Ring of Honor
CT Sports Center
Woodbridge, CT
October 29th, 2005
This was my 15th ROH live event, and sadly I did not receive a ruby for my efforts. I did receive a very good and very different type of show.
There was no snow as had been predicted during the week, although there was some heavy rain, which thankfully let up as we were on the road.
I found out Matt Foy of Seadawg’s board was attending the show, I shot him an e-mail and we hung out at the show. Matt is one cool cat. Besides this ROH show and hanging with TCF at the TPI this year, can a Chikara show in Pittsburgh with Justin Shapiro be far behind?
We had a brief pre-show starting at 6:50 featuring students from the ROH school competing for the Top of the Class Trophy, what I assume would be the equivalent of the New Japan Young Lion’s Cup. They announced that Davey Andrews had already advanced to the finals at the 11/19 show.
Bobby Dempsey vs. Pelle Primo: Dempsey is a rather beefy fellow; in contrast, Primo is quite a tiny, tiny man. Primo won a short match with the Minoru Tanaka flipping takedown into a cross armbreaker. Both guys looked very green here, but you can’t harp on match quality at this point. Everyone has to start somewhere, after all.
Shane Hagadorn vs. Smash Bradley: Bradley is a masked wrestler, and since ROH students can only wear black, he just has a plain black mask and bears an unsettling resemblance to the Gimp. I remember seeing Hagadorn almost a year ago at Weekend of Thunder Night One and he has developed since nice heel charisma since then. They had a better match than the opener that saw Hagadorn reverse a powerbomb into an awkward looking sunset flip for the pin. Not sure if Primo and Hagadorn both advance to the finals for a three way dance, or if they meet up and the winner faces Andrews in the finals.
Time for the main show. I’d count attendance at about 450, definitely down from the last show with Matt Hardy appearing.
Claudio Castagnoli vs. Alex Shelley (w/Prince Nana): Nigel McGuiness made an appearance before the match and said that if Claudio lost to Shelley, he’d lose his Pure Title shot this Friday in Detroit. I guess Nigel has matchmaking power now. Nigel also called himself “The best there is, the best there was…and you know the rest.” He hung around at ringside to watch the match but didn’t interfere, although he did exchange a high five with Shelley. Anyway, this may have been the match of the night – just some fantastically fluid chain wrestling and innovative spots. Once it got past the ten-minute mark we all pretty much guessed the ending, and sure enough, right when Claudio went for the Ricola Bomb the bell rings for a 20-minute draw. Nigel stated that since Claudio did not beat Shelley, he lost his shot, but Claudio retorted that he did not lose, and thus kept his title shot. He then pointed to his head to indicate intelligence. While this debate was going on, Jade Cheung ran out and gave Nana a low blow. As Shelley chased her to the back, Nigel attacked and bloodied Claudio with his iron, and then added he’s “the best there ever will be.” Real good opening to the show.
Azrieal & Davey Andrews vs. Kid Mikaze & Jason Blade: Blade and Mikaze are local guys getting a shot. I will give them credit for having fancy matching tights, which actually got a “matching tights” chant. Andrews looks to be bulking up since the last time I saw him. Blade and Mikaze looked good and I wouldn’t mind seeing them again. Mikaze got a “Rufio” chant, and the guy next to me had to explain that Rufio was a character from the movie “Hook” that resembled Mikaze. I think I’m officially too old to go to these shows. Andrews crushed Mikaze with a release German and Azrieal added the M. Bison top rope stomp to the head for the win.
Ricky Reyes (w/Julius Smokes) vs. Mitch Franklin (w/another student): Franklin is another ROH student who was actually making his pro debut. In honor of this momentous event, I will do play by play for the match: kick to the gut, sitout powerbomb, inverted suplex, choke for the submission in under 30 seconds. Reyes beat up the student that accompanied Franklin to the ring, but thankfully did not beat up referee Mike Coughlin as the fans requested.
By the way, whoever had the horrible gas in our section of the bleachers, I hope you burn in Hell.
Nigel McGuiness vs. BJ Whitmer (w/Lacey) vs. Nosawa vs. Kikutaro [Four Corner Survival]: Kikutaro is the former Ebessan of Osaka Pro, who’ll be referred to as Ebessan in the rest of the report for simplicity’s sake. This match, as odd as it reads, was actually a big thrill for me because I’ve been a huge Ebessan mark since the first Osaka Pro show back in 2000. He’s on the short list of wrestlers whose schtick will never get old for me (Super Porky is probably #1 on that list and Colt Cabana has a spot as well). Anyway, Ebessan came out and threw candy to the crowd, but heeled himself to our section by not throwing any our way. Anyway, the comedy totally outshone the wrestling here, which was fine. Ebessan must’ve wanted to be Ric Flair for Halloween, because he did the Flair strut, eyepoke, begging off, Flair Flop, and even got thrown off the top rope. BJ pinned him after an especially rude Wrist Clutch Exploder. Ebessan apparently proposed to Lacey post match, who rudely turned him down.
AJ Styles vs. Austin Aries: As AJ got in the ring, he was beaned with a roll of toilet paper. So he went into the crowd and found the kid who did it, made him lie down in the middle of the ring, put his foot on his chest, and had the ref count to three. Then he gave the kid a kick in the butt as he leaves the ring. AJ Styles in A-OK in my book. As for the match itself, I was a little let down. It was good, but not at the level you’d expect (TM Dave Meltzer), and was probably only the fourth best match of the night. Crowd was split but wasn’t overly into the match. Both guys run through all their moves until Aries went up top for the 450 but got cut off with a Pele kick. AJ then hit the Styles Clash off the middle rope (the one where he jumps backwards) for the pin. Post-match, Alex Shelley and Nana run out for a long beatdown (I guess Roderick was in the crapper or something). Jade Cheung runs in again and gets caught by Nana, but manages to hit a tornado DDT. As Aries and Cheung head to the back, Shelley tries on an unconscious Nana’s headdress, but does not steal his wallet as the crowd wanted him to do.
Intermission. I bought a signed 8x10 from Ebessan, one of the few wrestlers whose photo I would actually buy.
Colt Cabana vs. B-Boy (w/Julius Smokes): This was supposed to be Colt vs. Homicide, but Homicide was removed from the card three days before the show for undisclosed reasons. B-Boy at least made sense as a replacement, since he and Homicide are running buddies in numerous other feds. The wrestling in this one was fine, although completely secondary to the antics of Colt and Smokes, which was fine. Colt picked up with the win with a lariat. Afterwards Grim Reefer tried to run in but was disposed of quickly. Then the lights go out and Homicide’s music starts to play, and amazingly enough, Homicide is actually there, as he sneaks up behind Colt through the crowd. This kicks off an amazing brawl all throughout the building as Colt and Homicide beat the hell out of each other. It culminates in Homicide giving Colt an Ace Crusher off the apron through the ringside table. Not sure what the deal is with Homicide being there – maybe he had a prior engagement that got canceled, so they decided to just have him do a run-in?
Jay Lethal vs. Christopher Daniels: The story here is that Samoa Joe was sending Lethal after Daniels to soften him up for their two encounters on 11/4 and 11/5. Allison Danger (dressed in a leather nun outfit) came out and said that Daniels would not be there due to the birth of his child (which was booed by the crowd), but in the spirit of Halloween, they had a suitable replacement.
Jay Lethal vs. Curry Man: Oh yes, Curry Man. Crowd went nuts for this, with the words “Hot” and “Spicy” getting dueling chants. They did a spot where they went to kick each other and hit each other in the shin. They did it again, and on the third time it turned into a big dance routine. Crowd then chanted for ref Mike Keener to dance, which he did so (and Curry Man responded with a Flair Flop). Crowd chanted for Allison Danger to dance, which she did. Then it was Bobby Cruise’s turn, but Curry Man got on the mic and said, in broken English, that if he and “Lethal-San” didn’t get on with the wrestling they’d be here all night. So they did, and it was very good. Curry calls for the Spicy Drop but Lethal escapes and hits the Dragon Suplex for the pin. Lethal and Curry did the Fargo strut post-match. Odd that Daniels lost – you’d expect that he’d beat Lethal and maybe do something dastardly to build heat with Joe. Maybe because it was Curry Man it doesn’t count, so to speak?
“American Dragon” Bryan Danielson [c] vs. Roderick Strong [ROH Title Match]: This was an interesting match. Danielson seemed to get increasingly heelish as the match went on: bailing out of the ring after getting chopped, not breaking until he got into the ropes (“I have until FIVE, referee”), taunting Roderick and finally flipping off the fans. Crowd was still split. These two men beat the holy hell out of each other, and Dragon’s chest was even bleeding. Finally late in the match Danielson appeared to be dead weight, but it was just a ploy and he trapped Roderick in a short arm scissors for a quick tap. Afterwards Roderick bailed and they never shook hands, opting to spit on each other again. I think this is a match that will greatly benefit from having commentary on tape, because at points I wasn’t really sure where the story was going at points. It was still a very good match. It went a little long at 37 minutes, and by long I mean it could have stood to lose five or so minutes as opposed to being chopped in half.
Good show. I won’t say it’s a much purchase, as there are bigger and better ROH shows to pick up. But if you buy it, you won’t be disappointed. Nothing outside of the student matches was really bad, and there was a lot more comedy than on the average ROH show. ROH will be back at the CT Sports Center on 3/11/06.
Joe Gagne
joegagne@charter.net