Thanks to InsidePulse Wrestling reader Richard St. John for sending along the following report of tonight’s Ring of Honor show in Dayton, OH. You can check out additional commentary on the main event results at TheWrestlingBlog and post your comments in our reader forums.
Here are the full results from ROH in Dayton.
There were two matches between 7:00 and 7:40 with ROH wrestling students who looked pretty good.
First Match of the night
Four Corner Survival Match
Ace Steel Defeated Delirious Matt StrYker and Sterling James Keenan after pinning Delirious.
Another great opener I believe this was Sterling James’ first official match for the company and a great one it was he seemed very impressive overall.
Second Match
Colt Cabana Defeated Spanky in what I can only assume will be one of spanky’s final few matches with the company.
Very comedic match but very good overall match.
CMPUNK came out after the match was over and Spanky asked him for a title shot before he gets around to leaving, Punk reminded Spanky that he is leaving tomorrow and already has opponents. Spanky then refered to Punk as a “stinker” and left Punk cut a Heel Promo reminding people about how he built ROH and how it will die after he leaves.
Third Match
BJ Whitmer & Jimmy Jacobs Defeated Nigel McGuiness and Chad Collyer to retain the ROH tag team titles.
Really had you thinking that McGuiness and Collyer were going to pull this one out but it did not happen tonight, will Whitmer ever lose this title?
Fourth Match
SIX MAN WAR
Austin Aries Roderick Strong and Matt Sydal defeated Jimmy Rave Alex Shelley and Abyss.
I have never seen Abyss wrestle in person something I think that most outside of Nashville and Orlando will also say but for a big guy like he is HE IS AMAZINGLY FAST. The guy pulls power moves that are just quick and vicious. Good match not the best of the evening.
Intermission
There were three matches left after intermission which was ended at about 9:40
Post Intermission match one
Grudge Match
LowKi and Jay Lethal Ended in a Countout after about twenty minutes.
These guys pulled some of the stiffest moves I can personally say I have ever seen in person. They deserved a better fate than what they got I do not understand why this match ended in a countout other than they want the full blowoff to this fued to go a full hour and knew they would not have time for that tonight. Homicide ran out after the match and started on Jay Lethal which prompted Matt Hardy to run out to a BIG POP then boos then big pop then boos and the start of the next match.
Post intermission match 2
Matt Hardy Defeated Homicide.
Very good back and forth match from start to finish you did not know who was going to win this match there were so many near falls it was not even funny both guys got off finishers overall a very well orchestrated match. The match ended when Low Ki and Jay Lethal came back out and Low Ki tried to hand Homicide a chain. Hardy came up behind him and school boyd him for the win. The Crowd was cut in half after during the match with several “f*** him up Homicide” chants but several Hardy chants as well the ending came across the exact same way.
Post Intermission match 3
ROH World Championship match
James Gibson won the ROH title having defeated CM Punk, Samoa Joe and Christopher Daniels in a 4 way elimination match.
The Match itself started at about 10:30 and went to close to 11:30. I would like to preface this by saying Christopher Daniels was by far the favorite to win this match. IT MADE SENSE Joe has a title and may get another soon here in TNA, James Gibson is going back to WWE and Punk’s Opponent for tomorrow night is my man Colt Cabana whose TSHIRT I may have bought tonight but who is not ready to carry the ROH Strap. Add in the fact that Daniels and Punk had a long running feud that never got its proper blow off and bam perfect booking. That’s probably why Daniels was first eliminated. Not like it was a short time in. At around the half hour point in the match all four men were still alive in the competition Punk slammed a chair into Gibson’s head and Gibson was helped out by several refs. Sadly none were todd sinclair so we still had to see his fat ass for the rest of the event (lol sorry had to drop in the todd sinclair heat personally with how the crowd treats him I am shocked he still comes back to dayton). After Gibson was carried out Joe and Daniels were going at it joe had daniels locked in a submission, daniels got his leg on the rope just before sinclair dropped his arm for the last time and Punk knocked it off so the ref did not see it. A Loud Bull Shit chant emerged since Daniels was the fan favorite out of challengers (Punk was still over very strong). Thus Daniels was eliminated. Moving along, Punk and Joe went at it next with Gibson still in the back and Punk eliminated Joe after Daniels tried to interfere but accidentally kicked Joe *sniff sniff* do I smell a feud? But after he was announced as eliminated and they did not announce the end of the match everyone kinda looked around and just sat there for about 3 minutes chanting we want Gibson. His music rehit and Punk looked astonished. To quote Sublime “That’s when things got out of control.” For the next few minutes we saw a ton more close pinfalls and just as Gibson was about to receive the pepsi plunge Gibson reversed it and did his own version then pinned Punk for the win.
THE CROWD LOST IT ABSOLUTELY BONKERS All the faces in the locker room came out to celebrate with him as did his wife. He gave a very emotional speech and that was that.
I absolutely loved 90% of this show. The 10% I did not like was the finish of the three after intermission matches. I gotta be honest I was looking to find Stephanie McMahon peeking out from behind the curtain. There was NO REASON at all that Low Ki and Jay Lethal should have ended in anything other than a pin or submission. The crowd let them know it too. Matt Hardy and Homicide was so electric it was not even funny. People were cheering for one guy or the other there was no denying it. There was NO REASON for it to end in a school boy. I liked the match but it just did not feel right. The whole main even again a great match felt very WWEish in the booking, NOT A GOOD THING. Gibson heading to the back was the first sign of it, we knew something was up when that happend. Daniels getting screwed by Punk made no sense what so ever. These two guys have basically an unfinished feud and unless a miracle takes place tomorrow night it will never finish. It’s almost like if Dreamer never beat Raven on a smaller scale though since they did have outside circumstances to stop it namely NWATNA pulling talent. It still is just something that did not feel right. Gibson is a great worker and has put on three good matches for us in Dayton but this should have been either Joe or Daniels’ night to shine. But When Gibson did come back out it was to a huge pop and everyone knew what was happening at that point. I would love to see Daniels win this or maybe a returning Bryan Danielson but it needs to be clean.
Matt Hardy was signing and taking pictures after the show, $10 for a picture $5 if you had your own camera. LONG LINE VERY LONG LINE he seemed very nice though to those willing to wait it out I would say there was about a hundred or so people in it not sure how long he was taking with each group but it seemed like a couple of minutes which is not too bad for 11:45 at night.
Till January 27th (when they come back)
Richard St.John
