Reported by Ben Hagen of WrestleView.com
On Sunday, June 11, 2006 at 1:34 AM EST

Luckily I now have all seven Milestone shows on DVD to continue this little series of mine. Up next is ROH’s “Arena Warfare" which, from reviews I’ve read, has been the worst received show of the series and, according to some, the worst ROH show of 2006. We shall see my little Chiclets. We shall see.

Match #1 – Tag Team Scramble (oh no): Ricky Reyes / Homicide vs. The Briscoes vs. Dunn / Marcos vs. Kid Mikaze / Jason Kidd

Although the disc opens with a long segment in which Christopher Daniels tries to fill up some time during a car ride from the Murphy Recreation Center to the ECW Arena in Philadelphia, I can’t take such melodrama all that seriously. Sorry. To the match.

The bell rings as the two lesser teams dump the two more important teams (I’ll leave the distinction up to my dear reader) to the outside and proceed to bore me for the first few minutes. I’m don’t like stare-straight-ahead-and-don’t-screw-up wrestling. Anyway, Homicide eventually tags in making things more interesting though the work doesn’t necessarily become much better. My eyes widen a bit when Mark nails a nice suplex on Mikaze about three minutes in. Although he doesn’t go for the cover, I think the more interesting issue in the match is the interaction between the Briscoes and the Rottweilers. Mark just gazes over at them with a cocky glare while Homicide flicks him off. The Briscoes dominate the poor guy for a while, but Mark stupidly lets Mikaze just crawl over to Reyes to make a tag after nailing our first double stomp of the night (yippee!). There is one sort of neat moment (or contrived depending on one’s point of view) where Mark attempts a dive three times in a row only to get cut off every time. He eventually succeeds, however, once there’s no one left to deter him, and the match breaks down from there. Mark and Reyes kill each other for a while, and the ending sequences fire off as the match approaches the ten minute mark. Jay tries for the Jay Driller on Ricky; Homicide nails his big lariat to counter; Marcos breaks up the pin attempt but eats a Cop Killer for breakfast. Officer down at 11:57.

I have to admit it right now. I enjoyed this a lot more than I probably should have, but we can’t all be wrestling Nazis all the time. The Ring Crew Express and the other bland high flyers don’t do a lot for me here other than be annoyances in the way of a brutal Rottweiler / Briscoe match. In a way, though, they served their purpose as punching bags; they also pulled out a few moves that made me smile. Other than that though, I have to say I was not overly impressed here. The Briscoes look like they do everything with full impact, full force all the time. I’m not sure that is necessary or much a good thing. Not every move, not every strike needs to look like one is swinging for the fences or trying to kill one’s opponent. Nevertheless, that’s how they’re working right now, and if they are going to be on ROH shows, I might as well deal with it. One thing I did like about them in this match, however, is the sever lack of really crazy high impact moves that would have just proceeded to get brushed off. A lot of their offense was limited to strikes, and I like that a lot. Sure there was a lot of no selling, poor selling, and the like. But I guess I don’t care. I’ve been digging Reyes a lot more this year than I have in a long time. His jumping knee still doesn’t match Romero’s, but his attitude, his fire, and his ability seem to have improved a ton since his first match back in 2004. Homicide looked pretty good here too. All in all, this is not any worse than any other Scramble I’ve seen and is quite a bit better than several trainwrecks I’ve witnessed. But although I enjoyed it, the match is still very illustrative of the fact that the Dragon Gate matches at the triple threat are a Pacific Ocean (get it?) better than any American attempt at such a match: *1/4.

Match #2: Jimmy Yang vs. Roderick Strong

Before this match, Whitmer comes out and calls out Necro Butcher. He doesn’t show up. Moving on.

These two guys participate in an intense lock up early on and try working their way into some sort of control until about three minutes in when Yang nails a nice drop kick followed by an Asai moonsault to the outside. His control is only minimal, however, as Strong nails a backbreaker about a minute later. At the eight minute mark, Jimmy manages to nail a nice spin kick, but his come back offense feels really uninspired with some weak looking clotheslines and a repeat performance on two more occasions for the same spin kick (though Strong sneaks in a half nelson back breaker between the second and third). The highlight of the match comes seconds later when Yang flips off of Strong in the corner, retreats a few feet only to find Strong rushing back at him with, as Dave Prazak says, a “big, big, big" boot. As blown up and lazy as Yang seems here, I have to give him credit for doing all the necessary rag doll effects to complement Strong’s impact. Near the end, Roderick gets distracted by some fans chanting, “Boring" and gets driven to the corner when attempting a butterfly suplex (or Gibson driver). Yang hits a flat looking moonsault, sets Roderick up top, but gets tripped up as Strong rides him to the mat awkwardly before applying a Boston Crab (not the Strong Hold) for the tap out victory. Thank God this is over at 12:53.

I don’t know what the deal was, but Yang looked totally blown up here. His strikes, his movements, his energy were all low-level, and if I weren’t such a level headed stud, his performance here would piss me off. Regardless, Strong (not looking too good himself in this match, but still looking more animated than Yang) kicked his face through the back of his neck on one exchange, so the match is at least worth watching for that. Yet no amount of face-kickage makes up for how truly bad match this match is through and through. Their “Enter the Dragon" match is quite a bit better, and even that didn’t truly deliver like I would have liked it to. Yang looked great at “Tag Wars 2006." Here, not so much. Strong tried bringing the high spots, but Yang’s lack of fire and flat looking offense just dropped the match’s quality to poor. With that in mind, I’m proud of Strong for trying to work the rebellious pro-CZW section into the match allowing Yang time to make some comebacks. Had Yang actually brought his A-game (or even his C-game for that matter), I think they could have gotten a few more miles out of this. It is certainly watchable, at times entertaining (like I said, Strong kicking people in the face is fun), but it still manages to be overtly offensive at several points: *.

Before the next match we get some brawling between B.J. Whitmer / Necro Butcher / Super Dragon which I really enjoyed. Whitmer and Necro struggle on the apron trying to kill each other with various moves before Whitmer sends him to the guardrail with an Akiyama high knee. Super Dragon nails him from behind and hits the Curb Stomp. They brawl a bit more before Butcher re-enters the fray. Dragon nails a double stomp to Whitmer’s head, and the locker room empties. Very fun. A simultaneous chant of “ROH" and “CZW" (not a dueling chant mind you, a simultaneous one) rings out as various wrestlers help Whitmer to his feet. He drops another f-word, and we’re on to the next match.

Match #3: Austin Aries vs. Matt Sydal

The match starts out with some nice (but perhaps overly extended) mat work / technical work that centers around control of the body through various headlock and headlock escapes. About four and a half minutes in, Sydal applies a head scissors to Aries and manages to avoid the tag champion’s usual headstand-into-a-dropkick counter by rolling to his stomach with the scissors. Nearly six minutes in, a quick exchange of head locks leads to a back suplex from Aries that progresses the match forward past this headlock-a-thon. Shortly thereafter, however, Sydal nails a nice head scissors takedown and drop kick sending the champ out to the floor where he follows with a beautiful looking dive. About eight and a half minutes in, Aries returns the favor after a struggle on the top rope with his gorgeous looking tope out to the floor. He continues his onslaught for several minutes, cutting off Sydal at every point, eventually scoring a near fall with a frog splash twelve minutes in. After a nifty (but a bit contrived) looking DDT, Sydal tries mounting a come back taking Aries down with a series of strikes. After a botched spot about fourteen minutes in, Sydal sweeps the champ’s legs and earns a nearfall with his standing moonsault. He counters a brainbuster attempt moments later, earns another nearfall with the Here It Is Driver, but misses a Shooting Star attempt. Though he manages to land on his feet, Aries rolls through a backslide attempt and flicks the necessary switches. Kick to the face? Check. Brainbuster? Check. 450 splash? Check. The champ takes it at 16:52.

I’ve read in quite a few places that this was a disappointing match. If I were B.J. Whitmer, I’d have no problem dropping yet another f-bomb. Instead, I’ll merely say that I’m curious as to why some people think that. The match is pretty good. It isn’t great, but it is far from disappointing. It kills the Aries / Styles match from This Means War, and is probably my favorite Sydal singles match that doesn’t involve Jimmy Rave. Go figure. There is some work here that doesn’t quite match up to other sort of stuff that they try here, but for the most part I think it works really, really well. A few botches, a few awkward moments, and perhaps some overdone headlock work early on doesn’t tarnish what is otherwise a neat little encounter. It doesn’t touch the tag title match the previous show that involved these two, but it is loads better than Yang / Strong and the Scramble match: **3/4.

Match #4: Irish Airborne vs. Sal Rinauro / Tony Mamaluke

Irish Guy #1 and Rinauro start things off with some stuff. I’d rather not get much more descript than that. Mamaluke comes in looking all serious at about the three minute mark wearing a goofy looking scarf / neck band type thing. We get an overly flashy head lock takedown from Irish Guy #2 (I think), but Tony drills him with a back drop suplex on a second attempt. Number 2 gets dominated for a while with some pretty bad tag team work from the former ROH Tag Champions. After a few minutes of boredom, Two makes the big comeback with a . . . headlock reversal. Number One blind tags in and nails the highlight of the match: a stratospherical spring board drop kick before going back to . . . a side headlock. A few dance moves later, Rinauro nails a weird looking slam out of a vertical suplex position (that move have a name?) and gets a near fall. Some convoluted spot near the end sees Mamaluke apply a guillotine choke to one guy, hold it for an awkward amount of time until the guy positions him in time for a double stomp (surprise?) followed by a Death Valley Driver onto someone’s knees (yuck). The Wonder Twins take it at 9:18, and Dave Prazak is totally too excited to see one bad team beat another bad team. Irish Airborne have arrived? Eesh.

Worst match thus far. While Yang and Strong is bad, this is much more offensive. Not offensive like Lingerie Pillow Fight or Katie Vick Murder offensive or Da Hit Squad vs. Christopher Street Connection offensive or even David Arquette winning the WCW Title offensive. This is offensive in that the “former" ROH Tag Champs (who I never really hated or loved up to this point) phoned it in. Their double team moves looked amateurish; Rinauro looked like he was at a dance recital; Tony Mamaluke hit one nice suplex. That’s it. Their opponents aren’t any better, but they’re a bit younger me thinks? Maybe. While I respect the fact that they are rookies and I shouldn’t be too hard on them, blank faces don’t really get me into a match. High spots and enormous drop kicks only do so much when the performer looks like they’re trying to solve a simple addition problem in their head rather than participating in a wrestling match. And will people please stop doing double stomps? Seriously. I understand the desire of young wrestlers to want it in their repertoire, but enough is enough already. The finish was stupid: ½*.

Match #5 – ROH World Title Match: Bryan Danielson vs. Alex Shelley

I’m not going to give details, but Danielson cuts a pretty damn good promo before the match. I’m not a big fan of Danielson on the microphone since his heel schtick sometimes comes off as a comedy act rather than anything very serious. I didn’t believe him when he said he was the best technical wrestler to wrestle in the ECW Arena. I did believe he was trying to piss off the fans or make them laugh. So take that for what it’s worth.

After the handshake and the bell, both men take their time with Shelley being a little hesitant. Before things really get going, Shelley gets on the microphone and cuts his own promo berating the fans. And we’re three minutes in. They struggle in a double knuckle lock for a while before a “Boring" chant starts. Shelley gets on the microphone again. So far, this is the best match of the night. We’re five minutes in and about 20% of that involved actual wrestling. Superb. The match proper starts hereafter. After some good back-and-forth struggling, Danielson nails a drop kick about eight minutes in that sends Shelley out to the floor to regroup. Neither man really solidifies any sort of advantage until about the twelve minute mark when Danielson locks in an abdominal stretch in response to a “Boring" chant. Though Shelley targets Danielson’s leg shortly thereafter, Danielson sneaks in a belly-to-belly suplex after the two trade slaps and strikes. Danielson returns the leg work with a Mexican surfboard double stomp (is there a shorter name for this?) before a slingshot suplex nearfall at around eighteen minutes. After a second Mex. surf. double stomp, the champ applies a figure four leg lock but fails to earn the submission. Danielson continues to dominate until Shelley gets in a tornado DDT about twenty-one minutes in. Rather than pull out fancy-looking maneuvers, the challenger targets Danielson’s neck with four consecutive neckbreakers after a superkick earns him a near fall. Shelley continues to bring the offense until about the twenty-six minute mark when Shelley misses a dive and nearly gets killed slamming into the guardrail! Remember the dive Lita took when she beat Trish for the Women’s Title on RAW a couple years ago? Yeah, that nasty. Danielson follows up by nailing an RVD somersault dive into the crowd taking out both Nana and Shelley. Back in the ring, Danielson continues the offense nailing a top rope missile drop kick and locking in Cattle Mutilation seconds later. We’re in the finishing stretch folks as Shelley nails a frogsplash after countering a superplex attempt and strings together a superkick, brainbuster, and 2k1 Bomb. On the kick out he transitions into the Border City Stretch! Danielson begins to fade and Shelley transitions again, this time into a roll up very reminiscent of the roll up Danielson uses out of Cattle Mutilation. At the thirty minute mark, however, Danielson counters Sliced Bread #2, and gets in a belly-to-back superplex for a near fall of his own. After a striking battle, Shelley sneaks in a low blow and the Shell Shock for a near fall. After Danielson escapes the Border City Stretch again (a near fall that gets a great crowd response), he gets in a roaring forearm but gets killed with a lariat. Shelley goes for Sliced Bread #2 again, almost gets it, but the champ reverses into Cattle Mutliation and transitions magnificently into his pinning combination for the victory at 32:29.

This might be Danielson’s best title defense. Maybe. While the Strong defenses might remain my favorite, there is very little doubt in my head that this is in the top three. I wouldn’t argue with anyone claiming that it is better than the Strong matches, and considering that they could have taken this to an even “greater" level makes me really happy. What makes this great? (1) They took a hostile crowd split on both guys at different times and built a match that drew them into the near falls at the end, a match that built successfully from degrading mic work to a great finishing stretch with good work in between. (2) A plethora of payback spots and sections that were logically built to rather than random: from Danielson’s payoff to a teased dive to Shelley following through on trying to target the champion’s neck to Prince Nana attempting to get revenge for the dive Danielson hit him with in the Rave match, there is plenty of structural nerdy stuff that will keep you finding things. The guys countered each other’s finishing moves with beautiful roll-throughs. Both guys transitioned out of a submission attempt into a roll-up. Etc. Etc. (3) An extending finishing stretch that really ricocheted the advantage back and forth taking the crowd on a roller coaster. (4) Tons of reversals from two guys you’d expect it from, but not in a shallow “exhibition" sense (whatever I mean by that). (5) This felt built much more around character than the Rave defense. (6) Shelley never hit Sliced Bread #2 despite attempt after attempt. (7) The offense was focused. They were going for “their" kind of match rather than one that would just pop the crowd from beginning to end. This is truly an impressive encounter between two very young wrestlers: ***3/4.

Match #6: Colt Cabana vs. Christopher Daniels

After a hip toss from Cabana sends Daniels outside, they proceed to launch into very clean looking back-and-forth sequences that piss off some pickier match reviewers. Me, however, I enjoy it for what it is: the random spot-oriented match that Danielson / Shelley wasn’t. Anyway, Cabana starts to string together some offense about four minutes in after a monkey flip. Moments later, however, Daniels catches Cabana coming in with a boot and nails a lung blower to his ribs (rather than his back). The Fallen Angel (whose body part of choice often turns out to be the mid-section) stays on his opponent for the next several minutes. A little over eight minutes in, Cabana counters an elbow drop into a roll up, but gets caught in an abdominal stretch when attempting to string some more moves together. A little over ten minutes in, Cabana pulls out a moonsault off the second rope to buy himself some time. Moments later he hits his butt butt / lariat combination but it is only good enough for a near fall. Daniels strings together some big moves moments later (a Death Valley Driver followed by a Best Moonsault Ever attempt), but gets countered when attempting the Angels Wings into a roll up. Cabana clips ‘em at 13:46.

I thought this was solid enough, but not that good. It is a by-the-numbers Daniels performance that resembled more of a dance recital than a wrestling match, and Cabana really has no trouble fitting in to that sort of style. Daniels has good focus when working the ribs, but it really feels like filler rather than much of anything else. The crowd tried to care and were actually quite positive about the match given the fact that Samoa Joe was originally scheduled to be a part of it. It is much better than the Yang / Strong match, but Aries / Sydal still kills it: *3/4.

Match #7: Colt Cabana vs. Samoa Joe

There is no opening bell for the next fall so I assume that it just continues from the first? Who cares? Samoa Joe walks out from the back looking super pissed wearing his street clothes, and that’s why we love him. He takes it to both Cabana and Daniels with chops, eats a few right hands from the first fall’s loser, but sends the Fallen Angel to the outside with a nice belly-to-belly throw before focusing on Cabana. He hits his atomic drop / big boot / senton combo for a very early near fall. Cabana manages to take down Joe with a huge lariat, yet falls victim to a very early Muscle Buster . . . but Cabana kicks out! Joe locks in the Kokina Clutch, but Cabana makes the ropes! He tries to fight back, but an enziguiri from Joe leads to a second Muscle Buster and the victory at 3:13.

I enjoyed this quite a bit more than the first fall. Samoa Joe’s presence has grown to such a degree that he just has to stand there in order to be more enjoyable than most wrestlers on the card. Still, all we got here were his signature spots, a few teased hints of offense from Cabana, and a mauling. Very fun, but definitely doesn’t make a show. I don’t think I can rate this.

While the closing CZW / ROH stuff bored me to tears the first time, but I liked it on a second viewing. What I enjoyed more was one fan’s fun with toilet paper that brought Joe into the crowd before the brawling even started. Poor kid. He could’ve used that toilet paper.

Closing Thoughts

In comparing it to the 4th Anniversary Show, I think it is fare to say that the previous one had a much better stretch of matches / segments. From the CZW / ROH brawl to the closing World Tag Title match, the previous show was pretty rock solid. This show is more hit and miss. While there is nothing as bad on this card as the opening matches of the 4th Anniversary show (well, other than that one tag match), there is little here to offer the fan looking at a $20 price tag. If one great match is worth that sort of dough, by all means go ahead. The CZW / ROH stuff is not as fun as I would have liked, but it had a certain sort of “warfare" feel to it, so I guess that’s okay. Although Sydal / Aries is good, it doesn’t really make up for the lackluster main event or the two really bad matches in the middle of the card (i.e. Strong / Yang and the Tag Team Match That Shall Not Be Named). If Shelley / Danielson were on any other card I would tell you to buy that DVD without hesitation. However, when you’re pretty much looking at twenty bones for one match, that hurts things a little bit. The opening Scramble is certainly fun and there is a lot of pretty entertaining non-match stuff, so if those sorts of things are your bag, then you might enjoy this show quite a bit. It is far from poor, but isn’t that good nor is it must-see.