RING OF HONOR RESULTS FROM LAKE GROVE
- 05/13/2006 (10:06:47 am)
- Mike Siciliano
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A review of the evening's events for Ring of Honor tonight on Long Island at Sports Plus in Lake Grove.
The night started with a rumour that this show may be the last one at Sports Plus. That was a bummer, but thankfully, Bobby Cruise kayoed that rumour during the show. We'll get to that later. Some of the talents that were wandering the halls including ROH Pure Wrestling Champion Nigel McGuiness, "The Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels was signing a couple of autographs, and the "Samoan Submission Machine", Samoa Joe was in the neighborhood, talking to the "office" personnel as it was. He seemed very happy to be on site, and ready to compete. By the time that the staff was prepared to accept the crowd in to the arena, the 30 to 50 I said that were on site swelled to nearly 500 to 700 people, easy. It was a electric atmosphere waiting to come in to Ring Of Honor tonight.
The pre show matches, 2 of them, one involved a tag team match with Ernie Osiris teaming with Rhett Titus against Bobby Dempsey and Alex Payne. The only really significant impression I can give you from this match was a lot of emotion being shown on the part of Rhett Titus. Dempsey won the match pinning Ernie Osiris witha death valley driver.
The second match was a four corner survival match, with the winner of the match getting a slot on the main show against Kikutaro. Mitch Franklin vs. Pelle Primeau vs. Shane Hagadorn vs. Top of the Class Trophy holder Derek Dempsey.
A couple of good bumps went down on this match, with Primeau hitting a nice hurracanrana on Dempsey, and one sick ass german suplex on Franklin by Derek Dempsey. Primeau ended up getting the victory with a nice roll up on Dempsey, which caused a little confusion about the status of the trophy holder. But, when the smoke cleared, Dempsey left with the trophy, and Primeau celebrated in the ring, with a slot in the main show locked up.
Or is it? I continue.
As the crowd filed in for thre beginning of the show, the bottom line I can say about this is one thing. This is the biggest crowd that I have ever seen for a ROH show @ Sports Plus. Nearly full from one side to the other, as far as I can see.
The opening match of the card is Matt Sydal of GeneratioNext against new WWE signee Jimmy "Akio" Yang. Sydal came to the ring with a heavily taped shoulder, and Yang spent the majority of the match working on that shoulder. It looked like Sydal was in a lot of pain during the contest. Yang played the good mischievious heel in this contest, even after botching two kicks, Yang hit a nasty low blow on Sydal.
Sydal came back and hit a tremendous moonsault on Yang on the floor. However, the match continued back and forth, and I thought it ended with a scintillating neckbreaker off the top rope by Jimmy Yang. However, Sydal came back, and got the victory with a shooting star press that would make Billy Kidman stand up and say why am I doing this maneuver? An absolutely major league maneuver.
Yang took the mike and said, laughingly to the crowd, "Be sure to check me out on WWE.com." I guess that was his attempt to say good bye to the fans of Ring of Honor.
The next match was scheduled to be a four corner survival match involving Delirious, Colt Cabana, Christopher Daniels, and before the fourth man came out, the spectrum of this match changed drastically when the NWA World Heavyweight Champion, Christian Cage hit the ring.
Cage wanted to talk to Cabana, asking what was Delirious smoking, and where could they get some, and then he asked the Classic one to be his tag partner in the main event against Bryan Danielson and a mystery partner of the ROH World Champion's choice.
Cabana came back with some of the best answers I have ever heard. "Question #1, the man's name is Homicide, and he's got some of the best stuff in the building." As he was trying to answer the 2nd question, Cage basically told Cabana that if he said no to the NWA Champion, he would make Cage "look like an idiot." However, Cabana mentioned that the opportunity of seeing the "Christian and the Jew" team up, he couldn't refuse. Cabana was in as the NWA Champ's tag team partner.
(BTW, THAT'S WHAT CABANA SAID, DON'T YELL AT ME, I KNOW IT'S NOT THE BEST THING TO BE SAYING AT ANY TIIME.)
The ROH champ came out in full blown heel mode, crying and whining about the crowd giving Christian Cage a warm reception to Sports Plus. Danielson then turned around and reeled off his resume at Sports Plus, from his win for the title over James Gibson at Glory By Honor IV, to his knockout win over Christopher Daniels, then going all over the country mentioning his victories over Lance Storm, Naomichi Marufuji, and Roderick Strong on three different occasions. He tried to cement his belief as the self-proclaimed best world champion today, and way too good fro television.
Cage, in this very overdrawn promo, called Bryan Danielson something I cannot repeat here, because it's just not appropriate. He put over the fact that Danielson is a big shot in ROH, but Cage said the ROH champ was a bigger a**hole. Cage said he respected the ROH title, but at the end of the night, when Cabana and the champ beat Danielson and anyone he chose, Danielson will respect the NWA Champ. Danielson claimed he could beat both men himself. The crowd screamed handicap match. However, Danielson then turns to the ring, says no to Delirious because he's too weird, according to the champ, but he then asks Daniels, because he claims they have something in common because Danielson knocked him out, to be his partner for tonight's main event tag match.
Daniels takes the mike, and says, although he has no issues with either Cabana or Cage, although he's hurt that Cage didn't pick him for his partner because of the TNA angle, he asked Danielson why he should team with him against two men he has no issues with. He then makes a deal with Danielson that if he teams with the champ tonight, in the future, he gets another shot at the ROH World title. American Dragon said if we win tonight, you'll get a shot at the title. The Fallen Angel tells the champ, his "Albino friend" that he's got a partner for tonight's main event.
While this is all going on, Delirious is sitting in the ring, motionless. Daniels and Cabana leave with Cage and Danielson, and Bobby Cruise says we need to have a match, and he looks around confused. ROH Pure Wrestling Champion Nigel McGuiness comes out, and it appears to be a one-on-one match with the champ against Delirious. However, a ref comes out, and says the match is now a three way dance. Out comes Kikutaro.
So, the match is now Nigel McGuiness vs. Delirious vs. Kikutaro. Sorry Pelle Primeau.
Bottom line here, this match was a bad time. It was a devaluing of the Pure championship. Delirious made Kikutaro tap out to win the match, and the whole match was pure filler from start to finish. When the referee DDTs Kikutaro who falls in to a chicken wing submission for Delirious, you know that something is definitely not 100% in the ring at this time.
Next up is a #1 contenders match for the ROH World Tag Team Championship. With Daizee Haze and Prince Nana, the Embassy of Alex Shelley and Jimmy Rave took on the Rottweilers of Homicide and Ricky Reyes.
The amount of toilet paper thrown in the ring was so immense that they literally turned off the lights, and I was fearful they were going to shut the whole show down right then. Rave has a heel reaction that is second to none.
We almost saw, on more than one occasion, FACE manager Julius Smokes fight Prince Nana. Rave took a sick back drop in to the crowd, almost the second row. Homicide and Reyes lost the match by DQ when Smokes got caught going after Nana and Daizee.
Homicide lost his cool, and basically turned his back on Ring of Honor after the match, walking out cursing the company that brought his reputation up from the beginning in to TNA.
Through the crowd, after Homicide's rant, came out CZW's Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli, the "Kings of Wrestling." Hero puts over Homicide's derogatory comments on ROH, and nobody comes out to defend the company in response to Hero.
Castagnoli calls out Comissioner Cornette, limping. He calls Cornette a coward for not being in Long Island, but smart because of ROH's sinking ship, the commissioner is finding a new avenue, as the rumours have circulated. Claudio says ROH is sinking because of the Kings of Wrestling.
Adam Pearce and BJ Whitmer come out, and the match is on. Whitmer gets his ass kicked for most of the match. Pearce hits a sick dive bomb to the outside on Claudio.. The ROH turncoat takes a brainbuster splash combo by Whitmer and Pearce and manages to stay away from losing thanks to the inteference by the CZW referee.
Soon after that, a big ass dude in denim shorts and a blue shirt barrels through the crowd, literally almost making me fall over. Out comes the Necro Butcher. Butcher, Hero, and Castagnoli proceed to continue to beat on Whitmer and Pearce, although the ROH guys fight valiantly, Pearce gets pinned by a neckbreaker because Whitmer is knocked silly with a snap mare through a table on the floor.
Seemingly a tad late, Samoa Joe comes out, and the CZW contingent runs off. He puts over the fight later Satruday night between himself and Necro Butcher. He then puts over ROH, and the competitors leave the ring.
Ring of Honor comes back to Sports Plus on Friday night, August 4. Signed thus far include AJ Styles, ROH World champion Bryan Danielson, Samoa Joe, Christopher Daniels, and GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion KENTA in his Long Island debut.
Following intermission, in a bonus match for ROHvideos.com, Apocalypse, allegedly from Calgary,but appeared to be from Brooklyn, faced off with Samoa Joe. This unknown did hit a nice backbreaker on the big man from Samoa, but Joe hit a tremendous enziguri, which is so impressive for a big man. Following the face wash, Joe takes the win in a basic squash with the muscle buster. This booking really confused me from start to finish.
Next up was the first of two grudge matches with Mark Briscoe facing off with ROH Tag Team Champion Roderick Strong. This one was one of the best matches of the night, as both men hit each other with everything and then some. Strong took some nasty bumps, including a springboard drop kick, a springboard enziguri, a springboard RKO from the top rope, a nasty Brainbuster, and ended up getting the victory with a torture rack bnrain buster. Strong hit some major league stinging chops, as well as a superplex, and a top rope drop kick that nearly got the dupe for the tag team title holder Strong ended up this match, following the loss, bleeding from the nose, and he looked very beat up. It was a terrific game of intense human chess.
Next up, the other half of the grudge matches, Austin Aries vs. Jay Briscoe. This one had some more emotion from both men, with Aries playing to the crowd a lot more than I am used to seeing from the Wrestling Machine. Aries hit his usual outside plancha on Briscoe, which is always sick, especially with the limited space between the ring and the seats. Aries was hurt by a shot to the ring post on his shoulder, and Jay Briscoe spent the majority of the rest of the match focusing on that injured shoulder. Although Aries managed to get to the ropes out of a Jay Driller, Briscoe got the win with a Kokino clutch style submission move on the tag team title holder. I would suspect that the champs are in signifcant trouble come tonight in Edison when the tag titles are on the line.
Last up was the main event. NWA World Champ Christian Cage and Colt Cabana came out together to Cage's TNA music. No title belt for the NWA champion, which the LI crowd let him know. Surprisingly, ROH World Champ Bryan Danielson and Christopher Daniels came out together to Danielson's music.
The start of the match had some comedic spots on Christian's "that's how I roll" phrase by both Daniels and Cabana., who put on a tremendous display of counter catch as catch can wrestling. When Cage finally got in, he did a "roll" parody on Danielson, which got him infuriated, and he continued to play mind games with the NWA champ, saying he would fight Cage "on his own terms."
After Daniels hit a nice enziguri to the back of Cage's head, Danielson finally gets in to the match long term against Cage. I noticed some of the ROH locker room out and about watching the match, Matt Sydal, Kikutaro, and Delirious to name a few.
Danielson demands the Fallen Angel to work on Cabana's leg, which Daniels reluctantly does. Danielson twists Cabana so much in submission maneuvers, it looked like Cabana was playing a game of twister that nobody would possibly win.
It seemed like Cage was not that involved in the majority of this match, perhaps to save him for the eventual TNA PPV match against Abyss on sunday night.
Finally after a significant beat down on Cabana, he tags Cage, Danielson runs, but Daniels isn't there, recovering from a beating of his own, so Danielson ends up taking a Christian spear for a 2 count. Cabana gets back in and hip tosses Daniels out to the floor, and then moonsaults to the floor on top of Daniels.
Danielson then had three separate chances to beat Cage, one with cattle mutilation, a superplex, and a double submission by both the ROH champ and the Fallen Angel. None of them were successful. A major spot on Cage involved a Splash off the top rope by American Dragon, and the BME from the Fallen Angel, and yet, he still managed to kick out. After a few more nasty bumps by all four men, Daniels goes for the Angels Wings, but its reversed in to the unprettier for the 1-2-3. Dragon could have saved Daniels from the pinfall, but he shook his head, and turned away in disgust.
As the show drew to a close, Cage said Danielson's theory of being the greatest champion today is obviously gone, but he is the whitest human being on the planet. Daniels then took the mike, and put over Cabana, Cage, TNA, and ROH as pure professional wrestling
As I left the arena, I was fortunate enough to shake the hand and get an autograph from the ROH Pure champion, Nigel McGuiness. This was another tremendous show for Ring of Honor. Here are the quick results for anyone who didn't read the column from start to finish.
Pre Show
Alex Payne & Bobby Dempsey beat Ernie Osiris and Rhett Titus
Pelle Primeau won a four corner survival match against Shane Hagadorn, Mitch Franklin, and Top of the Class Trophy holder Derek Dempsey
Alex Payne & Bobby Dempsey beat Ernie Osiris and Rhett Titus
Pelle Primeau won a four corner survival match against Shane Hagadorn, Mitch Franklin, and Top of the Class Trophy holder Derek Dempsey
Main Show
Matt Sydal beat Jimmy Yang
Delirious beat Pure Wrestling Champion Nigel McGuiness and Kikutaro in a non-title match.
The Embassy of Jimmy Rave & Alex Shelley defeated the Rottweilers of Homicide and Ricky Reyes to become #1 contenders for the ROH tag team championship
The Kings of Wrestling defeated Adam Pearce and BJ Whitmer
Samoa Joe defeated Apocalypse
Mark Briscoe defeated Roderick Strong
Jay Briscoe defeated Austin Aries
NWA World Champion Christian Cage and Colt Cabana defeated ROH World Champion Bryan Danielson and Christopher Daniels
Matt Sydal beat Jimmy Yang
Delirious beat Pure Wrestling Champion Nigel McGuiness and Kikutaro in a non-title match.
The Embassy of Jimmy Rave & Alex Shelley defeated the Rottweilers of Homicide and Ricky Reyes to become #1 contenders for the ROH tag team championship
The Kings of Wrestling defeated Adam Pearce and BJ Whitmer
Samoa Joe defeated Apocalypse
Mark Briscoe defeated Roderick Strong
Jay Briscoe defeated Austin Aries
NWA World Champion Christian Cage and Colt Cabana defeated ROH World Champion Bryan Danielson and Christopher Daniels
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