here's another live report of the show AND the fan slam
Ring of Honor
March 3, 2007
Liverpool, U.K.
Report by Jon McKay, Torch VIP Member
The crowd started forming around noon to get into the Olympia. It took about 35-45 minutes to get in due to the fact that the wrestlers were in a small hallway signing autographs. The following were there:
Colt Cabana, Delirious (who actually spoke!), Jimmy Rave, Matt Sydal w/ Dragon Gate Belt, Shingo, and Naruki Doi, Jimmy Jacobs (looking incredibly emo with blood tears marked on his face), Allison Danger, Homocide w/ Julius Smokes, The Briscoe Brothers, Roderick Strong, Davey Richards, BJ Whitmer, and Nigel McGuinness on the end. Past the hallway was a relatively large open room where the Q & A Session was held with rows of chairs set up and a bar in the background. They were filming this, but I doubt it will make the DVD because you can barely hear the questions and everyone is walking right in front of the camera repeatedly. Hopefully, they can salvage some parts to put on the DVD. Finally, there was a merchandise stand with your typical stuff and Samoa Joe sitting to the left of it.
Some quick notes and observations from some of the Q & A:
Allison Danger:
-Talked about how she got into the business. She was hanging backstage in ECW due to her brother. She was asked to fill in as a valet since some girl did not show up one night. A few days later she was asked back and started doing the little things, such as putting the ring up, to eventually get to where she is today.
-Someone asked her about her thoughts on Trish Stratus. Danger noted how she was known for having "guns up to her chin" when she first came out and thought she was just one of those girls. But, she said she was amazed at how far she had come from those days and really put over Trish and all the work she did to really become good at her craft in the ring.
-The topic of Women's Wrestling came up and Danger really put over Mickie James and Victoria for being good workers. She was disappointed in the fact that they are forced to "dumb down" their work and wished they would get more time, because they are good workers.
Colt Cabana:
-Colt Cabana discussed the differences between WWE/TNA when compared to ROH. He made a fabulous point that every wrestling organization could take note of. Colt said how in Ring of Honor, you have these different personalities that come out and shine unlike in WWE and TNA where it is forced. Example, Colt Cabana is a genuinely funny, crazy, and outgoing guy so he plays that in the ring obviously. What an idea. Another great example is the Briscoe Brothers.
Jimmy Rave and Jimmy Jacobs:
-Rave made sure to say that people should think about their questions prior to asking them. A fan then asked about how Jimmy the wrestler has changed after the Embassy, Rave thought this was a dumb question, so a fan responded with "how does it feel to have no friends Jimmy Rave?" Rave and Jacobs then hugged. Great stuff.
-Jacobs noted that he has been wrestling since 16 and Rave since 15 so wrestling is all they really know. They could not see themselves doing anything else for a living.
-Jacobs admired the following wrestlers when he was growing up: Ultimate Warrior and Randy Savage, which brought a "oh yeah" from the crowd.
-Rave admired the following wrestlers when growing up: Kamala and Mr. Perfect, which brought on nice applause from the crowd.
-Jacobs mentioned how wrestling in ROH was great since it is on a global scale when compared to his time spent wrestling in a small Georgia based promotion where he was world champion.
-Jacobs prefers wrestling singles as opposed to tag and is setting his sights on the ROH world title. It will be interesting to watch Jacobs for the rest of the year and into 2008 to see if he can reach that upper status.
Samoa Joe:
This part should make the DVD because it ended the Fanslam and people were not talking in front of the camera.
-When asked about matches he would like to see, Joe talked about how he would really like to see Kenta and AJ S tyles wrestle since they have similar s tyles (WOW, Joe needs to be on the booking team in TNA).
-When asked about the future of ROH, Joe really put over Nigel McGuinness.
-When asked about Aries ending his title run, he thought it was appropriate and that Aries did a fine job. Ultimately, he said the fans were the measure of ROH. The fans will dictate who becomes a star and who will become the future. Great point from Joe, but why is Jimmy Rave being given a huge push with the heel hook submission?
-When asked if he would win the NWA Title, Joe said he would. You'd have to be foolish to think Joe is NOT winning the title in a week.
Gabe Sapolsky was hanging out by the merchandise stand and fielded some questions from fans. He noted that even though they did not sell out, they sold more as opposed to last year since both nights were in Liverpool this time and the Olympia holds more. He also noted that they will be back in the U.K. Some people were worried considering they had not sold out both nights. Gabe was really cool and a total c lass act that would even let you take a photo with him!
Some quick notes from the autograph signing:
-I told Sydal how it was sad that he would not be on national TV anymore with WSX (yes, I know there is a very slim chance it could return, but honestly, who is really chomping at the bit for ECW on crack to return? Besides, once you cancel one episode, you are screwed and there is that whole thing about lawsuits from the Jackass series where a kid lit himself on fire and died. So, I am not sure MTV Execs really want to go down that road again if you catch my drift). Regardless, Sydal said he didn't really care because he got paid up front. No wonder MTV is cutting jobs. They invested all this money in the wrestlers and production crew on a completely unknown entity. In other news, monkeys at type writers run MTV.
Shingo and Naruki Doi were pimping Dragon Gate T-Shirts. A few Dragon Gate representatives were also in attendance, but I did not get any names.
A lot of people complain about Roderick Strong's mic skills, but let me tell you, the guy is just a man of few words. I asked him how the flight was since it is long and all he said was "I slept" and shrugged. Hey, I'm not bashing the guy, just remember that when you see a Strong promo. He is really trying to improve his mic skills and I'm hoping this war with Aries and Evans will allow him to do so.
The Show:
The Liverpool Olympia really isn't done justice on the outside. It is fabulous on the inside! This is definitely one of the better ROH venues and also an easy walk from the Coach Station in Liverpool. The show started at 6:30 due to the delay in getting people in for the show. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed that the ROH World Title would not be on the line. Other fans I talked with felt the same way. The floor and lower balcony was filled. There were scattered empty seats in the top balcony.
(1) Homicide (w/ Julius Smokes) defeated Davey Richards. Homocide got a great pop and Julius Smokes was all over the place. Mentioned about how a guy in the front row looked like Bob Marley and they would go smoke later. Richards came out heel with a slight alteration to Van Halen's "Running with the Devil" since the crowd started clapping to the beat and it abruptly changed, thus throwing the crowd off.
Davey really started to win some fans over when he ran from one side of the guard rail to the other and gave Homocide a high kick that knocked him over into the 1st row. Davey slipped up a bit, botching one move and he lost any cheers he had. He gave Homocide a vicious looking T-Bone suplex that had Homocide land awkwardly on his head. Homocide won with the Cop Killa. The story of the match was to put over Richards for being able to take all Homocide had to offer and then some. It effectively did just that, but just an average match.
(2) Sara Del Ray defeated Allison Danger. Del Ray was pretty vicious in the ring. She's fairly big for a woman. It didn't help that Danger looked relatively thin compared to her. Danger really took a lot of punishment and stiffness from Del Ray and she was a trooper. Del Ray won with a cradle suplex. Better then most women wrestling.
(3) Jimmy Rave & Jimmy Jacobs defeated Colt Cabana & B.J. Whitmer. Great brawl to start out as Jacobs and Cabana went through the crowd on one side and Rave and Whitmer went through the other side. Whitmer teased throwing Rave over the balcony guard rail. He brawled right by where I was sitting in the front row. Nothing really stood out about this match though. Typical brawling and Whitmer playing Ricky Morton. Jacobs won with the Contracode.
(4) Matt Sydal defeated Delirious (in 3 falls). This was a very interesting match because Matt Sydal played a heel. This kind of confused the crowd a little and kept it from being anything spectacular. Sydal kept doing heel tactics such as using the ropes on Delirious's mask to choke him with them. He also gave Delirious a running forearm into the corner and stood there to play up the response and rub it in the face of Delirious. Honestly, the match these two had at the end of Survival of the Fittest in Cleveland, I was there live for that, was much better. I am not sure why Sydal had to go heel. It is pretty common knowledge that these two trained together and are friends, so why make people choose to boo one? On top of that, Sydal bumped the ref into the ropes to get Delirious to stumble on the ropes which led to the Cyclorama and the win. Just mind boggling. This really should have been a lot better. Overbooked a bit. The crowd really wanted to get into, and Delirious tried hard to get them going with claps and chants, but really couldn't.
Intermission took place. Once we returned from intermission, 2 British female wrestlers (Jetta and Eden Black) came out and challenged Del Ray and Danger to a tag match tomorrow.
Basically, everything on the undercard is passable. Nothing really noteworthy happens and it is all paint by numbers.
Well, ROH quickly made up for that afterward with a strong finish.
(5) Roderick Strong defeated PAC (FIP World Title Match). PAC busted his ass tonight and really energized the crowd. He was really what the crowd needed. The fans were obviously behind him and PAC didn't disappoint. He did a corkscrew plancha and a moonsault to the outside onto Strong. This was a very good match and PAC had red marks all over his body from Strong stiffing him. Strong won with a Gibon Driver. Great stuff!
(6) Shingo & Naruki Doi defeated The Briscoe Brothers to win the ROH World Tag Titles. The fact that no one saw this coming really made this great. This is easily an early nod for the top 5 ROH matches of the year. Shingo and Doi really worked the crowd well with unique double team moves from Dragon Gate. You should definitely go out of your way to check this match out. Nice to see Shingo finally get some gold in ROH. The booking is really interesting though now that Dragon Gate and NOAH representatives hold the ROH Heavyweight and Tag Titles. They are really building to one amazing show in Japan in a few months. But it makes sense that Gabe would do this to please the foreign promotions, it also helps make ROH a global entity, and allows an influx of talent to come in and help replace some of the people that are, and others that will, be leaving soon for TNA full time. If TNA is going to buy off your talent, which is essentially what they are doing, you might as well go get the best talent the world has to offer. This reminds me a lot of ECW in the 90's when they introduced lucha libre. It is a very interesting time to be an ROH fan right now.Guys such as Strong and McGuinness are the future of your company right now as the top guys. I'm all for seeing Dragon Gate and NOAH stars, hell Dragon Gate is passing ROH for me right now, but only if they can actually make the shows on a consistent basis. It is a crime that Morishima did not defend the belt at this event considering he is the champ and you would expect that, but you take what you can get.
Shingo and Naruki Doi will face Strong and Richards for the belts tomorrow.
Jay Briscoe vs. Mark Briscoe was made for tomorrow. Maybe we will see these two break up officially for good way down the line as they try and mold one of them into the new face of the company come 2008. I mean, what else do they have to prove? They are one of the best teams going.
(7) Samoa Joe defeated Nigel McGuinness. Another fabulous match that continued the thought of "just being able to hang with the ROH legend, makes me legit and gives me a big rub for the future". This was great and the booking was fabulous. They faked having Nigel be hurt on the outside after a muscle buster to the ring apron. Joe called him out on his way to the back after not responding and Nigel came back to slap Joe. This really made the people back Nigel and he took a lot of punishment from Joe still so there was nothing wrong with him losing here. Nigel did a great spot where he rolled back into the ring but bounced off the bottom rope with his leg for leverage to come back and lariat Joe. McGuinness tapped, but only after repeated Muscle Busters. Stiff as all hell and the crowd loved it.
This DVD is definitely worth buying to see the last 3 matches. The other stuff is going through the motions and like any other typical ROH show.
I'll have more tomorrow with information from night 2.
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