Dot Net Member Zim attended the ROH Best in the World iPPV in New York on Sunday and sent the following report.

Rough crowd 1,200-1,500, give or take. Doors opened a little before 4:00 p.m. with the show starting at 5:00.

A lot of "YES!" And "DANIEL BRYAN" and "CM PUNK" chants before the show.

I had a word with Nigel McGuinness before the start. He said the documentary is still a while away. I asked if he ever had any plans to wrestle again even for a one off. His answer, interestingly enough, was "only for WWE, should they make that call."

The first match, The Briscoes vs Guardians of Truth, suffered big time because of the loose ropes. The hardest working ring crew member spent all match sneaking around the ring tightening the ropes when he could, while being heckled by the crowd. Huge reaction for Briscoes. Heavy "man up" chants, but a dud match.

Eddie Edwards vs. Homicide was a good match. The crowd was 70-30 in favor of hometown boy Homicide. BIG pop for his Cop Killa finish. I was behind my Massachusetts guy Eddie, though.

The crowd was all over the Adam Cole vs. Kyle O'Riley match in the worst way until Cole got opened up hard way. Then they really picked it up and were all about the match. There was a huge "this is awesome" chant. We were solidly behind Cole, as well as a big fan of the high impact style of the two down the stretch. 

Finlay vs. Michael Elgin was slow as hell and got a lot of "boring"chants. A decent story was told with the right guy going over but the crowd was ready for this one to end after about 10 minutes.

A great three-way dance. Each of the guys had their fans. We love the finishing sequences Roderick Strong used too. He is great. Hot crowd all match.

Good heat for Mike Bennett and Maria, good reactions for Mike Mondo, even though he wasn't the smoothest on the mic. Whats up with that haircut, though?

The fans were solidly behind All Night Express for the tag title match. Rhett Titus's girlfriend was in the seat behind me and she and her friends were very vocal for Rhett and Kenny as well. HUGE pop on the title change. Massive go-away heat with scattered "respectful applause" for WGTT. There were big time "F--- you, Charlie" chants.

Steve Corino got a big reaction and a large "ECW" chant when he came out.

Davey Richards came out to a lot of boos and slight respectful applause. Big reaction for Kevin Steen. Awesome match with great weapon and table spots. The crowd ate it up! Huge reactions for the package piledrivers and three count. Also of note, we popped HUGE twice and broke out with the loudest "YES!" chants I've ever heard live when Davey spin-kicked ref Todd Sinclair, and also when Steen hit the other ref with the package piledriver. Awesome reaction.

After the match, Steen tried so hard to turn us against him and establish himself as a real heel, but we wouldn't comply. He called us hypocrites, and we chanted "YES!" He disparaged the holy names of CM Punk and Daniel Bryan and we didn't turn. He mentioned how we've turned on every world champion since Nigel McGuinness (which is very true, except maybe Nigel not as much), but said that in order for that to happen or matter, he would have to "give a shit about us" first and concluded with something about he, Jimmy Jacobs, and Steve Corino killing ROH and finished with "F--- NEW YORK CITY" which elicited a large pop from us, the Steen-happy crowd.

I think ROH Just needs to accept that he's going to be cheered as the badass anti-authority figure no matter how hard they make him try to be an old school heel. I don't know if Jim Cornette can realize that or not but here's hoping so.

Overall, an average card with some super intense and fun moments. Some matches put us to sleep and others had us rabid, but too much was just meh that it couldn't all be overshadowed by the good.

Biggest Pops
Steen
ANX
(Cole/O'Riley down the stretch)
Briscoes

Most Heat
Charlie Haas (and Shelton Benjamin)
Mike Bennett
Davey Richards
Kyle O'Riley

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