ROH Death Before Dishonor IX

Tommaso Ciampa/Rhino vs Homicide/Jay Lethal

This was just there. Totally unexciting opening match. Lethal looked good whenever he was in, hitting all of his stuff pretty crisply, but that is all there is to say. Ciampa pretty much sucks, and Rhino and 'Cide did nothing.

Shelton Benjamin vs Mike Bennett

I 100% legit fell asleep during this match watching it live. Granted, it was around 1AM UK time, and I was tired, but still. Watching it the next day, I got drowsy all over again. Totally boring and uninteresting match. Bennet kinda worked Benjamin's back with lots of tedius restholds, and there was some crap with Brutal Bob interfering, and that was that.

The Young Bucks vs FutureShock vs The Bravado Bros (Elimination Match)

This was OK for your undercard spotfest. There was some good spots including a sweet dive train, FutureShock hitting a Doomsday Device/Suicide dive combo, and one of the Bravados getting suplexed off the apron to the floor, but it never really hit that level of "holy shit this is crazy". The Bravados were heeling bigtime, and while I appreciate the effort it really did nothing but slow the match down. Once they were eliminated it picked up a lot, but was still not great or anything. This should have been the opener.

El Generico vs Jimmy Jacobs

This was the first half a really good match, interupted by the big Steen angle. It started with Jacbs being tentative and Generico aggressively trying to light a fire under him, and I was enjoying it all well and good. Jacobs hit a dive, a Spear on the apron, and then a big DDT off the top. At this point Steen comes out from the crowd to call Steve Corino a pussy before getting his mic cut-off. Security comes out to escort him before Jabobs decides this is too civil and dives on Steen to start a brawl. And it was awesome. Then Generico hits a big dive, only for Steen to dodge it (leaving Generico to whipe out security) and start cleaning house in the ring. Cary Silkin stepped in the ring and they teased Steen hitting Package Piledriver on him, which would have really been taking one for the team, but it was all broken up. Cornette managed to pop Steen in the face during all of the crazy, and Steen was escorted out while Generico and Jacobs still try to get at him. I am not sure what to make of the angle, as the ROH fanbase WANTS Steen to fuck up the place, which kind of kills it, but the whole thing came of feeling chaotic and REAL, and it made me want to see Steen vs everyone involved, so it did it's job.

Charlie Haas vs Michael Elgin

I like both of these guys more than most people seem to, but even I thought this was pretty underwhelming. They tried to play this off as a power vs power match, but how strong is Haas really? Elgin might be stocky, but he's not really that big, and I am not wowed by Haas being able to suplex him. The brief moments where they fought on the floor were good, but everything in the ring was pretty dry. Haas won with a lariat, which came off really flat as A) it isn't an established finisher in 2011 ROH and B) it didn't look like a match-ending move.

Roderick Strong vs Eddie Edwards (Ring Master's Challenge)

I debated wether to bother watching this or not, as I knew there would be no way this could be good. I started watching it for five minutes then realized it went atleast 45 minutes and said "fuck it". No thank you.

The Briscoe Brothers vs The All Night Express (Ladder War)

This iPPV was a one match show, and this was the one match. This wasn't the best match in the feud, and it wasn't as good as the Briscoes/Steenerco ladder match, but it was still very good. It kind of lacked the sense of wrecklessness and "shit is out-of-control" from their earlier matches, instead it was much more deliberate in it's violence. All four guys were killing each other with chairs, ladders and bits of broken tables. Titus and Jay were both completely drenched in their own blood, which was sick, and big bumps were taken by all. Mark did the Terry Funk helicopter spot, and then a pretty crazy splash off the big ladder through a table. King not bleeding kinda sucked, and I would have prefered a couple more big holy shit spots before the finish, but still a good blow-off to one of the best feuds of the year.