ROH in Collinsville, Ill. (St. Louis area)
By Dot Net reader Dan Erker

I didn't attend the Ric Flair autograph signing. The doors opened at six and the line was out the door! There were people who were showing no intent to attend the show, yet just wanted to see Flair.

Pre-show Match

1. Alex Payne defeated Travis Sawyer. Payne reversed a sleeper into a rollup like Roddy Piper vs. Bret Hart at WrestleMania 8. Payne couldn't get over to save his life.

Main Show

1. Roderick Strong defeated Jay Briscoe. Very good match. Strong won after a series of rollup attempts. Very good match to start the show and the crowd was hot the entire way.

2. MsChif beat Daizee Haze (w/Jimmy Jacobs, Delirious) to retain the SHIMMER Title. MsChif won with a DDT. Afterward, Jacobs threatened Haze with a spike. Great effort from the women.

3. Austin Aries defeated Kenny Omega and Claudio Castagnoli and Silas Young in a four-corners match. Aries used the brainbuster to defeat Omega. Lots of crowd interaction with Claudio. Entertaining.

Ric Flair was introduced. The crowd was white hot. Flair cut a two-minute promo about how the next HBK is behind the curtain. Nigel McGuinness came out and interrupted him. Nigel called Flair a terrible husband and a terrible father. Flair responded, "That's it. You don't dare to walk that aisle and try and spar with me. I'll bring Reid out to stretch you." Flair then said good luck trying to be the Naitch and told the St. Louis girls he'd be on the town tonight. He left to a still hot crowd. Nigel left shortly thereafter.

4. American Wolves and Chris Hero defeated Kevin Steen and El Generico and Bobby Dempsey (or Axl Rotten's little brother). Sweeney's interference set up Davey Richards forcing Steen to submit to the cloverleaf. Once again, a great effort from everyone involved. St. Louis has received a great show so far.

Intermission

5. Rhett Titus and Kenny King King defeated Irish Airborne with a Buff Blockbuster/powerbomb. Good match. Lots of Stevie Richards chants directed at Titus.

6. Bryan Danielson beat Bison Smith via countout. The lame finish came eight or nine minutes into the match. Only a decent match at best. I expected a lot more.

7. Tyler Black and Jerry Lynn defeated Delirious (a/k/a Keith Jardine) and Jimmy Jacobs. Black over Delirious after Jacobs mistakenly hit his partner with a chair. They teased another countout. Delirious bled heavily after the chairshot. Jacobs pulled out a spike after the match towards Delirious. Daizee Haze came out and caught a spike from hell from Jacobs. Jacobs then turned to Delirious. Delirious fought off the spike and instead spiked Jacobs. Delirious hit some running knees and Jacobs left. Delirious and Haze hug. Awwww. Crowd cheers, end segment.

8. Brent Albright beat Nigel McGuinness by DQ in an ROH Title match. Good match. Nothing special. Claudio came out for Nigel and caused the DQ. They both beat Albright down. Flair took his suit coat off and hopped into the ring to chop and punch Claudio and Nigel out of the ring. Two lame non-finishes after the intermission, but the fans enjoyed the Flair interaction. The show ended with a "Thank you, Flair" chant.

Notes: About 800-900 in attendance. Sold out, standing room only. Good show overall.

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