WWE No Way Out Review

18^th February 2007

The ladder match has been pulled but the build for the main event has been great. I’m not expecting the best show in the world but I expect something big from the main event.

Chris Benoit & The Hardys vs MVP & MNM

I guess if you’re promised a PPV payoff it’s unfair to go back on it so the Hardys and MNM meet again in six man action. Good guys run wild early on until Jeff gets cut off and the heels get the heat. Nitro and Mercury are really good and MVP isn’t too bad given his lack of experience. Eventually Jeff gets the tag to Matt (this won’t be the hot tag as Benoit is the comeback king) and just as he starts his comeback he gets cut off. Another heat segment followed a hot tag to Benoit. Benoit goes crazy hitting a double german on Mercury and Nitro, Cole (who seems to be loosing his voice) screams he has never seen the spot despite calling the mania three way from last year where Angle, Rey and Orton did the same spot. Matt hits the twist of fate on Mercury and Jeff follows it with a swanton followed by a headbutt from Benoit for two as MVP breaks it up. Crossface on MVP broken up by Mercury who gets one of his own for his trouble for the tap out. A very good opener for the show. They seem to be going with MVP and Benoit for mania and I expect the Hardys/MNM feud to culminate in ladder match.

Vickie Guerrero tells Krystal she has an opportunity coming her way straight from words memorised earlier in the day.

Cruiserweight Open

The rules are simple, two guys start, you win, you continue. Raw’s Scotty Too Hotty is out first and Daviari will join him to open the battle. After a couple of minutes of Daivari offence Scotty hits the worm and gets the victory. The cruiserweight champ is out next and pins Scotty straight away with a his new weird looking finisher. Funaki charges the ring but gets booted in the face by Helms and after some good offence hits a cross body but the rule of being able to role through and always get a three count works for Helms as he continues in the gauntlet. Shannon Moore is out next who I haven’t seen for yonks and does a cool hurricarana spot on the outside but Helms pins him with the new finisher again. It’s Smackdown’s resident redneck next who after a brief battle manages to roll up Helms for the pin. We have a new cruiserweight champion ladies and gentlemen. Before leaving Helms hits the eye of the hurricane on Yang allowing Jamie Noble to go to work on him. Noble takes Yang up for a superplex whilst shouting “what’s my name” to which ONE fan replies “Jamie Noble” ( I know it’s not that funny written down) but Yang manages to push him off and hit a moonsault for the three. “Here is you winner and new… Ooooh Chavo!” I guess Chavo is a surprise entrant (I’m sure he was announced in the week) and he goes straight to work on Yang. Chavo hits the three amigos and Cole screams about it being disrespectful, JBL argues that he can do what he wants considering he’s a Guerrero as they invented the three amigos and camel clutch. Chavo goes up for the frog splash to which Cole says Eddie invented that so Chavo shouldn’t be doing it, he missed the frog splash and Yang climbs the turnbuckle for a moonsault but misses allowing Chavo to hit the frog splash to the back to win the match and the title. The whole match was pretty good (at least as good as a match of this style can be) but I have to say I was surprised that Helms lost. I guess with Vickie’s “opportunity” the two things are linked. Definitely a disappointing way for Helms to loose his belt though.

John Cena cuts a promo saying he’s going to work alongside Shawn tonight and worry about Wrestlemania later.

Finlay & Little Bastard vs Boogeyman and Little Boogeyman

Match of the year potential in this one. Boogeyman beats on Finlay and tags in his mini who jumps on Finlay but little bastard comes in and distracts big Boogey. This allows to Finaly to kick little Boogey in the face. We then see Finlay apply hold to the mini. This is awesome! Remember when Finlay beat up the whole junior division on Smackdown? That was great. Little Bastard runs away and Boogeyman chases him allowing Finlay to use the shelleleigh to pick up the pin on the mini Boogey. Finlay’s performance and the fact he had no problem beating up the little guy in this match means it gets a thumbs up from me.

Shawn Michaels cuts a promo and tells us he has Cena’s back.

Kane vs King Booker

This is god damn boring. Kane wins clean with the chokeslam.

Batista cuts the worst of the three promos saying he’s not scared of anything.

WWE Tag Team Championship: Brian Kendrick & Paul London vs Deuce & Domino

Deuce and Domino get the heat on London forever and it’s pretty boring. Eventually London gets the hot tag to Spanky who after a mediocre come back hits rolls up one of the heels after they try the doomsday device for the win.

ECW Championship: Bobby Lashley vs Ken Kennedy

Kennedy cuts a horrible generic heel promo but is interrupted by Lashley who said something I didn’t catch then hits Lashley with the weakest punch ever. Lashley makes hi entrance but gets cut off by Kennedy on the ramp straight away. A brief bit of brawling in the aisle is followed by your usual boring Kennedy offence. Lashley eventually gets a comeback but Kennedy tries to hit him with a chair behinds the refs back. After connecting Lashley grabs it and hits Kennedy for the DQ. Why have a match of this length if this is all that’s going to happen? Where’s this going? Boring, boring match.

Diva Talent Search

I’m still searching.

Shawn Michaels & John Cena vs Batista & Undertaker

All four guys tag in and out early on until Smackdown get the heat on Raw. Shawn Michaels is absolutely awesome as the babyface being beaten on. Batista actually looks pretty good, in the same way he looks good when he’s in their with Finlay; he’s in there with someone good. Shawn teases the tag forever and finally gets it and Cena runs wild. He teases the FU on Dave but Taker’s boot ensures it doesn’t happen. Dave teases the Batista Bomb on Cena but a HBK shop block stops that one. This allows Raw to get the heat. God damn Shawn Michaels is an awesome heel (funny that isn’t it) and even Cena does a little stomp on the apron to get some heel heat. Dave gets the tag to Taker and a huge comeback ensues. Taker has both Cena and Shawn prime for a chokeslam but tosses Shawn to Dave for a spinebuster. Taker and Dave pose but Batista nails Taker with a spinebuster! Dave leaves the ring and a superkick into an FU allow the Raw main event to win. Post match Dave stands over Taker’s body with the title in hand. This was a really good match mainly thanks to the awesome Shawn Michaels, but the twist played out really well.

Overall four of the matches turned out to be good and the main event was really good so I’d say this is a definite thumbs up show. I don’t know if Batista is going full fledged heel but this was a great move. I was waiting for Shawn to kick Cena in the chin but it was the other team that disintegrated. Great booking for a decent show.

6.5/10

ROH Weekend Of Champions Night 1 Review

28/04/2006
It's night one of the so called weekend of champions. The ROH/CZW war continues and all three champions are defending their belts, should be a good show.

Jimmy Jacobs vs Colt Cabana

They start out with comedy but Jacobs turns it nasty by pulling Colt into the ring post. The basics of the match are that Colt is awesome and if Jimmy Jacobs didn’t have pink tights he’d be instantly forgettable. Colt wins meaning Lacey is going to sack off young Jimmy.

Colt is still in the ring and Jim Cornette with Ace Steel come to the ring to ask for his help in the war with CZW. Colt initially rejects saying he needs to concentrate on learning how to wrestle as his defeat to Danielson at the last show means he’s only opening show material. He then changes his mind, brands Claudio as a traitor and vows to win the war for ROH.

Jay Fury & Spud vs Irish Airborne

Spud (the better looking, younger and cleaner Spike Dudley) is making his debut here in ROH and his main act is a few spinny high spots whilst screaming a lot the rest of the time. It actually turned out to be a decent little match with Irish Airborne getting the victory and seemingly a push in this company.

Super Dragon runs from the emergency exit and attacks an ROH ring crew dude; legging it before the ROH army get to him.

Nigel McGuiness cuts a fun little promo saying he’ll beat Daniels tonight and Danielson tomorrow night proving he’s the best wrestler in the world. I really like his promos because he cuts them as an Englishman, not an Englishman trying to do an American promo.

Jimmy Rave w/Daizee Haize vs Delirious

My god this match is boring. Jimmy Rave is so boring when he’s on offence. I love Delirious but even he can’t save this match. Fifteen minutes ticks over on the clock and we reach a time limit draw. Thank god it wasn’t an hour time limit.

ROH Pure Championship: Nigel McGuiness vs Christopher Daniels

No Alison Danger with the fallen angel tonight as he challenges Nigel for the pure title. They have a fine little match and I love Nigel as a heel, he was doing all of Danielson’s spots here to setup their match tomorrow; awesome. Nigel and Daniels brawl outside and Nigel gets the win by throwing the photographer into Daniels at nineteen meaning he can’t meet the twenty count. The crowd chant bullshit but this is goof heat not bad heat. I love Nigel.

ROH World Championship: “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson vs Jimmy Yang

Yang isn’t a redneck tonight and is wearing the same white tights he wore at Wrestlemania 20. Watching this match makes you realise that Danielson is actually very small, smaller than Yang. I guess that’s why WWE isn’t begging him to come in and it’s the reason I hope he doesn’t ever go. Selfish I know. They have another good little match, it’s not the main event so it doesn’t matter too much but Yang is a decent worker and what they do is fine. Danielson eventually wins with a crossface chickenwing Bob Backlund would be proud of.

ROG Tag Team Championship: Roderick Strong & Austin Aries vs Matt Sydal & Samoa Joe

Yes Sydal teams with Joe. The story is Sydal wants a title in ROH and is in a competitive rivalry with Generation Next. Last week he had AJ as his partner and this week it’s Joe. The match starts off pretty boring as the man of a thousand moves Matt Sydal does a lot of his moves. Eventually Team Sydal turn kind of heel and get the heat. Sydal is a bad heel, he handles the moves where Joe handles the psychology. Eventually Aries gets the hot tag to Strong and a short comeback ensues. Now it’s Aries and Strong’s turn to get the heat. Sydal is much better at selling as the babyface in distress and Aries and Strong are pretty good on offence. We get another hot tag and Joe cleans house until he’s taken out and a bunch of nearfalls happen in the ring with Aries, Strong and Sydal. Joe makes a second comeback and they get a damn good nearfall with a standing moonsault by Sydal. But Joe gets taken out again and the half nelson backbreaker – 450 combo put out Sydal. In the end this turned out to be a damn good little match.

Joe is in the ring alone and calls out CZW. Necro Butcher obliges and they start to brawl. Super Dragon and Nate Webb hit the ring to make it three on one to CZW but Colt Cabana and Ace steel even things up. Joe drags Necro to the back only to be tied up by Webb meaning he’s out of the brawl. Claudio hits the ring to give further advantage to CZW but BJ Whitmer broken neck and all cleans house with a chair and Adam Pearce evens things up. A mass brawl ensues with tons of crowd brawling and Pearce giving Nate a piledriver on the concrete. Back in the ring Necro slams Ace on a chair and covers him for a two count! THIS IS A MATCH? It would appear so who are the competitors? I guess Necro and Nate are and it appears Super Dragon and BJ are as another two count happens between these two. Is BJ booked in this match considering he’s meant to be out with a broken neck? At least they’re not doing a normal tag match now like they would in TNA. Super Dragon, Claudio and BJ tease a spot where Dragon will break BJ’s neck with a chair that Claudio holds in place. Ace breaks it up once and Colt the second time but they eventually hit it and it doesn’t actually look that brutal. Claudio picks up BJ and hits him with Joe’s muscle buster for the pin setting up their match tomorrow. CZW win again.

Overall this show was pretty damn good, especially the second half. For the second show on the trot they’ve done the brawl in the main event and it works. It’s one big fight with guys doing spots and taking crazy bumps but the heat is off the charts. The booking is prefect throughout this whole card; Nigel winning to face Danielson in a title for title match, Sydal just missing out again and CZW winning so we want to see ROH kick their arses. Good, good stuff and I’m looking forward to watching night 2.

7/10

ROH The 100th Show Review

So Ring of Honor reaches it's 100th show and Philadelphia will be the place that gets to witness it. This is the place where I've decided to watch these shows in order, I've seen a load of ROH shows but always random shows and considering how great the booking is in ROH it's a shame not to watch them in order. So, here we go:

Christopher Daniels defeated Claudio Castagnoli
Certainly not a great match but not a bad little opener. The key here is that Daniels finally shook his opponents hand after the match. When ROH first began there was months of angles based on the fact that Daniels wouldn't shake hands therefore disrespecting the code of honor. Notice whose hand he shook and who he showed respect to; this will be important later.

Four Corners Match: Delerious defeated Jimmy Jacobs, Jimmy Rave and Jimmy Yang
Your usual ROH four way with high spots galore and tons of nearfalls. Delerious makes me laugh so much for doing stupid things liek running round the ring and scaring his opponents. The story here is that if Jimmy Jacobs won Lacey (his girlfriend?) would strip naked but he didn't want her to so as he had the win he broke the cover and Delerious jumped in and got the win.

ROH Tag Title Match: Austin Aries & Roderick Strong defeated Homicide & Ricky Reyes
Short but told a good little story. Homicide lost to Colt Cabana at the last show and failed to win this match so is getting pissed at ROH. This is the key here.

ROH World Title Match: Bryan Danielson defeated Colt Cabana
In fact he beat him in four minutes. They did the usual chain wrestling like they would for an hour long match but Danielson rolled him up and pinned him. This was done to teach the ROH fans that matches can end quickly and to send Cabana down to the bottom of the card and have to work his way up to another title shot (which sometime down the road he will get). Colt was angry backstage.

Top of the Class Trophy Match: Derrick Dempsey defeated Pelle Primuea
Two students from the ROH school have a battle. It's a decent little match to have after intermission when the crowd really isn't ready for anything big. Primuea is very small and needs to attend the solarium. Dempsey won with a spinebuster into a bridge for the pin.

After the match Bryan Danielson comes out and takes the piss out of the CZW fans giving the ROH fans things to chant at them such as "you're going to get your fucking head kicked in." I love Dragon. When he finally stops getting heckled with the air horn ("I hate guys who think they're cool blowing air horns") he says as head trainer and ROH World Champion he believes he runs the place, but he's going to be a fighting champion. Because he beat Colt in four minutes he's going to defend the title again against somebody who son in the first half of the show. It's not going to be Danielson, Aries or Strong because he's already beaten them so it's...

ROH World Title Match: Bryan Danielson vs Delirious
This was a very good match with Delerious selling his arse off for Dragon and Dragon just being Dragon. Danielson went after the mask and when Delerious used Danielson's aeroplane spin Danielson picked him up and threw him into the ring post in a nasty looking bump. Delerious kept making the ropes on cattle mutulation and after a great babyface comeback Danielson locked it in again, but Delerious was able to make the ropes, again. So Dragon layed in the forearms leading to a ref stoppage. Delerious looked great here with his mask ripped and bloodied up and the crowd were still cheering him as he left the ring.

The Briscoes vs AJ Styles & Matt Sydal
Decent little tag match with the Briscoes getting the heat on Sydal. After the hot tag to Styles and few high spots Sydal is eventually pinned by Jay courtesy of the Jay driller.

Jim Cornette comes to ring backed up by Adam Pearce and his baseball bat. CZW's John Zandig is out and a great debate ensues. Well not really. Cornette owns Zandig putting over ROH and Philadelphia to loud cheers and trashing CZW with a passion. Zandig tries to take shots at Cornette taking the piss out of Smokey Mountain but he just hasn't got the skill. This was a little bit of fun but it was only to get the crowd riled up for the six man 'tag' match next up. Zandig calls his CZW crew to the ring but Joe and BJ appear on the ramp leading to...

ROH vs CZW: Samoa Joe, Adam Pearce & BJ Whitmer vs Necro Butcher, Chris Hero & Super Dragon
The best way to describe this match is guys doing shit. Lots of shit. My god was it messy. It starts with a huge brawl outside the ring with chairs being used by everyone and people being thrown into the barriers. If this was TNA after ten minutes of brawling all the guys would have got on the apron and had a normal tag match. Luckily this is ROH so the brawl just lasted forever. Pearce get busted open big time by Necro (who I'm sure is just a dude of the street with no training whatsoever) and Super Dragon did a reverse brainbuster on BJ off the turbcukle through a table to the floor. This looked terrifying. The finish came when Zandig interfered beating up Joe. The ROH referee said this was a DQ as in ROH not intereference is allowed but the CZW referee said this was under CZW rules so it didn't matter. Claudio (told you the handshake would mean something) hit the ring to even up the sides but turned his back on ROH and nailed Joe with a boot eventually allwoing Chris Hero to pick up the pin and get the win for CZW. The CZW crew scatter and Joe gets on the mic and warns them the war has only just started.

In terms of pure wrestling this wasn't the best ROH show you'll ever see. But in terms of storytelling and great angles this was a fun show. There were no classic matches but the main event did a great job in setting up the ROH CZW war and the storytelling leading up to this is the key in making the show great.

6/10