Report by Dave Musgrave & F4WOnline.com.
Pre-show:
1) The Bravado Brothers defeated Mike Sydal and Rip Impact- Mike is of course the brother of Matt and while he didn’t take the opportunity to do a lot of high-flying in this, he showed fundamentals of taking a beating from the Bravados and they were surprisingly stiff with him. Fun pre-show match.
2) Bobby Dempsey and Grizzly Redwood defeated Rob Sweet and Dewey ? (it said DD on his tights)- Dewey was a heavy guy who seemed to make a gimmick out of it, making sure he bounced and jiggled a lot. Him and Dempsey was pretty fun. Dempsey is somewhat underutilized on pre-show stuff and has gotten to the point where he really moves well and the crowd loves. I live for the day when Chris Hero is ROH champ and defends against him, going back to Sweet and Sour Inc.
The whole locker room came out for a 10 Bell Salute to Trent Acid and lot of the guys seemed pretty choked up. This was how I found out the news and it’s sad to hear.
Main Show:
Jim Cornette came out and announced that Davey Richards wasn’t there and why. He then ran down the card and got the crowd excited. Before the show I met him for the first time and bought his book and with some encouragement from me he signed it "To Dave, Fuck TNA! Your friend, Jim Cornette" He and Stacey were both really nice and I got his DVD’s as well, he’s a great bonus to the company, the anithesis of Hogan and Bischoff.
1) Delirious defeated Ernest Osiris with Prince Nana- Basic opener with the crowd enjoying Delirious and Nana getting good heat with the crowd. Fun way to start the show.
2) TV Champ Eddie Edwards d. Tyson Dux in just over 9 minutes, under the 10 minute time minute- Started a little slow for the first couple minutes but then got going in a hurry with everyone behind Dux and Edwards giving him a lot. Edwards is fun in this role.
3) Colt Cabana d. Shawn Daivari- Crowd was really into Colt’s comedy, Nana had great heat and I thought Daivari was great in this role, much better than in TNA, taking a chance to focus on in-ring work. Sadly, some racist things were yelled such as "Get me a slurpy". Fun match, Colt always gets the crowd goin.
4) Roderick Strong d. Pee Wee- It was disappointing for Richards not to be there, but I felt Roderick stepped into a teacher/vet role and took Pee Wee to town here. He was totally stiff with him at times, giving him stiff chops and kicks and making him work for it but also gave him quite a bit. There were near-falls to the point that it seemed Pee Wee might win but Roderick put it away in a match that he easily could have phoned it. I’d recommend trying to see this match, they might have someone in Pee Wee.
5)The Kings of Wrestling d. Up In Smoke- Here and Claudio look like monsters out there and may currently be the best team in wrestling. This was a great match to lead into intermission. I’ve always seen Cheech and Cloudy get great crowd reactions but this was a cut above and Cloudy (who got chants of Justin Bieber) took a lot from KOW. Some may say there were too many near-falls and the match went a little long, but hey, light up, I know had a lot of fun with it. Hero and Claudio win with Kings Reign Supreme.
They brought a local University of Buffao wrestler who I believe his last name is Bishop and Dave wrote about before. He was paralyzed after he got hurt fighting but made enough of a recovery to talk on stage for his diploma, I believe this week. Grat ovation
The guys from Monday Nigh Mayhem had been out earlier pushing fans to tell their friends about the product.
After the intermussion they introduced The Destroyer and his son, someone connectted to Ilio Dipaolo, I assume his son, and they were all with Tyler Black. The Destroyer got a great reaction and he put over the show and the funs.
Continued on page two …
6) The Final Countdown music played and the place went nuts for an apparent Danielson return. Someone came out under a purple towel and threw it back to reveal Austin Aries. He took on Kenny Omega in a really fun match, alghough I didn’t enjoy hs recent title run, Aries is great as a heel vet putting on great matches with young guys. Omega is great and I think his future is as a Heel Champion. Convincing win for Omega after an Electric Chari Suplex. Rhett Titus and Kenny King attack and The Briscoes come to the rescue, setting up the next match.
7) Rhett Titus and Kenny King d. The Briscoes- Really good match and I think the All-Night Express is an underrated act, not that ROH should do more with them but fans should give them more attention Fun back and forth match with Aries getting involved as well.
8) Tyler Black d. Steve Corino- Really fun main even. Tyler carries himself really well as champ and Corino is just unbelievable as a heel, mocking all kinds of fans. Corino told Tyler that he would have to face Steen at some point and offered to just take the belt to give to him. Corino hung in for the match, and did do some Abdullah forking action. Lots of great flying from Tyler, some may complained that he alternated between selling his knee and high-flying, oh well, go watch Titus O’Neal vs. Eli Cottonwood.
Anyway, at the end Corino was on his knees, Tyler said "This is for Steen, motherfucker" and kicked him in the face for the pin. Afterward, Black took the mike and said "Who’s the bitch now Corino?"
Adam Pearce got in the ring to help Corino, Todd Sinclair was in the ring after getting a tough time from fans all night. I think I looked away and missed something but Sinclair gave Ace Cutters to Corino and then Pearce. The crowd reacted huge and they played Eye Of The Tiger for Sinclair.
Really fun show, a great live experience and I absolutely cannot wait for tomorrow.
