Let’s begin this with stating that I hate the Connecticut Expo Center. The fans in the area spend the entire show trying to get themselves over and a big, quiet warehouse. This is my least favorite place in which to see a ROH show, including Long Island, which is improving.
Traffic issues and work caused me to miss the first few matches, so I’ll just post results for them.
Nigel McGuinness is announced as hurt so BJ Whitmer replaces him. The Briscoes say that makes BJ no friend of theirs and beat BJ down until Morishima makes the save.
Match 1: Jimmy Rave defeats Pelle Primeau (Submission, Heel Hook)
Match 2: Daizee Haze defeats Nikki Roxx
So far so predictable
Match 3: Kevin Steen and El Generico defeat Jason Blade and Eddie Edwards (Pin, Package Piledriver to a Brainbuster)
We only caught half of this, but what we saw was very good. It looks like Blade and Edwards finally showed some potential here, even if it was mostly selling Steenerico’s awesome offense.
Match 4: Claudio Castagnoli defeats Bobby Fish (Pin, Ricola Bomb minus the Ricola, **)
As Scott Keith would say this was Perfectly Acceptable Wrestling. Claudio has a new haircut and is still merely adequate against bigger guys while being awesome against juniors. Fish isn’t big, but doesn’t work a junior style, so this suffered. Fish was over mostly based on puns built on his name. Unfortunately this was the start of the audience spending more time trying to get themselves over than being into the matches. Fish looks good though, especially for a fairly generic first appearance.
Final Countdown hit and Danielson made his way out in a Jedi Robe, but it was really Shane Hagadorn, who Adam Pearce announced would be facing Danielson.
Match 5: Bryan Danielson defeats Shane Hagadorn (Submission, arm lock, *)
Hagadorn did some decent old school heel stuff and Danielson sold like a champ. He then messed up Hagadorn badly and made him tap to an arm submission. As soon as he did that Pearce attacked Danielson.
Match 6: Bryan Danielson defeats Adam Pearce (Pin, Leg Grapevine, *)
This was a Pearce beatdown as he attempted Danielson’s major spots, until Dragon got annoyed and went after the leg. Pearce quickly tapped. Good fun.
Roderick Strong emerged with the NRC to tell Danielson he’s either with them or against them. Danielson chooses against and says he’ll work with Resilience tonight.
Match 7: Roderick Strong, Davey Richards, and Rocky Romero defeat Matt Cross, Bryan Danielson, and Erick Stevens (Pin, DR Driver, ** ½)
This was mostly a heel beatdown of Matt Cross with big spots from the faces in comebacks. Danielson was mostly a spectator to this one and the finishing sequence wasn’t as fun as it needed to be. Stevens and Strong have excellent chemistry, but Stevens needs to work on his mannerisms while in a tag team. The NRC dominated with the best spot being triple submissions, Davey with they Key Lock, Roderick with Stronghold, and Reyes with the Ankle Lock. Good match, but too much heel control and it really felt like it dragged.
Match 8: Tank Tolland w/ Bobby Dempsey defeats Mitch Franklin (Pin, One armed slam, dud)
I hate to say this, but Tank Tolland was terrible here. He hit generic power moves as slowly as possible with no hope spots for Franklin in a match that went far too long. The entire point was how strong Tolland was, but all it did was bore me to death and draw “go away†heat. Tolland has got to go.
Match 9: Naomichi Marufuji defeats Matt Sydal (Pin, Shiranui, **)
This was very weak. Sydal didn’t appear to care and didn’t establish any sort of role for himself in the match. He’s capable of much better, but this was weak. He needed to either go all out as an underdog or totally heel it up, but instead they started Dragon Gate style then went to a really slow heavyweight style that did nothing for either man. Absolutely weak.
Match 10: KENTA defeats Delirious (Pin, Go to Sleep, *** ½)
KENTA and Delirious, on the other hand, but on a great match that the crowd, now dead from Marufuji and Sydal, didn’t appreciate at all. Delirious sold a fear of the kicks, but had so much energy that KENTA was just trying to wear him down and keep him grounded. Del had a mat advantage throughout and kept using it to score near falls, but KENTA was just too strong and even the Bizarro Driver two couldn’t keep him down. Go to Sleep is vicious and it’s easy to see why Punk chose to imitate KENTA.
Match 11: The Briscoes defend the ROH World Tag Team Titles by defeating BJ Whitmer and Takeshi Morishima (Pin, Jay Driller to Shooting Star Press, *** ¾)
The Briscoes are really onto something special here. Their shtick with Morishima and brilliant tag maneuvers against the beast were fantastic and the beating they put on Whitmer was fun as well. The combo moves were great, but the lack of Nigel hurt. BJ’s good, but Nigel’s great and it was really noticeable. Still, this is why you get the show and I’m sure, like all Morishima matches, it’ll be even better on DVD.
This was a good show, but felt like it was trying not to spoil the Saturday night show and so it suffered. Worth seeing for completions sake, but not going out of your way for.
