Ring of Honor made their return to Boston on Friday, October 5th 2007. Once again, the Reggie Lewis Track and Field Center at Roxbury Community College was the host. This is a fine venue, I must say, despite the rough neighborhood.
This show was coming off the heels of August's Death Before Dishonor V Night 1 show. With the tremendous quality of that event, expectations were running high. The crowd turnout was a bit down, as there was a big Red Sox game in progress the same night.
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Preshow:
Bryan Fury defeated "Sugarfoot" Alex Payne.
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Handsome Johnny defeated "Sexiest Man Alive" Rhett Titus.
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Neither preshow match was overly noteworthy, which is to be expected.
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Main Show:
Adam Pearce and Brent Albright defeated Erick Stevens and Matt Cross. This was an excellent opener, as it was solid tag team wrestling with no fancy gimmick. Cross played a convincing face in peril and Stevens got one of the hottest tags I've seen in a LONG time as a result. This was a pleasant surprise, ***1/4.
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BJ Whitmer defeated Delirious. This one did not click at all. If they are going to keep booking Delirious into blood feuds, he needs to start acting like he really wants to hurt his enemy. Whitmer won in anticlimatic fashion, even after taking a series of "Chaos Effects" from Delirious, **.
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The Age of the Fall (Jimmy Jacobs, Tyler Black, and Lacey) cut a promo in the ring, and were attacked by Jay Briscoe. They brawled out into the hallway and back into the dressing room area. As a result, Black did not participate in the scheduled four-way and the following triple threat took place instead:
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Nigel McGuinness defeated Hallowicked, and El Generico. This was a lot of fun, Nigel and Generico were very over with the crowd. Hallowicked did not do anything overly impressive, which is a shame because this was his Boston ROH debut. Nigel hit at least seven lariats during the match, and was able to pin Hallowicked while Generico was recovering on the floor. ***
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Claudio Castagnoli defeated Chris Hero in an overly long match up. By this point, any real heat between Hero and Castagnoli is gone. The antics of Larry Sweeney, Sara Del Rey, and Bobby Dempsey at ringside were humorous, but felt a bit distracting once Hero stopped goofing around had started really wrestling Claudio. I've been told the match went about 20 minutes, but it felt like 30, **3/4.
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Jay Briscoe and Necro Butcher brawled into the gym. They fought their way around the crowd, with Butcher burying Jay with chairs at one point. Once it hit the ring, it became an "anything goes" match. Lots of sick chair bumps, with Necro Butcher picking up the win (after Jimmy Jacobs got involved again). Mark Briscoe hobbled out on his crutches to try and make the save, but the Age of the Fall took him out and carried him out of the building. What happened after was complete nonsense, as Jay took the time to cut a short promo and fight with a fan at ringside, rather than show concern for his brother who was just KIDNAPPED! I hope Mark kicks his ass for this later.
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Intermission:
I wandered around for a bit and saw some wrestlers in the hallway (Kevin Steen was being especially nice to fans looking for autographs). I went to the merch stand and chatted with Sara Del Rey again, and had her sign another DVD for me. She is really representing SHIMMER well.
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Jimmy Jacobs and Tyler Black squashed Ernie Osiris and Mitch Franklin. Afterwards, Jay Briscoe attacked them yet again, and he was not selling any of the punishment that Necro Butcher dished out to him earlier.
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Austin Aries defeated Bryan Danielson in an excellent match. Aries busted out some technical wrestling chops that we haven't seen from him in a long while. They took their time to tell a nice story, and built to the trademark high spots. Aries managed to out wrestle Danielson and make him tap out. ****
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Jack Evans, Jigsaw, and Ruckus defeated Roderick Strong, Davey Richards, and Rocky Romero in a scramble tag match. If you enjoy spot-fests (which I tend to do) then you would like this one. Evans, Jigsaw, and Ruckus, collectively known as The Vulture Squad, meshed very well as a team. Jigsaw stands out from the others as he wears a masked and has some off-beat goof charm, but his ring work qualifies him for the group. Solid spot-fest, and I look forward to seeing more of the Vulture Squad later, ***1/2.
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Takeshi Morishima defeated Kevin Steen to retain the ROH World Championship. It took this match several minutes before it started to click. The early going was some uninspiring brawling that failed to achieve any flow. Then Steen went for the sharpshooter, and things picked up from there. Lots of near falls, with Steen coming painfully close to winning the belt on several occasions. So basically, this is a repeat of Morishima's last two Boston title defenses. Again, Morishima managed to hulk up and hit a single backdrop driver for the victory. **3/4
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So all in all, this show was a few steps below what I've come to expect from ROH Boston shows. There was some nonsensical booking and a few matches failed to deliver. There was also an odd mix of effort, as the roster wanted to put on a great show but at the same time seemed to be saving themselves for tonight's pay-per-view taping. But, if you noticed my star ratings, most of the matches were in the *** region and the Aries/Danielson match lived up to my high expectations, so I was a happy wrestling fan once again. I look forward to ROH's return to Boston on January 11, 2008.
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