Abdullah The Butcher Runs Out Of Ribs + ROH-‘Mania Report

— Abdullah the Butcher’s Atlanta area “House of Ribs and Chinese Food” restaurant ran out of ribs Saturday afternoon due the numerous wrestling fans in town. Following WrestleMania XXVII, the WWE Hall of Famer set up a makeshift merchandise table in the lobby of the WWE hotel to hawk merchandise and photos. Seriously.

— Thanks to Larry Goodman & Pwinsider for this report from ROH’s WrestleMania weekend i-PPV event:

Ring of Honor kicked off the Wrestlemania weekend with a tremendous show at the Centerstage Friday night.

The bar has been set very high for the events that follow. From a pure wrestling perspective, it was the best live show I’ve seen in forever. Every match was good, and the second half was off the charts. The last three matches, which included Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Hass winning the ROH Tag Team Championship, were all in the 20-30 minute range. U nder normal circumstances, it would have been too much wrestling, but this was far from the normal. The wrestling was that superior – 3 hours and 15 minutes and it breezed by.

The SRO crowd of 800 had the place rocking all night long. From the superstar reactions to the ring entrances, to the plethora of clever and sometimes nasty chants, to the explosive pops for key spots, suffice to say, it was a far cry from the vibe of the WCW tapings.

(1) Michael Elgin (with Truth Martini) beat El Generico in 9:14. Solid back and forth match, pitting the power of Elgin vs. the speed and agility of Generico. The highlight reel occurred with both men battling on the floor. Generico dove diagonally across two sets of ropes to give Elgin a spinning DDT. Immediately thereafter, a masked individual interfered and Elgin pinned Generico with a spinning sitout powerbomb. Thankfully, this was the only finish resulting from outside interference.

Truth Martini came out with Caleb Konley. He said the next match was Konley’s opportunity to prove he was worthy of becoming the newest member of House of Truth.

(2) Homicide beat Colt Cabana and Tommaso Ciampo (with Prince Nana & Mia Yim & Ernesto Osiris & R.D. Evans) and Caleb Konley in a Four Corners Survival by pinning Konley at 9:23. It was a babyface (Homicide & Cabana) vs. heel tag match most of the way. Ciampo has a unique look, kind of Avatarish. Konley got a “let’s go Spanky” chant. Mia gave Homicide a spinkick on the floor, drawing a “that was sexy” chant. Cabana delivered a round of elbow to The Embassy, then a kiss for Mia. Homicide did cannonball dives on all three of his opponents, before pinning Konley with the Cop Killa. Highly entertaining.

Afterward, Martini teased a thumbs up for Konley. April Fools! Elgin wasted Konley with a powerbomb

(3) Hiroyo Matsumoto & Ayumi Kurihara beat Sara Del Ray & Serena Deeb in 9:02. Fans cheered both teams here. The Joshi women controlled the action with Deeb taking major abuse. Daizee Haze & Tomoka Nakagawa (Shimmer tag champs) came out to observe. Finish saw Kurihara missile dropkick Deeb, then drop her on her head. Matsumoto killed here dead with a wicked backdrop driver. Solid match and the crowd showed great appreciation for the skill level of the Japanese women.

Postmatch, Nakagawa spit green mist at the winners to set up their tag title match at the Saturday show.

(4) Briscoe Brothers beat Adam Cole & Kyle O’Reilly in 13:24. Briscoes had turned heel, but wouldn’t have known it from the crowd reaction to their intro. Briscoes brought the physicality, the likes of which can’t be fully appreciated on iPPV. Needless to say, Cole and O’Reilly got the worst of it. They were working a breakneck pace doing all kinds of cool stuff. It got the first “this is awesome” chant of the night. To me, it felt like too much stuff given all that was to follow. At least it was placed before the intermission so the crowd could catch their breath. Jay pinned Cole after double team Doomsday Device.

All Night Express came out of the crowd to attack Briscoes. They had a hell of brawl and the crowd definitely wanted to see them go at it, but not necessarily with ANX as the babyfaces in the deal. Mike Posey and Corey Hollis were among the security people trying to break it up. Jay tossed a security guy onto ANX to stop them from giving Mark a spike piledriver.

(5) Davey Richards beat Roderick Strong (with Truth Martini) via submission in 27:08. Crowd was fully behind Richards, who looked thicker and more muscular than ever. Strong looked slight in comparison. Before long, Truth interfered to give Strong an opportunity to gain the upper hand. Match had a long, slow build. Richards hit a suicide dive at blazing speed that drew an “ROH” chant and really picked up the crowd. From the ropes, Strong planted Richards across the top turnbuckle with a wicked side suplex. An intense, non-stop strike exchange ended with a double down and a huge “ROH” chant. Both men looked completely spent. The fight moved to the apron, where Strong gave Richards a sick suplex onto the ring frame. Richards was almost counted out, but he rallied with a blazing barrage of strikes. Strong answered with a series of big moves for near falls. In frustration, Strong tried for the Gibson Driver, but Richards reversed into the ankle lock. Strong escaped and Richard roared back with big moves. Richards with the ankle lock again. More distraction by Martini led more huge moves by Strong, but he still couldn’t put Richards away. He got the Stronghold again, which drew a huge “please don’t tap” chant. Richards reversed into the ankle lock. At this point, Martini hit the ring, but Richard knocked him for a loop. Finishing sequence was a superplex rolled through into a Falcon Arrow and then back to the ankle lock for the tap out. Outstanding. The crowd went nuts for this.

(6) World’s Greatest Tag Team (Shelton Benjamin & Charlie Haas) beat Kings of Wrestling (Claudio Castagnoli & Chris Hero with Shane Hagadorn & Sara Del Ray) in 23:02 to win the ROH Tag Team Championship. These are four physically impressive dudes, WGTT especially. Crowd was psyched for this one also. Crowd was probably 2/3 in favor of Benjamin and Haas. Typical tag match structure. World’s Greatest dominated with pure wrestling. Castagnoli was selling damage to his knee. It built to ring clearing german suplexes in stereo. Kings got heat on Benjamin and slowed things down. Crowd was quieter during this. Haas got them going with some stellar house cleaning, and it was hot stuff through to the finish. Hero tried for a sneak roaring elbow and ate a Benjamin superkick. Benjamin leapfrogged Haas landing on the backs of KOW. Hero connected with the roaring elbow on Haas. KOW did the giant swing/baseball slide combo on Hass, but Benjamin broke up the pin. Fans chanted “this is awesome”. It didn’t seem like that great of match midway through, but it sure was now. Benjamin DDTed Castagnoli for close near fall. Castagnoli hit the pop-up European uppercut for a near fall. Castagnoli went for the Ricola Bomb, but Haas countered with an Angle Slam into the Haas of Pain. At this point, Del Ray diverted the ref’s attention so Hero could put on the loaded elbow pad and go up top. But Benjamin leapt up and suplexed Hero. The building exploded when Castagnoli tapped. Cary Silkin presented WGTT with the belts. Jim Cornette hugged Haas as the champions were taking their victory lap.

(7) Eddie Edwards defeated ROH TV Champion Christopher Daniels in 30:09 to retain the ROH Heavyweight Championship. Crowd was split right down the middle for this one, but it all about being for there guy rather than against the other guy. Another match with a gradual build. It had the feel of a heated contest, but one where mutual respect was the operative principle. Daniels tried to catch Edwards in his own Achilles Lock, but Edwards escaped to the floor. Daniels pursued and got hiptossed into the barricade for his troubles. The first key move saw Edwards try for a Backpack Driver on the apron, but Daniels slipped away and gave Edwards a uranage through the ringside table. The crowd chanted “F*** TNA”. Daniels held the ROH belt over his head. Daniels focused his attack on Edwards’ back. The crowd chanted for the BME. Edwards blocked a superplex and hit a missile dropkick for a double down at 18:30. They went back and forth with pin attempts. Edwards hiptossed Daniels out of the ring and nailed him with a tope. Back inside the ring, Edwards unloaded with Kobashi chops and used a Tiger Suplex for a near fall. Daniels got the Koji clutch, but Edwards made the ropes. Edwards caught Daniels with the Achilles Lock, and Daniels turned it into an inside cradle for a near fall. Edwards hit the 2K1 Bomb for a near fall. Daniels tried for a top rope Angel’s Wings, but Edwards backdropped Daniels into the ring and followed with a top rope double stomp. Daniels escaped from a powerbomb and hit the Angel’s Wings but only good for a two count. Daniels hit the BME and Edwards kicked out again. Daniels’ stunned facial expression was fantastic. Daniels went for a second BME and Edwards got his knees up for two, then transitioned to the Achilles Lock. Daniels managed to get out of it via super intense exchange. Fans were on their feet chanting “ROH” at this point. Daniels set Edwards up for a top rope uranage. Edwards blocked it and hit super 2K1 Bomb, then followed with a standard 2K1 bomb for the pin. An amazing match.

Daniels refused Edwards postmatch handshake and stalked to the back. Edwards thanked the Atlanta crowd and said it was an honor to represent ROH as world champion.

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