ROH Caged Rage 24th August 2007
Hallowicked vs. Chris Hero = Grade: D, Weak.
Jimmy Jacobs vs. Rhett Titus = Grade: D, Weak.
Adam Pearce vs. Delirious vs. BJ Whitmer vs. Nigel McGuinness = Grade: C, Passable.
Austin Aries, Erick Stevens & Matt Cross vs. Davey Richards, Jason Blade & Eddie Edwards = Grade: B, Fun.
PAC vs. Bryan Danielson = Grade: C, Passable.
Takeshi Morishima vs. Claudio Castagnoli vs. Brent Albright (3-Way Elimination ROH World Title Match) = Grade: B, Fun.
Roderick Strong vs. Jack Evans (Steel Cage Match) = Grade: C, Passable.
Jay & Mark Briscoe vs. Kevin Steen & El Generico (Steel Cage ROH Tag Title Match) = Grade: B, Fun.
Review: Going through my DVD collection I stumbled across this and I dont remember anything beyond PAC vs. Danielson on the card, truth to be told it seems ok especially with two cage matches so lets give it a watch and see what surprises lay in store.
We begin with Hero vs. Hallowicked and its a very tame affair with Hero being a bit of a dick with his shenanigans and beating down Hallowicked in an uneventful manner while Hallowicked manages to get in a few flash pin attempts. It wasnt really to my taste but I feel it was more about letting the heel be the heel rather than being a full on competitive match. The following contest is welcomed with a Youre a homo chant, classy crowd right here, classy. They continue to chant it throughout the match too, sigh. As far as the match is concerned I enjoyed the pace as it let them make each interaction more meaningful though overall it was just a return exhibition for Jimmy Jacobs.
Four corner survival now and it doesnt take long for it to break down with everyone hitting everything they have on each other though it turns into a Nigel McGuinness showcase, which the crowd totally lap up. It was quite energetic and didnt outstay its welcome and for what they were trying to accomplish it totally worked. We see the formation of a new stable as Pearce, Albright and Whitmer beat down Delirious with a staple gun, stapling his mask to his face. Awesome.
Next up is the 6 man tag match and its announced that if any member of the Resilience (Aries, Cross & Stevens) is pinned, whoever pinned them replaces them in the faction. Davey jumps Pelle Primeau and removes him from the contest and puts himself in it which instantly makes it a 1000 times more interesting though keep in mind this is pre American Wolves also seeing Eddie Edwards with dreads is still nightmare fuel. There were moments of genuine greatness here with how they set up the dives, the energetic interactions, how determined they were all were to prove a point and how the Resilience were the heels whilst beating up just Davey Richards due to the history against the No Remorse Corps yet then acting like faces whilst against the others making for an interesting take on the old formula. Ironically Jason Blade and Eddie Edwards made for pretty good team and the whole match just worked so well. Big moves, great structure, plenty of momentum to make them count and everyone came out looking excellent.
Ah, PAC. He was on a few of the ROH UK shows but this was first time in ROH on American soil and by his own admission nerves got to him as he was booked in quite high profile matches. He effectively buried himself the following night in his match against Davey Richards, which was edited quite fiercely on that DVD and he never made an ROH appearance again, which is shocking considering how exciting PAC is to watch live and how well he did for himself in other indy promotions. Regardless lets take this encounter on its own merits and basically Danielson stretched him greatly and stifled every chance of an early comeback, then the momentum gathered as PAC began his short offensive flurry, such as a Shooting Star Press to a standing Danielson which was then suddenly cut off and it was over. As a match it relied too greatly on the crowd caring about PAC to get heat for the sudden array of moves which they did not as they were actually booing him and if you look how the match was structured he was fucked from the get go and not given a chance as it wasnt about being a competitive showcase. ROH buried him from the start, no wonder PAC was so down on himself about his time in ROH its not as if he was given a fighting chance of proving his worth.
World Title time and as single matches from these wrestlers in the past weve seen some of the best titles matches of Morishimas title reign as of this point in time. 3 way matches in ROH have always been a little scrappy in nature but all three played off the previous encounters quite well as the same big powerhouse moments such as the big swing and giant half nelson suplexes worked again as did the heavy strikes but it obviously never reached the same heights though the crowd were very much into the eliminations. It was a nice little bookend though to both Claudio and Albright facing against Morishima and their title hunts against him.
Cage match number 1 of the card and cage matches are quite hard to do well especially as this fight is not about stopping the heel from running away or trying to get over an angle based on stopping victors being decided on countouts or even a blood feud, there is no solid story line going into this battle which means there is very little drama. Jack Evans having a higher platform to do dives from though may be justification enough, though just barely. Roderick Strong took it upon himself to launch Jack into the cage as much as he could and even Jack mixed it upon by returning the favour a few times followed by a decent spot off the cage and it just ended. What!? Really that is all you are gonna do with the cage? I do feel they could have had just a more entertaining match without the cage and the sudden nature of that finish was lame.
Main event is up finally and within seconds it is already much more engaging than the first cage match. There is a rivalry and titles on the line so the interactions matter and they actually go the blood and wild brawling route around the cage before getting in it, even Steen jumps off it to the outside. Awesome. The previous cage match has been fully negated in every single aspect. Once they get back into the caged ring some of the steam dissipates though they try and keep the interest alive by taking turns in hitting each other with double teams and using the cage against their opponents. As the match can only be decided by pinfall or submission Steen does something extremely cool in putting Jay outside of the cage and have Generico guard door while they beat the shit our of Mark, making the following near falls have more impact as theyve put a bit of a psychology behind them rather than just hitting big moves and hoping the crowd care, they make the crowd care.
This show worked and never had any bad points that dragged it down severely, there were certainly some underwhelming matches and I did expect a little bit more out of the Strong vs. Evans cage match but as a whole it entertained. I could see why it was forgettable in the grand scheme of shows but if you treat it as a standalone show it did its job well but obviously there are better all round shows available. My favourite match of the show goes to the 6 man tag with the main event being a close second.
