Dark Pegasus Video Review: Ring of Honor — The Battle of St. Paul

Ring of Honor — The Battle of St. Paul by J.D. Dunn Semi-historic note: This is my 100th ROH review. April 27, 2007 From St. Paul, Minn. Your hosts are Dave Prazak and Lenny Leonard. Austin Aries tells us a lot of people though Samoa Joe was unbeatable until he did it. Now, he’s going to do the same to Morishima. Opening Match: The Dangerous Angels vs. The Minnesota Home Wrecking Crew (w/Jimmy Jacobs). The Minnesota Home Wrecking Crew is easily one of my favorite wrestling names. They are Lacey, who you know if you follow ROH, and Rain. I would be remiss in not mentioning Allison’s creepy mask. Del Rey cleans house early, hitting both MHWCs with a crossbody. Lacey tags in and slaps Allison in the face, but Allison can’t go for that – no can do. She slaps her right back. The Angels hang Lacey on the ropes and set up for a doubleteam, but Rain breaks it up with a spear. The MHWC isolates Del Reay and nearly gets the win with a pair of lungblowers. Del Rey comes back with a Royal Butterfly on BOTH Rain and Lacey. Allison schoolgirls Lacey for two, but Lacey winds up breaking the hold. Del Rey gets taken out with a Tornado Backbreaker. Allison gets tripped up by Jimmy Jacobs, allowing Lacey to end the Dangerous Angels’ winning streak with an Implant DDT at 9:36. Not surprisingly, these ladies (along with Daizee) are the class of women’s wrestling in the U.S., so this was better than your average women’s match. **3/4 Rhett Titus vs. Michael Elgin. Elgin looks just like Rhino, a fact that isn’t lost on me or the crowd. Titus uses “This is Why I’m Hot” as his entrance music. I always suspected it would make great entrance music. He actually looks a little like a young short-haired Edge. The match barely gets underway (and yet they still have time to botch a spot) before Jimmy Rave, THE CROWN JOO-ELL, makes his return, attacking both guys. The whole thing is a wash at 1:43. [N/R] Jimmy says he’s getting pissed off sitting at home with an injury, so he’s come back to make an example of Michael Elgin. Jimmy Rave vs. Michael Elgin. Elgin shows a few good moves, including a slingshot elbow. Rave is too pissed off and has too much experience, though. He nails Elgin with a spear. Elgin slips over a backdrop and hits a German Suplex for two. Jimmy catches him with a dropkick to the knee and finishes with the Stepover Anklelock at 2:53. Not a bad return for Rave, who got a big babyface reaction. We’ll see how long that lasts. 1/2* Jimmy Jacobs is giving us an update on his condition when a few jobbers come in and ask him if he’s given Lacey a helping of his man batter. Jacobs gets pissed about the lack of respect they’re showing and calls Bobby Dempsey fat. Dempsey seems genuinely hurt. BJ Whitmer vs. Shingo. BJ is looking to get back on the winning track after losing out in his year-long feud with Jimmy Jacobs. He starts out strong, but Shingo shows FIGHTING SPIRIT. BJ knocks him to the floor and hits a tope. They brawl on the floor where BJ tosses Shingo overhead with an EXPLODER! Back in, Shingo comes back and hits a lariat! ONE, TWO, THR-NO! CRADLE SHOCK! ONE, TWO, THR-NO! Shingo hits another lariat, but BJ slips out of his hold and gets two off a German Suplex. Whitmer hits a superplex and nails Shingo with a lariat for two. They exchange lariats, and Shingo hits a Wrist-Clutch Cradle Shock to pick up the win at 10:02. Better luck next time BJ. Shingo retains momentum going into his big match with Morishima. **3/4 ROH World Tag Titles, Ultimate Endurance: The Briscoe Bros. vs. Pelle Primeau & Mitch Franklin vs. Gran Akuma & Hallowicked vs. Jigsaw & Mike Quackenbush. First Fall (Submission Rules): The challengers are a handful of Chikara guys and some ROH schoolers, so the titles are not exactly in jeopardy here. Quack is hugely over with the crowd. Pelle does some nice stuff with Quack, even springboarding into a cross armlock. The rookies go for a pin, but pinfalls don’t count. Mitch makes the mistake of trying to jump Jay Briscoe and winds up in the Stretch Plum at 6:34 to eliminate the school boys. Second Fall (Scramble Rules): Tags are not necessary. Jigsaw, Hallowicked and Quack do some silly choreographed stuff. It looks pretty, though. The Briscoes say, “Enough of that,” (or, more likely, “Enuff o’ dat”) and come back in with Redneck Fu. They go for a doubleteam on Hallowicked, but Gran Akuma breaks it up. Akuma misses a moonsault, though. The Briscoes finish Akuma with the Legdrop Cutthroat Driver at 10:23. Third Fall (Title Match): That leaves the upstart team of Quack and Jigsaw against the champs. The champs isolate Jigsaw with their usual until Jigsaw hits an enzuigiri and tags out. Quack busts out a figure-four anklelock (Quackenlock?). Jay makes the save. The Briscoes finish Quack with the Springboard Doomsday Device at 16:34. This was just a light workout for the Briscoes as they head into their huge match-up with the Murder City Machine Guns. The newbies looked okay, but so much of their stuff is blatantly choreographed that it loses believability. **1/4 Street Fight: Homicide & Colt Cabana vs. Adam Pearce & Brent Albright (w/Shane Hagadorn). Cabana is in his final weekend before heading off to the WWE. The heels attack during the entrance, but Homicide low-bridges the ropes and sends them to the floor. Colt thinks better of coming off the top and, instead, dives off the apron. Pearce and Homicide fight out into the crowd where Homicide hits him with A DVD…no, not the move, an actual ROH DVD. Lots of the usual carnage, which is hard to recap and capture effectively. The faces hit stereo missile dropkicks. Colt and Homicide bust out the Dusty Rhodes elbows on Pearce and Hagadorn. Hagadorn breaks up the Colt .45, though, and Albright returns the favor by breaking up the Cop Killa. Homicide sets up for the lariat, but Albright rides him down into the Crowbar. Colt saves but takes the 619 knee. Ladders and pieces of barrier get set up. Albright gets a sick powerbomb on Homicide, just swinging him into the barrier. Colt runs in but takes a Half-Nelson Suplex. Albright picks up the surprising win at 13:34. The fans hate that, so Homicide gives Hagadorn the Cop Killa to prevent a riot. They drag Hagadorn back in, and Colt gives him the Colt .45. Actually, not a bad way for Colt to go out in St. Paul. *** Rebecca Bayless catches up with the Briscoes to ask them about the Murder City Machine Guns. The Briscoes aren’t impressed by the MCMG being the Zero-One tag champs. They were the NOAH champs, after all. Four-Corner Survival: Delirious vs. Rocky Romero vs. Jack Evans vs. Erick Stevens. This is interesting because you have the No Remorse Corp (Romero) and the Resilience (Stevens) represented, but you also have Delirious and Evans, who have a sort of loose acquaintanceship thanks to having a common feud with the NRC. Delirious wants Romero, but Rocky doesn’t want to get in. Fine by me, because the Delirious/Stevens segment is comedy gold. It involves a posedown and a test of strength. You just have to see it. Stevens powerslams Delirious but stops to gloat, allowing Romero to tag in. Romero’s role is basically shit disturber as he’ll tag in, hit a few moves, and then tag out, making the other guys wrestle each other. Finally, Jack gets the hot tag to Stevens, and Delirious backs off, forcing Romero to face off with Stevens. They all triple-team Romero, but Jack tries to go for the pin after a SSSP, so they turn on each other. They work in a sick spot with Jack (what else is new) where Romero dumps him on his head with a German Suplex, and Jack bounces up into another German by Stevens who suplexes him all the way to the floor. Stevens goes for a Doctorbomb on Romero, but Delirious flies in with Shadows over Hell. The finish sees Delirious wipe out Stevens with a somersault bodyblock. Jack hits a few kicks to Romero, but Rocky avoids his charge and hits a Tiger Suplex. That sets up a SICK roundhouse kick to the head at 15:28. Jack receives a standing ovation for his performance. Everyone here looked good, and it had the dual benefit of getting Stevens over as a monster babyface as well as a getting Romero over as a cocky heel. ***1/2 FIP Heavyweight Title: Roderick Strong vs. Christopher Daniels (w/Allison Danger). Cheerleader look for Allie tonight. I approve. Strong tries some mind games early, but he’s Roderick Strong and Daniels is Christopher F’n Daniels, so that doesn’t work out that well. Daniels controls a lot with a side headlock, making me wonder if we’re going Broadway tonight. Finally, Strong whips Daniels into the barrier to take over. Strong applies a weird guillotine facelock. Daniels comes back with a rollup and the STO. A DVD gets two, and they spill to the floor. Back in, Strong goes back to Daniels’ back with a uranage backbreaker. Daniels comes back with the uranage, but Strong avoids the Best Moonsault Ever and hits another backbreaker. Boston Crab, but Daniels makes the ropes and reverses to a rollup for two. Daniels blocks the Tiger Driver and reverses to the Koji Clutch! Todd Sinclair is hilarious as he asks Strong if he wants to tap. Strong rolls it over and reaches the ropes. They both fall to the floor, go back in, and then spill out again off a clothesline. That was weird. They start fighting and tear up a piece of the barricade. Cool spot as Daniels gets his leg caught in the railing, and Strong chops him over, wrenching Daniels’ ankle in the railing. Danger tries to help out, and they free Daniels from the railing, but he can’t make it before the 20 count. Strong picks up the COR win at 23:33. Great booking at the end. The match went back and forth between intensity and meandering, though. ***1/2 In the back, Pearce, Albright and Hagadorn ask Jimmy Jacobs if Lacey let him go backdoor. That pisses off Jimmy so much that he storms out. Pearce delivers yet another great promo on Cabana as he vows not to give him a pat on the back on his way out. ROH World Title: Takeshi Morishima vs. Austin Aries. Aries goes right at him early, and Morishima just shrugs him off. This is like those old Randy Savage vs. Andre the Giant matches from 1988. Aries kicks away at the legs and clotheslines Morishima down. It doesn’t even get a one-count, though. Aries tries a different tack: slapping Morishima around and pissing him off so he’ll make a mistake. That doesn’t work either. Morishima uses his ass to take over with a butt bump. Morishima’s offense is too methodical to recap, so we’ll fast-forward to Aries low-bridging the ropes and hitting a suicida. Morishima misses the Olé buttalanche into the barricade. Aries hits a pair of dropkicks and sends the big man back in. Unfortunately for Aries, he runs right into a Bossman Slam. Morishima misses a missile dropkick but catches Aries in a belly-to-belly. Aries goes for the Joe Killer sequence, but Morishima simply sticks his arm out to block. Aries stays with it, and after a few false starts, HITS THE BRAINBUSTER! 450-SPLASH! That finished Joe off at Final Battle! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Morishima has his foot on the ropes. SUPER BACKDROP DRIVER! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Aries kicks out! Morishima gets sick of screwing around and polishes Aries off with another Backdrop Driver at 15:03. Wow. Just when I was ready to write Morishima off, he goes lets Aries carry him to a fantastic match. This was just a great “big man/little man” match, plus it had the added bonus of working off the Aries/Samoa Joe title switch. A great way to put Morishima over as even more powerful than Joe was. **** In the back, Rebecca Bayless asks Jimmy Jacobs what happened with Lacey. Jimmy objects to the frat-boy mentality in the locker room. Actually, I guess I could have just said locker-room mentality.

The 411: > I didn't really feel connected to the show throughout, but looking back, there were a number of fine matches. Aries match with Morishima is the first match where I didn't feel like Morishima was just a paper champion. The undercard matches were either good or had some sort of story behind why they weren't. Another solid show. Thumbs up.
Final Score:  7.5   [ Good ]