Match #1: ROH World Title: Samoa Joe © vs. Austin Aries (Final Battle 2004 – 12/26/04)
Aries charges at the opening bell but Joe quickly stops his momentum. Joe blocks a few headlock attempts and hits a back suplex. They crisscross and Aries connects with a basement dropkick. He follows with a dragon screw leg whip and connects with a powerdrive elbow to the left leg. Joe blocks a shinbreaker and finds success with an enzuigiri. Joe connects with a facewash kick and blocks a heat-seeking missile with a gamengiri. The action goes to the floor where Aries is sent into the barricade. Joe connects with two ole! kicks on the outside. Aries moves out of the way of a third one and fires back with an IED. In the ring, Aries rolls through a choke but falls victim to a powerslam. He hurricanranas out of a powerbomb attempt and connects with another IED. Joe hits an island driver. Aries fights off Joe and lands a 450 splash for a nearfall. Aries anticipates a dive and tries a quick sunset flip to no avail. He transitions into a boston crab but Joe powers out of the hold. Joe creates an opening with an enzuigiri. Aries counters a Muscle Buster into a crucifix bomb. Aries kicks Joe in the face, hits a brainbuster, and lands a 450 splash to become the new ROH World Champion at 17:28. They told an awesome story and showed that an epic title match doesn’t necessarily need thirty minutes to play out. As the match progressed, Aries’ offensive flurries became more successful and the crowd quickly caught on that they may be witnessing something special on this night. Aries’ final combination of moves has been a huge part of his career and it’s fun to look back and see how significant this ROH World Title change was at the time. ****
Footage from the Trios Tournament 2005 finals between Generation Next and the Rottweilers is shown. The match ended when Homicide pinned Aries after a Cop Killa. This all led to…
Match #2: ROH World Title: Austin Aries © vs. Homicide (Best of American Super Juniors Tournament – 4/2/05)
They trade control on the mat and Homicide is able to hang with the champion. Unfortunately, he makes the mistake of trying to headscissors Austin Aries. Homicide becomes frustrated and starts throwing things around ringside. Aries snaps off a few armdrags. Homicide elevates him over the top rope and onto a table at ringside. Homicide throws Aries into the barricade and connects with a charging forearm. Back in, Aries hits a corkscrew splash and lands a lionsault. He shrugs off an ace crusher and hits a back suplex. Aries snaps off a hurricanrana from the middle rope and connects with a basement dropkick. Homicide responds with a belly to belly suplex and a butterfly suplex. He takes control until Aries hits a stunner out of the corner. Aries lays in two IEDs and hits a torture rack backbreaker. Homicide counters a fishhook of all things and hits a piledriver. Aries fires back with a roaring elbow and lands the heat-seeking missile to the floor. In the ring, Aries hits a liger bomb and lands a flying crossbody. Homicide answers with a rope-assisted DDT. Aries ducks a lariat and hits a crucifix bomb. Homicide knees out of a brainbuster and connects with a yakuza kick. Aries escapes the Cop Killa and hits a burning hammer for…one? Homicide hits an exploder followed by a brainbuster. He knocks Aries onto a table propped between the apron and the barricade. Homicide dives onto Aries but the table doesn’t break. In the ring, Aries hits a finlay roll and lands a 450 splash. Julius Smokes interrupts the pin attempt, so Bryan Danielson comes out to take care of him. Homicide hits an ace crusher from the middle rope and connects with a lariat for a nearfall. Aries comes back with a brainbuster but misses the 450 splash. He escapes the Cop Killa once again and hits rolling brainbusters. Aries lands the 450 splash to retain his title at 25:35. Both men put in a great effort and this match truly felt like an all-out war at times. However, twenty-five minutes felt a bit too long for this match considering how back and forth they kept the action. Additionally, I wish they would’ve stuck with the story they established early on of Homicide trying to turn the contest into a brawl. Still, everything that happened after the burning hammer spot received a great reaction from the crowd and the match finished strong. ***¼
Match #3: ROH World Title: Austin Aries © vs. Alex Shelley (Manhattan Mayhem – 5/7/05)
Shelley gives Aries a clean break but receives a slap across the face for his troubles. Aries escapes a headscissors and connects with a basement dropkick. Shelley catches him with a german suplex. Shelley charges with double knees and connects with a slingshot elbow drop. Aries retreats to the floor but Shelley takes him out with a corkscrew plancha. Back in, Aries snaps Shelley’s throat across the top rope and hits a neckbreaker across the middle rope. Shelley responds with a twisting neckbreaker and goes up top. Aries catches him with a rope-assisted neckbreaker and applies the Last Chancery. He breaks the hold in order to drop a knee onto Shelley’s neck. Aries takes control until Shelley creates an opening after a lariat. Shelley lands a frog splash and transitions into the Border City Stretch. Aries quickly breaks the hold and fishhooks Shelley. After a quick exchange, Shelley goes back to the Border City Stretch but Aries bites his hand to free himself from the hold. Aries blocks a superkick and hits his shinbreaker-back suplex combination. He follows with three IEDs and a finlay roll. Shelley dodges the 450 splash, connects with a superkick, and hits Shellshock for a nearfall. Shelley counters a crucifix bomb into a TKO and hits a tornado DDT. He hits Shellshock once again for a two count. Aries escapes a brainbuster and connects with a roaring elbow. Aries punts Shelley in the head, hits a brainbuster, and lands a 450 splash to retain his title at 19:32. These two showed their familiarity with each other to establish themselves as equals from the onset. What followed was a terrific match that involved Aries working over his former stablemate’s neck of all things to pick up the win. They did an excellent job of making it seem like Shelley had a chance to take the title here and just about everyone bit on the nearfall from the first Shellshock. Manhattan Mayhem is often cited as one of the best shows in ROH history and this match is part of the reason why. ***¾
Footage from the ROH World Title match at Stalemate is shown. On that night, James Gibson took Aries to the limit in a match that ended in a double pinfall. Gibson wanted the match restarted but Alex Shelley attacked Aries before he could give a full answer. The rematch happened soon after…
Match #4: ROH World Title: Austin Aries © vs. James Gibson (Final Showdown – 5/13/05)
They begin with some chain wrestling and find themselves at a stalemate (no pun intended). Gibson foolishly tries to headscissors the champion and eats a dropkick. He recovers with a baseball slide. Aries low bridges him to the floor and follows out with the heat-seeking missile. Aries uses the barricade to work over Gibson’s left arm. In the ring, Aries takes control until Gibson comes back with a powerslam. Gibson comes off the middle rope with a leg drop and connects with a running knee strike. Aries fires back with a roaring elbow. Both men connect with a lariat and fall to the canvas. Gibson dropkicks Aries to the floor and attempts a tiger driver to no avail. He crotches Aries on the barricade and clotheslines him into the front row. Gibson lands a dive from the top rope into the crowd. Back in the ring, Aries lands a slingshot plancha and a lionsault. Gibson kicks away a lariat and hits a swinging neckbreaker. Aries responds with a finlay roll and lands a 450 splash for a nearfall. The crowd starts to come alive. Aries connects with the IED but misses a second one. Gibson applies a guillotine choke but Aries powers out of the hold. Gibson quickly recovers with a tiger driver for a nearfall. He hits a backbreaker but misses a top rope moonsault. Aries punts him in the head and hits a brainbuster. Gibson won’t let him land the 450 splash and locks in a guillotine choke on the top rope. Aries slams Gibson down to the canvas from the middle rope and covers him to retain his title at 23:31. This match was different from the other title defenses shown on the compilation thus far. Instead of the back and forth nature of his defenses against Homicide and Shelley, this contest settled down into Aries working over Gibson’s left arm. All of the nuances that came from Gibson trying to work around his injury were incredibly entertaining to watch unfold. I also thought that the finish was brilliant, as it’s something that you don’t see very often but it nicely fit into the progression of the match. ****
Match #5: ROH World Title: Austin Aries © vs. Bryan Danielson (Nowhere to Run – 5/14/05)
Danielson is coming off his extended feud with Homicide. He controls early on and Aries narrowly avoids a quick dropkick. Aries maintains control of a side headlock. Danielson headscissors him but we all know how that turns out. Danielson raises the intensity a bit by taking a page from Earthquake’s book. He applies a stretch plum and sneaks in a quick crucifix to no avail. Aries hits his shinbreaker-back suplex combination, sending Danielson over the top rope. Aries lands the heat seeking-missile. In the ring, Danielson fights off an airplane spin so Aries transitions into an arm-wringer. The champion starts working over Danielson’s left arm. Aries tries to use Cattle Mutilation against Danielson, but Danielson quickly escapes and connects with an enzuigiri. Danielson hits a butterfly suplex as Jimmy Bower predicts a sixty-minute draw on commentary. Aries comes off the middle rope with a back elbow but runs into a powerslam. Danielson connects with a diving headbutt. They trade pin attempts to no avail. Danielson finds success with a baseball slide and comes off the apron with an uppercut. Back in, Aries fights off a superplex and connects with the IED. Danielson knees out of a brainbuster and hits a superplex. He synchs in Cattle Mutilation and transitions into a pin attempt for a nearfall. Danielson airplane spins Aries, who sort of counters into a crucifix bomb. Aries hits a brainbuster and lands a 450 splash to retain his title at 24:23. Aries went back to working over his opponent’s left arm and he managed to attack Danielson’s limb in a completely different way than he did the night before against James Gibson. Unfortunately, the arm work never really went anywhere and it was nearly forgotten about in the second half of the match. Still, this is Aries and Danielson that we’re talking about here. These two would have better encounters later in their ROH careers (some of which are included on this compilation), but this was a fine taste of what they could do together in the ring. ***½
Match #6: ROH World Title: Austin Aries © vs. Spanky (New Frontiers – 6/4/05)
Spanky grabs hold of a side headlock, as Aries apparently has an injured neck going into this match. Spanky dares to apply a headscissors and Aries is able to escape despite his bad neck. Aries escapes sliced bread but falls victim to a back suplex. Spanky hits a russian leg sweep. The action goes to the floor where Aries gets sent into the barricade. He catches Spanky off-guard with a neckbreaker across the barricade. Aries hits a piledriver onto a chair at ringside. Back in, Aries hits a slingshot senton along with a rope-assisted neckbreaker. He connects with an IED and takes over. Spanky finds an opening to lock in a half crab. He transitions into an STF but Aries goes to the eyes to break the hold. Aries connects with a powerdrive elbow. Spanky responds with a brutal DDT and connects with a northern lariat. Aries hits a finlay roll and goes up top. Spanky hurricanranas him off the middle rope and hits a flatliner. He drops an elbow across Aries’ neck but almost gets rolled up. Aries reverses sliced bread into a tombstone for a nearfall. Spanky ducks a lariat and connects with a superkick. He hits a german suplex. They exchange strikes. Spanky is able to hit sliced bread from the middle rope. Aries grabs hold of the bottom rope during the pin attempt. Aries punts Spanky, hits a brainbuster, and lands the 450 splash to retain his title at 18:34. The ROH World Title reigns of Bryan Danielson and Nigel McGuinness have been known for the champions becoming increasingly injured as the title reign progressed. Unbeknownst to me, the same dynamic was present in Aries’ reign. There’s something about wrestlers working over each other’s neck that is intriguing, and Spanky did a fantastic job at doing just that. Aries returned the favor and this was an inventive, most likely forgotten-about gem in Ring of Honor’s history. ***¾
Match #7: Austin Aries vs. AJ Styles (This Means War – 10/29/05)
We’ve now moved on from Aries’ first title reign. Styles snaps off an impressive hurricanrana. They trade control of a waistlock and Aries comes off the middle rope with a back elbow. Styles slows him down with a well-timed dropkick. Styles wins a forearm exchange and hits a backbreaker. He takes control until Aries dropkicks the ropes to interrupt a springboard maneuver. Styles gets sent to the floor and Aries follows out with the heat-seeking missile. In the ring, Aries hits a slingshot senton and a fisherman suplex. He maintains control until Styles fights back with another backbreaker. Aries connects with the IED and hits an inverted finlay roll. He connects with a missile dropkick and blocks Styles’ inverted DDT with a stunner. Styles retries his inverted DDT and is able to hit the move. Aries finds himself in a torture rack but counters with a crucifix bomb. After a back and forth exchange, Aries hits the brainbuster for a nearfall. Styles attempts a quick rollup to no avail. They battle on the middle rope. Styles drops down to the canvas and connects with a pele kick. Styles hits the Styles Clash from the middle rope for the win at 19:47. This match was viewed as a disappointment when it happened and I think that’s still a fair assessment looking back. There were definitely a few moments of miscommunication and the latter half of the match didn’t feature the awesome exchanges that you might expect out of these two. However, there’s still a sizeable portion of the match that was entertaining (especially the finish) and this was a fine exhibition, even if we all know they had better in them. ***
Footage is shown from Final Battle 2005, where Generation Next defeated Tony Mamaluke and Sal Rinauro for the ROH World Tag Team Titles.
Match #8: ROH World Tag Team Titles: Austin Aries and Roderick Strong © vs. Bryan Danielson and Jay Lethal (Tag Wars 2006 – 1/27/06)
Danielson suffers a chop from Strong and quickly retreats to the floor. Lethal doesn’t fare much better, as Strong quickly takes him out with a backbreaker. Aries and Lethal have a fast-paced exchange and find themselves at a stalemate. Lethal connects with a basement dropkick but Aries responds by punting him in the chest. Lethal takes some punishment in Generation Next’s corner. He’s able to connect with a facewash kick on Strong. Danielson and Lethal take turns body slamming Strong. They do this about eight times in a row. They isolate Strong until he avoids a charge from Danielson and makes the tag. Aries finlay rolls Danielson and lands a frog splash. He gives Danielson a taste of his own medicine with an airplane spin. Strong and Aries then take turns airplane spinning Danielson. Awesome. Generation Next work over Danielson until he’s able to back Aries into his corner. Lethal takes Aries to the floor and connects with Samoa Joe’s ole! kick. In the ring, Danielson catapults Aries into a leg lariat from Lethal. Danielson hits a superplex on Aries. Lethal and Danielson attempt stereo diving headbutts but both of them miss. Strong enters the match and delivers a flurry of chops. He hits a backbreaker on Lethal and elevates Danielson into a backbreaker. Aries connects with a missile dropkick on Danielson followed by the IED. Lethal leg lariats Strong and takes him out with a lariat. Danielson hits a back superplex on Strong. Lethal comes off the top rope with a DDT on Strong and Danielson applies Cattle Mutilation. Aries breaks up the hold. Strong hits a half nelson backbreaker on Danielson. Lethal misses a plancha and Aries takes him out with the heat-seeking missile. All four men are down. Danielson dodges a Sick Kick from Strong and connects with a roaring elbow. He locks in Cattle Mutilation but Strong reverses into a gutbuster. Strong connects with two Sick Kicks on Danielson and hits a tiger driver for a two count. Strong synchs in the Stronghold and Generation Next retain their titles at 29:08. Danielson and Lethal were able to keep up with the champions simply by being complete jerks. They even mocked the fact that they weren’t a regular tag team on multiple occasions throughout the match. This match never featured lightning-fast action or flurries of nearfalls. Instead, all four men told an excellent story and truly delivered something unique just by playing to their strengths. Finally, perhaps the biggest compliment that I can give to this contest is that it hardly felt like twenty-nine minutes at all. ****
Match #9: ROH World Tag Team Titles: Austin Aries and Roderick Strong © vs. AJ Styles and Matt Sydal (Fourth Anniversary Show – 2/25/06)
Strong and Sydal have a great exchange to start the match, making me want to hunt down one of their singles encounters. Aries grabs hold of a side headlock on Styles. He tries to dropkick out of a headscissors but Styles is ready for him. Sydal connects with a running knee strike on Aries and Styles adds a delayed vertical suplex. Styles finds himself in the wrong corner and Generation Next isolate him. He catches Aries off-guard with a pele kick and makes the tag. Sydal drives Aries down to the canvas with his leg and lands a standing moonsault onto Strong. Aries stops Sydal from diving. Styles lands a plancha onto Strong but gets taken out by the heat-seeking missile. Sydal follows out with a moonsault from the top rope. In the ring, Sydal headscissors Strong. Styles and Sydal work over Strong until he fights off Sydal and tags out. Aries connects with a missile dropkick on Sydal, who responds with a chinbreaker. Sydal attempts a hurricanrana but Aries powerbombs him. Styles hits a fireman’s carry neckbreaker on Aries and follows with a double inverted DDT on Generation Next. Styles and Sydal connect with stereo enzuigiris on Aries. Strong blocks a springboard maneuver from Styles and hits a torture rack backbreaker on Sydal for a nearfall. Styles springboards into a heart attack from Generation Next. Strong military presses Sydal into a gutbuster. Aries adds a brainbuster for a nearfall. Styles gets Aries into position for a shooting star press by Sydal. Styles attempts the Styles Clash on Aries but Strong LEVELS him with a Sick Kick. Strong hits a half nelson backbreaker and Aries follows with a 450 splash. Generation Next retain their titles at 23:03. This was a nice contrast to the previous tag team match on the compilation. When the contest broke down into a Dragon Gate-esque spotfest, everything clicked and the action was highly entertaining. However, I think they lost the crowd a bit during the heat segment on Strong and the match probably could have been shorter to compensate. Still, there was a lot of great action down the stretch and this was a fun reminder of what Generation Next could do as a tag team when they were firing on all cylinders. ***½
Match #10: Austin Aries vs. Matt Sydal (Arena Warfare – 3/11/06)
Sydal hangs onto a side headlock. Aries pushes him into the corner and comes off the middle rope with a back elbow. They trade control on the mat and Sydal is actually able to keep Aries in a headscissors for quite awhile. Aries hits a back suplex but Sydal responds with a headscissors. Sydal lands a dive to the floor and hits a leg drop from the middle rope in the ring. They battle up top and Aries creates an opening to land his heat-seeking missile. They exchange chops and Aries hits a gourdbuster. He applies the Last Chancery. Sydal tries a quick sunset flip but Aries rolls through and connects with a dropkick. Aries blocks a crucifix bomb and hits a finlay roll. He lands a frog splash for a nearfall. Sydal comes off the top rope with an impressive tornado DDT. They botch a springboard hurricanrana and the Philadelphia crowd let’s them hear it. Sydal lands a standing moonsault. Aries connects with the IED for a close two count. Sydal knees out of a brainbuster and hits the Here It Is Driver for a nearfall. Aries avoids a shooting star press, hits a brainbuster, and lands a 450 splash for the win at 16:50. The crowd wasn’t as into the action as you’d expect and there were some moments of miscommunication, but they managed to set a nice pace early on by showing their familiarity with each other and brought it down the stretch with some believable nearfalls. Sydal came out of this match looking strong, as he was almost able to defeat his stablemate who underestimated him on many occasions. We’ll see if they were able to top this match later in the compilation. ***
Match #11: Austin Aries vs. Davey Richards (Glory By Honor V, Night 1 – 9/15/06)
They trade control on the mat. Richards foolishly headscissors Aries and they exchange kicks. Aries comes off the middle rope with a back elbow. Richards avoids a slingshot senton and takes over. Aries blocks a handspring maneuver with a dropkick. Hit hits a slingshot senton and synchs in the Last Chancery. Richards crawls to the bottom rope to break the hold. They trade forearms and both connect with lariats at the same time. Aries wins another strike exchange with a stiff forearm. He connects with a basement dropkick but Richards answers with a handspring enzuigiri. Richards dropkicks Aries off the apron and lands a dive to the floor (grass). Back in, the action starts getting intense. Aries hits his shinbreaker-back suplex combination and connects with the IED. Richards reverses a crucifix bomb into a gutbuster and hits a liger bomb. Aries finds himself in a stretch muffler but is able to reach the bottom rope. Richards lays in a couple of kicks. Aries flips out of a german suplex and hits a brainbuster for a nearfall. Richards tries a few quick pin attempts to no avail. Aries hits another brainbuster for the victory at 17:13. The best way that I can describe this match is to say that it was “fine.” Obviously, Ring of Honor had some trouble with the venue (the show had to be held in a tent) and that affected the crowd’s liveliness. Additionally, the match never progressed in any interesting way. For two wrestlers who Ring of Honor would later name a show after (Aries vs. Richards), this was pretty tame. **½
Footage is shown from the Generation Next vs. Christopher Daniels and Matt Sydal match from the Fifth Year Festival: New York. Aries lost the match for Generation Next after a BME from Daniels. After the match, Roderick Strong turned on Aries and aligned himself with Davey Richards to form the No Remorse Corps. This would start faction warfare in Ring of Honor.
Match #12: Open the Brave Gate Title: Matt Sydal © vs. Austin Aries (Fifth Year Festival: Dayton – 2/23/07)
This was the first time that a Dragon Gate title was defended in the United States. Aries reverses a headscissors into a headscissors of his own. Incredible. He comes off the middle rope with a back elbow. Sydal snaps off a few armdrags. Aries blocks a headscissors and hits a gourdbuster. Sydal connects with a baseball slide. Aries trips him from ringside and hits a slingshot senton. Aries takes control until Sydal finds an opening to begin working over his left leg. Sydal focuses on the limb. Aries avoids a cannonball leg drop. He atomic drops Sydal to the floor and follows out with his heat-seeking missile. Back in, Aries lands a lionsault and connects with a missile dropkick. He adds an IED. Sydal drives him into the canvas but finds knees on a standing moonsault. Sydal hits a jig n’tonic for a nearfall. Aries responds with a brainbuster and goes up top. Sydal hurricanranas him to the canvas and hits the Here It Is Driver. Sydal lands a shooting star press to retain his title at 13:44. I actually preferred their encounter at Arena Warfare. The action seemed unmotivated, which was odd considering the historical significance of the Open the Brave Gate Title being defended. I probably would have left this match off of the compilation if their Arena Warfare contest was going to be included. **¾
Match #13: ROH World Title: Takeshi Morishima © vs. Austin Aries (The Battle of St. Paul – 4/27/07)
Aries attacks at the opening bell – the same strategy that he used when he won the title from Samoa Joe. He takes down Morishima with a clothesline and slaps the champion. Morishima rocks Aries with a hip attack and boots him off the apron. Back in the ring, Morishima takes over until Aries low bridges him to the floor and follows out with the heat-seeking missile. Aries gets sent into the barricade and Morishima charges at him with a hip attack. Aries dodges a second hip attack and connects with two dropkicks. In the ring, Aries hits a slingshot senton and lands a lionsault. Morishima muscles him up into a gourdbuster and hits a side slam. Morishima cartwheels into a corner splash but misses a missile dropkick. Aries comes off the top rope but falls victim to an overhead suplex. He recovers with a crucifix bomb but Morishima takes him out with a lariat. Aries avoids a seated senton, punts Morishima in the head, hits a brainbuster, and lands a 450 splash. Morishima gets his foot on the bottom rope during the pin attempt, creating one of the best nearfalls you’ll ever see. Aries goes back up top but gets crotched on the top rope. Morishima hits a back drop driver from the middle rope and connects with a lariat for a nearfall. Morishima hits another back drop driver to retain his title at 15:03. I love that this match was included on the compilation. The similarities between this contest and when Aries won the ROH World Title from Samoa Joe were evident. I’m unsure if Morishima was as talented as Joe at this point in his career, but he worked well enough with Aries to create some special moments here. Aries hitting his infamous combination only for Morishima to get his foot on the rope (not kick out) was tremendous. While I preferred Aries/Joe slightly, this was a spectacle easily worth checking out. ***¾
Footage from Driven 2007 is shown. On that night, Austin Aries appeared on pay per view to fight off a post-match attack by the No Remorse Corps. After chasing them off, Aries pulls out a Ring of Honor contract. The crowd starts throwing pens at him. Aries signs the contract and announces that he’s back home.
Match #14: Austin Aries vs. Roderick Strong (Undeniable – 10/6/07)
Aries snaps off a few japanese armdrags. Strong breaks a wristlock with one of his signature chops. They trade control as each man seems more aggressive than usual. Aries dropkicks Strong to the outside and hits a slingshot senton in the ring. Strong responds with an innovative gutbuster and takes control with a series of backbreakers. The action goes to the floor where Aries back drops out of a Gibson Driver. Strong gets sent into the barricade and Aries connects with the IED. Back in, Aries finds knees on a lionsault and falls victim to another backbreaker. Aries hurricanranas out of a Gibson Driver attempt and hits his shinbreaker-back suplex combination. Strong avoids an IED and drops Aries back-first across the top turnbuckle. He props a table between the apron and the barricade. Aries finds success with the heat-seeking missile. In the ring, Aries connects with repeated elbows and hits a brainbuster for a nearfall. He follows with a 450 splash for a two count. They trade quick pin attempts to no avail. Strong connects with a Sick Kick, hits a gutbuster, and adds the Gibson Driver for a nearfall. They battle on the apron and Aries hits a brainbuster through the table! That came off great. In the ring, Aries lands another 450 splash for the win at 20:26. Aries and Strong did an excellent job of keeping the match grounded while at the same time putting over their hatred for each other. After Aries’ big return at Driven, this was a great follow-up in that he once again received the opportunity to look like the biggest threat in Ring of Honor barring Morishima. Strong deserves a lot of credit as well. He’s had a lot of great matches throughout the years with a wide variety of opponents. ***¾
Match #15: Austin Aries vs. Bryan Danielson (Honor Nation – 10/5/07)
This is the first match in a best-of-three series to determine the ace of Ring of Honor. They grapevine each other’s leg and eventually roll to the floor. They battle over a knucklelock and Danielson connects with a dropkick. After an exchange on the mat, the action goes to the floor where Aries comes off the apron with an elbow strike. In the ring, Aries hits a slingshot senton and connects with a powerdrive elbow. Danielson finds an opening to take over with various stretches and submissions. He goes up top but gets knocked to the outside. Aries lands the heat-seeking missile and hits a slingshot senton in the ring. He follows with a lionsault. Danielson blocks a charge and comes at him with a kick. Both men are down. They trade quick pin attempts to no avail and Aries punts Danielson in the chest. Danielson connects with a missile dropkick and hits a tiger suplex. He transitions into Cattle Mutilation but Aries powers out of the hold. They exchange rapid elbow strikes and Danielson applies a crossface chickenwing. Aries reverses into his shinbreaker-back suplex combination. Danielson suffers a series of kicks and Aries hits a brainbuster. He finds knees on a 450 splash and Danielson brings him into a triangle choke. Aries escapes and quickly locks in the Last Chancery for the victory at 24:34. I’ve never heard this match receive as much credit as it deserved. You will never see a more interesting or engaging feeling-out process to start a match. This was a battle of wits between two highly proficient mat wrestlers and the crowd stayed with them the entire time. They really made an effort to adjust their offenses to out-maneuver the other and the match as a whole was a lot of fun to watch. You look where these two have ended up today and it’s easy to see why after watching this forgotten-about match. ****
Match #16: Austin Aries vs. Bryan Danielson (Chaos at the Cow Palace – 10/21/07)
This is the first match in a best-of-three series to determine the ace of Ring of Honor. Aries leads the series 1-0. They wrestle to a stalemate and the crowd is very appreciative of the action. Danielson applies a bow and arrow. Aries comes off the middle rope with a back elbow and hits a slingshot senton. Danielson tries a cross armbreaker but Aries quickly reaches the ropes. Aries rolls through a sunset flip but misses a dropkick. Danielson begins to work over the left leg. Aries sends him to the floor but can’t capitalize due to his bad leg. Danielson comes off the top rope with a sunset flip but Aries rolls through again and this time connects with a dropkick. Aries lands a lionsault. Danielson blocks the IED and synchs in a crossface chickenwing. Aries armdrags out of the hold. They exchange uppercuts. Both men try rollups to no avail. Aries hits his shinbreaker-back suplex combination. He connects with the IED and goes up top. Danielson catches him with a back superplex and locks in Cattle Mutilation. Danielson transitions into MMA elbows but Aries creates some distance. Aries hits a brainbuster and applies the Last Chancery. Danielson surprises him with a small package for the win at 18:46. I appreciated the finish, with Danielson having the Last Chancery scouted, but I wish they would’ve ran with that story for the entire match. Instead, Aries was able to hit a lot of the same moves as he did in the first encounter of the series. While this match had the slick wrestling that you would expect from these two, I think it was also hurt from the fact that you knew Danielson was going to pick up the victory. I would call this a slightly more polished version of their Nowhere to Run match. ***½
Match #17: Austin Aries vs. Bryan Danielson (Glory By Honor VI, Night 1 – 11/2/07)
This is the third match in a best-of-three series to determine the ace of Ring of Honor. The series is tied at 1-1. They trade control on the mat. Aries monkey flips Danielson across the ring and snaps off a few armdrags. Aries comes off the middle rope but Danielson almost traps him in a crossface chickenwing. Aries shakes him off. Danielson falls to the floor and blocks an incoming dive. Back in, Danielson hits a neckbreaker followed by a butterfly suplex. He maintains the advantage until Aries hits a stunner out of the corner. Aries follows with a stroke and connects with a powerdrive elbow. He lands the heat-seeking missile and slingshots back into the ring with a senton. Danielson blocks a lionsault with knees and locks in a triangle choke. Aries is able to reach the bottom rope. He escapes an airplane spin and hits his shinbreaker-back suplex combination. Danielson blocks the IED with a boot and connects with a missile dropkick. They both lay in roaring elbows and fall to the canvas. Aries reverses a back superplex into a crossbody. They exchange pin attempts and Danielson applies Cattle Mutilation. Aries escapes but falls victim to a tiger suplex. Danielson reigns down MMA elbows. Aries rolls through Cattle Mutilation, pinning Danielson’s shoulders down for a nearfall. Danielson knees out of a brainbuster but gets caught by a DDT. Aries synchs in the Last Chancery. Danielson powers out and sneaks in a small package for a nearfall. Aries transitions out and hits a brainbuster. Aries follows with a 450 splash to win the series at 17:16. I would put this match in between their encounters at Honor Nation and Chaos at the Cow Palace as the second best match of the series. Some odd moments of miscommunication disrupted their flow at times, but the brunt of the contest featured the great back and forth exchanges that we’ve come to expect from these two. The final minutes were the real highlight, as Aries tried the Last Chancery and Danielson tried the small package to no avail. I think if you view this match in light of the previous two contests in the series, you’ll enjoy it much more. ***¾
Overall: Austin Aries: Evolution of A-Double is a tremendous compilation. Fifteen out of the seventeen matches crack three stars and four of them hit the four-star mark. The scary part is that this compilation only covers a portion of Aries’ Ring of Honor career. I particularly remember 2008 being a strong year for him as well. There were also some effective clips used to help bridge the gap in between matches. This set earns an easy recommendation if you don’t already own over half of these matches. Obviously, if you own a substantial amount of the matches, you’re going to have to evaluate for yourself and see if the compilation is worth purchasing. ROH also seems to be very careful about making sure that each match only gets released once on a compilation. For instance, the Bryan Danielson compilation has his match against Aries from Testing the Limit (one that’s missing from this set) and that’s it. The new Samoa Joe compilation doesn’t feature the Final Battle 2004 match but it does have his outing with Aries from Escape From New York. Kudos to Ring of Honor for that and I can give Austin Aries: Evolution of A-Double a high recommendation.
You can purchase this DVD at Ring of Honor’s store right here.