ROH! ROH! ROH!

Saturday March 21st, 2009 marked the day that I finally attended another Ring of Honor Wrestling event. This is the first one since February 2007 when they run the shows in the Manhattan Center (upstairs from Hammerstein Ballroom) in New York City. I love the atmosphere at the Hammerstein Ballroom. I mean, not only is it a nice, small arena but just from looking, it seems as if there isn't a bad seat in the house. But enough of my rambling..let's get to the event..

Tag Team Action
Roderick Strong & Erick Stevens vs. Kenny King & Rhett Titus
I thought this was a pretty good opener. I've seen Roderick Strong wrestle at other ROH shows and his brief run with TNA and he has always entertained me. His stiff style makes you "oooo" and "ahhh" whether it's a hard chop that is echoed throughout the arena or if it's a famous backbreaker. I've heard of the other 3 but haven't seen them wrestle (Kenny King was on WWE Tough Enough 2). I thought that both teams did very well having good chemistry with not only as tag teams but as in putting a match together. Strong and Stevens got the win in this one. I actually really like the team of Titus and King and think they will do very well..possible ROH tag champs? I think so..

Sweeney's Challenge
Bobby Dempsey vs. ??? with Larry Sweeney
The ??? turns out to be "Scrap Iron" Adam Pearce. Pearce rips on this guy from the TV show "First Look" on NBC. The NBC guy got lots of heat as chants of ""CBS! CBS! CBS!" broke out loudly in the Ballroom. Then Bobby Dempsey comes out to a big pop and pins Pearce in less than a minute with a death valley driver. Winner - Bobby Dempsey

Grudge Match
Brent Albright vs. Claudio Castagnoli
Another entertaining match. This one went the distance as the 15 minute time limit expired. The crowd wouldn't take that.."5 more minutes" chants broke out. So they agreed to go 5 more minutes. A little later the bell rings as Claudio low blows Albright for the DQ finish. Brent Albright wins this one by DQ.

Special Challenge Match #1
Jerry Lynn vs. Mike Quackenbush
Good match right here. First time seeing Quackenbush in person and seeing him wrestling someone like Jerry Lynn was a great experience. Jerry Lynn wins this one with a Cradle Pile Driver. Both men shake hands afterwards.

Ultimate Endurance- Revolution Rules
Jimmy Jacobs & Austin Aries & Brodie Lee vs. Tyler Black & The Necro Butcher & Delirious
*Six man elimination contest with the rules of each falls changing based on the previous elimination
This match was cool. Not only because it was a 6 man match, but because the falls changed based on the previous elimination. We get Daizee Haze with Delirious, Black and Butcher and she is lookin hot. Delirious gets eliminated first. Then Necro Butcher and Brodie Lee both get eliminated after brawling to the back. With just Jimmy Jacobs and Austin Aries against Tyler Black, it gets interesting. At one point in the match, Aries turns on Jacobs, stirring some problems. Black eliminates Aries by submission. Then pins Jacobs to win. Very good match. I think Necro Butcher is awesome. It's just something unique about him..probably the fact that he wrestles bare-foot because there are like, no bare-footed wrestlers around. I like Tyler Black a lot. I think he is very talented and could be a major contender someday in ROH.

Then we go to the long intermission.

Tag Team Grudge Match
Bryan Danielson & ??? vs. Bison Smith & ??? with Prince Nana
Awesome way to get fans back into the action from intermission. Bison Smith and Nana come out first. Nana cuts a promo on Obama and that crap. Then he introduces Bison's mystery partner..the crown jewel of the Embassy - JIMMY RAVE! That's right..Jimmy Rave is officially back! Rave gets a huge pop and "Welcome Back" chants from the NYC crowd. The American Dragon Bryan Danielson then comes running out to the ring, only to get double teamed. Grizzly Redwood comes out and I'm thinking to myself "THAT'S his partner?!" He gets thrown to the floor by Bison Smith. But luckily that wasn't his true partner. All of a sudden "Copa Cabana" hits and the crowd went bananas. I thought the roof was gonna come off the Hammerstein Ballroom! Danielson and Cabana win when Cabana rolls up Rave. Ahh, great to see Jimmy Rave and Colt Cabana back in ROH.

Special Challenge Match #2
Jay Briscoe vs. D Lo Brown
D-Lo cuts a good promo here:
"We wish you the best in your future endeavors. I've only got two words to say to that...thank you because my future endeavors are here in Ring of Honor." Says his return to the WWE was nothing but a waste of time, which I agree 100%. Big pop from that. Good back and forth action here. D-Lo shoves the ref, and low blows Jay. He apologizes, helps him up and BAM! clothlines him, now playing the heel. D-Lo eventually hits a sky high but Briscoe kicks out! D-Lo wins his ROH debut by holding Briscoe's shorts. Glad to see D-Lo in ROH. Hopefully he will have a lot of success and I hope ROH uses him better than WWE.

World Tag Team Title Match- No Disqualification
Kevin Steen & El Generico defends vs. The American Wolves with Larry Sweeney
Well, no Larry Sweeney with the Wolves. However, we get a 2nd appearance by Shane Hagadorn and the lovely Sarah Del Ray. Intense match as this was no DQ and basically, Texas Tornado rules. Chairs and a ladder were brought into this. Steen and Generico get the win here. After the match, Steen gets his wrists taped to the top rope and gets chairshots to his legs. This was hands down, the match of the night in my opinion. These 4 men were absolutely amazing. They kept the crowd into it every way they could..wow what a match.

ROH World Title Match
Nigel McGuinness defends vs. GHC Jr. Heavyweight Champion KENTA
Main event of the evening right here. The match started out slow in the beginning but it picked up and turned out to be good. KENTA slaps McGuinness in the face throughout the match and my god..the hardest slaps I have heard in my life! Nigel retains the ROH title by making KENTA submit.

Overall, I thought the show was amazing. Ring of Honor NEVER lets me down. This was a night of a lot of near falls, great exchanges, and overall some of the best wrestling I have ever seen. If you have never went to a Ring of Honor show, please do. You will NOT be let down. Not only will you see great quality wrestling, but the ticket prices aren't bad at all either. I mean, great wrestling for a decent price..how can you beat that? Hopefully I will be able to go back on June 13th when "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair will make an appearance...
Wooooooooooooooooo!

RIP Test

I just wanted to say that the wrestling world has lost a young and talented individual named Andrew Martin who went by the name Test in his WWF/WWE runs. I have had the pleasure in seeing Test wrestle at live events numerous times and I am very happy I did. One of the times I saw him, he beat Edge, who is my current favorite wrestler for the Intercontinental title on an episode of RAW. When I hear people say they didn't like Test or he should be released, I thought the opposite. I thought he was really talented. During his last run with WWE, I thought he should have had the ECW title. He played the heel role pretty damn good in my opinion. But hey, as long as you get the people to love you or hate you, you gotta be doing your job correctly.

I also met Test once at a convention. I was kinda nervous of him being an ass because he played a pretty good heel on TV, but boy was I proved wrong. Don't let this man's size intimidate you, he was a great guy.

Test, or Andrew..it is unfortunate you had to leave not only the wrestling world, but life as well at such an early age. You will definitely be missed.

My condolences go out to the Martin family and friends who are grieving over this tragic loss.

"Test Test..This is a test" - ahh that will leave soo many memories.

Back in action!

After a rather long hiatus, I have decided to actually come back. I mean, I have so much on my mind as far as the pro wrestling world is concerned. And where's a better place to express my opinions than here? Anyway, let's get down to business, shall we?

You and I all know that pro wrestling is not where it used to be..you don't have to be a brain surgeon to figure that out. From the glory days where stars such as Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, Macho Man Randy Savage, Jake "The Snake" Roberts, among the greats back in that era put on matches that will never be forgotten to guys such as John Cena (ugh), Triple H, Batista, and the high flying Rey Mysterio.
Wrestling now is all about being big. I mean big like muscular and tall. It makes me sick that wrestlers don't get contracts based on talent, but it's just about size. I mean, sure there are guys that are very talented who deserve a shot. Some of the guys I'm talking about such as Kofi Kingston, R-Truth, MVP, and yes, even Dolph Ziggler. The problem is is that these guys I mentioned and a ton of others who are in the same boat don't even get a shot. Most of these guys have nothing but the greatest potential but what do you know? They are being misused to the max. And does that come to a surprise to me you ask? Not at all...
I have been following wrestling since I was about 3 or 4 years old. Currently being a 23 year old and still following it is pretty impressive. I've watched it all on TV from Hulk Hogan vs Ultimate Warrior at Wrestlemania VI to Sgt. Slaughter turning into an Iraqi turncoat to The Montreal Screwjob, hell to even watching the infamous Charlie Minn host WWF Action Zone every Sunday morning. As you can tell, I've witnessed what has evolved in the past 20 years or so in the wacky world we call professional wrestling. And I give all these guys past and present who have not only entertained me throughout the years, but have given me my reasons to watch wrestling. So to all of the great wrestlers I have watched on TV..thank you for keeping me entertained!

I will be back with more, because I guarantee you that there will be a lot more on my mind.
Thanks for reading!