Ring of Honor – June 10, 2015: Thy Kingdom Come Home
Ring of Honor
Date: June 10, 2015
Location: Ted Reeve Arena, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Attendance: 1,500
Commentators: Kevin Kelly, King Corino
It’s still Global Wars Night 2 here with more matches taped back in May. We’ve still got two weeks before we get to any shows that have been taped after the Destination America deal was announced. Also, Best in the World 2015 is coming soon, which means the Battle of the Belts with Jay Briscoe’s World Title vs. Jay Lethal’s TV Title. Let’s get to it.
We open with the Addiction saying Red Dragon is finally getting their shot after all their whining and complaining, but tonight they get what they ask for, even though they’re right where the champions want them. Red Dragon has seen what they’ll do to win these titles, so what would they do to keep them?
Opening sequence.
Bobby Fish of Red Dragon has been attacked outside the arena. Not that we get to see it or anything but at least it was mentioned.
Here’s Addiction to open things up in the arena, even though they’re scheduled in the main event. Since Fish is out, there’s no title shot because the contract says against Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish. Daniels offers a shot right now and here’s O’Reilly to fight on his own.
Tag Team Titles: Kyle O’Reilly vs. Addiction
Kyle slugs away on Daniels and Kazarian to start and chops Daniels in the corner before ducking a clothesline from Kazarian, sending him into his partner instead. The numbers finally catch up to him though and a High/Low gives the champions control. I’ve always liked that move. It’s Kazarian starting for the team but it’s quickly back to more double teaming as the champions cheat like heels should be doing.
Kyle sends Daniels to the apron for more miscommunication and everyone heads to the floor with Daniels being sat in a chair. Kazarian is sent head first between Daniels’ legs, setting up a running dropkick off the apron to knock both champions out of the chair. The fans are way into this as you would expect. Back in and Kyle rolls some butterfly suplexes into a cross armbreaker but Daniels comes in with the title belt for the DQ at 4:16.
Rating: C+. I was digging this way more than I was expecting as Kyle kept it going as fast as he could, which is why a four minute match was the best thing they could have done. This felt like an angle instead of a match and there’s nothing wrong with that. This was the kind of energetic opener than was a good option to kick the show off and much better than the Kushida match last week.
Addiction beats Kyle down post match but Matt Sydal and ACH come out for the save.
We recap the ending to last week’s show and see Donovan Dijak hitting the reverse AA into a GTS on Mark Briscoe. That’s a cool move, but it shouldn’t take three tries for us to see it connect.
Mark says he’s going to initiate Dijak into this company and give him a beating. There’s something about ostriches vs. chickens in there too.
Dalton Castle vs. Jushin Thunder Liger
I’ve seen Castle wrestle before and really didn’t think he was as great as people say he is. His entrance is good but there’s almost nothing in the ring to back it up. I’m going to assume you know who Liger is. Castle offers a handshake to start and Liger isn’t sure how to respond. I think we’re in for a comedy match here. Both guys give us clean breaks against the ropes and the ROH fans are already calling this awesome. No, not really no.
The surfboard has Castle in early trouble but since it can only last a few seconds, Castle is able to throw Liger to the floor. Liger ducks what was going to be a dive but Dalton struts around the ring instead. They head outside with Castle being whipped into the apron for a 619 under the bottom rope and back out for a hurricanrana (ok that was sweet) as we take a break. Back with Liger backdropping him to the floor and baseball sliding him into the barricade, setting up a flip dive off the apron.
Liger asks for Castle’s peacock men to come in the ring to steal Castle’s pose, which actually was awesome. An annoyed Dalton comes back in to suplex Liger down and strut into a falling splash. We hit a front facelock and chinlock on Liger for a bit as things slow down as they should. Back up and it’s a double clothesline to give us another tried and true spot. Liger’s top rope hurricanrana gets two but his top rope splash hits knees. The Liger Bomb gets two more and the brainbuster is enough to pin Castle.
Rating: B-. Now that was actually entertaining from Castle. To be fair the other match I saw had him in TNA so maybe I can just blame them for screwing up someone else as is their custom. Castle is a good comedy guy and could go somewhere in the midcard if they build him up in the right way. Liger is always worth a quick look.
They shake hands post match and it’s still cool to hear Liger’s music.
Liger wishes Cheeseburger luck in his match and gives him a quick palm strike (Liger’s signature) demonstration.
Bob Evans vs. Cheeseburger
This is a grudge match between former partners. Evans is an older guy who wears trunks way too small for him and laid out Cheeseburger after a loss. Cheeseburger is a tiny guy who is treated as a huge underdog. We start fast with Cheeseburger kicking him out to the floor but eating a right hand to put the small guy down in a hurry. Cheeseburger dives off the apron to take him down and avoids a charge into the barricade.
Something resembling a swanton off the barricade doesn’t quite crush Bob (Cheeseburger couldn’t crush a sandcastle. Or a Dalton Castle) and he runs Cheeseburger over back inside. A tornado DDT across the top rope gives Cheeseburger an opening and the Seth Rollins springboard knee to the head sends Bob to the apron. That’s fine with Evans as he picks Cheeseburger out of the air and side slams him through a table on the floor for a HUGE crash and a no contest at 2:55. Fans: “REST IN PEACE!” They packed a lot of stuff into a short amount of time here and that’s the right idea with something like this.
Jay Lethal is ready for his contract signing next week and wants Jay Briscoe to bring his pen.
Jay Briscoe tells Lethal to just sign his name next week.
Addiction vs. Red Dragon in a No DQ match at Best in the World.
Kingdom vs. Bullet Club
The Bullet Club is the top heel stable in New Japan but they’re insanely popular anywhere else. This is ROH vs. New Japan again with Matt Taven/Michael Bennett (with Maria Kanellis, who is absolutely gorgeous and looks even better in person) vs. Doc (Luke) Gallows/Karl Anderson. The Kingdom’s IWGP Tag Team Titles aren’t on the line because this isn’t a New Japan show and those belts should be meaningless but they’re from Japan so they’re cool right? Gallows’ face paint, which looks like a black and white stripe prison uniform, looks awesome.
Anderson, who has issues with Maria, goes after her to start but gets cut off by Maria’s husband Bennett. Taven is left alone in the ring and dives onto Bullet Club, who are referred to as the internet darlings. Bennett adds a flip dive off the apron as the ROH contingent is in full control early on. Taven tries to dive off the middle rope but gets caught in a cutter from Anderson, followed by Gallows dropping Bennett on the apron as we take a break.
Back with Bennett in trouble and taking a Brogue Kick from Anderson. A running boot to the face drops him again as this is one sided. Taven crawls back to the apron as a reverse 3D plants Bennett, only to have Taven come off the top with a splash on Anderson to get a breather. The Kingdom fights back with a double dropkick to Gallows and a superkick/spear combo to Gallows. Taven misses a high cross body though and everything breaks down with Anderson and Bennett shoving the referee for the double DQ at 9:38.
Rating: C. Fun match here to set up the six man between the teams and a partner each at Best in the World. There’s a story involved with Anderson having a thing for Maria but it never really went anywhere here. Anytime she’s out there it’s a good thing though as she looks great but is also awesome at being a heel valet.
Post match Bennett is about to be slammed onto chairs but Maria offers a distraction, only to have Bennett eat a cutter and Taven to take the slam through the chairs instead.
Overall Rating: C+. I had a good time with this show and found it much more entertaining than the previous week’s episode. It was more about the in ring action, which has always been one of ROH’s selling points. Instead of just having a bunch of Japanese guys, it focused more on the homegrown talent, which is a better way of getting fans used to the product rather than just talking about guys who aren’t going to be around in a few weeks.
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