ROH live event report
October 25, 2008
Edison, N.J.
Report by Dan Wahlers, PWTorch contributor

I went to the ROH show tonight at the Inman Sports Arena in Edison, N.J. I'd estimate the crowd to be somewhere in the 500-600 range.

(1) Jimmy Jacobs defeated Austin Aries in an "Anything Goes Match." Pretty short match, they brawled around for a while. Then Delirious and a new member of Age of The Fall named Brody Lee came out and attacked Aries. They did a beat down on Aries, and then Jacobs won the match using a metal chain that he did a guillotine choke with on Aries.

(2) Brody Lee & Delirious defeated Cheech & Cloudy in what was essentially a squash, after a big boot by Lee. Lee is a big man by ROH standards. They announced him at 6'10", though I'd say he's closer to a legit 6'5" or 6'6". Still a big man any way you look at it. Cheech and Cloudy got a "Please come back" chant after the match.

Prince Nana then came running in from the crowd, and he's doing an angle where he's trying to get his job back with ROH. He said he's driving a taxi cab now, in case anyone needed a ride after the show. Great line. Nana has always been very over with the crowd at all the ROH shows I've gone to, and tonight was no different. They need to find something for this guy to do. Eventually security came down and took him away. He got a big reaction and "Nana" chant from the crowd as he left.

(3) Daizee Haze beat Rhett's valet. Rhett Titus was out next, and he introduced his new valet, whose name I didn't catch. She was wearing a very hot schoolgirl kind of outfit. Daizee Haze came running out, and went after Titus, which turned into a woman's match. Not much to it, was sort of like your typical Raw Divas Match. Haze won the match in short order, and then chased Titus to the back.

(4) ROH tag champions Kevin Steen & El Generico defeated The Osiran Portal. I guess their gimmicks are supposed to be that they're from the Egyptian time period. They wear masks, and the one guy crawls to the ring, the other guy acts like a snake. Pretty much a silly cartoonish gimmick that didn't seem to get over with the ROH fans. Steen and Generico are a funny odd couple tag team, with Steen playing the serious role, and Generico doing all kinds of comedy type stuff, and Steen playing off that. They work well together. I enjoyed them. There was one funny spot where the one Portal guy held the other guy up, and he started moving back and forth like a cobra snake, and Generico got snaked charmed, and was in a trance circling around the ring. Steen slapped him to snap him out of it. They won with a tandem leg drop and swanton off the top rope.

(5) FIP Champion Go Shiozaki and Necro Butcher went to a double count out. Match was a brawl from start to finish; pretty quickly they ended up fighting into the crowd, and around the building. Fans were going crazy trying to get out of the way, and follow them. Eventually the ref counted both guys out. Necro Butcher got jumped by Age of the Fall, which is a stable that they appear to be pushing very hard. Jimmy Jacobs called Butcher a bad father, and said that he will make sure he never has anymore children, and Butcher was pulled nuts first into the ring post. Butcher was selling like he was one step from death as he was helped to the back.

(6) Brent Albright defeated Chris Hero by submission with an arm bar. This was a good match. Larry Sweeney and Sweet & Sour Inc. were at ringside, and Sweeney is hilarious to watch. He's a throw back to the old school heel managers like Jim Cornette and Bobby Heenan that gets involved with the referees, selling every move in the ring on the outside, and jawing with the fans. He's very good at what he does. After the match Sweet & Sour were doing a beatdown on Albright with Sweeney directing traffic, but Albright made a comeback, and they scattered. He then challenged Sweeney to face a team led by him against Sweet & Sour Inc with Sweeney wrestling in a Steel Cage Warfare Match at Final Battle in December at the Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC.

(7) After intermission, Davey Richards won a Six Man Mayhem match against Rhett Titus, Hallowicked, Ruckus, Claudio Castagnoli, and Jason Blade. Quick, rapid-fire match with a lot of cool multi-man spots. Castagnoli was booked as the dominant guy in the match, but Richards beat Hallowicked by submission with a key lock. I was really impressed with Ruckus and Hallowicked. Titus does the old "Ravishing" Rick Rude type of gimmick, complete with the hip swivel. Claudio threw a tantrum at ringside after the match, throwing stuff around.

(8) Tyler Black defeated Jerry Lynn in what I thought was by far the best match of the night. I had never seem Black before, but had read a lot of great things about him. He showed me a lot. He's definitely got a bright future. Lynn looked good, as well, for a guy that's been around as long as he has. Great finishing sequence as both guys kept kicking out of moves, and the fans were really into every near fall. Lynn went for the cradle piledriver, but Black got out of it, and finally pinned Lynn after a Phoenix Splash.

After the match Black got on the mic, and talked about how we live in a world where change is coming, and he said something about getting rid of an eight-year-old child or something to that effect, which was an obvious shot at President Bush, and that got a big pop from the crowd. He said the wrestling world isn't immune to change, and that the wrestling world would be changing very soon when he wins the ROH World Title. Crowd was very into him, and he came off like a fast-rising star. To me, he looks like C.M. Punk, facially. Another friend of mine said he looked like The Great Khali. I'll leave that for you to judge.

(9) Main event - Mark & Jay Briscoe defeated LAX (Homicide & Hernandez). Homicide got the big homecoming reaction. The announcer went to introduce him as "representing TNA," but Homicide stopped him and made him say he was representing ROH, Ring of Homicide. Homicide brought out his former manager Julius Smokes to complete the reunion. This was a good, stiff match, that saw both of the Briscoes get busted open - one from the nose and the other from below the eye. Crowd was overwhelmingly behind LAX. They took turns kicking out of each other's finishers, with Mark kicking out of the Cop Killa, and Homicide kicking out of the Jay Driller. Hernandez took the fall after the Briscoes did a shooting star press, leg drop combo off the top to pick up the win.

After the match, Homicide cut a promo where he said the state of wrestling is bad with everyone hating WWE and TNA, and he put over ROH huge as the place where wrestling is still wrestling. He put over The Briscoes also as the best tag team in wrestling, and said that he hopes they win the tag team titles, because they would love to come back and face them again. He said "I'll be back," and threw down the mic. He went around ringside slapping hands with the fans.

ROH announced a return date to Edison, N.J. in January 2009.

This was my first time seeing ROH live since August 2006, and I had a great time, as always. I wasn't familiar with some of the wrestlers on the show tonight, because a lot of things have changed in ROH, and there are a lot of new faces. But one thing hasn't changed: they still know how to put on an excellent professional wrestling show. And that's something you don't see too much anymore these days.

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