Jul 29, 2007

Race To The Top



ROH: Race To The Top Tournament
July 27, 2007 - Deer Park Community Center - Deer Park, NY
July 28, 2007 - Inman Sports Club - Edison, NJ
Since both shows in this tournament are within reasonable driving distance, we decided to make a weekend out of this.  We went to the Friday night show on Long Island, then drove back and spent the night in South Plainfield, which isn't far from the venue for the second half of the tournament in Edison, New Jersey.

Before I even get into the matches, there was an odd flyer taped to the back every chair at ringside for both of the shows from this past weekend.


There has been a lot of speculation online about what this could mean.  I'm thinking that it has something to do with an upcoming storyline, but every post on the ROH message board that has asked about these flyers have been deleted by the moderators.  Most people seem to believe that this is leading to an upcoming storyline involving either the return of Jimmy Jacobs, or Adam Pearce leading a stable similar to Raven's Nest from ECW.

The Abused Society website is pretty creepy, with images of a bleeding Statue of Liberty and a poem that reads:

Nothing Saves 
 
littered streets of the lost
the stench of pathetic, resigned to blood and rust
everything wasted
transparently
there is no honor  
you will soon discover 
 
Project 161 

The last line is a clickable link, which goes to another page a picture of a city sky with the following text:

one second to know
the city will fall
eyes wide open 
 
Project 161  

I am no good at all with riddles, but I can't help but to notice that the words "second city" appear in that last part, so if this does have something to do with a storyline, I'm guessing that it has something to do with Chicago.  The fact that ROH has an upcoming pay-per-view taping there on September 15th and that this will be the company's 161st show leads me to believe that whatever this is will be revealed at that time.


The first half of this tournament took place on Long Island in the hamlet of Deer Park, which is in the northeast corner of Babylon, NY (the hometown of Rodney Dangerfield).  The show was originally scheduled for the Sports Plus Entertainment Center in Lake Grove.  From what I read, it was sort of like a Dave & Busters, and it had a convention hall where ROH have held events in the past.  Unfortunately, Sports Plus has closed its doors, so they had to relocate this show to the Deer Park Community Center.  It is by far the smallest venue that I've ever seen an ROH show.  It reminded me of a high school gymnasium with no air conditioning.  I was roasting just sitting in the crowd, so I could only imagine how uncomfortable it must have felt for the wrestlers.

Night One Results:


The second half of the Race To The Top Tournament was at the familiar surroundings of the Inman Sports Club in Edison, New Jersey.  I think this is my favorite venue that Ring Of Honor uses.  It's a spacious building with plenty of parking, and because it's an ice rink, it's always kept nice and cool even in the summer.
 


I got to meet El Generico before the show, and he was kind enough to take a picture with me in which I'm making an absolutely ridiculous face.  Seriously, why do I look so angry?  The Simpson Movie wasn't that bad!  Also, props to the masked man who stayed completely in character the whole time.  When I asked if he would take a picture with me, he answered in a cartoon Spanish accent by saying "Foto?  Sí,!"

Night Two Results: