Show results
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Ring of Honor - Woodbridge CT 7/16/05
1) Nigel McGuiness defeated Claudio Castagnoli. Good opener, both men worked well together. One awesome spot saw Claudio throw Nigel up into the air and connect with a European uppercut on the way down.
2) Austin Aries defeated El Generico after a brainbuster followed by the 450 in another good match. Story of the match saw both men try to hit the brainbuster. Both men were really over.
3) Homicide (w/Julius Smokes) won a four corner survival over Dixie, Azrieal and Kevin Steen. Homicide hit his tope early in the match to a big pop. Cide was really over tonight, even though he is supposed to be the heel. Finish saw Homicide pin Dixie after the Cop Killer (Kudoh Driver). Dixie looked to be injured on the move, as he layed there for several minutes. He was helped to the back by a few refs. Another good, competitive match.
ROH World champion CM Punk came out and cut a promo. Punk was way over as a heel, with "Die Punk Die" and "F*ck you Punk" chants. He basically put himself over, and then bashed James Gibson, saying that many said Gibson is the MVP of ROH for the first half of the year, yet he always loses his title matches. This prompted Gibson to come out and bash Punk. Punk then jumped Gibson and busted him open with a few punches with a chain wrapped around his fist. Gibson was helped to the back.
4) The Carnage Crew (Loc and Devito) retained the ROH tag titles in an Ultimate Endurance match that consisted of the Carnage Crew, Dunn & Marcos, Lacey's Angels (Cheech and Deranged) and The Embassy (Fast Eddie and someone else who I don't recall, w/Prince Nana). First fall was a Scramble Rules match that saw the Embassy get eliminated. Second fall was an anything goes match where Lacey's Angels got eliminated. The anything goes portion consisted of a bunch of garbage can shots and fighting on the floor. Third fall was a straight up tag, with the titles on the line. Dunn took a spike piledriver off the second rope for the pin.
5) AJ Styles defeated Roderick Strong in a tremendous match. Styles even got some boos here, and he is one of the most popular guys on the roster. Crowd heat was awesome, and the work of both men was top notch, as both men came with their working shoes on. Finish saw AJ hit the Styles Clash for the pin. Both men got a standing ovation afterwards.
INTERMISSION
6) Samoa Joe defeated Jimmy Rave (w/Prince Nana and Jade Chung) to retain the ROH Pure title. Decent, but not one of Joe's better title defenses. Joe had lost all three of his ropebreaks before Rave lost any. Crowd was all over Rave with "Rave's a *****" and "Die Jimmy Die" chants through most of the match. Nana at ringside continualy berated Jade as has been the case over the past several shows. Finish saw Joe hit the muscle buster for the pin.
After the match, Nana started what seemed to be a promo blaming Rave for the loss. But instead, he swerved and blamed Jade. He told her to get on her hands and knees so that Rave could exit the ring, using her as a footstool. She did, but Rave slipped on her as he exited the ring, Nana threw Jade back into the ring, and started screaming at her. At this point, the lights went out....
...And when they came back on, Matt F'N Hardy was standing in the ring, and he got a thunderous pop. The Embassy all ran out of the ring, and Matt got on the mic. He thanked the fans for their support, told us that he wouldn't be talking tonight "about that piece of **** Adam Copeland or that whore Amy Dumas". He got a big "f*ck Edge" chant going. He basically said that WWE writers should pop in some ROH DVD's to see what a real wrestling company is all about, and put all the boys in the locker room over saying how professional they all were and what hard workers they were. Hardy then said to bring out Daniels, as he was looking forward to working his first "real" match in about a year.
7) Matt Hardy defeated Christopher Daniels via submission. I'd say that the crowd was split about 60/40 in favor of Daniels here, but they definately didn't want to boo Hardy, despite loving Daniels. The crowd was non stop chanting the entire match. I didn't have much expectation here going in, considering Hardy hadn't worked since last year, but the match was excellent. Nothing really state of the art in terms of spots, but excellent, solid work all around. At one point, Hardy superplexed Daniels off all four turnbuckles, only to get a two count. Eventually, CM Punk came out and distracted Daniels. Hardy took offense, but Daniels pushed him away, into the ref. The ref and Hardy both sort of bumped briefly, long enough for Punk to hit Daniels with the chain. Hardy didn't realize this happened, and he hit the Twist of Fate on Daniels, but Daniels kicked out. Hardy then hit a second Twist of Fate, and locked in a submission that sort of resembled the Trailer Hitch submission that Gibson has been using, for the tapout win. Some fans were upset over this, but Hardy still got a great ovation afterwards.
As Daniels was laying in the ring still, Punk got on the mic and told us that we had just witnessed the main event, and thanked us all for coming. He stated he would not be wrestling as James Gibson was too hurt to wrestle. Daniels got helped to the back, and Gibsons music started playing, and he came out to a huge pop. His head was all bandaged up, selling the injury from earlier in the night.
9) CM Punk defeated James Gibson to retain the ROH World title. Another oustanding match. Gibson's bandage came off a few minutes into the match, and his cut from earlier got opened back up and was bleeding like a pig. The crowd was kind of quiet for much of the match, probably drained from the previous match, but the work was excellent. Story of the match saw and injured Gibson survive as Punk totally dominated him. Not exactly certain how the match finished, but Gibson got pinned in a rollup, and I think Punk was holding the tights.
After the match, Punk got back on the mic, made fun of Gibson, and then told the crowd that tonight was his last match in ROH (just like 6/18 was, and 7/8 was, and 7/9 was....), and that he was taking the title with him to WWE. Daniels ran back out and attacked Punk and layed him out. Daniels then took possesion of the ROH title belt, and said if Punk ever wanted to hold it again, he could come and find him. Daniels then left. Punk was laying in the ring, and people were throwing garbage at him. He grabbed the mic, and I thought he was going to cut a promo, but instead he asked who threw stuff at him, then ran into the crowd and appeared to run after a fan, right to the outside. And that was how the show ended.
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Heres another detailed live report
http://www.rohwrestling.com/MessageBoard/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=13134
I feel sorry for all you guys whose only exposure to wrestling is WWE. You guys are missing out. Seemed like an awesome show, I wish I could have gone :-(
WWE is the only viable option for real financial secuity right now, like it or not.
Not really true because for one, they can release you anytime they want for no reason. And two, popular indy wrestlers like AJ Styles and Raven can make nearly as much as some WWE talents per year.
Hopefully they will continue to let Matt work ROH, he definetly will have a lot more classic matches there than he ever will in the WWE. He will never have a 20+ minute long singles match in the WWE like he did tonight. Once the whole love triangle hype is over, he'll be back to being underutilized and miserable.
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