ROH in Toronto 7/25/08 LIVE Results
Posted on July 25, 2008 by Steve Kriske
Our international correspondent Erik Launiainen was on the scene for Ring of Honor’s Canadian debut at the Ted Reeve Arena.
1) Chris Hero defeated Ruckus.
Erik reports that the crowd is “super easy.”
2) Sara Del Rey defeated Jennifer Blake.
3) Erick Stevens vs. Go Shiozaki went to a time limit draw.
4) Bryan Danielson defeated Claudio Castagnoli. Great match with lots of “ROH” chants.
We lost contact at this point due to Erik’s phone battery dying and his back-up leaving at intermission. He sent in some more notes after the show and will provide more on Saturday. He’ll also be joining us on BS With Honor this week to discuss the show in much greater detail.
5) Naomichi Marufuji defeated Roderick Strong. Either this or the previous match was best of the night.
6) Nigel McGuinness defeated Kevin Steen to retain the Ring of Honor World Championship. Pretty damn good match, and super long. Weak finish. Steen kicked out of the Rebound Lariat so Nigel won with a lariat to a crotched Steen on the ropes. Lame. Steen took the mic afterward while the fans chanted his name. One guy yelled “YOU SUCK!” and got booes heavily. Steen threw down the mic without saying anything. Lame.
7) Jay Briscoe & Austin Aries defeated Jimmy Jacobs & Tyler Black (Non-title No DQ match). Tag match was last and crazy as hell. Faces had the advantage until Necro came in and cleaned house. Heels had the 3 on 2 advantage until Mark Briscoe made another “surprise” return, on 18 different kinds of fire. Crowd chanted “Welcome back!”. He looked great. Back and forth action. Ref was completely unnecessary. Noteworthy part where Jacobs ordered Necro to blind Aries with some object while they had him at their mercy. Necro refused and bailed. Faces won when Jay hit the Jay Driller on (I think) Jacobs. Could have been Black though. One other thing, Tyler Black and Aries look WAY too similar from afar. The only difference is two inches and a beard.
July 25th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
Stevens and Go is confident booking, because if it was 30 minute draw you are either getting two guys that really click together, or a tough 30 minutes where you’ve gotta come back at a future show and settle the issue. So it’s ballsy, but I’m hopeful it’s good.
Hero and Ruckus I’m glad they got out of early on, and I’m hopeful it was a quick sprint of a hot opener that was most likely quickly forgotten.
I’ve never seen Danielson vs C.C., so I’m happy to hear it was solid. Looking forward to it.Some will have words with C.C. losing before the title match, especially if he loses that too snd stays in the company (as I’d expect he will).
July 25th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
Marufuji/Strong was definitely better, but we were all way into Dragon/Claudio. I was never a Roderick Strong fan before, but after tonight, seeing him live, i am.
Sweeney=$$$$.
Funny moment where there was a huge Bobby Dempsey chant, and he hid under the ring.
The return of Mark Briscoe made this a newsworthy show, which it should have been, given that it was the first in Canada.
The Necro tease was good, and properly non-committal.
Lance Storm was awesome, and (obviously) way over.
Dragon’s post match promo, and insistence that Europe be played again, was awesome.
July 26th, 2008 at 8:10 am
Some other details from the show lost in the shuffle were Delirious defeating Kenny Omega in the second match on the card and later on – post intermission – having another segment with Daizee Haze and Rhett Titus, this one apparently (and optimistically) ending with Delirious and Daizee holding hands. Heard Lance and Stevens did simultaneous half-crabs on heels as well.
Thanks for the details, Erik and Jason. Claudio’s loss is the first half of what I predicted would happen with him, Danielson, and Nigel throughout the weekend.