Back in May, I had the thrill of hitting the I95 and driving down from New York City to Philadelphia for the second of the two night stand War of the Worlds event put on by Ring of Honor, and featuring members of the New Japan Pro Wrestling roster. Being a huge proponent of NJPW, and having had an absolute blast when the two promotions' top talent locked up at last year's first incarnation of the event at Manhattan's Hammerstein Ballroom, I was going to go to great lengths to check this out. While I would've preferred to see this meeting of wrestling worlds go down in New York City again as opposed to its smaller yet extremely wrestling-centric neighbor to the south, it's always good to have an excuse to jet down to Philadelphia for a cheesesteak...or two...and other fine eats, some record store rummaging, and taking in the vibe of a generally more laid back hostility-free scene.
So, day off from work sorted out, I loaded up the war machine and, as it's never a good idea to venture into the Wasteland alone, made room for Chocko, also known as the 'Underboss' of the Mondoverse, who held things together on a lot of fronts: navigator, photographer, food wrangler, enforcer. The eater of sandwiches and I quickly made our way down to Old City to try the cheesesteaks at Sonny's Famous Steaks, and pick up some entrance theme music options at the charming a.k.a music. From there we made our way toward South Street, then further off the grid for an obligatory recharge and re-caffeination session at vegan cafe Grindhouse, where the thrash and death metal background music also helped get the blood pumping. This has become an unlikely but obligatory pro wrestling pilgrimage stopover spot, originally stumbled upon when an exhibition of photos by Zia Hiltey featuring El Generico and Chikara Pro activity was being held there. Finally it was over to the strip of auto shops and warehouses, which were definitely on the edge of something if not 'town', where the ECW Arena stood in wait.
This was definitely Road Warrior territory. If not Fury Road, perhaps Fury Row, which is a slightly less unsettling part of town than Muffler Row (link to FOTpedia). With the line of warehouse structures on one side, there is a view across the way to a dim industrial expanse. The street that fills the gap in between had become a jagged jamming together of parked cars in an arrangement that ever so slightly tipped its hat at organization by the time we arrived. Standing around and on top of the vehicles were wrestling fans aplenty, many of which were wearing Bullet Club t-shirts, most of whom were White. Essentially the ECW Arena resembled a strip club from the outside, and an emptied out warehouse space inside. Once inside, after 2 or 3 laps around the venue, we determined the narrow sliver of seats that was our section, where indeed nobody was sitting, and got to watching the show.
Wrestling
The unannounced opening match put the masked Latin Lover against recent new prospect turned House of Truth member J Diesel. The heel claimed a moderately hard fought victory for Team Truth.
Next up was the official opener of the show: The Decade's Adam Page taking on NJPW via New Jersey star Watanabe. Adam Page was accompanied by newly christened Decade young boy Colby Corino, which is important to note because the most memorable moments of the match involved him interfering and getting blasted by Watanabe. First, he received a 'Holy Shit' chant inducing German Suplex on the floor. Afterwards, as the victorious Adam Page, who won with his Inverted Backdrop Pile Driver finisher, was leaving the ring, Colby was pulled in by Watanabe for a lariat. Hitting a kid with the build of a scrawny teenager did not do much to put Watanabe over as a baby face, nor would I say it added much value to the ROH brand when Moose would destroy Colby with repeated power bombs outside the ring in their confrontation at Global Wars a few days later.
ROH's Michael Elgin took on NJPW's junior heavyweight KUSHIDA next. It was a dynamic match with KUSHIDA hitting a lot of high spots and Elgin landing some brutal looking throws and slams. KUSHIDA's manner was plenty aggressive, slapping away a handshake as the match started, and charging straight into the fight with the physically overbearing Elgin. Despite some intense back and forth sequences, Elgin defeated the small opponent.
The next match pit legitimate NJPW major player Tetsuya Naito against reDRagon's Kyle O'Reilly. While O'Reilly was in effect representing ROH, it pleased me that this was a match that could have appeared right on the bill of a not-so-typical NJPW show in Japan, since reDRagon have a consistent presence in the promotion's Junior Heavyweight division. The match incorporated a lot of humorous elements, and the heel/face dynamic seemed to shift during the match, adjusting according to audience reactions. As Naito is much less widely known than a Hiroshi Tanahashi or Shinsuke Nakamura, a lot of those in attendance didn't know what to make of him or what to expect. He and O'Reilly pantomimed powering down and up in reaction to the chants of their own or their opponent's name. Naito seemed to enjoy playing up a goofy villainous persona, exaggerating his shining eye gesture arrogantly, and O'Reilly received a 'Sleazy Kyle' chant as he started strutting around the ring, something I believe he started doing to mock rivals The Addiction. In the end, Naito won the match with his Stardust Press finisher off the top rope. The two shook hands amicably afterwards.
The next match would be the seemingly suddenly placed 4 Corner Survival match between Mark Briscoe, Jushin 'Thunder' Liger, Jay Lethal, and Shinsuke Nakamura. I don't think fans expect this one to appear so early on the card. It might've been done strategically to send a few more people to the autograph area during intermission to get a picture with Nakamura, but it also ended up leaving me and perhaps several others a bit exhausted as the second half of the evening approached. Nakamura was by far the most over individual on the card that night. I stress 'individual' because the collective of The Bullet Club, and maybe even the Bullet Cub's not so secret weapon, The Young Bucks, got a reception that rivaled or surpassed the former IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion's. But the crowd was roaring as Nakamura came out to the ring and as he wrestled. The match was fun without generating any overly heated interactions between participants. Lethal and Nakamura danced around one another a bit, working taunts. At one point there was collusion between Mark Briscoe and Lethal as the two double teamed Liger in one of the corners, but Lethal, true to form, knocked Briscoe from the turnbuckle to underhandedly take out his peer. In the end Nakamura took the victory with a running bomaye knee to Liger.
The first match after the intermission was a hot one, putting ROH regular Rodderick Strong VS NJPW ace Hiroshi Tanahashi. This extremely competitive bout was a definite highlight of the night, and from accounts I've heard, of the entire series of joint shows in both Philadelphia and Toronto. The drama was heightened when Rodderick was cut, his facing quickly covered by a slick layer of blood. The injury seemed unintentional but seeing Strong fight through whatever additional damage must have been incurred was riveting. Both combatants had loud cheers from the crowd going in their favor. Toward the end of the match Tanahashi hit signature moves in his arsenal: a Dragon Screw Leg Whip and a Sling Blade. Strong pulled out his running Drop Kick blast dubbed The End of Heartache and covered Tanahashi for a convincing near fall. Tanahashi would win the match with a High Fly Flow Splash off the top rope.
The Addiction, Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian, came out next to defend the Ring of Honor Heavyweight Tag Team Championship against CHAOS duo Kazuchika Okada and Gedo. The match was an excellent showcase of Daniels' and Kazarian's work as a heel tag team. They hit a multitude of impressive double team maneuvers. They also continually trash talked their overseas opponents without missing a beat. Unsurprisingly the match was built around The Addiction double teaming Gedo and keeping him isolated, though the veteran and now behind the scenes maven of NJPW did fire off some impressive offense of his own, until he got the hot tag to Okada who blasted through both Daniels and Kazarian. It would not be enough, though, and the reigning ROH tag team champs would pick up the victory with Gedo being pinned. Afterwards, however, Okada ran back in and took out the celebrating heels, leaving Daniels laid out by a big Rainmaker Lariat.
The penultimate match had ROH Heavyweight Champion Jay Briscoe defending his title against reDRagon's more experienced half, Bobby Fish. The match was fighting an uphill battle in a few respects. It was drawing near to the end of a long show, but not quite the main event; it had a fairly predictable outcome; and just as the early match between Naito and O'Reilly could have been part of a typical NJPW show, this one could have easily been featured along the route of your average ROH tour. Which has far less exotic implications. There was also some pretty strong anti-Briscoe sentiment in the crowd. I don't know if he's been a polarizing figure throughout his title run or if a particular contingent of jerky smart-mark fans in Philly were intent on creating friction. No matter, the two put on an excellent match. Fish was as credible a challenger to the Heavyweight title as anyone, which I hope NJPW officials took note of. While neither he nor O'Reilly are booked for the upcoming G1 Climax Tournament (they did make a huge mark during the Best of the Super Juniors series), they could easily hold their own in competition against NJPW's heavyweight roster members. There were some deadly looking maneuvers executed on the ring apron. Eventually Briscoe won with the Jay Driller Driver finisher to retain the title. The action was not quite over yet, as Moose made his way to the ring. There was an exchange of words leading to Moose leveling the champ with a spear. Jay would then pick himself up and, not carrying himself with the diplomacy of a John Cena, give the hostile audience a piece of his mind before making his way to the back.
It was now time for the main event: The Bullet Club, represented by IWGP Heavyweight Champion AJ Styles and the Young Bucks Matt and Nick Jackson, who currently hold the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Titles VS The Kingdom: Michael Bennet and Matt Taven, in current possession of the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team titles and only just returning to action Adam Cole, all of whom were accompanied to the ring by Maria Kanelis. The match would be a hair raising, crazy affair of flying bodies and intricately laid out spots throughout. I was not disappointed by the in ring action in the least. That this match itself was booked, and as the main event, left me a little cold for reasons I'll explain below. In the meantime as far as what I could actually keep track of during the match, there was an ongoing tease of the Young Bucks offering the 'too sweet' salute to Adam Cole, who would contemplate it to the shagrin of his presumably less cool pals in The Kingdom. In an extremely meta move, Taven and Bennet had a Young Buck locked up in the corner with Cole sauntering over, and then taking things further than the Bucks' unceremonious back rake and simply did nothing, dismissing the tangled up foe. An attack on Maria Kanelis was hinted at many times, and after one too many interjections into the match she received a triple Super Kick from the Bucks and Styles. AJ did hit the Styles Clash to come close to finishing the match but Taven and Bennet managed to make the save and clear the ring, with somebody's championship belts in hand, allowing for Cole to get a cheap and dirty roll up pin on Matt for the Kingdom to emerge victorious. Matt Jackson was really the ring general in this match, with AJ just holding his own. It gives credence to Matt's nickname, The Indietaker. But at the same time, for my money I would've liked to see AJ in a singles match, or at least defending his title against 2 or 3 other opponents. He is just too good in my opinion to see somewhere in the mix of a multi-man tag team match.
The reason for my feeling less than enthused about the match has a lot to do with my general warming over on the Bullet Club. No bones about it, ROH did know their audience and booked a finale that would have their core audience in this city eating it up, but I would go so far as to suggest a better program could easily out there and could potentially raise the stakes of the game. Essentially you had the bunch of jerks taking on the bunch of jerks that are cooler. No real faces to get behind, no heroes, just the guys in school you would be more afraid to get a swirly from. So who does that make the better performers? The villains that get received as villains or the ones that everybody wants to get a high five from?
Naturally the fans get behind the cool jerks. I'm not saying there is no place for this sort of program in wrestling at all. It is a great hallmark of this modern period of pro wrestling. It does have its limits, though, and I think the Bullet Club has definitely maxed out its intrigue level. At least to a wrestling audience that one hopes to expand. Beyond a bunch of jerky white guys in cool t-shirts...who look up to a wrestling group made up of a bunch of white guys who started the cool t-shirt. OK, that all sounds very preachy delivered from high atop the soap box and I'm not trying to be entirely like that. I am well aware pro wrestling isn't nor has it ever been a bastion of progressive thinking or social change, nor should it be entirely. But can it show some leanings in that direction? I don't think it is necessarily that unthinkable a notion. For one thing, playing on the fact that this is an international show highlighting international talent from NJPW, I would've liked to see that talent elevated into the highest slot on the card. Perhaps instead of warring heel groups, a situation where unlikely teammates become strange bedfellows to engage in competition with their rivals from within the opposing company.
This leads back to my eventual wish that the show had been held back at the Hammerstein Ballroom. Or somewhere else in New York City. Convenience aside, there is the fact that New York City has a lot more diversity and it stands to reason you would get a more diverse audience attending t the show. Again, I don't mean to come off as spouting a bunch of bleeding heart anti-White guy rhetoric. I am one, after all. But I definitely feel more comfortable in a mixed crowd than one where the vast majority looks and acts the same. Even leaving ethnicity out of the picture, I feel that New York City would bring a greater diversity of fan opinions and break up, even if just a little, that Bullet Club 'Boy's Club' in such full force at the ECW Arena. One thing I know to be a fact is that in New York City there is a huge Japanese population. And, as evidenced by the War Of The Worlds show last year, people in that community will come out to see the New Japan stars perform in person. I understand the Hammerstien has probably become cost prohibitive, but if another venue could be found within the 5 boros, I am confident the Japanese fans would find it and change up the crowd landscape a bit.
But if all this sounds like a whole lot of complaining, I really don't mean it to be. It was a fantastic show, and as our backs edged ever closer to the exit during the heel VS heel main event, we exited a bit ahead of the crowd so we could make a quick stop at Tony Luke's around the corner for a roast pork and provolone sandwich to go. That and the hilarity of The Best Show podcast, hosted by Tom Scharpling served as rocket fuel to get us back to New York City unscathed.
Meanwhile, I am pleased to have just found out NJPW wrestlers Kazuchika Okada, Shinsuke Nakamura, and KUSHIDA will return to the east coast in late August for another ROH taping in Philadelphia right before ROH stages their second show at the MCU in Coney Island, Brooklyn. Perhaps some Japanese fans will flock to the distant fringe of the popular boro. Maybe ROH will get it a bit more right and push these guys to very important spots on the shows, and if the Bullet Club is still being presented as a major attraction, then maybe they will have them do something a bit more important. If fans really want a rehash of the NWO takeover era, then maybe they will actually play at taking over instead of hanging out.
'til then.
Several photos provided by Chocko (planetchocko.com)
Me on twitter: @mondocurrymark
Chocko on twitter: @njmisfit
