Jade Chung talks about freedom and voices her confidence in Generation Next, despite the Embassy seemingly having all the momentum.
Opening Match: Claudio Castagnoli vs. Alex Shelley (w/Prince Nana).
Before the match, Nigel McGuinness approaches Claudio and calls Claudio's win over him a fluke. He says he'll offer Claudio a title shot if he doesn't lose to Shelley. Claudio gives an exhibition of how to get out of headlocks early. Shelley takes him down into a Cloverleaf maneuver, but Claudio reverses to an anklelock and mocks the Embassy gesture. Shelley reverses to a wristlock and runs up the ropes. They exchange armdrag counters, and Shelley comes up with the Border City Stretch. Claudio makes the ropes. He tries an awkward sunset flip that looks more like the Canadian Destroyer. Shelley rolls through, and they keep countering to a stalemate. Shelley backflips out of a backdrop suplex and handstands into a victory roll, but he rolls through that and comes up with a Pendulum Swing on Claudio. Great succession of moves from Shelley. Claudio counters to a rollup for two. Shelley ties up his legs and spits in his face. Oops. That triggers a series of uppercuts from Claudio and a springboard back elbow. He puts Shelley in "the Neutralizer" (an Argentine Legrack with a headscissors). Claudio offers a handshake, but Shelley goes him one better by kissing his foot, but then Shelley double-crosses him with a kick to the thigh. Shelley monkeyflips Claudio to the floor and springboards into a DDT on him. Back in, Shelley gets two off a crossbody block. A quebrada gets two for Shelley, and he starts going for submissions. He stops to high five Nigel and Nana, allowing Claudio to come back with a kip up forearm. Claudio hits a very Bossman-ish sliding uppercut. Shelley comes back with the Wheelbarrow Bulldog and a seated dropkick. The Matchkiller (swing into a X-Pac facebuster) gets two for Claudio. Shelley comes back again with the multi-rotation spin into the Border City Stretch, but Claudio reverses to the Neutralizer. Shelley just does make the ropes. Claudio sets up for the Ricolabomb, but the 20-minute time limit expires at 20:04 (close enough). Highly impressive opener with a little bit of mat wrestling, flying, and brawling. ***1/2
Post-match, Nigel says Claudio doesn't get a title shot because he didn't win, but Claudio reminds him that Nigel said he'd get a shot "if he didn't lose." Ah yes, the Ned Flanders-in-a-dress rule. Jade Chung runs in and slaps Nana for the fun of it, distracting everyone long enough for Nigel to cheapshot Claudio and rip his forehead open with Nigel's lucky iron.
Azrieal & Davey Andrews vs. Jason Blade & Kid Mikaze.
Blade and Mikaze are local New England talents trying to earn a spot. Please don't mind the indy names. These guys are pretty good. They do a lot of stuff that includes the words "spin" and/or "kick" to Azrieal. Andrews slingshots in with a dropkick. Blade and Mikaze do a neat little double Japanese Armdrag on Andrews. Andrews and Mikaze trade blows, and Andrews hits a Dynamite Clothesline. Mikaze goes to the floor, confusing even his own partner. Azrieal hits a rolling plancha on Mikaze, but Mikaze one-ups him by springboarding off his own partner into the same move. Back in, Mikaze hits a Diamond Dust on Andrews, but Azrieal shoves him off the top. Andrews hits him with a German Suplex, and Azrieal finishes with the double stomp at 5:55. The indy guys looked okay, if a little green. **
Ricky Reyes (w/Julius Smokes) vs. Mitch Franklin.
Franklin is a graduate of the third class of the ROH school. Or, at least he was. Reyes makes short work of him and finishes with the Dragon Sleeper at 0:23. He chokes out another student for fun. 1/4*
Bryan Danielson puts over Roderick Strong for his accomplishments, but he can't let him win because Strong works for "the Man." Welcome to Green Party headquarters.
Four-Corner Survival: Nigel McGuinness vs. Kikutaro vs. BJ Whitmer (w/Lacey) vs. Nosawa.
This has comedy match trainwreck written all over it. Nosawa starts out with Kikutaro, and they do their comedy act with Nosawa playing the straight man. Kikutaro challenges him to an arm-wrestling contest and then stomps him. The do a little lucha sequence to show that, yes, they can wrestle when they want to. Nosawa hits the Shining Wizard to finish that. I can't decide who seems more out of place, Nigel or BJ. BJ tags in and does some actual wrestling with Nosawa. Nigel tags in and gets his handstand mulekick. BJ tags out to Kikutaro who goes right at Nigel with a series of weak chops. Nigel gives him a running uppercut. FLAIR FLOP! Nosawa tags back in, and suddenly Kikutaro is a world beater again, returning the earlier Shining Wizard. His moonsault misses, though, leading to a battle of Shining Wizards. Well, Prazak is having fun. I don't think Jimmy Bower was the only one drinking in the booth during those days. Things break down, and BJ hits an Exploder on Kikutaro for two. A Wrist-Clutch Exploder finishes Kikutaro at 9:38. This was what it was, and that's about all I can say. After the match, Lacey spits on a fan who called her a "whore" and calls him a "fat piece of shit." You know, half the audience would probably pay $100 for that, but then that would make the "whore" moniker accurate. What's a girl to do? **1/2
AJ Styles vs. Austin Aries.
AJ was X-Division Champ at this point. I know that because he's wearing the belt. Anyway, this should be good. Lots of quick reversals early, and Aries hits his roll into a springboard elbow. AJ reverses a wristlock and cuts off Aries going for the same reversal. Aries backflips out of a wristlock, but AJ takes him down into a headscissors. Uh oh. YOU CAN'T HEADSCISSOR AUSTIN ARIES! Aries dropkicks Styles in the face, but AJ comes back with his own dropkick spot on the other side. A swinging backbreaker puts Aries down, and AJ locks in a reverse chinlock. Aries makes the ropes and dropkicks Styles on a springboard dropkick attempt. Aries follows him to the floor with a tope. Back in, a Fisherman's Suplex gets two for Aries, and he hits a swinging gutbuster. An STO sets up the powerdrive elbow, and Aries hooks the armbar with illegal fishhook. They trade blows, and AJ hits a rolling clothesline to finish it off. Aries recovers and hits the corner clothesline into the Inverted Finlay Roll. That sets up a missile dropkick. ONE, TWO, THR-NO! Aries blocks the Inverted DDT, but AJ tries again with the Quebrada and hits it. They trade more counters as they go for their finishers, and Aries hits the Brainbuster. AJ blocks the 450-splash twice and hits the Pelé. IT JUST COMES OUT OF NOWHERE! The Super Styles Clash finishes at 20:35. After the match, AJ grabs his X-Title and raises Aries' hand. Aries' injuries seemed to slow him down a bit for this match. It was quite good, but not on par with what Aries was doing during his title run. ***1/2
After the match, Prince Nana and Alex Shelley attack Aries, but Jade Chung, of all people, makes the save.
Jay Lethal is excited about fighting Christopher Daniels, but you wouldn't know it from this promo. TONIGHT WE'RE PLAYING BY JAY LETHAL'S RULES!
Grudge Match: Colt Cabana vs. B-Boy (w/Julius Smokes).
Well, it's sort of a grudge. Actually, the grudge is between Cabana and Homicide, and B-Boy is just Homicide's lackey. B-Boy looks, acts, and wrestles so much like Homicide that I would be surprised if Russo hired him and booked him to be Homicide's little brother who Homicide wants to steer clear of "the life he led." B-Boy is not really a match for Cabana in the ring, so Colt outwrestles him and plays to the crowd a lot early. B-Boy bails to cool off and comes back in with his Homicide-lite offense. He tosses Colt to the floor, and Smokes gets in some Hogan-esque backrakes and a head clap. Wha'cha gonna do, brother. Y-y-yeah. B-Boy gets a stretch in, but Cabana is close to the ropes. Cabana comes back with his elbows and the buttalanche. Colt do-si-does with the referee and schoolboys B-Boy for two. B-Boy comes back with a swinging neckbreaker and a Tornado DDT. The Facelift (corner dropkick) gets two. B-Boy counters the Helicopter Bomb and Peterson Rolls Cabana for two. Colt rebounds with the lariat at 12:23. That kind of came out of nowhere, but then that's Colt's thing. **
Suddenly, the lights go out and Homicide's music hits. Homicide (who was supposed to be in New York) jumps Colt from behind and hits him in the head with a chair. They brawl out into the crowd where a weird-ass fan gets in the way. Given the man's thousand-yard stare, I don't think I'd go anywhere near him either. Colt and Cabana brawl all the way to the back of the arena. The brawl goes all the way back to the ring, and by now it's Colt versus the world. Homicide finally puts Colt through a table with the Ace Crusher to bring the fracas to a close.
Jay Lethal vs. Christopher Daniels Curry Man (w/Allison Danger).
Daniels is feuding with Lethal's mentor, Samoa Joe, so Lethal's just in there to soften him up. Unfortunately, Daniels is with his newborn son and can't be there tonight, so Curry Man is taking his place. That's okay because he's hot, he's spicy, and he tastes great. Speaking of hot, Allison wears the nun's outfit tonight. Lots of playing to the crowd early before Lethal grabs a side headlock. Curry Man springboards into an armdrag, and the fans call for Lethal to dance. He does a little hip-grinding and the running man. Well, there goes that stereotype. Sadly, referee Mike Keener doesn't get on the act, despite calls for him to do so. Daniels and Lethal do a little dance routine, and the calls are renewed for Keener to dance. This time, he does bust out a little Blue Meanie action. That leads to calls for Allison Danger to dance, so Curry Man and Lethal refuse to wrestle until she does. She gives a little ass-shaking action of her own. The crowd calls for the timekeeper to dance too, but Curry Man tells them that if everyone dances, there won't be any time for wrestling. Finally, after about ten minutes of "Solid Gold," the match starts proper. Lethal dominates early, but Curry Man comes back with a plancha and starts working Lethal's back. Lethal fights out of a chinlock but runs into a heel kick. Lethal comes back for real with the spinebuster. Lethal hits a flying kick for two. Curry Man hits a Flatliner and goes for the moonsault, but Lethal moves and springboards into a DDT for two. The swandive headbutt misses, and Curry Man gets a pair of nearfall rollups. Curry uses the POWER OF SPICE to block the Dragon Suplex and calls for the Spicy Drop. Lethal slips out of the Spicy Drop and hits the Dragon Suplex for the win at 22:29. A lot of people questioned why Daniels would go with the Curry Man gimmick here since the feud was between Daniels and Joe, but in retrospect they didn't want to hurt either Daniels or Lethal with a loss and damage long-term plans. A loss by Curry Man is really meaningless because it's just goofy fun. Oh, and that's all the match was too. Kind of like cotton candy light, fluffy, not satisfying on its own but a nice little confection. ***
Jimmy Rave claims he chased CM Punk out of Ring of Honor and says he's come up with a new finishing move since he can't use the Styles Rave Clash. This was a good promo and oddly reminiscent of early Hunter Hearst Helmsley.
ROH World Title: Bryan Danielson vs. Roderick Strong.
Strong had been on a beeline to a serious title shot since about May of 2005. He took Punk to the limit before getting screwed (and had a couple shots in FIP). His stablemate, Austin Aries, got first crack at him. They take turns backing each other into the corner and then condescendingly backing away without incident. Danielson takes him down into a cross armlock, but they're in the ropes. Danielson busts out a chop and gets cocky. He hits another one, and you just know they're building up to Roderick hitting a big one. Danielson takes him down again, but Strong is in the ropes again. Indeed, Danielson hits another chop but gets chopped out of the ring as Strong unleashes one. Back in, Danielson offers a handshake and then slaps Strong in the face. Danielson backs him into the corner and fires off a series of chops. Strong ducks one and hits his own, so Danielson drops to the floor again. MANLY! Back in, Strong chops him in three of the four corners before Danielson bails again. Back in again, Danielson stretches Strong out and rips at his nose, using the five count as his friend. See, when it's a mat contest, Danielson has an advantage, but once Roderick is able to hit those chops, they're in his court. Danielson tries to choke him out with a Goku-Raku stretch, but Strong powers into the corner and hits a CHOP! And again! And again! Danielson goes to the eyes to cut that off. He ties Strong in the ropes and hits a dropkick for several two counts. Strong unleashes another flurry of chops and a dropkick. Danielson sends him to the floor, though, and Strong continues the chops. Danielson's chest is just beet red at this point, but he knocks Strong into a chair and hits the Olé dropkick. Dragon stops to argue with the fan, allowing Roderick to hit more chops and a backbreaker for two. He goes for the Stronghold, but he hasn't really done enough backwork to get him over. Strong: Come on, motherfucker! Danielson (from the mat): Fuck you, Roderick! TESTOSTERONE~! Danielson makes the ropes and hits a missile dropkick. Strong ducks the roaring elbow and hits a uranage backbreaker for two. STRONGHOLD! Danielson squirms to the ropes, though. They fight on the ropes and slap each other silly. Danielson falls all the way to the floor. Back in, Strong gets two off a stacked powerbomb. Danielson comes back with a series of forearms to the face. Oddly enough, Danielson has been targeting the nose the whole match. He switches up and goes to the spinning toehold and then a figure-four leglock. Roderick spends a lot of time in the hold before making the ropes. The damage is done, though, and the backbreakers are, logically, out of the equation now. See, that's great wrestling. The swandive headbutt misses, and Strong gets two off a crucifix. Danielson small packages for two, but Strong reverses to a backslide. Danielson reverses *that* to a Fisherman's Suplex for one, but Strong's shoulder is up. Strong hits a backbreaker but messes up his own knee and is unable to capitalize immediately. CHOP! CHOP! CHOP! Strong gets two off a top-rope superplex and goes for the Stronghold. Danielson reverses to a rollup for two. They exchange forearms, and Strong knocks him out. He can't get him over, though, so Danielson is able to pop up and slap the crap out of him. Roderick takes him down and hits a series of forearms. Danielson reverses to an armbar, really wrenching back on the arm, and Strong taps immediately at 37:07. Danielson looks legitimately pissed after the match and spits at Strong. Strong leaves in a hurry, setting up a rematch the next week. Hey, I'm there. If you're going to work a shoot, that's how you do it. I'm not sure what else to say that hasn't already been said. Both guys played their roles perfectly. The psychology was there. The intensity was definitely there. An all-around awesome match. ****1/2
Chad Collyer tries to outcrazy Ace Steel.
Jim Cornette announces that Bryan Danielson will defend against Chris Sabin, and Roderick Strong will get Danielson the next night, regardless of who is champion.
A late-arriving Christopher Daniels can't believe he didn't get to meet Curry Man. BJ Whitmer approaches Daniels and complains about Daniels forgetting about him.
The 411: An excellent show if you ever want to start someone on ROH. It had a little bit of everything from great wrestling in the main event to lots of sports entertainment on the undercard. Angles were advanced, rematches were set up. It's all good.
