Upon arriving at O'Hare International yesterday afternoon, though I had been away from home in Florida (college visit, 'twas quite an interesting experience) for the past few days, I decided to extend my absence just a bit longer and head straight to the ROH show down in Chicago Ridge. While it wasn't anywhere near as awesome as the first one I went to (which was taped and broadcast as the PPV event 'Man Up!"), for the most part, you really can't go wrong with Ring of Honor, and this show was no exception.
DARK MATCH
Danny Daniels & Rhett Titus vs. Trik Davis & Ernie Osiris
Not much to say here, pretty typical dark match. I don't really like the Top of the Class Trophy, as I think it's meaningless and doesn't do anything to elevate the holder beyond "big fish in a small pond" status. Or "comparatively big fish in a smaller pond within a small pond," I suppose. Anyway, the win goes to Titus, whose "Sexiest Man Alive" gimmick could conceivably be rather entertaining if he had charisma (and it couldn't hurt to stop dry-humping everything in the ring), and Daniels, the winner of the unofficial Tazz Lookalike Contest.
MAIN SHOW
Silas Young vs. Austin Aries
Despite the recent tease that Aries might be the newest member of the Age of the Fall, after Jimmy Jacobs sent Lacey to "persuade" him to join, Aries is still mega-over here in Chicago, as he should be. Austin flattens Young in a glorified squash via submission with the Horns of Aries.
Afterwards, Jimmy Jacobs enters the ring with a mic to congratulate his newest stablemate, but Aries turns on him, saying that he and Lacey have been fucking behind Jimmy's back ever since he sent her to get Aries into the AOTF, and Jimmy is
sad. Naturally, this gets Aries a huge face pop, since, as Edge taught us quite some time ago, stealing someone else's girl gets you cheered.
Alex "Sugarfoot" Payne vs. Mitch Franklin
Another match involving small-time guys, but this one barely has a chance to get started, as Jacobs, in an attempt to save face, runs down Aries on the mic before deciding to sic the Necro Butcher on these two. Necro brutalizes them for a while with his barbed-wire fist and a steel chair, and then pins one of them to be... Declared the official winner? WTF? They must have declared the original match a no-contest and officially made it an impromptu three-way after Necro hit the ring... I guess.
Claudio Castagnoli & Pelle Primeau vs. Adam Pearce & Brent Albright I kinda like Pelle's current look; he's like a really tiny Raven. They follow a traditional formula here, with Pelle playing the underdog by taking a ton of offense from the big guys before managing to get the hot tag, but it worked nicely. Claudio
gets the Ricola Bomb FTW after Pearce tries to hit him with his briefcase (and I have no idea why he's carrying it around, I suppose he only started doing it recently) and accidentally nails Albright instead.
Ashlee Lane vs. MsChif vs. Daizee Haze vs. Lacey
Whereas the fans were cheering Aries for stealing Lacey from Jimmy before, we don't seem to be so willing to embrace Lacey herself, as we bombard her with plenty of "slut" and "whore" chants. I love the Chicago crowd. Anyway, ROH never fails to
deliver a good match when it comes to its female athletes, as was the case here. MsChif pinned Ashlee to win after some weird looking move I might have seen before and don't feel like double-checking.
Afterwards, Jimmy hits the ring, pleading with Lacey to tell him that Aries was lying about sleeping with her, and as the chants begin again, she hilariously bitches at us by saying it's a "private matter," even though they're discussing it in the least private place in the entire building. Pro wrestling logic FTW. Anyway, Lacey apologetically tells Jimmy she doesn't want to talk about it, and that they should go their separate ways. Ouch. Jimmy starts to cry, and we show our, um, sympathy by throwing streamers at him. Again, I love the Chicago crowd.
Chris Hero vs. Delirious
I like Hero, I really do, and I have the T-shirt to prove it, but I will say I liked him a lot better when he did more wrestling than "athletic displays" and frequently stirred up shit with the fans to draw insane heat, though I realize that neither he nor anyone else in ROH will ever again be as hated as Hero was during the ROH/CZW war. This match is pretty average, and sees virtually no showboating from Hero, oddly enough, though it's still hard-hitting, as Delirious nearly knife-edge chops the crest right off Hero's shirt. Hero picks up the duke after... A forearm strike? Maybe I wasn't paying close enough attention to the finish, but I'm pretty sure that all it took to put Delirious down for the three was a forearm strike to the face. If that's the case, it's pretty lame.
Murder City Machine Guns vs. The Briscoes (Non-Title)
There's absolutely nothing bad I can say about this match; to me, seeing Sabin and Shelley doing their thing was worth the price of admission alone, and the fans around me seemed to agree, going ballistic for them from the moment they stepped through the curtain. Excellent match, full of spectacular dives and combo moves, and the crowd was red-hot the whole time. Shelley got the win for the Guns with a top-rope Sliced Bread #2, and for a moment I was shocked and ecstatic, until I remembered that the match was non-title. Then I was just mostly ecstatic.
Afterwards, the AOTF hit the ring again, and I was getting pretty damn tired of seeing Jimmy and his goddamn hair. They took out the Briscoes... Or, at least, I think that's what they did. I don't really remember whether or not they did anything else, they were in a lot of segments. Jimmy isn't going to cry again, but he's still emo, so he cuts himself with a sharp object.
Intermission time, since the crowd needs to cool down after the awesome spotfest that was MCMG/Briscoes. I debated buying another Chris Hero T-shirt, but decided to spend my money on DVDs instead.
Kota Ibushi vs. El Generico
This is being billed as a "dream match," and, in hindsight, I can see why--Ibushi is awesome. He reminds me a lot of KENTA, except with less martial arts and more high-flying. Both guys work extra-stiff here, and though they started out at a slow pace (which prompted some idiot to chant "boring," but he quickly got drowned out by those around him), the last few minutes were the traditional ROH supernova. Ibushi won, so I suppose he's Ring of Honor's next big Japanese import.
Age of the Fall (Tyler Black, Joey Matthews, Zach Gowen) vs. The Vulture Squad (Jack Evans, Jigsaw, Ruckus) I don't know when or why Jigsaw unmasked, but he needs to put it back on. Dude looks
like Macaulay Culkin. Joey and Zach get a lot of heat for being WWE rejects. Individually, Joey gets jeered for his spray-tan and lack of wrestling gear, while the fans also cruelly and hilariously mock Zach by chanting "I have two legs." The match is short, but a fun spot-fest nonetheless, ending in victory for the AOTF thanks to Tyler Black's Small Package Driver.
For fuck's sake, Jimmy Jacobs is in the ring again. Aries runs out to fight him, and it's a very weird moment, as both are wearing the exact same black-tank-top-and-black-pants ensemble, making it difficult to tell who's who. Eventually, Austin is overwhelmed and held in place so that Jimmy can poke him with
his sharp object, but Lacey runs in the ring to beg him off. Jimmy looks like he's about to poke Lacey instead, some other stuff happens, and somehow they all wind up out of the ring in time for the main event. Fuck if I know how it happened, I was
too busy not paying close attention. A guy near me remarked that for a while, he thought he was seeing Monday Night RAW, and while I hate to say it, I sorta agree.
Kevin Steen vs. Nigel McGuinness (ROH World Title Match)
I don't really know why so many people hate Nigel nowadays, but as a result, he's in full heel mode here, so everyone cheers when Steen runs up and kicks him in the balls as Nigel gets in the ring. Considering that the competitors were Steen and a heel Nigel, plenty of similar shenanigans ensued, but it didn't take anything away from the rest of the action, as both guys hit a lot of big moves, some of which looked like they really hurt--the one I remember best was when Nigel hit his kick-to-the-back-and-clothesline-in-the-corner combo from the apron corner to the floor. Nigel eventually retained, probably with the Jawbreaker.
While it wasn't the best show I've seen ROH put on, not by a longshot, the live-event atmosphere is awesome, and I really enjoyed the experience. ROH returns in late June, and I'll probably be coming back to see it then, too.
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