ROH Survival of the Fittest 2009 Review

Ring of Honor's annual tradition returns!

ROH Survival of the Fittest 2009

Indianapolis, Indiana 10/10/09

Bonus

1.) Bobby Dempsey, Kyle O'Reilly & Ricochet vs. Aaron Scott, Tommy Mercer & Shawn Schultz: *1/2

Much like the night before, another fine pre-show match...except this one was a Six-Man Tag.

Main Show

Jim Cornette comes out and cuts a promo similar to the one he cut the night before. He adds that because Delirious performed admirably in his effort to win the World Title the night before, he gets a free pass into Survival of the Fittest.

1.) The Young Bucks vs. House of Truth: **3/4

Both of these teams are coming off of losses the night before. It was a fine opening tag match. Both teams are entertaining.

2.) Qualifying Match - Kevin Steen vs. Colt Cabana: *1/4

Eh....this was....not that good. Decent comedy. Finish was.....eh....I don't know. The only things this accomplished was advancing Cabana & the Steen knee story.

3.) Qualifying Match - Rhett Titus vs. Roderick Strong: **1/2

It appeared as if Strong wasn't taking Titus too seriously. A fine qualifying match.

4.) Qualifying Match - Tyler Black vs. Kenny King: ***1/4

This would be the first in a series of matches these two would have. It was pretty good.

5.) Qualifying Match - Petey Williams vs. Claudio Castagnoli: ***

Another fine qualifying match. Good big man vs. little man story here. However, like the match before it, the winner was pretty much a given.

6.) Qualifying Match - Chris Hero vs. Kenny Omega: **3/4

I find this as the wild card qualifier as in it was the only one where it appeared as if the winner could have been either guy. It was good, but I was expecting a little more from this.

7.) Special Tag Team Challenge - Jay & Mark Briscoe vs. Davey Richards & Austin Aries: ***1/2

Austin Aries comes out beforehand and basically says the match came about because of the injury Eddie Edwards suffered, as it was supposed to be Briscoes vs. The American Wolves. Davey Richards has a future title shot after winning the first Toronto Gauntlet during Death Before Dishonor VII weekend. Aries says he offered to be a replacement partner. Richards says he's coming for Aries but Austin reminds him to stay focused on tonight.

Though I felt like it could have been a little bit better, we still got a fine tag team encounter. It especially picked up at the end.

8.) Survival of the Fittest Finals - Colt Cabana vs. Roderick Strong vs. Tyler Black vs. Claudio Castagnoli vs. Chris Hero vs. Delirious: ****1/4

To me this comes off as one of the more star-studded Survival of the Fittest Finals ever. The success or failure of Survival of the Fittest each year depends on how the final match turns out. This year...it delivered. The Kings of Wrestling (though not yet reformed) did some good stuff early. The match only picked up from there, and the ending clash between Black and Strong was REALLY good. The ending killed it though, as it appeared that the ref screwed up the pinfall, with Strong clearly kicking out at two but the ref counted three.

Overall: 7.75/10

As far as Survival of the Fittest goes, this was pretty sold. The main event delivered as it should have. The Briscoes vs. Aries/Richards was good as well, and most of the qualifiers were good, save for some few glaring down spots and the overall predictability of the qualifiers. That in my opinion puts this a slight notch down from Clash of the Contenders from the night before, but regardless this is still a good show.