You’ll have to excuse me since I’m very drained, I’m going to get straight to the point.
This was a FANTASTIC, FANTASTIC show hampered heavily by segments taped for upcoming movie The Wrestler. Since the spots were so well defined in the film as to where the crowd was supposed to cheer and boo, more people were willing to give it their all and by the end of the night, causing the audience to drain out of all energy.
The venue itself looked like a million bucks and it added to the presentation a dozen times over. There was a large, yet steeper, Raw-esque ramp leading down to the ring with thin, red movie theater-esque lights on top of it. It looked very slick for an indie production. At the top of the ramp, there was a slick new silver curtain which looked almost like Generico’s more fancy cape which shimmered with the light. Alongside the ramp on both sides were leveled seats that provided a clear view of the ring. There were no guardrails or anything and so if a fan wanted, they could easily reach out and shake hands with a wrestler. Unfortunately during the Necro/Delirious match, an overzealous kid ran up behind Lacey and scared the daylights out of her. He did the same thing to Daizee and later on got a talking to by the staff. He didn’t do it again. Nevertheless, the venue looked fantastic and I hope Ring of Honor runs there again.
The place was packed to capacity but as the night went on, more and more people began to file out. The Wrestler was fun for people like me who were ringside, but for people in general admission, some of them likely became bored with the filming and left early on. The cast and crew were respectful and courteous and generally tried to rush things along and although I can’t blame them for taking as long as they did, they would come out and do another take after every single match. As I said earlier, this took it’s toll on the audience. Think people forcing up Joe/Kobashi level heat again and again and again for at least an hour.
As for the matches themselves, I do not do star ratings. I will explain to you my experiences and I will hope that is good enough for you. These will fall under the “Bad”, “Meh”, “Good”, “Great”, and “Excellent” labels.
Roderick/Pelle was a great opener. It was hotter than any number of New York openers and when it was said and done, Pelle looked like he had quite possibly been in a car wreck. His chest was literally turning black with the blood that was slipping out from under his skin. The finisher that Roderick used is going to be difficult to define but here I go. Imagine the setup for the Regal Stretch. The first part was exactly like that except Roderick set it up with his arms. Then he fell back with Pelle legs hooked together and started wrenching on his ankle. Once he did that, he applied a body scissors. And in between holding the body scissors, he would kick Pelle in the head. It was extremely complicated to define but it worked.
**MOVIE SPOILER — SCROLL DOWN TO SKIP**
Next, Randy the Ram (Mickey Rourke’s character) vs. The Ayatollah (Ernest “The Cat” Miller) was taped for the movie. The match, which was excellent in terms of live excitement, was I believe worked by a stunt double, who came out, shook hands with the fans, etc. The Ayatollah made his entrance first, with an Iranian fan, ensuring that he was booed to hell and cutting a heel promo. He got more heel heat than Nigel McGuinness. The match consisted of punches, kicks, a variation of hurricanranas, an over the top rope body press, and a flying headbutt. There was a spot where the referee was out and The Ayatollah attacked Randy with the flag only for Randy to destroy the flag pole and toss it away. He won with the flying headbutt. Afterwards Mickey Rourke came out and did a few scenes where they would use close-ups again and again. Namely after they did the over the top rope body press. They would have him look like he was falling on top of the referee and Miller and they would follow him around the ring.
**END OF MOVIE SPOILER**
Then there was the Stevens/Claudio/Whitmer/Nigel match and did Nigel look like a heel God out there or what? Just awesome stuff. First thing he did when he came out was to grab the mic and cut a promo that ended with him saying that the ROH World Title was on his ass (because he was wearing the belt backwards) and that we could just kiss it. Throughout the match he was jawing it up with the fans, and although a lot of people may say that it took away from the match, at this point the first bits of The Wrestler were already taking their toll on the fans and Nigel did a great job to alleviate that. He would pucker up at the fans with smug kissy faces, grab a hand full of his crotch and shake it around, and when one guy was calling Nigel out, Nigel went on to respond with, “Sit down before you fall down fatass.” Stevens didn’t do much other than ‘Choo choo’ and Whitmer worked momentarily with Nigel. The match ended when Nigel missed with the Jawbreaker and Claudio turned him around into a Ricola Bomb. Overall the match was good, mainly because of Nigel going positively apeshit with the crowd (which in its own way lead to his loss). Afterwards Claudio held the belt high above his head as the crowd chanted “NEXT WORLD CHAMP!” and then presented Nigel with the belt before leaving. I suspect Nigel will take Claudio out of the running tomorrow.
Next was Delirious/Necro. Once again, The Wrestler had sapped the energy out of the crowd before presenting them with this and it showed. The highlight of the match was when Necro attempted to kick Delirious and the lizard man bit Necro’s bare foot. Quite gross but memorable. Not much else memorable happened here. The ending came when Lacey tried to get involved and Daizee came out to stop her. Delirious got the pinfall via a rollup and afterwards both Delirious and Daziee stood in the ring. The Haze was staring at Lacey while Delirious started making kissy faces and putting out his tongue behind back in a ::wink:: ::wink:: ::nudge:: ::nudge:: way. Overall though the match was good.
Then came Vulture Squad/Team Work. During the entrace them of ‘Final Countdown’, Aries cut him off and went up in the corner for the chorus while Dragon just playfully let it be. Afterwards, Dragon got on the mic and was outright babyface saying that the match was being taped for something special. He went on to add that every time he did something, we should cheer. Then every time Aries did something, we should cheer. Then every time Ruckus did something, we should cheer. And when Jigsaw did something, we should tell him to put his mask back on. He went through the same bit again except saying that they would all go to the corner and people would cheer for them, except for Jigsaw, who would get a put your mask back on chant. Jigsaw refused to go to the corner and the match was on. Overall I would consider the Vulture Squad/Team Work to be a squash match. TVS barely got any offense in and for the majority of the match, Team Work took control. The audience was suddenly pulled to their feet when it turned out that Eddie Kingston was in attendance with a ticket, held back by the students, and berating Ruckus for not being with him, all of which lead to a Black Out chant. Finally as Smokes and Jigsaw were taken up with Eddie, Dragon/Aries locked on their MMA Elbows/Knees combo before Aries applied the Horns of Aries and got the tap out. Overall I think this match was good and it’ll probably come off even better on DVD with “Prozac” and Leonard selling Eddie’s arrival to the audience.
Here is where the audience fell apart. Try as they might, they could not get themselves together for the Shiozaki/Albright match. We busted out a “John Belushi” and “Toga!” chant that lead to Albright grabbing a mic and telling us to shut up or he would forfeit the match and leave. However the crowd ran out of energy to rib him any more and it got quiet. A lot Shiozaki chants came through and in my opinion, Shiozaki/Albright was better than I expected it to be. A lot of shoulder tackles, chops, and whatnot which again will probably come off a lot better at home than it did live. The match ended when Shiozaki caught Albright with a Superkick and got the pin with a Moonsault. Overall I’d say again that the match was good and enjoyable. Afterwards, Shiozaki held out his hand for Albright to shake it. Albright refused and started to leave. Suddenly he stopped on the apron when we chanted for a handshake and Albright returned to the ring.
And then came out Larry Sweeney along with Bobby Dempsey. I suddenly think I’m getting where this is going and I think I’m going to like it. Basically Sweeney came out in a prestigious looking white suit with his hair looking like he was going to the Oscars. He looked… gorgeous for lack of a better word. Anyway, he offers Albright his business card and suggests that Albright join Sweet and Sour Incorporated, Well Albright tears up the business card, tells Sweeney that “he doesn’t work for scumbags” and walks out. Well as Sweeney tries to make amends with Albright, telling Albright that he looks like a sushi kind of guy, suddenly Sarah Del Ray walks out and tells Sweeney that she is leaving Sweet and Sour Inc. and that, “Don’t call me. I’ll call you.” Ladies and gentlemen, I think the message here is quite understandable and quite frankly, I think when it’s all said and done, Bobby Dempsey may be Larry Sweeney’s only friend.
Next was Davey/Steen. This was a great, fun match. Steen was massive over and helped bring the crowd back into it while Davey got no reaction at all. Steen was completely heeling it up, going as far as to deliver two low blows to Davey, but still being treated like a face. At one point we begged Steen to throw Davey in our section after he had the done the same to Davey the section beside us. Well he goes “Fine! Get out of the way!” and we freeze for a second. Then he insists, “Do you want me to do it or not?! Well then get out of the way!” At this point we all leap out of seats and run away while Steen looks like he is going to toss Davey into the chairs only to shoot him in the ring and mention when we boo him, “Hey look! There’s two kids right there!” It was awesome. I would say this match got the third, if not second, most amount of heat for the night, mainly on Steen’s back. The end came when Steen landed the Package Piledriver on Davey and cut a promo saying that he would be a champion before year’s end, before name calling Nigel specifically.
The main event of The Briscoes vs. AotF (with Necro) was a meh affair. It was shown that Matthews could work the mic better when he called out the Briscoes for their match. However the crowd was way too burned out by this point and people had begin filing out. However, the match itself was stiff and good and on DVD my interpretation of it can change. Live though, it wasn’t all that impressive. At the end, Lacey ran down and slid a chair into the ring which Matthews let loose on with a Double Underhook DDT for the win. Then a four on two brawl broke out which brought out Daizee. When she was about to get assaulted by Necro, Delirious ran out to make the save. He hit Necro with a chair which caused the AotF to bail and brought the show to a close.
As far as I’m concerned, the hot streak is on. This show, once edited for DVD, is going to be great. All the matches were entertaining and the “worst” match was probably the main event, which will probably change once the DVD comes out. And for those keeping track. The show ended at exactly 11:53PM (with no intermission, which admittedly kinda sucked).
