Field of Honor was definitely a PPV for the ages. The electric crowd, mixed with the great talent made for an overall awesome show. Being there live for the first time only enhanced that excitement level for myself.
The beginning of the Field of Honor experience started right when you parked and got out of the car. When you walked out and out of the parking lot there was the VIP entrance where, if you were lucky, you would catch a wrestler or too walking in. As my duo was walking up we caught Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Rilley entering and caught a quick picture. With still some time before the doors open we sat with the fellow early birds to see if we would see anyone else. All of the fans turned and saw Killer Elite Squad (Davey Boy Smith Jr & Lance Archer) walking in.
They all crowded around hoping to get a picture. Then Lance and Smith made a really bad move and walked right past everyone. They didn’t give a "Sorry we have to rush", or even a wave. After waiting and only catching a glimpse of Mark Briscoe, seeing Daltons Castle's boys, and Will Ferrara, the doors were opening. Right when you walked up into the arena there was a signing with some of the NJPW talent. There were The Young Bucks, The Time Splitters, Hirooki Goto, Nakamura, and Okada.
Then, yours truly met Alex Shelley was able to go past the line accidentally being that it was hard to realize that it was one long line to get a ticket, then go to each table to pay separately for the wrestlers. The system wasn’t the greatest. Nonetheless, Shelley was an awesome person and had no issue with the misunderstanding. He chatted it up a little bit and wasn’t pushing anyone away to get more people over to him.
Once we were able to find our seats, which took a while because of the strange numbering system at MCU Park, we saw how insane the seating looked. The view of the Brooklyn Cyclones roller coaster (the new steel one, not the old wooden ride) in front if us along with the classic boardwalk slingshot ride was beautiful and so amazing to see as the backdrop for a wrestling show. On top of that no one in front if us, no irritating people next to us. So now.... it was time for the fun to start. The first match was a short dark match where Will Ferrara took on what seemed to be an upcoming wrestler from their school. It was a solid match, nothing special. It got the crowd ready for the night like it was supposed too. In the end, Will Ferrara picked up the win after a hard fought match with a nice handshake after.
After another 5 or so minutes the official show started. The first match up was Adam Cole - Christopher Daniels. The crowd seemed a little down at this point and wasn’t too active besides saying "BAYBAY!" with Adam Cole. The match itself was solid, a 6-7 out of 10 in my opinion. Daniels played the heel role extremely well and very rarely went to the top or did any sort of highflying moves. He targeted the right arm of Cole for a majority of the match but Adam Cole, in typical babyface fashion, fought through the pain and got the advantage. As soon as Cole was looking to end it Sabin ran up and attempted to distract him so Daniels could get the advantage. However, Cole was able to shove Daniels off of a roll up into his own ally and pick up the win.
Next up was the team of War Machine (Hanson and Rowe) taking on the Killer Elite Squad (Davey Boy Smith Jr and Lance Archer). This was a slower match and was a little sloppy at the start. The fans seemed to really be against Davey Boy, mocking him over and over until he eventually gave the finger and cursed the crowd. This seemed like the turning point for Davey and Lance as the hard hits picked up and the anger intensified. That’s when this match really got interesting and the crowd started to enjoy it. With a flurry of tag moves and hard hits War Machine took the win. Yet there was still a stand off with the Killer Elite Squad holding up their IWGP tag titles and diminishing War Machines win. This didn’t stop War Machine from celebrating and signaling that they were KES's titles.
After that we had the gauntlet match for a shot at the ROH TV Title. First out was Adam Page along with BJ Whitmer and the young boy Colby Corino. Then came out the man with one of the pops of the night...DALTON CASTLE. People were so into him and were going nuts when his music hit. Myself not being a huge fan of Dalton wasn’t excited at first until the energy took all my personal feelings away just because of the rush of the crowd. After a heel heavy match with Page having the advantage, Dalton tried to make the comeback until Colby nailed him with a kick through the middle rope from the outside while the refs back was turned.
Towards the end of the match the whole crowd was in awe when Dalton Castle took a nasty bump on his neck when a snap slam was messed up and he was jacked on his neck. The whole crowd let out a cringing "Ohh" after the landing. Fortunately he was all right and got up to finish the match and take the win, which made the crowd go wild again. This excitement was short lived as Whitmer, Page, and Colby hopped in the ring and attacked Castle with Whitmer’s crutches and left him out in the ring as the next competitor Kazarian ran in to try to pick up the quick win. This was a slower paced matchup with a plethora of taunts from Kaz mocking the Peacock and prancing around like him.
Dalton wasn’t having any of that nonsense and came back to take out Kazarian while imitating the sound of a peacock with a lot of big moves. Then it was deja vu as Chris Sabin and Kaz attacked Castle, however he wasn’t left down and out completely this time as he was able to scurry away from Kaz and take out Sabin, still he was left hurting for his next match with his rival, Silas Young. These 2 have never seen eye too eye because Silas is considered to himself as the last "real man" in wrestling and hates the flamboyant peacock that is Dalton Castle. Silas Young ran in and took advantage of Castles previous attacks and got the quick win, which enraged all the fans, which was great for the heel Silas Young.
The next person was Bushwacker Luke...yeah...you read that correctly. Bushwaker Luke made a brief appearance as he got a huge ovation and was thrown out of the ring by Young and continued doing the Bushwacker walk from base to base as he got counted out but still managed to get a "You still got it" chant. Next out was the former NFL star Moose who had the whole crowd doing the MOOSE hand motion with him. As a fan if Moose the huge reaction was great to see. The match itself was all right, nothing crazy. Silas showed some nice athleticism against the huge Moose. However that wasn’t enough to take out the big man as Moose gave the last real man, another real loss. Moose then went toe to toe with the giant Donavan Dijak. They had a great face off as the two behemoths had a great stand off. They them shared shoulder blocks until Dijak was knocked off his feet from the man who knows shoulder tackles all too well from his past career, Moose.
This match was hard-hitting and really exciting to watch. The crowd was really into huge shots in this clash of the titans. Back and forth there were dropkicks, nasty punches, and even an insane back dive from Dijak witch had the fans leaving their hate to give a great ovation for the athleticism of the big man. After this great battle Moose picked up the win and again got the fans extremely alive and craving to see the rest of the action. This was when former ally and lawyer Veda Scott runs out to distract Moose and the referee. While this was happening, Cedric Alexander yet again screw Moose over by nailing him with the illegal wrench and knocking him clean out for the quick win.
Out last for the contest was the NJPW star Wantanabe. The crowd was all for Watanabe at this point. Against the rest of the crowd were the fans who were loving the classic heel tactics of Cedric such as the finger pokes, back rakes, and other classic heel taunts that all wrestling fans have learned to love and appreciate. Cedric was on top of Watanabe until the NJPW star started to use his size and strength to his advantage and take down Alexander. They then went back and forth until a furious Moose attempted to get to the ring to get his hands on the punk Cedric Alexander. Wantanabe took advantage of the distraction and was able to pick up the win and get a TV title shot at a future iPPV. The crowd was shockingly really behind this win and was excited to see Wantanabe pick up the win.
The last match before the intermission was The Young Bucks, ACH, and Matt Sydal - RPG Vice and The Kingdom. This match was filled with the usual high spots you would see coming here. With some baseball antics like a home run and running the bases from The Kingdom AND RPG Vice. However the Kingdom ended their home run with getting nailed with a pair of Superkicks at the hand of the Young Bucks. Overall the match was insane, fast paced, and had the fans out if their seats. The match ended with the Bucks hitting Romero with the Bang for you Buck, followed by a 450 splash by ACH and finally a Shooting Star Press by Matt Sydal and the crowd erupted in cheers and "YOUNG BUCKS" chants.
After the match was an intermission to let people get up and stretch after an action packed first part of the show. During this time wrestling based youtubers CMPuls3, TonyPizzaGuy, and Smacktalks were noticed at the show. They were 3 really cool guys and willing to hangout. Fun fact, it was CMPuls3's first ROH show.
After intermission ended the show resumed with Hirooki Goto - "Unbreakable" Michael Elgin. The match was a slow match, with couple of all right spots. The crowd didn’t seem to be into the match much at all so there isn’t really any crazy things to discuss. Some uninformed fans started a "U.S.A" chant, which wasn’t well received being that Goto is from Japan and Elgin is from Canada. Goto eventually pulled out the win after a sequence of huge moves and near falls. The two men shook hands after and brought it in for a hug after the match, which was loved by the fans.
Right after that we saw The Briscoes taking on the NJPW tag team of Kushida and Alex Shelley. This match wasn’t great, which was surprising. The two teams didn’t mesh very well as the Briscoes are more of a scrappy brawler team and the Time Splitters (Shelley and Kushida) are more technically savvy. Don’t get me wrong, the match wasn’t bad, it still had its high spots and its good work but overall it wasn’t memorable at all. It was disappointing for a Shelley fan like myself being so excited to see him and meet him live for the first time. In the end the Briscoes picked up the win and they all stood united together.
The second to last match had the pop of the night as "Mr. ROH" Roderick Strong took on the HUGE Japan star "The Rainmaker" Okada. The arenas ERUPTED as Okada entered with his patented Okada Bucks falling from the sky. What stood out to me the most was a diehard Japanese fan almost bursting into tears from the sight of The Rainmaker. The fan was continuously screaming "OKADA!!!!" out of pure excitement from seeing him. It really was a great sight to see, the pure joy that wrestling can bring to full grown adults, including myself. The match itself was incredible. The crowd was so invested in the match. Roddy played the incredible heel in the match constantly cutting off Okada’s flurries of a comeback.
They even brought the action into the crowd for a bit with Roddy suplexing Okada onto the barricade which caused the crowd to get a vulgar chant going to show their excitement. The crowd was cheering for Okada to a great comeback, which eventually he did with a sequence of reversals and insane moves back and forth. Eventually after about 5 attempts, Okada was able to nail Strong with a spinout clothesline, which STILL didn’t put him away. After even more back and forth Strong was finally put down by two-tombstone piledriver by Okada and the crowd was in nirvana as the mega star overcame the odds. The two embraced after and got the fans respect as they celebrated.
The main event of the night was the TV Champion and ROH World Champion Jay Lethal teaming with Nakamura to take on ReDragon (Kyle O'Rilley and Bobby Fish). This match was a GREAT closer for the show. Lethal and Nakamura had some tension being that Nakamura is a huge face and Lethal plays the cocky heel character. It was great to see that dynamic in the beginning stages of the matchup. The match was very fast paced and has the whole crowd on their toes to see what was up next. There were so many awesome tag combinations from O’Rilley and Fish while Nakamura and Lethal were almost at a battle sometimes of who can be more punishing on their opponents.
The ending sequence had some great reversals into submissions by O’Rilley and strong man moves from Fish with speed and intensity behind them. The match was a great way to have the fans leave happy and satisfied. Nakamura was able to get all if his usual spots in as well as Lethal. Ending the match was Nakamura putting O’Rilley in a nasty while Lethal hit Bobby Fish with the Lethal Injection for the win. Lethal then stood in the corner with Truth Martini while Nakamura shook hands with O’Rilley and Fish and then thanks the crowd for their respect and gratitude.
Overall the show was great. The matches were intense, action packed, and full of emotion and respect for the most part. The crowd was amazing, creating new chants, and having a whole lot of fun with the wrestlers. It was a new experience for myself and one that should definitely be experienced by any wrestling fan out there. The pure intensity and electricity that is shown by these fans is nothing like you have ever seem before. It makes the whole show so much more amazing, so much more fun, and worth going to so much more. It enhances the whole wrestling experience and should definitely be a goal for anyone who hasn’t experienced it yet.