ROH Fifth Year Festival: Liverpool
ROH Fifth Year Festival: Liverpool (3/3/2007)- Liverpool, UK
RODERICK STRONG PROMO- Ouch. This is just so horribly Roddy.
JIMMY JACOBS PROMO- an awesome promo that also explains why Lacey isn’t here this weekend (the Colt 45 from Cabana last weekend in Chicago took her out).
DAVEY RICHARDS vs. HOMICIDE- 7.25/10
SARA DEL REY vs. ALLISON DANGER- 4/10
Nice little story with Sara trying to hit the Royal Butterfly but Danger escaping it.
JIMMY JACOBS & JIMMY RAVE vs. COLT CABANA & BJ WHITMER- 6.25/10
Started out as a wild brawl but wound up as a pretty good normal tag team match.
2 OUT OF 3 FALLS: Delirious vs. Matt Sydal- 7.25/10
Started out slow, but once Sydal turned heel, this got great.
SARA DEL REY & ALLISON DANGER PROMO- Danger puts over women’s wrestling and puts Sara and herself over as being the best female wrestlers in the world. They are then approached by Eden Black and Jetta who challenge them to a match tomorrow night.
FIP HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Roderick Strong(c) vs. PAC- 7.5/10
Pac did flippy stuff. Roddy worked over his back. The match was great. Exactly what you would expect. Roddy locks Pac in the Strong Hold after the match because he is a dick, but Delirious comes out to make the save.
JIMMY JACOBS PROMO- Jimmy is very unhappy that he wasn’t able to please Lacey by taking BJ Whitmer out tonight, so he summons a referee and orders the referee to find BJ and tell him to come down to the basement of the arena where Jimmy is so that they can fight. I know this sounds goofy, but Jimmy made it work.
ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Briscoes(c) vs. Naruki Doi & Shingo- 9/10
AMAZING tag team action, and the shock of finish feels tangible, even to someone watching at it at home over six years later. Jay cut a good promo after the match setting up Briscoe vs. Briscoe for tomorrow night.
SAMOA JOE vs. NIGEL MCGUINNESS- 8.5/10
Joe is a big badass monster, but Nigel never backed down, even a little. Joe was Joe, hitting Nigel with his hard strikes while Nigel worked over Joe’s arm until Nigel eats a MUSCLE BUSTER ONTO THE APRON! Nigel is getting carried off backstage, until Joe grabs a mic and, kind of dickishly, IMO, demands that Nigel get in the ring and shake his hand. If Nigel were walking off totally on his own it would be one thing, but he was getting helped to the back by referees and medical staff, which made Joe come off like a bit of a jerk.
Anyway, Joe’s shouting into the mic does get to Nigel, who manages to get back to the ring on his own, but rather than shake Joe’s hand, HE SLAPS HIM IN THE FACE and this thing is back on! We got more hard strikes and Nigel being a fiery babyface, and the match was completely awesome from that point on. They did everything possible to make Nigel look like a star here aside from giving him the win (he had beaten Joe at the last show, Fifth Year Festival: Chicago). They had him kick out at one, he kicked out after Joe’s big lariat, he even kicked out of the f*cking Muscle Buster (might have even been the first time that ever happened… and if not the first, probably no more than the third or so, at least in ROH), before passing out (not tapping) in the Coquina Clutch.
At first I thought that the way Gabe booked Nigel here, having him beat Joe in the US at the last show, but lose to Joe here in his home country was backwards, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized Gabe was a genius. Nigel getting a win over Joe in the UK would be a big deal, but it would be seen by some as Gabe throwing a bone to the British crowd by having their hometown guy beat Joe, which would diminish the win for Nigel a bit (in terms of how it affects his star power). Having Nigel get the win in the US, though, avoids this perception.
Additionally, Nigel has only had one big match in the UK for ROH so far (the six man from Anarchy in the UK doesn’t count), which was a loss in the super high-stakes Title vs. Title unification match at Unified against Bryan Danielson (which is required viewing for all wrestling fans. That match is PERFECT!). The fact that Nigel has never won a big ROH match in the UK (again, beating Chad Collyer doesn’t count) means that the fans are hungry to see him get that big win, and having him lose here keeps that hunger alive and makes his win in the huge blow-off match against Jimmy Rave tomorrow night all the sweeter.
Joe gives a speech hyping up ROH and putting Nigel over, then we cut to the basement where we got about two seconds of Jacobs and Whitmer brawling before the â€"to be continued†graphic. I usually liked the way they used the â€"to be continued†thing for the Fifth Year Festival, but this one, after just two seconds of a brawl, felt kind of goofy.
Overall, an awesome show from ROH. The British crowd was hot all night long and all of the matches delivered, especially the top of the card. Somehow, this was only the second best show ROH but on that weekend, and I think the fact that Fifth Year Festival: Finale was so awesome combined with the hot-shotting of the tag titles causes people to overlook this show. Don’t. This show was awesome and definitely worth going out of your way to buy.
RODERICK STRONG PROMO- Ouch. This is just so horribly Roddy.
JIMMY JACOBS PROMO- an awesome promo that also explains why Lacey isn’t here this weekend (the Colt 45 from Cabana last weekend in Chicago took her out).
DAVEY RICHARDS vs. HOMICIDE- 7.25/10
SARA DEL REY vs. ALLISON DANGER- 4/10
Nice little story with Sara trying to hit the Royal Butterfly but Danger escaping it.
JIMMY JACOBS & JIMMY RAVE vs. COLT CABANA & BJ WHITMER- 6.25/10
Started out as a wild brawl but wound up as a pretty good normal tag team match.
2 OUT OF 3 FALLS: Delirious vs. Matt Sydal- 7.25/10
Started out slow, but once Sydal turned heel, this got great.
SARA DEL REY & ALLISON DANGER PROMO- Danger puts over women’s wrestling and puts Sara and herself over as being the best female wrestlers in the world. They are then approached by Eden Black and Jetta who challenge them to a match tomorrow night.
FIP HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Roderick Strong(c) vs. PAC- 7.5/10
Pac did flippy stuff. Roddy worked over his back. The match was great. Exactly what you would expect. Roddy locks Pac in the Strong Hold after the match because he is a dick, but Delirious comes out to make the save.
JIMMY JACOBS PROMO- Jimmy is very unhappy that he wasn’t able to please Lacey by taking BJ Whitmer out tonight, so he summons a referee and orders the referee to find BJ and tell him to come down to the basement of the arena where Jimmy is so that they can fight. I know this sounds goofy, but Jimmy made it work.
ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Briscoes(c) vs. Naruki Doi & Shingo- 9/10
AMAZING tag team action, and the shock of finish feels tangible, even to someone watching at it at home over six years later. Jay cut a good promo after the match setting up Briscoe vs. Briscoe for tomorrow night.
SAMOA JOE vs. NIGEL MCGUINNESS- 8.5/10
Joe is a big badass monster, but Nigel never backed down, even a little. Joe was Joe, hitting Nigel with his hard strikes while Nigel worked over Joe’s arm until Nigel eats a MUSCLE BUSTER ONTO THE APRON! Nigel is getting carried off backstage, until Joe grabs a mic and, kind of dickishly, IMO, demands that Nigel get in the ring and shake his hand. If Nigel were walking off totally on his own it would be one thing, but he was getting helped to the back by referees and medical staff, which made Joe come off like a bit of a jerk.
Anyway, Joe’s shouting into the mic does get to Nigel, who manages to get back to the ring on his own, but rather than shake Joe’s hand, HE SLAPS HIM IN THE FACE and this thing is back on! We got more hard strikes and Nigel being a fiery babyface, and the match was completely awesome from that point on. They did everything possible to make Nigel look like a star here aside from giving him the win (he had beaten Joe at the last show, Fifth Year Festival: Chicago). They had him kick out at one, he kicked out after Joe’s big lariat, he even kicked out of the f*cking Muscle Buster (might have even been the first time that ever happened… and if not the first, probably no more than the third or so, at least in ROH), before passing out (not tapping) in the Coquina Clutch.
At first I thought that the way Gabe booked Nigel here, having him beat Joe in the US at the last show, but lose to Joe here in his home country was backwards, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized Gabe was a genius. Nigel getting a win over Joe in the UK would be a big deal, but it would be seen by some as Gabe throwing a bone to the British crowd by having their hometown guy beat Joe, which would diminish the win for Nigel a bit (in terms of how it affects his star power). Having Nigel get the win in the US, though, avoids this perception.
Additionally, Nigel has only had one big match in the UK for ROH so far (the six man from Anarchy in the UK doesn’t count), which was a loss in the super high-stakes Title vs. Title unification match at Unified against Bryan Danielson (which is required viewing for all wrestling fans. That match is PERFECT!). The fact that Nigel has never won a big ROH match in the UK (again, beating Chad Collyer doesn’t count) means that the fans are hungry to see him get that big win, and having him lose here keeps that hunger alive and makes his win in the huge blow-off match against Jimmy Rave tomorrow night all the sweeter.
Joe gives a speech hyping up ROH and putting Nigel over, then we cut to the basement where we got about two seconds of Jacobs and Whitmer brawling before the â€"to be continued†graphic. I usually liked the way they used the â€"to be continued†thing for the Fifth Year Festival, but this one, after just two seconds of a brawl, felt kind of goofy.
Overall, an awesome show from ROH. The British crowd was hot all night long and all of the matches delivered, especially the top of the card. Somehow, this was only the second best show ROH but on that weekend, and I think the fact that Fifth Year Festival: Finale was so awesome combined with the hot-shotting of the tag titles causes people to overlook this show. Don’t. This show was awesome and definitely worth going out of your way to buy.