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ROH WRESTLING DVD REVIEWS

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*** Official OWW.com ROH DVD Reviews by Brad Dykens ***
October 7, 2006 - MOTOR CITY MADNESS - Detroit, Michigan

The Ring of Honor crew pulled into Detroit for another big event called Motor City Madness. The DVD started with a quick promo by Samoa Joe talking about the Briscoe Brothers. Joe has an extremely unique promo style but do they always have to go a close-up on Joe's face? Homicide also cut a quick promo about Jim Cornette - leading us towards tonight's scheduled main event!

The event started on an agonizing note (or a hilarious note depending on how you look at it). Delirious came out first and then the crowd took a bowel movement when his opponent, the one-legged Zach Gowen, was introduced. Gowen was playing the over-the-top heel to counter the fans disapproval of his presence. Gowen was going full-steam obviously trying to earn a spot on the ROH roster that no doubt will never happen. God love him for following his dream of becoming a professional wrestler but the novelty wore off a long time ago. Delirious won convincingly by submission ( 4 / 10 ).

Commissioner Jim Cornette came to the ring with a smile on his face but was met with a fan yelling "Homicide is going to kill you!" and Cornette promptly shut him up with a spicy comeback. Jim Cornette started out saying good things about Detroit and said ROH would return to the city on WrestleMania weekend next year. Cornette said everybody can go see WWE but plan to come to Detroit early so they can see "WRESTLING" in Ring of Honor. Cornette said Roderick Strong suffered a back injury the previous night and couldn't compete tonight, bringing Strong out to the ring and said he came to Detroit to wrestle. Cornette refused as Strong got aggressive. Homicide came out and chased Cornette backstage. Nothing ventured nothing gained.

Next up was a tag team match featuring four of SHIMMER's most talented and beautiful athletes where the partners were "chosen at random." Daizee Haze and MsChif, who look surprisingly good together, took on the team of Lacey and Allison Danger. Lacey was wearing her ROH-fan repellant and was really heeling it up, while Allison Danger kept her distance. Even before the match, it was clear that there was going to be some problems between Lacey and Allison. I was happy to see Winnipeg native Allison Danger wearing some Canadian flare on her ring gear. MsChif spewed her green mist, but Lacey pulled Allison Danger into its path so Danger took the deadly mist in the eyes. Daizee Haze finished Danger off to win the match ( 7 / 10 ). All four of these girls are very unique, which is a trademark of most SHIMMER regulars. If you can get your hands on some SHIMMER DVDs you'll be blown away.

Davey Richards vs. Claudio Castagnoli wouldn't be on the top of my list for potential match of the night candidates, but I have to say they did a decent job of putting on a good match. They went back and forth for several minutes before Chris Hero showed up and stuck his nose in the match and helped his Kings of Wrestling partner secure the victory over Davey Richards ( 6.5 / 10 ).

Lacey escorted her dysfunctional tag team Colt Cabana and Jimmy Jacobs to the ring as the cult favorite "Match of the Year" song played over the sound system. I have affectionately dubbed this trio the "Soap Opera Express," because it's the first time ROH has ever incorporated blatant Hollywood-style storylines into their program. I enjoy watching it progress but I still maintain the fact that it makes me feel kind of queasy to see Lacey and Cabana treat a genuine nice guy like Jacobs like absolute crap and get cheered for it. Anyway, the Soap Opera Express were taking on the on-the-rise tag team of Christopher Daniels and Matt Sydal, without Allison Danger by their side. Jimmy Jacobs was trying to blow a kiss at Lacey, but Colt Cabana would intercept the kiss and throw it to the side. Jacobs would foolishly dive to the side to rescue the invisible kiss and blow it back in Lacey's direction - only to have Cabana deflect the kiss once again. Absolutely ridiculous stuff, but highly entertaining. The punch-line of the match was that Colt Cabana got crotched on the top rope by a Jimmy Jacobs miscue. Lacey was showing extreme concern for Cabana's lower extremities while Jacobs fell victim to the Angel's Wings from Christopher Daniels in the ring ( 7 / 10 ). After the match, B.J. Whitmer attacked Jimmy Jacobs and they had to be physically separated by everyone else. Whitmer warned Jacobs that their issue was not over and said he hoped Jacobs had eyes in the back of his head.

When order was restored, Christopher Daniels and Matt Sydal challenged the King's of Wrestling to defend the ROH World Tag Team titles against them. Chris Hero appeared and refused to put up the championships but did agree to a singles match with Matt Sydal. Christopher Daniels stayed ringside to support his partner, but Claudio Castagnoli was very conspicuous by his absence. Double C did eventually showed up, but Christopher Daniels immediately prevented him from interfering, which directly led to Matt Sydal scoring the victory over Chris Hero to earn a shot at the ROH World Tag Team championship ( 7.5 / 10 )! Great night for Sydal who wrestled twice in a row and was victorious both matches!

Jim Cornette made his second appearance of the night and said a nine year old boy just asked him why he ran away from Homicide. Cornette said that got him thinking and asked himself why he has been running from Homicide. Cornette said he was sick of "HOMOcide" and challenged him to come out to the ring to fight him NOW because he's "fed up, and I can't take no more!" --- Homicide came out and was ready to "kick some ass" and actually set up Cornette for the Cop-killa but the Briscoes ran down to save Cornette from getting his neck broken. The Briscoes beat down Homicide and Jim Cornette spit in his face! Samoa Joe ran out to save Homicide and send the Briscoes and Cornette running backstage. Homicide suggested he and Samoa Joe kick the Briscoes asses here tonight! Joe whole-heartedly agreed and made it a Street Fight!

During intermission, Dave Prazak interviewed Survival of the Fittest winner Delirious. If you've never seen a Delirious interview then you are really missing something special. You owe it to yourself to find out how damn good Delirious is on the stick.

The Six Man Mayhem match ended with the underdog Pelle Primeau shocking the World with a victory over Jimmy Rave, David Crist, Jake Crist, the debuting Matt Cross, Shane Hagadorn ( 5 / 10 ). The great Jimmy Rave (who Pelle pinned) should have squashed everybody in five seconds. Pelle celebrated by hugging the referee and crowd surfing - it was really quite touching.

Back in 2004, the rivalry between American Dragon Bryan Danielson and a rising star by the name of Austin Aries literally put Aries on the map and catapulted him to the ROH championship. Aries went on to end Samoa Joe's near two year reign as champion, with a memorable flurry of offense that is etched in the minds of all who watched it. It was once again Austin Aries' chance to dethrown a dominant ROH champion. The match went back and forth for nearly thirty minutes, before Aries started a flurry of offense that was eerily similar to what he used to beat Joe two years before. However, American Dragon proved his superiority by putting a stop to the momentum and scoring a surprising pinfall via the dreaded small package ( 8 / 10 ). Mr. Small Package strikes again!

After the match, Samoa Joe hit the ring and started fighting with American Dagon. The Briscoe Brothers hit the ring and attacked Samoa Joe while Dragon retreated. Enter the "Notorious 187" Homicide!

The fans had literally no time to recover from the ROH title match when suddenly there was an all-out Street Fight unfolding before their very eyes. The Briscoe Brothers were taking on Homicide and Samoa Joe in an Anything Goes Falls Count Anywhere Motor City Street Fight! The action spilled out of the ring and got crazy when they started literally throwing folding chairs at each other, doing their best to carelessly put the fans health and safety at risk. Samoa Joe found a steel ladder, a rare weapon that is almost never used in ROH competition. The four brawlers ended up outside of the building where the level of craziness was multiplied. One of the Briscoes did a running backflip off of a brick wall to avoid Samoa Joe. They fought near a transport truck and one of the Briscoes disappeared - I sensed he was going to do something totally insane and before I could dream something up here came Mark Briscoe flying up-side-down doing a shooting star press off the truck onto Samoa Joe and a bunch of ROH security/students. Joe clutched his knee and screamed out in pain and was helped back into the building, leaving Homicide to deal with the Briscoes by himself. They made their way back into the building and eventually found the ring again as the fans filed back inside the building. The two-on-one beat-down continued until the Briscoes put Homicide out of his misery with a Spike Jay-driller to win one hell of a fight ( 9 / 10 )!

The DVD came to a close with Jimmy Rave walking out of the building after throwing his Embassy ring gear in the trash!

Final Thoughts: Great outing for everyone at ROH. I was really disappointed with Jimmy Rave being jobbed out so badly but I was glad to see that it is going to lead to something better for him because he's one of the best all-around guys in the company.

If you would like to purchase this or any other ROH DVD, please check out ROHwrestling.com ---- if you need some convincing, you can check out streaming video of various ROH matches for free at www.ROHVideos.com



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