Anyone who can figure out where the new title of this page came from without just plugging it into google gets imaginary internet bonus points.

Anyway, onto my Saturday night/birthday. I left the house around 3:30 or so for the Edison train station to catch a 4:42 train to Penn Station in New York. I had never been to this train station before and apparently drove right past it on my first try, before turning around, asking a guy at a gas station and finally getting there around 4:30. Got into New York around 5:30 and found out that the E train I was planning to ride for most of my journey to Queens wasn't running from here in the afternoon this weekend. A sign told me to take some train to West 4th street and take the F from there to get to Queens Boulevard. I did that, but after getting on the F, the train stopped at Penn Station. Why didn't the sign just tell me to get on the F from there? Anyway, I got to the station where I was to get off and started walking in a random direction, following a couple of guys who were carrying signs who I figured were going to the show and might know where it was. After a couple blocks, they realized they were going in the wrong direction, I asked them if they were going to the Elk's Lodge and we walked together the other way and made it to the building, probably around 7:10 for the 7:30 bell time.

The building is bigger than the Murphy Recreation Center, where ROH runs in Philly, and looks the same as it did when ECW ran there, as far as I can tell. I thought about sitting up on the balcony, but decided for a floor seat instead. Most of the seats in the building were filled from what I could see, and people are estimating 700 or 800 people were there, which seems accurate, and which would be ROH's largest crowd to date. The crowd was pretty hot the whole night, at least when it made sense to be. The show kicked off with...

Chad Collyer vs. EZ Money vs. Michael Shane vs. Colt Cabana [One Fall To A Finish]

This was a perfect way to start off the show. Not a spectacular match, but very solid work, with constant action and good build to the bigger spots through the course of the match. All the guys were over with the crowd and the presence of Shane, the only heel in the match, added some story to the match to elevate it above the level of a standard spotfest. Collyer looked good and while he still looks like the charisma-deficient love child of Dean Malenko and Crash Holly, he did show more variety of offense in this match than he did in his previous ROH match with American Dragon, which was contested almost entirely on the mat. That approach obviously wouldn't have fit in with this kind of match so I'm glad he was able to do more and just use the matwork for the initial feeling out portion of the match and for a near fall late in the match with the Texas Cloverleaf. Money brought his standard highspots intended to be done by smaller men than he, and hit most of them well aside from a blown handspring elbow that brought out the dreaded "You fucked up!" chant from the annoying ECW fans contingent in attendance. Money did annoy me on occasion when he decided it was more important to pop the crowd by making a funny face or gesture than sell the submission hold he was in, but in this kind of match, it wasn't too big a deal and didn't detract from the match, so I'll let it slide. Shane's heelishness and less than flashy moveset proved a decent foil for the three babyfaces. The best near fall in the finishing sequence came when Money hit a slingshot double clothesline, taking out Collyer and Cabana, only to be rolled up by Shane from behind, with a grab of the tights and everything. Very believable that it could be the finish, but also a completely plausible kickout. Cabana was solid as another babyface presence with some good highspots for near falls. He's shown he's capable of more than that, but he was able to adjust to this style well. The finishing sequence may have been somewhat on the long side, but unusually for this style of indy match, there wasn't much in the way of finisher killing. There were four guys in the ring, and they were used appropriately, as moves that were too deadly to be kicked out of had their pins broken up by one of the other guys. If only some people later on the card could learn to do that. Money wins with I don't remember what to cap off an effective opener.

Fast Eddie, Don Juan & the debuting Hot Stuff Sean Hernandez (with Rudy Boy Gonzalez) vs. The Carnage Crew of Loc, Devito & the debuting Masada

This was short, but solid enough action to maintain the crowd heat. Hernandez is a monster of a man, and his offense all looked good, but I wonder if ROH really needs another large bald guy who doesn't sell. Eddie & Don Juan did a good enough job hitting their highspots and Hernandez was used effectively as the recipient of the hot tag. The Carnage Crew were inoffensive but unspectacular. Masada looked like a fairly solid addition to the team. I'd like to see more of both him and Hernandez before I really pass judgment on either. This ended on a DQ with the Carnage Crew breaking out the ubiquitous hubcaps. This finish failed to sap the life out of the crowd, as the subsequent beatdown of Rudy Boy and his students was interrupted by the return of the original Christopher Street Connection of Buff-E and Mase, bringing all of their homosexual-flavored offense to clean house to the delight of the crowd. The reason the CSC are great, as opposed to offensive, is that the fans refuse to boo them. Once ROH realized this and started booking them as faces, as opposed to booking them as the target of gay-bashing that the crowd was supposed to love, it was all good. People just aren't going to boo a tag team coming out to "Y.M.C.A.", attacking their opponents with confetti cannons and kissing in the middle of the ring. The crowd ate this all up.

Jay Briscoe vs. Mark Briscoe

This was a solid match, but not on the level of their previous match in August. It was announced as their "last match ever", but it really didn't have the epic feel of a final encounter. It felt like Just Another Briscoe Match, which isn't a bad thing, but wasn't quite what I was expecting. They started off with some good counter wrestling, the upshot of which ended up being Jay working on Mark's leg for a while. Jay sold it all right, but it unfortunately didn't go anywhere. Mark went back to it once a little later in the match with a half Boston Crab, but after that, it was entirely forgotten about by both guys. The best thing going on for most of the match was Jay constantly going for his finisher, the Jay Driller (double underhook piledriver) with Mark fighting like hell to get out of it every time. The move was put over as deadly and both guys knew it. Jay knew it was how he was going to win the match and Mark knew enough to not want to be anywhere near in position to take the move. And then, that kinda fell apart when Mark decided to try and hit the move himself, and did it with ease, and Jay responded by kicking out at two. It really made no sense given the buildup of the move for the rest of the match. And then to completely wipe the thought of the Jay Driller as a deadly move out of our minds, Jay decides he needs to hit three of them in a row before trying to pin Mark. After the buildup for most of the match, one Jay Driller would have made an effective finish. Three was just excessive. Given that this was really the only narrative element that played out throughout the entire match, it was disappointing to see it disregarded so emphatically at the finish. There was some good work in this match, but they didn't do anything to make it seem special, like a feud-ending match should. After the match they hugged, and they'll apparently start working as a tag team now that Mark is old enough to wrestle in Pennsylvania. They should make for a decent addition to the tag division, but I do wonder what will become of Mark's membership in Christopher Daniels' heel stable.

Steve Corino (with Simply Luscious and Samoa Joe) vs. Homicide

My expectations for this match weren't too high, other than hoping that Homicide might show me something in his first significant singles match in ROH. Corino came out before the match and did his thing on the mic. He insulted the crowd, which apparently makes him a great "old school" heel, as opposed to a cheap heat machine. He was accompanied by Luscious and Joe, and also introduced a couple of new members of his nameless group. The first, to the surprise of no one, was Michael Shane. The next, to the surprise of maybe a few people, was CW Anderson. And this is where the booking gets really stupid. CW Anderson was fired, or maybe "fired" from ROH last year (I'm not sure how legit it was at the time), ostensibly for taking an ROH booking on the same night he was already booked in Japan. He and ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky traded words on the internet and then a few shows ago, Anderson showed up in the ring to cut a "shoot" promo, with all the Russo-esque trappings that implies. So now they're running a stupid "shoot" angle where Anderson "doesn't really work here" and is apparently just wrestling for free because he likes fighting so much. This has as little logic as your average "shoot" angle, as trying to make this seem more "real" than the rest of the card devalues the rest of the angles, rather than making this one particularly interesting. Corino closed by saying he had one more spot in his group and had his eye on Low Ki.

I guess the match was better than the booking, but it still wasn't particularly special. Homicide hit a lot of big spots early with little to no build, and Corino responded by not really selling the effect of numerous head drops throughout the course of the match. Corino's offense wasn't particularly interesting, nor was any of it particularly well executed. All of this made for a relatively boring match that the crowd didn't really get into. At one point Homicide sat Corino on a chair on the outside and went inside to go for a tope suicida into Corino. Corino moved and Homicide hit the chair and was pretty much out for the rest of the match. Corino got him back in the ring and tried a few submission holds before finally winning it with a cobra clutch. And then the shit pretended to hit the fan.

Throughout the match, Corino's posse were at ringside jawing with the fans, and in particular a group of guys who I later found out were some local indy wrestlers who are students of Homicide. These guys jumped the railing and started a big brawl around the ring, which brought some wrestlers out of the back to quell the disturbance. A good deal of the crowd bought into this riot, and it was certainly a chaotic scene. There weren't many security guards involved in trying to break it up, and I saw some wrestlers throwing what looked to be worked punches, so I didn't really buy it. It was a reasonable facsimile of a riot, though, and with numerous fans buying into it, it could have easily gotten out of control and evolved into a really dangerous situation. Corino's group jawing with regular fans just like they were with the plants in the audience certainly could have resulted in some actual fans jumping the rail to get involved. ROH is trying desperately to put over Corino and his group over as a big deal and something different from a standard heel stable, but this was a stupid angle that left a lot of fans pissed off, with no real upside. It could certainly have been worse, but as it was, this match and the subsequent angle took the life out of the crowd as we went to intermission.

Coming soon: The second half of this review! CW Anderson refuses to go away! CM Punk finds a new opponent! American Dragon and Samoa Joe try to reconfigure the shape of each other's skulls! New York City loves Paul London! Mikey Whipwreck is a shitty trainer! And more!  ¶ joe | 2:11 AM |