ROH in New York, N.Y. at the Manhattan Center
By Dot Net Reader Jon Scott

The Manhattan Center was packed but oddly enough, ROH never announced it as sold out. During the pre-show, Tammy "Sunny" Sytch was signing autographs.

1. Zach Gowen pinning Pelle Primeau in a pre-show match.

The main show began about 10-15 minutes late, which is much better than past Manhattan Center shows (everyone has to get into a tiny elevator and ascend 6-8 floors).

2. Delirious and Human Tornado fought to a no-contest. This didn't last long. Human Tornado had some big chants going in his NYC debut. They had a dance off until Age of the Fall came out (Lacey, Jimmy Jacobs, Tyler Black and Zach Gowen) and attacked the two. Daizee Haze ran out to attack Lacey and ran her off. It turned into a tag match.

3. Jimmy Jacobs & Tyler Black beat Delirious and Human Tornado. Jacobs made Tornado tap out.

Nigel McGuiness came out to the John Cena reaction but quickly turned completely heel. He talked about how the fans didn't care if he was a crippled vegetable in a few years and how he was putting his health on the line if he wrestled later on. He talked about being the champion and how he had to be ready for an important PPV next month. He finally said he would not wrestle.

Bryan Danielson came out to big cheers. He pushed the ROH World Title hard and all the guys who won it (like Samoa Joe, Austin Aries, CM Punk) and those who didn't (like Christopher Daniels and Roderick Strong). Danielson promised he would not do any moves to Nigel's head. He specifically mentioned no elbows. The match was on.

4. Brent Albright defeated El Generico by ref stoppage after a series of knees to the head. Most of the match was Albright working over Generico's back. Solid match. For some reason, a good portion of the crowd thought Albright looks like Jim Belushi.

Larry Sweeney came out for his talk show segment with Bobby Dempsey. The crowd loves Dempsey and when they chant his name, Sweeney yells at Bobby and slaps him. They said today was Dempsey's birthday so he caught some extra heat from Sweeney. They brought out Allison Danger and ran her down for being a slut and sleeping her way into pro wrestling. Danger was about to leave the ring when Sweeney knocked her down/out. He pushed Dempsey onto her on the mat to "make a man" out of him. The crowd was cheering for Dempsey, of course. With Sweeney's delivery and Dempsey's innocent expressions, it was funny.

4. Kevin Steen defeated Joey Matthews with the sharpshooter. The match wasn't bad but something didn't flow right. The crowd hated Matthews.

5. Austin Aries defeated Go Shiozaki with a brainbuster and the 450 splash. Great match that saw a ton of different combinations from both men. Shiozaki's chops are even more brutal than Roderick Strong's. If the match ended 10 minutes earlier, I don't think anyone would have complained with the stuff they were doing. Afterwards, Jimmy Jacobs, Tyler Black and Lacey appeared on the balcony and tried to entice Aries to join them. Sunny came out and into the ring with a very revealing shirt (Lacey criticized her "plastic chest"). Sunny tried to get Aries to join her, Aries simply said he had a decision to make and left.

The Hammerstein Ballroom announcement (ROH’s May event will move to the ballroom) was made and was followed by intermission.

5. Sara Del Ray pinned Daizee Haze to retain the SHIMMER Title.

6. Davey Richards and Rocky Romero retained the ROH World Tag Titles over Jigsaw and Ruckus. Julius Smokes and Mercedes Martinez accompanied Jigsaw and Ruckus to the ring. Davey pinned Jigsaw for the win. A lot of Dragon Gate style action, with almost no actual tag's. After the match, Smokes wanted Jigsaw to unmask but he just left the ring.

Afterwards with Richards and Romero in the ring, Kevin Steen and El Generico appeared on the stage. They mentioned how at the first ROH PPV they were in the same spot and challenged the Briscoes. They did the same to Richards/Romero and ran to the ring. Unlike the Briscoes, Richards and Romero bailed out and were chased to the back.

7. Roderick Strong retaind the FIP Title in a triple threat NO DQ match against Necro Butcher and Erick Stevens. An insane brawl. A ton of action around the ring. Necro Butcher took some insane unprotected chair shots to the skull. Erick Stevens' head opened up (it looked like it was from a previous cut as he had a bandage on it when he came out) and someone may have lost some teeth (ring announcer Bobby Cruise looked like he was literally kicking them out of the ring). Necro used the ring bell and the ROH signboards on the guard rails. Roderick pinned Necro to end it all. Throughout the match, the crowd was going crazy for Necro Butcher as Lacey tried to get them to stop.

8. Nigel McGuiness defeated Bryan Danielson via ref stoppage to retain the ROH World Title. At one point, McGuiness blatantly nailed the first referee with an elbow and was disqualified. Austin Aries led a group of guys (Kevin Steen, someone else and Roderick Strong, which seemed odd) to force McGuiness into returning to the ring or get his ass kicked. The match restarted with Sinclair as ref. Danielson avoided any moves to Nigel's head so he punched him in the stomach and locked on a ton of different submissions, but Nigel kept getting to the rope.

In the last 15 minutes of the match, Danielson had numerous opportunities to win with the elbows but since he promised not to, he didn't do it. Instead, McGuiness used the elbows to knock Danielson out. McGuiness had Bryan Danielson in a submission hold. Danielson was not responding so referee Todd Sinclair stopped the match. Danielson was unconscious and had to be carried to the back. The crowd was all over McGuiness throughout the match, even going with the U.S.A. chants which Danielson encouraged. Great match.

C.M. Punk was seen towards the end of the show sitting near the sound area. The show went long (again... by the time the show was over, it was about 11:40) but the crowd was pretty much into everything except the Matthews vs. Steen match.

It will be interesting to see how they attempt to fill the larger Hammerstein Ballroom in less than three months.

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