It’s time to step into Ring of Honor territory as we go back to this past May as Eddie Edwards defended the World title against Chris Hero in the main event of Revolution Canada.
The show opener saw Claudio Castagnoli, accompanied by Shane Hagadorn and Sara Del Ray, taking on Kyle O’Reilly.
As is the custom with ROH this was an extremely entertaining opener. Local boy O’Reilly put in a great effort, centring his attack on Double C’s left leg as well as pulling of some great countering pin attempts.
Castagnoli was a solid as always, especially with his power moves. I swear his chokeslam is the best in the business right now.
Castagnoli emerged victorious in this one after taking O’Reilly down with a riccola bomb.
The big grudge match saw Mike Bennett, accompanied by Bob Evans, taking on Steve Corino.
We got a long promo from Corino at the beginning of this one as he spoke of his redemption. He also mentioned an old cohort who wanted back in to ROH.
It took a while to get going but when it did it developed into a great back and forth encounter between veteran and newcomer.
Corino continued to fall off the wagon as he took it to Bennett with the crowd screaming for him to use his thumb. He relented in the end, but it wasn’t Bennett who took the offending digit as Evans took the shot after jumping into the ring.
In the end it took two urinages and a pile driver from Bennett to finally put his man away for the winning pin.
Then it was on to the double danger scramble match.
There were a ton of rules for this one, but from what I can remember to win a wrestler had to get two pins or something like that. I don’t know, it’s like watching an old TNA show!
This one featured Tommaso Ciampa, Rhett Titus, Adam Cole, Michael Elgin, Grizzly Redwood and Andy Ridge.
With six men in this match it was obvious we were going to get a ton of fast paced action, and that’s just what we got.
There were two early pins as Ciampa took out Cole and Titus pinned Ridge. But from there everyone went all out as bodies flew all over the place.
Once again the powerhouse Michael Elgin impressed the hell out of me. This guy has so much potential it’s scary, and even though he looked like he was out of the running at one point the came back with a tremendous ending.
After being double teamed by Cole and Redwood Elgin lifted both men onto his shoulders and took them down with an Alabama slam at the same time. He then pinned both men in quick succession to take the win. Impressive stuff to say the least.
Then it was on to the mouth watering encounter between Kenny King and Davey Richards.
So what can I say about these two that I haven’t said so many times before? Well, it was the usual fare from these two, which in other words means it was an excellent encounter.
These two really took it to each other in one of those balls to the walls encounters you just couldn’t take your eyes off. King was his usual self, and I agreed with the announcers when they said he’s improved so much over the past year.
As for Richards, the newly crowned jiu jitsu blue belt (is crowning the right term for that?) put in his usual tremendous performance, and these two ingredients made for an excellent back and forth encounter.
But in the end there could be only one winner as Richards finally applied the ankle lock for the submission win.
Richards didn’t stay around to enjoy his win, going backstage as soon as the match finished. I guess the guy had other things on his mind.
After an in-ring segment Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly and the ever annoying Bravado Brothers it was on to the Larry Sweeney memorial match between Colt Cabana and Delirious.
This had to be one of the oddest things I’ve ever seen. It began with an argument over who would throw Sweet & Sour tee shirts into the crowd before moving into a dancing contest involving the referee and finishing with a couple of minutes of wrestling with Cabana getting the pin after a top rope elbow drop.
Afterwards both men grabbed the microphone and paid tribute to Sweeney. Well, as odd as it was it made sense in every way.
The next grudge match saw Christopher Daniels, now a member of the House of Truth, taking on El Generico in a non-title match.
We had a long promo from Truth Martini at the beginning of this one (yeah, it’s not like Daniels can talk for himself) but as the action began it soon became a top notch affair.
Daniels cut out a couple of his fan favourite moves, and although Martini tried to interfere the Generic Luchadore was able to hold his own against the Fallen Angel.
But when Michael Elgin tried to interfere it was Steve Corino who made the save. Corino watched from the entrance as Generico took Daniels down with the brain buster for the pin.
However, when Corino tried to make his peace with Generico the masked man left the ring, leaving Corino open to an attack from the House of Truth, and with nobody coming to his aid again Corino was left laying in the ring once again.
The penultimate match saw the Briscoes, Jay and Mark, challenge Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team, Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas, for the Tag Team title.
This was an extremely entertaining encounter. Haas and Benjamin have fitted in really well with the ROH roster, while the Briscoes’ change in attitude is coming on nicely.
The champs dominated the early stages until Mark came in and took Haas out with a low blow. From there the brothers took him apart.
But when the brothers wanted to bring the title belts into the equation the All Night Express, Kenny King and Rhett Titus, came down to the ring and stopped him. A short time later Benjamin scored with an elevated flatliner for the winning pin, leaving Jay and Mark bloodied and battered and still without the tag titles.
The main event saw Chris Hero, accompanied by Shane Hagadorn and Sara Del ray, challenge Eddie Edwards for the World title.
For over thirty minutes Hero and Edwards put on an awesome encounter. It was an absolute joy to watch.
This match had everything, high flying moves, hard hitting back and forth action, and an absolute ton of drama provided by the tremendous story that these two told.
When Hagadorn and Del Ray were dispatched to the back early on for attempting to interfere it left the two protagonists to do what they do best, with Hero working over Edwards’ left arm in an attempt to put him away. However, no matter what the challenger did the champion just wouldn’t stay down.
The drama intensified when Hagadorn and Del Ray tried to come back down to ringside, and as the referee tried to stop them Claudio Castagnoli came through the crowd and took Edwards down with the riccola bomb. But once again Edwards kicked out of Hero’s pin attempt.
So after Davey Richards came down to stop Double C from interfering further we saw several more pin attempts until Edwards was finally able to apply the Achilles lock, booting Hero in the face while he applied the hold, with the referee stopping the match when Hero passed out, giving Edwards the title retaining pin.
Bonus features on this DVD include two editions of the Video Wire as well as interviews with the Briscoes, Christopher Daniels and Truth Martini.
In conclusion - do you remember what I said at the end of my last ROH review? Well, I’m feeling exactly the same way now.
This was another excellent show from top to bottom, and once again I found myself enjoying this a lot more than anything WWE or TNA have offered up recently.
So rather than slip into hyperbole mode I’ll just give this the massive thumbs up and tell you where you can buy it.
With thanks to the powers that be for supplying a copy of this release. ROH Revolution Canada can be purchased online at www.rohwrestling.com.
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