El Generico vs Homicide vs Mark Briscoe vs Kenny King
Pretty average match. No real story or direction to anything (outside of Homicide being against everyone) and the action was your standard everyday stuff. Generico was the best guy in the match simply by not sucking.
Christopher Daniels vs Claudio Castagnoli
This was far from a flawless match but I was still surprsed at how good this actually was. For one thing they did a good job of playing the big vs small psycology with spots like your classic "small guy cant powerslam big guy" spot and Daniels struggling to take Claudio down on a sunset flip only for Claudio to easily pick him up and toss him around the ring. Daniels worked over Claudio's arm for a large part of the match, and while it wasn't brought into play later, it was a smart way of letting him take over after establishing the size difference, and he had some pretty neat holds in his arsenal. The highlight was a great spot in the middle where Daniels hits a big rana on Claudio over the apron where Claudio takes a big bump to the outside. Thats then followed by Claudio catching him on a dive and swinging him headfirst into the gaurd rails. There was some stupid bullshit with Mike Bennett but otherwise the end run was pretty good and had some cool counters, my favourite being the springboard uppercut into the Koji Clutch. Daniel kind of whiffs a moonsault, but in the process he lands on Claudio's head so I'm not complaining. This was far from great but still the first Daniels match I've dug since 2006 and that alone seems worthy of recommendation.
Chris Hero vs Davey Richards
Didn't totally hate this as there was some good stuff, but I can' say I liked it either. I thought Hero was really good for the most part - he sold the armwork really well in subtle ways (not being able to lock in holds with it, etc), and his shit-talking was great. Both guys really beat the shit out of each other, Hero with some great chops and violent stomps to the head and Davey is not afraid to throw some really stuff kicks and body-punches. That said, there are tonne of matches with Hero talking shit and guys stiffing each other that have much more good content. My main problem with this was that for such a long match, neither man was ever in danger of losing until the very very end, which made the body of it really dull and lacking in any drama. Davey is a badass strong style warrior, constantly fighting back against his opponent, which is alright for some but to me that is him not selling and killing any heat or sense of peril for the match. How can I buy into you getting your ass kicked when you can pop up and hit a top rope suplex out of the blue at any point? Or when you come back with a shot for every one your opponent gets in on you? Combine that with his absurd mannerisms and the way he insists on getting all his trademark spots into EVERY match... Ugh. And the concussion angle was never brought into play once!
Roderick Strong vs Jay Briscoe
Much like the TV title match this was actually shockingly good. It started out above average with both guys trading blows and stiffing each other but this went to another level once Jay started bleeding following getting his head violently rammed into the rail. What a fucking sick bladejob that was. I am far from a Strong fan, but he has never been afraid to work stiff and he throws some brutal shots in this, and moves like the piledriver and guilletine choke were twice as dramatic because of the bladejob. The Jay Driller through the table was a great "holy shit" spot and actually made Jay look like a viable winner, and Jay's shit-talking and nearfalls kept the finishing run dramatic despite it going longer than it should have. Best ROH title match I've seen in a couple of years.
Best Of 2011
No comments:
Post a Comment