Weekend Update

ROH 4/18 & 4/19 Results

~Ring of Honor held two shows over the weekend, one in Detroit and the other in Chicago Ridge.
Here's what went down:

Ring of Honor Results - 4/18/08
Detroit, Michigan

-Mitch Franklin, Pelle Primeau, Ernie Osiris defeat "Unreal" Mike Elgin, Danny Daniels, Mike Nakazawa.

-Silas Young defeats Rhett Titus.

-Jigsaw defeats Joey Matthews.

-ROH World Champion, Nigel McGuinness & Claudio Castagnoli defeat Kevin Steen & El Generico.

-Necro Butcher defeats Delirious in a Falls Count Anywhere match.

-Jack Evans & Ruckus (Vulture Squad) defeat Brent Albright & Chris Hero.

-ROH Tag Team Champions, The Briscoes defeat Austin Aries & Kota Ibushi Austin Aries.

-Jimmy Jacobs & Tyler Black (The Age of the Fall) defeat Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin (The Motor City Machineguns).

Ring of Honor Results - 4/19/08
Chicago Ridge, Illinois

-Austin Aries defeats Silas Young.

-Necro Butcher beats Alex Sugarfoot Payne & Mitch Franklin.

-Claudio Castagnoli & Pelle Primeau defeat Brent Albright & Adam Pearce.

-Mschif defeats Lacey, Daizee Haze and Ashley Lane in a 4-way match.

-Chris Hero beats Delirous.

-Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley beat ROH Tag Team Champions, The Briscoes, in a non-title match.

-Kota Ibushi defeats El Generico

-Zach Gowen, Tyler Black & Joey Matthews defeat Jack Evans, Ruckus & Jigsaw

-ROH World Champion, Nigel McGuinness successfully defends his title against Kevin Steen.


The first thing that jumps out at me after reading these results are that Kota Ibushi and the Motor City Machineguns picking up wins. Since debuting last week, Ibushi has been racking up the losses and Sabin & Shelley, TNA regulars, haven't won a match in god-knows how long. The machineguns seemed to have tied up their series with the Briscoes at 1-1 with a win in Chicago and the Briscoes winning their match last year . Who knows when the third match is coming.

All signs are pointing towards a potential Nigel McGuinness vs. Claudio Castagnoli feud/match. McGuinness told Castagnoli in the last ROH Videowire that if he helped him win his match against Kevin Steen & El Generico in Detroit, then he could earn a ROH World Title shot on May 10 in NYC. I'm sure the match will probably be good and all but I just don't see Claudio Castagnoli as ROH champ, I just don't see it.

Necro Butcher just seemed to be kicking ass all weekend.

4/19 WWE Smackdown Results

(Pics from WWE.com)


~This week's episode starts with Batista as a guest on WWE Intercontinental Champion, Chris Jericho's talk show, The Highlight Reel. Jericho talks some trash about Shawn Michaels, Batista's opponent at Backlash, WWE's upcoming PPV, and then Jericho talks some trash about Batista.


-That doesn't work out too well for Chris Jericho.


-WWE United States Champion, MVP, beats Tommy Dreamer in a non-title match.


-Hornswoggle beats Matt Striker. [*Note* That pic is pretty funny]


-Chavo Guerrero defeats Jaime Noble


-Then Chavo's new bodyguard, the "One-Man Fence" Bam Neely beats down Jaime Noble.


-Guess who's happy now.


-So, Mark Henry is getting handled by Big Show.


-But then The Great Khali, who had his peace offerings rejected by Show last week, comes down to the ring and lays Big Show out.


-Cherry picks up a win over Victoria.

-Vladimir Kozlov (and his spotlight) runs over some guy for the third week in a row. No pic for this one.


-World Heavyweight Champion, The Undertaker and Batista are in the middle of a non-title match but then Edge and Chavo Guerrero interfere.


-Batista takes out Chavo.


-Taker takes out Edge.


-The match ends in a countout and Smackdown General Manager, Vickie Guerrero, announces that The Undertaker and Batista will have a rematch next week with the World Heavyweight Title on the line.


No Jesse or Festus this week, which sucks.

Batista and The Undertaker have a bit of history together steming from last year and WWE showed a pretty good video montage covering everything, which I thought was cool.



I'm digging the slow build to the Batista/Shawn Michaels match and I'm also digging Jericho's role as the annoying instigator throughout this feud. I hope this feud continues in some shape or form after Backlash (hopefully Michaels vs. Jericho) because it's pretty damn entertaining.



I'm also starting to get into the whole Vladimir Kozlov gimmick, spotlight and all. However, all that screaming kind of gets on my nerves.


Match of the Night, in my opinion, was Chavo Guerrero vs. Jamie Noble. I really enjoyed that match.


Cherry has the worst theme music. Ever.

ECW Results, Upcoming ROH PPV and Wednesday Wrestler Spotlight

3/5 ECW Results

(Pics from WWE.com)


~The show starts with The Miz & John Morrison defending the WWE Tag Team Titles against Tommy Dreamer & Colin Delaney. Dreamer and Delaney were doing alright, until Delaney gets a chair and hits Miz and Morrison with it. This causes Dreamer and Delaney to get disqualified and allow the tag champs to retain their titles.


-Shelton Benjamin ends Stevie Richards’ three-match winning streak.


-Kane beats James Curtis in 2 seconds. For some reason, Chuck Palumbo decides to stalk Kane on from his motorcycle throughout the match.



-It is announced that Tommy Dreamer & Colin Delaney will receive a rematch for the WWE Tag Team Titles next week in a no-DQ match.

-Then, it was time for the main event of CM Punk vs. Chavo Guerrero for the ECW Championship.





-Chavo Guerrero pulls out the win and remains ECW Champion.

This episode of ECW was definitely built around the ECW title match. Thankfully, Punk and Chavo delivered and saved the show because other then that, the show was VERY uneventful. The match starts off a little slow but the pace picks up near the end.



Chavo Guerrero vs. CM Punk (Part I)




Chavo Guerrero vs. CM Punk (Part II)

Why the plug was pulled so quickly on Stevie Richards’ winning streak is a mystery to me but it was kind of hard to imagine just what Richards would be doing once he stopped beating no-names.

It seems Kofi Kingston took the night off to try and pick up Kelly Kelly. I bet this line works all the time on the “island”.



ROH Pay-Per-View Airing This Friday

(Pic from rohwrestling.com)

~Ring of Honor's latest Pay Per View event, Rising Above, is set to premiere this Friday. This show will be the sixth PPV event in the company's history since all ROH shows made are distributed via DVDs.

The show was pre-taped and originally occured on 12/29/07 in NYC. Here's the card for the show:

ROH World Title Match
Nigel McGuinness (Champion) vs. Austin Aries

ROH World Tag Team Title 2/3 Falls Match
Jay & Mark Briscoe (Champions) vs. Rocky Romero & Roderick Strong

Grudge Match #1
Bryan Danielson vs. Takeshi Morishima

Grudge Match #2
Claudio Castagnoli vs. Chris Hero with Larry Sweeney

Grudge Match #3
Erick Stevens vs. Davey Richards

Three-Way Women's Match
Sara Del Rey vs. Lacey vs. Daizee Haze

Tag Team Scramble
Jimmy Jacobs & Tyler Black vs. Kevin Steen & El Generico vs. Jack Evans & Ruckus vs. Adam Pearce & BJ Whitmer

Grudge Match #4
Delirious vs. Brent Albright

In terms of in-ring action, the ROH PPVs have been extremely good and have been right up there with WWE and TNA. However, their shows are very poorly advertised and unless you already are a ROH fan, you probably won't know when their shows are released. This, of course, is the opposite of what you are supposed to do when you expand, try to reach out to the casual, non-fan to add to your fanbase instead of just catering to your loyal following.

Here's a 10 minute preview of the show released by ROH:



Wednesday Wrestler Spotlight

~The wrestler in the spotlight this week goes by a couple of names. "The Washington Warrior", "The Prince of Parkland (Washington)", and "The Aerial Emperor" are just a few. Personally, I perfer...

Jack Evans, from the Heavens.

Jack Evans is a regular in ROH and has been since 2004, but he's also made appearences in Japan and in other promotions across America, including TNA.

Evans is notable for mostly his breakdancing and his fast-paced wrestling style, which consists of a bunch of flips, twists and other high flying manuevers. Like the Springboard Skytwister Press Suicida



And the Space Flying Tiger Drop



And the 630 Senton



And even more breakdancing



Although all the high flying stuff is pretty entertaining, many people don't like Evans' style because he doesn't set anything up and just performs a bunch of moves like a choreographed movie fight scene.

I think Jack Evans is great and he's one of the few wrestlers that makes my jaw drop almost everytime I see him in the ring.



In ROH, Evans is the leader of his own group called "The Vulture Squad", which also features Julius Smokes, Jigsaw and Ruckus.

Evans is currently out of action after suffering a facial injury while taking part in a match in Japan. He's been out since January and I don't know when he's scheduled to make his in-ring return, but from the pics I saw, the injury was pretty brutal.



(clip of how Jack Evans got his injury)

Weekend Update

2/22 WWE Smackdown Results:

(Pics from wwe.com)

~Friday Night Smackdown took place last…Friday. Here’s what happened:


-Edge vowed to be the first man to beat the Undertaker at Wrestlemania, that is until the Undertaker came out and chased him away.





-Shelton Benjamin beat Jimmy Wang Yang for a spot in the Money in the Bank Ladder Match at Wrestlemania 24.


-Jesse & Festus defeated Deuce & Domino


-Big Daddy V defeated Shannon Moore


-Batista beats MVP


-Kane beats The Great Khali



-Chuck Palumbo beat up some guy named Matt Jackson


-Rey Mysterio announces that he is going to have surgery to repair his torn bicep and will miss Wrestlemania. He is then put into a match against ECW Champion, Chavo Guerrero. Rey goes on to win that match but is destroyed by The Big Show afterwards.



I’m really looking forward to the outcome of the Edge/Taker match at Wrestlemania. Edge just got the World Heavyweight Title in December and I think it would be a shame for him to lose the belt so quickly. However, Undertaker is 15-0 at the event and it would be a shame for him to lose that streak to Edge [although I like Edge, I just don’t think he should break Taker’s undefeated streak].

MVP is the WWE United States Champion, yet he constantly loses matches and holds on to the title. Hopefully he gets something to do with the belt soon.

Blonde hair and all, Shelton Benjamin being added to the Money in the Bank ladder match is a huge positive, since he’s been in the first two and provided tons of highlight reel material. The MITB match is usually one of the highlights of Wrestlemania and I think that trend will continue this year.




If Chavo Guerrero is the ECW Champion, keep him on ECW. Despite that, I thought the Chavo/Rey match was pretty good.

TNA Notes

~TNA held house shows (non-televised events) on Friday and Saturday in Westbury and Elmira, NY, respectively. The results from both shows were pretty identical so here’s what went down:

-Homicide & Hernandez (LAX) defeated Jimmy Rave & Lance Hoyt

-Jay Lethal beat Sonjay Dutt

-Team 3D defeated The Motor City Machine Guns

-Samoa Joe defeated AJ Styles

-Awesome Kong beat Gail Kim and Miss Jacqueline

-Kurt Angle beat Christian Cage


Results from ROH's Sixth Anniversary Weekend Shows

~ROH celebrated its 6th year in existence with two NYC shows. On 2/22 in Deer Park, NY, several ROH wrestlers missed the show due to a blizzard. As a result, the show centered around a one-night tournament where the winner would recieve an ROH World Title shot in the future. Here's the results:



2/22



-Bryan Danielson defeats Rocky Romero in a first round match.



-Kevin Steen defeats Delirious in first round tournament action.



-El Generico defeats Austin Aries in a first round match.



-Go Shiozaki defeats Necro Butcher in a tournament match



-Kevin Steen defeats Bryan Danielson in a tournament semi-final match



-Go Shiozaki defeats El Generico to reach the tournament final.



-Jason Blade wins a 4-corner survival over Pelle Primeau, Mitch Frankin and The Human Tornado



-Ruckus & Jigsaw defeat Zach Gowen & Jimmy Jacobs



-Kevin Steen defeats Go Shiozaki in the tournament final to win a future title shot.



2/23



-Delirious vs. Human Tornado went to a no contest due to interference from Jimmy Jacobs and Tyler Black.



-Jimmy Jacobs & Tyler Black defeated Human Tornado & Delirious.



-Brent Albright defeated El Generico.



-Kevin Steen defeated Joey Matthews.



-Sara Del Rey defeated Daizee Haze to retain the SHIMMER championship.



-Rocky Romero & Davey Richards defeated Ruckus & Jigsaw to retain the ROH World Tag Team Championship.



-Roderick Strong defeated Necro Butcher & Erick Stevens in a NO DQ match to retain the FIP World Championship.



-Nigel McGuinness defeated Bryan Danielson to retain the ROH World Championship.



There’s a bit of controversy stemming from the Saturday show. According to various reports, here’s what I've gathered as to what went down:

Larry Sweeney, who plays a heel sports agent gimmick, had a talk show segment during the event. He was in the ring with another wrestler named Bobby Dempsey, who is rather overweight and is constantly berated by Sweeney because of it. Sweeney’s talk-show guest was Allison Danger, a female wrestler on the ROH roster.

Sweeney allegedly calls Danger a “slut” and she goes to leave the ring. Before she leaves Sweeney knocks her out with a microphone from behind (remember kids wrestling is “fake”, so she isn’t really knocked out). He then reportedly tells Dempsey to have his way with the unconscious Allison Danger. When Dempsey refuses, Sweeney knocks him out as well and he falls on top of the woman.

I haven’t seen the angle so I don’t know how bad it actually came off, but from what I’ve reading it was pretty…bad. I’m sure it was only done to get Larry Sweeney over as a heel and wasn’t meant to be done as in poor taste as it ended up (not that I’m condoning it in any way). But, some ideas should just never leave your imagination.

ROH even mentioned the incident on their latest news wire:

“ROH officials are embarrassed and apologetic over the actions of Larry
Sweeney last Saturday at the Manhattan Center. We won't go into details here, but Sweeney proved to be an absolutely reprehensible and despicable individual. Sweeney has stated that he will lead Sweet & Sour Inc. to a "hostile takeover" of ROH. Sweeney was bragging to ROH officials that he will personally change the face of ROH. We have seen that there is nothing too disgusting for Larry Sweeney. ROH officials are definitely on edge with Sweeney's recent "hostile takeover" statement.”

Source: rohwrestling.com

2/19 ECW Results, ROH Prepares for Sixth Birthday

(Pics from WWE.com)

~ECW was live from San Diego, CA last night. Here’s what went down:

-Kofi Kingston defeats Jason Riggs.

-The Miz and John Morrison beat down Colin Delaney for the twelfth week in a row.

-Stevie Richards beat James Curtis

-Ric Flair and CM Punk defeat Shelton Benjamin and Elijah Burke.

Although ECW wasn’t all that bad this week, where, oh where, was the ECW Champion, Chavo Guerrero. You would think that after he successfully defended his title at No Way Out that another challenger would appear to set-up a match at Wrestlemania, but that would be just too much to ask.

As senseless as these jobber [wrestlers whose sole purpose is to lose to help make their opponent look good] matches are, I like that they are building Kofi Kingston and Stevie Richards. What are they building towards? That’s another story, most likely its nothing.

By the way, it seems WWE wants to drill into the heads of their fans that Kofi Kingston is the “first Jamaican WWE Superstar”. So, for some reason, I feel it is my duty to remind those that forgot and to inform those who don’t know, of this fact.


I didn’t see the point to having Ric Flair on ECW, mainly because I know the WWE “creative” staff probably chose between adding him to the show or Chavo and guess who got the short end of the stick on that one.

Although he’s had the hairstyle for months now, I’m still not digging the bleach job for the “Gold Standard” Shelton Benjamin.


~Ring of Honor celebrates its sixth anniversary this Friday and Saturday with two shows in New York. The weekend is headlined by Nigel McGuinness defending the ROH World Title against Bryan Danielson on Saturday. Here’s the line-up for both shows:

"Deer Park, NY- February 22nd
Friday, February 22, 2008

Ring Of Honor
February 22, 2008- 8pm start
Deer Park Community Center
41 Homer Avenue
Deer Park, NY 11729

Tickets are available at http://www.rohwrestling.com/, http://www.tickets.com/, or by calling (215) 781-2500.

Main Event #1- Tag Team Challenge
Roderick Strong & Davey Richards vs. Kevin Steen & El Generico

Main Event #2- Bryan Picks Nigel's Opponent - Non-Title
Nigel McGuinness vs. Brent Albright

Main Event #3- Nigel Picks Bryan's Opponent
Bryan Danielson vs. Rocky Romero

Shiozaki's US Debut
Erick Stevens vs. Go Shiozaki

First Time Ever
Austin Aries vs. Joey Matthews

Special Attraction Match
Tyler Black vs. The Human Tornado

Tag Team Bonus Match
Jigsaw & Ruckus with Julius Smokes & Mercedes Martinez vs. Jimmy Jacobs & Necro Butcher with Lacey

The debut of Larry Sweeney's talk show segment plus more!!!"

Source: rohwrestling.com

"New York, NY- ''Sixth Anniversary Show'' February 23rd
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Ring Of Honor February
23rd, 2008- 7:30 pm belltime
Manhattan Center (Grand Ballroom)
311 West 34th St.
New York, NY 10001
(212) 279-7740

Tickets are available at http://www.rohwrestling.com/, http://www.tickets.com/, or by calling (215) 781-2500.

ROH World Title Match
Nigel McGuinness defends vs. Bryan Danielson

No DQ FIP World Heavyweight Title Match
Roderick Strong defends vs. Erick Stevens vs. The Necro Butcher

ROH World Tag Team Title Match
Rocky Romero & Davey Richards defend vs. Ruckus & Jigsaw with Julius Smokes

SHIMMER Title Match
Sara Del Rey defends vs. Daizee Haze

First Time Ever
Austin Aries vs. Go Shiozaki

Grudge Match
El Generico vs. Brent Albright

Special Challenge Match
Kevin Steen vs. Joey Matthews

Special Attraction
Delirious vs. Human Tornado

Also scheduled to appear: The Age Of The Fall of Jimmy Jacobs & Tyler Black with Lacey"

Source: rohwrestling.com

Despite some of their talent being in Japan, wrestling for Pro Wrestling NOAH (seemingly the Japanese equivalent to ROH), I think both cards are pretty strong.

McGuinness and Danielson have had some really good matches in the past, so Saturday night should continue what has been a great rivalry so far.

Besides that, one of the main must-sees of the ROH weekend, in my opinion, is this guy:

The Human Tornado

I saw one match from this guy and he instantly became one of my favorite wrestlers ever. He usually wrestles for the California-based promotion, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, but recently he’s made his way to Ring of Honor. Here’s a highlight video I found of him: