This live review was sent into us by Gary Weist, thanks very much for it Gary!
After a two month hiatus, Ring of Honor returned to the Frontier Fieldhouse in south Chicago with a card that looked decent on paper, but turned out to be simply fantastic.
Also, the legendary Honky Tonk Man is there live signing autographs.
I had a front row seat in Section A for all of the action and didn’t miss a single moment.
(Disclaimer: What is written here might not be 100% in order, in reference to match play by play, but I am doing this all after the fact and hopefully you can bear with it and if I’m off at all, I’m not off by much.)
Main Show:
Match 1: Rhett Titus vs. Delirious vs. Alex Payne vs. Silas Young
Alex Payne is an ROH student and is one of the most over wrestlers for the Chicago crowd. We love our Sugarfoot. He comes out to “Pour Some Sugar On Me” by Def Leppard and gets a hero’s welcome. Silas Young is the next to come out and is instantly my hero for having “Don’t Stop Believin” by Journey as his theme and the whole crowd sings the song, they even continue singing after the song ends. Delirious is next out and comes out to a very large pop. He’s always over with the ROH fans, except with me. Rhett Titus is the last to come out and his entrance is a sight to behold. His theme song is “Addicted to Love” by Robert Palmer with the words “Rhett Titus!” sung after the “addicted to love” part. Lots of air humping and ass massaging ensues as he enters the ring. The storyline going in is that Delirious has been trying to ask Daizee Haze out on a date, but Rhett Titus has cockblocked him every time. The solution is that Daizee proposes they all go out on a date together.
Before the match even starts, Rhett Titus gets on the microphone and tells Delirious that he doesn’t have a problem with him and there is nothing they should be competing for. So he proposes that they become a tag team, with Daizee Haze as their manager. Delirious reluctantly agrees after Daizee comes out, but he cares more about waving to her and saying “Hi” than he is about the match.
Match 1: Rhett Titus & Delirious w/ Daizee Haze vs. Alex Payne & Silas Young
Titus starts in the ring and quickly takes control. For the duration of the match, Rhett is in the ring as Delirious is standing in their corner staring down at Daizee and not paying attention. It’s very creepy the way he stares and shuffles towards her until he’s too close and she has to move. Eventually Rhett makes the tag and Delirious wants nothing to do with any teamwork between them and just wrestles his usual style. After a few minutes of halfhearted teamwork between the two, Delirious finally goes for a sunset flip pin, but Rhett blind tags in and does a bridging pin over Delirious to help pin their opponent. After the match, Rhett and Daizee walk off to the back with Delirious following behind them. Funny angle with Rhett being the star of it.
Rhett Titus & Delirious over Alex Payne & Silas Young with a combination pin (**)
Match 2: Erick Stevens vs. Jay Briscoe w/ Mark Briscoe
Erick Stevens, with a full head of hair, comes out first to a lukewarm reaction. The kid is over pretty much everywhere except Chicago. Jay Briscoe is always incredibly over with any crowd and gets a huge reaction tonight. It’s nice to see the still injured Mark in his corner. Get better soon Mark, and stop doing so much crazy stuff.
They start out with some back and forth mat work as they try to gain the upper ground. Unable to do anything, they do an indy standoff. Instead of going for mat work, they start to lay into each other with some stiff chops, elbows, and punches. Stevens is trained by Roderick Strong and it really shows. Very back and forth match with stiff strikes and each wrestler trying to pull out their usual arsenal of moves. Stevens tries for the Doctor Bomb several times, but Jay counters out of them. After trading a few chops in the corner, Jay accidentally chops Stevens on the jaw and even Mark Briscoe, standing right below them on the floor, is taken aback and grasps his jaw in shock. Stevens has a resurgence of strength and takes the attack to Jay with some chops of his own. After a few minutes of their usual spots like the Choo Choo elbow and Steven’s excellent release German suplex, Jay finally comes back with a death valley driver of his own, but comes up short with just a two count. After missing a lariat on Stevens, he is caught in the Doctor Bomb that gives Stevens the win. Really big weekend for him with a clean win over Bryan Danielson the night before and now a win over Jay Briscoe. They shake hands and after Stevens leaves, Jay gets a nice standing ovation and a chant.
Erick Stevens over Jay Briscoe with a Doctor Bomb (*** 1/4)
Match 3: Chris Hero w/ Larry Sweeney, Tank Toland, Sara Del Rey, & Bobby Dempsey of Sweet N’ Sour Inc. vs. Pelle Primeau in a Lights Out Match (Last Man Standing)
Hero comes out to a mixed reaction, as opposed to the zero reaction Pelle gets when he comes out. The change in crowd reaction will be important later.
The match is a standard last man standing match, it’s just called a “Lights Out Match” here in ROH. Hero immediately whips Pelle into the ropes and meets him with a huge bionic elbow and immediately whips him into the opposite side of the ring and does the same. Pelle goes down for the count, but gets up to his feet around 9. A delighted Hero continues the assault on Pelle with huge big boots and loud chops. Once again Pelle falls down, but gets up at 9. Hero, now with an evil look on his face, hits Pelle with some suplexes and more hard strikes. As Pelle falls to the ground, Hero yells for him to get up. Once again he gets up at 9. Hero gives Pelle a giant electric chair, but instead of falling back with Pelle, he simply throws him off and Pelle falls a good 10 feet onto his ass. Somehow he gets up at 9 again. A frustrated Hero takes Pelle into the corner for something, but before he is able to do it, Pelle counters with an arm drag and eventually hits an excellent deja-vu (like Dragon Kid’s deja-vu) and Hero is the one on the ground now. Hero easily gets up at 3 and seems to have a fire lit under his seat as he tosses Pelle out of the ring and demolishes the poor kid against the guard rail. Hero returns to the ring and celebrates as a helpless Pelle lies on the ground. Once again though, he gets to his feet at 9. He gets back into the ring and catches Hero with some more arm drags and some kicks to the stomach. Hero has finally had enough and gives him a very short distance bionic elbow that looks like it would have broken Pelle’s nose. As Pelle struggles to get up to his feet, Hero yells at the referee to count faster. At about 7, Hero kicks Pelle and the ref starts again at 1, much to Hero’s dismay. As Hero waits for him to get up again, Larry Sweeney jumps up on the ring apron and distracts the referee for Hero, but before Hero can take advantage of the situation, Brent Albright comes out from the back and catches Hero with some move. The referee turns around and starts to count both Hero and Pelle. Pelle is desperately reaching for the ropes to help him up, but slumps on top of the bottom rope as Hero struggles to his feet too. The ref is distracted by Sweeney once again which gives Sara Del Rey the time to give Pelle a huge downward kick to the back of his head. Chris Hero returns to his feet as the referee yells 10 on Pelle. After the match, Pelle Primeau gets a standing ovation for his excellent Mikey Whipwreck like performance.
Chris Hero over Pelle Primeau after he was unable to get back up before a 10 count (*** 1/4 – *** 1/2)
Match 4: El Generico & Kevin Steen vs. Tyler Black & Necro Butcher w/ Allison Wonderland of The Age Of The Fall
The team of El Generico & Kevin Steen have been fighting for tag title gold since coming to ROH, but lost to the AOTF in the finals of the Up For Grabs tag title tournament earlier this month. If they could beat the AOTF both times over the weekend, they would be given a title shot. The previous night they defeated the AOTF duo of Jimmy Jacobs & Joey Matthews (Joey Mercury of WWE fame).
El Generico & Kevin Steen come out to the ever so popular “OLE!” by The Bouncing Souls which has the whole audience singing “Ole! Ole Ole Ole! Ole! OLE!” along with the chorus. El Generico is very over and is one of the funnest wrestlers to watch on the roster, but he pales in comparison to his partner Kevin Steen. Steen is amazingly over and gets several “Next World Champ” chants. AOTF come out to some weird screaming and then metal music. Allison Wonderland is the desire of every male there.
The match starts out with Tyler against Generico and Generico takes control off the bat. After some chops, Steen tags himself in and Tyler kind of snaps on him and slaps him. Steen, like the badass that he is, starts laying into Tyler with some strikes and a body block off the ropes. Immediately he attacks Necro which throws him back into the guardrail. This becomes a recurring theme because Steen does it literally every chance he gets. Taking out Necro from the match seemed to be a key strategy early on. Tyler, pretty much fighting alone for the opening half of the match, gets very little offense in until Necro sneaks around and launches a chair at Steen’s side. Weird spot and I don’t think Steen was expecting it. Tyler finally gains control and tags in Necro who just kills Generico with straight punches to the face and chops. Steen finally gains composure, but receives the same treatment he gave Necro earlier and is knocked off the apron several times. Eventually, Tyler is tagged back in and eats a huge yakuza kick in the corner and Steen & Generico take control again. When Necro gets back in the ring, Steen focuses on him instead of the legal man, Tyler. Tyler takes Generico out of the ring and grabs a chair and sets it up against the ropes which Necro uses to throw Steen headfirst into and gets the pin for the win. After the match, as Necro and Tyler are walking to the back, they are met by Austin Aries who asks Necro why is he fighting for Jimmy? Does he actually believe in the cause or is Jimmy just using him? Also, Steen gets a huge “Next World Champ” chant and Generico and him leave with their spirits still high even after a cheap loss.
Tyler Black & Necro Butcher w/ Allison Wonderland of The Age of the Fall over El Generico & Kevin Steen (*** 1/2)
Match 5: American Dragon Bryan Danielson vs. Claudio Castagnoli
Claudio comes out to a big pop, but is trumped by the ace of ROH, Bryan Danielson and his entrance. The crowd sings “The Final Countdown” by Europe as Dragon disrobes in the ring and ascends the top rope for the chorus, “IT’S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN!”
The crowd immediately chants “You’re gonna get your f****** head kicked in” which makes Danielson burst out laughing. We were told that we need to have a “family friendly” environment before the show started. They circle each other and have a feeling out process. Unable to find a good footing, each wrestler backs off. Claudio, the Swiss showboat that he is, starts a “HEY” (he raises his arms and the crowd yells “HEY!”) and is answered by Danielson doing one of his own. After a few “HEY” exchanges, Danielson does a roaring “HEY” to a huge reaction. Not to be outdone, Claudio grabs Danielson and attempts to give him and airplane spin, but Danielson counters out and waves his finger in rejection. Danielson then goes for a big swing on Claudio, but he wiggles out of it and gives Danielson a look of “oh no you don’t.” In response, Danielson then gives Claudio an airplane spin of at least 20 rotations and then a dizzy Claudio gives Danielson a big swing of at least 20 rotations. The two men dizzily try to kip up, but fail several times to comedic effect. Finally, they both kip up and stumble towards the rope to a chant of “One More Time.” As a joke, Danielson goes over to the referee, Todd Sinclair, and attempts to give him and airplane spin, but stops after picking him up. An overexcited crowd chants “DO IT! DO IT!” and he happily obliges with a few rotations. Todd Sinclair has always been a hated referee because of several screwups and bad reffing calls.
Now it’s time for the real action. Both men trade holds and Danielson immediately takes control with a Mexican surfboard. After bending the Swiss man in several ways a man his size should never be bent, Danielson hits a dragon suplex for a two count. He gives Claudio some stiff kicks to the back for another two count. Claudio fires back with a few European uppercut, but Danielson responds back with some Europeans of his own. Both men start to hit each other with everything they have including an Apaware waterslide, a Ricola bomb, and several high kicks including one from the top rope from Claudio and Danielson breaks out the elbows, cattle mutilation, and the triangle choke several times, but with the offensive in his favor, he can’t bring the big man down. After about 15 minutes of action, Claudio finally takes down Danielson with an elevated European uppercut. There is way too much going on in this match to write down. Excellent match and best so far tonight.
Claudio Castagnoli over Bryan Danielson with an elevated European uppercut (****)
Match 6: Non-Title SHIMMER Three-Way – SHIMMER Champion MsChif vs. Sara Del Rey vs. Daizee Haze
MsChif had recently won the SHIMMER title from Sara Del Rey a month or so ago and Del Rey is dying for a title shot. Del Rey looked like a monster in this match. MsChif and Daizee Haze form an alliance to start out the match since Del Rey is out to kill both of them and they double team her for a little bit, but Del Rey becomes too much for them. Del Rey targets MsChif and clubs her in the corner as she kicks Daizee away every time she gets near. Del Rey is finally hit with a very stiff looking knee drop to the face and snaps on MsChif by throwing her out of the ring and murdering Haze in the middle of the ring with the Royal Butterfly for the quick win. Very short, but hard hitting and a good SHIMMER showcase. Afterwards, Dave Prazak enters the ring and says this will be a Video Wire segment. Del Rey demands a title shot, but Larry Sweeney comes out and tells her that she will get her title shot, but not until the money is right and everything is in their favor.
Sara Del Rey over Daizee Haze & MsChif (**)
Match 7: Brent Albright & Roderick Strong vs. NWA World Heavyweight Champion Adam Pearce & Mystery Partner w/ Larry Sweeney, Johnny Fairplay, Tank Toland, Shane Hagadorn, & Bobby Dempsey of Sweet N’ Sour Inc.
Sweet N’ Sour Inc. come out to Adam Pearce’s music and they look like they are doubling their numbers every show. Sweeney tells the audience about a special surprise he has lined up, The Honkey Tonk Man! Honky Tonk comes out to a nice ovation and eats up the crowd. He says he wants to sing us a song, but Sweeney stops him and says the money isn’t right. Sweeney must be the smartest financial mind of our generation.
Larry Sweeney has also been bragging and hyping the mystery partner for the match and much to everyone’s surprise, it is Go Shiozaki. Go is a student of Kenta Kobashi’s and has a very similar style that focuses on chops, lariats, and high impact moves. This is the first time he has been in Chicago so the audience doesn’t know how to react (he wasn’t even announced for the show).
Brent Albright and Roderick Strong come out to Albright’s music, but with Roderick Strong’s intro. Albright recently left Sweet N’ Sour Inc. to a tremendous reaction and is more over than he has ever been. Strong has also had problems with Sweet N’ Sour in the past. He has been offered to join SnS Inc. several times, but refused because he is the leader of The No Remorse Corps. At the last Philly show, Davey Richards came out and attacked his NRC teammate and joined SnS Inc., thus turning Roderick into a face.
Very formula tag, but Roderick and Albright really shine as faces against the newcomer Go and the evil, but goofy Pearce. Albright and Go test the waters as they face off and Albright takes control after Go in unable to counter out of a hold. Albright is all power and force in the ring. He hits go with a release belly to belly and a powerbomb before tagging in Roderick, who unleashes some wicked chops onto the chest of Go. Within seconds, his chest is beat red. Go fights back with some chops of his own and ladies and gentlemen, the first epic chop fest of the night begins. Both Strong and Albright now have bright red chests as Go reaches for Pearce to get tagged in. Pearce comes in and gets manhandled by the faces. This goes back and forth for awhile which culminates in a Strong and Go chopping each other as Pearce and Albright punch each other simultaneously in the ring. Go is taken out of the ring by Strong as Albright picks up the win via ref stoppage after knee strikes to the top of the head. After the match, Albright goes over to Pearce and much to the shock and surprise of the crowd, Pearce launches a fireball into the face of Adam Pearce. SnS Inc. leave triumphantly as referees and officials come out to take care of Brent Albright. He receives a standing ovation as he leaves with his head covered in towels.
Brent Albright & Roderick Strong over Adam Pearce & Go Shiozaki via ref stoppage (***)
Match 8: Non-Title Match: ROH World Heavyweight Champion Nigel McGuinness vs. Jerry Lynn
Jerry Lynn returns to an ROH ring for the first time in over 4 years. His last match was a victory over, the then newcomer, Nigel McGuinness. A lot has changed for Nigel and in the ring, he tells Lynn that he respects him, but he is the “past” and Nigel is the “present” and he gives him the opportunity to leave the ring because he will get hurt if he stays. Lynn responds with an old cliche he says he remembered, “I’ve forgotten more in my years than an arrogant prick like you will ever learn.” He’s staying and ready for the fight Nigel is about to bring.
Nigel starts out by targeting Lynn’s right arm and dismantling it with submissions and stretches. The first 5 minutes of the match are very slow with Nigel in control and working the arm. Soon, he takes Lynn out to the floor, but Lynn instead launches Nigel into the crowd. A poor girl in the front row gets sideswiped and looks freaked out. Lynn takes a few steps back and does a dive over the rail and lands on top of Nigel. Nigel gets up first and tries to bring Lynn over the rail, but sets him up on top of it for a lariat. Lynn ducks the lariat and positions himself to give Nigel a swinging DDT off the guardrail. Lynn brings Nigel back into the ring and the crowd is finally clamoring for Lynn to win. Lynn tries to set up the piledriver, but Nigel counters out of it and starts giving him European uppercuts. He yells at Lynn “Look! Not even the crowd cares about you!” as we all looked on in silence. Nigel then positions Lynn on the top rope and gives him a Tower of London. After a near 3, Nigel picks up Lynn and gives him a stiff lariat. Lynn kicks out at 2 for a thunderous reaction. Lynn is starting to show he’s still tough as nails. Lynn gets up and connects with a kick to the stomach, but eats another lariat for a near 3. For the next 5 or so minutes, Lynn continues to fight on, but is constantly met with lariats or uppercuts from the champ. Eventually, Nigel connects with not 1, not 2, but 3 jawbreaker lariats and with much resilience and heart, Lynn kicks out of everyone to a huge ovation. Finally, Nigel hits a final jawbreaker lariat, but when Lynn kicks out, Nigel quickly rolls him up in a weird pin for the win. Great match and Jerry Lynn looked like a star in there. The story was Lynn proving to Nigel that just because he may have been passed his prime (which he admitted), he still had it in him and could step toe to toe with him. Lynn was triumphant in that aspect. After the match, they shake hands and give each other respect. But as Nigel turns away, Lynn grabs the belt from him and before Nigel can attack, Lynn says he just wants the honor of handing the belt to the champ. Nigel snatches the belt quickly and looks angry as he leaves. Huge “Please Come Back” chant for Lynn as he stood there in the ring.
Nigel McGuinness over Jerry Lynn with a roll-up (*** 3/4)
Main Event: Austin Aries vs. Jimmy Jacobs w/ Allison Wonderland of the Age of the Fall in a Relaxed Rules Match
Since early 2008, Jimmy Jacobs has been trying to recruit Austin Aries as a member of The Age of the Fall, and during the weekend of Wrestlemania 24, he was successful after some persuasion by Lacey. At the following shows, it was revealed that there might be some sort of relationship between Lacey and Aries. Then at Return Engagement on April 19th at Chicago Ridge, Aries confronted Jimmy and said he wanted him to leave him and Lacey alone because they were in love. An enraged Jimmy violently attacked Aries there and almost attacked Lacey, but stopped himself. A few weeks later in a video posted by The Age of the Fall, a broken Jimmy Jacobs confronted Lacey at a strip mall and as he revealed a spike in his pants pocket, Tyler told them to cut the camera because Jimmy was about to do something awful. It hasn’t been revealed yet what happened, but the storyline is that Lacey is apparently missing from ROH, but Aries knows what happened to her. Tonight is there first time meeting each other in the ring one on one since this feud began.
Jacobs comes out to the same screaming and metal music as the other AOTF members do. He now has a mohawk with a buzz cut around it and long red hair in the front that covers part of his face. It’s very emo and needs to be seen to fully grasp it’s emoness. Austin comes out to “Personal Jesus” by Marilyn Mansion and is one of the best entrances to clap along to.
They face each other in the ring and Jimmy grabs a mic. He says he’s hurt Aries physically, hurt him emotionally, and embarrassed him. Now he wants to hurt him with something the “former ROH Champion,” as Jacobs calls him, holds dear to him, and that is by outwrestling him. He says that he’ll up the ante. Whoever wins tonight, they get to pick the stipulation for their match at the August 16th return to Chicago Ridge. Jacobs says he has a whole list of matches up his sleeves. Aries takes the mic and tells Jimmy that Lacey has been telling him some of his fears, and when he wins, he’ll make the match that Jimmy fears the most.
The two immediately brawl on the ground and Aries tries to fight Jacobs, but Jacobs is trying to jockey for position for some mat wrestling. They tumble around the ring until they both give up. They get in each other’s faces and Jimmy slaps Aries and Aries responds with a slap of his own. Aries yells “COME ON! HIT ME!”, but Jacobs responds with a quick kiss on the lips. It was bizarre and awesome at the same time. Aries snaps because of this and just starts to wildly punch Jimmy and throws him out to the ring area. They immediately start brawling out into the crowd where they eventually end up in the bleachers against the wall. I was unable to see most of this, but what I saw was great. Jacobs tried to make Aries pass out using The End Time on top of the bleachers, but Aries held Jacobs as he bashed him into the wall and then threw him off the top of the bleachers onto a chair that some people were holding up. Aries took his time to get down and was met with some violent punches from Jimmy. They brawled back to the ring and started suplexing each other on the mats outside and hurling each other into the barricade. Once Jimmy got the upper hand, he set up a chair in the middle of the aisle and sat Aries on it. Jacobs went back into the ring and did a dive over the top ropes onto Aries. The chair collapsed from the force of Jimmy’s fall and when Aries rolls over to his stomach, everyone can see that there is a huge gash running along the bottom of his back and it’s bleeding, but not a lot. Jimmy brings Aries into the ring where he targets the back by clawing at it and ripping at it with his nails. He even takes the blood and puts it on his face. I believe at one point he even bit the gash. Soon after, Allison Wonderland distracts the referee and Jimmy pulls a chain off his pants and uses it to scratch the back of Aries. As his back continues to bleed, he starts to fight back with some punches and chops. He gains control and hits him with a brainbuster. Unable to make the cover, they both get back up and start brawling in the ring. Aries once again gains the upper hand and locks in the Horns of Aries on Jacobs. Aries would switch between knee strikes to the head and the Horns of Aries in hope of him passing out or tapping out. After getting out of the hold, Jimmy tried locking in The End Time once again, but Aries picks him up and launches him out of the ring through the ropes. As Jimmy gets back to his feet on the outside, he is met with the heat seeking missile dive from Aries for a humungous pop. Aries bring Jimmy back into the ring for a quick kick to the head and throws him into the ropes, Aries climbs a cross and brings him over the ropes in a suplex position, but instead of hitting the suplex, he opts to his the death valley driver onto the ring apron. As he picks up Jimmy, he counters out of it and throws Aries headfirst into the turnbuckle. Jimmy hits a huge senton off the apron onto Aries and then gives him a Contra Code using the guardrail. Both men lay there until Jimmy finally gets up and brings Aries back in the ring. After an attempted End Time, Aries brings Jimmy out to the outside ring apron again and this time successfully hits the death valley driver onto the ring apron to a thunderous standing crowd. Aries bring Jimmy back in the ring and locks in the Horns of Aries again. As he has it clinched in, Allison Wonderland distracts the ref as Jimmy waves Tyler Black and Necro Butcher to the ring, but they are attacked by The Briscoes and they brawl to the back. With no one else to help, MsChif appears from the back and runs into the ring and stomps on Aries’s stomach. He gets up and grabs her hair, but MsChif spits green mist into the face of Aries. A blinded Aries walks right into a Contra Code from Jimmy but kicks out at 2. Jimmy then locks in the End Time once again, and for a few minutes Aries struggles to get out of it and eventually powers his way out of it. Aries grabs Jimmy and gives him a brainbuster and then props him up in the corner where he delivers FIVE consecutive running drop kicks to a helpless Jacobs. After he falls after the 5th one, Aries signals for the 450 and goes up top and hits it for the 1,2,3. Aries grabs a mic and as Jimmy starts to get up to a seated position, Aries tells him since he won, he is going to pick the match that Jimmy fears the most…a No Disqualification Match….AGAINST THE NECRO BUTCHER!
As Aries sits in the middle of the ring moping, a consoling Allison Wonderland and him are pelted with pop bottles and garbage. Tyler comes out to help, but Jimmy rushes to the floor and grabs a garbage bag and yells “None of you have the balls to make a change! I do! I will pick up this garbage!” After half assing it, he just leaves as people throw more garbage.
Also, I forgot where it happened in the match, but Aries was on the outside of the ropes when Jimmy hit a HUGE spear that knocked Aries down and onto the guardrail.
Austin Aries over Jimmy Jacobs with a 450 Splash (**** 1/2)
Overall Thoughts: This was a hell of a show. Nothing was bad at all. The opener was a fun tag match with Rhett Titus showcasing his talents and his character, and the SHIMMER match was too short to be anything higher, but don’t get me wrong, it was very good for what it was. Everything else is good to excellent and the top angles coming out of this show are exciting and I can’t wait to see what happens next in the sage of Aries vs. Jacobs. This show has it all, story, good segments, and excellent in ring action. When this show comes out on DVD, be sure to pick it up.
The return date for Chicago Ridge is August 16th, if you live in the area, do yourself a favor and go check out ROH live. You are always guaranteed your money’s worth in Chicago.
