September 18th, 2009 in Dayton
This is the first DVD to be released under the new production team. There’s a short video for Hero/Danielson to open the DVD. The Briscoes cut a promo about their match later with the Young Bucks and warn the Dark City Fight Club to stay out of their business.
Opening Match: Eddie Edwards vs. Brent Albright
They fight over control of a wristlock and wrestle to a stalemate. Tempers start to flare as they exchange slaps. Albright back drops Edwards and comes off the top with a flying crossbody. Edwards answers with a flying codebreaker and takes over. Albright tries to lock in the Crowbar but Edwards impressively rolls through and connects with a kick. Albright comes back with an uranagi followed by a DDT. He slams Edwards off a springboard attempt but falls victim to a top rope hurricanrana. Albright overhead suplexes Edwards to the outside and follows out with a dive. Back in, Edwards hits a backpack chinbreaker and transitions into a half boston crab. Albright counters into the Crowbar but Edwards escapes. Albright hits a half nelson suplex for a two count. He locks in the Crowbar. Shane Hagadorn distracts the referee, allowing Davey Richards to interfere. Edwards and Richards hit their superkick-german suplex combo, giving Edwards the win at 14:41. They worked hard, but the crowd wasn’t into the match and I’m not in love with the finish. Edwards has shown that he can be a viable singles wrestler. He might rely on copying Richards to an extent but if you’re going to copy anyone, Richards isn’t a bad choice. Decent opener. **½
Match #2: Christin Able and Josh Raymond vs. Jon Davis and Kory Chavis
The Dark City Fight Club send the House of Truth retreating to the outside. Davis hits some powerslams. Raymond can’t seem to find much success against either member of the DCFC. Truth Martini interferes, allowing Able to gain the advantage on Chavis. The House of Truth isolate him until he gets his knees up on a corkscrew dive and makes the hot tag. Davis cleans house and hits a nice sit-out slam on Raymond. He pounces Able and the DCFC hit a double team ace crusher on Raymond for a nearfall. Able catches Chavis with a death valley driver. The House of Truth hit a nice double team DDT on Davis. Raymond lands his shooting star press crossbody on Chavis. The DCFC catch Raymond coming off the top and hit Project Mayhem for the victory at 12:00. Judging by the way the match started, I was afraid this was going to be a squash match for the DCFC. Fortunately, the match settled down and they established a nice rhythm. This was more of a showcase for both teams and in that sense, this did its job well. **¼
Claudio Castagnoli is backstage. He says it’s a great feeling to wake up every morning and realize who he is. He challenges Davey Richards to put his number one contender status on the line in their match tonight.
Match #3: Jimmy Rave vs. Grizzly Redwood
The hours I spent awake on multiple nights hoping this rematch would happen. Prince Nana hypes Rave’s match with Necro Butcher before the bell. Rave hip tosses Grizzly to the floor. He throws Grizzly into the barricade and hits a spear back in the ring. Grizzly fights back with chops in the corner. Rave catches Grizzly with a chain shot to cause a disqualification at 3:26. Cool. ¼*
Rave continues his attack with the chain after the match. Necro Butcher comes out and starts brawling with Rave. He lands a dive from the apron and takes Rave into the crowd. Necro punches out a referee and takes another one down by throwing a chair at him. He piles chairs on top of Rave and hits him with a garbage can. They come back to ringside and Necro tosses Rave into another part of the crowd. Necro utilizes the Section B sign. Rave finally comes back with punches but falls victim to another garbage can shot. Prince Nana saves Rave from a powerbomb and takes him to the back.
Match #4: Davey Richards vs. Claudio Castagnoli
They trade control on the mat to start. Claudio wins a test of strength. Richards snaps off a hurricanrana and dropkicks Claudio to the outside. Richards fakes a dive and takes Claudio to the mat once he gets back in the ring. Claudio catches Richards with a bicycle kick and throws him into the barricade. Back in, Claudio starts targeting the back. Richards catches him up top with a superplex. They trade forearms. Richards pushes Claudio to the outside and follows with a dive. As usual, Richards ends up in about the fourth row. In the ring, Richards connects with his handspring kick but Claudio answers with a one-arm slam. Claudio catches Richards off another handspring and does his no-hands airplane spin. Richards avoids a charge and lands a missile dropkick. Claudio responds with a dead lift german suplex. Richards counters the pin attempt into a kimura but Claudio makes the ropes. Richards lands a top rope hurricanrana and locks in another kimura. Claudio once again makes the ropes. Claudio connects with a flying knee. He tries for the Alpamare Waterslide but Richards armdrags out. Claudio catches Richards with a pop-up european uppercut. He attempts a Ricola Bomb but Richards counters with a code red for the win at 15:57. There’s a reason why the crowd came alive for this match. These two worked incredibly well together and Richards did a fine job turning down his heel shtick to help the match out. Honestly, this is the best Claudio has looked in ROH in quite some time. It’s nice to know that the crowd will still get behind his in-ring work if he’s actually doing something interesting. Great effort from both men made this match a lot of fun to watch. ***½
Match #5: Jay and Mark Briscoe vs. Matt and Nick Jackson
Mark grounds Nick with a side headlock. Nick takes him down with a headscissors and the Young Bucks connect with stereo dropkicks. Jay blind tags in and punishes Matt. Nick enters the match and the Young Bucks hit their neckbreaker-backbreaker combo on Jay. Mark falls victim to more double teams until he blocks a superkick from Nick and connects with a spin kick. The Briscoes isolate Nick until Matt interrupts a double team and tags in. He lands a missile dropkick on Mark followed by a powerslam. Nick lands a dive to the outside onto Mark but Jay stops Matt from following with another dive. The Briscoes now work over Matt. He uses Jay to hit a sliced bread on Mark and makes the tag. Nick takes the Briscoes down with a headscissors-armdrag combo. He sends Mark to the outside and follows with a moonsault from the apron. He comes back into the ring with a slingshot facebuster on Jay. Jay comes back with a death valley driver on Matt. Nick catches Jay with a knee strike but gets caught with an enzuigiri from Mark. Matt clotheslines Jay to the floor. Nick superkicks Mark and lands a dive onto Jay. Matt hits an ace crusher on Mark for a two count. Mark gets his knees up and interrupts a More Bang for Your Buck attempt. The Briscoes hit a doomsday device on Matt for the victory at 18:01. While this was fairly solid, these two teams are definitely capable of better. Most of the action leading up to the last five minutes or so felt like everyone was going through the motions. As expected, the finishing stretch brings the match up to a higher level. Good match but they have it in them to top it down the line. ***
Match #6: Rasche Brown vs. Silas Young
Brown powers out of a sunset flip attempt. Young tries a chop but Brown shows him how its done. Young takes Brown’s knee out and tries to ground him. Brown powers out of multiple sleeper holds and hits a nice spear. Brown follows with a burning hammer for the win at 3:12. I can’t help but feel that ROH is misusing both men. Brown is already pretty over and needs to be in a legitimate match. Young is a solid worker but you wouldn’t know that by just watching his ROH work. This match accomplished nothing. ¾*
Match #7: Colt Cabana and Petey Williams vs. Austin Aries and Rhett Titus
Cabana uses Titus as an example to show Petey how strong he is. Aries catches Petey with a few armdrags and Petey returns the favor. Cabana finds himself in the wrong corner and the heels work him over. He manages to dodge his opponents and tag in Petey, who enters the ring with a slingshot codebreaker on Aries. When Cabana was making his comeback, he elbowed Titus, busting him open badly. Aries blocks a Canadian Destroyer attempt and hits three shinbreakers on Petey. The heels start attacking Petey’s left leg. Aries locks in a figure four but Petey turns it over. Titus tries a figure four of his own but gets caught with an enzuigiri. Petey sends both heels to the outside and makes the tag. Cabana lands a moonsault to the floor. Back in, he hits the flying asshole on Titus. Aries gets out of a Colt 45 and Titus hits a leaping facebuster on Cabana. Aries locks in the Last Chancery but Petey breaks it up. Petey hits a hurricanrana to the outside onto Titus. Aries catches Cabana with a brainbuster. Petey locks in a sharpshooter on Aries. Cool spot as Aries covers Cabana while in the sharpshooter for a nearfall. Cabana catches Titus with a neckbreaker but falls victim to a dropkick from Aries. Petey hits the Canadian Destroyer on Aries, sending him to the outside. Cabana hits the Colt 45 on Titus for the win at 17:49. If you told me this match was going to go eighteen minutes, I would have dreaded watching it. However, these four managed to pleasantly surprise me with a decent outing. It wasn’t anything fantastic, but they filled their time with mostly interesting work. The finishing stretch managed to build up some suspense and I enjoyed the match. I still think it went a little long but I’m happy with what I got. **¾
Match #8: Bryan Danielson vs. Chris Hero
Hero tries to mat wrestle without getting kicked. Danielson gains control by going after Hero’s right arm. Hero responds with some arm work of his own. Danielson regains the advantage with, you guessed it, more arm work. Danielson blocks a roaring elbow and connects with one of his own. He slams Hero’s knees into the mat off a surfboard and lays in some forearms. Hero elbows Danielson off the apron and hits a mat-assisted senton. Hero tries to lock in Cattle Mutilation but Danielson escapes quickly and gets fired up. Hero connects with a flash kick and takes over. Danielson hits a running forearm and follows with a flying knee off the apron. Back in, Danielson lands a diving headbutt but gets caught with an elbow. Hero hits a blockbuster followed by another elbow. Danielson gets sent to the floor after a roaring elbow and Hero throws him into the barricade. Danielson reverses an irish whip and sends Hero into the crowd. He follows with a springboard dive into the crowd. In the ring, Danielson lands a missile dropkick along with a running knee strike. He starts laying in MMA elbows and synchs in Cattle Mutilation. Hero makes the ropes. Hero catches Danielson with an elbow but walks into a running knee. Hero connects with the hangman’s elbow for a nearfall. Danielson gets a series of close rollups and starts stomping Hero’s head in. He transitions into a triangle choke but Hero turns it into a powerbomb. They trade strikes. Danielson blocks a roaring elbow with one of his own. Hero comes back with a roaring elbow followed by the hangman’s elbow for the victory at 24:08. This was very good but I didn’t expect anything less. These two can do it all in the ring and whether it was trading moves on the mat or brutal strikes, every part of this match was enjoyable. This was a pretty big win for Hero as well and I’m glad he got the victory here. The only thing holding this back is that they had a better match two weeks earlier in PWG. That’s not a knock on this match, but if you’re looking to see these two wrestle in September 2009 (okay I don’t expect anyone to be that specific), you’re better off finding their PWG match. Still, this was a great match and worthy of being included on Danielson’s farewell tour. ***¾
BONUS Match: The Bravado Brothers vs. Tony Kozina and Kyle O’Reilly
I don’t know anything about the Bravado Brothers so I’m a little cloudy on their individual names. With there being no commentary, I’m just going to wing it here. One brother catches O’Reilly with a monkey flip but gets tagged with an elbow. Kozina walks into a dropkick. Kozina catches one brother with a kick from the apron. The one brother is isolated until O’Reilly accidentally hits Kozina with an enzuigiri. The other brother is tagged in and cleans house. O’Reilly blind tags in and synchs in an ankle lock for the win at 4:45. Fine pre-show match. O’Reilly was actually trained by Davey Richards and looked good in what little time he had here. *
Overall: Final Countdown Tour: Dayton is a solid show. That statement shouldn’t be a problem. However, when people think of a set of ROH shows, they think of the Milestone Series or the Fifth Year Festival. If this is any indication, the Final Countdown Tour isn’t going to match the quality of the Milestone Series or have the same impact as the Fifth Year Festival. I’m not trying to sound overly negative as there are three good matches on here. Unfortunately, the Young Bucks and Briscoes are capable of better while Hero and Danielson have proven that they could do better. This is still an enjoyable show but I was expecting a stronger one. Mild recommendation.
