Yes, this one is out hot on the heels of my previous review, but I had a couple of hours to kill.
Review for Insanity Unleashed
3//14/09
Larry Zbyszko is guest commentating with Prazak. While he's not awful, he's not that good either, and really is only nice as a change of pace. Luckily they don't keep him around.
And we open up with Indiana based wrestlers trying to find a way into ROH
Flash Flanagan vs. 'Spyder' Nate Webb
Webb was a force during the CZW war, and I think Flash had a single appearance as Slash Venom. Webb now looks absolutely awful, like he's a homeless drug addict, while Flash looks like an actual wrestler. Webb gets some early offence in before Flash takes over, moving around pretty darn good. However Nate eventually gets a handful of moves in before putting him down the Arachnid kick.
**1/4. Flash looked much better and should never have gone down so easily. This brief match is not a good way to open things.
Claudio Castagnoli vs. Bryan Danielson vs. Kenny Omega
Now this is more like it. It's a three way match but with new rules. Basically the third guy has to tag in, like four corners survival. This is a really enjoyable match. Kenny is able to hang with two top tier talents like Danielson and Claudio, which is saying a lot. It's a pity he eventually left, but it was my understanding that was Kenny's decision and not ROH's fault. In any case the pace on this one is great, and really highlights Omega's abilities. Though in time Danielson gets knocked off the apron and Omega makes a mistake, allowing Claudio to win with a new submission hold.
***1/2. Really good.
Chris Hero vs. Jay Briscoe
Mark is on the shelf again so Jay does some singles work. He fought Strong the night before, and now he's up against some Sweet n' Sour Scum in the form of the rechristened Young Knockout Kid, Chris Hero.
It's what you would expect from these two, really solid match. However it's not spectacular. What's there is all good, but not truly great. Hero, much to my surprise, does not have to resort to the loaded elbow pad, but rather KOs Jay with a normal rolling elbow, resulting in a Hero pin
***. I'd like to tell you what was missing that could have made this better, but I couldn't put my finger on it.
ROH World Tag Team Title Match: El Generico & Kevin Steen (c) vs. Kenny King and Rhett Titus
This was in the early ANX days, before they were called the ANX. And this was one of the all too few title defenses for Steenerico. Despite it being early in their team up days, ANX looks good, but they would go on to get better. On the other hand, this is the prime of the Steenerico days, and they look their typical great. ANX gets offense on Generico a bit early, but shortly after the hot tag, they target Steens' soft knee and take the offence again before it breaks down into a back and forth contest. Eventually the champs take over and put ANX down with the package piledriver/brianbuster combo. After the pin, the American Wolves run in and lay waste to Steen's knee to soften him up for their upcoming NO DQ match at a later card.
***1/2.
And now we have the worst match of the card: Bison Smith vs. Silas Young
Smith just lost by count out to Danielson the night before, so there is no purpose in this extended squash. Also Young moves well and has a great look, and, along with the even bigger fumble of Sami Callahan, should have been given a real shot in ROH, not booked to be fodder for Bison. Besides he already squashed a bunch of guys leading into his feud with Danielson, so it makes no sense to have him go back to it when he's already been established as a monster. I should add I was never that into Bison to begin with, so I'm bored out of my mind when he eventually kills Young
*1/4. At least the opening match was intended to give the new guys a tryout, this was just a bad idea and waste of time.
The American Wolves (Davey Richards & Eddie Edwards) vs. Roderick Strong & Brent Albright
Despite it being post Caged Rage and the feud supposedly being over, there is still some leftover hatred between the two teams. Roddy has the early advantage, but not long after Albright is tagged in the Wolves go after his arm and dominate a large part of the match with their tag team excellence. This might have been a good idea since Roddy and Brent look like two guys that were thrown together, which they are. Eventually Roddy gets the hot tag and the two teams go at it. While the ref is distracted, Sweeney hands Eddie some brass knuckles, but Generico comes in and knocks him out before the ref knows what's going on, allowing Roddy and Brent to pick up the win.
*** 1/4.
NO DQ Match: Delirious vs. Jimmy Jacobs
This is the result of Delirious throwing off the shackles of Jacobs' control and wanting revenge. This is a standard no DQ match, plenty of action on the outside, chairs and choking on the inside. Maybe a bit more wrestling than usual. At one point Delirious uses enough panic attacks to knock out Jacobs, but pulls Jacobs up after two as he wants to deliver more punishment with a table. This backfires as Jacobs drives Delirious through the table while in end time, resulting in a victory for the leader of AotF.
***1/4. I'm not wild about no DQ matches, but this one worked.
And now the main event: World Champ Nigel McGuinness & Austin Aries vs. Tyler Black & Jerry Lynn
This match started out odd as Black and Lynn both take turns playing the babyface in peril roles after only very brief bouts of offence. There's also Aries sort of carrying things for his team as Nigel's arm is legit hurting and it shows. As always, Aries is up to the task. Despite these limitations, it's a pretty good match, and once we get to the ending sequence it gets really good as all four guys go at it. Despite a title belt to Black's head and a dropkick/tower of London combo to Jerry's head, Lynn eventually gets the cradle piledriver on Nigel for the win
*** 1/2. Starts out slow, but the ending is really nice.
Overall rating: ***1/4. An average card with no outstanding matches, but a lot of good ones with only a couple of bad ones thrown in.
