Glory by Honor 3 LIVE REPORT!

[AndyKaid]

Less than a week this time! Thanks for motivating me, guys.

Blatantly stolen from Wrestle-Fan (where you can go for a complete introduction)-

Before the show started, the locker room emptied and there was a moment of silence held for the victims of September 11th. Afterwards, Dan Maff said some really touching words, and certainly had a lot of people (myself included) choked up. The whole thing has handled in a very classy manner. I hope it makes the tape.


FIRST MATCH: Jimmy Rave vs. Dixie (w/ Special K)

After Jimmy Rave’s performance at the last show in Boston, everyone seemed to be raving (HA! A pun...) about the new and improved Rave. The cape and Nana being at ringside certainly does ad a lot to the package. He is starting to show a bit more personality in the ring too. The match here with Dixie was pretty solid. Nothing too memorable, but solid. Rave picks up the win with the Rave Clash.


SECOND MATCH: Matt Stryker vs. Jay Lethal

The stipulation for this match is that if Matt Stryker lost, he wouldn’t get a plane ticket to the ROH shows on the east coast anymore. The fans have been losing interest in Stryker since the abomination of a match with BJ Whitmer at Final Battle ’03, and I’d even argue they were before that. Stryker is a decent enough worker; he’s just a bit vanilla. That said, the crowd should have turned on Walters or Whitmer too if it was just a case of being bland. It must be the unibrow that turns people off. They look down at Stryker since they all can boast that they have more eyebrows than him, and it just isn’t right, damn it! ROH fans are racist~!!

Oh yeah, the match. It was pretty solid, like the opener. It was just about as short too. I seem to remember Lethal pulling out some really cool stuff, like (IIRC) a backbrain lariat. The end came when Lethal rolled up Stryker out of an ankle lock. The crowd popped huge for the finish.

After the match, Stryker cut a promo chastising the fans, and ended up stumbling over his words at some point and the crowd got on him about that. Heh.


THIRD MATCH: Ace Steel vs. Angel Dust vs. Fast Eddie vs. Izzy vs. Kahagas vs. Trent Acid

Maybe it’s just me, but I’m not taken on the Six Man Mayhem matches. The one at RRC 3 was a lot of fun, but the rest have left me a bit disappointed. This was another disappointing one for me. Kahagas looked really bad, and most of the spots looked disjointed and over-choreographed. One nice spot was Fast Eddie doing his fall-away slam moonsault move on Angel Dust when Trent Acid came up from behind and gave Eddie a reverse hurricanrana, sending everyone flying. It didn’t turn out overly well, but it was a good idea in theory. Much like the rest of the match. Acid gets the win with an inverted brainbuster on Angel Dust.

Following the match, they tease more friction within the ranks of Special K. I wouldn’t mind see an all Special K Six Man Mayhem, as the K kids are usually the highlight of them. Oh, and Deranged is back. That was a nice little surprise. Glad to see that Teddy finally posted bail. Perhaps his daddy made him do it.


FOURTH MATCH: Austin Aries vs. CM Punk

My first impression of this match was that it was great. The work was really up to par and it told a good story of Punk working over Aries’ arm, and Aries working over Punk’s midsection. They mixed in a lot of sweet, innovative stuff and it never got boring. The crowd was dead for some odd reason, and there were no dueling chants that you’d think would be reserved for this type of match. There was nothing. Then, I read that the general consensus on the match is that it was disappointing. No one went into detail… they just said it was disappointing. To be truthful, it didn’t come off as contrived or ballet-like, much like a certain other match that was deemed good, so I can see where they are coming from, sarcastically speaking. Hopefully this turns out even better on video and silences the original critics.

The finish was almost pretty bad because on the first long match of the night they do a ref bump of doom. Generation Next used the opportunity to come out and attack Punk. Then Ace Steel came out to fight them off. Then STEVE CORINO comes out with his World-1 young boys. While all this is going on, the ref recovers and Punk rolls up Aries for the victory.

So, Corino is back! He calls out Homicide. HOMICIDE~! comes out. Who’d thunk? He cuts an unintelligible promo due to the unusually bad sound system (which may have been a good thing in retrospect). Regardless, Homicide vs. Steve Corino one more time would be something I think I might possibly like to see, maybe.


FIFTH MATCH: Maff & Whitmer vs. Slash Venom & Chicano (w/ Allison Danger)

I was looking forward to seeing Slash Venom and Chicano, as I’d heard a lot of good things about them from their work for IWA: Puerto Rico. And, I did enjoy the match… all three minutes of it. The ending sequence featured Slash pulled out a sweet chair assisted springboard hilo into the crowd on Maff (really impressive for a guy his size), followed by Whitmer giving Chicano a Wrist-clutch Exploder THROUGH THE CHAIR, which lead to the pinfall.

After the match, Allison Danger does one of her screechy promos and the audience lets out a collective groan until… MICK FOLEY COMES OUT! It’s FOLEY!!! BAH GAHD! MRS. FOLEY’S BABY BOY IS WORKING FOR A FED WHOSE FORMER OWNER TRIED TO SLEEP WITH A BABY BOY!!! *JR has a heart attack*

They tie in all the stories they’d been working on, like Nana trying to get Foley to join the Embassy, GenNext wanting to take him out, and Danger trying to get him to take out Maff & Whitmer, preferably for milk and cookies. The Embassy and GenNext attacked Foley (including Rave giving Foley a low blow) until Maff & Whitmer made the save. Once everything calms down, Foley gets on the stick and puts over ROH pretty huge. He deems it the Ring of Hardcore, citing Jay Briscoe’s performance against Joe from At Our Best and Maff & Whitmer’s matches against the Second City Saints (at least that’s what I think he was referring to). It’s a shame the new Foley merchandise that they were selling before the show kinda spoiled the whole “Ring of Hardcore” gimmick. Still, it was a good promo.

[AndyKaid]

SIXTH MATCH: “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson vs. Alex Shelley

This wasn’t the usual post-intermission match. This was freaking Bryan Danielson vs. Alex Shelley! Needless to say, it didn’t disappoint at all, and they put on a 20 minute classic match. Say what you will of Shelley’s involvement in TNA, but it has really helped him improved his character, and refine certain things he does in the ring. For example, as Danielson was teasing the Rita Romero Special (as only he can do), Shelley crossed himself and started praying. Nice touch. This was just a great, great match that everyone must see. I can’t wait for their TPI match. For those keeping score at home, Danielson won with the Cattle Mutilation.

BTW, special note should be made of Bryan Danielson’s new cloak type gimmick. It’s beyond tremendous and has to be seen. American Dragon- Jedi Master, indeed.


SEVENTH MATCH: John Walters (c) vs. Nigel McGuinness

Nigel is possibly my new favorite ROH mid-carder after this match. And, I’m not sure what it was, but I found myself not disliking Walters as much as usual. He still has a long way to go in terms of working the crowd and improving his character, but he worked this match really well. Nigel busted out tons of British stuff including a spot where he wouldn’t let go of the cravate, the Johnny Saint Special, and that neat-O pinning hold that James Mason and Jonny Storm use. Nigel was so British that the dudes sitting next to me (who I had also sat next to at Testing the Limit) were hilarious in yelling out British references. One of them even attempted to start a “Mind the Gap” chant after another mentioned the Tube. Back to the match, Walters’ cross-arm lung blowers looked better than usual (maybe it was the SICK way Nigel was taking them), and he did three in a row and followed the third one up with a cross arm submission that Nigel tapped to. Forget Corino returning, this was the surprise of the night for me.


EIGHTH MATCH: Samoa Joe (c) vs. Doug Williams

Here’s another match that isn’t getting talked about much, but I thought was good. Joe looked a bit off, and it did look like a styles clash at times, but they did a bit of MMA stuff (not enough though). Doug Williams was doing these swank rolling ankle picks at one point, which I marked heavily for. Like I said, it was good but nearly on the same level as Joe’s other two Glory By Honor matches. Joe pinned Doug after Doug kicked out of a Muscle Buster, but succumbed to a MONSTER LARIAT.


NINTH MATCH: Ultimate Endurance Match- The Havana Pitbulls (Rocky Romero & Ricky Reyes) (c) vs. Maff & Whitmer vs. The Carnage Crew (Loc & DeVito) vs. Generation Next (Jack Evans & Roderick Strong)

The first fall was fun, but about halfway through I remember that it was under Submission Rules, and aside from the Pitbulls, no one was using any submissions. The finish was hot-shotted a bit IMO, and Maff & Whitmer seemed to go after DeVito’s legs all of the sudden. One crotch shot in the pole and a double Boston Crab later, DeVito tapped.

The second fall was under Scramble Rules, so obviously it was Jack Evans chance to do some sick stuff. His one offensive move that I remember was a wheelbarrow 360 where Roderick flipped him over from the wheelbarrow position and rotated, landing chest first on Whitmer. Towards the end of the match, Evans ate hot death as he did a springboard 450 to the outside AND NO ONE CAUGHT HIM! It sounded like he hit the steel barrier from where I was sitting. After that Maff rolled him into the ring and gave the corpse of Evans a double narsty Burning Hammer.

The final fall was for the Tag Titles. The crowd had gradually been getting more and more into Maff & Whitmer (especially Maff, who had a career night in ROH), and this turned out to be pretty heated. I’d like to see what these two teams could do in a normal match. The finish was pretty anti-climatic as a strike exchange with Romero (who wearing a mouth guard the whole match) and Whitmer ended with a jumping Roundhouse to the side of Whitmer’s head. Dangerous! Romero got the three after that. Much like last year’s Glory By Honor main event, the finish of the last match sucked the energy out of the crowd.

After the match, Allison Danger came out and offered The Rottweilers money to “destroy” Maff & Whitmer. They accepted apparently, and started attacking them. Then Generation Next and the Embassy followed suit. The crowd starting chanting “Foley” and sure enough, Foley came out with a FIRE EXTINGUSHER! He cleared most of the ring, and when the smoke cleared he gave Jimmy Rave a low blow. Rave was still in the ring, and everyone expected to see Mr. Socko make his ROH debut, but Foley RESPECTS ROH more than that and does the DOUBLE ARM DDT instead!!! Major markout moment. Maff & Whitmer dispose of everyone else, Foley cuts another promo, and they leave to “Born to be Wild.” Memories of Cactus Jack flood into my mind as the show closes.

This show blew both previous Glory By Honors out of the water. It really felt like Reborn: Completion in terms of being more storyline driven than usual. Also similar to Completion was that Alex Shelley was in the MOTN, then vs. Doug Williams, this time vs. Bryan Danielson. However, I think overall, the ring work was better at GBH 3. I’m not sure if it would have been the same show without Foley, but it was what it was, and it was a damn good show. Highly, highly recommended. |

[IWSfan4life]

Looks like a very good show and I hope it gets out soon. Dying to see Aries/Punk, Walters/Nigel and Joe/Williams. I know it's an off possibility, but I hope it's out by the 25th so I can pick it up at the IWC show.

-Jason Burke

[NewFnShow]

Thanks for the review Andy, it was great. I can't WAIT to get this show. It looks incredible.