Pro Wrestling Chronicle

Johnny P. is in the house and is sending in results. He says the crowd is hot but a “typical NYC crowd.” He’s in the lower balcony and can’t see the upper balcony, so it’s hard to estimate the crowd, but the floor and lower balcony are nearly full. The return date is August 2, and the Motor City Machine Guns were announced for that show to a big pop.

ROH has announced the full match order in advance. Check out our preview of this weekend’s shows in BS With Honor #11 Part 1, and check back tomorrow for Part 2 of the show, in which we review the Proving Ground and Transform DVDs.

1) FIP World Heavyweight Title Match - Roderick Strong defeats Erick Stevens and Go Shiozaki to retain Tons of chops and stiff spots. Stevens was pinning Go and Roderick snuck up and rolled him up for the win.

2) Kevin Steen & El Generico defeat Davey Richards & Rocky Romero Compared to the opener, it started out more slowly paced, but just as over, with the crowd booing the heels. It was largely character-driven, then the NRC got in a lot of submission-based offense to build heat. They lost the crowd for a bit, but won them back with a big finish including a lot of near falls. Steen & Generico get the win with their Package Piledriver/Brainbuster combo.

3) Tag Team Scramble - Delirious & Pelle Primeau defeat Brent Albright & Chris Hero and Jack Evans & Jigsaw A typical scramble with a ton of highspots with no rhyme or reason to anything. Delirious pinned Hero with the Bizarro Driver.

Larry Sweeney blames Albright for the loss, and wants him to take it out on Bobby Dempsey. Albright turns on Sweet & Sour and puts Hagadorn through a table on the floor. He even gives Sara Del Rey a big suplex.

4) Bryan Danielson defeats Naomichi Marufuji They started out with a very deliberate pace. It was technically good, but lacked fire, and then got more heated. Very well thought-out with a lot of submission attempts and chain wrestling with both guys adapting to each other and building off previous spots. The crowd wasn’t really getting into the psychology until the end. Both guys ran through a whole arsenal of submission moves, culminating with Danielson making Marufuji tap with Cattle Mutilation.

Intermission

Daizee Haze opens up the second half with an in-ring promo thanking the crowd. John couldn’t hear everything (he said that, in general, the acoustics in the balcony were bad and there were kids around him who were constantly chanting), but thinks she said they set a new ROH attendance record. Delirious came out with flowers to give to her, but Rhett Titus interrupted, and Daizee left.

5) GHC Heavyweight Champion Takeshi Morishima defeats The Necro Butcher (Non-title) The fans loved Necro and wanted a more violent match, but there were only a few chair shots and no blood. Morishima won with the Backdrop Driver.

6) ROH World Tag Team Title Match - No Disqualification - Champions Jay Briscoe & Austin Aries defeat Jimmy Jacobs & Tyler Black to retain Jacobs and Aries went through a table. Jacobs spiked Jay and he bled a lot. Necro and Mark Briscoe both came out, and the Briscoes hit a springboard Doomsday Device with Mark using his cast as a weapon. After the match, Jacobs barks orders at Black and Necro, but decides not to spike Aries because he wants to inflict emotional damage instead (and then he went on to say more stuff that John couldn’t hear).

7) ROH World Title Match - Champion Nigel McGuinness defeats Claudio Castagnoli to retain Nigel worked on Claudio’s shoulder all along and retained the title with his London Dungeon finisher. He also hit a lot of lariats. The match was very good, probably best of the night.

John says the show was good, but not great, with the crowd detracting from it in a big way. Every match was in the **1/2 - ***1/2 range.