ROH All-Star Extravaganza III
ROH All-Star Extravaganza III (3/30/2007)- Detroit, MI
The DVD starts with a video of Bruno Sammartino signing autographs, then Becky Bayless asking a geographically diverse group of fans where they are each from. We then got a great video package, hyping up the stars of Dragon Gate.
FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL MATCH: Colt Cabana vs. Matt Sydal vs. Adam Pearce (w/Shane Hagaodrn) vs. Chris Hero (w/Larry Sweeney & Tank Toland)- 6/10
A fun match with tons of cool spots from Sydal and antics from the other three that got the crowd into the match. A perfect opener.
ERICK STEVENS vs. â€"SUGARFOOT†ALEX PAYNE- great thirty second squash.
BRISCOES PROMO- barely coherent. Amusingly, both are wearing shirts to promote a wrestling promotion, but neither is an ROH shirt (one is wearing an FIP shirt and the other is wearing an NWA shirt).
DAVEY RICHARDS vs. MASAAKI MOCHIZUKI- 6.75/10
Would have been a 7 if Mochizuki had sold his leg better.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO SEGMENT- Great segment.
Bruno puts ROH over. He says that it is not good that there is only one major wrestling promotion, but when Gabe sent him some ROH DVDs he watched them and thought ROH was awesome and he his very happy that there is another promotion coming along with the potential to be a major wrestling organization. This was funny because it completely inadvertently buries TNA.
Larry Sweeney them came out with Hero and Toland and Sweeney says some heelish things. They make like they are going to attack Bruno, but Nigel makes the save, even holding Sweeney in place so that Bruno can punch him, which got a HUGE pop.
DANIELS PROMO- pretty good. He has his goofy TNA facepaint, which makes him very hard to take seriously.
ANYTHING GOES MATCH: Jimmy Jacobs & Lacey vs. BJ Whitmer & Daizee Haze- 5.5/10
Most of the time this was like two separate matches happening simultaneously, with the men brawling through the crowd and the women fighting in the ring. They had the men on a quarter-screen, and the small size combined with the bad lighting made it very hard to see anything they were doing… which was disappointing, because based on crowd reaction, their stuff seemed a lot more exciting that Lacey and Daizee’s. Jacobs and Whitmer teased the Superbomb into the crowd spot where Jimmy almost died after BJ slipped last year, and got â€"please don’t die†chants out of it. This match is most famous for Jimmy Jacobs spearing Daizee so hard her shoes went flying into the crowd. That should have been the finish. Having Lacey pick Daizee up and DDT her before going for the pin just seemed silly after Jimmy had literally speared Daizee out of her shoes.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Lacey says she is proud of Jimmy, so she gives him a reward… a hug. With a year’s worth of build, this actually felt big. Lacey tells Jimmy that if he puts BJ out in tomorrow night’s cage match, he will get a whole lot more than just a hug. Just as Lacey finished saying this BJ Whitmer got into the ring, swinging a barbed wire-covered baseball bat at them, and Jimmy and Lacey narrowly escaped.
JACK EVANS PROMO- AWESOME!
ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Naruki Doi & Shingo(c) vs. The Briscoe Brothers- 6.5/10
Decently early into this match, Mark Briscoe went for a Shooting Star Press to the outside and didn’t rotate all the way, and as a result, fell right on his head. This was probably the scariest thing I have ever seen in a wrestling match. Todd Sinclair rushed right out of the ring to check on him, and the other referees, Gabe Sapolsky, and some paramedics were out there with Mark within a minute. Thankfully Mark wasn’t hurt too badly (he missed a month with a concussion, but that doesn’t count as being hurt â€"too badly†when it looked like he was going to be paralyzed, at the least). This had the effect of not only taking the crowd out of the match, but it also made the wrestlers have to scrap their whole match and they wound up basically working a singles match between Jay and Shingo, and seeing the tag titles change hands in what felt like a singles match felt weird.
POST-MATCH ANGLE- The Motor City Machine Guns came out of the crowd to a HUGE pop, then challenged the Briscoes to an ROH World Tag Team Title match next month in Chicago. Jay accepts the challenge and Shelley insists on sealing the deal with a handshake… and, of course, they jump Jay right after it. Shelley then cut a great promo.
LARRY SWEENEY PROMO- he interrupts Becky Bayless trying to tell us about Mark Briscoe in the hospital to cut a promo on Nigel. Sweeney is the best heel ever.
PELLE PRIMEAU vs. YAMATO- 4/10
NIGEL MCGUINNESS vs. BRENT ALBRIGHT (w/Larry Sweeney)- 6.5/10
Sweeney says the he has hired Albright to take Nigel out, then calls Nigel out to wrestle Albright. Hero comes out and distracts Nigel, allowing Albright to hit him with a Half-Nelson Suplex for the win.
CHRISTOPHER DANIELS vs. HOMICIDE- 7.5/10
The crowd was super-hot for this. Daniels refuses a handshake in the beginning, jumps Cide from behind, and uses a chair, turning him heel. The announcers didn’t sell the turn, though, which was odd. The match was great. I really wish this had gone even longer than it did.
POST-MATCH ANGLE- Adam Pearce and Shane Hagadorn attack Homicide after the match, then hold him in place for the returning Jim Cornette to whip him (a callback to Death Before Dishonor IV last July), but Cide managed to fight them off with low blows and was about to whip Cornette when Brent Albright came out to make the heel save. Another beatdown on Cide commenced until Colt Cabana, Pelle Primeau, & Delirious came out to make the save.
JACK EVANS vs. RODERICK STRONG- 8.25/10
An awesome match based off of the simple formula of both men doing what they do best. Roddy was at his heel best here, doing vicious, mean things like a Fall Away Slam into a ringpost or picking Jack up on the apron and just dropping him down to the floor. Jack, for his part, was taking a vicious beating and getting in quick, short, hope spots. It really felt like second Roddy locked in the Strong Hold, Jack would have to tap.
TEAM DRAGON GATE: (CIMA, Susumu Yokosuka, Dragon Kid, & Ryo Saito) vs. TEAM ROH (Austin Aries, Rocky Romero, Claudio Castagnoli & Delirious)- 8.5/10
Standard Dragon Gate spottiness, but a fun and exciting match nonetheless. I wouldn’t want to see it every show, but I do enjoy seeing the Dragon Gate guys a few times a year.
JIMMY JACOBS PROMO- One of the best promos of all-time. Maybe even THE BEST promo of all time. Thank G-d this was the last thing on the DVD because after that promo I NEED to go watch Jacobs vs. Whitmer Steel Cage Match.
Overall, a great show from ROH, with the top two matches really delivering, and that Jimmy Jacobs promo was F*CKING AMAZING!
The DVD starts with a video of Bruno Sammartino signing autographs, then Becky Bayless asking a geographically diverse group of fans where they are each from. We then got a great video package, hyping up the stars of Dragon Gate.
FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL MATCH: Colt Cabana vs. Matt Sydal vs. Adam Pearce (w/Shane Hagaodrn) vs. Chris Hero (w/Larry Sweeney & Tank Toland)- 6/10
A fun match with tons of cool spots from Sydal and antics from the other three that got the crowd into the match. A perfect opener.
ERICK STEVENS vs. â€"SUGARFOOT†ALEX PAYNE- great thirty second squash.
BRISCOES PROMO- barely coherent. Amusingly, both are wearing shirts to promote a wrestling promotion, but neither is an ROH shirt (one is wearing an FIP shirt and the other is wearing an NWA shirt).
DAVEY RICHARDS vs. MASAAKI MOCHIZUKI- 6.75/10
Would have been a 7 if Mochizuki had sold his leg better.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO SEGMENT- Great segment.
Bruno puts ROH over. He says that it is not good that there is only one major wrestling promotion, but when Gabe sent him some ROH DVDs he watched them and thought ROH was awesome and he his very happy that there is another promotion coming along with the potential to be a major wrestling organization. This was funny because it completely inadvertently buries TNA.
Larry Sweeney them came out with Hero and Toland and Sweeney says some heelish things. They make like they are going to attack Bruno, but Nigel makes the save, even holding Sweeney in place so that Bruno can punch him, which got a HUGE pop.
DANIELS PROMO- pretty good. He has his goofy TNA facepaint, which makes him very hard to take seriously.
ANYTHING GOES MATCH: Jimmy Jacobs & Lacey vs. BJ Whitmer & Daizee Haze- 5.5/10
Most of the time this was like two separate matches happening simultaneously, with the men brawling through the crowd and the women fighting in the ring. They had the men on a quarter-screen, and the small size combined with the bad lighting made it very hard to see anything they were doing… which was disappointing, because based on crowd reaction, their stuff seemed a lot more exciting that Lacey and Daizee’s. Jacobs and Whitmer teased the Superbomb into the crowd spot where Jimmy almost died after BJ slipped last year, and got â€"please don’t die†chants out of it. This match is most famous for Jimmy Jacobs spearing Daizee so hard her shoes went flying into the crowd. That should have been the finish. Having Lacey pick Daizee up and DDT her before going for the pin just seemed silly after Jimmy had literally speared Daizee out of her shoes.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Lacey says she is proud of Jimmy, so she gives him a reward… a hug. With a year’s worth of build, this actually felt big. Lacey tells Jimmy that if he puts BJ out in tomorrow night’s cage match, he will get a whole lot more than just a hug. Just as Lacey finished saying this BJ Whitmer got into the ring, swinging a barbed wire-covered baseball bat at them, and Jimmy and Lacey narrowly escaped.
JACK EVANS PROMO- AWESOME!
ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Naruki Doi & Shingo(c) vs. The Briscoe Brothers- 6.5/10
Decently early into this match, Mark Briscoe went for a Shooting Star Press to the outside and didn’t rotate all the way, and as a result, fell right on his head. This was probably the scariest thing I have ever seen in a wrestling match. Todd Sinclair rushed right out of the ring to check on him, and the other referees, Gabe Sapolsky, and some paramedics were out there with Mark within a minute. Thankfully Mark wasn’t hurt too badly (he missed a month with a concussion, but that doesn’t count as being hurt â€"too badly†when it looked like he was going to be paralyzed, at the least). This had the effect of not only taking the crowd out of the match, but it also made the wrestlers have to scrap their whole match and they wound up basically working a singles match between Jay and Shingo, and seeing the tag titles change hands in what felt like a singles match felt weird.
POST-MATCH ANGLE- The Motor City Machine Guns came out of the crowd to a HUGE pop, then challenged the Briscoes to an ROH World Tag Team Title match next month in Chicago. Jay accepts the challenge and Shelley insists on sealing the deal with a handshake… and, of course, they jump Jay right after it. Shelley then cut a great promo.
LARRY SWEENEY PROMO- he interrupts Becky Bayless trying to tell us about Mark Briscoe in the hospital to cut a promo on Nigel. Sweeney is the best heel ever.
PELLE PRIMEAU vs. YAMATO- 4/10
NIGEL MCGUINNESS vs. BRENT ALBRIGHT (w/Larry Sweeney)- 6.5/10
Sweeney says the he has hired Albright to take Nigel out, then calls Nigel out to wrestle Albright. Hero comes out and distracts Nigel, allowing Albright to hit him with a Half-Nelson Suplex for the win.
CHRISTOPHER DANIELS vs. HOMICIDE- 7.5/10
The crowd was super-hot for this. Daniels refuses a handshake in the beginning, jumps Cide from behind, and uses a chair, turning him heel. The announcers didn’t sell the turn, though, which was odd. The match was great. I really wish this had gone even longer than it did.
POST-MATCH ANGLE- Adam Pearce and Shane Hagadorn attack Homicide after the match, then hold him in place for the returning Jim Cornette to whip him (a callback to Death Before Dishonor IV last July), but Cide managed to fight them off with low blows and was about to whip Cornette when Brent Albright came out to make the heel save. Another beatdown on Cide commenced until Colt Cabana, Pelle Primeau, & Delirious came out to make the save.
JACK EVANS vs. RODERICK STRONG- 8.25/10
An awesome match based off of the simple formula of both men doing what they do best. Roddy was at his heel best here, doing vicious, mean things like a Fall Away Slam into a ringpost or picking Jack up on the apron and just dropping him down to the floor. Jack, for his part, was taking a vicious beating and getting in quick, short, hope spots. It really felt like second Roddy locked in the Strong Hold, Jack would have to tap.
TEAM DRAGON GATE: (CIMA, Susumu Yokosuka, Dragon Kid, & Ryo Saito) vs. TEAM ROH (Austin Aries, Rocky Romero, Claudio Castagnoli & Delirious)- 8.5/10
Standard Dragon Gate spottiness, but a fun and exciting match nonetheless. I wouldn’t want to see it every show, but I do enjoy seeing the Dragon Gate guys a few times a year.
JIMMY JACOBS PROMO- One of the best promos of all-time. Maybe even THE BEST promo of all time. Thank G-d this was the last thing on the DVD because after that promo I NEED to go watch Jacobs vs. Whitmer Steel Cage Match.
Overall, a great show from ROH, with the top two matches really delivering, and that Jimmy Jacobs promo was F*CKING AMAZING!