From Mike Barrett:
Crowd was pretty hot throughout, but a bit burned out by
the end of the show, which ran over 3 and a half hours.
Opener was Chris Hero with the rest of Sweet n Sour vs Ruckus. Hero
dominated early, until Ruckus hit a soccer kick. Shane Hagadorn interference
backfired in one nice spot. Hero won, though my view of the finish was
obscured by the inevitable seating kerfuffle in front of me.
Kenny Omega (billed from Winnipeg) vs Delirious was up next. Omega had a
Brian Pillman/Brad Armstrong look and vibe, and an aerial arsenal to match.
His selling was a bit comic at times, but the high spots were solid and well
timed throughout. Delirious gave him most of the match. but won by
submission at the end.
Sara Del Ray beat Jennifer Blake quickly. This was a short match, and they
lost the crowd fairly early. Work was unusually sloppy. Del Ray kept beating
Blake after the match, leading to a Daizee Haze run-in rescue.
Go Shiozaki and Erick Stevens went to a 15-minute draw. I don't know if it
was really 15 minutes, but it was close enough. They telegraphed the finish
with a "one minute remainiing warning". The match before took the crowd
down, and they had a hard time getting the crowd back. Some wicked chops and
good high spots got the crowd more interested. Shiozaki landed a superplex
at the bell. Stevens got on the mike and begged for five more minutes. Larry
Sweeney made fun of him, at least until Lance Storm came out to a tremendous
pop. Storm cut a nice promo and Sweeney made like the chickenpoop heel until
Hero did a run in. They beat on Storm and Stevens until the faces made their
own comeback.
Brian Danielson beat Claudio Castagnoli in the best match of the night. They
started with lots of good chain wrestling spots. Danielson then sold for
quite a while, selling that Castagnoli had a chance to win. A nice dropkick
and extended short-arm scissors sequence put Danielson back in charge.
Castagnoli did about a 15-rep giant swing to a good pop. Castagnoli sold his
shoulder throughout. Most other matches had more high spots, but this had
the best story-telling, the best selling and probably the most heat.
Danielson won with a rollup, then wished Castagnoli good luck in his title
shot Saturday in Detroit.
Rhett Titus came out after the intermission. He had a trophy with him, that
-- amazingly for pro wrestling - didn't get broken over someone's head.
Daizee Haze came out, but was ambushed by Sara Del Ray. Titus took off, and
Del Ray was pounding on Haze until Delirious came out. Delirious wouldn't
hit Del Ray (while being taunted about not hitting a woman by Larry
Sweeney), but he did jump in front of Haze to take a few shots. Haze and
Delirious shared a moment of tenderness before leaving.
Naomuchi Marafuji beat Roderick Strong in the night's other very good match.
It was more of a spotfest than the Danielson match, but the spots were good
and the crowd really came alive. Many creative spots that i hadn't seen
before. Strong was caught in the tree of woe when marafuji came off the
adjacent top turnbuckle with a Van Terminator. Great pops for many near
falls before Marafuji climbed the turnbuckles with Strong in a headlock to
deliver something like the old Buff Blockbuster. I'm sure this has a
creative name, I just don't watch enough ROH to know what to call it.
Kevin Steen came out to O Canada to make sure he got a face reaction in his
title shot against Nigel McGuinness. This one started very slowly. The first
high spot was McGuinness giving a press and slam to Steen while Steen was
standing onthe guardrail, ending with Steen's back against the ring apron.
Much of the match was McGuinness working over Steen's back, with Steen
getting a few comebacks that were quickly cut off. I think they were trying
to sell that Steen was this tough guy who could take a pounding but would
never give in. But Steen's comebacks were so short and uninspiring, they
lost the crowd fpr a while, at least until Steen did a somersault senton
splash off the top turnbuckle to the floor. That picked things up for a much
more lively finish. They traded big moves and false finishes that brought
the crowd back into it. For the finish, McGuinness sat Steen on the top
rope, then jumped off the turnbuckle with a lariat clothesline.
Tag main event was a no-DQ matchup of Austin Aries and Jay Briscoe versus
Jimmy Jacobs and Tyler Black. This was a mess. After a few minutes of
brawling, Necro Butcher ran in to join Black and Jacobs. This brought out
Mark Briscoe and after a brief "welcome back" chant, all six were on the
floor brawling. This made the action hard to follow, but among the
highlights: Necro Butcher picking up a light pole and going after a Briscoe;
Necro Butcher taking out a referee with a chair shot; hundreds and hundreds
of other chair shots; a Butcher body slam of Austin Aries and a chair, and
one Briscoe (Mark, I think, ending his night) going through a ringside table
thanks to Butcher. It was hard to follow, and hard to watch as well.
Butcher's work is pretty sloppy. Jay Briscoe bled from the top of the head,
and Jacobs and Butcher celebrated by taking a bite and spitting the blood in
the air, Muta mist style. Jacobs got on the microphone, gave Butcher a spike
of some kind and ordered Necro to take out Aries' eye. Necro walked off
instead, and Briscoe eventually piledrives Black after he and Aries combined
to deliver the old Road Warriors Doomsday Device.
The final two matches were both disappointing. Steen - McGuinness had some
great moments, but some long lulls and enough McGuinness clotheslines to
hang a week's worth of laundry. But up to that point the show was good to
great. Danielson-Castagnoli and Strong-Marafuji were easily the top matches
of the night. Kenny Omega had a strong showing. They announced matches for
Montreal and Markham (just north of Toronto) in November.
Cheers,
Mike Barrett,
From T.J. Packard:
I've only attended about 15 ROH shows but this was the best of the bunch. This show flowed perfectly from top to bottom. The construction on the QEW/Gardner was absolutely horrible. I feel really bad for the people who gotta go thru that every day.
{plug}
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