Ring of Honor weekend in Orlando
I have been a fan of professional wrestling for quite some time. I think it goes back to 1st grade. My first memory of wrestling was flipping through the channels and coming across the Undertaker beating someone and putting them into a body bag. Of course I didn’t know at the time what I do now and thought I was seeing this scary dude kill another dude. But the I was instantly hooked. And with the WWF I got into WCW and with that came ECW. ECW being the hometown, hardcore, pure wrestling promotion that wanted to be different from the big two. My parents wouldn’t let me and my brother watch ECW because it was too violent but I would sneak to the channel whenever I could to see what those guys were up to.
But sooner or later the competition was no more. ECW went bankrupt and the WWF purchased their assets. WCW was sold to WWF. It was a wrestling monopoly. And later the WWF would start running stupid gimmicks and become way more about theatrics than wrestling. Why? Because they could. There was no viable alternative. A few companies came around to try to make there be competition but many failed. A select couple started doing something though that gave the fans that just wanted wrestling an alternative. Total Nonstop Action (TNA) out of Nashville (now Orlando) and Ring of Honor (ROH) out of Philadelphia (the real home of pro wrestling). TNA caught on quick being able to bring in some bigger names and using young up and comers that were doing amazing things. Unfortunately booking changes at TNA made the actual product become a watered down version of WWE (formerly WWF). But there was that little company in Philly that was staying true to their line. They offered wrestling. They used young, talented grapplers from all over the world. They would even begin bringing in some of the top talents from Japan. ROH hooked me. I had lost a lot of interest in wrestling but they brought me back in. They have even helped produce a lot of wrestlers that have moved on become quite big stars like Samoa Joe, CM Punk, Austin Aries, Alex Shelley and more.
Well for awhile the only way I could see ROH was by DVD. They don’t have a TV show and they only really do shows through the northeast and midwest. When I heard they were coming to Orlando during Wrestlemania weekend for two shows I had to go. I convinced my brother and his girlfriend to go with me and I bought our tickets months in advance.
We arrived Friday afternoon, the day of the first show. We got a little lost looking for the place but got there about 20 minutes before bell time. When I walked in I was just in awe. Kind of like when a young Red Sox fan goes to Fenway for the very first time. There stood the ring with the ROH logo in the middle. I looked at the entrance ramp and knew I would be seeing my favorites walk out of the curtain very soon. We walked to find our seats and stopped at the merchandise table. They had a buy 3 get 1 free sales on DVDs so of course I got 8 DVDs. We took our seats in section A row 6. Then the show was on.
It started with ROH World Champion Nigel McGuinness coming out and talking about his title reign and how he doesn’t care what the fans think. Despite him trying to play the heel role Nigel is still the man. I have been a fan of his for quite awhile and now that he’s a “bad guy” I’m not turning on him. He squared off against my brother’s favorite wrestler, the mysterious and crazy Delirious. Delirious started the match off mocking Nigel and calling him Mickey Mouse, typical Delirious shtick. Eventually things got underway and the two put on a good opening match with Nigel winning with the London Dungeon submission hold.
The rest of the night was capped with great matches pitting ROH vs. Dragon Gate. Dragon Gate is a promotion from Japan that has a very good working relationship with ROH. They have many of their wrestlers compete on each others shows. It is also a tradition for the stars of Dragon Gate to come over to ROH on the weekend of Wrestlemania.
The match of the night the first night was definitely Kevin Steen and El Generico beating Naruki Doi and Masato Yoshino. Steen and Generico impress me more and more each time I watch them wrestle and they are destined for gold this year. The main event was also very good and pitted the faction of the No Remorse Corps with Roderick Strong, Davey Richards and Rocky Romero against an all star team of sorts with a wrestler from ROH, Dragon Gate and Pro Wrestling NOAH (another Japanese promotion). This team consisted of Erick Stevens (ROH), CIMA (Dragon Gate) and Go Shiozaki (NOAH). Roderick has always been known to throw some of the hardest chops in the business but Go is the protege
of the legendary Japanese wrestler Kenta Kobashi. Kobashi throws probably the hardest chops ever and Go definitely follows in his teacher’s foot steps. I think Erick Stevens felt left out and decided he wanted to chop with the big boys too and he delivered. By the end of the match both Roderick and Erick’s chests were almost purple from the beatings. This was just a warm up to what the did to each other the next night. The show ended with CIMA picking up the victory for his team using the Crossfire on either Davey or Rocky, I don’t remember which. Then the crowd cheered and thanked the competitors for a hard fought match.
The next day was not only the second show that night but also the ROH Fan Fest during the afternoon where you could meet your favorite wrestlers and get a picture, get an autograph, buy some of their merch, etc. We had a great time and were very impressed with how personable some of the wrestlers were. Will Nigel McGuinness and Larry Sweeney both play big heels in the ring they were both extremely nice and thankful of everyone coming out. I was a little disappointed to see Austin Aries be a bit stand offish with some people even requiring you to buy an autograph just to get a picture with him. I wanted his autograph anyway but my brother just wanted a picture while many other wrestlers were happy just to do pictures for free. But that feeling went away after I met the Dragon Gate duo of Shingo and BxB Hulk. They are absolutely amazing in the ring and despite speaking very little English very nice and polite in person. I bought and autographed picture from the both of them and got my picture with them both.
That night was the second show and boy were we in for a great show. The card was stacked and everyone brought their A game. We got our seats this time in section C row 5. We were right by the entrance ramp and even though we were technically only one row closer than last night it felt so much closer.
Delirious opened the show again this time against Go Shiozaki. With normal Delirious hijinks, when the fans would be chanting Go Go Go Go Delirious would jump in with a STOP and everyone in the crowd would stop. This went on a few times and you could see the young Japanese star was trying very hard not to laugh. Delirious then tried to insist on a rule that if Go chops him that Go should be disqualified. Of course the ref wouldn’t buy this and Go eventually chopped Delirious. Go took the victory with his finisher the Go Flasher and the night was on.
With the exception of the second match, every single match that night was great. Steen and Generico had a hard fought match against Shingo and BxB Hulk that could have very easily stole the show. Erick Stevens and Roderick Strong just beat the living hell out of each other. Both mens’ chests were bloody, both of their heads busted open, they just fought like two bitter enemies should. The Briscoes brawled with the Age of the Fall through the crowd (which if I don’t make the DVD I’ll be surprised) and say Mark Briscoe jump maybe twelve feet from an entrance overhang onto a guy through a table. Nigel successfully defended his ROH World title against Austin Aries in a back and forth match. Then to top it all of the traditional Dragon Gate 6 man tag match. This match was mind boggling how these guys could just go nonstop for close to 30 minutes. I have seen past 6 man matches from many of these guys but this just took the cake. It was electric in there as the crowd was going nuts, myself included. No one wanted it to end but of course it had to at some point. It was a great show overall and thought to myself this has to be one of the best wrestling shows ever. I then began to think well maybe I’m just saying that because I was there in person but upon reading reviews so far I may be right. Many are calling the show Saturday one of the best shows ever and the possibility of being a couple 5 star matches. It’s kind of cool to think I attended a historic show.
Anyway that ended the wrestling and we came home on Sunday. My brother was a fan going in but I think is even more of a fan now. We completely converted his girlfriend to a fan. My brother and his girlfriend both bought front row tickets to their return to Orlando in October as well as the show in Coral Springs the night before that. I will be attending their next Philadelphia show in June with my cousin who I somehow convinced to go with me because she thinks Tyler Black in so sexy!
I know wrestling always gets looked down on for being “fake” and have problems with steroids but for every silly thing and roid head in the WWE there are at least 20 wrestlers with talent that aren’t jacked up and go out there to entertain. Some people have no idea how much hard work it is to be a wrestler. Most of the people that bad mouth it could never make it one day training to be one. Plus you go out there and try to do half of the stuff they do. That’s right I didn’t think you could. I had a great time with Pete and Melissa this weekend enjoying the shows and the atmosphere. If you have ever liked wrestling at one point I would highly recommend ROH. It will restore your hope that there is good wrestling out there and you will enjoy it. Go to www.rohwrestling.com or www.rohvideos.com and check out what they have. There are videos of some full matches that you can see for yourself or I have a shit ton of DVDs and can show you some awesome matches.
But anyway a great weekend with great wrestling. I love pro wrestling and I don’t give a fuck what you think about it.
