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ROH YEAR THREE ARCHIVE: LOOKING BACK AT RING OF HONOR'S MOST CONTROVERSIAL YEAR

ROH REBORN NIGHT TWO

RING OF HONOR IN CHICAGO RIDGE, IL LIVE REPORT; NEW ROH TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS
by Jim Fields

Ring of Honor made it's debut in the Chicago area last night at the Frontier Fieldhouse in Chicago Ridge, IL and it was an awesome night of action! I'm not the best at guessing attendance, but on a pure guess, I'd say 800 - 1000 were there. On to the matches!

BJ Whitmer and Ace Steel came out first for their match, but the Briscoes immediately hit the ring and attacked Steel. They hit the spike Jay Driller on him and then took the mic and said that they hadn't come to a "s***hole" like Chicago to lose the tag belts to the Second City Saints later on, so they were making an example out of Ace Steel. This of course brought out CM Punk and Colt Cabana who pounded on the Briscoes for a minute or two. Then Punk took the mic and cut a really good promo about how this was his hometown, and he and Colt were here to win the titles, he then turned his back on the Briscoes (dumb move!) and they pulled him out of the ring and were pounding on him while Colt continued to check on a downed Steel. Once Cabana saw what was going on, he went to Punk's aid and hit an incredible Asai moonsault to the floor on the Briscoes! Punk, Cabana and the Briscoes then battled to the back.

1. BJ WHITMER D. ACE STEEL. BJ Whitmer then took the mic and said he didn't come to Chicago to win by forfeit and talked a little trash to Steel, who of course responded by starting the match. Whitmer defeated Steel in a pretty good match with the Wrist Clutch Exploder. After the match, Whitmer said that he'd just proved that the Prophecy was better than the Saints, and it was time to finish it. He hit Steel with a HUGE chair shot, and the show was off to a great start.

2. JUSTIN CREDIBLE/MASADA D. SHAWN DAVAIRI/DELIRIOUS. Masada hit a fisherman's buster where the guys head hit his knee (tough to describe) on one of the guys (sorry...I'm forgetting which one right now). Davairi was able to hit the "Magic Carpet Ride" at one point, which was very cool to see live! Fun match, seems like Masada is in line for a pretty decent push down the line.

3. CHAD COLLYER D. JOHN WALTERS. This match was just kind of there. It wasn't that it was bad, it just wasn't that exciting. The crowd wasn't as into it, though there were some decent chain wrestling spots that got applause. Collyer beat Walters with a roll up.

4. NIGEL McGUINESS D. JIMMY RAVE, AUSTIN ARIES, AND ROCKEY ROMERO. Up to this point, this was the match of the night. McGuiness was great here, he is so smooth as he wrestles. At one point, he and Rave had a series of moves and countermoves that I couldn't begin to describe, except to say that it was just awesome and it got a standing ovation from the entire crowd! McGuiness made Rave (I think) tap out to an armlock submission of some type.

5. HOMICIDE D. BRYAN DANIELSON. Right at the beginning of the match, there were a group of fans (who'd been very vocal all night) sitting in the front row who were calling Homicide, "Homocide." He immediately walked over and threw the ring bell towards them! Of course he threw it so that it hit the Ring of Honor metal sign right in front of them and didn't put them at any danger, but it shut them up for a little bit. Homicide defiantly played the heel here and cheated when necessary, including a low blow that led to a STIFF lariat for the win. I'd say it probably went 25 - 30 minutes, but was enjoyable all the way!

Then we had intermission, which was about 30 minutes in itself. For $10 you could get a Polaroid taken with Justin Credible...sorry Justin, just not that big of a fan of yours that I'd pay $10 for that.

6. RICKY REYES D. DANNY DANIELS. By far the worst match of the night. Daniels had a bad omen when he got to the ring and went to climb the ropes to show off, and slipped and fell down. He was just off tonight. I've never seen him work before, and I'm guessing he can be better, but, it just wasn't there tonight. Reyes seemed to almost play as a face to the crowd, which was strange, since his partner, Romero had defiantly been a heel earlier. Reyes won with a leg lock that quite frankly, didn't look that painful.

7. JACK EVANS/MATT SYDEL D. CARNAGE CREW, DUNN/MARCOS, AND ALEX SHELLY/JIMMY JACOBS. This match was INSANE! High spot city! I would strongly suggest checking out the home release when it's ready for this match! Evans and Sydel also had a girl named Daisy something with them (sorry, didn't get the last name) who was incredibly hot. Devito kept hitting on her throughout the match which was very funny to watch (since he by far was the most "average" in build). The end came after an insane series of dives to the floor by just about everyone, then the Carnage Crew hit a spike piledriver off the top to Jimmy Jacobs, and Jack Evans hit a 450 legdrop on the fallen Jacobs for the win. In his post match fit, Devito threw an open chair to the ground which bounced up and hit a guy in about the second row. Loc and the ref immediately went over to check on the guy and told Devito what happened, and Devito went and checked on him too and gave him a hug, the guy was laughing and seemed to be fine. Also in post match action, Alex Shelly turned on Jimmy Jacobs getting a really strong "a**h*le" chant for it! Jacobs is SUPER over with the crowd, Ring of Honor should defiantly keep him. And as for Jack Evans, the guy is incredible with the acrobatic things he does. Another keeper.

8. SAMOA JOE D. MATT STRYKER. Better than I expected. I enjoy Joe's work, but hadn't been a huge fan of Stryker when I've seen him. Stryker looked pretty decent here when he got offense. Although more of the match was Joe just kicking and slapping the hell out of him. Man were those shots stiff! Joe did have a bandage on his face to sell the fireball attack from the night before, which fell off about 2 minutes into the match. Appeared to have a burn on his face (or good makeup), so it was sold well. Joe won with a triangle choke.

9. CM PUNK/COLT CABANA D. JAY AND MARK BRISCOE FOR THE ROH TAG TEAM TITLES. Great match all around, you could tell Punk and Cabana were pumped about being in Chicago. At one point Cabana even looked at Punk and said "I'm excited partner, I'm excited!" Cabana has so much personality, it isn't fair. Just a really good back and forth match, which was finally won by Punk with the Pepsi Plunge (which is awesome to see live) on one of the Briscoes. As the celebration began, Whitmer came back out and attacked Punk and Cabana, which brought Steel back out with the same chair he'd been hit with earlier in the night (dented in from his head) and gave a receipt shot to Whitmer, the crack of that chair shot was deafening to say the least. The Second City Saints posed to end the show and send the crowd home happy.

Just an awesome night of action, they announced that Death Before Dishonor weekend will be a double shot Midwest weekend in July. July 23rd in Wauwatosa, WI (near Milwaukee) and July 24th in Chicago Ridge again. I for one will be at both shows. My brother went with me last night, for his first taste of Ring of Honor, and they won a convert, as he said when we left, "That was better than anything I've seen in WWE in a long time." Awesome night, awesome show. Way to go Ring of Honor!

You can order ROH Reborn Night Two at ROHWrestling.com.