Just got back from the RoH show in Detroit. Good debut show from the RoH gang. Crowd in Detroit was HOT. Great atmosphere as the crowd was friendly, "smart", and invested in the action all night.
I was having too much fun to take notes, so my apologies if I have forgotten anything.
Jim Cornette came out and said hello. He talked about wrestling history in Detroit and got a brief "Sheik" chant. He also jawed with local fan-legend Roddy Hogan who was in the crowd. Cornette joked the Roddy has a better body than "the real one" these days.
Scrap Iron Adam Pearce came out and got into it with Cornette. Fans chanted "Get the racket."
I bumped into Jack Evans in the men's room. I decide not to ask for an autograph at that particular moment.
BJ Whitmer beat Delirious. BJ was with Lacy. Crowd was big into Delirious' act. Nothing special but a solid opener.
They had a three way for the "top of the class" trophy. Two of the guys looked exactly the same, the third had a unique Dee Snyder-esque hairdo which he took some heckling for. I think Davey Andrews won the match with a submission. It wasn't pretty, but I've seen worse.
Nigel McGuinness defeated Claudio Castagnoli in the Pure Title match by DQ in a screw job finish. Nigel called himself the best pure wrestler in the world saying "I'm the best there is. The best there was. And... you know the rest." Crowd chanted "You're not Bret" in response.
They did an Eddie Guererro finish where Nigel was about to the use the iron, but saw the ref about to turn around, so he threw the iron to Claudio and played dead. Ref turned around and naturally DQed Claudio. Crowd didn't like the finish and chanted "Bulls**t." Claudio was over big with the crowd throughout the whole match.
Chad Collyer came out and took some heckling for the mohawk. Sal came out next with his RoH tag title. Crowd unhinged for Generation Next. "Jack" chants everywhere, as he seems to be more over than Roderick despite the big push. The crowd was way into Roderick's chops though, as every one got a big pop.
Evans did some of his crazy spots. Sal and Chad couldn't get along (the whole heel teaming with a face problem). GenNext won it with that crazy springboard of the back 620 or whatever the hell it is. Fun match. Crowd ate it up and chanted "Best team ever."
They switched around the Four Corner Survival match. Homicide was out first and over big. He got on the mic immediately and called out Colt Cabana who came out and they went at it. They brawled all over hell and creation including Homicide almost killing me with a chair twice. ~ Front row tickets, always worth it!
Crowd chanted "We can't see sh*t" as they fought all over the building. Christopher Daniels came out with Allison Danger to a huge "Fallen Angel" chant. They stood in the ring and watched as Homicide and Cabana brawled up into the bleachers. Crowd chanted "We want Joe" for a bit, and then "Use a table" -so they did.
After Colt and `Cide crashed off the bleachers and thru a table, Jim Cornette came out and took them out of the match. He announced their replacements - Jimmy Jacobs (sans Lacy, and playing a face) who was over big with the whole huss bit. - And Scrap Iron Adam Pearce who came down and demanded to be put in the match.
Cornette then introduced Samoa Joe and the roof blew off again. Crowd did all the classic Joe chants including Joe's "gonna kill you" and "f**k him Joe, f**k him up" at Adam Pearce. Poor Adam was the only guy the crowd didn't like in this match so they let him hear it.
It was a good match with Daniels playing subtle heel, working with Pearce (who was playing non-subtle heel) occasionally and then fighting him at other times.
Good finishing sequence as the ref got distracted and Pearce used a low blow on Joe. Jacobs took Pearce out, and then Daniels (who may, or may not, have witnessed the low blow) took advantage, hit the Angel's Wings, and got the three count. Crowd popped big for the Daniels win.
I was disappointed by the change up in the match, but the match they delivered helped to make up for it.
They took an intermission and talked about a return date in March. They ran a special where if you bought a ticket tonight you were entered into a drawing for a pair of tickets to Wrestlemania. The mention of Wrestlemania got booed..... loudly.
A bunch of people sitting around me talked about how they were looking forward to seeing AJ Styles in action.
Post intermission they did an unscheduled Allison Danger vs. Dazee Haze match. The crowd was into both of them, but they had a bad match. At least they kept it short. Dazee won.
~ There was a lot of blown spots throughout the night. I don't know if the ropes were especially slippery or not, but a lot of guys slipped on springboard off the ropes spots (including Aries slipping off the ropes on an attempted Pescado, and nearly killing himself). I'm proud to report that the Detroit crowd kept the "You fu**ed up" chant from breaking out. I always thought that was a stupid thing to chant, and am glad that the chant happy Detroit crowd was able to avoid it. I heard it quietly once early in the evening, but it got shouted down and then I never heard it again.
The Embassy came out (Nana, Shelly, and Rave) and Nana told us we were all toothless, fat, and illiterate (I'm none of those things, for the record). He called Detroit a "sh**hole" (his word, not mine) and we cheered. Shelly acted like he was going to come to the defense of his home town, but it was an obvious swerve and he said he was ashamed to be from Detroit. The crowd didn't really seem to care, as the people who liked Alex cheered him anyway.
Austin Aries came out to a big pop, with Jade Chung (I thought she was with Roderick). Crowd did the dueling "Austin Aries/Alex Shelly" chant.
They wrestled a good match with Alex working Aries' arm throughout the match. Aries tried a brain buster but his arm was too weakened. He tried a 450, but Nana got involved. Nana went to hit Aries with his crown(?) but Jade gave him a low blow, Austin pushed Alex into Nana and then rolled him up for a three count.
Afterwards all hell broke loose as the Embassy attacked and beat down Aries. Abyss joined the beat down and Aries took a hell of a beating for a long time (where were Jack Evans and Roderick Strong?) until AJ (massive pop and immediate AJ chant) and Matt Sydal made the save. Abyss looks huge in an RoH ring.
Shelly and Aries brawled to the back. They announced the tag team grudge match and got it going right away. Rave told a bunch of fans to "shut the hell up" and got some toilet paper in return (the people around me had been waiting for an opportunity to TP Jimmy Rave)
AJ was still showing some of that heelish aggression as he got into it with some fans. He whipped a roll of TP at someone in the crowd, and then had some.... - let's call them "surprising" - words for them. He seemed angry and surprisingly heelish throughout the match despite the fact that he was hugely popular in the building.
Match itself was very good. It seemed mostly constructed to help Matt Sydal get over. He and AJ had a badly blown team spot late in the match, after which AJ just laid on the mat for a long time. He seemed to be fine, but Sydal took a bad double team beating, which it seemed like he could have stopped. Sydal fought back on his own and hit a spectacular top rope move on Rave (looked like a one man Spanish Fly.... remember that move?). Sydal got the three count and the crowd busted out a big Matt Sydal chant for him after the match.
Main event time : Chris Sabin got a big pop as did Bryan Danielson. Crowd chanted "You're both awesome" at the start of the match. Match started slowly with Danielson playing heel, slapping Sabin and mocking him and the crowd. Danileson's chest was all black and blue from the Roderick Strong match I assume?
Methodical match with Danielson working over Sabin's back. At one point he used about 15 backbreakers on him. No, not fifteen variations of the backbreaker, 15 over the knee backbreakers. When the crowd chanted for "one more", he gave us the finger. No Airplane Spin but Danielson did use Cattle Mutilation, a Bow & Arrow, a Surfboard, and an Abdominal Stretch (and yes he used the ropes for "extra leverage"). Sabin refused to tap.
End came when both guys were on the top. Danielson countered Sabin and hit a top rope Saito Suplex and then locked in a Lion Tamer (StrongHold?) and got a quick tap out.
Show ended at about midnight exactly.
It was a good show. A fun time was had by all. I strongly suggest checking these guys out if they come to your town. I'll be at their next show here for sure.
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