ROH Return of the 187 Review

Homicide makes his big return!

ROH Return of the 187

Danbury, Connecticut 10/24/08

The show starts off with Jimmy Jacobs cutting a promo, but Homicide comes out, basically wondering about how Jacobs went form a love puppy to darkness. This leads to the Age of the Fall beating down Homicide until Ruckus makes the save. Some funny one liners between Homicide & The Age of the Fall. Since Ruckus is already out, we get our opening match...

1.) Ruckus vs. Jason Blade: **

Why is Jason Blade wearing MVP's wrestling gear? Anyway, this was a decent opening match. Nothing much else to it.

2.) Sara Del Ray vs. Ariel: *1/2

Sara is wearing a white whig to the ring.....for some reason. Nothing much to this one either. Ariel got some offense in, but the ending was academic. 

3.) Top of the Class Trophy - Rhett Titus vs. Grizzly Redwood: **1/2

Daizee Haze attacks Titus while he was doing his entrance. Then we get an actual match. I'm gonna be honest...probably the best Top of the Class Trophy match ever. Surprisingly decent.

4.) Brent Albright vs. Jay Briscoe: ***

These two were part of a Three Way back at Battle for Supremacy. It was a good match.

5.) No DQ Three Way - Mark Briscoe vs. Necro Butcher vs. Delirious: ***1/4

Here we have a very interesting match as it's basically an extension of the Steel Cage Warfare Match from the previous show. Very entertaining brawl, pretty much what you'd expect from these three.

6.) Jerry Lynn vs. Claudio Castagnoli: ***

Prince Nana comes out before the match, begging ROH to take him back since the Economic Crash left him broke. He's dragged away by security. The match itself was good but I think it could have been a little better.

7.) FIP World Title - Go Shiozaki (with Larry Sweeney) vs. Austin Aries: ***3/4

These two had a match back at the 6th Anniversary Show during Shiozaki's first weekend with ROH. But thinks are different now as Shiozaki is apart of Sweet 'n' Sour Inc. and a title is up for grabs. Not as good as their first encounter, but it was still a very fine match.

8.) Non-Title 30-Minute Iron Team Match: Kevin Steen & El Generico vs. LAX vs. The Age of the Fall vs. Chris Hero & Davey Richards: ***1/2

This was essentially an elongated tag team showcase, with Steen & Generico's titles not on the line. It was a good match, but I felt the fact that there were four teams involved kind of hurt the match in retrospect. Final Tally is LAX - 2, Age of the Fall - 1, Sweet 'n' Sour Inc. - 1, Steenerico - 0. Surprised the champs didn't get a fall at all, but that's only a minor complaint.

After the match, Homicide thanks the ROH fans and says he's looking forward to the match between LAX & The Briscoes on the next show.

Overall: 7.0/10

Having Homicide here definitely boosted the energy of the show, but you know the quality will not be as good when you have your World Champion (McGuinness) and one of your best wrestlers (Danielson) not present. It was still a decent show overall. Aside from the opening two matches there wasn't really anything terrible on here.