ROH Live Event results
August 5, 2006
Edison, N.J.
Report by Matt Feuerstein, Torch correspondent

The crowd looked in the 750-850 range. There were definitely more people than they had in May, but it looked to be fewer than they had in December and February. That may have just been because of a different seating layout, though.

(1) Colt Cabana beat Sal Rinauro via submission. This was mostly comedy, with the other Embassy members abusing Sal, and Colt brushing off most of Sal’s attempts at offense. The crowd really loved Cabana, as usual, and he finished it off with a reverse Boston crab that nearly bent Rinauro in half. Fun opener.

(2) Shane Hagadorn beat Bobby Dempsey to retain the Top of the Class Trophy. This may have been the shortest ROH match ever. Hagadorn knocked Dempsey out with one brass-knuckled punch and pinned him.

Immediately following the match, Lt. Commissioner Adam Pearce came out and praised Hagadorn, and told him that if he worked really hard maybe he could be Lt. Commissioner one day (I never realized that was a wrestler’s goal). Hagadorn seemed honored by the praise, and Pearce politely asked him to head to the back so he could take care of some business. He called out BJ Whitmer and told him to join he and Jim Cornette’s side in the war against Homicide. Whitmer said he respected Homicide and Steve Corino came out and jumped him from behind.

(3) Nigel McGuinness beat Claudio Castagnoli, Christopher Daniels, and Jay Lethal in a 4 Corner Survival Match. This was probably the pleasant surprise of the night. I’m a big fan of all four of these guys, but I didn’t expect them to go all out the way they did. It was pretty much all action, and at one point after a great exchange between all four men trading big moves, the crowd broke out in an "ROH" chant, which you don’t hear too often in the third match on the card. They all hit most of their big moves, with the pins being broken up. Finally, in all of the chaos Nigel hit is pendulum lariat on Claudio and got the pin. Everyone got a big ovation after the match.

(4) Austin Aries & Roderick Strong beat Matt Sydal & Jack Evans, Jack & Dave Crist, Jay & Mark Briscoe in an Ultimate Endurance Match to retain the ROH Tag Team Titles. The rules, as is usually the case in Ultimate Endurance Match, is that each fall, which ends with a team being eliminated, is contested under different rules. The first fall was under scramble rules, the second was under tapout-only rules, and the third fall was a straight tag match for the titles. They started out quickly with the scramble match, with each team hitting tons of highspots and dives to the outside. It went nonstop for about 5 or 6 minutes, until Irish Airborne (The Crists) cleanly pinned the Briscoes to eliminate them. It was a bold move to elevate a new team, although the crowd wasn’t too happy about it, with loud "bulls---" chants.

That elimination sort of killed the crowd during the next segment, which was the tapout rules match. It was mostly Strong and Aries working over Irish Airborne until Strong got one of the Crists to tap out to the Stronghold.

The final segment got the crowd back into it, as the two GenNext factions faced off for the tag titles. I’d like to see these two teams go a little bit longer against each other, but as it was it was a very good, exciting segment. Evans and Sydal hit their big flying moves. One big spot included Evans teasing doing a dive onto Strong and Aries, but instead ducked out of the way as Sydal flew over him onto Strong, and then Evans springboarded onto Aries. The final spot saw Strong knock Evans out of the ring. Sydal came off with a shooting star press, but Aries moved out of the way. Sydal landed on his feet, but immediately met with a huge boot to the face by Strong. Strong hit his half-nelson backbreaker, and Aries hit the 450 for the win. Great segment and overall a strong match.

Intermission was next.

(5) Homicide & BJ Whitmer beat Adam Pearce & Steve Corino via disqualification. The show's token brawl. Corino did some micwork insulting the crowd, which he’s one of the best at. The match started out with Homicide being worked over by Pearce and Corino until Whitmer made the save in the surprise that every single person in the building expected. They brawled through the crowd for a few minutes. Back in the ring the match had good heat. The action wasn’t anything spectacular, but the personalities were all over, especially Homicide, who’s getting a babyface push like no one ever has in ROH (that being the Steve Austin anti-hero push). I’ve seen some people knock Pearce because he’s bigger and doesn’t do the super athletic “state of the art” stuff that some people seem to only want to see. However, he’s been exception in brawling matches this year, is a good talker, and moves pretty darn well for his size. I think he’s been a fine addition to the roster. Eventually Whitmer and Corino brawled to the back, leaving Homicide and Pearce in the ring. Out of nowhere the Briscoes hit the ring, attacking Homicide, leading to the DQ finish. After the match Pearce raises the hands of the Briscoes, I guess with the idea being that the Briscoes are now part of Cornette’s army, possibly playing off of the face that he managed them in ROH in late 2003/early 2004.

(6) KENTA beat Davey Richards. This was the breakout, star-making match that we've been waiting for Richards to have in ROH. This could have easily been an acceptable main event. During the early part of the match they traded big kicks and KENTA got Richards in some holds. And one point about halfway through KENTA went for the Busaiku knee, but Richards caught him in a big head and arms suplex for a nearfall. Richards hit a spinning tope through the ropes onto KENTA, and then KENTA knocked him all around ringside. They got back into the ring and started trading nearfalls to huge reactions. Richards kicked out of KENTA's tiger suplex, and reversed KENTA's leaping top rope falcon arrow. He also reversed the Go 2 Sleep several times. KENTA finally hit the Go 2 Sleep for the pin. Both guys got a huge ovation after the match.

(7) Bryan Danielson retained the ROH World Title by going to a 60 minute time limit draw with Samoa Joe. They had a tough act to follow, but the crowd was ready for this match from the minute the last match ended. It was clear that they were going long because Joe's entrance started at 10:19, and ROH shows never end before 11, and usually not before 11:30. Most of the crowd favored Joe, but Danielson definitely had his supporters. The early stages had a big fight atmosphere, as this was ROH's version of Steve Austin vs. The Rock. The early part of the match saw Joe getting advantages on Danielson until Danielson bailed out of the ring to big heat. They did this for the first 10-15 minutes until Danielson got a bit of an advantage and worked Joe over with various hold. Joe would keep fighting out and flustering Danielson. About 25 minutes in Joe went for the muscle buster to a huge pop, but Danielson wiggled out and chop-blocked Joe from behind, playing off of his attacked on Joe’s leg in the 3-way with KENTA on 6/17, and the Cage of Death match on 7/15. Danielson then pulled Joe’s legs out beyond ringpost and bashed it with a chair a couple of times. He then worked over Joe’s leg for a good ten minutes or so, including doing a figure 4 which Joe reversed. Danielson went to the top for his headbutt, but Joe caught him with an ace crusher. Danielson rolled to the outside and Joe hit him with his elbow suicida. Joe then hit the Ole Ole kick on Danielson. He went for a second one but Danielson avoided it and went to work on Joe. He then set Joe up for an Ole kick of his own, and hit a dropkick to the head instead. He then got Joe into the crowd and hit a springboard somersault dive onto Joe in the crowd. The crowd never really sat down from this point forward. Back in the ring things really picked up with Danielson getting on the cattle mutilation several times with Joe always getting to the ropes. Danielson avoided the muscle buster a couple of times as well. He reversed an attempted Joe Boston crab into a rollup for a nearfall. They then started punching it out in the middle of the ring as the crowd broke out in a “this is awesome” chant. Joe hit the muscle buster, but Danielson got his hand on the ropes. Joe got on the choke but Danielson got to the ropes. Danielson was able to hit Joe with his top rope backdrop suplex. Danielson then went for his unexposed elbows to the head that he’s won many matches with, but Joe fought out of it. Danielson then locked on the crossface chicken. Joe made it to the ropes. The announcer said that there was one minute left in the time limit. Danielson went for a rollup but Joe countered and locked Danielson in the choke. Danielson struggled in it for about 45 seconds, with everyone going crazy. Eventually his arm started to go limp, and the ref checked it once, and it dropped, but the bell rang to signal that the time limit expired. The crowd chanted for five more minutes, and Danielson teased giving it. He got into the ring, quickly shook Joe’s hand and ran out of the ring to a chorus of boos. This was a great 60 minutes, with the final parts of the match being off the charts awesome. I’d probably say that it wasn’t quite at the historic level of Joe vs. Punk II, but it was at least the second best 60 minute match in ROH history, and one of the best matches of the year.

As Danielson argued with the crowd while walking up the aisle, KENTA appeared behind him on the ramp. They teased that they would fight, but the Briscoes jumped KENTA from behind. Homicide then came out and fought with the Briscoes. It ended up with The Briscoes fighting Homicide 2-on-1 in the ring, while Joe was on the outside. Joe looked pensively at the situation, and then jumped into the ring and made the save for Homicide. Joe got on the mic and said that he saved Homicide because they always had respect for each other even though they hated each other, and Homicide saved ROH from CZW. Homicide then proposed that on September 16 in New York they could team up to wrestle the Briscoes. Joe accepted the offer, so that show will feature Danielson defending the title against KENTA and Joe & Homicide vs. the Briscoes. That’s quite the lineup already.

Overall Thoughts: This is an easy DVD purchase, as ROH is 4 for 4 in Edison. There wasn't a bad match on the card, and several were very good. The final two matches were awesome and are really must-sees. There seems to be some debate online about the finish of the main event, but judging by being in the audience, it got over very well, and most of those who saw it were happy with it. ROH likes to do 60-minute time limit draws. It’s just something that you accept when you watch it. I like them too. World title matches have been going 60 minutes for years. I don’t really see what the problem is, even if they don’t have a decisive rematch (although I believe that they will). Danielson hadn’t done a 60 minute draw yet during his nearly 11-month reign, so it’s not like it's overkill. All of that being said, ROH is on quite the run right now, and there are a lot of good DVDs out, as well as lot of good ones that will be coming out in the next couple of months.

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