Photo Courtesy of Uncle Kody From Larry Goodman: Georgia has seen its best wrestling show for 2015...unless ROH tops it when they...
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| Photo Courtesy of Uncle Kody |
From Larry Goodman:
Georgia has seen its best wrestling show for 2015...unless ROH tops it when they come back in August.
I have had the pleasure of seeing Ring of Honor live a half dozen times now. Their show last night at the North Atlanta Trade Center was easily the best of them. For athleticism, technical skill, and balls-to-the-wall effort, I have never seen a better pro wrestling show, bar none. If you missed it, buy the DVD or VOD. You won't be sorry.
Attendance was 1000-1200, standing room only. A rabid crowd all night long. Virtually every performer, heel or face, was showered with appreciation. The question of having an audience for ROH in Atlanta was answered beyond a shadow of a doubt. I can't imagine why anyone that attended this show wouldn't be coming back for more in 6 months. My only complaint was the lack of elevated seating left much of the crowd with poor sightlines to the ring. The show was held in a different space inside the venue than the one Ron Gossett used for his ill-fated UCW television taping.
(1) Dark Match: Punch Drunk Love (Jack Jameson & Brandon Espinosa) defeated Washington Bullets (Jon & Trey Williams). I missed this match. Mostly comedy from what I was told with Bullets making a solid showing.
(2) Caprice Coleman defeated P-Dog (Mike Posey) by pinfall with a top rope leg drop. Good match. P-Dog got the desired crowd reaction. Coleman must have found the fountain of youth. He's got the spring and flexibility of a young buck.
(3) Corey Hollis vs. Jonathan Gresham ended as a no contest at 4:38 when they were attacked by BJ Whitmer & Adam Page leading to...
(4) Whitmer & Page defeated Hollis & Gresham when Page pinned Gresham with a sick reverse piledriver at the 9 minute mark. Page also did his standing shooting star from the apron to the floor. Hollis
(5) Matt Sydal pinned Delirious with a Shooting Star Press in 13:47. I was having flashbacks to 2003 NWA Wildside when Sydal and Delirious first came in from St. Louis. Great match. Right before the finish, Delirious dropped Sydal right on his head with a dragon suplex and Sydal popped up like it was nothing.
(6) Roderick Strong defeated Kyle O'Reilly via pinfall with End of Heartache at 16:31. This was the show stealer IMO, an absolutely amazing match. They got dueling chants and a chant of "both these guys". The pace was hellacious. The exchange of strikes for the double down was like a video game come to life.
Postmatch - a "that was awesome" chant for a truly awesome match.
(7) Moose (with former Falcon John Abraham & Stokely Hathaway) pinned ACH with a spear at 12:15. Heel or not, Moose was super over as was ACH. They went longer than I expected, and the match was way better than I expected. You can't do big man vs. little man much better than this. Moose has made solid choices of moves to incorporate in his repetoire. ACH threw everything he had at Moose but couldn't take him down until a corkscrew flip dive finally did the trick. Moose used a climbing overhead belly-to-belly suplex ala Angle to set up the spear.
Postmatch - Moose headed to the back, but Hathaway stayed behind running his mouth. ACH shut it with a superkick and followed with a 450.
(8) Hansen defeated Jay Lethal and Will Ferrara and Cedric Alexander and Michael Elgin and Tommaso Ciampa pinning Alexander with the Spinkick of Doom in 14 minutes. Ferrara subbed for Jimmy Jacobs (with Truth Martini) who missed the show due to a problem with their flight. On a typical Georgia indy show, Ferrara's technical skills would blow away the competition. He was just passable in this company. A tremendously entertaining match. I would give it a 10 for creativity. Lethal did five consecutive topes. Alexander showed why he deserves to be part of the top group at ROH. The one glaring negative was that there tons of moves that looked more impressive than Hansen's finisher.
(9) AJ Styles defeated Bobby Fish via pinfall with the Styles Clash in 19:22. This match was a nice contrast to O'Reilly/Strong. Styles' got the loudest entrance pop of the night. The surprise was the support for Fish. There was a dueling chant with the crowd equally behind both men. They match was a gradual build steeped in sound psychology. Not much suspense about the outcome of this one. Fish was fighting like crazy to stave off the Clash, so Styles softened him with a Gonzo Bomb.
(10) Kingdom (Michael Bennett & Matt Taven) defeated Briscoe Brothers (Jay & Mark) 2 out of 3 falls in Tag Team Armegeddon (total time 26:. They brought the violence bigtime. Briscoes won the first fall with back-to-back springboard Doomsday Devices, the second one with Mark adding a 180 twist to pin Bennett at 7:05. The second fall was a table match won by Kingdom with a psychotic stuff piledriver off the apron on Mark at 12:40. The third fall was falls count anywhere. Mark put Taven through a table with a dive off a scaffold tower from at least 12 feet up. Might have been 15. Completely nuts. Taven was busted open hardway, grimacing and clutching his arm. Back inside the ring, Bennett kicked out of the J Driller and Jay kicked out of the piledriver. Meanwhile, Taven managed to crawl back to the ring wearing the crimson mask. For the finish, Taven did a suicide dive onto Mark who was sitting on Bennett's shoulders at ringside. Mark toppled off at a weird angle. Only a madman would agree to take that bump. I never thought of Taven as a tough guy, but I sure as hell do now. It was shocking to see Kingdom win this feud.
Huge thank you ovation for the Briscoes after the match. Jay thanked the Atlanta fans for coming out to see the best wrestling on the planet.
