ROH Results/live report

[Guest ShooterJay]

From the Mass. National Guard Armory, which is in a really shitty section of Cambridge and nearly impossible to find- We drove around for 20 minutes looking for it.

 

Pre-show, Raven was signing autographs, which I didn't even notice until my brother nudged me, and said, "Hey, that's Raven!" So we both got autographed photos, which was a cool bonus.

 

To the RF Video booth, where I picked up "Best of the Backseat Boyz" and High Impact TV eps. 13-16. Just previewed them both, good buys.

 

Onto the show:

 

1. Chad Collyer def. Matt Stryker.

Not a good idea to open with a strong style mat-based match, with two guys virtually no one has heard of. The fans shit on it to start, but eventually got into it. They also did the Montreal "TWO" thing, but that eventually wound down. The definition of a pure wrestling clinic all right, virtually no punches or rope running. Good leg psych also- Collyer wins after locking on the Texas Cloverleaf on the third try for the submission.

 

Gary Cappetta announces Paul London is not here because of his illness, so someone else will take his place. CM Punk comes out, and immediately pisses off everybody with a holier-than-though "I'm Straight Edge" attitude and the usual bagging out of the city. He calls out Raven, saying he didn't show (although obviously he did- HE WAS AT THE AUTOGRAPH TABLE!-big miscue there Punk). Punk says Raven doesn't have what it takes anymore, he's a shell of his former self because of drugs. Raven shows up, and after much goading (and funny Michael Jackson jokes) he gets Punk to agree to a Raven's Rules match (after 10 minutes of straight wrestling). Crowd ate this up. There were also a bunch of references to Raven "not stinking up the joint like Konnan did."

 

2. Amazing Red def. Slim J

To many sick spots to call, a blast to watch live. Large Unidentified Black Guy is apparently a member of Special K. Red overcomes interference to win with what looked like a Storm Cradle Driver variation. LUBG lays out Red after the match.

 

3. AJ Styles def. SAT, Backseat Boyz, Carnage Crew

SAT were BY FAR the most over guys at the show. The BSB came out to Messiah's music, which freaked me out for a second. They also had "HIV" on their wrist tape. We got all the major spots from the Backseats-Dream Sequence, T Gimmick, Yakuza Kick, Spear, and some other neat doubleteams. CC had their working boots on, busting out the high spots. We got the requisite trainwreck dive spot to a great response. Nonstop action, and the MOTN from a pure quality standpoint. Styles wins after a Maximo blocked a Styles Clash and AJ turned it into a powerbomb for the victory. Afterwards, Outcast Killaz try to punk out the SAT, but eat a Spanish Fly.

 

4. Alex Arion def. HotStuff Hernandez

Hernandez is pretty impressive for a hoss, busting out all sorts of suplex variations and a Bigelow-ish 3/4 moonsault. Local boy Arion wins with a rollup.

 

5. Low Ki and the Hit Squad def. All 900 members of Special K (except Jody Fleisch)

Boy, did those little midgets die. Stiff shots and head drops galore from the Brooklyn Crew, the giant welts on Special K were obvious. A 25-minute squash match, with only brief offense and heel tactics from the ravers. A Hit Squad member actually hits an assisted VAN TERMINATOR on two K members. Special K get themselves DQed, but Ki demands a restart. Angel Dust (I think) offers Low Ki X, and he takes it and goes down. Special K have a dance party in the ring, until Ki of course stops faking it and murders them. Finish is a stereo Ki Krusher/Burning Hammer/Brainbuster sequence for the triple pin, most fun match of the night by far.

 

Intermission- Raven posed for Polaroids.

 

6. Bonus match- Quiet Storm and Ghost Shadow def. Dunn & Marcos

Quick match, basically to get the crowd ready for Raven vs. Punk. Dunn and Marcos actually have a pretty over schtick, too bad they're typecast as jobbers (even though they're BIGGER than a good chunk of ROH's roster.) Ghost Shadow makes Marcos tap after some sort of odd submission I've never seen before.

 

7. CM Punk def. Raven w/Trinity

Punk was the most over heel on the show by far. Raven actually did a lot of decent wrestling and busted out a tope before we dove into the plunder. After that, an above average hardcore match. Punk got in Trinity's face, and she responded with her moonsault. Raven had a pretty good crimson mask going. Punk got revenge and put both Trinity and Raven through a table. After the first ref bump in ROH history (I think) Raven gets his drop toehold/chair combo, no count. Low blow, and Punk's submission finisher gets him the win. Punk cheapshots Raven after the Code of Honor handshake, and Raven goes for the Evenflow, but the ref stops it. He hits it on the ref instead. Raven made Punk a STAR in ROH in one night.

 

8. Samoa Joe def. Homicide, BJ Whitmer and EZ Money- #1 Contender's Trophy

Solid match, but I couldn't get into it because I don't really care about any of these guys on a fan level. Joe plays a great dickish heel though. Joe wins after making EZ tap to a Dragon Sleeper.

 

We get ANOTHER worked fan riot, which pissed me off immensely, because it delayed the main event. Purpose was to establish a Joe/Homicide feud. (The rioters were seen shaking hands with Homicide pre-match and getting in Joe's face post-match.)

 

9. AJ Styles and Amazing Red w/Alexis Laree def. Christopher Daniels and Xavier w/Allison Danger to win the ROH tag titles.

Red was AJ's replacement for London. Classic Rock N'Roll Express-ish tag match here. Styles was worked over first, then tag to Red, who was worked over for at least 20 minutes, with at least four false hot tag sequences. AJ cleans house, Danger and Laree catfight, and...I had to leave due to transportation issues. I was told that Red and AJ won. Dammit- ROH does one title change every six months and I missed it, what I saw was very good.

 

Overall, an excellent night of wrestling. No MOTYCs, but all of the matches were fun to watch. Boston is a far more markish crowd than Philly, so the matches were basically booked to familiarize everybody with the talent and product, with Raven as the big draw.

[Guest j.o.b. squad]

sounds like a decent show

 

But puting aj over 3 difrent tag teams by himself kind kills the credibility of their tag devision they schould of at least given him a tag partner for that match

[Guest subliminal_animal]

They did that "one guy over three teams" with Homicide, too. But to be fair, in a scramble, a guy can kind of sneak a win out of nowhere.

 

How much did Raven charge for autographs and Polaroids, out of curiosity?

[Guest ShooterJay]

How much did Raven charge for autographs and Polaroids, out of curiosity?

10 bucks

[Guest Andy]

It'll be good to see this card when it comes out.

 

By the way, Jody Fleisch wasn't there because he has a big match against Juventud Guerrera on the FWA card here in London tonight. (Card also includes Doug Williams vs Flash Barker and Jerry Lynn vs Jonny Storm.)

 

Cheers - A.

[Guest Youth N Asia]

Seems like a lot for the guy to sign something. Last indy I went to had Corino, Simon, and Dawn Marie...I think autos were $5 and pics were $10...but if you had a camera you could take your own pic for free.

 

Damn...that was a while ago.

 

Although it's better then the $35 Austin was charging a month ago when he did a signing in the area.

[Guest Canadian Crippler]

Sounds like a pretty good overall show, good review.

[Guest Joe_G]

May as well toss this up too.

 

Ring of Honor

National Guard Armor, Cambridge, MA

3/15/03

 

Round three for Ring of Honor in Mass. This show was held in Cambridge as opposed to Wakefield, where the first two were held. I’m glad I took a drive out there last Saturday morning to make sure I knew where it was, because this place would have been a bitch to find at night.

 

Place was pretty packed. We sat a few rows back near the entrance (the side where everyone did their dives). Raven comes out and signs autographs, but no one seemed to notice him at the merch table for a while. Poor dope.

 

Chad Collyer beat Matt Stryker with a Texas Cloverleaf. Stryker worked in HWA and wears tiny pants. Collyer wrestles as METAL MASTER~~~!!!! in Michinoku Pro and was trained by Dean Malenko. Kinda looks like him too, so it’s like watching a photocopy of Deano Machino wrestle. Technical match, nothing fancy, but at 15 minutes it went too long and wasn’t a great choice for an opener. Chad works the legs and slaps on the Cloverleaf for the win. They did some good nearfall work near the end and it’ll probably be better on tape. There was a great moment as Chad makes his entrance by walking around the set instead of going through the curtain, like that scene in Police Squad where Frank Drebin walks around the set while everyone else goes through the door.

 

The Amazing Red defeated Slim J by slam dunking him on his head. Pretty much what you’d expect—fast paced stuff that the crowd ate up. J still looks 12. Red gets layed out afterwards by Slugger.

 

Gary Michael Cappetta comes out and announces that Paul London wouldn’t be there due to an emergency operation due to a sinus condition. This was the first I heard of this, so I was bummed. Sounds like he’ll be fine, however, so that’s good news. AJ will get a pick of anyone in the RoH locker room for his partner. CM Punk comes out and does the straight edge gimmick and shits on Raven, saying he’s not here (even though he just signed authographs about an hour earlier). Raven comes out and they debate. Long story short, during their match tonight, the first 10 minutes will be straight up wrestling, after that it’s Raven’s Rules. I don’t like long interview segments, but Punk and Raven are fine on the mic so this wasn’t too bad.

 

AJ Styles beat The Backseat Boyz, The SAT and Carnage Crew in a Scramble match. Yes, AJ came out sans a partner and still won. Spotfest with a lot of, well, spots. Fortunately, everyone was pretty on and I can’t remember anything being blown too badly. AJ actually busted out the shooting star press to the floor. Backseatz almost killed Loc with the T Gimmick. AJ powerbombed someone for the win and title shot. Wouldn’t it be neat if they dug up Air Paris for his partner?

 

Alex Arion beat Hotstuff Hernandez with a roll-up. Hernandez is some huge guy that I guess works in Japan. Arion is decidedly Paul Roma-esque in terms of charisma and ability. I have no clue how he finagled his way into the Super 8 this year. Match sees Double H beat the pop tarts off of young Alex with assorted power moves. Scary moment as Hernandez tries a moonsault but slips and nearly falls on his head. 90% of the match is all Hotstuff destroying Arion, until Alex gets a fluke rollup for the win. We were not happy. Hotstuff acts like he’s going to kill Arion afterwards, but opts for the Indie Handshake and Alex lives to bore us another day.

 

Low Ki & Da Hit Squad defeated Deranged, Dixie & Angel Dust and the other 895 members of Special K. This was some of the goofiest shit ever, seriously. I (heart) the Special K gimmick. Why haven’t they made a T-shirt for them yet? It designs itself. Match pretty much saw Ki and his Amazing Friends beat the crap out of the youngsters. Angel Dust’s chest was especially beet red. Every other member of Special K runs in and they get DQ’d. Laaaame. Ki gets on the mic and says he didn’t come to Boston for a DQ, so he invites everyone to join the match. Everyone brawls and Hydro (I think) offers Ki drugs. Ki takes them and starts acting goofy. The Special K music starts and Ki starts dancing. I expect Monkey Magic and Ebessan to do a run-in at this point. But wait! Ki was just faking and beats up the ravers with a cane. Everyone drops a K member on their head for the triple pin. Remember, when you think comedy matches, think Low Ki.

 

Intermission time. I hit the bathroom and there’s two guys in their ranting and raving about Samoa Joe, and how he can’t treat Homicide like that, and how their going to take care of business in the parking lot. At first I think, “What a pair of retards.” Then I remember the “riot” angle from the last show and put 2+2 together. Then I think “What a pair of retards.”

 

I hit the merch stand and get the last two Mass shows. I finally notice that RoH just has one box/sleeve for their videotapes, as opposed to a design for each show. And who’s still on the box? Spanky. Oops. I bet Brian Kendrick is persona non-grata at the RoHQ these days.

 

Quiet Storm & Ghost Shadow defeated Dunn & Marcos: Some people actually chant for Dunn, no shit. I dug Ghost Shadow a lot in JAPW, so I was jazzed to see him live, even though this was a nothing match. Ring Crew Express have a neat move were Marcos does a Sliced Bread #2, but jumps off of Dunn instead of the corner. Storm makes someone submit to something.

 

CM Punk defeated Raven by tap out. They started out wrestling, but Punk soon grabbed a chair and they shifted into ECW mode (including Punk putting Raven’s valet through a table). Raven tapped a vein big time as he was bleeding a gusher. Match was not Punk’s forte but wasn’t bad. Ref gets bumped and Punk uses a low blow and submission for the win. Ref gets in Raven’s face afterwards and eats a DDT. I wonder how many tickets Raven sold and if it was worth it to bring him in.

 

Samoa Joe won a four-way #1 contender's trophy match over Homicide, BJ Whitmer and EZ Money when he choked out Money. This would have worked better had their not been another 4 way earlier in the night. Dunno why they didn’t just do Joe/Homicide and Money/Whitmer, since no one gave the latter 2 a chance in hell of winning. Those two guys from the bathroom give Joe hell before the match. Some good work given the format. Joe chokes out EZ and wins the bowling trophy.

 

But wait! Those same guys from the bathroom bum rush Joe and the locker room empties for a big brawl about 10 feet from us. I don’t think anyone bought it, because (A) they did the EXACT same thing last month, and (B) there was an off duty cop just standing there observing the melee.

 

AJ Styles & Amazing Red beat Christopher Daniels &Xavier to win the RoH tag titles. Match of the night, and nigh flawless except for two problems: they injected a stupid catfight in the middle of the match, and they botched the ending where Xavier broke up a pin but the ref counted three anyway. Crowd didn’t pop for the title change because we didn’t think the match was over. Other than that this was great old school tag wrestling, as the champs beat on Red forever and cut him off about a 100 times before he made this great hot tag. Tons of nearfalls until AJ hit the Styles Clash on Daniels for botched win. There was this guy during the match who would NOT SHUT UP and kept yelling out things like “Christopher Daniels, you’ve got no talent.” Nothing remotely witty. I wish he’d get mauled by a bear.

 

We take off imediately to beat the rush and make it home in record time. Good show. Probably ranks third out of the three Mass shows in terms of quality but still a lot of good wrestling. They’ll be back in June, as will I.

[Chunk 0]

Seems like a lot for the guy to sign something. Last indy I went to had Corino, Simon, and Dawn Marie...I think autos were $5 and pics were $10...but if you had a camera you could take your own pic for free.

 

Damn...that was a while ago.

 

Although it's better then the $35 Austin was charging a month ago when he did a signing in the area.

Thats not too bad a price. I paid £10 for a signed photo with Jerry Lynn a few months ago.

 

Its a complete rip off in terms of profit margin, but I dont really mind so much when I know the guys is going to be busting his arse for me later on in the night

 

ChUnK!

[Guest snuffbox]

When I went to an ECW house show in 2000 I got pics/autographs with Fonzie, Francine, and Jerry Lynn at the merchandise table. All were free. Also met Big Dick Hertz in the crowd.

 

Greg the Hammer Valentine was charging 5 bones for his autograph at an indy show a few years ago. Each to his own I guess. I paid up of course.