As you may have seen, Ring of Honor came to Chicago Ridge, IL this Saturday night for a massive taping event that included two episodes of ROH TV set to air in the near future, as well as a stand-alone “Windy City Excellence” video-on-demand event. Wrestlezone was out in full force collecting live results, photos, videos, backstage interviews and more!
Just a few quick live notes before we get to the VOD results:
- Doors opened exactly on time at 4:30. There was as steady stream of people that came in throughout the night, and by bell time at 6:00 the building was about 70% full. There was some worry about attendance, but within an hour of the show starting it was packed.
- Christopher Daniels, Kazarian, The Young Bucks and Cody Rhodes were all out signing autographs for the fans before the show, completely free of charge. The Bucks had the longest line by far, to the point where they were still meeting people 20 minutes into the start of the taping. Everyone seemed very genuinely happy to be there, Cody as always is one of the nicest people you’ll meet in wrestling, and I have to applaud the Bucks for staying through and getting to every single fan in line.
- Here’s a funny anecdote. During the first TV taping they ran an angle where Daniels attacked Cody. As I’m standing near the backstage area, Daniels calls me over and basically asks to use me as cover. So here we are, walking awkwardly over to the guardrail, nothing to see here, with the ROH Champion crouched behind me, breathing into my back in the 90-degree heat for a solid five minutes. Eventually he hopes the rails, the lights go out and he successfully ambushes Cody, but that was one of the more hilarious, random things that’s happened to me at a wrestling show.
- Bully Ray was signing autographs during intermission. I didn’t get a chance to speak with him, but it’s cool that ROH had so many top stars out there interacting with the fans throughout the night. It didn’t used to be that way. The last time I was at the Field House, I want to say Kyle O’Reilly was the only person that came out to sign the entire night.
ROH Windy City Excellence VOD Results
Frontier Field House in Chicago Ridge, IL
June 4, 2017
The announcer hyped everyone up after intermission, and the crowd really came to life. It was strange, but heading into our third hour of a five hour show, the crowd was actually much hotter for the VOD taping than for the TV tapings.
1. Jay Lethal def. Caprice Coleman. Coleman came out and talked FOREVER before the match. The crowd got louder and louder in their disapproval and Lethal just let him go on for what felt like twenty minutes, but was probably closer to ten. They worked a fantastic back and forth match that took its time getting to the finish line. Jay gave him the Lethal Combination, Hail to the King, but Coleman wouldn’t go down. He finally got it with the Lethal Injection on his second or third attempt. Great match.
2. Bully Ray def. Matt Taven in a Street Fight. Another pre-match promo, this time from Taven and The Kingdom. Bully came out and said that Chicago didn’t want to see a wrestling match, and instead wanted something a little more hardcore. Not a bad match, and the crowd was super into everything they did. Taven and Vinny made the referee’s life hell the entire match, and he got redemption when Bully did the “Wazzup” spot, got the ref to participate. The “get the tables” spot was probably the loudest reaction of the night.
MORE….TALKING… It’s not that I dislike any of these guys, it’s that at this point we’d all been in a very hot building for four hours, with four more matches to get through, and so far every single match of the second half started with a long, drawn out promo.
There was a guy sweeping up broken table shards after the Bully Ray match. The crowd started chanting “too sweep” along with him, so The Kingdom got upset and attacked him. Vinny then got on the mic and called Chicago trash, and said he’d rather be in Milwaukee. Bad move, kid… Colt Cabana eventually got up from commentary and said he’d had enough, went to the back, changed into his ring gear in about 30 seconds, and we had a surprise match.
3. Colt Cabana def. Vinny Marseglia. I see Colt 2-3 times a month, so this turned into a much-needed smoke break for me, but from what I saw watching outside it was fun. The crowd was certainly into it and Colt got a lot of laughs for his shtick. Whether you enjoy his particular brand of wrestling or not, you have to admit he’s a unique presence in the business.
4. The Rebellion def. Dalton Castle & The Boys. It was Kenny King, Rhett Titus and Shane Taylor out for The Rebellion. King and Castle (HA!) started the match by having a thumb war, which The Boys sold like it was the most brutal exchange ever. The crowd was super into The Boys, possibly more than they were into Dalton, but all of them got crazy reactions. After a really fun, lengthly match, Jay Briscoe randomly came out and attacked The Boys…for some reason. It didn’t get heat, everyone was just kinda standing there confused, wondering why it was happening. Dalton and Jay fought to the back, and one of The Boys slowly got up and realized he was left alone in the ring against The Rebellion. He tried to fight back but got hit with finishers from all three guys.
After the match Caprice Coleman came back out and the entire Rebellion beat down The Boys. Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin and I want to say Jay White all ran out to make the save and a huge brawl broke out. Jonathan Gresham could have also been out there, but things got super chaotic with bodies bouncing and flying everywhere. Good stuff. I’m not sure why any of it was happening but it was really fun to watch and hear the crowd react to!
5. The Young Bucks def. Will Ferrara & Cheeseburger to retain the ROH Tag Team Championships. Approaching the five hour mark of the night, a second Young Bucks match was everything the crowd needed to stay hyped. It is insane how popular these guys are. I mentioned before that their line was the longest before the show, but it would shock you to see by how much that was true. Another awesome match, although not as crazy or good as the triple threat earlier in the night. People love Cheeseburger… The Bucks won with a Meltzer Driver, and after the match Ferrara turned heel and attacked Burger.
6. Christopher Daniels & Kazarian def. Cody Rhodes & Hangman Page. I’ve always been a fan of Cody, but you don’t realize until you’re up close and personal, watching him work for 10 feet away, how insanely fluid and natural he is in the ring. I think “refined” is the word I’m looking for. He teased throwing his shirt into the crowd but threw it on the floor instead for the cheap heat. Kazarian then picked it up and threw it to a fan, but Cody literally jumped the barricade and tried to get it back from the guy, who thought about throwing it back, but put it on instead. This was a good match to end the night. The Addiction finished it off with a variation on the Meltzer Driver, just to send a message to the Bullet Club, but instead of a 450 splash Daniels did the Best Moonsault Ever into it.
Kaz and Daniels hung around after the show for a bit, talking with all the fans at ringside as people were filling out. Colt Cabana came over and shook some hands, as gracious and happy to be there as ever. What was really cool to see, simply because he didn’t have to do this and nobody else did, instead of taking the backstage route to the locker room, Cody actually came back out through the crowd and took an extra 10 minutes to sign autographs and meet every single fan that was still around. I cannot say enough positive things about his attitude and approach to wrestling. All the respect, my friend.
