ROH Respect is Earned Review

Ring of Honor comes to NYC for it's Pay-Per-View Debut!!

ROH Respect is Earned

Manhattan, New York 5/12/07

PPV

The show starts off with BJ Whitmer issuing an open challenge, and it's answered by ROH World Champion Takeshi Morishima.

1.) ROH World Title - BJ Whitmer vs. Takeshi Morishima: **1/4

For being such a short match, this was pretty decent. It does a good job of showing Morishima as a dominant champion.

After the match, Nigel McGuinness comes out, and throws his hat in the ring for and ROH World Title Shot. Bryan Danielson then comes out, making his return, and states that he also wants a World Title Shot. Things comes to blows. Danielson takes the belt, saying he's the rightful champ. Morishima takes issue with this. Danielson eventually backs off both guys & lives to fight another day.

2.) Rocky Romero vs. Naomichi Marufuji: ***1/2

This was actually a very entertaining contest. The middle part was a little dull but the rest was very good.

After we get a Larry Sweeney & Sweet 'n' Sour Inc. Promo, we cut back to the ring and Nigel & Danielson are brawling. Morishima comes out and assists Danielson, leading to KENTA coming out to make the save for Nigel, setting up the PPV Main Event.

3.) ROH World Tag Team Titles - The Briscoe Brothers vs. Claudio Castagnoli & Matt Sydal: ****

For me, this is the first time seeing Claudio & Sydal teaming together. Claudio hair looks just plain odd....anyway, this was actually a Great Match. The Brisoces are great as usual and the Claudio/Sydal pairing proved to be entertaining.

Shortly after the match Kevin Steen & El Generico come out and demand a Tag Team Title Shot. This leads to an all out brawl that needs to be broken up, but despite this the fighting continues to the back.

4.) Roderick Strong vs. Delirious: ***1/2

Before the match we get a recap of the NRC/Delirious feud. This was actually pretty good. I was impressed. After the match, Davey Richards & Rocky Romero come out & help Strong beat down Delirious, eventually hitting a Tiger Driver on a barricade draped between the ring & the barricade. Erick Stevens & Matt Cross eventually come out and save Delirious from a further beating.

5.) Bryan Danielson & Takeshi Morishima vs. Nigel McGuinness & KENTA: ***3/4

Here we go, the PPV Main Event. I gotta say this was a very good match. While it was not the best match on the card (World Tag Team Title Match has that honor), this was still a great choice for ROH's first PPV Main Event.

Bonus

1.) Tank Toland vs. Brent Albright: **

Now we get to the non-PPV portion of the show, with a strange matchup of former WWE talent. It was ok.

2.) Sara Del Rey vs. Daizee Haze: **

Here we have Daizee Haze taking on the newest member of Sweet 'n' Sour Inc. It was a decent women's contest.

3.) Davey Richards vs. Erick Stevens: ***1/2

It's a battle between the NRC & The Resilience in this one. This was a fun match. Very entertaining.

4.) Tag Team Scramble - Jimmy Rave & Adam Pearce vs. Kevin Steen & El Generico vs. Irish Airborne vs. Pelle Primeau & Mitch Franklin: **3/4

The last bonus match is a Four-Team Scramble Match. The match itself was fairly decent. Generico & Steen look pretty strong in this one.

Overall: 8.5/10

For their first ever PPV, I thought Ring of Honor did a fantastic job. All the matches on the PPV were pretty good, and event the opening match, which wasn't very long, did it's job of immediately establishing Morishima as a dominant champion. The Bonus matches are a nice compliment to the PPV, and when you look at everything together there isn't a bad match on here. A great show overall.