(Results: courtesy Thomas Bobo)
Ring of Honor debuted in Dayton, OH last night before an enthusiastic crowd of 700.
Here are the results:
1) Special K over Carnage Crew, SAT and Juan/Eddie when Deranged pinned Loc with help from other Special K members. This was a spot-fest and I mean that it a good way. Just total, non-stop, scramble match action. Tons of really cool and innovative moves.
Jim Cornette came out and ripped on Special K and scramble matches, saying that he came to ROH to see ‘wrestling.’ He indicated that he had a tag team that would back that up and the Midnight Express theme hit, but out came The Ring Crew Express, Dunn & Marcos. Cornette stated that this wasn’t the team and it led to Christopher Daniels and Dan Maff attacking them. Daniels and Maff beat down Dunn & Marcos and hit the “Rocket Launcher 2003” ala the Midnights under Cornette. Cornette got in two solid tennis racket shots and was named the newest member of The Prophecy by Daniels.
2) Nigel McGiness pinned Chet “The Jet” Jablonski (with Brock Guffman). Not a bad match-up here. The crowd was hot due to the scramble and they were familiar with these guys since they compete in HWA. Guffman cut a really good promo saying these guys earned the right to be in ROH tonight and it was there night. It was smart because it got fans to not crap on the match right away when there wasn’t one highspot after another like the scramble. Nigel earned the #1 Contendership to the HWA Title with his win.
3) Homicide (with Julius Smokes) pinned Chris Sabin. Crowd was into Sabin right away since he competes in Michigan. Homicide got a nice reaction too. This was a shorter match than expected, but that was understandable later with what went down. Both guys really looked sharp and put together a good match.
4) The Second City Saints of Colt Cabana & Ace Steel defeated Alex Shelley & Jimmy Jacobs when Cabana pinned Alex after the double-team Colt 45. Very good tag action here. Jacobs and his “huss” gimmick ala Bruiser Brody was really over. Shelley sold the majority of the match before a hot tag to Jacobs, who cleared house, but was disposed of, leading to the finish on Shelley.
5) Matt Stryker pinned Justin Credible. Stryker was over huge as he is a home-grown prodect from HWA. Credible got a great reaction too and a thunderous ‘ECW’ chant. Early in the match, Justin tried to duck Stryker and eventually took off to the back. Stryker chased him down and brawled back to the ring and around the arena. Credible came up bloody from the exchange.
In ring action was good when it settled back down. Match was based around Stryker trying to hit the Death Valley Driver. Credible hit ‘That’s Incredible’ but only got a 1 1/2 count. Stryker then finally hit the DVD after an exchange for the win. Justin sold the head and neck really well and both men shook hands and hugged after the match.
Intermission took place next and as The SAT and Amazing Red (who signed autographs) returned to the back, they were attacked by The Prophecy and Red was decimated, taking him out of the Tag Title match later in the night.
6) Michael Shane won a Four Corner Survival Match over Scoot Andrews, Slyk Wagner Brown and Hotstuff Hernandez. Match started off slow with Hotstuff taking turns choping each of his opponents very hard. Middle of the match saw the wrestlers turn to chinlocks and headlocks to wear each other down. The finish was built up with the wrestler’s all doing high impact moves and finishers before Shane finally pinned Scoot. Good match.
7) Jimmy Rave beat Slim J when Slim J tapped to the crossface out of the satelitte head-scissors. These guys worked well together, having experience in NWA Wildside. Lots of back and forth action and pin attempts. Slim tried all he could to get a pinfall, but only got two counts. Rave put him away and earned a shot in the ROH Field of Honor.
8) Samoa Joe pinned BJ Whitmer to retain the ROH World Title. This match was strong-style, super stiff action with tons of slaps, chops, kicks and suplexes. Both guys gave 110%. Crowd was very Pro-Joe, despite BJ Whitmer being from the area. The end came after each of them brutally beat each other and Joe hit a Tiger Suplex for the win.
9) AJ Styles & Homicide (with Julius Smokes) defeated Christopher Daniels & Dan Maff (with Allison Danger & Jim Cornette) to retain the ROH Tag Team Titles when AJ pinned Daniels after a Styles Clash on Cornette’s tennis racket. Homicide was AJ’s choice to replace the injured Red. This was the match of the night in my opinion. It was non-stop action from start to finish that begin with AJ and Homicide hitting dives onto The Prophecy in the first row of section B. Body of the match saw Homicide get worked over by both Daniels & Maff. This explained why his match against Sabin was a little short. AJ Styles finally got the hot tag and cleaned house on The Prophecy. Daniels came back and regained control, hitting Angels Wings on Homicide. With the referee distracted, Cornette threw the tennis racket in the ring for Daniels to use, but it overshot Daniels, leading to the Styles Clash by AJ and the pin.
After the match, Cornette shook hands with AJ, Homicide and Smokes before they went to the back. Christopher Daniels flipped because The Prophecy doesn’t shake hands, but Cornette blamed the loss on him. Dan Maff then slammed Cornette before Amazing Red and Samoa Joe made the save. Cornette cut a promo putting over ROH and the crowd erupted in some of the loudest ROH chants I’ve ever heard and I attended 10 events live.
