ROH Manhattan Mayhem III Review

Mayhem once again takes Manhattan.....again

ROH Manhattan Mayhem III

New York City, New York 6/13/09

Austin Aries starts the show off with a promo, making an interesting reference to 9/11, but then actually  goes on to reference something else. Oh, that clever Austin Aries. He then introduces his boys, Kenny King & Rhett Titus, for the opener.

1.) Rhett Titus & Kenny King vs. The Young Bucks: ***1/4

This was a fine opener for the show. Both teams looked good.

2.) Jimmy Rave (with Prince Nana & Ernie Osiris) vs. Necro Butcher: **1/2

Short match. Nothing spectacular. Afterwords, Rave beats up Necro until Colt Cabana makes the save.

Ric Flair comes out and cuts a promo to put over ROH (pretty much like all the other ones he's cut).

3.) Roderick Strong vs. Sonjay Dutt: ***1/2

This was surprisingly very good. Then again, it is Roderick Strong...

4.) First Blood Match - Jimmy Jacobs vs. Tyler Black: *1/2

Jacobs jumps Tyler before he even gets in the ring and they brawl for a bit. He stabs Black with a screwdriver, busting him open. The match then officially gets started and ends in seconds.

After the match, Black fights back on Jacobs & then cuts a promo. He's pissed and decides to cash in his title shot tonight!!

5.) Four Corner Survival - Bryan Danielson vs. Colt Cabana vs. D-Lo Brown vs. Claudio Castagnoli: **1/2

Surprisingly the Four Corner Survival the night before at Contention was better than this one. Nothing wrong with the match length, but the match itself felt rather tame.

6.) ROH World Tag Team Titles - Submission Match - The American Wolves (with Shane Hagadorn) vs. Kevin Steen & El Generico: ****1/4

ROH doesn't seem to have submission matches very often, if ever at all. It was actually very good. Another classic chapter in The Wolves/Steenerico saga.

7.) Jay Briscoe (with Mark Briscoe) vs. Guido Maritato: **

Guido, of course is a veteran of WWE (Nunzio) and the original ECW. It was fine for what it was. Nice to see Guido actually...

8.) ROH World Title - Three Way Elimination - Jerry Lynn vs. Tyler Black vs. Austin Aries: ****

So apparently Ric Flair was supposed to be the enforcer in this match but left the show after his promo. Something to do with seeing TV Cameras from HD Net & him going back to WWE...I don't know. Anyway, Nigel takes his place as enforcer. The match was actually very good. Lynn goes out first via Tyler Black, in a shocking twist. He & Aries go back & forth for a little bit, but eventually Aries gets the win, becoming the first Two-Time ROH World Champion. He celebrates with King & Titus. This was weird in the sense that while Lynn going out first was shocking, it made him feel like an afterthought in the end. Of course the final skirmish between Aries & Black was just setting up for things to come.

Overall: 8.25/10

While this was probably the worst of the four Manhattan Mayhem shows, it was still pretty great. Even with the last minute changes the World Title Match was great. The Wolves match was excellent. The Roderick Strong & Young Bucks matches we're pretty good as well. The other matches were decent filler. It did leave a mark of unpredictability when all was said & done, adding to the aura of the Manhattan Mayhem show.