Soulpower
Guest
Just what the title says... Here's the results from the Tokyo show.
Delirious gave the welcome promo, which fit because it didn't matter that no one understood him anyway. He eventually got jumped by the No Remorse Corps but Jack Evans and Kotaro Suzuki made the save, which became the first match.
Rocky Romero & Davey Richards beat Jack Evans & Kotaro Suzuki
-The crowd was really into it, mostly because they love Jack. Evans got most of his signatures in before Romero kicked him in the head three times. A real good opener though nothing spectacular.
NOAH Exhibition: Shuhei Taniguchi beat Akihiko Ito
This was pretty much a chance to give two young NOAH guys some ring time and it was a straight up puro style match. Thus, the crowd mostly sat on its hands except for the few big moves. I thought it came off really well, though it was pretty obvious that the crowd wasn't supposed to care. They both looked the same and had matching black tights, which didn't help. A good outing for these two though. Taniguchi won with an avalanche style german suplex.
Jimmy Rave beat BJ Whitmer
Fun, but not a great match. The crowd liked both guys, but Jimmy was more entertaining. Proof that Japan has its share of ROH faithful as Rave was welcomed by toilet paper and a really small "Die Jimmy, die" chant. I know the tp isn't allowed anymore in the States, but it looked like something the Japanese fans had been waiting a long time to do. Rave won with the Pedigree.
Bryan Danielson beat Go Shiozaki
Match of the Night. Danielson is clearly the face of ROH now as the crowd went nuts for him. It's one thing for New York or Philly, but a foreign crowd goes to show how over he is. Someone even busted out the "You're going to get your fucking head kicked in" chant. Shiozaki looked great against Danielson and really gave him run for his money. He survived the cross-face chicken wing, Cattle Mutilation, and the MMA elbows and even managed to hit his finisher, Go Flasher. He finally went down to the Cattle Mutilation. Right before intermission Danielson got on the mic and demanded a title shot.
Fight Without Honor: Delirious beat Roderick Strong
A good brawl between these two. Crowd was into both guys, though one kid was having a seizure over Delirious. The fans enjoyed it when they broke out the hardware, though it wasn't used as much. Strong brought a couple of chairs to the ring while Delirious got a ladder. Biggest spot came when Strong back body dropped Delirious from the apron through the ladder propped up between the apron and guardrail. Delirious won with the Chemical Imbalance. Ending kind of came out of nowhere.
Six Man Tag: Naomichi Marufuji & The Briscoes beat Matt Sydal, Ricky Marvin, & Atsushi Aoki
KENTA was pulled from the match due to an injury he got, presumably from his Budokan match the night before. So the crowd lost a lot of interest in the match unfortunately. The popped big time for Marufuji and The Briscoes. Marvin got his signature spots in, but didn't do much. Aoki got beat down for awhile before tagging out. Finish came when Sydal got hit with the Double Impact.
ROH World Title: Takeshi Morishima retained against Nigel McGuinness
Great, hard-hitting match. There were an awful lot of pro-Nigel fans which surprised me. I don't know how this match will stack up to their last encounter, but this was just awesome. Nigel hit a Tower of London from the apron all the way to the floor while Morishima sidewalk slammed him to the floor later. McGuinness came close a couple of times. We thought he had it with the Jawbreaker Lariat, but Morishima just kicked out. He finished it with a sick Backdrop Driver.
After the match Danielson hit the ring and took the belt. He told Morishima the belt was his until Nigel threw chased him out of the ring. He handed the belt to Morishima and that was the end.
Not every match was all it could have been, but the point was to entertain the Japanese crowd. They pulled it off amazingly well. The crowd was hot for most of the event and actively chanted in ways I've never seen a crowd here do before.
Damn it! Morishima retained >_< By the way, I was 4-2 with my picks.
Delirious gave the welcome promo, which fit because it didn't matter that no one understood him anyway. He eventually got jumped by the No Remorse Corps but Jack Evans and Kotaro Suzuki made the save, which became the first match.
Rocky Romero & Davey Richards beat Jack Evans & Kotaro Suzuki
-The crowd was really into it, mostly because they love Jack. Evans got most of his signatures in before Romero kicked him in the head three times. A real good opener though nothing spectacular.
NOAH Exhibition: Shuhei Taniguchi beat Akihiko Ito
This was pretty much a chance to give two young NOAH guys some ring time and it was a straight up puro style match. Thus, the crowd mostly sat on its hands except for the few big moves. I thought it came off really well, though it was pretty obvious that the crowd wasn't supposed to care. They both looked the same and had matching black tights, which didn't help. A good outing for these two though. Taniguchi won with an avalanche style german suplex.
Jimmy Rave beat BJ Whitmer
Fun, but not a great match. The crowd liked both guys, but Jimmy was more entertaining. Proof that Japan has its share of ROH faithful as Rave was welcomed by toilet paper and a really small "Die Jimmy, die" chant. I know the tp isn't allowed anymore in the States, but it looked like something the Japanese fans had been waiting a long time to do. Rave won with the Pedigree.
Bryan Danielson beat Go Shiozaki
Match of the Night. Danielson is clearly the face of ROH now as the crowd went nuts for him. It's one thing for New York or Philly, but a foreign crowd goes to show how over he is. Someone even busted out the "You're going to get your fucking head kicked in" chant. Shiozaki looked great against Danielson and really gave him run for his money. He survived the cross-face chicken wing, Cattle Mutilation, and the MMA elbows and even managed to hit his finisher, Go Flasher. He finally went down to the Cattle Mutilation. Right before intermission Danielson got on the mic and demanded a title shot.
Fight Without Honor: Delirious beat Roderick Strong
A good brawl between these two. Crowd was into both guys, though one kid was having a seizure over Delirious. The fans enjoyed it when they broke out the hardware, though it wasn't used as much. Strong brought a couple of chairs to the ring while Delirious got a ladder. Biggest spot came when Strong back body dropped Delirious from the apron through the ladder propped up between the apron and guardrail. Delirious won with the Chemical Imbalance. Ending kind of came out of nowhere.
Six Man Tag: Naomichi Marufuji & The Briscoes beat Matt Sydal, Ricky Marvin, & Atsushi Aoki
KENTA was pulled from the match due to an injury he got, presumably from his Budokan match the night before. So the crowd lost a lot of interest in the match unfortunately. The popped big time for Marufuji and The Briscoes. Marvin got his signature spots in, but didn't do much. Aoki got beat down for awhile before tagging out. Finish came when Sydal got hit with the Double Impact.
ROH World Title: Takeshi Morishima retained against Nigel McGuinness
Great, hard-hitting match. There were an awful lot of pro-Nigel fans which surprised me. I don't know how this match will stack up to their last encounter, but this was just awesome. Nigel hit a Tower of London from the apron all the way to the floor while Morishima sidewalk slammed him to the floor later. McGuinness came close a couple of times. We thought he had it with the Jawbreaker Lariat, but Morishima just kicked out. He finished it with a sick Backdrop Driver.
After the match Danielson hit the ring and took the belt. He told Morishima the belt was his until Nigel threw chased him out of the ring. He handed the belt to Morishima and that was the end.
Not every match was all it could have been, but the point was to entertain the Japanese crowd. They pulled it off amazingly well. The crowd was hot for most of the event and actively chanted in ways I've never seen a crowd here do before.
Damn it! Morishima retained >_< By the way, I was 4-2 with my picks.