By Sean Radican, Torch columnist

RADICAN'S ROH DVD REVIEW SERIES
Final Countdown Tour Dayton
Dayton, Ohio
September 18, 2009
By Sean Radican, Torch columnist

Star ratings and analysis

(1) Eddie Edwards (w/Shane Hagadorn) beat Brent Albright. This was a good opener. Albright kept going for the crowbar submission and finally got it towards the end of the match, but Hagadorn ended up distracting the ref, which allowed Richards to run down and help Edwards nail Albright with a superkick/German suplex combination for the win. (**3/4)

(2) The Dark City Fight Club beat The House of Truth (Josh Raymond & Christian Able w/ Truth Martini). This was a very good tag match with Able and Raymond having a good showing against the DCFC. House of Truth had the advantage thanks to their manager Martini. Davis finally got the hot tag and the match got really good at that point. In the end the DCFC pinned Raymond after their powerbomb/neckbreaker combination finisher. (***)

(3) Grizzley Redwood beat Jimmy Rave via DQ. Rave beat the living hell out of Redwood until getting DQ'd for hitting him with a chain. Necro ran out and they had an awesome brawl through the crowd to set up the Rave-Necro Dog Collar match the next night in Chicago. The crowd was very into Necro here. (n/a)

(4) Davey Richards (w/Shane Hagadorn) beat Claudio Castagnoli. This was awesome. They started out working submissions on the mat and then went full-throttle for the last 10 minutes of the match. Richards is the best wrestler of 2009 and all you have to do is what this encounter to see why. Castagnoli isn't far behind either and his no hands torture rack airplane spin had the crowd popping huge. The finish was insane with Richards countering the Ricola bomb into a code red. Wow! (****)

(5) The Briscoes beat The Young Bucks. This was a really good match, but not at the level I was expecting. The story of the match was that the Briscoes were always one step ahead of the Young Bucks and seemed to have an answer for all of their signature maneuvers. In the end, the Jay managed to get his knees up on the attempted more bang for your buck from the Bucks. The Briscoes then finished off Matt with the doomsday device for the win. Once again, the crowd was very vocal for most of the match. (***1/2)

(6) Rasche Brown beat Silas Young. This was a very one-sided contest with Young only getting in a couple of moves on offense. Brown took the win after nailing young with the burning hammer. The jury is still out on Brown, but I wasn't impressed here. (n/a)

(7) Colt Cabana & Petey Williams beat Austin Aries & Rhett Titus. This was mostly a comedy match that got good towards the end. Cabana tried to get Williams to do the signature spots that he used to do with Scott Steiner in TNA, which was funny. Finish saw Williams give Aries the Canadian destroyer and Aries took a sick bump to the outside. (**1/2)

(8) Chris Hero (w/Shane Hagadorn) beat Bryan Danielson. Excellent main event. Hero nailed Danielson with several elbows throughout the match, but couldn't put away Danielson, who made a fiery comeback that had the crowd on their feet. In the end, Hero nailed Danielson with a roaring elbow to the back of the head for the clean win. This was a big win for Hero. (****)

QUOTEBOOK

"I'd be pissed if I were his partner." –Hero after Able botched powerbombing his partner Raymond onto Chavis.

"Redneck karate"- Hero on Mark Briscoe's karate chops.

Overall thoughts: (7.0) There's a lot of great wrestling on Final Countdown Dayton and the new features and production values are a welcome bonus, but there are also some detractions on this DVD that take away from its value.

Let's hit the high points first. The new audio options are a welcome feature. Viewers can choose from surround with commentary, surround without commentary, and stereo with commentary. I really enjoyed the promos and video packages inserted throughout the show. This is something that has been sorely missing from most ROH DVDs this year. The announcers even smoothly transitioned to the interviews and video packages, which gave the show a sense of pacing.

I also enjoyed the new graphics for the ring entrances and the new transition graphics that moved the show along nicely.

The build to the main event was really well done with Hero getting featured in two video packages. One was shown at the beginning of the DVD and another UFC style video package with Hero training with boxers was shown right before the Hero-Danielson main event.

The new commentary team of Chris Hero and Dave Prazak was also really good at times, but they started off slow. I'm going to miss Lenny Leonard on commentary in ROH. I thought he was really good and brought an element of professionalism to the broadcast booth. Hero was really good at times on commentary and made some hilarious comments about several of the wrestlers. I think he has the potential to be really good in his role on commentary. If anything, it was nice not to have to listen to Prazak doing heel commentary for a change.

The biggest detraction on the show is that the hard camera isn't focused and looks a little blurry. It doesn't make the show unwatchable, but it's annoying and I'm surprised the camera crew didn't bother to fix this during the show.

There are some darn good matches on this show. If you take away the problems with the hard camera shot, this is one of the best ROH DVD releases of 2009. The show features two excellent matches at the 4 star level with the Richards-Castagnoli and Hero-Danielson contests tearing down the house.

The undercard is really good on this DVD. The Albright-Edwards, Young Bucks-Briscoes, and DCFC-House of Truth matches were all very good. The Young Bucks-Briscoes match was somewhat of a disappointment because I expected more, but it was still really good. Necro's brawl with Rave was also well-executed and the crowd was red hot during their segment.

Richards and Castagnoli both came across like stars in their match. Despite being heels, both men put together a match that had the crowd on their feet at times. Castagnoli's no hands torture rack airplane spin was simply awesome and Richards is just a machine in the ring.

Chris Hero has been getting better and better in 2009 and his last two matches against Lance Storm and Bryan Danielson have been really good. Hero and Danielson put on an excellent main event that had the Dayton fans, who were fantastic all night, on their feet down the stretch. Hero got a big win over Danielson, but it's not going to mean anything unless creative keeps putting him over. Hero and Richards could be superstars for ROH if the company got behind them the right way.

I give this DVD a solid recommendation.

You can purchase Final Countdown Tour: Dayton by visiting ROHWrestling.com

Contact Sean at PWTorchSean@gmail.com

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