By Sean Radican, Torch columnist

RADICAN'S ROH DVD REVIEW SERIES
Clash of the Contenders
Collinsville, Ill.
Oct. 9 2009
By Sean Radican, Torch columnist

Star ratings and analysis

(1) Roderick Strong beat Kevin Steen. Steen sold the effects of the Ladder War throughout the match, which prevented him on following up on his attacks. The match started slow, but got really good towards the end. The finish saw Steen hit the package piledriver, but Strong hooked Steen's arms and rolled him up for the pin. (**3/4)

(2) Shimmer Champion MsChif beat Nicole Matthews in a non-title match. The crowd didn't give these ladies much of a chance. The action was solid and they had some nice exchanges, but overall this was just solid. MsChif got the pin after a sloppy desecrator. (**)

(3) Claudio Castagnoli (w/Ernie Osiris) beat Colt Cabana and Petey Williams and Ace Steel. This was a solid match, but it was more of a collection of spots than anything else. Everyone worked together against Castagnoli early, but eventually they couldn't all stay on the same page when it came to who would get the pinfall. Castagnoli ended up taking the win with a Ricola bomb on Steel. (**)

(4) The Briscoes beat The House of Truth (w/Truth Martini). The match got off to a slow start, but really heated up down the stretch. The HOT avoided several close calls thanks to the outside interference of Truth Martini. The finish saw the Briscoes hit a double team springboard/Jay-driller combination on Raymond for the pin. (**3/4)

(5) Kenny Omega beat Davey Richards (w/Shane Hagadorn). This was an awesome match. Both men started out at a furious pace and never looked back. Richards was fantastic usual and dominated most of the match. Omega made some great comebacks and got several nearfalls. The crowd really got into this match and everyone was up on the feet for the last five minutes. It looked like Richards was poised to win with the DR driver, but Omega countered it into a small package for the win. (****)

(6) Kenny King & Rhett Titus vs. The Young Bucks. Young Bucks ran wild early until Titus & King cut them off. The action broke down and it looked like the Bucks had the win after hitting the more bang for your buck on King, but Titus came out of nowhere and rolled up Matt for the win. These guys had a tough act to follow after the previous match and there wasn't much heat until the finish. (**1/4)

(7) Tyler Black beat Chris Hero (w/Shane Hagadorn). Good match. The crowd was dead at times, but the work was solid here with Hero working over Black's surgically repaired neck. Black made a good comeback and the match seemed to stall. They didn't really build to an exciting finish, but Black managed to reverse a neckbreaker into God's last gift for the pin. (**3/4)

(8) ROH World Hvt. Champion Austin Aries beat Delirious (w/Daizee Haize). This was a solid main event. Aries jumped Delirious from behind to gain the advantage at the beginning. Delirious mounted several comebacks. At one point, Aries hit a dive on Haze on the outside. Delirious mounted another comeback and hit the cobra clutch suplex, but Aries got the win in the end with a brainbuster. (***)

Overall thoughts: (5.5) This release seemed like a night off for ROH coming out of Danielson's "Final Countdown Tour" releases, which all featured some really good wrestling. The collections of matches on this show weren't bad, but there wasn't anything great on here either outside of the Omega-Richards match.

Steen and Strong seemed a step off in the opener and that set the tone for the rest of the night where nothing outside of the Omega-Richards and Delirious-Aries main event reached the three star or above level. I liked the segment with Cornette coming out and forcing Aries to defend the ROH World Hvt. title against Delirious instead of Daizee Haze, who had "won" Aries's lottery drawing.

The Omega-Richards match was simply fantastic with both men coming out of the gates strong and never looking back. Omega cut a really odd promo that didn't jive with me prior to the match, but that was forgotten given the in-ring action he delivered with Richards. Omega's win was a nice surprise as well.

The crowd was pretty much dead for the Young Bucks-King & Titus and Hero-Black matches after Richards and Omega had torn it up. Neither of those matches ever got on track and weren't memorable in the end, although Black-Hero did have moments of good action.

The main event was solid, but nobody bought into Delirious as a threat to Aries's title. Delirious got some good nearfalls on Aries, but Aries got a clean win in the end with the brainbuster.

Other thoughts: Prazak should go back to being a face announcer. His heel persona is really annoying, especially given that Hero is a heel on commentary as well. Both men seem very disinterested in what is going in on the ring at times, but ROH has now given fans to turn the commentary off, so you can take advantage of that option… Tyler Black cut a really good promo, but for some reason it was included in the bonus section. I don't understand why it wasn't inserted into the show. Hopefully Black can continue to cut good promos, as his promo here was a pleasant surprise…

You can purchase Clash of the Contenders by visiting ROHWrestling.com

Contact Sean at PWTorchSean@gmail.com

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