It's time to step into Ring of Honor territory again, and this time we're going back to this past March 14th, the day after Ric Flair made his ROH debut, to Insanity Unleashed, featuring Nigel Mc****ss and Austin Aries against Jerry Lynn and Tyler Black in the main event. Once again the commentary is handled by Dave Prazak and Larry Zbyszko.

The show begins with Nate Webb taking on Flash Flanagan. It's the usual ROH style opener, a short, high intensity, fast paced match, pitting the power wrestler against the flyer. Flanagan looked impressive here, not only showing great power but some great agility as well, while Webb was his usual self, although he seems to have put on a bit of poundage since I last saw him. Webb got the win here, taking Flanagan down with the Arachnid Kick. Not bad, but it probably won't be the best match here.

On to three way action, with Claudio Castagnoli, Bryan Danielson and Kenny Omega. The rules for this one were slightly different to what we normally regard as a three way, with only two men in the ring, and one on the apron, with the one on the apron only being allowed into the match once he's made a tag. The last three way match I saw with these rules was in WCW back in 1995, and it bored the hell out of me. Thankfully this one was a lot better, with three good performances, and for once Danielson's wasn't the best. He was good, but for me Castagnoli was just a little better. I really enjoyed the way he continued to play the heel even when the fans were cheering him. As for Omega, well, he was good as well, especially with his high flying moves. In fact, Omega and Danielson worked well as a unit, and I wouldn't mind seeing those two team up together. Their tandem didn't last long though as they began to argue about who should be attacking the Swiss guy. The end came when Castagnoli locked in a variation of a rear naked choke on Omega for the submission victory. Things didn't end there though as Bison Smith, who had competed against Danielson the night before, came running down to ringside to continue his attack on the Dragon, with the two eventually being pulled apart by several referees and officials.

The next match had quality written all over it - Chris Hero versus Jay Briscoe. Hero had his Sweet & Sour buddies Larry Sweeney and Shane Hagadorn along for company. This one had wild brawling mixed in with solid wrestling action, and it made for a great contest, part of the ongoing storyline with Briscoe seeking revenge for Sweet & Sour's attack on his brother Mark. Hero put in a great heel performance, ably assisted by Sweeney's occasional interference, with Briscoe the perfect foil. Both men almost got the win numerous times, before Hero got the pin after taking Briscoe down with the rolling elbow.

The only title match of the evening followed, with Kenny King and Rhett Titus challenging Kevin Steen and El Generico for the ROH World Tag Team Championship. This one took a little while to get going, but when it did, it was great. These two teams had impressed me greatly during my other ROH reviews, and they didn't disappoint in this match. Steen and Generico once again proved why they've been great tag team champions, while King and Titus continue to fulfil the promise they've show for ages now. The ending saw some tremendous team work. After Generico connected with a yakuza kick on Titus, Steen connected with his package pile driver, before Generico put on the finishing touches with a brain buster, getting the pin immediately afterwards. Their celebration was short lived though as the American Wolves came out and attacked Steen's previously injured knee, before being chased away by Jay Briscoe.

The Bison Smith tour of destruction then continued, this time against Silas Young. Well, Young got in some good offence, but it didn't last long, and Smith basically continued his reign of terror, taking Young down with a claw hold slam, before finishing him off with a power bomb. Awesome display from Smith, and a good way of keeping his momentum going.

Then it was back to tag team action, with the American Wolves, Eddie Edwards and Davey Richards, facing Roderick Strong & Brent Albright. Once again, the American Wolves show that they're an awesome team. Richards and Edwards work so well together it's scary, and I wouldn't be surprised if they won a few awards this year. Strong and Albright also put up a hell of a fight, making for one great contest. It also had a great finish. While the referee was otherwise distracted, manager Larry Sweeney handed a pair of brass knuckles to Edwards. He didn't get to use them though, as El Generico came racing down to the ring, taking Edwards out with a yakuza kick. with Strong finishing the job with a sit down power bomb. Could this be considered an upset? Probably not, but it was certainly unexpected.

The big grudge match followed, with Jimmy Jacobs taking on Delirious in a no disqualification match. These two had had a massive falling out on the previous show, with the masked man finally pulling away from his controlling mentor, thanks to a little help from Daizee Haze. It's a wild and crazy brawl that takes in the entire arena and sees both men using their fair amount of steel chairs and bleeding for their art as well. But if I'm to be completely honest, this is probably the weakest match on the card. It was meant to be a grudge match, but even though their split has been built up for quite a while, I didn't really get "that" feeling about this one, and maybe that's because this match was held just a day after they'd split, when the rivalry should really have been built up a lot more. The ending, though, was highly inventive, with Jacobs putting Delirious through a table with a guillotine choke off the top rope and through a table. With the masked man unconscious, the referee called for the bell, with Jacobs getting the submission win.

Main event time, a tag team attraction, pitting Tyler Black and Jerry Lynn against ROH World Champion Nigel Mc****ss and Austin Aries. A good old fashioned tag team match to end the show with, a very entertaining battle which saw all four men putting in good performances, with Lynn and Mc****ss the MVPs of their respective teams, and Aries and Black not far behind. We had great wrestling in the ring mixed with wild action outside of it, with both teams almost getting the win on several occasions, before Lynn pinned Mc****ss after taking him out with his trusty old cradle pile driver. And before you ask, yes, Austin Aries was still wearing those bloody awful trunks.

As usual, only one extra, the ROH Newswire.

In conclusion - this is another strong DVD release from Ring of Honor. There's eight good matches here, and thankfully no Necro Butcher, although he'll be on the next DVD that I'll be reviewing in the next week or so. Match of the night would definitely have to go to the tag team war featuring the American Wolves against Albright and Strong. It's a great example of 21st century tag team wrestling at it's best, and something we just don't get to see that often these days.

With thanks to the powers that be at Ring of Honor for supplying a copy of this release.

We're stepping into Ring of Honor territory once again, mainly because they've sent me quite a few DVDs to review. So this time we're going back to March 13th of this year, with Nigel Mc****ss defending the ROH World title against Brent Albright, and an appearance from "Nature Boy" Ric Flair at "Stylin' & Profilin'". Commentary is handled by Dave Prazak and "The Living Legend" Larry Zybyszko.

The show begins with Jay Briscoe facing Roderick Strong. It's a good solid opener from the former tag-team champion, with both men putting on a great display of technical wrestling, mixing it up with a little hard hitting action. It's a tremendous match. Plenty of near falls towards the end of this one, with Strong getting the roll up after a fast series of moves. A nice way to begin the show.

The first of two title matches follows, with Daizee Haze challenging MsChief, accompanied by Jimmy Jacobs & Delirious, for the Shimmer Championship. No Divas in this one, just plenty of great action from two women who know each other so well. Tons of great action, but there was also a story on the outside with Delirious none too happy when Jacobs interfered. This went on when Jacobs interfered twice more, and if it hadn't been for that interference then MsChief wouldn't have retained the title, taking out Haze with her Desecrator DDT. Afterwards Jacobs warned Delirious about their match later in the evening, as well as warning Haze about her future conduct, telling her to stay out of the masked man's business. A very good match here, with a few nice plot twists as well.

Next up, a four corners survival match featuring Claudio Castagnoli, Austin Aries, Kenny Omega and Silas Young, with the first man to get the fall winning. This one had a very interesting start, with Aries and Castagnoli insisting on starting the match, and forming a mutual appreciation society as they exchanged holds and moves, until Omega and Young got fed up with their little games and took matters into their hands. The exchanges between the two baby faces were a lot better. So after all of that there was a ton of great action, with all four men putting in a good showing, and Castagnoli once again standing out above the rest, although Aries wasn't that far behind him. Plenty of four way action towards the end here, with Aries pinning Omega after taking him down with the brain buster, ending an awesome match.

In ring segment time, with Dave Prazak interviewing the guest of honour, Ric Flair. Needless to say that Flair's time in the spotlight is interrupted, by none other than the champion himself, Nigel Mc****ss. My fellow Brit starts off by complimenting the Nature Boy, before quickly changing tact and insulting the legend. It's the usual kind of stuff you get from retired legends these days.

Back to the action, with Chris Hero and The American Wolves, accompanied by Larry Sweeney and Shane Hagadorn, taking on Kevin Steen, El Generico and Bobby Dempsey. At least Hero's got rid of that beard since the last ROH show. Some nice performances from all six men here, with Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards showing just how far they've developed as a team, and just why they're the top contenders to Steen and Generico's titles. Hero and Dempsey also played their part in this entertaining match, which featured almost twenty minutes of top notch action, and more liberal amounts of outside interference, as Richards submitted teen with a sharpshooter after Sweeney had stopped his moonsault attempt by clobbering his injured knee with a steel chair. Sweeney and his buddies continued their assault after the bell, until Generico cleared house with a steel chair of his own. Steen had to be helped backstage afterwards.

The tag-team action continues with Irish Airborne facing Kenny King & Rhett Titus. It's a relatively short match, lasting around ten minutes, and it's basically a way of putting the ever blossoming team of King and Titus over. But that being said, King and Titus once again proved how far they've come as a team, putting in a great effort with some well executed double team moves. Irish Airborne played their part well, but in the end they fell to King & Titus' block buster power bomb combination, ending another great match for a team that I'm really becoming a fan of.

Then came the match I was really looking forward to, with Bryan Danielson taking on Bison Smith. Obviously this wasn't going to be the usual Smith squash match, given the nature of his opponent. It certainly is a very interesting match, pitting the technical skill of Danielson against the power and brawling style of Smith, and it made for a nice little match, with Danielson throwing everything he can at the big man, with Smith taking it and delivering tons of punishment. The match eventually went to ringside, with Danielson using a baseball slide dropkick to knock Smith into the front row. The referee made his count as the two men continued to brawl, and just as the ref was about to make the twenty count, Danielson made it back into the ring, ending a very good match, and given that the American Dragon could only beat the big guy by count out, it will be interesting to see if they're matched up together again.

Then it was back to tag-team action, with The Age of the Fall team of Jimmy Jacobs and Delirious going up against Jerry Lynn and Tyler Black. By now long-time readers will realise that I'm a big Jerry Lynn fan, so you could probably tell that this was one of the matches I was looking forward to. It's another great example of 21st century tag-team wrestling, with four great performances. Once again Lynn defied Father Time by putting in an excellent performance, showing the younger guys a thing or two, with Black again showing that he could become a player in the future. For their part, Jacobs and Delirious showed what a good team they are as the ongoing dissention storyline between them continued. Jacobs cost his team the win, accidentally clobbering Delirious with a chair after Black ducked out of the way. As Lynn took care of Jacobs, Black got the pin on the fallen masked men, giving his team the victory. After the match, Jacobs began to berate the fallen and bloodied Delirious, taking out his trusty railroad spike, before Daizee Haze came into the ring in an attempt to stop him. Jacobs then used the spike on her, and was about to use it on Delirious when the masked man stopped him and attacked his now former mentor. A series of running knees left Jacobs stunned in the corner, before Delirious and Haze hugged in the middle of the ring, completing his face turn. Well, the match was good, and the aftermath was well played out, so you'll get no complaints from me.

Main event time, with Brent Albright challenging Nigel Mc****ss for the ROH World title, with Ric Flair watching the match from ringside. An excellent wrestling contest to end the show with. Mc****ss and Albright put together a great match, with the  champion working over the challenger's arm for the early part of the match, and showing off to Flair as the match went on. It soon turned into a back and forth affair later on, with Mc****ss even doing the Flair bump off the top rope. A few moments later, after the referee took an accidental hit, Mc****ss took Albright out with his London Dungeon through the ringside table, but still couldn't get the job done. Albright soon made his comeback, and it looked like he was going to get the win with numerous crowbar submission attempts, until Mc****ss' fellow European Claudio Castagnoli ran in and attacked the challenger, giving Albright the immediate disqualification win. As the two heinous heels began to double up on Albright, Flair took off his jacket, delivered a few chops, and sent Mc****ss and Castagnoli running for cover. A nice way to end a great match.

The usual extra, the ROH Newswire, completes this release.

In conclusion - I think you can tell what I'm going to say here. This is another great release from Ring of Honor. There isn't one bad match here, and it's topped off nicely by the excellent main event between Mc****ss and Albright. This is definitely one release you should add to your collection, if you haven't already.

With thanks to the powers that be at Ring of Honor for supplying a copy of this release.

It’s that time of the month again when the great and the good of Total Non-Stop Action wrestling gather in the Impact Zone in Florida for their latest pay-per-view offering, Victory Road, shown on a three day delay here in Britain on Bravo 2, and headlined by Mick Foley challenging Kurt Angle for the TNA World title. As usual, Mike Tenay and Don West are handling commentary duties.

The show begins with the first title match of the evening, with Angelina Love challenging Tara, accompanied by a big hairy spider, for the TNA Knockouts championship. Needless to say that Angelina is accompanied by her Beautiful People co-horts. It’s a good outing from the girls here, another example of how the Knockouts are far superior to their Diva counterparts. Tara and Angelina put together a great little match, with liberal amounts of interference from the other harpies, who almost cost their queen the title when they accidentally sprayed hairspray into her eyes. It also had a controversial ending. After Tara missed a top rope moonsault, Angelina got the pin, but referee Slick Johnson failed to notice Tara’s foot on the bottom rope. Tara would later super kick poor old Slick for his troubles, before taking Angelina down with the widows peak. To top things off, she put the big hairy spider on top of Slick. Looks like someone’s been watching old Jake Roberts matches recently.

The action continues with the Main Event Mafia wannabe Matt Morgan taking on Christopher Daniels. It’s the proverbial David v Goliath battle, pitting Morgan’s power against Daniels’ speed and agility, and it certainly made for an interesting match. Both guys looked good early on, but Daniels began to heavily favour his left leg after missing a slingshot over the ropes, the leg that had been previously injured by Morgan. Morgan proceeded to work over the injured limb, and although Daniels mounted a comeback, the injury came back to haunt him. Unable to execute the BME, Daniels slipped off the ropes, with Morgan countering with the carbon footprint, finishing his man off with the elevator slam. Good stuff here. Morgan is really starting to grow on me as a heel.

Then it was on to Doctor Stevie taking on Abyss. Nice to see that Stevie Richards is finally being allowed to wrestle on pay-per-view, even if it is with a dumb ass gimmick. Also nice to see that Abyss is no longer wearing his mental hospital uniform. It’s you basic big monster beats up his opponent kind of match, with Richards starting by beating on Abyss with a security baton, before the monster came back with his power moves. We then got the obligatory brawl through the crowd, and later the good doctor bleeding for his art, a catfight between Lauren the announcer and Daffney, and Abyss getting the pin after using a tazer. Not bad, I suppose, but this was little more than a squash match.

The second title match of the evening followed, with The British Invasion, accompanied by Rob Terry, challenging Team 3D for the IWGP Tag-Team Championship. Now, I’m still bound by the threat of legal action from Nick “Brutus Magnus” Aldis if I say anything negative against him. So because of that, and because I can’t be arsed to find anything else to put in place of this match review, I’m going to leave a blank space, and this is how things will remain from now on until Mr. Aldis withdraws his threat.






The second women’s match saw the women of the Main Event Mafia, Sharmell, accompanied by Sojo Bolt, and Jenna Morasca, accompanied by Awesome Kong. I really didn’t have high hopes for this one, and my fears were justified. What you had here was a match between two highly untrained people, and it was poor, very poor, and it also went on way too long, with Jenna getting the pin after Kong clobbered Sharmell. The best thing about this one was when Kong attacked Jenna afterwards. So a quick note to TNA - if I wanted to see two untrained women fighting, I’d go up to Norwich’s nightclub district on a Saturday night.

Then it was on to the third title match of the evening, with Kevin Nash challenging A.J. Styles for the TNA Legends title. Slow and methodical was the order of the day here, but then again that’s always the case as far as a Big Sexy match is concerned. These two may have had a vast difference in size, but it didn’t detract from the match quality. Although I must say that I did find it a little surprising that Styles was the most dominant wrestler in this one, working over Nash’s legs, and almost knocking him out at one time. This didn’t help Styles retain the title though. After Styles leapt over the referee from the top rope, Nash caught him and quickly took him down with a choke slam. A three count later and Nash was the new champion. Interesting match, very interesting.

The fourth title match of the evening followed immediately, with Booker T and Scott Steiner challenging Beer Money, Inc. for the TNA World Tag-Team titles. Another example of what TNA does better. Once again Robert Roode and James Storm proved just how good they are as a team, and even though they haven’t been teaming together for that long, Steiner and Booker put in a good effort as well. All of this made for a very good match. Beer Money looked like they were going to get the win, but after Storm spit beer in the eyes of Steiner, and after they took him down with the DUI, referee Earl Hebner was slow to make the count, because some of the beer that Storm had spat had gotten into his eyes as well. Hebner made the count, but Steiner kicked out. As Hebner then argued with Storm about the count, Booker axe kicked Roode as he stood by the ropes, with Steiner getting the roll-up for the title winning pin, making it two in two for the Main Event Mafia, and ending a very good match.

Grudge match time, with the newest member of the Main Event Mafia, Samoa Joe, taking on Sting. Interesting to see Slick Johnson as the referee in this one. I guess his stint in the shower with Madison Rayne didn’t take too much out of him. As for the match, it was pretty good. Joe and Sting looked tailor made for each other, putting on a match that had some good psychology, and made sense in all the right places. Sting looked like he was going to get the win with the scorpion death lock, until the worst kept secret in professional wrestling was revealed, as former ECW Champion Taz made his TNA debut as Joe’s special advisor. Then came the one iffy moment, with Sting fouling up the planned finish by failing to let Sting got for the muscle buster. Joe quickly improvised though by synching in a rear naked choke, with Sting tapping out seconds later. Good stuff, but I’m surprised that a veteran like Sting forgot the planned finish.

After the announcement that Bobby Lashley had officially signed for TNA, it was main event time, with Mick Foley challenging Kurt Angle for the TNA World title. Once again, slow and methodical was the order of the day, which was hardly surprising considering that Angle was suffering from a groin injury and Foley isn’t exactly in the best of conditions. A few years ago this would have been a great match, and even though this was okay, I couldn’t help but feel that there was something missing from this, something that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. As the match went on you could tell that Angle’s injury was bothering him, especially after he missed a moonsault from the top rope. We also had a rather confusing moment when Angle elbow dropped the fallen referee, who then magically sprang to life whenever he administered a pin count. In the end Angle emerged victorious, with Foley tapping out to the ankle lock. I don’t know, something just doesn’t seem right about TNA pay-per-view main events at the moment.

In conclusion - once again I have to say that a TNA pay-per-view had it’s good and bad points. The good points were the great TNA Tag-Team title match, the Knockouts title match, and the Morgan/Daniels, Sting/Joe and Nash/Styles matches. The bad points were the battle between the Main Event Mafia’s female contingent, the Abyss squash match, Sting fouling up his match finish, and the tepid reception a Mick Foley singles match always gets. Let’s face it, Kurt Angle versus any of Mick Foley’s incarnations would have been great nearly ten years ago, but in the professional wrestling world of 2009, Foley’s performances aren’t just good enough, and that’s really difficult for me to say considering that I’m a big fan of the guy.

I was also disappointed that there were no X Division matches on the show. Their matches really are the highlight for me, and surely they could have scrapped one of the lesser matches (Jenna v Sharmell) for them. After all, the X Division title is TNA’s longest serving title, the only title that survived when they split from the NWA.

So in all, as my old teachers used to say, good, but could do a whole lot better.

On September 11th, 1997 the stars of three wrestling promotions, Extreme Championship Wrestling, Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling, and the World Wrestling Federation gathered in Amarillo, Texas, to honour one of the true legends of the wrestling business, Terry Funk, as he announced his retirement. To commemorate this event, Funk challenged Bret “Hitman” Hart for the WWF title in the main event of Wrestlefest: 50 Years of Funk, also known as Terry Funk‘s Wrestlefest. Commentary duties are handled by none other than the voice of ECW, Joey Styles.

The show began with Roadkill, before he became an angry Amish warrior, facing Japanese star W*ING Kanemura. Roadkill was still a student at ECW’s House of Hardcore training school at the time, and his gimmick consisted of wearing tattered black clothes, and talking to his opponent and arguing with the referee. For a guy who’d had less than a dozen matches at that point, he looked pretty damn good, pulling off some great looking power moves. It wasn’t enough to get the job done though, as the experience of Kanemura quickly won out, taking Roadkill out with a top rope senton to get the pin. Good stuff.

It’s an all ECW battle next, with ECW TV Champion Taz defending the title against Chris Candido. If you ever wanted a good example of just how good these two were, then take a look at this match. It’s a tremendous contest, with Taz showing some great technical moves, and Candido at his best as the whiny heel, complaining about everything from hair pulling to tights pulling. It’s also an example of how the WWF kind of dropped the ball with these two. Sadly, because this was a TV title match, it only had a ten minute time limit, with Taz getting the win with the tazmission.

Japanese women’s action followed, with Shark Tsuchiya taking on Lady Cooga. No preening divas in this one, just solid wrestling action, with Shark using her power advantage to good effect against the masked Cooga, who countered with some excellent high flying and fast paced moves. Shark got the win here, taking Cooga down with a hard clothesline. Nice stuff.

The first tag-team match of the show followed, with The Youngbloods going up against The Bushwhackers. This was a somewhat confusing match. Luke and Butch came to the ring as faces, slapping the hands of the fans at ringside, but mere seconds later, as the Youngbloods waved the stars and stripes, they became heels, and the crowd immediately began to boo them as they went back to their Sheepherder ways. Inside the ring the action seemed a little disjointed, with Luke and Butch often going to the outside when things didn’t go their way, wasting time, which is something you can’t really do in a match that has a ten minute time limit. This was little more than a brawl, which often broke down into a four way brawl, with the Youngbloods getting the pin after Chris dropkicked his brother Mark as he was about to be body slammed by Luke, with Mark getting the pin soon afterwards. This one could have been a whole lot better, had it not been for the crazy psychology.

Back to singles action, and another ECW battle with The Sandman facing Balls Mahoney. Well, that’s what it was supposed to be, but just as the Sandman was about to get into the ring, having downed a few cold ones along the way, Buh Buh Ray Dudley came running down and attacked the Sandman, taking him out. This brought Mahoney out, and as it became clear that the Sandman couldn’t compete, Mahoney grabbed the microphone and challenged Dudley to a no DQ match. Dudley reluctantly agreed. So what we got here was another brawl, although this one was a damn sight more entertaining than that tag-team match. We had hard hitting action, chair shots a plenty, and Mahoney getting the pin after hitting Dudley in the head with the Sandman’s kendo stick. Some nice, good old fashioned ECW stuff here.

Then it was on to Tommy Dreamer, accompanied by Beulah, challenging Shane Douglas, accompanied by Francine, for the ECW World title, although Douglas tried to make it a non-title match in a pre-match promo where he endeared himself to the fans and their local hero. A great match, with Dreamer and Douglas showing just why they were so highly regarded in ECW circles back then, with some good technical wrestling mixed in with some hardcore action, and some outside interference from the women, which eventually led to a cat fight. Douglas would later raise the ire of the fans even more when he took out Beulah, with Dreamer responding in kind by taking Francine down with a pile driver. In the middle of this, Dreamer came close to getting the pin several times, before Douglas got the title retaining pin after taking Dreamer down with a belly to belly suplex. Needless to say that this didn’t sit too well with the Amarillo fans.

The next match would be considered by many to be a clash of styles, with Dory Funk Jr. taking on Rob Van Dam, accompanied by Bill Alfonso. Despite my own misgivings, this proved to be a good match, with RVD bringing out all of his signature moves, and Funk, although somewhat limited by Father Time, able to keep up with the younger star. Van Dam threw everything at Funk, including a van daminator with a chair and a five star frog splash off the top rope, but a sloppy cover saw Funk kick out and mount a comeback, eventually taking RVD down with a belly to back suplex off the ropes, getting the pin soon afterwards, ending a really enjoyable match.

The first of the two WWF v ECW battles follows, with Mankind facing Sabu, accompanied by Bill Alfonso. It’s a wild brawl between the two hardcore icons, and a damn entertaining one at that, with plenty of chair use, and both men going through a table when Sabu connected with a cross body block over the top rope as Mankind was standing on the ring apron. It’s a great example of two great wrestlers at their best, and it has a wild ending. As Mankind applied the mandible claw on Sabu, Fonzie came into the ring and attacked him. Mankind retaliated by applying the claw to Fonzie, and then to the referee. The decision in the end saw the referee disqualify Sabu for Fonzie’s interference. Things didn’t end there though, as Sabu and Mankind continued to brawl after the bell.

Six man tag action followed, with Jake Roberts and the Headhunters facing the all Japanese team of Hayabusa, Masato Tanaka and Hakushi. A very good match saw some great team work from both combinations. The massive Headhunters, who each weighed in at over four hundred pounds, looked particularly impressive, especially with their top rope moves. Jake was, of course, Jake, doing his usual stuff, and the Japanese stars, especially Hayabusa, looked great. All of these ingredients made for an impressive match, which ended in a wild brawl involving all six men, and Hayabusa pinning one of the big men after a four-fifty splash off the top rope.

Main event time, with Terry Funk challenging Bret Hart for the WWF title in a no DQ match. This is a match I’ve been wanting to see for years, and it didn’t disappoint. A good old fashioned wrestling match between two masters of their art, a joy to watch as the Hitman uses all of his skill to work over his opponent’s left leg, while the Funker uses some good old fashioned brawling to fight back. Funk eventually tries to put Hart through a table, but the Hitman managed to move out of the way. Funk soon put on his trademark spinning toe hold, which Hart countered with an unsuccessful small package. In the end, as the Hitman applied a side headlock, Funk executed a back suplex. Hart held on, but as both men had their shoulders on the mat, the referee began his count, and as the count reached three, the Hitman raised his shoulder to earn the victory. A great way to end an excellent bout.

In conclusion - an excellent tribute to a true wrestling legend. Aside from the somewhat confusing Youngbloods/Bushwhackers match, this was an outstanding event, topped off with a dream match main event between Bret Hart and Terry Funk, the perfect way to end a wrestling career. Well, it would have been had Funk not come out of retirement just a few months later, but that’s beside the point. This is definitely a show worth adding to your collection, especially if you want to see some of the legends of ECW in their prime. You might even get to see Powerslam writer John Lister in there somewhere!

In June 2008 top Japanese wrestling promotion Pro Wrestling NOAH, in association with Mark Sloan’s A-Merchandise, came to British shores for the first time in their history, bringing along such stars as the late, great Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi and Naomichi Marufuji. Along with home-grown talent such as Doug Williams, Nigel Mc****ss and Martin Stone, they packed the Coventry Skydome for European Navigation 2008, released a few months later on DVD, with Dean Ayass and Mo Chatra handling commentary duties.

The show begins with British star Joel Redman taking on Atsushi Aoki. A good, solid opener from the two former Rookie of the Year winners, with both guys putting on a great display of chain wrestling throughout, working over each other’s arm, with Aoki proving to be the more inventive with his various submission holds, especially when he kicked out of a Redman pin attempt with an armbar. Redman also played his part well, with his corkscrew brain buster looking particularly impressive. In the end, after a series of lightning fast near falls, the time limit expired, ending a pretty even contest. Good stuff from both men.

The next four matches featured tag-team action, beginning with Brits Wade Fitzgerald and Martin Stone against Tsuyosji Kikuchi and Junji Izumida. This was a great match, mixing hard hitting action with great wrestling moves and a touch of comedy as well. The exchanges between Izumida and Stone had this writer laughing out loud, and the attempts of the 150 pound Fitzgerald to body slam the 300 pound plus Izumida also made for somewhat humorous viewing. Sadly, my fellow Brits didn’t get the job, with Izumida taking young Fitzgerald out with a variation of the ace crusher.

The Britain v Japan action continued with Doug Williams and Nigel Mc****ss facing Kotaro Suzuki and Takeshi Sugiura. For those of you who have only seen Doug Williams working for TNA, then this may be something of an eye opener for you. It’s a great outing for Britain’s best technical wrestler of the past decade, something that he sadly doesn’t get to show too much of in the Impact Zone. Mc****ss, ability wise, isn’t too far behind him, and if anything the NOAH version of Mc****ss is a whole lot better than the ROH version of Mc****ss. As for Suzuki and Sugiura, they were equally as impressive, working well together as a team, winding up the partisan British crowd with some of their underhanded tactics. Put all of this together and you’ve got an awesome match, with false finishes aplenty, before Mc****ss finally managed to take Suzuki down with his second Tower of London attempt, with a little help from Williams, ending an awesome match, and finally giving the British contingent a mark in the win column.

With the British stars having shown their wares in three great matches, it was now up to the Americans to see what they could do against the NOAH stars, beginning with Bison Smith, teaming with Jun Akiyama against the great team of Muhammad Yone and GHC Heavyweight Champion Takeshi Morishima. It was also the first match to feature a Japanese referee, the first three having been officiated by British ref Andy Quildan. As a result of this you’ve got the best exhibition of the Japanese style of wrestling on the show so far. Yone and Morishima once again showed what a great team they are, and Smith and Akiyama weren’t that far behind them as far as tag-team continuity goes. Smith in particular was highly impressive. This may not have been the unbeatable monster that’s been terrorizing Ring of Honor shows this year, but he was still an impressive animal, coupling great power with tremendous speed and agility. In the end, the biggest afro in the history of professional wrestling didn’t get the job done, with Smith getting the win for his team, taking Yone out with the Bison-tennial, basically his version of the Styles Clash, ending another great match One question though - did Morishima lose his bags at the airport? Judging by his ring attire, it looked like he did.

The first of two title matches followed, with Bryan Danielson and Eddie Edwards challenging KENTA and Taiji Ishimori for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag-Team titles. Danielson and Edwards came to the ring to a great reception, but soon earned some boos when Danielson said that his entrance music, The Final Countdown, was only for Americans. As Dean Ayass pointed out, that song was actually made by a band called Europe. The American Dragon’s heelish tendencies continued as the match went on, as he resorted to spitting at KENTA as he stood on the ring apron. As for the match action, KENTA and Ishimori proved to be a highly effective and highly impressive team, putting together a great series of moves, often taking their American counterparts out of their stride. As for their opponents, Edwards played the part of the punching bag to good effect, while Danielson continued to annoy the crowd by threatening to go for some of trademark moves, but then abandoning them when the crowd began to cheer for him. In short, it’s a tremendous, near thirty minute long tag-team match, something that NOAH really specialises in, with an absolute ton of near falls, and KENTA getting the title retaining pin after taking Edwards out with the go to sleep, ending an awesome contest. One quick note though - Dean Ayass should have really taken his headset off when he told Mo Chatra he was going to “quickly run to the loo” at the end of the match!

The second title match followed immediately, with Jay Briscoe challenging Yoshinobu Kanemaru for the GHC Junior Heavyweight title. An excellent title match here. Both men put in outstanding performances, with Briscoe in particular looking quite impressive, once again showing that he’s just as capable on his own as he is with his brother. We had a slow build up with gradually picked up speed before going into an excellent finish, with Kanemaru taking Briscoe out and getting the winning pin after two great looking brain busters. This Kanemaru guy sure can wrestle!

Main event time, tag-team action, with Kenta Kobashi and Go Shiozaki taking on Mitsuharu Misawa and Naomichi Marufuji. What a main event this was! This was the sort of match that NOAH has become famous for. Four outstanding performances in a match that had a slow beginning before building up to a tremendous finish. Seeing the two old rivals in Misawa and Kobashi going against each other was a joy to behold, and it mixed well with the exchanges between the younger Shiozaki and Marufuji. As for Kobashi’s chops, the production crew apparently counted more than fifty in one exchange with Misawa alone. So after nearly thirty minutes of classic action, as Misawa stopped Kobashi from getting back into the ring, Marufuji took Shiozaki with an awesome looking fisherman’s buster.

Sadly, no DVD extras to speak of here, so let’s get right down to business.

In conclusion - wow! To say that NOAH’s first show in Britain was great would be an understatement. These matches weren’t just good, they were tremendous, a brilliant example of the NOAH product. Each and every wrestler on this show put in a great performance, with the Danielson/Richards v KENTA/Ishimori encounter the match of the show, and perhaps the best match from 2008 I’ve seen.

Production wise, it can’t be faulted. Even though it was held at a English venue by an English production company, with English commentary and with English fans, it still felt like a Japanese show. The style of wrestling didn’t change at all, and the Brit stars who were drafted in for this show did themselves proud. As for the commentary, Dean Ayass once again proved that he is Britain’s top announcer. Mo Chatra, for his part, showed that he’s improved since his days as a link man on The Wrestling Channel. He’s certainly a lot better when he’s not reading from an autocue or having to remember his lines.

So in closing, if you haven’t seen a Pro Wrestling NOAH show yet (and why haven’t you?) then this would be the perfect place to start. I don’t think I really need to say that this DVD comes highly recommended.

With thanks to Mark Sloan for supplying a copy of this release. Pro Wrestling NOAH European Navigation ‘08 is available to buy online at www.a-merchandise.co.uk.