The DVD opens with Jimmy Jacobs and Lacey talking backstage. Then it cuts to a promo from Christopher Daniels about his match with Nigel McGuinness later in the night. During the first match, a message flashed at the bottom of the screen to check out the "Video Recap" on the main menu screen before watching the show, so I did just that. It was a nice feature that gave a bit of a recap on what had recently happened with Claudio Castagnoli (Cesaro in WWE) turning on ROH and joining Chris Hero, Super Dragon, Necro Butcher and the rest of the CZW crew. You get a great promo from Jim Cornette on the situation where he vows that ROH is going to start striking back. Also in this feature are promos from Jimmy Jacobs and Colt Cabana. Now onto the show itself.
1) Colt Cabana vs. Jimmy Jacobs
The story going into this one which I learned by watching the video recap feature, was that Cabana wanted to make his way back to the top of ROH by starting at the bottom since he lost to Bryan Danielson in less than five minutes. Cabana attributed this loss to his brutal feud with Homicide, saying he forgot how to wrestle because he had been fighting so long. Thus the opening match was set. As for Jacobs, he and Lacey had been having problems for a while and she told him that if he kept losing, she would leave him. So with all the things above taken into consideration, this was a big match for both guys. It was pretty back and forth the whole time with some nice moves such as Cabana going for a moonsault off the second rope only to get dropkicked by Jacobs. Overall this match isn't anything special, but it was a decent start to the show as the crowd was hot for Cabana. So no real complaints here. Nice near ten minute opener.
Match rating - 3/10
Afterwards, Jim Cornette comes to the ring with Ace Steel and talks Colt Cabana into fighting for ROH if CZW were to show up tonight. Cabana says he will kick CZW's ass. Cornette then goes on to cut a promo similar to the one on the video recap feature about how Claudio is a traitor and that ROH will be striking back. Cornette leaves with Cabana and Steel.
2) Irish Airborne (Jake & Dave Crist) vs. Jay Fury & Spud
The only man I had seen compete prior to this match was Spud. That being said, the other three guys had a chance to impress me here and they did so. Jake and Dave Crist in particular really stood out to me. They are a fantastic team. As for Jay Fury, he did some impressive manuevers as well and he worked well with Spud considering this was their first time teaming together. Spud is actually an exceptional worker. The only place I've seen him in is TNA and they barely let him wrestle so it was interesting to see him competing here early in his career. This was a great action packed tag team match with alot of good wrestling and highflying. Very fun undercard match.
Match rating - 6/10
3) Delirious vs. Jimmy Rave
There was no real backstory going into this one so I had minimal interest since I'm not that familar with either of these guys. They still put in a decent showing however. Rave targeted the injured hand of Delirious that had been busted open in his last match. This bout ended in a fifteen minute draw. Decent match.
Match rating - 4/10
4) Nigel McGuinness vs. Christopher Daniels - ROH Pure Title Match
I was really looking forward to this one. The match starts off with several technical exchanges that result in standoffs. Nigel gets the first real advantage of the matchup by beginning to work over the left arm/shoulder of Daniels. For the rest of the match, McGuinness based his offense around working over that shoulder with various moves and submissions. This one was pretty enjoyable, but it ended in a countout which kind of ruined it for me. It was fun while it lasted, but the ending made it seem pointless.
Match rating - 5/10
5) Bryan Danielson vs. Jimmy Yang - ROH World Title Match
I never got to see Yang compete in this capacity while he was in WWE, so I was interested to see how he would fare in a main event match against a talent the caliber of Danielson. Yang impressed me here as he hung right with Danielson and put on a solid match. As always, Danielson put on an impressive showing here. It was also during this match that I was reminded of how great of a character Bryan was in ROH. The little things he did such as the "I have til 5 referee" and sneaking to the ropes for extra leverage on a submission while the ref wasn't looking, defined his character. That combined with amazing in-ring work is what made him special. But back to the match, it was a good bout with several near falls, but the crowd wasn't that into them because it was pretty obvious Yang wasn't going to win. None the less, this was a really good match.
Match rating - 7/10
6) Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. Samoa Joe & Matt Sydal - ROH Tag Team Title Match
The story going into this bout was a friendly rivalry of competition between the members of Generation Next (Aries, Strong, & Sydal). In the weeks prior, Sydal teamed with AJ Styles several times to try and defeat his GN partners for the tag belts, but was unsuccessful. This time around, Sydal has Samoa Joe as his partner. Joe's motivation in this match was to become a triple crown champion in ROH if he was to win the Tag Titles here. With all that being said, all four men worked extremely hard in this match and the result was an outstanding tag team bout. Alot of great exchanges amongst these four men including several near falls that had me on the edge of my seat. Awesome match.
Match rating - 8/10
Afterwards, Samoa Joe calls out the CZW guys. Necro Butcher comes running over the railing and begins brawling with Joe. Eventually Super Dragon, Nate Webb, and Claudio Castagnoli come out to make it a 4 on 1 situation for Joe, but Colt Cabana and Ace Steel came to the rescue along with Adam Pearce. Joe ends up getting incapacitated in the backstage area and the next match gets underway.
7) Claudio Castagnoli, Super Dragon, Necro Butcher & Nate Webb vs. Colt Cabana, BJ Whitmer, Ace Steel, & Adam Pearce - Anything Goes Match
Well I said this match gets underway. If you can call it a match haha. I didn't even know it turned into one because the brawl never stopped. Despite that, this was very enjoyable. The hype that I've heard about the war between ROH and CZW was definitely there. I was glued to my TV screen throughout this whole battle. Tons of action here including Ace Steel suplexing Necro Butcher off the bleachers and Colt Cabana being uppercutted off the apron through a table by Claudio. My favorite story going in this match was that of BJ Whitmer's 'broken neck'. At the last show, Super Dragon delivered a psycho driver off the apron through the table on Whitmer and injured his neck, but he still came out to fight in this match. Whitmer got bloodied and beaten then Claudio held his head in a chair as Dragon hit a double stomp off the top rope! Brutal! The commentators played this up perfectly and made it seem so serious and REAL. I loved it and this brawl as a whole. All the talk I've heard about this war between ROH and CZW being so tremendous was completely right. This was fantastic and it isn't even one of the bigger matches in the feud. I'm definitely going to look into more of this war because this ruled.
Match rating - 9/10
Overall thoughts: If you read through my review above, you can probably already tell what the main purpose of buying this DVD would be and thats to see the ROH vs CZW match. It was a wild brawl and the storytelling was fantastic. Beyond that, the tag team main event between Joe/Sydal and Aries/Strong was awesome as well. So if either of those matches interest you, I highly recommend this. The undercard wasn't very good, but the two big main event matches make up for it.
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