As Adam said, this was a really fun show to see live. There wasn't any classics but everything was entertaining in one form or another. Maybe the company with "entertainment" in their name should learn how to do that. Never been to this venue before. Riverworks is only a couple years old but they're trying to make it one of those all purpose places that can be a nightclub/wrestling/hockey/concert venue. I thought the place was really nice and it was a good spot for something like ROH. Wouldn't mind seeing a concert there. That big fan on the ceiling was awesome. Man that was huge. That thing wouldn't even fit in my house.


Sumie Sakai vs. Deonna Purrazzo

I've seen Sumie before in ROH but not that much. She's a good vet for Deonna to work with. Deonna has been working everywhere on the indy's the last couple years and is coming along nicely I think. She's a lot better looking in person. This was a decent match with the right person winning. If they even want to take the women of honor serious, Deonna is one of the main people they need to focus on.



The Dawgs vs. Coast 2 Coast

Oh great, it's Rhett Titus's useless ass. Solid match and the heel turn has actually made Will Ferrara somewhat interesting for the first time ever. Of course they could have anyone turn on Cheeseburger (mmmm...cheeseburger)  and that will peak my interest in them. Coast 2 Coast seems like a solid young team so far but for some reason I felt like they held back a little here. I've seen them do more on TV. Match served it's purpose though and was decent enough. Decent enough should be Rhett Titus's new gimmick.

Hangman Page vs. Kushida

All you gotta do if be part of the Bullet Club and you are instantly over huge. Hangman got a great reaction and so did Kushida. Page has really found himself with the Hangman gimmick. Seems like the company doesn't even fully want to go through on a big push with him. He's young still so maybe they're waiting until everything clicks for him first. Very cool to see Kushida live. This was a pretty good match overall. Hangman's shooting star shoulder block off the apron still looks weird to me. It always looks like he fucks it up.



Kaz vs. Jay Lethal

Everyone loves Lethal. Wouldn't be surprised to see him as ROH champ again within the next year. Very good match with some nice near falls. I pretty much knew Lethal was winning but when Kaz slingshotted him into the ring and caught him with a cutter I thought that could have been it. Nice job there guys. Kaz sold the lethal injection like Scott Hall sold the stone cold stunner which was pretty funny. Lethal is the man. Probably the best complete package in the company.

It was cool to see Silas Young come out for a promo. The show really did need a shot of manliness at this point.


War Machine & Mark Briscoe vs. Suzuki-Gun (Minoru Suzuki, Davey Boy Smith Jr. and Vance Archer)

This one went from zero to one hundred in no time. Both teams just started brawling on the outside right away. They must have did this for almost ten minutes. They were just beating the shit out of each other and tossing bodies everywhere. I don't know how much those aluminum ROH signs tied to the barricades hurt but they make a really loud bang when someone is thrown into it. Suzuki was choking Mark with a towel right near me. Then they were brawling over by the time keepers table and Suzuki was trying to jam the ring bell hammer into Mark's eye. That brawl was just fun shit. Once it got in the ring the actual match was pretty good as well. I've been a big fan of War Machine for a while and it's nice to see the fans getting on their side. Of course they're wrestling regularly in Japan, so that means everyone thinks they're one of the best teams ever now. Suzuki was more over than Mark was. I know it's cool to see him wrestle over here and all that but Mark is one of the workhorses of the company and should be treated better by both the fans and the company.


[Intermission]

I got some fries and a gatorade then went back to my seat to enjoy my refreshments. Nothing much else happened here.



Bully Ray promo
Damn, Bully was more over than a naked pair of tits. He even said "wow" as he stood at the entrance taking it all in for a minute. He looked over at Ian and Colt with this "holy shit" look on his face before walking down to the ring. At first I thought this injury was for the Jay Briscoe feud but after this promo i'm not so sure. Bully is a great talker and can sell anything but no one could be that good at it. His promo just seemed to genuine and real to me for it to be a storyline. He brought up how ECW used to go to the Burt Flickinger Center in Buffalo back in the day which got a huge reaction. Obviously I was not the only one in attendance who saw ECW back then whenever they came there. This was a great and very heartfelt thank you promo from Bully. You could tell he was really moved by the crowd reaction.

Jenny Rose vs. Mandy Leon

Seriously, Mandy Leon is fuckin hot, like really fuckin hot. This was an ok match. Don't think i've seen Jenny Rose before but she did alright here. Mandy has improved a little bit, so maybe she's coming along finally. Not that it really matters because she's so fuckin hot she'll have a job there as long as she wants.


Christopher Daniels vs. Hiromu Takahashi w/Darryl

I haven't been watching much New Japan this year. I knew that Takahashi brought a stuffed animal with him to the ring but I didn't know that it was one of the most over things on the card. The comedy stuff here was good but I was looking forward to these two actually wrestling a bit more. This kind of reminded me of an Al Snow match from back in the day with Darryl playing the role of Head in the match. Solid work overall but a lot of comedy. I know both are better than this.


CHAOS (Yoshi-Hashi and Toru Yano) vs. the Bullet Club (Cody and Marty Scurll)

This match was an easy day's work for everyone involved. I've never seen Yano live but I was fine with his usual comedy routine since i've never seen it in person. Marty and Yoshi did most of the work while Cody put in his usual minimum effort while getting all the glory ring style he's perfected over the last year. But he's got the character and promo work down pat and that's really what draws people to wrestling shows no matter what some fans may say. Cool to see Cody and Marty live while they're at the high point of their careers.


Punishment Martinez vs. Will Ospreay

"Damn, why don't people like Punishment?" is what I thought as he came out to the ring to only my brother and I along with like three other people cheering for him. I'm guessing two others were Adam and his wife. Now if I can just figure out who the other one was. This was my favorite match of the night along with the Suzuki tag. Great big man vs flippy ballerina match. I had a feeling that Punishment would win but that had a number of great near falls that had me thinking Ospreay was gonna get the win. Punishment KILLED Ospreay by giving him a last ride powerbomb on the ring apron before rolling him in the ring and finishing him with the south of heaven chokeslam. Ospreay was legit hurt I think after that bump. I was right by the entrance way and after the match when he went by he needed a couple of people to help him back and the guy looked out of it. I know he wasn't selling because he's just not that good at it. Punishment earned the fans respect with that effort. Hopefully all those wrestling snobs won't hold it against someone just because they're a big man next time. Never been a fan of Ospreay but after seeing him live I completely get the appeal of his style.


For the Ring of Honor World Six Man Tag Team Championships

the Kingdom vs. the Elite (champions)
The Elite were massively over. They can't do the too sweet anymore so they're doing one sweet with just the index finger. Omega did that to me as he came down to the ring. Yeah, i'm gonna be on this dvd A LOT because of where I was sitting. Oh joy. Definitely a great thing to see Omega live since when the tickets went on sale he wasn't announced for the show so I didn't expect him to be there until a few weeks ago when they got him for all the Global War shows. A little too much comedy from Omega and the rest of the club since there were already a couple of comedy matches earlier. But when they did work it was fine. The Bucks didn't do any too sweets, crotch chops or spamming of superkicks and they were actually fun to watch without doing all that annoying garbage. If this is new version of the Bucks then I can dig that. Dude, does the Kingdom fuckin suck or what? Post match promo was nice since I think this was the first time they were able to address the issues with WWE in front of a live crowd. Ian Riccaboni came down to ringside and was doing some interview with the Bullet Club after the show. It will probably be an dvd extra.

This was the most fun i've had at a wrestling show in a good decade or more. Crowd was fantastic and there was this great buzz and atmosphere throughout the whole show. I hope this has convinced them that we should be a regular stop for ROH from now on.