Insanity Unleashed

Match by match for ROH “Insanity Unleashed” (3/14/09) from Indianapolis, IN!

-Wasn’t expecting much from “Spyder” Nate Webb vs. Flash Flannigan, since I really don’t know either guy. Consider me impressed! They have a pretty solid match with both guys showing tons of fantastic personality. Nothing comes off as too memorable in-ring wise, but I am definitely walking away wanting to see more of Nate Webb, and wondering why Flannigan hasn’t been a major heel anywhere big recently because I could see building an entire promotion around the guy.

-My initial reaction to learning that tags were necessary during the three-way dance between Bryan Danielson, Kenny Omega, and Claudio Castagnoli was a resounding “HUH?” This felt like a killing Clark Kent level rule change that just wasn’t going to work. But I have to admit, I pretty well liked this modification to the usual triple threat match. It made for a unique experience here, something different and fresh. Helps that the trio of guys doing battle are able to work the rule change to its fullest and get an interesting story out of the new limitations. All the way around this is really good and really works.

-Jay Briscoes vs. Chris Hero is perfectly fine, if not mostly unmemorable. Can’t really say much more about it, unfortunately, as it is one of those mid-card matches that is simply there.

-You know my love for Kenny King and Rhett Titus as a team, so naturally having the chance to see them fight Kevin Steen and El Generico for the tag belts is quite exciting. But the match itself, sadly to say, is a bit underwhelming. The four men have some fun early on, which is great, but things never really build to the level I was hoping for. Much of the contest feels stuck in the same gear, when it really should have excelled to a much higher notch by the ending. Not bad by any degree, but not what I was expecting based on the past performances of everybody involved.

-That Silas Young gets so much offense in on Bison Smith, as oppose to being completely crushed by the behemoth, makes their clash a pleasant surprise. Nothing to talk up here really, this isn’t a brilliant match or anything, but it is better than it probably had any intention of being.

-Something seemed a bit off between Davey Richards, Eddie Edwards, Roderick Strong, and Brent Albright. A lot of moves just seemed oh so slightly out of sync, which becomes a bit distracting. Other then the moments that Richards and Strong share in the ring, which are epic in intensity, the rest of the bout is okay at best and leaves me overall feeling more meh than motivated.

-Ah, Jimmy Jacobs vs. Delirious. Truthfully, this is an entertaining little brawl, with lots of strong interaction between the two. It isn’t the kind of match that steals the show or will be worth looking back on come the end of the year, but it is decently entertaining during the actual proceedings.

-Randomly thrown together tag team main event! Seriously though, I get the idea of having a couple of your main event stars pair-up and scuffle just for the sake of having a good finish to the night, but when the resulting match drags quite a bit, has zero story going on, and ends on an overall flat note, it leaves me feeling quite blah about the whole thing. At least the closing moments, after the encounter is concluded, do something to tease where the overall World Title scene is heading, but everything before that can easily be skipped without missing a thing.