Ring of Honor 10.2.05 "Burning" Results

[Guest *KNK*]

Here are the on-going results of tonight's early evening show in Philly

 

1. Tony Mamaluke and Sal Rinauro over Dunn and Marcos to regain the ROH Tag Team Championships after a "botched double electric chair roll over"

 

2. Jay Lethal over Davey Andrews in the 4CS. Lethal dropped Andrews right on his head with the dragon suplex (he didnt release it), so Andrews took a BIG bump. Claudio is insanely over with the crowd, moreso then anybody else. And Nigel continues to play an awesome heel.

 

3. Matt Sydal over Jimmy Rave. Rave was going to cheat with a shoelace, but Jade Chung ran out and took it from him, and Sydal won with a roll up. Rave is using a snowplow as a finsiher. Said to be a very fun match. Rave has great heat and rock hard chops.

 

Rickey Reyes vs. Eric Dempsey "Bonus Match" is up next.

 

4. Reyes over Dempsey a VERY quick squah. Very "Taz" like, he won with a tazmission.

 

Attendance is about 600

 

Paul Bearer is in the ring! Percy Pringle is the new commisioner. Now Cornette is coming out.

 

Nevermind, apparently Cornette is the comish? He cut a promo shooting on the WWE, and puts over ROH as old school. Awesome crowd. Ill try to figure out what Percy was doing out...

 

5. Strong over Gibson. MOTYC candidate, amazingly stiff. Top rope knees to the stomach at one point. Amazing.

 

Gibson puts over ROH and Strong as the next superstar.

 

Intermission time. Show is said to be amazing, with Gibson vs. Strong being insane and phenomonal.

 

Percy was just a swerve. He came out as Paul Bearer and then Cornette came out anti-gimmick.

 

6. Whitmer and Jacobs over Izzy and Deranged. Izzy and Deranged were fired - and the new Lacey's Angels is BJ Whitmer and Jimmy Jacobs!

 

7. Colt Cabana over Jack Evans. Colt screamed out Homicide, and then used the lariat.

 

8. Christopher Daniels over Jimmy Yang with his ground choke. Said to be just an average match.

 

9. Kenta Kobashi and Homicide over Samoa Joe and Low Ki after Kobashi hits Ki with a laiat. Joe puts over ROH as true pro wrestling.

 

 

[bob_barron 0]

Paul Bearer is the new commissioner. That's really lame and not what I wanted to see.

[Guest *KNK*]

So it's hazy who the Commish is, Cornette or Percy..

 

Either of them really stick out as "AUTHORITY" figures...

 

I believe Gabe said it was a former wrestler who the guys respect and believes in clean finishes...

 

Something Cornette and Percy aren't.

[Guest *KNK*]

600 people for Kobashi? ROH needs to tell Philly to fuck off.

 

That's ANOTHER shitty draw from that city. They gave them Joe's title change and drew barely 500 and here with Gibson's final match and Kobashi's apperence...only get 600?

 

Philly is a dead market.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

I believe Gabe said it was a former wrestler who the guys respect and believes in clean finishes...

 

Something Cornette and Percy aren't.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Percy has wrestled a few times, and so has Corny. And Corny does believe in clean finishes, to a degree.

 

Does anybody have a report on what Cornette said about WWE?

[Guest *KNK*]

I believe Gabe said it was a former wrestler who the guys respect and believes in clean finishes...

 

Something Cornette and Percy aren't.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Percy has wrestled a few times, and so has Corny. And Corny does believe in clean finishes, to a degree.

 

Does anybody have a report on what Cornette said about WWE?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yes they did formerally wrestle but Gabe implied that it was former wrestler that made his living as a wrestler.

 

Cornette was an infamous heel manager who cheated to win...

 

Oh well, typical of gabe to suck at surprises.

 

He hyped this for months, making a big deal out of it only for it to be either Cornette or Pringle, 2 people who don't invoke credibility as "authority" figures who'll demand the end of cheap finishes.

 

The whole board (stupidly) were thinking Race, Heyman and Shamrock.

 

Gabe needs to stick to booking and not trying to SURPRISE people because he sucks at it.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

I believe Gabe said it was a former wrestler who the guys respect and believes in clean finishes...

 

Something Cornette and Percy aren't.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Percy has wrestled a few times, and so has Corny. And Corny does believe in clean finishes, to a degree.

 

Does anybody have a report on what Cornette said about WWE?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

He hyped this for months, making a big deal out of it only for it to be either Cornette or Pringle, 2 people who don't invoke credibility as "authority" figures who'll demand the end of cheap finishes.

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I don't think most ROH fans will care about that. They'll be happy to have Cornette back as a semi-regular character.

[bob_barron 0]

KNK is right.

 

Anytime Gabe tries to pull a surprise, it's always the obvious.

 

Like with AJ's mystery opponent, everyone said Petey Williams, and who was it?

 

If Cornette believes in clean finishes so much, then why does he cheat like a bitch anytime he's managing in ROH?

[Guest *KNK*]

I believe Gabe said it was a former wrestler who the guys respect and believes in clean finishes...

 

Something Cornette and Percy aren't.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Percy has wrestled a few times, and so has Corny. And Corny does believe in clean finishes, to a degree.

 

Does anybody have a report on what Cornette said about WWE?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

He hyped this for months, making a big deal out of it only for it to be either Cornette or Pringle, 2 people who don't invoke credibility as "authority" figures who'll demand the end of cheap finishes.

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I don't think most ROH fans will care about that. They'll be happy to have Cornette back as a semi-regular character.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

That's true, I'm just pointing out it's a disapointing result to something that was hyped tremendously.

 

Corny will have a great time in ROH with the gloves thrown off this time, and I'm hoping he doesn't have a say in the booking patterns but is able to help nurture the young talent in other departments such as promos and storytelling.

 

You can be assured that Cornette's next shoot where he'll likely completely throw everything out the window and shred WWE to pieces (again) will sell great.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

If Cornette believes in clean finishes so much, then why does he cheat like a bitch anytime he's managing in ROH?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Because he's a heel, and heels cheat.

[HollywoodSpikeJenkins 0]

So Jacobs and Whitmer are heels?

[Styles 0]

OK, I just came back from the greatest wrestling show I have ever seen live.

 

Match 1: Tony Mamaluke and Sal Rinauro retain tag titles over Dunn and Marcos: Just an average opening match to get the crowd fired up. Ending was a bit botched as it was a fireman's carry drop but it came down way too slow. Mamaluke wraps himself in an Italian flag and Rinauro RIDES A BICYCLE to the ring. "Where's my pizza" chant and Rinauro replies "we don't have pizza...but we have BICYCLES!"

 

Match 2: Jay Lethal over Nigel Mcguiness, CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI and Davey Andrews. OK, this was my first time seeing Claduio Castagnoli and he is immediately my new favorite wrestler. Everytime he'd counter a hold he'd stop and yell "HEY~!" or pump his arm and go "whoo, whoo, whoo" and the crowd was totally into him the whole way. He's like Lance Hoyt with talent. Nigel got good heel heat, and the crowd liked Lethal with "Let's Go Lethal" chants. Nigel had an iron with him too and tried bashing somoene against the pole but they moved and he broke part of the iron. Lethal dropped Andrews with a sick full nelson suplex for the win. After the match everyone shook hands (including Claudio with the referee!) and NIgel snuck up behind Lethal to give him a low blow but Lethal turned around and Nigel pretended nothing was going on and shook his hand. Fun, fun match.

 

Match 3: Matt Sydal over Jimmy Rave. Rave is HATED by the crowd. He's pelted with pink streamers which piss him off and someone throws one of those shower puffs at him too. "DIE JIMMY DIE" chants. Sydal hit a sweet moonsault to the outside on both Nana and Rave. Rave was about to use a rope or something when Jade Chung came out of nowhere (she leaped from right behind me) and stopped him and Sydal suprised him with a roll up for the win.

 

Match 4: Ricky Reyes over some ROH student who's name I couldn't catch. Maybe a minute long with stiff kicks and then a choke for the win.

 

After the match one of the trainers or something got on the mic and said "I think he's dead! Somebody call an undertaker!" at which point the lights went out and funeral music started. It's PAUL BEARER!!! Big pop for him and he gets on the mic and in total Paul Bearer voice and character starts talking about how he's the new commisionerrrrr ohhhh yesssss. Then, JIM CORNETTE~!!! comes out to a mammoth pop and tells Paul Bearer that he knows a great manager but he's tired of the character crap and Paul Bearer asks "his his name Paul?" and Cornette says "no, his name is Percy" and puts over what a great manager Percy Pringle is and says he would make a great manager here in ROH. Cornette continues by saying Paul Bearer lied, he's not the new commisioner....."I AM!" YAY~! Cornette then goes on a TIRADE, turning red in the face, just ranting about how he's not afraid to "slap some sense" into someone who's out of line, and talked about all the backstage politics and said ROH is a wrestling company that actually listens to its fans and as commisioner he promises to always listen to the fans. Mamoth pop and "ROH" chants.

He then calls out Julius Smokes and tells him there will be no managers in the main event and gave him a count of 10 to leave or else the Rottweilers would be fined 1,000 dollars. The fans counted down with Corny and Smokes, Reyes and Grim Reefer scurried which was funny.

 

Match 5: Roderick Strong over James Gibson. BJ Whitmer seconds Gibson. WOW. This match had amazing emotion. Mammoth pop for Gibson as he came out, he went around and shook hands with all the front row fans. He got bombarded with yellow and green streamers and chants of "Thank you Gibson!" "MVP" and "Please Dont Go". This was a long match and it was excellent, ****+. The whole time, the fans were into it, either clapping along or just silently watching and giving respect. A lot of ground holds early and then Gibson started turning up the MMA spots, including a spot where they were on the outside of the ring and just started slugging at each other like they were Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar. Gibson also used the pride knees and went for several variations of the choke. Awesome moment came when Gibson fired off 7 German Suplexes in a row and bridged on the last one, the ref apparently counted to 3 and the bell rang and the crowd let out a mammoth pop, but apparently it was a mistake because the ref quickly signalled it was 2. "You fucked up" chant at the bell ringer. Gibson hit a Tiger Bomb that everyone thought could be the finish but Strong kicked out. They went up top, and Gibson was going for a top rope Tiger Bomb, and Strong countered into a deal where he had Gibson up on his shoulders and came down dropping him back first over his knees. He immediately followed up with a liontamer with the knee in the back and Gibson tapped. Huge ovation for both after the match and more chants of "MVP" and "Thank You Gibson", he got on the mic and was clearly emotionally overwhelmed. He thanked us and said ROH ressurected his career and put food on his family's table. In a great moment the crowd just erupts with "WE WILL MISS YOU", Gibson stops and looks like he's going to break down and then just quietly responds "I'm gonna miss you too". He then starts getting fired up and yelling about how ROH is the best wrestling company in the world and how he hopes one day to wrestle for us again and raises Roderick Strong's hand and says "This is your new MVP!" Gibson, Strong and Whitmer all hug as "A Country Boy Can Survive" plays to another standing ovation.

 

END THIS SHOW NOW, ITS ALREADY PERFECT.

 

Intermission

 

Match 6: Whitmer and Jacobs over Izzy and Deranged. Big heat for Lacy who said something on the mic but got bombarded with "Shut the fuck up" chants. The gist of it was she was leaving Izzy and Deranged. Jacobs was funny before the match as he got stuck doing the whole climb over the ropes deal and had to ask for help from Whitmer to get over. He then encouraged Whitmer try it and he needed Jacobs help! This match was short and it was a mess. The former Special K kids were just totally off. There was one SICK missed spot where Izzy was gonna do a moonsault from the middle of the top rope to the outside, well he got up but I guess didn't get the distance he needed and ended up coming right back down over the top rope snapping his neck/chest area on the rope! It was SICK. People chanted "You fucked up" but I was too scared for the kid to do it. Can't remember how Whitmer and Jacobs won. Post match Lacey left with them and everyone was waiting for them to turn on her but they didn't. Jacobs sort of had a "wink, wink" look on his face like they were just playing her. Confusing angle.

 

Match 7: Colt Cabana over Jack Evans. Evans is super over. Big "JACK" chants to start with some competing "Colt". Of course there was a dance off with Jack doing all this complicated breakdancing and Colt countering with such moves as the robot. Early on was some comedy as they were both countering each other and they both were going to come up with stero kip ups but Colt couldn't get up on his. So he tried a few more times, failing each time. Finally, Jack offered him his hand to help him up, and Colt took it but then kicked him in the face. Colt twisted Evans in many holds including at one point where he was just stretching him with his legs held back and head the other way in like a standing Boston crab. Crowd chants "That's disgusting!" Jack turns to the crowd and yells "According to my watch, it's 6:30!" some guy yells back "Actually, it's 9 o clock!" He misses the 630. Colt removed his elbow pad, screamed out Homicide's name and finished Jack with the big lariat. Fun match.

Post match Julius Smokes came out onto the stage and told Colt Cabana to watch out for Rottweilers. Colt looked around like he was going to get jumped but nothing ever happened, so he ran backstage.

 

Match 8: Christopher Daniels over Jimmy Yang. Decent match, understated probably to not burn out before the main event. At a quiet moment early, someone yelled out "Allison Danger, what makes you so dangerous?" which got huge laughs and an applause and both guys just stopped and turned to the guy. Yang used a lot of kicking variations. Daniels hit Angel's Wings, but Yang kicked out. He locked Yang in the Kogi Clutch and was in it for like a minute and Yang passed out and the ref called for the bell. Kind of an abrupt finish. After the match, Daniel didn't shake his hand but applauded him and indicated he had his respect. The crowd gave Yang a huge ovation and chanted "Please Come Back".

 

Match 9: Kobashi and Homicide over Samoa Joe and Lo Ki. Just an amazing, amazing match and an amazing atmosphere to boot. Each entrance was just louder and louder. Kobashi got tons of streamers. Ki and Joe shared uneasy looks at each other early. Big "Kobashi" chants. Kobashi and Joe wanted to start with each other. Hard chops for everyone! Kobashi's chops were just sick to experience, so short and so hard. Homicide and Kobashi were totally on the same page, including when Joe and Homicide were in there, Kobashi, on the apron yelled "Homicide look!" like Joe was coming in, that caused the ref to turn around and confront Joe so Kobashi came in and helped Homicide double team! When Ki and Homicide were in there they seemed tentative at first but then just went at it. Ki delivered some hard kicks to Homicide. Joe did a suicide dive onto Kobashi. Just way too many jump out of your seat spots to remember here, but Kobashi dropped Joe on his head with a sleeper suplex and gave a half nelson suplex to Lo Ki. Ki did a sick move where Homicide was hanging upside down on the ropes so Ki climbed up and came down to a double stomp to his face! Joe gave Kobashi the muscle buster for a huge pop and great near fall. Kobashi did a spot where he must have chopped Joe 30 times in a row in the corner. Finish came when Homicide took out Joe with the rolling hilo to the outside leaving Lo Ki with Kobashi. Kobashi delivered the Orange Krush (suplex into a powerbomb) for a 2 count, and even though everyone was chanting for the Burning Hammer, he did the Lariat to KI for the win. Huge ovation after and all 4 had their names chanted. "Arigato(sp?)" chant. Kobashi bowed to all 4 sides and raised his hands. Joe took the mic and said NOAH and ROH were the cutting edge of Pro Wrestling and put down "sports entertainment". Joe shook hands with Kobashi and Homicide and Ki left with each other.

 

Just an amazing, amazing show. I can't even decide whether the main event tag or Gibson/Strong was the better match. They were both amazing and total "main events" with great atmosphere. The Cabana/Evans and Castagnoli matches were really fun too. They're not coming back to Philly until April which is just too damn long.

[tpww7 0]

Philly doesent deserve another show until April. That crowd was horrible for the most part all night.

[Fökai 0]

Do we really need that many chants?

[King Cucaracha 0]

Sal Rinauro > Claudio > Everyone

 

Joe took the mic and said NOAH and ROH were the cutting edge of Pro Wrestling and put down "sports entertainment"

 

Not to get on ROH's back, but...That's nice and all, but as much as they denounce it, it's not beyond ROH to do sports entertainment.

 

Hell, Paul Bearer for example. Infact, on-screen authority figures are a pretty sports entertainmenty thing to have. Or, going old school, The Christopher St. Connection. Allison Danger kissing Alexis Laree mid-match (yeah, yay ROH for respecting women's wrestling, huh?). Low Ki pretending to take a pill with Special K. Remember how one of the commentators said after that that ROH do sports entertainment better than anyone else as well? Or how about the 'fan' who did a moonsault at Unscripted? Or the big black guy who did run-ins from the crowd for no reason?

 

It's nice to see ROH doing well (bringing in Kobashi, bringing in Milano, putting Strong on the way to being a big name star) but the whole deal of painting themselves whiter than white still gets on my nerves with them.

[World's Worst Man 0]

"Sports entertainment" isn't the focus of the show though, the wrestling is still #1. Plus, putting down "sports entertainment" is just a way to jab the E anyway

[Precious Roy 0]

Also, Joe is a full-time TNA worker. But, I understand the sentiment he is expressing, and it's appreciated in these times

[King Cucaracha 0]

Oh, I understand the statement too and coming from Joe, it's fine because he is pretty much as pure of a 'wrestler' to come out of North America and make it big in the past few years. I just found it...ironic, I guess is the word.

[Epic Reine 0]

Ironic and arbitrary {and slightly hypocritical}.

 

We are ROH. We are God.

[Guest OSIcon]

Some comments....

 

On Cornette as the 'Authority Figure' -

 

I have no problem with it, but then again I am a HUGE Cornette fan so probably wouldn't complain any role he has, as long as he is on the shows. It was kind of ridiculous hearing Cornette rip on people interfering in matches given that, well....he's Jim Cornette. The Paul Bearer segment was really weird and one of the rare ROH angles that made me roll my eyes. Most of the time, ROH storylines are simple or innocently goofy, but the Paul Bearer stuff came off more lame than anything else to me (and I usually like a lot of things that others find "goofy" or "lame"). Anyway, Cornette was given the job of cutting the overused (in all promotions in the past 10 years) "we aren't sports entertainment" promo, but actually made it work. So that says something. I could care less if it was a big surprise or not. I'd rather it be someone I want to see and can pull it off (like Cornette) rather than someone who is a huge surprise but that's it.

 

Also, they never implied it was a former wrestler. Unless you can show something from a news wire that I missed. All they said was that they've talked to former wrestlers, former promotors, current wrestlers, historians, ect. They said the authority figure would be someone who has dealt with all the big names in wrestling, can keep order, and has been influential on ROH. Cornette fulfills all of those.

 

Attendence -

 

I don't try to estimate attendence because I really don't care, but Mike Johnson and PWInsider has it in the area of "800 - 950. Possibly even more". I find his estimates to usually be right on or too low, so I think his numbers are a bit more accurate than the '600' being thrown out. I'd probably say that 950 is too too high, but in the area of 700 or 800 seems about right. The truth is, this was a Sunday show with what was seen as the lesser of the two main events of the weekend. I've got to imagine that if people were coming out of town for just one of the shows, they were going to go to NY because that was on the better day (Saturday) with the "bigger" match. All those things considered, the show drew just fine. The 7/23 Philly crowd wasn't significantly less than this either (the there were obviously less people).

 

The Crowd -

 

From the time I started going to ROH shows in Philly up until the last year or so, I didn't care for the crowds at all. However, in the last year or so, the Philly crowds have gotten a lot better to the point where I think they are one of the better crowds ROH has on the east coast. My biggest concern is cheering faces and booing heels. I wouldn't have thought it possible a year ago, but the Philly fans are actually starting to do that, at least in a relative sense. Low Ki gets more heat in Philly than in most places (with the exception of last night but that match was worked face/face) and the fans generally give the desired reactions. Nigel was over big as a heel last night and so was Rave like always. The crowd was DEAD for the Trios Tournament in March but were really into almost everything last night. I've read the same thing from most people who were there. Not getting the "dead crowd" complaint.

 

Chants -

 

The 'This is Awesome' chant is by far my least favorite chant in wrestling and it was chanted twice during the main event. I think I'd rater hear dueling chants and I am not a fan of those either. Worst thing TNA has brought to wrestling.

 

The Matches -

 

The four way was really good and the second four way in a row I've seen live and been really happy with. Claudio was way over and did a really good job. Rave/Sydal was solid. The tag title match was alright, but Sal and Mamaluke need to drop the convoluted tag team moves and stick with double team moves they can actually hit cleanly. I am not as high on Gibson/Strong as some people were, but I still thought it was a very good match. Would have been with a face/heel structure but they did an excellent job overcoming that. Homicide vs. Evans was fun and a good comedy match, though Evans' kicks are still his main draw back. They are way too soft. Yang/Daniels was solid but I was surprised at the post-match ovation that Yang got. He wan't bad, but he did nothing special either. The main event was great and worked totally in the NOAH main event tag style. Low Ki and Homicide were really treated like juniors which was a little odd because in ROH, they are generally treated on the level of Joe and all the other "top guys". It worked though. Kobashi gave everyone a ton of offense. I can't see how Joe won't be offered a NOAH tour after this weekend.

[tpww7 0]

I attend pretty much every east coast show and I still say last night's crowd was horrible and it took alot for them to wake up. And blame GLF for the this is awesome chant.

[bob_barron 0]

It sounds like Gibson got a great farewell last night, which is always nice to see.

 

I love Cornette too, I just don't get why they're bringing in a guy who cheats as much as he does, to enforce clean finishes.