Wrestlemania Weekend: ROH “Take No Prisoners” PPV
Leave a CommentThis was the ppv show from Saturday afternoon at the George R. Brown Convention Center. Bell time was 2 pm, in order to avoid any conflict with the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony. THIS, Vince, is how a classy person in charge of a wrestling company behaves. Generally speaking, the Friday night show is the weaker of the two on an ROH weekend. This was absolutely not true this time. By no means was the Saturday show weak, not even a little bit. It just had quite a lot to live up to after the Friday night show set the bar so high. Saturday’s show did not disappoint.
Pre-show matches:
“The Mind of Wrestling” J.T. Lamotta and Darin Childs vs. “Mean” Mike Dell and Vexx (didn’t catch his first name): Lamotta reverses a fallaway suplex into a roll-up on Dell for the win.
Dirty Ernie Osiris vs. Grizzly Redwood: More chants of “Mini Necro” for Osiris. Osiris gets the pin on Grizzly after hitting him with Redwood’s own log behind the referee’s back.
Andy Ridge, Alex “Sugarfoot” Payne, & Bobby Dempsey vs. Don Juan, Andy Duncan, & Spiro: Between Dempsey and Sugarfoot, there was much chanting from the audience. More “Shannon Moore” heckling for Andy Duncan. Bobby Dempsey scores the win for his team by hitting the reviled Andy Duncan with a Death Valley Driver.
Main Show Matches:
Ace Steel vs. Colt Cabana: Steel entered first. When Cabana came out, the place went berserk. I still want Colt Cabana’s new entrance music, if anyone can help with that. Ace tries to shake hands, and the audience starts yelling, “Brothers don’t shake hands, brothers hug!” We got our way, and they hugged. Chants of “Check the top rope!” kick in (see the review of the Friday night show for an explanation), and they actually did! They went to all four corners and checked the top rope on all sides. Ace asked if that was all, did they need to check anything else. We said no. Ace took a camera from a ringside photographer and looked it over before giving it back and continuing with the match. Awesome! The match was really good, with Cabana goofing it up and Steel getting progressively more annoyed with him because of it, and finally exploding and hitting him. It got serious for a bit, and Colt got the win with a reverse Boston Crab. They made up afterwards. Sort of.
Rhett Titus vs. Bushwhacker Luke: Titus gave away TWO room keys during his entrance this time. It would be funny if they were to different rooms, and he had to go back and forth. I smell a Video Wire! Titus scores the win by grabbing the tights, and bails before Bushwhacker Luke can come after him.
Kevin Steen, El Generico, Jay Briscoe, & Magno vs. Davey Richards, Eddie Edwards, Chris Hero, & Incognito (8-man Tag Team Grudge Match): Eddie Edwards kind of looks like Alex Shelley. Part of it might be the hair. Outstanding match, with no technical difficulties this time. Tremendous action, with Jay Briscoe hitting an assisted spike Jay Driller (with help from Magno) on Chris Hero to score the win for his team. For a heel, Chris Hero is insanely over, with chants of “Chris is awesome!” throughout.
Jimmy Jacobs vs. Necro Butcher (No Disqualification War): I don’t care how cynical and smarky you are. If you have any legitimate concern in your soul for the well-being of another person, this was a scary match to watch. It told a great story, and was the epitome of what a No Disqualification War should be. It also scared the hell out of me. It’s all well and good to tell yourself that “it’s only a wrestling match” and that “it’s not real,” but when you’re there watching it unfold in front of you, you know better. In a way, this is a good thing, because that’s precisely the kind of reaction a match of this sort should get. The action went to the very top of the stadium-style general admission seating, with Necro teasing throwing Jacobs over the very top down to the floor behind it. Jacobs opened up Necro with a screwdriver. Necro nailed Jacobs with several stiff chair shots to the head. As much of a bloody mess as Necro was by the end, Jacobs was even worse. Necro gets the win with a Tiger Driver, and the ending sequence really has to be seen to be appreciated. I really like Jimmy Jacobs, and I hope he’s ok for real.
Intermission. A crew guy cleaned up all the blood with spray cans of Lysol.
Nigel McGuinness comes out in street clothes to address the audience. The man was clearly hurting. He spoke about his injuries, and how he had first thought to come out and apologize for losing the title and not being in the ring tonight, but after thinking about the past 17 months, he knew that he didn’t owe anybody anything. The cheers were deafening. Claudio Castagnoli came out, with his full entrance. He tells Nigel that it was supposed to be Europe versus America. Nigel promises that it will be Europe versus America, just not tonight, and that he knows that Claudio will do great in the match tonight. Claudio attacks Nigel when the former champ’s back is turned, and Nigel writhes in pain on the floor. Brent Albright rushes out to make the save and attacks Claudio. The scheduled tag team match between these guys and Blue Demon Jr. is now a three-way dance.
Claudio Castagnoli vs. Brent Albright vs. Blue Demon Jr. : Solid action, with Albright focusing on Claudio the whole time. Nigel interferes against Claudio at one point, but eventually makes his way to the back. Brent Albright scores the win with a half-Nelson suplex on Claudio.
Alex Koslov vs. Roderick Strong: Again, I repeat. Roderick Strong is the Messiah of the Backbreaker and God of the Chop. Ric Flair has been replaced in that respect. Some people who apparently like to ruin shows and show off what they read on the internet started a chant of “You’re not Russian!” at Koslov, but, thankfully, it did not catch on. Great action and very high impact stuff from both guys. Koslov tapped out to the Strong Hold, and Roddy got the win. Koslov was rewarded with loud chants of “Please come back!”
D-Lo Brown vs. Bryan Danielson vs. Erick Stevens vs. Jerry Lynn (Four Corner Survival Match for the ROH World Title): Danielson and Lynn were the favorites here. Chants of “Anyone but D-Lo!” were pretty funny. Good action from everyone, but good kicked up to great when Danielson and Lynn got in the ring. Lynn hit Stevens with a Cradle Piledriver to retain the ROH World Title.
Austin Aries and Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Tyler Black and KENTA (Dream Partner Tag Team Match): Wow! All that can be said about this match is WOW!!! Aries was in full chickenshit heel mode, covering up Nakajima’s ears when the audience chanted “Nakajima!” He covered his own ears when anyone chanted “Austin Aries!” He also dodged getting in the ring with KENTA even more than getting in the ring with Tyler Black. KENTA is revered with god-like adoration, and rightly so. When KENTA and Nakajima got to kicking the living hell out of each other, I think I hurt something. Tyler Black scores the win for his team by pinning Austin Aries with God’s Last Gift.
Now that I’ve been completely spoiled on the greatest wrestling on the planet, I’m off to Wrestlemania to soak in some sports entertainment. I’ll have something up for that tomorrow early, and be sure to check back in with us here at boredwrestlingfan.com for other Wrestlemania-related musings today and tomorrow.
Peace out,
Drowgoddess