ROH DVD Analysis
Glory By Honor V: Night 2
September 16, 2006
By Sean Radican, Torch columnist

Ring of Honor will be offering the Glory by Honor V Night Two event on an On-Demand basis tonight. The following is Torch columnist Sean Radican's DVD review of the show originally published in December 2006.

Results and Star ratings

(1) Davey Richards d. Jack Evans. This was a good opening match, but it was short. The match did get the crowd into the show early. (**1/2)

(2) Adam Pearce d. Delirious. This was a decent match. Shane Hagadorn interfered, which lead to Pearce getting the win with a jumping piledriver. (**)

(3) Jimmy Jacobs d. Christopher Daniels and Colt Cabana in a Three-Way Dance. This was more of a long angle than a match, as the love triangle between Lacey, Jacobs, and Cabana took center stage. (**3/4)

(4) Samoa Joe & Homicide d. The Briscoes. This was a very good match. It was intense from the start and the crowd heat was great. The Briscoes didn’t get enough time on the advantage to make the comebacks of Joe and Homicide as exciting as they could have been. (***1/2)

(5) Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli d. ROH World Tag Team Champions Austin Aries & Roderick Strong. This was a good match, but I was expecting more from a match where the belts changed hands for the first time in 2006. Hero & Castagnoli are more style over substance, which isn’t necessarily bad, but they seem out of place in terms of the typical style of an ROH Tag Team Title match in 2006. (***1/4)

(6) GHC Champion Naomichi Marufuji d. Nigel McGuinness. This was an excellent match. Both men showed great fire for the final minutes of the match. McGuinness has become a great wrestler in 2006. (****3/4)

(7) ROH World Champion Bryan Danielson d. KENTA. Another excellent match on this release. The last two matches here are the best back to back matches I’ve ever seen on an ROH DVD. This was a different kind of Danielson match, as KENTA set the pace early, instead of Danielson. There was a lot of drama and nearfalls during the second half of the match. (****3/4)

RADICAN’S ANALYSIS

This event, along with Unified from Aug. 12, make ROH look major league on DVD. The venue looks great, the action is solid from top to bottom, and the last two matches are excellent match of the year candidates. The show is built around the ROH World Champion Bryan Danielson vs. KENTA match, which was built for several months, but the rest of the card features a solid mix of booking and in-ring action that make this release a must purchase for all wrestling fans.

The first three matches aren’t anything special, but they get the crowd into the action. The love triangle between Lacey, Cabana, and Jacobs takes center stage during the first hour of the release. It’s a fun angle, but it seems to be getting overexposed a bit at this stage. I go back and fourth on whether or not the angle is worth all the time it’s been given, but Lacey, Cabana, and Jacobs do a great job of playing their parts, which makes the entire angle entertaining. I’m not sure anyone else could play their parts as well as they have.

Prior to the double main event, there are two very good tag matches. I didn’t like Cornette’s promo prior to the match. He went the cheap route to get heat by running down New York. He also gave away the finish of the match by saying Homicide had to win in order to get his ROH World Title shot.

The Samoa Joe & Homicide vs. The Briscoes was a solid back and fourth match with a lot of hard hitting action. It seemed like something was missing from the match, as the Briscoes didn’t get any sustained periods of offense against Joe or Homicide.

Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli capturing the ROH World Tag Team Titles from Austin Aries and Roderick Strong had great crowd heat, but Aries and Strong have had so many standout title defenses this year in ROH that this match didn’t measure up to their matches against the Briscoes. Hero and Castagnoli are excellent at drawing crowd heat, but their in-ring style isn’t stiff and is different from most ROH Tag Teams.

The semi-main and main events are both among the best matches I’ve seen in ROH. Wrestling fans will be hard pressed to find a better set of matches to end an event on any wrestling DVD or PPV. McGuinness cut an amazing promo prior to his match about what it meant to him to have a shot at the GHC Title and delivered his second amazing performance, along with his match against Danielson at Unified, in 2006. The match was mat based early, but the action became amazing once Marufuji hit sliced bread #2 from the apron to the floor. Both men showed a lot of fire and Marufuji had to hit several high-impact maneuvers to put away McGuinness.

The main event was just as good as the Marufuji-McGuinness contest. This was different than most Danielson title defense, as KENTA set the pace of the match early and targeted Danielson’s shoulder. Danielson tried to make comebacks, but was hampered by his injured shoulder, which allowed KENTA to retain the advantage for the majority of the match. There was a great nearfall that saw KENTA hit Danielson with his Go 2 Sleep finisher, only to have Danielson get his foot on the bottom rope.

The finish was excellent, as Danielson applied the cattle mutilation and then delivered several elbows to KENTA’s head before applying the cattle mutilation again and forcing KENTA to tap. Danielson’s performance in this match put him over the top as the greatest ROH World Champion, as he surpassed Samoa Joe with this performance.

Overall thoughts: I highly recommend this DVD. There is a great moment early on during the DVD when Bruno Sammartino comes out to the ring to a huge ovation from the ROH fans. The crowd is hot the entire night, especially during the last two matches. I’ve never seen an ROH event look better on DVD.

Score: 9.5.

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