American Dragon v Donovan Morgan

[Loss]

American Dragon v Donovan Morgan - ROH Honor Invades Boston

 

I think Donovan is a little confused about his role at times, as he's supposed to be the heel aligned with Christopher Daniels, but he starts clapping and rallying the crowd at one point. Besides that, this is a really nice match with all sorts of stuff I've never seen in a US ring. Morgan wins the test of strength early on, which is a good way to establish roles and put sympathy on Danielson, but I don't know if it worked with this crowd. Dragon outwrestles him in the early stages and gets a very close two-count, and the look on Dragon's face when this happens in priceless. He goes to work on the arm, but here's the kicker -- he starts bending his hand back and switches his focus to Morgan's hand, doing all sorts of cool things to destroy it. His dropkicks look awesome, as does his fireman's carry, and before long, it's Donovan reaching the ropes. Early on, there's a battle of forearms won by Morgan, but as the match progresses, the tide seems to swing in Danielson's favor, as he wins the same battle later in the match. Dragon also takes some great bumps outside the ring into the guardrail, and in a very cool spot, Morgan picks up a chair, which pops the crowd, only to put the chair down and tell the crowd where to stick it. They also work a double TKO, which is suitable for the applauding atmosphere in ROH, and it happens where it should in the match. Dragon still has more moves at his disposal, like the uranage, enzuigiri, Northern lights suplex and a victory roll, which doesn't quite finish the job. Morgan briefly teases coming back strong with an overhead belly-to-belly suplex, but it's not enough to turn the tide, and he later has the cattle mutilation locked in when the bell rings, giving us a time-limit draw. There were some good ideas on display here that they both deserve credit for, moreso Danielson, in terms of manipulating the crowd in the direction they want them to go, but they don't quite come to total fruition. Still, this is a cool match, and the post-match angle shows that Danielson can also talk! This serves well to get both guys over, as Dragon was the one who had the match won, and Morgan walks out of the match as a bonafide heel.

 

***1/4