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RING OF HONOR BOSTON, MA LIVE REPORT
by Joe Mistretta
I attended the Ring of Honor event on June 15th in Boston, MA. It was a great ROH show, perhaps in the top five of their events. There was a big crowd - I would say in the 500-600 range, who were very loud and into the action all night.
Chad Collyer beat Matt Stryker in 20:00. This was a really great match and easily Collyer's best ROH match yet. During the intro's the crowd chanted "You're not Stryker" to Matt Stryker although I don’t know how the Boston fans know NYC Stryker.
Amazing Red beat Slim J in 15:00. Great match. These two guys clicked really well and the match was really fast paced and had a lot of great spots. After the match Slugga took out Red.
-Next was an interview segment where Gary Michael Cappetta announced Paul London wouldn’t be there due to his injury. CM Punk came out and turned himself into a heel. He used his great mic skills to turn the crowd on him and bashed Raven, the city of Boston and even said "I think Raven is gonna stink up this place worse then Konnan did in Philly." This promo put him over big as a heel. As he was leaving Raven met him the aisle and forced him back to the ring. They wound up agreeing that if Raven could go 10 minutes in a regular ROH rules match, then it would become a Raven's Rules match. Raven was over big as a babyface.
AJ Styles beat the Backseat Boyz, the SAT, and The Carnage Crew in a great Scramble match. This blew away the NYC scramble and is right up there with the 11/15 scramble. The spot of the match was Styles' shooting star press from the top rope onto the floor. Words can't do the match justice. AJ did wrestle the match by himself.
Alex Arion beat Hotstuff Hernandez in 10:00.. Every show must have one bad match I guess and this was it. It wasn't that bad at the beginning but then Hotstuff slipped off the top rope when trying to do a moonsault and he just unraveled after that.
Low Ki and Da Hit Squad beat Deranged, Angeldust, and Dixie in 25:00. STIFF - That pretty much summed up this match. Low Ki just brutalized Angeldust with chops and kicks for the first part of the match, and his back was turning all different kinds of colors. Monsta Mack tried to do his van terminator that he pulled off at the USA Pro show but this time it didn’t work out. He was way too short and didn’t even graze them in the corner. After that, the Special K members at ringside (Brian XL, Jay Lethal and Slim J) interfered for a DQ, but as they were leaving Low Ki took the mic and said, "This aint over, ring the bell its 6 vs 3!" Special K took out the Hit Squad and then cornered Ki in the ring. Dixie offered him a pill and he took it. Low Ki then acted as if he was getting high and he started to pass out… as this happened Special K got all happy and started dancing but Low Ki was just messing with them and sprung up and Dixie went after him with his cane. Low Ki grabbed it and in what looked like a scene out of a Jet Li movie he used the cane like a sword to take out all of Special K. This spot is hard to describe but it was awesome to see.. After that DHS came back in and they all hit their finishers for the win.
Quiet Storm and Ghost Shadow beat Dunn and Marcos. A short match after intermission that served its purpose.
CM Punk beat Raven in 20:00. This match was off the charts. This could have been the main event and I would have went home happy. Trinity came out with Raven just like in TNA and USA Pro and was in his corner for the match. CM Punk was great in this match, he could be a really good heel for the promotion if Corino is only going to work ROH on a part time basis. Raven was also great. He was energized and doing great moves, he reopened his cut from TNA so he was a bloody mess. Punk did a legdrop off the top rope through a table with Trinity on it. Raven went the 10 minutes so it became a hardcore match. Raven hit the evenflow onto a chair but there was a ref bump. Punk then hooked Raven in a submission and he tapped out. Post match, Raven attempted a evenflow but Punk got away. This match was awesome I hope there's a rematch soon.
Samoa Joe beat Homicide, BJ Whitmer, and EZ Money in 20:00 to become the top contender to the ROH championship. The match was great when Joe and Homicide were in because of the stiff brutal stuff they were doing. Whitmer was kinda just there as he didn’t do anything notable. Money looked good hitting all of his spots. After the match NY indy workers J train, Becky Bayless and another guy were going crazy on Samoa Joe from behind the guard rails, where they had been sitting all night. They ran around and tried to get to Joe in the aisle. The locker room cleared and a huge brawl happened but it was in the back so the crowd could not see it. This was I guess a follow up to the NYC riot but the Boston fans didn’t know what the hell was going on.
AJ Styles and Red beat Chris Daniels and Xavier in 30:00 to become the new ROH tag champs in an awesome match. Red came out to huge ovation to team with AJ. Like I said, this was a great match. Daniels worked his ass off as usual and everyone looked good in the match. Styles hit the styles clash on Daniels and as Xavier was gonna break it up, Red speared him from the top rope to keep him away and the new champs were crowned. The return date in Boston is June 14th.
Ring of Honor Notes from Mike Johnson: All reports I have on the show indicate it was at the level of the promotion's great anniversary event, if not better. That's saying quite a lot....Paul London missed the show after undergoing emergency surgery to clear a passage in his sinus canal on Friday. I believe (but do not have confirmed) that he and Styles were set to win the belts here. ROH has already announced Red will take London's place against The Briscoe Brothers in Philadelphia on 3/22. London's status on the Philly show is still 50/50....Chris Devine will be working in IWA Puerto Rico for at least the next month, but is slated to return here down the line....Samoa Joe vs. Xavier for the ROH title has been added to the group's 3/22 event in Philadelphia, PA as well....Alex Arion who worked here is slated for the ECWA Super 8. Hot Stuff Hernandez worked several All Japan tours last year.
ROH Expect the Unexpected can be ordered at ROHWrestling.com.
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