RADICAN'S TAKE RADICAN'S ROH DVD SNAPSHOT - "Gateway to Honor" 11/6: Wolves vs. ANX, Future Shock vs. WGTT, Women of Honor in action
Jan 12, 2012 - 12:17:42 PM
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RADICAN’S ROH DVD SNAPSHOT
“GATEWAY TO HONOR”
NOVEMBER 6, 2011
COLLINSVILLE, ILL.
RESULTS & STAR RATINGS
(1) Tomasso Ciampa (w/The Embassy) beat Andy Ridge (**)
(2) Jay Briscoe beat T.J. Perkins (**1/2)
(3) Steve Corino & Jimmy Jacobs beat Lancelot & Harlem Bravado (**3/4)
(4) Michael Elgin (w/Truth Martini) beat Grizzly Redwood (*1/2)
(5) ROH World Tag Team Champions Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin beat Adam Cole & Kyle O’Reilly (***1/4)
(6) MsChif beat Mia Yim (w/The Embassy) (*3/4)
(7) ROH TV Champion Jay Lethal beat Mark Briscoe in a Proving Ground match (**1/2)
(8) El Generico beat Mike Bennett (w/Brutal Bob) (**3/4)
(9) ANX (Rhett Titus & Kenny King) beat The American Wolves (Davey Richards & Eddie Edwards) (****)
Overall thoughts: (5.5) – A lot of this show was fine, but it sure didn’t feel like an important show most of the way that was worth putting out on DVD. There were no backstage promos or highlight packages. The show was a series of matches that came one after the other in a tight package that ran just under two and a half hours.
The crowd was hot for most of the action, but a lot of the action on the card was ordinary by ROH standards. Kevin Kelly and Dave Prazak handled the commentary and did a good job of explaining things, but ultimately a lot of these matches felt meaningless. The announcers tried to explain how what had happened at the TV tapings the night before this show was taped impacted this show, but at other times storylines that haven’t been mentioned on television were mentioned on this show such as ANX gaining momentum for their title shot against Haas & Benjamin at the upcoming “Glory By Honor” show, which was something that wasn’t part of Sinclair storylines.
It also didn’t make a lot of sense for O’Reilly & Cole to get a shot at the ROH World Tag Team titles given how hard teams worked on television just to earn a title shot. It seems until ROH creative finds a way to manage the storylines, the DVD tapings are going to be hard to follow. For example, Benjamin was selling his ribs from the Briscoes chair attack that aired on ROH television before “Final Battle,” but this show was filmed way before that actually aired on television. Kelly and Prazak did their best to explain things, but it was frustrating to go back and forth across between what happened on television and what storylines were only touched on during DVDs and iPPVs.
There weren’t any bad matches on the card and the crowd was into just about everything. The highlight of the undercard was the Haas & Benjamin vs. O’Reilly & Cole ROH World Tag Team Title match. Both teams had some really good exchanges. The finish didn’t seem to connect with the audience as Haas & Benjamin were set to hit their tandem slam finish on O’Reilly, but Benjamin collapsed and sold his ribs. Haas then simply tied up O’Reilly in the Haas of pain and O’Reilly immediately tapped. After the match, Haas & Benjamin put over Cole & O’Reilly on the mic and the crowd applauded all four men.
It was nice to see the Women of Honor in action as Mia Yim took on MsChif. They weren’t given a lot of time to put together a full-fledged match, but Yim was impressive executing her kicks in limited time on offense. My jaw literally dropped when Yim went for a sky twister off the top that didn’t connect. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a woman execute a high-flying maneuver that impressively.
The main event with Edwards & Richards taking on Titus & King in a dream match is where you’ll find the most value on this DVD. Both teams had a long match that lasted around a half hour. They built up to some great exchanges after starting with a slow build with both teams getting long heat segments. Both teams showcased some really good double team work during the finishing sequence that saw ANX get the win after they shoved Edwards into Richards, who fell off the top through a table. Titus hit a frogsplash on Edwards and King finished him off with a shooting star press of the top for the finish. After the match, they teased a little tension between Edwards and Richards, but ultimately they both ended up putting over Titus & King on the mic.
It would be beneficial if ROH did more to make their DVD releases seem more important. The hard camera was grainy and that’s a problem that should be easy to fix. The floor camera shots looked fine, but the lack of angles and promos on this show left a lot to be desired. This is worth picking up to see the Wolves vs. ANX if you can get it on sale, but otherwise this is only for people looking to add every ROH DVD to their collection.
You can purchase this release at ROHWrestling.com.
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