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The Cynical DVD View

ROH: Manhattan Mayhem 2

This one, Manhattan Mayhem 2, arrived on colossal wave of hype, being the follow-up to what hardcore ROH fans consider to be one of the greatest shows the promotion has ever produced. The first Manhattan Mayhem was indeed sensational. Top-to-bottom, it just perfectly came together, providing the sort of satisfying viewing experience Jeff Jarrett can only dream about. The Main event was superb, pitting former buddies Austin Aries and Alex Shelley against each other, with Aries’ World Title on the line. One of the finest moments of Aries’ six-month reign on top, this one was an absolute clinic.

Heavy expectations to bear then……

Backstage, The Hangman Three discuss their match, whilst shaving off Shane Hagadorn’s hair. Err, yes. Good work by Pearce here. Though Albright is really wasted in this role.

As of yet, I’m still yet to be convinced by any of these guys, bar Quackenbush, who has quietly become one of the most entertaining workers in the US. However, that said, I found this an extremely appealing opening bout. One thing negative I did notice, is that there’s a lot of somewhat middling average intro music going on in ROH these days, a problem that has surfaced this year with a lot of their newer talent.

Anyhow, this is a great match to kick the show off, delivering exactly what you would expect. A little comedy, some crazy high-spots, and inventive, if sometimes ridiculous exchanges. There’s some really nice little moments, which, not to sound repetitive, largely come from Quack. At one point, Jigsaw goes to finish Matt Cross, who turns it into a sunset bomb, courtesy of a clothesline by Stevens. Awesome spot, that leads to a hot final few minutes of this. The Resilience team defeat the Chikara guys here.

I’m not convinced it was a particularly great idea to have Jimmy Jacobs long-awaited return occur within the confines of a squash match. Regardless, he receives a welcoming reaction from the Manhattan crowd, who are eager to see him back in the mix. This is a decent outing, with Jacobs looking very solid, and adding a few baby face touches to his character, in addition to a new submission finisher, in the form of a guillotine joke. Went longer than I expected, but still a dominant performance, with cool combinations in the place of drama.

-Jack Evans Promo. Not bad, but a little irritating, especially as it re-introduces Julius Smokes, as Evans’ manager, who doesn’t appear on camera, but makes bizarre bird noises.

The Hangman 3 come out first and Pearce cuts a fantastic promo, shooting on a lady in the crowd “with a Repo-Man sign”. Good heat for this., but they’re still an awkward collective. Delirious burst in on his own, attacking them all to kick this off, before his team mates join him. The crowd are really hot, although for me, this is easily the most uninteresting bout on the entire card. The action is fine though, with Delirious on fire in the early going, before he’s treated to a nasty beat-down. Eventually, the faces get the upper hand, and Nigel cleans up, comically taking out the interfering Shane Hagadorn. The best moments of this however, are the brief collisions between Albright and Nigel. The heels pick up the win with BJ giving the adrenalin spike piledriver to Primeau, Good finish, and the right result for this one, with my only issue being maybe that Nigel was somewhat under the radar. Afterwards, in a hot angle, Primeau is utterly annihilated by the heels, who hit him with sick power bombs, and an Albright Exploder. Ouch.

-Ryo Nakata from NOAH, and Cary Silken come to the ring, while the fans chant “NOAH” loudly. Basically, it’s all to announce that Glory By Honor VI will feature Misawa. The crowd go nuts, could have been left off the DVD though.

-Delirious cuts a promo in what looks like a storeroom. It’s very intense, but unintelligible.

Pac comes out first, to a good reaction. I HATE Pac’s music, and it’s something I’ve been moaning about since I first saw him in 1PW. Davey looks a lot sleazier these days with his stubble-covered face. Mind you, Pac also looks extremely unappealing with his straggly hair- he suits it shorter. Ahem.. Anyways, this is far from a great match, but Davey is as watchable as ever, being super-aggressive, and using some old-school heel flashes throughout. Lots of arm work by Davey in the early going too, who has the fans completely all over him. They seem to get carried away with the anti-Davey chants of “Dayy-veee” which the wrestlers seem to misinterpret as boredom. Pac Isn’t over in the slightest though, with the fans only really getting into his ridiculous high-spots, and jeering him otherwise. Richards hits Pac with a huge clothesline that appeared to fold Pac’s neck up like a discarded piece of plasticine. Swell. This match, if I remember correctly, is the one that saw live reports offering conflicting opinions as to whether or not Davey was playing up to Benoit comparisons or chants. There certainly is an audible “Benoit” chant, which isn’t encouraged by Richards in my opinion. So he hit a couple of successive German Suplex variants. Big deal. Anything else about him that resembles Benoit (aside from the appropriately heellish face-fluff), was part of his routine a good while before Benoit’s death. Nevertheless, it’s completely disgusting to hear a bunch of fans behave like such asses. Davey applies a nice Kimura that turn into an awesome pinning combination from Pac. Eventually Davey does finish him with the Kimura following a leaping Tombstone.

I really get the impression Pac could be really good if he focused more, and offered more to liking him than a string of dives and crazy moves. He botches a fair few moves here, which could probably be easily remedied if he didn’t bloody rely on so many of them. Additionally, it often appears he’s hitting big spots for the sake of it, with them making him indistinguishable from dozens of guys. It’s a pity, because much of what he does do, looks excellent. Pretty good match, despite a bunch of mistakes, and the least hilarious smark chants I’ve witnessed since a 1PW show.

Jack cuts a promo in the ring introducing Smokes as his manager.. Good stuff, but it completely defeats the point of having that earlier, crappy backstage promo. Smokes gets a loud reaction- it’s a good pairing this. During the intros, they show some nice clips of Generation Next moments that nicely underscores the fat that Aries, Strong, and Evans used to be buddies. Aries is easily the most over out-and-out baby face of the year for ROH.

Seeing these three are vicious rivals (ok, well more so Strong with each guy…) , they thankfully start out hot, with Strong being the most aggressive. The other two team up a little before the inevitable. This is all really fast-paced stuff, with these guys all on form. After some good action, there’s a referee bump, that prevents Evans from getting the pinfall. The crowd boo, not so much for Evans lack of victory, but more so because they know the finish isn’t going to be clean. Aries gets dumped through a table as he goes up for a 450 splash, and the No Remorse Corps begin the beat down on Evans. Meanwhile, Smokes gets on the mic and yells “Vulture Squad, Transform”, which brings in the debuting Ruckus! Ruckus hit’s a few moves, popping the crowd, and driving the NRC away. After, the “Vulture Squad” beat down Aries, who is saved by the Resilience, who along with the new faction, take each other out. Strong sneaks back into the ring, trying to finish Aries, but Stevens helps him out with a chair shot., and the referee recovers just in time for Aries to get the pin!

Well it was a decent match, overshadowed by the shenanigans, which were certainly a necessary development. Evans finally has a faction, and it’s a good fit for all concerned, making for a really exciting angle here. I’m not convinced by the way things turned out however, because the Vulture Squad looked like mugs for losing just after they banded together.

-Backstage, Becky Bayless interviews Jimmy Jacobs, who cuts a baby face promo that hints at something to come.

-The Resilience are backstage, hanging out in another storeroom. What’s with these guys in ROH? Don’t they shower? Aries talks about upping the ante and all that, in a good promo, that features an unintentionally comedic moment, when Aries asks Stevens what he did with the chair, Stevens responds with “I hit him with it!” like a twelve year old. Awesome.

Edwards now sports British Bulldog style dreads. No seriously, he does. Ruckus, apparently, has a match already in ROH. I have to admit, I’m not a Ruckus fan, because while he can do some impressive Lucha-inspired manoeuvres, his character is someone I can neither empathize with, or approve as a baby face. Additionally, what I’ve seen of him in CZW has generally involved pieced-together spot-fests, . that just don’t add up to much and a litany of horrible variations on the stomp, that have plagued Indy wrestling for years now. As usual, Edwards does well, but just doesn’t stand out. This is a decent encounter though, that at least has a structure, and gives the crowd reason to rally behind the newcomer for his eventual comeback, and flipping/corkscrew/press/thing finisher.. Jack and Ruckus would actually make a good team to challenge for the tag belts, as I can’t see them both fitting much in the tag ranks, and the stable feud can’t last forever.

Hero enters with Sweeny, Sarah Del Rey, and Dempsey. Claudio comes in fired up, to a big reaction, scaring off Sweeney. This is what you would expect. The usual stuff from Hero, who stalls, postures, and generally acts completely anally, with Claudio pulverising him when he has the opportunity. Lots of Sweeney/Death Rey interference at the beginning, brings out Daizee Haze. The NY fans are into this throughout, and rightly so, there’s some very fine wrestling going on. It’s blatantly obvious how well these guy know each other, as they’re completely in synch with one another. After a nice few final minutes, Claudio gets the victory with the Riccolo bomb. Very good, entertaining clash, if somewhat predictable, and unsurprising. The finish sequence, in particular, while good, lacked that epic quality that one often expects from former partners. Following the bout, Hero had to be helped to his feet by Sweet ‘N’ Sour Inc, but he collapsed on top of Dempsey, who got a huge pop from the crowd, but a couple of vicious slaps from Hero. Dempsey’s eventual face turn will be completely amazing.

-Claudio backstage cut one of his better promos, for all intents declaring the rivalry over.

Absolutely spectacular match-up. This one would be good enough to redeem an average show, but on a set this good, it is even more satisfying. Danielson is out first (paying attention WWE? The Champion enters LAST!), and immediately carries with him that legitimate feeling of anything could happen. This feels like an important title match, one where they belt could definitely change hands. The crowd are electric. Danielson starts out timidly, trying to stop the advancing champion with kicks and sharp, brief attacks, in a very believable, MMA style. It’s all very realistic, and exciting, because you really feel that if Morishima gets his hands on him, he will kill the poor guy. When they do get in tight, the action is brutally realistic and at times, frighteningly stiff, with a few exchanges that see either guy lose control with wild, hectic strikes, that tap into that atmosphere one usually only gets with legit shooting. At one point during this, Dragon’s eye is somehow injured, and he looks in extreme pain. Morishima nonetheless tosses him to the outside, and dumps him the chair, giving him a big boot. Dragon cuts him off in a follow up attempt, and then hit’s the springboard cross body over the guard rail, which looks crazily sicker than usual, thanks to Dragon’s expression resembling that of an extra in Hostel. Back in the ring, they move into some amazing sequences, with Dragon continuing to target the leg of the Champion, who continually fights back with strikes. What’s great is that by working the leg, Danielson is clearly hindering Morishima in his attempts to hit his trademark moves, but Morishima has so much in him that even after all the innovation and intelligence, Dragon still finds him near impossible to put down. It doesn’t let up at all, with Danielson absorbing continual punishment to the eye and face (Dragon’s eye was legitimately injured).

The match also sports the commentary line of the year, “He has such a tight small package!”. That had to be intentional, it just had to be!

The final few minutes of this are simply astonishing, as Dragon’s hard work pays off, and Morishima’s defenses finally falter, allowing Dragon to hit his big spots, but even these can’t get the job done! Thus, Dragon is forced to improvise further still, whilst the New Yorkers are completely in the palm of his hand.

I’ve said enough. Just watch this, it’s incredible. After the match, Dragon is treated to a standing ovation from the fans.

-Larry Sweeney cuts a promo backstage warning Claudio. Too short to be much, but it’s delivered exceptionally, as is all of Sweeney’s stick work.

My first thought on this, was that it should have went on before the world title match. It’s great that Gabe Sapolsky values tag wrestling as much as he does, but surely Danielson’s challenge for the ROH World title would have been amongst the most hotly anticipated of Morishima’s reign, whereas this was, while yes, a mouth-watering clash, not quite on the same level. Still, eh?

This is a hot brawl to start off with, picking up where the rest of their feud had left off. Something I noticed about Steen, which is probably part of the reason he’s so likeable, even as an utter prick of a heel, is the fact that he comes across so comically inventive, and in-tune, that you imagine in person, he’s completely hilarious (I met him once, and was nice, but thanks to the differences in French-Canadian, and Northern Irish, had no idea what I was saying to him). Once proceedings in the ring settle down, we’re treated to some really crisp fundamentals, fused with the usual Briscoe double-team, and completely modern high-spots. Of course, anytime Steen is in the ring, the action is unpredictable, and incredibly stiff-looking, and yes, awesome. There’s a great spot in particular, where he spine busters Jay across the back of Mark, whose expression is unbelievably cool. The Briscoes take the first fall of course, which heightens expectations further, because the drama now hinges on whether or not they’ll retain their domination, two-straight-falls record. If they were going to lose that stat, it would have weakened the bout to have them lose the first fall. Anyways, it’s rather redundant in any case, as they go on to win the second, following some more superior action, including a few extremely dangerous moments. This second fall is arguably even better for the first, with more inventive twists, and crazy near falls. If your friends don’t appreciate Ring of Honor, this certainly one to shut them up with. I got the impression as well that the fans in attendance completely expected this to go to three falls, with the Briscoe maybe not losing the titles, but losing the straight falls history. Afterwards, Steen exhibits hostility towards Generico for shaking the Briscoes’ hands, refusing to do so himself, then attacking the champions with a ladder. We all know where that leads to….

Another exceptional match-up. It’s a testament to these guys and their ability that they continually manage to top each other. Seriously, this somehow followed a cage match, a street fight, and countless other episodes, whilst still living up to expectations.

In case you haven’t figured by now, I’m gonna shove this down everyone’s throats and tell you to buy it. It’s a GREAT show, in fact, It’s one of the top 5 ROH have produced this year. The top two matches are worth buying this for alone, both being genuine Match of the Year Candidates. Otherwise, there’s much to like. The opener is a fine start, the three-way has much to like, and Chris Hero’s bout is very satisfying. Pac’s appearance may be inconsistent, but Davey’s performance in that one is textbook contemporary villain work. If anything, the only clash that isn’t worth watching, is Ruckus/Edwards, but seeing as it’s Ruckus’s debut, the importance of the match somewhat gives way to the angle. Factor in the formation of the Vulture Squad, and the return of one of ROH’s most fascinating characters, Jimmy Jacobs, and you have an outstanding result.

Thanks for taking the time to read this wacky review/rant/gibberish. I would hope it had at least as much depth as a Repo Man match. If you have any comments, I welcome and encourage all feedback. please get in touch at bazilalfonso@hotmail.com Until bell-time, thanks again.