ROH Chaos at the Cow Palace
ROH Chaos at the Cow Palace (10/21/2007)- San Francisco, CA
NIGEL MCGUINNESS PROMO- great babyface stuff.
HUMAN TORNADO vs. CHRIS HERO (w/Larry Sweeney)- 5.75/10
Hero being Hero, then Tornado being Tornado. A bit too much antics for my liking.
After the match, Claudio Castagnoli came out and gave Hero a European Uppercut, then cut your standard â€"we are glad to be in this historic building†promo to make up for Larry Sweeney crapping on the crowd earlier. Roderick Strong came out and said the equivalent of â€"let’s have our match right now,†so we got the…
FIP WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Roderick Strong(c) vs. Claudio Castagnoli- 6.5/10
Disappointing, all things considered. Roddy worked over Claudio’s mid-section, but there wasn’t much more story than that, and the match wasn’t spectacular in terms of action, either. Yeah, I know it’s the second match on the card, but it’s also a world title match.
KARL ANDERSON vs. ADAM PEARCE (w/Shane Hagadorn)- 5.5/10
Started to pick up towards the end, but not particularly exciting. After the match, Delirious came out to get revenge for whatever dastardly deed the Hangmen3 had most recently done to him. He bit Shane Hagadorn a lot. And I mean a lot. To the point where Hagadorn bled. Brent Albright came out to make the heel save, so we got…
DELIRIOUS vs. BRENT ALBRIGHT (w/Adam Pearce)- 7/10
At ringside, Adam Pearce threatened to punch an old lady in the front row. They did some good brawling to start off then transitioned into a lot of good old-fashioned babyface vs. heel stuff, with Pearce’s involvement always making the difference.
TJ PERKINS & TONY KOZINA vs. THE NO REMORSE CORPS (Davey Richards & Rocky Romero)- 6.75/10
Good stuff, and one INSANE hurricanrana.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- okay.
The Age of the Fall show up. They come out through the crowd, with a camera capturing their entire journey... which shows us just how empty this famous building is. Bad idea.
Jacobs said that ROH Management told them that they need to win tag team matches in order to get a shot at the tag titles (what a revolutionary concept!), so they challenge the NRC to a match. The NRC accept, so we get a…
RELAXED RULES MATCH: The No Remorse Corps (Davey Richards & Rocky Romero) vs. The Age of the Fall (Jimmy Jacobs & Necro Butcher)- 6.75/10
A wild brawl.
BRISCOES PROMO- Jay says he’ll win the world title tonight, Mark says he’ll be back in action soon, and they both promise the Age of the Fall that â€"it’s on!â€
MATCH 2 IN THEIR BEST OF 3 SERIES: Bryan Danielson vs. Austin Aries- 9/10
These two guys always deliver together, but this might well be my favorite singles match between them.
Both guys pulled out all of the stops here to try to get the win. Bryan worked over just about every part of Austin’s body as the opportunity presented itself, switching his game plan up with ease, which really got over just how much of a technical master he is. They also made great use of their big spots and came up with really interesting ways to counter the other guy’s stuff. They did all of their big stuff, but it felt very much out of the usual pattern, which kept me on the edge of my seat, biting on every single nearfall, on the way to a finish that built perfectly off of the finish to the first match. A FANTASTIC match!
BRYAN DANIELSON PROMO- he hypes up the final match in the series, which will take place at Glory By Honor VI: Night 1. Then Aries shows up and also hypes up the match. Good stuff.
ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Nigel McGuinness(c) vs. Jay Briscoe (w/Mark Briscoe)- 8/10
They started out with each man working over a body part (Nigel’s knee and Jay’s shoulder), and the proceeded to structure the rest of the match around showing us how much the damage to that body part affected each wrestler’s offense (especially Nigel), with Nigel eventually picking up the win by London Dungeon submission (which also targets the shoulder) because his injured knee slowed him down to where he couldn’t really hit Jay with his usual lariats. An awesome first defense in what would prove to be an epic title reign for Nigel McGuinness.
POST- MATCH ANGLES- Bryan Danielson came out to steal Nigel McGuinness’ moment by slapping him in the face. Nigel responded with a European Uppercut and they brawled away. Then the Age of the Fall came out through the crowd and attacked the Briscoes from behind. Then Davey Richards and Rocky Romero came out to attack the Age of the Fall. Then Austin Aries came out to attack Davey and Rocky and everything turned into a big schmoz with a bunch of dives.
Then Chris Hero and Larry Sweeney came out so that Hero could show off his athleticism, but Claudio Castagnoli came out and hit Hero with a Ricola Bomb. Claudio then grabbed a mic and gave the â€"Thank you for being such a great crowd†promo.
This segment (aside from the Claudio and Hero stuff) was one that ROH would a number of times over the course of the next year, and was meant to get over the overarching â€"faction warfare†angle that Gabe wanted to do. The different groups coming out one by one and brawling always did a great job at showing how interconnected many of the stories were, but this one fell a bit flat with me simply because most of the factions had people missing. Tyler Black wasn’t there for the Age of the Fall. Chris Hero was the only member of Sweet N’ Sour Inc. on the show. Austin Aries was the only member of The Resilience on the show because Matt Cross and Erick Stevens had recently lost a match stipulating that they were out of ROH for 60 days. Only two members of the No Remorse Corps came out despite the fact that their leader, Roderick Strong, was also in the building. The Hangmen 3 were in the building, but didn’t factor into things at all. It worked for the live crowd, and (aside from the Hero and Claudio part) wasn’t bad, but really just doesn’t feel like it was that big a deal (especially when compared to later segments like this, including the absolutely amazing one at Night of the Butcher II).
Anyway… this was an awesome show, but that is mostly on the strength of the final two matches. The DVD did also have a…
BONUS MATCH: (from 7/28/2007)
FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL: Daizee Haze vs. Alicia vs. Portia Perez vs. Sara Del Rey (w/Larry Sweeney)- 6.75/10
A very good match which was made extremely fun by the presence of Alicia. I have never heard of this â€"Alicia†woman before, but she seems to be fairly over with the local crowd, and it’s easy to see why: she has so much personality that I’m surprised no one ever picked her up. I can see some people finding her constant talking during the match annoying, but I thought she was hilarious. My favorite bit came a few moments after Sara had put an end to some of Alicia’s antics by knocking her down, and Sara now wanted Alicia’s help executing some sort of double-team maneuver on Daizee. Alicia responded to this by refusing to help Sara, shouting â€"YOU JUST HIT ME!†to which Sara responded â€"I don’t care,†and this apparently cowed Alicia enough that she quickly said â€"okay. Sorry,†and went over to help Sara attack Daizee.
Larry Sweeney was great on the outside, as usual, at one point saying to Sara that â€"neither of these two could hold your jockstrap.â€
NIGEL MCGUINNESS PROMO- great babyface stuff.
HUMAN TORNADO vs. CHRIS HERO (w/Larry Sweeney)- 5.75/10
Hero being Hero, then Tornado being Tornado. A bit too much antics for my liking.
After the match, Claudio Castagnoli came out and gave Hero a European Uppercut, then cut your standard â€"we are glad to be in this historic building†promo to make up for Larry Sweeney crapping on the crowd earlier. Roderick Strong came out and said the equivalent of â€"let’s have our match right now,†so we got the…
FIP WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Roderick Strong(c) vs. Claudio Castagnoli- 6.5/10
Disappointing, all things considered. Roddy worked over Claudio’s mid-section, but there wasn’t much more story than that, and the match wasn’t spectacular in terms of action, either. Yeah, I know it’s the second match on the card, but it’s also a world title match.
KARL ANDERSON vs. ADAM PEARCE (w/Shane Hagadorn)- 5.5/10
Started to pick up towards the end, but not particularly exciting. After the match, Delirious came out to get revenge for whatever dastardly deed the Hangmen3 had most recently done to him. He bit Shane Hagadorn a lot. And I mean a lot. To the point where Hagadorn bled. Brent Albright came out to make the heel save, so we got…
DELIRIOUS vs. BRENT ALBRIGHT (w/Adam Pearce)- 7/10
At ringside, Adam Pearce threatened to punch an old lady in the front row. They did some good brawling to start off then transitioned into a lot of good old-fashioned babyface vs. heel stuff, with Pearce’s involvement always making the difference.
TJ PERKINS & TONY KOZINA vs. THE NO REMORSE CORPS (Davey Richards & Rocky Romero)- 6.75/10
Good stuff, and one INSANE hurricanrana.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- okay.
The Age of the Fall show up. They come out through the crowd, with a camera capturing their entire journey... which shows us just how empty this famous building is. Bad idea.
Jacobs said that ROH Management told them that they need to win tag team matches in order to get a shot at the tag titles (what a revolutionary concept!), so they challenge the NRC to a match. The NRC accept, so we get a…
RELAXED RULES MATCH: The No Remorse Corps (Davey Richards & Rocky Romero) vs. The Age of the Fall (Jimmy Jacobs & Necro Butcher)- 6.75/10
A wild brawl.
BRISCOES PROMO- Jay says he’ll win the world title tonight, Mark says he’ll be back in action soon, and they both promise the Age of the Fall that â€"it’s on!â€
MATCH 2 IN THEIR BEST OF 3 SERIES: Bryan Danielson vs. Austin Aries- 9/10
These two guys always deliver together, but this might well be my favorite singles match between them.
Both guys pulled out all of the stops here to try to get the win. Bryan worked over just about every part of Austin’s body as the opportunity presented itself, switching his game plan up with ease, which really got over just how much of a technical master he is. They also made great use of their big spots and came up with really interesting ways to counter the other guy’s stuff. They did all of their big stuff, but it felt very much out of the usual pattern, which kept me on the edge of my seat, biting on every single nearfall, on the way to a finish that built perfectly off of the finish to the first match. A FANTASTIC match!
BRYAN DANIELSON PROMO- he hypes up the final match in the series, which will take place at Glory By Honor VI: Night 1. Then Aries shows up and also hypes up the match. Good stuff.
ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Nigel McGuinness(c) vs. Jay Briscoe (w/Mark Briscoe)- 8/10
They started out with each man working over a body part (Nigel’s knee and Jay’s shoulder), and the proceeded to structure the rest of the match around showing us how much the damage to that body part affected each wrestler’s offense (especially Nigel), with Nigel eventually picking up the win by London Dungeon submission (which also targets the shoulder) because his injured knee slowed him down to where he couldn’t really hit Jay with his usual lariats. An awesome first defense in what would prove to be an epic title reign for Nigel McGuinness.
POST- MATCH ANGLES- Bryan Danielson came out to steal Nigel McGuinness’ moment by slapping him in the face. Nigel responded with a European Uppercut and they brawled away. Then the Age of the Fall came out through the crowd and attacked the Briscoes from behind. Then Davey Richards and Rocky Romero came out to attack the Age of the Fall. Then Austin Aries came out to attack Davey and Rocky and everything turned into a big schmoz with a bunch of dives.
Then Chris Hero and Larry Sweeney came out so that Hero could show off his athleticism, but Claudio Castagnoli came out and hit Hero with a Ricola Bomb. Claudio then grabbed a mic and gave the â€"Thank you for being such a great crowd†promo.
This segment (aside from the Claudio and Hero stuff) was one that ROH would a number of times over the course of the next year, and was meant to get over the overarching â€"faction warfare†angle that Gabe wanted to do. The different groups coming out one by one and brawling always did a great job at showing how interconnected many of the stories were, but this one fell a bit flat with me simply because most of the factions had people missing. Tyler Black wasn’t there for the Age of the Fall. Chris Hero was the only member of Sweet N’ Sour Inc. on the show. Austin Aries was the only member of The Resilience on the show because Matt Cross and Erick Stevens had recently lost a match stipulating that they were out of ROH for 60 days. Only two members of the No Remorse Corps came out despite the fact that their leader, Roderick Strong, was also in the building. The Hangmen 3 were in the building, but didn’t factor into things at all. It worked for the live crowd, and (aside from the Hero and Claudio part) wasn’t bad, but really just doesn’t feel like it was that big a deal (especially when compared to later segments like this, including the absolutely amazing one at Night of the Butcher II).
Anyway… this was an awesome show, but that is mostly on the strength of the final two matches. The DVD did also have a…
BONUS MATCH: (from 7/28/2007)
FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL: Daizee Haze vs. Alicia vs. Portia Perez vs. Sara Del Rey (w/Larry Sweeney)- 6.75/10
A very good match which was made extremely fun by the presence of Alicia. I have never heard of this â€"Alicia†woman before, but she seems to be fairly over with the local crowd, and it’s easy to see why: she has so much personality that I’m surprised no one ever picked her up. I can see some people finding her constant talking during the match annoying, but I thought she was hilarious. My favorite bit came a few moments after Sara had put an end to some of Alicia’s antics by knocking her down, and Sara now wanted Alicia’s help executing some sort of double-team maneuver on Daizee. Alicia responded to this by refusing to help Sara, shouting â€"YOU JUST HIT ME!†to which Sara responded â€"I don’t care,†and this apparently cowed Alicia enough that she quickly said â€"okay. Sorry,†and went over to help Sara attack Daizee.
Larry Sweeney was great on the outside, as usual, at one point saying to Sara that â€"neither of these two could hold your jockstrap.â€