Dark Pegasus Video Review: Ring of Honor — The French Connection

Ring of Honor — The French Connection by J.D. Dunn This would be the first show under Adam Pearce’s book. According to rumor, he wanted a more ground-based, realistic style instead of the death-defying stunts. The videowire runs into some problems, from the small “Kevin St. Een” to squeezing future dates and past footage together so that you miss one or the other. Again, this is the kind of stuff that could be integrated into the main program and break up the monotony of the show. November 7, 2008 From Montreal. Your hosts are Dave Prazak and Lenny Leonard. Kyle Durden, internet millionaire, er, backstage interviewer catches up with Nigel McGuinness who insults him and walks off. Elsewhere, Durden asks Erick Stevens what’s up with his hair. No comment. The ring announcer tells us that there will now be a 20-count on the floor for ROH matches. Fine by me. Opening Match: Erick Stevens vs. Eddie Edwards (w/Sweet ‘n Sour Inc.). Stevens has the Red Rooster starter kit going, giving Prazak something to riff on for a while. Stevens seems lethargic here as Edwards dominates him early. He hits a nice stomp to the arm and targets it, presumably to soften him up for Davey Richards in the future. Eddie works over the arm nicely but gets cute by going for a quebrada. Stevens, in theory, turns it into a Tombstone and finishes with the Doctorbomb at 8:20. An old-school extended squash where the heel got in all the offense before falling to the big comeback moves. Edwards looked like a guy who would be more at home in a tag team, and that’s exactly what happened. *3/4 In the back, Durden asks for Rhett Titus’ sloppy seconds. The Briscoes vs. Kenny King & Kenny Omega. King and Omega are reluctant partners. Omega answered an open challenge from the Briscoes, and King added himself to the match. King and Omega do nice work individually and work in a few doubleteams, but they can’t stay on the same page long enough to get the win. Again, the Briscoes go heelish, keeping Omega as their face-in-peril. Finally, Omega mounts enough offense to get into position to make the tag, but King drops off the apron and says, “See ya!” Rhett Titus stops by to chat with Kenny King at ringside. King makes fun of Omega in a PIP insert. More PIP, please. It’s a simple thing that lets you do two things at once. The Briscoes finish Omega with the Springboard Doomsday Device at 11:41. Both King and Omega looked good in the loss, and I liked that they went back to a tried-and-true old-school angle in the heel feeding his hapless partner to the wolves. Anything that helps King get over is good in my book. **1/2 Backstage, Jerry Lynn calls Durden a miscarriage that survived. Necro Butcher vs. Brody Lee. This would be the exact opposite of what you’d expect from ROH. Lee is basically Butcher’s replacement in the Age of the Fall. Nigel McGuinness joins commentary to run down the Necro Butcher as we get a big punchy-kicky brawl. Necro starts to dominate and grabs a chair, so Jimmy Jacobs and Tyler Black run down for the DQ at 7:43. This brawl was just getting started before the DQ. ** After the match, the Age of the Fall hangs Necro over the top rope and walks out. Nigel McGuinness (with Bret Hart shades) runs down Necro and Montreal. He calls himself the “best there ever was, the best there is, and the best there ever will be.” No, because see Bret Hart had the FIVE MOVES OF DOOM while Nigel has the ONE MOVE OF DOOM! The fans chant, “You screwed Bret!” which is pretty funny. Jerry Lynn vs. Delirious (w/Jimmy Jacobs). This is what ROH was missing under Gabe for the last few months, quick character development in the ring. Here, Lynn dominates early until Jimmy distracts him and allows Delirious to jump him from behind. The ref catches Jimmy interfering, though, and ejects him from ringside. Delirious freaks because he doesn’t know what to do now. He goes to work on Lynn’s back, but Lynn makes the comeback and uses Delirious’ own Neverending Story against him. Shadows Over Hell misses, and Lynn gets two off a Majestral. The Cradle Piledriver finishes Delirious at 9:44. Good, basic match from Lynn who continues a storybook comeback in 2008. **1/2 Roderick Strong vs. Davey Richards (w/Sweet ‘n’ Sour Inc.). This is Roderick’s first chance at revenge stateside, and it’s my favorite type of Roderick Strong match – one where he just dismantles his opponent. The best moment is when Richards slaps him in the face, so Roderick just NAILS him with a standing dropkick to the face. Eventually, Richards gets desperate and distracts the ref, which allows Eddie Edwards to yank Strong off the apron. Strong takes over with kicks and weardown holds, including a running back kick that knocks Roderick into the buckle. Awesome! Roderick avoids a charge and hits an enzuigiri to come back. They take it to the mat and trade nearfalls, but Davey comes out of it with the Texas Cloverleaf. Strong makes the ropes, and they trade strikes. KICK! CHOP! KICK! CHOP! ALARM CLOCK! Richards goes up but gets caught with a superplex. They slug it out again, and Roderick wins with a flying Yakuza kick! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Roderick gets the Stronghold but drops it to go after Eddie Edwards on the apron. Moron! Hagadorn distracts the ref on the other side while Edwards kicks Roderick right back into the DR Driver at 16:44. This was a fine match that hopefully isn’t the final payoff for their feud. Strong and Richards never had a proper feud since Richards went to Japan immediately after breaking up the No Remorse Corps. ***1/2 After the match, Strong fights back against a beatdown but gets jumped by Go Shiozaki. Erick Stevens makes the save, setting up a likely tag match. The Age of the Fall vs. Bryan Danielson & Austin Aries. The storyline here is that Aries and Jimmy are supposed to meet in a Dog-Collar match the following night, so Tyler’s job is to keep Aries away from him. That basically turns it into a handicap match for most of the early part. Danielson has actual designs on his tights now. I only bring it up because that seems important to many of his critics. Jimmy keeps irritating Aries by jumping him from behind whenever he turns his back, so Aries chases him around the ring RIGHT INTO DANIELSON! Black has to make the save, knocking Jimmy off the top rope into the barricade. Danielson plays face-in-peril as Aries struggles to make it up. Danielson finally fights off the Age of the Fall long enough to dive into a tag! Aries cleans house and finally tracks down Jimmy with the heat-seeking suicida. TEAMWORK~! busts out some Rockerish doubleteams until Jimmy jumps them from behind. He Tornado DDTs Aries into the End Time, but Danielson frees Austin with elbows. Black saves Jimmy with a superkick and takes Danielson over the top. That leaves Jimmy alone with Aries, and Austin is able to finish with the Brainbuster into the Last Chancery at 18:29. Great, old-school tag action, and the fans were into it the whole way. I would have rather seen Jimmy cheat to get a victory so he’d get his comeuppance the following night, but that’s just personal druthers. **** Jimmy blames Tyler for the loss, leading to some tension between the two. ROH World Title, Four-Way Elimination: Nigel McGuinness vs. Kevin Steen vs. Go Shiozaki vs. El Generico. I think we can safely say that Steen is over in his home country. He definitely has fun in this match, even if he comes up short. Steen starts a Canadiens chant, engages in a shoulderblocking contest with Shiozaki, and mocks McGuinness’ Jawbreaker Lariat. Nigel tries to stay out of the match as much as possible, and why not since it’s elimination rules? He does try (unsuccessfully) to stir things up between Steen and Generico. Things slow down considerably once Nigel and Go decide to team up and isolate Steen. Steen uses FIGHTING SPIRIT to shake off a backdrop suplex from Go. Generico cleans house on Shiozaki, forcing Nigel to make the save, lest he be caught in a two-on-one situation. Go powers Generico up into the Falcon Arrow for two. Nigel sneaks in and breaks up the Brainbuster, allowing Go to hit the Go Flasher to eliminate Generico at 21:24. Nigel retreats to the corner and barks orders at Go. Steen fights off Nigel’s Tower of London on the apron and puts Go in the Sharpshooter for the submission at 25:39. Steen superkicks Nigel and hits a cannonball, but Nigel puts him in his own Sharpshooter. Well, at least they’re doing it in Montreal. Steen makes the ropes and counters the Jawbreaker Lariat to the Sharpshooter. Nigel makes the ropes and hits the Tower of London on the outside. They fight in the corner, and Todd Sinclair gets bumped. Nigel grabs the title belt, but Generico returns and boots him. PACKAGED PILEDRIVER! ONE, TWO, THREE! NEW CHAMP! Oh, but Nigel had his foot on the rope. JAWBREAKER LARIAT! ONE, TWO, THREE! Nigel retains for real at 31:34. This was a lot of fun with Nigel rightly trying to stay out of things and stir it up from the outside and Steen battling back against tremendous odds only to come up short in the end. ***3/4 After the match, Steen thanks everyone en Francais. Even Generico gets in on the act. Wow, Spanish and French! Is there nothing this man can’t do?

The 411: Outside of a few tried-and-true angles that were started here, there wasn't much difference between a Gabe show and a Pearce show. It was shorter, and I'm thankful for that. Some on the ROH board complain about the toned-down offense, but to me it just looks more realistic. A handspring adds *nothing* to your elbowdrop, so why do it? There was a glaring black mark on the show - Kyle Durden's presence only makes me long for the journalistic professionalism of Becky Bayless. Modest thumbs up.

Final Score:  7.0   [ Good ]