The lights went down and the deep Baritone voice began the countdown that starts every Ring of Honor live event. I half expected to hear the familiar sirens that introduced us to every Raw that emanated from the very same venue a little over a decade ago. This show, like every other Ring of Honor offering, was nothing like a Monday Night Raw. This was Glory by Honor V, night 2.
The opening contest saw Davey Richards square off against Jack Evans. Jack Evans was his usual fliptacular self, and Richards was pure intensity. Jack’s dives, spin kicks, and his 630 senton proved not to be enough, as Davey forced the gumby-esque Evans to submit with his version of the Horse Collar Leglock (or Brock Lock if you remember the leg submission Lesnar used a couple of times.) Richards submission while quite intense looked fairly tame compared to some of the pretzels Evans has been twisted into, but it was set up nicely and was a believable finish.
Next was a brief ceremony for the legendary Bruno Sammartino. He got tons of respect from the New York crowd, and many of the wrestlers circled the ring to show their support to one of the greatest champions in wrestling history. He said he liked the direction Ring of Honor was taking professional WRESTLING, and thanked the fans most of whom were not born at the point he retired.
The other noteworthy event from this ceremony is that when the wrestlers began to make their departure, Samoa Joe and NOAH’s Takeshi Morishima had an altercation that took all of the wrestlers at ringside to break up. This is a match that will have RoH and Puroresu fans salivating down the line.
Adam Pearce competed against Delirious in the next contest. The lizard man has become incredibly over with the Ring of Honor crowd as of late, and it is much deserved. At one point Delirious delivered 60 clotheslines to Pearce. Delirious seemed to have the match in hand as he went to the top rope presumably to attempt his Shadows over Hell backsplash, but Shane Hagadorn hit Delirious allowing Pearce to get the piledriver and the victory. Adam Pearce then announced that Hagadorn was his new personal manservant. Wrestling isn’t gay.
The cellular telephones were out in full effect for the entrance of Jimmy Jacobs with Lacey. Jacobs has ascended, or is it descended, to all levels of emo since Lacey decided to make the “beast with two backs” with “Classic” Colt Cabana. Cabana and Chris Daniels were the other competitors in this one fall three way match. To say Jacobs was despondent throughout the match would be an understatement. He would not attack Colt Cabana, despite Cabana grabbing the breasts and looking up the skirt of the lovely Lacey. He showed a little more fire against Daniels so Colt eventually decided that he and Jacobs would be best to team up against the Fallen Angel. Colt was disingenuous to say the least in his “team” with Jacobs. He would set Daniels up for a double team and ala Lucy from the Peanuts comic strip pull Daniels away to allow for Jimmy to look the fool. Jacobs got the last laugh however as he kicked the Classic one south of the bellybutton and delivered the Contracode for the victory.
James E. Cornette was accompanied to the ring by the Briscoe brothers decked out in the Stars and Bars. Cornette proclaimed that the only person he has a problem with is the Notorious 187 Homicide. He proceeded to run down the city of New York and said that in order for Homicide to get his title shot at Final Battle he must win the next tag team contest.
Homicide and Samoa Joe made an excellent tag team defeating the Briscoes in what was one of the most one sided affairs the Delaware brothers have ever been involved in. Joe was his usual dominant self delivering one of the most thunderous lariats I have ever witnessed. The Briscoes got in their share of offense, but Joe who is no stranger to the brothers was able to stop most of their big maneuvers. Homicide got the win after the Cop Killa earning his title shot. Cornette came back to the entrance way and said that Homicide would, “go through hell wearing gasoline britches” on his way to the December 23 title shot.
The three title matches followed intermission with the first being the tag team championship. Austin Aries and Roderick Strong in matching trunks put the titles up for grabs against the Kings of Wrestling Claudio Castagnoli and Chris Hero. Aries had his ribs heavily taped, and needless to say this was a bull’s-eye for Los Campeonatos de Parejas of Chikara. Aries did his best fending off the Kings’ attack, and Roderick Strong was his usually hard hitting self. Skullduggery, chicanery, and tomfoolery spelled the dowfall of the former Gen-Nexters though as Claudio was able to hit Aries in the ribs with his briefcase allowing the Kings of Wrestling to deliver a devastating double team maneuver and securing the three count and the Ring of Honor tag team championship. It looks like Austin Aries has a chance to win a title at three straight Final Battles.
In an historic occasion Pro-Wrestling NOAH’s Global Honored Crown or GHC Heavyweight title was defended outside of Japan as Naomichi Marufugi wrestled Nigel McGuinness. This match had one major thing working against it; the result seemed like a foregone conclusion. Marufugi was most likely not going to drop the title to a Gaijin on foreign soil. That being said these two expert tacticians had the capacity crowd buying into every single nearfall and truly thinking that Nigel could walk away with the GHC title. In the end Marufugi won with the top rope Shiranui. Up until this point, I feel this match was far and away the best on the card, and that is a compliment, because the rest of the show was stellar as well.
If the show had ended here I think all of the fans would have gone home more than pleased. Still to come though was the main event. American Dragon Bryan Danielson, wrestling on an injured right shoulder, faced the undefeated in RoH KENTA. This was everything that could be expected and more. KENTA attacked the champion’s shoulder with reckless abandon, but Danielson would not be denied his long sought after victory over KENTA. The finishing sequence of this match with KENTA repeatedly attempting Go 2 Sleep and Dragon delivering three separate sets of MMA elbows, and each wrestler hitting huge suplexes before American Dragon could finally score the submission victory with Cattle Mutilation/Arms Across America was one of the best finishes have seen in quite some time. It was a great match and my vote for match of the night.
Glory by Honor V, night two was one of the best wrestling shows I have been to in quite some time. Start to finish it is a great show and well worth obtaining when it comes out on DVD. If you want to do that lawfully which I highly recommend go to www.rohwrestling.com
Any questions, comments, or concerns can be sent to bigandymac@yahoo.com
I’ll see you next time
