The World Title match, in which all four guys could be in the ring at once (no tags like in a four corner survival) and there were possibilities of count-outs if three or all of the guys were outside, was damn good stuff. Granted, I’ve maybe seen better title matches when it was only two guys, but I bet when all is said and done, this may go down as the best World Title match among the big three American promotions to occur this month.

Also, some fans are already hating on Lynn, especially since this is brought upon him being matched up against the more popular Danielson and Black. One square of fans in my section (Section C) were giving him shit the whole time, despite putting on a damn good match, while everyone else gave him props. Just no luck with this babyface champion and the last one (Nigel at the start of his reign), but this is by no means Jerry’s fault. [I'll save this rant for BSWH:)]

Tag Title match was quite good itself. The tables early on were set up in corners and wouldn’t break, but once they got set up proper, it was smashy-smashy time. The two tables set up on one another was done well in advance, so by the time Steen went through them, it got a big reaction.

As far as I could tell, Claudio is not a part of the Embassy until they acknowledge it on camera, but his involvement with them definitely plays into T-Dog’s theory of Claudio being the one to finance Nana.

Other quick details:

- Cabana’s new singlet (the one with all of the wrestling moves written on it) is as awesome as described.

- Durden did an on-camera flub when he mentioned that MsChif successfully defended her SHIMMER Title in a match that was announced as being non-title. Also, his sleeves were rolled up. At least he was made a fool by Albright using Osirus’ shoe.

- Omega broke out the logic-ridiculing one-on-two huricanrana, which still got a big pop.

- Bobby Dempsey was beloved, and I’m becoming a big fan of the Dark City Fight Club.

The negative reaction towards Lynn is definitely much smaller (based on what I saw) compared to how people reacted to Nigel. No way should Lynn go heel because of it. They’ll just gut it out until he loses the title.

This match will likely take up the entire second half of the episode it’s a part of (#12 I believe). Also, I really commend them for how they built up the Tag Title match over three episodes. Between this, deciding the World Title challengers, the Dark City Fight Club, etc., they’re doing the simplest things right.

Louden Noxious was the ring announcer throughout the night. As already listed on ChikaraPro.com, he plugged the next Chikara shows being in Reading, PA on Aug. 9th and Philadelphia on Aug. 10th. Also announced were the dates for Chikara’s big Midwest debut: Sept 20th in the Chicago area and Sept. 21st in Belfontaine, OH in the greater Columbus area. No other details given. Also, I had the chance to meet the well-traveled Steven Ho, a fine young man.

Eddie Kingston defeated Lince Dorado: Very heated indeed, which I guess would stem back to King of Trios. There were lot of grudge matches on the card, and they all appropriately started very hot and heavy with one guy immediately going after the other. Some hard-hitting offense from Kingston most of the time, but Dorado stayed strong up until the Backfist to the Future. Post-match, as Kingston walked to the back, Dorado shouted out to him that he wasn’t dead yet (insert Monty Python joke here) and dared him to come back and finish things. Eddie acknowledged this but just kept walking.

Ultimo Breakfast defeated Jimmy Olsen: Though not as funny as Moscow, this year’s CAW contest-winning gimmick does allow for the wrestler to have a lot more mobility (he’s in a singlet and not a restrictive cow costume), plus I like how his mask resembles a toaster (plus I think it’s metal, as he used a lot of headbutts). Olsen was very aggressive on him, leading to his unmasking of Breakfast and the DQ under Chikara rules. Not much too it, as it only went four minutes.

Sweeney Promo: Sweeney didn’t like being called a loser by Mitch Ryder at the last show, acknowledged himself being a 21-time ICW/ICWA Tex-Arkana Television Champ (”I may have lost it 20 times, but I won it back each and every time.”), and challenged Ryder to a match in the future. Ryder walked out with Shayne Hawke, said they would be winning the tag titles later tonight, and that Sweeney would need to get a tag team partner if he wanted a piece of him. Sweeney had no problem with this. Return of the Sharecropper?! Who knows?

Icarus & Gran Akuma & The Osirian Portal defeated Soldier Ant & Worker Ant & The Super Smash Brothers: Started out with a pretty slick exchange of moves between Akuma and Stupified and Icarus being made the fool by some miscommunicated irish whips. Player Uno had his NES controller pants removed (he was pantsed, revealing Spongebob Squarepants boxers) and Amasis put them on. Naturally, this lead to Amasis getting paused, which happened as he was climbing the ropes. He stayed paused until a few seconds after the match; I was thinking he would be involved in the finish, unpaused and accidentally splashing on one of his partners. Uno was beat down quite a bit before the hot tag, leading into a hot finishing sequence of moves. Uno and Stupified had some more miscommunication (as evident in recent matches) in which Uno accidentally splashed into Stupified in the corner. Uno was then pinned by Icarus following a swinging pedigree (think a swinging DDT with a Pedigree in its place. Stupified was very upset after the match and may have broken ties with the 8-Bit Luchador.

Incognito defeated Chuck Taylor: Decent match. Started with some nice exchanges leading into submission attempts on Taylor, followed by some dives from both, but slowed down considerably towards the end. Whole lot of clapping to pick up the energy. People just don’t seem to be catching on to Incognito on his own. Taylor could have stood to get some more heat on him. The Spanish Fly finish got a good pop.

Mike Quackenbush defeated Shane Storm, only for Storm to win by Reverse Decision DQ: This was fantastic, especially with the crowd really into the whole thing. Maybe because the fans here were flat on Storm to begin with, but there were many boos and shouts of “Judas!” towards him. I’m dubbing this The Jimmy Rave Syndrome, in which a flat babyface ends up succeeding more with a heel turn. Quack went right after Storm, and we got some chop/forearm exchanges on the floor accompanied by Yays and Boos for Quack and Storm respectively. Storm got the upperhand and attempted a shining wizard with a running charge, but he was backdropped onto the ringside steps. An exchange of attempted moves on the edge of the apron lead to Quack getting DDT’d on it. Soon after, Quack was clotheslined while kneeling and sold a knee injury the rest of the match. Storm also gave some shots to Quack’s noggin. He was heeling it up pretty good; a change of mask could help him with that even more down the line. Quack fought back, gave him a bunch of smacks to the face (harkening back to Storm’s busted nose), hit the knees off the top while still selling the previous injury, and locked on the Chikara Special for the initial submission victory. Quack wouldn’t let go, and the fans were chanting heavily not to let go, so ref Derk Sabato reversed the decision and gave it to Storm. Fans wanted Quack to kill Sabato, but he decided not to. Vin Gerard lurked onto the entrance way after Quack left and slowly applauded Storm, but Storm just shoved him aside as he passed him. Quite a bit of irony (or something or other) in how Storm’s treachery allowed Hero to reverse the Chikara Special on Equinox, causing Equinox to lose his mask and become Vin Gerard.

Vin Gerard defeated Fire Ant to win the Young Lions Cup: The outcome I expected last month comes this month in quite the tricky finish. Bulk of it was Gerard on offense, working over Fire Ant’s knee, going so far as to bite it. Said finish came after Gerard was unable to make Fire Ant tap to the STF, so he got a chair from ringside. Referee Bryce Remsburg was not afraid to disqualify him as Gerard prepared to curb stomp Ant on the chair (a little game of Chicken here), so Gerard tossed the chair aside. As Bryce took care of the chair, Gerard snatched the Cup, tossed it into Ant’s hands, and then fell to the ground and pretended to be knocked out by the Cup. Bryce nearly disqualified Fire Ant, but the other Ants ran out to argue with him. Gerard popped back up, conked Fire Ant with the Cup, behind Bryce’s back, and a very dramatic three count made Gerard the new Young Lions Cup Champion. And here I am with the YLC shows in my possession. There’ll be Ant Hill to pay.

Tim Donst defeated UltraMantis Black (with Hydra & Crossbones): The other half of that whole Chikara Special controversy storyline results in a five minute match and a fun post-match angle. Donst had one eye on Mantis and one on Crossbones in the beginning, allowing Mantis to get the advantage. Hydra was very conflicted when he came out with the rest of the Order of the Neo Solar Temple, not acting like his jovial, juiced-up self. Crossbones beat down Donst behind the ref’s back, but eventually Donst came back and hit a dive onto everybody. Finish saw Mantis, while in control, ordering Hydra to hit Donst with Mantis’ staff while Crossbones had the ref’s attention. Hydra hesitated forever, then hit Mantis by mistake, leading Donst to get the win with the Donstitution as it’s called (an Olympic Slam into a bridging pinfall). Now the long story long. After the match, Mantis ordered Hydra into the ring and harshly brow-beat him (and he didn’t even use a mic, shouting for everyone to hear). Fans chanted for Hydra to stand up to himself, Mantis slapped him, and Hydra slapped back. Mantis and Crossbones beat him down before Donst ran back to make the save, which got a very big pop and “USA!” chants even. Donst and Hydra buddied up and posed together, and they also made the belt motion with their hands, seeing how they accumulated three points in tag action together while a part of the Order. This was fun; happy to see Hydra babyface.

Brodie Lee defeated Claudio Castagnoli: As announced ahead of time, this was a No DQ Match with two refs (in this case, Sabato and the regular ring announcer). Claudio and Brodie dueled with chairs very briefly before using what their mothers gave them, and soon Claudio nailed a dive over the top after running off a chair set up mid-ring. One of the biggest pops of the night. Fighting at ringside saw Brodie hit the guardrails and Claudio get choked by the timekeeper’s tablecloth. Sabato was knocked out after an inadvertant bicycle kick from Claudio, so the other ref took over. Claudio gave Brodie a giant swing and slingshot him into an exposed turnbuckle. Then Shayne Hawke ran out to interfere, but was subsequently tossed out the ring, followed by Mitch Ryder’s fireball (well done, with good selling by everyone) and a big boot by Brodie for the pinfall. Good stuff, with Lee now aligned with the two flashier heels.

Incoherence defeated The Fabulous Two to retain the Campeones de Parejas: Shayne Hawke has now been rechristened Buck Hawke for some reason, but I can dig it. Match began with BUCK Hawke getting chased around the ring by Delirious, and both Delirious and Hallowicked taking turns hitting moves in the corner (helped by each guy leaving and rentering the ring, constituting a tag). First fall as mentioned was Brodie Lee coming out for a distraction, which allowed Ryder to give Delirious a low blow and roll him up. Delirious was worked over forever after this, with the heels’ distractions preventing Hallowicked’s tags to be seen, but soon Hallowicked got that hot tag, ran wild, and scored the second fall on Hawke with the Rydeen Bomb (or Sky High) on Hawke. Third fall took everyone by surprise, as Hallowicked scored a flash schoolboy on Ryder to retain the titles. Good match with a bit of old school mixed in, ending on a high note with the crazy masked babyfaces retaining the titles once again. If I recall recent results correctly, future teams eligible to challenge Incoherence are the united Tim Donst & Hydra and the feuding Quackenbush & Storm.

Mighty good show overall.

Indy-rific Podcast # 4 (33 Min., right click to save)

The Indy-rific Podcast # 3 (39 min., right click to save)

Part 1 (67 minutes) (Right click to download)

ROH’s first six years were full of highs and a few lows, and the Sixth Anniversary Show was no exception. In Part 2, we give our segment-by-segment thoughts, including where two of the top matches fit among the year’s best so far.

Part 2 (50 minutes) (Right click to download)

Part 1 (38 minutes) (Right click to download)

Mother Nature wasn’t down with ROH’s plans for February 22, and as the weather reaches the opposite end of the scale, we review the snow-ravaged Eye of the Storm DVD, featuring Go Shiozaki’s US debut and our speedy meter.

Part 2 (48 minutes) (Right click to download)

They announced the next Philadelphia show for September 20. Only one side of the bleachers is open.

Pre-show

1) Shane Hagadorn & Mitch Franklin defeated the Osirian Portal. Hagadorn pinned Amasis with an STO. Decent match and a fun ROH debut for the Chikara duo, who were over with the local crowd and got a lot of offense in. The crowd chanted “Please come back” after the match.

2) Rhett Titus defeated Ernie Osiris to win the Top of the Class Trophy. Titus’s offense was solid but his selling was weak. The crowd was generally quiet but liked the finish, which saw Titus win with a crucifix powerbomb.

Main Show

(Notes: Star ratings are by John. It wasn’t announced whether matches 2 & 3 will be part of the PPV or not, but 3 seems likely.)

1) Kevin Steen & El Generico defeated Ruckus & Jigsaw. The PPV opener was hot with fast but well-paced action. Steen was extremely over and was really funny. Steenerico used a Steenton Bomb and a splash by Generico for the win. ***1/2

2) Claudio Castagnoli defeated Davey Richards It was a back-and-forth match with Richards hitting a crazy dive early on and the crowd was into the fast pace. It settled in with Richards working over Claudio’s arm. The finish was a little abrupt with Claudio finishing him with a giant swing and a big European uppercut. John rates it ***.

3) Brent Albright, Delirious, & Pelle Primeau defeated Chris Hero, Adam Pearce, & Eddie Edwards of Sweet & Sour Inc. John calls it “classic Freebird heel stuff” with a long beat-down on Delirious. The crowd was begging for a hot tag to Albright, which he eventually received. He cleaned house and did some no-selling, and scored the win with knees from the double underhook on Edwards. **3/4

After the match, Adam Pearce revealed what was in his briefcase as promised by Larry Sweeney. It was Pearce’s NWA Championship belt, which he used to lay out Albright.

4) Fight Without Honor: Roderick Strong defeated Erick Stevens They worked stiff as hell and it was extremely violent. Chairs and a ladder came into play and Strong bled a lot early on. He made a comeback and hit a backbreaker through a chair. Stevens had some good hope spots and eventually hit a TKO off the apron onto the ladder. They had a big chop battle, the Strong hit a chair shot on Stevens. Strong won the match and the feud (in ROH, at least) by slamming Stevens off the ladder and through a table. Very dangerous, but a great hardcore match that will play well on DVD.

After the match, both men were selling heavily and ROH officials checked on Stevens. Meanwhile, Larry Sweeney came to the ring and handed Strong a business card. Sweeney said that despite Strong being the leader of the No Remorse Corps, he wanted him to sign with Sweet & Sour Inc. Strong threw the card back at him and declined. Then, fellow NRC member Davey Richards came to the ring and told Roderick that he thinks they should join Sweeney. Strong declined again, and as he was exiting the ring, Richards kicked the rope into his crotch and attacked him. Richards removed his NRC t-shirt to reveal a S&S shirt on underneath.

Intermission

Delirious cut a promo, then Daizee Haze came out, followed by Rhett Titus, who was dressed up and acted polite. Daizee agrees to go on a date with both guys.

5) ROH World Championship: Nigel McGuinness defeated Go Shiozakito retain. They worked a slow pace at th start. Nigel hit Go with a lot of slaps and used a lot of submission holds. He mocked Bryan Danielson twice. Nigel had a long period of sustained offense to build heat, which held the crowd’s interest. There were a lot of lariats and pin attempts. Nigel eventually got the win with a Jawbreaker Lariat followed by the London Dungeon. Solid match.

After the match, Bryan Danielson came out and said he wants a title shot at the next PPV, but Nigel didn’t answer.

6) ROH World Tag Team Championships: Jimmy Jacobs & Tyler Black of the Age of the Fall defeated Bryan Danielson & Austin Aries to retain. They teased a No Contest early on in the PPV headliner (last night, AOTF won by DQ in about a minute in the semi-finals of the tag title tournament), but it was re-started. It was a basic formulaic tag match, driven by their storyline. After a beat-down on Danielson, Aries got the hot tag and there were a lot of big moves. Aries and Jacobs fought to the back. Danielson and Black wrestled 5-7 more minutes, during which the crowd was split and very heated. Black hit Danielson with the Phoenix Splash for the win. John says “Tyler is the next big thing.”

McGuinness cut a promo from the entrance ramp proclaiming that Danielson won’t get a world title shot until he can beat Black. This was presumably the end of the PPV.

7) Jigsaw defeated Eddie Kingston. The crowd was pretty much burned out. It was a well-done strong style brawl with both guys being over. Jigsaw finished it with three superkicks and a double stomp. Ruckus stayed aligned with the Vulture Squad.

8 ) Falls Count Anywhere: Necro Butcher defeated Jay Briscoe. They fought all over the building, including a lot in the bleacher section near Brian and John (and Necro even ran into John at one point). When they eventually got back to the ring, the crowd actually booed. Both guys were bleeding a lot. Jay hit a Death Valley Driver off the apron onto the floor. Jacobs & Black interfered, but were fought off by Mark Briscoe whose arm was still in a cast. Mark even hit a tope onto both of them, and it was 1-on-1 after that. Jay gave Necro another DVD, this time on a guardrail laid out in the ring, but Necro kicked out of the pin, fought back, and gave Jay a Tiger Driver onto it to score the win.

After the show, John and Brian recorded a 20-minute audio re-cap of the show, which will be posted shortly.