ROH STEEL CAGE WARFARE RESULTS AND NOTES
by Mike Johnson @ 10:45:00 AM on 12/4/2005

Ring of Honor debuted at Basketball City in Manhattan's Chelsea Piers, drawing an estimated 950 fans for the promotion's first-ever Steel Cage Warfare match and the first Steve Corino vs. Homicide ROH singles bout since November 2003. Results from the card saw:

*Jason Blade and Kid Mikaze defeated The Ring Crew Express.

*Davey Andrews defeated Pelle Primeau in about a minute to retain the ROH Top of the Class Trophy. Ricky Reyes then hit the ring, taking out Primeau, Andrews, and several other students, then destroying the trophy.

*ROH Tag Team champions Sal Rinauro & Tony Mamaluke defeated Colt Cabana & Milano Collection AT after slamming Milano on his head with their finisher.

*ROH champion Bryan Danielson forced Rocky Romero to tap out with a Single Leg Crab. Lance Storm came to the ring and congratulated Danielson. Storm said that for some time, fans have been asking why he retired and he's never given a clear answer but the truth is he retired because he wasn't allowed to have the type of matches that he wanted to have and he wasn't put into a position to have matches he could be proud of, like the ones Danielson and ROH put on. He noted he was proud to have left at One Night Stand with a match on his terms against Chris Jericho. He offered Danielson his hand. Danielson refused and said that he wouldn't shake it on Storm's terms. Danielson talked about wrestling and putting on the type of matches that he wanted on his terms and would only shake Storm's hand on Danielson's terms. He asked that all the fans stand up and give Storm the respect he deserves for inspiring the wrestlers who came after him, then as the fans gave Storm a standing ovation, they shook hands. The crowd changed, "One More Match" at Storm.

*In a really good match, Jay Lethal pinned Samoa Joe with a Dragon Suplex. Lethal was Zbyszko to Joe's Sammartino, snapping and attacking Joe's leg with a chair as he was outside. This was a really good match. After the win, Lethal attacked Joe again, so he's turned heel.

*Steve Corino pinned Homicide after he was attacked by a masked man (Colt Cabana). The storyline was that ROH Commissioner Jim Cornette had banned Cabana and Homicide from having any interaction with each other at the show. Corino's ring announcer Bryan Riegel did "spoken word" about the match, although it didn't get over with the crowd live. Homicide slapped Corino's ear and went after it with a fork, with the ear bleeding bad. Referee Mike Kehner got nailed with a chair and was busted open as well. They brought a chair wrapped in barbed wire into the equation as well. Homicide appeared to have hurt his arm or shoulder towards the end of the bout. A really brutal match.

*In Steel Cage Warfare, Generation Next (Austin Aries, Jack Evans, Matt Sydal & Roderick Strong) defeated The Embassy (Abyss, Alex Shelley, Jimmy Rave & Prince Nana). The bout featured Wargames style entrances, but with a Survivor Series twist where everyone on a team had to have been defeated for the other team to win.

Jimmy Rave and Austin Aries were the first ones in the cage. The crowd went nuts on Rave throwing toilet paper and pink streamers at him as he had a tantrum. Alex Shelley was next in as naturally the Embassy lose the cointoss. Matt Sydal evened it up. Abyss was next, getting a huge pop and in many ways was the star of the match in terms of crowd reaction. His Black Holt Slam on Sydal got a near standing ovation. Sydal was first eliminated after a Rave Pedigree. Roderick Strong was in doing all his insane backbreaker combinations. Nana was the last person out for the Embassy, dressed in military fatigues. Jack Evans was the last person for Generation Next.

Right before Evans' entrance, Jade Chung came out and berated Nana with the mic, which led to the Embassy trying to grab her outside. Evans hit the ring and dove off the cage onto them with an insane double moonsault that popped the place. Evans then moonsaulted into the ring, pinning Abyss. Rave was next eliminated after taking a billion backbreakers Roderick Strong. At the same time, Aries pinned Shelley with a brainbuster, leaving Nana alone to be pummeled by Generation Next. Aries hit a 450 from the top rope for the pin.

Notes: The promotion returns on 3/25/06....Xavier and Lacey were backstage...The venue was a nightmare for the ring crew as they needed to bring everything up to the fourth floor and the elevator was broken, which left them to navigate rotating doors and narrow staircases. They finally broke everything down about 4 AM. One person who was around ECW when they ran the old Elks Lodge (which was considered a horrible place to get the ring into) said this was even worse....The promotion was filming a shoot interview with Lance Storm today.

Wow...... I'm speechless to how awful this show sounds.

Huh? Every match from Danielson/Romero on down sounds awesome to me.

A Lance Storm/Danielson ROH Title match would be awesome.

There just doesn't seem to be enough matches. But maybe thats just me

My problems with this show:

1. Not enough match wise.

2. Lackluster matches like Danielson defending the RoH Title against a tag wrestler like Romero. Also the usual boredom with the RoH students.

3. Old matches like Cide/Corino and Joe/Lethal.

4. Joe and Cide jobbing yet again. They've been using these guys terribly. Has Joe even had a rematch for the belt he held for almost 2 years?

The cage match sounds good but they seriously expect someone to drop $20 on the DVD of this show?

I watched Joe/Romero, and that was good.

But what's the point of the match. There's no one that thinks Romero had even a slight chance at winning the belt. And when you're selling DVDs it's silly to put those kinds of matches on there.

That and Danielson's reign has suffered from a serious lack of good challengers so far. Danielson/Storm's ok but Storm should really have to work his way up.

ROH students? That explains why I don't recognize pretty much anyone in most of the undercard matches.

See, when Joe & Romero fought, you actually thought that Romero could've won. That's how well the match worked

1)Well, there were 6 matches plus the students/Reyes matches/segment, which is slightly low, but there's usually around 8 matches on a ROH card these days, so it's not that odd.

2) I hate the students match too, but I bet Romero/Danielson rocked.

3) I can understand if you don't want to see Cide/Corino again (even tho I love the fued) but calling Joe/Lethal "old" is a bit much considering they've only had one previous match.

4) I don't like Joe and Cide jobbing too much either, but it's not like either of them are gonna lose their heat, so it's not that bad. And Joe did get a rematch against Aries, and he was in the 4-way when Gibson won the belt from Punk.

I thought he had a match with Aries but couldn't remember. It's not Joe jobbing so much as the inconsistent use of him. He's fighting Kobashi one week and in undercard stuff the next.

The students bug me. RoH is pushing them onto the shows too much.

Colt Cabana and Milano Collection AT = greatest team ever!

...Now only if they took each other on one-on-one.

Kill of the fucking Corino shit already. He's the biggest reason right now why I hate the ROH fans. They shit on people that aren't that bad, but they blow Corino at EVERY turn.

Who are these people that "aren't that bad?"

Well, I guess that would depend on what show you're talking about. I've seen many people get shat upon by the ROHbots. Guys like Nigel, Vordell Walker, Sydal, Lynn, Jimmy Rave, etc etc etc.

Well, besides Vordell, those guys are pretty well respected in the current ROH climate. And to be honest, Vordell wasn't that great. I didn't mind him, but I could understand why people would.

I dunno, I love Corino. He gets people into his matches.

I have to see Lethal do that.

If I've said it once I'll say it a hundred times, it's all a matter of opinion..........

But I think Corino is god awful. G-O-D A-W-F-U-L

It's a release Dragon Suplex, which takes a bit of it away, in my eyes.


And werd DK, it's all opinion.

At least he can be entertaining.


Ok, I have to say something. Sorry

I'd also like to add that I wish RoH would get a competent camera guy. It's a lot better than it used to be but it still sucks.

I will say the same for TNA

I don't see a problem with TNA that much. There's a lot of things the RoH guys don't seem to know. At least shakey arm guy hasn't been around for awhile. I don't know the technical aspects of a camera but some wacky things go on during RoH sometimes. I think the lighting has something to do with it.

Takes away a bit from me too. WWE should snagged Lethal. Imagine Lethal and Benjamin as a team...although that would ruin the point of them being singles wrestlers.

I don't think Lethal has the charisma to work for a national promotion to be honest.

He's a decent face, but they have faces that are miles ahead of him. And his promos are seriously the worst I've heard. I really, really like him as a small indy guy tho. He puts on some great matches in that environment. He just seems like one of those guys that'll never get past that.

Well, the problem with TNA camera men is that they can't figure out a place to stand. They end up getting horrible angles. It's like they get tired of actually following the match sometimes.

But I'll admit, most of my problem is that TNA's directors will switch angles in the middle of a move. Mostly from good angles to bad ones.

True. Talent = good indy deal, charisma = national deal.

Yeah, he's just a little too bland to make it, though I guess you could work on that. Loved the matches I've seen him in, thoough.

He will though.........I'm willing to bet on that.

I think he will, and working in OVW will get him help with the charisma