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Ring of Honor returned to the Hammerstein Ballroom tonight, presenting "Manhattan Mayhem III"
Before the event, the entire ROH locker room assembled around the ring. Ring announcer Bobby Cruise announced that earlier today, Mitusharu Misawa passed away in Japan. He issued ROH's public condolences to Misawa's family and friends as well as their Japanese partners in Pro Wrestling NOAH. The promotion held a 10 bell salute for Misawa, followed by a moment of silence. It was a classy moment.
After everyone departed, ROH commenced with their usual entrance music and pageantry to officially open the show.
Austin Aries made his way to the ring. He cut a promo talking about how tough New York City is supposed to be. He began cutting down NYC and at one point said, "You weren't so tough on a certain day in September a few years ago." Believe it or not, the line didn't get much of a reaction. He then ripped on the crowd noting that at the last show, a fan took a poke at him and got destroyed. THAT the crowd reacted to. He introduced Kenny King and Rhett Titus.
*The Young Bucks defeated Kenny King & Rhett Titus.
Really good opener. The crowd was all over the Bucks for being
Hardy-looking pretty boys, but by the end, had been completely won over.
They started slow but built to a ton of highspots that blew the crowd away.
Necro Butcher pinned Jimmy Rave.
Necro pretty much killed Rave early. Rave got the better of Necro by
attacking the knee while Necro was being restrained as he tried to get through
the ropes into the ring. Butcher caught Rave with a small package out of
nowhere. The Embassy began beating Butcher. Colt Cabana finally saved Butcher,
coming out after his theme music hit.
Ric Flair cut a promo about the
NYC fans and tonight's ROH title bout. Flair then left the venue so he
won't be appearing ringside as advertised for the ROH title bout. I have more on
this on the main page.
Roderick Strong defeated Sonjay Dutt in a
solid match.
Jimmy Jacobs defeated Tyler Black in a short First Blood match after stabbing him in the forehead with a screwdriver. Tyler Black
then destroyed Jimmy Jacobs and then announced he was going to use his World title shot tonight, making the main event a three way match.
The match was too short to really be anything of note, but given how Black was
to work a main event bout, it made sense.
Colt Cabana won a Four way when he made D'Lo Brown submit. Bryan Danielson and Claudio Castagnoli also competed.
Lots of cute comedy with Cabana trying to get Danielson to dance early, then
rolling him up for a near fall. This was easily the best Brown appearance
to date from an in-ring standpoint.
ROH Tag champs American Wolves defeated Steen Generico in a submission match.
Really good match with lots of near submissions and cool spots. The Wolves
are probably the most underrated team in the business right now. The
crowd was really into Steen and Generico's saves and come from behind spots.
Davey Richards finally caught Generico's bad knee in a submission and he tapped.
Steen cut a good promo after saying they would get the belts.
Jay Briscoe pinned Little Guido
with the Jay-Driller in a really good match. Guido got a nice reaction
coming out and fans chanted, "Where's my pizza?" Guido worked a serious
style. They had an awesome exchange of mat wrestling early. Guido
missed a dive out of the ring. They went back and forth until Jay nailed
the finisher. If Guido didn't earn a job here, there is no justice in the
world. He got a standing ovation and a thank you chant on the way out.
Great stuff.
Austin Aries became the first 2 time ROH champion defeating Jerry Lynn and Tyler Black.
Nigel McGuinness was the outside enforcer. This was an elimination style
bout. Black's ankle was worked on for a long time. Aries locked a
figure four outside the ring around the ringpost on Black but Nigel broke it up.
Black pinned Lynn to eliminate him and the crowd went nuts, realizing there
would be a new champ crowned. Aries and Black went into overdrive with
tons of stiff kicks, back and forth exchanges and near falls. The crowd
was dying to pop for a Black win but it was not to be as Aries drilled him with
the brainbuster and won the belt. Aries was announced as the first two
time champion, which has been the direction ROH has been building to with him
for several months. He won his first title from Samoa Joe with the same
move. The title change left the crowd buzzing on the way out.
Notes: ROH will return to NYC on 9/26 with Bret Hart appearing. The
show will be held upstairs in the Manhattan Center's Grand Ballroom. ROH
originally had the Hammerstein booked but the venue came back to them and asked
them to release the date for a Latin themed event taking place over that
weekend....In a departure from previous events, ROH did not bring a lighting
truss to the Hammerstein....Former WWE developmental talent Danny "Inferno Kid"
Gimondo was visiting at the show...I have more on the Ric Flair situation on the
main page.
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