I made my grand return to the Frontier Fieldhouse last Saturday for Ring of Honor. There were a couple matches I was excited for while the mid-card seemingly had a lot to be desired. I walked in and found out almost immediately that ROH would return on February 26, 2011. Having heard about what Jim Cornette said in July, I thought, “iPPV coming to Chicago at last.” I was proven right as ring announcer Kevin Harvey made the announcement. Let’s get to the meat and potatoes of the show now before I get too excited for events six months from now.
The preshow match featured Bobby Dempsey and Mike Sydal winning a tag team. Sydal has a good future once he becomes more smooth in the ring. Dempsey…I think he could have meant something as a fun undercard babyface, but they’ve hardly used him the last two years, ever since he went crazy in the cage on Larry Sweeney.
Show began proper with All Night Express against Kyle O’Reilly and Adam Cole. After hearing about the newcomers jobbing out in Dayton, I was hoping for them to get a big win. Sadly, they didn’t. I’m actually angrier now than I was Saturday because here you have a company Ring of Honor that really need new stars. Desperately I’d say. Here’s a chance for two new guys to win a match in a big market, and ROH didn’t take advantage of it. Titus has improved a lot, but he’s still not good enough to stand on his own as an A level talent. Kenny King has a lot of athleticism, but other than a few good matches, he hasn’t brought it on a consistent basis (not to mention the amount of times he himself has jobbed out). The match itself wasn’t awful, but the wrong team went over.
Ricky Reyes defeated Andy Ridge in a match that felt like it went six hours long. Reyes dropped Ridge right on his twice. I was bored.
Lady JoJo and Nevaeh came out for a tag team match. A “fan” dumped water on Lady JoJo on the entranceway. I have no idea why Ring of Honor is doing some “reality” television show, but it comes off very low rent and fake if you ask me. Especially when the security guy doesn’t immediately toss the “fan” but waits until the match is half over before tossing him. JoJo and Naveah defeated Daizee Haze & Jamilla Craft in another blah match. Having this match coming after the Reyes one was a poor decision. Women’s matches in this company never come off well because there’s no real purpose. If ROH is serious about establishing a women’s division, they need to create a belt or acknowledge the Shimmer championship again.
Homicide and Kevin Steen saved the first half of the show by having one of the wildest and most unpredictable contests in company history. I don’t even know how to describe some of what happened. They brawled, bit, and just had a fun time. The highlight may have been Homicide and Steen each going out to ringside and throwing objects in the ring. Steen tried to throw a piece of the guard rail into the ring, but the piece of steel wouldn’t comply. Steen snapped, threw the sucker down, and laid in a few elbow drops. Awesome moment and total
ly within character. Homicide won the match with a second rope acecrusher, and it was great to see him back in the company again. He’s always been a personal favorite of mine even though he’s not the greatest in ring performer. Homicide and Steen actually continued their brawl after the match as well, and I thought this may have been the start of something.
Metal Master and Mike Mondo came on after intermission. I didn’t care a lick about this match and had to look at ROH’s website to realize Metal Master actually won.
Jay and Mark Briscoe continued their feud with Kings of Wrestling in an elimination tag match. I didn’t enjoy this nearly as much as their two Pay-Per-View contests, but this was still a solid story. I liked Mark Briscoe being eliminated first, only to have Jay come from behind and pin both members of the Kings of Wrestling back-to-back. Very enjoyable but not something I’d run out to see. I’d be willing to bet my house this feud gets blown off in Chicago at the iPPV. Really looking forward to Papa Briscoe beating up Shane Hagadorn at Final Battle before this great rivalry comes to an end.
Colt Cabana and Steve Corino was a match I was very much looking forward to because they could use a bunch of gimmicks, and both guys have been pretty solid throughout 2010. The match didn’t turn out nearly as great. Coming after Steen and Homicide, this felt toned down and not epic at all. I think one other factor hurt this match. At one point, Steen got out of the straightjacket and was about to nail Cabana with a chair. Crowd chanted for Homicide based on what happened earlier in the show. Steen yelled about Homicide being in the hospital. So with no Homicide, a bunch of geeks came out to stop Steen while the match was still going on. This was either stupid booking or covering up for Homicide’s absence. Either way, it killed this match dead. Very unfortunate because Corino is easily the comeback wrestler of the year based on his promos and match quality.
Davey Richards and Christopher Daniels came out to save the show. And save the show they did. What an unbelievable match of the year quality main event these two put on. Any doubt about whether Christopher Daniels could still bring it or have great matches should buy the DVD to see the work he put in with Richards. History will show Daniels having his best match since his return to Ring of Honor. What I think this match showed is that Richards is now far and away the best in ring performer in the company. He also owns the crowd and has become someone the fans look at as their guy to have great matches and get behind. Hopefully, Richards demolishes Roddy Strong at Final Battle and has a long title reign. No offense to Roddy, but it's Davey's time to be the champion. He's the man who can carry the company in 2011 and is clearly the most over of anyone on the roster.
Overall, I can't say this was a stellar show. The undercard had a lot to be desired, and the “I Quit” match disappointed me. The match before intermission and the elimination tag would not be enough to give this show a thumbs up. Thanks to the main event, however, I strongly recommend the DVD. One of the best matches in Ring of Honor in 2010 took a mediocre show and made it a thumbs up show. And really, that's what future world champions should be doing.
I was at the show and agree with this write up almost exactly, I was not as big of fan of Steen vs Homicide though. Another thing I thought that did not work in the “I Quit” match was Steen in the straight jacket, was hoping of some clever way he would get out of it, but Corino just took it off of him.
It was the weakest undercard for a ROH show I have been to for quite some time, but the main event is epic.