ROH live event report
Chicago Ridge, IL
April 1, 2006
By Keith Lipinski & Derek Burgan, Torch correspondants

1,600 fans (note to ROH, as much as we enjoy the product, if you want to bring 1,600 people to a party, please bring some extra bathrooms).

1. Jack Evans defeated Jake Crist, Matt Sydal, Jimmy Jacobs, Ace Steel, and Dave Crist after pinning Crist after his 630 off the top rope onto Jake Crist at 10:15. Great spot occured when Evans, Sydal, and Jacobs had a three man chicken fight. Sydal and Jacobs went over the top rope and took with them the guys they were sitting on (Jake and Dave Crist). Evans then did a flippity-do off of Ace Steel's shoulders onto the guys on the floor. Evans later did a springboard flip onto Jacobs on the floor while in the ring Steel hit a combo Widow's Peak/Neckbreaker on Sydal and Dave Crist off the top rope. Lacey got onto the apron and it distracted Ace Steel. When Steel approached her, a jealous Jimmy Jacobs jumped on Steel's back and applied a rear naked choke. This gave Evans a chance to hit Crist with a 630 and get the win. Fantastic opener.

***Jim Cornette came to the ring, without his arm in a sling despite being in a wrestling move from Chris Hero the previous night, and put over the big crowd. Cornette then had a spotlight put on Adam Pearce by the gimmick table. Cornette said that Pearce would be the bouncer for tonight and would guard the front door, the back door, and the door that CZW would most likely come from, "the shitter." Colt Cabana came out and cut a good promo, talking about the fans in attendence being his neighbors and he needed to find peace. Peace that would only be found in a CHICAGO STREET FIGHT. Cornette said he like a guy with brains, but like a guy with guts even more and agreed to the street fight. After Cabana left, Cornette called out Delirious. Cornette said he was impressed with Delirious' display of athletisism the previous night and the fact the crowd loves him. BUT, Cornette said Delirious was just not getting one key thing... winning a match. Cornette told Delirious he could challenge any one man on the roster, but if he lost, he would be out of ROH. During this, Cornette actually used a 2006 reference as he mentioned the NBC show Deal or No Deal. Delirious spoke in his lizard speak before yelling out "RICKY REYES!"

2. Delirious made Ricky Reyes (w/Julius Smokes) tap out with his ROH job on the line in 6:37 with an awesome counter submission from Reyes dragon sleeper. Delirious cut out a lot of comedy during the match and took a big beating from Reyes. At one point Delirious was hit with two consecutive Roll of the Dice. Reyes then attempted the dragon sleeper, but Delirious countered the move and made Reyes tap as the crowd exploded. Delirious then jumped in the crowd in celebration, before running around the ring and even stopping to lick Keith Lipinski's head. Solid match that the crowd loved.

3. Jimmy Rave and Alex Shelley and Masato Yoshino (w/Prince Nana) defeated Do Fixer (Horiguchi, Dragon Kid, Yoshino) in 16:12 after the greetings from Ghina (pedigree). More great toilet paper spots. It's priceless to see Alex Shelley sell a roll of toilet paper as if he was shot. Jimmy Rave also shows great fire as he whips the toilet paper back into the crowd. Daizee Haze did not accompany the Embassy to the ring despite being on the pre-show. The Dragon's Gate guys were all tremendously over, especially Dragon Kid. Fast paced match with plenty of near falls. Plenty of "Dragon Gate" and "Please Come Back" chants after the match. Shelley and Rave work extremely well together.

4. Four corner survival: Samoa Joe defeated Jimmy Yang, Christopher Daniels, and AJ Styles when Joe pinned Styles with the muscle buster in 18:29. Daniels had the X-Division title on under his robe. Yang and Styles spent a good part of the match working against each other. Crowd was super hot for just about everything in the match. Yang hit Daniels with an awesome backwards hurricanrana off the top rope.

***After the match Samoa Joe called out Bryan Danielson after saying he was going back into the hunt for the ROH Title. "I want my title back!" Danielson came out and played a great cocky heel saying Joe didn't make the belt, the belt made Joe. Danielson called himself the "baddest mother f----er on Earth. Danielson talked about if it wasn't for ROH, Joe would be back in Samoa climbing up trees to get coconuts for his family. Danielson also tried to start a cant of "Lose some weight, Joe." Danielson took a page out of Storm's playbook and said, "If I could be serious for a moment." Danielson took credit for the large crowd and said he would make Lance Storm tap out to the Single Leg Boston Crab. "Lance Storm got nothing on me. I was trained by HBK while he was dyin' up Calgary." Danielson then said he wold give Joe a shot after he beat Storm. When Danielson left the ring, Chris Hero and Necro Butch came from out of the crowd and attacked Joe. Adam Pearce ran down and fought with Hero into the bleachers, both using chairs. Eventually the two men fought back into the ring when Pearce was doubleteamed by Hero and Necro. Claudio Castagnoli ran in for the save, but was instead thrown out of the ring. Jim Cornette came down and was once again put into an armbar by Hero. BJ Whitmer limped to the ring for the save. As Whitmer was battling with Necro, Chris Hero came from behind with a cheap shot to Whitmer's injured ankle. Hero then used Whitmer's crutches to beat down on the ankle until ROH students came down to the clear the ring. Adam Pearce checked on Whitmer and yelled out "Is there a doctor in the house?!" All of a sudden a big "DOCTOR KEITH~!" chant erupted... but Keith Lipinski had gone to the bathroom about five minutes earlier. Seriously. (keith note: this has to be now the greatest wrestling regret of my life, yes, even more then missing Mania XIII)

On Hero's way out he once again tossed chairs into the ring, but one chair ended up hitting a girl in front row. A "she's hardcore" chant erupted after the girl held up the chair. That makes two people in two nights hit by falling chairs from Hero. Two girls no less. Both ROH owner Cary Silkin and booker Gabe Sapolsky came down to talk to the fan. Another red hot angle.

5. Austin Aries and Roderick Strong defeated Blood Generation (CIMA and Doi) in 20:06 after Strong hit the half nelson backbreaker on CIMA then Aries hit the 450. Unbelievable match and most likely match of the night. Aries looked liked he broke his nose early in the match and CIMA was rubbing Aries' blood over his body and the ref's shirt. It looked to happen after a sequence in which both GeNext guys accidentally hit each and were tossed outside the ring. Blood Generation then flew outside with a dual Tope Suicidas. Strong hit an incredible sixty count vertical suplex on CIMA and CIMA was also selling Strong's hard-as-hell chops. In a nice bit of continuity, Strong had his right had heavily taped up after chopping the ring post the previous night. Heels worked over Aries for a lot of the match and its worth nothing how insanely over Aries was with the fans. The impressive Doi hit Aries with an amazing running powerbomb going from one side of the ring to the other. Everyone hit thier finishers. Strong hit several backbreakers. DOI ate a brainbuster from Aries while CIMA took the 450 and got pinned. After the match CIMA got on the microphone and said how much he loved ROH and wanted to win a championship belt. This was the last Dragon's Gate match and they were all spectacular.

6. "American Dragon" Bryan Danielson defeated Lance Storm in 26:25 with the cattle mutallation submission. Storm was gretting with a huge ovation and a ton of white and red streamers. Storm came out to his old ECW music. Danielson was announced as being "really too good to wrestle in front of you pricks." Started a little slow with both countering the other. Crowd chanted "You still got it!" to Storm after a 17 second vertical suplex. This was extra impressive as Storm was using one of his hands to encourage the crowd. Storm then applied the single leg crab to a huge pop, but Danielson made the ropes. Back and forth action, European uppercuts and surfboards. Danielson attempted many submission moves, but Storm would always find a way to fight out of them. Danielson missed the diving headbutt, which allowed Storm to get a very close near fall with his cradle piledriver. Danielson tried to hit the Cattle Mutilation, but Storm had a great counter where he rolled through and got a near fall. Danielson then quickly applied the Cattle Mutilation again and Storm tapped out. After the match Danielson shook Storm's hand as the crowd chanted "Please come back!" Storm seemed geniuinely affected by the outpouring of respect.

7. "Classic" Colt Cabana defeated Homicide (w/Julius Smokes) in a Chicago Street Fight in 28:06 with the Colt 45. Excellent match with tons of weapons, tables, ladder spots (using the ladder as a weapon, not off of the ladder). Cabana was wearing ring gear, which isn't your normal Chicago Street Fight attire. Much of the entire months-long angle were brought into play during the match, including a wire hanger, the ghetto fork, and Draino. Homicide hit Cabana with a Tope Con Hilo and ended up in the second row, right in the lap of a 60 year old grandmother. Only in wrestling. Homicide brought a barbed wire covered board into the ring. In an INSANE call, especially what happned earlier in the show, Homicide and Smokes encouraged the fans to throw their chairs into the ring. The following minute was pure chaos as a storm of chairs then started to rain upon the ring. With so many people at the show and so many chairs... it was just a bad call to make. The ladder from the previous night was used and it was still dented and twisted from Cabana's head being smashed in it. One painful-to-watch spot came when Homicide hit Cabana with a tornado DDT onto the ladder which looked like it killed both guys. Homicide then laid Cabana on a table and came down with a top rope splash. Both men teased putting the other's face into the barbed wire. Cabana had Homicide on the mat and searched 187's pants to find the ghetto fork. Cabana then went Abdullah the Butcher as he stabbed Homnicide repeatedly. Cabana even put Homicide's blood on his face. A bleeding Homicide then had rubbing alcohol dumped on him. J-Train interferred throughout the match and finally Cabana tied Smokes to the tope rope with his MAXIMUM STRENGTH athletic tape. Cabana and Homcide fought on the top rope, with Homcide yelling out "Diamond Cutter" (seriously), but Cabana reversed it into a powerbomb off the top rope onto a table (and with the barbed wire board underneath.) Cabana then picked up Homicide and hit a Colt 45 before making the pin.

After the match Ricky Reyes came down and used a pair of scissors to cut J-Train loose. Smokes then grabbed a noose from his pants as Reyes put the boots to Cabana. Smokes and Reyes were setting up Cabana to be hung from the top rope when Homicide told them to back off. Neither man thought Homicide was serious, but Homicide got right in their faces and said, "Let me handle this shit!" Homicide said they had beaten this man for the last six months and he had earned their respect. Homicide stuck out his hand and dropped to his knees saying, "I'll give you peace. I respect you Colt Cabana." Cabana shook Homicide's hand. Reyes and Smokes helped Homicide to the back and it was awesome as Julius looked like he had been crying. Confetti then shot from an air blower, but it was set so far back into the crowd only a little bit of the celebration confetti made it into the ring.

Overall, the best ROH show ever in Chicago and one of the greatest the company has ever run. Really, this weekend between the Dragons Gate guys (who were fucking amazing), Bryan Danielson's matches (the Strong match was incredible), Chris Hero's interferrence, Delirious' Cinderella Story, Samoa Joe's facial expressions, the athelticism of AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels, Jimmy Rave's heel work, Alex Shelley's toilet paper selling, Julius Smokes/Prince Nana's running around the ring, Jimmy Jacob's touching ballad, Jack Evans' flips, and a five star finish to the Cabana-Homicide feud that was suprisingly touching, these were the best two shows of wrestling in the history of Chicago (Ridge). Thank you ROH.

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