PWInsider - WWE News, Wrestling News, WWE

ROH YEAR ONE ARCHIVE: A LOOK BACK AT RING OF HONOR'S INFANCY IN 2002

ROH NIGHT OF THE BUTCHER

ROH NIGHT OF THE BUTCHER LIVE REPORT
by Mike Johnson

Ring of Honor returned to the Murphy Recreation Center in Philadelphia, PA last night for their "Fan Appreciation Night" which featured $10 tickets and a special appearance by Abdullah the Butcher in the main event.

Full results of the event, starting with a mini-TV Taping at 6:25 PM saw:

*Paul E. Normous won his ROH debut, pinning Mace Mendoza of the Christopher Street Connection.

*American Dragon Bryan Danielson forced Marcos of the Ring Crew Express to submit to the Cattle Mutilation.

*Paul London pinned Angeldust

*Da Hit Squad defeated The Ghostface Killers

*AJ Styles pinned Jimmy Rave with the Styles Clash.

The promotion then began the regular "event" at 7:30 with the following results:

*Michael Shane pinned Jeremy Lopez with an elbow off the top rope.

*Colt Cabana pinned CM Punk. Gary Michael Cappeta interviewed both, announcing a rematch on 12/28 where the winner will gain a ROH contract and won't have to drive to events anymore, but will be flown in.

*Paul London pinned the debuting EZ Money in a first round match of a tournament for the #1 Contendership trophy. Solid match.

*American Dragon Bryan Danielson pinned the debuting Chad Collyer in a first round match of a tournament for the #1 Contendership trophy. OK match although the crowd did not seem to get into Collyer.

*The Maximos won a Tag Team Scramble match to win a ROH Tag Team championship bout on 12/28, defeating Special K's Joey Matthews and the debuting Deranged, Da Hit Squad, Jay Briscoe and The Amazing Red. The Maximos locked Matthews and Deranged in a double submission for the win. Tons of quick and fast spots here, including Red superplexing Deranged off the top rope out of the ring onto a crew a wrestlers brawling on the floor. Excellent match.

*Divine Storm defeateed Shockwave and Jeff Starr when Quiet Storm pinned Starr with the Storm Cradle Driver.

*CW Anderson hit the ring and laid out Starr and Shockwave. Gary Michael Capetta hit the ring and asked Anderson what he was doing there, since he was "fired." Anderson gave a long interview saying that he was never fired by this "low rate indy promotion" and he went to Zero-One to make himself an International Superstar. He went off on Gabe Sapolsky, the ROH booker, saying that he wanted Sapolsky to get in the ring and say to Anderson's face the things Sapolsky wrote on the Internet. Anderson ripped on Gabe, bringing up his past selling programs for ECW and saying he was a Paul Heyman wanna-be who never took one bump. One could hear Sapolsky screaming for his mic to be cut backstage and Da Hit Squad and Joey Matthews came out to calm Anderson.

*Paul London pinned American Dragon Bryan Danielson with a shooting star press to become the #1 contender to the ROH championship. Extremely great match with lots of back and forth stiff wrestling and an excellent series of moves where London kept knocking Dragon off the top to set up the Shooting Star only to have Dragon return and try to stop him. Excellent match.

*ROH champion Xavier pinned AJ Styles. Alexis Laree DDT'd and ran off Simply Luscious early in the bout, leaving it to be a one on one bout. Styles hit his Styles Clash off the ropes, but injured his leg in the process. Xavier took out his leg and pinned him with a rollup combination. Good match, easily Xavier's best effort to date in the promotion.

*Abdullah the Butcher and Homicide defeated the Canage Crew when Homicide pinned HC Loc with the Copkiller. All four men brawled around the ringside area bleeding. Abby used his fork over and over. A number of lower level workers tried to save Loc from being killed by Abby and Homicide after the match and were forked and killed in the process. Da Hit Squad hit the ring to aid Homicide and Abby and the show ended with all four in the ring beside a bevy of laid out bodies around the ring. An entertaining brawl to end the show.

Notes: The crowd was in the 250-275 range....The show was moved from Hamburg, PA to Philly just a week or so before the event due to low ticket sales....Ring of Honor returns to the venue on 12/28....The promotion debuts in Queens, NY on 2/8/03 at the Elks Lodge, aka ECW’s Madhouse of Extreme.

ROH Night of the Butcher can be ordered at ROHWrestling.com.