ROH 9th Anniversary Show Review

From March 5, 2012.

Match 1: Davey Richards vs. Colt Cabana
After losing to Roderick Strong, Davey looks to earn his shot at the World Championship by defeating the top tier talent. He takes on Chicago's Colt Cabana in a one on one contest here to open the show. Crowd is packed and hot with a pretty split crowd between the two. Some really good ground work between the two with Davey looking to focus on Colt's left arm which frustrated me at times since he was flipping back between working on his arm and doing his regular move set. Then again, this is Davey Richards and him working on one body part through the entire course of the match is kind of unrealistic. You get your usual great stuff from Davey and Colt here with a lot of counters, reversals, submissions, and some big moves including Cabana dropping Davey on the top rope. Davey ends the match by making Colt submit by locking in Colt's left arm. Strong opening contest from the two here but I really would have liked to have seen them get more time to steal the show. Nevertheless, this was a great match and something I'm interested in seeing once more down the line.
Winner: Davey Richards
Rating: ***1/2

Match 2: Steve Corino vs. Grizzly Redwood vs. Kyle O'Reilly vs. Mike Bennett
The main thing going into this one is Corino's path of recovery and his little feud going up against Mike Bennett. Four corner survivals normally consist of nonstop action and this one was no different and surprisingly, everyone got in a good amount of offense, even Grizzly. However, I couldn't help but feel as if the entire match was pretty much focused on Mike Bennett which is a shame since we have the up and coming Kyle O'Reilly in there. But I did like continuing of Corino's path of recovery where he was contemplating sticking his thumb up Redwood's posterior but didn't have the chance to do so when Bennett drilled him. Bennett picks up the win through slamming Redwood and pinning him. Good match but again, lot of the focus was on Bennett who is seemingly getting shoved down our throats but through this, Corino's storyline showed some progression as well and that's always good.
Winner: Mike Bennett
Rating: **1/2

Match 3: Michael Elgin vs. El Generico
Generico has been having troubles lately with The House of Truth and he decides to take on Michael Elgin in the third contest of the match. Michael Elgin impresses the hell out of me with his brute strength. His display of power upon Generico in this match is just untouched. They took it on the outside early on and Elgin caught Generico and ran with him on one of his shoulders and slammed him against the guards. The Generic Luchador wouldn't give up and continued to fight back after near fall and near fall as Elgin wouldn't stop beating down the much weaker Generico. There was also a case during the match where Truth Martini came into play but somehow got lifted onto Elgin's shoulders to which Elgin mustered the strength to power bomb Generico with Martini still on his shoulders! Crowd is definitely buying into Elgin! Generico later on rolls up Elgin and gets the quick pin for the victory. Unsatisfied with the result, Elgin destroys Generico afterwards with the help of Roderick Strong. Great match and a great showing for Michael Elgin, he has one bright future.
Winner: El Generico
Rating: ***1/4

Match 4: ROH World Championship - No Disqualification Barrio Street Fight - Roderick Strong (c) vs. Homicide
Strong gets on the mic after the Generico beat down but Homicide appears out of nowhere and attacks Strong which prompts the match to start earlier. Speculations arose weeks before this match that the match was made into a No Disqualification match due to Homicide's huge slump in his regular wrestling matches and if that is true, then I can understand. Since returning at Glory by Honor, Homicide hasn't done too much in the ring so hopefully his match here can change that train of thought. Things get going with a lot of brawling outside the ring and including in the fans area. Homicide seems to be getting the better part of the things but Roderick utilizes the no disqualification rule and we have four chairs set up in each corner of the ring. Homicide is able to nail Roderick's head into the chairs but Roderick gets back at him and sets up a table in one corner. Roderick looks to drive Homicide through it but Homicide reverses it into a nice DDT. Homicide only gets a two and now Truth Martini and Michael Elgin get into the thick of things but Homicide manages to lose them. Roderick capitalizes on the situation and decapitates his back to get the win! Decent brawl but nothing special. I can see why this wasn't the main event.
Winner: Roderick Strong
Rating: **3/4

Match 5: Sara Del Rey vs. MsChif
The women of honor make their appearance for tonight as Del Rey looks to finally beat MsChif. I'm not a fan of watching them wrestle but they do appeal to a broader audience so I guess a quick match won't hurt. Some decent wrestling from the two, better than you would expect from a Divas match with MsChif getting the upper hand until Del Rey picks her up by clutching her wrists and drills her with her finisher to get the win in a quick bout. After, Del Rey spits on MsChif to which sprays the green mist upon Del Rey.
Winner: Sara Del Rey
Rating: *

Match 6: ROH World Tag Team Championships - The Kings of Wrestling (c) vs. The All Night Express
After defeating the team of Colt Cabana & El Generico in Canada, The All Night Express look to dethrone The Kings of Wrestling. Accompanied by Shane Hagadorn, Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli look primed and ready to successfully defend their belts. The All Night Express have now taken on a more serious tone and that nature has been incorporated into their move set as well. No more joking around, these guys took The Kings to their utmost ability. King especially looked good here and definitely with his encounters with Hero who seemingly brought the best out of him with counter after counter. Castagnoli also shined with the crowd being heavily invested in him for basically every move that he did. Titus, however, was the dark horse and did manage to get a good amount of offense in but his limelight was definitely overshadowed by King and his performance. After a grueling toe for toe type of match for both teams, Hero finally hit Titus with his boot above the skull and landed a nasty elbow upon King. Every man is down and Hero gets the loaded elbow pad from Hagadorn which gets intercepted by King. Claudio does his best to take out King but King looks to take out Claudio to which Hero picks up the pad and nails King with it. This led to Claudio falling atop of King to get the win. The Kings retain in a great tag team match.
Winners: The Kings of Wrestling
Rating: ***3/4

Match 7: ROH World Television Championship - 2/3 Falls - 30 Minute Time Limit - Christopher Daniels (c) vs. Eddie Edwards
Trying to avenge his two losses, Eddie Edwards looks to regain his World Television Championship against Christopher Daniels with special rules. You can already tell that this match is going to be something special when they meet each other in the center of the ring with eyes locked after the bell tolls. Lots of great technical wrestling and back and forth action from the two with Eddie doing everything in his power to get that first fall including jumping off the top rope and into the fans where he put down Daniels. Eddie was looking dominant but Daniels was relentless in his efforts and managed to score the first shocking fall via a roll up that came out of nowhere. Daniels is now in the lead. There also isn't much time remaining in the match which means that Eddie must score one fall as quickly as he can in order to not lose the match. All Daniels has to do now is stay alive for the short period of time remaining and try not to get himself pinned or placed in a submission. Eddie seems exhausted when Daniels goes up to the top rope and drops his knee on him only for Eddie to grab the knee and put him in a submission! Daniels has no choice but to tap out and the score is now even with less than four minutes to go in the contest! The two go back and forth and Eddie drops Daniels on his head from a top rope Hurricanrana which splits open the head of Christopher Daniels! There is only one minute remaining in the match and Edwards does his best to take out Daniels in the final seconds! Edwards hip tosses Daniels out of the ring but Daniels holds on to Edwards and he goes out of the ring with him as well! The referee begins counting both men out but the bell tolls and the time limit expired! After the match, Daniels looks completely out of it as his head his covered in blood. The fans call for five more minutes but with the condition of Christopher Daniels, there's no way he could go another five minutes with Eddie Edwards. Excellent match that definitely didn't drag. They chose their spots and made every minute count.
Winner: n/a
Rating: ****1/4

Match 8: Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team vs. The Briscoes
This is the match that's replacing the World Championship main event and is being billed as a dream bout with the winner earning a #1 contenders spot against The Kings of Wrestling in Atlanta. Both teams acknowledge The Code of Honor and we're off. Shelton & Charlie haven't competed in too many matches in Ring of Honor yet but this match should definitely be a good one. Briscoes go to work on Shelton in the opening minutes but Shelton is right there and uses his experience in amateur wrestling to go toe for toe against them. Crowd chants for Charliee Haas and they get him who exchanges wild chops with Mark Briscoe. This match is looking good from the start as they the feeling each other over process is now done with. Great tag team wrestling from the two teams with awesome exchanges including nasty kicks and chops. The crowd is somewhat wiped out after a fairly long show but both teams continue to impress. They then take the brawling to the outside and into the fans section where Mark jumps out of the ring and onto everyone else. The two teams are displaying some great chemistry but the tough crowd just seemingly can't invest themselves too much into the action. Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team get the win after hitting a Neckbreaker Doomsday Device. Afterwards, the two teams shake hands and embrace each other to the crowd. Great match but a little underwhelming considering the hype going into this billed dream bout.
Winners: Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team
Rating: ***1/2

Overall Show Thoughts and Rating:
A great show that's going to be unrecognized unfortunately due to the New York show trumping it the next month. Strong effort from everyone from top to bottom with an extremely impressive Television Championship match.
Rating: 8.75/10