More Notes From Last Night’s ROH House Show

Credit: Chris Cummins & PWInsider

I know someone else sent in results, but I wanted to give another view of tonight’s show, along with a few personal opinions.

First of all, this was 3x the crowd from last year’s ROH debut in Cincinnati. I counted 16 empty chairs in the top row of the Masonic Center, and a few scattered. I am willing to bet, though, that some of the empty seats were from the rabid fans beating the barricades all night.

Kevin Kelly and Nigel McGuiness were both at ringside, as was Veda Scott. Kevin Kelly did the ring announcing, and both were doing commentary throughout the night. They also filmed an opening sequence, so I am thinking this will end up on TV. They had 3 cameras in use all night, and filmed each match. As for Veda Scott … all I can say is WOW. TV does not do her any justice. She is simply gorgeous!

The last time ROH was here it was a definite influx of OVW talent intermixed with a few ROH regulars. Not this time. This was a loaded card. Last year Michael Elgin was in the opening match and tonight he was the star of the main event. He has improved immensely.

If you were to judge crowd pops, Nigel got the loudest pop, followed by Kevin Steen. As for largest amount of streamers (just about everybody got them from this crowd), Steen got the most streamers. I have never measured a crowd by streamer amounts before …

A few people got polite applause on their entrances (ACH, Thomas, Webb), but each of them won the crowd over pretty quickly with their hard work. Adam Cole was not so lucky. He tried like hell but could not get a good pop on much of anything he did. Same goes for Davey Richards. Oh what a difference a year makes. Last year he was the star of the night and tonight he was the first eliminated in the main event, and not many people cared. His facial expressions showed frustration.

Steve Corino was “on” tonight. His crowd interactions were priceless. There was a 10-12 year old boy a few rows in front of me that, for some reason made quite a few of the wrestlers single him out … Haas and Corino were really rough on him, but he was a great sport.

After the conclusion of the main event a handicapped guy tried to enter the ring to get to SCUM, but somehow Steen calmed him down and took him back to his seat, totally out of character but showing a lot of class and professionalism at the same time.

On a personal note, I bought Nigel McGuiness’ new DVD documentary when I arrived at the venue, and he signed it at intermission. He signed quite a few, and was very personal with each person he signed for. I spoke with him for about 3 minutes in the hallway and it was like talking to someone you have known your whole life. He seemed so grounded and genuine. I know he is unable to wrestle anymore, but I hope other wrestlers learn from him. He seems like a perfect person to represent any company, and is definitely a valuable asset.

All in all a great night. They announced a card in Columbus, OH in June as well as a TBD date in Cincinnati before the end of 2013.

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