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ROH YEAR TWO ARCHIVE: AN IN-DEPTH LOOK AT RING OF HONOR'S SOPHOMORE EFFORT

ROH REVENGE ON THE PROPHECY

ROH IN WEST MIFFLIN, PA
by Doug Blecher

Ring of Honor debuted in West Mifflin, PA on 1/11. Crowd was real hot all night and it seemed to be around 300 people there.

If anyone cares Jeff Gorman from IWC was the ring announcer, on to the show.

Matt Stryker vs Chad Collyer: HWA reunion match, very solid work between these two. A lot of mat wrestling that was quite good with Collyer making Stryker tap out to the Texas cloverleaf. *** 1/2

Mega vs Super Hentai: This was quite funny, the Steelers and Titans game just ended so Mega comes out and trying to heel up makes fun of the Steelers losing. The only problem was that this made him a super babyface because most of the crowd wasn't from Pittsburgh and they popped when he said this. Anyway, Hentai from IWC at the beginning of the match was made to look like a jobber because Mega had about 200 lbs on him and was just pounding on him. Super Hentai then got the pin with his feet on the ropes, * 1/4.

CM Punk vs Michael Shane. Another solid match. A lot of the good chain wrestling that Punk has done in IWA Mid-South. Michael Shane had a hellasweet superkick, that was timed perfectly. Finish came wish some type of rollup with Punk gaining the victory (Don't remember the exact finish) ***1/4.

SAT's and Ghost Shadow vs Konnan and Divine Storm: When Konnan came out he received a good amount of boos. The same reaction occurred when he was tagged in each time. Besides the few blown spots by Chris Devine and Konnan looking a little slow, this was a fun spotfest. A sick looking spot was when Joel Maximo did an Asai Moonsault (I think that's what he did) out onto the floor on 3 or 4 guys hitting his leg on the guardrail. I was about 5 feet from this and it looked like he hurt his leg badly but he was ok. Finish came with Konnan getting the pin which a lot of people did not like. I didn't have a problem with Konnan tonight cause he tried hard and seemed to be trying to do better than his first appearance in ROH. ** 1/2.

Carnage Crew vs Hit Squad (Weapons Match): I'm not the biggest hardcore fan but this was a fun match. All four guys bladed (I know, its a huge shock). They used chairs, ladders, baking pans, guardrails, and other weapons. Finish came as Mafia powerbombed Loc onto Devito threw a table, real cool looking spot. **

Special K of Deranged, Angel Dust (Azrieal), Hydro (Jay Lethal), Yeyo (Tony Lazaro) & Slugger (Lennox Lewis looking guy) vs Marcos, Dunn, Oman Turtoga & Diablo Santiago: Lennox Lewis, I mean that big dude with the sunglasses came out with Special K. After a good spotfest, Lennox chokeslammed all the guys from the other team. Chants of 911 when he did this. He then followed it with a big bodyslam leading to a Special K win. * 3/4.

Homicide vs BJ Whitmer vs Colt Cabana vs Paul London: Bobby Rude was supposed to be in this match but Homicide took his place cause he wasn't there. Homicide was supposed to face Jay Briscoe but Jay wasn't there either (Note: Rude had to cancel due to a car accident and Jay had a last minute personal conflict come up). All four guys looked real good. This was a very good match with the crowd real hot the last few minutes. For about 10 minutes of the match there wasn't a tag made to Homicide which got the crowd wanting him to get in and he got a nice pop when he got in. Finish was awesome when Homicide gave London a copkilla and there was a false finish, then Cabana gave Homicide the colt 45 for a false finish, then Whitmer gave Cabana a series of dragon suplexes. While he had Cabana pinned on the last dragon suplex, London hit him with a shooting star press to get the pin. ***3/4.

Samoa Joe vs American Dragon: Seeing all of Joes ROH and Z1 stuff I knew he was stiff but watching him in person is another thing. His chops would not be fun to take. I'd like to see him against Tenyru. Anyway, this was another very good match with Joe doing the Ohtani spot with the boot scraps and then doing the running boot scrap where it seemed he hurt his leg but worked through it . Later in the match, outside the ring, Dragon was up against the guardrail and Joe ran and gave him a kick to the head. I couldn't really see it cause it was on the other side of the ring but the crowd popped big for this. Don't remember the finish but Joe got the win. *** 3/4.

Christopher Daniels & Xavier vs Low Ki & AJ Styles: Daniels came out first and cut a good heel promo runnin down the fans and Pittsburgh. The problem is that since Daniels is such an awesome worker people still treated him like a face. They need to turn him babyface. Then Xavier came out and it was a different story, my brother chanted overrated and people booed him. This was the match of the night, the crowd being real hot for this match with Ki making Xavier tap in a dragon clutch tarantula. All four guys looked good, with Styles, Ki, and Daniels looking great except maybe one or two missed spots. Spot of the night was Styles doing the Styles clash on Daniels through a table outside after blocking an STO that Daniels was tryin to do. This spot will probably look awesome on tape. Daniels appeared hurt after this as Rob and some other guys carried him to the back. However, about a minute later I saw Rob smiling and laughing so it must have been a work. Crowd chanted holy sh-t for this spot and after the match.

Notes: Overall a great show in my opinion. ROH gave a new market an excellent show with just solid wrestling and not really any angles. A little disappointed not to see Jay Briscoe vs Homicide but that's really just nitpicking. I look forward to their next show in Pittsburgh on 4/16.

ROH Revenge on the Prophecy can be ordered at ROHWrestling.com.