ROH at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City 5/10/08 Report
This was ROH’s debut show in the Hammerstein Ballroom and they set a new attendance record for the company (without announcing a number). Almost the entire place was packed, and the crowd was hot for at least the first half of the show. Unfortunately, I had the worst seats ever and, as is usually the case when I go to ROH shows, I couldn’t see anything on the mat without standing on my chair. ROH!
1. FIP Heavyweight Champion Roderick Strong vs. Erick Stevens vs. Go Shiosaki.
Erick Stevens has lost the mohawk and looks somewhat less bizarre as a result. If you like brutally stiff chopfests, you’d love this match. It didn’t last very long, but the crowd was hot for it and popped for the big spots. The highlight to me was Shiosaki kicking out of a cradle by Strong, and then lifting him up from that position into a suplex. Stevens gave Shiosaki a Doctor Bomb, but then Strong cradled Stevens to retain the title. After Strong’s feud with Stevens ends next month, they should turn him back face. He’s not hateable enough to be a good heel.
2. Kevin Steen and El Generico vs. Davey Richards and Rocky Romero. Romero and Richards sure are hateable, though. The crowd was way into the faces, with plenty of “Mr. Wrestling!” and “Ole!” chants. They teased a lot of finishes here and had lots of hot exchanges, with only a brief heat period on Generico in the middle. Steenerico got the win after Steen gave Richards a Package Piledriver, then Generico gave him a brainbuster and pinned him. Good match, but when do Steen and Generico have bad matches?
3. Tag Team Scramble: Chris Hero and Brent Albright vs. Jack Evans and Jigsaw vs. Delirious and Pelle Primeau. Primeau now has blue-streaks in his hair. What’s with the ROH students and awful haircuts? Hero and Albright had Larry Sweeney, Sara Del Ray, Eddie Edwards, Shane Hagadorn, Johnny Fairplay and (shirtless) Bobby Dempsey in their corner. The Vulture Squad had Julius Smokes. Delirious and Primeau didn’t have anybody, though, because nobody likes them. So of course they won. This match had all the flips, planchas, somersaults and kick-outs typical of an ROH Scramble. Hero’s supposed to be a serious wrestler now, but he still dresses like a goof. And jobs like one too, getting pinned by Delirious here. Fairplay didn’t do much, but did fall victim to a “Bonaduce!” chant. The finish came when Albright was blinded by Delirious and then mistook Hero for Delirious and gave him a full-nelson suplex, leaving him easy prey for Delirious. Afterwards, in what was the highlight of the night, Albright finally turned on Sweet N’ Sour by refusing to attack Dempsey and then murdering Hagadorn by tossing him through a ringside table, before killing both Edwards and Del Ray with sick suplexes. ALBRIGHT!
ROH returns to the Hammerstein Ballroom on August 2nd in a show that will feature THE MOTOR CITY MACHINE GUNS!
4. ROH vs. NOAH: Bryan Danielson vs. Naomichi Marufuji. This match was slightly disappointing, mostly because I know these two are capable of putting on an all-time classic. They did plenty of chain-wrestling in the beginning that the crowd wasn’t really into, but picked it up nicely towards the end. Marufuji hit a springboard dropkick from corner to corner at one point, but missed when he tried a second one, as Danielson’s the type of wrestler who learns lessons as matches progress. Danielson eventually got Marufuji to tap with the Cattle Mutilation.
Intermission
Daizee Haze came out to announce that a new attendance record had been set, but Delirious (in a tie) interrupted her and gave her a rose. He struggled with the English language in typical Delirious-fashion, but eventually asked her out to dinner. She didn’t get a chance to respond, because Rhett Titus (someone who never worked a match upstairs in the Grand Ballroom) interrupted and put himself over as a sex machine. Daizee eventually left without choosing either of them. Delirious received a “You got cockblocked!” chant on the way out. This angle doesn’t exactly capture my interest.
5. Battle of the Brawlers: Takeshi Morishima vs. The Necro Butcher. Some people thought this match would rule. They were wrong. Seeing Morishima sell Necro’s weak offense after no-selling everything for about a year just didn’t work. Morishima absolutely killed him with a chairshot to the head. He also gave him a belly-to-back suplex off the top rope onto a seated chair. Seriously. The crowd was pro-Necro, of course, and deflated when Morishima pinned him following a Backdrop Driver in a short match. The crowd eventually resumed cheering for Necro afterwards. Perhaps it’s time for a face turn.
6. No Disqualification Match: ROH Tag Team Champions Austin Aries and Jay Briscoe vs. Jimmy Jacobs and Tyler Black. No Lacey on either side tonight, as she’s out selling the “attack” by Jacobs outside a health center last week. Austin Aries is one of the best wrestlers in the world, and Tyler Black is one of the best up-and-coming talents in the independents, and Briscoe and Jacobs aren’t anything less than awesome either, so this match was very good. The No DQ stipulation resulted in a lot of the match being fought on the floor, with chairshots and barricade-ramming aplenty. Aries and Jacobs shoved each other off the top through a table on the floor. Eventually, Jacobs and Black got Jay alone, and Jacobs pulled out the spike and spiked poor Jay’s head, which bled like crazy. Jacobs began rubbing the blood all over himself to chants of “You sick ****!” After a lot of false finishes and tense kickouts by both teams, plus some interference from Necro, Mark Briscoe (complete with his wrist in a cast) ran in and the Briscoes gave Black a Doomsday Device to retain the titles for Jay and Aries to a huge pop. For some strange reason, the Briscoes left Aries alone in the ring after the match, so the AOTF beat the heck out of him. Jacobs got on the mic and said he’d rather hurt Aries emotionally (how emo) then physically, and so I guess he’s going to continue tormenting him. I was somewhat alarmed when Necro slowly fell down and then laid down in the ring during this segment, but I overheard him say backstage a few minutes later that he was just a little dizzy. Yes, that’s how bad my seats were. I could hear people talking backstage.
7. ROH Heavyweight Champion Nigel McGuinness vs. Claudio Castagnoli. Nigel is so the man it’s not even funny. He was massively over with tons of heel heat. Unfortunately, I don’t think people bought Claudio as a legitimate threat and so the first ten minutes or so of this match had very little heat, as they chain-wrestled with minimal high-spots thrown in. Nigel hit plenty of lariats, receiving a “Same Old ****!” chant from the ungrateful crowd. At one point, Claudio got him in the Giant Swing for about thirty seconds. Otherwise, there were plenty of European uppercuts, which makes sense when you consider where each man is from. Claudio ducked a Jawbreaker Lariat and connected with the Ricola Bomb, but Nigel kicked out. Nigel won shortly thereafter by getting Claudio to submit to the London Dungeon. Good match, but not exactly a stellar main event.
All told, this was, of course, a good wrestling show, but somewhat less spectacular then I was expecting, given that it was A)ROH and B)the first show ever in the Hammerstein Ballroom. Both Danielson/Marufuji and Morishima/Necro were expected to be better, but everything ranged from okay to very good tonight, so I don’t have much right to complain. I’d put the show on par with “Rising Above” (the complete live show, not the ppv version) and below both “Final Battle 2007” and “The Sixth Anniversary Show” in terms of the recent ROH shows. Also, I poked my head through the curtain after the show and saw Morishima walking around in just gym shorts. Pretty hot. Thanks for reading.
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