Paint Your Wagon...With Blood!

Continuing down the 2009 Ring of Honor road, we arrive in Dayton, OH for “A Cut Above” (4/24/09), a show named for the gushing gash atop Roderick’s Strong head that appears during the main event. More on that later, let’s go match by match through the entire night.

-Decent opener between Eddie Edwards and Bryan Danielson. The goal here is obviously to make Edwards stand out as a singles competitor against one of the best ROH has to offer, and it works. Definitely a nice thing to see as a new star is built before our eyes. Good mat work from both men. Nothing spectacular per se, but it is solid enough to keep the match entertaining.

-Rasche Brown doesn’t have the look of an enjoyable wrestler, but man, when he gets in the ring, the personality turns on and the fun begins. Brown is highly amusing to watch, and is definitely the best part about the four-way between him, Claudio Castagnoli, Matt Cross, and Silas Young. All of the men look good, but it is Brown’s show, without question.

-A match as short as Jimmy Rave vs. Grizzly Redwood can hardly call for any reaction really. The post match antics, on the other hand, are completely hilarious in a now I’ve seen it all in pro wrestling sort of way. Consider this a spoiler warning, though I don’t know how disappointing a spoiler this would constitute – “Dirty” Ernie Osiris literally steals the shoes off of Grizzly Redwood’s feet. Off of his feet! His stinky, nasty feet! Times are tough, yes, but nothing will ever make that okay! If this is the start of a feud, well, I don’t even know what to say as a follow up to that.

-Pretty good tag bout with Austin Aries and Rhett Titus against the Phoenix Twins. The dynamic between Aries and Titus is particularly interesting, and Titus has really come into his own as a major talent in ROH. The Phoenix Twins look good as well, thus overall making this a fair outing for everybody involved.

-At first, the idea of seeing another Chris Hero vs. Colt Cabana match so soon after their Pro Wrestling Guerrilla encounter had me none too excited. Luckily, these two competitors put on a completely different show from that PWG bout. A much more entertaining show, frankly. Lots of humor and lots of great mat work from both men. Definitely a more enjoyable contest than I was expecting.

-Refreshing to see Jimmy Jacobs taking on somebody so different than his usual mix of ROH enemies in Egotistico Fantastico. The bout is good. Fantastico hits his entire repertoire of star worthy spots and generally has a good showing. And Jacobs benefits from having some fresh blood to work his act against.

-Hey look, another match Pro Wrestling Guerrilla just treated me to a few shows ago! And technically speaking, this is the third time I’ve watched Tyler Black and Davey Richards clash in the ring in 2009. Fortunately, their interactions are always strong and seem to get better with every outing. Their battle here is quite the sprint of great action that comes together perfectly. The climax of the contest is especially thrilling. Overall it is a really good bout, perhaps the best on this show.

-Wanted to enjoy Kevin Steen and Jay Briscoe vs. The Dark City Fight Club, I really did, but the match did not connect with me at all. Not a bad contest really, just nothing that held my interest long enough to warrant a fully positive response.

-Main event time with Jerry Lynn defending the ROH World Title against Roderick Strong. As mentioned earlier, the memorable moment of this bout is Strong bleeding buckets and yet continuing even though it legitimately looks like he will pass out at any given moment. The performance is noteworthy and respectable, but the match overall is only good at best. Without the accidental moment, there wouldn’t be a thing to remember here. Lynn and Strong work well together and put on a solid bout, but I do expect a bit more with the world championship up for grabs.