ROH Live Report - October 15, 2005
Last night, I attended my first ever live Ring of Honor event which was (not so coincidentally) their Cleveland debut show. I’ve been to a number of wrestling events the past few years as WWE passed through town and a few indy shows. But no show was nearly as fun for me as a wrestling fan. At least not since the ECW debut show here in the summer of 1998.
I’ll spare you pre-show details like looking over DVDs and eating a pre-show snack. Because hell, that doesn’t even interest me.
My friends and I took our seats — front row, off the ramp, center. Great seats. No ring post in the way or anything like that.
The show opened at 8 PM. ROH Commentator Dave Prazak came down to bring out the new ROH World Champion, “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson. Europe’s “The Final Countdown” kicks out and he makes his appearance just after the intro. He’s dressed in a shirt of the Californian wrestler nicknamed “Top Gun” (sorry, can’t recall his full name), sweater, jeans and New Balance shoes. He clears his throat a bit mockingly.
He tells fans how great it is to be in Cleveland which gets him a little heat. He yells out “Hey! I’m the World Champ. I can say whatever I want!” He then talks about how some world champs think that you have to dress a certain way if you want to carry a title and discusses his clothing saying he obviously doesn’t agree. He then thanks the former world champs for making the belt what it is today. Low Ki, Xavier, Samoa Joe, Austin Aries…
“Personal Jesus” blasts as Aries makes his way down to the ring. Danielson never got to mention CM Punk or James Gibson which is curious; anyway, Aries says that they have a match against each other tonight. He already ended the longest ROH World Title reign -- Samoa Joe’s 2 year run -- and tonight he will end the shortest. He heads to the back.
Danielson says he can’t allow that to happen since Aries now works for TNA. A “Fuck TNA” chant breaks out and Danielson quickly hushes that one up. He says it’s great that there is an alternative wrestling program on tv now to the WWE. He adds that he doesn’t want Aries as champ because of the commitment he has to TNA. The ROH title is about freedom. And to hold the title means you represent wrestling freedom from corporate interests. He says he’s out to keep have a long title reign. The promo ends and he heads back.
Match 1
Claudio Castagnoli vs Nigel McGuinness in a non-title match
Nigel is the current ROH Pure Wrestling champion. The rules of these matches are kinda weird. You’re only allowed 3 ring breaks and other odd things like that. This match is under normal rules. Claudio comes out first. I’ve never seen him wrestle before. He’s all pimped out wearing flashy clothes. He’s sorta heelish but good natured about it. Nigel them comes out with the belt and holding his iron with the UK flag on the bottom. He has a great t-shirt. It has his name done like the Guinness logo. On the back it says “No Bumps Necessary” which sums up his European style very well.
Beginning of the match we see a lot of the classic counter style match-up which the crowd (myself included) really appreciated. Some of the counters were very innovative. One spot had Nigel grounding Claudio in a headlock to the mat. Claudio maneuvered his head loose a bit, did a handstand, and walked on his hands away from Nigel.
Every once in a while they’d offer a handshake and it would be accepted. Until Claudio slowly pulled his hand back and away once with a “HEAAAAY”. From there we got a ton of stiff European uppercuts, kicks, slaps and slams. The match was mostly about them countering each other. Instead of kicking out they would grab the ropes which says to me that they are leading to a Pure Wrestling matchup soon. Eventually Claudio picks up the win with a backslide (IIRC).
Post match, Claudio heads to the back. Nigel complains that Claudio didn’t respect the code of honor and shake his hand. Claudio comes back out, pretends he will pull back but doesn’t. They shake, Nigel acts like he will attack, but doesn’t. Very, very good match. You don’t get a match rating because I don’t do that.
Match 2
Rickey Reyes vs Matt Stryker
When Reyes came out he walked past me and my friends. A friend commented “He’s shorter than me!” I should point out at 6’ tall, I am quite a bit taller than these friends. And most ROH and other indy workers. This Stryker is not the same one we saw in the mini-feud with Kurt angle recently. This one used the name first and is just as good a worker.
Short, brutal match which saw Reyes pretty much tear through Stryker but I wouldn’t necessarily call it a squash. Reyes picks up the victory with a choke. I’m not sure if Stryker tapped or passed out. Reyes heads to the back to cheers. Post-match Stryker gets up and is angry. He heads to the back. After Reyes…?
Match 3
Lacey’s Angels (BJ Whitmer & Jimmy Jacobs) vs Tony Mamaluke & Sal Rinauro (c) for the ROH Tag Team Championship
Lacey is absolutely gorgeous in person. Not to be rude, but she looks like what people seem to think Stephanie looks like. I also had the benefit of her standing right in front of me the entire match as she wore a short skirt. Great legs… anyway, Jimmy Jacobs, you may recall, was on Smackdown a few months back defeating Eddie Guererro via DQ when Eddie kept hitting him with a chair. As a face he wore furry boots and would yell out a Berserker “Huss” to the crowd. But now as a heel, they are sadly gone. “Eye of the Tiger” kicks out which brings us the arrival of Tony and Sal. I’ve never seen Sal before and was very entertained by him.
Match stared off very comedic. One spot had Tony Mamaluke, after getting worn down a bit by the other team finally putting one of them in an arm wringer and tagging out. Sal came in, wrang the arm again, and immediately tagged a shocked Tony back in. Tony wrang the arm, tagged Sal back in. Repeat a couple times.
Eventually the match spills to the outside where it starts getting brutal. A few “Holy Shit” chants bust out as we see some stiff shots and high flying. Back in the ring, Whitmer and Jacobs are in control again for a while until the Italians make a bit of a comeback. Lots of back and forth action and a few near falls until Tony and Sal use a double team move off the top for the win and to retain the titles. After the match they are forced to shake hands (because it was a title match). They do grudgingly. But BJ is furious and wants to tear them apart. Jacobs holds him back and Lacey eventually calms him down enough for Tony and Sal to leave safely. This write-up doesn’t give this match justice at all. Sorry…
Match 4
Roderick Strong vs Jimmy Yang
Strong was AJ Styles’s opponent in the first match on TNA’s Spike TV Impact debut. He also was mentored by Jamie Noble (aka James Gibson) as well so you know where he’s coming from in the ring. Jimmy Yang (Akio in the WWE) came out to a pretty damn big pop. He’s picked up a bit of mass since we last saw him. This match was fun as hell. We got chops, kicks, chops, kicks, chops, chops, and more chops. I don’t think anybody in wrestling chops harder than Strong. Akio’s chest was more lit up than the keg queen at a frat party. Despite some very stiff shots once in a while you’d see Yang just break out into a grin at the reactions to the match. He definitely looked like a star here. You couldn’t help but feel happy for him. Yang attempted to hit the Yang Time once, but got caught. Tried again, but Roderick moved that time. Eventually Roderick wins with his series of backbreakers and a driver of some sort. Yang left to a standing ovation.
Match 5
Colt Cabana & Steve Corino vs Homicide & Low-Ki of the Rottweilers
Oh man. This was some funny shit. Steve Corino and Colt Cabana came out together to Corino’s “La Fortuna” techno remix theme. But… Corino was dressed like CM Punk! He was wearing Punk’s old baggy shorts. Where Punk has a tattoo on his stomach saying “Straight Edge” Corino used a marker to wrte “I Love Beer”. Where Punk has the Pepsi tattoo on his shoulder, Corino wrote “Almost Alcohol Free”. I couldn’t quite make out what he wrote on the shoulder where Punk has the Cobra tattoo unfortunately. The crowd started pounding the drum beat to Punk’s face theme -- AFI’s “Miseria Cantare (The Beginning)”. Then Corino’s ring announcer, Bryan Reagal, grabbed the mic.
Reagal and Corino always have a long list of names to read off for whatever reason whether it’s a list of wrestlers from Philadelphia (where Corino is also from) or reading Colt’s list of women he’d like to have a 3-way with. One thing you can count on: You’ll laugh. I’ll do a bit of paraphrasing on this.
“Tonight we’re mourning the loss of a great wrestler to the Evil Empire also known as the WWE. Tonight we will read off a list of wrestlers whose careers have been ruined because of the Evil Empire:
Ludwig Borga, TL Hopper, Duke “the Dumpster” Drosse, the Goon, Freddy Joe Floyd (“Tracy” chant broke out), Techno Team 2000, Simon Dean (am I the ONLY one who likes this gimmick?), Salvatore Sincere, Bastion Booger…” There were probably a few more but I can’t recall.
He ended it by reading off a very upper-middle class preppy name and said “You may know him better as CM Punk. Mr. Punk will be held prisoner of the Evil Empire for another 997 days. We will now offer a 5 bell salute in the memory of CM Punk’s career. We would do a 10 bell salute but the Evil Empire owns the rights to it.”
The bell sounds 5 times. Then the Rottweilers come out. Their manager, Julius Smokes, wasn’t with them tonight which was disappointing to me. Colt Cabana and Homicide are involved in the beginning of what should be a fantastic feud. Match started with Homicide and a bloated Corino in the ring. They were about to lock up when Homicide backed up and tagged Low-Ki in. Colt reached over and slapped Corino’s back tagging himself in. He said to Ki “I ain’t afraid of you! Let’s go!”
The match started off really slow, but stiff. Eventually Homicide gets tagged back in. He slides to the outside in frustration. He grabs an empty can of Red Bull and rips it in half, wincing a bit when it poked him unexpectedly. He puts half in his pocket to use later. Corino tells the ref to check his pockets. ‘Cide insists he has nothing. The ref finds it and yells at him and throws it out.
This match was brutal after the slow start. Whether it was really loud slaps to the face, chops, punches, ear biting or Ki’s jumping double stomps you know they all had to be sore as hell.
The match spilled to the outside a couple times. One time Corino was getting the hell beat out of him. Homicide throws him into the corner about 3 feet in front of me. The railing jumped back about a foot into me. Homicide grabbed Corino and slapped him really hard in the face. He grabbed a folding chair (plastic, not steel) and hit Corino in the stomach, then just crushed it over Corino’s head. A “Holy Shit!” chant broke out and deservedly so. I’ve heard that the plastic chairs actually hurt more because there is less give to them. If true, Corino had to be hurt pretty frigging bad because that chair bent back. The ref took the chair from ‘Cide as Corino slumped to the floor knocked out.
Low-Ki came out and dragged Corino back into the ring to try to get the pin. Colt breaks it up. Low-Ki does some more jumping stomps to both men as Homocide just keeps slapping Corino in the face. Somehow Colt ended up draped across the second rope. Low-Ki got to the top turbuckle, leaped off, and stomped Colt hard on his back. When Colt got up later there was a huge red welt mark from where his chest was draped across the rope. Homicide held Corino out, face up. Low-Ki went to the top turnbuckle again, leapt and stomped Corino in the face knocking him out of ‘Cide’s arms. God damn this was brutal.
I’m not sure of the sequence but somehow Corino ended up getting the pin on Homicide. After the match both teams wanted to keep fighting. Homicide grabbed the mic saying it wasn’t over. Corino then took off the Punk shorts, laid them in the middle of the ring and grabbed the mic. “I’ll probably get fired again by Gabe for this since I’m not supposed to be on the mic tonight. I just wanted to let you guys know that it feels great to be back in ROH and I promise I won’t stay gone this long again. And remember, only 997 days until CM Punk can return to wrestling.”
Now we enter intermission. I talk a bit to my friends and see some of the local CAPW workers in the crowd. I didn’t talk to them since I have never said more than “Great work” to them. JT Lightning, owner of CAPW gives me a flyer advertising his next show. Scheduled is Chris Hamrick vs Jerry Lynn.
Intermission ends and we move to a match featuring ROH Training Camp workers.
Match 6
Bobby Dempsey & Pelle Premeau vs. Davey Andrews & Shane Hagadorn
So how was this one? Non-existent. Prince Nana came out and cut a fantastic little promo first saying that nobody wanted to see people still in training in a wrestling match so why is this even on? He talks about how the Embassy has picked up a monster of their very own. He stands in front of me as he names him – “ABYSS!”
Big guy. Real big! Huge head too. A friend of mine only got into wrestling recently and doesn’t really follow it very much. He wondered how Kane was able to work for ROH. I thought he was kidding at first LOL.
Abyss and Nana get in the ring. All four trainees swarm Abyss who throws them all down and does his pose. He just runs right through them. Nana grabs the smallest guy and delivers a sick looking suplex to him. I was wondering if he was hurt. Another trainee runs back in and tries to attack Abyss. What happens? Black Hole Slam!
Nana grabs the mic again. “What are you? Stupid? Are you stupid? How can you attack this man? Nobody in ROH has what it takes to take down this monster! Nobody has the guts to stop Abyss!” And out comes Jack Evans with Jade Chung!
Match 7
Abyss (w/ Prince Nana) vs Jack Evans (w/ Jade Chung)
Jade Chung recently split from the Embassy after months of abuse at their hands. Nana is very upset that she’s out there with Jack (who is a member of Generation Next along with Austin Aries and Roderick Strong). We get a very typical monster/jobber squash here. At one point, however, Jack gets Abyss out of the ring. Jack jumps to the middle of the top rope hitting a springboard sky twister press onto both Abyss and Nana. Impressive! Eventually Abyss hit the Black Hole Slam for the 3.
Nana grabs the mic and orders Abyss to kill Jack. Jade slides in and lays over top of him to protect him. Nana says “Fine! Kill her!” Roderick Strong runs out with a chair and chases them away. He picks Jack up, carries him on his back and leaves with Jade Chung at his side.
Match 8
Jimmy Rave & Alex Shelley (the Embassy) vs Samoa Joe & Jay Lethal
Rave is excellence. He wears a blue and gold robe to the ring and uses a song from Ben Hur as his theme. As he gets in the ring and disrobes, 3 rolls of toilet paper get thrown in the ring at him. He is pissed and throws them back out at the crowd. Then Lethal and Joe come out. Joe is insanely over. As they stand in the ring the crowd launches into a schoolyard taunt of “Joe’s gonna kill you” as a chant. Joe smiles as the Embassy (sans Nana and now Abyss) get upset.
Lethal and Rave to start. Lethal tags in Joe. Crowd chants “Fuck him up, Joe, fuck him up!” clap clap Joe points to the crowd chanting. Shelley runs up to Joe and gives him a few knife edge chops. Joe no sells. Shelley goes to the corner and tags in Rave. Rave doesn’t want in! Rave goes to Joe and gives him a few knife edge chops. No sell! Rave turns around, tags Shelley back in. He doesn’t want back in! Knife edge chops onto Joe. Nothing. Rave gets tagged in. Shelley to the apron and turns around to face the crowd, afraid to look. Rave walks up to Joe, turns around, closes his eyes. Walks back to Shelley without doing anything, slaps his back to tag him back in. Shelley gets in. Is about to do the same thing but Rave jumps down and pretends to be yelling at a fan.
Joe gets to work taking out Shelley. Lethal tagged in, some teamwork, but eventually ends up taking some punishment. He then plays Ricky Morton for most of the match as Shelley and Rave work him over. Lethal finally gets a tag in to Joe and Joe gets to work taking out the Embassy. Rave hits Joe with a surprise move and capitalizes. Lethal helps out some as the four men battle. Joe hits some of his trademark kicks and knees. He gets double teamed and Lethal assists once again. Some back and forth from here with Lethal looking strong. Eventually Joe hits the muscle buster for the win. Fun match. How long until Lethal turns heel on his mentor Joe…?
Match 9 – The Main Event
Austin Aries vs “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson(c) – ROH World Championship
Wow. You know something? Words can’t do this match justice. It was an amazing match. It starts out with a lot of chain wrestling similar to Nigel/Claudio, but more traditional. Both men are over HUGE. Crowds alternately chanting “Let’s Go Dragon” and “Austin Aries”. The crowd is so appreciative of the skills being displayed in the first 10 minutes or so. Eventually Danielson takes control and starts working over Aries’s arm. Twisting, hitting, kicking, bending, contorting, that arm is thoroughly getting worked over.
Daneilson ties Aries up on the ropes and works on his arm. The ref starts his count. Gets to 4, Danielsen releases. “I have ‘til 5!” He does it again. Ref counts. Releases again at 4. “I told you: I have ‘til 5!” That should be on his t-shirt. Austin gets out of a hold and fights his way back. His arm his hurt.
The match moves onto more catch as catch can with kicks, chops, suplexes and slams. Ground work is then displayed again as Aries tries to fight Danielson off then succeeds and does his own. Then the kicks and hits and slams start again as we get some innovative exchanges. Danielson catches Aries in some mat-based action. At one point he goes for the surfboard, can’t get it, so he just jumps and stomps the back of Aries’s legs. He tries again. He grabs the arms and starts rocking back with a “Whooooa!” each time. Finally gets it on.
More back and forth and they are stiff as hell. Both of their chests are red with welt marks. Aries is in control for a while, getting some near falls. Danielson catches him again though and works on the arm some more. At one point Danielson is holding Aries in a very weird position. Danielson’s head was pressed back and his cheek was lying on his own back! How is that possible? Aries tries to fight back but Danielson catches him. A suplex (IIRC) and he holds onto the arm, twists it back and catches Aries in the crossface chickenwing! Aries taps and Danielson retains! Standing ovation for both men.
Again, my write-up doesn’t do the match justice. The crowd was hot throughout with both men very over with the crowd. They shake hands and Aries goes to the back. A “Dragon” chant breaks out and turns into an “ROH” chant. Danielson hops out of the ring and sees the response -- with everbody in the front row pounding on the steel signs covering the guardrail in unison with the chant. He puts the belt on his shoulder and pounds on the ring apron joining in with the chant. He holds the belt high to a sustained standing ovation.
A few notes: During the first half of the show, ROH owner and booker Gabe Sapolsky was in the balcony watching the event. I’m not sure where he was for the second half but I’m sure he was watching somewhere. The entire floor of the Grey’s Armory was full but no seats in the upper deck. I’d say there were at least 500 people there which is a very good crowd considering A) they’ve never been here before, B) there was relatively little promotion and C) they aren’t even on tv anywhere, existing solely on the strength of the internet and sales through their website. At intermission they announced they would be returning on January 28, 2006 and tickets were on sale now. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the cash to get a ticket last night. But I am definitely returning for that show. If ROH has a show anywhere near where you live I encourage you to go. If you’ve never seen them, buy a DVD from their website. You don’t want to miss the best wrestling promotion going in the United States.
I’ll spare you pre-show details like looking over DVDs and eating a pre-show snack. Because hell, that doesn’t even interest me.
My friends and I took our seats — front row, off the ramp, center. Great seats. No ring post in the way or anything like that.
The show opened at 8 PM. ROH Commentator Dave Prazak came down to bring out the new ROH World Champion, “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson. Europe’s “The Final Countdown” kicks out and he makes his appearance just after the intro. He’s dressed in a shirt of the Californian wrestler nicknamed “Top Gun” (sorry, can’t recall his full name), sweater, jeans and New Balance shoes. He clears his throat a bit mockingly.
He tells fans how great it is to be in Cleveland which gets him a little heat. He yells out “Hey! I’m the World Champ. I can say whatever I want!” He then talks about how some world champs think that you have to dress a certain way if you want to carry a title and discusses his clothing saying he obviously doesn’t agree. He then thanks the former world champs for making the belt what it is today. Low Ki, Xavier, Samoa Joe, Austin Aries…
“Personal Jesus” blasts as Aries makes his way down to the ring. Danielson never got to mention CM Punk or James Gibson which is curious; anyway, Aries says that they have a match against each other tonight. He already ended the longest ROH World Title reign -- Samoa Joe’s 2 year run -- and tonight he will end the shortest. He heads to the back.
Danielson says he can’t allow that to happen since Aries now works for TNA. A “Fuck TNA” chant breaks out and Danielson quickly hushes that one up. He says it’s great that there is an alternative wrestling program on tv now to the WWE. He adds that he doesn’t want Aries as champ because of the commitment he has to TNA. The ROH title is about freedom. And to hold the title means you represent wrestling freedom from corporate interests. He says he’s out to keep have a long title reign. The promo ends and he heads back.
Match 1
Claudio Castagnoli vs Nigel McGuinness in a non-title match
Nigel is the current ROH Pure Wrestling champion. The rules of these matches are kinda weird. You’re only allowed 3 ring breaks and other odd things like that. This match is under normal rules. Claudio comes out first. I’ve never seen him wrestle before. He’s all pimped out wearing flashy clothes. He’s sorta heelish but good natured about it. Nigel them comes out with the belt and holding his iron with the UK flag on the bottom. He has a great t-shirt. It has his name done like the Guinness logo. On the back it says “No Bumps Necessary” which sums up his European style very well.
Beginning of the match we see a lot of the classic counter style match-up which the crowd (myself included) really appreciated. Some of the counters were very innovative. One spot had Nigel grounding Claudio in a headlock to the mat. Claudio maneuvered his head loose a bit, did a handstand, and walked on his hands away from Nigel.
Every once in a while they’d offer a handshake and it would be accepted. Until Claudio slowly pulled his hand back and away once with a “HEAAAAY”. From there we got a ton of stiff European uppercuts, kicks, slaps and slams. The match was mostly about them countering each other. Instead of kicking out they would grab the ropes which says to me that they are leading to a Pure Wrestling matchup soon. Eventually Claudio picks up the win with a backslide (IIRC).
Post match, Claudio heads to the back. Nigel complains that Claudio didn’t respect the code of honor and shake his hand. Claudio comes back out, pretends he will pull back but doesn’t. They shake, Nigel acts like he will attack, but doesn’t. Very, very good match. You don’t get a match rating because I don’t do that.
Match 2
Rickey Reyes vs Matt Stryker
When Reyes came out he walked past me and my friends. A friend commented “He’s shorter than me!” I should point out at 6’ tall, I am quite a bit taller than these friends. And most ROH and other indy workers. This Stryker is not the same one we saw in the mini-feud with Kurt angle recently. This one used the name first and is just as good a worker.
Short, brutal match which saw Reyes pretty much tear through Stryker but I wouldn’t necessarily call it a squash. Reyes picks up the victory with a choke. I’m not sure if Stryker tapped or passed out. Reyes heads to the back to cheers. Post-match Stryker gets up and is angry. He heads to the back. After Reyes…?
Match 3
Lacey’s Angels (BJ Whitmer & Jimmy Jacobs) vs Tony Mamaluke & Sal Rinauro (c) for the ROH Tag Team Championship
Lacey is absolutely gorgeous in person. Not to be rude, but she looks like what people seem to think Stephanie looks like. I also had the benefit of her standing right in front of me the entire match as she wore a short skirt. Great legs… anyway, Jimmy Jacobs, you may recall, was on Smackdown a few months back defeating Eddie Guererro via DQ when Eddie kept hitting him with a chair. As a face he wore furry boots and would yell out a Berserker “Huss” to the crowd. But now as a heel, they are sadly gone. “Eye of the Tiger” kicks out which brings us the arrival of Tony and Sal. I’ve never seen Sal before and was very entertained by him.
Match stared off very comedic. One spot had Tony Mamaluke, after getting worn down a bit by the other team finally putting one of them in an arm wringer and tagging out. Sal came in, wrang the arm again, and immediately tagged a shocked Tony back in. Tony wrang the arm, tagged Sal back in. Repeat a couple times.
Eventually the match spills to the outside where it starts getting brutal. A few “Holy Shit” chants bust out as we see some stiff shots and high flying. Back in the ring, Whitmer and Jacobs are in control again for a while until the Italians make a bit of a comeback. Lots of back and forth action and a few near falls until Tony and Sal use a double team move off the top for the win and to retain the titles. After the match they are forced to shake hands (because it was a title match). They do grudgingly. But BJ is furious and wants to tear them apart. Jacobs holds him back and Lacey eventually calms him down enough for Tony and Sal to leave safely. This write-up doesn’t give this match justice at all. Sorry…
Match 4
Roderick Strong vs Jimmy Yang
Strong was AJ Styles’s opponent in the first match on TNA’s Spike TV Impact debut. He also was mentored by Jamie Noble (aka James Gibson) as well so you know where he’s coming from in the ring. Jimmy Yang (Akio in the WWE) came out to a pretty damn big pop. He’s picked up a bit of mass since we last saw him. This match was fun as hell. We got chops, kicks, chops, kicks, chops, chops, and more chops. I don’t think anybody in wrestling chops harder than Strong. Akio’s chest was more lit up than the keg queen at a frat party. Despite some very stiff shots once in a while you’d see Yang just break out into a grin at the reactions to the match. He definitely looked like a star here. You couldn’t help but feel happy for him. Yang attempted to hit the Yang Time once, but got caught. Tried again, but Roderick moved that time. Eventually Roderick wins with his series of backbreakers and a driver of some sort. Yang left to a standing ovation.
Match 5
Colt Cabana & Steve Corino vs Homicide & Low-Ki of the Rottweilers
Oh man. This was some funny shit. Steve Corino and Colt Cabana came out together to Corino’s “La Fortuna” techno remix theme. But… Corino was dressed like CM Punk! He was wearing Punk’s old baggy shorts. Where Punk has a tattoo on his stomach saying “Straight Edge” Corino used a marker to wrte “I Love Beer”. Where Punk has the Pepsi tattoo on his shoulder, Corino wrote “Almost Alcohol Free”. I couldn’t quite make out what he wrote on the shoulder where Punk has the Cobra tattoo unfortunately. The crowd started pounding the drum beat to Punk’s face theme -- AFI’s “Miseria Cantare (The Beginning)”. Then Corino’s ring announcer, Bryan Reagal, grabbed the mic.
Reagal and Corino always have a long list of names to read off for whatever reason whether it’s a list of wrestlers from Philadelphia (where Corino is also from) or reading Colt’s list of women he’d like to have a 3-way with. One thing you can count on: You’ll laugh. I’ll do a bit of paraphrasing on this.
“Tonight we’re mourning the loss of a great wrestler to the Evil Empire also known as the WWE. Tonight we will read off a list of wrestlers whose careers have been ruined because of the Evil Empire:
Ludwig Borga, TL Hopper, Duke “the Dumpster” Drosse, the Goon, Freddy Joe Floyd (“Tracy” chant broke out), Techno Team 2000, Simon Dean (am I the ONLY one who likes this gimmick?), Salvatore Sincere, Bastion Booger…” There were probably a few more but I can’t recall.
He ended it by reading off a very upper-middle class preppy name and said “You may know him better as CM Punk. Mr. Punk will be held prisoner of the Evil Empire for another 997 days. We will now offer a 5 bell salute in the memory of CM Punk’s career. We would do a 10 bell salute but the Evil Empire owns the rights to it.”
The bell sounds 5 times. Then the Rottweilers come out. Their manager, Julius Smokes, wasn’t with them tonight which was disappointing to me. Colt Cabana and Homicide are involved in the beginning of what should be a fantastic feud. Match started with Homicide and a bloated Corino in the ring. They were about to lock up when Homicide backed up and tagged Low-Ki in. Colt reached over and slapped Corino’s back tagging himself in. He said to Ki “I ain’t afraid of you! Let’s go!”
The match started off really slow, but stiff. Eventually Homicide gets tagged back in. He slides to the outside in frustration. He grabs an empty can of Red Bull and rips it in half, wincing a bit when it poked him unexpectedly. He puts half in his pocket to use later. Corino tells the ref to check his pockets. ‘Cide insists he has nothing. The ref finds it and yells at him and throws it out.
This match was brutal after the slow start. Whether it was really loud slaps to the face, chops, punches, ear biting or Ki’s jumping double stomps you know they all had to be sore as hell.
The match spilled to the outside a couple times. One time Corino was getting the hell beat out of him. Homicide throws him into the corner about 3 feet in front of me. The railing jumped back about a foot into me. Homicide grabbed Corino and slapped him really hard in the face. He grabbed a folding chair (plastic, not steel) and hit Corino in the stomach, then just crushed it over Corino’s head. A “Holy Shit!” chant broke out and deservedly so. I’ve heard that the plastic chairs actually hurt more because there is less give to them. If true, Corino had to be hurt pretty frigging bad because that chair bent back. The ref took the chair from ‘Cide as Corino slumped to the floor knocked out.
Low-Ki came out and dragged Corino back into the ring to try to get the pin. Colt breaks it up. Low-Ki does some more jumping stomps to both men as Homocide just keeps slapping Corino in the face. Somehow Colt ended up draped across the second rope. Low-Ki got to the top turbuckle, leaped off, and stomped Colt hard on his back. When Colt got up later there was a huge red welt mark from where his chest was draped across the rope. Homicide held Corino out, face up. Low-Ki went to the top turnbuckle again, leapt and stomped Corino in the face knocking him out of ‘Cide’s arms. God damn this was brutal.
I’m not sure of the sequence but somehow Corino ended up getting the pin on Homicide. After the match both teams wanted to keep fighting. Homicide grabbed the mic saying it wasn’t over. Corino then took off the Punk shorts, laid them in the middle of the ring and grabbed the mic. “I’ll probably get fired again by Gabe for this since I’m not supposed to be on the mic tonight. I just wanted to let you guys know that it feels great to be back in ROH and I promise I won’t stay gone this long again. And remember, only 997 days until CM Punk can return to wrestling.”
Now we enter intermission. I talk a bit to my friends and see some of the local CAPW workers in the crowd. I didn’t talk to them since I have never said more than “Great work” to them. JT Lightning, owner of CAPW gives me a flyer advertising his next show. Scheduled is Chris Hamrick vs Jerry Lynn.
Intermission ends and we move to a match featuring ROH Training Camp workers.
Match 6
Bobby Dempsey & Pelle Premeau vs. Davey Andrews & Shane Hagadorn
So how was this one? Non-existent. Prince Nana came out and cut a fantastic little promo first saying that nobody wanted to see people still in training in a wrestling match so why is this even on? He talks about how the Embassy has picked up a monster of their very own. He stands in front of me as he names him – “ABYSS!”
Big guy. Real big! Huge head too. A friend of mine only got into wrestling recently and doesn’t really follow it very much. He wondered how Kane was able to work for ROH. I thought he was kidding at first LOL.
Abyss and Nana get in the ring. All four trainees swarm Abyss who throws them all down and does his pose. He just runs right through them. Nana grabs the smallest guy and delivers a sick looking suplex to him. I was wondering if he was hurt. Another trainee runs back in and tries to attack Abyss. What happens? Black Hole Slam!
Nana grabs the mic again. “What are you? Stupid? Are you stupid? How can you attack this man? Nobody in ROH has what it takes to take down this monster! Nobody has the guts to stop Abyss!” And out comes Jack Evans with Jade Chung!
Match 7
Abyss (w/ Prince Nana) vs Jack Evans (w/ Jade Chung)
Jade Chung recently split from the Embassy after months of abuse at their hands. Nana is very upset that she’s out there with Jack (who is a member of Generation Next along with Austin Aries and Roderick Strong). We get a very typical monster/jobber squash here. At one point, however, Jack gets Abyss out of the ring. Jack jumps to the middle of the top rope hitting a springboard sky twister press onto both Abyss and Nana. Impressive! Eventually Abyss hit the Black Hole Slam for the 3.
Nana grabs the mic and orders Abyss to kill Jack. Jade slides in and lays over top of him to protect him. Nana says “Fine! Kill her!” Roderick Strong runs out with a chair and chases them away. He picks Jack up, carries him on his back and leaves with Jade Chung at his side.
Match 8
Jimmy Rave & Alex Shelley (the Embassy) vs Samoa Joe & Jay Lethal
Rave is excellence. He wears a blue and gold robe to the ring and uses a song from Ben Hur as his theme. As he gets in the ring and disrobes, 3 rolls of toilet paper get thrown in the ring at him. He is pissed and throws them back out at the crowd. Then Lethal and Joe come out. Joe is insanely over. As they stand in the ring the crowd launches into a schoolyard taunt of “Joe’s gonna kill you” as a chant. Joe smiles as the Embassy (sans Nana and now Abyss) get upset.
Lethal and Rave to start. Lethal tags in Joe. Crowd chants “Fuck him up, Joe, fuck him up!” clap clap Joe points to the crowd chanting. Shelley runs up to Joe and gives him a few knife edge chops. Joe no sells. Shelley goes to the corner and tags in Rave. Rave doesn’t want in! Rave goes to Joe and gives him a few knife edge chops. No sell! Rave turns around, tags Shelley back in. He doesn’t want back in! Knife edge chops onto Joe. Nothing. Rave gets tagged in. Shelley to the apron and turns around to face the crowd, afraid to look. Rave walks up to Joe, turns around, closes his eyes. Walks back to Shelley without doing anything, slaps his back to tag him back in. Shelley gets in. Is about to do the same thing but Rave jumps down and pretends to be yelling at a fan.
Joe gets to work taking out Shelley. Lethal tagged in, some teamwork, but eventually ends up taking some punishment. He then plays Ricky Morton for most of the match as Shelley and Rave work him over. Lethal finally gets a tag in to Joe and Joe gets to work taking out the Embassy. Rave hits Joe with a surprise move and capitalizes. Lethal helps out some as the four men battle. Joe hits some of his trademark kicks and knees. He gets double teamed and Lethal assists once again. Some back and forth from here with Lethal looking strong. Eventually Joe hits the muscle buster for the win. Fun match. How long until Lethal turns heel on his mentor Joe…?
Match 9 – The Main Event
Austin Aries vs “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson(c) – ROH World Championship
Wow. You know something? Words can’t do this match justice. It was an amazing match. It starts out with a lot of chain wrestling similar to Nigel/Claudio, but more traditional. Both men are over HUGE. Crowds alternately chanting “Let’s Go Dragon” and “Austin Aries”. The crowd is so appreciative of the skills being displayed in the first 10 minutes or so. Eventually Danielson takes control and starts working over Aries’s arm. Twisting, hitting, kicking, bending, contorting, that arm is thoroughly getting worked over.
Daneilson ties Aries up on the ropes and works on his arm. The ref starts his count. Gets to 4, Danielsen releases. “I have ‘til 5!” He does it again. Ref counts. Releases again at 4. “I told you: I have ‘til 5!” That should be on his t-shirt. Austin gets out of a hold and fights his way back. His arm his hurt.
The match moves onto more catch as catch can with kicks, chops, suplexes and slams. Ground work is then displayed again as Aries tries to fight Danielson off then succeeds and does his own. Then the kicks and hits and slams start again as we get some innovative exchanges. Danielson catches Aries in some mat-based action. At one point he goes for the surfboard, can’t get it, so he just jumps and stomps the back of Aries’s legs. He tries again. He grabs the arms and starts rocking back with a “Whooooa!” each time. Finally gets it on.
More back and forth and they are stiff as hell. Both of their chests are red with welt marks. Aries is in control for a while, getting some near falls. Danielson catches him again though and works on the arm some more. At one point Danielson is holding Aries in a very weird position. Danielson’s head was pressed back and his cheek was lying on his own back! How is that possible? Aries tries to fight back but Danielson catches him. A suplex (IIRC) and he holds onto the arm, twists it back and catches Aries in the crossface chickenwing! Aries taps and Danielson retains! Standing ovation for both men.
Again, my write-up doesn’t do the match justice. The crowd was hot throughout with both men very over with the crowd. They shake hands and Aries goes to the back. A “Dragon” chant breaks out and turns into an “ROH” chant. Danielson hops out of the ring and sees the response -- with everbody in the front row pounding on the steel signs covering the guardrail in unison with the chant. He puts the belt on his shoulder and pounds on the ring apron joining in with the chant. He holds the belt high to a sustained standing ovation.
A few notes: During the first half of the show, ROH owner and booker Gabe Sapolsky was in the balcony watching the event. I’m not sure where he was for the second half but I’m sure he was watching somewhere. The entire floor of the Grey’s Armory was full but no seats in the upper deck. I’d say there were at least 500 people there which is a very good crowd considering A) they’ve never been here before, B) there was relatively little promotion and C) they aren’t even on tv anywhere, existing solely on the strength of the internet and sales through their website. At intermission they announced they would be returning on January 28, 2006 and tickets were on sale now. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the cash to get a ticket last night. But I am definitely returning for that show. If ROH has a show anywhere near where you live I encourage you to go. If you’ve never seen them, buy a DVD from their website. You don’t want to miss the best wrestling promotion going in the United States.
posted by Stefan at 6:12 PM
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