Kevin’s Random Reviews: ROH Glory by Honor V Night Two

ROH Glory by Honor V Night Two
September 16th, 2006 | Manhattan Center in New York, New York | Attendance: 1,200

Ring of Honor and the Manhattan Center kind of go hand in hand over the past decade or so. This is where it all began in the company’s first show in the historic building. Bryan Danielson, Nigel McGuinness and the team of Austin Aries and Roderick Strong were all in the midst of some great title reigns, yet all were threatened on this show. Two of the challengers were from Pro Wrestling NOAH. The NOAH/ROH relationship will always be far superior to the ROH/NJPW one in terms of quality.

Bryan Danielson opens the DVD with a promo outside in front of Madison Square Garden. He says that’s where Bruno Sammartino made his name and Bruno will at ROH tonight. He walks down the street to the Manhattan Center (a walk I’ve made many times) where tonight’s show goes down. Danielson plans on making his legacy in that building.

Davey Richards def. Jack Evans in 7:35
In ten years, Davey would be a former ROH Champion and TNA star, while Jack Evans worked Lucha Underground. Jack is way over here. He caters to the crowd with his usual breakdancing and flips. Commentary hypes Davey being KENTA’s protégé. Davey grows tired of Jack’s shit and proceeds to kick him around. He grounds Jack, who responds with more flips, which get a great pop. Davey gets his knees up on the 630 and the crowd just sounds deafening. Evans survives the stretch muffler but then gets murdered by a Davey flurry. He taps to the second stretch muffler. A good opener with a red hot crowd. I’d have liked if Evan’s flexibility came into play, where the submission didn’t bother him as much because of it. **¾

Nigel McGuinness cuts a promo backstage and says he feels like the match with Naomichi Marufuji tonight will be special.

Bruno Sammartino is brought out to the ring. ROH and NOAH guys surround the ring. He says most of the crowd wasn’t even born when he retired in 1981. He wasn’t happy with where wrestling was going but his criticisms fell on deaf ears. However, he likes where ROH is headed and the talent they have. When he leaves, he shakes hands with several wrestlers. One of them is Mohammed Yone and his afro, who still competes for NOAH. The wrestlers go to file out and Takeshi Morishima and Samoa Joe bump into one another. They get into a shoving match before taking their brawl inside. Everyone breaks it up and the crowd loves every second. This was great as Bruno put over the company and it set up more NOAH/ROH stuff as well as Morishima/Joe the following year.

Adam Pearce def. Delirious in 8:18
Looking to the future, Delirious would become ROH’s head booker (and be bad at it), while Pearce ended up working for WWE. Pearce attacks before the bell. He got lost in the shuffle of all the talent ROH had at this time, but he was a great old school heel to have around. Pearce weathers a Delirious storm and press slams him to the outside. Delirious gets worked over for a while before rallying with a bunch of clotheslines. Like, so many clotheslines Rocky Romero would be jealous. The crowd counts SIXTY of them. Pearce’s man servant Shane Hagadorn runs out and hits Delirious with brass knuckles. Pearce finishes him with a piledriver. Pretty standard paint-by-numbers stuff from these two. **

Oh, it’s here that Pearce introduces Hagadorn as his assistant.

Jimmy Jacobs w/ Lacey def. Christopher Daniels and Colt Cabana in 11:06
Be still my beating heart, it’s Lacey. I’ll forever love her. At the time of this writing, Cabana works the indies (and still ROH sometimes), Daniels finally won the ROH World Title, Jacobs is part of WWE creative and Lacey is retired. Jacobs is sad because he saw Lacey and Cabana in the shower together. He cries instead of giving the code of honor handshake. Lacey wants them to work together. Jimmy does but isn’t happy about it. Cabana hilariously falls and grabs Lacey’s tits before looking up her skirt. That gets a massive pop. Lacey constantly gets on the apron to shout instructions. Daniels might as well not even be there as it’s all about Colt and Jimmy. Jacobs wins by kicking Colt low when he has Colt 45 set up and hitting the Contra Code. Not much from a match standpoint but the storyline was highly entertaining. Jacobs, Cabana and Lacey all played their roles perfectly, which made me enjoy this more than the previous match. **¼

Jimmy’s win gets a major pop. He celebrates to Lacey but she doesn’t care. She’s pissed that he kicked Cabana in the balls.

Jim Cornette is out with the Briscoes and cuts a lengthy pre-match promo. He runs down New York and says that Homicide will get his ROH World Title shot if he wins tonight. He also tells Homicide to go back from where he came from and mentions the confederacy when saying the south will rise again.

Homicide and Samoa Joe w/ Julius Smokes def. The Briscoes w/ Jim Cornette in 18:02
The Briscoes remain a staple of ROH, Homicide doesn’t seem to work much anymore and Samoa Joe’s in WWE. Tired of Cornette’s shit, Joe and Homicide run out and things get started hot. Joe and Homicide nail stereo dives and the crowd is nuts. It calms down a bit into a standard tag but Joe and Homicide are still in control. Joe beats the shit out of Jay for a bit. The experienced duo, the Briscoes, take over and Homicide is their target. That works because Joe is the beast and Homicide is way over in New York so he has tons of sympathy. It doesn’t last long though and Joe’s back in. The Briscoes manage to take control and work him over too. Again, it’s not a lengthy heat. Homicide gets a pop for a top rope DDT before the match breaks down again. Mark cuts off a Homicide lariat with a suplex before eating a Joe lariat. Joe cuts off the springboard doomsday device and nearly breaks Mark’s leg. Jay hits a great release German before trading finisher teases with Homicide. Homicide hits the Cop Killer to earn his title shot at Final Battle. I thought this was very good, with a hot beginning and end, though it fell a bit in the middle. ***½

Post-match, Jim Cornette is a man of his word but promises Homicide will have to go through hell to get to his Final Battle title shot.

Backstage, Lacey checks on Colt Cabana and makes Jimmy Jacobs apologize to him. Jimmy sadly leaves while Cabana asks for a massage on his injured area. No wonder Jimmy goes nuts next year and forms the Age of the Fall.

Elsewhere, Bruno Sammartino stands between ROH World Champion Bryan Danielson and GHC Heavyweight Champion Naomichi Marufuji. He puts them both over as great champions and shakes their hands.

ROH World Tag Team Championship: The Kings of Wrestling def. Austin Aries and Roderick Strong (c) in 21:34
The Kings come out “We Are The Champions”, which is great. In another look to the future, in eleven years all four men are working for the WWE. The champs have reigned for all of 2006. Early on, KOW miscue and get lit up with chops. I forget how great Strong’s chops were sometimes. Claudio is on the receiving end of the great combination work from the champs. Aries has his ribs taped and that comes into play when he’s pulled off the top rope. It becomes a target for KOW. The heat segment by KOW is fine and the injured ribs helps adds to Aries’ peril. Hero stops to do push ups. It’s a small preview of role he’d play as a singles guy in 2007. Strong’s hot tag gets a great reaction and he sends KOW packing. Aries hits his awesome heat seeking missile to wipe them out. Things look to swing in KOW’s favor but some dropkicks and the chop/brainbuster combo on Claudio changes that. Aries goes for the 450 but it gets cut off. Claudio hits Aries in the ribs with his briefcase behind the referee’s back. They hit Roddy with a tandem Hero’s Welcome but waste time showboating. Aries returns to fight them off but they beat him with an awesome KRS-ONE. Not quite the classic you’d expect from a match ending the reign of Aries and Strong but another damn good tag match. KOW was great at the heel stuff and using Aries’ ribs was wise. Though they cheated, it felt more like KOW did it because they’re smart and cunning, rather than because they needed it. ***½

BJ Whitmer speaks from home, talking about Jimmy Jacobs breaking his ankle and putting him on the shelf. Their feud was one of the most violent I’ve ever seen.

GHC Heavyweight Championship: Naomichi Marufuji (c) w/ Mohammed Yone, Takashi Sugiura and Takeshi Morishima def. Nigel McGuinness in 23:32
For the first time ever, the GHC Heavyweight Title is defended in the US. Marufuji still works in NOAH as a top guy, while Nigel is currently retired and a commentator for WWE. Marufuji won the title ten days earlier. They’re unfamiliar with each other, leading to an extended run of chain grappling. It’s all good, crisp stuff that makes sense, so I like it. Marufuji goes after the leg, applying a figure four. They exchange slaps while the hold is locked. To combat it, Nigel targets Marufuji’s arm to try and negate Shiranui. I’ve always liked Nigel’s arm work. It came across as painful and legit. Nigel tries the lariat but Marufuji sees it coming, only to have the top rope snapped into his eyes. Well that’s different and creative. Marufuji’s responds with SHIRANUI OFF THE APRON! Nigel beats the count and brings big offense inside. A lariat gets two and he hits Tower of London, but Marufuji pops up and hits Shiranui. Both men are down. Nigel hits the rebound lariat for a near fall New York totally bites on. We almost get a double countout after Tower of London on the apron. Inside, they trade chops and kicks until a Marufuji roundhouse puts him down a bit. Nigel tries his corner headstand but eats a stiff superkick. Marufuji smells blood. He delivers the awesome coast to coast dropkick and a SUPER SHIRANUI to retain. Great match that built to something awesome. The early stuff was slow but made sense, though I wish it played more into the finish. Instead, they went with the big blows late and Marufuji had just enough to outduel Nigel. ****¼

After the bell, Nigel accepts a handshake of mutual respect.

ROH World Heavyweight Championship: Bryan Danielson (c) def. KENTA w/ Davey Richards in 33:01
Ten years later, Danielson is unfortunately retired, while KENTA is under the WWE umbrella as Hideo Itami. There’s a seemingly clean break early until KENTA slaps Bryan in the face. Bryan returns the favor. Danielson has a bad shoulder, so KENTA kicks right at it. Their early exchanges play like a game of one upping each other. Bryan wants the arm but his work gets cut off by strikes from KENTA. His risky plancha attempt backfires since it leads to more KENTA kicks before he’s sent shoulder first into the guardrail. KENTA puts his focus on the shoulder. Though he’s technically the babyface, he does some disrespectful heel stuff. Danielson should have the mat advantage but his shoulder is costing him. He finally turns things around and tries his surfboard, but slips. He makes up for it with a stomp from that position and yells “I NEVER FUCK UP”, shutting up the fans. Even with the advantage, Bryan sells the shoulder. He hits a superplex and can’t cover in time. The intensity has picked up. KENTA gets a boot up on a flying headbutt but the momentum doesn’t swing because Bryan dropkicks him on a springboard attempt. They exchange suplexes, Danielson has a rolling elbow no sold so KENTA can hit a rolling lariat. Outside, KENTS is sent into the crowd, so Danielson follows with a ballsy dive from the top into the third row. THAT’S WHAT THE TITLE MEANS! Inside, KENTA comes close with a Fujiwara armbar. Danielson fights out by gets caught with an RKO OUTTA NOWHERE and put back in the submission. Bryan reaches the ropes and gets two on a Regalplex. Cattle Mutilation is applied but KENTA gets the ropes. KENTA catches Bryan with Go to Sleep to a MONSTER reaction. Bryan becomes the first man to survive it by getting his foot on the ropes. RING PRESENCE! Bryan survives some knees and gets a very close rollup near fall. That works because he’s won several matches like that. The same happens when he counters Go to Sleep into a crucifix for two. Bryan starts in with elbow and KENTA looks dead but he fires up and gets to his feet. Bryan tries Cattle Mutilation but KENTA rolls through into a near fall. Bryan refuses to release and gets back up into a tiger suplex for another near fall. He holds and wraps KENTA into Cattle Mutilation again, delivers more elbows as he gets near the ropes, puts it back on and makes KENTA tap out. That was incredible. One of the greatest matches I’ve ever seen. There were technical aspects while still being intense. Danielson’s shoulder was a perfect addition. He sold it well, KENTA targeted and the fans knew it was legit so they bought into a potential title change. It goes over thirty minutes and never feels long. I’ve given out less than 25 perfect five star ratings in my life and this is one. Perfect pro wrestling. *****

9.0

The final score: review Amazing

The 411

Just a tremendous show. Everything is enjoyable. The lesser matches, Pearce/Delirious and the triple threat, both were fine and advanced storylines. The opener is forgettable but still good. When the show gets to the last four matches, things pick up. Two top notch tag matches and two great title matches. The Kings of Wrestling ending Aries and Strong’s title reign was a big deal, as was Homicide earning his title shot. Marufuji/McGuinness is awesome but what makes this show one of the best in ROH history is KENTA/Danielson. It’s legitimately a top five or ten I’ve ever seen.