Post by JTB on Dec 4, 2007 18:29:03 GMT -6
As a result of bad weather and an Interstate wreck, Ring of Honor had to rebook their final show of 2007 in Chicago Ridge. Instead of getting a six-team, six-man tag team tournament, we got “UNSCRIPTED III,” where the booking sheet goes out the window and anything goes. None of the advertised matches actually happened. Considering the weather, the down crowd, the injury to Nigel McGuinness, holiday shopping, and anything else that could go bad, this event was a success. It wasn’t as good as the “Driven” PPV taping I saw live last summer, but I didn’t care, and the 450-500 who braved the weather to get to the Frontier Fieldhouse were pretty pleased, too.
Lucky for me, I didn’t have far to travel, but it was still 30 MPH down the Stevenson with cars passing me up going faster. Screw the snow, that was the real danger. The traffic reporter on WBBM-AM was reporting spinouts everywhere, and icy roads south of Interstate 80. If you don’t have to be out on the roads, he says, then stay home. I kept praying to the God that Ben Jordan, CMV, nihilistnumber3, and skeptic555 don’t believe in, hoping this drive wasn’t my last. Old habits die hard, I guess.
I did stop at Grand Duke’s at 63rd and Harlem Ave. in Summit for some cold beet soup and Lithuanian sausage with boiled potatoes and a gob of sauerkraut. Got it all for $12, and it would have been less had I gotten a cup of soup, and not a bowl. I was all starched out. I didn’t try a Lithuanian beer because I needed a .000 BAC to drive in this weather. They got televisions to watch, a bar, a tiny deli with ethnic goods and no city sales tax. Plus, you’re not that far from Toyota Park. You may be able to park and walk to the field if you’re lucky. Between Duke’s, Lebanese Nights in Bridgeview, and Chuck’s Café in Burbank, there’s plenty of good places to chow at before/after ROH and PCW in Summit.
Got to the building early. Entire lot was a skating rink. Asked Cary the promoter if everybody made it OK. He said yes. Somebody else told me otherwise. Maybe Cary meant the crew, not the wrestlers. Only people of note who didn’t appear were Necro Butcher, Jack Evans, Ruckus, and Human Tornado, who were traveling together. I’m glad they’re OK. Can you imagine a car ride with those four? Only bummer was missing Tornado, who has charisma to spare. We start with the pre-show.
A) Alex “Sugarfoot” Payne d. Rhett Titus: Titus came out with sunglasses and an attitude. Streamers and shouts for Sugarfoot. I know he’s basic and has ways to go, but I always like seeing Sugarfoot in ROH. Guy is the king of the preshow, like Cadillac Jones in SHIMMER. Sugarfoot made a comeback, hit an awkward suplex and got an unexpected three count.
B) Ernie Osiris d. Mitch Franklin to retain Top of the Class trophy: Not sure if it went 5 or 10 minutes, but it bored me to tears, even with P.J. Drummond as ref. Somebody hit a super kick. Nobody on the preshow should follow Sugarfoot in Chicago Ridge. It’s like Flyleaf trying to follow Slayer at Ozzfest.
Bobby Cruise announced the card change and the crowd was bummed. “Personal Jesus” started playing and the crowd was happy. Austin Aries put over the crowd for showing up in the bad weather and got an “ROH” chant. I hate this “screaming woman” entrance theme that Age of the Fall use. Tyler Black came out, cut standard promo, and we had a match.
1) Austin Aries d. Tyler Black: Amazingly, this didn’t do much for me. Austin’s suicide dive to the outside got the crowd riled up. They each tried for a signature suplex. Aries hit the brain buster and a 450 to win. OK starter, I can’t figure out why this wasn’t better. ROHbots will blame it on Tyler, because Aries can do no wrong in their eyes.
Lacey comforted Tyler, wearing her wrestling gear. Now that Stacy Kiebler went Hollywood, I say Lacey has the best legs in wrestling. After seeing her in those booty shorts, I think we can say she has the best butt too. Not big like Mercedes Martinez, but nice and tight. She wanted a match. She got the SHIMMER champion.
2) Sara Del Ray d. Lacey: This match would have been totally over in SHIMMER, but it was only so-so here in front of a mostly quite crowd. Sara worked the left arm, Lacey worked over the neck and did a good job of it. Lacey tried to get a drink, but Sara hit her on the back and Lacey spit liquid. Crowd laughed at her lack of swallowing. Sara hit the Royal Butterfly for the win. Got better as it went on.
3) DINGO was his NAME-O d. Dan Lawrence, Trik Davis, Danny Daniels, Silas Young, and Seth Skyfire in a six-man mayhem match: Some dudes actually started chanting “AAW.” Everybody busted out the cell phones for Silas. Mostly spotfest, with Daniels hitting a front flip to the outside and a top-rope suplex by Silas and Lawrence onto the other four. Some “USA” chants by Dingo haters. Dingo pinned Lawrence with a Dragon Suplex. Crowd liked this a lot. Afterwards, Jay and Mark Briscoe came out and laid out Daniels and Young, and said their opponents for tonight had to “man up.”
4) Claudio Castagnolli d. Chris Hero, 2/3 falls: Hero was acting like an a-hole, as usual, yet got a lot cheers. People didn’t seem to mind his shabby treatment of Bobby Dempsey, even after Hero stiffed him. Somebody in the crowd sneaked food to Dempsey, which got a pop. This was fine, albeit slow at times. Claudio came back with a Euro uppercut or two. Claudio won the fall with a waterslide, then Larry Sweeney came out and told Claudio this match was now best of three falls. Hero used to distraction to hit the Hero’s Welcome to win fall two. Claudio got an armbar submission to take the match despite Hero‘s beat down of the arm. He got beat down by Hero and kicked by Sweeney afterwards. Hero smacked Dempsey again. Man, when Dempsey mans up and turns on Hero, people are really going to be behind him. Hope they don’t take too long, or else people are going to lose sympathy when he doesn’t develop a set.
We had an intermission with Nigel and Del Ray signing stuff. The Hangmen 3 came out to start the second half with a tag match.
5) Adam Pearce/Shane Hagadorn d. Sugarfoot/Osiris: Sugarfoot came out again and I got excited. Then we had the match. That wasn’t so exciting. Payne was tossed outside. Double-team spike piledriver on Osiris got the duke. SQUASH. Brett Albright wanted an opponent. He got a “wrestling enigma.”
6) Brent Albright d. Jigsaw: Very good for the time given. Power moves by Brent and Jigsaw hit a hope move here and there to stay in the match. Half-Nelson suplex by Albright got the duke. I’d like to see these two again with an angle and more time, because they worked well together. Whitmer called out an opponent and we got…
7) Delirious vs. B.J. Whitmer went to a no-contest: Delirious chased off the Hangmen so we can go one-on-one. B.J. made it no-DQ. Didn‘t take very long for these two to go into the crowd. Delirious got an umbrella and stabbed BJ with it, and then opened the damn thing and nailed Whitmer with it. Delirious tossed B.J. into a trashcan, causing the little kids to scatter. Lucky nobody got hurt. Whitmer juiced big. Delirious got Shadows Over Hell. The Hangmen came in, with Pearce holding a long chain. A fan said “Pearce is like Junkyard Dog, only gay.” Best crowd comment of the night. They choked out Delirious with the chain and made him bleed. The workers from the six-man match tried to make the save, but they all got tossed, including one dude into the crowd.
Daizee Haze and the nameless chick from AOTF fought. Jimmy Jacobs came in and speared Daizee. Shameful. Jacobs started talking about how we destroy the worst and best in the world. “Final Countdown” hit and the place went nuts.
8. Jimmy Jacobs d. “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson via submission. Yes, you read that right. The smallest guy on the main roster beat the BEST WRESTLER IN THE WORLD. Danielson got a few elbows on Jimmy early. When Jimmy bailed, Bryan mocked emo-boy, saying “I thought this was a revolution.” Jimmy hit a back senton for two. Danielson juiced due to a scissors-stab. Dragon tried cattle mutilation, but no dice thanks to Lacey. Dragon went for a suplex off the ropes, but Jacobs locked on the guillotine choke and DDT’d Dragon off the ropes, holding on to the choke for the submission. Hope this turns out good on DVD, because it was great live. Jacobs didn’t have to resort to an insane bump and kill himself, and Danielson was Danielson, as usual. If there’s footage of Danielson in a bad match out there, it would put the internet marks into a collective seizure. I can’t imagine somebody that awesome being mediocre, let alone bad.
The injured champ Nigel came out and mocked his rival for calling himself a contender while losing to Morishima, Jacobs, and others. This brought out Hero and Sweeney to jump Nigel and pose with the belt. Roderick Strong came out and put himself over as the “FIP World Champion Title.” Crowd chanted “You f’d up. “ Strong challenged Nigel to an ROH title match on January 26. Weather permitting, that should be awesome. Erick Stevens, Mohawk and all, came out to fight Strong, but Rocky Romero and Davey Richards came out to beat up Mohawk man, but the Briscoes hit the ring.
9) Stevens/Briscoes d. Richards/Strong/Romero: Standard six-man. Action was fine, but I was getting tired out by this point, and I couldn’t focus much on the match. Rocky did his dance and there was hard-hitting action, I just didn’t feel like following along. Choo-choo splash by Stevens. Hope it’s better on DVD. Stevens and the Briscoes dropped the NRC on their heads simultaneously, with Stevens making the winning pin. All three posed at the ramp to end the show. No spotlight was shining on the victors. Actually, the spotlights were unmanned for most of the show. I guess they needed the students to wrestle instead.
The drive home was about 40 MPH, with ice flying off other cars onto the Stevenson. I got trailed by a snowplow, but didn’t know whether to yield the far right lane or not. Man, I’m glad I got home in one piece; Hope it went OK for you all, too.
Lucky for me, I didn’t have far to travel, but it was still 30 MPH down the Stevenson with cars passing me up going faster. Screw the snow, that was the real danger. The traffic reporter on WBBM-AM was reporting spinouts everywhere, and icy roads south of Interstate 80. If you don’t have to be out on the roads, he says, then stay home. I kept praying to the God that Ben Jordan, CMV, nihilistnumber3, and skeptic555 don’t believe in, hoping this drive wasn’t my last. Old habits die hard, I guess.
I did stop at Grand Duke’s at 63rd and Harlem Ave. in Summit for some cold beet soup and Lithuanian sausage with boiled potatoes and a gob of sauerkraut. Got it all for $12, and it would have been less had I gotten a cup of soup, and not a bowl. I was all starched out. I didn’t try a Lithuanian beer because I needed a .000 BAC to drive in this weather. They got televisions to watch, a bar, a tiny deli with ethnic goods and no city sales tax. Plus, you’re not that far from Toyota Park. You may be able to park and walk to the field if you’re lucky. Between Duke’s, Lebanese Nights in Bridgeview, and Chuck’s Café in Burbank, there’s plenty of good places to chow at before/after ROH and PCW in Summit.
Got to the building early. Entire lot was a skating rink. Asked Cary the promoter if everybody made it OK. He said yes. Somebody else told me otherwise. Maybe Cary meant the crew, not the wrestlers. Only people of note who didn’t appear were Necro Butcher, Jack Evans, Ruckus, and Human Tornado, who were traveling together. I’m glad they’re OK. Can you imagine a car ride with those four? Only bummer was missing Tornado, who has charisma to spare. We start with the pre-show.
A) Alex “Sugarfoot” Payne d. Rhett Titus: Titus came out with sunglasses and an attitude. Streamers and shouts for Sugarfoot. I know he’s basic and has ways to go, but I always like seeing Sugarfoot in ROH. Guy is the king of the preshow, like Cadillac Jones in SHIMMER. Sugarfoot made a comeback, hit an awkward suplex and got an unexpected three count.
B) Ernie Osiris d. Mitch Franklin to retain Top of the Class trophy: Not sure if it went 5 or 10 minutes, but it bored me to tears, even with P.J. Drummond as ref. Somebody hit a super kick. Nobody on the preshow should follow Sugarfoot in Chicago Ridge. It’s like Flyleaf trying to follow Slayer at Ozzfest.
Bobby Cruise announced the card change and the crowd was bummed. “Personal Jesus” started playing and the crowd was happy. Austin Aries put over the crowd for showing up in the bad weather and got an “ROH” chant. I hate this “screaming woman” entrance theme that Age of the Fall use. Tyler Black came out, cut standard promo, and we had a match.
1) Austin Aries d. Tyler Black: Amazingly, this didn’t do much for me. Austin’s suicide dive to the outside got the crowd riled up. They each tried for a signature suplex. Aries hit the brain buster and a 450 to win. OK starter, I can’t figure out why this wasn’t better. ROHbots will blame it on Tyler, because Aries can do no wrong in their eyes.
Lacey comforted Tyler, wearing her wrestling gear. Now that Stacy Kiebler went Hollywood, I say Lacey has the best legs in wrestling. After seeing her in those booty shorts, I think we can say she has the best butt too. Not big like Mercedes Martinez, but nice and tight. She wanted a match. She got the SHIMMER champion.
2) Sara Del Ray d. Lacey: This match would have been totally over in SHIMMER, but it was only so-so here in front of a mostly quite crowd. Sara worked the left arm, Lacey worked over the neck and did a good job of it. Lacey tried to get a drink, but Sara hit her on the back and Lacey spit liquid. Crowd laughed at her lack of swallowing. Sara hit the Royal Butterfly for the win. Got better as it went on.
3) DINGO was his NAME-O d. Dan Lawrence, Trik Davis, Danny Daniels, Silas Young, and Seth Skyfire in a six-man mayhem match: Some dudes actually started chanting “AAW.” Everybody busted out the cell phones for Silas. Mostly spotfest, with Daniels hitting a front flip to the outside and a top-rope suplex by Silas and Lawrence onto the other four. Some “USA” chants by Dingo haters. Dingo pinned Lawrence with a Dragon Suplex. Crowd liked this a lot. Afterwards, Jay and Mark Briscoe came out and laid out Daniels and Young, and said their opponents for tonight had to “man up.”
4) Claudio Castagnolli d. Chris Hero, 2/3 falls: Hero was acting like an a-hole, as usual, yet got a lot cheers. People didn’t seem to mind his shabby treatment of Bobby Dempsey, even after Hero stiffed him. Somebody in the crowd sneaked food to Dempsey, which got a pop. This was fine, albeit slow at times. Claudio came back with a Euro uppercut or two. Claudio won the fall with a waterslide, then Larry Sweeney came out and told Claudio this match was now best of three falls. Hero used to distraction to hit the Hero’s Welcome to win fall two. Claudio got an armbar submission to take the match despite Hero‘s beat down of the arm. He got beat down by Hero and kicked by Sweeney afterwards. Hero smacked Dempsey again. Man, when Dempsey mans up and turns on Hero, people are really going to be behind him. Hope they don’t take too long, or else people are going to lose sympathy when he doesn’t develop a set.
We had an intermission with Nigel and Del Ray signing stuff. The Hangmen 3 came out to start the second half with a tag match.
5) Adam Pearce/Shane Hagadorn d. Sugarfoot/Osiris: Sugarfoot came out again and I got excited. Then we had the match. That wasn’t so exciting. Payne was tossed outside. Double-team spike piledriver on Osiris got the duke. SQUASH. Brett Albright wanted an opponent. He got a “wrestling enigma.”
6) Brent Albright d. Jigsaw: Very good for the time given. Power moves by Brent and Jigsaw hit a hope move here and there to stay in the match. Half-Nelson suplex by Albright got the duke. I’d like to see these two again with an angle and more time, because they worked well together. Whitmer called out an opponent and we got…
7) Delirious vs. B.J. Whitmer went to a no-contest: Delirious chased off the Hangmen so we can go one-on-one. B.J. made it no-DQ. Didn‘t take very long for these two to go into the crowd. Delirious got an umbrella and stabbed BJ with it, and then opened the damn thing and nailed Whitmer with it. Delirious tossed B.J. into a trashcan, causing the little kids to scatter. Lucky nobody got hurt. Whitmer juiced big. Delirious got Shadows Over Hell. The Hangmen came in, with Pearce holding a long chain. A fan said “Pearce is like Junkyard Dog, only gay.” Best crowd comment of the night. They choked out Delirious with the chain and made him bleed. The workers from the six-man match tried to make the save, but they all got tossed, including one dude into the crowd.
Daizee Haze and the nameless chick from AOTF fought. Jimmy Jacobs came in and speared Daizee. Shameful. Jacobs started talking about how we destroy the worst and best in the world. “Final Countdown” hit and the place went nuts.
8. Jimmy Jacobs d. “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson via submission. Yes, you read that right. The smallest guy on the main roster beat the BEST WRESTLER IN THE WORLD. Danielson got a few elbows on Jimmy early. When Jimmy bailed, Bryan mocked emo-boy, saying “I thought this was a revolution.” Jimmy hit a back senton for two. Danielson juiced due to a scissors-stab. Dragon tried cattle mutilation, but no dice thanks to Lacey. Dragon went for a suplex off the ropes, but Jacobs locked on the guillotine choke and DDT’d Dragon off the ropes, holding on to the choke for the submission. Hope this turns out good on DVD, because it was great live. Jacobs didn’t have to resort to an insane bump and kill himself, and Danielson was Danielson, as usual. If there’s footage of Danielson in a bad match out there, it would put the internet marks into a collective seizure. I can’t imagine somebody that awesome being mediocre, let alone bad.
The injured champ Nigel came out and mocked his rival for calling himself a contender while losing to Morishima, Jacobs, and others. This brought out Hero and Sweeney to jump Nigel and pose with the belt. Roderick Strong came out and put himself over as the “FIP World Champion Title.” Crowd chanted “You f’d up. “ Strong challenged Nigel to an ROH title match on January 26. Weather permitting, that should be awesome. Erick Stevens, Mohawk and all, came out to fight Strong, but Rocky Romero and Davey Richards came out to beat up Mohawk man, but the Briscoes hit the ring.
9) Stevens/Briscoes d. Richards/Strong/Romero: Standard six-man. Action was fine, but I was getting tired out by this point, and I couldn’t focus much on the match. Rocky did his dance and there was hard-hitting action, I just didn’t feel like following along. Choo-choo splash by Stevens. Hope it’s better on DVD. Stevens and the Briscoes dropped the NRC on their heads simultaneously, with Stevens making the winning pin. All three posed at the ramp to end the show. No spotlight was shining on the victors. Actually, the spotlights were unmanned for most of the show. I guess they needed the students to wrestle instead.
The drive home was about 40 MPH, with ice flying off other cars onto the Stevenson. I got trailed by a snowplow, but didn’t know whether to yield the far right lane or not. Man, I’m glad I got home in one piece; Hope it went OK for you all, too.
