ROH – Rising Above / 2008 Ring of Honor / http://www.rohwrestling.com /
I know that I’m not the biggest fan of a number of different promos before an event, but the way that Ring of Honor starts out -Rising Above is solid in the way that they create interest in the event to follow. For those individuals that are not familiar with the Rising Above event, it was one of the two final events of the 2007 year – -Final Battle 2007 capped off the year. While it was taped on December 29th, it was actually shown on ROH’s pay-per-view client on
This means that there are two solid bonus matches – Claudio Castagnoli v. Naomichi Marufuji and Jigsaw v. Necro Butcher v. Matt Cross v. Mitch Franklin to further whet individuals’ appetites. However, it is the events that were present on the PPV and live show alike that really are the strongest of this DVD. While only seven and a half minutes in length, the tag team scramble that featured the Pearce/Whitmer team, the Age of the Fall, Steenerico, and Ruckus/Jack Evans had all four teams go completely out in providing the fans (and the home viewers) with spot after spot, throwing in ring psychology despite this shorter match length. Ring of Honor is also the only federation that has made the work of Erick Stevens shine in a way that is well above how other federations have used Stevens in the past.
The use of Daniel Puder in the match, as a distraction, shows another strength of Ring of Honor – where there have been individuals present that have not established themselves as ROH-caliber wrestlers (Johnny Fairplay, Daniel Puder, and Tammy Sytch) – they can still contribute and make feuds that much more compelling, and create an atmosphere that will get individuals talking like no other current federation can. While there are not too man -new names outside of the bonus matches, -Rising Above shows strong wrestling, great ring psychology, and is able to keep a narrative going that links together other events from the same period and from -Undeniable, the previous pay per view. However, individuals do not need to be familiar with the events that occurred at previous events or previous pay-per-views to understand what is going on during -Rising Above.
Rating: 8.5/10
