marcos vs. HC Loc vs. Devito vs. Trent Acid.
This is a bit goofy, but I give them points for trying. It’s every man for himself, and the only way you can eliminate someone is to jump on them from one of the platforms at the top of the cage. Winner gets 10 times their usual payday, but there are different reasons for everybody being in there. Maff & Whitmer were forced into the match because Alison Danger still owns their contracts. The Outcast Killaz were forced in because Prince Nana likes to abuse them for his own amusement. Trent Acid thinks he’s the king of the multiman match, and Dunn & Marcos just aren’t going to take it anymore **air guitar**. Loc, Devito, Maff & Whitmer clear the other guys out so they can face off against one another. They had a controversial finish at “Testing the Limit.” Devito hits a moonsault block on Maff and Whitmer to eliminate them, but the former Prophecy members take exception and toss them to the floor for more carnage. The Outcast Killaz smack Dunn & Marcos around and backdrop Eddie to the floor! The Carnage Crew and Maff & Whitmer are still brawling in the aisle, so Alter Boy Luke goes up to one of the platforms and dives off onto all of them, eliminating Loc & Devito. Dunn tries an elbow from the top of the cage but misses. On the other side, Fast Eddie hits a CRAZY fallaway slam on Marcos from the top of the cage! That eliminates both Outcast Killaz, Dunn & Marcos, and Alter Boy Luke as well as Fast Eddie, who is unable to continue due to injury. So that leaves Acid and Jack Evans. Evans tries an electric chair, but Acid counters to a reverse huracanrana. He hits a sickening Inverted Brainbuster on Evans but takes too long going up because of a gimpy ankle. Evans catches up with him and hits a messed-up huracanrana off the top. That had bad idea written all over it. Jack goes up and hits a…what would that be? Carry the one. A 720-degree legdrop! That gets the win at 17:40. The doctors and referees run out to scrape up Acid and Evans’ bodies. This served its purpose, which was basically to give 12 guys a venue to perform hari-kari. I’d prefer fewer deadly spots and more of a storyline, though. This was like Michael Bay directing a wrestling match with a lot of stuff getting itself done blowed up but no real substance. Evans gets a nice smattering of applause for making it to his feet. **1/2

Lacey and Becky Bayless get into a chickfight, nearly splitting up Special K.

John Walters celebrates his Pure Title win and says that since Joe wants to get in his and Doug Williams’ business, Joe can just go ahead and wrestle Williams at the next show.

The 411: This was more of a springboard show to build toward Mick Foley and Jushin Lyger coming in later. John Walters' title win was probably the big thing to take from the show, but there wasn't anything that I could point to, either quality-wise or historically, and say, "I recommend this show for…" On the flip side, there's nothing really bad about the show, and they did build the issue between the Second City Saints and GenNext. Call it a mild thumbs up, but there are better shows to spend your money on. Mild recommendation for "Scramble Cage Melee."

Final Score:  6.0   [ Average ]