Mr Monday Night
28/08/2006, 21h36
J'ai trouvé sur le site de la ROH un résumé du match de COD qui à eu lieu récemment à la Ring of Honor pour conclure la feud RoH-CZW. C'est Bob Magee qui l'a écrit. Ca vous donne un apercu de la qualité du combat:
Talk about getting a good review....Lord...
Derek Burgan reviews ROH Cage of Death
DVD Review
Cage of Death
From Ring of Honor's Death Before Dishonor IV DVD
It's not often that I get a wrestling DVD and skip to one match. Even when I got a hold of the heavily hyped Joe vs. Kobashi DVD I watched the whole show in order. The Cage of Death though… man, I couldn't wait for this match. If you read my thoughts on the recent Milestone Series you know how I feel about the feud with CZW and ROH. I love it. It's an invasion storyline done right and this match was what it was all leading up to. So when I finally got a hold of the latest Ring of Honor DVD release, Death Before Dishonor IV, I immediately skipped to the main event.
On to the CAGE OF DEATH~!
The Cage of Death is a huge six sided cage that surrounds the ring. Inside the cage were ladders, steel chairs, tables covered in barbed wire and garbage cans. Plunder a'plenty. The COD is an annual event at CZW shows and you can check them out, including the latest one – COD 7 - at Smart Mark Video. ROH ring announcer Bobby Cruise read off the rules saying that it was basically modeled after the old War Games format that WCW used to have. One man from each side starts the match for five minutes until another wrestler joins the action. A coin flip decides which team gets the advantage. From that point on a wrestler will join the action ever two minutes. A pinfall or submission finish came only come once all 10 men have entered the match.
There are two referees for the match, ROH's senior ref (Todd Sinclair) and CZW's Bryce Remsburg. There is no commentary for the match, but it works because the crowd reactions are completely insane. This is Canadian Stampede level. ROH has the separate bleachers dealie going on and, while the CZW side is clearly outnumbered, both sides are very vocal throughout the match. JJ Dillon, who has been a part of many War Games as part of the Four Horsemen, came to ringside to call the coin flip. ROH wins the coin flip and gains the advantage, which just may be the first time in the history of War Games-style matches that the babyface team won the coin flip.
Samoa Joe was the first man announced for the match and the crowd went hoss. Once inside the COD, Joe flipped off the CZW fans. Joe was followed by Claudio Castagnoli. Good way to tie in with Claudio getting several cheap shots in at Joe once he turned on ROH. It was nice to see that Claudio also came from a side door, and not from "backstage" and through the main entrance. It's the little things the matter. Loud JOE'S GONNA KILL YOU chants before Claudio even entered the COD. Claudio stalled for time before getting into the ring and the fans let him have it chanting *****! Claudio was able to get an advantage once he got inside the ring and the CZW fans actually pulled out a chant that made me laugh when they yelled SLOPPY JOE! SLOPPY JOE! It didn't take long for Joe to get his groove back on as he stiff kicked Claudio to the outside and then dove onto Castagnoli with a suicide dive. On the floor, Joe kicked a garbage can, David Beckham style, into the head of Claudio. Joe then nailed the OLE OLE OLE kick. The crowd chanted ONE MORE TIME, which distracted Joe a little and allowed Claudio a chance to throw Joe into a ladder while on the floor.
Inside the ring, Claudio gets a series of European uppercuts, until Joe breaks that up with a stiff kick, followed by a 20 count face wash and running boot to Claudio's head! Castagnoli rolled out of the ring to escape Joe's wrath, but the Samoan half breed followed to continue the battle.
BJ Whitmer was the next man in the cage to give ROH a two-on-one advantage. Whitmer and Claudio went at it in the middle of the ring with Whitmer getting the best of the action and the crowd chanting BJ WHITMER! I never thought I'd live to see the day I'd hear that chant. In a neat move, Whitmer threw Claudio into a sidewalk slam courtesy of Samoa Joe. The ROH stars continue to beat on Castagnoli until the buzzer sounds and CZW champion, and self proclaimed savior of wrestling, Chris Hero, came to the ring. Loud **** YOU, HERO! chants rained down from the Philly fans. Whatever "it" is, Chris Hero has it. Lots of people can have a good match, but very few can inspire the fans to truly get behind them, or, in Hero's case, utterly despise them. I'd have to give Hero my MVP for the overall CZW/ROH feud as he went from a guy with long hair and okay gear to a main event level talent in my eyes.
Hero got into the ring, only to be immediately double teamed by Joe and Whitmer until a double eye poke gives CZW back the advantage. Hero and Castagnoli, who work together on the indie scene as the popular Kings of Wrestling tag team, began to methodically work over Joe and Whitmer. Hero stripped Whitmer of his ROH t-shirt and used it to wipe his ass. FOUL~! Hero and Castagnoli performed a devastating maneuver on Whitmer as the buzzer sounded and out came ROH champion Bryan Danielson. The American Dragon entered the ring hot and leveled both Hero and Castagnoli with a series of forearms. Danielson and Joe then began to work together as a veritable dream team, the first time since tagging together since facing off against KENTA & Marifuji at Best in the World. Danielson atomic dropped Hero into a running kick by Joe. Laying on the mat, Hero was then hit by a knee from Danielson and a senton from Joe in rapid fire succession. Hero rolled out of the ring to leave Castagnoli alone with the two best champs ROH has ever had.
Joe threw Claudio into the corner and came running across to deliver a knee to Castagnoli's face. Joe then threw Claudio into a flying elbow courtesy of the American Dragon. Danielson knocked Castagnoli out of the ring and set up Hero on the top rope and yelled, "Joe! MuscleBuster!" The crowd popped for this, but when Joe had Hero up for the move, Danielson chop blocked Joe's leg! Danielson then began to put the boots down on Joe before using a chair on Joe's knee. Jim Cornette came running down the ringside yelling, "What the hell is Danielson doing?! DANIELSON!" They opened up the COD to help Joe out and Danielson walked out as Cornette was screaming, "You stabbed me in the back!" Danielson just smirked at Cornette and flipped him off. I actually loved this idea as it got Joe and Danielson out of the ring instead of trying to stretch credibility that guys like Nate Webb could hang with them. No offense to Webb or any of the CZW guys, but Joe and Danielson are in a completely different league and don't need this match to get more over. It also furthers the Danielson/Joe feud, clearly established American Dragon as the biggest heel in the company, along with having the side benefit of getting Joe out of the ring to set up a huge surprise later in the match. The last thing you need is Joe being just another guy in a match, which is exactly what has killed his character in TNA.
Speaking of Nate Webb, while all this was going on, he entered the COD. Webb was wearing an ROH shirt with one of those "Ghostbusters"-like symbols spray painted on it. Hero put Whitmer in the Tree of Woe and laid a trash can in front of BJ's face. Webb then nailed a springboard Van Terminator moonsault onto BJ as the CZW fans went insane. God damn was that impressive. Webb, Hero, and Castagnoli then took a minute to rub it into the faces of the ROH fans that they had a three on one advantage. The three men then geared up for the next ROH entrant into the ring, but it looked like Adam Pearce used a back door to get into the COD. Pearce came in and immediately went wild on al three men, even holding Claudio so that Whitmer could lay a blistering chop into Castagnoli's chest. Pearce has the whole blue-jeans-with-knee-pads-on-the-outside deal that I never understood. It just looks a little off.
Hero threw a trash can at Whitmer's head and that gave back the advantage to the CZW team. Outside the ring, Claudio stopped an attempted piledriver by Adam Pearce and instead monkeyflipped Pearce into the side of the cage. Time for another huge CZW advantage as The Necro Butcher made his way to the ring. Necro immediately started to beat on BJ Whitmer as Chris Hero hilariously sat on a chair in the ring and put his feet up on the ropes. Necro grabbed a garbage can and slammed it across Whitmer's head before picking up both Whitmer and a steel chair and performing a body slam. That was neat. Necro went for a pin, but Claudio had to inform him that the match couldn't end until every man had entered. Hero was making me laugh again by telling the fans to kiss his ass and doing the most hilarious "shake your booty" deal that you'll see this side of a flaming gay stereotype in a movie. Hero just oozes such a wonderful heel persona that makes you want to kill him.
Two minutes later and Ace Steel ran to the ring with a cow bell to help out the odds a little for ROH. Steel hit everyone with his cow bell and some of those shots looked sick. Steel was about to nail CZW ref Remsburg when Hero nailed Ace with a ladder shot. Hero grabbed a mic and started a "CZW" chant. Hero then said he was about to introduce his mystery partner and claimed to have made a deal with the devil himself to get this guy onto his team. While Hero was talking, Ace Steel LEVELED Hero with a garbage can. The rest of Team CZW made the save and Hero went nuts yelling, "It's gonna take a lot more than ****ing that to get rid of Chris Hero!" Hero went on to say that CZW's fifth man is someone that he hates, but when everyone expects him to pull an ace out of his sleeve, he pulls out a king of diamonds. Out came Eddie Kingston to huge "Eddie! Eddie! chants from the CZW faithful. I believe this is the first time Kingston has ever been on an ROH show. Even though I'm not sure how many ROH fans watching the DVD will know who Eddie is, the reaction he got from the crowd in Philly (who have seen Kingston wrestle in CZW, IWA-MS, and CHIKARA) and the great introduction he got from Hero really made him seem like something special and emphasized the great lengths Hero would go to in order to defeat ROH. This isn't Booking 101, this is advanced level ****.
Kingston came in and immediately hit Ace Steel in the face with a high boot. The CZW team then put a whuppin' on team ROH, with Pearce bleeding like a stuck pig. Hero held Whitmer for Kingston to throw some chops into, but Whitmer dodged one chop that ended up hitting Hero. This caused a showdown between Hero and Kingston. Hero and Kingston slapped the taste out of each other's mouth and began to push each other around when the lights went down and HOMICIDE'S MUSIC HIT!
IT'S MOTHER F---ING HOMICIDE!!
To say the crowd went bat**** insane would be the understatement of the year. This was awesome. Homicide came out holding a board. It said something on one side that I couldn't read, but the other side said "OUCH" in big letters. Homicide was also wearing his ring gear from the first year of ROH. The outfit that had the Michael Myers (from the old movie Halloween) face on the back. In a bit of foreshadowing, Homicide stared a hole in JJ Dillon before entering the COD. Homicide took his board and smashed it upside Kingston's head. This broke the board into two. Now I'll never know what that damn board said. Homicide then started whacking the rest of Team CZW with the piece of board still in his hand.
In possible one of the greatest wrestling moments of the year, Necro started laying into Homicide and went to grab a chair. Now, earlier on in the match, BJ Whitmer came to the ring with a small bag and laid it in a corner. Homicide grabbed this bag and, as Necro came running across the ring with the chair, 'Cide dumped a bag of thumbtacks in Necro's path! This was great as Necro Butcher came to a screeching halt, screaming as his bare feet stepped on the tacks! Homicide then grabbed a handful of tacks and threw them into Necro Butcher's face! This blinded Necro so that he walked into an Exploder suplex from BJ Whitmer. The second greatest moment of the year followed as Homicide went into his boots, grabbed out GHETTO FORKS, and tossed them to the rest of the ROH team. Priceless.
All the ROH guys began stabbing their opponents, with Homicide even stopping to wipe Kingston's blood over his own forehead. The crowd was in complete euphoria at this point. Outside the ring, Pearce finally hit Claudio with a piledriver. Necro Butcher and Whitmer battled over a barbed wire baseball bat while Adam Pearce went back into the ring to military press and toss Nate Webb onto a table on the floor. It was a blink-and-you-miss-it spot, but it was awesome. In another nice spot, CZW ref Remsburg pulled Todd Sinclair off Webb so that he could check on Webb himself. Sheer brutality continued, with Necro and Homicide going toe to toe on the floor as Pearce and Ace Steel combined for a sick double team move on Webb and Kingston.
Team CZW began to make a small comeback and the CZW fans started to chant "SIX ON FIVE! SIX ON FIVE! It didn't take long for the ROH fans to realize it was actually only five on four and responded with a loud "YOU CAN'T COUNT!" chant. Funny stuff. Although to be fair, the CZW fans could have been pointing out that ROH have now officially had six combatants enter the cage compared to CZW's five. Pearce gave Webb some sort of spinning Burning Hammer onto the tacks that looked painful as hell. Hero used a chair to push tacks out of his way and the ROH fans let him have it with a "SWEEP IT UP, ASSHOLE, SWEEP IT UP!" chant. Talk about old school ECW. Hero set up a chair in the ring, but ended up getting an Ace Crusher from Homicide onto said chair. After several minutes of insanity outside, Hero began to climb up the COD. Hero was followed by Adam Pearce. Out of nowhere we got to see Nate Webb run the ring and do a crazy flippity do to the outside. Back to Hero and Pearce battling on the COD itself, Claudio Castagnoli went to the top rope and jumped onto the cage to battle Pearce! Wow. Castagnoli then did a leg sweep onto Pearce and the both destroyed a table on the ground.
Hero climbed to the top of the COD and delivered a moonsault to Team ROH that would have made Teddy Hart proud. The camera cut to Pearce and Castagnoli, who were still selling that they were dead. Crowd began to chant "THIS IS AWESOME!" It just gets better as in the ring Whitmer gives Hero a brainbuster on a chair that looked like it should have killed poor young Chris Hero. Whitmer and Homicide then suplexed Necro Butcher onto a chair and that spot looked like it should have broken Necro's back. Just ****ing INSANE. Whitmer then gave Necro a Samoan drop from the ring apron onto a barbed wire table on the floor. Dangeroussssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss! To further illustrate how deep the booking was, Necro and Whitmer battled over barbed wire throughout the match in order to set up their upcoming no-rope barbed wire match at War of the Wire 2.
There was a barbed wire board in the ring and Homicide faced off against Nate Webb. Webb got a low blow and went for a moonsault while holding a steel chair, but Homicide rolled out of the way. Homicide went for a Cop Killah, but Webb slipped out it. Webb went for a powerbomb of his own, but Homicide got out of that and then nailed Webb with a Cop Killah onto the barbed wire board. ARE YOU ****ING KIDDING ME?! Homicide then made the pin attempt. 1…2…3! ROH wins.
After the match, Jim Cornette gets on the mic and told the "garbage wrestlers" that they were beating at their own game and told the ring crew to take out the trash. The fans chanted the Nah Nah, Hey Hey, Goodbye song. Chris Hero was able to flip off the ROH fans despite being assisted to the back. Cornette thanked Team ROH and asked JJ Dillon, Adam Pearce, and Homicide to stick around. Cornette thanked Dillon for his work and Adam Pearce for filling in for Cornette as the Lt Commisioner the last few months after the Louisville Lip had knee surgery.
Cornette then thanked Homicide for being a man and helping ROH win the war against CZW. Cornette added that he would grant Homicide his three wishes. Homicide said his first wish was that he wanted a match against Steve Corino in an ROH ring. Cornette said he would make it happen if he had to drive Corinio to the show himself. Homicide then said he wanted a shot at the ROH world title. Cornette said it would be done. Homicide then asked for his final wish, the reinstatement of Low Ki. The crowd was chanting LOW KI! LOW KI! before Homicide even asked for the wish. Cornette said no way and added he would do anything to help Homicide, but not the guy that knocked out his teeth. The crowd was jeering Cornette and Corny sold it as it was really getting to him. Cornette added that he already granted the biggest possible wish, an ROH title shot (nicely putting over the company's belt), and asked Homicide to ask for something else 'cause Low Ki wasn't coming back. Cornette even called Homicide "Homocide" for wanting a man so bad. OH~! Homicide called Cornette a liar for not giving him his third wish and spit in Cornette's face!
Adam Pearce tried to attack Homicide from behind, but the Notorious 187 caught Pearce coming in and fought him off. Homicide then turned around to have mace sprayed in his face by Cornette. As Homicide blindly stumbled around, Cornette ordered Dillon to lock the COD and Dillon complied. Pearce and Cornette then handcuffed Homicide to the ring post. Julius Smokes started to climb the COD, but Cornette sprayed him with mace as well. Cornette then took off his belt and whipped Homicide's back! The crowd couldn't believe what was going on and this would go down as another insane ending that fits nicely in the legacy of Death Before Dishonor.
And that's just ONE MATCH on the Death Before Dishonor IV DVD! There's also a packed card that features: Delirious vs. Seth Delay, The Embassy's Jimmy Rave & Sal Rinuaro vs. Colt Cabana & Jay Lethal, Nigel McGuinness vs. Roderick Strong in a Pure Title Match, Jay & Mark Briscoe vs. Irish Airborne, AJ Styles vs. Davey Richards, and Bryan Danielson vs. Sonjay Dutt in an ROH World Title Match. There's also a ton of highlights from every CZW/ROH encounter throughout the year, from Chris Hero showing up in Philly to fight Bryan Danielson at Hell Freezes Over to the wild six man match at Chi-Town Struggle and everything in between! The insane altercations during the Milestone Series? The electric main event at ROH's 100th show? It's all here.
Overall Thoughts: Check under your couch cushions, raid your little sister's piggy bank, steal your grandmother's Medicaid money, do whatever you can to order this DVD. Seven months of various storylines all came to a head in one match. Major props to the crowd in Philly which was just amped the entire match. My MVP goes to an unheralded Nate Webb, who had the match of his life and was given his fair share of great moments in a match that was filled with much higher profile guys. Webb nailed everything he did on a "one take" match which is amazing when so called "amazing" spots on WWE shows are routinely blown and most of the shows are taped to hide the weaknesses. Both teams were given an equal amount of offense to really make this war seem special. CZW vs. ROH has been one of the greatest things in pro wrestling this year and this is your chance to see a worthy final chapter that completely made so many men. Highest possible recommendation. If you are interested in purchasing a copy ofDeath Before Dishonor IV featuring the Cage of Death, Click HERE or head over to www.ROHwrestling.com and check out all the DVDs they have to offer. The insane altercations during the Milestone Series? The electric main event at ROH's 100th show? It's all here.
Talk about getting a good review....Lord...
Derek Burgan reviews ROH Cage of Death
DVD Review
Cage of Death
From Ring of Honor's Death Before Dishonor IV DVD
It's not often that I get a wrestling DVD and skip to one match. Even when I got a hold of the heavily hyped Joe vs. Kobashi DVD I watched the whole show in order. The Cage of Death though… man, I couldn't wait for this match. If you read my thoughts on the recent Milestone Series you know how I feel about the feud with CZW and ROH. I love it. It's an invasion storyline done right and this match was what it was all leading up to. So when I finally got a hold of the latest Ring of Honor DVD release, Death Before Dishonor IV, I immediately skipped to the main event.
On to the CAGE OF DEATH~!
The Cage of Death is a huge six sided cage that surrounds the ring. Inside the cage were ladders, steel chairs, tables covered in barbed wire and garbage cans. Plunder a'plenty. The COD is an annual event at CZW shows and you can check them out, including the latest one – COD 7 - at Smart Mark Video. ROH ring announcer Bobby Cruise read off the rules saying that it was basically modeled after the old War Games format that WCW used to have. One man from each side starts the match for five minutes until another wrestler joins the action. A coin flip decides which team gets the advantage. From that point on a wrestler will join the action ever two minutes. A pinfall or submission finish came only come once all 10 men have entered the match.
There are two referees for the match, ROH's senior ref (Todd Sinclair) and CZW's Bryce Remsburg. There is no commentary for the match, but it works because the crowd reactions are completely insane. This is Canadian Stampede level. ROH has the separate bleachers dealie going on and, while the CZW side is clearly outnumbered, both sides are very vocal throughout the match. JJ Dillon, who has been a part of many War Games as part of the Four Horsemen, came to ringside to call the coin flip. ROH wins the coin flip and gains the advantage, which just may be the first time in the history of War Games-style matches that the babyface team won the coin flip.
Samoa Joe was the first man announced for the match and the crowd went hoss. Once inside the COD, Joe flipped off the CZW fans. Joe was followed by Claudio Castagnoli. Good way to tie in with Claudio getting several cheap shots in at Joe once he turned on ROH. It was nice to see that Claudio also came from a side door, and not from "backstage" and through the main entrance. It's the little things the matter. Loud JOE'S GONNA KILL YOU chants before Claudio even entered the COD. Claudio stalled for time before getting into the ring and the fans let him have it chanting *****! Claudio was able to get an advantage once he got inside the ring and the CZW fans actually pulled out a chant that made me laugh when they yelled SLOPPY JOE! SLOPPY JOE! It didn't take long for Joe to get his groove back on as he stiff kicked Claudio to the outside and then dove onto Castagnoli with a suicide dive. On the floor, Joe kicked a garbage can, David Beckham style, into the head of Claudio. Joe then nailed the OLE OLE OLE kick. The crowd chanted ONE MORE TIME, which distracted Joe a little and allowed Claudio a chance to throw Joe into a ladder while on the floor.
Inside the ring, Claudio gets a series of European uppercuts, until Joe breaks that up with a stiff kick, followed by a 20 count face wash and running boot to Claudio's head! Castagnoli rolled out of the ring to escape Joe's wrath, but the Samoan half breed followed to continue the battle.
BJ Whitmer was the next man in the cage to give ROH a two-on-one advantage. Whitmer and Claudio went at it in the middle of the ring with Whitmer getting the best of the action and the crowd chanting BJ WHITMER! I never thought I'd live to see the day I'd hear that chant. In a neat move, Whitmer threw Claudio into a sidewalk slam courtesy of Samoa Joe. The ROH stars continue to beat on Castagnoli until the buzzer sounds and CZW champion, and self proclaimed savior of wrestling, Chris Hero, came to the ring. Loud **** YOU, HERO! chants rained down from the Philly fans. Whatever "it" is, Chris Hero has it. Lots of people can have a good match, but very few can inspire the fans to truly get behind them, or, in Hero's case, utterly despise them. I'd have to give Hero my MVP for the overall CZW/ROH feud as he went from a guy with long hair and okay gear to a main event level talent in my eyes.
Hero got into the ring, only to be immediately double teamed by Joe and Whitmer until a double eye poke gives CZW back the advantage. Hero and Castagnoli, who work together on the indie scene as the popular Kings of Wrestling tag team, began to methodically work over Joe and Whitmer. Hero stripped Whitmer of his ROH t-shirt and used it to wipe his ass. FOUL~! Hero and Castagnoli performed a devastating maneuver on Whitmer as the buzzer sounded and out came ROH champion Bryan Danielson. The American Dragon entered the ring hot and leveled both Hero and Castagnoli with a series of forearms. Danielson and Joe then began to work together as a veritable dream team, the first time since tagging together since facing off against KENTA & Marifuji at Best in the World. Danielson atomic dropped Hero into a running kick by Joe. Laying on the mat, Hero was then hit by a knee from Danielson and a senton from Joe in rapid fire succession. Hero rolled out of the ring to leave Castagnoli alone with the two best champs ROH has ever had.
Joe threw Claudio into the corner and came running across to deliver a knee to Castagnoli's face. Joe then threw Claudio into a flying elbow courtesy of the American Dragon. Danielson knocked Castagnoli out of the ring and set up Hero on the top rope and yelled, "Joe! MuscleBuster!" The crowd popped for this, but when Joe had Hero up for the move, Danielson chop blocked Joe's leg! Danielson then began to put the boots down on Joe before using a chair on Joe's knee. Jim Cornette came running down the ringside yelling, "What the hell is Danielson doing?! DANIELSON!" They opened up the COD to help Joe out and Danielson walked out as Cornette was screaming, "You stabbed me in the back!" Danielson just smirked at Cornette and flipped him off. I actually loved this idea as it got Joe and Danielson out of the ring instead of trying to stretch credibility that guys like Nate Webb could hang with them. No offense to Webb or any of the CZW guys, but Joe and Danielson are in a completely different league and don't need this match to get more over. It also furthers the Danielson/Joe feud, clearly established American Dragon as the biggest heel in the company, along with having the side benefit of getting Joe out of the ring to set up a huge surprise later in the match. The last thing you need is Joe being just another guy in a match, which is exactly what has killed his character in TNA.
Speaking of Nate Webb, while all this was going on, he entered the COD. Webb was wearing an ROH shirt with one of those "Ghostbusters"-like symbols spray painted on it. Hero put Whitmer in the Tree of Woe and laid a trash can in front of BJ's face. Webb then nailed a springboard Van Terminator moonsault onto BJ as the CZW fans went insane. God damn was that impressive. Webb, Hero, and Castagnoli then took a minute to rub it into the faces of the ROH fans that they had a three on one advantage. The three men then geared up for the next ROH entrant into the ring, but it looked like Adam Pearce used a back door to get into the COD. Pearce came in and immediately went wild on al three men, even holding Claudio so that Whitmer could lay a blistering chop into Castagnoli's chest. Pearce has the whole blue-jeans-with-knee-pads-on-the-outside deal that I never understood. It just looks a little off.
Hero threw a trash can at Whitmer's head and that gave back the advantage to the CZW team. Outside the ring, Claudio stopped an attempted piledriver by Adam Pearce and instead monkeyflipped Pearce into the side of the cage. Time for another huge CZW advantage as The Necro Butcher made his way to the ring. Necro immediately started to beat on BJ Whitmer as Chris Hero hilariously sat on a chair in the ring and put his feet up on the ropes. Necro grabbed a garbage can and slammed it across Whitmer's head before picking up both Whitmer and a steel chair and performing a body slam. That was neat. Necro went for a pin, but Claudio had to inform him that the match couldn't end until every man had entered. Hero was making me laugh again by telling the fans to kiss his ass and doing the most hilarious "shake your booty" deal that you'll see this side of a flaming gay stereotype in a movie. Hero just oozes such a wonderful heel persona that makes you want to kill him.
Two minutes later and Ace Steel ran to the ring with a cow bell to help out the odds a little for ROH. Steel hit everyone with his cow bell and some of those shots looked sick. Steel was about to nail CZW ref Remsburg when Hero nailed Ace with a ladder shot. Hero grabbed a mic and started a "CZW" chant. Hero then said he was about to introduce his mystery partner and claimed to have made a deal with the devil himself to get this guy onto his team. While Hero was talking, Ace Steel LEVELED Hero with a garbage can. The rest of Team CZW made the save and Hero went nuts yelling, "It's gonna take a lot more than ****ing that to get rid of Chris Hero!" Hero went on to say that CZW's fifth man is someone that he hates, but when everyone expects him to pull an ace out of his sleeve, he pulls out a king of diamonds. Out came Eddie Kingston to huge "Eddie! Eddie! chants from the CZW faithful. I believe this is the first time Kingston has ever been on an ROH show. Even though I'm not sure how many ROH fans watching the DVD will know who Eddie is, the reaction he got from the crowd in Philly (who have seen Kingston wrestle in CZW, IWA-MS, and CHIKARA) and the great introduction he got from Hero really made him seem like something special and emphasized the great lengths Hero would go to in order to defeat ROH. This isn't Booking 101, this is advanced level ****.
Kingston came in and immediately hit Ace Steel in the face with a high boot. The CZW team then put a whuppin' on team ROH, with Pearce bleeding like a stuck pig. Hero held Whitmer for Kingston to throw some chops into, but Whitmer dodged one chop that ended up hitting Hero. This caused a showdown between Hero and Kingston. Hero and Kingston slapped the taste out of each other's mouth and began to push each other around when the lights went down and HOMICIDE'S MUSIC HIT!
IT'S MOTHER F---ING HOMICIDE!!
To say the crowd went bat**** insane would be the understatement of the year. This was awesome. Homicide came out holding a board. It said something on one side that I couldn't read, but the other side said "OUCH" in big letters. Homicide was also wearing his ring gear from the first year of ROH. The outfit that had the Michael Myers (from the old movie Halloween) face on the back. In a bit of foreshadowing, Homicide stared a hole in JJ Dillon before entering the COD. Homicide took his board and smashed it upside Kingston's head. This broke the board into two. Now I'll never know what that damn board said. Homicide then started whacking the rest of Team CZW with the piece of board still in his hand.
In possible one of the greatest wrestling moments of the year, Necro started laying into Homicide and went to grab a chair. Now, earlier on in the match, BJ Whitmer came to the ring with a small bag and laid it in a corner. Homicide grabbed this bag and, as Necro came running across the ring with the chair, 'Cide dumped a bag of thumbtacks in Necro's path! This was great as Necro Butcher came to a screeching halt, screaming as his bare feet stepped on the tacks! Homicide then grabbed a handful of tacks and threw them into Necro Butcher's face! This blinded Necro so that he walked into an Exploder suplex from BJ Whitmer. The second greatest moment of the year followed as Homicide went into his boots, grabbed out GHETTO FORKS, and tossed them to the rest of the ROH team. Priceless.
All the ROH guys began stabbing their opponents, with Homicide even stopping to wipe Kingston's blood over his own forehead. The crowd was in complete euphoria at this point. Outside the ring, Pearce finally hit Claudio with a piledriver. Necro Butcher and Whitmer battled over a barbed wire baseball bat while Adam Pearce went back into the ring to military press and toss Nate Webb onto a table on the floor. It was a blink-and-you-miss-it spot, but it was awesome. In another nice spot, CZW ref Remsburg pulled Todd Sinclair off Webb so that he could check on Webb himself. Sheer brutality continued, with Necro and Homicide going toe to toe on the floor as Pearce and Ace Steel combined for a sick double team move on Webb and Kingston.
Team CZW began to make a small comeback and the CZW fans started to chant "SIX ON FIVE! SIX ON FIVE! It didn't take long for the ROH fans to realize it was actually only five on four and responded with a loud "YOU CAN'T COUNT!" chant. Funny stuff. Although to be fair, the CZW fans could have been pointing out that ROH have now officially had six combatants enter the cage compared to CZW's five. Pearce gave Webb some sort of spinning Burning Hammer onto the tacks that looked painful as hell. Hero used a chair to push tacks out of his way and the ROH fans let him have it with a "SWEEP IT UP, ASSHOLE, SWEEP IT UP!" chant. Talk about old school ECW. Hero set up a chair in the ring, but ended up getting an Ace Crusher from Homicide onto said chair. After several minutes of insanity outside, Hero began to climb up the COD. Hero was followed by Adam Pearce. Out of nowhere we got to see Nate Webb run the ring and do a crazy flippity do to the outside. Back to Hero and Pearce battling on the COD itself, Claudio Castagnoli went to the top rope and jumped onto the cage to battle Pearce! Wow. Castagnoli then did a leg sweep onto Pearce and the both destroyed a table on the ground.
Hero climbed to the top of the COD and delivered a moonsault to Team ROH that would have made Teddy Hart proud. The camera cut to Pearce and Castagnoli, who were still selling that they were dead. Crowd began to chant "THIS IS AWESOME!" It just gets better as in the ring Whitmer gives Hero a brainbuster on a chair that looked like it should have killed poor young Chris Hero. Whitmer and Homicide then suplexed Necro Butcher onto a chair and that spot looked like it should have broken Necro's back. Just ****ing INSANE. Whitmer then gave Necro a Samoan drop from the ring apron onto a barbed wire table on the floor. Dangeroussssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss! To further illustrate how deep the booking was, Necro and Whitmer battled over barbed wire throughout the match in order to set up their upcoming no-rope barbed wire match at War of the Wire 2.
There was a barbed wire board in the ring and Homicide faced off against Nate Webb. Webb got a low blow and went for a moonsault while holding a steel chair, but Homicide rolled out of the way. Homicide went for a Cop Killah, but Webb slipped out it. Webb went for a powerbomb of his own, but Homicide got out of that and then nailed Webb with a Cop Killah onto the barbed wire board. ARE YOU ****ING KIDDING ME?! Homicide then made the pin attempt. 1…2…3! ROH wins.
After the match, Jim Cornette gets on the mic and told the "garbage wrestlers" that they were beating at their own game and told the ring crew to take out the trash. The fans chanted the Nah Nah, Hey Hey, Goodbye song. Chris Hero was able to flip off the ROH fans despite being assisted to the back. Cornette thanked Team ROH and asked JJ Dillon, Adam Pearce, and Homicide to stick around. Cornette thanked Dillon for his work and Adam Pearce for filling in for Cornette as the Lt Commisioner the last few months after the Louisville Lip had knee surgery.
Cornette then thanked Homicide for being a man and helping ROH win the war against CZW. Cornette added that he would grant Homicide his three wishes. Homicide said his first wish was that he wanted a match against Steve Corino in an ROH ring. Cornette said he would make it happen if he had to drive Corinio to the show himself. Homicide then said he wanted a shot at the ROH world title. Cornette said it would be done. Homicide then asked for his final wish, the reinstatement of Low Ki. The crowd was chanting LOW KI! LOW KI! before Homicide even asked for the wish. Cornette said no way and added he would do anything to help Homicide, but not the guy that knocked out his teeth. The crowd was jeering Cornette and Corny sold it as it was really getting to him. Cornette added that he already granted the biggest possible wish, an ROH title shot (nicely putting over the company's belt), and asked Homicide to ask for something else 'cause Low Ki wasn't coming back. Cornette even called Homicide "Homocide" for wanting a man so bad. OH~! Homicide called Cornette a liar for not giving him his third wish and spit in Cornette's face!
Adam Pearce tried to attack Homicide from behind, but the Notorious 187 caught Pearce coming in and fought him off. Homicide then turned around to have mace sprayed in his face by Cornette. As Homicide blindly stumbled around, Cornette ordered Dillon to lock the COD and Dillon complied. Pearce and Cornette then handcuffed Homicide to the ring post. Julius Smokes started to climb the COD, but Cornette sprayed him with mace as well. Cornette then took off his belt and whipped Homicide's back! The crowd couldn't believe what was going on and this would go down as another insane ending that fits nicely in the legacy of Death Before Dishonor.
And that's just ONE MATCH on the Death Before Dishonor IV DVD! There's also a packed card that features: Delirious vs. Seth Delay, The Embassy's Jimmy Rave & Sal Rinuaro vs. Colt Cabana & Jay Lethal, Nigel McGuinness vs. Roderick Strong in a Pure Title Match, Jay & Mark Briscoe vs. Irish Airborne, AJ Styles vs. Davey Richards, and Bryan Danielson vs. Sonjay Dutt in an ROH World Title Match. There's also a ton of highlights from every CZW/ROH encounter throughout the year, from Chris Hero showing up in Philly to fight Bryan Danielson at Hell Freezes Over to the wild six man match at Chi-Town Struggle and everything in between! The insane altercations during the Milestone Series? The electric main event at ROH's 100th show? It's all here.
Overall Thoughts: Check under your couch cushions, raid your little sister's piggy bank, steal your grandmother's Medicaid money, do whatever you can to order this DVD. Seven months of various storylines all came to a head in one match. Major props to the crowd in Philly which was just amped the entire match. My MVP goes to an unheralded Nate Webb, who had the match of his life and was given his fair share of great moments in a match that was filled with much higher profile guys. Webb nailed everything he did on a "one take" match which is amazing when so called "amazing" spots on WWE shows are routinely blown and most of the shows are taped to hide the weaknesses. Both teams were given an equal amount of offense to really make this war seem special. CZW vs. ROH has been one of the greatest things in pro wrestling this year and this is your chance to see a worthy final chapter that completely made so many men. Highest possible recommendation. If you are interested in purchasing a copy ofDeath Before Dishonor IV featuring the Cage of Death, Click HERE or head over to www.ROHwrestling.com and check out all the DVDs they have to offer. The insane altercations during the Milestone Series? The electric main event at ROH's 100th show? It's all here.