May 8th, 2010 in New York

Opening Match: Jay and Mark Briscoe vs. Rhett Titus and Kenny King

King snaps off a few armdrags on Jay but walks into a yakuza kick. Jay follows with a leg lariat. Mark comes off the middle rope with an elbow strike on Titus and clotheslines him to the floor. Mark lands a moonsault to the outside onto King and Titus. In the ring, the Briscoes hit stereo shoulder tackles on King. Mark adds a springboard senton. King flips out of a biel and the All Night Express work over Jay. He takes King down with a crossbody and makes the tag. Mark connects with a spin kick on King and hits a northern lights suplex. Titus crotches him on the top rope and King dazes him with a spin kick. Mark is now isolated until he hits an ace crusher on King and tags out. Jay dropkicks Titus and flatlines King into him. He spikes Titus with a falcon arrow and the Briscoes follow with a diving elbow-side slam combination. King blockbusters Mark onto Titus’ knees. King accidentally kicks Titus and the Briscoes hit stereo fisherman busters. The Briscoes hit a doomsday device on King for the win at 12:53. This was an energetic opener and an effective showcase for both teams. King controlled most of the match for the All Night Express, making Titus more tolerable. They played up the dissention between King and Titus nicely, even subtly with the finish. The storytelling elements were present with solid wrestling to back it up. Sounds like a good opener to me. ***
King and Titus get into a shoving contest. Titus takes off his bowtie and things just became incredibly serious. They eventually raise each other’s hand and hug.


Match #2: Erick Stevens vs. Grizzly Redwood

The idea here is that Necro Butcher is out of action, so Stevens felt confident in making an open challenge. Grizzly snaps off a headscissors but runs into a shoulder block. He tries a sleeper hold but Stevens powers him down to the canvas. Grizzly sends Stevens to the floor with a hurricanrana. Ernie Osiris provides a distraction, allowing Prince Nana to attack Grizzly on the outside. Stevens military presses Grizzly into the ringpost. Stevens maintains his momentum back in the ring. Grizzly fights back with a bulldog and a tornado DDT. He connects with punches in the corner and takes out Prince Nana with a plancha. Stevens catches him coming off the top rope with a lariat. Stevens hits the Doctor Bomb for the victory at 6:47. Listen, I think Grizzly is fine for his role in the company. However, the man should not be getting in this much offense against someone like Stevens. The match wasn’t terrible but this feud continues to be completely uninspiring. *½
The Embassy attack Grizzly after the match until Balls Mahoney comes out to make the save. The crowd goes absolutely crazy and I’m glad that they’re enjoying this.

Match #3: Amazing Kong vs. Sara Del Rey

The crowd chants negatively towards Bubba the Love Sponge. Kong lands a splash and the crowd is already buying a nearfall. She misses a corner charge and Del Rey starts targeting the left arm. Del Rey sends Kong to the floor with a kappou kick and whips her into the barricade. Kong returns the favor and the action goes back into the ring. Kong misses a middle rope splash and Del Rey locks in a cross armbreaker. The hold is broken when Kong makes it to the ropes. Del Rey is able to hit a german suplex for a nearfall. Chris Hero tosses her his loaded elbow pad. Del Rey connects with a roaring elbow for the win at 7:15. Commentary is quick to notice that Kong losing by knockout is ironic. The insane crowd heat definitely helped this match. This was also a good reintroduction for Kong and it appears that she will be making more appearances in the future. While the finish was a letdown, hopefully they build on it and we see more Kong/Del Rey interactions in the future. **½

Match #4: Eddie Edwards vs. Christopher Daniels

Daniels cuts an excellent promo before the match. It would be nice to see Edwards actually, you know, defend his belt once in awhile. I don’t care if it’s on television or not at this point. Edwards shows that he can hang with Daniels early on. They trade armdrags and Daniels sends Edwards to the floor. Back in, Daniels hits an STO along with a leg lariat. He adds an arabian press but Edwards hip tosses him to the floor and follows out with a dive. Edwards yakuza kicks Daniels into the barricade and takes over back in the ring. He busts out an achilles lock in the ropes for the first time. Edwards connects with a missile dropkick but Daniels responds with an enzuigiri. Both men are down. Daniels hits a flurry of offense, capped off with an iconoclasm. Shane Hagadorn gets involved and Edwards accidentally kicks him off the apron. Edwards goes back to work on the leg and hits a backpack chinbreaker. He follows with a gourdbuster and a running knee strike. Daniels answers with a death valley driver. They exchange strikes and Edwards applies an achilles lock. Daniels quickly makes the ropes. Daniels hits a uranagi and lands the Best Moonsault Ever for the victory at 17:50. There were numerous moments throughout this match where Daniels proved himself to be the veteran and took advantage of simple mistakes. They really made that story work and wrestled a smart match. I have a feeling that Daniels is going to be a huge asset to ROH in the months to come. The crowds are extremely behind him, his promos are great, and he hasn’t lost a step in the ring. Edwards looked solid as well and they kept the action interesting for eighteen minutes. ***½
Daniels puts over Edwards after the match. Daniels says that if Davey Richards wants to be called the best in the world, he needs to beat Christopher Daniels.

Match #5: Austin Aries vs. Delirious

Aries comes out in a suit. He says that he dressed up for the funeral of Austin Aries, the wrestler. He has received his manager’s license and will prove that he’s the greatest man(ager) that has ever lived. He calls out Delirious, saying that he wants to apologize. Delirious and Daizee Haze make their way to the ring. Aries apologizes and gives Haze a rose. He wanted to give Delirious something sweet to eat, now that his throat his recovered. Aries pulls out golden snack cakes and reminds the crowd that they aren’t Twinkies. Tremendous. Delirious grabs the microphone and hits Aries with it. The match officially starts. Delirious takes control immediately and shoves the golden snack cakes into Aries’ face. He hits a cobra clutch suplex and locks in a cobra clutch. Daizee Haze tells Delirious to choke Aries with a belt. Delirious listens and doesn’t break before the five count, causing a disqualification at 2:24. This whole segment did absolutely nothing to make me anymore interested in the feud. The good news is that Aries is awesome and was hilarious in his pre-match promo. Since this was more of a segment than a match, I’m not going to bother with a rating.
Delirious finally stops choking Aries. Kenny King and Rhett Titus come out and attack Delirious. Aries hits Delirious with his shoe. Daizee Haze tries to stop any further damage to no avail. Delirious saves her from a spike piledriver. Aries, King, and Titus retreat to the back while Delirious checks on Haze in the ring.

Match #6: 34th Street Deathmatch: Kevin Steen vs. Colt Cabana

This is essentially a Last Man Standing match. Cabana immediately throws a chair at Steen and sends him into the barricade. Steen is already busted open and gets sent into the barricade three more times. Cabana sets up a table at ringside. They battle on the apron and Steen superkicks Cabana to the floor. He cannonballs Cabana into the barricade. Steen brings two chairs into the ring. Cabana spinebusters him onto a propped up chair and hits him over the head with it. Steen catches Cabana off the flying asshole and dumps him through the table at ringside. The action goes back into the ring where a ladder is introduced. Steen slams Cabana across the ladder. Cabana answers by slamming Steen across the edge of the ladder. Cabana dumps thumbtacks in the ring. He takes off Steen’s shirt and military presses him into the thumbtacks. Cabana places two chairs on Steen’s chest and lands a moonsault from the top rope. El Generico’s music hits and some masked wrestler comes down to the ring. Steve Corino appears behind Cabana and low blows him. The masked wrestler reveals himself to be Colby, Steve’s son. Colby gives his father a barbed wire bat. Cabana ducks a bat shot and hits the flying asshole on Corino. He hits Steen with the bat and a nine count results. Steen low blows Cabana with the barbed wire bat and hits a package piledriver onto the thumbtacks for a nine count. Steen applies a crossface using the barbed wire bat. Cabana can’t answer the ten count, giving Steen the win at 14:23. Once again, this feud continues to deliver quality matches. There wasn’t a moment in this contest where I didn’t believe that these two hated each other. It was appropriately violent and they spaced out the big spots well. The match became a little wacky towards the end, but the storytelling worked effectively. It’s kind of disturbing that Steve Corino’s son is so young and yet he’s still involved in a situation such as this one. This feud is single-handedly bringing fun hardcore matches back to ROH. ***¼

Match #7: ROH World Tag Team Titles: Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli © vs. Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley

The Kings of Wrestling enter to “We Are The Champions” and I’m going crazy. If they start using that as their entrance theme again, keep the belts on them forever. Claudio obnoxiously shows off his power advantage against Sabin and I’m calmed down. Sabin snaps off a nice headscissors. Hero and Shelley trade control on the mat. Shelley starts frustrating him with various armdrags. The Motor City Machine Guns impress with some tandem offense and gain the advantage. Sabin catches Hero with a dive to the outside and Shelley adds a missile dropkick in the ring. Claudio connects with a bicycle kick on Shelley and the tide turns. The Kings isolate Shelley until he DDTs both of his them and makes the tag. Sabin comes off the middle rope with a hurricanrana on Hero and lands a plancha to the floor onto Claudio. He follows with a springboard tornado DDT on Hero. Shelley lands a crossbody on Hero and takes Claudio out on the floor with another crossbody. The MCMG hit a crossbody-neckbreaker combination on Hero. Everyone hits a move and all four men are down. Claudio absolutely launches Sabin into a european uppercut. Dear me. He follows with the UFO. Claudio giant swings Sabin into a flash dropkick from Hero. Shelley misses a double stomp and walks into a roaring elbow. Hero adds another roaring elbow but Shelley won’t stay down. Sabin connects with an enzuigiri on Claudio and Shelley follows with an assisted sliced bread. The MCMG lay out Hero with multiple kicks for a nearfall. Shane Hagadorn tosses Hero his loaded elbow pad while Sara Del Rey distracts the referee. The Briscoes run out, causing a disqualification at 22:07. This is one of the more frustrating disqualification finishes in recent memory. The Kings and MCMG went out there and provided the best tag team wrestling I’ve seen in 2010 for twenty-two minutes. This contest was possibly on its way to being my new ROH match of the year. I understand the logic behind the Briscoes running in but it still leaves a sour taste. At least we received a chance to witness what these two teams could do together. The action was just so innovative and they made twenty-two minutes seem like ten. The finish was a shame but the action up to that point was tremendous. ***¾
The Briscoes send the Kings of Wrestling to the floor. Jay hits the Jay Driller on Sara Del Rey. The crowd IS NOT happy.
Austin Aries visits Julius Smokes backstage. Aries asks him for some advice on being a manager. Smokes says some incoherent lines and that’s about it.

Match #8: ROH World Title: Tyler Black © vs. Roderick Strong

Black connects with a dropkick and starts working over Strong’s left shoulder. The crowd is very split on how they feel about Black. Strong hits a leg lariat and wins a strike exchange. Black responds with a stomp to the face. The action goes to the floor where Strong dumps Black across the apron. He suplexes Black on the floor and starts working over the midsection back in the ring. They battle on the apron and Strong hits a back suplex. Black comes back with standing shooting star press and just dumps Strong to the outside. Black follows out with a dive. In the ring, Strong counters Paroxysm with a gourdbuster. He hits a falcon arrow and back suplexes Black to the floor. Strong tries a dive from the apron but Black catches him and hits an F5. Back in, Black connects with a corner double stomp and hits Paroxysm. Strong answers with a backbreaker and hits another backbreaker across the top turnbuckle. He applies the Stronghold but Black makes the ropes. Black hits God’s Last Gift out of nowhere and follows with a bucklebomb. Strong immediately responds with a yakuza kick. Black counters a backbreaker with a hurricanrana and accidentally superkicks Todd Sinclair. Strong hits a backbreaker and connects with a yakuza kick. Paul Turner runs into the ring and counts the nearfall. Black bucklebombs Strong into Turner and connects with a superkick. A third referee runs out, trips, and counts another nearfall. Strong inadvertently sends the third referee to the floor and hits a backbreaker. Thankfully, Todd Sinclair recovers and counts to two. They trade strikes and Strong hits another backbreaker. Black falls victim to an enzuigiri, gutbuster, and Gibson Driver for a two count. Black recovers with a superplex to retain his title at 27:10. I know that they wanted the finish to be a top rope God’s Last Gift, but believe me when I say that it was a superplex. This was their platform to have a fantastic match and I think the contest turned out to be a little disappointing. The action was predominantly back and forth and I think the match was too long for it to be that way. Strong didn’t work over Black’s back an awful lot and I wasn’t buying any of the nearfalls off of Strong’s backbreakers. I also thought that the multiple referee bumps were unnecessary. There are a lot of better ways to make Strong feel like he was cheated. I know that I complained about this match a lot. It’s definitely worth watching. However, they didn’t manage to top their previous efforts. ***¾
Black offers a handshake and Strong just slaps him. They brawl until staff pulls them apart. Strong grabs the microphone and complains about the multiple referees needed tonight. He says that in the end, only the strong survive. Backstage, Strong explains that he finally found someone that will tell him the *truth*.

Overall
: Supercard of Honor V is a highly consistent show. While I’m not sure how it compares to previous events of the same name, there are numerous worthwhile matches on this release. Daniels and Edwards have a smart match that truly shows the value of Daniels in ROH. The main events had potential to be elevated to the next level but some booking annoyances stopped that from happening. The rest of the card is padded with a fun opener and a quality hardcore showcase from Steen and Cabana. Simply because of the title, I was expecting a bit more from this show. However, there are more than enough good matches here to earn a solid recommendation.

One thought on “ROH: Supercard of Honor V Review”
  1. I was there live and it was great minus the stupid Embassy feud. Did it not transfer well to DVD?

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