Pro Wrestling Chronicle

Brian Streleckis relays what happened in Ring of Honor’s return to Boston Friday night and goes in depth to what he witnessed in Philly last night, including an unscheduled match taped for their second PPV.

Ring of Honor debuted in their umpteenth Boston venue in Roxbury Crossing, MA on Friday night. A live report can be found at Figure Four Weekly’s site. Highlights included Takeshi Morishima retaining the ROH World Title against Jay Briscoe, and Claudio Castagnoli - by virtue of winning the Four Corner Survival he was in - earning a shot at that title for the return date to Boston on 8/10. Speaking of which, I found out via flyers that ROH’s return to Philadelphia will be 8/11, with both nights making up Death Before Dishonor V.

So I attended last night’s event at the Pennsylvania National Guard Armory, scoring myself an excellent bleacher seat, close to the ring, but still able to see everything. The main show was preceeded by a special “Do or Die” preshow, which had the following matches:

1.Pelle Primeau defeated Mitch Franklin, Rhett Titus, and Alex “Sugarfoot” Payne in a Four Way Fray to retain the Top of the Class Trophy. A fun little match from the students. Primeau was pretty damn over in his match. Titus is really pretty silly now, doing a cocky Rick Martel-like gimmick and calling himself “The Sexiest Man Alive.” This was elimination rules, yet the other three kept preventing each other from pinning Pelle, which was stupid. Pelle scored some nice highspots, hitting a hurricanrana to the outside, hitting his head on the way down, but coming back with a dropkick off the apron. Franklin got the first two eliminations, making Payne submit and pinning Titus, but Primeau got the final pin a few minutes later with his stunner/rollup combo.

2.Damien Wayne defeated Rex Sterling. These guys are from around the Virginia area, appeared on the preshow to the 4/14 Edison, NJ event, and have recently appeared for FIP. Wayne looked quite good here, so I say he’s worth bringing in for more chances. Maybe a little generic in his leather pants, but a good build, and he kind of resembles Mikhail from Lost, only bald and with both eyes. Sterling looked alright, but he looks like a pudgy teenager. The ROH Message Board says Wayne won with a brainbuster. Don’t remeber that, but I do remember him hitting a top rope leg drop on Sterling while he was in the tree of woe position, followed by a huge flying elbow.

3.Azrieal & Deranged defeated Gran Akuma & Michael Elgin. Azrieal & Deranged haven’t been seen in ROH since early ‘06 and late ‘05 respectively, and they looked fine here, as did their opponents. Elgin (taking the place of Hallowicked, originally scheduled to team with Akuma here) cut his hair and no longer looks like Rhino (like he did when he popped up on the 4/27 St. Paul event), but he’s still pretty beefy and played kind of a bully role here. Decent match that ended when the former Special K members gave Elgin a Doomsday Ace Crusher.

- It was announced that Lacey vs. Daizee Haze, originally scheduled for the preshow, has been moved up to the main show. The main show came around 7:45. Ring announcer Bobby Cruise tells us that Morishima will defend his title tonight, and that Bryan Danielson was injured. Boos all around, but we are promised that they’ll make it up to us later.

1.Matt Sydal defeated Hallowicked. Pretty good back and forth match, about on par with the match I saw them have for Chikara in February. Wicked got chants for his offense, especially for a big yakuza kick he hit towards the end that Sydal sold like a million bucks. Sydal was definitely more heelish here, even grabbing at the stem (or as it’s called by Delirious, the STEEM) on Wicked’s pumpkin mask. Towards the end, Sydal countered Wicked’s finisher, the Graveyard Smash (spinebuster from a fisherman’s suplex position) into a DDT, then nailed the SSP for the win.

2.Lacey (w/ Jimmy Jacobs) and Daizee Haze went to a 10-minute time limit draw. Biggest disappointment of the night. It looked alright here and there, but they seemed stuck in first gear. Fans didn’t really crap on it, but didn’t react. This match is coming off a series of Internet vignettes where Jimmy was courting Lacey in Chicago for a few days, ending with the two finally doing the deed… with what looked like an apparent role reversal. Before the match, Lacey said she has a new look on life (cue chants of “You F–ked Jimmy”) and wants to have a straightforward wrestling match. As it went, Lacey became more aggressive, taking it to the outside a bit. Funny moment had Jacobs apparently becoming aroused by the action and smoking a cigarette. Daizee hit the heart punch and a (weak) Mind Trip with less than one minute remaining, but Lacey just rolled out of the ring and walked away with Jimmy.

3.Kevin Steen & El Generico defeated Mike Quackenbush & Jigsaw. Quack got great ovation as I expected. This was lots of fun, not just because of some slick action, but because Steen made for a very entertaining heel. Be it beating down Jigsaw after offering him a free shot, mocking Jigsaw’s struggle to make a tag, or biting his hand right afterwards, the guy was on fire tonight. El Generico conveyed he wasn’t happy with Steen’s tactics. Quack eventually got tagged in after an extended beating on Jigsaw, leading to all kinds of mayhem. A few close nearfalls, such as Quack and Jigsaw hitting a top rope swanton, a top rope leg drop, and top rope double knees in succession. Crowd was going crazy for it. End saw Steen give Jigsaw the Package Piledriver and then roll him over to El Generico for the Brainbustah and the win. Steen offered a handshake to Jigsaw afterwards, but just tossed him out of the ring. Fans were cheering Steen’s dickery. This really seemed like a night where the heels were more over than the faces. Case in point being when…

4.Davey Richards defeated “M-Dogg” Matt Cross. Richards was more over than Cross in their match, getting the majority of cheers. Pretty good overall, a little slow in spots, but some good action. Probably Davey’s best match in front of a Philadelphian ROH crowd. Richards reversed a move by Cross into a tombstone piledriver, than locked on the kimura for the submission victory.

- Right after the match, Richards continued beating down Cross, and Roderick Strong & Rocky Romero came down to join in. Cue Delirious’ music, as he and Erick Stevens ran down for the save. This bled right into the next match.

5.Delirious defeated Rocky Romero. Uncharacteristically for these two (but fitting for the feud), the match started as a brawl all over the building. They through chairs and other plunder at each other as they fought through the crowd, and they had a scuffle up the bleachers (close to me, but I couldn’t see much of it), before making it into the ring. Romero kept trying for the submission with the cross arm breaker. Delirious got some hope spots in with the Shadows Over Hell and the Cobra Stretch. Romero got back on the offensive before getting surprised by a cradle out of nowhere. Delirious wins, but the rest of the No Remorse Corps come down immediately to beat him up before the Resilience runs out for the save. Some brief brawling outside, followed by a Delirious promo (always glorious), then Stevens lays down the challenge for a Philly Street Fight on 8/11 (to go along with the other Street Fight for 8/10 in Boston between the Briscoes and Steen & El Generico). Pretty fun match overall, and a nice change of pace.

6.Jay & Mark Briscoe defeated Claudio Castagnoli & Chris Hero (w/Larry Sweeney, Tank Toland & Bobby Dempsey) in a 2/3 Falls Match to retain the ROH World Tag Team Titles. Hero & Claudio indeed got along well despite Sweeney breaking them up. Sweeney kept away from Claudio and dealt more with the tandem of Toland (personal fitness instructor for Hero) and Dempsey (Toland’s personal project, donned in a silver sweatsuit similar to the ones used by the guys on The Ultimate Fighter to cut weight). Hero, Claudio, and Dempsey all did curls before the match, and Dempsey continued doing exercises ringside during the match. Nothing too distracting, but what an odd stable we have here!

The match itself was definitely more in line with the match these two teams had at Final Battle than the other Kings of Wrestling matches in ROH, which I was very happy to see. Lots of big moves and nearfalls, with the fans going nuts for both teams. The first fall came after a Jay Driller on Hero. The second fall largely had Claudio going at it on his own and featured a lot of close calls on both sides. A springboard Jay Driller was prevented by the three outside parties, but Mark wiped them out with an Asai Moonsault. Claudio fell to the Springboard Doomsday Device, and the Briscoes score two straight falls. A damn good match.

- Intermission, and then…

7.Brent Albright defeated BJ Whitmer, Jimmy Rave, and Erick Stevens in a Four Corner Survival to earn a World Title shot on 8/11. The stip was announced right before the match, along with the announcement that there must be a winner. Interesting to have this weekend’s shows and the DBDV shows tied so closley together with the similar stips. Continuing the tradition of cheered heels this night, Rave was the most over guy in this match. Decent but forgettable match that had its moments. Some “Choo-Choo” chants for Stevens. Whitmer played up the previous night’s issue of him beating up Paul Turner (the ref in this match) by trying to intimidate him a bit. Albright (coming to the ring to the new Ozzy song and wearing a black executioner’s hood; tacky on both counts) surprised with a top rope flip dive to the outside on the other three during the match, and hit a bunch of suplexes throughout. Turner kept good track of who the legal man was, as there were moments when the match could have ended between Stevens and Rave, but neither were legal. End came when Whitmer was in Turner’s face and Albright came up behind him with the half nelson suplex for the pin. Following in Steen’s footsteps, he offered a handshake to Stevens afterwards but through him outside the ring… to cheers.

- The next match was announced as being taped for Ring of Honor’s second PPV. A big surprise, as I thought the second PPV would be made entirely of matches from the 6/23 Chicago Ridge show. Cruise tells us to go wild when he counts down to zero, and the crowd more than abliges. First guy out is Nigel McGuinness, who was scheduled to take on a mystery opponent chosen by Larry Sweeney. Not sure if they’ll do any followup with Sweeney after this, as he was nowhere in sight, but Nigel’s opponent was… Bryan Danielson! My hat’s off to ROH for their carny trickery. The PPV taping announcement combined with Danielson’s suprise entrance resulted in a red hot crowd. Granted, the fact that Danielson-Sydal didn’t happen (where as this would be the fifth go-around for Danielson and Nigel) is kind of a bummer, but after what went down here, that didn’t matter all that much to me.

8.Bryan Danielson defeated Nigel McGuinness. A hard-fought, wild contest with a lot of signature spots by both guys. It started out with a some good back and forth wrestling. Midway through had some fighting on the outside, including Nigel uncharacteristically (but greatly) coming off the top rope onto Danielson in the crowd, then Danielson suplexing Nigel onto the edge of one of the guard rails. Lots of lariats and roaring elbows, plus some chants of “This is Wrestling!” and something about someone’s head getting kicked in. In the end, these two were charging at one another with headbutts, leaving Danielson’s head a bloody mess. He fought back, laid in the elbows, locked on Cattle Mutilation, and Nigel was out of it. A great match, along the lines of their match from “Unified” last August.

9.Takeshi Morishima defeated Roderick Strong (w/ Rocky Romero) to retain the ROH World Title. Very good match with both guys bringing the brutality, though they certainly had a tough act to follow. The match started out with Morishima dominating with his signature spots. One moment saw Strong get a chop in as Morishima charged at him, but Morishima ran right through it and took him down. Morishima had some marks on his chest for sure, but Strong had some bigger ones. Strong eventually fought back with more chops and putting that freaky retard strength to use, taking Morishima off his feet. It wasn’t enought though, as Morishima got the win with the good ol’ backdrop driver.

Overall: A damn fine show. I was pretty surprised to learn later on that the majority of matches were in the 9-13 minute range (including the World Title match at 13), with the Tag Title match going about 18 minutes and Danielson-Nigel V going about 25. This may or may not hold up on home, but the action packed into a lot of these matches made up for it. The last two matches and the two tag matches make this show worth catching, with the crowd especially hot for these. Kevin Steen & El Generico seem to be on a hot streak (at least as evidenced by the crowd reactions here and their recent storyline with the Briscoes), and the Chikara crew delivered. The recent exodus of talent bummed me out (Samoa Joe, Colt Cabana, and Christopher Daniels leaving were all pretty much expected, but Homicide leaving a bit prematurely and Austin Aries leaving very prematurely was very rough), but I’m feeling optomistic with Danielson, McGuinness, and the Briscoes steering the ship, the newcomers mentioned above rising up the ranks, and the Japanese talent helping out. They put on a helluva show here, and they could very well do the same come the end of the month in Dayton and Chicago.