ROH DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR II - PART 2

 

ROH DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR II - PART 2 07/24/04


Chad Collyer vs. Rocky Romero
An absolutely awesome opener here. Lots of nice technical work in the early going, but what I truly enjoyed the most about this was Rocky Romero & his amazing KICKS. Watching him the tar out of Collyer here, and in particular target that arm of his was simply lovely. ***

Jack Evans & Roderick Strong vs. John Walters & Matt Stryker
Solid paint-by-the-numbers tag stuff. Nothing particularly stood out, but this was good action from bell to bell. **3/4

Austin Aries vs. Doug Williams
Early on Aries outsmarts the champ & the ref by hitting Williams with closed fists behind the refs back, to which Williams answers back with some punches of his own under the refs eyes, which results in him losing one of his three rope breaks. I thought that was such an extremely fun, great new twist worked into the Pure rules. It brought some rarely-seen intensity in Doug's work later on too, as when he gained the control back after the little brawl on the outside, he was fully set on making Aries use all of his rope breaks by viciously stretching him in those submissions. That all lead to the great finish where he locked in the armbar for the win on the ropes, as Aries had indeed used all of those rope breaks. This was so much fun! Beautiful, strategic wrestling. Pretty much exactly what I love about the Pure Division. ***1/2

Low Ki vs. Mark Briscoe
Low Ki's first one-on-one match in ROH in almost a year. I thought this was a very good match. It did a great job further establishing Ki's new character in the company going forward; he dominated most of the match, just kicking Mark's ass all the way through with some dirty tactics & The Rottweilers shenanigans thrown in there. Mark got just enough offense of his own in too, so he didn't look like a scrub or anything close to that - this was just a match he was never going to win with Low Ki riding a wave of momentum with his stablemates. "Ain't no cops here tonight, kill him!" - Julius Smokes for president. ***1/2

Homicide vs. Jay Briscoe
Comparing this to Ki vs. Mark, this just couldn't compare. It had a nice, intense start, but after that it became kind of a generic workrate-match of sorts. Just not an interesting match in the slightest, sadly. *3/4

Colt Cabana vs. Samoa Joe
Nice little underdog story with Joe bullying Cabana for most of the match, but Cabana starts getting some nice comeback chains later on in the match, which lead to some nice sequences. Good match. ***

Ace Steel & CM Punk vs. BJ Whitmer & Dan Maff
There's PLENTY of brutality in this featuring lots of blood, chairs, ladders, tables, barbed wire. It's a good street fight indeed & lives up to the expectations of the gimmick, but it does also go on a bit too long & doesn't flow as magically as something like Homicide vs. Steve Corino, as that would be a pretty suitable comparison given the nature of the bout. The crowd throwing their chairs in the ring is still a helluva scene, and so is the wrestlers trying to fight it out in the ring afterwards in the sea of those said chairs. It's a good match with some memorable moments. ***1/4