ROH Lewiston, Maine Live Report

Ring of Honor finally made their debut in my home State of Maine as part of the Global Wars Tour featuring talent from New Japan Pro Wrestling.

As excited as I was when Ring of Honor announced their Maine debut there was a couple things that surprised me about it; the fact that it going to be on a Wednesday night and at the Colisee in Lewiston.  Nothing against Lewiston, it was a rich history of professional wrestling with the Armory hosting the WWF from the late 60's to the early 80's.  Also I attended numerous EWA events at the Armory in the late 1990's, it's one of my favorite places to attend wrestling.

However, in the last 35 plus years WWE has only had two shows at the Colisee primarily sticking to Portland, Augusta, & Bangor.  WCW only ran two shows in Maine, Portland and Bangor, and TNA's only show was in Portland.

Roy, my daughter Addison, and I headed to the Dirty Lew for a night of wrestling.  We saw some familiar faces we typically see at show here in Maine including my buddy Phil.  My high school chum Ben had the seat behind me, it's always nice running into Ben.

Our seats were fantastic!  The venue was set up for about half a house, out seats were center ring in the front row of the first section off the floor so we were elevated over everyone on the floor even when they stood up.  Not bad at all for $30!  The house was maybe 1,000 people, but they were a lively crowd that were up for all the matches.  I do have genuine concern if ROH will come back, I hope they do.

The matches were really good with some really great talent and everyone work hard putting on a good show.  Unfortunately two times during the night they lost power to their equipment and the fist time the building lost power as well with the emergency lights coming on.

Dark Match
Ryan Nova pinned "Retro" Anthony Greene with the Platinum Hunnies

It was a nice surprise seeing AG on the show.  He got a good pop and was over with the crowd who booed Nova heavily only because they favored AG.  AG got a good ovation after his loss and I'm hoping this is a good step towards him signing with ROH. 

Thursday Night ROH had a show in Lowell where Greene wrestled in the dark match on the losing end of a six man tag.

Main Show - Aired on Honor Club
Commentary by Ian Riccaboni & Colt Cabana

Flip Gordon pinned Eli Isom

Solid opening match.  Flip was over with the crowd and he gave us some flips.  I wasn't impressed with Eli Isom at all, he botched a spinebuster where he just gently layed Flip down on the canvas.  Flip for the pin after a flip five.

Tag Team Champions: SCU: Scorpio Sky & Frankie Kazarian defeated The Bouncers: Brian Milonas and Beer City Bruiser

Great tag team wrestling with the champs bumping all around for bigger team.  I really like Beer City Bruiser.  He is a throwback to 70's wrestlers like The Crusher and The Bruiser.  Finish came when Milonas was in the corner and got caught by the champs for a double powerbomb.

World Television Champion: Jeff Cobb pinned Cheeseburger

Matches started off with Cheeseburger attempting multiple offensive moves and Cobb defending them like it was nothing.  He basically treated Cheeseburger like he was a child.  Eventually Burger did get so offense in that rocked Cobb for a bit, but then Cobb hit tour of the islands for the pin.

World Six Man Tag Team Champions: The Kingdom: Matt Taven, TK O'Ryan, & Vinny Marseglia defeated Dalton Castle & The Boys

For majority of the match Marseglia did his hide under the ring crap which was fine with me until of course he came out.  Overall I enjoyed the match, a lot of wild brawling in and out of the ring with very little actual tagging.   Once Marseglia came out from under the ring he got in a bit of offense before Castle it Bang-A-Rang for a two count.  The match broke down again and the finish came with Marseglia and O'Ryan hit house of a thousand horses on one of the boys for the pin.

I'm waiting for O'Ryan to breakaway from the Kingdom and become the singles star he is destined to be.

The Briscoe Brothers: Mark & Jay defeated Hangman Page & Cody with Brandi Rhodes

This match was fantastic!  All four of these guys are so good and they put on the match of the night here.  Page was the star of the match hitting his apron shooting star press to the floor and buck shot lariat.  He then hit a moonsault from the top rope to the floor on both Briscoes.  Cody hit Crossrhodes on Mark but Jay broke it up.  Cody was sent to the floor and after an attempted second rope rite of passage on Mark, Jay hit Hangman with the Jay Driller and Mark a froggy bow for the pin.

Juice Robinson pinned "Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels

This was a good match but I think it had potential to be much better.  Juice for the win with pulp friction,

Bully Ray & Silas Young defeated The Young Bucks: Nick & Matt Jackson

This was great match.  Ray and Young dominated Matt for the majority until he made the hot tag to Nick who came in a house of fire.  Surprisingly though, the bucks took the loss when Matt was hit with a low blow and Silas hit his finish.  The fans were shocked that the Bucks lost and disappointed.

LIJ: Tetsuya Naito, Sanada, Bushi, & Evil defeated World Champion: Jay Lethal, Jonathan Gresham, Chris Sabin, & IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion: Kushida

This match was all over the place!  LIJ and especially Naito was extremely over getting the biggest reaction of the night.  There was a lot of very fast paced action where Sabin and Kushida busted out some great combinations.  Gresham looked damn good in the match and we got the see LIJ get all their shit in.  Finish came when Gresham was hit with destino by Naito for the pin.

It was a fun night of wrestling, best show I've seen in the building and I went to the two WWE shows I spoke of earlier.  I really hope that ROH returns to Lewiston or anywhere in Maine in the future.

I didn't bring my good camera to take pictures, I just used me phone.  I used to bring my good camera and take tons of pictures at shows, now I just want to watch the matches and the only reason why I even take pictures is for my blog. 

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment, read my other posts, and like my blogs Facebook page and while you're at it check out my weekly podcast The Wrestling Insomniac on the Nerdy Legion Podcast Network. 

Later Readers!

Jerry Lynn was the WWF Light Heavyweight Champion?

Listening to the Mikey Whipwreck and Jerry Lynn's new podcast the other day it was mentioned by the host that Lynn was a former WWF Light Heavyweight Champion.  This statement gave me pause because I didn't remember Lynn being champion straight away so I decided to look into it.

On April 29, 2001 from Chicago on a live Sunday Night Heat before the Backlash Pay Per View Lynn made his WWF television debut defeating Light Heavyweight Champion: Crash Hardy to win the championship in about three and a half minutes.

This match was after the closure of WCW & ECW and even though Lynn was in the WWF during the invasion angle he was not affiliated with ECW brand during this time.  This was Lynn's 4th run with the promotion after brief stints in 1989, 1995, & 1997.

Jerry Lynn vs. Rick Martel May 16, 1989 LaCrosse, WI

He debuted on March 25th at a house show in Baltimore defeating Essa Rios.  He wrestled several house shows leading up to his match with Holly including pinning Brian Danielson at the now TD Garden in Boston on April 9th in a dark match.       

He defended the title for 37 days after winning the championship against: Kevin Kruger, Grandmaster Sexay, Crash Holly, Taka Michinoku, Essa Rios, Dean Malenko, Christopher Daniels, Eddie Guerrero, Funaki, and Michael Shane before his loss to Jeff Hardy.

Following the loss he had one rematch and then continued wrestling essentially the same core guys.  He made his Madison Square Garden debut on June 25th defeated Essa Rios with a tornado DDT in five and a half minutes on a taped Jakked that aired on June 30th.

  

On July 31st in Washington DC he wrestled Hardcore Champion: Rob Van Dam in a short match losing to the five star frog splash that was not anywhere near to the level of their matches from ECW.  This was the only significant match of Lynn's that I remembered from this run and it was a bit of a disappointment considering their history.

His final match was one week later on August 6th defeating Justin Incredible on a match taped for Jakked.  During his short run he wrestled primarily on Jakked with a couple matches on Raw and SmackDown and had no in ring PPV appearances.  At Judgement Day on May 20th he was relegated to making an appearance at WWF New York.

Lynn would go on to have a great career in TNA, Ring of Honor, and on the indies wrestling his last match March 23, 2013 in Minneapolis defeating Horace the Psychopath, JB Trask, & Sean Waltman in a Fatal Four Way.

  

I had the pleasure of meeting Jerry Lynn just one time on September 5, 2009 in Fairfield, Maine for the indy promotion Pro Wrestling America.  This show had only like 10 fans in attendance and the majority of the wrestlers cancelled or no showed because a rival promotion about an hour north was also running.

Both Mr. Lynn and Sonjay Dutt were booked for both shows.  The worked the first half of the show in Brewer and then drove down to this show.  The first half of our show consisted of four shit-tastic matches with all trainees.  On match was Sack of Tacks match that where no one took a bump in the tacks.

Finally Lynn and Dutt arrived and tore the house down!  Lynn pinned Champion: Mark Moment with the cradle piledriver and in the main even in falls count anywhere match Cameron Matthews pinned Dutt with a piledriver.  

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment, read my other posts, and like my blogs Facebook page and while you're at it check out my weekly podcast The Wrestling Insomniac on the Nerdy Legion Podcast Network. 

Later Readers!

World Class: Star Wars 1981 Review

About a month ago I was looking through the Hidden Gems section of the WWE Network and found the Star Wars 1981 World Class Championship Wrestling event.  I was pretty excited to find this because I've never seen it before and I'm a fan of the old World Class wrestling. I was also surprised it wasn't in the World Class section.

WCCW Star Wars 1981

Sunday February 22, 1981

Reunion Arena

Ring Announcer: Bill Mercer

Run Time 81 Minutes

Mil Mascaras vs. "Killer" Tim Brooks

Mil looks pretty good here, of course he is only 39 years old.  At the time of this match if you threw your opponent over the top rope you were disqualified.  The highlight of the match was Brooks throwing himself over the top rope in the corner trying to claim a dq victory.  Mascaras took three bumps in the match and no sold all three.  Finish came with Mascaras coming off the top rope with a flying body press.

No Disqualification
Fritz Von Erich vs. The Great Kabuki with Gary Hart

So this match was terrible. Highlight of the match was when a fan tried to attack Gary Hart and Gary leveled him, it was tremendous!  Fritz was in trouble with Kabuki dominating, so David ran in attacking Kabuki nailing a devastating back body drop and the Fritz got the pin.  Yup.

NWA World Champion: Harley Race vs. Kerry Von Erich

21 year old Kerry Von Erich was green as grass in this title opportunity.  Match was pretty clustery but it was a decent match.  Bronco Lubich was a terrible referee, just terrible.  He was slow, got in the way, just bad.  Harley was great, some classic Harley comedy with him selling the after effects of a sleeper hold and tumbling through the ropes.

Finish came when Harley bodyslammed Kerry on one of the ringside tables and then attempted a falling headbutt, but Kerry moved.  Both men were then counted out of the ring even though Kerry was three quarters of the way back into the ring when the referee finished the count.

WCWA World Heavyweight Tag Team Championships
David & Kevin Von Erich vs. Champions: Hercules Ayala & Ali Mustafa
The tag team championship was represented by a single large trophy.  Also Kevin is wearing boots in this match!  This match was a struggle of styles in the worst way.  You had the young Von Erich brothers who wanted to work a fast paced high intensity match that the crowd was very much into, and the big, slow, and plodding Ayala & Ali just slowed it right down.  But not in that good wrestling psychology way of slowing things down to build them back up, they just didn't want to move.
The Von Erich's won the title with a sunset flip.

This was taken right after Kevin & David won the match

Texas Battle Royal

The winner would receive $5000!  It looks like about twelve wrestlers in the match, you could be eliminated by pin fall or being thrown over to top rope to the floor.  Bruiser Brody won a very lackluster Battle Royal.

At the beginning of the matches the fans would gather around the ring for autographs from the baby faces, however when Kevin and David were in there the fans surrounded the ring and climbed up on the ring apron, it was pretty wild! Really showed just how popular they were with the fans.

There was only one camera that was used for the match, the hard camera but it would zoom in and move around following the action.  It came out very well.  I don't know who was calling the action, but it was a one man booth and he felt the need to talk non-stop and at times it was rough to listen too.

According to cagematch.net there was one other match on the card with Chang Chung defeating Bruiser Brody.  If you chose not to watch this then you are missing out on nothing.

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment, read my other posts, and like my blogs Facebook page and while you're at it check out my weekly podcast The Wrestling Insomniac on the Nerdy Legion Podcast Network. 

Later Readers!