Ring of Honor: Bloodstained Honor

Introduction
Our second DVD look at the Ring of Honor promotion - the history of which is dealt with in the "Stars of Honor" DVD review - focuses in on some of the more violent contests in the history of the company.

The bouts here span from 2004 to 2007, and include some of the biggest stars in the history of ROH in Samoa Joe, Jimmy Rave, Austin Aries, and Colt Cabana. The bout stipulations - several Street Fight and Cage Match rules matches - are certainly not for the weak at heart.

Video is presented in 4:3 fullscreen NTSC (Region 0), and is quite good considering the limitations of the ROH live presentation. Here, do not expect the pyrotechnic flamboyance of WWE - there's no question that this is wrestling on a budget.

In certain instances, however, this works in the favour of "Bloodstained Honor". Whereas WWE wrestling's camerawork often does its best to hide what goes on inside the ring, with this simpler, two-camera setup, everything is captured sans tricks.

As regards the transfer to DVD, it is very good, with no noticeable digital artefacts present.





Audio
Audio is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0, and is quite good for a DVD of this genre. Once again, it must be noted that this is not a high-level audio production, a fact which may take some getting used to for the casual wrestling fan.

What the release does allow, though, is for the vociferousness of the audience to be apparent at all times. In that sense, even in its inherent loudness, it can bring the viewer into the arena moreso than many 5.1 mixes that I could mention.

An area in which the audio quality does drop, is in the commentary. Not necessarily in what is being said, but the aforementioned loudness of the audience sometimes causes distortion what is being said. Even with new commentary added to the first two matches here, from a purely technical standpoint, it's a little rough.





Overall
When it comes to talking wrestling, there's no avoiding WWE. I've already mentioned them several times in this article, so why stop now?

One of the matches I was most looking forward to at this year's Wrestlemania was the "Belfast Brawl" bout between Finlay and JBL. Here were two renowned tough-guys, set to wrestle who no rules - how could this match not be a hit?

Sadly, stuck at the very beginning of the live pay-per-view card, the bout was everything that is bad about "no rules" wrestling. Virtually the entire match was spent with one hitting the other with an assortment of dubious weapons, such as the infamous cookie-sheet. To say I was disappointed was an understatement.

Ring of Honor's "Bloodstained Honor", however, was the antedote to this horrendous in-ring crime. Sure, each match had its weapons, but nothing seemed contrived, or ridiculous. There was believability, and the matches were built largely around wrestling. That's what the label says, after all.

Three matches for me stood out in particular; the "War Games" style affair between Generation Next and The Embassy, and the two wild Tornado Tag Team brawls in Team ROH vs Team CZW, and Kevin Steen and El Generico vs Mark and Jay Briscoe. Not only were these shout-at-the-television brutal, but they captured wonderfully the out-of-control feeling that is lacking in today's wrestling market.

The remaining bouts on the disc are nothing to be sneezed at, with some devastating suplexes occurring in the Samoa Joe vs Jay Briscoe match in particular. The Chicago Streetfight with CM Punk and Ace Steel vs Dan Maff and BJ Whitmer was an incredible spectacle, for reasons I won't reveal here, particularly in its final few minutes. Let's just say that those who didn't know better, may have believed that there was a riot going on.

One thing that it is interesting about these bouts, and the Ring of Honor company in general, is how long the matches take to get to their story across. The Generation Next vs The Embassy bout goes around 40 minutes, which is something that is almost inconceivable in WWE or TNA. It makes for a nice change, to say the least, and with almost all of the matches available here, there's little room for a breather, either.





"Bloodstained Honor" features wrestling that is unlike anything that most fans will have ever seen. It's bloody, it's brutal, and unquestionably entertaining. Perhaps the best comparison I can make is to the original ECW promotion, between 1993 and 1996. But for all of the brilliance of ECW, it didn't produce as many good wrestling matches as Ring of Honor does.

If you are a wrestling fan, who enjoys edgier wrestling, you owe it to yourself to take a look at this title. It isn't WWE, but it doesn't care to be.

And as a Ring of Honor fan, I hope it never changes.