10 YRS AGO – ROH in Chicago Ridge, Ill. (1-26-2008): Bryan, Daniels, Hero, Claudio (Cesaro), Delirious, Strong, Briscoes, Nigel

ROH live event/DVD taping report
Chicago Ridge, Ill
January 26, 2008
By JSIN, Torch VIP Member

The show opened with Bobby Cruise explaining to the crowd that due to an illness, Ruckus would not be on the show. No such announcements for the missing Jack Evans and Necro Butcher – probably because those changes had been announced almost a week before the show.

(1) Austin Aries & “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson defeated Erick Stevens & Jay Briscoe. This was a great opener. 3 of the 4 were very over. A lot of the Chicago Ridge crowd still seems to be a bit lukewarm on Stevens so far, but I think that’ll change once Stevens vs Aries & Stevens vs Danielson are released on DVD. Dragon had his lower thigh heavily taped. He and Aries were able to isolate Briscoe for an extended period of time. In the early part of the match, Dragon told Aries that they need to work together better and demanded “teamwork”. They then proceeded to do a bunch of double team moves and tagging in and out while holding the opponent for the other guy. At each such instance, the crowd chanted “teamwork”. It sounds kind of dumb, but it was a really fun, innocent chant that Aries & especially Danielson seemed to really enjoy by the time the match ended. Aries busted out Danielson’s old airplane spin on Jay, but quickly got dizzy and stopped. Danielson tagged himself in and did the airplane spin for about 25 rotations. Aries tagged back in to try again but only did a few and got dizzy again. The crowd ate this up. Stevens & Briscoe hit a Doomsday Shoulder Block which was cool. Aries & Dragon had a superb tag team finisher planned out – Danielson was hitting his MMA elbows while Aries kneed the same guy in the face repeatedly. Just awesome. The finish is a little hazy for me but I remember a very cool move happened and then Danielson followed it up with his inescapable Small Package. After the match, Aries still refused to shake hands.

(2) Shane Hagadorn defeated Pelle Primeau after a brass knuckles shot. This was by far the best Hagadorn vs Pelle match I’ve seen. They clicked tonight. I mean, it wasn’t great, but I’d say it would qualify as good and is Hagadorn’s best match I’ve seen.

Sweet & Sour Inc. came out in full force (super agent Larry Sweeney, Chris Hero, Sara Del Ray, Tank Toland, and Bobby Dempsey) with “Sugarfoot” Alex Payne and Kyle Durdon following. After a magnificent strut, Sweeney said he has gone through the long list of the top ranked intergender tag teams in the world and had found that the best qualified intergender team is from Thailand. Unfortunately, that team missed their flight to Chicago, so they’ll have to settle for Sugarfoot & Durdon. Sweeney called Sugarfoot “Sugartits” and said that he’s basically a girl anyway so they’ll put the intergender tag belts up against these two.

(3) Chris Hero & Sara Del Ray defeated Alex Payne & Kyle Durdon. Pretty quick match with Hero & Del Ray dominating. An injured Chris Hero is still more entertaining than a healthy anyone else.

After the match as SnS Inc. were celebrating in the ring, Daizee Haze came out and cut a promo on Sweeney, saying first that Sara Del Ray is the best women’s wrestler in the world and deserves a lot of respect, which she then got from the fans. She said while she respects Sara, she doesn’t respect Sweeney. She said if he wants those belts to mean anything, he needs to put them up against her and a partner. Sweeney blew a gasket and asked who she thinks she is interrupting his celebration. He told Hero to attack her. Before Hero could, Jigsaw ran out and made the save and SnS Inc. retreated. Haze reiterated her challenge and Sweeney accepted, though I don’t think the titles were on the line.

(4) Chris Hero & Sara Del Ray defeated Jigsaw & Daizee Haze. This was a great match. Even with the distraction of SnS Inc. right in front of me doing some hilarious interaction, I still saw a bunch of great action when I craned my neck to see around Bobby Dempsey. Jigsaw & Hero have probably worked each other in Chikara because they had great chemistry here. Sara was awesome in this match. She beat the sh*t out of young Jigsaw. She hit a beautiful release german suplex on him that he sold great. Haze hit some lovely headscissor takedowns on Hero and a big dive off the top rope to the champs. The crowd was loving it. Meanwhile on the outside right in front of me, Dempsey was doing tons of squats with his ass in my face. As his silver pants were starting to fall down, Tank did me the favor of pulling them down all the way and said “show the people your beautiful ass”. At least he was wearing tights underneath. Sweeney was so joyful while his team was on the offensive that he started generously tossing his business card into the front row of the neighboring section. I asked for one as well and he showered my section with some. See below for a picture of said gorgeous card. Way better than Paul Allen’s card, by the way. The tasteful thickness of it…. Back to the match, Jigsaw hit a vicious superkick that rocked Hero’s jaw. Haze hit Del Ray with her Heart Punch/Yakuza Kick/Mind Trip combo but Hero broke it up and then hit her with a devastating roaring elbow. Major impact and she went to the mat hard. I’m pretty sure one of them covered her for the pin and that was it.

(5) Claudio Castagnoli vs. El Generico went to a 20 minute draw. This match started out with a great test of strength which had Generico’s knees shaking in a cartoonish manner as he tried to make his comeback. He eventually was on the upper hand in the test of strength which got a big pop. Claudio then methodically worked on Generico’s knee for about 5 minutes in order to take the legs away from the high flying Generic Luchador, which one person in my section who apparently doesn’t know much about pro wrestling decided was worthy of much heckling. That was the only bad fan moment of the night, though, which is impressive these days. And after the match, that same guy was chanting “5 more minutes”, so there. Anyways, the match really picked up about 10 to 12 minutes in. Claudio hit the Giant Swing, but he did it holding only Generico’s bad leg to inflict extra pain. Very smart. Soon after, Generico went for his springboard Asai moonsault to the floor, but couldn’t do it because his knee had been worked over. Yes, I like this a lot. Generico punched away at his knee many times to try to get the feeling back in it. Claudio went for the Ricola Bomb, but Generico turned it into a Code Red, repeating a memorable move from the Race to the Top finals match. It looked just as good in person. Generico went for the top turnbuckle brainbuster, but Claudio blocked and went for a top rope Ricola Bomb. Generico reversed it into I think a top rope hurricanrana. Bobby Cruise announced there was one minute remaining. The final minute of this match was absolutely great. Generico hit the yakuza kick and went for the brainbuster to finish off Claudio but was reversed into a submission on the bad leg. Time expired and the hot crowd chanted for 5 more minutes. Both men seemed willing to do it, but senior spoil sport official Todd Sinclair rained on our parade and refused to grant 5 more minutes. As if Todd Sinclair wasn’t hated enough in Chicago, he pulls this. The match started slow but the slow parts all made sense and enhanced the last 10 minutes. Another great match from these two.

(6) Mark Briscoe defeated Joey Matthews with a Shooting Star Press. Joey Matthews came through the crowd with Jimmy Jacobs, Lacey & Allison Wonderland (these three soon left). Matthews was wearing his full MNM outfit and looked really slick. He stared down many fans who were yelling for Mark to kick his ass. He ended up trying to use race-baiting heel heat on a fan. It was really disappointing for him to sink to that, especially since he was already getting plenty of good heat from his general demeanor. Matthews took a while but he seemed to find a comfort zone and he and Mark had a pretty good match. He did a lot of heel stalling in the beginning. Matthews his some very nice looking (and sounding) short arm clotheslines. Mark went nuts with his Redneck-Fu mad karate style throat thrusts and chops, but was kicked and thrown to the outside. Undeterred, Mark runs back in the ring and does it again. Rinse and repeat two more times. Mark hit a springboard ace crusher and finished Joey off with a Shooting Star Press. Matthews didn’t set the world on fire, but I wouldn’t mind seeing him stick around in ROH for a little while. He does know how to carry himself like a star, I’ll give him that.

After the match, Matthews cut a promo saying how he’d like to thank the fans and say that it is an honor to wrestle in front of fans who appreciate wrestling. But then he clarified that he’d like to say that but he can’t because we all suck. This got a lot of heat and worked well.

Bobby Cruise announces that Kota Iibushi from the DDT promotion in Japan is coming to ROH and will be in Chicago when they return on 4/19.

INTERMISSION

(7) Delirious defeated Adam Pearce (w/ Shane Hagadorn) in a Dog Collar Match after a splash through a table. Delirious came out to his new music and in his new red outfit. He came out acting very different, slowly stalking his prey with an evil stare. It looked really badass. This was a nice brawl. A key development here was that not once did they use a chair in a dangerous manner, not on the whole entire show actually. No unprotected chair shots all night. Hopefully this means the meeting with Chris Nowinski has furthered ROH’s already strong commitment to making things safer for the workers. The only chair usage in this one that I saw was when Delirious had a fan hold a chair up and then ran Pearce’s head into it. Many of your favorite golden oldie dog-collar spots were used in this one. Pearce hit a piledriver onto the chain. Delirious used the chain to pull Pearce numerous times into the ring post, and Pearce came up bleeding Delirious sprayed Pearce with either green or black mist and then splashed him through a table for the win.

(8) The No Remorse Corps. defeated the Age of the Fall, the Hangmen 3, and Austin Aries & Bryan Danielson to win the ROH World Tag Team Championships. This match exceeded my high expectations and was extremely good. The first fall, which was the scramble portion, started things off hot and heavy. Everything was very crisp and well executed. Tyler really impressed me here. He looked great for when he was in there. At one point he was going for his running shooting star press over the top rope to the floor (which I desperately wanted to see live) but was met with a kick to the back from Rocky Romero. Rocky then did his little “azucar” dance, but was taken out by Albright & Whitmer who proceeded to do their own azucar dance (Albright’s was especially awesome). Danielson then took them out and did his Ravishing Rick Rude dance and the crowd erupted. Aries & Jacobs came face to face and Jacobs turned his back to Aries inviting Aries to hit him (mind games to get him to join the AofF, you see). Aries did not hit Jacobs. During an exchange where everyone was fighting with everyone else, Davey Richards hit a beautiful rolling pin on Tyler Black for a shocking elimination that meant that new champions were guaranteed. During the second fall (the I Quit fall), Danielson got the Triangle Choke on BJ, Davey Richards locked a kimura on Aries, and Albright locked the Crowbar on Rocky. All three tapped out, but only Danielson and Whitmer were the legal men, so the Hangmen 3 were eliminated. The final fall was for the championships. Richards & Romero went for their double kicks to the front and back of Aries but he moved and their shins collided at full force. Aries & Danielson looked to have it won for sure with their elbows & knees combo, but it was not to be. Davey got another pinning combination on Aries to end it. Match of the night. The title change was the cherry on top. After the match, as Aries & Danielson soaked in appreciative applause, the crowd chanted “Teamwork” louder than ever. The crowd basically named the team of Aries & Danielson “Teamwork”. Aries still refused to shake Danielson’s hand, which drew more boos.

(9) ROH World Champion Nigel McGuinness defeated Roderick Strong to retain the ROH World Championship. The crowd was split right down the middle for this match. People were chanting for Roderick, but it was in no way mean-spirited towards Nigel like it was in Manhattan. They just wanted Roderick to win. Also, Roderick has had some classic matches for ROH in Chicago against Danielson and Matt Hardy to name a few so we have a certain fondness for him lingering. Lots of very stiff chops by both men that sounded great. Nigel tried to go for a Tower of London onto the apron but Roderick reversed into a backbreaker on the apron. Roderick got tossed over the guardrail at one point and Nigel finally hit a Tower of London off the guardrail onto a folded chair (which was safe because Nigel’s bicep protected Roderick’s face from hitting the chair). Nigel hit the Jawbreaker Lariat and Roderick kicked out much to 50% of the crowd’s delight. Nigel also kicked out of the Gibson Driver and was able to reach the ropes when in the Stronghold. Nigel hit a big lariat when Roderick was straddling the top rope for another great near fall. Roderick hit a huge running big boot that sent Nigel back into the ropes. He rebounded off the ropes with a Jawbreaker Lariat for the win. Very good match, though not as good as their great match at Death Before Dishonor IV.

This was a great show and is probably the best top to bottom show in Chicago Ridge going back to Driven (or maybe even back past Driven to the outstanding Good Times, Great Memories). It was a lot of fun.

NOW CHECK OUT THE PREVIOUS 10 YRS AGO FLASHBACK: 10 YRS AGO – WWE in Binghamton, N.Y. (1-20-2008): Orton vs. Hardy for WWE Title, plus Michaels, Jericho, JBL, Cody, Carlito, Kendrick, Umaga, Mickie, Beth