ROH Night of the Grudges II

1. Carnage Crew vs. Dunn and Marcos - Weapons Match - 5
2. Azrieal vs. Jerrelle Clark - 3
3. Jay Lethal vs. Ricky Reyes - 4
4. Colt Cabana vs. Nigel McGuinness - Soccer Riot Match - 5
5. James Gibson vs. Homicide vs. Spanky - 4
6. The Heartbreak Express vs. Lacey's Angels - 0
7. Austin Aries and Roderick Strong vs. Jimmy Rave and Puma - 4
8. James Gibson vs. Spanky - 4
9. Samoa Joe vs. Christopher Daniels - 5

Real surprised at how gnarly the opener was, never knew it existed, and was basically a TLC match full of outrageous bumps and blood. Azrieal and Clark opted not to do a FIP showcase of derivative flashy spots and tried to do Jun Akiyama impressions belting each other with forearms. Reyes dominated on offense which was dull but I bumped it up a point for Lethal nearly killing him with the finishing suplex dropping Ricky on his large head. Colt and Nigel did a crowd brawl, some fun spots, falling down stairs, Cabana getting knocked off the top buckle to a table on the floor, etc.

Three-way enticed me but left me feeling like I did when my ex-girlfriend stopped blowing me because her dog wanted to go outside. Fun stuff, strong personalities on all three, especially Kendrick running scared but screwjob finish killed it for me. Gibson beat up the four participants of the following match before it started thus rendering it as pointless as Rob Zombie's re-imagining of Halloween. Next, perfunctory tag match, wasn't bad but it's just shocking watching Aries five years ago when he didn't have a modicum of the personality he now displays. He and Strong come off here about as bland as the infinitesimally rare limited edition water-flavored Ben and Jerry's ice cream. I had a bowl of it once in a dream while Beyonce mowed my lawn topless -- must have been mid-term stress induced.

Spanky and Gibson keep it simple in their singles bout, Kendrick feigns an injured limb, playing possum effectively. I'm not as convinced as apparently most are about the success of Gibson's title reign, I've yet to see any of his ROH stuff that I'd classify as great in so far as fantastic performances or gifted storytelling. I couldn't consciously give the main event a recommendable score. I figured veteran Daniels would lead Joe around like a latchkey kid, but instead, we got a low impact affair, further maligned by being under "Pure" rules so it was built around rope breaks instead of bone breaks. A fairly lackluster show from ROH's alleged best period.