Ring of Honor show report
January 20, 2012
Philadelphia, Pa.
Report by David Sheaffer, PWTorch reader

Decent turn-out for a market that seems to be saturated with TV tapings every other month. Philly fans seemed to be eager for their first ROH non-TV taping in nearly three years.

Before the show started Bobby Cruise announced that Eddie Edwards was not cleared to participate tonight due to a staph infection. Roderick Strong's opponent was not named.

(1) Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team (Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin) beat Future Shock (Adam Cole & Kyle O'Reilly) via pinfall with a double chokeslam. Haas seems to really be enjoying the heel character, Shelton not so much. The finish came after some confusion between O'Reilly and Cole. They argued a bit after their loss.

(2) Tommaso Ciampa beat Grizzly Redwood, Mike Bennett, and Andy Ridge in a Four Corner Survival Match. Standard match. The crowd was behind Grizz, who took the pinfall loss. Lots of heat for Bennett. Not much of a reaction for the other two.

Steve Corino came out to discuss his future in ROH, which brought Kevin Steen out. Steen basically told him to grow a pair, then Corino left. This led to...

(3) Kevin Steen beat Kenny King with the F5. Great match. Steen really worked the crowd in this one while keeping the match entertaining. He kissed a heckling male fan in the front row and bit Kenny's face in front of some children in the front row and called them bitches. The kids seemed to enjoy it.

(4) Michael Elgin beat Chris Hero with spinning powerbomb. Great match from both here. After the match, Shane Hagadorn called Hero a loser and suggested that Hero needs his managerial skills again. Hero then laid out Hagadorn with an elbow.

Adam Cole was announced as Edwards's replacement.

(5) Roderick Strong beat Adam Cole in a No Holds Barred match with a suplex into a backbreaker. Match of the night. Great spots with chairs (no unprotected chair shots). Cole received a standing ovation after the match. It was reminiscent of Tyler Black's break-through World Title challenge against Nigel McGuinness in the same building.

(6) Jigsaw & Hallowicked beat ROH tag champions The Briscoes in a Proving Ground match to earn a World Tag Team Title Match on April 28 in Chicago. The big story of the match was Mike Quackenbush and all of the masked Chikara wrestlers coming to ringside to cheer on their guys to victory. The finish came when The Briscoes attacked a masked female Chikara wrestler, which enraged Jig and allowed them to score the victory. Chikara vowed to take the Tag Titles at the double-header show in April in Chicago. Lots of excitement for this one.

(7) ROH World champion Davey Richards beat ROH TV champion Jay Lethal to retain the World Title after a few stiff kicks. Great match from both. The crowd really got behind Lethal. Davey put him over in a promo after the match.

Overall, a great show, and much better than the TV tapings we became accustomed to. Lots of empty seats, but the GA seating was full and there were about 50 more people standing. I guess this could be attributed to higher ticket prices than the TV tapings. No return date was announced.

[Torch art credit Grant Gould (c) PWTorch.com]

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