THE TWO SHEDS REVIEW by Julian Radbourne
E-mail: juli316uk@yahoo.co.uk
Website: http://twoshedsreview.blogspot.com
Sponsored by Intimidation Clothing, makers of high quality, affordable MMA apparel and T-shirts. Visit their website at www.intimidationclothing.com.
My first wrestling review of the year sees us taking another trip into Ring of Honor as we go back to last September in New York for Glory by Honor IX, with Roderick Strong challenging Tyler Black for the ROH World title.
The show began with singles action as Kenny King went up against Jay Briscoe.
Two wrestlers mostly known for their tag team efforts put on a great opener here. Both guys, King in particular, looked in top form.
King’s partner Rhett Titus made an appearance at ringside, but he wasn’t much of a distraction after Briscoe took him out.
In the end it was King who took the win, taking Briscoe down with his royal flush finisher.
Needless to say that the All Night Express attacked Briscoe after the bell, which brought Jay’s brother Mark down for the save as they soon dispatched King.
This led directly to the next match as Mark Briscoe took on Rhett Titus.
With their partners watching from ringside Briscoe and Titus put on a match that was just as good as the opener, with plenty of fast-paced action and plenty of near falls, before Briscoe took the win after Titus went down to the burning hammer. Great stuff.
The first tag team match of the show saw Prince Nana’s Erick Stevens and Necro Butcher taking on Grizzly Redwood and Balls Mahoney.
This was quite an entertaining match. Thankfully the Butcher didn’t have much to do as the other three put in good performances, and it was great to see Balls back to doing what he does best.
Balls almost got the win for his team after taking Necro out with a frog splash from the top rope, only for Nana to come in and break up the count. Moments later Stevens took Balls out with a spinning slam-type thing for the three count and the win.
The 2010 feud of the year continued next as Kevin Steen and Steve Corino faced El Generico and Colt Cabana in a double chain match.
This was possibly the most dramatic ROH match I’ve ever seen. It was a perfect piece of storytelling from four masters of their art.
These four went at it full tilt, and it wasn’t long before the blood was flowing as they battered each other with their chains.
But it was the appearance of Corino’s son Colby that turned the tide of the match. After Steen put Generico through a ringside table Colby came down to the ring and took the chain off Generico’s wrist. Moments later both chains were used to tie Cabana up, his arms spread-eagled across the ring.
It took a recovered Generico to help his man out, and after tons of hard hitting and intense action a freed Cabana eventually locked in the billy goat’s curse on Corino for the submission win.
But that wasn’t the end of things. As Generico tried to take Steen out with a top rope brain buster Steen committed the cardinal sin and ripped off his mask, with Cabana grabbing a towel and putting it over Generico’s head as they ran backstage. Generico and Cabana may have won the battle but the war was far from over.
The first title match of the evening saw Shawn Daivari challenge Eddie Edwards for the World TV title.
Fast paced action was the order of the day in this one. With only a ten minute time limit to play with Edwards and Daivari went full tilt in what was a very entertaining affair, and a great advertisement for the skills of both men.
The champion emerged with his title intact. As Edwards applied the Achilles lock to Daivari Prince Nana jumped onto the ring apron to save his boy. After Edwards released his hold there was the usual meeting if minds between manager and wrestler before Edwards re-applied the Achilles lock for the submission win.
What was billed as the battle of the best followed as Austin Aries went up against Christopher Daniels.
It’s a shame that they didn’t give these two more time, because this was a really great match. Aries and Daniels are two of the best in the business right now, and have been for a number of years.
It was a perfect piece of storytelling, a match that made sense in every way.
The ending saw the two protagonists battling it out on the top rope, with Daniels eventually getting the advantage and taking Aries out with a super angels wings for the pin.
The penultimate match was billed as a dream match as Tag Team Champions the Kings of Wrestling faced Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin in a non-title match.
With the restrictions of a certain company no longer upon them Haas and Benjamin were able to pull out all the stops in what proved to be an enthralling encounter against the great team of Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli.
It was an absolute joy to watch, and I really can’t speak too highly about the performances of all four men. It was a match that looked like it really could go either way, but in the end the loaded elbow pad came into play once again.
As Hass applied the Haas of pain to Castagnoli Hero put on the offending item and hit Haas with an elbow shot. A three count later and Castagnoli had the pin for his team.
The Kings looked to put an exclamation mark on the end of things though, but they were soon sent running by Haas and Benjamin, who took out their frustrations on manager Shane Hagadorn.
The main event saw Roderick Strong challenging Tyler Black for the World title in a no disqualification match, with Terry Funk acting as the special guest enforcer.
With Black threatening to take the title to WWE with him this proved to be one of the most highly charged ROH title matches I’ve ever seen.
With the Funker watching the proceedings from ringside Strong and Black put on a match worthy of it’s main event status, pulling out all the stops. It made for a great contest.
Of course the inevitable happened and the referee took a snooze, bringing Funk into the match, with the old boy seeing off the attempted interference of Truth Martini and the House of Truth.
But at the end of the day Strong didn’t need any of them, finishing Black off with a series of trademark back breakers before sealing the deal with a running yakuza kick, finally winning the title.
Things didn’t end there though. Black brushed off Strong’s handshake offer, and the evening ended with none other than Homicide making his return, letting Strong know that he had his eye on the title.
Bonus features on this disc include three editions of the Video Wire, as well as post-match segments from Roderick Strong and Tyler Black.
In conclusion – I really couldn’t have picked a better way to start the year.
Glory By Honor IX has to be one of the best shows of 2010. There wasn’t one dud match here, and that includes the one the Necro Butcher was involved in. I couldn’t pick a match of the night, because it would be a four-way tie.
So in all this definitely gets the big thumbs up, one you should go out and buy if you were given any cash for Christmas.
With thanks to the powers that be for supplying a copy of this release. ROH Glory By Honor IX is available to buy online at www.rohwrestling.com.
