Man security is tough at the Manhattan Center. Every day people at the Ring of Honor message boards go over how they’ve been treated by the people working there and last Saturday was my own first experience with them. Oh well. Sometimes you need douchebags to keep everyone else secure.
Anyway, the show was a more memorable and enjoyable affair than the last New York City show. Nothing remarkable either way but still fun.
Things started with The Young Bucks vs. Kenny King and Rhett Titus. I know there was a Aries promo cut prior to this but security was moving people in the building at such a slow pace that I missed it. Nevertheless, the opening match was excellent and really geared the audience up. The Bucks hit a number of really fluid double team moves and King didn’t do so badly himself. Titus can get fired because he added very little to the match. In the end the Bucks picked up the victory and managed to get themselves very over with the NYC crowd. I can’t wait to see them again.
Next up was The Necro Butcher going up against The Embassy’s Jimmy Rave. Nana and Rave were pelted with toilet paper and nearly drowned in it. It became so much that after a while people were straight out beaming Nana with toilet paper. It was quite hilarious. Necro came out then to much applause and pretty much spent the majority of the short match beating the crap out of Jimmy. Eventually though Rave worked the leg, only for Necro to roll him up for the win. Afterwards Nana and Rave beat on him until Cabana made the save. The match was nothing special but the crowd seemed halfway into it until Rave started beating Necro down.
Roderick Strong vs. Sonjay Dutt was next in an exciting match. There were a lot of neat ongoing spots in the match that kept the audience interested and Sonjay got a polite thank you from the audience after losing to Roderick after taking a series of incredible backbreakers from the most exciting guy in ROH right now. I’ve been a fan of Roderick for years now and it seems that finally people are taking notice of him again after Gabe worked so hard to make us forget about him.
Jimmy Jacobs against Tyler Black was a wash. This was over before it began when Jimmy stabbed Black with a screwdriver. By the time the bell rang, Black was already bleeding. A waste of time. Post-match Black inserted himself into the title match.
Bryan Danielson vs. Colt Cabana vs. D-Lo Brown vs. Claudio Castagnoli was a filler kind of match that had nothing stand out about it. It felt like it was just there to take up time since a title change was happening anyway. I mean why bother working when the booking is in effect right? Finish came when Cabana got D’Lo to tap to the Billy Goat’s Curse.
The submissions only Steenerico vs. Amercain Wolves title match followed. This was slow in the first half and exciting in the second when the teams stopped using strikes and started using submissions. Had both teams concentrated on working body parts right from the beginning, this would have been a hell of a whole lot better. In the end, Generico’s knee got targeted with the belt, leading to him tapping out to Edwards and a half crab.
Jay Briscoe vs. Guido Maritato was our semi-main event. Nothing special but Guido did look happy to be there and had a look of humility to his eyes. I’d like to see him back. Briscoe got the win after a Jay Driller.
The main event of Ausitin Aries vs. Jerry Lynn vs. Tyler Black finally followed. Considering Flair took the money and ran, the audience seemed happy anyway because they had a hint that a title change was in the air. The first half of the match was slow with Black and Lynn teaming up on Aries. Eventually Aries hit a brainbuster on Lynn and took a Small Package driver to be taken out of the match. The audience immediately hit the roof in anticipation over a new champion. After work done on Black’s knee earlier caused Black to collapse when trying to give Aries a powerbomb to the corner, Aries connected with the kick and a brainbuster to become the new champion.
Overall, I’d say the show on whole was a better paced event than 7th Anniversary Show but still nowhere near as exciting as Gabe’s last NYC show which was off the charts exciting. Hopefully a return to the Grand Ballroom offers better results.
