ROH Seventh Anniversary show results
March 21, 2009
New York City
Report by Eric Gall, PWTorch.com reader

ROH was back at the Hammerstein, making it seven years. That's just about as long as ECW lasted. ROH has had more restarts and rebirths, though, and maybe that's why it's still around in one form. In the line waiting to get in, there was this guy in a bowtie with a cameraman getting footage of the crowd and the marquee of the New Yorker Hotel. It turns out that was George Oliphant of some show on NBC; we'd see more of him later.

D-Lo Brown walked by us; he's bigger in person that I thought he'd be. I saw Mark Briscoe walk around before the show without any limp; that's a good sign. In a funny scene, I also saw what had to have been Bobby Dempsey's parents, as a couple in their 50s were both walking into the "guests entrance" wearing Bobby Dempsey T-shirts. Finally, we are let in. I have no problem with security, but it can sometimes be a problem at Manhattan shows. Hold that thought for later, though.

(1) Roderick Strong & Erick Stevens beat Kenny King & Rhett Titus. King and Titus seem to be the lead-off hitters for ROH these days, starting the shows. Since Manhattan shows don't usually have pre-show matches, you'd better be "Addicted to Love." I'm still not sold on Titus or his gimmick, but his pairing with King makes sense. King is ultra-talented in the ring, but he needed more personality, which he showed tonight in by wearing a suit and baseball cap to the ring. Titus has a nice gimmick but needs seasoning to give him something to work with once the novelty of his act runs its course. Strong has all the elements of a future ROH champ, and he didn't disappoint tonight, with his student Stevens continuing to improve an already impressive body of work. Not a bad way to start the show.

(2) Brent Albright beat Claudio Castagnoli. Two good wrestlers who can sometimes get lost in the shuffle. Albright and Castagnoli had a good match. The thing with Albright, and to a lesser extent, Claudio, is that there's not much to grab you personality wise if you're not really into the match. Albright is still popular in NYC since his great match with Pearce here last year, but Claudio was getting his fair share of cheers despite being a total heel. (In fairness, Claudio is a better natural heel, but his "Hey" gimmick is a perfect way to get the crowd involved.) A decent match, but it seems like I've seen this one before.

(3) Bobby Dempsey beat Adam Pearce with Sara Del Rey and Shane Hagadorn. George Oliphant is in the ring, mentioning the coverage his TV show is giving ROH. Pearce comes out and I'm not happy. Pearce is the new booker in ROH, having replaced long-time creative mind Gabe Sapolsky. While I've been trying to be open-minded about that, I'm not really thrilled about bookers also wrestling. Pearce comes out, and cuts an entertaining heel promo on Oliphant, though, proceeding to also rough him up.

Bobby Dempsey's music plays an he comes out to make the save. If there's anyone who can get me to go from hating Pearce to cheering him on a dime, it's Bobby Dempsey. Bobby is an ROH student who played the whipping child of Larry Sweeney and Chris Hero for what seemed like an eternity. He gained an unexpected cult following because of it, and now is getting squash matches where he beats the company's booker in 30 seconds. Hey, it was great booking that got Dempsey where he is now. But he's still a green wrestler, in (slightly) better shape (though still a lot heavier looking than anyone else on the roster), and doesn't seem to have much in the way of mic skills. He was very over with the crowd, though, so I guess that trumps any nitpicking I might have.

(4) Jerry Lynn beat Mike Quackenbush. Good technical match from veteran Lynn and independent standout Quackenbush. Mike is a great counter-wrestler with unique moves that compliments Lynn's aerial game well. No complaints here, as two great workrate machines show us how it's done.

(5) Tyler Black & Delirious & Necro Butcher beat Austin Aries & Jimmy Jacobs & Brodie Lee. This was an elimination style match under something called "Revolution Rules" where the elimination rules change after each elimination. Aries pinned Delirious first. Aries is showing a lot of his old babyface intensity now, despite his new porn-star-looking heel persona. The second elimination was assessed to both Brodie Lee and Necro Butcher for leaving the ringside area. I think this was changed from whatever was originally planned, because just before this happened, Necro jumped from the corner turnbuckle to a bunch of guys on the floor. I saw Necro's leg catch between the guardrails, and it didn't look good at all. I hoped nothing was broken, but he was on the ground for a while, holding his ankle. He eventually limps backstage and soon returns with his heel taped up. I see that the back of his calf is bloody and/or bruised, and the taped heel already has blood seeping from it.

Necro and Lee brawl to the back and get eliminated. Black winds up eliminating Aries and Jacobs to cement his spot as the Top- Babyface-to-not-quite-win-the-belt. Black is hot right now, and if it wasn't for all the new TV programs getting off the ground, he would probably already be champ. Hopefully his momentum won't have stalled by the time they decide to give him the top spot.

(6) Bryan Danielson & Colt Cabana beat Jimmy Rave & Bison Smith (w/Prince Nana). Nana has the mic and cuts a hilarious promo berating the crowd and praising Barack Obama. He introduces a returning Jimmy Rave back to the Embassy and the crowd goes nuts. Jimmy is back home, receiving the kind of ovation that only ROH would give him. Danielson comes out to some generic music, and it pisses me off. His mystery partner? Grizzly Redwood, and I'm about to destroy a chair or two. Fortunately, Smith tosses him right out of the ring, and the real mystery partner comes out. "Copa Cabana" plays over the speakers, and the crowd goes even crazier over the returning Colt Cabana. It's a short but fun match, as Colt has Danielson stay in the ring while Bryan's long time entrance song "The Final Countdown" plays and the crowd sings along to the chorus like it had so many times before ROH had to drop copyrighted songs from its TV tapings.

(7) D-Lo Brown beat Jay Briscoe (w/Mark Briscoe). Briscoe actually came out to "Gimme Back My Bullets." Yay! The ROH entrance song policy seems to change on a show-by-show basis. A good match between the perennially underrated Brown and ROH favorite Briscoe. You can't have a bad match with either one of the Briscoes, and the same goes for D-Lo, though it seemed the two would probably tear the roof down after a few more matches together. It was one of those cases, it appeared, where two good wrestlers are a little tentative when working with a guy they never matched up with before.

(8) ROH tag team champions Kevin Steen & El Generico beat Davey Richards & Eddie Edwards. Generico's "Ole!" is the entrance song as the crowd sings along, including the guy who dresses up as Generico with the Canadian flag and dances around the balcony at the Manhattan shows. This is one of the things that makes ROH so much better than the sanitized, sign-nazi WWE live arena experience. Good match with typical crazy spots you'd expect from Steen and Generico, notably Generico getting dropped onto a ladder, breaking it. Edwards got a shiner, probably from Generico's running Yakuza kick. Steen taps out Edwards, but the Wolves get their heat back by putting Generico to a table. They then tape Steen to the ring ropes and chairshot his already injured knees. Steen defiantly launches blood-filled spittle at them, and they conchairto him, knocking him out. The Wolves leave the ring with the belts.

(9) ROH World champion Nigel McGuiness beat KENTA. The story of this match is Nigel's arm is legitimately messed up. He may need surgery that will keep him out for months. Nigel's arm is taped up, and KENTA wastes no time kicking it over and over. KENTA plays the Japanese bad-ass, almost a little too much so for someone supposed to be a face. The site and situation of the match is very reminiscent to the classic 2006 encounter between KENTA and Danielson where Danielson's separated shoulder was the source of a lot of speculation that KENTA would end Danielson's epic title run in what turned out to be my favorite match ever. This match with Nigel was good, but the slower pace and a great deal of pain that Nigel must have been in, kept it from reaching the five-snowflake category.

Overall, this was the best show I've of ROH in the post-Sapolsky, Pearce-as-booker era. A lot of the old workrate focused matches were back, and it's what you expect out of the company. It seemed noticeable that ring announcer Bobby Cruise mentioned the merchandise stand and tickets for the next show (including "Nature Boy" Ric Flair WHOOO!); I don't remember ROH emphasizing that as much.

Another thing notable is the security/ticket checker issue. For a while, ROH Manhattan shows have had rude security personnel since I can remember. Two friends of mine had a security guy over-check them, including examining in exacting detail an asthma inhaler. I realize that ROH might not be able to check every security guy that comes in, but they should at least have some oversight over the guys that check your tickets to make sure you're not sneaking in or something. Some of these guys don't bother to wear all black (most do and look and act professional). One guy stands out, though; the shortest kid there has a major Napoleon syndrome; he camps out on the right side of the merch table and makes snarky, rude, and unprofessional comments to just about everyone. He's done it to me before and to my two of my friends for this show. I don't even enter on his side anymore. I doubt ROH wants this kind of behavior from someone representing the company. That kid is an exception, though.

ROH seems to be focused on new talent, and that's good. CHIKARA wrestler Steve "Turtle" Weiner was also in attendance, though not dressed as a Ninja Turtle this time. Indy wrestler J Busta was also there; he's been wrestling for nearly a decade and is only in his mid-'20s. He's very entertaining and deserves to get another look. Program girl Reyna is gaining visibility, and should be put on the card, pronto. One small plea, though; give Sara Del Rey more ring time!

From the disastrous Edison show in January to the triumphant 7th Anniversary show, ROH looks to be steadying itself and walking with more confidence now. If this is part of Pearce's long-term plan, then good for him. If Pearce, Cary Silkin, and the rest of the decision makers can continue to tweak the company and make the kinds of adjustments they seem capable of doing, the company, at least on the wrestling end of it, should do fine for a good time to come.

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