ROH in Chicago Ridge, Ill. at the Frontier Fieldhouse
Report by Dot Net reader Jason Detrick

1. Claudio Castagnoli defeated Kevin Steen. I arrived near the end of this match. Steen was hitting his signature spots like the neckbreaker over his knee and the Steenton bomb. As he nearly had CC finished, Sweeney ran out and jumped on the apron. As the referee was distracted, Claudio kicked Steen low and finished him with a Ricola Bomb. It looks like Claudio will be working with Sweet N Sour in some capacity.

2. Grizzly Redwood defeated Rhett Titus. I don't think this will be on PPV. Everyone was expecting a Bison Smith run in, but it never came. Fun comedy match. At one point, Grizzly was pulling an imaginary string on his hand as if to start a chainsaw, and then started shaking his hand as if it were a running chainsaw and used it as a weapon on Rhett. While the vast majority of the audience enjoyed this match, some behind me in my section loudly and incorrectly derided this as sports entertainment bullsh*t even though for ROH's entire existence they've done comedy matches somewhat regularly. These same fans would be chanting "We want Gabe!" and "Bring back Gabe" later on, and in those instances they would have a point.

3. Jerry Lynn and Necro Butcher defeated Delirious and Brodie Lee (w/Jimmy Jacobs). Brodie Lee really does have a striking resemblence to actor Jason Lee (AKA "Brodie" from Mallrats, hence Brodie Lee's ring name). This match was pretty flat with the crowd and there weren't many memorable spots. The key story to this match was Delirious starting to act like his old babyface self, saying goofy things during the match. Jacobs was mad and kept yelling for him to "Quit goofing off!" Necro was busting out actual wrestling in this match, hitting a multitude of monkey flips and even a top rope rana. He also legdropped Brodie through a table on the outside. Jerry finished off Delirious with a cradle piledriver.

They then ran a post match angle which can only be described as a disaster. And not a beautiful one either. Brodie walked to the back and Jacobs went in the ring and berated Delirious. Jeez, he's kicking out a stable member per PPV, he won't have much left soon. He slapped Delirious and pulled out a chain and prepared to beat Delirious.

Daizee Haze ran out and asked him to stop and he pushed Daizee down. Daizee went into her boot and revealed Jimmy's railroad spike, which she stole from him a few shows back. She prepared to spike Jimmy in the head and the crowd got hot for the big moment. Then Jimmy turned around and... Daizee just stood there with it, which let a lot of air out of the crowd. Jimmy then begged her to spike him right between the eyes. Delirious gets right to the side of Jimmy on his knees begging Daizee not to.

It became way too obvious that Daizee was going to accidentally spike her friend Delirious. No subtlety at all here. Sure enough she accidentally spikes Delirious... or tries to. She doesn't even come close to hitting him. She ended up hitting him with her forearm. The crowd groaned as poor Delirious had to sell it like he just got a railroad spike in his eye. I cannot begin to explain how bad this looked. Unless they had a really good camera shot from behind the two that doesn't show how bad it missed, there's no way they can show this on PPV. Daizee sat in the corner disgusted with herself as Jimmy screamed at her "look what you did!". The deflated crowd was then told it was intermission time and they shuffled off to digest what they just witnessed.

4. Tyler Black defeated Austin Aries, Jimmy Jacobs and Bryan Danielson in a four-way to earn an ROH Title shot. This match was originally supposed to be a tag match where the person who got the winning pinfall got a world title shot that they can use at any time (think Money In The Bank). However Danielson cut a promo saying he doesn't trust Aries or Jacobs and he doesn't think he can trust Tyler either, so how bout we make this a four-way one fall to a finish.

Aries was the only one opposed but he finally agreed. Aries cut a promo reminding the fans he's a heel now. His outfit is so wonderfully cheesy it makes him a heel automatically. His porn mustache is good too. But some people just shouldn't be a heel and Austin is one of them. The fans want to cheer him. They obliged in getting all over his case tonight though so maybe I'm wrong. Good match overall though it's tough to remember many spots.

Dragon was kicking ass on the outside when Bison Smith came in through the crowd and attacked Dragon and hit a devastating looking powerbomb on the floor, knocking Dragon out for the rest of the match. Aries and Jacobs were still far from friends in this match, though they worked together some. In the end, Tyler caught one of the heels in a small package for the pin. The crowd liked that a lot. I have a problem with interference leading to the result of the match (Dragon being knocked out of it) but it could be a good feud for Bison to have before he heads back to NOAH whenever that is. Crowd popped huge for Tyler and chanted "next world champ." Jacobs and Aries were unified in yelling "Never!" at the crowd.

5. Nigel McGuinness defeated El Generico to retain the ROH Title. Typical Generico match in that it starts out slow with the heel working on a body part. While the ref was doing the pre-match check for weapons, Nigel ambushed Generico and threw him shoulder first into the post, maybe a spiteful jab at new #1 contender Tyler Black, who he did that to in the opening seconds of Black's title shot on PPV.

Nigel beat down Generico on the outside and numerous times he barely beat the 20 count. Finally Nigel hit a tower of london off the guardrail to the floor and Generico looked to be done for. Steen ran out and screamed at him to get in the ring, which he did in a great false finish with a dramatic leaping roll into the ring at the very last split second. Generico came back and it a Michinoku driver and finally the Brainbuster for a great near fall. He hit the mafia kick in the corner and went for the top turnbuckle Brainbuster but couldn't do it.

Nigel hit a lariat from the top turnbuckle sending Generico to the mat. He locked in the London Dungeon arm submission on the arm he had been working over (very similar to the Tyler Black match in this respect) but Generico got the ropes. Finally Nigel hit a really nice lariat that turned Generico inside out and then Generico tapped to the London Dungeon.

As Nigel heads up the ramp, Tyler Black shows up with a mic and the crowd goes nuts. Tyler says he wants his title shot to be on PPV. The crowd gets a little more excited. Tyler says he can't think of a better place than Chicago where he debuted with the company to cash in his title shot. The crowd is going crazy and Nigel, who was taken to the limit by Generico just moments earlier, is terrified, looking for a way out.

Suddenly, Jacobs and Aries jump Tyler and beat him down, with Aries psychotically yelling "Never!" as he's punching him. Nigel is all smiles in the ring. Then Lynn and Necro run out and fight off Aries and Jacobs. Nigel is freaking out again and the crowd is rabid for a title match. But before Tyler can get to his feet Nigel takes off through the crowd. The crowd is furious when they realize they aren't getting a second title match, but then again thats what the angle was supposed to do. Big heat on Aries and Jacobs. Great angle.

6. Brent Albright, Erick Stevens, Roderick Strong, Jay Briscoe and Ace Steel defeated Davey Richards, Eddie Edwards, Tank Toland, Bobby Dempsey, and Adam Pearce (w/ Larry Sweeney and Shane Hagadorn) in Steel Cage Warfare. War Games style rules, but there are only minute intervals between entrances after the initial 5 minutes of one-on-one because they are short on time. Sweeney refused to reveal any of the members of his team before the match so that the face team doesn't know who they're training for.

The heels won the coin toss and Davey Richards vs. Roderick starts it out. Good action between these two. Tank Toland returned for the first time since 2007 I believe and helped beat down Roderick. Ace Steel came out next for the babyfaces as their mystery partner. Ace has been the mystery partner on two straight PPVs now. Fans were excited about the possibility of the mystery returning ROH star being a member of one of the teams with the more optimistic ones thinking it could be Paul London and the more sadistic ones reluctantly accepting that it could be B.J. Whitmer.

Eddie Edwards comes out next but instead of entering the cage he grabs a chair and hides behind a guardrail. When Jay Briscoe comes out next, Sara Del Ray distracts him while Edwards nails him with the first of many chairshots in this match. Not sure why he had to hide if Sara was going to distract Jay anyway. They beat him down and Jay has to be helped to the back. Could Whitmer or London or Xavier come out later on to replace him??

Three-on-two now until everyone's favorite victim Bobby Dempsey is introduced and then it's four-on-two, but Bobby basically hides the entire match. Brent Albright comes out as the last face and it's four-on-three. The last entrant of the heel side comes out and it's the returning Adam Pearce. Lots of heat on Pearce, and less people than you would expect yelling out wise ass comments about him being the booker (or co-booker) of ROH. Then all hell broke loose with the faces tossing the heels out of the ring and hitting them with chairs. These were brutal headshots. I know the chairs are plastic but still, these were dumb. Very exciting and impressive to watch, but not wise to take. It's not like its a blood feud either. Sure, they tried to burn Brent Albright's face off with a fireball, but the other people in the match don't really have that much of a vendetta against each other, especially Ace and Jay.

Speaking of Jay, he fought off the doctors and limped his way back to the ring. The only problem was that the only guy still in the ring was Bobby Dempsey who the fans love. So Jay was in the awkward position of having to kick Dempsey's ass and he heard some boos for doing so. Meanwhile some brutal chairshots are occurring right in front of me and the most brutal of all was taken by Adam Pearce. Kinda like that Vince McMahon thinking of "I'm willing to take anything that I ask my wrestlers to take" I'd presume.

As they are all laying there selling on the floor right in front of me, I asked Pearce and a few others if they wanted Chris Nowinski's phone number. As people started rising to their feet Jay dove off the top of the cage onto a pile of them. The crowd is red hot now. Lots of blood. The faces get Pearce in the ring alone and take turns hitting their finishers on him which is fun solace for any of the fans who were frustrated by any of the booking earlier. Albright pins Pearce, the man who threw a fireball in his face about six months ago, to win the match and presumably end the feud.

After the match the heels go to the back and Dempsey and the faces are in the cage. Sweeney storms in and screams at Dempsey like he often does. He slaps Dempsey once. The fans and the faces are yelling for Bobby to be a man. He slaps Dempsey again. He slaps him one more time like he has done for almost two years. After being abused by Sweet and Sour Inc. for almost two years, that last slap was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Bobby Dempsey SNAPS! He slaps Sweeney and the fans go nuts chanting Bobby's name. He rips off his Sweet and Sour shirt, rips off his futuristic jogging suit and any other shirt he had on. He proceeds to hand quite a beatdown on Sweeney, bloodying him. He hits a huge running cannonball splash into the corner on Sweeney. He finishes him off with a death valley driver. Sweeney's blood is in Dempsey's hair as the crowd applauds. The faces take turns congratulating him for standing up for himself. Dempsey poses on the top rope and goes into the crowd to celebrate as the show ends.

Notes: Wow, I never thought Bobby Dempsey had that in him. He showed a lot of fire during the beatdown and looked like a man possessed, as he should since it's been building up for about two years. I don't think there's really much they can do from here though other than a potential Dempsey vs. Sweeney match at the next PPV taping. And I'm not sure that the world is ready for shirtless Dempsey in HD once the TV deal starts. I'm not sure how this show closing angle will play with casual fan viewers (assuming there are any) but it was a ton of fun (no pun intended, Bobby) to be there when Dempsey finally snapped and the crowd went crazy for him.

Overall, I'd say from what I saw this is probably going to be the most skippable PPV ROH has done so far. Nothing significantly bad, but not a lot of memorable matches. Until all men were in, the cage match was nothing special either. The title match was good, but I'm not sure if it was enough to make the show a must buy. It was better than Nigel vs. Shiozaki but it wasn't as good as a Nigel vs Tyler Black. It's probably on par with Nigel vs Roderick Strong from Driven 08. They should rename the show Bobby Dempsey Becomes A Man, because that angle is going to be the lasting impression on the viewer.

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