Reported by Adam Martin of WrestleView.com
On Sunday, September 21, 2008 at 11:41 PM EST

Ring Of Honor returned to the ECW Arena (despite other reports to the contrary, ROH has run the Arena before, on March 11, 2006 during the exciting 2006 Ring of Honor vs. CZW series) last night before a standing room only crowd estimated at 1100. This was the largest crowd in the ECW Arena since the TNA Hardcore War 2006 shows.

  • Jerry Lynn defeated Kenny King with his trademark Cradle Piledriver. It was great to see Jerry Lynn still so over with the Arena crowd. He seemed pleasantly surprised at the volume of the crowd reaction.

  • NWA World Heavyweight Championship: Adam Pearce defeats Brent Albright to once again become the NWA World Heavyweight Champion. Adam locked Brent in the Crowbar and forced the submission.

  • Full Impact Heavyweight Championship: Go Shiozaki defeated Kevin Steen to retain the title after Shiozaki nailed Steen with two Go Flashers to get the pinfall.

    Post-match, Nigel McGuinness ran in and DDT'd Kevin Steen on the ROH World Championship belt, saying that hewouldn;t ever get the Ring of Honor title, and maybe HE'D go after the tag belts next.

    In an incredible match, Pro Wrestling NOAH Global Honored Crown Junior Heavyweight Champion Bryan Danielson defended his title, defeating Katsuhiko Nakajima to retain with the Cattle Mutilation submission

  • Erick Stevens defeated Rhett Titus by pinfall after a Doctor Bomb.

    Post-match, Larry Sweeney and Sweet and Sour, Inc. came out, with Sweeney offering Erick Stevens a contract to join the Sweet and Sour, Inc. Stevens declines, so Sweet and Sour, Inc. jumpedt him down followed by Go Shiozaki kneedropping Stevens on a chair. Roderick Strong, Ruckus, and Jigsaw came in to make the save, which segued into...

  • Chris Hero, Eddie Edwards, and Shane Hagadorn defeated Roderick Strong, Ruckus, and Jigsaw. Post-match, Sweet and Sour, Inc. gave Roderick Strong the same treatment Stevens got, including a top rope elbow. Think Sweet and Sour, Inc. is being booked mega-strong here, folks?

  • Kensuke Sasaki defeats Claudio Castagnoli with a Northern Lights Bomb. Decent match, but lacked the reaction to Sasaki I would have expected.

  • Ring of Honor World Championship: Nigel McGuinness defeated El Generico to retain. The mastch was set up so that erven the jaded Philadelphia crowd thought Generico had a legit change.The top turnbuckle brainbuster was being teased with the crowd going nuts, before El Generico finally nailed McGuinness with an in-ring Brainbuster, followed by but McGuinness rolling through and pinning Generico with a roll up.

  • Steel Cage Warfare

    Rules: Two men drawn at random will start. Wrestlers from each team will enter the cage in 3 minute intervals. Eliminations can happen at anytime. Eliminations are by pinfall or submission. The Necro Butcher can be drawn to enter the cage at any point. The match goes on until only one team (or The Necro Butcher) survives. There are no other rules. The participants are:
    The Briscoes/Austin Aries vs. The Age of the Fall of Jimmy Jacobs/Tyler Black/Delirious vs. The Necro Butcher

    Austin Aries vs. Tyler Black starts the match. Order of entrants Jimmy Jacobs, Necro Butcher, Jay Briscoe, Delirious, and Mark Briscoe

    Necro Butcher takes some lobotomy-inducing chairshots from Tyler Black and Jimmy Jacobs. Necro Butcher is later the first one eliminated (by Aries and Jacobs) to the vocal displeasure of a strong segment of the crowd.

    Mark Briscoe has brought in a barbed wire table only to be its victim as Tyler Black gives Mark a running powerbomb through the barbed wire table. Later on, Jay is dumped off the top of the cage through a table on the floor. Next elimination was Austin Aries, taken out by Jacobs' End Time.

    In the shocker moment of the match, Jacobs gives Delirious his spike. He goes to spike Jay, but in comes Daizee Haze. Daizee tries to talk him out of it pleading for him to nail Jacobs. Then, Delirious nails Daizee with the spike to the shock of the crowd.

    Later on, Mark Briscoe climbs to the top of the cage and does an insane dive onto all assembled. Finally, Delirious is eliminated via a Doomsday Device from the Briscoes.

    Jimmy Jacobs nailed both Briscoes with the spike, followed by chair shots. The Briscoes pull one out of the Road Warrior playbook and no-sell the chair shots. Jimmy Jacobs and Tyler Black are taken out by double pin via stereo Jay Driller/Cut-Throat Drivers

    Ring Of Honor returns to Philadelphia on December 26th, on the eve of Final Battle. While I was lucky enough to get a seat on the seats placed on the old stage and had great sight lines, Arena management needs to consider bringing in bleachers for any future Arena show as loaded as this, at least for General Admission fans. They also might want to put those seats on sale for the general public and charge a premium for the good view.

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