Almost as soon as I got through the door, I could see Jay Lethal standing at an autograph table. There were I believe twelve people at the row of tables and autographs were $10 each. Being the eternal cheap guy that I am, I opted for some quick handshakes with Kevin Steen, the Briscoes, Matt Hardy, and Maria Kanellis, who was rocking a little black dress. She’s somehow even more gorgeous in person and seemed like a very nice person with a stunning smile.
I went inside and caught a few moments of the dark match which was a fourway won by Luke Hawx. The other name I recognized was Mike Posey who used to be a referee. There was also a masked man named Romantic Touch, who Wikipedia says is Rhett Titus under a mask. I went to the concession stand before this was over and only saw about a minute of it.
Roderick Strong beat Cedric Alexander to open the show. Strong is a guy I like to a degree so it was a nice touch. The Decade (Strong’s heel stable, led by Jimmy Jacobs) is fine for an idea (We were here first and like the old ways better) and Jacobs isn’t bad as the boss.
The Decade called out Adrenaline Rush and Andrew Everett for a six man that saw ACH hit some awesome high spots. The guy reminds me of Shelton Benjamin from the start of his singles push, which is a very big compliment. Everett hit some great looking springboard shooting stars for two but Coleman got caught in a slam/neckbreaker combo from Decade for the pin. ACH seemed to have hurt his knee.
Truth Martini (heel manager) vs. Matt Taven (former client) didn’t happen as Martini kicked him low and left. Kevin Kelly was brought into the ring for this for no apparent reason.
Next up was RD Evans (Archibald Peck for you Chikara fans), a guy you might vaguely remember Ryback beating up on Smackdown a few months back. Dude is freakishly tall. Anyway he’s doing a Goldberg Streak gimmick but totally for laughs and the fans are way into him. He got Silas Young to hit the referee with a belt before getting pinned, only to get the Dusty Finish for the DQ. Not much to the match, but Evans’ valet Veda Scott is GORGEOUS.
And then no one remembered her because Maria came out with Mike Bennett for his match against Mark Brisco wearing a blue bikini. Seriously there’s not much else to say about it and it stole most of my attention during the match (I have a thing for redheads. What can I say?). She knows how to be evil too as she was all scared and timid when Mike was in trouble but after the match when he was standing tall she was shaking her hips and had this awesome evil smile. When she was on the apron and leaning into the ring you could see a cameraman filming her from behind which made me chuckle. The match was a solid brawl with Mark looking insane. Bennett wound up Pillmanizing MArk’s neck with another chair, setting up an Anaconda Vice for the win. Remember that, because it becomes important later.
Intermission came, so I went outside and look to my left to see none other than Nigel McGuinness talking to fans. Again just a handshake, though he was working the merchandise stand and offering his documentary autographed for $25. I’ve heard it’s good in case you’re a fan of his. Nigel seemed like a nice guy from what I could tell as he was handling money but still had time to shake my hand and smile. Everyone seemed nice all night, though I only said hi to most people.
After the break a guy named Cheeseburger (seriously? No actually because there’s nothing serious about a guy with that name) came out to throw t-shirts to the crowd but was interrupted by Matt Hardy. Matt put over ROH (literally using those words) and praised Adam Cole (the Holy Spirit of wrestling, to go with Matt Hardy as the Jesus of wrestling. Seriously). This went on WAY longer than it needed to and of course ended with Cheeseburger taking the Twist of Fate.
ReDragon beat Forever Hooligans and two muscle guys with beards named Hanson and Raymond Rowe. THis is one of those matches that is going to be praised by ROH fans but it was a glorified comedy match at times. It wasn’t bad, but it highlighted a lot of the problems I have with ROH, which I’ll get into in the full review. Match was energetic and fun at times but not a very high quality.
Next up was Jay Lethal vs. Tomasso Ciampa in a 2/3 falls match for Ciampa’s TV Title. The crowd was starting to get restless at this point and you could see a lot of people messing with their phones. I can’t say I blame them as the show was already running long and a 2/3 falls match sounded like death. Not much to talk about here as Lethal used the Tajiri handspring into an elbow or cutter far too often and it got boring fast. Lethal won the first fall and then the referee got bumped. Truth Martini came out and threw Jay a knee brace which I think is part of Ciampa’s history. A shot with that got two and after Ciampa Hulked Up, Lethal kicked him a lot and hit the Tajiri handspring into a cutter to win the title. He joined the House of Truth after.
Kevin Steen and Michael Elgin (one of the few ROH guys I actually like) had a big old fight for a shot at the IWGP Title in May. This was the old school heavyweight slugfest with both guys beating the tar out of each other. It’s probably the best match of the night and a really solid brawl. Elgin won by hitting Steen with Steen’s package piledriver. They hugged after the match and Steen had to be helped out.
The main event was a ladder war (TLC) for the World Title. Adam Cole was champion but Jay Briscoe has his own title since he was never defeated for the belt. It was a very violent and brutal match with Jay getting busted open hardway and Matt Hardy, Mike Bennett and Mark Briscoe interfering. Yeah remember earlier when MArk had his neck crushed by a chair? He was fine 90 minutes later. That’s the kind of thing that gets on my nerves in wrestling. Why am I supposed to buy a big injury spot if it doesn’t even last two hours? Back in the day that would be six months of TV but here it doesn’t even go until the end of the show. That’s just not smart. Anyway Jay fought very hard but the numbers were too much for him and Cole retained the title. Most of the fans including myself bolted the second he got the belts down.
Overall the show was fun, but overstayed its welcome. They needed to cut one of the matches (the opener would have been a great choice) and get this a little shorter. Also one of the major problem with ROH showed through tonight: too many of the wrestlers have the same style and it gets really repetitive. I lost count of the number of spin kicks to the face I saw tonight and it gets old after awhile. That’s partially why Steen vs. Elgin was so well received: it was completely different from anything else all night and the fans were interested in seeing something different.
I liked the show, but it’s the same reaction I always get out of watching ROH: good stuff here and there, but not enough to make me watch more than a show here or there.
Full review coming later as I’m sure this is going to be online in like an hour. If you find it on Dailymotion or something, let me know.
