By Sean Radican, Torch columnist

RADICAN’S ROH DVD REVIEW SERIES
“ALL STAR EXTRAVAGANZA V”
TORONTO, CANADA
AUGUST 3, 2013

(1) Kushida beat Adam Page with the corkscrew moonsault. There were some good fast-paced exchanges with Kushida being too quick for Page at times and some spots seemed a split second off. (**)

2) Tomasso Ciampa best Silas Young in a First Round ROH Title Tournament match. There was really good hard-hitting action from start to finish in this match. They built up to some big spots, including Young hitting a suplex off the apron to the floor. Ciampa caught Young coming off the ropes and hit Project Ciampa for the win after a great exchange. (***1/2)

Young blew off the handshake offer from Ciampa after the match.

3) Michael Bennett (w/Maria) beat B.J. Whitmer in a First Round ROH Title Tournament match. Whitmer ran wild early after Bennett tried to jump him at the bell. They had a really good hard-hitting back and forth match. Maria tried to leave a spiked shoe for Bennett to use, but McGuinness caught her in the act and ejected her from the match. The piledriver on the apron was brutal to watch and the ref called for the bell immediately after checking on Whitmer. The footage quickly cut to the next match. The match was very good up until the end, which was a horrible to watch.

Nigel made Scarlett sit with him because she wasn't licensed to be at ringside. Sparx was allowed at ringside because she has a bodyguard license. Scarlett tried to bribe Nigel with favorites during the match.

(4) Roderick Strong beat Matt Taven (w/The HOT) in a First Round ROH Title Tournament match. Martini distracted Strong to get the upper hand early. The match was really good after Taven tried to kick McGuinness on the outside while he was yelling at Martini for interfering. The final minutes got the crowd on their feet for some of the nearfalls. Strong ended up finishing off Taven with a series of back breakers, a sick kick, and a pop up back stabber for the win.
(***1/4)

(5) Michael Elgin beat Paul London in a First Round ROH Title Tournament match. This was an awesome match with Elgin using his size and strength to counter London's speed and high-flying. London's comeback really got the crowd into the action mid-match after he hit a springboard double stomp to the floor. London later took a buckle bomb, but countered the Elgin bomb into an inverted hurricanrana before going up top and hitting the SSP for a great nearfall. Elgin ended up hitting a super powerbomb, a backfist, a buckle bomb, and an Elgin bomb for the win. (****)

(6) ACH & Tadarius Thomas beat Caprice Coleman & Cedric Alexander and the Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) in a Triple Threat Tag Team match. Awesome
high-octane action throughout this one. The Young Bucks worked over Thomas for a long period of time and nearly had him pinned after a buckle bomb/enzuguri combination. Once Thomas tagged out, the action was insane and they went to a great sequence where ACH tripped Nick as he was setting up for a dive and he ran across the ring and hit air Jordan. The crowd went nuts from this point forward and there was another crazy sequence with the Young Bucks dishing out superkicks until Coleman cut them off with a double hurricanrana. There was a crazy sequence to end the match with ACH hitting a 450 to pin Alexander for the win. (***3/4)

(7) Kevin Steen beat Brian Kendrick in a First Round ROH Title Tournament match. The story of the match was Kendrick trying to outsmart Steen to get the upper hand and it never really clicked. They did an odd finish where the ref was pushed out of position by Kendrick. The then hit a low blow on Steen that Steen was able to fight through and eventually he submitted Kendrick with the sharp shooter. The finish was very strange. (*1/2)

(8) Adam Cole beat Jay Lethal in a Quarter Final Round ROH Title Tournament match. They started at slow with a lot of mat wrestling and methodical exchanges. The crowd never fully invested in the match even though it got better as it went on. They had some nice exchanges down the stretch with Cole countering Lethal's handspring ace crusher off the ropes until Lethal eventually hit a standing handspring ace crusher for a good nearfall. Cole eventually won after hitting a superkick and the Florida Keys German for the win. (**3/4)

Cole shook hands with Lethal after and told Lethal he's #1

London was shown walking around backstage. He said he lost, but he lost to a heck of an athlete. London continued to put over Elgin and said he was phenomenal. London said he sees Elgin winning the whole tournament. He said someone would have to kill Elgin to beat him. He said we would see him down the road.

(9) Davey Richards & Eddie Edwards beat ROH World Tag Team Champions Rocky Romero & Alex Koslov to become the new ROH World Tag Team Champions. They started with some comedy and the crowd was slow to get into it. The Wolves got the heat on Romero for a long period of time before he made the hot tag to Koslov, who ran wild. The crowd got into the match as the action broke down and both teams went to a series of rapid-fire exchanges and a series of nearfalls. The crowd seemed to lose interest as the match continued to move at a rapid pace and didn't climax when it should have. It was still a very good match and the crowd was excited after Edwards and Richards hit a tandem powerbomb into a backbreaker on Romero for the win, but it went longer than it should have.(***1/2)

Overall thoughts: (8.0) – If you haven’t been watching ROH TV in recent weeks and catching the action from the ROH World Title Tournament, you’re missing out. The tournament has featured a lot of very good matches and “All Star Extravaganza V” features several of them with a much better picture and sound quality than what aired on TV.

The main problem I had with the show was the announcing and Nigel’s antics as the match maker in ROH. The announcing didn’t match the tone of the matches at times and failed to add to the excitement of what was going on in the ring, especially during Ciampa-Young. The wrestlers in the tournament set out to have good matches and they largely delivered, but one thing that bothered me was Nigel’s character ejecting Scarlett from ringside because she didn’t have a license to be there. Nigel also ejected Maria earlier in the show and carried her to the back while slapping here rear-end, which didn’t seem to be a very authoritative thing for McGuinness to do.

The Whitmer piledriver incident from his match with Mike Bennett is included on this release and it was scary to watch them perform the spot on the apron. They were having a really good match up until they went to the piledriver spot and it was clear from the camera angle before Bennett hit the spot that Whitmer’s head was too far down and not in the proper position. Hopefully this footage being out there will serve as a warning to other wrestlers to never try this spot again on the apron.

The highlight of the show was the excellent London-Elgin match. They got the crowd into the match quickly and delivered big time working around the dynamic of Elgin’s power and London’s speed and athleticism. London was really good in this match and it’s nice to see him back on the independent scene in matches like this. London’s backstage promo later in the show served as a nice way to put Elgin over as a favorite to win the tournament.

The Young Bucks vs. Adrenaline Rush vs. C & C Wrestle Factory and American Wolves vs. Forever Hooligans that didn’t air on TV from this show were both very good, especially the Three-Way Tag, which delivered some incredible action from bell to bell. The only thing that didn’t make a lot of sense was that R.D. Evans came into the commentary booth during the Three-Way Tag match and teased a Young Bucks vs. Evans & Marshall match. I don’t think that’s the way the Young Bucks should be reintroduced into ROH if they’re going to mean anything, as a match with Young & Marshall would be a poor use of the Young Bucks.

The Tag Titles changed hands for the second week in a row on this show with Forever Hooligans dropping the Tag Titles to the American Wolves in a match that was good, but overstayed its welcome at the end. The match started with some odd comedy with Richards before it settled in with a long heat segment on Romero. The action picked up from that point with a long series of rapid-fire exchanges and nearfalls, but they just kept going and going and the crowd seemed to lose interest until the Wolves finally got the win.

The production for the matches shown on TV from the ROH World Title Tournament was far superior on this DVD. The fans were hot for a lot of the action, but there were also matches where the wrestlers had to work hard to get the fans to invest in the action. The one match that really stood out to me in terms of the difference between TV and DVD was the Lethal-Cole Quarter Final match, which seemed to have a dead atmosphere on TV, but the crowd was clearly responsive to some of the action when I watched the match again on this release. Overall this was a strong show worthy of a purchase.

You can purchase ROH’s “All Star Extravaganza V” by clicking HERE or by visiting ROHWrestling.com

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