Monday, October 3, 2016

Live Report Ring of Honor All Star Extravaganza VIII results

On September 30, 2016 in Lowell, Ma I attended....


And it was amazing!

I say "I attended" but I wasn't alone, traveling down from Maine together in Vanna was Roy, Mikey, Josh & Jesse.  We played another one of Roy's awesome wrestling road games.  This one was guess the member of the faction.  For instance, The Dangerous Alliance, DX, Four Horsemen, and ect.  We got to the venue and parked out back for $10 about 5pm.  Jay had gotten there before us and parked somewhere else.

We walked the 3/10 of a mile to Jimmy John's for dinner.  We didn't have to eat there but I was at least required to get my wife her favorite sandwich.  After dinner we walked back to the venue and awaited the doors to open at 7:30.  It started raining while we were outside, luckily just an on and off sprinkle that was very tolerable.

When the doors opened we were right near the front with the line stretching far down the block.  I'd rather stand in line early and get in sooner to check out the souvenir stand and get my autographs done and have time to mill around inside before the show than get there late and be in line right up until show time.  Being a worldwide pay per view broadcast this show was starting on time.


Ring of Honor had advertised a few members of the roster for a pre-show autograph and picture session which was $20 to get a photo and autograph.  Of those listed that I hadn't met before the only one I cared about Dalton Castle! And you can see the photo I had taken with Castle and The Boys is awesome!

He was so cool to talk to as well.  He has so much charisma and he's really good in the ring, one of my favorite guys.  I got him to sign a card for me and he gave me and 8 X 10 as well.  I also had a great chat with Colt Cabana about his podcast and recent match with Jay Lethal.

The other guys got photos with different people, I put those at the end.  We checked out the souvenir stand where I broke my rule on buying anything and got a Dalton Castle t-shirt.  I also snagged this quick photo with Mandy Leon who was hanging out in lobby doing social media stuff for ROH.


Our seats were amazing!  I was lucky because I was front row on the entrance aisle.  The video screen was behind us but that was quickly solved by turning around.

I have never sat in the front row before at a show of this caliber with this type of production value.  I've been to two WrestleMania's, SummerSlam, Survivor Series, Raw, Backlash, Royal Rumble, and a WCW Monday Nitro, and I have never felt the emotional exhaustion that I felt at the end of this show before.


Pre-Show


Triple Threat Silas Young defeated Evil and Will Ferrara
Good solid opener to the show with Young picking up the victory getting the pinfall on Ferrara who wasn't happy about it.  Young sarcastically shook Ferrara's hand after winning while he was still on the mat, it was great!  I hope this match is included on the DVD release.

Live PPV


World Television Championship: "Infamous" Bobby Fish defeated Donovan Dijak w/ Prince Nana via referee stoppage with the rear naked choke. 

Dijak was over huge with this hometown crowd that wanted Dijak to win the championship badly.  Fish was treated like the Yankees at Fenway Park even though he's usually a popular baby face.  Dijak had members of his training school accompany him to the ring in track suits: including Anthony Greene, Mikey Webb, Scotty Slade, and trainer Brian Fury.


The crowd wasn't pleased that Dijak lost.  This was a great match to open the broadcast with as it really popped the crowd for the PPV.


Four Way Tag Team Match: Dalton Castle w/ the Boys & Colt Cabana vs. The Cabinet: Rhett Titus & Kenny King w/ Caprice Coleman vs. Keith Lee & Shane Taylor vs. War Machine: Raymond Row & Warbeard Hanson



Of these four teams Dalton Castle got the biggest pop followed by Colt.  Solid match that felt short, War Machine and Keith Lee & Shane Taylor kept attacking each other during the match which was awesome because they are all big guys and were throwing the heavy hands.


Because of the style of match anyone could tag anyone which lead at one point to Colt and Castle being in the ring at the same time.  After the circled each other Castle slowly lowered himself to the mat and Colt went for the pin which was broken up.


The match broke down which lead to an awesome segment of everyone hitting a big move on each other with Rowe hitting an overhead belly to belly suplex on Taylor that was impressive, as was the slow holding German suplex Dalton nailed Lee with, as was the dive that Lee did onto the floor.



Dalton hit Bankarang on Titus for the pin.  The crowd was very hot into this match as well.

Dragon Lee defeated Kamaitachi

Going into this match I hadn't been impressed with Kamaitachi and I didn't know much about Dragon Lee except that this was his debut match for ROH and that he's the current CMLL World Lightweight Champion.


Moments into the match Tachi was on the floor and Lee launched himself through the ropes faster than I'd ever seen before.  Tachi quickly got the upper hand with a sunset flip and deadlift powerbomb on the floor.  The match spilled into the crowd for a moment before returning to the ring.

For sixteen minutes these two dropped each other on the back of their heads trying to get the win until Lee nailed a suplex I'd never seen before for the three count.  The crowd, we were in a frenzy the entire match.  It was exhausting.

Kyle O'Reilly pinned Hangman Page



This was a good match, sadly with us being so worked up for the three previous matches we needed to recover and this match didn't get the reaction it should have.  It was also very contrasting in styles from fast paced mayhem to mat based submission wrestling.  Post match Page beat down O'Reilly ending with putting his arm in a chair and slamming it into the ring post.  Fish made the save and he and Page jaw jacked a bit.  Looks like Page will be going after the Television Championship.


Kushida, ACH, & Jay White defeated The Briscoe Brothers: Mark & Jay and Toru Yano



During his entrance ACH went through the crowd and used my head to balance himself as he stepped on the guardrail posing a moment before dropping to the floor.


This was an opening round tournament match for the inaugural Six Man Tag Team Championships.  I was really looking forward to seeing Jay White in person as I've really enjoyed him in New Japan.  I wish he would have done more in the match though.

I was very surprised to see the Briscoes and Yano lose the match, I would have guessed them being the favorites to win as they previously held the NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Championships.  Briscoes are the current IWGP Tag Team Champions and Yano half of the NOAH GHC Tag Team Champions.


A solid match with six faces the Briscoes being the favorites of the crowd in the contest.  ACH hit Midnight Star on Yano for the pin.


Jay Lethal defeated IWGP Intercontinental Champion: Tetsuya Naito w/ Evil



Crowd was excited for both with Lethal being the crowd favorite.  Solid match with the ref getting pulled to the floor and Evil getting involved in the match.  I thought it would draw a disqualification keeping both wrestlers from having to lose considering the are both top talent for their respective companies.

However I was shocked that Lethal got a clean pin in the center of the ring after hitting Lethal Injection.


World Champion: Adam Cole pinned "Unbreakable" Michael Elgin




It was great to see Cole as champion, the crowd wasn't into this match much, probably because they didn't think there was a chance that Elgin was going to win.  Great match with Cole working the knee and Elgin hitting his big Elgin moves.



Cole got the win with a combination of superkicks, shining wizards, and finally the Last Shot.




Ladder Wars Six
The Young Bucks: Nick & Matt Jackson defeated Tag Team Champions: The Addiction: Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian and Motor City Machine Guns: Alex Shelly & Chris Sabin to win the titles



I've been sitting here trying to think of a single word adjective to describe this match and the only thing I can think of is unbelievable because I literally could not believe what I was witnessing with my own eyes.



Leading up to this match Christopher Daniels cut an amazing promo that you couldn't help but be moved by it, even so the Young Bucks were clearly the crowd favorite as "YOUNG BUCKS" was screamed from the top to the bottom of the venue.



They jumped right into it and for 24 minutes they beat the tar out of each other with The Young Bucks and Daniels taking the majority of the punishing moves.  I've heard Jim Ross use the description of a human demolition derby and that is an accurate description.



At one point during the match Nick Jackson was on top of a ladder, the other four contenders picked the ladder up and carried it over to the side of the ring and tipped it over sending Nick crashing through a table to the floor directly in front of me.  I felt the floor shake under the my feet and I was genuinely concerned for the Nick's well being.


Jay White ran out to assist the Machine Guns, and paid for it.



Near the end it was set up for Kazarian to take a Meltzer Driver through a table, Nick could have grabbed the belts but instead went for the driver, which was impressive.  I thought for sure that the Bucks would lose after this but instead the Bucks climbed the ladder and took down the belts becoming two time Ring of Honor tag team champions.



After the match Daniels was a bloody mess and crying apologizing to Kaz for losing the belts.  The crowd was chanting Daniels name and with him crying, the emotion was raw and real and it swept me away and I got teary eyed.

This was such a great show with everyone giving their all for this show.  I can't imagine I'll ever see another match like Ladder Wars 6 in person again.  Near the end of the contest every time the Bucks hit a superkick the crowd screamed superkick.  I feel like I've used amazing a lot to describe this match and even this show, but it was, the whole event was just amazing!

The show ended about midnight and we drove Jay to his car.  We stopped at the Circle K next to the Cracker Barrel at the Tewksbury Exit. Funny enough I ran into Ben Boudreau who had also gone to the show.

We dropped Mikey and Roy off in Auburn about 3am and rolled into my place at 3:40 am.  The Dorrs got home about 5:20 am.  It was a very long day, but it was very worth it.  Such an amazing event!

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment, check out my other posts, and like the facebook page.

Later Readers!

Josh with Dalton Castle & The Boys, The Briscoe Brothers, Adam Cole, Kushida, & Naito

Jesse with Dalton Castle & The Boys, Kushida, Adam Cole, The Briscoe Brothers, & Naito

Mikey with Naito, Adam Cole, Kushida, & Briscoe Brothers
Jay with Dalton Castle & The Boys
Roy with Mark & Jay Briscoe


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