Ring of Honour - Rising Above 2008 PPV reviewed

I'm not super familiar with ROH or it's workers but I am aware of people who've gone from ROH to TNA so when I saw this PPV I thought I'd do a review. I call the action how I see it and all views are my own. Onto the PPV.

Delirious vs Brent Albright & Adam Peace (Of the Hangmen 3) - This was a really good quality match, a mixture of lucha style and technical wrestling but well put together as to not be slow or drawn out too much. Nicely worked match, Delirious got the pin only to be jumped at the end of the match, a bit of storyline the match didn't need. Rating out of 10 - 7.

Tag Team Scramble Match - Kevin Steen & El Generico vs Age Of The Fall vs The Vulture Squad vs The Hangmen 3. Now this is the kind of programming we like! A match that just starts out of no-where and isn't on the card. The rules (what there were of them), no tags needed, 1st pin wins. Just about every style of fighting you might want to see was used here by the 4 different teams, everyone bumping and selling well. It looked very well done. Didn't appear to be pre-practiced either! Great finish by Steen who took the pin off a brainbuster. Rating out of 10 - 9.

One Fall 3-way ladies match - Lacey vs Daizee Haze vs Sara Del Ray. I thought the TNA women were tough? These girls are mental! Excellent hard worked match, punches not pulled by any means. Good action in general. The match was being watched by WWE's own Sunny. Some very nice holds including a very good leglock which turned into a 3 way submission hold where everyone had a hold of everyone else. Looked brilliant! Daizee Haze got a very hard fought win. ROH's women make WWE's men look like a bunch of queers. Rating out of 10 - 9.

Grudge Match - Erick Stevens vs Davey Richards. Mainly a brawl but some nice kicks and mat work. Richards reminded me of The Dynamite Kid with power & speed. The match improved in the 2nd half, Richards getting a submission win off an armhold after Stevens was distracted by some MMA guy (Daniel Puder?) in the audience. Rating out of 10 - generous 5.

Grudge Match - Chris Hero vs Claudio Castagnoli. Despite having lots of good moves & good bumps this match was actually pretty boring. It was way too long and a bad idea to have 2 grudge matches after each other. Castagnoli got the win in a match that looked like it might never finish. Rating out of 10 - generous 6 on moves alone. Too long and drawn out.

Takeshi Morishima vs Bryan Danielson - Danielson was cut in the head very early (off camera too!).This wasn't pretty and was mainly a brawl until Morishima pushed the ref and got himself DQ'd. Rating - extremely generous 3 due to the s**t finish.

Tag Title Match 2 out 3 falls, Jay & Mark Briscoe vs Rocky Romero & Roderick Strong - Strong had a few matches in TNA but never quite took off there. Strong got the 1st fall off a powerbomb after a doomsday device. The match did pick up very well after the 1st fall with both teams working a lot harder & faster & way more intense. The Briscoes made both their pins off Strong, retaining the belt. Rating out of 10 - generous 6.

ROH World Championship Match, Austin Aries vs Nigel McGuinness - Aries has worked TNA a few times and never seemed to be able to quite fit into the TNA way of working. For a main event and the main title this thing started REALLY slowly! In fact most of the match was slow, blooding McGuinness early on didn't seem to serve much purpose. Both guys worked very slowly indeed. I thought Aries left TNA because he found the matches too slow and here I find him wrestling on the mat as slowly as a Jap would. This match was pretty much utter s**t apart from the last 5 minutes or so. The incredibly weak and lame finish came off a jawbreaker clothesline. McGuinness took the win and retained the belt. Rating out of 10 - an overly generous 5.

The 2 title matches were pretty c**p to be honest. If TNA were looking for new talent I'd be happy for them to hire ANYONE from the 1st 4 matches. Aries looked worse here than he ever did in TNA. The Briscoe's looked better at the "Man Up" PPV last year. Out of a card of 8 matches, 3 were excellent but sadly they all came at the start. The card died with the 1st grudge match and pretty much stayed that way.