Jun 18, 2006

A Night Of Wrestling In A Historic Building


ROH: June 17, 2006
New Yorker Hotel - New York, NY
This was one hell of a good show, but before I even start talking about the matches, I need to take a minute to talk about the venue because it's one of the coolest places that I've ever been to for a show of any kind.



The New Yorker Hotel was built in Hell's Kitchen in 1929.  It's a beautiful Art Deco 43 story building with 2,500 rooms which cost over $22 million to build in 1929 dollars.  When it was built, the hotel had its own coal-fired steam boilers to provide electricity to the building, which held the distinction of being the largest private power plant in the United States.  Nikola Tesla lived in seclusion in room 3327 of the hotel for the last ten years of his life until his death in 1943.  A hotel maid discovered the 86 year old inventor had passed away after she ignored the "do not disturb" sign that was on his door for two days.

This is a gorgeous building with a lot of history that the above paragraph barely scratches the surface.  Last night, it was the home to an excellent night of pro wrestling.


Homicide was scheduled to face a mystery opponent last night, and that mystery was solved after the second match of the night.  After Ricky Reyes made Dave Crist tap out in under a minute, Chris Hero jumped out of the crowd to knock out Julius Smokes.  Since Smokes is manager of both Reyes and Homicide, this attack made it pretty obvious who Homicide would challenge with his open contract later that night.

Prior to Homicide vs. Chris Hero, there was an inter-promotional match between Adam Pearce and Claudio Castagnoli which ended in a disqualification due to Chris Hero's interference.  Ring Of Honor matches rarely end in a DQ, but it makes perfect sense for the lawless rival promotion to cause a non-finish.  This was followed up by Homicide taking on Hero in a 20+ minute brawl that ended with a lariat and a 2-0 night for Ring Of Honor in their ongoing war with CZW.  After the match, Homicide grabbed the mic and threatened to quit ROH if he didn't receive an ROH World Title shot at Final Battle.

The main event was a triple threat match between three of the best professional wrestlers in the world, and it was intense from start to finish.  It ended with Kenta pinning the champ after hitting him twice with his go-to-sleep finisher, so I'm guessing that a title match between Danielson and Kenta will be taking place in the not too distant future.

Results:

Homicide
"Classic" Colt Cabana
Nigel McGuinness
The Briscoe Brothers: Mark Briscoe (left) and Jay Briscoe (right)
Davey Richards (Jimmy Rave must not have pulled one of his punches)
Jimmy Rave (he always does this thumbs down in every photo I've ever seen him take with fans, so I gave a thumbs up to my favorite villain in the company)
Jimmy Jacobs
Lacey
Irish Airborne: Jake Crist (left) and Dave Crist (right)

I fully realize how nerdy it is to collect photos with wrestlers after the show, but I figured what the hell.  I would never bug anyone while they're out with their families, or trying to eat dinner, or traveling or anything like that.  The only place that I ever even ask is at the venue where the show is taking place, and they're hanging out at the merch table to meet fans most of the time anyway.  Everyone I've met so far have seemed happy take a photo, but if someone ever tells me that they're not in the mood, that's cool too.


Update: This show was released on DVD under the name "In Your Face".  It's available for sale on ROHWrestling.com.

Update #2: Sterling James Keenan, who wrestled in the third match of this show, would go on to sign with World Wrestling Entertainment.  He currently works as Corey Graves in NXT.  Also, Mitch Franklin would go onto adopt the name Grizzly Redwood and continues to wrestle for ROH and across the independent circuit using this name.