THE TWO SHEDS REVIEW by Julian Radbourne – now in it’s 10th year!
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With Desmond Wolfe and Daniel Bryan now plying their trade in TNA and WWE respectively, we’re going to take a look at one of their final appearances for Ring of Honor, with The Final Countdown tour hit Boston on September 25th last year, a show which saw Nigel McGuinness face Roderick Strong and Bryan Danielson face Davey Richards.
The show began with Up in Smoke, Cheech and Cloudy, taking on the Young Bucks, Matt and Nick Jackson. For some reason the Jacksons reminded me of the Hardys way back at the beginning of their WWE careers. It was the usual ROH style opener, plenty of fast paced action with both teams putting on tremendous performances. The Bucks’ teamwork was absolutely stunning, and they came out on top, getting the pin on Cheech with a 450 splash/moonsault combo. Great little match here.
Then it was on to singles action, as Sonjay Dutt faced the masked man Delirious, who had Daizee Haze in his corner. This one took a while to get going, with lots of stalling and a few comedic moments before the action got really started, and when it did get started the action was smooth and crisp, as these two proved to be good foils for each other, with plenty of near falls in the final few moments before Delirious got the win with a roll-up. Dutt wasn’t too happy with the result, attacking Delirious before planting the lip lock on Daizee. The young Miss Haze was none too pleased as she slapped Dutt, only for Dutt to push her down to the ground, where he applied the camel clutch. Delirious made the save seconds later. Well I suppose you can say that Dutt is over So Cal Val now!
Four way action followed, with Claudio Castagnoli, Petey Williams, Chris Hero and El Generico. Tons of fast paced action here. Williams looked great, and his early exchanges with Generico made for great viewing. Hero and Castagnoli temporarily renewed their old partnership, until the inevitable falling out over pin attempts. Plenty of near falls towards the end, with Castagnoli getting the win, pinning Williams after a power bomb. Nice stuff, really impressive.
After a brief appearance by Bret “Hitman” Hart, old rivals collided as Kevin Steen took on Eddie Edwards in an anything goes match, which began when Steen attacked Edwards backstage after completing his promo. From there we got a brawl through the crowd and all around the ringside area, as well as plenty of chair shots, before Steen eventually took Edwards down after taking him out with a package pile driver through some chairs, getting the winning pin afterwards, and ending a very entertaining and hard fought encounter.
Then it was back to tag team action as the Dark City Fight Club team of Jon Davis and Kory Chavis faced Alex Payne and Bobby Dempsey. A very quick match saw the DCFC use Payne as a punch bag before Dempsey got the hot tag and pulled off a few good moves. Payne then quickly tagged back in, before falling to the power bomb/neck breaker combination, with Davis getting the winning pin. Although this was really nothing more than a squash match it was still a good way of making the DCFC look highly impressive.
Then came one of the matches I was really looking forward to, as Roderick Strong took on Nigel McGuinness. Slow paced technical action was the order of the day at the beginning of the match as McGuinness worked over Strong’s left arm, before things progressed nicely as the match went along, as we got two very good performances, and numerous near falls, before Strong got the winning pin after a second Gibson driver, ending a very enjoyable encounter.
The penultimate match saw tag team action, as Colt Cabana and Kenny Omega faced Rhett Titus and ROH World Champion Austin Aries. Titus came into this one with a massive bandage around his head, courtesy of a nineteen stitch head would he’d received at the hands of Cabana in a previous match. There were some nice comedic moments from Cabana and Omega at the beginning of the match, before all for men got down to more serious business. From there we saw a very good tag match, with both teams doubling up to good effect, and putting on good performances, with Titus getting the pin on Cabana after a low kick from Aries while the referee was otherwise distracted. Nice work all round.
The main event saw one half of the ROH World Tag Team Champions, Davey Richards, going up against Bryan Danielson. This was the other match I was really looking forward to, and it certainly didn’t disappoint. For over thirty minutes Richards and Danielson matched each other hold for hold, move for move and blow for blow. It was an absolute joy to behold as they took each other to the limit, with plenty of near falls and submission attempts, until Danielson finally tapped to Richards’ kimura. Awesome, just awesome.
DVD extras come in the form of the usual ROH Video Wire, and a bonus match pitting Grizzly Redwood against Tommaso Ciampa.
In conclusion – it’s another tremendous DVD release from the Ring of Honor crew here, with eight great matches topped off nicely by the Danielson/Richards classic, the sort of match you watch time and time again.
However, there was one thing that really bothered me. For the majority of the matches Dave Prazak and Chris Hero handled the commentary duties. Both of them acted like heels, and this didn’t really work. But as this is my only criticism of this release, once again ROH comes highly recommended.
With thanks to the powers that be at ROH for supplying a copy of this release. The Final Countdown Tour: Boston can be purchased online at www.rohwrestling.com.
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