ROH in New York, N.Y.
By and anonymous Dot Net reader

Huge house. It wasn't totally packed. I'd say between 1,200-1,500 people. Very Loud at points, but also very quiet.

1. The Briscoes defeated Ruckus and Jigsaw. It was very fast paced with four dives within minutes of the match starting. No real story. The crowd loved the Briscoes as expected. Huge Welcome Back chant for Mark. Bricoes win with the Springboard Doomsday Device.

Larry Sweeney interrupted the Briscoes celebration and told them he is a big fan of them. He asked them if they are interested in joining Sweet & Sour Inc. The Briscoes almost laughed it off and left.

Sweeney brought out Chris Hero, Eddie Edwards, and Bobby Dempsy. Big Dempsy chant. He is really over. They made him go hide under the ring. Hero grabbed the mic and started reciting a Mike Tyson promo stating he is a knock out king, his offense if impetuous, and his defense is inpregnable etc., etc., no more jokes. Well, the crowd immediately went flat after they introduced his opponent.

2. Chris Hero defeated Delirious. Delirious comes out and goes under the ring Dempsy out, Delirious starts with a dive onto S&S Inc. The crowd was nearly asleep for this, Hero had almost no heat, fans came up for some of Delirious' comeback. Hero ends this with a roaring elbow. Not much to the match.

Right from there Sweeney starts talking about the hottest prospect in the business Eddie Edwards, which brings out Roderick Strong.

3. Eddie Edwards defeated Roderick Strong. Good back and forth match, fans loved Roderick but did not have a sense of who Edwards was, but his heat grew during the match. Last five minutes of this match picked up and were really good. Finish was Roderick having Edwards rolled up, Hero charges in and nails Roderick with a loaded elbow pad. Edwards hit a lionsault for the win.

Brent Albright was introduced. He was really over with these fans. Sweeney introduced the NWA Heavyweight Champion "Scrap Daddy" Adam Pearce. Pearce came out with Sara Del Ray, Bobby Dempsy, and Shane Hagadorn. Pearce showed off the new Red NWA Belt (same as the classic Harley Race version just leather). He cut a promo talking about Harley Race winning this title and Jack Briscoe winning it from him, then Shoei Baba winning it, and said now its in the hands of Adam Pearce. Very strong heat for this.

4. Brent Albright defeated Adam Pearce to win the NWA Title. The match was fought under NWA rules. The fans loved this. Pearce opened up a cut on Albright early. They brawled to the floor and back into the ring. At one point Albright was setting up a table on the floor, got cut off and sent back to the ring. They kept pounding each other. Sweeney came in attempting to hit Albright with a chair, Roderick came out and hit a great boot on Sweeny before he could use it.

Strong chased Hagadorn to the back. The timing on this was impeccable. The table came back into play when Albright was climbing the ropes and Pearce pushed him off sending him crashing through the table. Fans expected a count out here, somehow Albright made it back before the count. Albright came back, hitting six German suplexes, Pearce taps to the Crowbar.

I cant say enough about this match. This is easily better than any WWE main event WWE has had this year on PPV. If you buy ROH DVDs, which I don't, I suggest you get this. The match was wrestled classic enough but still modern. The heat was off the charts. The reaction to Brent winning was awesome.

5. Austin Aries defeated Jimmy Jacobs and Necro Butcher in a three-way. Not much here. The story of the match was Jacobs wanting Necro to hurt Aries, but not beat him because Jacobs wanted to beat Aries. Necro slammed Aries with a chair in his arms. Necro went for a cover and then Jacobs pushed him off asking him what he was doing. Jacobs pushed Necro. Aries jumped up nailed Necro with the chair and tossed it to Jacobs. Necro turned to see Jacobs with the chair as fans started a huge, "Eddie, Eddie" chant. Necro snapped punching and kicking Jacobs, He left and then Aries hit a brainbuster followed by a 450 splash for the win.

Intermission

In a promo that ended flatly, Delirious came out and asked Dazee Haze out on a date. She turned him down stating it was her and not him. It's very hard to hear the promo audio in the building. Rhett Titus came out and had okay heat. He unvieled tights a la Rick Rude with Dazee's face on the ass. Titus left and so did the heat.

6. Naomichi Marafuji beat Go Shiozaki. The match started out a little awkward with the person in front of me saying this is pretty boring. By the end, you would have thought this was a Budokan main event. These two tore the house down. Highlights included Marafuji hitting a Shiranui off the apron to the floor. This match was insane with ton of false finishes before Marafuji hits his finisher on Shizaki for the win. The fans gave both a standing ovation.

7. Kevin Steen & El Generico defeated The Motor City Machine Guns. The MCMG were over, especially Alex Shelley. Generico and Steen were very over as well. There were a number of double team moves by MCMG in the beginning. They kept double teaming Generico to keep Steen out. The finish saw Steen apply the sharpshooter on Sabin as Shelly took a Brainbuster on the top rope from Generico. Sabin tapped. Sabin heeled out as Shelley sold the Brainbuster. He pushed Steen and Generico away when they offered thier hands. If your a fan of flashy moves without a lot of logic, I'm sure your like this.

8. Nigel McGuinness defeated Claudio Castagnoli and Tyler Black and Bryan Danielson in a four-way to retain the ROH Title. The most over face was Danielson very closely followed by Black. Nigel had the most heat of any heel here. Just awesome, he would tag in with whoever was in there, the second a comeback was made even if it was faint, he automatically tagged in. Danielson beat Castignoli first, Castignoli shook hands, and leaned on the corner, as Danielson celebrated, he turned and Claudio nailed a big boot. He hit his powerbomb on Danielson and then put a chair on his head, he ran and stomped the chair and stood on it, security and ROH Students came out and Caudio tossed them around in a great segment with awesome heat.

Claudio finally went to the back. Nigel adding to his heat, hit a huge Lariat on Danielson and finally covered him to eliminate him. Black & Nigel are left and Marafuji comes out on the ramp and stands there. Great last 10 minutes with Nigel dominating and hitting lariat after lariat on Black, attempting to cover him only to have him kick out. Blacks babyface heat was top notch here. Black mounted a great comeback with the fans on thier feet every time Black had Nigel's shoulders to the mat. Nigel finally caught Black with an awesome lariat to beat him. Great ending.

Notes: The show built from the Edwards vs. Strong match on with one little dip from the three-way. Great main event. The last 10 minutes were hard to catch your breath. Tyler Black with some personality could be a huge star. He should stay in ROH, and develop his personality there. He is going to be awesome. They announced the return to NYC Dec. 27 for Final Battle '08.

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