Death Before Dishonor V Night One

Friday, August 10th 2005:
Myself, DWB's own Professor Plague, and our former drama advisor/old-school wrestling fan took in Ring of Honor in Roxbury Crossing, MA. It was quite the show.

Preshow:

In a six-way match, Shane Hagadorn picked up a cheap victory against Alex "Sugarfoot" Payne, Bobby Dempsey, Ernie Osiris, Mitch Franklin, and Rhett Titus. Hagadorn spent the majority of the match sitting at ringside and stole the victory.

SHIMMER Champion Sara Del Rey defeated an unknown wrestler, whose first name was Candice, at 1:52. It was a complete squash, as the jobber looked extremely green. Del Rey had some good moves in her, including a sick fallaway slam.

Main show:
Jack Evans defeated Davey Richards by DQ at 11:22. Adequate opener, as Richards is playing his heel character well and Evans was insanely over with the live crowd. The match came to an abrupt halt when Roderick Strong interferred, which sparked a brawl between the NRC and Resilience.

Lacey defeated Daizee Haze at 8:10 to become the #1 Contender for the SHIMMER Championship. Good women's match, though it was a downer that Daizee lost, considering she got her ass kicked by Lacey at the last three Boston ROH shows.

Chris Hero defeated Nigel McGuinness at 20:02 in a "Pure Rules" match. Lots of stalling by Hero, and outside interference by Larry Sweeney, Tank Toland, Bobby Dempsey, and Sara Del Rey. About three minutes into the match all the lights went out and a recorded promo hyping "Project 161" aired. The lights came back on and Hero tried telling the ref that Nigel used all three of his rope breaks while the lights were out.

Matt Cross defeated Pelle Primeau, Jigsaw, Eddie Edwards, Delirious, and Brent Albright at 10:56. This was solid, with Pelle taking a disgusting release German suplex into the turnbuckles, courtesy of Brent Albright. Cross winning was a total surprise, as he put away Edwards while Delirious and Albright were distracted away from the ring.

Austin Aries and Erick Stevens defeated Roderick Strong and Rocky Romero at 20:51. Very disappointing match, as Stevens made for a lousy "face in peril" and was very forgettable outside of some heel trickery by Strong. Aries seemed to legitimately hurt his wrist during the match, as he was tended to while the NRC cut a promo after the match.

INTERMISSION: Plague and I hit the merch stand, and Sara Del Rey is kind enough to sign a

SHIMMER dvd for yours truly.

Bryan Danielson defeated Matt Sydal at 16:45. This was your typical awesome Danielson performance, who carried Sydal to a good match, even if he had to put himself into holds. They had some pre-match banter, where the stipulation was made that if Danielson won, he would get to keep Sydal's share of the 10,000 dollar prize money from the Edison show. This proved to be unwise, as Danielson was dominant and won by knockout, courtesy of his elbow shots.

Takeshi Morishima defeated Claudio Castagnoli to retain the ROH World Championship at 15:31. I'm very tempted to give this one **** as it was a great power wrestling match. Claudio had some painfully close near-falls on Morishima, with referee Todd Sinclair fucking up twice and counting three, but calling it as two. This happened at A Fight at the Roxbury when Morishima faced Jay Briscoe as well, and the crowd erupted in a "Fuck you, Sinclair" chant. In the end, Morishima's hard side suplex was too much for Claudio, but this was tremendous and worth the price of admission alone.

Kevin Steen and El Generico defeated Jay and Mark Briscoe in a Boston Street Fight at 22:11. As you might have guessed, this match was wild. The first ten minutes were brawling all over the building, with chair shots, broken tables, and sick bumps to the floor. The match finally hit the ring, and a ladder got involved, including a rather nasty spot where El Generico hit an ace crusher off the ropes on Jay Briscoe, who was climbing the ladder. There were lots of unbelievable kick-outs, but Kevin Steen ended up hitting a cradle DDT on one of the Briscoes on top of the ladder. Afterwards, Steen issued an open challenge for the next Boston show, with the criteria that his opponent must be the ROH World Champion.

Other notes:

There were Project 161 signs all over the building, including in the bathroom on the sinks and urinals.

The crowd was much larger than at A Fight at the Roxbury. The bleachers were full of fans this time, while the last show we had lots of room to stretch out.

Biggest pops:

Bryan Danielson

Briscoes

Bobby Dempsey (no kidding)

Nigel McGuinness

Biggest heat:

Todd Sinclair (during the world title match)

Morishima

Chris Hero

Roderick Strong

This was a great live show that should translate well into DVD. I'm looking forward to their return on October 5th.