2006 was another huge year for Ring of Honor and the season was capped off with an inspirational performance by ROH legend Homicide finally achieving his dream of becoming ROH World champion. After a very brief holiday hiatus, Ring of Honor hit the road once to put Homicide to the test to see if he can carry the torch and take on all challengers like previous ROH World champions have done so admirably. Defense number one would be against Sweet & Sour Inc.'s most valuable player, Chris Hero - who is now embarking on a long anticipated singles career in the ring of honor.

The night started on a somber note with a 10-bell salute to Doug Gentry, who had passed away earlier that day. Then we were introduced to Ring of Honor's new "interviewer," Rebecca Bayless. Yes fans it's true, Becky Bayless is all grown up now. I was thinking, what the hell is she doing back in ROH? Then five seconds after she opened her mouth, I'm sure ROH officials were thinking the same thing. Bayless's first assignment was to interview the NEW Ring of Honor World Champion, Homicide. It's a tradition in ROH that whenever the World title changes hands, the new champ kicks off the next show with a speech (or in-ring interview). "Sweet & Sour" Larry Sweeney interrupted and said Homicide has to be the most disgraceful World champion ROH has ever had. Sweeney pointed out that Homicide doesn't even have real ring gear, doesn't know what a cravat is, and has no real honor. Sweeney said his client Chris Hero should be ROH Champion, and then retreated as Homicide advanced on him. Chris Hero snuck in from behind and whacked Homicide from behind, followed by Larry Sweeney taking out Julius Smokes! Rocky Romero (making his return to ROH) came to the ring and Sweeney and Hero retreated backstage. Rocky Romero then confronted Homicide and asked him why he hasn't called him in a year. Julius Smokes told them to turn off the cameras and he and Homicide jumped out of the ring assuring Romero that "blood is thicker than water." Romero said he heard Davey Richards was the new badass around ROH so he challenged Richards to a match.

Rocky Romero vs. Davey Richards: Now this is my kind of match. It's hard to imagine this style of competition being featured by any other promotion, especially WWE or TNA. It's hard-hitting and crowd-pleasing action to earn the respect of the fan-base. Lots of time given to this match; this was a wonderful way to start 2007. Rocky Romero won by submission ( 8 / 10 ).

Next we were treated to an aggressive promo by Jimmy Rave promising to make everyone in the Four Corner Survival match tap out to his new Heel Hook submission move!

Jack Evans vs. Eddie Edwards: This was Jack Evans' return to ROH, after a couple of tours with the Dragon Gate promotion in Japan. Eddie Edwards has not impressed me so far, but with his reputation in NECW and Japan I know it's only a matter of time before I am a big fan of Mr. Edwards. Jack Evans was a really good opponent for him. Not surprisingly, Evans won the match - but Edwards is gaining steam with every match he works in the ring of honor ( 6.5 / 10 ).

Adam Pearce & Shane Hagadorn vs. Delirious & Pelle Primeau: Adam Pearce's new gimmick is that he wears goggles, most likely due to the spit shower he usually receives whenever he appears in an ROH arena. The match was all about Pelle Primeau trying to earn a shot at Shane Hagadorn's Top of Class Trophy. Delirious forced Shane Hagadorn to tap out, but I'm not sure if that means Primeau gets his shot or not ( 5.5 / 10 ).

Colt Cabana & B.J. Whitmer & Daizee Haze vs. Jimmy Jacobs & Brent Albright & Lacey: The hatred has finally overflowed between these two mini-factions and resulted in a crazy six-person war that ended with casualties. Lacey/Haze, Jacobs/Whitmer, and Cabana/Albright all paired off for an chaotic brawl covering the entire ringside area. At some point during the opening brawl, Daizee Haze took an unfortunate bump when Lacey threw her into a guard rail and got a nasty lump on her head in the process, but she got up and continued the match like a trooper and even took some sick bumps courtesy of the powerful Brent Albright. If she didn't look like a 15-year old girl, Lacey could be a very believable WWE Women's champion - as her skills are on the same level as just about any current ladies wrestler in the world. They laid out Daizee Haze on a table and Jimmy Jacobs crashed through with a senton allowing Lacey to score the pinfall on Haze ( 6.5 / 10 ). After the match, Lacey verbally assaulted Daizee until Cabana and Whitmer chased the heels away. The crowd chanted for "Daizee" as she courageously made it to her feet under her own power, despite the disgusting mountain that had developed on her forehead!

Samoa Joe vs. Nigel McGuinness: The action never lets up at a Ring of Honor event. Joe's feud with Pro Wrestling NOAH has begun with NOAH representative Nigel McGuinness stepping up to the plate to defend the company he works for in Japan. As the Joe/Nigel match got started, I couldn't believe this wasn't even the main event. We have three more matches to go! ROH has more BANG for your $buck$. What an incredible story involved with this match, as Nigel was taking the task so seriously that he refused to give or tap out to Joe, who became increasingly frustrated with Nigel's courage. Eventually McGuinness simply passed out and Joe was awarded the match ( 8.5 / 10 ). Jimmy Rave ran down after the match and put his Heel Hook submission on the exhausted Samoa Joe. Nigel McGuinness regained consciousness and tossed Jimmy Rave out of the ring.

Intermission featured the clueless Rebecca Bayless roaming around backstage looking for an interview. Bayless found Daizee Haze tending to the bump on her forehead and asked "Daizee, what the heck happened to you?" The camera got some close-ups of the bump as Daizee stayed in character but you could tell she was in more pain than she was letting on. Colt Cabana cut a promo on Jimmy Jacobs declaring that the fun and games were over and he was coming after Jacobs once and for all.

Four Corner Survival - Christopher Daniels w/Allison Danger vs. Jimmy Rave vs. Shingo Takagi vs. Jason Blade: For me, it was a matter of who would win between Daniels and Rave, as I felt Shingo and Blade didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning this match. A bet on Jimmy Rave, who has received a major push recently, would have been a sure thing. Daniels locked the Koji-clutch on Shingo, but Rave applied the Heel Hook on Daniels and made him tap out to secure victory ( 7 / 10 ).

ROH World Title Match - Homicide w/Julius Smokes vs. Chris Hero w/Larry Sweeney: Chris Hero has new entrance music, and as usual I can't remember the name of the song. It's traditionally a hockey anthem and the only lyric is "HEY!" - which makes me think it's more suited for a babyface Claudio Castagnoli! Homicide sure looks good with the ROH World title around his waist. The match started with a lot of trademark stalling and crowd interaction by Chris Hero. It didn't have the steam that a typical ROH World title match would have, but it's okay because there was a bigger match planned for the main event. After a while Larry Sweeney started interfering, so Julius Smokes took him out with a head-butt. I think ROH expected a bigger pop for that but it didn't translate as well as they hoped. Homicide finished off Hero with a Cop-killa to retain the ROH World championship ( 7 / 10 ). Chris Hero is one of few men left willing to take the Cop-killa from Homicide.

The Man, The Myth, The Legend, Jack Evans from the Heavens cut a promo telling fans that 2007 will be his year and if they thought they saw something before, they ain't seen nothing yet - and you know this... MAN!

2/3 Falls Match - The Briscoe Brothers vs. Austin Aries & Roderick Strong: While I was watching this match, I really got a sense that Aries and Strong had pretty much done and seen it all as a tag team in Ring of Honor. The Briscoe Brothers picked up the first fall after destroying Roderick Strong. A few minutes later the Briscoes scored another fall to shockingly win in two straight falls ( 8.5 / 10 ). The feud was blown off afterwards with handshakes and respect shown by everybody.

Homicide cut a playful promo getting up in Samoa Joe's face, except Joe took a bit of offense and said Homicide better be ready tomorrow night at "Battle of Icons."

Final Thoughts: I come to expect a lot from the four guys in the main event in particular and they just didn't have their usual heat for this match. However, it was a great show for Ring of Honor to kick off the year 2007 with; it will be very interesting to see what new concepts and feuds they come up with over the next few months.

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