Column of Honor: 09.18.10: Glory. Honor. Homicide.

Welcome to the Column. Putting your reading shoes on (is there even such a thing?) and let’s go for the glory…

Glory By Honor IX proved to be an interesting collection of stories, from a new ROH World Champion to the return of a former champion, but none proved to be more apparent than both the positive and the negative effect a crowd can have on an entire show.

While at times incredibly supportive, energetic and enthusiastic, the New York City crowd that arrived for this internet Pay Per View earned every bit the terrible and spoiled reputation that they did not deserve at Final Battle 2009. The internet message boards and reviewers lit into crowd after that show last December for their reaction to the one-hour draw main event title match between Austin Aries and Tyler Black. Up until then, the NYC crowd had behaved generally well and had been up for the action and supportive of most of the wrestlers and the matches. However, they were still blasted for having the gall to boo the Aries vs. Black title match. They rejected the action with many different cat-calls when it didn’t give them the kind of action they were expecting and when the draw was all-too apparent (and unnecessary), especially given it would make Tyler Black once again look like a choke artist. The hour draw also would push the running time of the show to four and a half hours, which in the middle of a massive snowstorm, was not good news for those in attendance looking for a safe way to get home.

Nine months later, Ring of Honor had returned for its second internet Pay Per View taping in the city (its fourth overall), knowing it would not have to brave the elements of Winter and knowing that they could actually use the crowd’s disdain of Tyler Black to its advantage. Black, who had won the ROH World Title right here in New York City back in February to massive applause (another example of the fickle and schizophrenic nature of the ROH fan base) was now public enemy number one after signing with WWE while still champion.

This was Black’s last night with the company (although two more matches previously taped will run on future episodes of ROH on HDNet) and the last chance for New York City to shower the maligned former hero with hate he so rightfully (in their mind) deserved for being a part of a flawed title build. Many showered Black with hateful chants, but then again, that was to be expected at this point in the story—as has happened many times with ROH face champions, the fans have often deserted their support and openly booed wrestlers they once supported (Nigel McGuinness and Jerry Lynn, for example).

Last Saturday’s show was not necessarily about their treatment of Tyler Black, but about their treatment of everything else on the show. Maybe it’s unfair to make a blanket statement about everyone in attendance, but between the pockets of fans who tried to get themselves over by becoming the show instead of watching it and the groupthink chants that served to annoy rather than to compliment the event, it was difficult to believe there were many rational, open-minded, patient and supportive fans in attendance.

This show was packed to the rafters, as the saying goes. It looked like there was even more in attendance than the last show, Supercard of Honor V, with the General Admission stage level filled completely and lines of fans standing in the back of the ground floor. It is a positive sign that ROH can create this kind of turn-out for New York City, but at the same time, larger mobs mean more of a mob rule.

What happens when Ring of Honor produces such a high-profile event in New York City as these internet Pay Per Views, a larger attendance comes with it. The more people in attendance means there are more jerks who pack in amid those in the crowd who are simply there to enjoy the show and to be entertained without expectations and without demands. Since they are louder and more willing to vocalize their discontent with their brand of noise pollution, they can easily control the overall atmosphere and crowd mood. It means more of a tendency for annoying chants to be picked up and carried throughout the building, including “Let’s Go Yankees”, “F**k John Cena” and the oh-so favorite “you f**ked up” chants, which roared to life a few times during the evening just for some simple and easily managed slips that but for the fact they were called on it, would not have been noticed.

New Yorkers are always willing to express themselves and I have often defended that right including in my column last year covering Final Battle 2009. However, there is a time and a place and above all else, there should be a justification for doing so. Some of the loudly shouted complaints were not even reasonable. For example, some fan in the balcony was heckling the Bobby Cruise for no other reasons other than he was waiting for the “go-ahead” signal to begin announcing for the first match. Even before that this guy was shouting “shut the f**k up” at Cruise, even though it was his job to be the announcer and introduce the matches. This sort of nonsensical and irrational behavior perpetuated itself throughout the evening, hurting at least one match (Austin Aries versus Christopher Daniels, see below).

Of course, there were other moments when the crowd did help the match and where the enthusiasm lifted what was taking place in the ring and turned it into a truly special part of the show. The fans chanting “kill the kid” at Colby Corino helped put the focus on the Corino family’s involvement in the double chain match. Their reactions to the return of Homicide concluded the event on a gigantic high-note. It’s extremely frustrating to know that the ROH fans can both help and hurt the show and they can do it easily and with little forethought or concern for the impact on others in the audience or the wrestlers trying to do their job. It is a true “can’t live with them, can’t live without them” situation and I have no real solution to the conundrum.

A female security guard walking up and down the street told fans who were on line and waiting to enter the Manhattan Center about the building’s policy—”no digital cameras, no water bottles…no Twinkies.” Apparently they know about that infamous chant, or were instructed by ROH to put a stop to any golden snack cake insurrection. It would not stop the New York crowd from chanting “Twinkies” at Todd Sinclair or “Golden Snack Cakes” at Austin Aries. I don’t think ROH is ever going to be rid of those chants happening in New York City.

Entering the main floor area, immediately in front of me was Jim Cornette signing autographs at his table (Corny would be scurrying all over the place throughout the night, even right at intermission when he humorously traversed the front row section of seats to cross from one side of the building to the other). To my right was the table for autographs and pictures with Charlie Haas, Shelton Benjamin and Terry Funk. Benjamin appeared smaller than expected at the table (although in the ring that was a different story). Funk looked younger than his age (although in the ring that was also a different story). The merchandise table on the other side was busy but not deep before the show, but was swamped during intermission.

Among those in the crowd trying to get over included a trio wearing Nexus logo shirts and trying desperately at every moment to be the center of attention. There was a row of fans wearing “Paul Turner Next Champ” T-shirts (I give that my approval) and three guys on the far corner wearing white T-shirts that spelled out “Claudio” (also approved).

I also noticed from my view on the balcony a whole entire row of girls—YES, females at a wrestling show, sitting all in a row. This was a miraculous and rare event, like a comet or Ernesto Osiris winning a match, therefore every so often I decided to take a quick peek and check on them to see how they reacted to the show. My brother-in-arms Chris surmised that they were Eddie Edwards groupies. I was unconvinced, but he claimed those were the kind of girls Edwards would like. Well, okay then.

Bobby Cruise welcomed everyone to the show and went through some of the marquee matches that were to come during this evening. Predictably, when Cruise announced the main event of Black vs. Strong, the fans booed Black’s name and immediately surged with “You Sold Out” chants. A year ago there were no such shouts for either Bryan Danielson or Nigel McGuinness, despite both of those men having accomplished more and meant more in ROH history than Black.

An early example of the kind of nuisance behavior from the hands: more than a handful of people called out some pretty annoying and stupid remarks during what was supposed to be a moment of silence for the fallen from the 9/11 tragedy in New York City. That’s right; some New Yorkers couldn’t even be respectful for a tragedy that happened in their very own city. Good lord. Luckily, other fans quickly rebuked them and we eventually did get that moment of silence (as in, the very definition of the word as it regards “a short length of time”).

Jay Briscoe (decked in red, white and blue trunks) versus Kenny King opened the show in a solid ten minute bout obviously meant to showcase King’s athleticism and charisma. Jay has good knowledge of how to work singles so he went in to make sure the match got over well as an opener as well as help put the shine on his opponent. He looked almost as built and muscular tonight as King and the defined musculature of many of the wrestlers caught my eye throughout the night—because I was surprised to see it I guess. King was accompanied by an attractive woman (apparently independent worker Taelor Hendrix, who spells her first name T-a-e-l-or-y-x-@-!-the letter q-7—thank you Brian Regan) who would soon receive “She’s Got Herpes” chants, seemingly because wrestling fans refuse to mature out of chants developed fifteen years ago.

There was plenty of back and forth in this one, with a scary moment in the middle of the match as Jay launched King in the air for whoknowswhat and King landed badly on his head. The ref went to check on him immediately, but after a moment King was recovered and back in the thick of the match. Rhett Titus, King’s tag partner, came out for a distraction as Jay was gaining the advantage. He didn’t get physically involved, but it was enough of a lapse in Jay’s concentration for King to get his Royal Flush (spinning Rock Bottom) for the three-count. There were plenty of oohs and ahhs from the crowd here for the action-oriented match. Despite the unruly behavior throughout the night, the last thing you could say about this crowd was that they were quiet or that they didn’t pop for the action.

King and Titus spent little time celebrating and instead went right on the attack on the downed Jay Briscoe. His brother Mark immediately ran out from the back to even the score, although he had to wait a beat for King and Titus to decide to attack at the same time and then counter their moves before the clear out. This led right into the scheduled Mark Briscoe versus Rhett Titus singles match. King and the woman stuck around on one side of the ring, while Jay was on the other, thus carrying over the tag team circumstances into this singles match.

It’s no secret that the crowd loves The Briscoes, but they give good reason to appreciate them, because they do spectacularly fun sequences such as the double shoulderblock that led to the start of the second match. Mark also thrilled the crowd with an awesome counter sequence that ended with him launching into a flying ace crusher (getting tons of air on this particular one). As usual, the crowd entertained themselves by calling out lewd things to Titus, usually involving his having a venereal disease or making fun of his sexual orientation. As a result Titus gave his hip thrust pantomime while on the top rope prepping for his “Super Sex Factor” finisher (thanks New York, I never wanted to see that again but you forced it out of him) . Mark pushed him down hard after that. King hopped up on the apron late in the match but Jay was onto him and brought him down. That led to the finish, where after teasing the Cutthroat Driver finisher (a rarity these days from Mark) several times throughout the match, Mark finally connected with it for the three.

While there was some criticism of splitting up The Briscoes into singles matches for this show (even from some on this website), this wasn’t the first time this had been done nor will it be the last. Also, given that NYC had already seen them go against The All-Night Express at the last show (Supercard of Honor V in May), it was nice to get some diversity and mix things up if the intention is continuing the mini-feud. They had the first twenty minutes total among the first two matches so it wasn’t like they were bereft of the spotlight. And so, the show was off to a good start in terms of the in-ring action.

Ballz Mahoney (WWE repossessed the “s”) and Grizzly Redwood fought The Embassy of Erick Stevens and Necro Butcher in a short undercard brawl that was there to continue from the events of the last New York City show while giving a nice and easy win to The Embassy as they begin some much needed rehabbing. Something I noticed at this show is that Erick Stevens looks a lot like Ben Stiller now that he’s clean shaven and has a leaner face after losing weight. Necro Butcher looked flat-out ridiculous with his Ghana-themed pants and Devil Rays jersey. If he wanted real heel heat with the New York crowd why wasn’t he wearing a Red Sox jersey?

The highlight of this match came early on as Balls took a fan’s bought beers (probably done just for this moment) and proceed to smash them into Erick Stevens. The drinks sprayed into the nearby section of fans, as if this was some sort of Gallagher concert (did I just make that reference? Well, if Jim Cornette could at Death Before Dishonor VIII, then I can too). Or a water ride. Then he did it with another cup! The fans roared their approval so he went back for two more and smashed them into Stevens at the same time. The girls in the crowd four rows back were trying to dry themselves off in the moments after. It was a fun moment and most of those kinds of entertaining spots were from Ballz in this match, including his traditional jabs where the fans chanted “balls” in time with the punches and any time he teased using the chairs. The fans weren’t so much into Grizzly’s offense this time around, but they did react when Stevens launched him over the ropes into Necro’s punch (a spot that was first used on an episode of HDNet, see part two of this week’s column).

The Embassy dominated Grizzly but Ballz was able to sneak in some of his trademark spots such as the Nutcracker Suite and a Low Star Frog Splash for close falls before succumbing to Nana interference and a Ghanarea from Stevens for the pinfall. The crowd hailed Ballz after the match, but Ballz was either hurt or was selling being hurt. He wore a disconsolate look as he moved to the back.

Kevin Steen had been fighting to eliminate the presence of his former tag partner Generico on two fronts- the psychological and the physical. For the last nine months this has been an incredibly intense and personal feud between two of the higher profile wrestlers on the roster, but if it was to continue and not become monotonous and redundant from show-to-show there needed to be another step up in the hostilities. Glory By Honor IX may have provided that needed component in the aftermath of the Double Chain match which pitted Steen with his tag partner and mentor Steve Corino against El Generico and his support system in Colt Cabana.

Steen had already sunk in deep with mind games early on in the feud when he claimed that Generico wouldn’t dare fight him no matter how much he taunted or hurt him. Initially, he was correct, until Colt Cabana taught Generico to find the willpower to fight back against his former friend and co-champion. Once Generico showed that he had overcome the mind games, from then on in the war between the two sides was purely physical. The violence reached new levels at shows such as Bitter Friends, Stiffer Enemies 2 and a street fight that aired on a recent episode of ROH on HDNet. However, Steen has now once again inserted the psychological into the war, leaving scars on Colt Cabana but especially on El Generico after this event. Steen didn’t win the double chain match, but he surely won the advantage in this ongoing struggle.

The post-match angle actually overshadowed the match itself, which for the first five minutes or so was quite tame before it took off on a bloody path of carnage and perhaps (at least for some) sacrilege.

Before the match began, there was a coin-toss, with the winning side determining who was chained together. Steen called heads but the coin fell on tails, and Generico wasted no time in immediately pointing at Steen (to a very large pop of appreciation). They would be chained together and therefore Cabana and Corino would be pulled together.

As soon as all men were secured, the bell rung and the babyfaces were the ones who were dominant. They pulled on the chains in a tug-of-war, which fell flat with the crowd (the vibe I read from them was that they wanted to see all out brawling immediately, not position battles for leverage control of the chains). There were some nice but plain synchronized moves with Generico and Cabana winning on Steen and Corino. The best of the early moments in the match came when both Generico and Cabana pulled their respective chained opponents over the ropes and then back in again.

The heels were bloodied early and the faces were on their way to securing their vengeance, until it all went horribly wrong. Corino and Steen came back by using the chain to choke and pummel, including Steen choking Generico out with the chain and later using a chain-assisted Sharpshooter (Generico being hogtied and having the chain knots smashed into his knee at the same-time for added pain). The good guys came back including what was up to that point the sequence of the night where they were teasing Generico using his coast-to-coast dropkick onto Corino with Cabana having put him in the tree-of-woe and propping up a chair. Instead, Generico launched into a double jump moonsault (WHILE ATTACHED WITH THE CHAIN) onto Steen on the floor. Cabana gave an “oh well” shrug and then ran into Corino with a turnbuckle dropkick into the chair on Corino. It was a very cathartic moment of violence, seeing Steen and Corino get theirs.

Unfortunately, it didn’t last. Along the way Generico set up a table on the outside, intending to smash Steen through it. Instead, Steen pulled him down from the top rope using the chain, essentially lassoing him THROUGH the table, which obliterated into a million pieces. Generico, suffice to say, was going to be out of it for the foreseeable future.

Then came the twist. Colby Corino, Steve’s son who had previously inserted himself into this feud back in May during the Corino vs. Cabana 34th Street Death Match, ran out to ringside. He unchained Steen from Generico, allowing him to go into the ring to help double team on Cabana. The fans didn’t like that at all, several times urging to “kill the kid”, but unfortunately neither Generico or Cabana was able to do that. Meanwhile, Corino unchained himself as well. They bound Cabana up, not just with one chain, but with both chains—attaching one end to each side of the ring ropes. In effect, Cabana was strung up and bound. Think of it as “The Passion of Colt Cabana”. He was at the mercy of these men. And then…

There was a lot of stalling–a lot of teasing of some villainous actions, but not much actual damage done to Cabana (as for why that may have been, see below). The chained up moment was obviously intended to be a huge component of the match, but it lost a lot of its dramatic effect when it slowed down. Then Generico came in to a nice pop from the crowd, but was quickly thrown out. Puzzlingly, Generico was physical able to get back in again but was once more stopped from saving Cabana. Steen and Corino had loaded themselves with steel chairs, and were aiming for Cabana, but Colt was able to avoid the big hit, first by spitting at them, then kicking them and finally just shucking and jiving away from their swings. All the way he was laughing maniacally, either breaking kayfabe due to the ludicrousness of the situation, or maybe in character trying to sell that he knew he was in a “damned” moment and was laughing in the face of death. Take your pick.

Corino finally cracked Cabana, but it wasn’t in the head, but rather in the legs. The crowd groaned a bit, and then Corino soon followed it up with a decent shot to the back. Of course the reason that neither Steen nor Corino actually went for the open head shot, despite their villainy and hatred bordering on the criminally insane, was because of the now standing policy in ROH of no unprotected chair shots to the head. I don’t know about the others in attendance, but I knew about this policy from listening to a radio interview featuring HDNet writer / producer David Lagana. In the back of my mind, watching this segment go on, I knew and enjoyed the dramatic potential of the moment, but also knew that there wasn’t going to be anything “extreme” happening because of the restrictions. It did take some bite out of the moment, but then the moment was over and Generico was able to get the fans going with his final (and successful) attempt at rescuing Cabana from the shackles. It should be noted that late in the match, there were some chairs thrown to the face (which the crowd loved), but nothing directly to the top of the head or with the kind of velocity of the kind of an unprotected chair that Steen used on Generico back at Final Battle 2009.

Generico violently smashed Corino with half-nelson suplexes onto a chair, chucked another one at Steen, freed Cabana and rallied his partner on to victory.

The match had concluded with Colt Cabana powerbombing Steve Corino on a chair and then forcing him to tap out to the Billy Goat’s Curse submission, but Kevin Steen was not done yet. He began to attack Cabana, until Generico once again entered the ring to re-engage his foes. Generico hit him with the Ole Kick and looked to sink in the turnbuckle brainbuster, but then a shocking thing happened. Steen pulled off Generico’s mask. It came off with ease, in one smooth motion. Immediately Generico aborted his attempt to hit the move and covered his face. In a manner of seconds, he was ushered by Cabana to the back where no prying eyes could see his true identity.

Steen reveled in the moment—he had stolen away something that Generico held very dear. Moreover, Steen then set about producing his own warped work of art. He took a steel chair that was lying in the ring, propped it up and placed the Generico mask on it. Then Steve Corino with Colby right next to him crawled over and allowed his pupil of pain to use his blood to paint the phrase “Mr. Wrestling”. Then Steen took his own T-shirt, which depicted the beheading of Generico and his bloodied head and mask on a chair. He stood side-by-side with the actual chair as depiction had become reality. The fans, appropriately enough, chanted “You sick f**k” at Steen during this moment. In the height of insult, Steen then placed the mask on and pantomimed like he was Generico, also allowing Colby Corino to do the same.

It was sick. It was twisted. It was outrageous and profane. It was definitely not PG. Moreover, it was the spark of another kick in the feud between the two men, one which can definitely help get them to at least another singles bout at Final Battle 2010. Now it will be up to Ring of Honor to fully capitalize on the emotional potency of the angle—they need to hammer it home, loud and clear, on upcoming episodes of their television show. If they don’t, then the angle will lose a lot of steam and will have been for nothing. But it was one hell of a scene.

At this point Ring of Honor took its intermission. Fans watching from their internet streams at home were apparently treated to a pre-taped interview with Jim Cornette and Davey Richards, who had been teasing for a long while that this was his last year in wrestling. Apparently, he had changed his mind and announced he was remaining with ROH for at least the next year and would sign a new contract immediately. Then Jim Cornette came out to start the second half and announced that news to the audience. The reaction was immediate and overwhelmingly enthusiastic. The fans have a hell of a lot of faith in Richards and I think they were very relieved and happy to hear that he was not leaving at this point in time.

It is very apparent that Davey Richards is almost universally accepted right now as the top dog (well, wolf) as far as babyfaces go and it would behoove Ring of Honor to capitalize on it as soon as possible. Cornette announced that Richards would receive a title shot at the Final Battle 2010 internet Pay Per View in New York City on December 18th. My best advice would be to switch the title to Richards on that night and give the company a face champion the fans can truly get behind and support. Richards in the Bryan Danielson position from 2006 (albeit as a face whereas Danielson was mostly heel) where he takes on all comers could provide a very lucrative 2011 for ROH.

That announcement led right into Richards’ American Wolf tag partner and current ROH Television Champion Eddie Edwards putting his title on the line against Shawn Daivari of The Embassy. The two best things about this match was that it was mostly an extended squash with the benefit of putting over Edwards and some of his killer offense, that it didn’t reference 9/11 in either a Nana promo or by anything Daivari said or did (nonetheless he did receive some wonderfully stupid “USA” chants, as even “smarter” Ring of Honor fans can’t remember that Minnesota is still a part of the country). Edwards is astonishingly over in NYC after a great match last time out against Christopher Daniels, but mostly from his “man-up” moment last year when he wrestled Ladder War 2 with a broken elbow. At least for now Edwards has proven that he is capable of standing out on his own and apart from any direct rub from Richards.

Also of note was that Edwards gave a quick “hey ladies” nod and point towards the group of girls in the fifth row—good lord, Chris was right all along. Edwards won the match with the Achilles Lock for the tap out—it was mostly fun and inoffensive, nothing that would stand out at the end of the night but definitely a match that is acceptable to watch, if only to see some vicious beatdown at the behest of Edwards.

Next, a match that was close to a last minute addition, but one which I was really excited to see-Austin Aries matching up against Christopher Daniels. Aries was surprisingly over with the crowd (it seems like one of those “Aries is doing such a good job as a heel that he is turning himself face” situations that The Kings of Wrestling are also going through—or it could just be the New York crowd doing the New York thing). He cut into Daniels with some backhanded compliments about his age and how he was an influence on Aries, even giving him the A-Double nickname. Aries “oh snapped” the crowd with a comment about how he would call Daniels “CD” because like the compact disc he was now obsolete.

Then Aries stated that he and Daniels should go out and steal the show. Well, unfortunately that didn’t happen, because the fans in attendance stole the show out from under them. In fact, the whole story of the match was that the fans chanted anything they felt like at any given moment and did everything but actually watch the match, which started out really good but then soon fell under the weight of crowd bullshit. The fans chanted for “Twinkies” since Sinclair was the referee and “Golden Snack Cakes” because Aries was in the match and had made that witty remark at the last show. They chanted “F**k TNA” because Daniels was at one point in TNA. There were a few other annoying comments thrown in, but those were the most prevalent ones.

Look, fellow ROH attendees: We know wrestlers like Daniels, Awesome Kong and Homicide were once in TNA. We know their runs with that company ended badly for them. We know that generally speaking ROH fans love to position themselves as anti-TNA, despite being privileged enough once in a while to have TNA wrestlers with past ties to Ring of Honor booked for these shows and that without TNA’s cooperation, such bookings would not be possible. Daniels hasn’t been in TNA for five months now—can we stop chanting “F**k TNA” now that he is once again a part of ROH?

It’s hard to properly recall most of the match as it was a blur to me because of the distractions with the crowd. I can recall a nice wrestling sequence in the beginning, Aries hitting an awesome 450 splash near the end and a really great (but out of nowhere) Super Angel’s Wings from the second rope that had echoes of CM Punk’s Pepsi Plunge. That was enough for the win for Daniels, who remains a top presence on the Pick Six rankings. Average match, amazing finish.

The Kings of Wrestling were led down to the ring with their new and bombastic theme song performed live by Cody B Ware and Emilio Sparks. It was a frenetic few minutes with the rappers going into the first few rows and the crowd going crazy for The Kings. Then the opening chords of “TNT” by ACDC filled the Manhattan Center and the noise was three times as loud for Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin. Essentially, they treated The Kings are the home team and gave them popular support, but they viewed Haas and Benjamin’s appearance as special and reacted positively to their entrance and performance.

Amazingly the fans were able to fit “Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team” into an appropriate cadence for a consistent chant throughout the night, of course countered by the other half of the crowd who were calling for “Kings of Wrestling”. I’ll give the audience credit for this match—they were one-hundred percent enthusiastic and in complete support. They even chanted “Golden Standard” for Benjamin, a nod to his last major nickname and persona in WWE. This was a duel they obviously wanted to see and so they knocked off the horrible behavior and instead embraced the action. I wish that could have been the case for every part of this show.

It was apparent that Haas and Benjamin appreciated the attention, the atmosphere and the energy the fans were giving them—as Shelton would soon write on his Twitter, it was the most fun he had in three years. They came down to the ring and it was immediately visible how stacked each man was—Haas even more so than Benjamin. Claudio Castagnoli is one of the more well-developed physiques on the ROH roster, but even he paled to the pecs and biceps on Haas.

Luckily, Haas and Benjamin were also on their “A” Game in the ring and they more than hung with The Kings during the twenty minute match. Benjamin was, as expected, every bit the agile athlete in the match but Haas’s performance was also impressive. He was fast on his feet and used his amateur background to wrestle circles around both Hero and Claudio in the early moments of the match. When Shelton tagged in he did his amazing plant off Claudio’s attempted monkey flip, then returned the favor and sent the Swiss man flying through the air. The pace was just as quick as the Motor City Machine Guns match in the first five or so minutes, but then slowed down after a crazy spot where The Kings teased the KRS-1 and Haas was able to maneuver them into the WGTT trademark ring rope press. Before the move could be completed all four men spilled to the outside.

In an excellent moment of characterization, Benjamin held the ropes open for Hero to come back in and continue wrestling. Hero hopped back into the ring and rushed right to his corner to tag Claudio, wanting no part of another go-round at that moment with Shelton. From there the match slowed down in pace and The Kings built up a double heat segment, first on Benjamin and then on Haas. There was some trading of European uppercuts (something you don’t want to do with Claudio) and then the excellent multiple kick sequence The Kings have developed and shown on recent events.

Shelton countered out of a double suplex attempt by once again landing on his feet and then grabbing both Hero and Claudio for a double neckbreaker. He made the hot tag to Haas, who really made the most of the moment with some fierce German suplexes, rolling through them and hoisting Claudio on his own petard. That led right into the second best moment of the match, a catapult into a Samoan Drop combination that had perfect timing and was flat-out impressive. A few moments later Shelton was also dealing damage to The Kings, with his trademark Dragon Whip attack that made an audible smacking sound of Shelton’s Knee landing right in Hero’s face.

The Kings trapped Haas and readied him for the Doomsday Device, an obvious knock at The Briscoes (with whom The Kings are still feuding), but they didn’t have a chance to complete the move as Haas dropped down and Shelton, in the most magnificent moment of the match, ran from one corner of the ring to the other and in one motion leapt to the top rope and brought Claudio down with a Belly-to-Belly Superplex. It would be accurate to say the fans lost their minds for this.

Charlie Haas applied his Haas of Pain submission to a very loud reaction, but then, of course, The Kings had to remind the audience that they were the heels. It was a slightly clumsy sequence, but Shane Hagadorn popped up on the apron to distract the referee, and Chris Hero loaded up his elbow with the Golden Pad and smashed Haas right in the face. Claudio covered for the certain three-count. The finish brought the fans down to earth somewhat, but for me it wasn’t completely unexpected. I was just happy it wasn’t a disqualification ending like the Motor City match. All four men gave it their all and really did deliver on what was promised in a dream match situation between these two teams.

In a post-script that seemed right out of Jim Cornette’s playbook, Haas and Benjamin paid back The Kings with double Germans and then set their sights on Shane Hagadorn. It was obvious to the live audience something was going to happen with him because a referee pushed him into the ring (he had been knocked down during the later stages of the match) and Shane hung around forever on the mat while Hero and Claudio went to the back without even a second look for their manager. Haas and Benjamin stripped Shane of his clothes, beat him up and then laid him prone for a flying elbow drop to the nuts. The fans loved this sequence, although it wasn’t necessary since Haas and Benjamin were being hailed and thanked and heralded with “please come back” chants as soon as the closing bell rang. Hopefully they do come back, even if it’s just for special occasions like internet Pay Per Views, because there is a lot they can do as a tag team whether in a rematch against The Kings or future bouts against The Briscoes or Dark City Fight Club.

Going into the main event and knowing this would be Tyler Black’s final appearance for the promotion there were two possible routes that ROH could have taken with the outcome of the world title match. There was the safe way, with a direct change from Black to Strong. The second and more unpredictable route would have been to pull a “CM Punk” moment ala Death Before Dishonor III when he walked away with the championship, or at least a variation thereof where Black won the first match only to have a second title match forced upon him. ROH went with the safe method, which was also the logical route and one that fulfilled the year-long Black versus Strong rivalry.

Right as the introductions were being made for the title bout a backstage staffer ran rushing out to Jim Cornette, who had taken position at the broadcast table alongside Kevin Kelly. The man seemed anxious, and after relaying a message, so did Jim Cornette. In fact he looked visibly flustered and upset. He went to talk with Cary Silkin for a moment and then returned back to the announce table. I had no idea what was going on but obviously it pissed Cornette off. Fortunately, the main event seemed to go off without much of a problem.

Terry Funk was the special “ringside vigilante”, which meant it was guaranteed he was becoming involved at some point. Funk may not have looked his age, but it was clear from his difficulty getting up the stage and walking down to ringside that he was feeling it.

Black began by offering Strong a handshake—quite the surprise actually. Strong declined and went right on the attack. The match played out in fast-paced manner. There was no feeling-out process between the two and none was needed considering how often they have wrestled each other. Unfortunately the short-length and the middle section where it was all the “Terry Funk Show” curtailed some interesting threads in the early part of the match—that being the arm work Black used to derail Strong’s offense. Black scored with an awesome looking F-5 on the apron outside where Strong’s arm hit the edge of the canvas. There was a great opportunity to use that injury and work on the arm, but Black didn’t really do much with it and instead went to his air and impact arsenal. Strong was back to chopping Black like crazy within a few minutes.

There were three spectacular sequences in the match that captured everyone’s attention. The first was when Black was up on the turnbuckle for a double stomp and Roderick, while inverted, blocked the move and turned into a Boston Crab / Stronghold. Freaking phenomenal. The second was when Strong attempted a Gibson Driver but Black maneuvered into the Paroxysm and then stole Strong’s own press into double knees. The third insane highlight came soon after when Black hit a Superplex but Strong stopped the momentum and shifted into his awesome throwing suplex into double knees for a close-fall. These sequences brought the fans to their feet, “oohing” and “ahhing” with every big slam down to the mat.

Then in a revisiting of Supercard of Honor V, Black slickly pulled referee Todd Sinclair into the line of fire, with Strong’s sick kick blasting him right in the face. Terry Funk came into the ring and pulled Sinclair up to his feet. Sinclair was woozy, so Funk simply hurled him out of the ring and commandeered the referee’s position. It was there that the match became more about Funk than about the ROH World Title. Black got the Book of Truth and smashed Strong with it, then using a God’s Last Gift. Unfortunately Funk was a touch slow getting down to make the count for this and the remaining pin attempts, slightly damaging the drama surrounding the near falls. The crowd loved Sinclair getting smashed in the face, but truth is the match would have been better off if he had remained on as the referee.

The House of Truth (Josh Raymond and Christian Able, not advertised on the card) ran down to help their new stablemate Strong. Instead, Funk punched them back-and-forth, knocking them repeatedly off the ring apron so that they couldn’t become involved. Truth used the distraction to climb in the ring, but Funk caught him and then hurled him out of the ring and halfway to 7th Avenue. These were great little moments in the spotlight for Terry Funk. It’s not that he shouldn’t have done something like this during the match, but altogether it was maybe too much and did distract from the ROH World Title situation between the principals in the match.

Black had a final raging rally, with a superkick, a buckle bomb attempt that Strong was able to stop before it hit. He jumped onto Black, who connected full force with the Buckle Bomb, hit another superkick. Strong was out and Black went for his Phoenix Splash, but it didn’t connect and as Black rolled out of the leap he ran right into Strong’s final flurry including the press gutbuster and the sick kick for the three-count. After sixteen attempts at the title over five years, Roderick Strong was finally the ROH World Champion.

As expected, the mob mentality against Black began early and often throughout the match, with chants of “NXT”, “Future Jobber” and even “FCW” filling the air at various times. All things considered though, Black really didn’t get it that bad; in fact there was still a portion of the crowd that chanted his name and cheered him on during the match. It has to be said that the New York fans choked at this all-too critical moment. In fact, Black probably won the battle of insults when he gave the crowd the “You Can’t See Me” hand sign and applied the STF-U. Some in the crowd booed this, but most popped for the move (and perhaps the temerity of it all). A very few even chanted “We Want Cena”, which was an absolutely bewildering (and of course, completely contradictory) experience.

Then at the end of the match, a very large portion of the crowd hailed Black with “Thank You Tyler” chants (and this was not sarcastic, but seemingly genuine reaction—and given the volume of the chant more than likely it included plenty fans who had booed the hell out of him moments before). This was an unbelievable and yet sickeningly predictable reaction. As usual, the ROH fans believed they could choose when and where to lift kayfabe. Black shoved that “respect” back into their faces by keeping the show going, giving both Roderick Strong and the NYC crowd the double middle fingers and walking out. Black left the promotion on his own terms, not the ones dictated to him by the fans in attendance.

Then the lights went out and an audible crackling sound could be heard. It was pitch black and then all of a sudden crimson red. The fans knew what that meant. The screeching in-and-out introduction of Quincy Jones’ “Ironside” followed by Beanie Sigel’s “The Truth”. The 1,200 plus fans in attendance were out of their feet, almost all of them jumping up and down in time with the music, waving their arms in the air. Out from the back came the man with the Puerto Rican flag face mask and a shirt with a picture of the Twin Towers, the New Yorker’s New Yorker, “The Notorious 187” Homicide.

The rest of the show was Homicide’s time and Homicide’s party. It felt like being transported back to the victory celebration at Final Battle 2006, when Homicide won the ROH World Title in this same building in front of the hometown NYC fans. The energy that ran through the building was the same. There was a pure joy and euphoria of seeing an ROH founding father return to his city and knowing how well it all fit together.

Homicide went face-to-face with the new ROH World Champion. They jaw-jacked and mean-mugged. Truth Martini had a look of absolute terror on his face. Bobby Cruise smoothly slid the microphone into the ring for Homicide, who delivered his welcome home speech to the crowd. In typical Homicide fashion, he had cursed up a storm, physically threatened Truth Martini and told Roderick Strong straight-up that he wanted his world title back. He said he would wrestle and beat as many wrestlers as necessary in order to get a title shot in New York in December for Final Battle (how this plays into Richards’ title shot or Daniels’ top contention is unknown right now) . Then Homicide left, giving the spotlight back to Strong, who played the irate and upset champion, knowing he just had the spotlight stolen on his biggest win of the his career. However, he mounted the top turnbuckle and raised the title in the air, still aware that he was the champion and that everyone else now had work to do if they wanted to do something about it.

Homicide’s return to Ring of Honor was somewhat expected given his release from TNA and re-emergence in the independents, but nonetheless a welcome (and somewhat needed) addition to the promotion and appreciated by the fans. He provides that “x-factor” just from his presence in the company. Homicide makes you question if what you see is more than just a character but the real deal–like Terry Funk and Cactus Jack before him. There is more than a tinge of danger from his words, his body language and his proclivity towards violence. All of that can be tapped into and help to create a sense of unpredictability. That sense of something dangerous happening is a feeling that ROH definitely needs to use more in its storylines. Homicide in the mix of the top title and main event programs definitely destabilizes the title scene and provides some intrigue as to what happens next. In effect, it gives ROH some of the edge back that it may have been missing for the past two years.

Despite some of the frustrations with the audience, attending Glory By Honor IX live and in person was just as much fun as many of the Ring of Honor shows from over the years. Ring of Honor promoted the show with the catchphrase of “Claim Your Moment”. Indeed, this was a show where the moments made the show incredibly memorable. Did it live up to the rave reviews and universal praise of the last internet Pay Per View? No, it didn’t—but it was definitely worth the price of admission as far as the quality of wrestling and the sort of angle advancements and surprises the fans were able to experience on this show.

Final Battle 2009, the first internet show was a pretty good undercard with two fantastic matches and the second-best heel turn in ROH history, finished by a controversial main event that varied according to customer tastes. The Big Bang was an uneven card with two spectacular ROH title matches marred by a main event lucha tag which was never supposed to be last on the card, but was placed there due to events out of ROH’s control. Death Before Dishonor VIII became a top ten all-time ROH event thanks to four excellent matches and a main event match of the year caliber effort from Tyler Black and Davey Richards. It is so difficult for even ROH to hit that level of excellence for every single show, where there is one near-perfect match after another until before you know it there is a card for the ages.

Glory By Honor IX, at least live, had the smooth pace of Death Before Dishonor VIII but perhaps not quite the volume or the sublime level of wrestling action from that show that some fans want ROH to deliver every time out. At just over three hours, it also was a shorter but much better paced show than the previous efforts. The matches that needed time got that time (although you could make the case for a longer main event) and other matches that were there to supplement the main attractions were given enough. All-in-all, the customers were left satisfied by the events that took place during the evening and ready to see what would come next for the likes of Strong, Richards, Daniels and Homicide.

Unfortunately for the audience watching on internet Pay Per View, not all of them experienced as nearly a professional and complete product as those who were live at the show. Once again there were many problems with the Go Fight Live feed as reported by purchasers on reports, reviews and threads from message forums discussing the show. While there was only one small problem with the live feed during Death Before Dishonor VIII in June that cut out the Toronto Gauntlet for thirty seconds, this time the feed went down during the double chain match for over four minutes. The feed died when Cabana was chained to the ropes, thus possibly accounting for the long delay and hesitation in Corino’s attacks during that part of the match. Fans were left not knowing what was occurring during a very critical and dramatic moment of the show. This wasn’t a problem of internet connection but rather of transmission in that Go Fight Live could not provide the feed to the customer.

Other problems with the show included inconsistent and varying audio levels for commentary, which again was not a problem with the last show but resurfaced here. Fans reported being able to hear backstage talk over promos and in-ring action, which was an issue with the first internet Pay Per View (which also happened to occur at the Hammerstein) and was thought to have been taken care of. At this point, four shows into the Go Fight Live production, problems such as these should not be happening and really serve to frustrate the paying audience, most of whom want to support the product but expect professional production and uninterrupted service of their product. Yes, Go Fight Live gives the customers unlimited access to replays of the event, but one shouldn’t need to go back to those replays because of dropped video.

GoFightLive released an apology on Monday for the problems, blaming it on complications from trying out new hardware for the recording. They stated they would recover the lost data (the final moments of the chain match) and upload a new version of the Glory By Honor IXreplay with the missing footage included. The statement reads in part: “Ring of Honor produces high quality events, and this technical issue was GoFightLive’s problem alone, not ROH’s. We are working to ensure that this problem never occurs again at any GoFightLive event by analyzing and fixing the faulty piece of hardware.” As of Wednesday, September 15th, the full event including the conclusion to the chain match and the post-match angle are available for viewing through the website. All who purchased the event live are entitled to infinite on-demand replays of the event through their computer.

Ultimately Ring of Honor has been having too many production problems for their own good, both during these internet broadcasts and on their recent DVD releases (inconsistent camera quality as well as the constant presence of overpowering lighting problems that have plagued the company for years now) . As much as it is a positive that they are locking up their talent to contracts, at this point it’s very clear they need to consider fortifying their production more than anything else, because poor quality video and feed problems will ultimately discourage more people from purchasing the iPPVs and other Ring of Honor products in the future. Fix the problems now and save some headaches later, so that fans can truly enjoy the fine quality wrestling that usually takes place inside an ROH ring.

CLICK HERE to read Part Two of this week’s column, featuring news on the aftermath of Glory By Honor IX, ROH contract signings, Homicide’s first wrestling appearances and more!