ROH Reclamation Night 1
Milwaukee, Wisconsin at Turner Hall Ballroom
Report by Dot Net Member Blake Reilly

Doors opened at 6:40 (10 minutes late). I'm not the best at attendance numbers, but it was not a full house this time. There were some empty seats, but the crowd was so red hot it didn't matter.

Nigel McGuinness hosted a Q&A. The Q&A was cool, I'm not sure why there weren't more questions. Nigel was very up front on stuff, even talking about his TNA days. He did announce that The Young Bucks will be at the August 3 show in Toronto (which probably would have got a better reaction if you know it wasn't in Toronto) and also said that the No. 16 spot in the ROH Title Tournament will be a "Major Name".

Nigel and Kevin Kelly also announced that the company is thinking about doing a special show in Milwaukee down the road (I'll be there if it happens!). Finally, Jimmy Jacobs ran through the crowd jumped the line and confronted Nigel on why he wasn't on this card or any other card despite being a ROH original. He really got the crowd behind him.

Michael Elgin, Mschif, Davey Richards, Eddie Edwards, Maria Kanellis took part in a meet and greet. To be honest this was the shortest line I've seen for a meet and greet and with the star power I'm surprised. I did feel bad for MsChif because she didn't get any attention. I got my picture with Maria, which was awesome.

Dark match: Benjamin Boone and Cheeseburger def Beer City Bruisers with the Rocket Launcher a la Midnight Express. Cheeseburger came out last for introductions and the place erupted. The crowd was really into him, led by "Cheeseburger", "F--- em Cheeseburger f--- em!" and "Let's go Cheeseburger!" chants. (Yes that did happen.) It's hard to believe that this was just a dark match. Nigel was up in the balcony with Steen and Elgin (I think there were a few more, my father in law was trying to figure it out) and he had a smile on his face because of the crowd reaction.

1. Adrenaline Rush (ACH & TD Thomas) defeated Mike Sydal and Zizou Middoux when ACH hit Sydal with a 450 Splash. The crowd LOVED Adrenaline RUSH. Not much else to note, as awesome as they were it felt like a glorified squash to get the crowd going.

2. Athena def MsChif. This was the first Women of Honor match I've ever seen and it was well done. The one thing I noticed is that TV doesn't do MsChif justice. She is a total freak and terrifying in the ring but is good looking and fantastic with the crowd. All through the match she was interacting with fans and had them in her hand. The surprise was that Athena won with a top rope splash. The crowd almost didn't know how to react. After the match Athena went for a handshake and got the mist.

3. Mike Bennett (w/Maria) defeated BJ Whitmer after a piledriver. Alright, I have to make a couple on comments on Maria. First, she is an awesome valet/manager. Watching her react to every move really makes the match better. Second, while she is hot, in person she was not the hottest woman on this card. She actually looked better when I saw her in the balcony during the Steen match in a dress.

As for the match, it was exciting. I'm not sure why Whitmer matches on TV can't be this good. He is good worker and a lot fast than a lot of people give him credit for. I did have to admit the "Let's Go BJ" chant is really weird especially with Maria out there. Bennett had his moments as well. Whitner had Bennett pinned but I didn't see it because Maria was distracting Todd Sinclair and my entire section. The crowd was not happy with the finish and littered the ring with empty beer cans and trash. The camera man on the other side of the ring from me got hit in the head and was really pissed.

4. Eddie Edwards defeated ROH Tag Champ Kyle O'Reilly. Edwards stomped on O’Reilly while in the half crab for the win. Match of the night! Not even close. This stole the show, had every one, even the Turner Hall wait staff, on their feet looking at the ring. There was like 5-6 minutes of solid chain wrestling which got the crowd to duel between "This is Awesome" and "This is Wrestling" chants. There is no way I could even write down what moves were hit because there was so much to it. If you love wrestling find this match when it goes up on ROH's VOD match.

Intermission

5. Tommaso Ciampa defeated Rhino. Rhino went for a spear and got hit by a knee, leading to to Ciampa getting the pin. Ciampa's entrance really gets you pumped up in person. The crowd went insane went he came out. It turned into a war really fast and really entertaining.

6. Kevin Steen defeated Silas Young. Steen won with the Package Piledriver. Young to his credit always finds a way to get his hometown crowd to boo him. Steen got a crazy reaction. In the balcony Maria was actually rocking out to his theme music. About 15 of us in my section were singing his theme word for word so that was fun. Before the match Young got on the mic and said that he refused to shake Steen's hand because he was fat and a poor excuse for a wrestler. This received the What treatment. (Which didn't sit well with a bunch of fans, including ironically the one guy in the Cena shirt.) Steen's reaction was a punch to the face and the match got started. This was really good even though not one person thought Young had a chance in hell to win. I will say that Steen wrestled so well in this match, hitting standing drop kicks, rolling thunders and top rope moves. The crowd ate it all up. At one point a guy in the front row of my section, very drunk, put his foot up on the top of railing and Steen threw Young face into it.

7. Michael Elgin defeated Adam Cole, Matt Taven, and Jay Lethal in a four-way. Elgin won via pin with the spinning powerbomb. There is nothing quite like a bunch of fat guys in the crowd dancing to the Hoopla music. It is so catchy in person and it's hard not to get into it. The entrance included the Hotties kissing on the apron and Truth and Taven thrusting both girls from behind. It's actually hard to believe they are heels when you watch that in person. Lethal and Cole got really good pops, Elgin got the biggest out of the four. Now real fast the Hotties are even hotter in person. They never break character outside the ring, sometimes it's a bit distracting but I don't think anyone cared.

As for the match, it was fantastic. For all the crap Taven gets, when they let him wrestle he can go. Elgin hit his delayed vertical suplex on Cole for 60 count from the crowd. The only confusing part of this match was that there random tags for some reason. At one point there was a spot where Cole super kicked Lethal, Elgin super kicked Cole and then Taven super kicked Elgin and the crowd went crazy. After the match Cole refused to shake hands with Elgin and Lethal post-match.

8. Bobby Fish defeated Davey Richards. Fish used a vicious knee strike after a Kyle O'Reilly distraction to get the win. Fish got the biggest heel reaction of the night by far. The crowd hated him. He was getting into fans face all the way down the ring and at point had a beer thrown at him. That caused him to knock another beer out of another guy's hand and it flew up and landed three rows back an exploded on about seven fans including the two guys in front of me.

Davey actually got the crowd to do various Yes and No chants throughout the match. The hugest spot of the night came when Davey hit a dive, cleared the ring, the barricade and landed in the 3rd row. That was just insane. At this point, Edwards and O'Reilly came down to the ring to check on their partners. The crowd was all over him because he came in out in awful lime green sweatpants. I almost missed the finish because a fan got removed from our section by an ROH ref for picking up his chair and aiming for O'Reilly.

Post match, Davey was legit hurt and needed Edwards and Adrenaline RUSH to help him to the back. Nigel came down to the ring to check on him. After Davey left the ring, Nigel talked to the crowd thanking us for being there and saying that honor has be restored to ROH.

No return date set but they promised they will be back.

Biggest Pops
Kevin Steen
Cheeseburger
Michael Elgin
Davey Richards

Biggest Heat
Bobby Fish (by far!)
Mike Bennett
Silas Young

I have to admit this is our third Milwaukee show and the shows just keep getting better. This was beginning to end a great show and if you wanted to watch it on VOD or DVD I would suggest it.

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