This review was commissioned by portablestove over on my Ko-fi account.
Without the benefit of the TV-style angles that produced the first bout, what we get here is a match that has the shape of a more standard ROH World Title match but a little more hollow on the inside. The progression makes sense, with Delirious and Danielson now on an even playing field after the thrown together circumstances of the first title match. Thanks to that, we even get the babyface shine missing from the first bout, but now with a far less interesting heat segment to follow. Danielson’s loose in control again here, more concerned with riffing with the rowdy CZW/ROH crowd, and that leads him into some moments of repetition such as repeatedly going back to the La Tapatia. He does at least add variation to the application and punishment, but overall this match feels far less laser focused than the first.
A big part of it is that that CZW/ROH crowd doesn’t really care to play along with the inherent narrative of the match, for the most part. They’re won over when the bombs start flying in the back half, but with a much less structured bout and more of a back and forth effort going on, there’s very little to cling to narratively especially with a crowd more invested in each other than the match. With the ROH crowd pulling for the home team too, there’s a weird dynamic where they’re kind of backed into cheering heel bully champion Danielson instead of buying into Delirious. Some of that’s on Delirious too. Even here, playing the match fairly straight, he just doesn’t have the kind of offense a that feels credible against Danielson. Outside of a few crunchy punts he nails at the end as something of a payback for Danielson’s head attack in the last match, Delirious brings a lot of spirit but not a lot of firepower to the proceedings.
Add to that this somehow goes 24 minutes with maybe 10 or so of that being just a back and forth bombfest that relinquishes a lot of the classic heat they achieved in the first match, and there’s just not a lot here to stay too hooked in. Decent enough match as things go, far from offensive, but with a very low ceiling on it.
Rating: ***
