I ordered my first ever Ring of Honor iPPV tonight as I had the house to myself and nothing else exciting to do. I'm a marginal ROH fan - own a few DVD's and go to the live shows now and then. Plus I figured for only 15 bucks, how could I go wrong? Boy was I right! Some highlights:- I must start with the ROH World Title match between champ Tyler Black and Davey Richards. It can't wait. It was THAT good. By far the best match I've seen so far in 2010. It told an absolutely gripping story, something we rarely see in wrestling these days, with Black the unappreciated babyface champ getting near-fall after near-fall on the athletic, unpredictable, and hungry contender Richards who had the crowd almost entirely behind him. They both came off as having more heart than most and Tyler literally had to win by beating Richards until he could no longer move. About 10 minutes before Black hit his finisher, God's Last Gift, for the second time and got the pin, the crowd stopped heckling him in a show of respect for the champ. I myself was not a big fan of Black before this match but he went a long way in impressing me tonight. Davey was just on point though and really made this match, and the ROH title, feel like something special. Word is that he is retiring. Really tough to stomach that after watching this match. Nothing else to say. This DVD is a must buy when it comes out for this match alone.
- There were some other good ones. The next best match was likely the World Tag Team Title match (No DQ) between the Kings of Wrestling (Claudio Castagnoli and Chris Hero) and the Briscoes. KOW won the titles from the Briscoes in April and this was the rematch. They teased Mark and Jay not showing up all night right until the match time in which they made the announcement only to have the Briscoes come in and attack Hero and Castagnoli. It added some excitement. Then Mark Briscoe was busted open quickly into the start of the match and wrestled with a red river flowing from his face the rest of the way. KOW gets the win (though I am not sure how since the video stream cut out at the most inopportune time) and nothing happened with the Briscoes afterward despite them teasing a fight between the two brothers at last night's show.
- Kenny Omega vs. Christopher Daniels was also very good. I'm not a Daniels guy either but it was an exciting match. Daniels wins and finds himself very much in the World Title picture.
- Kevin Steen vs. El Generico was more than a fun opener. This was a grudge match many have been waiting to see and they delivered. I do think they can do better and I believe eventually we will see that. But Steen got the upper hand tonight and is also making a case for being in the World Title hunt.
- Overall it was very solid with a fantastic main event. I have to say, ROH can be very predictable some times (I correctly picked every single outcome) but they still have a way of drawing you in and making you believe it isn't scripted. No one could have possibly believed Tyler Black was going to drop the title so soon, yet it felt like Davey had a real chance. That's what makes wrestling so fun to watch.
- As for the iPPV itself, I wasn't blown away by the concept. As I mentioned, it crapped out on me twice and the quality was only decent. A step below their DVD quality I would say actually. But for $15 it was good enough. And I'd pay it again to watch a world title match like that any day.
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