Looking back to Vendetta

On November 5, 2005, I drove 1 hour southeast from St. Charles to Chicago Ridge. I still don't know what led me to make this drive. Maybe it was Matt Hardy's run-in appearance on USA network. Maybe it was the glowing article I read in PWI on Samoa Joe. Maybe I was just looking for something to do. So I ordered a $15 GA ticket and took 355 S to 88 E to 294 S to 12 E to 43 S, made a left on Sayre, drove past two blocks of apartments, and arrived at a little park district building. A place barely large enough to host two basketball games. I walked through the little entryway, collected my $15 online ticket and looked around. It was so quaint. I could see the whole thing. A ring, ten rows of seats, and general admission bleachers. Some lighting equipment, black curtains, and three cameras. Two concession stands, one merchandise table, and only one men's room. I had entered the Frontier Fieldhouse.




I had not attended ANY live pro wrestling in 8 years, even though that 8-year gap was during wrestling's heyday, the Monday Night rivalry between WWF and WCW. And here I was going to a show put on by a company I knew nothing about. I did not know one storyline, knew nobody of the 700-800 in attendance, and knew only four wrestlers. I was just hoping to see a good night of entertainment.

The first match on the main show was Ace Steel and this crazy guy in a green mask, Delirious, against some British guy named Nigel McGuinness and Chad Collyer. When Delirious clotheslined McGuinnes about 25 or 30 times in the corner, I knew this was a different kind of wrestling than I had ever seen. A fun fast paced opener. Then both of Lacey's Angels picked up wins in singles matches as Jimmy Jacobs beat Sal Rinauro, who I thought was Tom Zenk's twin) and BJ Whitmer defeated Claudio Castagnoli. At the time, I was wondering what's with the "Hey" chant Claudio's doing? Now of course, I love it. The final match of the first half was one I was pumped up to see as Samoa Joe battled the Fallen Angel Christopher Daniels. I had heard so much about Joe's incredible hard-hitting style and this was my first chance to witness it. Joe won an excellent match that night and now is the TNA world champion.

In the second half, a new guy, Adam Pearce won a jobber match and then I saw these two guys have a grudge match that was short but downright vicious. The fans were going crazy over this. One of them was trying to cut the other one's tongue out. Turns out it was the beginning stages of the legendary feud between Homicide and Colt Cabana. Then Bryan Danielson and Roderick Strong wrestled for the ROH world title in a match that lasted about 48 minutes. I couldn't believe how good this was. A world title match with no interference, no cheating, just great wrestling and they kept the crowd into it for almost an hour. This match hooked me into the ROH product as I told Roderick when I met him in December. And Bryan has become my favorite wrestler right now and certainly in my top 3 of all time. I knew I would be back for another show.


And that wasn't even the main event. Generation Next and the Embassy continued their feuds with an 8-man tag, with AJ Styles subbing for Strong. When the Embassy marched into the ring, the crowd started hurling toilet paper at them. The visual of these guys getting smothered in this stuff looked great and made me laugh too. From the power of Abyss, to the high flying of Matt Sydal and Jack Evans, the intensity of Austin Aries, the classic heel heat of Jimmy Rave, the cocky charisma of Alex Shelley, Prince Nana playing the heel manager you want to see get killed, and the heel turn at the end, it was excellent.

That show is called Vendetta.


After missing the legendary Wrestlemania doubleshot weekend in April, I returned to the building in June for Chi-town Struggle and have seen 11 more shows since then, 10 in Chicago, 1 in New York City. So this will be #14.

And this Saturday is the show they have titled Vendetta II. Preview coming tomorrow.