Ring of Honor
Saturday, July 16, 2005 in Woodbridge, CT
Report by Hal Millar

I've been reading the reports online about the ROH show and I think the promotion is in need of a reality check. This was not a show where the crowd left satisfied or happy. Attendance was between 500 and 600. Too much reliance on Matt Hardy, which backfired, and the end of the show had the crowd shower the ring with plastic bottles and litter.

Nigel McGuinness beat Claudio Castognoli. OK match, good opener I guess.

Austin Aries beat El Generico . Here's where the crowd started buzzing. Aries is a ROH standout, and was treated like ROH's version of "Sunday Night Heat" wrestler tonight to make room for Matt Hardy.

Homicide beat Kevin Steen and Dixie and Azrieal in a four way match. Homicide was popular with the crowd, but no one cared about the other 3. Homicide pinned Dixie to end it.

C.M. Punk promo on James Gibson. All a set up for the main event, as Punk laid out the former WWE wrestler Jamie Noble with a chain. Noble, now known as James Gibson, was impressive. Punk busted him open with a chain.

Carnage Crew beat Dunn & Marcos and Cheech & Dreanged and Fast Eddie & Kruel (w/Embassy, Prince Nana). Too many multi-participant matches in ROH. Not enough one-on-one and straight up tags. This sucked. Again, the crowd was growing restless. Overbooked and contrived.

AJ Styles pinned Roderick Strong with the Styles Clash. This was simply a fantastic match and the crowd went into intermission happy with the action from the match.

Samoa Joe pinned Jimmy Rave (w/Prince Nana) in a match for the ROH Pure Title. I liked this match a lot. Stiff and realistic. Samoa Joe hit the Muscle Buster for the victory. After the match, Price Nana blamed Jimmy's loss on Rave's valet and who made the save? Matt Hardy!

Hardy cut a promo, ripping on Johnny Ace and saying if Vince McMahon ever wanted to know how to book a good wrestling show, he should put in some ROH DVDs, which got a strong ROH chant. Here's where they screwed up. Hardy wanted his match, so out came Christopher Daniels.

Matt Hardy won via submission over Christopher Daniels. This was a big mistake. The crowd loved Daniels and as the match went on, people wanted Daniels to win because everyone realized Hardy is just using ROH to further his own angle. Matt hit a Twist of Fate on Daniels. Daniels kicked out. Hardy then picked up Daniels and hit a second Twist of Fate. Then he locked on a submission hold, getting Daniels to Tap Out. The crowd booed loudly at the finish, figuring Hardy should have put over the home team hero. If Gabe Sapolsky wants to give so many quotes to newsletters and the internet, he needs to realize the internet crowd will want to see things a group of marks won't. Hardy should not have gone over. Gabe's pandering to the net crowd hurt him here. The crowd was really mad.

C.M. Punk beat James Gibson in defense of the ROH Heavyweight Title. Punk cut a promo saying Gibson was hurt, the show was over, go home. Holy 1999 McMahon-Austin, here comes Jamie Noble Gibson. This was a great match, with Punk kicking out of Gibson's Tiger Driver. Gibson kept locking Punk in the Trailer Hitch, but Punk used the ropes for leverage to get the pin. Punk got on the mic and said this was his last match in ROH, which no on believed. Work some one else, since the promoter and booker comments on angles and people's work on the net all the time. Daniels laid out Punk, but Daniels already lost to Matt Hardy. A lot of people were throwing garbage into the ring. Punk chased someone, it may have been a work, but it was sure dangerous, and the show ended as Punk chased the young man out the door. Looked like a work, but a lot of people were pissed in the wrong way.

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Interesting....

Ring of Honor returned to the CT Sports Center in Woodbridge, Connecticut with a packed card. The order maybe be one or two off. Nigel McGuinness beat Claudio Castagnoli in a decent match, not too many big spots. McGuinness won with a top rope Stunner/Neckbreaker move. I believe this was Castagnoli's ROH debut, using a Ted Dibiase-esque gimmick. Homicide won the Four Corner Survival match over Kevin Steen, Azrieal, and Dixie. Homicide is so over with the crowd, and Julius Smokes gets a good reaction as well. Austin Aries defeated El Generico, who's "Ole, Ole" entrance is hilarious. Good back and forth bout, Aries won it with the 450. Generico and Aries shook hands afterwards.

At this point, CM Punk came out to cut a promo on James Gibson, belittling him until he came out and attacked Punk. Punk had a steel chain and nailed Gibson who was busted open. He worked on him a few more times before leaving with the belt.

The Carnage Crew retained the Tag Team Championship in the Tag Title Ultimate Endurance match over The Embassy, Lacey's Angels, and The Ring Crew Express of Dunn and Marcos. Lots of good double team moves, especially on the part of Dunn and Marcos who could easily be The Rockers of the new generation. The final two teams were the Crew and Express, with the ending coming with the spike piledriver onto a trash can. In the best bout of the night, "The Phenomenal" AJ Styles defeated Roderick Strong with the Styles Clash. Great, great match with Strong's backbreakers and Styles' high flying moves.

Samoa Joe retained the Pure Championship over Jimmy Rave in what was a disappointing match. Lots of stalling by Rave, and cheating with a shoelace to choke Joe. Joe eventually hit the Muscle Buster for the pin. Afterwards, Prince Nana berated the valet whose name escapes me, basically he orders her around and insults her. Eventually Nana was threatening her more physically until the lights went out. They came back on to reveal Matt Hardy in the ring who cleared it. He got a mic as the fans chanted "Hardy, Hardy". He said that the time has finally come, and Matt Hardy, Version 1, the Sensei of Mattitude, has finally arrived in Ring of Honor. He said he wasn't here to talk about Adam Copeland, or Amy Dumas. He was here to wrestle and thanked the fans. Funny moment where Hardy knocked Johnny Ace for hiring 300lb wrestlers who can't wrestle, which got a "F**k Johnny Ace" chant going. Hardy's opponent was "Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels. Hardy looked to be in great shape, bulked up a little bit but still great shape, and it didn't look like he had much ring rust either. Great back and forth match with their usual spots. Near the end of the match, CM Punk showed up and nailed Daniels, setting up two Twist of Fates that ultimately couldn't put Daniels down for the three count. Hardy locked in a cool double-underhook submission that either made Daniels tap, or had the referee stop the match. Regardless, Matt Hardy was victorious in his debut.

Punk said that now since he's screwed Daniels out of title contention and James Gibson is too hurt to wrestle, he's going to leave ROH as the one and only undefeated ROH Champion in history. Gibson's music hit and he made his way to the ring with bandages on his head. Good bout from these two, lots of submissions, with the arms the most focal point of attack. Gibson had the crowd screaming for a Tap Out as he locked in the Guillotine Choke a few times. Punk eventually rolled up Gibson using the tights and ropes for three. Gibson looked distraught afterwards. Punk got on the mic and said he's leaving as Champion, until Daniels ran down and attacked him, eventually hitting him with the belt. He said that Punk can leave and go to WWE to be on RAW, Smackdown!, Heat, Velocity, Afterburn, Experience, or Shotgun Saturday Night (which drew a big response), but if he wanted the belt with him, he'd have to take it from Daniels. Daniels draped it over his shoulder and left. In a weird moment, Punk asked who threw something at him, and proceeded to jump the guard rail and chase a fan around and out the door that led to the floor. Hard to tell if it was planned or not, but I would hope so.

All in all, a great show from top to bottom. Punk's win surprised me, as they continually say it will be his last night/title defense and he finds ways to win. Matt Hardy, while getting boos from the mentions of him throughout the night, got a great pop after the lights came on and he was in the ring. They pretty much cheered for him the rest of the match, although the crowd was still happy to see Daniels back. Hardy was sporting a "Us vs. Them" T-Shirt that had his website thematthardyshow.com written on it. Ring of Honor was announced as returning to Woodbridge on October 29th. I spotted Stevie Richards watching the show from a table near the entrance but never went to the ring, he told me he was just there watching. Throughout the night, Aries, Styles, and the Carnage Crew were seen watching the rest of the matches.

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For those seeking a second opinion

Man, some RoH fans need to just enjoy the show and say "fuck the internet" when they go.

RoH needs to wake up quickly and exile Punk and Hardy from the promotion or this is going to totally blow up in their faces.

I've been thinking the same thing.........ROH may just kill itself off with this shit.

Yeah, I'm not happy with the direction they've taken this month. They're supposed to be an alternative to the WWF not their butt buddies.

ROH is still more alive than TNA. At least they can sell tickets, even if it is only 500-600 people.

They don't have near the resources that TNA does though. RoH can't afford to turn off a large portion of their fanbase. If they work too closely with the WWF they'll do just that.

Maybe if most ROH fans had brains, they would think ROH working with WWE could help the promotion more than hurt them

Maybe most ROH fans are ROH fans because they don't like WWE.

Actually, I don't buy that the WWE would be helping them all that much. Plus they would be alienating their fanbase because ROH is technically like how ECW was to the WWE.........just in a different way. ROH is an alternative because of the wrestling they provide that the WWE doesn't, just like ECW was an alternative because of the "adult" nature of it's product compated to WWE.

Lame?

Let's see how stupid that sounds with another topic. I listen to a shitty rapper because I don't like another famous, over-hyped shitty rapper.

Wrestling is wrestling, but with different promotion names, and when fans are this disrespectful to wrestlers, I say maybe they should fuck off and not watch wrestling period.

Most of the wrestling fans out there hate the WWF. Most of the WCW fans decided to just stop watching instead of watch the WWF.

Oh yeah, WCW fans. The ones that would rather see Jerry Flynn v. Goldberg than watch anything else.

Because there are a lot of fans that don't want the cartoony bullshit and wrestling for dummies that is the WWF. The WWF single handedly killed my passion for wrestling and I'm not in a minority when it comes to that.

RoH is on very thin ice with me right now. They have till Kobashi's appearance in the fall to convince me that the last seven months are not going to continue.

Or fans that enjoyed seeing Ricky Steamboat vs. Ric Flair?

How long until we have the first RoH Masterlock Challenge?

... Am I the only one who thought the show didn't look that bad? Double C vs. Nigel is something I really want to see, and Punk vs. Gibson looks real good too. I think some people (on here and elsewhere) are focusing too much on the whole "working with WWE" thing and not enough on the acutal product they're putting out... But that's just me, and we've already established I'm an ROH mark... So, there's my two cents. Now, feel free to rip me to peices for disagreeing with you all like you always do.

I actually don't have a problem with anything going on, though I do think if they aren't careful they could turn off some fans. I'd love to see Gibson vs. Punk, but I still don't see how Punk getting the belt is going to turn out good.

I think it's gonna lead to Daniels getting the belt finally. I mean, it's already scheduled, isn't it? I for one, have waited to see Punk vs. Daniels one on one for a long time. Add the possible Daniels title win in, and you have insta-MOTYC.

That would seem to make most ROH fans happy. I wouldn't be surprised to see Punk retain, and keep the belt for a couple more months though.

Personally, that'd make me happy, because I'm a huge CM Punk mark. (Shocking news, I'm sure you never saw it coming.) Some people think Rod Strong will be the guy to eventually take the strap from him. Personally, I hope it's either Cide, Daniels or a returning Am. Drag.

Honestly, I've watched more ROH here than MAYBE anyone.........and I don't think Daniels should be anywhere near the ROH title. I think the belt should go to Homicide if it's going to any guy that's had tenure in ROH, otherwise I would have put it on Gibson personally.

Why do you say that? (Not trying to instigate, I'm actually wondering why you think this...) I mean, Daniels was ROH's top heel for the first period of their history, and was on his way to being their top face when the TNA situation went down. (I think the Saints vs. Prophecy feud would have been WAY different than it was, and probibly would have elevated EVERYONE involved moreso than it did...)

He is a TNA contracted worker. Don't know if it'd be a smart idea to hang the promotion on him.

It's all good, it's a legit question.

I just don't think that ROH needs Daniels as a champion. He's already established and he already holds a title in TNA.........therefore, I would advise against putting the title on him. The prophecy is dead in ROH regardless of what they do and Punk's off to WWE land weather they have the title on him now or not. That's the reason why I would have to say that me and MD are currently a bit perplexed at their product. It's going too far away from it's own ideals. Not to mention that it's usually a bad thing if a ROH show ends with it's fans throwing shit in the ring.

Okay, I concede the last point. And probibly the point of going too far away from their ideals. But maybe this is just another step of evolution for them. I mean, Pre Reborn ROH and Post Reborn ROH are very different. Maybe this is just another shift for them. Or not. I dunno. I just think there's been a very anti-ROH atmosphere around here for a while now, and I just don't get it.

Dude, you're missing my point. I LIKE ROH quite a bit. I just don't pull the ROH fanboy "everything they do is gold" (not to say you do either I'm just saying) and I don't like everything they do. I actually like a lot of the stuff they've done this year, I just don't like that they are shaking things up while all of these guys are available. I don't think bringing in Daniels, putting the title on Punk, and bringing in Hardy is a step for their evolution either. It's just them mixing things up and taking a good chance of it blowing up in their own faces.

Ah. Gotcha. I disagree about the Punk Title move and bringing back Daniels, but I gotta admit, I'm not seeing the point of having Hardy there.

I have a lot of problems with what's happened this year:

1. Austin Aries, they spent over six months trying to sell this guy as something special and then flushed all of it to give CM Punk a going away present.

2. Main events. Just look at the main eventers from the last show. 3 of the guys weren't in the promotion when the year started and the other guy won't be there in a few months. What about the homegrown talent that's been working for a long time to build RoH as a viable company. Somoa Joe made them and he's playing second fiddle to two guys that are virtually useless to the future of the company and two guys that are new to the scene.

3. This show just reeks of WCW. Remember how a WWF star would show up and they'd make such a huge deal about him and shuffle their homegrown talent to the background? That's exactly what they did.

4. Sacrificing guys to guys that won't be there for long. Is Matt Hardy beating Chris Daniels really the best thing for RoH? Is CM Punk beating James Gibson and Austin Aries really the best thing for RoH? Is Homicide taking part in lower card bullshit really the best thing for RoH?

5. They're opening themselves up big time to WWF talent raids by doing this. It might all be well and good now but what happens in six months if the WWF suddenly decides they want half the roster?

6. My other problem is that great talents like Chris Hero, Super Dragon, B-Boy and others can't buy a spot on the roster but they can keep paying CM Punk even though he's leaving and pay Matt Hardy even though he never had any intention of working for them more than once or twice.

All viable points too. My biggest problems would be Aries and Homicide basically catching the shaft at this point.

1:Okay, I get that building him up to drop the title to someone who is (supposedly) leaving soon isn't smart. But I don't think he's been flushed down the toilet. He's feuding with Joe for the Pure Title. That's nothing to sneeze at.

2: Good point here.

3: "Reeks of WCW"? Because they brought in Matt Hardy for one or two shows? I think you're jumping to conculsions a little early here.

4: You may be right here. You may not. It's too early to tell how some of those things will shake out. Hardy winning is pretty dumb, but the others? Too early to tell.

5: I don't get your point here.

6: These arguements have been going on untill the end of time. Hero doesn't want to be there. They have Homicide, so they don't need his cheap knockoff. And Super Dragon apparently didn't impress enough in his tryout to be brought back.

Not because they brought him in but because he immediately became more important than their homegrown stars. All during the show it sounds like every 20 minutes was a Matt Hardy mention while RoH's real stars like Samoa Joe were confined to their little segment then forgotten about.

Simple, the WWF can't be trusted. If they wanted to sign most of RoH's guys they could do it tomorrow. The WWF has never played well with others for long and ends up burning them in the end.

So Super Dragon isn't impressive enough but the Carnage Crew are their Tag Team Champions. It reeks of the elitism that they've become known for. And can't have B-Boy either. Heaven forbide the Strong Style Thugs join the tag team division.

Well, I think MD covered everything, so I'll add a bit to this one.

You think Hero doesn't want to be there? I don't think he would turn down a paycheck to do so.

B-boy is far from a Homicide knockoff. He's smaller and actually works a lot differently than Cide does. Cide is better, but yet different.

I'm not the biggest on Super Dragon, but his travel (same with B-Boy) probably has more to do with why he isn't booked than talent or impressing anyone.

Dude, don't bite my head off on the last one. I was just giving you the commonly gave reasons why those people haven't been brought in. Jeeze, chill the fuck out.

Nobody is biting your head off, don't come off like a dick and tell people to chill when they are having a conversation about something.

He was biting my head off. All I did was give the reasons that are usually given for them not being there, and he goes and turns them on me and makes it sound like I'm saying I don't think they should be there and it's MY fault they're not. It's bullshit. (Your post wasn't up when I posted that, it wasn't directed at you.)

I wasn't biting your head off.

Came off that way.

Dude, that's not how MD is and I've never seen him flame or bitch at anyone before.......don't take stuff so personally LFV.

ANYWAY.........BACK ON TOPIC.