INDEPENDENT WRESTLING DVD REVIEW SERIES
ROH's “World’s Greatest”
February 25, 2011
Dayton, Ohio.
By Brian Leahy, PWTorch specialist

Much like “Tag Title Classic II,” ROH’s “World’s Greatest” promises a lot in name (risking fan goodwill), but comes up ultimately short in execution, amounting to little (if anything) more than a par-for-the-course, “don’t-over-do-it,” pre-iPPV show main-evented by Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin & Davey Richards vs. Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli & Roderick Strong.

Most of the undercard showcases were nothing special, and when the usual dramatic post-intermission up-swing in quality failed to materialize, all that really remained was a decent opener, and a good semi-main and main event with a couple of other watchable but forgettable matches.

- Kyle O’Reilly and Jay Briscoe got the show off to a storming start, with an action-packed 8-minute match, which easily could have gone twice as long. 30 seconds in, it was obvious that they weren’t planning on sticking around for too long as they went at it like they had an early flight to catch. It’s hard to tell who was trying to keep up with whom, as Jay wrestled his usual balls-out style and O’Reilly matched him with youthful exuberance. It would have been nice to have O’Reilly push the elder Briscoe a little closer to the limit, but the match served its purpose and got the Dayton crowd sufficiently riled up for the evening.

- Steve Corino’s road to salvation brought him to Dayton to face the rapidly improving Bravado Bothers with his only friend in the world, Grizzly Redwood. The action was passable, but entirely secondary to the development of the Corino and Bravado characters. In that regard, one could consider the bout mildly successful but then again, the same could have been achieved without ten minutes of action.

- Dragging the card down further, Mike Bennett entered another useless performance against Mark Briscoe. Briscoe, not as versatile as his older brother when it comes to putting together engaging singles bouts, struggled to draw anything useful from the limited Bennett. At this point, it’s difficult to see how much value, if any, Bennett brings to the ROH product, and this was a dreary and pointless waste of Mark Briscoe, further exasperated by the Prodigy’s win following the usual Brutal Bob interference.

- Luckily, Colt Cabana managed to pull the crowd back from the brink in the fourth clash on the card. Unfortunately, Titus, Ridge, Mondo, and Cabana had little reason to be wrestling in a Four Corner Survival; a match type ROH has taken to rolling out whenever they have a few free wrestlers without a purpose on a card. It’s been quite some time since ROH put together a Four Corner Survival with any thought, but if the match type is to sparkle and draw like it has in times past, there needs to be some forethought to its usage.

- Daniels vs. Elgin was a matter of the whole adding up to less than the sum of it’s parts. At this time, Daniels was one of the most consistent performers in ROH, and Elgin’s performances were increasingly exponentially show-to-show. However, even with 15 minutes of ring-time they put together a distinctly average bout with only the occasional flash of promise. On reflection, the match suffered from Daniels being unable to play the part of crash test dummy for Elgin’s power moves which Elgin, unfortunately for the match, needs to regularly showcase at this point in his tenure.

- Match #6 unfolded in much the same fashion as the one before it. Homicide seemed more than a step off the mark in his clash with El Generico, and what should have been a banker of a match for the show, barely held together enough in the early and middle sections to warrant recommendation. The final section was markedly smoother, but the finish was unexpected and was a suitably limp ending to a limp match.

- Kenny King and Eddie Edwards provided some much needed quality action in the semi-main. Their clash was a re-match of the Survival of the Fittest 2010, sans Edwards’s separated shoulder. This was one in a series of what appeared to be tester matches for King in the upper mid-card. He seems to be meshing quite well with the regulars in that spot, but his matches as of yet lack that spark that will solidify his place at the top of the card.

This match had more structure than most of the rest of the card combined, with a steady build over almost 20 minutes but a more exciting finishing sequence, or some focused leg work prior to Edwards tap out victory could have elevated this to something approaching special. As-is the bout was an enjoyable, solid, promising showing of what is yet to come from these two.

- In the stereotypical main event of a Friday night show, two cobbled-together face and heel tag teams pitted champs and top contenders against one another. Unfortunately, with nothing on the line these types of matches are often painfully predictable and uninvolving for the viewer. Nevertheless, the wrestling action was well above-average from the start, and all six paired off before the heels were given some heat building stretches. Escalating exchanges led WGTT and The Kings of Wrestling to brawl to the back while Richards and Strong linked together the most heated exchanges of the show in the ring before Richards finished the match after the half hour mark with a cross arm breaker.

OVERALL: “World’s Greatest” is far from the best show from Ring of Honor in 2011. In fact, it doesn’t even come close to being one of the stronger Friday night shows. With little to report coming out of the show, and no “must-see” matches on the card, “World’s Greatest” is entirely skippable. (5.5/10)

Notable Match Star Ratings

Jay Briscoe vs. Kyle O’Reilly ***
Christoper Daniels vs. Michael Elgin **1/4
Homicide vs. El Generico **1/2
Kenny King vs. Eddie Edwards ***1/4
Haas, Benjamin & Richards vs. Hero, Castagnoli & Strong ***1/2

[Torch art credit Marco D'Alfonso (c) PWTorch.com]

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