Ring of Honor : Escape From New York : 7/9/05

By Matt Szimanski

(1) The Ring Crew Express/Dixie def. Lacey's Angels/Vordell Walker in 11:30

Very exciting opening match to start off the show. The Ring Crew Express of Dunn and Marcos are ROH's main underdog babyface tag team with an 80s rocker gimmick, and their partner Dixie first achieved fame in the Special K faction. Their opponents were Lacey's Angels of Cheech and Deranged, two more Special K vets, and Vordell Walker, who's just starting to make his name on the Indy scene. The match starts off hot and heavy, with the faces dominating Cheech before using his arms to play air guitar. The heels eventually took over and starting working on Dunn, including a great spot where Deranged hit the ropes back and forth 8 times before hitting' a rear chinlock. This, quite understandably, drew a huge 'Holy Shit' chant from the New York crowd. Deranged went for a quebrada on Dunn, who caught him in midair, but Deranged swung around into a sick tornado DDT that must've broken Dunn's nose. Walker got his shots too, with a series of rolling German suplexes that would've made Chris Benoit proud. Dunn made the hot tag to Marcos after a brutal Last Ride-style powerbomb. The faces cleaned house, and picked up the win after Marcos hit a senton off of Dunn's shoulders, while Dunn was standing on the second rope. Rating: 2.5/5 Air Guitars

We're back again with Colt Cabana, trying again to cut a promo on Nigel McGuinness. This times it's Samoa Joe interrupting Cabana 20 seconds in, also wondering what the deal is with CM Punk. Cabana again says Punk's doing his own thing, and he's not taking the fall for him. Joe warns Cabana that if he's lying, Cabana certainly will be taking a fall, but it won't be courtesy of CM Punk. Cabana finally storms off, telling the cameraman to 'Do your own damn promo.' Good segment.

(2) The Carnage Crew def. BJ Whitmer/Jimmy Jacobs in 14:21 to win the ROH Tag Team Titles!

A solid match between these two teams. The faces take control early on, but the Crew battle back, suplexing Whitmer on the steel entrance ramp, and start working over the diminutive Jacobs with tactics so dastardly that even Saddam Hussein is shaking his head in disgust. DeVito of the Crew, who's not a small man, hits a top rope dropkick on Jacobs, who was perched on HC Loc's shoulders. Eventually Jacobs takes advantage of a missed moonsault by the big man, spears Loc, and makes the hot tag to Whitmer. BJ cleans house, taking out the crew with a variety of suplexes before powerbombing his own partner onto DeVito. Loc pitches Jacobs over the top and then assists DeVito with a spike piledriver on Whitmer for a believable nearfall. They set him up for their second rope spike piledriver finish, but Jacobs makes the save. Whitmer set DeVito up for a top rope Exploder suplex, but the Crew countered and pushed BJ off the top and through the ringside table, drawing another 'Holy Shit' chant from the crowd. Jacobs tried to take the Crew on 2 on 1, but it wasn't to be, and one second-rope piledriver meant the end of Whitmer and Jacob's 3 month dominating title reign. BJ and Jimmy got a standing ovation and 'Thank You' chant after the match. Rating: 2/5 sick bumps

Scheduled next is a Four Corner Survival match between Jimmy Rave, James Gibson, Roderick Strong, and Azrieal. But just as the bell rings, the lights go out in the building, and a spotlight reveals ROH champ and all-around asshole CM Punk in the balcony. Punk has HUGE heat with the crowd, and is welcomed with chants of 'Punk is a bitch' and 'CM Pussy'. Punk blasts Gibson, saying that he was going to challenge the winner of this match to a ROH title match later, but he didn't think a person who's hobbies include four-wheeling and 'catching armadillos and varmints or whatever is you do' was worthy of a title match. So instead, Punk challenged Roderick Strong, but said that it'd be a non-title match. The crowd, understandably, doesn't like this, but react in a big way when Mick Foley shows up behind Punk. Foley grabs the champ by the throat and holds him over the ledge, telling him that a fall like that would split a man's skull open, and that when Foley hears the words 'non-title match' he has an urge to see a man's skull split open. He then asks Punk if he's relying on Foley's compassion and love of humanity not to throw him off right here, in New York City! Foley then holds Punk further out over the ledge and says, 'You just have to ask yourself one question. Do you feel lucky' Do you Punk'' Punk relents and agrees to make the match for the ROH Title. Foley tells Punk to have a nice day, and releases him. The lights come back on, and down in the ring Gibson fires up Strong, sending him to the back and telling him to get ready. Words cannot possibly describe how awesome this segment was. The mic work by Foley and especially Punk was top notch.

(3) Jimmy Rave def. James Gibson, Azrieal, and Alex Shelley in 22:09

Early on in the match, Alex Shelley runs down to the ring to take the spot vacated by his rival, Roderick Strong. There's some nice matwork early on, with neither man gaining an advantage. Eventually Rave and Shelley work almost as a tag team, signaling out Azrieal's midsection. Shelley hits a nice 2nd rope moonsault, and Rave slams Azrieal ribs-first into the ring post. Shelley and Rave knock Gibson off the apron, but the distraction allows Azreial to hit a springboard double dropkick on the two. However, Rave again prevents the hot tag. After a bit more time of Shelley and Rave just pummeling Azrieal, Gibson finally runs into the ring, noggin-knocks Shelley and Rave, hiptosses Azrieal into his corner, and forces the tag! Gibson's on fire like a forest in the Pacific Northwest, clearing out Shelley and superplexing Rave, then rolling through into his Guillotine Choke submission. Shelley breaks it up, but is dumped to the floor by Azrieal, who then hits a beautiful over the top tope con hilo. The action really picks up here, with tons of nearfalls by every man. At around this point, the crowd, who had been heckling Rave all night with chants questioning his heterosexuality, came up with undoubtedly my favorite chant in wrestling history, singing (to the town of Camptown Ladies), 'Jimmy sucks a lot of dick, doo dah, doo dah'. Ah, New York, gotta love it. The action continues as Gibson DDTs Shelley and rolls over into the Guillotine choke, which Rave breaks up with a Shining Wizard. Shelley and Gibson brawl to the floor, and Rave quickly hits his Rave Clash finisher to pin Azrieal. Rave's hand is raised, and his manager Prince Nana goes into convulsions at ringside. Great match. Rating: 3.5/5 Awesome Crowd Chants

(4) Samoa Joe def. Austin Aries in 17:12 to retain the ROH Pure Championship

As Aries makes his way to the ring, the clip is shown of Aries ending Samoa Joe's 21 month ROH World Title reign back in December of 2004, which I thought was a nice touch. The two wrestlers come face to face as the ref starts listing the rules for Pure Title matches, but they're interrupted by Prince Nana. Nana offers Aries a spot in the Embassy, promising wealth and women. Aries responds by asking Nana if he sees 'the big mean Samoan standing over there', and then dismisses Nana by saying that he has bigger things to worry about at the moment then Nana's scheming plans to make money off of other people. For the uninitiated, the rules of a Pure match in ROH are that there is a 20 count on the floor (normally there are no countouts in ROH), there are no closed fists to the face, and each worker only has 3 rope breaks to break up a pin or submission.

Now that that's out of the way, onto the match. Both men work the mat early, and eventually end up in a test of strength, where Joe powers Aries all the way down to the mat and then stomps on his hands. Aries took Joe down with a back elbow off the ropes, but the big man popped right back up and slapped Aries hard across the face. He then caught a charging Aries with a spinebuster and followed it up with a big senton. Joe continues working the back, locking in a sick Boston Crab variation that caused Aries to use his first rope break. Joe continues his domination with a devastating facewash at the 6 minute mark. Aries finally changes the momentum by dumping Joe to the outside and hitting a beautiful tope suicida through the ropes. Aries takes Joe back in and hits a lionsault for a nearfall. Austin transitions right into a Fujiwara armbar to force Joe to use a break. Joe fights back and sends Aries to the floor, and then hits a sweet diving elbow smash through the ropes. Up next from the big man is the crowd pleasing Ole kick (running kick to the face of his opponent, driving his head into the guardrail), not once but twice. Back into the ring, Aries rolls through a sunset flip and locks an STF on Joe, forcing the champ to use his second break. Aries misses his 450 splash at the 14 minute mark, and Joe locks a cross armbreaker on out of a powerslam to cost Austin his second break. Joe transitions to an STF, and Aries uses his last break. Aries with a sick crucifix bomb at the 15:30 mark, and follows it up with his brainbuster/450 combination (the combo that beat Joe at Final Battle), but Joe uses his last break to save the match. Aries takes Joe down and goes for another 450, but Joe gets up, catches Austin and hits the Musclebuster for the win. Aries got his foot on the rope, but he was out of breaks so it didn't matter. Another great match, and the crowd chants 'ROH' at both men after the bell. Rating: 4/5 great nearfalls

It's intermission, and interviewer Gary Capetta interviews new ROH Tag Champs, the Carnage Crew. Nice promo, with both guys saying how their long career finally came to a climax with the title win. They then left to party at the local strip club, but told Capetta he wasn't invited.

(5)Nigel McGuinness def. Colt Cabana in 13:51 a European Rules Match

The rules for this match is that there are 3 minute rounds, no punches or kicks, and a public warning system, in which 3 warning results in a DQ. Each worker has 10 seconds to get to their feet if they are taken down. The winner is the first person to get 2 pins or submissions, or a knockout. Nigel starts the cheating early, decking Colt behind the ref's back. Colt strikes back, but the refs sees it and gives Colt his first warning. Nigel sticks his chin out at Colt, trying to goad him into a punch. Colt gives Nigel a taste of his own medicine, feigning a low blow and causing the ref to warn Nigel. The first round ends with no falls decided. Nigel throws his towel at Colt to start round two, and uses the distraction to score some stiff forearm shots to Colt's neck. Colt grabbed Nigel by the back of the neck and slammed him face first. When Nigel complained to the ref, Colt did it again. Nigel shoved the ref in frustration, and got his second warning as a result. Colt hits a series of dropkicks, and rolls up Nigel for the first fall at the 5:30 mark. Nigel starts round 3 by spitting water in the face of Cabana. Nigel bridges out of a sunset flip, and Colt responds by slapping Nigel low, gaining his second warning. Round 3 ends with no falls, and the picture dissolves into a promo by Matt Hardy. Hardy hypes his match at the following show against Chris Daniels, and we transition back to the match. Nigel uses some unique offense to work over Cabana's left arm. Nigel locks on a nice variation of the bow and arrow, working the arm, and Cabana taps to end Round 4 at 11:25. Round 5 begins with some quick action, and Colt locks Nigel in a single leg crap. Nigel tapped Colt on the back, and Colt thought it was the ref telling him he won, so be broke the hold. Nigel then cheap shotted Colt. They trade pinning combinations, and McGuinness finally holds on for the 3 count. OK match, but the crowd was dead for it, and the rules and quick, unrealistic falls really subtracted from the action. Rating: 1.5 Confusing Matches

We cut backstage to Roderick Strong pacing around the boiler room. Austin Aries comes up to him and fires him up, telling him not to worry about Shelley, or about Aries' Pure Title loss, but only about taking the title off of Punk. The cameraman asks Aries for a promo, but Aries tells him to get out of the way. Quick segment, but effective. One thing I like about ROH is that in segments like this they often have the talent acknowledge that there's someone there watching, as opposed to WWE's strategy of having their wrestlers just act like the camera isn't there.

(6) Homicide def. Jay Lethal in 19:14 a Relaxed Rules match

Homicide, his manager Julius Smokes, and an unnamed thug make their way to the ring as a clip is shown of Lethal splashing 'Cide through a table at a previous show. Lethal then comes out to a huge pop, and this grudge match in underway. The announcers talk about how Homicide, along with Low-Ki, put Lethal on the shelf a few months earlier. The actions starts off hot and heavy, as both men exchange stiff chops, and Homicide goes to the floor. Lethal follows, and whips 'Cide hard into the metal guardrails. The crowd is split here, as Lethal is a huge babyface, but Homicide is an NYC native. Homicide catches a charging Lethal with a spinebuster to regain control. The action goes to the apron, where Homicide hits a brutal Ace Crusher that sends Jay to the floor. While Homicide distracts the ref in the ring, Smokes cracks Lethal with the baseball bat he brought to ringside. Lethal's now busted open, and 'Cide digs into the wound. Homicide then grabs a Red Sox hat off a front row fan, takes it into the ring, wipes himself with it, then throws in into the stands to a big 'NYC' chant. That's just sick. Homicide then pulls out the GHETTO FORK and starts stabbing Lethal in the head with it repeatedly. This earns Homicide a 'You sick fuck' chant. Lethal fights back bravely, but Homicide sends him down with a stiff forearm. Lethal goes for a Rana, but Homicide counters into a stiff powerbomb for the nearfall at 10:45. Lethal finally scores with a Belly to Belly suplex. Lethal Hulks Up, nailing Cide with some stiff shots, a back body drop, dropkick, knee strike, and neckbreaker for a nearfall. Lethal with a 2nd rope back heel kick for a near fall. Lethal hits a beautiful diving headbutt at 14:00, but is too hurt to make a cover. 'Cide hits a nice piledriver, then signals for his thug to send a table into the ring. Homicide makes to superplex Jay through the table, but Lethal counters with a SICK DDT off the top rope through the table, but Homicide kicks out! This match is great. Lethal goes for another headbutt, but one of Homicide's thugs catches him with a sidewalk slam off the top, giving Homicide a nearfall. Homicide goes for the Cop Killa (Vertebreaker), but Lethal counters into his Dragon Suplex finisher, but the gang member pulls out the ref. Lethal goes outside and drops Smokes, but the distraction allows 'Cide to grab a chain, which he blasts Lethal with, then follows it up with a vicious Lariat for the pinfall. Amazing match. Rating: 4/5 Ghetto Forks

(7) CM Punk def. Roderick Strong in 26:32 to retain the ROH World Title

The crowd chants 'New Champ' as Roderick makes his way to the ring. Punk makes his way to the ring to huge heat from the NYC crowd. There's a great camera shot on Joe in the balcony watching Punk pose on the turnbuckle. The crowd chants a lot of stuff at Punk, the nicest of which is an 'OVW' chant, along with some other stuff that I'm sure had Lou Thesz spinning in his grave. Punk chops Roderick, and then runs away before Roderick can retaliate with his famously stiff chops. There's some nice mat wrestling, and Punk again chops Roderick, only to run away again before Strong can retaliate. Roderick keeps trying to chop Punk, and Punk keeps dodging him and locking on headlocks. Strong with a stiff Cactus Jack-style over the top clothesline. Strong chops at Punk again, but the champ dodges again, this time diving back into the ring. The story early on is great, as Punk keeps chopping Strong, and then dodging Roderick's retaliatory strikes. Strong finally chops Punk at 7:30 to a big pop, and lays into him with several more, turning Punk's chest red. The crowd is 100% behind Strong, yelling 'Yay' for Strong's offense and 'Boo' for Punk's. Roderick with a beautiful Crossbody over the top to the floor on Punk. Roderick chops Punk all around ringside, eventually chopping him over the barricade. Punk's chest is now bleeding! Now that is stiff. Back in the ring, Roderick hits a backbreaker for a nearfall, garnering a 'Break his back' chant from the rabid crowd. Roderick charges Punk, but is caught and dumped onto the top rope. Punk takes down Strong, then climbs the ropes to talk trash to Joe and Gibson, who are in the balcony. Punk with a Russian Leg Sweep at the 13 minute mark. They exchange some stiff, and I do mean stiff, shots, and Punk dodges a Strong dropkick to gain the advantage, which he works for several minutes. Punk drops 'The Messiah of the Backbreaker' with a backbreaker of his own. Roderick hits a sunset flip, pulling down Punk's tights and showing me a lot more of Punk than I ever wanted to see. Strong hits his sick Fireman's Carry Gut Buster for a close nearfall at the 19:30 mark. Strong hits his trademark ¾ Nelson Backbreaker for another believable nearfall. Strong goes for it again, but Punk rolls through into a Shining Wizard for a nearfall. Strong counters an Anaconda Vice submission into a rollup, but Punk fights back with a swinging DDT, and locks it on again as the crowd chants 'Please Don't Tap.' Strong reaches the ropes at 22:50. What a phenomenal match. Punk hits the Pepsi Twist (hammerlock into a clothesline), then misses a springboard legdrop. Strong locks in the Stronghold (Liontamer with a knee in the back), but Punk reaches the ropes at 24:00. Punk counters a ¾ Nelson backbreaker into a DDT variation for a nearfall. Punk misses the Lariat, and Strong hits a ¾ nelson backbreaker followed by another backbreaker variation and a Pumphandle driver, but Punk gets his foot on the ropes to save the match. Strong goes for a rollup, but Punk reverses it and grabs the ropes to get the pin. Punk falls to the floor as the announcers wonder what will happen next. Just a extraordinary main event. Rating: 4.5/5 Sick Backbreakers

Punk grabs the mic after the match and tells the crowd to never doubt someone who's better than them. Punk tells the crowd to remember the moment, as he's the only undefeated ROH champion in history, and he's leaving with the belt. Gibson hits the ring and runs after Punk, who bails to the crowd. But he's cut off by Samoa Joe, who comes through the crowd and chances him back to ringside. He goes up the entrance, but is met by Foley, who nails Punk and throws him into the ring. Gibson gives Punk a Tigerbomb, and Foley makes the 3 count. Gibson holds the belt high, then grabs the mic and challenges Punk to an ROH World Title match next week in CT. He drapes the belt over the fallen Punk as the crowd chants 'Jamie.' Great segment.

We're backstage, where the camera catches up with Cabana one more time. Cabana's pissed, saying he thought he was better than Nigel, but he was wrong. He says he's off to England, and storms out the exit. Good segment to close the show.

Overall: I'd highly recommend this show to anyone, as it's one of the most solid in ROH history. Punk vs. Strong is a Match of the Year candidate, and Aries vs. Joe isn't far behind. Lethal vs. Homicide and the 4 way all provide high quality entertainment. Check this an other great DVD releases out at www.rohwrestling.com

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