Jeff Lam sent along the following:
I just got back from the ROH show at the Ted Reeves Arena in Toronto. Surprisingly the arena didn’t smell too bad considering there was 1,250 tonnes of garbage outside.
The night started with a few bonus matches, I wasn’t sure who some of the wrestlers were, so I apologize for the vagueness:
Tyson Dux b. a guy named Rip
-fun match to start off the night. Lots of high spots.
Bobby Dempsey + some dude b. 2 other dudes
-Dempsey really over with Toronto.
Rhett Titus b. some dude
Main Card:
El Generico b. Sonjay Dutt
-both guys really over. Sonjay played the heel, but crowd still popped for him. Lots of high spots and high flying as you would expect. Energetic match and a good match to open up the main card.
Jay & Mark Briscoe b. The Super Smash Brothers
-Highlight of the match was the crowd chanting different Super Mario songs. Dueling chants of "1-Up" VS "Man Up". Another fun match as both teams were pretty over.
D-Lo Brown b. Frankie The Mobster
-probably the worst match of the night. Frankie got the heat on D-Lo early while crowd chanted "Boring!". D-Lo was pretty over with the crowd and won with the sky high.
8-man elimination tag:
Order of eliminations: Grizzly Redwood, Bison Smith, Necro Butcher, Jimmy Rave Claudio Castagnoli, Brent Albright, Colt Cabana —> winner Joey Ryan
-LONG match. Seemed to go on forever and the action was hard to follow (from the floors at least) because there were so many bodies. The last 3 or 4 eliminations took place all within the span of 3 minutes, so I guess they were rushing it at the end. Colt and Necro really over. Rave and Redwood did colour, and lots of it.
Intermission:
-afterwards Bret Hart came out and spoke for a few minutes thanking the crowd and ROH for letting him come. Hugest pop of the night.
Kenny Omega b. Kenny King (w/ Rhett Titus)
-another good match with Omega getting the win. Afterwards Omega cut a promo challenging Austin Aries for the title. Said he wasn’t a very political guy but that the fans could be his voice.
Lance Storm & Kevin Steen b. Davey Richards & Chris Hero with Shane Hagadorn
-Lance Storm worked pretty great in this match doing lots of flying spots. He didn’t look as ripped as he did when he came last year though. Crowd popped big with a double Sharpshooter spot with Lance on Hero and Steen on Richards.
Austin Aries (c) b. Tyler Black, Jerry Lynn, Nigel McGuinness
-match of the night for me. Everyone worked hard. During the entrances, of the 4 wrestlers, Aries, the champion, seemed to have received the least reaction. Crowd really loved Nigel and Jerry Lynn. Lots of suicide spots by Black which got him really over with the crowd. Scariest spot of the night was Jerry Lynn hitting his piledriver on Nigel. Nigel’s head seemed a bit low taking the spot and hurt his neck in the process. Somewhere in the middle of all this, Kenny King did a run in to help Aries. Afterwards Aries hit his 450 splash on Nigel for the win. Nigel lay in the ring glassy eyed afterwards and referee Todd Sinclair attended to him. Jerry Lynn also tried to help him. He lay down for a few minutes before rolling out with Sinclair’s help. Hopefully he’ll be alright for tomorrow’s match. Crowd cheered big for him as he left the ring area.
Overall good show, but arena didn’t seem as full as it did when they came last year.
