Knock Down Drag Out

Two favorites of mine Davey Richards and Roderick Strong duked it out for over thirty minutes last Saturday at the Manhattan Center, New York, for the Ring of Honor championship, in what I hear was and what here looks like exactly the kind of pro action I eat up, all of it caught through the unflinching lens of Scott Finkelstein (see more here).

I like these two dudes not just because of their good looks (rugged, Davey, versus pampered, Roderick) but because of their gritty mean streaks and indefatigable heart for going the distance to give a good show.

At the end of a touch-and-go battle, which at one point saw Strong actually tapping out while heel manager Truth Martini distracted the ref,  Roderick Strong held on to the belt, not by submission or pin ... but by knocking his boy clean out.  For definite real, from the looks of it.

Lots of fan sympathy for Richards, and I'm right there with them, but Strong has got it going on and there's just no faking that.  I thought I'd never say it, but I think Strong is a better ROH champ than Tyler Black ever was.  (Before you bite my head off, just let me say I'm about as big a Tyler fan as they're allowed to make.)

Damn! he decked Davey Richards!  That's dick twice the length of a championship belt, right there!

(Photos: Scott Finkelstein)