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EVENT:
RING OF HONOR HOUSE SHOW
EVENT REVIEW BY:
Andrew Schumann
EVENT DATE:
Saturday, December 1st, 2007
LOCATION:
Chicago Ridge Frontier Fieldhouse,
Chicago Ridge, Illinois |
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"Despite
the inclement weather Saturday night and changing the
whole event at the last minute...ROH was able to pull a
rabbit out of their hat and have it fit their wrestling
style." |
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| The show was
billed as the Trios Tournament 2007 at the house show. Due
to the inclement weather Ring of Honor announced that
several wrestlers haven’t arrived yet. They changed the plan
of the show a couple of hours before bell time. |
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MATCH 1:
Austin Aries versus Tyler Black
Austin Aries came out and thanked the fans for showing up
despite the weather. Aries was ready for a match. Tyler
Black came through the crowd and challenged Aries for a
match. The first few minutes of the match was very
deliberate and testing each other out. Black performed a
back flip after Aries held onto the ring ropes to counter
Black’s dropkick. Aries was able to knock Black onto the
floor and followed up with a plancha onto the outside. Aries
was on the top rope and was distracted by Lacey. Black took
advantage of the distraction and drop kicked Aries off the
top rope. Black followed up on the floor with a vertical
suplex. Black was able to hit several big boots throughout
the match and racked up several near falls. Aries was able
to hit a knee breaker straight into a back suplex. Black and
Aries for a couple of minutes kept countering each other’s
finisher. Aries nailed a stiff kick that allowed him to nail
his brain buster and 450-splash combo to get the victory.
After the match Lacey got on the mike and said that the Age
of Fall doesn’t take losing seriously and challenged any
women wrestler for a match.
Star Rating: 3 ½ Stars. 3 Stars a great match to start off
the night. Aries gave everything in the match to give us a
great start to a different type of event we were expecting.
Tyler Black really the first type seeing him. I was really
impressed with what he can do in the ring and definitely a
great fit into Ring of Honor. |
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MATCH 2:
Sara Del Ray versus Lacey
This match took place not even 5 minutes after the first
match. The match wasn’t overly flashy but still an excellent
match. Sara focused on Lacey’s arm while Lacey focused on
Sara’s neck through out the match. Sara worked a specific
strategy during the match using her power advantage. Sara
hit a dropkick off the middle turnbuckle right into Lacey’s
chest. Lacey regained the advantage of the match with
hitting a neck breaker onto her knee. Lacey followed up with
a swinging neck breaker. Sara regained control by hitting a
northern lights suplex with Lacey’s leg cradled. Sara hit
her finisher the royal butterfly, which is a butterfly
suplex or submission maneuver. Lacey kicked out at the last
moment. Sara finally got the win with a German suplex
bridge.
Star Rating: 3 Stars out of 4. Sara and Lacey both weren’t
on the show to wrestle and went out and had an excellent
match. This shows what type of product that Shimmer
wrestling puts on a regular basis. This is what hopefully
the women’s division of WWE could achieve. |
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MATCH 3:
Young vs. Dingo vs. Skyfire Vs.
Davis vs. Daniels vs. Lawerence
This match was one of their signature matches. It was a
6-man mayhem match and one fall to the finish. Most of this
gentleman wrestle for a local promotion called AAW. This
match was another one added because of all the weather
problems. The biggest name was Seth Skyfire a product of
WWE’s developmental system. Danny Daniels controlled the
early portion of the match with his size advantage. Most of
the competitors were outside and Daniels came off the top
rope with a somersault senton onto everyone. The pace picked
up and everyone was hitting lot of maneuvers fast and
combining them with each other. Daniels nailed on Davis a
victory roll turned into pile driver. Dingo picked up the
win with a tiger suplex.
Star Rating: 2 ½ stars out of 4. For a match that was put
together literally at the last minute. These guys went out
and gave their all. |
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MATCH 4:
Chris Hero versus Claudio
Castagnoli 2 out of 3 falls
This has been a feud that has been going on this whole year.
Claudio came out and tried to get his hands on Hero in the
early part of the match. Hero kept running to the outside
and kept berating and hitting Bobby Dempsey. Claudio finally
got the early advantage when he connected on his tilt a
whirl faceplant. Claudio followed up with a giant swing and
kept going until they both fell down. Hero regained the
advantage with inverted DDT off the middle turnbuckle. Hero
put his focus on the right arm of Claudio to eliminate his
European uppercuts. Hero locked on the short arm scissors
that Claudio reversed into a back suplex. Claudio was able
to pick up the victory with the waterslide maneuver. The
waterslide is basically a reverse death valley driver. After
the pin fall Hero’s agent Larry Sweeney came out and made
the match into 2 out of 3 falls match. Hero snuck up behind
Claudio after the match was restarted and hit his rolling
neck breaker to pick up a victory. The match was even up at
one fall apiece. Hero tried to pick up a second straight pin
off the same move. Claudio kicked out at the last minute.
Hero kept his focus on his arm by locking in different
submission maneuver. Hero locked in an arm bar. After a
couple of minutes Claudio rolled Hero onto his shoulders and
picked up the pinfall and to win the match. After the match
Hero attacked Claudio and kept attacking the arm. Promising
him that he wouldn’t be so lucky when they meet at the end
of the month.
Star Rating: 4 out of 4 stars. Hero and Claudio have
wrestled in many promotions with each other and against each
other. They put on an excellent match. They know each other
style so well that they can improvise and still have an
excellent match. Both of these guys could have a big year in
2008 with Ring of Honor. |
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MATCH 5:
Pearce and Hagadorn versus Osiris
and Payne
Pearce is the leader of his faction the Hangman’s Three.
This match was over in less than 5 minutes. WWE style squash
match to get them over as monster heels. After the match
another member Brent Albright came into the ring and wanted
a match. Jigsaw came out and accepted the match.
Star Rating: 1 out of 4. The match was basically a squash
match against two of the wrestling school graduates. |
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MATCH 6:
Brent Albright versus Jigsaw
This match featured two wrestlers with very different
styles. Jigsaw is a lucha libre style wrestler using his
speed and agility. Brent is a very physical wrestler with
lots of suplexes and submission maneuvers. Jigsaw got the
early advantage after knocking out Albright to the floor.
Jigsaw nailed a corkscrew twisting senton splash over the
top rope. Albright regained control off the match using his
size advantage. He nailed several suplexes and picked up
several near falls. Jigsaw made a great comeback by using
his speed to his advantage by nailing several kicks. Brent
Albright picked up the victory after nailing his half nelson
suplex. After the match Whitmer came in and decided he
wanted to join in the fun and have a match. Delirious came
out and accepted his match.
Star Rating: 2 ½ out of 4. Two wrestlers with completely
different styles were able to put on a great match. Jigsaw
was able to keep the crowd in the match with unbelievable
aerial moves. |
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MATCH 7:
Delirious versus BJ Whitmer No
Disqualification match
In the opening minute Delirious took out the entire faction.
Delirious nailed a somersault senton splash off the
turnbuckle onto the group. Delirious then picked up a chair
and laid out the others. Once back in the ring Whitmer
decided to make the match a no disqualification match. The
fight proceeded bank to the floor in which Delirious was
able to dump Whitmer into the crowd. They exchanged several
chair shots with each other. Delirious than picked up an
umbrella and nailed Whitmer with it a few times. They fought
all over the field house using whatever they can. In the end
the other members came back down and attacked Delirious.
Pearce hit Delirious with a chain and ripped open his mask.
Pearce than proceeded to hang Delirious by his neck outside
the ropes. The other wrestlers came down and tried to break
up the hanging. Albright and Whitmer laid out all of them.
Albright pressed slammed one of them into the front row at
ringside.
Star Rating: 3 out of 4 stars. The hatred between Delirious
and the faction is boiling over. This match really
highlighted the type of match that Whitmer does best in
being a physical all out war. Delirious has a style all his
own and it seems to be effective in all types of matches. |
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MATCH 8:
Bryan Danielson versus Jimmy Jacobs
Danielson and Jacobs probably put on the match off the
night. Every time Danielson steps into the ring you know
what to expect from him. Jacobs delivered big time and used
his mat game to the fullest extreme. Danielson got the early
advantage by knocking down Jacobs and using several mma
moves. Danielson at one point just rained down elbows to
Jacobs’ head. Jacobs was able to roll out of the ring
several times to break Danielson’s momentum. Jacobs got his
big break while Lacey distracted the ref. Jacobs nailed
Danielson with his cane. Jacobs used everything he could to
keep the pressure on Danielson. Danielson regained control
of the match by hitting a back superplex off the top rope.
He picked up a near fall and then locked in his cattle
mutilation maneuver. Jacobs was finally able to get loose
then Danielson regained control and started to rain down
elbows once again. Jacobs regained control of the match by
landing a senton splash off the top rope and gained a near
fall. Danielson was able to lock in a triangle choke and
proceeded to bring down more elbows to Jacobs’s head. Jacobs
finally picked up the pin fall when he locked a chokehold on
the middle rope and jumped off and locked it in real deep.
Danielson made several attempts to escape the move but
finally passed out from the hold. Nigel McGuiness came down
after the match and taunted Danielson about losing to
Jacobs. Chris Hero came out of nowhere and hit his rolling
neck breaker on Nigel. Roderick Strong than came out and
challenged Nigel to a match for the title when they return
in January. Erick Stevens than came out and attacked Strong
from behind. The rest of the no remorse corps followed up
and ganged up on Stevens. Then this brought out the Briscoes
brothers to the rescue setting up the main event.
Star Rating: 4 out of 4 stars. Danielson showed that he is
by far one of the best wrestlers in the business today. In
the last year his style has evolved again mixing the best of
mma style and some of the modern japanese style of pro
wrestling. Jacobs showed off an excellent mat style that has
rarely been seen. Hopefully we will get to see several more
matches from the two of them. |
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MATCH 9:
The No Remorse Corps versus Erick
Stevens and The Briscoe Brothers
The main event of the night showcased the type of matches
for the tournament. The Briscoes who are currently the tag
team champs showed why they are the best. They focused on
Davey Richards in the early part of the match. All three of
them took control and worked him over. Eventually the corps
regained control of the match and focused solely on Stevens
for a few minutes. Eventually the referee lost complete
control of the match. All six guys were rotating in and out
of the match without tags. Ring of Honor does something
amazing and that is doing combos of solid shots in rapid
session. Jay Briscoe was the last one standing after all the
moves. The pinfall came after The Briscoes and Stevens
nailed their finishers onto a respective member of the
corps. Jay hit his pile driver onto Strong. Mark nailed his
cut throat driver onto Richards. Stevens power bombed Romero
and folded him over like an accordion. Mark was the legal
man and picked up the victory.
Star Rating: 3 out of 4 stars. This match was a great
example of talent that Ring of Honor uses on a regular
basis. The Briscoes keep on delivering great matches every
time they step into the ring. I think that especially in
Chicago they give it there all. The No Remorse Corps proved
that by far they’re the best faction in Ring of Honor. |
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EVENT
RATING:
3 out of 4 stars. Despite the inclement weather Saturday
night and changing the whole event at the last minute. These
wrestlers went out and gave it their all no matter what
happens. When they left and came to town they had the whole
event planned out to the letter. With the weather problems
they had to do an about face and rearranged the whole event.
This was the best way to continue the feuds at the last
minute and have it feel natural. Ring of Honor was able to
pull a rabbit out of their hat and have it fit their
wrestling style. I wish I could see the WWE or TNA do a
total ad lib type of house show. |
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Photo ©
2007 Ring of Honor
Article © 2007 Alternate Reality, Inc. |
