Ring of Honor live event
Dayton, Ohio at Hara Arena
Report by Dot Net reader Justin Madden

The attendance for this show was awful. The venue is an arena that seats 5,000. I counted 178 people and my friend counted 186 so roughly 170 fans. In comparison, there were over 500 last time ROH came to Dayton this past November at the fairgrounds, and nearly 1,000 people when ROH came to Cincinnati in February.

We bought general admission tickets and were told we could sit anywhere on the floor we wanted because they hadn't sold all of those seats. So for 15 bucks we sat in the third row. I've been to this venue for wrestling a few times but it had been a long time (ECW Heatwave 98). A newer venue on the other side of town is where WWE runs now.

1. All Night Express defeated OVW wrestlers Chris Silvio and Muhammad Ali Faed.

2. Michael Elgin defeated OVW wrestler Samson Walker. Great back and forth big man match. Elgin wins with the Crippler Crossface after having trouble lifting Walker for his spinning powerbomb

3. Kevin Steen (w/Jimmy Jacobs) defeated BJ Whitmer. Steen is the only guy over in this company and it showed here. Steen and Whitmer brawled outside the ring for most of the match and it ended when Steen hit Whitmer with an F5 after Jimmy Jacobs tried to stab Whitmer with the spike. Lots of fan interaction, lots of heckling of the fans by Steen but it didn't matter. The whole place cheered him nonetheless.

4. El Generico and Kyle O'Reilly wrestled to a no contest. GREAT match with both wrestlers exchanging their signature spots. Generico teased the top rope brainbuster twice but never hit it. With the time limit about to expire Steen and Jacobs came out and destroyed Generico and O'Reilly. This led to a locker room clearing brawl and ended with Steen hitting Davey Richards with a chair several times and further setting up their match May 12.

5. TJ Perkins defeated Mike Mondo. Just a run of the mill Indy match. TJ Perkins does great moves but his character doesn't connect. Lots of Spirit Squad chants directed towards Mondo. Perkins won with a 450 splash.

6. Jay Lethal defeated Roderick Strong in a best of three falls non-title match. Probably the match of the night and it began with Strong singing Lethal Happy Birthday (I assume it was really Jay Lethal's birthday). This distracted Lethal enough to quickly get the first fall with a hand full of tights. The second fall came shortly after when Truth Martini interfered causing Strong to be disqualified. The third and final fall came after a series of exchanges near falls and signature moves. Lethal won after hitting his handspring of the ropes cutter combo. Non-title match though, and Lethal seem shocked when he didn't get the belt.

7. The Briscoes defeated Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin to retain the ROH Tag Titles. Lots of cheers for Briscoes, but honestly I'm tired of seeing these teams wrestle. I remember when ROH had more than four tag teams, and lately its been the same teams wrestling over and over. ANX came down mid way through the match. This played into the finish as they attacked Haas outside the ring, this distracted Benjamin enough to get hit with a double spine buster and be pinned.

8. ROH Champion Davey Richarda defeated Adam Cole. I used to really like Davey Richards but I could go the rest of my life without seeing another one of his matches. They are all the same and have about six ankle lock spots. When is the last time anyone has tapped out to that on the first try? Its awful. The finish came after about 20 minutes of typical Davey Richards punches kicks and suplexes. Cole finally tapped out to an ankle lock. Richards just doesn't connect with the crowd. He is a hell of a technician but it feels like he's putting on a clinic, not a wrestling match. The best thing this company could do is get the title off of this guy May 12.

RECOMMEND THIS ARTICLE: