Sunday, September 2, 2007

Universal Uproar UK Event - 11/12/05

1) Jonny Storm, Amazing Red, & Spud vs. Jody Fleisch, James Tighe, & Aviv Mayann – 3
2) D-Lo Brown vs. Joe Legend – 4
3) Nigel McGuinness vs. Colt Cabana – European Rules Match – 3
4) Low Ki vs. Homicide – 5
5) Sonjay Dutt vs. Shannon Moore – 4
6) Mick Foley, The Sandman, Steve Corino, & Paul Travell vs. Alex Shane, Martin Stone, Stixx, & Iceman – Hardcore Rules Elimination Match – 2
7) Kenta Kobashi & Go Shiozaki vs. Jun Akiyama & Doug Williams – 8

The opening six-man had potential but it quickly fell apart. There were a few cool spots and a nice sequence that had five different submissions locked in at one time. There were quite a few high-risk spots that were meant to get the crowd into it but utimately it failed. D-Lo and Legend had a very acceptable encounter in which the announcers claimed that D-Lo was emulating Legend. I don’t see how that could be because I didn’t see Legend steal any moves. I saw Cabana and Nigel wrestle at an ROH show this past summer and to be quite honest, I wasn’t a big fan of their effort. Now, they added in the stipulation of European rules, which means rounds, and it just gets that much more convoluted. They did do some nice technical spots but it didn’t impress me. Cabana really should go back to blowing yaks or whatever it is he does between gigs because his wrestling career is going nowhere fast. Nigel could have a good run as a British bad-ass in ROH but Cabana and his polka dots just suck. Low Ki and Homicide had a fairly decent match but it wasn’t really anything special. It was obvious to me that the announcers had seen either very little or roughly nothing of Low Ki’s work as they were really blown away by everything. The match itself was good and Ki won with his trademark mushroom stomp. Sonjay and Shannon kept the crowd from going to sleep. In an interesting development, Sonjay was playing the heel and worked the mic in the middle of the bout. Moore was right at the beginning stages of his punk rock gimmick and didn’t have the big mohawk he does now. The match was good for what it was because it was obviously filler. The hardcore match was sloppy as hell and featured terribly bad brawling all around. Following all that mess, there was a giant crowd brawl and the fat tub of goo known as Iceman got tossed off a balcony. Then, the ref did a huge balcony spot. After all of this, they get back in the ring and start doing chain wrestling again and Foley gets eliminated in the middle of the match. The main event tag match was a complete turnaround from all the messy hardcore brawling and worthless mid-card matches. It was stiff beyond belief and was all four men at their finest. Kobashi and Akiyama even did a giant crowd brawl! Shiozaki and Williams held their own against the rugged veterans Kobashi and Akiyama. I would recommend this DVD only for the main event tag and possibly a mild recommendation on the Low Ki – Homicide match.

Bonus Match – Stevie Lynn & Low Ki vs. Amazing Red & Ice XVII – 3
This was a big pile of yuck. Low Ki and Red had a fantastic match on the ROH Road to the Title DVD but failed in their attempts to recreate that magic. Lynn and Ice worked really bad exchanges. All four men looked like they didn’t want to be there and I wanted to stick a penny in a light socket afterwards.

No comments: