Back from the Front with Observation

Ring of Honor made its long awaited return to St. Paul MN on Friday night. Yours truly Malibu Sands (pictured ringside in the brown shirt and with an astounded look on my face) along with Frogtown (the guy in the Minnesota Twins cap) and Doughnuts (the guy in the striped blue polo shirt who has been mistakened in public for both the affable Clay Aiken of American Idol fame and the irrepressible Tad Martin on All My Children) endured the sauna like conditions of the Saint Paul Armory to enjoy an evening of hard-hitting wrestling action and superlative people watching.

As the result of leisurely sipping a couple of drinks at our favorite St. Paul bar, we entered the building about thirty minutes after bell time. Much to our chagrin, no alcohol was being served; the only items for sale were energy drinks, water, pizza, DVDs, and shoddily stitched (read: "Made in the USA") t-shirts, all of which the deformed, disfigured, and cognitively feeble zombie mutant rubes were buying at a steady pace. Needing a mixer to tame the flavor of our smuggled in hard liquor, as well as a base to absorb some of its inebriating properties, food and drinks were purchased. In a development that surprised no one, the $3 tall boys of RockStar were warm while the $2 slices of cheese pizza were cold.

Luckily the wrestling action more than compensated for the lack of concession options. Allow me to offer a quick-n-dirty summation of what we witnessed:

• The Briscoe Brothers executed numerous innovative double team maneuvers in their successful defense of the Tag Titles in a four team endurance match, outlasting Jigsaw/Mike Quackenbush.

• Homicide/Cabana and Albright/Pearce engaged in a wild, plunderific (chairs, tables, and such) brawl that spilled into the crowd with the latter team defeating the former. Post-match saw the delivery of the Cop Killa and Colt 45 on the hapless heel manager.
  

• During intermission, we laid claim to some prime ringside property, forgoing our assigned tickets in the back row.

• Despite doing the job to Rocky Romero and his hackneyed heel stylings, Jack Evans busted out some impressive flippity-floppity offense and took a number of sick bumps in the ROH equivalent of a "fatal four way." Yes, he also puked.

• Roderick Strong and Christopher Daniels put on a fundamentally sound, methodically paced, and hard fought match with an unsatisfying conclusion (Daniels was counted out).

• And in my favorite match of the night, Takeshi Morishima (who had a ring presence reminiscent of the late Terry Gordy) retained the ROH Title over the "hometown" (raised in Milwaukee but trained in the Twin Cities) challenger Austin Aries that featured some spectacular offense during the finishing -- a brainbuster and 450 splash (pictured above) leading to a believable near-fall by Aries, a cartwheel splash in the corner, top-rope driving suplex, and brutually stiff lariat by Morishima.