ROH Survival of the Fittest 2007 Review

ROH Survival of the Fittest
October 19th, 2007 | Empire Ballroom in Las Vegas, Nevada | Attendance: 300

Survival of the Fittest is an old Ring of Honor staple. It takes a bunch of guys and puts them in qualifying matches throughout the show. Then, everyone who won competes in one final mega match to determine the Survival of the Fittest winner. This was a special edition, as it was during ROH’s first trip out west and there just so happened to be a new ROH World Champion in Nigel McGuinness. This was the fourth Survival of the Fittest show.

The No Remorse Corps was shown outside in the streets of Las Vegas. Davey Richards, always the butt of the jokes within the group, had drinks charged to his room by his buddies. Roderick Strong and Rocky Romero hyped Survival of the Fittest and how they’d go out tonight, without Davey who would stay in to watch the bags.

Next, we got a video package with highlights from Survival of the Fittest history.

Back outside to the NRC. Rocky and Roddy get Davey to hit on some women but since he can’t go out, he has to offer the girl to stay in and watch the bags with him. Rocky does his AZUCAR dance for the women. Classic stuff.

Nigel McGuinness was brought out to address the crowd. It was ROH tradition to have the new ROH Champion open the show following his win. He was quickly interrupted by FIP Champion Roderick Strong (a lot of him already), who called Nigel a fluke champion, unlike him. Brent Albright showed up and threatened the champion, too. Nigel was all, “I have a match to focus on, I’m out.”

Survival of the Fittest Qualifying Match: Brent Albright w/ Shane Hagadorn vs. FIP Heavyweight Champion Roderick Strong
Roddy won the tournament in 2005. This feels like a super long time to get to the first match by ROH standards. The guys worked at a tentative pace. It’s not exciting, but makes sense considering the winner competes again later. However, it was weird considering the opening segment. Anyway, Albright worked the arm for a bit, looking to set up the big armbar finish. He also used his power to throw Strong around a bit. Roddy retaliated with stuff like the Falcon Arrow and Sick Kick. From seemingly out of nowhere, Strong hit the gut buster and used a handful of tights to win in 9:00. Bland match with no heat. [**]

Outside, Delirious cut one of his rambling promos.

Survival of the Fittest Qualifying Match: Chris Hero w/ Larry Sweeney vs. Karl Anderson
I’m pretty certain this was Anderson’s first ROH appearance. He looks so much worse here than he does in 2018. I was way into “unnecessary athleticism” Chris Hero from this era. It was such a parody of spot monkeys and was outstanding. He did a lot of his flippy stuff to escape something as simple as a wristlock. Hero’s shenanigans get him in trouble because Anderson is someone to take seriously. Even with him getting some offense in, as soon as Hero slaps on the Hangman’s Clutch submission, Anderson tapped at 7:01. A disappointment of a match. Hero’s stuff wasn’t as fun as it usually was and Anderson was kind of just there. [**¼]

Chris Hero and Larry Sweeney celebrated the win backstage and claimed Hero would go down as the greatest entertainer in the history of Las Vegas.

Survival of the Fittest Qualifying Match: Rocky Romero vs. TJ Perkins
Three matches in and four of the six guys to wrestle ended up in WWE. TJ’s hair is terrible here. He and Anderson would both improve on their looks. Lots of fast paced mat stuff in this one. TJ showed off the combination of grappling, athleticism, and flashiness that he’s become known for. Rocky was not to be outmatched in that department. He worked an octopus stretch and busted out the AZUCAR dance. The match progressed to strikes late. Romero hit a Buzzsaw Kick to win the battle and the match in 6:29. The compact style worked for this. Very smooth wrestling and some strong exchanges packed into a small timeframe. [***]

Survival of the Fittest Qualifying Match: Austin Aries vs. Delirious
After two matches with guys who were new to ROH, this one has established talents. Interesting note is that Aries has never missed the finals of this tournament, while Delirious entered as the defending champion. Aries tried a slow pace to combat Delirious’ frantic style. It was clear that these were two guys who wrestled a lot. Their work was fluid with no real hiccups and both had counters ready. He’s such a tool in 2018 that you can forget how good Aries was in 2007. Everything he did in this match looked so smooth. I liked the closing stretch, as both men avoided each other’s finishers in different ways. Aries got stuck in the Cobra Stretch, only to roll through into a Brainbuster. He rolled through again into the Horns of Aries for the win in 12:17. Best match so far. Very good back and forth wrestling. [***¼]

Backstage, Aries explained that he’s been working on submission countering in preparation for his series of matches with Bryan Danielson. That’s why he had an answer for the Cobra Stretch.

Survival of the Fittest Qualifying Match: Claudio Castagnoli vs. Davey Richards
Claudio had already won the Race to the Top Tournament earlier in the year. Davey was game to hit Claudio as hard as he was getting hit. That looked cool because he was so much smaller. Davey put the focus on Claudio’s leg, looking to cut him down to size. It set up a pretty vicious looking Stretch Muffler. Claudio fought through it for some near falls and a string of uppercuts. A running European uppercut and Ricola Bomb finished this in a surprisingly short 7:59. The limb work was strong, but this never felt like it truly got going. [**¾]

Claudio Castagnoli, nursing a bad neck, talked about how he’ll win another tournament tonight.

Survival of the Fittest Qualifying Match: Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness
It’s one of the greatest rivalries in ROH history. Entering this one, Danielson had three wins, Nigel had a countout win, and they had one draw. A master class in mat grappling here. They spent the entire match exchanging holds on the ground, trying to outclass one another. They’re great at it, but it feels different from their other matches. There’s a lack of intensity. It’s a simple formula, though. Danielson attacked the legs and Nigel went after the arm. Their work throughout was as crisp as it gets. When the announcer mentioned the time limit was winding down, the fans weren’t happy. They could sense a draw coming. As time started winding down, Danielson had the Cattle Mutilation on, but Nigel made it to the ropes. They fought in the corner and time expired at 20:00 when Nigel set up the Tower of London. Lots of strong mat work and it helped in the greater story of how Nigel, now as champion, may have Danielson’s number. They did throw some of the work away to bring the bombs late, making the first two-thirds of the match feel like filler. [***½]

Nigel asked for five more minutes. Danielson attacked and was quickly submitted in the London Dungeon, but the referee never okayed the extension, so it remained a draw.

Survival of the Fittest Qualifying Match: Human Tornado vs. Shane Hagadorn vs. Tony Kozina
Hagadorn was a terrible ROH regular, but the other guys weren’t usually around. This marked the ROH debut of Human Tornado. This wasn’t originally scheduled to be a qualifier, but with Nigel and Danielson both out, it was given that treatment. The match was all about Tornado. He was way over with the crowd and most of this was built around him getting his shit in. Tornado won with a backdrop suplex of sorts on Kozina in 3:27. A good showcase for Tornado, but that’s about it. [*½]

Non-Title Street Fight: The Age of the Fall (Jimmy Jacobs and Necro Butcher) vs. ROH World Tag Team Champions The Briscoes
The Age of the Fall debuted in September with a brutal attack on the Briscoes. As expected, the two teams brawled all around the arena. There was a table and chair brought into the mix, adding to the violence. It was the perfect style of match for the great Necro Butcher. I miss that crazy bastard. In fact, Necro was handled very well here. He was a beast and the only way the Briscoes could stop him was to work together. I thought the finish ruled. Necro knocked Jay off the top with a chair shot. He then launched the chair at Mark’s head. That left Mark open for the Guillotine Choke and he passed out at 12:43. There wasn’t much drama in the pass out spot, but the match worked as a fun little lead in for the title match at the end of the year. [***]

Survival of the Fittest: Austin Aries vs. Chris Hero w/ Larry Sweeney vs. Claudio Castagnoli vs. Human Tornado vs. Rocky Romero vs. FIP Heavyweight Champion Roderick Strong
Lots of intertwining stories here. Hero & Claudio are feuding, as are Strong & Aries. Strong is also teammates with Romero. Claudio comes in with a bad neck and Tornado is looking to establish himself in ROH. That played into the early goings, with Hero avoiding action until Claudio got his hands on him and the NRC jumping Aries. Tornado hit a big dive outside and got too caught up in the crowd hype, allowing Hero to hit the Hero’s Welcome and send him home at 3:58. While everyone competed, Hero sat on a chair on the stage and watched alongside Sweeney. The next elimination saw Aries hit the 450 on Romero, only for Hero to blind tag in. He hit Aries and stole the pin at 13:32. Great character work by Hero. He used a similar tactic to roll up Aries at 15:38. It shined again when Sweeney paid off Roddy to team up against Claudio, only for Hero to double cross and eliminate him at 19:49. Of course, he also stole the money back from Roddy. The final section of this match saw Hero actually have to wrestle. He and Claudio developed strong enough chemistry that this was the best part of the match from an action standpoint. Eventually, Claudio took too much damage throughout the match and passed out in the Hangman’s Clutch for the finish at 27:43. Solid match throughout, made all the better thanks to some great character work from everyone involved, especially Hero. [***½]

There were some post-match segments, including one outside with Chris Hero and Larry Sweeney. None were important.

5.5

The final score: review Not So Good

The 411

A middle of the pack ROH show. None of the matches were great and there were some that seriously lacked or disappointed. The venue didn’t help, as it was poorly lit and way too small. It made for a bad atmosphere that hurt most of the matches. Mild recommendation, but there are plenty of better ROH shows from the era.