So, it was Genki Horiguchi all along. Sorry to the internets for the mistake. Here’s the quick results from tonight:

Bonus Match:

8 man tag – Cutlers/Chimera/Malachi Jackson v Irish Airborne/Prophet/Derek Neikerk. Cutlers win with a double piledriver.

Pre-show:

TJP beats Brad Allen by single leg submission.

Jigsaw & Mike Quackenbush beat Young Bucks. Young Bucks put Chikara guys over afterward and get a good ovation.

PPV taping:

Shingo beat Genki Horiguchi (not KAGETORA) with lariat.

Jimmy Jacobs comes out for a match. Teddy Hart interrupts, says he’s injured and asks Jimmy to take his place in the tag match. Paul London and Brian Kendrick come out. Jimmy challenges them to loser leaves town match. Kendrick accepts, then they jump Hart. Jack Evans comes out and we get the match going.

Jacobs and Evans beat London and Kendrick. Kendrick beaten via submission and must leave DGUSA.

Tommy Dreamer comes out to a good ovation, puts over DGUSA wrestlers.

Jon Moxley pins Dreamer. YAMATO and Shingo interfere on Moxley’s behalf during the match. Moxley wins with DDT.

YAMATO beats Susumu Yokosuka to retain the Open The Dream Gate Title. Good match, but crowd wasn’t that into the submission-heavy match.

World-1 (BxB Hulk, Naruki Doi, Masato Yoshino) beats Warriors (Dragon Kid, Gamma, CIMA) in a 6 man tag. Yoshino makes GAMMA tap with a sol naciente. Awesome match, best of the weekend that I saw.

Afterward, Yoshino challenges Hulk to a title match in Toronto. Hulk accepts.

Tonight’s show will be a supercard specifically for DVD (not a PPV taping). Right now, he’s at their meet & greet event.

Gabe Sapolsky over Facebook has confirmed that all of the wrestlers are in attendance, including Paul London, Jack Evans, and the unadvertised Teddy Hart.

Pre-Show Bonus Match: Brad Allen won the FRAY! 8-man elimination match with Royal Rumble-style entries every two minutes. It started with So-Cal wrestler Chimera and some other wrestler named The Prophet. Dustin Cutler and then his brother Brandon Cutler (of PWG) have entered, and they eliminated Chimera. The Cutlers then eliminated Prophet, and Brad Allen (FIP and EVOLVE) has entered. Irish Airborne’s Dave Crist entered next, followed by Malachi Jackson (younger brother of Nick and Matt Jackson). Allen eliminated Dustin Cutler. Jake Crist has entered and eliminated Brandon Cutler. One of the two tag teams entered are gone, and that’s all of the entrants for the match. Irish Airborne eliminated Malachi together. Finally, Allen eliminated both members of Irish Airborne to win what Carlos calls a “good indy match overall despite some blown spots.”

Dr. Keith Lipinski is the timekeeper again as he brought out the bell and the fans gear up for the main show.

The main show will open with a match being taped for an A&E reality series about young wrestlers trying to make it to the big time. No, not NXT, this is something different. Bob Saget (former Commissioner of Chikara!) is the host and is supposedly in the building. Right now the crew is shuffling people around to “get a better TV look.” Carlos – as well as presumably the rest of the crowd – had to sign a waiver to be filmed for television. Bob Saget makes his way to the ring.

1. YAMATO defeated Luke Hawx. Saget is the ring announcer for this match. YAMATO won the Open The Dream Gate Title last weekend in Japan from Naruki Doi. Hawx, formerly of Wrestling Society X, is one of the eight wrestlers taking part in the A&E show. YAMATO gets the win with a brainbuster.

2. Susumu Yokosuka & KAGETORA defeated Mike Quackenbush & Jigsaw. Yokosuka pinned Quack after a modified Angel’s Wings (possibly Mugan, an overhead gutwrench into a double-arm DDT). It was supposed to be Genki Horiguchi teaming with Yokosuka in this match; no word on where he is now. This was the DGUSA (though not USA in general) debut of KAGETORA.

3. Non-Title Special Challenge Match: YAMATO defeated TJP. TJ Perkins, under his third or fourth name, loses via a choke sleeper. The new champ is two for three so far this weekend.

4. Brian Kendrick & Jon Moxley defeated Jimmy Jacobs & Paul London. Kendrick pinned Jacobs with a rollup. London took a nasty bump during the match.

- Teddy Hart comes out following the match, and something leads to Kendrick and London both jumping him to cheers of, “Fuck him up!”

5. Masato Yoshino defeated Shingo. Yoshino gets the submission victory. Amazingly, Shingo has yet to win a match in DGUSA.

- Intermission. I asked Carlos what he thought was the best match so far, and he says Shingo vs. Yoshino. “Started slow, but had a good story and nice action near the end. Solid wrestling all around.”

Chances are Carlos’ phone may have died (he warned me this might happen), as it’s been a long time since Intermission happened. It’s getting really late on this coast anyway, and Carlos said he might provide a full report.

3/27: The final matches of last night were LA PARK (the original La Parka we all knew and loved from WCW) & Hijo de Rey Misterio (the cousin of the more famous Rey Mysterio) defeating Derrick Neikerk (a former WWE developmental talent) & G.Q. Gallo by Dusty Finish DQ, BxB Hulk retaining the Open The Freedom Gate Title over Naruki Doi, and CIMA & Gamma & Dragon Kid defeating Jack Evans & The Young Bucks. Here’s Carlos’ writeup:

—————————————————–

Sorry about that. My phone plan runs out in a month, so of course my phone is useless right now.

Started out the day watching the Indians and Rockies play some spring ball before I went to the DGUSA show. After fighting a little bit of traffic, I made it to the theater. The meet and greet was supposed to start at 5:30, but it was out a half hour late, so that should have been a warning sign. There was also no reentry, so I was stuck indoors waiting around for the wrestlers to come.

I just hung around until the wrestlers came out and I mean all of them. All the Japanese stars, plus London, Kendrick and the Young Bucks were there signing autographs if you purchased an 8×10, but these were only 3 for $10, so it was a steal. A few observations:

*Kendrick is tiny.
*London was high as a fucking kite. We got into an awkward conversation about Snarf being Orko before there was an Orko. To be fair, I was wearing a Thundercats shirt that did not have Snarf or the twins, much to his dismay.
*Asian people do not shake hands very well, especially Shingo. It was like a dead fish.

Kinda wandered around after that, checking out the merch table and Highspots booth. I talked to Dr. Keith for a few minutes (really nice guy).

The DGUSA Fray match was ok for what it was. There were lots of missed spots and the Cutlers or whatever are pretty green, Jackson is super indyriffic right down to his terrible trunks.

The show was around 30 minutes late when the producers started letting everyone move closer to the front. I don’t know what it was, but there didn’t seem to be a lot of people in attendance. I was able to move right next to the entrance ramp, so that was cool. Had to sign a waiver, so I might be on TV.

45 minutes after announced time. we got the Saget segment. It was fine for what it was. Some people in the crowd gave him some shit and he gave it right back. Classic Saget. Moxley came out and started double teaming Hawx with YAMATO. BxB Hulk comes in and takes out Moxley. YAMATO wins anyway. Saget takes pics with fans and shakes hands. Nice time. On to the real show.

I don’t know for sure if it was KAGETORA or Horiguchi in the match, honestly. So, if anyone refutes me, take their word for it.

YAMATO/TJP was another good match. TJP got some good offense in, but it was a mostly one-sided contest. There’s something about YAMATO I like. He’s got charisma.

Next came London/Jacobs v Moxley/Kendrick. There’s something about Jon Moxley I don’t like. Not sure what it is, but he bugs me. London came out in an orange tear-away jumpsuit. He put 3D glasses on a fan before the match started. [BS Note: Ha! This would be the astronaut suit he's come out in at PWG. He's calling himself "The Intrepid Traveler" at various indies.] Fine match that saw Kendrick refuse to come in against London at one point, so London wrestled himself. Nasty bump by London on the outside that left a huge bruise on his back.

After the match, Jacobs and London put Moxley on the time keeper’s (plastic) table and London was going to the top rope. Kendrick told him to stop that it wasn’t worth it for the loser fans who “chant in the dark and on the internet.” Hart came out and did some flips and talked about how he puts it all on the line and so should London. London turns on him. Everyone wants Hart to get his ass kicked.

Shingo match was a great match. It started off slow, which was a good change of pace from the end of the last match. This was probably the most complete match of the night as both wrestlers told the story well, with Yoshino working over Shingo’s arm and knee and Shingo trying to use power moves despite the pain. Lots of great nearfalls at the end, but Shingo is submitted via a Sol Naciente. After the match Moxley comes out and talks to Shingo, and they go to the back together.

INTERMISSION

Parka/Mysterio vs. white guys was something else. The wrestling itself was a debacle. Fake Rey is terrible. He tries to wrestle high flying without the agility. White guys were not ready for a lucha style match. Parka was the redeeming part, but he’s lost a step. The atmosphere was great, though. Everyone knew they were watching a trainwreck and just played along with it. White guys pin Parka after a low blow, but ref reverses it, and Parka/Mysterio win by DQ.

BxB Hulk v. Doi was really good. Crowd was starting to lose it here and it really affected the match, and Hulk kinda won out of nowhere. I am really worn out by this point.

6-Man tag was amazing. The guys really worked their asses off. The crowd sucked, however. There was pretty much just one section cheering. I felt sorry for the wrestlers because they really put in a hell of a finale. Warriors win after a great match. GAMMA picks a fight with a little kid in the front row who’s wearing a Rey Mysterio Jr mask. Pretty hilarious. I like GAMMA.

It was a fun show, but I really hated that the atmosphere died in the end. It was really both the crowd and the promotion’s fault. You can’t start the taping an hour late (9 pm) and expect everyone to still be up and excited for the end of the show. A lot of people traveled, plus there were lots of families that left early because of how late it was.

On the other hand, there were a lot of fans just sitting on their hands during the last two matches. Wrestling’s a participant sport, fans have to get involved, especially when they’re putting on a great performance in the ring.

All in all it was a good night. I stayed a little later and got Parka’s autograph, so another thing off the bucket list. Now I am exhausted. Let’s do this again tomorrow.

Feel free to use this on the Chronicle. Cheers

Thoughts from an ROH rookie:

I guess you could say I’m a relative newcomer to ROH. I do own the first year of events on DVD—and that’s it. Unfortunately for me, at the time that I was buying the DVDs, I was a poor college student living alone. I had to choose between paying bills and continuing my collection. Consequently, I missed the Golden Age of Ring of Honor. I was fully aware of that as I headed into Friday night’s event. I knew not to expect something like Joe/Kobashi or the Dragon Gate tag match. Those days are in the past. This is a company with a new direction and a more conservative booking plan.

Those thoughts in mind, never at any point did I hesitate to come to this show. From what I’ve heard, Ring of Honor is still the premier wrestling organization in the US, and probably North America. I’d been looking forward to this, since ROH announced their plans to come to Houston.

After a long drive from Waco to Houston, compounded by the bloody traffic, I was dropped off around 6:15 at the George R. Brown Convention Center by my fiancé—while she went and visited an old friend she hadn’t seen in a while. Once there, I checked out Booker T’s “Legends of Wrestling” event, which people were coming in and out of. I’ve never been an autograph hound, so the thing wasn’t for me. It was cool to see the fans, especially kids, interacting with the wrestlers. Some quick notes on that:

*Everyone seemed to be having a good time, even if people weren’t around, especially Dallas Page. Goodness, does that man ever stop smiling?
*Debra Marshall is the embodiment of a Southern trophy wife, from the implants to the starting-to-be-too-noticeable-facelifts. Nice lady, though.
*As most people have noted, Samoa Joe is not a very big guy.
*Christy Hemme is adorable
*Met James Caldwell of PWTorch, selling his wares. Nice guy, if a little aloof.
*Sharmell…uh…T is gorgeous; tall and lean with a booty that won’t quit…

Ahem, anyway, back to the actual show.

After a quick stop at the merchandise table to peruse the goods (and let me interrupt the narrative here for a small rant: To whomever makes wrestling t-shirts – Guys, there are more colors out there than black. I know it’s a slimming color, and most of your fans are basically heart conditions surrounded by a human shell, but come on. 90% of your shirts are black and 99% of those would look better in different colors. Diversity is a good thing. Now back to the show) I grabbed a snack and a drink before I made it to my seat.

At about 7:45, everyone’s favorite Frenchman Celian Varini walks in surrounded by his entourage/groupies. He was like the French New Wave kid in Son of Rambow (too obscure?) I tried to get to him, but he was talking and I didn’t want to be rude. At 7:50ish, the pre-show began.

PRE-SHOW

1) Alex “Sugarfoot” Payne & Andy Ridge defeated Ninja Brown & “Dirty” Ernie Osiris –

Sugarfoot was really over with the crowd. Ernie Osiris got a “Brooklyn Brawler” chant. Basic match; faces go over clean.

2) Bushwhacker Luke & Grizzly Redwood defeated Don Juan & Andy Duncan –

I remember Don Juan, a Texas Indy wrestler, from the early days of ROH. He doesn’t look like he’s aged a day since 2003. Although, he hasn’t gotten in any better shape, either. It’s a comedy match, but a good one Luke and “The Littlest Lumberjack” play to the crowd. I like Redwood as an opening act. He’s got that 80s goofy charm that works great with Luke. Don Juan knows how to play a heel; too bad he doesn’t have a good “look.” Duncan is just there and doesn’t do much. Faces win with a battering ram.

Before we get to the main show, I’d like to comment on the crowd. I’m new at the live-event going business, so maybe it was an anomaly, but the crowd…you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and virginity.

Two rows in front of me, I have Mr. I-think-I’m-real-clever-so-I’ll-yell-out-stupid-shit-and-try-to-start-dumb-chants-all-night. As the night goes on, he’ll also become known to me as Mr. Even-though-I’m-near-6-feet-and-have-a-body-shape-best-described-as-a-circle-I-will-still-decide-to-stand-on-my-fucking-chair-obstructing-the-view-of-everyone-behind-me.

Next to me is Mr. Drunk-guy-who-doesn’t-understand-personal-space.

And behind me is my new worst enemy Mr. Waaaaaay-too-drunk-guy-who-won’t-shut-the-fuck-up-the-entire-fucking-night-about-going-to-every-Dayton-show-and-also-partying-with-“the-boys”-in-Greensboro.

So, if you’re ever at an ROH show in Dayton or at “the bar” in Greensboro, NC, and see a Dan Didio-looking motherfucker, chunk a brick at him for me. Just make sure it’s not Dan Didio.

Sorry, back to the show. At about 8:15, the lights go dim and the show begins.

MAIN SHOW

3) Erick Stevens defeated Rhett Titus –

I have no problem with Titus’ gimmick. He does well with the flamboyant, Ric Rude/Val Venis –turned-up-to-11 character. I just hate anything that encourages homophobic chants. The Meatheads and Virgins don’t need encouragement. Pretty good match, both guys are good workers. Stevens wins with a lariat.

Mr. Greensboro points out that he’s already had three beers to anyone that will listen.

4) Chris Hero, Eddie Edwards & Incognito defeated Kevin Steen, Jay Briscoe & Magno –

The top rope broke early in the match. It was amazingly weird. Incognito whipped Magno into the rope and BOOM! The wrestlers improvised as best they could, but damn if they could have a good match. The luchadores did pull out a couple of cool moves, though. Incognito hit a second-rope hurucanranna to the outside. Magno hit a moonsault from the top of the ringpost. Everyone hit a dive to the outside. In the end, Magno misses a second rope moonsault attempt and Hero hits a running elbow with his “loaded” elbow pad.

Short break to fix the rope. Grizzly saves the day. “Thank You Grizzly” chant. Mr. Greensboro is looking for more beer. Great.

5) Roderick Strong defeated Katsuhiko Nakajima –

Really good match, not much else to say about it. Great chop-fest in the middle of the match. Both men worked hard, had believable two-counts, and the finish made sense. Solid effort.

6) Bobby Dempsey vs. Kamala –

Big pop for Kamala and Kim Chee!! Match never happens as Kim Chee gets Kamala to attack Shane Hagadorn. Dempsey takes off his shirt to reveal matching “tribal” paint before both men beat up Hagadorn. Fun stuff. After the match, Kamala joins Luke at a table signing autographs.

7) Four Corners Survival: Claudio Castagnoli defeated Brent Albright, Blue Demon Jr. and El Generico –

Claudio is jacked, and sporting a freshly shaved head. He’s also a lot taller than the others in this match. I’d say that of all the people I’ve seen, he looks the most like a WWE wrestler. Demon Jr. is built like a tank; a tiny, blue tank. Generico stands out like a pale thumb. Demon and Generico have a good exchange. Demon hits a Santo-style suicide dive to the outside. Inside, Claudio shoved the ref and this led to him rolling up Albright for the win. Good, but not great match.

8 ) Bryan Danielson defeated Alex Koslov –

Koslov was using his Mexican-heel style tonight: slow, methodical, and playing to the crowd. Great stuff from Danielson as usual. During the match, the fire alarm went off. Don’t know if it was a prank, the smoke machine, or someone Smokin’ in the Boy’s Room. No one evacuated, or moved really. There was a “USA” and “Russia” chant duel. In the middle of it, these guys in kilts started a “Scotland” chant. I thought it was funny. Really good match that saw Danielson win with the Cattle Mutilation.

INTERMISSION –

It was a long intermission as the fire department had to check things and reset the alarm. Before the Koslov match, a couple of Australian ladies moved to some empty seats behind me. During intermission I found out that they were doing a “wrestling tour” and had been to the AAA shows in California the week before. Always willing to talk Lucha, we talked about CMLL and AAA for a minute before Mr. Greensboro started hitting on them…loudly. I didn’t get their names or direct them to this site. The IWC (yes, there is one) is such a sausage fest, and they were really cool, knowledgeable chicks.

9) D-Lo Brown defeated Colt Cabana –

So-so match. D-Lo was playing heel, but people cheered him anyway. Back and forth match. End came when Colt came from the top rope and D-Lo hit him with an Illegal Foreign Object. During the finish, Cabana slipped a bit, eliciting a “You Fucked Up” chant from some jackass. One of the Aussie chicks yelled, “Like you could do that, tubby.” I laughed.

10) KENTA defeated Davey Richards to retain the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship –

Match of the night. KENTA and Richards tore it up. I’d recommend the DVD just for this match. After a sick bump to the outside, people started chanting, “Fuck Wresltemania.” Yes, the same people that spent up to 10x for Wresltemania tickets as they did for this show. During the match, fat-ass two rows up stands on his chair (what did the chair ever do to him?). We yell at him to sit his tubby ass down, so he does the “pretending-to-scratch-my-head-but-really-flipping-you-off” thing. That’ll show us. Finish of the match was a little screwed up as KENTA went for a Reverse G2S twice and failed before saying “fuck it,” and hitting a regular one for the win. Great job. Couple of standing Os for these two.

11) Austin Aries & Jimmy Jacobs defeated Tyler Black & Necro Butcher –

Poor guys had to follow that. This was like a Q7 RAW match. Crowd was exhausted and used this as a break. Mr. Greensboro had words with some Brits behind him. Cooler heads prevailed however, which was a shame. As far as the match goes, Black was pinned following a brainbuster from Aries. Good for what it was or whatever. Nearly 4 hours in and we finally get to the…

MAIN EVENT

12) Jerry Lynn defeated Nigel McGuiness to win the ROH World Championship –

Audio messed up during the introductions before the main event (3rd technical problem of the night). Lots of “you fucked up” chants, which I fucking hate. McGuiness looked like anything involving movement of any sort was painful. Lynn worked over his arm most of the match. Nigel hits a Tower of London to the floor. Both men are down and barely get back in the ring before the 20 (WTF??) count. More working over the arm. Lynn hits the Cradle Piledriver, but only gets 2. Nigel hits the Rebound Lariat, but is slow to cover and gets 2. Lynn locks in a Fujiwara Arm Bar, and it looks like its over, but Nigel gets the rope. More near-falls. Nigel goes for another lariat and misses. Jerry hits another piledriver in the middle of the ring and gets the 1-2-3. We have a new champ. Great match.

After the match, Lynn gets on the mic, which is now working again. He acknowledges that a lot of people don’t think he should be champ, but he vows to work hard to prove them wrong. He then puts over Nigel for “sacrificing his body.” Good show overall. I feel I got my money’s worth, especially with the two title matches.

Match of the Night – KENTA v. Richards

Winners of the Night –
1. Jerry Lynn. Congratulations to him.
2. That one guy wearing a Mr. Ass shirt.
3. The 2 guys dressed up as The Rockers.

Losers of the Night –
1. Tall people (especially fat ones) that stand on chairs, obscuring us short people’s views.
2. Butcher/Black and Jacobs/Aries for having to follow the KENTA/Richards match.
3. Any female that is anywhere near a wrestling ring.

Pre-Show

1) Lomano & Childs defeated Vexx & Dell. We’re not sure who any of these guys are or if all the names are even right. Lomano reversed a cross-body to pin Vexx.

2) “Dirty” Ernie Osiris defeated Grizzly Redwood. Osiris used Grizzly’s log as a weapon while the ref was down.

3) Alex “Sugarfoot” Payne, Andy Ridge & Bobby Dempsey defeated Don Juan, Andy Duncan & Spiro. Dempsey gave Duncan a Death Valley Driver for the win.

Main Show

Bobby Cruise made some vague mention of a medical substitution at the start of the show. Presumably, this is regarding Nigel McGuinness, who worked through a serious arm injury on Friday.

1) Colt Cabana defeated Ace Steel. Cabana won via submission with the Billy Goat’s Curse (reverse Boston Crab). Fun comedy match.

2) Rhett Titus defeated Bushwhacker Luke. Titus hooked the tights on the pin fall.

3) Kevin Steen, El Generico, Jay Briscoe & Magno defeated Davey Richards, Chris Hero, Eddie Edwards & Incognito. Briscoe pinned Hero following a spike Jay Driller assisted by Magno. Fantastic match, and no problems with the ropes.

4) Necro Butcher defeated Jimmy Jacobs (No Disqualification). Necro hit a Tiger Driver for the victory. Good brawl with Jacobs bleeding a ton.

Intermission

Nigel McGuinness came out to address the crowd to open the second half. He was in a lot of pain. Claudio Castagnoli came out and attacked him, apparently setting Nigel up to eventually return from his injury as a babyface. Brent Albright made the save. The scheduled tag match involving these three and Blue Demon Jr. was turned into a three-way match.

5) Brent Albright defeated Claudio Castagnoli and Blue Demon Jr. Albright pinned Claudio following a Half Nelson Suplex.

6) Roderick Strong defeated Alex Koslov. Koslov tapped out to the Strong Hold.

7) Jerry Lynn defeated Erick Stevens, Bryan Danielson and D-Lo Brown to retain the ROH World Championship. Lynn finished Stevens with the Cradle Piledriver to win the Four Corners Survival and complete his first successful title defense.

8 ) KENTA & Tyler Black defeated Katsuhiko Nakajima & Austin Aries. Black pinned Aries with God’s Last Gift.

Carlos says it was a much better show than Supercard of Honor IV, and a recommended PPV and/or DVD buy.

Check back later in the weekend for a more detailed report by Carlos.

Pre-Show

1) Alex “Sugarfoot” Payne & Andy Ridge defeated Ninja Brown & “Dirty” Ernie Osiris. Sugarfoot pinned Brown with a hurracanrana.

2) Bushwhacker Luke & Grizzly Redwood defeated Don Juan & Andy Duncan. Luke pinned Juan following a battering ram.

Main Show

1) Erick Stevens defeated Rhett Titus. Stevens scored the win in the opener with a lariat.

2) Chris Hero, Eddie Edwards & Incognito defeated Kevin Steen, Jay Briscoe & Magno. The top rope broke early in the match. Hero hit Magno with a running elbow strike for the win.

There was a short break to fix the ring.

3) Roderick Strong defeated Katsuhiko Nakajima. Strong finished Nakajima with the Gibson Driver.

Bobby Dempsey vs. Kamala appeared to be up next. This match was teased in a Newswire, with Kamala serving as a hired gun for Larry Sweeney. The match didn’t even get started, as both men attacked Shane Hagadorn at Kim Chee’s behest.

4) Four Corners Survival: Claudio Castagnoli defeated Brent Albright, Blue Demon Jr. and El Generico. Claudio rolled up Albright to earn the victory.

5) Bryan Danielson defeated Alex Koslov. The debuting AAA star tapped out to Cattle Mutilation.

Intermission

6) D-Lo Brown defeated Colt Cabana. D-Lo used a foreign object to get the win.

7) KENTA defeated Davey Richards to retain the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship. KENTA retains the title via the Go 2 Sleep. Match of the night so far.

8 ) Austin Aries & Jimmy Jacobs defeated Tyler Black & Necro Butcher. Black took the fall following a brainbuster from Aries.

9) Jerry Lynn defeated Nigel McGuinness to win the ROH World Championship Lynn hit the cradle piledriver to pin Nigel, thus ending his 17-month title reign and becoming the 11th ROH champion.

We’ll be back tomorrow with results during the Take No Prisoners 2009 PPV taping.

*On July 26, TNA sent wrestlers to participate in CMLL’s Gran Prix International, which is basically CMLL’s top midcarders and lower main-eventers versus foreigners. It was an 8 on 8 match with the participants being:

Team “World”: AJ Styles, Alex Koslov, Alex Shelley, Chris Daniels, Chris Sabin, Jay Lethal, Marco Corelone (Mark Jindrak), Sonjay Dutt

Team CMLL: Averno, Dos Caras Jr., Dr. Wagner Jr., Héctor Garza, Rey Bucanero, Shocker, Último Guerrero, Volador Jr

The match went about an hour and was a really good match. In the end, Alex Shelley became the first foreigner to win the match in over a decade pinning Ultimo Guerrero. Ultimo Guerrero then challenged Shelley to a hair vs mask match. The match in its entirety can be found on youtube.

*Speaking of Ultimo Guerrero, according to interviews, he’s really interested in going to TNA for a long term tour. Already, TNA brought him and Rey Buccanero in for some extra house shows in southern Texas (heavily Hispanic areas). Hopefully TNA brings him in, as he could add a lot to the floundering X-Division.

* Shifting gears to WWE, Rey Mysterio is still having contract disputes. He thinks he should be paid more, but WWE is (rightly) worried about his recent string of injuries. Mysterio has stated that he would be more than willing to wrestle in AAA if he and WWE don’t come to an agreement.

*According to Ovaciones (one of Mexico’s leading sports newspapers), Dos Caras Jr, son of Dos Caras and nephew of Mil Mascaras and Psicodelico, has signed a three year deal with WWE. Dos Caras, however, has denied these reports. This happens all the time in Mexico, by the way.

*Some ex-WWE superstars will be in Nuevo Laredo on August 18th, wrestling against CMLL wrestlers. The line-up currently includes:

L.A. Park, Volador Jr. & Hector Garza vs. Rikishi, Rob Conway & Chris Masters
Averno, Mephisto & Terrible vs. Joey Mercury, Puma & Black Pearl
Solar, Ultraman & Super Astro vs. Black Terry (Trevor Murdoch), Shu el Guerrero & Negro Navarro

That’s all the news this week. Until next time, I remain Carlos Lopez reporting for PWChronicle.

From Houston, TX at the TNA Victory Road PPV.

Here’s how it went down:

Got to the arena at 5:00 CT (I thought traffic was going to be worse than it actually was.) Outside the arena, they were papering the place for an event that Booker’s promotion (PWA) was holding the next week.

At about 5:15, this guy up near the front of the line fainted twice from the heat. He was wheeled inside by paramedics. This should be a warning to anyone who comes to Wrestlemania, its hot as balls at Reliant, with all the asphalt and sun beating down on you. Dress for heat and drink lots of water.

At 5:30 Vinnie Ru comes out with a camera crew. He gets a couple of “you suck,” but most of the people are pretty nice to him. He gathers a bunch of us around and tells us to whoop and holler as JB does the PPV opener. I saw it on the big screen later and you can see 3/4 of my face for half a second.

Doors open up right after and we get in. Nash and ODB are doing Polaroid’s. I hit up the merch booth and get a LAX shirt, the first wrestling shirt I’ve bought in nearly a decade. Most of the TNA shirts look 1000xs better than WWE ones, especially since they try to hide the TNA logo.

I then walked around for a bit. Ran into a girl I went to high school with. Apparently, she’s a ring rat now. Wished I was single and then moved on. Took my seat, Arena was 3/4 full the whole night. Ringside was your usual collection of fatties, kids, mouth breathers, and rats.

At 6:30 Dixie Carter gets in the ring (definite MILF) thanks us for coming. The national anthem is sung by none other than Willie Nelson…’s daughter Paula. She does a decent job, but gets heckled (stay classy TNA fans.) JB gets us hyped and the show begins at 7:00 sharp.

Matches:
World X Cup elimination match -

Really fun match. TNA did nothing to get these guys over, so the crowd wasn’t sure of what to make of it. The wrestlers used high spots to get themselves over. Crowd was pumped by the end.

*Alex Koslov and Masato Yoshino stood out. They have natural charisma and were great heels.

*The MCMG’s tag work was horrible. It was so contrived and robotic, with no room for improvisation.

Gail Kim vs. Angelina Love -

Crowd was behind Kim. Good match, but not great. Hard to impress after the spot fest that preceded it.

Sonjay Dutt beat Jay Lethal –

Crowd was 50/50 on this. Good match, with both guys looking impressive.

LAX vs. Beer Money –

LAX is super over. Hector is a broke-ass Eddie.

*Storm = money.
*Roode = the opposite of money.

Ultimate X match -

Another good spot fest. Kaz’s spot at the end looked amazing from my seat. Mexico winning was good, since there were a lot of Latinos in attendance.

*The translator was terrible. What they said was basically, “Thanks to the Mexican fans that came out to see us win. We’ll be taking this back to Mexico. This is for all the guys back home. Viva La Raza.”

Kurt Angle and Team 3D vs. A.J. Styles and Christian Cage and Rhino –

This was another fun match. The spots were great, everyone worked hard and the crowd ate it up.

Booker T vs. Samoa Joe – Amazing atmosphere for the match. Crowd was at least 95% behind Booker T. It was a good match until all the screwiness. It started killing the crowd when Joe was beating everyone up. Sting brought the crowd back, but the ending sucked the life out of the arena. Everyone was standing around with a WTF (mate) look on their face. Bad way to end the show.

Way to go, TNA.

Like most great things, my love affair with Lucha Libre began in the 1980s. During my elementary years, I was fortunate enough to be able to visit my mother’s family in Mexico during the summers. Outside of watching Thundercats and He-Man dubbed in Spanish, the most enjoyable thing for a kid to do was go to the weekly lucha shows, where EMLL (the only large promotion at the time) would send its D or E level performers. While I was too young to realize that the wrestlers were crap, I wasn’t too old to be mesmerized by the bright masks and high-flying acrobatics. While I would return to my tried-and-true wrestling love of WWF at the end of every summer, there was still a part of me that fondly remembered and longed for the flamboyancy of lucha libre. Cue the 1990s.

It was around 1991 or 1992, that the WWF and I stopped seeing eye-to-eye. While I was growing and needed more substance to my entertainment, the WWF simply wouldn’t budge, instead preferring to cram an increasing amount of cartoon characters on camera. It was time for me to move on. This could have been the point where I abandoned wrestling for good, like many of my peers. Luckily for myself, lucha libre was going through something of a renaissance at the time. This was the beginning of AAA and the re-invention of lucha libre. It was at this time that Rey Misterio, Eddie Guerrero, Juventud, etc were tearing it up in Mexico. I was lucky enough to watch the shows every Sunday afternoon, and being fluent in Spanish, I was able to understand everything that was going on. By 1996, however, the Mexican economy imploded and the top lucha stars (except for Santo) left for ECW/WCW. Americans were finally exposed to lucha style wrestling, and at the same time, I could see my favorite wrestlers without worrying about wrestling shows being pre-empted for soccer. That’s a win-win situation. The rest, as they say, is history.

But, enough about me. In Mexico, there is a second renaissance of sorts going on, with AAA being the undisputed king of “sports entertainment” , while CMLL has the top draw in Wrestling Observer Wrestler of the Year™ Mistico. Lucha is also making more inroads into the US. CMLL has a working relationship with TNA and is an integral part of the World X-Cup. Meanwhile, AAA has a working relationship with ROH in the works that will send some of their best wrestlers to work with the best in the US. Right now is a great time for anyone to be a lucha libre fan. Hopefully I can help the PW Chronicle readers become lucha fans.

In my next installment, I will present a short history of lucha libre. Until then, I am Carlos Lopez, signing out.