When attempting to describe Ring of Honor to the uninitiated one tends to use words like “technically sound” and “competitive” and even “old school”. One typically doesn’t use words like “extreme” and “hardcore” and even “gruesome”. But ROH’s Blood Stained Honor DVD from Koch Vision proves that the promotion can offer as much violence as it can pure wrestling.

A funny thing happened around the mid 1990s thanks in no small part to the original ECW. Wrestling fans couldn’t get enough of seeing wrestlers crash through tables, get pummeled by steel chairs and scarred by barbed wire. Of course this sort of brutality wasn’t new to professional wrestling. Wrestlers like The Sheik, Dusty Rhodes and Abdullah The Butcher spilled countless pints of blood in the most hardcore of matches dating back to the 1970s. But these types of matches didn’t come along every night. They were saved for the culmination of long fought feuds or dastardly attacks by vicious heels. By the turn of the century we were seeing everything from light tubes to weed whackers to explosives used in first time encounters between wrestlers on independent shows that took place in front of 35 people.

Ring of Honor harkens back to the days when extreme violence was only doled out for extreme occasions. And in doing so the violence on Blood Stained Honor is that much more stunning. From the war between ROH and CZW (which is represented by a six man free-for-all that includes Samoa Joe, Chris Hero, B.J. Whitmer and Necro Butcher) to the sheer ferocity of Homicide vs. Colt Cabana where Homicide attempts to “commit murder in the ring”, Blood Stained Honor delivers some of the most savage moments in the promotions history. You may not be familiar with a few of the combatants but the intensity with which these bouts are contested will make you remember their names. And fear not, some of the bigger stars to pass through Ring of Honor are featured here as well including the aforementioned Samoa Joe, CM Punk, TNA’s monster Abyss and more.

You want stipulation matches? You got ‘em! Steel cage matches, a dog collar match and street fights with various names that all spell mayhem. You want weapons? You got ‘em! From chairs to tables to scissors to spikes to a high heeled women’s pump, a variety of foreign objects are used to inflict damage and pain. You want blood (to quote AC/DC)? You got it! Jay Briscoe probably could have used a transfusion after his cage match with Samoa Joe and no one in WWE has or likely will make CM Punk bleed the way Jimmy Rave did in their dog collar match.

This DVD certainly isn’t for everyone just as hardcore wrestling isn’t for everyone. But if you want to see just how hardcore Ring of Honor can get then this is a must see collection of matches. With the mockery that WWE has made bringing Extreme Championship Wrestling back to life, it’s hard to chant “ECW, ECW” anymore. But maybe after viewing Blood Stained Honor you’ll get the urger to chant a new set of letters when you see something extreme in and around a wrestling ring. “ROH, ROH, ROH!”

Blood Stained Honor is available from Koch Vision:

From Ring of Honor’s online store:

http://www.rohwrestling.com/shoponline.asp?point=moreinfo&catid=313&id=2566

Or from a retail outlet near you where wrestling DVDs are sold.

Check back soon for a review of the third title in Koch Vision’s Ring of Honor DVD series, Best in the World.

Jonel Jaksa

WDFN Wrestling Elite