By Sean Radican, Torch columnist

RADICAN'S ROH DVD REVIEW SERIES
Final Countdown Tour: Boston
Boston, Mass.
Sept. 25, 2009
By Sean Radican, Torch columnist

Star ratings and analysis

(1) Young Bucks (Nick & Matt Jackson) beat Cheech & Cloudy. This was a fantastic opener. Cheech & Cloudy worked well together to get the heat on Nick Jackson for several minutes. At one point they even mocked the Young Bucks signature pose to some jeers from the crowd. The finish saw Matt pin Cheech after their hitting More Bang For Your Buck combo on him. I hope to see more of Cheech & Cloudy in ROH. (***1/4)

(2) Delirious (w/Daizee Haze) beat Sonjay Dutt. Good match. They did some comedy early before getting down to business. The finish saw Delirious roll up Dutt for the win. Afterward, Dutt attacked Delirious and Haze tried to make the save, but Dutt put her in the Camel Clutch. Several people from the back then ran in to make the save for Haze. (**1/2)

(3) Claudio Castagnoli (w/The Embassy) beat Petey Williams and Chris Hero (w/Shane Hagadorn) and El Generico in a Four Corner Survival match. This was all action from bell to bell. Claudio and Hero teased a reunion of sorts and worked together for much of the match, but ended up getting into an argument after Hero pulled Claudio off Generico while he was trying to make a cover. The finish saw Generico and Hero end up on the outside, which allowed Claudio to pin Williams after the Ricola Bomb. (***1/2)

(4) Kevin Steen beat ROH tag champion Eddie Edwards in a Street Fight. The match started while Bobby Cruise was making an announcement in the ring. They brawled all over the building and many fans couldn't see what they were doing. These guys did a lot of crazy stuff. Steen took two unprotected chairshots to the head. The finish saw Steen nail Edwards with a Package Piledriver through four chairs to get the win. Both men took a lot of punishment and the crowd loved it, but this wasn't my thing in this day and age. Hopefully ROH puts an end to the unprotected chairshots. (n/r)

(5) Dark City Fight Club (Kory Chavis & Jon Davis) beat Bobby Dempsey & "Sugarfoot" Alex Payne. DCFC used a combo Ace Cutter and powerbomb for the win. Payne and Dempsey got in a ton of offense before the DCFC gained the upper hand. This went way too long. (*1/2)

(6) Roderick Strong beat Nigel McGuinness. This was a fantastic match. McGuinness came out to a nice ovation, but the crowd gave him a hard time during the match when he would do his signature maneuvers. Strong lit up McGuinness with chops during the match. At one point, both men were exchanging blows on the apron when Strong caught Nigel with a belly to belly suplex to the floor that popped the crowd big. Strong ended up taking the win after two Gibson Drivers. (***3/4)

(7) ROH champion Austin Aries & Rhett Titus beat Colt Cabana & Kenny Omega. There was a lot of comedy at the beginning of the match with Cabana and Omega putting Aries and Titus in embarrassing positions when countering their offense. The finish saw Aries hit a low blow and two kicks to Cabana's head behind the ref's back, which allowed Titus to roll up Colt for the win. Aries seems to be wasting his role as champion in comedy matches like this. The match was felt like it could have ended sooner and dragged at times, but was solid overall. (**3/4)

(8) Davey Richards beat Bryan Danielson. This was just perfect wrestling. Richards worked Danielson's arm throughout the match, but just couldn't put Danielson away. They built up to fantastic exchanges on their feet and on the mat that had the crowd on their feet. Richards owned the crowd with his heelish tactics and Danielson did his part to get the crowd behind him with his facial expressions. This is the best match I've seen in 2009. (*****)

Quote book

"The Young Bucks, one of the ugliest teams here." – Chris Hero on the Young Bucks appearance.

"I think he might be uglier than Nick Jackson." –Chris Hero on Kevin Steen's appearance during his match against Eddie Edwards.

"If you are a new Ring of Honor fan listening to this DVD, yes, one time Bryan Danielson was the Ernie Osiris the Grizzly Redwood if you will, in Ring of Honor. – Chris Hero during the Richards-Danielson match.

"If I could make enough money to retire, I would never want to leave." – Danielson on leaving ROH.

Overall thoughts: (8.0) This was one of the better overall offerings from ROH in 2009. The crowd was hot from start to finish. The undercard was filled with good matches up and down the card. The last two matches were both really good with the Richards-Danielson match being a high-end MOTYC.

The show began with a fantastic tag match featuring the Young Bucks taking on Cheech & Cloudy. These two teams put together a really exciting opener that showcased why ROH has been known for great tag team wrestling in 2009. I hope to see more of Cheech & Cloudy in 2009, as they impressed me here against the Young Bucks.

The Four Corner Survival match was the other highlight of the undercard. It was a lot of fun seeing Hero and Castagnoli work together only for their relationship to fall apart during the latter stages of the match. Generico's bump off of Castagnoli's bicycle kick to the outside at the end of the match reminded me of the way wrestlers flew out of the ring in the old N64 No Mercy videogame.

I wasn't thrilled with the risks Edwards and Steen took in their Anything Goes match. There were too many unprotected chairshots and risky spots in this match, especially given that both men were slated to compete in a Ladder War the next night in NYC. I'm hoping ROH tones down on unprotected chairshots in 2010 and management hopefully becomes more aware of the risks involved with them.

Nigel McGuinness's match against Roderick Strong wasn't as good as their encounter at the "Driven" PPV in 2008 that was held in the same building, but it was still really good. Strong got a solid win here and looked good in going over McGuinness.

The main event was simply awesome. The atmosphere was electric for Danielson's final match in Boston and he went out with a bang against Davey Richards. Richards worked over Danielson's arm for most of the match, but the key here was how both men built up to a series of big exchanges and spots during the course of the match that set the crowd on fire. It was a lot of fun to see this match play out against on DVD after being there live back in September. Richards and Danielson's post-match comments were memorable as well.

Production problems continue to hamper ROH's DVD releases. The bonus features have to be accessed through the chapter menu, as the button for those features doesn't work. The lighting was simply too bright at times here during the ring entrances. The hard camera shot was better, but it didn't appear as sharp as it should be.

I continue to enjoy the new production features and this disc included several backstage segments that added to the overall flow of this show, but it would have been nice to get some pre-match comments from either Danielson or McGuinness on their next to last show in ROH.

I highly recommend this show. You'll get your money's worth out of the main event alone and there's a lot of other great stuff on the card to check out.

You can purchase Final Countdown Tour: Boston by visiting The ROH store

Contact Sean at PWTorchSean@gmail.com

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