Dark Pegasus Video Review: Ring of Honor — United We Stand

Ring of Honor — United We Stand by J.D. Dunn June 22, 2007 From Dayton, Ohio. Your hosts are Dave Prazak and Lenny Leonard. Rebecca Bayless searches for the Briscoes, running in to Tank Toland and later Jimmy Jacobs [suspicious]Hmmm.[/suspicious] before finally finding the champs and asking them about their 2/3 falls matches. Their response: MAN UP! Opening Match: Kevin Steen & El Generico vs. The Irish Airborne. Dave Crist now looks a lot like Randy Orton, which would probably help the team more if his brother didn’t look like Aaron Carter. They fare well against Generico, but Steen tags in and uses some roughhouse tactics to take over. Dave seems to blow a whip reversal spot. Whatever happened, it looked awkward. Generico fakes them out on a dive, so Steen gets pissed and hits a rolling plancha to show him how it’s done. Dave redeems himself by tossing out both Steen and Generico and hitting a Fosbury Flop. Not as pretty as AJ’s, but it’ll work. Back in, Dave gets two off a Hammerlock Backdrop, but Steen breaks up the Irish Air Raid. That sets up the Packaged Piledriver into the Brainbuster at 10:23. Generico and Steen looked fine, as always. I don’t expect the Irish Airborne to be a major fixture for a while, though. **1/2 BJ Whitmer is pissed at the ROH officials, and he’s going to take it out on Brent Albright. Gauntlet Match: Jimmy Rave vs. Pelle Primeau. Jimmy opens by toying with Pelle, so Pelle comes out of the corner with the furious windmill! He hits the Satellite Headscissors but runs right into a spear. Normally, that would set up the Stepover Anklelock, but Rave gets cocky and just chops him. Pelle comes back with enzuigiris, but his rana is reversed to a powerbomb. He counters Ghanarhea to a small package and headscissors Rave into the barrier. That leads to the Thesz Press and stomp, but Rave catches his ankle and turns him over into the Stepover Anklelock for the submission at 5:44. Surprisingly competitive. ** Delirious vs. Jimmy Rave. Delirious goes all Ultimate Warrior on Rave with a series of clotheslines and finishes him with the Bizarro Driver at 0:24. 1/4* Delirious vs. Adam Pearce (w/Shane Hagadorn). Delirious jumps Pearce with a flying crossbody, but Pearce rolls through for two. He catches Delirious with a press slam. The crowd gets on Pearce with a “Repo Man” chant. Pearce takes it out on Delirious with a Torture Rack Bomb for two. Delirious blocks a charge and sets up for Shadows over Hell, but Pearce closes the gap. Delirious has to settle for the Panic Attack. He calls for the Shadows over Hell, but Hagadorn has the ref. He tries to sneak something in to Pearce, but Delirious knocks them into one another. Delirious finishes with a schoolboy at 4:02. Goofy fun. ** Chris Hero (w/Larry Sweeney, Tank Toland & Bobby Dempsey) vs. Delirious. Hero can’t find Delirious, so he crawls under the ring. Delirious squirms out on the other side and wipes out Sweet & Sour Inc. with a somersault bodyblock. That leaves him open for Hero to jump him from behind with the double ax-handle. Hero gets two off a chokeslam. Delirious blocks the cravat and gets a bulldog. He can’t cover immediately, though, because of the toll from the other matches. SHADOWS OVER HELL! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Hero kicks out, but Delirious floats over into the Cobra Stretch. Hero fires back and hits the Cravat Neckbreaker for two. Hero is apoplectic. He stays on top, though, and finishes with the Hero’s Welcome at 8:27. Hero forces Dempsey to carry him up the aisle. Not a big fan of Gauntlets (outside of the awesome video game from the 1980s), but this one was booked about as well as you can. **3/4 No DQ Grudge Match: Brent Albright vs. BJ Whitmer. Whitmer charges in, but Brent battles back against him and sets him on the top rope. BJ elbows out, and they both fall to the floor off a suplex. BJ whips Albright into the barrier. They fight out into the crowd where BJ gets in another suplex. Albright smashes a bottle over his head, though, to come back. They fight back to ringside where Albright powerslams Whitmer on the wood floor. Brent busts out a strap, but BJ catches him with an Exploder and takes the strap away from him. He whips Albright down but gets caught with a German Suplex. BJ no-sells and hits his own Dragon Suplex. A frogsplash misses, and Albright rides him down into the Crowbar. BJ rolls through but charges into a belly-to-belly. Albright sets up a table and sets up for a superplex, but he falls back, and BJ doublestomps him. That was kind of a wussy doublestomp compared to when Low Ki does it, but then again, Whitmer doesn’t have Ki’s catlike agility. BJ sets up for the superplex this time, but Albright reverses in mid-air and puts BJ through the table. That’s enough for the win at 12:54. If BJ wasn’t receiving the negative push, these matches might have a lot more heat. The finish was cool, and flukish enough for BJ to realistically be frustrated about it. He destroys the ROH officials after the match. ***1/4 Nigel McGuinness and Bryan Danielson still don’t like each other, but they agree they both want Morishima. Roderick Strong & Davey Richards vs. Erick Stevens & Matt Cross. Richards spits on the handshake, pissing Stevens right off. Richards tugs on the tiger’s tail even more by slapping Stevens in the face. Stevens clears the ring, allowing Cross to headscissor Strong a few times. Cross gets too cute, and the NRC is able to doubleteam him to take over. Cross gets out of trouble and rolls into a hot tag. Stevens cleans house and hits the TKO on Strong. Stevens catches Davey in the middle of a handspring kick, and Cross adds a doublestomp to drive Davey into the mat. Strong makes the save. Davey blocks a whip and superplexes Cross into Stevens. Strong hits Cross with a backbreaker and gutbuster. Davey adds a Ligerbomb for two. Stevens suplexes Davey to the floor, allowing Cross to work in his Space Flying Tiger Drop. Davey gets pissed, though, and hits a running corner charge and a suicida. That sets up Stevens for Strong’s running boot and Tiger Driver at 12:04. The match was middle-of-the-road until the hot finish. **3/4 After the match, Roderick gets on the mic and taunts Austin Aries, who is in attendance, for running off to TNA. Austin dares him to come down and face him, but Stevens and Cross get in the way to make sure Aries doesn’t do anything he’ll regret. Larry Sweeney announces that Hero has signed his contract with ROH. Rebecca Bayless is hilarious in this interview. Lacey (w/Jimmy Jacobs) vs. Serena Deeb. Lacey is such a bitch. I love her. She derides Deeb for being a nobody before the match even starts. Of course, Deeb opens a can of whup-ass. Lacey works in her splits, but Serena just kicks her in the back. Lacey cheats and strangles Serena on the ropes, and Jimmy adds a faceful of cigarette smoke. That serves to fire Serena up, and she makes the big comeback. Lacey cuts off the comeback with a lungblower for two. Deeb puts her in the neck vise, and that brings out Rain to distract Serena. That allows Lacey to hit the Kobashi neckbreaker and finish with an Implant DDT at 6:10. The Minnesota Home Wrecking Crew put the boots to Serena, but Daizee Haze makes the save. This was okayish. Nothing mind-blowing. **1/4 Rocky Romero vs. KENTA Clean-cut KENTA just looks wrong. My God, man, where’s the sleaze? I anticipate strikes. Prazak gets, what they call in the ‘hood, “mad props” for recalling that Romero’s stablemate Davey Richards is KENTA’s American protégé. They tease a strike duel, and one finally erupts. Romero wins and counters a leapfrog to a legdrag. Romero proceeds to stretch Kenta in half with an abdominal stretch and then an Octopus. Kenta hangs him up on the top rope and hits the flying kneedrop. Kenta slingshots in but just gives Rocky a little love tap. He locks in the camel clutch, prompting chants of “Make him humble!” Kenta switches up to the Chimeralock, but Romero makes the ropes. Rocky comes back with a flying DDT for two. Romero springboards off the corner, but Kenta catches him with an Ace Crusher on the way down. Awkward moment as Kenta goes for a springboard, but Rocky shoves him down. Looks like their timing was a bit off. Rocky follows him out with a suicida. Back in, Rocky takes Kenta down with the Diablo Armbreaker. Kenta makes the ropes, though. Kenta no-sells a Tiger Suplex and hits his own. FIGHTING SPIRIT! Kenta rolls up Romero on a superplex attempt. He says, “Enough of this” and DOWN COMES THE KNEEPAD! He knocks Romero into next week with a running knee. The Go2Sleep is reversed to a schoolboy by Romero, but Kenta reverses that to a cross armlock. He steps over and reverses *that* into his own armlock. Kenta powers out, though, and into the Go2Sleep for the win at 18:43. Excellent match with all the reversals and counters of holds and everything. It suffered a bit from lack of emotion, but it was stellar from a technical standpoint. ***3/4 After the match, Davey Richards comes out to congratulate both guys on a job well done. Kenta and Romero shake hands, and all is well, right? WRONG! Davey and Romero turn on Kenta and leave him laying. Delirious and The Resilience chase them off. Hopefully, this leads to Davey versus Kenta at Final Battle 2007. Takeshi Morishima & Naomichi Marufuji vs. Bryan Danielson & Nigel McGuinness. This is ROH vs. NOAH. Danielson and Marufuji wrestle to a standstill and bring in Nigel and Morishima. Nigel rolls Morishima up for two, and they trade blows. Nigel gets the worse of that battle. Dragon tells him to buck up. Nigel gets back up and ROCKS Morishima with forearm uppercuts. Danielson tries some of his own, but they aren’t nearly as effective. Danielson winds up playing face-in-peril. Marufuji gets in his Hanging Butterfly Stretch, and Nigel has to save. Morishima chokes Danielson out, but Dragon’s hand lands on the ropes. Danielson roars back and tags Nigel. Nigel lays into everyone with forearms, regaining the advantage. Dragon tags back in a little too quickly, though, and Marufuji is able to nail him with a clothesline. Dragon blocks the Shiranui, and Nigel runs in to help doubleteam. They team up as Nigel mulekicks Marufuji into a German Suplex for two. The assisted Tower of London gets two more. Morishima gets the tag, and the NOAH tandem hit corner charges. BACKDROP DRIVER! Dragon makes the save. Nigel wipes out Morishima with a crossbody off the top. Back in, Nigel cinches in the half-crab, and Dragon neutralizes Marufuji with the Cattle Mutilation. Morishima gets out of the crab and double-suplexes the ROH guys. Danielson sets up for the superplex, but Morishima knocks him down into the tree-of-woe. Marufuji is up on the other side. COAST-TO-COAST DROPKICK! Nigel and Morishima go toe-to-toe, but ‘Shima no-sells Nigel’s lariat attempts. Marufuji sneaks in and tags Nigel with a superkick, but Nigel rebounds with the JAWBREAKER LARIAT on Morishima! ONE, TWO, THREE! ROH defends its home turf at 24:16. I didn’t really buy Danielson in the Ricky Morton role, but it was wall-to-wall action down the stretch, and the finish was tremendous. Morishima still looks like an unstoppable force, even in defeat. **** ROH World Tag Team Titles, 2/3 Falls: The Briscoe Bros. vs. Claudio Castagnoli & Matt Sydal. First Fall: 2 STRAIGHT! MAN UP! This is a rematch of the tag title match at Respect is Earned. Mark gets in a springboard crossbody early. Claudio trips up Jay and yanks him up into a gutwrench. The Briscoes recover, though, and doubleteam Matt. They hit the Death Sentence, but it only gets two. Claudio runs in and saves his partner with a Matchkiller, planting Mark on top of Jay. Jay ranas Claudio to the floor, and Mark adds a sliding dropkick. Back in, Matt charges right into a press DVD. Mark adds a moonsault to finish the first fall at 4:54. Second Fall: Claudio attacks in between falls but gets caught in an abdominal stretch. They go for double-shoulder tackles, but Claudio knocks them silly with a bicycle kick. The Apomari Waterslide gets two. Claudio works in a double Giant Swing which would have looked cooler if Jay had not clearly served up his legs for Claudio to grab. Mark comes back with Kang-Foo, but he accidentally takes out his own partner. Sydal flies in with a flying kneedrop. That allows Claudio to hit a straight-jacket suplex into the Gannosuke Clutch. Sydal wipes out Jay with a twisting tope. Mark makes the ropes, though. Claudio reverses the Doomsday Device to a Victory Roll, but Mark springboards in with a karate kick to break it up. Sydal returns and enzuigiris Jay. The standing moonsault gets two. Jay ENDS him with a big boot, though. Claudio tags himself in and drops a diving elbow on Mark, but the Ricolabomb is reversed to the Cutthroat Driver at 16:12. TWO STRAIGHT! Not as wild or as entertaining as their PPV match, and some of the spots were so blatantly choreographed that it broke the believability. Never a good thing. ***1/4 Brent Albright proclaims that it has been proven that Morishima can be beat, so he’ll show that he can do it in a one-on-one.

The 411: The ROH/NOAH tag and Kenta matches were very good, but everything else left me flat. The main event was a letdown as well. Nothing actively bad, and there are two good matches, but this show suffered from "First Half of a Double-Shot" syndrome. Very mild thumbs down.
Final Score:  5.5   [ Not So Good ]