Ring of Honor Live Report: Dover, NJ, 3/14/08

News

So tonight I sit here before you even more exhausted than yesterday. Once again, you’ll have to excuse me for any typos I may make because I feel like falling asleep at the keyboard.

The crowd tonight was far less lively than yesterday and it became quite clear that the majority of people here tonight were there for “The Wrestler” and not Ring of Honor. I know people might have been confused with Nigel/Shiozaki vs. Dragon/Aries with the match being said to main event and the FIP 4-way going on last. This was because right after the Dragon match, it was announced that the filmed had commenced and people BAILED. At least forty people got up and walked out in front of us. On the whole, the wrestling was a whole lot better than Night 1 but both shows are going to be worth own. As I’ve said, the hot streak is on.

In additional exclusive news, I’d like to add that I asked the ticket table if they were ever going to run Dover again and one of the gentleman quickly spit out “Never!”, which was followed by a quick shake of the head and a half-smile by another. Guess we’ll never see The Epic Ramp ever again. Too bad.

The show started off with Claudio/Davey which I thought was a really good opener. The match didn’t elicit the kind of sheer awe that Roderick/Pelle had so I had to say that for playing the role of an opener, Roderick/Pelle was a more enjoyable match. Davey looked for a long time that he might just have had Claudio’s number, dodging the “Hey” elbow, blocking the giant swing, and reversing the Ricola bomb. However he finally caught Davey with the giant swing and hit Davey with a running uppercut into the corner for the win. Overall, I’d say the match was good fun and set a good tone for the night.

Next up was The Vulture Squad/The Hangman Three (Jigsaw and Ruckus vs. Adam Pearce and Shane Hagadorn) in a good match. Pearce got massive amounts of heat and Shane, although there, didn’t stink the match up. This felt like a good old fashioned tag match with ended with a great ending spot with the awesome Jig N’ Tonic Double Stomp. Jigsaw then got on the mic and called out Eddie Kingston. Before he could finish speaking, Ruckus covered the mic with his hand and gently moved it away from Jigsaw’s mouth. They then talked about it all the way to the back.

Then came The Briscoes/BJ Whitmer and Brent Albright match. There were more “John Belushi” and “Toga” chants and man, at the very least, those two chants have gotten Brent Albright over. It’s fun to tease him, not annoying to other fans, and Albright goes right along with it in his own heelish manner. Congrats to the fans in New York City who came up with it. The match itself lost all heat as it went, mainly because the Briscoes, as stiff as they tried to be, seemed to be unable to draw interest. It’s hard to explain but at this point, the only thing that seems to be able to keep The Briscoes interesting is their theme song. However Mark has gone full blown Karate Kid in his character and it helped the match a bit.

TeamWork/Nigel and Go
was the match of the night. Easily. It was also the best tag team match I’ve seen all year round thus far from any promotion. The match got even the most disinterested, wannabe in a movie and “It’s the only reason I’m here”, people into the show. Fantastically paced and leading to a great finish, this felt like something out of the old New Yorker hotel. Just excellent. Nigel cut a promo similar to one the yesterday about being the best wrestler in the world and copied Dragon’s “I’ve got till 5!” chant. The chops exchanged between Aries and Go were downright brutal and they redid the suplex spot from 6th Anniversary Show. The end came when Dragon locked Nigel in the Cattle Mutilation and Aries got Go in the Horns of Aries and Go tapped.

The Steen/Matthews match was much, much better than their worthless meeting in NYC. Matthews attacked Steen as he came through the curtain and looked great throughout the match. He worked a Ring of Honor type match this time around and genuinely looked good other there tonight. However, Steen didn’t pull nearly as much bullshit this time around and so his character wasn’t nearly as interesting tonight. Oh well. Can’t do it every night. Nevertheless the match was fun to watch and a good effort overall. After the match, Black attacked Steen with the Small Package Driver and cut a promo saying that he would be the next World Champion, even if it meant taking Kevin Steen out. Erick Stevens then made his way out. On a side note, perhaps there was a botch and Matthews was really hurt because Sinclair came out to check up on Matthews after the package piledriver. However, I saw Matthews moving his fingers so I think it may have been a work.

Black/Stevens was the worst match of the night in the sense that it got no heat at all. The two guys worked their asses off and to all the Stevens naysayers, Erick Stevens was more aggressive, more meaner, and more about being the bigger guy than he been in months and it helped him a ton. It made him look he should have looked like months ago and I can’t wait to see more of him with this demeanor. The match came to an end when Tyler botched a move that I can’t remember, but I believe it was going to be some kind of roll-up. However, he quickly recovered and followed up another roll-up for the win. I’d like to say the match was good, but it felt very, very meh live. You can decide whichever is more appropriate for you.

Finally was the awesome main event with Roderick Strong/The Necro Butcher/Delirious/Eddie Edwards. I personally thought the match was great. To let me get this out of the way, I want to say that Eddie Edwards simply belonged. He cut his hair, got new blue tights with Japanese on them and again, looked like he simply belonged. This was my favorite match of the night. Overall all I can say was this was A LOT of fun and the heat for this was as loud as anything with a full crowd. After some all around craziness, which I personally refuse to spoil, Necro Butcher finally got the win when Lacey interfered, Daizee came out to stop her, and he caught Delirious with a Tiger Bomb for the win.

The bottom line is that the first night had the better crowd with a simpler show and the second night had a worse crowd with better wrestling. Overall though, I’d say both Dover shows are definitely worth owning and are much better shows than they had any right to be. Ring of Honor delivered when they came to Dover. I think a lot of people were bussed in and a lot of kids were let in for free. To the people who stayed for entire show, I think they got more than they were expected especially with a PPV tomorrow, which I believe might just be breathtaking.