By Lou Pickney

-The local promotion for this show was HORRIBLE.  Had my friend Gary
not tipped me off to it, I might have missed the show altogether.  I
remember Shane Douglas complaining about WCW circa 1993 doing this
sort of thing with no local promotion and how he could have gone out
and papered the town himself and gotten more fans there than what WCW
had.  At least in the internet era the hardcore fans knew about it,
but it's pathetic to go to the effort of setting up a live show and
all the talent they brought in for the show (it was a very full
lineup) and then to do nothing to promote it.  That really needs to be
addressed by the company.  I want them to do well.
 
-It was a young crowd there with plenty of people in their 20s.  I'm
31 and felt old compared with the median age from what I saw.  I
wasn't quite sure what to expect; my days of going to USWA shows at
the Fairgrounds more than a decade ago exposed me to the crowd that I
believe Dutch Mantel once compared to the bar scene in the original
Star Wars movie.  ROH didn't have that, and it didn't have the overtly
redneck/uneducated audience that I saw at WWF and WCW shows in the
1990s in town (e.g. chanting "USA" as a bizarre show of support for
German wrestler Alex Wright at Starrcade '94 at Nashville's Municipal
Auditorium when Wright was taking on Jean Paul Levesque, of course now
known as HHH).
 
-There was quite an interesting mix of hardcore wrestling fans with
I'm guessing some Vandy college students at ringside, including some
attractive women, which was nice and not particularly expected.  Per
capita there were more hot women at the show than I've seen at any
wrestling show I've ever been to, from tiny indie shows to
WrestleMania XV in Philadelphia.  I didn't bring my girlfriend along
because I really didn't know what to expect, but I think she would
have enjoyed it, at least enough to not complain.
 
-Up in the bleachers (which was wisely utilized to handle seating
beyond the four rows at ringside) there was the more typical pro
wrestling audience, lots of kids there too, but also a couple with a
young boy who sat in front of me who I heard speaking only Spanish.
 
-Sal Rinauro had a bad night, with two badly blown spots in the
opener.  The crowd groaned at that, then hit him with chants of "You
fucked up!"  I felt uncomfortable with the profanity flying then and
later with there being so many kids in the audience, and that sort of
thing generally doesn't bother me at all.  The crowd was small enough
where people could yell things and EVERYONE could hear them if it was
loud enough, and that's despite Vandy's gym being a huge place that
has hosted the SEC basketball tournament, NCAA men's and women
basketball tournament events, etc.  It's not like a small building,
which made it even more unique to a degree.
 
-As for the match, it baffles me that you'd have two world-class
wrestlers on the show in Jay and Mark Briscoe and give them hardly any
ring time.  I hope there was a good reason for this decision.
 
-Maybe I'm just homophobic, but between Rhett Titus and
Delirious/Jimmy Jacobs there was way too much "gay undertones to get
heat" stuff early in the show.  That sort of thing fell into the
"things that I'd be embarrassed for friends to see" at a show.  Maybe
it's a good thing I didn't invite my girlfriend along after all.
 
-After the match they threw a Rhett Titus storyline at us, which made
little sense with the product having no regular TV exposure here save
for their PPV events.  The crowd hated it.  HATED IT.  Despite his
stripper gimmick being a turn-off, I was actually impressed by Titus
as far as his presence goes, and I could see WWE making a play for him
if he gets on the sauce, err, I mean if he adds 20 pounds of muscle
through hard work.  Somehow I think Vince would make him change his
"The thrust is the must" catchphrase.  The only good thing about the
post-match angle was the humor in Titus admitting to being a virgin,
but overall this is the sort of thing I don't want from ROH.  Save
that shit for backstage when they can do retakes.
 
-The SHIMMER match was enjoyable.  Not great, but decent.  Sara Del
Rey hit a powerbomb on Ashley Lane where Lane landed head-first on the
bottom turnbuckle in the corner.  I don't think that was a planned
spot.  The ref carried Lane to the back after the match, though my
guess is that it was selling the exploder/t-bone suplex that Sara hit
on Lane for the finish (which was obvious coming from a mile away with
Daizee Haze & Serena Deeb outside the ring).  Deeb has ridiculously
huge tits, which of course drew comments from the crowd (like "Give
her the motorboat!" as if she'd use her breasts as a weapon).
 
-I hate three/four person matches where the first pinfall ends it. The
psychology is horrid.  It's a shame that Heyman's ECW style of
elimination matches (vs. first fall wins) didn't make the leap to
other promotions like some of his other ideas did.
 
-Davey Richards had some great ring work with both Brent Albright and
Eric Stevens.  Larry Sweeney played the wimpy manager in a tag match
role to perfection, with his pink ring outfit fitting with his Adrian
Adonis hair and the crowd going bonkers to see him finally take a
beating.
 
-Bushwacker Luke Williams looks very old.  Seeing Dave Crist hit an
asai moonsault on Luke was the most unexpected move combo since seeing
Hulk Hogan take a huracanrana from Billy Kidman in WCW.
 
-"Personal Jesus" was a great entrance song for Butcher/Aries.  I've
known that song since it first came out but never thought of it in a
pro wrestling entrance term, but it worked well.
 
-Tyler Black has the look of someone Vince would want to steal for
WWE.  HHH should start telling McMahon that Black is "too small" right
now.  Austin Aries was over big, though Black looked great and
arguably even better than Aries and he can really move well for a big
man.  After all the blown spots early in the show, Black was
impressive and crisp.
 
-The double countout finish in the Jacobs/Black vs. Aries/Butcher
match sucked.  The only positive was letting me use my favorite Bret
Hart word (schmozz) in a loud shout at the ring.  I don't like Butcher
(his work was minor league looking compared with the other three guys
in the match), yet him doing a dive with a 360 from the top rope to
the floor was spectacular.
 
-Claudio Castagnoli vs. Bryan Danielson was fantastic.  Danielson's
blade job was pretty severe.  I had to look up the Muta blade job vs.
Hase (online at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2yxfSRz-cw) and it wasn't on that
level on juice, but it was still serious enough to where Danielson was
wearing a substantial crimson mask.  The crowd was into him big time,
and you could tell those who reacted to him vs. those who didn't as
the hardcore ROH fans vs. the wrestling fans who happened upon the
show.  The use of the referee's belt (literally taken from his pants
by Castagnoli) as a weapon was violence to the point of being
disconcerting to me.  They were laying those shots in there stiff.
Danielson hit three planchas on Claudio, with one knocking Castagnoli
into the first row (shades of ECW, La Parka, etc.) but on the fourth
he did a plancha into a surprise chair shot from Castagnoli, which was
the catalyst for the blade job.
 
-Nigel McGuinness vs. Jerry Lynn was a great match and also a
wonderful job at storytelling. DVD doesn't do McGuinness justice; his
work is solid but his presence and ability to draw heat was
outstanding, some of the best I've ever seen in person.  How is Nigel
not in WWE or TNA?  He certainly has the height and "the look" --
everything about him is major league.  It's to ROH's credit that they
have him as their champion.
 
-There was a vocal section of fans in the crowd who got into the
storyline of Lynn being from Minnesota but "now making his home in
Murfreesboro, Tennessee" and Nigel for being a non-American.  Nigel
played it brilliantly, taunting the Lynn fans when he got the edge of
offense.  "Where are your chants now?" he asked, drawing major heat
from the loud Lynn section  Nigel's selling was tremendous.  Lynn hit
the cradle piledriver and a diamond cutter in getting 2.9 counts from
clumsy ref Todd Sinclair, and he had other near falls on Nigel.
 
-As I mentioned, if you yelled loud enough everyone could hear you,
even the workers.  Some smart fans one section over from me shouted
"Tower of London" and Nigel gave them a quick point with his hand as
an acknowledgment.  Nigel's post-match dressing-down of Lynn, saying
he's not only washed up but that he "not only doesn't have it" but
that he "never had it", which drew nuclear heat.  Fans threw trash at
him.
 
-Lynn made sure to acknowledge the loud section cheering for him in
the stands before he left the right.  If ROH comes back to Nashville
(no announcement that they would, unlike St. Louis last night) they
could have a money program with a Lynn/Nigel rematch.  Give comp
tickets to a few Vandy students to paper 21st Avenue and the area
around the school, maybe buy a few radio spots on sports talk stations
(we have two on FM in Nashville) and perhaps even get a local paper to
write up the Lynn in Murfreesboro connection and, voila, 250 could
turn into 1,000.  Word of mouth from the show should be strong with
those great last few matches.
 
-One guy had a sign that said he drove 8 hours to see the show.  I
believe it, noting that (besides the Orlando shows) this is the
furthest south the promotion has ever gone.  I hope they come back
here when they make the run through St. Louis again, but we'll see
about that.
 
Lou Pickney
http://www.draftking.com