The Ring of Honor Reviewer– 11/24/06 in Long Island- Live Attendance Review
-Pulse Glazer
It’s 1:40am and I’ve finally dropped everyone off and gotten home from this Ring of Honor show. As always, a great, if exhausting, time. Please note that all star ratings here are tentative.
The crowd for this show was the worst I’ve ever been a part of for a wrestling show. There were a lot of kids and a lot of very obnoxious smarks, along with a few lewd jerks.
Match 1: Daizee Haze vs. Lacey vs. Allison Danger vs. Nikki Roxx- Shimmer 4 Corner Survival
This was a fast paced match built around Lacey avoiding Daizee Haze while Allison Danger played Ricky Morton. Lacey is a great heel and really got the crowd against her with her cowardly retreats from Daizee. Allison eventually tagged Nikki, but Daizee wore Nikki down to the point of a pin. At that point Lacey blind tagged in, hit a DDT on Nikki and got the three count.
Lacey defeats Daizee Haze, Allison Danger and Nikki Roxx (Pin, DDT, **1/2)
Match 2: Gauntlet Series: Pairing 1: Brent Albright vs. Pelle Primeau
My pick of Albright to win is out the window with him in first. Albright dominates Pelle with power moves and on the mat with arm work. The crowd is fairly behind him even though he’s a bit heelish. Albright set Pelle up for a Razor’s Edge, dropped him on the rope stun gun style, then hit a German Suplex, held on for a Tazplex and went with a fujiwara armbar for the win. A gorgeous chain of moves is shown there.
Brent Albright defeats Pelle Primeau (Submission, fujiwara armbar *)
Pairing 2: Brent Albright vs. Jason Blade
Mid-headlock Albright mumbles, “This guy sucks,” which is of course motivation for a flurry of Blade offense. A handshake is pulled into an exploder after that by Albright. Blade attempts to continually use speed, but is running into the brick wall that is Albright. A similar chain to last time finishes Blade.
Brent Albright defeats Jason Blade (Submission, fujiwara armbar, *1/2)
Pairing 3: Brent Albright vs. BJ Whitmer
BJ gets a very surprisingly lukewarm reaction. They wrestle a horribly boring power match, with Albright destroying the leg of Whitmer. This dragged on forever and was quite slow. Albright went with submissions, BJ got up, used strikes, and hit one high impact move, then back to the Albright leg work. Badly paced and took the crowd totally out of it. BJ eventually wins with two German Suplexes.
BJ Whitmer defeats Brent Albright (Pin, German Suplex, *)
Terrible portion of the match, incase that wasn’t clear above.
Pairing 4: Jimmy Jacobs vs. BJ Whitmer
Jimmy runs out, hits a low blow, and rolls up BJ for the win.
Jimmy Jacobs defeats BJ Whitmer (Pin, rollup, dud)
Why put them in the same match if this is all you’re going to do with it? Espcially with the big grudge match tomorrow?
Pairing 5: Jimmy Jacobs vs. Nigel McGuinness
I wish they just gave us this, as it was really good. Nigel begins with his usual great arm work. An audience member yells “I could be watching Smackdown right now!” to which Nigel replies with a contortion of Jimmy Jacobs in a submission, giving the guy the finger and saying “Could you see this on Smackdown?” Great stuff. Nigel, from this point on, took the crowd in his hands with his mannerisms and facial expressions.
When Jimmy reclaims control during the match he does it either with speed, or a heelish cheap shot every time. It’s a nice contrast to show that he’s a capable wrestler despite his being a bad guy. Of course Jimmy stops to blow kisses to Lacey and is decimated by Nigel.
They fight over their big moves for a few minutes with Nigel struggling to put Jacobs away because of his speed, but eventually Nigel’s power comes through as he nails a second rope clothesline while Jimmy is crotched for the three.
Nigel McGuinness defeats Jimmy Jacobs (Pin, Second rope clothesline to elevated opponent ***)
Nigel was Dragonesque in his audience manipulation here. Absolutely great how he got the previously dead crowd to care about him through interaction and facial expressions. Jimmy is an awesome heel. He’s so far ahead of the curve with the emo gimmick it’s amazing.
Match 3: The Kings of Wrestling (c) vs. Austin Aries and Roderick Strong- Tag Title, No DQ
I’m a bit surprised at the spot on the card of this one. A wild brawl starts us off ends in Aries duct taped to the ring post. Just as Strong is about to be powerbombed through a guard rail, Aries frees himself and takes out the KOW.
From there on Aries and Strong hit big moves on KOW but cannot quite put them away. The Kings of Wrestling continually counter using rollups and quick shots. They look to have no chance, but Shingo comes out and powerbombs Strong through a table, leaving him easy pickings for the Hero’s Welcome and the three.
Kings of Wrestling defeat Aries and Strong (Pin, Hero’s Welcome, ***)
Great violent spots from both teams sell the hate. Looks like Strong is a marked man due to his FIP title, an interesting new direction to take him in.
Match 4: Shingo vs. Mark Briscoe
Mark’s speed work looks fabulous here while Shingo plays an old style heel, using the guard rail and low blows. Eventually Mark attempts a comeback, but Shingo’s fighting spirit is too much and a Torture Rack Driver gets the finish of a dull match.
Shingo defeats Mark Briscoe (Pin, Torture Rack Driver, **1/4)
Mark looked great and he can really handle a singles push. Shingo is rather generic and it’s unfortunate he’s being pushed.
Match 5: Homicide vs. Jimmy Rave
Homicide dominates on the mat for the majority here, but Homicide is unable to hit many of his big moves. This leaves Rave an opportunity, which he takes advantage of multiple times, finally winning with a rollup.
Jimmy Rave defeats Homicide (Pin, rollup, **)
I picked the wrong upset, which is fine, but if one of the main faces in the company is going to lose, I’d like to see it be in a better match than that.
Match 6: Samoa Joe vs. Jay Briscoe
Standard Joe match here. There are two real things of note happening here, however. First is that mid-match Jay managed a few power moves on Joe, including a beautiful DVD, which spiced things up a bit. Second is much more important: Joe’s aura of being something special is disappearing. Joe won with the Muscle Buster after hitting his normal spots.
Samoa Joe defeats Jay Briscoe (Pin, Muscle Buster **1/2)
I’ll have more on the problems with Joe later in the day in a column I’m devoting specifically to that. The crowd was all over Joe about Angle and tapping and he could not have seemed any less of a monster here.
Match 7: Delirious and Davey Richards vs. Matt Sydal and Christopher Daniels w/ Allison Danger
This was a high speed back and forth match. Delirious had the crowd eating out of his hands and Daniels was the most over guy the moment he walked out. Davey and Sydal had many gorgeous stiff-counter-puro spots, while Delirious and Sydal gave their usual awesome effort against each other. Delirious was, as always, absolutely hilarious. Daniels looked great and his facials when dealing with Delirious were perfect. The team of Sydal and Daniels won with Daniels hitting BME and Sydal with an amazing Shooting Star Press onto Delirious.
Christopher Daniels and Matt Sydal defeat Delirious and Davey Richards (Pin, Shooting Star Press, ****)
Great match that saved the show. Easily match of the night here. Everyone was spot on. Great pacing, good story with both Davey and Sydal going Ricky Morton at various points while Delirious the insane and Daniels the vet reacted quite differently. Just very good stuff here.
Summary: If not for the main event, I’d be disappointed. Seeing the Long Island crowd, I can now see why they get the worst cards, and with that in mind, this was worth the money. I really enjoyed the main event, but if you’re not getting every Ring of Honor DVD, then this is likely one to skip.
Check back in later in the day for A Modest Response on the Kurt Angle-Samoa Joe match from Genesis and its effect on Joe.
First thing tomorrow will be the review from the Edison, NJ Ring of Honor show, which I am also attending. Hope to catch you there.
-Aaron
