Wrestling’s 4R’s PPV Edition 6.04.08: ROH TAKE NO PRISONERS (2008)

How the 4R’s of wRestling Work!
Here is a quick explanation of the 4R’s. I will take the 4 main shows (5 if I go RetRo) of the week: TNA Impact, WWE Raw, ECW on Sci-Fi and WWE Smackdown. If we have a PPV, that show will get a special PPV edition of the R’s all to its own. I then group my feelings on the shows in various categories: The Right, the wRong and the Ridiculous. The Right is stuff that worked very well: a great promo, a great match and so on. PuRgatoRy is a section between the right and wrong. It shows equal traits from both sides that cannot be ignored and need discussed. It is not a bad place per say, as things can get remedied or go the wrong way the very next week. The wRong is what it sounds like: bad matches, bad or boring promos and so on. The Ridiculous is stuff that had no right on TV: Stupid angles, Diva searches and so on. And there is always a possibility of a 5th R, which is as bad as they come, unless you are TNA. They have a special R all of their own, the 6th R; the Russo-FN-Riffic~! This column is supposed to be analytical, and at the right time very critical of the shows, it was the whole reason it was created. This is not a “mark” column, nor a “smark” column, my goal is to analyze the show from many different fronts, reward the good and call out the bad. There are also occasions where I will bring out a 5th or even a 6th R to the column, so beware of those~! I will not apologize for my opinions, they are as they are, whether very positive or negative.

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~ROH TAKE NO PRISONERS~

The Matches:

FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL: Tyler Black defeated Claudio Castagnoli, Go Shiozaki and Delirious@ 10:00 via pin ***½

Kevin Steen defeated Roderick Strong @ 11:10 via pin ***¼

STREET FIGHT: The Briscoes defeated The Age of the Fall (Butcher and Matthews) @ 15:34 via pin ***

Brent Albright defeated Erik Stevens @ 7:00 via pin **

ROH TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Davey Richards and Rocky Romero defeated Jigsaw and Ruckus @ 9:45 via pin **¾

Bryan Danielson defeated Austin Aries @ 18:34 via submission ****¼

ROH TITLE MATCH: Nigel McGuinness defeated Tyler Black @ 22:10 via submission ****½

The Right:

FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL: I always talk about the importance of the opening match on a PPV, and this one will be the same. This one was important due to how it played into the main event the title shot was on the line. The men that were competing, Claudio Castagnoli, Tyler Black, Go Shiozaki and Delirious all had won qualifying matches to get into this match (a fact they later mentioned, oops) and all wanted the title shot. The match was 10-minutes of nonstop action, was clean and pulled off very well by all involved. It all culminated in the hot ending sequence, which finally saw Black hit the Phoenix splash for the huge victory, and title shot. Overall this was a strong opener for the show here. Lots of athleticism shown by all the guys, and the crowd dug it. This was a good way to kick off the show, as you had the importance of the title shot really put over. I also enjoyed Nigel’s commentary, as I felt it added to the match and match to come. He did very well here.

Kevin Steen defeated Roderick Strong: I am a fan of both men, so I was looking forward to the match. While I will admit they did get a little repetitive at times, this was a very good match and at the right place on the show. I thought overall that both men had a good chemistry in the ring, and everything seemed effortless out there. After nearly 11-minutes of nonstop action, Steen was able to escape a Gibson driver and hit the package piledriver for the non-title victory over the FIP Champion. Strong has been good on ROH PPV thus far, as has Steen; but this was his first chance to shine in singles action and he didn’t disappoint.

STREET FIGHT: This is a match that people seemed to like a lot more than I did. It wasn’t bad at all, and I liked it well enough. But to me the match had the feeling that they were going for an epic brawl, but it just didn’t do it for me. It was good, and they worked hard and did some cool stuff, but it wasn’t anything you haven’t seen before. I think a problem with the match was that as soon as you saw Matthews and Necro representing the AoTF, you knew the Briscoe’s would win. Basically revenge on the lower members of the group, while Jacobs hung out with Zach Gowen (NO BUYS) and talked to their EMO club friends. It is an enjoyable street fight, it also gives you something different from the rest of the show and offers a change of pace, which is nice. Also, memo to Mark Briscoe: If you keep trying to kill yourself to entertain the fans, you may in fact kill yourself one day. Chill buddy.

Bryan Danielson defeated Austin Aries: Danielson vs. Aries was the match I was really looking forward to on this show. Both men (besides their regular ROH work) have been great on PPV, and I felt that they could deliver big time. And they did, it’s really that simple. This is one of those matches that makes ME personally love pro wrestling. Two men wanting to get back to the top, two men looking for another shot at the title that they both think is theirs; and two men that would be willing to do just about anything for that shot. In the end what we got was a tremendous match here with everything you could want. We got smart and clean work, stiff shots, MMA style submission work and strikes, pro wrestling counters, some high flying, the drama, the crowd heat; and it all worked. This was an excellent match right here, and helped in taking this show from solid too good.

ROH TITLE MATCH: The tide had turned here for the show after Danielson vs. Aries, the PPV was on the rise and one could have easily expected a down turn in quality. Seriously, that was a hard match to follow. Plus when you add to the equation that there was so much hype, this easily could have been a let down. Early on I was a bit cool on the match, but what happened was that this was one of those matches that you think doesn’t live up to hype, and then it kicks into an entirely different gear and it all makes sense. Quite simply they did an excellent job of making the Cinderella story with the four-way win and building to this match. The story of the underdog is one everyone loves and it was done very well here. You have to respect ROH taking a 21-year old kid, yes he is a kid, and giving him the shot on PPV here. The crowd was hot, the near falls were tremendous and Nigel takes home another hard fought victory, while Black looked like a million dollars in defeat. Whether the booking follows up or not is another question, but for tonight Tyler Black may have lost, but he came off looking like a star, that’s for sure.

Purgatory:

ROH TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Different types of matches have their place on the card. On this show we had a street fight, we had tremendous technical wrestling and right here was out spot-fest of the show. They got a bit under 10-minutes, the crowd was in love with the match, there was big spots to keep them happy and in the end the champs retained. ROH has done a good job of featuring the tag titles along with the world title on the PPV’s, but to me this was the weakest of the tag title matches. While it id give Richards and Romero the PPV win, I had some issues. As I stated in the report I haven’t seen a lot of Jigsaw, but from what I have seen I am not that big a fan. Yeah he does the cool spots well, but general wrestling is not a big strength for him, and his strikes look like my daughter’s. Seriously dude, you don’t have to kill people but make it look good. I can feel the heat now from people that loved the match. I feel about the same with Ruckus as well. I have seen more Ruckus than Jigsaw, and generally I feel if you have seen one Ruckus match, you’ve seen them all. They aren’t bad, but they aren’t my cup of tea either. Finally, while there were some fun near falls that popped the ROH faithful, I never felt like these guys were a threat. To me they were out there to do their shit and give the champs a PPV victory.

PS: I mark for the Super Diablo Arm Bar.

THE LARRY SWEENEY SHOW: I think that most people will be surprised to see me not instantly gush all over the Larry Sweeney Show, starring Larry Sweeney ™. But if I am absolutely honest with you, it just didn’t blow me away. Actually, if I am being truthful, Larry Sweeney Show, starring Larry Sweeney ™ kind of was a dead spot in the show for me, it killed the momentum instead of offering a break. I love the Larry Sweeney character, and I think that Larry Sweeney is awesome. I also like the angle that he wants to take over ROH by buying up all of the contracts so that he can sell them to Vince and make millions. But yeah, I had issues here. First of all the sound quality of the house mic was trash, and I had trouble at times hearing everything as clearly as I should have. If you are going to do a sports entertainment segment like this, people need to be able to hear what is being said. Signing the Hangmen Three is fine to me, I like Pearce and all so it’s fine. Stevens comes out because he had wanted Puder, but Sweeney was “holding him out.” So yeah, this was “fine,” but it either could have been better or not done at all.

The wRong:

Brent Albright defeated Erik Stevens: Speaking of things that either could have been better or not done at all, that is where this match falls for me. First of all I never got into the match. The previous segment played into it well enough I suppose, but I never got into this match nor did I feel any sense of flow to it. It just felt like two guys going out there to kill 7-minutes or so. I mean, it wasn’t bad, but it was far from a good match. I honestly feel that with the close of the Sweeney show that a Horsemen style beat down of Stevens would have been more effective that running the match. The beat down would also have allowed a couple more minutes for one of the matches or for another video package.

The Ridiculous:

PRODUCTION: I have complained and praised the production of the ROH PPV’s since the beginning of the run; I hate to say it, but I have to go back to complaining about it. I mentioned the sound in the Sweeney segment. Sound is an issue that is hurting these shows. Anytime they have someone do a promo on the house mic it is generally muffled, way too loud or almost impossible to understand. The company is six shows into their PPV run now and this should have been fixed by now.

The picture at times was just bad. Ari and I shared the same opinion when DRIVEN aired, and we do at this time. Here’s what he had to say, “A while back I expressed my favoring of the Danielson vs. McGuinness match from “Driven” for how well the match was filmed. I was stumping for ROH to hold an entire PPV in Philadelphia. “Take No Prisoners’ was that PPV, but for some reason it didn’t work out to be the same quality at all. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times, but the white washing of the picture is a huge problem that NEEDS to be addressed, like right now.” I couldn’t agree more.

And then there is the issue of lighting. The lighting seemed at times fine, and at other times like they were letting a fan that won a contest work the show lighting. For PPV #1 this is a fine thing, for PPV #3 you’re still working out some venue kinks and such. But for the 6th show on PPV, I find the production unacceptable. The company doesn’t have to have WWE quality production, but if they lack basic production skills they will never get the people conditioned to the WWE way of wrestling to give them a shot. This hurt the show’s overall score.

Closing Thoughts:
Once again I have to say that ROH delivers a very good pro wrestling show. The commentary was solid, it did its job of explaining what was happening and why it was happening as far as back-story goes. The opener delivered, and with Nigel on commentary did work to set up the main event. Steen vs. Strong delivered just fine, the street fight will be loved by some, but at the very least enjoyed by many, the tag title match gave you a spot-fest fix, while the semi-main event and main event flat out delivered EXCELLENT wrestling matches Overall I will go with a 8.3 out of 10, with the production hurting the score a bit to be truthful; which is a shame. When I order an ROH PPV I expect very good wrestling and no bullshit, which is what they are delivering. Unfortunately production problems are also part of the package. For $10-$15 you are just not going to get a better two-hours of wrestling anywhere, especially the last hour of this one. If you can get past some production flaws, you’ll love it.

2008 PPV Rankings:
–WWE WRESTLEMANIA {8.7}
–ROH RISING ABOVE {8.6}
–ROH UNDENIABLE {8.5}
–ROH TAKE NO PRISONERS {8.3}
–TNA LOCKDOWN {8.2}
–WWE NO WAY OUT {8.1}
–WWE ROYAL RUMBLE {8.0}
–TNA AGAINST ALL ODDS {7.5}
–TNA DESTINATION X {7.25}
–WWE BACKLASH {7.0}
–TNA FINAL RESOLUTION {6.75}
–WWE JUDGMENT DAY {6.0}
–TNA SACRIFICE {6.0}

2008 TOP PPV Match Rankings:
–(WWE WRESTLEMANIA 24) CAREER THREATENING MATCH: Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels *****

–(WWE WRESTLEMANIA 24) WORLD TITLE MATCH: Edge © vs. The Undertaker ****½
–(ROH TAKE NO PRISONERS) ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Nigel McGuinness © vs. Tyler Black ****½
–(ROH RISING ABOVE) ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Nigel McGuinness © vs. Austin Aries ****½
–(TNA LOCKDOWN) TNA WORLD TITLE MATCH: Kurt Angle © vs. Samoa Joe ****½

–(ROH TAKE NO PRISONERS) Bryan Danielson vs. Austin Aries ****¼
–(ROH UNDENIABLE) GRUDGE MATCH: Austin Aries vs. Roderick Strong ****¼
–(WWE NO WAY OUT) RAW ELIMINATION CHAMBER ****¼

–(TNA AGAINST ALL ODDS) TNA WORLD TITLE MATCH: Kurt Angle © vs. Christian Cage ****
–(TNA FINAL RESOLUTION) TNA WORLD TITLE MATCH: Kurt Angle © vs. Christian Cage ****
–(WWE ROYAL RUMBLE) The Royal Rumble Match ****

–(TNA FINAL RESOLUTION) TNA NO-DQ WOMEN’S TITLE MATCH: Gail Kim ©vs. Awesome Kong ***¾
–(TNA LOCKDOWN) LETHAL LOCKDOWN: Team Cage vs. Team Tomko ***¾
–(TNA AGAINST ALL ODDS) HARDCORE STREET FIGHT: Team 3D and Brother Devine vs. Black Machismo and the Motor City Machineguns ***¾
–(ROH UNDENIABLE) ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Jay & Mark Briscoe © vs. The No Remorse Corps ***¾
–(ROH RISING ABOVE) ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH – 2 of 3 Falls: Jay & Mark Briscoe © vs. The No Remorse Corps ***¾
–(WWE NO WAY OUT) SMACKDOWN ELIMINATION CHAMBER ***¾
–(WWE WRESTLEMANIA 24) WWE TITLE MATCH: Randy Orton © vs. John Cena vs. HHH ***¾
–(WWE BACKLASH) WORLD TITLE MATCH: The Undertaker © vs. Edge ***¾
–(WWE WRESTLEMANIA 24) MONEY IN THE BANK LADDER MATCH: Chris Jericho vs. MVP vs. John Morrison vs. Carlito vs. CM Punk vs. Mr. Kennedy vs. Shelton Benjamin ***¾
–(WWE JUDGMENT DAY) HBK vs. Chris Jericho ***¾

2008 PPV MVP AWARDS:
This is a little added deal I started last year, as I feel that there are some other things that should be mentioned from the PPV’s. Not every PPV will have one, it just depends on who I think steps up and deserves some extra recognition.

–ROH RISING ABOVE: Nigel vs. Aries (Stealing the Show)
–TNA FINAL RESOLUTION: Gail Kim vs. Awesome Kong (Making us Care about Women’s Wrestling on the National Stage)
–ROH UNDENIABLE: Strong vs. Aries (The Grudge is Settled)
–WWE ROYAL RUMBLE: John Cena Shocks the World (No One Saw it Coming)
–TNA AGAINST ALL ODDS: Black Machismo Saves the X-Division (He is a Superman)
–WWE NO WAY OUT: Taker Eliminates the Competition (Elimination Chamber MVP)
–TNA DESTINATION X: Gail Kim vs. Awesome Kong © vs. ODB (Stepping up Again)
–WWE WRESTLEMANIA XXIV: Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels (Thank You Flair)
–TNA LOCKDOWN: Angle vs. Joe (Great Build, Great Delivery)
–TNA SACRIFICE: Roxxi gets a Haircut (And makes the ultimate Sacrifice…)
–ROH TAKE NO PRISONERS: Tyler Black (Becoming a Star at 21)