ROH: Bloodstained Honor DVD

I don't often review DVD collections, but I was able to borrow the Ring of Honor DVD Bloodstained Honor from the library of all places. I've seen a very, very small amount of Ring of Honor - probably more than most WWE fans, but definitely less than 30 matches - in my day, but wasn't sold on purchasing the Honor Club app based on the reviews I've read. So, instead of making that move, I opted to see what I could find via the CPL. Enough back story...

Samoa Joe defends the ROH Championship against Jay Briscoe in a Steel Cage Match in the first match of this collection. This match is from March 2004. They start things off at a blistering pace with Joe on the attack, but Briscoe takes almost immediate control. I like Briscoe's psychology here - when he's in control, he wants to impress, but as soon as he gets into trouble, he's heading for the door at every second. Good cocky heel stuff there. It doesn't take long before Joe starts ramming Briscoe into the cage. He grabs a chain and locks up the cage door - cool babyface twist there as Joe doesn't want to lose the title on an escape. Briscoe is busted open by this point and Joe lays into him with a chop to the back of the neck and then a knee drop. Joe rubs his face into the cage and Briscoe is a bloody mess. Joe hits him with the running boot in the corner, drawing an Ole chant from the crowd. Joe goes for another battering ram into the wall, but Jay escapes and hits a superkick. Briscoe tries to climb out but Joe back-suplexes from the top rope! Joe peppers him in the corner with a flurry of strikes. He sends Jay the other way, but Briscoe dodges him on the comeback and hits Joe with a back suplex of his own. Up to the top rope they both go and Briscoe hits a Diamond Cutter off the top rope to get another "holy shit" chant. After leveling Joe with a clothesline, Briscoe tries to climb out again, but Joe follows him up and they have an exchange on the ropes. Briscoe eventually boots him and Joe falls back into the ring - only for Jay to lose his balanc and follow him down. Cool moment with the cage wall bending open and Mark Briscoe trying to pull his brother through. Joe pulls him back in and delivers a powerbomb for 2 and then converts it into an STF. Briscoe doesn't tap, though, and for some reason, he gets a rope break. I guess that meant Joe had to break the hold under ROH rules? Joe hits another bunch of chops, but Briscoe hits him with an enziguiri and then an underhook piledriver. Mark Briscoe tries to climb in, but gets stopped by AJ Styles (who then hits him with a Styles Clash on the floor). Jay Briscoe tries to climb out again but Joe catches him and hits him with a nasty Muscle Buster for the win! This match didn't run long, but it still felt like a war. No wasted time, no superfluous spots, no needless histrionics, just a kickass match. (3.5/5)

Next up - CM Punk and Ace Steel vs. Dan Maff and BJ Whitmer in a Chicago Street Fight from July 2004. Punk and Steel won't let The Prophecy enter the ring so the heels pull their opponents out and the fight begins in earnest. The Prophecy keeps control, putting the boots to Steel in the ring as Punk looks for a way to get into the ring. He pulls Whitmer out and sends him back-first into the guardrail with authority. The Second City Saints deliver a double back-body drop to Maff. Punk hits a T-Bone Suplex on Whitmer and BJ is sent to the outside too. The fight continues on the floor as Whitmer grabs a chair and uses it to regain control. Steel and Punk end up busted open as this brawl gets even more wild. Whitmer and Maff take off their belts and start brutally lashing their opponents, the sounds loud enough to cut through the raucous crowd's chanting. Steel rallies, though, and the crowd favorites get to dish out some punishment of their own. A series of insane spots follow soon after, including CM Punk sliding a chair across a table into a chair that is held in front of Whitmer's face. It is just a nasty, nasty move. At one point, Punk wraps his hand in a belt and punches Whitmer with it, screaming "This is punk rock!", which is actually kinda stupid, but who cares. Punk grabs a barbwire 2x4 and attempts to smash it over Maff, but Whitmer stops it and uses it to assist him on a Russian Leg Sweep. Maff then drops it, barbwire first, onto Punk's crotch as the crowd chants "You Sick Fuck." The velocity of these barbwire 2x4 shots is not great and make it look a little too safe, like Triple H's sledgehammer shots, but its not like I'd be lining up to take part in any of this. Maff brings out a barbwire board, the crowd anticipating something huge. Punk tries to tornado DDT Whitmer into the board, but Whitmer counters and sends him chest-first into it. Whitmer goes for an Exploder, but Steel stops him and delivers a suplex - but only after Maff pulls the board away (which draws boos from the crowd). Maff places the board in the corner and they tease having him fall into it, but we don't see anyone go through it until, moments later, Maff spears him through the thing to draw a huge holy shit chant. Wow. That was legitimately brutal. Kudos to the way these teams are building up the big spots, sometimes pulling away at the last moment but always delivering in the end. Steel sends Maff into what remains in the board and that also looks nasty. Steel hits a Tiger Driver on Maff but only gets 2 somehow. All 4 men grab chairs and we get an old-fashioned Swing Dance as the Second City Saints eat two chairshots to the skull before delivering a pair of their own. You don't see that in 2020. The Prophecy swing back with 2 more, but the Saints won't go down and hit 2 more of their own, sending Maff to the outside as a massive ROH chant starts up. Maff and Whitmer start launching chairs into the ring and so does the crowd in a crazy callback to the famous ECW moment from a decade or so earlier. With the ring filled with chairs, both teams re-enter the ring and go to work against eachother. Maff hits a half-nelson suplex on Punk, but Punk won't stay down, delivering a belly-to-back of his own! Punk sets up a table but is too exhausted to do much of anything for the next few moments as the cameraman loses Maff and Steel. Finally, they're found in the aisleway. Maff sets up a ladder between the guardrails and places Steel on it. Whitmer looks like he might fly through it, but Punk pulls him back into the chairs. Steel places Maff on the ladder and Punk goes to the top rope, flying off the post onto Maff. That was probably a spot that they thought would look better than it actually did. Still pretty crazy to attempt it. Steel places Whitmer on the table in the ring, but BJ won't stay put and meets him on the buckles. They duke it out for awhile before Steel hits him with a tombstone piledriver through the table to get the win. Well, that was about as wild a brawl as I can recall seeing in the 00s. (4/5)

CM Punk faces Jimmy Rave in a Dog Collar Match from May 2005's Manhatten Mayhem show is next. Punk had had a fairly famous dog collar match against Raven in 2003 for Ring of Honor as the commentators note. The setting is cool. Its a bit like a smaller Hammerstein Ballroom at The New Yorker Hotel. Punk controls early, dishing out lots of punishment with the chain before grabbing a steel chair from the outside. Before Punk can use it, Rave pulls the chain and Punk goes into it face-first, drawing blood. In control, Rave slows the pace a bit, delivering nothing more than rights and stomps. As basic as it may seem, its effective. Back in the ring, Rave attempts his "Rave Clash" (a Styles Clash), but Punk escapes and hits him with a full-force Shining Wizard right in the mush. Punk delivers a series of clotheslines and then a heel kick before bringing Rave down with a superkick for 2. Punk attempts a powerbomb by Rave escapes and comes off the ropes, applying a chain-assisted crossface. A cool sequence follows as Punk and Rave counter eachother's offense and Punk applies a half-crab. Prince Nana distracts him though and Rave delivers a devastating running knee for 2. Rave sets up Punk for a Pepsi Plunge, but Punk backdrops him and then follows it up with a powerbomb. Punk brings him back and hits him with another powerbomb. He hits him with a third powerbomb but still can only get 2, so he applies the Anaconda Vice. Punk breaks the hold to go after Rave's stablemates in The Embassy and then delivers a Pepsi Twist. All sorts of run-ins happen here and Punk is able to withstand all of it but eventually Rave gets a hold of a chair and just absolutely levels Punk with it in the head and chest. I liked this match a good deal. It was bloody, it effectively made the point that Punk had the match basically won if not for The Embassy's interference, but the actual finish also felt completely credible and made Rave look like somebody that, with The Embassy behind him and in a No DQ scenario, could take out whoever he wanted. Another match that makes total sense on a DVD like this. (4/5)

Generation Next (aka Austin Aries, Matt Sydal, Roderick Strong, and Jack Evans) took on The Embassy (Jimmy Rave, Alex Shelley, Abyss, and Prince Nana) in a Steel Cage Warfare Match from December 2005 next. This was no regular cage match, though, as Aries and Rave started things 1-on-1 for 5 minutes before their partners showed up one-by-one in rules reminiscent of War Games. Aries and Rave don't last long in the ring, though, brawling outside of the cage and all the way around it before ending up back inside. Aries is mega-over with the Ring of Honor crowd so when Shelley comes in next and the heels get the 2-on-1 advantage (as usually happens in matches like this), the crowd is not happy to see him. Alex Shelley was one of my favorite wrestlers around this time, though I'll admit to only knowing his TNA work. Rave and Shelley's 2-on-1 work is brutal, at one applying a cobra clutch with extra leverage that I had never seen before. Matt "Evan Bourne" Sydal comes in to even things up for Generation Next, making an immediate impact with an awesome standing Shooting Star Press on both members of the Embassy stacked atop eachother. Unlike a War Games match, this one involves eliminations, which is why both Sydal and Aries attempt pinfalls before everyone has entered on both sides. Sydal and Aries perform a double bow-and-arrow spot that gets an applause from the crowd, not because it doesn't look a bit convoluted but because you gotta applause something never seen before. Abyss comes in next, a guy that I've never been a huge fan of but, in this match, I do appreciate the role he gets to play as the resident monster. Plus, because Ring of Honor put lots of emphasis on workrate, its not like Abyss is going to just lumber around - he actually dishes out some high impact offense. Aries takes a nasty chairshot and then gets his face driven into the steel chair repeatedly by Shelley. Its a nasty move executed perfectly by the cocky Shelley. "The Messiah of the Backbreaker" Roderick Strong comes in to even things up and immediately starts dishing out his trademark backbreakers. Strong is great now in 2021, but he was already very, very good back then. His momentum is cut off by an awesome belly-to-belly into the cage wall by Abyss, the crowd chanting "holy shit" afterwards. Abyss follows it up with a Black Hole Slam on Sydal soon after before Rave hits the pedigree to the sound of boos to eliminate Sydal. With the heels in control (and still waiting on Prince Nana), the match goes into a bit of a downtime, something I don't recall happening too often in your typical War Games match - but, then again, the typical War Games match didn't have as much craziness as this and ended with a single "I Quit." Prince Nana struts out, his team dominating Shelley and Aries in and out of the ring. Shelley's trash-talking during this spell is brilliant and a reminder that, in 05'/06', he might've been in the top 10 of charismatic wrestlers in the US. Before Jack Evans comes out, Jade Chung shows up and calls out her former boss Prince Nana. Evans comes in and immediately does something INSANE, jumping to the top of the cage and hitting a ridiculous DOUBLE MOONSAULT (??) onto Nana and a bunch of other guys and nearly paralyzing himself. Wow. You don't see that everyday or ever. We get a "Please Don't Die" chant as Evans does another insane move, springboarding off of Rave's belly (who was hoisted on top of Strong's shoulders) near the top of the cage onto Abyss to eliminate the monster. If this match was very good before, Jack Evans' offense pushed it into "must see" territory as his high-flying is bananas. Unfortunately, Evans is the next man eliminated (which draws huge boos and even a sizable "Bullshit" chant). The match is now basically just a really, really good tag team cage match between Aries/Strong and Rave/Shelley (with Nana not doing too much on the outside). With the heels in control, Nana comes in and tries to hit them with a series of hip attacks - but he accidentally gets his own men! The little bit of comedy is broken up by a ridiculous number of backbreakers by Strong onto Rave and then a Lion Tamer to make him tap while, simultaneously, Aries hits a fisherman DDT onto Shelley through a chair to eliminate him. Aries and Strong beat down on Nana in the corner and put him out of his misery with a backbreaker followed by an Aries 450. That match was fun, but not nearly as gory as the matches that preceded it on this DVD (not that this is a bad thing). There are a few lulls in the match, which was not necessarily what one would expect out of a bunch of guys who were sometimes labeled "spot monkeys" - but this match proves they were much more than that, bringing lots of emotion in the match and building up the bigger spots. I'm not going to call this a masterpiece, but it is real close it and I'm guessing that if I was regular viewer of ROH in 2005, it would've checked all the boxes. (4/5)

Next up, Homicide vs. Colt Cabana in a Ghetto Streetfight from February 2006 follows. This one starts before a bell can even be rung, Cabana going right after Homicide (literally chasing him to the ring from the back). Its a start to a match that one would think had happened hundreds of times before but...well..it was new to me. Good brawling to start this, both guys not bothering with restholds and just trying to punish each other any way they can. Cabana gets sent into the post and then barricade and ends up busted open. Homicide shows his nastiness by digging his nail into the cut for a gruesome visual. Homicide then tosses a chair into his face before bashing him with part of the barricade. Cabana gets bashed with a chair again but refuses to quit, leading Homicide to slide into his skull even more with a shaving razor! Homicide then sends him into the barricade propped in the corner and, man, this is a serious ass-whupping. Cabana gets back onto his feet, though, eventually striking with some chest chops before getting poked in the eye. Cabana is really channeling Tommy Dreamer here with this attitude, just refusing to stay down despite Homicide's dominance. After another flurry of hope offense, Homicide lands a tornado DDT and then applies a ridiculous single-leg boston crab with the arm tied up too! That does not look comfortable at all. Homicide goes after the ref as the crowd begins to demand tables. After bashing Cabana with another chair shot, Homicide goes to the top for a splash but Cabana rolls away. Cabana attempts a powerbomb but Homicide escapes so he has to settle for a clothesline and then a choke and a scoop slam. Cabana attempts a moonsault but Homicide rolls away and catches him with a lariat. Homicide applies the camel clutch before getting tossed a coathanger by his right-hand man Julius Smokes. Homicide uses the coat hanger to choke out Cabana, the ref forced to end the match as the crowd boos. Cabana crawls his way to the ropes, though, and demands for the match to continue, telling Mr. 187 that he'll need to kill him to end this. Homicide comes back to the ring and they trade blows but Cabana can't maintain control, cut off by a neckbreaker. Cabana damages Homicide's shoulder and continues his assault on it, fully aware that this is Homicide's weak point. At one point, he even bites the thing! Cabana attempts to use a chair, but Smokes stops him and Homicide regains control. At this point, Homicide, Smokes, and Ricky Reyes (I think?) tie up Cabana in the corner and unload on him, Homicide tossing yet another chair into his face. After Homicide does it again, the referee once again ends the match and the crowd chants "He's Not Dead." Again, though, Cabana demands Homicide return to the ring and finish him off. Cabana gets some offense in and even fights off Smokes for a bit, but eventually falls prey to a ridiculous piledriver through a table that looks like a legit crippling. This match is not going to be every's cup of tea, but I really liked the story and the escalation of violence from beginning to end. All the character work was brilliant. I loved the creative start to the match and the insane lengths Homicide had to go to finally put Cabana out. (4.5/5)

The next match is from April 2006 and was part of the lengthy and bloody promotion war between Combat Zone Wrestling (represented by Necro Butcher, Super Dragon, and Chris Hero) and Ring of Honor (represented here by Samoa Joe, Adam Pearce, and BJ Whitmer). Like the match that preceded it on this DVD, this one starts off with wild action right away. Some of the better spots early on include Samoa Joe hitting an Ole Kick on Chris Hero that sends him over the barricade, Necro Butcher and Adam Pearce trading the kind of chairshots that have been allowed in the WWE for close to two decades now, and Joe and Whitmer teaming up to double-suplex Dragon into a pair of chairs. Whitmer's bleeding from within the first few minutes is just disgusting to see; the guy looks like he's been stabbed in the skull. With the action taking place all over the arena, the camera doesn't always capture the biggest hits - but that's what makes a match like this feel legitimately dangerous and "real" (on top of the inanity of guys taking unprotected chairshots to the head). When guys actually get in the ring and start delivering moves or going for pins, it makes things even more surreal as this "match" doesn't feel at all like something that could possibly end with a traditional pinfall. As fun as it is to see these guys delivering ever more creative and violent maneuvers, the shapelessness does work against the match as a whole. There's really no story or raising of stakes in the match. Say what one may about the WWE's versions of these type of matches - the ONS II classic between Edge & Foley vs. Funk & Dreamer, for example - but the best version of those matches not only deliver all the violence one could ever want, but do so in a way with a clear beginning, middle, and end. This match is a violent spectacle with no structure and while this sort of thing has its own appeal, it doesn't make for a truly great bell-to-bell match. Unlike the Steel Warfare match, it also doesn't really allow anyone to be highlighted (though Samoa Joe is clearly the most over guy of the bunch). Later on, we get even more insane violence as Super Dragon does a double-stomp on Whitmer's head as it lays on a chair, Necro Butcher eats a nasty chairshot from Pearce while trying to escape the ring, and Dragon hits an astounding Torture Rack Driver through a table on the outside of the ring on Whitmer. Unfamiliar with CZW's roster, I'm not sure who the guy is that shows up and starts helping out his comrades - John Zandig? - but when he does show up, he's tossed out by a young Cesaro (then working under the name Claudio Castignoli). Of course, because Claudio was also buddies with Hero, he ends up turning on Joe and CZW maintains control (leading to the Ring of Honor crowd chanting for Homicide to come out). Pearce ends up eating a double-sidewinder from the Kings of Wrestling to end the match in somewhat anticlimactic fashion. Not a match I'd really recommend to anyone aside from the biggest fans of hardcore, ultra-violent wrestling - and, even in that case, there's better versions of this. (3/5)

Colt Cabana vs. Jimmy Jacobs (with Lacey) in a Windy City Deathmatch from February 2007 is next. One can really notice the difference in production value compared to the earlier matches on this set as the ring is fully lit up. Lacey gets involved early which allows Jacobs to take control, but Daisy Haze shows up to take her out and chase her to the back. Cabana busts Jacobs open with an elbow - but wait, he's got a pair of scissors in there! Cabana then digs the scissors in, showing he's every bit as hardcore as they get. Jacobs looks for the spike in his boot, but Cabana's got it! He drills it into Jacobs' face and then puts his Chicago flag to good use. Jacobs is able to fight back, though, bloodying Cabana with the broken flag pole. With both guys sporting crimson masks, the match slows down a bit and becomes all about weapon shots. Jacobs tries to level Cabana with a chairshot and Cabana, thankfully, covers himself a little bit. Of all the matches on this set so far, this one may actually be - pint for pint - the bloodiest. Colt attempts a Colt 45 but Brent Alrbight shows up and hits him with a half-nelson suplex. Albright is a semi-interesting case of a guy who had a lengthy run in OVW and the WWE's development program but never amounted to much when he was called up as Gunner Scott. BJ Whitmer shows up to make the save - ironic since he had feuded extensively with the Second City Saints stable 3 years prior in a rivalry highlighted on this very DVD. This all leads to an Asai Moonsault from Cabana onto the heels which wows the crowd. Cabana grabs a hammer from under the ring and tries to hammer the spike into his head - but misses the spike and just cracks him with the hammer instead! Jacobs ends up in the corner and Cabana tosses two chairs at him before hitting him with a bodyslam in the middle of the ring and then a moonsault onto a chair on Jacobs for 2. The fight spills back to the outside where Jacob sets up a table and Cabana sets up a ladder. Cabana goes for a splash, but Lacey knocks him off and he crotches himself on the top rope. Jacobs sets up the ladder in the ring and, in an insane spot, hits a senton off the ladder onto Cabana through a table. The crowd erupts in a deserved holy shit spot. Somehow this does not end the match, though, as by the time Cabana gets rolled into the ring, he is able to kick out at 2. Jacobs goes back out for a table while Cabana crawls around the ring. Jacobs sets up a table in the corner but when attempts to spear Colt through it, Cabana dodges and Jacobs goes through it instead! Lacey tries to get involved but Cabana tosses her aside and hits a Colt 45 on Jacobs and then Lacey as well to get the W. Cabana may be known for his podcasts, his one-time best friendship with CM Punk, and his fun-loving persona, but this DVD makes a case for him being one of the best deathmatch wrestlers around. (4/5)

Kevin Steen and El Generico take on The Briscoe Brothers in a Non-Sanctioned Boston Street Fight from Death Before Dishonor Part V (Night 1) in August 2007 in the next match of the set. As one might expect, this one blows up as soon as the two sides see each other, the brawl starting outside the ring and involving lots of fists, headbutts, and chairs. This, like the CZW/ROH match from earlier on the set, doesn't bother with any preliminary bullshit, wasting no time getting wild and crazy. What makes this one a touch different is that the guys actually perform some moves - suplexes and a spinning DDT and a running neckbreaker between chair shots. There are actually elements of "fun" to this match too - Owens calling for his mother, the borderline cartoonish use of barricades - that gives one the sense that, unlike the "reality" of the CZW/ROH war, these two teams are winking to the audience a bit, collaborating to pop the crowd with ever-more-ridiculous carnage. That's not to say that it isn't a stiff, violent, bloody brawl, but there's a nearly sardonic tone to it (no doubt because Kevin Steen, even back then, was kind of a sardonic character, a prizefighter who doesn't wrestle for the love of it, but mostly just because he found out he was good at it and could make money doing it). Once they do finally get in the ring, they're all exhausted and we get a series of sequences that just lead to everyone basically dying in the ring in rapid succession. There's a cool spot where the Briscoes pop-up Generico and let him drop belly-first onto two chairs, but it only gets 2 when Steen breaks up the pinfall with a chair. Steen sends one of the Briscoes through a table head-first but when he tries to go for a follow-up moonsault, the other Briscoe shoves him off (and through a table). Generico connects with a big boot and then attempts a superplex...but is cut off by the Briscoe, resulting in a Razor's Edge/Neckbreaker combo that draws a huge pop. One of the Briscoe's makes a cover, but the ref gets pulled out of the ring! A Doomsday Device from the Biscoes looks like another victory moments later, but Steen breaks up that pin attempt too. A ladder finds its way into the ring a minute or so later and Steen gets back-dropped onto it. One of the Briscoes looks to launch himself off it, but Generico prevents him by pulling him down with a neckbreaker. The match caps off with a Kevin Owens' package piledriver into a ladder, a final extreme moment on a DVD celebrating some of the craziest spots of the 2000s. (4/5)

I'm not going to give this DVD collection a rating like I normally would for the PPVs and supercards I've viewed, but I would consider this a solid rent and, if you can find it for under $10, a solid addition to any wrestling fan's DVD collection (if they still own one).