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Ring of Honor returned to the Manhattan Center, announcing their fifth straight sellout for "Manhattan Mayhem II" in New York City Quick results and notes from the event:
*The Resilience's Matt Cross and Erick Stevens defeated Mike Quackenbush and Jigsaw in a very strong back and forth opener. The match was so good that it was to the point they were almost doing too much in terms of near falls and big moves for an opening bout. The CHIKARA performers were making their NYC debut and were over in a major way.
*Jimmy Jacobs defeated Mitch Franklin by submission. No Lacey. This was Jacobs' return to NYC since coming back from his knee surgery. He looked rusty but the crowd was into him and his entrance. Match will probably come off better with some small edits on the DVD but live, it was just there.
*BJ Whitmer & Adam Pearce & Brent Albright defeated Delirious & Nigel McGuinness & Pelle Primeau when Whitmer pinned Primeau after destroying him with a nasty sitdown tombstone. Match was entertaining. Whitmer turned heel the night before and aligned with Pearce and Albright, including an angle where he stapled Delirious' mask to his face. There was an insane post-match beating of Primeau by Whitmer including a blade job. If they were trying to build sympathy for Pelle with that beating, they built a mansion's worth of it.
*Davey Richards defeated Pac by submission. This was Pac's NYC debut and he came off nervous because I've seen him do far better previously in CHIKARA. Richards was modeled directly after the Dynamite Kid/New Japan era Chris Benoit, coming out with a leather vest and wet hair and working a really still, brutal style. Believe it or not, there were fans chanting "Benoit" at him, which blew my mind away on so many levels, especially considering the reputation of the ROH audience for class. The match wasn't strong early although that could be fixed with some edits. Once Pac did some of his high flying offense, the crowd was immediately into him. The latter part of the bout was good.
*Pro Wrestling NOAH Legend Misuharu Misawa was officially announced as appearing on 11/2 in Philly and 11/3 at the New York City return. Huge pop for Misawa and ticket sales were very brisk despite the raised price. I have to admit I expected a backlash from the audience over the ticket price but I heard nothing in terms of complaints, so it looks like ROH made the right move in that regard.
*Austin Aries defeated Roderick Strong and Jack Evans in a really great Three-Way match, defeating Strong. Before the match, Evans introduced Homicide's former manager Julius Smokes as his new "hype man" and Smokes said that Evans' new crew (teased and dropped and brought back finally) was named the Vulture Crew. Match was very good. Referee Paul Turner was knocked out by an accidental Aries clothesline when Strong ducked. This led to interference by the No Remorse Corp and The Resilience. Julius Smokes, who was absolutely great tonight at ringside and on the mic, called out the newest member of Evans' crew, Ruckus of CZW fame, who did his full CZW gimmick, running in and cleaning house. In the end, Aries got the pin on Strong as Ruckus and Smokes helped Evans up and to the back. At this point, the strongest match on the show.
*After intermission, Ruckus defeated Eddie Edwards in a solid bout designed to introduce Ruckus to the audience. Solid bout.
*Claudio Castagnoli defeated Chris Hero with the Ricola Bomb in a very good match. Daizee Haze came out to ringside to champion Claudio after Sara del Ray interfered by attacking him on the floor. Very strong stuff here from Hero as a heel and Claudio in terms of intensity. Larry Sweeney may be the most entertaining ringside manager in years. Bobby Dempsey is really getting over in the Blue Meanie role of the heavyset comedy guy who is mistreated by the other heels, including the fans chanting his name at certain points. There was a funny bit where the "dieting" Dempsey was snuck food by del Ray after she was provided it by ringside fans.
*ROH champion Takeshi Morishima defeated Bryan Danielson in a phenomenal match. This wasn't at the level of the insanely awesome Danielson vs. McGuinness Philadelphia bout in my opinion, but it was better than anything on the first ROH PPV. Danielson had a nasty mouse and swelling over his left eye, which the referee kept checking on to the point I was sure that it was foreshadowing the finish. Danielson did a springboard dive into the crowd on Morishima. Lots of back and forth strikes and elbows and submissions. They told a great story in Danielson continuing to work over Morishima's leg with kicks and when the leg finally went out on him late in the match, the place erupted. The audience was clearly expecting a title change, particularly when Danielson had Morishima in the Cattle Mutiliation but the match was so great that the audience wasn't let down by the finish. Morishima is really coming into his own as something of the second coming of Samoa Joe - not similar in character but as that monstrous brute champion. Danielson got a standing ovation by a good part of the audience after the match and took the mic apologizing that he let everyone down by not winning. Just a great match.
ROH Tag Team champions (and we may as well call them what they are, the best tag team in the world) The Briscoes defeated Kevin Steen and El Generico in an awesome two straight falls. Far far too much to even attempt to recap. I've never been a huge fan of Steen and Generico but they really held their own here. Off the charts back and forth tag moves, stiff shots and near falls. There were probably two dozen points where the crowd thought it was the finish. Briscoes closing the show over the ROH World title was obviously done to help get the tag titles over as being as important as the ROH belt itself.
Notes: Former ROH champion Homicide was visiting backstage....The top ticket price for the 11/3 return featuring Misawa is $100....One thing that really stood out is that every single performer, from Morishima down to Dempsey, was extremely over with the audience. There were a lot of chants and reactions to the performers' signature moves and mannerisms.
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