Pro Wrestling Chronicle

As promised, the most trusted man in my home for live show news, Robert Dolezil, has worked above and beyond the call of duty and given us his third report of the weekend, and this is the big one. Aries returns, Danielson and KENTA, and the rest of the Pay-Per-View taping in Bob’s detailed report.

Ring of Honor

Chicago Ridge , IL
June 23, 2007
Report by Robert Dolezil

Dave Prazak opened the show on the mic and did the countdown until when the ppv would start. When the ppv officially started he did the Joey Styles ECW ppv intro standing in the ring and talking about the card. The venue was set up a little differently than usual and the crowd was as loud as I have ever seen it.

1) The No Remorse Corps of Roderick Strong, Davey Richards & Rocky Romero defeated when Richards pinned Cross with the DR Driver. This entire match was very fast paced with nonstop action. Cross hit a couple beautiful dives. The Corps were all hitting great strikes. Richards and Romero were hitting nice simultaneous kicks on the chest and back of people. There were several great nearfalls, including Romero kicking out of a spectacular aerial move by Cross. Great action all around.

After the match, the NRC is beating down Cross, Stevens & Delirious. Austin Aries runs into the ring and starts cleaning house. Aries receives one of the biggest pops I have ever heard in my life, the initial pop is followed up by a thunderous Austin Aries chant. Aries knocks everyone out of the ring and then hit s a suicide dive on the Corps. Aries picks up the mic and said he had to come back to teach the NRC some respect. He said for 2 long months he had been gone. He pulled out a piece of paper and said “once I sign this, this gives me my wrestling freedom. I am signing with the greatest wrestling company in the world, that one that actually cares about its wrestlers and its fans, Ring of Honor.” He asked for a pen, and people threw pens at him (haha). He then signed his ROH contract handed it to Cary , and used the Samoa Joe pro mo saying I’m Austin Aries, this is Ring of Honor, We are wrestling.” Just an amazing scene/angle to open the ppv.

2) Claudio Castagnoli defeats Matt Sydal after rolling thru a hurracanrana at 8:47 . This match was decent, but was too short too amount to anything great. Claudio hit a nice bicycle kick and Sydal hit one of his beautiful standing moonsaults.

After the match Sweet N Sour Incorporated came out and Sweeney praised Sydal and said that he could take him to the next level if he joined SNSI. Sydal took the contract, but Claudio ripped it up and said he wouldn’t allow Sydal to make the same mistake he did. Sydal attacked Claudio, and Claudio was beaten down by everyone. Sydal told Sweeney to go print up another contract and he’d sing it.

3) Naomichi Marufuji defeated BJ Whitmer in 13:17 with the Shiranui. This match was good, but nowhere near as good a match as Marufuji is capable of putting on. Marufuji got the majority of all his spots in, including the great looking turnbuckle to turnbuckle tree of woe drop kick. Both me hit nice variations of suplexes on each others varying from Germans to Dragons. Marufuji hit several stiff looking superkicks and lariats as well. Good match.

4) Brent Albright squashed Pelle Primeau in 1:57 . Albright beat the hell out of Pelle and hit a brutal half nelson suplex on him. Alrbight made Pelle tap to the Crowbar.

5) ROH World Champion Takeshi Morishima defeated Jimmy Rave in 3:57 with a Back Drop Driver to retain the Title. This really wasn’t a squash as Rave got a few spots in, including his running knee to the face. Not really too much to talk about here since it was shockingly under 4 minutes.

6) ROH World Tag Team Champions The Briscoe Brothers defeated Kevin Steen & El Generico when El Generico was pinned in 16:20 after a Spike Jay Driller. This was the best match of the ppv portion of the show. This was a very exciting match without a dull moment at all. Great action all around, including Steen hitting a nice plancha. There two insane spots into the crowd in the middle of this match. The first one was the Briscoes giving El Generico a double hip toss that sent El Generico like a legit 8-10 feet in the air and he went sailing way over the guardrails and landed in the crowd on chairs and on the floor. Right after that, Steen charged the Briscoes, knocked down Jay, and gave Mark a running Awesome Bomb that sent Mark flying into like the 5th row. Crazy spots. Later, back in the ring, more action ensued. Steen was lying on the timekeepers table exhausted and then Mark hopped over the ropes and gave him a double stomp thru the table. Right after that the Briscoes hit the Spike Jay Driller on El Generico for the win. Great match.

After the match, Steen attacked the Briscoes with a ladder from behind. I assume this was done to help set up their street fight that has been announced for Death Before Dishonor V either that or since this was on ppv, maybe they’ll have a street fight or ladder match on ppv.

This ended the ppv portion of the show

7) The Minnesota Home Wrecking Crew of Lacey & Rain defeated Daizee Haze & MsChief in 8:41 . I honestly don’t remember what happened here. I do remember that all of them looked good, both in the ring and just plain old looking good.

Nigel McGuinness pinned Chris Hero with the Tower of London in 18:23 . Hero was out there with his entourage and this was a sports entertainment style match, but with the addition of Nigel throwing hard lariats and Hero hitting some hard chops. There was a decent amount of interference, including Nigel chasing everyone around the ring. It still turned out to be a very good match.

9) Adam Pearce came out and ripped on the crowd and said he was moving out of Chicago , which got a good pop from the crowd. He said give someone I can beat up on. Morishima’s music then hit and there was an impromptu ROH World Title Match. Morishima defeated Pearce in 5:25 with a Backdrop driver. Okay 5 minute match.

10) KENTA defeated American Dragon Bryan Danielson at 25:33 with the Go 2 Sleep. This match was amazing. There was a very different feel to this match as compared to their epic match from Glory By Honor V Night 2. This match seemed much more heated, as there was a great amount more striking in this match than in their previous matches (both the ROH 9-16-06 match and the NOAH 12-2-06 match)

The crowd was fired up for this, as before these 2 great wrestlers ever touched, there were dueling chants of “Lets go Dragon” “Lets go KENTA”. They started out with a bit of mat wrestling like you might expect. Danielson was really working over KENTA’s arm and wrist. At one point it looked like Danielson rotated KENTA’s wrist all the way around, the entire crowd was gasping as it literally looked like it had to be dislocated. Right after that Danielson had KENTA’s hand upside on the ring and stomped on it. That looked like it hurt real badly as well. After this, KENTA got back up to his feet and responded with a hard slap to the face to Danielson. More great strikes were exchanged including when Danielson tried a sunset flip and KENTA just slapped him in the face. A little after that Danielson went for a suicide dive, and KENTA just ran to the ropes from the floor and kicked Danielson right in the face. After that the two were both on the ring apron battling, then Danielson gave KENTA an overhead belly to belly suplex from the apron to the floor. Back in the ring KENTA nailed Danielson with a hard kick to the right shoulder of Danielson, it looked Danielson was hurt, but he could have just been selling like a champ. A little bit after that KENTA locked the Cattle Mutilation on Danielson. Danielson would escape and start doing the MMA elbows on KENTA. KENTA would get out of that, and the two brawled to the turnbuckles. KENTA was going to go for a sunset flip bomb off the ropes but he slipped, he changed it up though and gave Danielson a running power bomb all the way across the ring right into the turnbuckles. More brutal striking ensued and Danielson applied a Cattle Mutilation which KENTA got out of, and KENTA applied a Rear Naked Choke to Danielson who got his arm up just before it dropped for the third time. Right after that Danielson hit a brutal Go 2 Sleep for a great near fall. Both men slowly got up and slowly started slapping each other in the face, with each slap they got harder and harder until they were just standing there hitting each other as hard they could. Danielson got the Cattle Mutilation on KENTA again, but ended up hitting a tiger suplex out of it, KENTA got right back up and hit a tiger suplex of his own, both guys each hit a 2 tiger suplexes that went completely no sold which lead to more brutal striking. More great submissions attempts and submission counters followed until KENTA hit the Go 2 Sleep on Dragon for the win at 25:33. Just a simply amazing match that is one of the best I have ever seen from any promotion at any time.

When the DVD of this comes out, this is a must buy, as it will have the PPV and this epic KENTA vs Bryan Danielson match which is one of the greatest displays of pro wrestling that you will ever see.