ROH 03.30.13 War DVD Review

War in Asheville, North Carolina on March 30th, 2013

Opening Match: Michael Elgin vs. Adam Page
Elgin connects with a stiff back elbow but almost gets caught by a quick rollup. He takes down Page with a shoulder tackle. Page snaps off a hurricanrana and low-bridges Elgin to the floor. He follows out with a moonsault from the apron. Elgin blocks a springboard maneuver and throws Page into the barricade a couple of times. He takes control until Page connects with a basement dropkick. Page adds a shooting star press and a spin kick. Elgin blocks a charge and connects with a short-arm lariat. Page back drops out of a bucklebomb attempt and lays in a yakuza kick. They battle on the middle rope and Page hits a swinging neckbreaker for a nearfall. He misses a flying crossbody and Elgin hits a dead-lift german suplex. Elgin connects with a backfist, hits a bucklebomb, and hits his spinning powerbomb for the win at 9:32. This match had enough high-impact exchanges to excite the crowd, but these two didn’t have as good of chemistry as I was expecting. While no one bought Page winning here, I do hope he receives more opportunities in Ring of Honor. **¼

Match #2: QT Marshall vs. Darren Dean
Marshall graces us with a pre-match promo. That goes about as well as you’d expect. He’s excited to team with his mystery partner at Supercard of Honor. Kevin Kelly passive aggressively makes fun of Marshall on commentary. He takes down Dean with a shoulder tackle and poses. Dean connects with a dropkick and lands a moonsault. Marshall crotches him on the top rope and takes over with a powerslam. Dean kind of fights back with a spin kick. Jimmy Jacobs and Jimmy Rave run out and attack Dean, causing a no contest at 3:25.

The crowd instantly cheers SCUM for ending the match. Steve Corino grabs a microphone and asserts that he made good on his promise that SCUM would grow. Corino calls out Mike Mondo and Grizzly Redwood, leading to…

Match #3: Mike Mondo and Grizzly Redwood vs. Jimmy Jacobs and Jimmy Rave
Both teams start brawling before the opening bell. Mondo sends Rave into the barricade as Redwood clotheslines Jacobs to the floor. In the ring, Mondo hits an overhead suplex on Rave. Redwood takes out SCUM with a dive through the bottom and middle rope. Mondo comes off the apron with a double axe handle. Multiple referees come out to restore order. Rave plants Redwood with a uranagi onto the apron. SCUM isolate him until he connects with an enzuigiri on Jacobs and makes the tag. Mondo cleans house with a series of punches and hits a neckbreaker on Rave. Mondo hits a snapmare driver on Jacobs for a nearfall. Redwood comes through the ropes with a spear on Jacobs. Corino interjects himself, allowing SCUM to hit a double chokeslam on Redwood for the victory at 8:40. I like the combination of Jacobs and Rave as possibly the central tag team of SCUM. I do not like how they needed Corino’s help to pin Redwood. This match may have been a bit too competitive and no one really comes away looking stronger as a result. **

SCUM conduct a post-match attack and Rhett Titus comes through the crowd to help. BJ Whitmer makes the save, leading to…

Match #4: BJ Whitmer vs. Rhett Titus
They exchange punches and chops. Whitmer hits a backbreaker and lays in more chops. Titus snaps his neck across the top rope and takes control. Whitmer comes back with a series of clotheslines and hits a spinebuster. Titus charges but runs into a powerslam. Whitmer hits rolling suplexes but Titus responds with a leaping facebuster. Titus hits a stranglehold neckbreaker followed by Old School Expulsion (Corino’s finishing move) for a nearfall. This sends Corino into a blind rage. Whitmer sneaks in a small package but Corino pulls the Todd Sinclair out of the ring during the pin attempt. Todd Sinclair ducks a clothesline from Corino! Whitmer backslides Titus for a nearfall. Rave tries to interfere to no avail. Same story with Jacobs. Whitmer hits an exploder on Jacobs from the ring through a table on the floor. Titus hits Whitmer with a roll of quarters for the win at 10:58. Once again, SCUM does not look formidable in any way. Rather, it merely looks like four men were needed to ultimately defeat Whitmer. I wish this match and the last match would have been combined into a six-man tag so the amount of interference would have been kept to a minimum. **

Match #5: Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards vs. Cedric Alexander and Caprice Coleman
Bobby Fish is on commentary. Alexander snaps off a headscissors on Edwards and they trade armdrags. Richards traps Alexander in a cloverleaf and Edwards gives him some extra leverage. Fish yells at Paul Turner to do his job. Alexander catches Richards with a dropkick and a slingshot senton. The American Wolves gain the advantage with a blind tag and work over Coleman after sending him into the barricade. Coleman eventually connects with a double dropkick and makes the tag. Alexander catches Richards with a springboard lariat and hits a nice backcracker. He springboards off the middle rope with a gamengiri on Edwards. Coleman and Alexander hit total elimination on Edwards for a nearfall. Richards dropkicks Coleman, causing him to DDT his own partner. Edwards hits a sit-out gourdbuster on Alexander and Richards follows with a missile dropkick. Edwards adds a dragon suplex for a two count. Alexander escapes an Alarm Clock but finds himself in an ankle lock. Coleman spin kicks Richards and lands a dive to the floor onto Edwards. Alexander takes out the Wolves with a dive of his own. Fish is comically in awe on commentary. In the ring, Coleman hits a top-rope leg drop on Edwards but Richards breaks up the pin attempt with a diving headbutt. Richards connects with his handspring enzuigiri on Coleman and a knockout kick on Alexander. Everyone hits a move and all four men are down. Both teams trade strikes. The Wolves hit a double team Alarm Clock on Alexander. Richards punts Coleman from the apron and lands a flying double stomp onto Alexander for a nearfall. Coleman hurricanranas Richards from the top rope and Alexander follows with a frog splash. Edwards boots Coleman in the face and superkicks Alexander. Edwards comes off the middle rope with a lungblower on Alexander and Richards hits a tombstone for the victory at 18:52. A very solid match to end the first half of the show and hopefully put this show on the right track. Coleman and Alexander are always dependable for a strong showing and I’ve found the Wolves to be enjoyable since they reformed the team. I can’t remember these two teams ever being positioned to wrestle each other in this kind of spot on the card and this was a great sampling of what they could do together. ***½

Match #6: ROH World Tag Team Titles: Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly © vs. Mike Posey and Corey Hollis
Hollis punches out Fish after being insulted and lands a dive to the floor onto O’Reilly. Posey hits a guillotine leg drop on Fish. The champions get sent into the barricade. Back in, Hollis comes off the middle rope but O’Reilly cuts him off with a dropkick. reDRagon isolate Hollis until he dodges a kick from O’Reilly and makes the tag. Posey hits a leg-liner on Fish. O’Reilly hits a german suplex on the floor on Hollis while Fish lays out Posey with a saito suplex. The champions now work over Posey. He hits a neckbreaker on Fish and tags out. Hollis hits a neckbreaker on Fish and a butterfly suplex on O’Reilly. Alabama Attitude hit a double team russian leg sweep on Fish. Posey whiffs on a plancha attempt. O’Reilly plasters Hollis with a strike combination and hits a regalplex for a nearfall. Hollis hits a sunset bomb on O’Reilly and Posey follows with a top-rope leg drop. Fish turns the tide with his kicks and reDRagon take over with double team maneuvers. They hit Chasing the Dragon on Hollis to retain their titles at 13:19. Due to some sloppiness early on from Alabama Attitude, the crowd was completely disinterested in this match because they gave the challengers zero chance of winning. Fish and O’Reilly tried to generate some heat but the crowd just wasn’t having it. This contest ended up being pretty disappointing and it couldn’t have been the impact that Alabama Attitude wanted to make. **¼

Match #7: Matt Taven vs. Jay Lethal vs. ACH vs. Roderick Strong
This is a Proving Ground match, so someone has a chance at earning a shot at the World Television Title. Lethal frustrates Taven early on with some successful offense. Taven doesn’t want anything to do with ACH. Strong tags in and ACH catches him with a series of unique armdrags. Strong connects with a dropkick on Lethal and sort of works with Taven to isolate Lethal. That partnership quickly dissolves when Strong boots Taven off the apron. Tensions start arising when everyone wants to tag into the match and earn a title shot. Lethal enzuigiris Taven and hits a twisting brainbuster. Truth Martini prevents him from hitting Hail to the King. ACH takes Taven down with a headscissors and dropkicks Strong. He catches Strong with a basement lariat and a flying crossbody. Lethal lands a dive to the floor onto Taven and Strong. ACH slips on a kick-flip dive but semi-recovers. In the ring, ACH hits an inverted DDT on Strong, who answers with a gutbuster and a backbreaker for a nearfall. Lethal hits the Lethal Combination on Strong. Taven interrupts the pin attempt with a top-rope splash. Taven hits a rope-assisted neckbreaker on ACH for a two count. They botch a tower of doom spot in the corner. Lethal hits the Lethal Injection on Strong. ACH hits an implant DDT on Taven for the win at 20:56. ACH will receive a shot at the World Television Title. Though I’m incredibly happy with the result, this match did not meet expectations considering the talent involved. It seemed as though every time the match was picking up steam, some kind of miscommunication brought everyone back down. There were some worthwhile moments here and there, but they could not keep the crowd involved and the action dragged at points during the twenty-minute duration. **¾

Match #8: ROH World Title: Kevin Steen © vs. Mark Briscoe
Members of the Briscoe family are at ringside and they are not joking around. Steen takes a moment to insult them and Mark wipes him out with a dive. Mark connects with a missile dropkick and lands another dive. Steen tries to create some distance but his challenger stays on him with a dropkick through the ropes. Steen hits a powerbomb onto the floor and throws Mark repeatedly into the barricade. The champion takes control in the ring until Mark comes back with some karate offense and hits an exploder. Jimmy Jacobs appears at ringside. Steen hits a corner cannonball but Jay Briscoe comes out to support his brother. Mark hits a powerbomb and follows with a sloppy powerbomb. More members of SCUM come out but they are met with more members of the Briscoe family. Steen hits his pumphandle neckbreaker and lands a swantan. Mark responds with a death valley driver and a springboard ace crusher. Everyone comes to blows on the floor. Mark splashes Rhett Titus through a ringside table and connects with the froggy elbow on Steen for a nearfall. Steen recovers with another corner cannonball and a sleeper suplex. He hits the F-Cinq for a nearfall. Steen follows with the package piledriver to retain his title at 13:31. This felt like a token title defense for Steen, as the focus was put more on their supporters at ringside and the action felt like an afterthought at times. When Mark is taking time out of the match to splash someone else through a table, there might be too many shenanigans going on. The Briscoes hitting a doomsday device on Jacobs after the match even felt awkward and just came off as a way to send the crowd home happy. It seemed as though Steen and Mark had solid chemistry together, but this was not the ideal setting to show it. ***

Overall: The highlight of this show by far was the American Wolves against Coleman and Alexander. They delivered a worthwhile match that setup future challengers for reDRagon. However, the rest of the card was lacking. The ROH vs. SCUM matches at the beginning of the show were nothing memorable while the tag title match and the Proving Ground four-way never clicked the way they could have. Even the main event left a bit to be desired, as it didn’t have a big fight feel. While this show setup some interesting angles for Supercard of Honor, it does not earn a recommendation on its own.

You can purchase this DVD at Ring of Honor’s store right here.