ROH Video Wire 8/31/07

ROH Driven PPV Preview

ROH Video Wire 8/17/07

AJPW Jumbo Tsuruta VS Mitsuharu Misawa

You read the review, now live the match!

Misawa vs. Tsuruta

All Japan Pro Wrestling
Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Mitsuharu Misawa
June 8th 1990
The normally quiet Japanese crowd is red hot for this. They lock up with Tsuruta shoving Misawa off. Shoulder block takedown by Jumbo and a power slam. Misawa blocks a running knee strike, but soon gets caught with the big boot. Hard clothesline by Jumbo, for the first cover attempt of the match. Power slam by Tsuruta, but Misawa counters a back drop driver into a press. Tsuruta goes to ringside, but gets caught with a drop kick off the apron by Misawa. Tsuruta is dumped over the steel barricade. Misawa hangs out in the ring, as it takes Tsuruta several seconds to come back. Misawa dumps Tsuruta back to the floor and leaps over the ropes onto his worthy foe.
The match restarts with a headlock, and Misawa takes control. Tsuruta reverses the lock and goes to work on the wrists. It takes several seconds, but Misawa counters the hold and pulls back on Tsuruta's arms. Sadly, it's reversed again, but Misawa flips out. Misawa applies a hard hammerlock, which is broken by the ropes. Misawa slaps Tsuruta out of frustration. The match restarts again, this time with Tsuruta aggressively pounding and hitting his knee into Misawa's face. Tsuruta goes for the ever so reliable abdominal stretch. Misawa counters into an abdominal stretch of his own, but Tsuruta counters by pushing Misawa over the ropes. Misawa is then whipped into the steel barricade and effortlessly tossed back into the ring by his larger foe. Suplex and a cover by Tsuruta, and then the chinlock!
Misawa struggles with the chinlock, but fights to his feet. Jumbo sends Misawa crashing face first to the mat. Tsuruta tries the move again, but Misawa counters with a drop kick! Neat! Misawa goes high risk and connects with the missile dropkick. Cover by Misawa only gets 2. Running elbow shot by Misawa and a suplex. Spin kick by Misawa and a power slam. Misawa goes high risk and connects with a frog splash! Cover only gets 2. Tsuruta then catches Misawa in his arms and drops him onto the ropes in a sickening fashion! Tsuruta is done playing games and angrily stomps and hits a pile driver! Cover gets 2. Lou Thesz press by Tsuruta gets a cover for 2. Hard drop kick by Tsuruta gets another cover for 2. Misawa won't stay down!
Tsuruta connects with a big boot and goes for the cover yet again. Tsuruta goes high risk, Misawa cuts him off, but Tsuruta still gets his knee to the face of Misawa. Tsuruta continues to dominate, as he gets a power slam and goes high risk again. Misawa chases him to the top and attempts a superplex. Tsuruta knocks him back down to the mat and hits a missile drop kick! Misawa is barely able to kick out of the following cover. Misawa blocks a power bomb, but only temporarily, as Tsuruta gets the bomb and almost wins with the cover. Loud "Misawa" chant from the fans in attendance. Tsuruta goes for a tiger driver, but Misawa counters into a backslide pin attempt. Tsuruta kicks out and knocks Misawa down with his fist, before collapsing himself.
Misawa baseball slides Tsuruta to the floor and hits a HUGE flying crossbody off the top turnbuckle onto Tsuruta on the outside! DAMN! The distance that Misawa got right there was incredible! Both men struggle back into the ring, where Misawa hits some jumping kick thrusts to the head. Tsuruta blocks a back suplex, but Misawa bridges him into a pinning predicament. Tsuruta kicks out! Hard spin kick by Misawa, who then goes high risk again. Misawa goes for the frog splash, but Tsuruta gets his knees up! Tsuruta goes for the cover, but Misawa kicked out! Powerslam by Tsuruta, followed by the Boston crab! Misawa gets the rope break. Hard clothesline by Tsuruta, with another cover attempt for 2. Another hard clothesline gets another 2 count for Tsuruta. Misawa is a mad man!
Tsuruta clotheslines Misawa into the corner. Back suplex by Tsuruta and both men are having trouble getting up. Misawa hits the German suplex into a pinning predicament and Tsuruta barely kicks out! Misawa goes for the tiger driver again, but Tsuruta counters into a back drop pinning predicament. Tsuruta whips Misawa off the ropes and into his knee. Misawa is whipped into the corner, but he leaps off the turnbuckles and into Tsuruta's head. Tsuruta charges at Misawa, who blocks, and Tsuruta hits the ropes in awkward fashion! DAMN! Misawa counters the suplex, but his power bomb is countered into a press! Misawa counters into a pin of his own and wins! Holy crap, what a finish! Misawa beat the legendary Tsuruta at 24:25! The torch has been passed! This match had the "big match" feel all over it, and provided lots of innovative action and drama. You need to watch this (if you haven't already), ****3/4.
Winner: Mitsuharu Misawa

ROH Video Wire 8/01/07

Death Before Dishonor V Night One

Friday, August 10th 2005:
Myself, DWB's own Professor Plague, and our former drama advisor/old-school wrestling fan took in Ring of Honor in Roxbury Crossing, MA. It was quite the show.

Preshow:

In a six-way match, Shane Hagadorn picked up a cheap victory against Alex "Sugarfoot" Payne, Bobby Dempsey, Ernie Osiris, Mitch Franklin, and Rhett Titus. Hagadorn spent the majority of the match sitting at ringside and stole the victory.

SHIMMER Champion Sara Del Rey defeated an unknown wrestler, whose first name was Candice, at 1:52. It was a complete squash, as the jobber looked extremely green. Del Rey had some good moves in her, including a sick fallaway slam.

Main show:
Jack Evans defeated Davey Richards by DQ at 11:22. Adequate opener, as Richards is playing his heel character well and Evans was insanely over with the live crowd. The match came to an abrupt halt when Roderick Strong interferred, which sparked a brawl between the NRC and Resilience.

Lacey defeated Daizee Haze at 8:10 to become the #1 Contender for the SHIMMER Championship. Good women's match, though it was a downer that Daizee lost, considering she got her ass kicked by Lacey at the last three Boston ROH shows.

Chris Hero defeated Nigel McGuinness at 20:02 in a "Pure Rules" match. Lots of stalling by Hero, and outside interference by Larry Sweeney, Tank Toland, Bobby Dempsey, and Sara Del Rey. About three minutes into the match all the lights went out and a recorded promo hyping "Project 161" aired. The lights came back on and Hero tried telling the ref that Nigel used all three of his rope breaks while the lights were out.

Matt Cross defeated Pelle Primeau, Jigsaw, Eddie Edwards, Delirious, and Brent Albright at 10:56. This was solid, with Pelle taking a disgusting release German suplex into the turnbuckles, courtesy of Brent Albright. Cross winning was a total surprise, as he put away Edwards while Delirious and Albright were distracted away from the ring.

Austin Aries and Erick Stevens defeated Roderick Strong and Rocky Romero at 20:51. Very disappointing match, as Stevens made for a lousy "face in peril" and was very forgettable outside of some heel trickery by Strong. Aries seemed to legitimately hurt his wrist during the match, as he was tended to while the NRC cut a promo after the match.

INTERMISSION: Plague and I hit the merch stand, and Sara Del Rey is kind enough to sign a

SHIMMER dvd for yours truly.

Bryan Danielson defeated Matt Sydal at 16:45. This was your typical awesome Danielson performance, who carried Sydal to a good match, even if he had to put himself into holds. They had some pre-match banter, where the stipulation was made that if Danielson won, he would get to keep Sydal's share of the 10,000 dollar prize money from the Edison show. This proved to be unwise, as Danielson was dominant and won by knockout, courtesy of his elbow shots.

Takeshi Morishima defeated Claudio Castagnoli to retain the ROH World Championship at 15:31. I'm very tempted to give this one **** as it was a great power wrestling match. Claudio had some painfully close near-falls on Morishima, with referee Todd Sinclair fucking up twice and counting three, but calling it as two. This happened at A Fight at the Roxbury when Morishima faced Jay Briscoe as well, and the crowd erupted in a "Fuck you, Sinclair" chant. In the end, Morishima's hard side suplex was too much for Claudio, but this was tremendous and worth the price of admission alone.

Kevin Steen and El Generico defeated Jay and Mark Briscoe in a Boston Street Fight at 22:11. As you might have guessed, this match was wild. The first ten minutes were brawling all over the building, with chair shots, broken tables, and sick bumps to the floor. The match finally hit the ring, and a ladder got involved, including a rather nasty spot where El Generico hit an ace crusher off the ropes on Jay Briscoe, who was climbing the ladder. There were lots of unbelievable kick-outs, but Kevin Steen ended up hitting a cradle DDT on one of the Briscoes on top of the ladder. Afterwards, Steen issued an open challenge for the next Boston show, with the criteria that his opponent must be the ROH World Champion.

Other notes:

There were Project 161 signs all over the building, including in the bathroom on the sinks and urinals.

The crowd was much larger than at A Fight at the Roxbury. The bleachers were full of fans this time, while the last show we had lots of room to stretch out.

Biggest pops:

Bryan Danielson

Briscoes

Bobby Dempsey (no kidding)

Nigel McGuinness

Biggest heat:

Todd Sinclair (during the world title match)

Morishima

Chris Hero

Roderick Strong

This was a great live show that should translate well into DVD. I'm looking forward to their return on October 5th.