BRM Reviews ROH Dragon Gate Challenge

[Big Red Machine]

ROH Dragon Gate Challenge (3/30/2006)- Detroit, MI

EMBASSY SEGMENT- GREAT!. Prince Nana is unhappy with the continued fighting between his two main stars, Jimmy Rave and Alex Shelley. He threatens to stop paying them if they don’t learn how to work together, but to help them learn to work together, he wants them to become a tag team and win the ROH World Tag Team Titles.

JIMMY JACOBS & LACEY SEGMENT- good. Lacey promises Jimmy a reward if he beats the crap out of BJ Whitmer. Jimmy, however, is sad that Lacey hasn’t seen his “Ballad of Lacey” music video yet… so he asks for his reward to be giving Lacey a foot rub (he is trying to win her love). Lacey looks at him funny but says “okay… but ONLY IF YOU WIN.”

Colt Cabana interrupts Bobby Cruise welcoming everyone to the show, and says that he cannot wait any longer to get his hands on Homicide. Cide comes out, leading to:
FALLS COUNT ANYWHERE MATCH: Colt Cabana vs. Homicide (w/Julius Smokes)- 4/10. Cide won after he gave Cabana a kayfabe concussion. This was extremely short, especially for something that was billed as a blowoff match. It did lead to something later on in the weekend, but you wouldn’t know that if you were at the show. If I were a fan at this show, I would have been pretty disappointed.

CHRISTOPHER DANIELS PROMO- great

CHAD COLLYER vs. RICKY REYES (w/Julius Smokes)- 5.5/10. Good, smooth, flawless, technical, hold-for-hold wrestling.

SAMOA JOE PROMO- good

BJ WHITMER vs. JIMMY JACOBS (w/Lacey)- 7.5/10.
This was the first time that Jimmy used “Ballad of Lacey” as his entrance music. It got a pretty good reception.
This match contained the scariest bump I have ever seen in my life! Whitmer was going for a superbomb off the top rope, but he slipped backwards and crashed to the floor, injuring his leg. Jacobs’ head with about six inches away from hitting the ropes and the turnbuckle post on the way down, and may have hit the back of the apron. The only other time I have ever seen a referee, trainer, etc. move so fast to make sure someone was okay was Foley’s fall through the cell… AND THEY STILL KEPT WRESTLING AFTER IT!
The match itself told a good story. When Jacobs finally got serious and went for a cover after his finisher, Lacey ordered him not to. Instead, she wanted him to hurt Whitmer more, which came back to bite him in the butt. After the match, Jacobs refuses to shake BJ’s hand.
Whitmer then calls out Chris Hero and the Necro Butcher, who are rumored to be in the building tonight, but they don’t show.

RYO SAITO vs. JIMMY YANG- 7/10

BRYAN DANIELSON & DELIRIOUS vs. THE EMBASSY (Jimmy Rave & Alex Shelley) (w/Prince Nana & Daizee Haze)- 7.25/10.
Shelley actually caught about 7 rolls of toilet paper during their entrance, which elicited an “ALEX SHELLEY!” chant from the crowd.

COLT CABANA PROMO- GREAT kayfabe here. Cabana cut this promo in the dark, outside away from everything because it is too loud for him. He tells Homicide that wants a match with him in Chicago. Prazak tells Cabana “I think you might have a concussion.” This segment was very well done. Cabana played it PERFECTLY!

CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI vs. SHANE HAGADORN- 3.5/10. I know the rating looks bad, but considering that I was expecting a squash, this was kind of nice. Hagadorn actually got in some decent offense for a while.
Claudio started this match off by doing some of the goofy, athletic stuff that would become the trademark of 2007-2008 Chris Hero.
After the match, Hero and Necro came out through the crowd and surround Claudio. Hero says that he is giving Claudio one last chance to prove his allegiance to both Hero (his trainer and tag team partner), and to CZW. Before he can answer, BJ Whitmer comes out and attacks the CZW guys, but gets beaten down. Then Claudio attacks Necro, once again reaffirming his allegiance to ROH.

DRAGON KID & GENKI HORIGUCHI vs. AJ STYLES & MATT SYDAL- 7.5/10- GREAT ACTION!

DRAGON GATE (i.e. Lucha) RULES 6-MAN TAG TEAM MATCH: Generation Next vs. Blood Generation CIMA, Masato Yoshino, & Naruki Doi- 8.5/10- a bit spotty, but LOTS OF ACTION!

Next we got a great video package highlighting the Joe vs. Daniels feud, which started three and a half years ago. This was a good lead in for…

SAMOA JOE vs. CHRISTOPHER DANIELS (w/Allison Danger)- 7.25/10.

After this match, Hero & Necro come back and run their mouths. Daniels wants to fight them, but Allison holds him back, telling him that he is too exhausted. They start to fight with Joe, and beat him down 2-on-1 until Whitmer comes out and creams them both with chairshots.

Then Joe cuts a great promo, including calling Zandig a “fat, talentless piece of sh*t.”

Overall, this show was great. All of the ROH vs. Dragon Gate matches delivered, as did Jacobs vs. Whitmer. We got some good stuff in both the Homicide vs. Cabana and ROH vs. CZW feuds. The most disappointing thing on this show was the main event, which felt underwhelming, but was still good enough to be a main event.

[badnewzxl]

what about the Generation Next vs. Blood Generation match? That's def a 9 of 10....

[Big Red Machine]

what about the Generation Next vs. Blood Generation match? That's def a 9 of 10....

I gave it 8.5/10. It was great action, but there were times when it just seemed like SPOT! SPOT! SPOT! SPOT! Stuff like Doi JUST BARELY kicking out of the GIbson Driver, then immeadiately afterwards blocking the Half Nelson Backbreaker, jumping up, hitting the Doi555, and just completely forgetting to sell Roddy's finisher. It just bothered me. I also didn't like the end result

Hidden text.

IMO, ROH should not have lost their challenge to Dragon Gate, since they needed to look strong for their feud with CZW.

[badnewzxl]

@your spoiler- that was only so they could hype the tag title match you'll see on Better than Our Best. I do get what you're saying about the spots, but I think that was bc they really wanted to showcase the Dragon Gate style. And it made sense to me that the two factions would continuously try to show one another up.

I'm still looking forward to your SCOH review; Better Than our Best as well....

[Big Red Machine]

@your spoiler- that was only so they could hype the tag title match you'll see on Better than Our Best. I do get what you're saying about the spots, but I think that was bc they really wanted to showcase the Dragon Gate style. And it made sense to me that the two factions would continuously try to show one another up.

I guess I just don't like that style, then. I have seen Lucha Rules matches that aren't so spotty before.