----Jon Michael beat Stan Lee in a fantastic bout. They started out just hold for hold. Lee was doing
stuff that you can only watch on ROH DVDs. Both guys were just flawless. Lee had his ribs taped from an angle the previous week, so Michael had it easy for the heat. They kept the ribs taped the whole match leaving the illusion and never letting the fans think he is not hurting. Crowd was so super hot for Lee. For the rookies in this area – get a tape/DVD of this match – and take a look at Lee coming out of heat. Babyface “fire” at it’s best. A bunch of near falls. Michael did a Savage elbow drop across the ring. Lee did a springboard Jericho dropkick to Michael who was standing on the apron bumping him to floor. This was followed by a Hurracanrana from the ring apron to the floor on Michael. Ref bump with a chair getting in the ring. Lee hit a Spicolli driver on Michael on the chair. No ref. He went to the top for frog splash missing it and taking the chair on the ribs. Michael waited for him to get up and speared him for the win. After the bout, Michael then powerbombed Lee on a chair leaving him there. [****]----Bill Dundee beat Kevin White with Sue Young/Mr. White. Ditto from the night before with some variation. Dundee was super over here and the crowd got into it. White used his awesome double secret phantom foreign object taking the heat. Dundee dropped down out of the ring to go for Young and he bumped again outside the ring for White. White slammed his head to a ringpost and then slammed him into a table. White would get ref’s attention as Young/Garry would choke Dundee. White tried to use the ropes to pin Dundee, but the ref caught him. Dundee then used the ropes to pin White. Crowd popped big for the win. Another good solid old school bout. [**1/2]
----Loser Leaves Town: Derrick King with Tony Gunn beat Flash Flanagan with Jeff O’Dell. Another real good match. Crowd here loves DK and LOATH Flash. Crowd was into every spot from the opening bell. Heat started with Jeff holding DK’s foot and Flash taking the advantage. Flash hit DK with a draped thru the ropes DDT that looked good. Flash used a superkick cutting DK off at one point. Near falls and just pure wrestling. Flash missed a moonsault. Finish had DK go for Jeff, but he moved with Jeff bumping. DK hit the superkick on Flash for the pin. [****]
----$10,000 Man Battle Royal – Winner – Tommy Redneck. I think it would just wrong if I didn’t mention all the guys that came out to work the main event. So, here goes – Shannon Lee, Seth Knight, Sergeant Shakedown, Tank, Christian Jacobs, Jon Michael, Ray Ray, Dell Tucker, Rockin Randy, Arnez, Psycho, Idol Bane, Scott Fury, Slim Pickens, Zane Richards, Derrick King and TGB. I am usually not a fan of battle royals and was not looking forward to this one. But, it was fun and the crowd stayed with it during the whole match. Shakedown was the first out. Shannon Lee took a bump over the top rope that I thought killed him. Tank military pressed Ray Ray and chunked him into the third row. Crazy shit. Psycho/Tank were trading punches in the middle of the ring at one time and the whole crowd was chanting “Psycho..Psycho.” When Psycho was eliminated it was scary as he was balancing on the top rope and it looked like he was going to land on his head. Final four had DK, TGB, Tank and Redneck. DK went for the superkick and TGB did the Orton/HBK spot with a shot right to the nuts and a throw over the ropes. Stip in the match was that Redneck could not touch TGB or he would be eliminated. So Tank/TGB just beat the hell out of Redneck. TGB was celebrating talking about how he was going to win, when Tank looked over and finally had enough. Tank hit TGB with two hard closelines and went to throw TGB out. Redneck came up behind Tank giving him a boost with TGB/Tank being eliminated and Redneck winning. Huge pop for Redneck win. [***]
NOTES
----Just a little over 80 paid with close to 100 in the building. Gate was close to $800, which was almost double the crowd from the week before and quadruple the gate. That was a good thing as EVERYONE got paid…First bout was real good, even though a “legend” thought too much was done in it…Rumors backstage that NBW’s Baron Malkavain and Slim Pickens [JR Benson] are headed to TLCW…I want to see Kevin White vs one of these guys in a 20 minute bout – Stan Lee, Flash, Derrick King, Jon Michael or TGB. One reason is because I think he could have a good match with any of these guys. Also, because White gets heat because he usually only works Dundee and a lot of the boys feel it is a “safety net” for him. I think White is underrated...Tank made everyone look small in the battle royal – even Psycho. He also stayed in the ring the whole match and worked his ass off…If the rookies in this area want to know how to work a crowd and put on great matches – get a copy of the two [****] bouts from this show. Hell, even get a copy of the White/Dundee bout. The latter bout is old school psychology – something everyone should know. The first bout was a combo of old school/new stuff that the fans are use to watching on TV. DK/Flash was just as good as it gets in this area when it comes to pure wrestling…For those keeping count, Jon Michael become the second person this year to receive a [****] rating in both a tag team and singles match following Lee. DK become the third person this year to receive a [****] in both a tag team and singles match this year less than a hour later. LOL Flash received his first [****] of the year. BUT, Stan Lee received his third [****] rating of the year making him a top candidate for RRO Best Damn Performer of the Year. He is currently my fave performer to watch…Next stop tonight – Ripley, TN for TLCW – “I Quit” – Flash vs TGB, DK vs Lawler, Loser Leaves TLCW – Michael vs Dustin Starr and more.
