Ring of Honor
New York, N.Y. at The Hammerstein Ballroom
Report by Dot Net reader Jon Scott

The Hammerstein Ballroom appears much larger on television than it does live for some reason. It looked like they had part of the room curtained off. The place did look packed though with four balconies worth of people.

1. Roderick Strong retained the FIP Championship in the opener by pinning Erick Stevens. A lot of action in the triple threat with Go Shiozaki. It only lasted about 10 minutes. Tons of chops in this one. Shiozaki and Stevens' chests were both red. Stevens had Shiozaki beat but Strong schoolboy'd him for the quick pin.

2. Kevin Steen & El Generico beat Davey Richards and Rocky Romero. They teased dissension between Romero and Richards during the match at different points (running into each other and during tags). Tons of action. No Remorse Corps beat on Generico during the middle leading to the hot tag for Steen. Richards kicked out of a swanton and splash from Steen and Generico respectively. The end came after Steen hit Richards with a package piledriver, and Generico hit him with the brainbuster. Generico pinned Richards.

3. Delirious and Pelle Primeau won the Tag Scramble match. The scramble was what you would expect. Sweeney Inc. came out first and had the whole gang. Chris Hero, Brent Albright, Larry Sweeney, Jonny Fairplay, Eddie Edwards, Sara Del Ray, Shane Hagadorn and good 'ol Bobby Dempsey to name them all. We all know Dempsey is rather portly but damn his belly big.

Other teams were Delirious and Pelle Primeau, and the Vulture Squad (Jack Evans and Jigsaw) with Julius Smokes. At the beginning of the bout, Delirious chased Fairplay to the back but Fairplay returned a bit later. Tons of dives and flips. Jack hit one of his flips. Delirious dove into Sweeney Inc., then Albright did a flip into a pile. At the end, Delirious blinded Albright and Hero and Albright mistakenly suplexed Hero. Delirious hit Hero with a move and scored the pin.

After the match, Larry Sweeney was pissed off and ordered Albright to strike Dempsey (crowd was chanting his name). He was about to do it but refused. Hagadorn, Edwards, Del Ray, Hero and even Fairplay hit Dempsey. Albright teased hitting Dempsey but nailed Hagadorn instead.

Albright laid out the entire faction (safe for Sweeney). He powerbombed Hagadorn to the outside through a table (the only body part that went through the table was his head, SICK), and full-nelson suplexed Del Ray to a big pop. Sweeney ran for higher ground (Fairplay was left untouched).

Bobby Cruise announced the August 2nd return date to the Hammerstein. Plus, Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin, the Motor City Machine Guns will be on the card.

4. Bryan Danielson defeated Naomichi Marufuji via submission with cattle mutilation. Lots of mat work early on led to the big conclusion. Marufuji hit a coast to coast drop kick and missed another. Marufuji also nailed several superkicks knocking Danielson silly. Tons of submission attempts and reversals. Danielson tried ending it with the elbows at various points. Very good match. After the match, Danielson led the crowd through "The Final Countdown" one more time.

After intermission, Daizee Haze came out to tell us ROH has a new attendance record...but wouldn't say the exact number. Delirious interrupted dressed with a black dress shirt and a silver tie while hiding a rose behind his back. He asked her out on a date but Rhett Titus interrupted him. Titus boasted about his body as Haze ran away. Delirious was sad as the NYC crowd chanted 'You Got Cockblocked!" First time I ever heard that at a wrestling event.

5. GHC Champ Takeshi Morishima (didn't have the belt) beat Necro Butcher via pinfall after the backdrop driver. Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down" played as The Necro Butcher came out. Pretty damn funny choice for a new theme. Crowd was completely behind Necro. Many people were let down by this match because it was short (maybe ten minutes) and didn't feature a whole hell of a lot of brawling.

Stiff punches from Necro and the usual offense from Morishima. Necro got hit in the head with one chair shot. After the match, the Necro was applauded (as he was back at the Sixth Anniversary Show). Necro found his pregnant wife/girlfriend by ringside and gave her a kiss and a hug. Crowd chanted for Mrs. Necro Butcher as she laughed.

6. Jay Briscoe and Austin Aries retained the ROH World Tag Team belts by beating Jimmy Jacobs and Tyler Black. The first five or so minutes of the match were all on the outside. Aries and Jacobs fell through a table. Crowd was quiet until they got into the ring. Black and Jacobs worked over Briscoe. Jacobs pulled out the spike from his boot and hit Jay with it.

Briscoe was bleeding a ton with the crimson mask...it was literally dripping out of his head to the point the mat was covered. Jacobs put some of Jay's blood on his face. Eventually Aries returned to the action. Lot of near falls. Necro Butcher ran down, as did Mark Briscoe with a huge cast on his right arm. Mark hit the springboard doomsday device (he made sure not to use his bum arm). Jay scored the pin to retain the titles. Apparently, ROHWrestling.com is saying that Jay vacated the titles after the match.

After the pinfall, Jay and Mark left. Jacobs, Black and Necro beat on Aries. Jacobs threatened to "kill" Aries right then and there but said he wouldn't. Jacobs said he was emotionally scarred and rambled on about something. Crowd was making noise and Jacobs was speaking low.

7. Nigel McGuiness retained the ROH World Championship by pinning Claudio Castagnoli. A lot of chain wrestling early on. There were pockets of support for Nigel but the majority of the crowd boo'd Nigel (besides Richards/Romero, Nigel was the only guy on the show to get that kind of response). Tons of lariats from Nigel and tons of European uppercuts from Claudio. Nigel worked over Claudio's right arm/shoulder with various submissions. Tide turned with the giant swing where Nigel was spinning for a long time.

Three big near falls at the end had the crowd believing Claudio was about win the gold. Castagnoli hit the Ricola Bomb but Nigel kicked out at two and seven-eighths. Nigel kept trying for the big lariat, once Claudio small packaged him and got a near fall. Claudio hit a big European uppercut off the turnbuckle but Nigel kicked out. He tried for another Ricola Bomb but his arm was too banged up and Nigel ended up applying a submission hold for the win with Claudio tapping. Good main event.

Notes: Overall, a good event but it was lacking something. Best match of the night was likely the main event with the Steenerico/No Remorse tag or Danielson/Marufuji in second. Morishima/Necro did not meet expectations (although they were admittedly high). Bushwhacker Luke was around signing autographs and talking to people. During the main event, he was in the crowd watching Nigel and Claudio. The show lasted about three hours (including intermission) and ended no later than 11 p.m. Great time considering some of their past NYC shows.

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