ROH Austin Aries: The Greatest Man That Ever Lived Review

From "Your Personal Jesus" to "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived", it's the best of Austin Aries!

Austin Aries: The Greatest Man That Ever Lived

Disk 1

6^th Anniversary Show (2/23/08) – Austin Aries vs. Go Shiozaki: ****

Dragon Gate Challenge II (3/28/08) – Austin Aries vs. Genki Horiguchi: ***1/4

Battle For Supremacy (6/27/08) – Relaxed Rules – Austin Aries vs. The Necro Butcher: Good Segment

Vendetta II (6/28/08) – Austin Aries vs. Jimmy Jacobs: ****1/4

Death Before Dishonor VI (8/2/08) – Austin Aries vs. Jimmy Jacobs vs. The Necro Butcher: **1/2

Bound By Hate (11/8/08) – Dog Collar Match – Austin Aries vs. Jimmy Jacobs: ****1/4

Rising Above 2008 (11/22/08) – I Quit Match – Austin Aries vs. Jimmy Jacobs: ****1/4

All-Star Extravaganza IV (12/26/08) – Austin Aries vs. Naomichi Marufuji: ****

Disk 2

Final Battle 2008 (12/27/08) - #1 Contender’s Match – Austin Aries vs. Tyler Black: ****

Manhattan Mayhem III (6/13/09) – ROH World Title - Three Way Elimination Match – Jerry Lynn vs. Austin Aries vs. Tyler Black: ****

Death Before Dishonor VII: Night 1 (7/24/09) – ROH World Title - Four Corner Survival Match – Austin Aries vs. Tyler Black vs. Jerry Lynn vs. Nigel McGuinness: ****

ROH on HDNet Episode 22 – Austin Aries vs. Roderick Strong: ****

  

The Final Countdown Tour: Chicago (9/19/09) – ROH World Title – Austin Aries vs. Bryan Danielson: ****1/4

The Omega Effect (11/14/09) – ROH World Title – Austin Aries vs. Kenny Omega: ****1/4

ROH on HDNet Episode 37 – ROH World Title Match – Four Corner Survival – Austin Aries vs. Davey Richards vs. Kenny Omega vs. Roderick Strong: ****1/4

Reverse The Curse (12/5/09) – ROH World Title – Steel Cage – Austin Aries vs. Colt Cabana: ***3/4

Overall: 9.25/10

I really enjoyed this compilation DVD for a number of reasons. Firstly, it does a great job telling the story of Austin Aries in 2008-9. Pretty much all of the segments from the first half of 2008 are featured, which includes the attempts of both The Age of the Fall and Tammy "Sunny" Sytch to recruit Aries to their respective causes, as well as Aries ultimately leading Lacey away from Jimmy Jacobs, leading to the Jacobs/Aries feud that makes up the vast majority of the first disk. You then see his change in attitude following the Jimmy Jacobs feud where he morphed into the "Greatest Man That Ever Lived" character that we all know & love today, and the character that is arguably a big part of his rise to the TNA World Title years later. Then there is of course the matches that make up this DVD. On the whole, the quality is very good. The first disk features a lot of his matches with Jimmy Jacobs from 2008, while the second features his historic second World Title win and a number of his title defenses from 2009. You don't get any amazingly standout matches (i.e. none of the matches reach ****1/2 or higher), but you do get consistently great matches. Out of the 16 Matches that are included in full, 12 of them are in the **** to ****1/4 range, which just speaks to how great of a wrestler Austin Aries is. In summary, this is a pretty great DVD compilation. I'd definitely recommend it, especially if you're an Austin Aries fan.