Ring of Honor
Cambridge National Guard Armory
Cambridge, MA - January 15th, 2005
by Joe Gagne
ROH returned to Massachusetts on January 15th for the first show of 2005, headlined by Austin Aries making his first title defense against Colt Cabana and a confrontation between Mick Foley and Samoa Joe. They switched buildings again from the last show, but actually returned to a venue they’d run before (“Expect the Unexpected” and “Night of the Grudges” were held in the same building). It’s probably my favorite venue ROH has run in, decent sized and not too far away.
Building was packed. They had a weird setup where there were no floor seats for GA tickets, instead packing us all into the bleachers. Unfortunately, the big lighting towers ended up obscuring a lot of views, so many fans opted to just stand.
Actual sign in the men’s room: “Do not sink on sinks.”
Austin Aries opens the show with the standard “heel that just won the title” speech. Alex Shelley, miffed about being kicked out of Generation Next, interrupts and demands a title shot. Roderick Strong comes out and blindsides Shelley with a chair to the back. Aries and Strong stomp away on Shelley, until Colt Cabana makes the save. He hits a backdrop on Aries that sends him flying into the ropes and landing on his head. Oops. Shelley wants to shake Colt’s hand afterwards, but Colt tells him to piss off for his role in Cabana’s injury (which makes a lot more sense than the usual “bad guy turns face, so all is forgiven” shtick). Since Shelley is already in the ring, he calls out Spanky so they can have their scheduled match (good thing Spanky wasn’t in the crapper).
Alex Shelley vs. Spanky: Spanky’s music did not play for whatever reason when he came out, so he gets on the turnbuckle and yells “Let’s hear it…for me!” He was also sporting the manly pink shorts with a flower design. Odd choice for the opener, given that both guys are fairly high up on the card, but a good match. They spend the first few minutes on the mat, which earned some catcalls from the hecklers, so Spanky gave them the old Jack Plummer behind-the-back middle finger. Shelley hits the Shellshock and It Came From Japan but Spanky manages to survive and hits the Sliced Bread #2 (jumping off the ropes instead of the turnbuckles) for the pin. Very good opener.
Deranged (w/Lacey, Cheech, and Cloudy) vs. Azrieal: This was supposed to be Dixie vs. Izzy, but they had to cancel due to family problems, since they’re brothers and all that. Azrieal (who had no music either) is the former Angel Dust, who I guess is getting serious like Jay Lethal/Hydro. He wore “real” tights with these wacky pointy wristbands that look like they came straight off a CMLL undercarder. Match proper was OK, although neither guy did a lot of high flying. Azrieal hits a Michinoku Driver out of a fireman’s carry, but Cheech and Cloudy run in for the lame DQ. What, Deranged can’t do a job? Special K stomps on its former member until “We’re Not Gonna Take It” starts up as Dunn & Marcos run out for the save. Dunn grabs Lacy and prepares to pop her one, but the RCE opt for a spanking instead and pose with Azrieal post match.
Roderick Strong comes out for some mic time. Crowd chants “You tapped out” at him, in reference to his match against Kurt Angle on Smackdown. Strong implies that Jack Evans was AWOL tonight (covering for his injury) because he could not decide to side with Gen Next or Alex Shelley, and that he was going to drop out of the Ultimate Endurance if he could not partner with Jack. (Quick aside: the ROH message board stated that Roderick would have a mystery partner as a tryout for Gen Next, but no mention was ever made of that. I imagine something fell through—maybe an IWS guy could not make it to the show in time?) Anyway, Strong says he wants to send a message to CM Punk and Steve Corino, so he challenges all of their students to a match. Of course, the students in question decide to attack Ninja style rather than all at once. Shane Hagadorn runs out first and gets heckled for working the merchandise table before the show. Strong finishes him quick with a backbreaker. Evan Starsmore runs out next and Strong killifies him with a kick as soon as he gets in the ring. Powerbomb ends his night in short order. Alex Law is next, anyway, who got some “Gillberg” chants. Law gets some offense in, but backbreaker = loss for Nise Gillberg. Ricky Landell (the Corino trainee who looks like Dustin Rhodes) is next and actually gets some nearfalls before tapping out to a whacky submission (picture a straightjacket camel clutch mixes with a Crippler Crossface). Corino runs out and clears and ring. A fan tells Corino he sucks, leaving Steve to retort “I’m the babyface, he’s the heel!” He challenges Strong to face him, but Roderick takes a powder but hints at a match down the road.
Jay Lethal & Josh Daniels vs. The Outcast Killaz (w/Prince Nana): Nana gets on the mic and rips on Boston, saying it’s no wonder Pedro Martinez left town. He also said he sent John Walters on vacation so he would not have to come back to Boston (actually, he was working ECWA that day, but whatever). He also says some guy in the crowd smells like a period. Classy! He gives the OCK some deodorant to hand out to the crowd. Since it was pretty hot in the building, I could have used some, truth be told. Probably the worst match of the night, but still not terrible or anything. Daniels gets beat on for a while, and really the OCK just are not that interesting when they have to sustain the offense. Daniels makes the tag and Lethal scores the pin after a Dragon suplex on Oman Tortuga. Afterwards Nana reads the OCK the riot act for screwing up.
The Havana Pitbulls (w/ Julius Smokes) [c] vs. CM Punk & Steve Corino (w/ Corino’s entourage) vs. The Carnage Crew (w/no one) [Ultimate Endurance Match]: Corino does his long ass entrance, having his announcer read a list of “great” Boston athletes like Roger Clemens, Grady Little, and Nomar Garciaparra. Announcer Bobby Cruz, who is from the area, interrupts and said he’s got a real list of athletes to read (don’t ask why he carries a list of great Boston sports athletes around), with names like Larry Bird, Tom Brady, etc. Segment really did not get over with the crowd. We just won a Super Bowl and a World Series—Bill Buckner does not bother us anymore, sorry.
With no Evans & Strong, the first fall of this match would be a Scramble Match and the final fall would be a normal match. With only three teams they should have dumped the Crew and had a straight tag match. The Scramble portion of the match with a mess—it was over in about six minutes when Punk made Loc tap out to the Anaconda Vice. Then we went to a straight match. Funny bit where Corino and Punk tried a double team, and Corino hit an elbow while Punk did a clothesline, and Corino yells, “Idiot, I said reverse elbow!” Punk gets isolated and beat on for a while. Outside the ring Julius Smokes tries to high five Rocky Romero, but misses and pretty much ended up giving him a flying clothesline, leading to a “You fucked up” chant. Smokes apparently also got into an altercation with a 12 year-old at some point. Corino gets beat on for a while before making the hot tag to Punk. Punk has Reyes trapped in the Anaconda vice with Corino fighting off Romero on the floor. But with the ref distracted, Roderick Strong came out and walloped Corino with the chair. Pitbulls hit Punk with the backbreaker/kneedrop combo for the pin. Match was rough early, but definitely picked up near the end.
Someone had a “Booker’s pet” sign in regards to Punk, which cracked up both Punk and Corino.
Intermission.
Samoa Joe (w/Jay Lethal) vs. Nigel McGuiness: Joe came out to “Mama Said Knock You Out,” since his old music (“The Champ Is Here”) is no longer apropos. This may have been my favorite match of the night. Early in the match, Nigel went for his headstand, and Joe went to kick him in the face, but Nigel got out of the way (playing off their last encounter at the Revere show). Joe was just mauling Nigel for a lot of the match, but Nigel fought back with some pretty hard strikes of his own. Crowd was definitely still into Joe. Nigel does actually use the headstand kick successfully, but tries it again and got booted in the face. Joe hit a BRUTAL Death Valley Driver, but Nigel kicked out. Bad idea. Joe caved his head in with knees and choked him out for the win. Great stuff, as Nigel comes out looking strong just for standing up to Joe.
Homicide (w/Julius Smokes) vs. American Dragon [Tap Out Match]: Homicide looks weird with his hair growing in. Dragon’s growing a beard and looks like the Gorton’s fisherman. Dragon jumps Homicide right away and they brawl into the crowd. They fight away from my section and I have no idea what’s going on. Nothing seems to happen for a while and finally both guys get back into the ring. Apparently the owner of the building flipped out when he saw them fighting in the stands and demanded they get back into the ring. ROH tried to explain that this stuff happens at their shows and apparently some words were said (I heard an ROH security guy say “Hasn’t this faggot ever seen an ROH show before?” I would presume in regards to the owner) and the cops were even called. It really put a drag on the match, but once it settled down it was pretty good. Lots of good technical wrestling, and ultimately Homicide gets the tap with an arm submission. Afterwards Homicide brags about beating Dragon at his own game, and has the other Rottweilers hold Dragon so Homicide could deck him with brass knucks. But Dragon gets free and fights off the Rottweilers using the knuckles, KO’ing homicide. Dragon gets on the stick and says Homicide may have beat him at his own game, but Dragon will win the next match on Homicide’s terms, and challenges him to a taped fist match. That’ll certainly be interesting.
Austin Aries [c] vs. Colt Cabana [ROH Title Match]: Aries gets the smoke machine for his entrance, which leaves the ring smoky for the beginning portion of the match. Crowd was pretty quiet for this one—maybe they were burnt out, or maybe they were not buying Aries as champ yet (not helping matters was that the main event was a midcard match back in August). Still, the work was solid and Cabana is always entertaining. Late in the match they fight on the floor and Aries apparently gives Cabana a brainbuster or a suplex on the floor. Colt does not get up for a while and Aries goes back to the ring. Maybe 80% of the crowd cannot see what is going on and starts chanting “WTF.” I was hoping Cabana was not seriously injured, but they do so many fake injury angles (including the last show in MA), I do not blame the crowd for the chant. Colt crawls back into the ring and does the “dead weight” act when Aries tries to pick him up, then does a surprise small package for a two count. Aries finally hits a brainbuster and 450 to retain the belt. Cabana gets helped to the back by Punk and others afterwards. I guess Colt actually was hurt, but hopefully not too seriously.
The show is officially over, since the Foley/Joe confrontation is “unsanctioned.” Foley comes out first to the gigantic pop and everyone is on their feet. Foley says he’s got something for Joe, something Joe has needed for a long time. Joe comes out ready to brawl, but Mick presents him with…a Cactus Jack t-shirt. That’s actually a nice gift. But that’s not all. Foley also has another gift for Samoa Joe…a shot at Triple H. Or to be more precise, a shot at a shot at Triple H, in the form of a slot in the Royal Rumble. This is surreal. Foley says he showed Vince McMahon a copy of an ROH DVD, and they’d like to offer him a contract, but with a few changes. First, Joe has to tone down his style (“We already have someone who hurts people, and his name is RVD”), and change his name to Fish Eating Joe and maybe even take the old Rikishi gimmick.
Joe is less than enthused at this prospect, so Foley launches into the old “Do you want to be a big fish in a small pond” routine, asking where he’s rather wrestle at the Fleet Center or the Cambridge National Guard Armory, or whether he wants to be on PPV or piddly little DVDs. Joe retorts that he’d gladly fight a WWE superstar…Mick Foley. Foley responds that when he fights, Vince McMahon pays him a six-figure check, so he’s not fighting for nothing in ROH…then clocks Joe with the mic. They brawl up the aisle with Joe getting the advantage, until someone hands Mick a chair and he clocks Joe. Back in the ring, Foley lays out Joe with a double arm DDT. Joe gets helped up as the show ends on a downer note. Foley was obviously turning heel and did a good job, but no one booed him, even when he directly insulted them. Hell, who wants to boo Mick Foley?
Somewhat of a middle of the road show, and too damn long at four hours. There was nothing really bad, but nothing really must see either. There are better shows to track down from ROH, but if you pick it up you’ll probably enjoy it. They announced a return to Cambridge on 4/16 with Bobby Heenan appearing.