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Zen Arcade Reviews: ROH Showdown In The Sun Day 1

May 11, 2012 | Posted by Jake St-Pierre
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Zen Arcade Reviews: ROH Showdown In The Sun Day 1  

Hello, 411, I am Jake St-Pierre or JSP, whichever works for you. I’ve been writing about wrestling regularly for about 8 months, and this is my first real writing gig on a website. I’ve reviewed ROH shows, EVOLVE shows, and Puro for the Oratory Forums and my own blog, but now I’ve gotten a break. So thanks 411 and thanks to everyone who will inevitably flame me as long as my tenure lasts. You encourage me to be even more of a dick.

We open the show with Nigel McGuinness and Kevin Kelly. Nigel goes over his spiel about how PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING IS STILL ALIVE!~! after Kevin runs down the card.

Proving Ground: The Briscoe Brothers vs. Shane Haste and Mikey Nicholls
Haste and Nicholls are over in ROH already, having done a good job during the Rise and Prove tournament at Rise and Prove in Cincinnati. Briscoes are the f’n Briscoes. They get a big pop upon entrance. I’ve also noticed during the TV shows that Mark Briscoe is getting better at talking, as they’re letting him talk more. It’s obvious he’s been practicing. That’s why Jay Briscoe got so good on the stick, why not let Mark see if he can do well with practice?

We start off with Shane Haste and Mark Briscoe. Mark takes control and feeds Haste to Jay, and they wipe Mikey Nicholls out early by suplexing him on the floor. Jay tags in and nails Shane Haste with a lariat that turns him inside out. The crowd has decided to boo TMDK already as they take control over Jay. TMDK does a good moonsault/fist drop combo. Mark tries to fight his way out of stuff with headbutts, but he doesn’t get anywhere with it. Mark falls to a bodyslam after getting two on Shane Haste with a rollup. Mark tags into Jay finally and the ROH crowd pops for the hot tag for the first time in forever. Shane Haste breaks up a Falcon Arrow pin by Jay and TMDK hits an AWESOME double team; Haste jumps of off Nicholls’ back into a high angle cannonball. Jay kicks out of their finisher and the Briscoes are building momentum. Froggy ‘bow by Mark! One, two, no! Good nearfall! The Briscoes finish Mikey Nicholls with a Doomsday Device in 11 minutes.

Analysis: **3/4 This was a good opener that made the crowd eager to see the rest of the show. Haste and Nicholls did great and you’d think they would have another match in ROH soon, because they impressed me here. I haven’t seen Rise and Prove yet, so I may be even more impressed with them afterwards. The Briscoes didn’t do anything out of their repertoire, but they still got the crowd with them during the match like always. Good opener.

We welcome in (then) NWA Champion Adam Pearce, who is also a former ROH Booker. They talk about how Pearce beat Cole with a lowblow and nailing a piledriver, which Cornette says is banned in ROH because of Kevin Steen. Adam Cole enters the ring after Pearce says Cole is “good but not great.” Cole is probably one of the better talkers in ROH at the moment, and people don’t get that. Pearce owns Cole on the mic here though. Cole and Pearce set up an impromptu match!

Adam Pearce vs. Adam Cole
Here we go!

Pearce takes control early, but Cole kicks him out of the ring. Cole follows with a dive. Pearce is wrestling in his dress shirt and jeans. First “YES! YES!” chants of the night occur here. Cole falls victim to a vicious chokeslam. Pearce hits an AWESOME powerbomb looking thing for a CLOSE two count, but Cole comes back with an enziguiri on the floor. Pearce moves out of the way of a crossbody and takes control. Cole gets a good nearfall out of a Shining Wizard. Pearce looks for a piledriver, but those are banned in ROH. Cole rolls through and pins Adam Pearce in 5 minutes.

Analysis: ** Good filler match, which showed that Adam Pearce can be a good heel and that Adam Cole is good at playing the plucky babyface. Nothing great, but as said, it was good filler. Hard to believe that Cole is only 22; he has so much potential. In about 5 years, he may be a WWE main-eventer. Who knows?

Tornado Tag: The Young Bucks vs. All Night Express
I liked the Bucks’ ring work, but their heel work (in ROH at least) seems woefully forced and cheesy. They’re not convincing in an environment like ROH. They work perfectly in PWG but that’s a LOT less serious than ROH. This is a part of the Duel Dual, which means tomorrow’s match will be a Street Fight.

We start off fast and furious with a slugfest. Titus gets a two count on Matt Jackson after a rope strangle. ANX does stereo dives, and Titus jumps up to the crowd to slap some hands. Rhett looks in much better shape than at Young Wolves Rising. Bucks take control with a dual double stomp, and Matt takes out Kenny King on the outside. Nick gets a two count on King after a slingshot X-Factor. King tries to mount a comeback but Nick stops it all with a spin kick to the gut. Rhett comes back in and takes both Jackson’s out. Matt pulls Rhett off his brother and tries to work on his knee, but Kenny stops all that shit with his awesome Capture Suplex. Bucks retaliate to all of that with stereo superkicks and awesome stereo 450 splashes. Rhett rolls through and pins Matt with a cradle in 10 minutes.

Analysis: **1/2 This match was just getting good before the very abrupt finish. They had a feeling out process (well, feeling out for a damn Young Bucks match) and started to turn up the volume before Rhett got the surprise win. They had some good spots and the crowd was way into it, but the furious ending stretch would have made this a potentially four star match. Give this another 20 minutes and you have a tag classic. But this was what it was, and they have another match on Day 2.

The Embassy (LIMITED!~!) comes out. The crowd tells Nana to “shut the fuck up”, to which Nana responds, “That’s probably what I was telling your mothers last night” and puts him in my good book for the night. He hands the mic over to RD Evans, who says they were given an injunction that if they did not return the TV Title that Ciampa stole at Young Wolves Rising. He says Ciampa didn’t bring the belt, but Ernesto Osiris is en route to get said belt. Nana sings and makes me even happier.

TV Title Match: Jay Lethal © vs. Kyle O’Reilly
Kyle O’Reilly is an awful, awful talker but he’s a good wrestler. Jay Lethal has showed me how well he can talk with extended time over the past couple of weeks, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Mr. Lethal win the World Title in the next year. Hard to believe Jay is still so young, 26 years old.

We have your standard feeling-out process here. Jay keeps hold of the wristlock after Kyle’s various attempts at breaking it. When Kyle eventually does, he bitch slaps the TV Champ. Kyle twists Jay up like a pretzel. See, I hate the TV Title matches on PPV. They spend nearly half of the match feeling each other out and then they are subsequently roasted on by Nigel McGuinness for not going for the win early. Action picks up when Kyle legsweeps Lethal on the stage. Kyle puts on an Octopus Abdominal Stretch and transitions to a front facelock after Lethal rolls him up. Kyle puts on the guillotine choke, but Lethal counters out. Lethal nails the backspring elbow, which is the same setup as the Lethal Injection, which is pretty annoying. Lethal Injection puts O’Reilly down in 11 minutes.

Analysis: **3/4 Another match with an abrupt finish. They had a damn good match, but failed to turn it up to the highest octave to make it a great match. Not very many TV Title matches are that good, considering the time limit, but they wrestled a very good match for what it was. Nothing special considering the small amount of time they got.

Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team vs. C&C Wrestle Factory
Holy shit, I love WGTT’s heel work. Charlie is such a great old school heel, it’s insane. Shelton’s the guy who just wrestles and talks occasionally. Alexander and Coleman are pretty awesome too.

WGTT cheapshots their opponents to start. Cedric and Caprice take control soon after, but their momentum stops after Shelton superkicks the black off of Caprice Coleman. We get to a real tag match soon after, in which Haas just kicks Caprice around, committing about five hate crimes within the course of a minute. Shelton tags in and now it’s BLACK ON BLACK CRIME FIGHT!~! Ha. I kill me. Charlie commits his biggest hate crime yet by backdropping Coleman on the guardrail. Haas hits the old Eddie Guerrero tope atomico after he tags in. WGTT are a great old school tag team. Wish they wouldn’t have wasted their first year on an underwhelming face run. Benjamin gets a good 2 count on a belly-to-belly suplex, and bitch slaps Cedric Alexander. Caprice finally gets the tag to Cedric, who does all sorts of cool shit that involves spins and jumps. Even a BLACK GUY STRATUSFACTION! Caprice hits an awesome no hands, jumping frankensteiner because he f’n can. That’s why. WGTT stalls C&C’s momentum and Shelton’s top rope belly-to-belly gets the 3 count in around 12 minutes.

Analysis: *** Best match of the night so far. This was a purely old school tag team match and all four worked it tremendously. Haas and Benjamin are great heels, and C&C were really good at taking the ass kicking and ultimately giving it back with some cool moves. Nothing of note really happened here, but it was a good match to get Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team ready for the awesomeness that is the Briscoe Brothers.

Mike Bennett vs. Lance Storm
I’m surprised Storm was wrestling Bennett, but Mike has improved to the point where he can have a decent match with a lot of people. He’s still only carryable, but that may change in due time. Lance comes out in good shape, bald and with his always nice gap-tooth from hell. He gets a MASSIVE ovation too. I loved Lance’s match with Bryan Danielson in 2006, so let’s see if this is even a fraction of that match.

Lance starts off with a waistlock. Bennett bails after taking a couple of deep arm drags. Back in the ring, Lance goes to work on Bennett’s arm. Mike’s attempts to escape are moot, as Lance stays one step ahead of him. Bennett comes back by using the referee to shield him, and then hitting a spinning neckbreaker. The crowd jeers Bennett after he reverses an attempt at a Maple Leaf. They trade right hands with Lance coming out on top with a dropkick for a 2 count. Storm gets a good two count off of a flying clothesline. Bennett comes back with a spinebuster for 2. Lance falls victim to a Box Office Smash! One, two, no! Bennett looks to put on a Maple Leaf, but Storm nails a superkick! One, two, no. Storm goes to work on the knee for the Maple Leaf, but Bennett gets out. Lance COUNTERS A TKO WITH THE MAPLE LEAF. Awesome counter. Bennett gets to the ropes, much to the chagrin of the crowd. TOP ROPE BOX OFFICE SMASH BY BENNETT. One, two, thr—NO! Great nearfall. TKO gets Bennett the three count in 15 minutes.

Analysis: ***1/4 I’ve seen people rate this to nearly four stars, and while this has been Match of the Night so far, it’s still not that great. They had a really slow first few minutes, but the great finishing sequence made this a good match. Some of the nearfalls here were awesome, as well were some of the counters. Bennett still relied on a bunch of restholds to pass the time, but he turned it up when he needed to. He needs to learn some ring psychology before he can do anything on his own, without being carried. We’ll see a rematch of this at Border Wars and let’s hope they turn out another good match.

Last Man Standing: Kevin Steen vs. El Generico
God damn you, ROH, why aren’t you pushing El Generico? Oh no, he’s in a MASK. Suck it up, Cornette. You’re stupid for not pushing one of the best wrestlers currently alive. You’ll be sorry once EVOLVE and Dragon Gate USA scoop him up for the east coast bookings. Steen is Steen. He’s a fat dude, but he’s an awesome, mind numblingly charismatic fat dude. And a good wrestler to boot. Border Wars in May will have Steen-Davey for the world title, a rare case of ROH striking while the iron is hot. I love it.

Generico comes out of the gate with a Yakuza Kick and a tope con hilo! Crowd is going fucking bonkers here. Generico whacks Steen with an extra set of ring ropes. Generico just maylays on Steen in the ring but Steen catches Generico with a cutter as he slingshots himself in. Steen brings out a chair, and hits a legdrop on it to Generico. Steen counters a springboard tornado DDT and HITS A CANNONBALL WITH THE CHAIR. Jesus, these fans are fucking insane right now. But Steen is spectacular at feeding off of the crowd, so it just makes the match better. Everyone is cheering the same people though, because it’s impossible to boo either of them, especially Generico. Steen powerbombs the Generic Luchador on the apron, which Generico sells like a champ. Generico comes back like a house on fire and hits a Yakuza kick on the stage! Generico hits a MICHINOKU DRIVER on the stage. I like how they’re brawling without a lot of setup. Makes it a lot different from their fantastic match at Final Battle 2010. GENERICO HITS A SOMERSAULT PLANCHA OFF THE STAGE! Generico tightropes the guardrail and HITS A TORNADO DDT. Steen is up at 9. Steen sets Generico on a table outside, and hits a fucking SLINGSHOT SENTON BOMB THROUGH THE TABLE! Generico’s up at 9! Steen sets up some chairs on the inside, looks for the F-Cinq, but Generico hits a HALF-NELSON SUPLEX ON THE CHAIRS! STEEN’S UP! Steen with a FISHERMAN’S BUSTER ON THE CHAIR! Holy crap, this match is crazy. These two are just masters at brawls like this. They’ve not had a single match under four stars in singles competition that I’ve seen. GENERICO IS UP! YAKUZA KICK ON STEEN! Steen is up. They are really working this tricky Last Man Standing gimmick like champions. The crowd pops huge when Steen bites Generico’s fingers. BRAINBUSTER BY GENERICO! This match is crazy. Not to the level of their Final Battle match but bloody hell, these guys are killing each other. They duel with chairs and Steen nails a low blow. Steen looks to hit Generico (who is on his knees, similar to Final Battle 2009 when Steen turned.) Here’s Jimmy Jacobs! Generico hits a half nelson suplex on Steen! JACOBS TURNS ON GENERICO AND STABS HIM WITH THE SPIKE! Jacobs whacks Generico with a protected (what a freaking concept!) chairshot and Steen picks up the win at 24 minutes. Crazy match, good turn by Jacobs who’s a much better heel than he is a face. ROH needs to feature him more so the new fans can know what he’s capable of. Tell the fans his history and how evil he was. That should get him over.

Analysis: ****1/4 Holy crap, these guys just turn up magic every single time they step into the ring as opponents. It wasn’t up to the level of their Steen Wolf ladder match or their Final Battle Fight Without Honor but they had the crowd in the palm of their hands from the exact moment the bell rang. Generico is such a great babyface that you’re automatically rooting for him, even though he’s against the most over man in Ring of Honor. That’s exactly why ROH should push him; he is an automatic pop in every promotion and he can garner enough sympathy to get an even bigger pop when he finally comes back. Steen is just great at everything he does at this point, and only a real dipshit can screw his push up. I loved Jacobs’ turn too, but ROH needs to feature him with Steen all they can. He’s not very over right now, but if you give him the promo time and a good feud, you’ll get him as over as he used to be in ’07-’08.

ROH World Title: Davey Richards © vs. Eddie Edwards vs. Roderick Strong
Davey is falling out of favor with the ROH fans and honestly, I am in that boat. I like the guy, but he needs to learn to sell in his matches. His debacle with Edwards at Final Battle still leaves a bad taste in my mouth and he hasn’t done anything to win me back over, perhaps barring the MOTYC main event at Young Wolves Rising. I’m not that interested in this match, but if they work it well (as in working the crowd and…oh, y’know, SELLING) it could be a great match. Davey gets a very mixed reaction upon his introduction. Eddie gets a big pop, and Roddy gets mostly booed. I think I like Roddy the most out of these guys, honestly.

Roddy comes out like a house afire. Just like that, we end up with Eddie and Davey facing off. They trade strikes like they usually do, because fuck you, they can. Davey takes his former partner down with a dropkick and puts on the arm trapped Cloverleaf. Strong quickly breaks that up because he’s a heel and likes to kick little whiny girls like Davey in the face. That’s just a hunch though. Roddy gets a 2 count on Davey after the Hurricane’s old finisher. Chops for everyone! You know, I may not love Davey like I used to, but I’m such a mark for him kicking people in their mouths. This match is very strike-heavy so far, but they’re not doing anything in the way of no-selling yet. And the crowd is bonkers for the exchnages, so they are tolerable. Everyone is just beating the holy hell out of each other. Strong goes on a backbreaker bender (Ha, say that three times fast.) Roddy barely kicks out of a Backpack from Edwards. Roddy tries to take control of Davey but Richards rolls through and puts on a freaking Trailer Hitch. Eddie tries to stop it, but Davey puts an ankle lock on him! Good spot there. Davey dives onto Roddy on the outside, so the crowd is happy about that. Eddie hits an Asai Moonsault! Davey jumps up to Eddie on the top rope, hits a Superplex, rolls through and puts in a cross armbreaker! Roddy breaks it up and puts a Stronghold on! Sick kick by Roddy on Eddie! One, two, thr—NO! Awesome nearfall. Roddy drops Davey on his head and gives the former American Wolves enziguiris. Eddie double stomps Davey, who is bridged in a German Suplex and chops Roddy in the face! One, two, thr—no! Now we’re cooking. Truth Martini distracts Eddie and Roderick Strong eliminates Eddie Edwards in 20 minutes.

Davey goes for Roddy right afterwards and gets two on a Dragon Suplex. Roddy hits the Sick Kick! One, two, no. Gibson Driver! One, two, no. Davey gets all badass and kicks Truth Martini in the face while yelling MOTHERFUCKER. You told him Davey. Spinning kick gets the three count for Davey in 22 minutes.

Post-Match: Michael Elgin attacks Davey Richards to set up their match tomorrow afternoon.

Analysis: ***1/4 This was alright, but nothing we haven’t seen before. They all got ample time to do some midly innovative three-way spots, too many strikes, and all of their signature moves. They didn’t no-sell at all, which I highly approve of because lately, Davey Richards has lost the ability to sell at all. They didn’t perform like I expected them too, but it’s gotten to the point where I’m so utterly uninterested in this trio facing off that it’s just run of the mill for me. The rating is for some mildly exciting spots and an extremely hot crowd, who enjoyed this more than the Hammerstein Ballroom probably would have. It wasn’t up to par with the good main events from last year, or the fantastic tag match during the 10th Anniversary show, but it was serviceable for a Day 1 ending.

Hey, if you’re not doing anything else, follow a brother on Twitter @JakeStPierre411

The 411: Although there wasn't anything bad, Showdown In the Sun Day 1 felt like a house show. We've seen a lot of this before and it's almost like ROH was telling us Day 1 was just a filler show until Day 2, where more happened. However, this was a good show nonetheless and if anything, get it for Steen/Generico XVIII. They had a great brawl and a good angle to come out of it. So pick this one up if you can find it on the cheap (or a download) but you're not missing too much.
 
Final Score:  6.0   [ Average ]  legend

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