The Independent Wrestling Thread

[EmpireWF]

Strange addition, Jerry Lynn will be appearing (not wrestling) on the ROH show tomorrow.


The next big ROH show is 9/6 in Toronto for ASE 6 and will be streamed online for $19.99.

The only match announced so far is fucking awesome: O'Reilly & Fish vs. Young Bucks for the tag gold in a 2/3 falls match.

[EmpireWF]

ROH house show....

MCU Park at its max (standing room only) holds about 9,000 people. Best of my knowledge, their best crowd for a wrestling show was the first time TNA ran there about 4 years back (legit 3,000+ people), but it's been down each year since. I heard they sold about 700-800 going into this past week so first glance I don't believe walkup was huge for them. Behind home plate was pretty much full but the third base side, the people ended right before the visitors dugout. On the first base side, it went a bit further but there were patches of empty sections, too. I'll assume that ROH made their money regardless of the attendance, but hopefully this doesn't become the norm for NYC summers.

-Maria, Benett, Daniels & Kazarian, AJ, Jerry Lynn were signing before the show

-BULLET CLUB SHIRTS, but for $35 I passed.

-Cage was set up when I got there. Great opener, 2nd best match on the show. Normally, Matt Taven is too vanilla but I liked him here (he's been feuding with Lethal so that may explain it). For a cage match, TONS of interference (the big girl who's with Truth is hot) but Lethal won.
-Mark Briscoe beat Watanabe
-Moose (the former NFL player) & RD Evans beat Cheeseburger & Brutal Bob
-Bennett beat Rocky Romero courtesy of the distraction from Maria dancing on the apron. *At this point, there was some black chick who went down by the netting and was shouting something throughout the match. Maybe she was drunk? During the fireworks intermission, Romero went into the stands and up to her and a couple other girls. I assume they knew one each other, he returned to the dugout eventually.
-Decade beat a team of ROH students (one of them had half his face painted like a baseball, which was sorta cool)
-Silas Young beat Ciampa - post match, Ciampa beat up a couple refs
-Cedric Alexander beat ACH - crowd was drunk and crapped on the match unfortunately. ACH took a nasty fall on his head, was pinned and took a little bit to get up. He walked off so hopefully it's nothing major.
-After the 2nd intermission, reDRagon beat Daniels/Kazarian (Decade interfered)
-Main event was awesome. Elgin, Cole, AJ & Brisoe all had their moments - lots of stiff stuff btw Elgin & Briscoe, a few top rope spots, AJ hit his stuff. Elgin eventually retained after hitting the Elgin bomb on Cole.

*No real reason to go out of your way to check the show out however it may air. It was a 2 match show, but if possible, do watch the main event b/c it was real good. I can't even imagine the shape AJ Styles is in coming off the G1 tournament that concluded only a week or two ago. That motherfucker is busting his ass all over the world with dates practically every weekend somewhere. Good for him.

*ROH is moving to Terminal 5 beginning with Final Battle (a PPV, Sunday night 12/7). It's a night club so figure space will be a bit tighter than the perfect Manhattan Center, there's space for about 3,000 but I'm not sure if that's all one room or split between different levels. Meltzer said they're selling rows 1-3 for $100 so that's a big bump up (previously row 2 was $80 & row 3 was $60).

*I only caught glimpses but it looked like there was a young Japanese guy in a suit watching the show from the visitors dugout (where the locker room was), the Observer said there would be a NJPW rep there to discuss future plans...so perhaps he was part of the New Japan group.

*Any douchebag asshole who throws streamers into the ring during a match deserves to be shot in the face.

[Kuzzy Powers]

Smash wrestling puts on another great show today. These guys are consistently banging out the best cards on the Indy Circle monthly IMO.

[Kuzzy Powers]

Strange addition, Jerry Lynn will be appearing (not wrestling) on the ROH show tomorrow.


The next big ROH show is 9/6 in Toronto for ASE 6 and will be streamed online for $19.99.

The only match announced so far is fucking awesome: O'Reilly & Fish vs. Young Bucks for the tag gold in a 2/3 falls match.

Ahhhhhh fuck yes. Will definitely be there.

[MrBill]

An excerpt from the update on Inspire's website about the recent release of Sammy Guevara-

One of the hot button news items coming from Inspire Pro is the sudden parting of ways with Sammy Guevara. What are your thoughts on everything that went down?

It’s an unfortunate situation. Sammy is very obviously a talented young man with a very high ceiling. Still, all the athletic ability in the world can be undone by a lack of maturity and humanity. I spoke with Sammy briefly after the whole situation occurred that lead to his dismissal, and I think the one thing that could have salvaged a lot in this situation would have been a very frank apology that conveyed some sense of remorse for his actions and words. Unfortunately, I think his level of maturity and his pride prevented him from doing the right thing. When you add up all of these trespasses, it clearly forced our hand. Still, there are wrestlers out there in the Texas scene who did far worse, and burnt tons of bridges during their younger years. It took time for them to be humbled. Sammy should be allowed the opportunity to grow up. I feel like there will be a day when he asks for forgiveness, and we should all be there to embrace him. For the time being, though, I think tough love is the best course of action for Sammy.

[EmpireWF]

ROH All Star Extravaganza 6 is Saturday night in Toronto, and will air live on iPPV via UStream for $19.99 (ROH Ringside members get 25% off that price)

ROH World Champion Michael Elgin vs. Jay Briscoe
-Briscoe has not been pinned in a singles match in something like two years with his lone run with the title mixed in that time frame

2 Out of 3 Falls Match
ROH World Tag Team Champs reDRagon vs. The Young Bucks !!!!!!!!!!!!

No Time Limit
ROH TV Champion Jay Lethal w/ Truth Martini vs. ACH

AJ Styles vs. Adam Cole

Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian vs. Roderick Strong & Jimmy Jacobs

Cedric Alexander vs. Silas Young

Mark Briscoe vs. Hanson

Adam Page & BJ Whitmer vs. Caprice Coleman & Watanabe vs. Moose & RD Evans w/ Veda Scott vs. Ethan Gabriel Ownes & Josh Alexander

[EmpireWF]

So, Meltzer says ROH was not happy with Elgin for saying he intended to try out for MLB next year so they made the decision yesterday to take the belt off him.

Has to be more to this.

[Warner2BruceTD]

So, Meltzer says ROH was not happy with Elgin for saying he intended to try out for MLB next year so they made the decision yesterday to take the belt off him.

Has to be more to this.

There is a ton more to it. The bizarre baseball talk was the straw that broke the back.

Elgin is said to be a little crazy, and he's gotten on people's nerves for having a big head. Got a DM on Twitter that he was losing on Thursday, and I was told there is a real good chance they will let him go when his contract was up.

[EmpireWF]

Didn't they re-sign Elgin to a "long term" extension in the spring?

[Warner2BruceTD]

Didn't they re-sign Elgin to a "long term" extension in the spring?

I was told he could be gone by December.

Also, he was detained at the border and can't get into the U.S. Will miss AIW tonight, and could be stuck in Canada for weeks. He's waiting for his green card from his marriage to MsChef.

That may be the fault of ROH blowing paperwork, as they've had a terrible history with people crossing the border.

[EmpireWF]

Elgin via Facebook on his current predicament.

All I know is I am without my beautiful wife, our great pets and new house. We have 2 mortgages to pay and many other bills that my money is going towards. I have almost zero clothes or personal belongings. This is a more drastic situation that anyone could understand. To my family in St. Louis I love and miss you, to Elgin supporters and haters alike thank you for supporting wrestling because without you I wouldn't be anywhere.

[Kuzzy Powers]

Elgin has already taken 2 local booking this weekend, I guess in an effort to make some cash. At Rival Schools he said he wouldnt be taking bookings in Ontario for the next couple years, so thats obviously out the window now. I was pretty surprised they took the belt off him in Toronto, but it obviously has more to do with backstage nonsense.

The show was great, btw. Seeing Josh Alexander and Ethan Page compete at a higher level show infront of their home town crowd was good stuff. You have to appreciate what it would be like for guys like that to wrestle in Maple Leaf Gardens infront of their family and friends. EGO was marking out.

[EmpireWF]

From Meltzer.....indy wrestling!

--Congrats to Michael Bennett and Maria Kanellis, who are getting married Friday in Chicago. ROH is doing a combination show and bachelor party for Bennett on Thursday in suburban Chicago at 115 Bourbon Street. Included on the show is Mark Briscoe vs. Roderick Strong in a loser can't drink any alcohol at the bachelor party match.