Tuesday, September 14, 2010

9/11/10 Glory by Honor IX

Kenny King vs. Jay Briscoe: Very solid opener. As expected, Titus came out to get involved in the match. Crowd definitely loved the acrobatics of both Kenny and Jay. I wish the match got more time. **3/4

Mark Briscoe vs. Rhett Titus: I liked the transition from the first match to this one. Loved Mark's version of Whisper in the Wind. Nice back-and-forth action. I also liked that they went back to basic wrestling near the end. Good to have each team pick up one singles win. **1/2

Necro Butcher & Erick Stevens vs. Grizzly Redwood & Ballz Mahoney: Funny how Ballz was just in TNA a few weeks ago as "Kahoneys" -- and now he's Ballz again. Yeah, way to go, WWE, for not letting Mahoney use his ECW name all this time. Anyway, decent match between these two. The feud is there, and it gives a nice push to the Embassy. **

Colt Cabana & El Generico vs. Kevin Steen & Steve Corino (Double Chain): Ha, Bobby Cruz (ring announcer) cautioned that this would be a bloody war and the crowd (including myself) cheered. No surprise that Generico wanted to be chained to Steen. Only a matter of time before we saw blood -- and we saw a bunch of it. Nice use of the chain. Stream cut off the finish, but from what I read, it was very good and takes the Steenerico feud to a whole new level. ***3/4

Eddie Edwards vs. Shawn Daivari (TV Title): Good match. Edwards looked very strong in this one. Didn't really believe at any point that Daivari would pull out a win. **

Christopher Daniels vs. Austin Aries: Very good match here, although I expected way more from these two. Solid win for Daniels; he needed the win more, in my opinion. Nice finish. ***1/2

Claudio Castagnoli & Chris Hero vs. Shelton Benjamin & Charlie Haas: Shelton has black hair again! Excellent match between these two. The only reason I didn't give it four or more: it was quite slow at times. The finish was awesome, as predicted, but I felt it just needed more. ***3/4

Roderick Strong vs. Tyler Black (No DQ; World Title): You know, this match really was both good and bad. It was good for the storyline, the false finishes, the ref bump (kudos to Todd Sinclair), and the symbolism with Tyler Black jumping to WWE (look at how he played the controversial John Cena-like role in this match). However, it was still disappointing because the match, when looked at a whole, was quite basic. Gutbusters, superkicks, chops, and finishing moves. Really, now? I've seen more action in some of John Cena's matches.

After the match was over, I couldn't help but think that this would be the place where Roderick and Tyler completed their double turn (Roderick going face and Tyler going heel). However, with Homicide returning, seemingly to face Strong next, I'm not so sure about that. ***1/4
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MVPs: Roderick Strong finally wins the World Title -- and Homicide is likely next.

Overall Rating: Overall, this was a fairly consistent PPV. No match was really bad, but there were no real matches that left me truly stunned out of my mind (in contrast, Death Before Dishonor's last two matches blew me away).

The Steen/Corino vs. Cabana/Generico match was my MOTN not just for the blood, but for its nonstop action and great storytelling. Benjamin/Haas still showed they are the World's Greatest Tag Team with their performance tonight.

It was a good PPV, but Death Before Dishonor was WAY better than this, so I felt a little ripped off here. ***1/4

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