October 10th, 2009 in Indianapolis
Jim Cornette comes to the ring. He talks about the great wrestling tradition in Indianapolis. He says that ROH is the wrestling of the future and he appreciates the fans’ support. Due to Delirious’ effort last night, he will receive a bye into the finals tonight.
Opening Match: Josh Raymond and Christian Able vs. Matt and Nick Jackson
Raymond tries a cheap shot to no avail. Matt snaps off a headscissors on Raymond as the crowd chants “you’re a hooker” at Able. Nick lands a hurricanrana on Able and adds an armdrag. Nick lands a dive to the floor onto the House of Truth. Raymond sneaks in a knee from the apron on Matt and the House of Truth isolate him. Matt finds an opening and makes the tag. Nick connects with a spin kick on Able and the Young Bucks hit stereo dropkicks on Raymond. Truth Martini stops a More Bang for Your Buck attempt. Able hits a nice alabama slam on Nick. The House of Truth now work him over until he hits a slingshot facebuster on Raymond and makes the tag. Matt lays out Able with a standing sliced bread and follows with a german suplex on Raymond. Nick dives to the floor onto Able. Martini accidentally hits Raymond with his boot. The Young Bucks hit More Bang for Your Buck on Raymond for the win at 12:07. The House of Truth continue to show why they belong in ROH. I’m still waiting for them to get their big win and with that, much needed credibility. There were some unique variations on the usual tag formula here but there just wasn’t much heat down the stretch. Still, this was a solid opener and I’m waiting for the House of Truth to breakout in ROH. If you want to see these two teams really tear it up, check out their match in AAW. **¾
Match #2: Survival of the Fittest Qualifier: Kevin Steen vs. Colt Cabana
Steen offends Cabana but makes up for it by saying he’s sorry. Cabana starts ass-grabbing and applies a few side headlocks. They trade backslides and Cabana gets some shots in. Steen misses his front flip leg drop but lands a missile dropkick. He follows with a cannonball in the corner along with a DDT. Cabana gets knees up on a swantan attempt and covers for the victory at 6:49. These two are tremendously talented professional wrestlers. There is no excuse for them having a match this bad. The comedy wasn’t funny, they had no flow, and the finish sucked. This match left me scratching my head. *
Match #3: Survival of the Fittest Qualifier: Roderick Strong vs. Rhett Titus
Titus cheap shots Strong before the bell. Strong answers with a leg lariat and two backbreakers. Titus retreats to the floor and uses the timekeeper as distraction to hit a clothesline. Back in, Titus takes over, even mocking Bryan Danielson by using the “I have till five” line. Strong catches Titus coming off the top and connects with an enzuigiri. He adds some chops and hits a dropkick. Titus misses the Thrust Buster and falls victim to a falcon arrow. He blocks a corner charge and catches Strong with the Thrust Buster. Titus follows with a blockbuster and the Sex Factor. Strong stuns him on the top rope and hits a superplex. Strong adds a gutubster and follows with the Gibson Driver for the win at 8:30. This was a decent qualifying match in that it put over Strong while making Titus look like he belonged. Titus seems to be sharpening up his offense and I like that he has multiple signature moves that viewers can look out for. How can you go wrong with a names like the “Sex Factor” or the “Thrust Buster”? **¼
Match #4: Survival of the Fittest Qualifier: Tyler Black vs. Kenny King
Black goes straight to work on King, landing a plancha to the floor. Black whips him into the barricade but King returns the favor. Back in, Black controls with more aggressive offense. King uses the referee to sneak in a cheap shot but Black answers with a slingshot spin kick. King blocks a charge with a spin kick of his own and gains control. Black comes back with a flying clothesline along with a TKO. He follows with a lionsault but King responds with a spinebuster. King catches Black off a springboard with the Royal Flush. They trade punches. Black connects with a cartwheel kick but Black answers with a pele kick. King tries for a Cradle Piledriver to no avail. He misses shotgun knees and Black connects with a superkick for the victory at 12:32. I expected a better outing between these two. The beginning portions of the match were extremely uninspired and the minimal crowd involvement reflected that. They started showing some promise down the stretch with crisp exchanges but it was too little, too late. This wasn’t anything offensive, but hopefully a rematch brings more quality. **¼
Match #5: Survival of the Fittest Qualifier: Claudio Castagnoli vs. Petey Williams
Petey cuts a pretty laughable promo before the match. Claudio does his usual pre-match glove slap. Petey armdrags out of an electric chair position and applies an octopus stretch. He connects with a hesitation dropkick but falls victim to a wheelbarrow suplex. Claudio takes over with a nice fallaway slam. Petey comes back with a headscissors followed by a slingshot hurricanrana on the floor. In the ring, Petey lands a flying crossbody along with a slingshot lungblower. Claudio connects with a european uppercut and works in the UFO. Petey can’t spin into his side russian legsweep, so he waits until Claudio is on his knees to perform it. Claudio connects with another european uppercut for a nearfall. Petey counters the Ricola Bomb into a tornado DDT. Claudio goes low and hits one more european uppercut for the win at 9:48. Simply a testament to Claudio’s ability in the ring. He bumped around for Petey and it was a big reason why these two had such good chemistry. The shorter length also kept the match more focused. Claudio wrestling a smaller wrestler is usually a solid encounter and that was the case here. **½
Match #6: Survival of the Fittest Qualifier: Kenny Omega vs. Chris Hero
They start with some chain wrestling. Omega snaps off some armdrags but Hero blocks one with a stomp to the face. Omega connects with a spin kick along with a sliding dropkick. A distraction from Shane Hagadorn allows Hero to gain control. Omega fights back with strikes but a roaring elbow keeps him down. Hero hits another one in the corner and adds one more to block Omega’s stop enzuigiri. Omega is able to connect with his stop enzuigiri after yelling “I said stop you tall bitch”. Whatever works. He lands a flying crossbody followed by a northern lights suplex. Hero catches him with a roaring elbow for the victory at 12:52. The finish was clearly botched, as it looked like Omega kicked out. Although I liked this match better than Black/King, I basically feel the same about them. They had some solid sequences throughout the contest but I think a rematch would produce better quality. I guess that’s just something to expect in a tournament structured like Survival of the Fittest. **¾
Match #7: Jay and Mark Briscoe vs. Davey Richards and Austin Aries
The heels are reluctant partners, as Richards wants the ROH World Title. Mark frustrates Richards early on, causing him to bring a chair into the ring. Aries politely puts the chair back at ringside. Dave Prazak brings up the Aries/Ruckus match in Poland that never happened to my knowledge. Jay connects with a leg lariat on Aries, so he tags in Richards. Both teams trade control until the Briscoes hit double team shoulder blocks. Richards back suplexes Jay and the heels isolate him. They have a contest to see who can kick Jay the hardest. Aries just settles for a chest rake. Jay flatlines Richards into the turnbuckles and makes the hot tag. Mark uses his karate offense to clean house. He hits a middle rope ace crusher on Richards. Aries breaks up a double team but gets clotheslined to the floor. Jay catches Richards with a spinebuster and the Briscoes follow with a double team neckbreaker. Aries stops a doomsday device and lands the heat seeking missile to the floor. Richards connects with a missile dropkick on Jay and hits the Alarm Clock. Aries blind tags in and almost gets caught with a death valley driver. He ends up laying out Jay with a brainbuster. Richards connects with his handspring kick on Mark and Aries adds a handspring elbow. The heels start arguing and Aries accidentally hits Richards with his corner dropkick. Mark lands a dive to the outside on Aries. The Briscoes hit Richards with the doomsday device for the win at 18:31 as Aries walks to the back. The match worked because of the many interactions between Aries and Richards. They were constantly trying to one-up each other and it was fitting that their disagreements led to their loss. They also filled their eighteen minutes with plenty of solid wrestling. However, the dissention between Aries and Richards provided the real entertainment value here. ***½
Match #8: Survival of the Fittest Finals: Claudio Castagnoli vs. Chris Hero vs. Delirious vs. Colt Cabana vs. Roderick Strong vs. Tyler Black
Strong, Delirious, and Hero are all former winners. Cabana freaks Delirious out with his unique mat wrestling. Hero and Claudio try to avoid a confrontation to no avail. They do some nice mat wrestling before tagging out. Cabana sneaks in a few chops on Strong but Strong returns the favor. He misses the flying asshole and falls victim to a kick in the corner. Hero and Claudio start working over Strong’s right hand in an effort to stop his chops. They then turn their focus towards Black, using more blatant double team moves. Delirious tags in after awhile and connects with repeating lariats in the corner on Hero while Cabana hits Claudio with bionic elbows. That foursome takes the action to the floor, causing Strong and Black to follow out with dives. Back in, Delirious lands a flying clothesline on Claudio but Hero stops a Panic Attack. Claudio catches Delirious with a bicycle kick along with a dead lift gutwrench suplex. Hero and Claudio work over Delirious until he avoids Claudio and tags out. Cabana cleans house. Hero accidentally nails Claudio with a roaring elbow. Cabana gets a backslide on Claudio to eliminate him. Delirious then catches Cabana with a rollup to send him packing. Delirious hits a cobra suplex on Strong but falls victim to a flash kick from Hero. Delirious snaps off a hurricanrana on Hero and catches Black off a springboard with a headbutt. Delirious hits a double Panic Attack on Hero and Black. Immediately after, Strong connects with a yakuza kick on Delirious to eliminate him. Hero hits a roaring elbow on Strong for a two count. He catches Black with one as well but is met with a flurry of offense from Strong. Hero stops the assault with the Deathblow on Strong for a nearfall. Black hits a superkick on Hero followed by the bucklebomb and God’s Last Gift to eliminate him. We’re down to Strong and Black. They trade chops and Black hits Paroxysm. He lands a flying elbow drop along with an F5. Strong avoids a standing shooting star press and hits two backbreakers. He follows with a boston crab but Black makes the ropes. Black kicks Strong to the floor, sends him into the crowd with a baseball slide, and lands a springboard dive into the crowd. In the ring, Black connects with a springboard lariat but Strong comes back with a yakuza kick. He adds a gutbuster but Black counters the Gibson Driver into a bucklebomb. Strong avoids a superkick and rolls Black up for a nearfall. He transitions into the Stronghold and eventually tries a pin attempt to no avail. Black connects with a superkick and hits God’s Last Gift for a nearfall. That wakes the crowd up. Strong comes back by dropping Black across the top turnbuckle but Black rolls to the floor. Strong brings him back into the ring but can’t get the win. Strong hits a gutbuster, backbreaker, and yakuza kick but still can’t put Black away. Black answers with a bucklebomb and three consecutive superkicks for a two count. Black adds one more superkick to become the 2009 Survival of the Fittest winner at 39:56. Once again, it looked like Strong may have kicked out. Unlike Hero/Omega though, I feel like the finish was planned and served a storyline purpose. This was a great multi-man match in that there were some worthwhile interactions before the eliminations started coming. Hero and Claudio were great at foreshadowing their eventual reformation of the Kings of Wrestling by showcasing their old double teams. The one aspect I dislike about the match is the first three rapid eliminations. I feel like they could have been spaced out better to give the viewer time to digest what happened. Fortunately, the match ended on the best note possible with an excellent exchange between Strong and Black. Their singles matches that will come from this look to be tremendous if this is any indication. Overall, an excellent final match that did its job of showcasing the wrestlers that will lead ROH past the departure of Bryan Danielson and Nigel McGuinness. ****
Overall: Survival of the Fittest 2009 is a pretty average show that is almost saved by the main event. The qualifying matches were nothing special as potential show stealers like King/Black and Hero/Omega disappointed. The event ends on a high note with a solid tag team match that featured good storytelling from Aries and Richards as well as an excellent conclusion to the Survival of the Fittest tournament. I am not going to give this show a recommendation. However, if you really want to see the main event, it may be worth it to purchase this DVD. The undercard isn’t horrible and you will also get a fun tag team match to boot. It’s really up to you on this one.
