It’s time to step into Ring of Honor territory as we take a trip back to Boston last May and Never Say Die, headlined by Chris Hero challenging Jerry Lynn for the ROH World title, and with Lenny Leonard and Dave Prazak handling commentary duties.The show began with the masked Delirious facing Ricky Reyes. It’s the usual type of show opener here, which means it’s fast paced and highly entertaining, with plenty of back and forth action and plenty of near falls, and Delirious getting the pin after his shadows over hell splash from the top rope, a nice end to an exciting contest.
Tag team action followed, with the Super Smash Brothers taking on Rhett Titus and Kenny King. It was great to see King and Titus back together again, and while they impressed me again with their performances, they weren’t the only impressive team in this match. Players Uno and Dos looked great here, and their contribution was what made this one that much better. Their teamwork throughout was a joy to behold. But it wasn’t enough to get them the win as King and Titus took Player Uno down with their spiked power bomb, ending another great match, with the Smash Brothers getting a standing ovation for their performance.
Then it was back to singles action, with Jay Briscoe and Necro Butcher. Now I normally enjoy ROH’s face versus face matches, but then again hardly any of them involved Necro Butcher. It was another example of how Necro just isn’t that good outside of an ultra-violence environment. Mind you, it probably would have been a whole lot worse had it not been for Briscoe’s efforts. The match came to an end, with no announcement made, when the Embassy came down to the ring and attacked Necro, and even then his offence looked as weak as hell. It’s a shame that Prince Nana and his boys didn’t try to interfere ten minutes earlier.
The big grudge match was next, with Davey Richards and Kevin Steen going at it in an anything goes match. Now this was more like it. You knew you were going to get an intense match when Steen came out and attacked Richards during his introduction, and from there it was a real wild affair, with a TNA-like brawl through the crowds, Richards going through a table, the use of countless chairs, and Steen bleeding for his art. Then came the big bump, as Richards countered Steen’s suplex attempt off a ladder and dumped him through two tables. Steen then recovered enough to put Richards through another table with a package pile driver, dragging Richards into the ring so he could get the winning pin. But that wasn’t the end of the action as Richards’ American Wolves partner Eddie Edwards raced down to the ring to attack Steen, igniting a brawl that went all the way to the back, ending a tremendous encounter. I hope Necro Butcher was watching this one, because this is what a great brawl should look like.
Eddie Edwards then made his second appearance of the evening, taking on Bryan Danielson and Sonjay Dutt in a three way match. This one looked great on paper, with the tremendous exchanges beginning right after the opening bell. Dutt in particular looked good, no longer saddled with that guru gimmick, able to let his skills do the talking for him. Mention must also be made of Kevin Steen, who made a brief appearance stopping Edwards from Danielson with a chair. So after a ton of great action, Danielson got the submission win when he applied his triangle choke to Edwards. I have to wonder though if this will be the same Bryan Danielson we’ll see in McMahon-land.
Then it was on to six man action, with the Embassy team of Claudio Castagnoli, Jimmy Rave and Joey Ryan facing Colt Cabana, Erick Stevens and Brent Albright. This was a highly entertaining encounter, which began with a wild brawl before settling down into a nice little match, with all six men doing their part to make this what it was, and while there wasn’t a real standout performance it didn’t really matter. The bad guys came out on top here, as Castagnoli got the pin on Stevens after kicking him south of the border while the referee was trying to usher Ryan out of the ring.
The main event saw Chris Hero, replacing the injured Tyler Black, challenging Jerry Lynn for the ROH World title. Black has hardly missed in this one as champion and challenger put on a great exhibition of wrestling, nearly thirty minutes of back and forth hard hitting top notch action, with plenty of near falls and two outstanding performances. Lynn continued to look outstanding in his ROH matches, continuing to defy age and his critics, fighting back the challenge of Hero, who came so close to winning the title on so many occasions. But in the end the win went with Lynn, who finally managed to take Hero down with his trademark cradle pile driver.
DVD extras come in the form of the usual ROH news wire, and a bonus match, pitting Ernie Osiris against Grizzly Redwood.
In conclusion - once again, if you take out Necro Butcher’s match, you’ve got a good release here. Never Say Die is a very good show, with a good undercard topped off nicely by the outstanding Lynn/Hero encounter. So, again, I’m able to heartily recommend a Ring of Honor release, as long as you skip through Necro Butcher’s match that is.
With thanks to the powers that be at Ring of Honor for supplying a copy of this release.
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