ROH Final Countdown Tour: Chicago
ROH Final Countdown Tour: Chicago (9/19/2009)- Chicago, IL
PETEY WILLIAMS vs. RHETT TITUS- 6/10
Rhett countering the Canadian Destroyer into a Jig N’ Tonic was cool. Otherwise, this was you standard Petey Williams match build around trying to hit the Canadian Destroyer.
SIX MAN MAYHEM: Kyle O’Reilly vs. Silas Young vs. â€"Sugarfoot†Alex Payne vs. Sal Rinauro vs. Grizzly Redwood vs. â€"SkullKrusher†Rasche Brown- 6/10
Lots of fun, and a good story with everyone trying to team up on SkullKrusher.
NIGEL MCGGUINNESS SPEECH- touching.
BRENT ALBRIGHT & BOBBY DEMPSEY vs. THE HOUSE OF TRUTH (Josh Raymond & Christian Able) (w/Truth Martini)- 6/10
Prince Nana comes out and says that Jimmy Rave got hurt last night so he can’t compete in tonight’s match, but Nana says that he will fight Necro himself! Or not. Jimmy Rave jumps Necro from behind. I hate those damn dirty heels!
DOG COLLAR MATCH: Necro Butcher vs. Jimmy Rave (w/the Embassy)- 8.5/10
An extremely bloody, extremely violent, extremely awesome match that almost made up for how crappy the rest of this feud has been.
BRET HART APPEARANCE- standard stuff. Not mechanical like some of Flair’s felt, but nothing particularly special, either.
THE YOUNG BUCKS vs. THE DARK CITY FIGHT CLUB- 6.5/10
COLT CABANA vs. CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI (w/Prince Nana)- 6.5/10
Good finish. Claudio had a gained a bit of penchant for using low blows to win matches in 2009, especially against Cabana, so Colt brings a cup this time, then winds up winning the match by giving Claudio a taste of his own medicine.
ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The American Wolves(c) (w/Shane Hadadorn) vs. The Briscoes- 7/10
Great wrestling, bad booking. This was originally just supposed to be a non-title match but the Briscoes called the Wolves kitty-cats for not defending the belts, so Cary Silkin decided to make this a title match, despite the Briscoes not having done anything to earn it. The finish came when Davey dropkicked the referee to stop him from counting a pinfall, causing a DQ. I really didn’t like the execution here because the ref was RIGHT NEXT TO THE PIN! It would have been just as easy for Davey to break up the pin, but he went for the ref instead, just so the Briscoes could be booked to win the match and feel like they got robbed of a title shot to set them up as the challengers for the title at Final Battle.
This a problem for a few reasons. First of all, the Wolves were scheduled to defend the titles against Steen & Generico in a Ladder War in just one week, so everyone knew that the Briscoes weren’t walking away with the belts here. The second problem is that having the Briscoes win by DQ is the sort of thing that pisses the fans off. Why not just leave this as a non-title match and have the Briscoes go over clean? This would be better in a few ways. First, it wouldn’t be a BS finish, and not having BS finishes is the something that ROH has always prided itself on. Secondly, having the Wolves lose clean a week before their big tag title blow-off with Steen and Generico would have made people think that their tag title reign was coming to end so ROH was jobbing them out. Having the Briscoes having the claim of beating the champs clean would give them a claim to a title shot at Final Battle against the Wovles if they retained in the Ladder War or it would have given them a claim to a title shot against Steen and Generico without having to even have those two teams touch.
AUSTIN ARIES PROMO- good. And a lot more respectful than I was expecting a heel Aries promo to be.
ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Austin Aries(c) vs. Bryan Danielson- 8.5/10
Just an awesome match with both men focusing their offense on the other guy’s head, which played into the finish of their ROH World Title match on HDnet that led up to this. A hard hitting, well-wrestled match that definitely felt appropriate for both the last Dragon vs. Aries match, and for Dragon’s last ROH World Title match. After the match, Dragon gave a nice little â€"thank you†speech like Nigel’s.
BONUS MATCH: The Bravado Brothers vs. Tony Kozina & Andy â€"Right Leg†Ridge- 2/10
Yeah, I really have no idea why this was on here. It only went four and a half minutes, so no one had any time to shine, and Andy Ridge seemingly turned heel after the match, but that seems like it was completely forgotten by the next show.
Overall, a great show from ROH. Everything was solid at worst, and at best we got an awesome match between Dragon and Aries and blow-off between Necro and Rave that was easily both men’s best match of the year in ROH.
PETEY WILLIAMS vs. RHETT TITUS- 6/10
Rhett countering the Canadian Destroyer into a Jig N’ Tonic was cool. Otherwise, this was you standard Petey Williams match build around trying to hit the Canadian Destroyer.
SIX MAN MAYHEM: Kyle O’Reilly vs. Silas Young vs. â€"Sugarfoot†Alex Payne vs. Sal Rinauro vs. Grizzly Redwood vs. â€"SkullKrusher†Rasche Brown- 6/10
Lots of fun, and a good story with everyone trying to team up on SkullKrusher.
NIGEL MCGGUINNESS SPEECH- touching.
BRENT ALBRIGHT & BOBBY DEMPSEY vs. THE HOUSE OF TRUTH (Josh Raymond & Christian Able) (w/Truth Martini)- 6/10
Prince Nana comes out and says that Jimmy Rave got hurt last night so he can’t compete in tonight’s match, but Nana says that he will fight Necro himself! Or not. Jimmy Rave jumps Necro from behind. I hate those damn dirty heels!
DOG COLLAR MATCH: Necro Butcher vs. Jimmy Rave (w/the Embassy)- 8.5/10
An extremely bloody, extremely violent, extremely awesome match that almost made up for how crappy the rest of this feud has been.
BRET HART APPEARANCE- standard stuff. Not mechanical like some of Flair’s felt, but nothing particularly special, either.
THE YOUNG BUCKS vs. THE DARK CITY FIGHT CLUB- 6.5/10
COLT CABANA vs. CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI (w/Prince Nana)- 6.5/10
Good finish. Claudio had a gained a bit of penchant for using low blows to win matches in 2009, especially against Cabana, so Colt brings a cup this time, then winds up winning the match by giving Claudio a taste of his own medicine.
ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The American Wolves(c) (w/Shane Hadadorn) vs. The Briscoes- 7/10
Great wrestling, bad booking. This was originally just supposed to be a non-title match but the Briscoes called the Wolves kitty-cats for not defending the belts, so Cary Silkin decided to make this a title match, despite the Briscoes not having done anything to earn it. The finish came when Davey dropkicked the referee to stop him from counting a pinfall, causing a DQ. I really didn’t like the execution here because the ref was RIGHT NEXT TO THE PIN! It would have been just as easy for Davey to break up the pin, but he went for the ref instead, just so the Briscoes could be booked to win the match and feel like they got robbed of a title shot to set them up as the challengers for the title at Final Battle.
This a problem for a few reasons. First of all, the Wolves were scheduled to defend the titles against Steen & Generico in a Ladder War in just one week, so everyone knew that the Briscoes weren’t walking away with the belts here. The second problem is that having the Briscoes win by DQ is the sort of thing that pisses the fans off. Why not just leave this as a non-title match and have the Briscoes go over clean? This would be better in a few ways. First, it wouldn’t be a BS finish, and not having BS finishes is the something that ROH has always prided itself on. Secondly, having the Wolves lose clean a week before their big tag title blow-off with Steen and Generico would have made people think that their tag title reign was coming to end so ROH was jobbing them out. Having the Briscoes having the claim of beating the champs clean would give them a claim to a title shot at Final Battle against the Wovles if they retained in the Ladder War or it would have given them a claim to a title shot against Steen and Generico without having to even have those two teams touch.
AUSTIN ARIES PROMO- good. And a lot more respectful than I was expecting a heel Aries promo to be.
ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Austin Aries(c) vs. Bryan Danielson- 8.5/10
Just an awesome match with both men focusing their offense on the other guy’s head, which played into the finish of their ROH World Title match on HDnet that led up to this. A hard hitting, well-wrestled match that definitely felt appropriate for both the last Dragon vs. Aries match, and for Dragon’s last ROH World Title match. After the match, Dragon gave a nice little â€"thank you†speech like Nigel’s.
BONUS MATCH: The Bravado Brothers vs. Tony Kozina & Andy â€"Right Leg†Ridge- 2/10
Yeah, I really have no idea why this was on here. It only went four and a half minutes, so no one had any time to shine, and Andy Ridge seemingly turned heel after the match, but that seems like it was completely forgotten by the next show.
Overall, a great show from ROH. Everything was solid at worst, and at best we got an awesome match between Dragon and Aries and blow-off between Necro and Rave that was easily both men’s best match of the year in ROH.