Not a full review, but just kind of a quick run through of my thoughts on the 3rd and final night of the Triple Shot weekend. I feel confident in saying Supercard of Honor won't be topped, cause it was f'n good.
Show opens with Colt storming the ring in a pre-show match of some kind. Looked like a 6 way women's match, but hard saying. Colt wants Homicide, but some monkey comes and tells him that Cide isn't there yet.
Match 1: 6 man Mayhem: Jack Evans v Matt Sydal v Jimmy Jacobs v Dave Crist v Jack Crist v Ace Steel
This was a great little spotfest, and a wonderful way to open the show. You know, I don't want to like Evans, but his ass just never seems to amaze me. He does the most insane shit, and I haven't seen him blow anything at all yet. I'm pretty sure he is nuts though. Springboard 450 to the outside, onto virtually nobody. Sydal has the best control of his body during moves of anyone I've ever seen. His standing moonsault press, just beautiful. And his Shooting Star is amazing to watch. Spot of the match is Ace Steel hitting a Widow's Peak on Sydal from the top rope, while at the same time hitting a Ace Crusher on Jacobs, and also dropping a leg over the throat of Jake Crist. Just awesome. Finish comes after everyone flies around for a while, and Evans hits the 630, which I'd never seen. Thats a pretty impressive move. ***
The announcers put over Evans' win, and he is off to DragonGate for 3 months. Awww, I was just starting to like the guy.
Cornette is out next, talking about CZW fucking up their show last night again. Colt interupts, and demands Homicide tonight. I love the serious side of Colt. The beard really helps. They agree to make it a Chicago Street Fight, right here in Colt's hometown of Chicago. Cornette then calls Delirious out to a big pop. I love Delirious as well. Way underrated in the ring. I'd love to see them do something real with him. Feels like the start of something, as Cornette tells him he needs to get serious. He lets him pick anyone from the locker room, but if Delirious loses, he is off the roster.
Match 2: Delirious v Ricky Reyes
Delirious picks Ricky Reyes, because last night, Reyes won a 4 way, and then punked out Delirious, ripping up his streamers on his mask. What a dick. A pretty good match here. This felt like a really good WWE style match, as opposed to an actual ROH match. Finish shocked the hell out of me, as Delirious actually scores the win, using a Camel Clutch, turned over into a crossface. Awesome move, and I couldn't believe Reyes tapped out clean. **1/2 If it was longer, it could've been much better. Didn't feel like much more than 7 minutes or so.
Match 3: Jimmy Rave, Alex Shelley, Masato Yoshino (representing the Embassy) v Do Fixer (Dragon Kid, Ryo Saito, Genki Horiguchi)
This was a really good match, but didn't really touch the GenNext v Blood Generation or Do Fixer v Blood Generation match. Frankly, it couldn't. 3 nights in a row, and 3 wonderful 6 man matches. This one got nice and hot towards the end, but the crowd shits on the finish, as do I, as Rave hits the Greetings From Ghana (Pedigree) to get the win to a round of boos. Alex Shelley continues to be one of my favorite wrestlers. His selling is great, and he makes every moment of every match count. Dragon Kid is impressive, looking like the old, fast Rey Mysterio before he bulked up. The announcers kept saying how quick Yoshino is, and he really is fucking fast. Oh, and I should mention how much I love the toilet paper streamers on Rave, and then way he and Shelley sell the hell out of it. Another good match: ***1/2
Lance Storm cuts a quick, and very effective promo about why he came out of retirement for this match. Good reasons too. Seeing Danielson lit a fire under his ass, and his quest for a World Title. I never got this "he couldn't talk" bullshit.
Match 4: 4 Corners Survival: AJ Styles v Christopher Daniels v Samoa Joe v Jimmy Yang
Nice lineup here. The match disapointed me a bit in the middle, as it just seemed like generally nobody knew what to do. This was night 3 after an intense weekend, but they worked over AJ's ass for what seemed like hours. They did pick it up, bigtime, and went home with a nice final 5 or 6 minutes. Joe gets the win after hitting the Musclebuster on AJ. A good match, but I expected better from the competitors: ***. Of course, average for these guys is pretty good for most. Still had great action, and I think ROH's 4 way, with tags necessary, and first pin, is really hard to pull off effectively, so I give them props.
Joe cuts a promo after the match, saying he wants to get his title back. Bryan Danielson answers, and they have an AWESOME exchange, including a few great digs by Danielson.
"You didn't make the ROH World Title Joe. The ROH World Title made you!"
Danielson goes from a competitor, to just being a little bitch. The fans chant "Fuck him up Joe, fuck him up", and Danielson replies:
"I have a better one for you. Try this: 'Lose some weight, Joe, lose some weight'"
The fans are very into it, and I love the build to a confrontation between these two. Danielson runs down Storm, transiting with a "If I could be serious for a minute", while he is out there, firmly putting himself in the heel driver seat tonight, which is good.
"I'm gonna make him tap out to his own finisher, the single leg crab. Are you kidding? I was trained by HBK while he was up busting his ass in Calgary"
Just great stuff from both of them. I loved the interaction, and want a match. My only gripe is using Joe in such a high profile role, when he is TNA's main man. But shit, I don't care. This was 3 months ago anyway.
After all THAT, Hero & Butcher attack Joe. He disapears into I don't know where, and Adam Pearce gets involved. They brawl, Whitmer shows up, Claudio tries to help, and Cornette is out. Hero damn near breaks his arm again, and then the locker room of chumps runs them off. Effective, but really long. And the brawl around the arena doesn't work when you don't use lights. I'm sure it is good live though.
Well, thats the first half, and lo and behold, I guess this turned into a real review. I'll be back with the rest, sometime...
Edit: And here comes more....
Great promo with Shelley, Rave, and Nana, with Shelley talking about hookers. I couldn't do it justice, but I love Alex Shelley.
Match 5: ROH Tag Team Titles: Austin Aries & Roderick Strong v CIMA and Doi
This was a pretty good match, that potential to be really good. A few confusing spots, that started to look contrived, and some general confusion threw it off a bit in spots. Strong hits an AWESOME 60 second delayed vertical suplex with the crowd counting along. Aries gets busted legit with a broken nose, and is pouring blood. This leads to a great heat segment on Aries, where they kick the shit out of him forever. A good hot match, with some really good impressive spots. Finish comes when the champs hit the Half-Nelson Backbreaker and 450 combo for the win. Like I said, it missed a step or two, but other than those two steps, it was pretty nice. ***1/2
Match 6: ROH World Title: Bryan Danielson v Lance Storm
I REALLY enjoyed this match. Haven't browsed the net to see what others may have thought, but this was a damn fine wrestling match. Had some incredible mat work the entire time, and then some great near falls throughout, especially at the end. Danielson's final push with the Cattle Mutilation into some reversals, and a Tiger Suplex, and some other stuff, too hard to explain, was great. Storm looked like a million bucks, and was spot on. I wish he was active, cause he looked GREAT. ****
And I damn near forgot we still have Cabana-Homicide to go. Shit yeah.
Match 7: Chicago Street Fight: Colt Cabana v Homicide
This one is heated from the beginning, with nasty nasty shots, and a ton of intensity. Trying to recap all the shit in here is impossible. Homicide nails a splash to the outside through a table, and then works Colt in the ring. Colt find Homicide's fork in his boot, and then FORKS THE SHIT OUT OF HIM, drawing tons of blood. Colt takes his blood and paints his face with it. AWESOME. Homicide ends up bringing a barbed wire board in the ring, and an awesome spot and they simply try to push each other's head into it as the scream. Homicide breaks it by biting Colt on the arm, hard, legit. Just awesome here from these guys. Colt gets a bottle of rubbing alcohol, and dumps it all over the gash on Cide's head. Just AWESOME. Things go from crazy to insane as Homicide calls for some chair throwing, and the ring fills in a matter of seconds. Colt takes a nasty shot from one of them as well. Colt throws a chair at Cide, and they go up top. SUPERPLEX ON ALL OF THE CHAIRS. Homicide somehow kicks out. That should've been the finish. Homicide then hits the f'n Pepsi Plunge for a nearfall. Colt then puts a table over the barbed wire board, and hits a top rope powerbomb through the table, into the barbed wire, for a 2 COUNT?! Cmon. Colt then nails a standing backbreaker over the shoulder thing (which I'm sure has a name) for the 3, finally. Ahh, its the Colt 45 thanks to Dave Prazack. ****1/4. I really loved this, garbage or not. It was intense, nasty, bloody, and crazy. Colt sells the victory perfectly, until the Rottweilers show up.
Maybe this isn't over, as it looks like they're gonna f'n hang Colt now. Reyes & Smokes are gonna hang Colt from the top rope, when Cide stops them. Cide says he'll respect Colt, for what just went down. Nice touch. Cide just curses too much to take a promo real seriously from him. Cide offers a handshake, Colt takes it, and they embrace. Awesome finish to the show and feud.
Overall: This show was great. My ratings don't really mean shit to anyone but me, but this show would get a definite thumbs up. The action is unreal, the angles are hot, and everything was just so great. This might be the greatest 3 days of wrestling in history right here, when you put it all together with DragonGate Challenge, and Supercard of Honor. I'd be hard pressed to pick between Supercard of Honor & Better Than Our Best, as they were both unreal.