ROH 5YF/Samoa Joe Farewell Tour-UK WEEKEND

[Hawk 34 0]

Credit: Wrestlemag.com

 

We’re live at the Olympia in Liverpool, England for tonight’s first Ring of Honor show of the weekend. Doors have only just opened so the show is going to be delayed in getting started, but join us over the next few hours for full coverage from tonight’s show.

 

As always, we thank you for joining us for our live coverage, and be sure to refresh this page regularly for the latest updates direct from Liverpool.

 

- ROH are using the same set that they brought over for Unified last year. Todd Sinclair is there as referee also.

 

- Homicide vs Davey Richards opened the show. Huge pop for Homicide. He picked up the win after he hit Richards with a Cop Killa. It was one of those openers where they hit every big move they have, which hopefully doesn’t kill the crowd later in the show.

 

- Sara Del Rey beat Allison Danger after a cradle suplex. Pretty basic match. The only thing that got actual heat rather than patronizing clapping was Del Ray’s kicks.

 

- Jimmy Rave & Jimmy Jacobs beat Colt Cabana & BJ Whitmer. This started out as a brawl before turning into a wrestling match. Cabana was streets ahead of the others in this one. During the match, Whitmer hit Jacobs with a powerbomb onto the guard rails. Finish came with Jacobs hitting Whitmer with the Contracode for the win.

 

- Matt Sydal beat Delirious in a 2/3 Falls match. Sydal took the first fall after a low blow to Delirious and a small package. Delirious won the second fall with the Cobra Stretch, making it 1-1. Sydal took the third fall after pushing the referee into the ropes, crotching Delirious who was on the top rope. Sydal then hit a belly-to-belly suplex from the top to win 2-1. Much better than their match at Suffocation which I reviewed on the site this week.

 

- All floor seating appears to be sold out, and most of the lower tiered seats too. Quite a few empty seats in the upper sections. Still a good crowd, probably around 1,000.

 

- Jetta and Eden Black (two British based females for those reading who may be unfamiliar with them) cut a promo, challenging Sara Del Ray and Allison Danger to a match tomorrow night. Terrible promo.

 

- Roderick Strong beat Pac. Really good match. Strong really impressed, and these two were perfect for each other. During the match, Pac was thrown back first against the ring post, and took a back breaker on the ring apron. Pac also hit an insane corkscrew dive into the crowd on Strong. Pac also hit a 450 splash but Strong kicked out, and soon after hit a Gibon Driver to retain the FIP Heavyweight Title.

 

- Naruki Doi & Shingo beat Jay & Mark Briscoe to become the new ROH Tag Team Champions. Incredible match. All four threw out an amazing amount of cool spots. After the match, the Briscoes speak. Jay challenges Mark to a match, Mark accepts.

 

The new champions will take on Roderick Strong & Davey Richards on tomorrow night’s show, while Jay Briscoe vs Mark Briscoe will also happen tomorrow night.

 

- Samoa Joe beat Nigel McGuinness with the choke after earlier hitting a Muscle Buster on the ring apron. Referees came to help McGuinness to the back. Joe demanded a handshake, but Nigel slapped him in the face instead. He hit another Muscle Buster but McGuinness kicked out before finally tapping out. An amazing main event.

 

After the match, Joe put over both McGuinness and Ring of Honor, but that’s not even beginning to get into this. Truly amazing, and extremely emotional. I’ll have a detailed recap from tonight’s show up on the site tomorrow morning to do this justice.

 

Thanks for joining us this evening for our live coverage. We’ll be back tomorrow with full coverage of tomorrow night’s show from Liverpool, which sees Samoa Joe make his final scheduled appearance with Ring of Honor.

 

So for those who aren't keeping score, this means that BOTH of ROH's championships are currently held by japanese talent from two different promotions. Conversely, ROH has possesion of a DRAGON GATE championship. Things are really unpredictable right now and not in that Vince Russo "OMG! WACKY SWERVE!". 2007 is already balls-out for Gabe and his creative mind. Night two takes place later tonight and below is the card.

 

SAMOA JOE'S FINAL MATCH

Homicide Vs Samoa Joe

 

FALLS COUNT ANYWHERE

BJ Whitmer Vs Jimmy Jacobs

 

FIGHT WITHOUT HONOR

Jimmy Rave Vs Nigel McGuinness

 

BROTHER VS BROTHER

Jay Briscoe Vs Mark Briscoe

 

ROH TAG TEAM TITLES

Davey Richards and Roderick Strong Vs Shingo and Doi

 

Matt Sydal Vs PAC

 

Allison Danger and Sara Del Ray Vs Jetta and Eden Black

 

Colt Cabana Vs Delirious.

 

 

*Also, don't forget that as we speak KENTA is challenging Morishima for the ROH Title in Japan.

[Hawk 34 0]

Day 2

 

The show is starting a little late. Live coverage will be starting at around 1pm Eastern.

 

-Before the show has started, a brawl started in the crowd between BJ Whitmer and Jimmy Jacobs. They brawled to the back. Hard to tell whether this was filmed or not.

 

1) Delirious beat Colt Cabana in the opening match of the night. Said to be a really good comedy match to open the show. The crowd were really into it. Delirious won with a roll up.

 

2) Sara Del Ray & Allison Danger beat Jetta & Eden Black after a cradle DDT by Del Ray.

 

3) BJ Whitmer beat Jimmy Jacobs in a ‘Falls Count Anywhere’ match. The match started in the crowd. Jacobs hit a crossbody off the first balcony onto Whitmer down on the ground. They eventually got to the ring where Jacobs used a spike on Whitmer’s forehead. Lots of blood. Whitmer hit a tombstone piledriver then later hit Jacobs with a brainbuster on the entrance ramp before winning by pinfall.

 

4) Matt Sydal beat Pac in a fast paced match with way too many moves going on to list here. They exchanged spinning heel kicks early on before Sydal hit a high elevation jump legdrop then started to try to get Pac to submit with several different submission holds. Pac later hit a corkscrew to Sydal on the outside, then back in the ring hit a corkscrew 450 splash. Sydal fought back and hit a Shooting Star Press before winning by pinfall.

 

5) Jay Briscoe vs Mark Briscoe went to a draw after both men stayed down for a ten count. Said to have been a truly brilliant match. The crowd were split 50/50. They slapped each other hard in the face at the start, then exchanged moves. Very even opening series of exchanges. Jay sent Mark to the outside and slammed him onto the floor. Mark then suplexed Jay on the ramp and followed it up with a heel kick and then a double stomp. Jay then hit a DDT before Mark fought back with a T-Bone suplex. Jay then hit a Stunner and a big boot for a near fall. Mark went to the outside and was hit by Jay who somersaulted over the top rope to the outside.

 

Mark hit a top rope ace crusher but Jay kicked out. Jay then hit a top rope facebuster for a two count. Two more T-Bone suplexes, this time by Mark on Jay. He then hit a frankensteiner from the apron to the floor (bad landing from this one). They made it back into the ring and stayed down for an eight count after a Jay Driller. Mark then hit a reverse DVD on Jay, leading to the end with both men staying down for the count of ten. Brilliant.

 

-Intermission

 

 

6) Naruki Doi & Shingo defeated Roderick Strong & Davey Richards in a stiff match to retain the ROH Tag Team titles after Doi pinned Richards following a top rope face jam.

 

7) Nigel McGuinness beat Jimmy Rave in the ‘Fight Without Honor’. McGuinness hit a lariat early and sent Rave into the guard rail. He then got a chair but Rave dropkicked the chair into him. He then worked over McGuinness but McGuinness fought back and bodyslammed Rave onto the floor and then crotched him on the guard rail, following it up by pancaking him and busting him open.

 

Back in the ring, Rave hit a Shining Wizard for a two count, and then a spear. McGuinness fought back with a lariat but was then hit with a dropkick from the top rope. McGuinness hit the Tower of London but Rave kicked out of that. McGuinness then kicked out of the Pedigree by Rave and went on to hit a lariat from the second rope. He then backdropped Rave from the ring onto the guard rail and hit a Tower of London on a chair. Rave kicked out but McGuinness hit the Tower of London again, this time on the guard rail. He followed it up with a big lariat and picked up the pinfall win.

 

8) Samoa Joe beat Homicide in what was said to be a great main event. Joe walked into the crowd and grabbed a beer from the bar at the start of the match. Homicide tried a cross body but Joe side stepped it. Homicide got angry and hit a running kick in the corner and then a clothesline. Joe hit a big boot/senton combo, then the Ole kick in the corner. Homicide fought back and hit an ace crusher on the apron.

 

Joe fought back with a clothesline and a powerslam, then hit an STO. He then got caught up on the top rope, with Homicide hitting a superplex, then a piledriver. Joe hit a double powerbomb before Homicide hit a DDT from the top rope shortly after. Homicide hit another ace crusher then laid out Joe with the ring Bell. Later on, Joe hit another Ole kick, this time on Julius Smokes. Homicide hit a dive into the crowd, landing on Joe.

 

The finish came when Joe hit a Muscle Buster off the top rope and got the pinfall win.

[bob_barron 0]

Joe not losing on his farewell tour is pretty stupid- Nigel really should've gone over.

[Hawk 34 0]

Nigel got a win over Joe last weekend and Joe's coming back. You can't just job Joe out because he's no longer a regular.

 

While I do think Nigel could have gained from going over Joe in his "homebase", I don't think it hurts him by any means as he and Joe had what appears to be a really good match and Nigel went over the next day in a FWH's match with Rave. Nigel's in a spot where he doesn't really need a rub from going over a certain talent. People like Richards might have gained from beating Joe but Nigel wasn't in need that much.

 

He'll be one of the key figures for ROH over the next week alongside Briscoes, Morishima, Danielson and Strong. He's in good shape.

[bob_barron 0]

I had no problem with Joe going over Morishma, Rave or Richards.

 

But it's stupid to have Nigel job to Joe in England, when Joe's not coming back for a while. I think Nigel finally getting a good clean singles victory over Joe in the UK would've meant a lot to him