ROH in Framingham, MA
Framingham State College - 11/29/2003
by Joe
Gagne
They ended up moving this show twice. First it was going to be in Wakefield, but I guess another promoter said something to the school board and they kicked ROH out. Then they were going to run a middle school in Woburn, but the school board didn’t care much for a barbed wire match being held on the premises. Yeah, go figure. So they settled on Framingham State College.
You know how Mapquest gives you directions like "Go .0000002 miles and turn right?" I hate that. I get lost and miss the opening match of the Backseat Boyz beating Fast Eddie and Hotstuff Hernandez with the T-Gimmick. The story here is that the Backseats are on a roll but are being denied a title shot by Jim Cornette (sometime manager of the Briscoes) because the Boyz use the old Midnight Express theme as their entrance music. Really.
Special K [Dixie, Hydro, Angel Dust, Hijinx, & Lit] vs. Carnage Crew & SAT & Slugger [Scramble Match]: I think a "less is more" mentality works a lot better in these types of matches. Whereas having four tag teams worked well the night before, a ten-man tag is a little unwieldy. The SAT were back to their usual selves, and there was plenty of ugliness in this one. Why are they letting Slugger wrestle? He ain’t good. Anyway, the Crew goes for their Spike Piledriver on Cloudy, but Devito gets pulled to the outside. So a Maximo (let’s say Joel) gets in the ring and "fills in" for Devito on the move. Then the SAT’s try a Spanish Fly, and Jose gets yanked outside, so Loc (and he’s a beefy guy) finishes the move with Joel. Then they argue over who should get the pin, allowing Angel Dust to sneak in and roll up Loc for the pin. Crew and SAT argue post match but nothing comes of it.
Gauntlet Series
(Okay, the premise here is that they take five wrestlers—in this case BJ Whitmer, CM Punk, Matt Stryker, Jimmy Rave, and Colt Cabana—and have them wrestler a gauntlet series. Basically, everyone draws lots, wrestlers 1 and 2 wrestle, when someone’s eliminated, wrestler 3 joins the match, etc. etc. until there’s one wrestler left. No real point, by which I mean the winner doesn’t get anything except the chance to vault into the vaunted ROH top 5. I was excited because I hoped I could see Punk/Cabana and Punk/Whitmer. Silly me.).
C.M. Punk vs. Jimmy Rave: Jimmy spent a lot of the match working the leg, which was weird, because he usually works the arm to set up his Crossface finisher. Punk did sell it well, and this was a good little match, but the crowd shat all over it (maybe because Punk’s a heel and no one wants to root for Rave). Some guy let out this enormous belch during the match (I heard it from across the gym) and got a "holy shit" chant for it. Punk gets the win with a desperation Pepsi Plunge (top rope Pedigree). This will probably be a lot better on tape. Oh, wait, I forgot the tape has the ROH announcers. Never mind.
Matt Stryker vs. C.M. Punk: Stryker zeroed in on Punk’s injured leg. Punk was able to fight him off for a while but got trapped in the Strykerlock and tapped out. Short but not bad.
Colt Cabana vs. Matt Stryker: Punk gave his fellow Second City Saint member a pep talk as he headed to the back. The soundman speeds Colt’s music up instead of slowing it down, and Colt reacts accordingly. Plenty of comedy spots here, including Colt trying to pluck Stryker’s unibrow while he had him in a submission move. The fans called for a dance-off but Colt would have none of it. I also notice Gary Michael Capetta standing next to me watching the match. What’s going on here? Back-and-forth until Stryker eludes a corner charge and hits his DVD for the pin.
BJ Whitmer vs. Matt Stryker: This was the last Gauntlet match and also a preview of the finals of the Field of Honor, so you knew something was up. And soon enough, both men are fighting on the top rope and Matt takes a bad spill to the floor. The ref throws up the dreaded "X" sign to the back, which I guess is universal ref code because the WWE uses the same thing when someone is injured. Everyone checks on Stryker, until Whitmer flips out, grabs Stryker and tosses him back in the ring, then kills him with a Wrist-Clutch Exploder for the win. So I’m sure Stryker will get his revenge at the next show. Oh, and they actually had the balls to ask if there were any doctors in attendance. Hello, we know the injury was fake. Plus I’m sure a ton of doctors attend ROH shows.
Intermission
Outcast Killazs vs. Slyk Wagner Brown & April Hunter: This was supposed to be Oman Tortuga vs. Slyk, but Oman gets on the mic and remembers how April humiliated him the last time they were in Mass, so he challenges the pair to a tag match. The usual short post-intermission match, which was halfway decent given who was involved. The Killaz actually win with their finisher (side-Russian legsweep and spinkick combo) on April, which I think is their first win. Xavier comes out and trash talks Slyk and April, calling them losers just like everyone else from Boston.
Xavier vs. John Walters: This would be the epitome of a cheap heat match, as it was billed as "New York vs. Boston." Xavier keeps ragging the crowd on the mic (much to the delight of a few NY fans who made the trip), and Walters comes out and actually derides him for using cheap heat. They have an okay match, but the heat (while cheap) was great. Walters actually guaranteed victory at the last Boston show, so the result wasn’t much in doubt. Walters reverses the "Kiss Your X Goodbye" into a rollup for the win. Xavier flips out afterwards and bloodies Walters with a chair shot. I guess THE FEUD MUST CONTINUE (now without honor). This would have worked better had Xavier not just jobbed the night before.
Jay & Mark Briscoe [c] vs. Chris Daniels & Dan Maff [w/Allison Danger] [ROH Tag Title Match]: Hey, this just in, Christopher Daniels is a pretty good wrestler. He certainly held this bad-boy together. Long match, seemed to go about a half-hour. The Prophecy cut off Jay (I do believe) and beat on him for a while, doing all the usual Southern tag tactics. Finally Marc got the tag and ran wild. They did the usual deal where everyone hit their finishers but someone made the save. There were a few too many nearfalls, but this was still a fine tag match. Jay hit the Jay-Driller on Daniels for the win. I wasn’t sure if the Prophecy would win, since they’re facing Mutoh and Arashi for the All-Japan tag titles, and I didn’t know if ROH would have them job in two straight title matches. Oh well.
Samoa Joe [c] vs. A.J. Styles [ROH Title Match]: Crowd wanted a title change badly—but didn’t get one. I actually really thought this would be the night Joe lost his title, and so did a lot of over people. When A.J. finally hooked the Styles Clash on Joe for a near fall, the roof blew off the place. Both guys hit their signature spots—the Ole Kick, the Styles hulk-up spot—and ultimately Joe chokes out Styles. Kind of a bummer finisher, but a fantastic match and the best one of the weekend. Joe put Styles over on the mic post match. Odd note—I watched the match next to this big curtain that separated the show from the backstage area, and I swear to God there were two guys wrestling (amateur style) backstage. I’d kill to know who it was. And I certainly hope they were amateur wrestling.
They set up the barbed wire, which took for-freaking-ever. To kill time, they had C.M. Punk come out and antagonize the crowd. He calls out Christopher Daniels and accuses him of attacking yadda yadda yadda. Daniels denies it again but attacks Punk. They brawl in the ring (it was hysterical watching the ring crew continue to work and not noticing the two guys brawling a foot away from him). Punk hit the Last Rites on Daniels and stormed off. Crowd was DEAD SILENT for all this. Not a good sign. Plus I’m pissed they baited and switched us with Punk not finding anything out. And after all that, it was still another half-hour before they were ready for final match.
Steve Corino [w/his crew] vs. Homicide [w/Julius Smokes] [No Ropes Barbed Wire Match]: Show was running long, so no long intro for Corino. In addition to the wire, there was a BW bat and a table wrapped in BW as well. Hey, guess what, this was super nasty. Neither guy was afraid to take these hideous bumps into the wire. You know that move where you slingshot the guy so he guillotines himself on the bottom rope? Homicide took that into the barbed wire, and you could see it slicing up his ring attire. Corino took a bad bump through the table. Both guys bled, Corino from his forehead and his ear. Homicide had the STD locked on, but Guillotine LaGrande runs in and throws something in ‘Cide’s eyes. Corino locks on a barbed wire Cobra and Julius Smokes throws in the towel. Nasty, brutal spectacle. Both guys stay down for a long time, but eventually get up. Corino offers his hands, but Homicide refuses to shake it. I thought Corino made a "one more" gesture, like he wanted one more match, but now the ROH website announced that Corino quit the promotion (a likely angle, since Corino has "quit" ROH a few times). So who knows?
Another good show. I think the CT show was better up-and-down, but the high points on the MA show, mainly the last three matches, were a lot higher. That make sense? Oh, and MA is getting the second anniversary show on 2/14 (insert joke about running on Valentine’s Day affects about .02% of the wrestling fan population).
Feliz Navidad, everyone.
Joe Gagne
joegagne@charter.net