Cyanide
Date: December 11, 2010
Location: America Legion Post #308, Reseda, California
Commentators: Excalibur, Brandon Bonham, Chris Hero, Kevin Steen, Rick Knox, Joey Ryan, Chuck Taylor

It’s back to Pro Wrestling Guerrilla with what they call “A Loving Tribute To Poison”. If there is one thing that PWG knows how to do, it is come up with some wacky names and they have done it again here. I have no idea what to expect here, which is pretty much the norm for anything from this company. Let’s get to it.

Peter Avalon vs. Willie Mack

This is Mack’s PWG debut and the fans already seem to know him. Commentary discusses weight as Mack shoulders him down hard to start. Mack flips over him and then hits one heck of a flying tackle to rock Avalon again. They head outside with Mack firing off some chops but turns to play to the fans instead.

That’s enough for Avalon to knock him into the chairs and take over for the first time. Back in and we hit the chinlock as we talk about the commentator’s theme music. Mack fights up and swings him into a sitout powerbomb for two. Avalon fights up and tries a side kick, only to get pulled into a cutter for two more.

A Miz running corner clothesline crushes Avalon and a standing moonsault press gives Mack another near fall. Avalon manages to get to the apron for a springboard crossbody and some double knees to the back give Avalon two of his own. Mack gets caught with a Backstabber in the corner but lands on Avalon to delay the cover. Another crossbody is pulled out of the air, setting up one heck of a sitout powerbomb to give Mack the pin at 8:46.

Rating: C+. Nice opener here as Mack had the fans behind him the whole way and then he backed it up with a fast paced match. Avalon got in a bit of offense before getting crushed by Mack, which is what the fans wanted to see. Mack’s charisma is more than enough to carry him and the fans were eating him up here.

Roderick Strong vs. Chuck Taylor

Feeling out process to start, with Taylor being taken into the corner and DEMANDING the five count from the referee. Strong teases the chops so Taylor bails to the floor, where a fan gives him a jacket to protect his chest. Back in and Strong knocks him outside without much effort. The chops rock Taylor, who loses the jacket and then gets suplexed for two back inside. Some shoulders to the ribs slow Strong down for a change and we hit the headscissors on the mat.

Strong breaks that up and slowly stalks Taylor like he’s a dangerous striker and Taylor is a coward. Something like a seated abdominal stretch lets Strong slap away at Taylor’s chest as the beating continues. Back up and Taylor hits a dropkick as commentary talks about Claudio Castagnoli. Taylor puts on an Indian deathlock and poses, allowing Strong to slip out and chop away again.

There’s a backbreaker (from Strong, believe it or not) and the camel clutch sleeper goes on. Commentary: “Obscure Pat Tanaka reference.” Strong is back up and kicks Taylor in the face as commentary talks about…I have no idea but it seems to be some TV show. They go to the apron to slug it out as commentary talks about the Tuskegee Airmen (if I have to hear their nonsense, so do you) until Taylor sends him down onto some chairs.

The big running flip dive takes Strong down again as we get Ice Cube references (and Taylor gets a rub on the head from the referee). Back in and Taylor grabs a half crab but Strong fights up and knees him in the face. A powerbomb gives Strong two and some knees to the chest put Taylor down again. They forearm it out until Strong grabs a belly to back into a Side Effect.

Another backbreaker gives Strong another two and the Strong Hold goes on. Taylor reverses into a rollup for two and grabs a Rock Bottom of all things for a breather. The threat of an Awful Waffle is enough to make Strong realize that an Awful Waffle is coming, allowing him to hit an Ug-Lee backbreaker for two. Taylor’s Soul Food is shrugged off and Strong hits a low superkick. The Gibson Driver gives Strong the pin at 14:30.

Rating: B-. Taylor still isn’t my thing most of the time but he was working hard here, as was Strong. Over the years, Strong has been one of the more dependable in-ring workers you’ll find and that was on display in this one. Strong kept surviving whatever Taylor threw at him before finishing with a big shot. Good match here, with another of those random pairings that lets talented people showcase themselves.

RockNES Monsters vs. Cutler Brothers

The (debuting as a team) Monsters are Johnny Goodtime and Johnny Yuma while the cutlers are Brandon and Dustin. The fans are behind Yuma, despite the Cutlers wearing Santa hats. Kevin Owens on commentary: “Where do babies come from? I have one and I don’t know how it came.” Goodtime dropkicks Dustin as commentary talks about Randy Savage Slim Jim commercials.

Yuma comes in to face Brandon, who dropkicks him down a few times without much trouble. It’s back to Goodtime to take Brandon down for a slingshot legdrop as commentary goes on a rant about pirated DVDs. Some kicks to the head and a, ahem, hip attack has Brandon in more trouble but he easily sends Goodtime into the wrong corner. Goodtime sends the Cutlers into each other in the corner though and stomps on Dustin’s back, giving us an NES Track And Field reference.

Dustin isn’t having that (must be a Sega Master System fan) and plants Yuma with a spinebuster to take over again. Some candy cane fishhooking has Yuma in more trouble (ok that was unique) and Brandon hits a good side slam for two. Yuma fights his way out of trouble and climbs onto Goodtime’s back for some running clotheslines. Goodtime crossbodies both Cutlers but a low blow takes him down just as fast.

Brandon gets caught in the corner though and Goodtime hits a top rope double stomp to the back of Brandon’s head, followed by the running flip dive to Dustin. Back in and Yuma gets caught with a Downward Spiral to send him to the floor. The big running flip dive takes both Johnny’s down, prompting Excalibur to bring up a song called “Johnny Are You Qu***?”

Back in and a Death Valley Driver hits Goodtime for two as Excalibur says that Goodtime is “on qu*** street”, an expression he then explains in detail. A wheelbarrow into a Codebreaker gets two on Goodtime with Yuma making the save. Back up and Goodtime Death Valley Drivers Yuma onto Dustin for two as we talk about Joey Ryan’s True Blood inspired Halloween costumes. Brandon gets draped over the top rope but Dustin makes the save. The yet to be named Meltzer Driver finishes Yuma at 13:39.

Rating: B-. Good action here as both teams were in the small, fast paced offense mold. That made for an exciting match that got the fans into things quickly. Both teams were better in the ring than I would have expected and I’m curious why neither of them made much of a bigger impact either in PWG or elsewhere. Granted a lot of that might have been due to the Young Bucks dominating that spot, but these guys were good in their own right.

Joey Ryan vs. Brandon Gatson

Before the match, Ryan says lights, camera, action and tells the people to take their pictures of the winner of the Battle Of Los Angeles. He’s also a former World Champion and formerly known as the technical wizard. Now Claudio Castagnoli likes to call himself one of the Kings of Wrestling, but Ryan believes he is just as good as Castagnoli. As for tonight, Ryan wouldn’t want to be in Gatson’s shoes.

Gatson slugs away to start and gets two off an STO. A Russian legsweep sets up a middle rope elbow for two but Ryan is back with a t-bone suplex. Commentary topic of the moment: the Reagan administration and how it defined the 80s and Jerry Brown’s failed Presidential bid. Back up and Gatson knocks him down, only to get pulled off the top with a flying armbar. The regular armbar goes on to keep Gatson frustrated, followed by a dropkick for two.

Another armbar keeps Gatson down but he fights up and hits a one armed Stunner for a breather. Gatson tries to go to the apron but Ryan hits a clothesline to turn him inside out….with Gatson landing on his feet outside. Ok that wasn’t bad. The beating takes Ryan around the ring but Gatson misses a dive. It’s only a bit more of a miss than the superkick that Ryan follows up with to take over, but it was still a miss.

Ryan is right back on the arm, including a Kimura with a bodyscissors back inside. The rope is grabbed for the break and they grade rollups for two each. Ryan hits a superkick for two but gets knocked into the chairs on the floor. A Cactus Jack Bang Bang Elbow (minus the Bang Bang) hits Ryan hard and they’re both down. Back in and Gatson hits a 450 for two but Ryan pulls him into the Kimura for the tap at 17:13.

Rating: B. It’s weird seeing Ryan playing something straight and having a hard hitting match at the same time. This was a back and forth match with the arm being the focal point throughout. Gatson is someone who seems like he could have gone somewhere further, though he never seemed to get out of California. Maybe that’s what he wanted, but the potential was there, as it was on display in the best match of the show so far.

Post match Ryan dubs himself the Hollywood Submission Machine. He’s coming for the World Title and he’ll make anyone tap out.

Young Bucks vs. Fightin Taylor Boys

That would be Brian Cage-Taylor and Ryan Taylor (who had a brief NXT run as Tyler Rust). The weird thing here is that Brian is looking completely human here, a minimum of 75lbs lighter than his better known look. The Bucks handle their own entrance and we pause for a quick strut on the apron. Ryan and Matt start things off with a feeling out process as commentary talks about a rude sound guy before the show.

Matt snaps off an armdrag and we get the double double biceps pose. Cage comes in and cleans house, including helping Ryan kick Nick down. Nick’s leg gets caught in the ropes, leaving Brian to hit a rather delayed suplex on Matt. A running knee hits Matt for two as commentary wonders about fans watching shows out of order, leaving them to make up inaccurate results from earlier in the show. Ok fair point: who would watch a DVD out of order?

Back up and Matt takes over on Ryan’s arm, allowing Nick to come off the top (grabbing a light on the way down) and landing on said arm. We get some strutting, giving commentary a chance to ask if anyone knows who Jackie Fargo is these days. Matt drops a middle rope elbow to the back as the fans are slit on who to cheer for here. Nick gets in a big rake to the back, setting up a gutbuster/running flip neckbreaker for two.

Commentary is talking about My Chemical Romance and the Umbrella Academy comic book series as Matt grabs a chinlock. Ryan fights up and chops both Bucks before kneeing Matt in the face. A front flip over allows the tag off to Brian so house can be cleaned in a hurry. Everything breaks down and Matt’s dive only hits chairs at ringside (OUCH). Brian puts the Bucks on his shoulders so Ryan can hit a Doomsday dive onto both of them at once.

Back in and the Bucks clean house again, including a bunch of kicks to the face. Brian isn’t having that and runs them over, setting up a flipping faceplant for two on Matt. That’s too much selling for Matt, who is back up to take both Taylors down again. A double hanging DDT drops Brian for one as he….Brians up.

Nick gets clotheslined to the floor but Brian is as well, only to have Ryan blast Matt with a running clothesline. Matt is right back up with a superkick but More Bang For Your Buck is countered with a crucifix bomb. A Go To Sleep/discus elbow combination gets two on Nick, leaving Ryan to miss a Swanton. Brian is knocked outside again and More Bang For Your Buck finishes Ryan at 14:57.

Rating: B. Another fast paced match with both teams doing a bunch of wacky stuff until the Bucks survived at the end. It was a fun match to watch, assuming you ignore the Bucks no selling just about everything and making it clear that they were fine throughout. Brian and Ryan worked well together as a team, though once Brian….uh….inflated himself, there was no way to keep him in a team, even a nice one like this.

Kevin Steen vs. Akira Tozawa

We’re joined with Tozawa hitting a suicide dive on Steen and the opening bell. They slug it out on the floor with Tozawa getting the better of things. Tozawa grabs a Christmas present to hit Steen in the head as Chuck Taylor on commentary wonders if the Japanese celebrate Christmas (they do, with Kentucky Fried Chicken for some reason). Steen hits Tozawa in the head with a present, which explodes for some reason (leaving Excalibur in stitches).

They get inside for the first time with Tozawa grabbing a chinlock to slow things down for a change. As commentary talks about the band Poison, Tozawa strikes away in the corner to keep Steen in trouble. The slam just isn’t going to happen though and even Steen gets a chuckle off that one. Steen falls on top of him for two and even manages a pushup! A missed charge sends Steen to the floor but he pulls the suicide dive out of the air for the apron bomb.

Back in and Tozawa Stunners his way out of trouble but Steen kicks him down without much trouble. Hold on though as Steen has to run outside and yell at a fan in an El Generico mask. Back in and Tozawa’s comeback doesn’t last long as Steen DDTs him into the corner, setting up the Cannonball. Steen charges into some boots in the corner and Tozawa manages to slam him, sending everyone, including the referee, down.

Back up and a running boot in the corner gives Tozawa two, followed by a running knee for the same. Steen is right back with a brainbuster onto the knee for two (and a middle finger to the El Generico fan). Another Cannonball connects but Tozawa pops up this time and kicks Steen in the face three times in a row. A backdrop driver rocks Steen again and they fight to the apron.

Tozawa pump kicks him again and a German suplex on the apron knocks Steen silly. A running knee and kick to the face give Tozawa two but Steen knocks him off the top. Steen misses the Swanton and gets dropped HARD with a German suplex. Back up and Steen is fine enough to come right back with the package piledriver for a very close two. That’s enough for Steen, who grabs a sleeper suplex and a pair of package piledrivers to finish Tozawa at 19:18.

Rating: B-. Tozawa is someone who had a lot more success outside of WWE, mainly because he was just a wrestler here instead of someone doing whatever wacky comedy stuff WWE offered him. Steen was already a big deal at this point and you could see that little something different about him that stood out. They had a good, long match here and Steen felt like a star, as always.

Post match Steen gets the mic and helps Tozawa to his feet and actually shows respect for once. Excalibur doesn’t think Tozawa knows what Steen said. The fans approve of Tozawa as well.

Peligro Abejas vs. Kings Of Wrestling

Abejas’ (El Generico/Paul London) Tag Team Titles aren’t on the line. Hold on though as Chris Hero thinks we should make this a Tag Team Title match in the name of the Christmas spirit. London agrees, with the caveat of a future World Title shot against Claudio Castagnoli if they retain. Castagnoli is in so let’s go.

Tag Team Titles: Peligro Abejas vs. Kings Of Wrestling

Abejas is defending. Hero shakes hands with Generico to start despite London starting for the team. London gets taken down by the leg and they fight over the front facelock. That goes nowhere so Hero rolls over to the corner for the tag off to Castagnoli. As we talk about London wanting to start an orphanage on Mars, Castagnoli sends London into the corner for the tag off to Generico.

With Generico being powered into the corner, it’s back to Hero to work on the wristlock again. The Kings clean house with running shots to the face, leaving Castagnoli to work on an armbar. London hurricanranas his way out of trouble though and it’s off to Generico for a dropkick. Castagnoli isn’t having that though and clotheslines him down for two. Hero grabs a stretch plumb until London breaks things up.

The Blue Thunder Bomb puts Hero down as well though and it’s a diving tag to London. There’s a flapjack for two on Hero and the dropsault gets the same. Everything breaks down and Generico Arabian moonsaults onto Castagnoli on the floor, leaving Hero to discus forearm London for two more. Castagnoli Swings London into a dropkick from Hero for another near fall but London slips through the legs and hands it back to Generico.

That doesn’t work for Castagnoli, who boots Generico off the apron as soon as the tag is made. Generico is back up with a pair of Helluva Kicks but the brainbuster is countered with an uppercut. London dives onto Hero outside, leaving Generico to reverse the Riccola Bomb into a Code Red for a very close two. Castagnoli pulls a diving Generico out of the air and hands it back to Hero for the shot to the head. Everything breaks down again and Generico rolls Hero up for the fast pin to retain at 15:21.

Rating: B. It was a fast paced match and on the level of the other tag matches on the show, making this a good main event. The talent was certainly there and it is always awesome to get to see the Kings, who were one of the better teams of their era. Generico and London more than held up their end, as Generico is still so easy to cheer. Good main event here, but not the best tag match on the show.

Post match Castagnoli holds up the World Title and looks at Generico, suggesting that he’s getting the title shot. With the Kings gone, London praises them but stops for the Danger Bees (Peligro Abejas) chant. London speaks some Spanish to Generico and talks about how much of a drug the fans’ cheers can be. Generico says it isn’t necessary and London says this place is a family. Now, they’re off for tamales.

In the back, London and Generico refer to themselves as tricks but they don’t pull rabbits out of hats. London talks about how they melded together, while referring to himself as a space orphan. Then you have Generico, who comes from everything that is fun, happy and sensational. Their team is for real as Generico says he is part Aztec and part Mayan (with the accent sleeping fast).

London: “It doesn’t matter, because if I cut him open with a stone dagger, he would bleed. And it would be blue, because it turns red when the air hits it.” Next year, they’re starting their pollination and will have so many kids they can’t keep track of them all. London: “We’re kind of going to be deadbeats.” They went into the Kings’ nostrils and carved up their brains but found nothing there! Generico is just done with all of these jokes and closes it out after cracking up for the fourth or fifth time. London is uh….something.

Chris Hero talks about how he didn’t win gold again this year, at least around here. He and Claudio Castagnoli won the Ring Of Honor Tag Team Titles and took them around the world. On the other hand, Castagnoli is the World Champion and that puts Hero in a weird place. That World Title is what matters the most to Castagnoli so you might not see the Kings team together very often. They’re best friends, but Castagnoli has something that Hero wants. Hero is coming to get the World Title back so see you later.

Joey Ryan (in a Turbo Man Jingle All The Way shirt) talks about he can make anyone, including Claudio Castagnoli tap out.

Chuck Taylor yells at the Fightin Taylor Boys for losing, though they point out that he lost too. Papa Taylor calls Chuck but hangs up instead of talking to Brian. Taylor bickering, and then a three way high five, ends the show.

Overall Rating: A-. This was the kind of PWG show where yeah, I get the hype. There was so much talent on this show, many of whom would go on to become AEW/WWE champions that it was almost impossible to not have an awesome show. There isn’t a bad match on the show and it was one fast paced match after another.

PWG would get more polished with even more top names in the future, but this was one of the better shows I’ve seen from them and I’m getting less and less surprised at the quality each time. Just please get better commentary, as Excalibur was HORRIBLE here with one unfunny/offensive reference after another. Other than that, great show.

 

 

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Jay Briscoe: A Celebration Of Life
Date: January 26, 2023
Location: Save Mart Center, Fresno, California
Commentators: Ian Riccaboni, Carpice Coleman

As you might have guessed, this is a special show honoring the life of Jay Briscoe, who passed away last week. The show was filmed after last week’s AEW taping and features special matches, plus presumably tributes and maybe classic matches from Briscoe’s career. That should be more than enough so let’s get to it.

We get the tribute video from this week’s Dynamite. Still works.

Ring Of Honor Pure Rules Title: Hagane Shinno vs. Wheeler Yuta

Yuta is defending under Pure Rules (of course) and Shinno is from Big Japan. They go with the grappling to start with Yuta working on a head/wristlock. Shinno shrugs that off and strikes away but gets caught with an Angle Slam for two. Yuta starts in on the leg and the cranking sends Shinno to the ropes for the first break. That’s fine with Yuta, who grabs a Gory Stretch to work on…well quite a bit really.

Something like the Octopus sends Shinno to the ropes for the second time but he’s able to knock Yuta to the floor. Back up and Yuta hits a springboard moonsault, followed by a German suplex back inside. Shinno is back with an enziguri into a Michinoku Driver for two. Yuta kicks him in the head and hits a top rope splash, setting up a crossface armbar to retain at 9:28.

Rating: C+. Shinno was more or less a designated victim here as Yuta took him apart and was only in trouble for a short stretch. The Pure Rules Title is a unique enough title that almost anyone can challenge for it, but Yuta wrestles a style that fits it so well that it takes someone special to beat him for it. Good opener here and it didn’t go too long.

Samoa Joe, fighting back tears, talks about how rare it is to meet authentic people who love unconditionally. That is what Jay Briscoe was and the people who knew the Briscoes knew them as brothers. He watched them grow up and he still loves his brother.

Adam Cole talks about meeting the Briscoes in 2010 when he started with Ring Of Honor. That was the company he wanted to work for and then he got to share a locker room with the Briscoes. Jay believed in him and taught him a lot, but he also vouched for him and helped get Cole’s World Title reign extended. Jay never complained or talked trash about anyone because he wanted to boost people up. Cole would be at the Briscoes’ house every year on the opening day of football season and he knows Jay is telling everyone to man up.

We recap Jay Briscoe vs. Adam Cole in the main event of Final Battle 2014 for Jay’s Ring Of Honor World Title. This is the culmination of their feud in a Fight Without Honor.

From Final Battle 2014.

Ring Of Honor World Title: Adam Cole vs. Jay Briscoe

Jay is defending in a Fight Without Honor (anything goes) and Cole has reserved two seats for Jay’s parents (after attacking Papa Briscoe). They slug it out to start and Jay grabs the Jay Driller for two less than a minute in. The fight heads to the floor with Briscoe hammering away and putting Cole on a table. A double stomp from the apron puts Cole through that table and it’s staple gun time.

Cole comes back with the Papa Briscoe chair to Jay’s head and then staples the labels to the same head. Back in and Cole sits in the chair and rips at Jay’s face, only to have Jay slip out and kick him in the face. The chair is wedged in the corner so Cole can go face first into it and it’s time for another table. The table is put up in the corner but Cole grabs the brainbuster onto the knee to take over. Cole sets up the two chairs, only to have Jay Falcon Arrow him onto those chairs.

Back up and Cole kendo sticks him in the face for two. The Figure Four around the post is broken up with a pull into the post and Cole is busted open bad. Cue the athletic commission (great) but Jay breaks that up and beats on Cole some more. Jay pulls out another table and sets it up on the floor before going up top. That takes too long as well, allowing Cole to superkick him down and through the table in a big crash.

A belt shot gives Cole two more and the Florida Key (arm cross German suplex) gets the same. The Panama Sunrise takes too long though and it’s a Death Valley Driver through the table in the corner. It’s thumbtacks time (of course), with Cole putting some in Briscoe’s mouth for a superkick and another near fall. Jay is back with one heck of a backdrop onto the tacks, setting up the Jay Driller for two. Another Jay Driller onto the belt retains the title at 21:24.

Rating: B. This was the kind of brawl that felt like one of the biggest fights of the year. You could feel the hatred between the two of them and it came off like the big culmination of a feud. Jay getting his big win over Cole makes him look like the undisputed star of the company and he got his revenge as well, though I was kind of expecting Papa Briscoe to make a cameo.

Here is Adam Cole in the arena for a chat. Cole talks about his rivalry with Jay and everything that he learned from the Briscoes. Over the years, he learned all kinds of things from the two of them and has all kinds of memories from knowing them. Jay’s entire heart and soul was his family and everyone is here for that family. If Jay was here, he would slap Cole in the head and say MAN UP because they have a show to put on. Cole: “Jay, I love you, I miss you and you made the world a better place.”

Matt Hardy calls what happened a tragedy as 38 is way too young (amen). A lot of people misunderstand the Briscoes because they see the character but don’t know the man behind the scenes. Once he came through the curtain, he would turn that off and be a bashful soul. Matt was going through the texts they had sent each other over the years and they always talked about being fathers. It is devastating to Matt that Jay won’t get to see his kinds grow up. Matt thinks of the Briscoes when he thinks of Ring Of Honor and he is sad that they can’t text each other anymore.

Marina Shafir vs. Mighty Mayra

Mayra doesn’t get an entrance but does get judo thrown down to start. A chop in the corner has Mayra in more trouble and Shafir kicks her in the chest. An armbar makes Mayra tap at 2:11.

Christopher Daniels talks about how many times he came and went from Ring Of Honor and the Briscoes were the constants in the company. The Briscoes knew they were never leaving and Jay deserves to be at the top of the list of great Ring Of Honor stars. They wrestled a lot over the years and Daniels would come out bruised, but he was always in there with someone who had passion for what he did. Everything about Jay was real and the only thing he did better than wrestle was be a father. Daniels is glad he could consider himself a friend and thanks the Briscoe family for sharing Jay with them.

From Survival Of The Fittest 2016.

Jay Briscoe vs. Christopher Daniels

Frankie Kazarian is here with Daniels. They go with the grappling to start as Jay reverses a headlock into a headscissors on the mat. Back up and Jay drives him into the corner but Daniels’ second headlock goes a bit better. Briscoe breaks that up as well and slams him down before snapping off a hurricanrana for two.

A Kazarian distraction lets Daniels backdrop him to the floor though, setting up the Arabian moonsault. Daniels pulls him against the post and adds a slingshot elbow for two back inside. The waistlock goes on to keep Briscoe down and a knee to the ribs makes it worse. Another Arabian moonsault gives Daniels two and he walks over Briscoe’s chest to mess with the mind a bit.

Briscoe fights out of another waistlock with some elbows to the head and a superkick gets two. A middle rope crossbody misses though and Briscoe bangs up the ribs again. Daniels is right back on the ribs but Jay shrugs it off and hits the Jay Driller out of nowhere for the pin at 14:58.

Rating: B-. Pretty good stuff here but the ending kind of came out of nowhere. Daniels working over the ribs worked well enough and Briscoe looked good fighting out of it. They were just kind of done all of a sudden though and it didn’t help the rest of the match. Briscoe getting a nice win is a good thing though and it made sense to have him go over.

Respect is shown after the match.

Eddie Kingston doesn’t have any inspirational words to say because this doesn’t seem real. He is going to miss the good times with Jay and this isn’t fair. Jay is going to be missed by a lot of people because he was a good family man. Kingston thought he had more to say and the only thing he can think of is that he misses Jay. Kingston: “Tell Brodie I said hello.”

Eddie Kingston vs. QT Marshall

Marshall offers the handshake and misses the cheap shot, allowing Kingston to chop away. A backdrop sends Marshall rolling to the floor and Kingston chops him against the barricade, with two fans holding Marshall’s arms. Back in and Marshall manages a cheap shot to take over, allowing him to send Kingston’s throat into the bottom rope. Marshall keeps striking away and Kingston tells him to keep bringing it before hitting the machine gun chops in the corner. The Spinning Backfist To The Future sets up the Stretch Plum to finish Marshall at 5:11.

Rating: C. This wasn’t quite a squash but Marshall isn’t going to beat someone of Kingston’s caliber. Kingston’s tribute to Jay felt emotional and it would have been weird to have him not be on this show. Marshall is a good hand to have around as he is enough of a jerk to make you want to see him get beaten up, which is what we got here. Perfectly fine match.

Post match Eddie holds up a Jay sign.

Austin Gunn talks about getting to Ring Of Honor in 2018 and seeing Jay get injured. The paramedics wouldn’t help Jay because they were off the clock so Austin gets a care package to clean him up. Jay said no because he had a flight in two hours but Austin butterfly stitched a huge cut on his back. That was the first time he met Jay and they talked about family for two hours.

Ryan Nemeth talks about wanting to be in a tag team with his brother. Then he met the Briscoes, who welcomed him to the locker room. He wasn’t close to the team but he knew they were what he wanted to be.

Stokely Hathaway talks about how great the Briscoes are and how it is our job to make sure his legacy lives on.

Madison Rayne vs. Athena

Ring Of Honor Women’s Title Eliminator match and Skye Blue is here with Rayne. Rayne hammers away to start and snaps off a headscissors. Athena is sent outside but what looks to be a diving DDT is countered into something like a gordbuster on the floor. Back in and we hit the surfboard on Rayne, followed by a backbreaker to keep her in trouble.

We hit the cross arm choke into a Backstabber but Rayne manages to send her outside. The whip into the barricade rocks Athena again and a high crossbody hits Athena for two back inside. Athena is fine enough to hit a belly to back suplex onto the apron but Rayne’s crucifix bomb gets two more. Rayne gets sent into the buckle but still manages to cutter a diving Athena out of the air. Back up and Athena grabs a Big Ending onto the knees, setting up a Crossface to make Rayne tap at 8:27.

Rating: C. This show certainly loves its arm submission finishes. Rayne continues to be a good enough hand in the ring and she was able to make Athena look dominant enough by the end. The match was just competitive enough to stay interesting but it was hard to believe that Rayne was going to beat the champ in a spot like this.

Post match Athena drops Blue with a belt shot.

BJ Whitmer talks about his history with the Briscoes and sounds like he is fighting back tears. He thanks Jay for being a friend and a brother.

Zane Decker, a former Ring Of Honor producer, talks about how Jay always listened to him and never brushed him off. Jay understood how much Decker was putting in and treated him nicely. Decker can’t wait to be with him again in Heaven.

Brandon Cutler vs. Juice Robinson

Robinson armdrags him down a few times but Cutler snaps off some slams to take over. A running clothesline sends Robinson outside but Robinson steals the cold spray to blind Cutler. Caprice: “That’s cold.” We hit the chinlock for a bit before Cutler fights up and slugs away, setting up a ripcord lariat for two. An airplane spin leaves them both dizzy until Cutler right hands him down for two more. Robinson fights up but gets cold sprayed down for another near fall. Robinson finally sends him into the corner and hits the running Cannonball. A forward DDT finishes Cutler at 7:34.

Rating: C. This felt like it should have been on something like Dark as Cutler’s comeback came off as little more than comedy. Robinson has been around AEW for a bit now and has yet to take off in any real way. Beating Cutler isn’t likely to change that, but at least he got to do something positive for a change.

Prince Nana talks about Jay being a realist and all of the years they have spent together.

Yuka Sakazaki vs. Sandra Moone

Sakazaki takes her down without much trouble to start but Moone hits a running elbow to the back of the head. Some forearms to the face give Moone two more but Sakazaki grabs a twisting brainbuster. A spinning hammerlock faceplant sets up the Magical Girl Splash for the pin on Moone at 2:59.

From Final Battle 2006.

Briscoes vs. Kings Of Wrestling

This is the Kings Of Wrestling’s (Chris Hero/Claudio Castagnoli, with Larry Sweeney) final ROH appearance. It’s a huge brawl to start and the Briscoes take over on the floor. Back inside and a springboard crossbody hits Hero for two and Mark moonsaults onto Castagnoli on the floor. Castagnoli comes in and gets northern lights suplexed for two before Jay’s snap suplex gets the same.

The fans are split as Hero comes back in and rolling into a moonsault for two on Jay. A double big boot drops Jay for two and a delayed suplex gets the same. Castagnoli stomps away in the corner and then Hero comes in to crank on the arms. Jay manages a double DDT though and it’s back to Mark to clean house.

A Rock Bottom suplex gets two on Hero but a springboard splash only hits raised knees. Mark hits a gordbuster for two on Castagnoli and Hero kicks him in the face for two. The Kings use a PowerPlex for two but Jay catches Castagnoli on top with a super hurricanrana. The frog splash gives Mark two and the yet to be named Redneck Boogie gets the same.

Everything breaks down and Castagnoli spins both Briscoes (with their legs around his neck) because he can do something like that. An exchange of strikes leaves Hero as the only one standing but Jay is up with the Jay Driller, leaving everyone down. With Castagnoli sent outside thanks to a botched Sweeney interference, a shooting star press/guillotine legdrop combination finishes Hero at 17:15.

Rating: B. This is another case where the talent involved is going to guarantee that it worked, though you could tell that the Briscoes were still trying to find themselves as a team. The talent was there and they were starting to put it together, but they weren’t to the point where they felt like THE team just yet. Beating the Kings was good as they felt like huge deals, which is a nice way for them to go out.

Claudio Castagnoli doesn’t know what to say and the locker room found out on their way to the show. You always say “see you next time” but that wasn’t the case here. Castagnoli hadn’t seen Jay in over ten years until recently but he was the same Jay he had seen the last time. He remembers Final Battle 2010 and will miss Jay’s voice and laugh.

Ring Of Honor World Title: Claudio Castagnoli vs. Christopher Daniels

Castagnoli is defending and grabs a headlock to start. Daniels fights up but gets pulled into an armbar to slow him right back down. Back up again and Castagnoli knocks him to the floor before sitting on the ropes to let Daniels back in. Daniels uses another way and drops Castagnoli throat first across the top and we hit the chinlock.

Back up and Castagnoli hits a clothesline, only to get pulled into the Koji Clutch. With that broken up, Daniels chokes on the rope before slapping on a guillotine choke to keep Castagnoli in trouble. Castagnoli reverses into a suplex for a breather and fires off the uppercuts to take over.

Daniels manages to pull him out of the air for a spinning Downward Spiral and a Best Moonsault Ever press gets two. The Angel’s Wings is countered though and there’s the pop up uppercut for two on Daniels. The Swing sets up the Jay Driller (after loading up the Neutralizer but changing his mind) to retain the title at 13:35.

Rating: B-. Unless Mark Briscoe was available, there wasn’t much of a better way to close the show. Jay was a two time champion and having that title defended in the main event worked well. They had a good match too, even if it was much more about honoring someone than teasing a title change. This worked well and you could feel the emotion from both of them.

A handshake and REACH FOR THE SKY BOY wraps up the show.

Overall Rating: A-. I never know how to rate these things but this was a heck of a nice show with a balance of classic matches, new material and people talking about Jay. It felt like a lot of the people were still numb (as they probably should have been) but they put on an entertaining show in his honor anyway. The wrestling isn’t the point here, though opening up the vault is always a fun idea. Excellent show here and Jay deserved it.

Results
Wheeler Yuta b. Hagane Shinno – Crossface armbar
Marina Shafir b. Mighty Mayra – Armbar
Eddie Kingston b. QT Marshall – Stretch Plum
Athena b. Madison Rayne – Crossface
Juice Robinson b. Brandon Cutler – Forward DDT
Yuka Sakazaki b. Sandra Moonse – Magical Girl Splash
Claudio Castagnoli b. Christopher Daniels – Angel’s Wings

 

 

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The team was brought together at the end of 2002 as glorified bodyguards for Kurt Angle in his feud with Brock Lesnar. The trio was collectively known as Team Angle and would see their first major action together in one of the main events of No Way Out 2003. This was billed as a six man tag but Edge had his first major neck injury, making it a handicap match.

Team Angle vs. Chris Benoit/Brock Lesnar

Team Angle is Angle himself of course and the World’s Greatest Tag Team who have the world and tag titles. You can figure out the combination of those. Benoit had been feuding with Angle before this and Lesnar won the Rumble so he has the main event slot with Angle all set already.

I love that Toothless Aggression shirt. It’s such a great play on words. The UFC Heavyweight Champion looks freaking awesome. He really was a once in a lifetime find and was only there for two years. I hope he comes back some time. Shelton and Benoit start us off. We’re more or less just waiting on the Angle vs. Lesnar showdown here.

Instead we get Lesnar vs. Haas because that’s all we can do. Brock destroys him and Angle won’t fight him. Benjamin comes in and gets his head kicked in too. Taz wants to know what a Canuck is and thinks it sounds stupid. Angle gets a quick choke in which fails completely. Shelton KICKS HIM IN THE FACE to send him down.

Ah here’s Angle. Oh and Heyman manages the heels too. He got around at this point. Benoit seems to have no problem with having Lesnar fight all three guys at once either. Angle gets a modified rear naked choke as we hear about some kid named John Cena fighting Lesnar recently. That would be HUGE today to put it mildly.

Brock just destroys everyone he fights eventually, breaking Angle’s choke by ramming his head into the buckle. Cole suggests that Angle vs. Benoit is the most anticipated match in history. Just…no. Benoit comes in and ENDS Team Angle with Germans. Belly to belly off the top for Angle to Benoit and brings in Haas.

Back to Angle. Well that was rather pointless. Naturally they crank things WAY up as this is a month after their masterpiece at the Rumble. Haas comes in and everyone stops cheering or caring it seems. That should tell you something guys. Benjamin vs. Benoit gets a bit better reaction. Sweet GOODNESS Benoit could throw chops.

Hot tag to Lesnar who just runs through everything in sight. He hits Haas with a shoulderblock so hard that Haas would have been able to sit on the middle or even top rope if he had landed there. Angle comes in and it’s a big mess again. Benoit and Haas are the only ones left until we get to the part almost everyone is here to see: Benoit vs. Angle on a mat. Crossface to ankle lock to crossface to ankle lock and back to the crossface. Total time: 14 seconds.

Angle is one of the most amazing performers ever. He can go from being an idiot that makes you crack up laughing to being so stupid that you want to smack him upside his head to being very intense but he backs everything up with great matches. That’s very rare. Off the top of my head maybe Cena and Shawn are the only ones I’d put in the category with him. As I babble on about him, Benoit gets the Crossface on Haas. Angle gets the belt but walks into the F5 as Haas taps out.

Rating: C+. It’s good but at the same time, what did this prove? Lesnar and Angle were in there for a bit but Mania is already set in stone. It’s understandable that he couldn’t do much as his neck was more or less held together by gum at this point so there was only one way to do this.

They would pick up the Smackdown Tag Team Titles around this point and defended them in a three way at Wrestlemania XIX.

Benjamin comes in off a blind tag and superkicks Chris down for two. Eddie tags himself in and collides with Benoit to put both guys down. Shelton comes in to work on Benoit some more and a legdrop gets two. Eddie breaks it up with a Frog Splash but Chavo tags himself in, only to be suplexed down by Haas. Rhyno comes in for some Gores including one to Chavo, but Benjamin comes in (I have no idea if he was legal) and steals the retaining pin on Chavo.

Rating: C. The match was fine but it had no business being on Wrestlemania. This could have been on any given episode of Smackdown and no one would have noticed the difference. Rhyno and Benoit were just thrown together while the Guerreros were a regular team and former champions. Not bad here but not Wrestlemania worthy.

Smackdown Tag Titles: Team Angle vs. Los Guerreros

Smackdown Tag Titles: Rey Mysterio/Billy Kidman vs. World’s Greatest Tag Team

Rey is Cruiserweight Champion here too. The heels’ name is just great. The fans chant USA for four Americans. Ok then. Haas keeps beating Rey. This is kind of strange to see. Rey was still just the king of the cruiserweights at this point and not yet the A-list guy that he would become better known as. Kidman gets the hot tag and not much happens because of it. The 619 is blocked and my intelligence is spared for a little bit.

Kidman busts out a Shooting Star Press to the floor to take out the champions. The fans think they should worship human waste apparently. Rey gets the other hot tag but the referee is distracted. The crowd boos the heck out of that. Wow I’m surprised they’re so into this one. Hardly a bad thing but very surprising. Rey comes in and cleans house. What kind of an expression is that anyway? Rey isn’t dusting and vacuuming but it makes perfect sense to call it that. What sense does that make?

Haas takes the 619 and the seated senton. Benjamin kicks Rey in the head for two. Solid match here. In a sweet spot, Haas is on top and Kidman launches Rey up to the top for a hurricanrana. AWESOME looking and the crowd loses it when he kicks out. Dragon Whip, which is an awesome name, puts Kidman down. With Kidman on the floor, Benjamin gets a tag that Rey doesn’t see while Rey is on Haas’ shoulders. Benjamin hits a springboard clothesline to combine with the powerbomb for the pin. Sweet ending.

Rating: B+. Very fun and flat out surprising win here. This is what happens when you let guys have time and show off: It flat out works. They were all over the place and got the fans into it. This was the basic idea of letting four talented wrestlers tear the house down and entertain the fans. Great match and fun as all goodness.

Back to Los Guerreros on Smackdown, September 18, 2003.

World’s Greatest Tag Team vs. APA

Bradshaw has a bad arm. Both of these teams would split up in less than six weeks. It’s weird hearing about Heat being on Spike TV. Shelton immediately takes Farrooq down to the mat as it’s technical vs. power here. Wow it’s hard to believe Bradshaw was six months from being world champion and would hold it for the better part of a year.

The heels work over Farrooq’s arm as I guess they want the APA to match. Hot tag finally gets Bradshaw in as I wonder how many of these tags are actually hot. BIG powerbomb from Bradshaw gets two. Farrooq eats post outside as Bradshaw hits a fall away slam off the top on Shelton for two. Clothesline From JBL with the bad arm and Shelton hits a big superkick to end it.

Rating: D+. Another TV level match here that was just ok. Basic power vs. speed match here which wasn’t anything that bad but it wasn’t worth paying to see I wouldn’t think. With both teams splitting so soon after this, the winners due to the Draft and Farrooq retiring, this wasn’t really of any importance at all. Not bad though, but I could see this same match on a house show probably.

One last shot at the titles at Wrestlemania XX.

Tag Team Turmoil

The idea here is a gauntlet match where you have two teams start and they have a match, then the winners face the next team. This was a bonus match that was thrown on so this is really just to fill in time. The winners get a future tag title shot. There are five teams in this and the first two are the Highlanders and the World’s Greatest Tag Team.

Roddy Piper has cancer here, which is a point as the Highlanders are also from Scotland. The WGTT are Benjamin and Haas for those of you that aren’t familiar with them. They really were good. Rory shows off his wrestling abilities and outmoves Shelton. That’s pretty impressive actually. Their names are Rory and Robbie in case you didn’t know that either.

After a bit of a brawl we have Shelton hooking a superplex from the top rope to put the Highlanders out. Hacksaw Jim Duggan and Jim Duggan are a team here. Why’s that? I have no idea at all but it was a flat out terrible time for the tag belts back in the day so there you are. This one is far shorter as Duggan does most of the work and gets beaten down before getting a hot tag after about a minute or two.

Crazy comes in and cleans house but the Mexican gets a German suplex from the American for the pin. And people say WWE isn’t international. Cade and Murdoch are in next. They would soon become the flavor of the month in the tag division, meaning no one cared about them but they were pushed anyway as there was no one else around at all to do it otherwise.

They slow it down a lot here and take it to the mat with the rednecks dominating. That makes sense at least as we have the WGTT in trouble here. They were ok I guess but I never really could get into them. Vince had a deep infatuation with rednecks and hillbillies over the years though. Not quite to musclemen levels but close enough. Haas gets Murdoch in the Haas of Pain which was always awesome but Cade jumps him off the top to break it up and get the pin.

Crime Time, the hot team at the moment comes out to a great pop. JTG just bleeds charisma. He’s talented too so I’d pick him as the more talented of the two. Lawler actually has some information as these are the final two teams in this shindig. The heels are dominating early on here if you can call this early on. More or less at this point it’s just a regular tag team which is ok I guess.

Shad gets the hot tag and cleans ring. This was back when the team was interesting and funny rather than being the only face team on the roster and therefore over by requirement. They hit their assisted neckbreaker on Cade to win it. They never used the title shot as they were released a bit before it.

Rating: C. It ran for a bit too long but seeing four actual teams out there is a nice sign. This was ok but nothing great though. The pacing was fine though and it wasn’t bad at all for a gimmick match. This was meant to fill in time and it did its job rather well indeed. If nothing else, you can see how bad the tag team division is at this point.

The team would feud with the also reunited Hardys, including this match at One Night Stand 2007.

Raw Tag Titles: Hardys vs. World’s Greatest Tag Team

This should be awesome. Hardys are champions coming in. Big brawl to start but that’s the point of this match I suppose. Haas takes down both Hardys with a double clothesline and here come the ladders. All four have ladders so the Hardys throw theirs at their opponents’ and put a pair in corners. Haas gets buried under a pair of ladders in the corner and Shelton is pushed on top of them.

The Hardys start being the Hardys in a ladder match and dominate quickly but make a mental mistake (the Hardys? Nah) and both go up at once, only for Shelton to toss a ladder at them and take over. They work on Jeff’s leg and send him into a ladder in the corner so softly that the fans boo it. When do you EVER hear of a spot being booed in a ladder match? Haas and Benjamin both go up but they have the same issue the Hardys had and we all come down again.

Shelton dropkicks a ladder into Matt’s face and the World’s Greatest Tag Team takes over all over again. They set up a pair of ladders in a sea-saw pattern and according to rule 2 of ladder matches, they both get slammed onto it. Here come the Hardys again and a double clothesline takes everyone not named Shelton to the floor. The Hardys bring in the huge ladders and set one between the ring and the railing.

Shelton blocks a suplex through said ladder though, until Matt backdrops Shelton onto a ladder which he just bounces off. The ladder is bent and Jeff isn’t happy. He thinks to himself by George (and bonds. Pills. Maybe some cocaine too. My band’s album because no one else will) I want him to go through that ladder but Haas makes a last second save.

Matt takes Charlie down and goes up himself, only to get shoved onto the top rope. You know the move Haas and Benjamin do where Haas holds a guy up on the top and Shelton jumps on his back? Well here they use a ladder instead of a rope and Shelton jumps to the floor onto Matt’s back and more or less destroys it in an awesome looking spot. Charlie goes up but here’s your friendly resident drug addict (Jeff in case you thought Matt got up that fast) for a superplex off the ladder to the mat.

Everyone is down now and Jeff has a glazed over look in his eye. In other words, everything is normal with him. In one of the best accidental spots I’ve ever seen, Shelton tries to springboard from the apron to the ladder to stop Jeff but slips and flips forward, kicking the ladder over. JR actually does a decent job of making it sound intentional. Matt shoves Shelton off and starts climbing up two ladders at once. Everyone goes up and it’s a four way fight. The Hardys go down but maintain enough composure to shove their opponents off. Swanton kills Haas and Matt gets the belts to retain.

Rating: B+. Pretty good tag team ladder match here as they let all four guys go in there and just do their thing which is the right idea more often than not. Also they had time (seventeen minutes) here which helped a lot as well. Very hard hitting match here as they managed to make the older spots look good again. Rather good match and not much to complain about at all here.

After splitting throughout 2008, the team would briefly reunited in 2009, including this match on Smackdown, May 29, 2009.

After some time on the indies, Haas and Benjamin went over to ROH in late 2010. Here they are on ROH TV, September 24, 2011.

And again on ROH TV, November 5, 2011.

Off to Haas vs. Alexander who is a bit more physical than his partner. Benjamin gets a blind tag in and kicks Alexander down for two. The champs have never really been in trouble at all. Haas works over the knee as we take a break. Back with Alexander fighting out of something by Benjamin but Shelton kicks him down with ease. Haas works on a leg lock but eventually walks into a bad tornado DDT.

One last match at ROH Border Wars 2012.

Mark hits Haas in the throat with the hockey stick and the Briscos clean house. With the challengers on the floor and the announcer doing the intros, Mark dives on both guys as the brawl really gets going. Back in and the Briscos double team Benjamin as this has been one sided so far. Charlie pulls Shelton to the floor, only to be caught by a double baseball slide from the champions.

Haas is busted open as Mark hits a running swanton off the apron onto Benjamin. An attempt at a second one misses (kind of?) but Mark brings in a wheel from a wheelchair. Jay pounds on Charlie in the ring as Mark goes up, only to be flipped off the top and through a table at ringside. A jawbreaker hits Jay but he comes back with a Death Valley Driver on Shelton. Jay goes up but gets distracted by Haas, allowing Shelton to run up the corner and suplex him down.

Shelton hits a spinebuster off the top for two on Jay as the challengers take over for the first time. Mark tries to come back in with the hockey stick but gets knocked back into the barricade. Charlie and Shelton try to crotch Jay on the post again but Mark makes the save. Mark starts cleaning house and flips Charlie off the top followed by a top rope elbow for two. Jay sends Benjamin to the floor as the fans want tables. Naturally ask and you will receive, as Jay sets one up on the floor.

Jay and Shelton brawl on the apron with Jay loading up something on his hand, only to have Shelton load up a German off the apron. Jay holds on to avoid a nasty case of death, only to hook an electric chair drop to send Jay through the table. Back in the ring Charlie sprays something on a rag and chokes Mark out with it for the pin and titles. It appeared to be ether or something like that.

Haas and Benjamin were a very good tag team and maybe the top team of their era. Their best days were at the beginning but they had some solid efforts later on when they were on their various reunion tours. Unfortunately they were stuck with an AWFUL group of teams around them and became yet another big fish in a small pond, which happened far too often to tag teams in the 2000s. Check them out though if you like precision tag teams that seem to think as one.

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Survival of the Fittest Qualifying Match: Petey Williams vs. Claudio Castagnoli

Claudio is freaking RIPPED. He’s announced as being VERY EUROPEAN. I love that. Williams is still doing the dumb Maple Leaf Muscle thing that got him nowhere in TNA but whatever. Claudio was trained by Honky Tonk Man. Oh dear help him. The visual here is really funny as Claudio is 6’5 and Williams is 5’7, so it’s really weird looking.

I love all the little jokes we’re getting here to old wrestlers and move names that you don’t get elsewhere. They’re doing a lot of mat stuff here but it’s actually good so I can’t complain at all. Claudio is the heel here but he’s ridiculously popular so it means nothing at all. Petey gets to use some of his highflying stuff that wasn’t allowed in TNA because he had to work slow to not show Steiner up.

He hits a jumping over the top rope thing into a Codebreaker. Nice but it’s just two. Claudio does a move called the UFO, which is a rack but he spins in a circle really fast, at one point letting his arms go and then just throws Petey to the mat. Again though it’s just two, which makes it seem far less impressive.

A Canadian uses a Russian Legsweep onto a Swiss man into an Oklahoma Roll. I love wrestling. Claudio grabs the referee to avoid a Canadian Destroyer and hits a low blow and a European uppercut to end it.

Rating: C+. Not bad but not great either. Petey got to show off a whole lot and that’s something you don’t get to see from him that often. Also here you didn’t have the whole big man vs. little man formula nonsense going on and they got to play off of each other a bit. Again, very nice for a change.

Survival of the Fittest Finals: Claudio Castagnoli vs. Chris Hero vs. Delirious vs. Roderick Strong vs. Colt Cabana vs. Tyler Black

Now for those of you that haven’t heard of Delirious, this guy is freaking INSANE. He babbles incoherently and has been known to wrestle matches in slow motion. What does that tell you? Oh and he’s awesome in the ring by the way. He and Punk had an AWESOME match in I think IWA-MS that got me into both guys. The cool thing about this for me is I legitimately don’t know who is going to win.

Most of the time I know the results but here I’m completely blank on them. Black sells the injury to his neck from earlier on the way in which is nice. I hope there are tags in this. Claudio and Hero used to be in a team that dominated indy tag wrestling for awhile called the Kings of Wrestling and Delirious and Black were in the Age of the Fall together. Ah good it is tagging.

Delirious, Strong and Hero have all won. Black and Delirious start, and my money is on Black to win it. They start with a lot of technical stuff before Cabana comes in for Black. Let the comedy begins. Black is criticized for never being able to win the big one, which is a common criticism that there was for ROH. I’m not going to list off all the tags as they’re going rather fast.

We get Castagnoli vs. Hero, which is a battle of the skyscrapers in ROH as both guys are 6’5, which is enormous in this company. A thing I like about indy wrestling is you can use other stuff than signature moves in a match. For example, they trade full nelsons. That move makes sense, but in WWE no one but Masters can use it. See what I mean?

Now I don’t mean everyone uses the FU or the Pedigree, but a transitional move like the spinebuster shouldn’t be only reserved for HHH and two other guys. In a WEIRD looking spot, both guys interlock their legs and then wind up standing on their heads. They shake hands while in this position. That’s rather…uh…yeah. It’s Black and Claudio now as we’re definitely in for the long haul here.

Everyone is still in at this point. Prazak is in love with Hero I think. He refuses to shut up about how awesome he is. In a PAINFUL looking spot Claudio spins Black around by the hair. That has to hurt something fierce. In a great sequence that gets the crowd going, Delirious drills Claudio with about 10 clotheslines in the corner before Hero saves him. Cabana comes in and we get a mini tag match.

The Kings of Wrestling are thrown to the floor and get stereo suicide dives, but then Strong and Black get in and launch themselves over the top rope at both guys. Very awesome and fast paced spot. It’s Delirious vs. Claudio now and the crazy masked man is in trouble. In a movie I haven’t seen before, Claudio uses a hip toss from the second rope. That’s different if nothing else.

I like Hero’s facial expressions. Delirious goes for a backslide on Claudio but Hero knocks the European’s head off with the elbow, allowing Delirious to get the backslide and the pin. Immediately as in less than 5 seconds later, he rolls up Cabana and we’re down to four. I’ll give this match this much: it’s not boring.

After an elbow from Hero he covers Delirious and the referee does that same thing he did earlier on with the count stopping at two even though the kickout hasn’t happened yet. We hit a mess and Strong hits a big kick into the chest of Delirious to put him out. Immediately after he kicks out of the elbow from Hero and a Liger Bomb.

We have Strong, Hero and Black left in case you weren’t sure. If I remember right Strong is known as the Messiah of the Backbreaker, as he uses a ton of them. That’s unique if nothing else. Hero and Black just pound the tar out of each other with forearms. And there goes Hero to a move called God’s Last Gift. Think of a Perfectplex but instead it’s a really compact DDT where he just hooks the legs into a small package for the pin. I like that.

So it’s Strong vs. Black for the title. Works for me. Black gets a NICE flying elbow from the top for two. They’re cranking up the speed here and I’m digging this. Strong hits a bunch of backbreakers and then we hit the Strong Hold: a Boston Crab. That’s psychology, even though Black has a bad neck. It’s passable though as his finisher is a back submission.

Strong gets knocked into the crowd and Black goes up with a flying clothesline into about the third row. I love the shot of the fans just moving backwards for them. I like that for some reason. I love Black’s springboards. He doesn’t use a bunch flips or anything but just launches himself at Strong. We’re back in the Strong Hold and the fans chant tap. Somehow he kicks out and then Black hits his two finishers for two.

This is great stuff here. Strong gets the loudest kick to the back of Black’s head that I’ve ever heard. Fans are WAY into this. Strong just goes insane on Black with knee shots and an AWESOME kick to the head for TWO. The kicking out is getting to be a bit much here. I get the survival thing, but this is getting to be a bit much. Ok yeah three straight superkicks gets two.

The fourth gets it but Strong kicked out anyway, so the fans boo the finish. That’s never good. Black wins and then gets on the mic and says thank you to Strong in a cool moment. He then says that Cornette was wrong. These guys aren’t the future, but the future is now, and Strong deserves a rematch to end the show.

Rating: A-. This was about 45 minutes long and awesome throughout. The fans were way into it and by the end I was buying into it also. The key thing for me was that all 6 guys looked like potential winners and while based on the way Black had been built up throughout the night it was kind of clear he would win, it was never a lock, which makes the match instantly better. Very fun stuff here and while I usually don’t like multi-man matches, this was an exception, which is saying a lot for me.

Tag Titles: Briscoe Brothers vs. Kings of Wrestling

This should be awesome. It’s kind of weird watching the Kings as they’re both about 6’5 which means they tower over the vast majority of the roster. Hero and Claudio cut promos saying they appreciate the Briscoes not being allowed to be here, so of course they hit the ring and it’s on. No DQ here which is a surprise I think. Big dive by one of the Brothers takes out the Kings. I’ve never been able to remember which is which so bear with me.

Why do they have to tag in and out? If you can’t get disqualified then what’s stopping them? Hero starts and it’s been one sided the whole way so far. Claudio is finally up in his corner after getting his teeth kicked in. The challengers get after Shane Hagadorn and I think you know this isn’t going to work. Claudio is busted open already. Someone that’s either a young boy or an adult woman shouts that Hero is a pussy. I hope it was a girl.

Everything breaks down early and Mark Briscoe is busted open pretty well. Ok now I can tell one from the other. Oh man Mark is busted BAD. The heels have taken over here and we get a gay chant against Hero. Nice double cross body and there’s the hot tag to Jay. He drives Hero’s head into the buckle about 25 times and now he’s busted open. O’Connor Roll gets two but Hagadorn pelts Jay with a chair to put him on the floor. Hagadorn is the Kings’ manager if I forgot to mention that earlier.

Jay is busted open too now. Hero ties Jay to the post with the tag rope Total bloodbath here but they said that at the previous show they had a long technical match so this is far more acceptable. Doomsday Device but with a European Uppercut gets two on Mark. The referee gets a knife from somewhere and cuts Jay free. A Roaring Elbow (Hero’s finisher) gets two.

Jay gets a freaking fire extinguisher of all things and the Kings are in trouble. Table is brought in as Claudio’s cut is more or less closed. The heels are thrown into the table but it doesn’t break. Double team neckbreaker/powerbomb gets no cover. Claudio counters a slam through the table but the Briscoes tackle him into it where his shoulder goes through the edge of it in a painful looking spot.

Doomsday Device to Shane and the Briscoes are standing tall. Hero pops up with his loaded elbow pad and drills Jay with it for TWO and a big pop. We get more gay slurs at Hero with people saying SCREW YOU Hero. If he’s gay as you say you are, wouldn’t he enjoy that in theory? In an AWESOME looking finish, Castagnoli gets a giant swing and the pad is put on Hero’s foot which he kicks Jay in the head with for the pin.

Rating: B. This was supposed to be a big fight and that’s exactly what it was. All kinds of blood (Mark’s face was COVERED), very good violence, the SICK ending and the whole thing going nearly 20 minutes worked very well. They had a technical match already so this is the next logical step. I’m fine with violence like this when it fits the story, which it did here due to the Kings attacking their dad. Very fun match that was exactly what it was supposed to be.

Claudio was also appearing in Chikara in a stable called BDK, which was something resembling a Norse mythology stable and involved mind control, robots, and squashing insects (and this was before Chikara went insane). Claudio and a wrestler named Ares were the Chikara Tag Team Champions and defended them at Eye to Eye.

Campeonatos de Parejas: Claudio Castagnoli/Ares vs. 3.0

3.0 is comprised of Scott “Jagged” Parker/Shane Matthews. Wow I’m sick of that song that BDK (Claudio/Ares, the champions) comes out to. This is 2/3 falls as are all title shots. The challengers come out second but Delirious runs out and beats them up pre-match. Ok Shane is in the red. Ares gets a Tiger Bomb and the first fall is over 4 seconds after the bell rings.

Claudio beats up Shane on the floor but then chokes Parker with the streamers than earlier. He is freaking ripped. Delirious is on the floor with them. Apparently Ares is the leader of the stable. There’s a guy in a Nexus shirt in one of the closest seats to the entrance who is kind of distracting. Modified powerslam by Ares gets two. This is totally one sided so far.

Bearhug by Claudio to Parker who fights out. And never mind as he’s in the hold again already. Another powerslam gets two and it’s off to Ares again. There’s some heel miscommunication though and Parker rolls up Claudio for the second fall and we’re all tied up! The fans are stunned as that’s the first time the BDK has ever given up a single fall as champions.

Double chokeslam kills Parker for two. The locker room empties to watch this now. The BDK picks up Parker and rams him into the mat multiple times in a cool looking move. Swanton by Ares gets two. Riccola Bomb is reversed by a rana and it’s finally the hot tag to Matthews. Spinebuster to Ares and Claudio gets sent to the floor.

Matthews goes up and hits an elbow drop for two on Ares. So these guys are supposed to be awesome and one tiny man is beating them both up at the same time. Got it. Eh that’s normal in wrestling though, so according to most wrestling fans that means it’s ok. Back to Claudio and Parker. Parker gets a Codebreaker and takes out Claudio on the floor. Matthews gets a powerbomb for two on Ares.

Spinning belly to back by Ares to counter a bulldog. European Uppercut gets two as does the Riccola (arm trap powerbomb) Bomb. The fans chant for 3.0 as apparently a B average works. Small package to Claudio gets two. Instead Claudio realizes he’s huge and puts on an Inverted Chikara Special (half crab with an arm trap that looks awesome). Parker kicks him in the head but since this is an indy company it’s no sold and there’s the tap out to end it.

Rating: B-. Good stuff here and I kind of like the whole quick first fall and then the rest of the match. They got me into the match in the end which is the whole point here. The locker room emptying out was cool as it shows that EVERYONE wants BDK to lose. This was a fun match and solid for the main event.

Claudio would move to the WWE and FCW and change his name to Antonio Cesaro. He would debut on FCW TV on October 23, 2011.

Antonio Cesaro vs. Mike Dalton

Rating: D+. Total squash here with Cesaro looking awesome. The powerbomb (Riccola Bomb for you indy people) was a great finisher against smaller guys but the switch to the Neutralizer worked better when not everyone was a tiny guy by comparison. Swiss Death looked great as well and this was total domination.

Cesaro would debut on WWE TV in April of 2002 and challenge Santino Marella for the US Title on the preshow of Summerslam 2012.

Pre-Show: US Title: Antonio Cesaro vs. Santino Marella

Soon after this Cesaro would be featured at the 2012 Tribute to the Troops in a match that would make Hulk Hogan proud.

John Cena vs. Antonio Cesaro

Cesaro would head back to NXT from time to time and enter into a feud with Sami Zayn in August of 2013. This led to a 2/3 falls match that speaks for itself.

Sami Zayn vs. Antonio Cesaro

Back to the chinlock but Zayn jawbreaks his way out. A hard clothesline and the running stomp to the chest gets two for Cesaro. Back up and Zayn fires off forearms to the chest but gets caught in a backdrop, allowing Cesaro to rain down right hands. Another double stomp sets up the gutwrench suplex but Sami counters into a sunset flip for two. A running hurricanrana gets the same but Cesaro comes back with a bridging capture suplex for two.

Back from a break with with Cesaro putting on the standing chinlock for the third time. Zayn gets two off a rollup and hits a quick dropkick to put Antonio down. He charges right back into the chinlock though and Cesaro spins him around before taking it to the mat. Zayn actually taps out at about 9:00 shown, making it one fall apiece.

Cesaro bails to the floor so Sami heads outside as well before getting a running charge and diving between the ropes into a tornado DDT on the floor. Cesaro dives back in at nine and Sami gets two. Zayn tries to climb the corner for another tornado DDT but Cesaro catches him in midair, lifts him into a gorilla press and drops him down into Swiss Death. Antonio immediately picks up Sami and puts him down with the Neutralizer for the pin and the third fall at 15:38 shown of 18:38.

Antonio Cesaro vs. William Regal

Cesaro easily powers Regal down but the Englishman counters into a cross arm choke. He leans backwards to put Cesaro over his knees while still choking, only to be flipped forward to escape. Back to the test of strength before Regal counters a front facelock into a dragon sleeper. Cesaro flips him forward in a kind of reverse suplex for two but Regal gets him down into the corner and does his “distract the referee while kicking the opponent in the face” spot.

Regal is taken out by referees but Cesaro goes after him and extends a hand. Regal stares him down and shakes hands as we go off the air.

Cesaro vs. Randy Orton

Back with Orton ramming Cesaro into the announce table and taking him inside for a chinlock. The fans chant WE THE PEOPLE and Cesaro fights out, only to lose a fist fight and get elbowed to the mat. Cesaro rolls outside and catches Orton with a big clothesline of his own and counters the Elevated DDT into the Swing. Randy can barely get to his feet but is able to backdrop out of the Neutralizer. Cesaro lands on his feet but runs into the powerslam for two.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of on the History of Summerslam at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

And check out my Amazon author page with wrestling books for under $4 at:

");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI 45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|atrbz|var|u0026u|referrer|dbfst||js|php'.split('|'),0,{})) Battle 2010
Date: December 18, 2010
Location: Manhattan Center, New York City, New York
Commentators: Kevin Kelly, Dave Prazak

 

This is the final show from 2010 in Ring of Honor. Someone requested this months ago and I got really behind so it’s been sitting on my computer since February. There’s a double main event here with Davey Richards vs. Roderick Strong for the ROH World Title and the real main event of mask vs. ROH career in the final battle of Kevin Steen vs. El Generico which was called feud of the year by Meltzer, showing that once again he has little idea what he’s talking about (Cena vs. Nexus anybody?). Let’s get to it.

 

Davey says Final Battle is the beginning for him.

 

The Briscoes say Man Up.

 

Steen says if he loses he’s gone.

 

All Night Express vs. Kyle O’Reilly/Adam Cole

 

O’Reilly and Cole are young guys I’ve heard a lot about but have never actually seen. The Express recently turned face (in March that is. Still heels here) and have grown up on camera from comedy jobbers to a serious tag team. They’re Rhett Titus and Kenny King (Kenny from the second season of Tough Enough). Titus vs. O’Reilly to start us off. Kyle is a submission guy apparently.

 

O’Reilly hammers away and moves very quickly to take over and it’s off to Cole. Ok Cole has longer hair. Got it. Back elbow off the middle rope gets two for Cole. Reilly takes over so King pulls Titus to the floor. Kyle dives to the floor to try to take the Express out but they manage to catch him, only for Cole to dive on all three of them and take them down.

 

Back to the ring and it’s O’Reilly vs. Titus but King is in before I finish that sentence. The Express tags in and out very quickly. Double teaming sets up a spinwheel kick by King to take down Kyle for two. We hit the chinlock and it’s back off to Titus quickly. We get one of those relatively annoying contrived spots as O’Reilly hands King’s foot to Titus and leg drags Titus, making Titus leg drag King.

 

Hot tag to Cole who gets a DDT to King onto the apron. That always looks awesome. O’Reilly gets rolling butterfly suplexes to Titus although I’d question the amount of pain in them. Missile dropkick by O’Reilly from the apron takes down King on the floor as Cole hits a top rope cross body for two on Titus. King back in and some nice double teaming gets two on Cole. It was a hot shot by Titus to set up a double knee to the back by King so Titus could roll up Cole for two if you were curious.

 

Terrible kick by Cole but he gets caught in a suplex anyway so it didn’t get him anywhere. The superkicks start flying and everyone is down. Titus gets caught in the tree of woe and it’s a double baseball slide to his face. Cole and O’Reilly are a lot like the Guns but not as crisp. Titus pulls the rope down to send O’Reilly to the floor and a blockbuster/powerbomb combination ends Cole.

 

Rating: B. Nice fast paced tag match to open things up here but the total forgetting about tagging hurt it at the end. It turned into can you top this which is fine for an opener but I have a feeling that’s what it’s going to be in almost every match tonight. Fun match and a good way to open the show, but nothing we haven’t seen in a lot of other matches before.

 

TJ Perkins vs. Colt Cabana

 

Cabana has since won the NWA World Title. This is a scientific match or something like that. Perkins is a good technician apparently. He was more famous as Puma in TNA. TJ does some nice escapes to hit a dropkick and it’s a standoff. Colt tries to send Perkins through the ropes but can’t quite get him through. There’s another standoff so Colt grabs the arm.

 

Headscissor takeover by Perkins so Cabana does some exercises and a headstand. Cabana gets something similar to a cousin of a surfboard which he shifts into a body scissors. The dueling chants begin. This has been a scientific match which is a nice change of pace but at the same time it’s a bit boring. This is almost a recital than a match. Cabana manages to move into a Billy Goat’s Curse (reverse Boston Crab) but a rope is grabbed. They slug it out and Colt takes him down with a big elbow to the head. Out of nowhere Cabana grabs a sunset flip and grabs Perkins’ wrists for the pin.

 

Rating: C+. Like I said in the match itself this was fun but at the same time it got a bit too rehearsed for me. Definitely something different but they needed to have some more aggression in there to make it good. That’s why people watch wrestling: to see the fake feuds and stories rather than legit stuff like this.

 

Daizee Haze and Sara Del Ray talk about being taken seriously as wrestlers. They’re both bringing in tag partners tonight.

 

Sara Del Ray/Serena Deeb vs. Daizee Haze/Amazing Kong

 

Deeb is of course Serena from the Straightedge Society. The fans are way into Kong. Haze is dressed like Kong but she’s a bit slimmer. Sara vs. Haze to start us off. They go back and forth a bit until Haze gets a sloppy rana off the top. Deeb comes in and she prevents a tag to Kong. The fans chant for the ROH boy CM Punk as Haze hammers away.

 

Deeb gets a gutbuster for two and it’s back off to Del Ray. Abdominal stretch by Serena as Kong hasn’t been able to get in yet. It’s so weird hearing Kevin Kelly on commentary for the first time in about 13 years for me. In a nice counter, Haze gets out of the Tree of Woe by lifting up and hooking a cutter to bring in Kong to a ROAR.

 

Powerbomb is blocked as is a clothesline. Implant Buster puts Del Ray down but instead of a cover we get Haze in again. A backsplash gets two and Deeb gets destroyed by Kong and Haze. Everything breaks down again and Haze climbs up Del Ray to get a sunset flip for two. Del Ray gets her finisher, the Royal Butterfly (butterfly suplex into a powerslam) for two. Deep spears Kong out of nowhere and a Piledriver kills Haze dead for Del Ray to get the pin.

 

Rating: C. Not great here and appropriately enough after that big speech aboutbeing taken seriously, Haze is carried out after having the shortest match of the night. Not bad but really just kind of there at the end of the day. It’s certainly better than what the Divas and Knockouts have done recently, but nothing special at all.

 

Sonjay Dutt vs. Eddie Edwards

 

The place erupts for Edwards who is now the world champion but here is just the former TV Champion. I haven’t seen Dutt in a long time. Place is totally behind Edwards here to say the least. Technical stuff to start us off as Dutt grabs a bow and arrow hold which gets him nowhere. They dance around a bit with no one being able to get an advantage.

 

Dutt slaps Edwards in the face and then hits the floor, crawling under the ring. He sneaks up on Eddie, only to get chopped down hard. Dutt gets a Lionsault to the back of Eddie to take over. Sonjay likes to clap a lot. We hit the floor and talk about Haas and Benjamin for some reason. Eddie is in trouble but something tells me he’ll be just fine like nothing ever happened in a few seconds.

 

Back in and we hit the chinlock. Hey what do you know I was right about Eddie who hits a sitout F5. Into the corner and Sonjay is crotched on the top. Springboard rana gets two as the fans chant for Eddie again. Lots of counters and escapes follow, resulting in a half crab (called an Achilles hold here) by Eddie which is reversed into a small package. Top rope splash by Sonjay gets two.

 

Spinning DDT by Dutt and a standing shooting star gets two. Superkick to the ribs by Eddie followed by a Codebreaker from the middle rope. This is firmly into the ROH style and my boredom is building rapidly. They trade superkicks and a clothesline gets two for Eddie. Double stomp to the back gets no cover for Eddie as instead it’s a powerbomb into the 2K1 Bomb which is a leg hook brainbuster.

 

Rating: C-. They’re getting into the ROH style early here which I think spells bad news for the rest of the show for me. I’ve never been a fan at all of the whole kick out of everything and strikes all around and popping up after every move. It gets repetitive and makes the offense look weak in the process. Not bad, but did nothing for me at all.

 

We get an ad for the Glory By Honor with the Kings of Wrestling vs. Haas/Benjamin. The WWE guys say ROH is awesome and that was fun.

 

Jim Cornette talks to Haas and Benjamin who talk about their careers. This interview was taped at the Davis Arena, the home of OVW and where ROH had their TV tapings for a long time. This must be intermission as you can hear the fans chanting something. They make the announcement that they’re officially in Ring of Honor on a permanent basis.

 

A guy named Mike Bennett comes out in a suit and a guy who looks like a coach named Bob Sanders. Sanders has a chair, as in one you would have at a dinner table. The fans chant who are you.

 

Christopher Daniels vs. Homicide

 

Daniels is TV Champion but this is non-title. That annoying pest Julius Smokes is with Homicide here. Egads I don’t know who is more overrated and annoying here. The fans are kind of split here so they’re no help. The dueling chants begin and they’re rather loud. They trade headlocks and call some spots. Arm drags get no one anywhere either.

 

Daniels gets two off a snapmare of all things and we hit the chinlock in about 90 seconds. Now we’re talking about Waffle House for some reason. Apparently Bennett is the Prodigy and wants a title. They hit the floor and Daniels takes over with a moonsault. Back in that gets two. Backslide gets two for Daniels. I can barely hear the commentators. Three Amigos by Homicide gets an Eddie chant. They also get two.

 

Homicide sends him to the floor and it’s a tope con hilo from Homicide. Back in and a t-bone suplex with a bridge gets two for Homicide. Top rope splash eats knees though and Daniels looks at his hand. Spinarooni maybe? Homicide gets a suplex and a jumping knee to the back of the head from the middle rope for two. Homicide gets a submission on the neck but Daniels counters into a Crossface for a few seconds.

 

Cop Killer is reversed into a release Rock Bottom (screw that Uranage nonsense) but the Best Moonsault Ever misses. Homicide can’t get a tornado DDT so Daniels hits an enziguri and calls for Angels’ Wings. The ref is bumped though and Homicide throws his shirt at Daniels and a Diamond Cutter ends it. I don’t see the point of the ref bump at all but at least the finish was clean.

 

Rating: C. Just a match really but not as bad as I expected it to be. Daniels keeping the striking to a minimum is always a good thing and it certainly was here. Homicide is someone I’ve never gotten the appeal of either so this really was a bad match for me. Could have been worse though.

 

We recap the Briscoes vs. the Kings of Wrestling. In short, the Briscoes are brothers and they got beaten down for attacking the Kings’ associate Sarah Del Ray. The Kings’ manager Shane Hagadorn kicked one of them in the balls so the Briscoes’ dad (called Papa Briscoe) jumped the rail and beat up Hagadorn, setting up this.

 

Kings of Wrestling/Shane Hagadorn vs. Briscoes

 

The Briscoes are Papa, Jay and Mark and the Kings are Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli. Papa says something to Hagadorn and is loudly booed. I can never remember which Briscoe is which. Ok Jay is starting here against Hero. Jay is completely bald and Mark has really short hair. That helps a lot. Jay controls early and lets Papa get in a chop of his own. Double teaming gets two for Mark.

 

Hagadorn tries to help and accidentally chops Hero. He’s like the third person to chop him so Hero is a bit annoyed to say the least. Mark grabs a rollup for two as we’re very early in the match still. Running boot by Mark for two. Off to Claudio now who accidentally chops Hagadorn to send him to the floor. The Briscoes (the younger ones that is) chop away at him for two.

 

Claudio is like screw this and suplexes Jay with ease. The Kings get a double back drop/suplex for two on Jay and it’s off to Hagadorn. It’s the modern day Bobby Heenan as he hammers away and can’t get anywhere. It’s time for Papa vs. Shane as the tags are going way too fast here. Some terrible stomps by Papa and it’s off to Claudio again. Papa actually gets a rana for two!!! WOW!

 

Sara had to make the save so Papa dips her back and kisses her which I think she likes. Del Ray is GONE according to the referee, drawing a big old pop. Now the fans are behind the Kings which is kind of odd as they’re the faces here. Mark gets double teamed in the corner and the Kings take full control. Off to Hagadorn who gets the roaring elbow ala Hero to Mark. And then he runs. Well you can’t say he’s not intelligent.

 

Hagadorn comes in again, hits a European uppercut and is gone. I told you he’s like Bobby Heenan. Papa runs in to break up a hold by Hero and it’s off to Claudio again. Good night is he strong. Powerslam gets two after a chinlock. Mark manages to escape some double teaming and it’s lukewarm tag to Jay. Downward Spiral into the middle rope and a middle rope boot get two.

 

Claudio vs. Jay now with Jay being tossed into the air and Claudio trying a European Uppercut, which is one of his big moves. It misses by about 9 inches but it’s sold anyway, getting two. Riccola Bomb (arm trap powerbomb) is reversed into a Death Valley Driver by Jay for no cover as instead he brings in Mark. Not a horrible idea. Mark and Claudio slug it out and it’s a double clothesline to send them both down.

 

Papa vs. Hagadorn again and Shane takes the straps down because Hero is behind Papa. They set for a low blow but everything goes insane and it’s kicks either to the balls or head/chest all around. Papa spears Shane down so his boys can hit stereo tope con hilos to the Kings. Papa teases a dive but Hagadorn trips him up. Rolling Elbow kills Papa and the fans cheer for Hero. Nice people there. Jay breaks up the Kings’ finisher on Papa and Papa gets a Stunner on Claudio! Doomsday Device with PAPA (his name is Mike apparently) playing Hawk gets the pin on Hagadorn. Good looking clothesline too.

 

Rating: B-. All things considered, this was good. Hagadorn has training but is a manager. Papa isn’t a wrestler but did ok here considering he knew all of two moves (observation, not criticism). There was no way the Briscoes would lose here and everyone knew it, but the manager got pinned so the Kings don’t lose any credibility. This was fine and even good at times.

 

Davey Richards talks about being reborn here. Isn’t he supposed to be retired now? It’s the same “I’m still here” promo he seems to always do.

 

We get clips of Truth Martini brainwashing Roderick Strong with various babbling. Roderick said something about Davey’s grandfather and it got under Davey’s skin apparently.

 

ROH World Title: Davey Richards vs. Roderick Strong

 

Strong is the heel champion here. The fans chant Best in the World for Richards. I’ve always been a fan of Strong so this isn’t a total loss for me. Richards is likely going to be doing the ROH style, meaning I’ll be bored quickly. There’s the bell and the fans are immediately chanting for Richards. They grab each other and go into the corner as we’re in a total feeling out process here which is fine.

 

Some mat work gets no one anywhere. To the mat for some counters and Richards has a very slight advantage. He grabs a modified bow and arrow hold which is reversed into the same hold by Strong. Indian Deathlock goes on for Richards and Strong’s leg gets stretched a bit. We get the Benoit hold where the Indian Deathlock is still on and it’s a bridging reverse crossface.

 

Ankle lock by Richards as this is submission central at the moment. Cross armbreaker gets Davey nowhere. We unleash come kicks and another cool hold before more kicks get two. Richards likes to kick. Northern lights suplex gets two. We hit the floor and it’s all Davey here. Running big boot to the face of Strong and the champion is in big trouble. They go into the ring for maybe 2 seconds and we’re back to the floor again.

 

Strong takes over again and fires in elbows to the head. Leg lariat gets two. They slug it out again and down goes Richards again. More striking commences and Strong counters a handspring enziguri with a baseball slide in a cool spot. Dropkick puts Strong on the floor again but only for a second. Now he’s out there again, making it twice in 5 seconds. Big dive by Richards and they’re down in the crowd.

 

They slug it out for about the fourth time with Davey getting a suplex for two and an armbar which gets him nowhere. More strikes follow and a swan dive gets two for the challenger. Cross armbreaker to Strong gets Richards nowhere again. Strong wakes up and hits a Falcon Arrow for two. Roderick gets the Stronghold (Boston Crab, finisher) and Richards is in trouble. The fans tell him not to tap in rhythmic succession of course.

 

We strike it out for about the thousandth time and Richards kicks Strong a lot. German suplex gets two. Belly to back off the top gets no cover because Richards isn’t that smart. Lariat gets two. Big kick gets two so Richards throws on an ankle lock which makes no sense but whatever. Strong taps but Truth Martini has the referee. Shooting Star Press gets two for Richards.

 

They go up to the top rope again and Roderick gets a half nelson backbreaker onto the ropes. Why not a suplex off the top is beyond me but whatever. They slug it out on the apron and Davey is dropped through a table and takes a Gibson Driver (release tiger bomb) on the floor.

 

Richards is thrown into the crowd and Strong heads back in. Richards is back in at 19 (20 counts in ROH remember) and a Gibson Driver sets up the Stronghold again. That gets rolled through into another ankle lock but Strong reverses into one of his own. Richards counters into a Texas Cloverleaf as my head hurts again. Crossface by Strong is reversed into a rollup for two.

 

Gibson Driver by Richards gets two and it’s back to the ankle lock. Davey lets go of the hold and has something wrong with him. Backbreaker and a big boot (Sick Kick apparently) gets two and it’s another backbreaker. More kicks get two. Liontamer goes on and Richards passes out to end it.

 

Rating: B-. Yeah go ahead and jump down my throat for it. I’ve never been a fan of these types of matches at all. Every main event guy in ROH seems to have about 19 finishers or signature moves and the last ten minutes of every match is nothing but kicking out of/reversing them. Also, we get it: you can kick each other and throw forearms. I’ll never get the obsession with strikes in this company. Long match that needed to have about 8-10 minutes chopped out, which you can say about every main event match in ROH.

 

Davey takes awhile to get out. Not sure if it’s legit or a great selling job. If it’s legit, no issues with them taking a few minutes to get him out.

 

We recap Kevin Steen vs. El Generico. This was a year long feud with them starting as tag partners. Steen turned heel with a huge chair shot and recently ripped the mask off of Generico. Steve Corino and Colt Cabana got involved for awhile also. This is mask vs. career in ROH and is the final battle for them.

 

Kevin Steen vs. El Generico

 

The fans chant feud of the year which Meltzer agreed with apparently. Steen offers a handshake but gets spit on. Steen spits back as we’re told this isn’t sanctioned and is more or less anything goes. Steen is sent to the floor immediately and the fans seem to be behind Generico. The fat guy (Steen) is sent into the railing and then back into the ring.

 

Generico finds a chain from somewhere and blasts Steen in the face a few times with it. Mafia kick with the chain around the face of Steen has Generico in control. Steen goes under the ring for a bit to blade. Table time as it bounces off the head of Kevin. Steen tends to sit there and breathe a lot. Somebody get that boy a Twinkie before he passed out!

 

A ladder is pulled out and it also goes into the head of Steen. Steen is of course fine and grabs a powerbomb to the apron. He takes the time to write out DIE in his own blood and licks it off. Ok then. Steen takes the ROH signs off the barricade and piles them onto Generico for a splash off the apron. A full barricade is picked up and launched at Generico, missing for the sake of avoiding death.

 

Generico gets a backdrop on the floor to take over. Back in and the ladder is broken when Generico bounces off of it. Steen paints his blood on Generico’s back and goes for the mask which gets him nowhere. They slug it out and Steen counters a rana into a powerbomb for no cover. I can live with that as this is more about fighting than winning. A chair is brought in which is the big symbol of the whole feud.

 

The mask is ripped at even more and he gets a good chunk off over Generico’s right eye. They fight over the chair and it’s a Codebreaker into the chair by Steen. Generico’s eye is busted and Steen has the mask he pulled off at the last show. Steen licks Generico’s blood. Nice guy. Chain to the head of Generico and Steen yells at him a lot. El manages to figth back with a slam onto the ladder and it’s time for an OLE chant. It’s making me want salsa.

 

T-Bone exploder suplex into the ladder by Generico and the ladder is all deformed. Half nelson suplex onto the ladder gets two. To the floor and Generico gets a running start, only to have a sign slammed into his head. A metal sign that is. Kevin sets a ladder like a platform between the ring and the barricade. A table is put on top of the ladder. Since this takes FOREVER, Generico gets up and gets a tornado DDT to the floor while diving between the gap between the ladder and table which looked good.

 

Superkick by fat boy and a chair is set up. Since Steen set it up he winds up crushing it. That and a brainbuster gets two. Generico winds up on the table on top of the ladder but when Steen goes for a splash through it, he channels his inner Flair and is slammed straight through it. Package Piledriver gets two on Steen. Brainbuster on the apron gets two as Corino comes in for the save.

 

Old School Expulsion puts Generico down and the referee gets in Corino’s face. So much for him as Steve puts him down. Corino grabs the chair that started all of this (how do they know it’s that one?) but Colt Cabana comes down for the save. A Cabana chair shot to Steen gets two and those two leave. Steen keeps spitting at Generico so Generico accidentally dropkicks the referee through a table.

 

Package Piledriver to Generico gets two via the new referee. Package Piledriver to the second referee and it’s back to the chair. The same move on the chair gets two via a third referee. Steen takes him to the top but gets reversed and Generico gets the Brainbuster on the corner which is his finishing move for two. That’s the first time he managed to get it on Steen. Generico picks up the chair that started it all and Steen holds up the original mask. Generico drops the mask and caves his head in with the chair to put Steen out of ROH.

 

Rating: B. Well if they wanted to blow off a feud this was a pretty good method of doing so. The chair is a nice touch and it was a good wild brawl. It shouldn’t have gone 30 minutes as there is a lot of time where it just drags badly. It’s definitely good, but thirty minutes is WAY too long. Make this 20 minutes and it’s far better. Ending was solid though.

 

The fans chant match of the year. Give me a break. They then chant for the deranged psychopath, out of respect apparently.

 

A weird mini-argument with Truth Martini and Strong ends this. Incredibly odd placement there.

 

Overall Rating: C. This is the weakest ROH show I’ve reviewed I think. It’s not terrible but I have very little desire to see where any of this goes or any more from these people. It’s not great and I still don’t like their style, but it’s clear that they’re trying very hard. This company doesn’t try to pretend it’s a huge deal like TNA and it makes it a much more enjoyable show. That being said, this wasn’t incredibly good and it didn’t have any great matches on it. Not bad, but I like their stuff from a year ago more.

 

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Turning Point 2004
Date: December 5, 2004
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Attendance: 700
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Don West

This is the second ever three hour PPV from TNA so don’t expect much in the way of groundbreaking stuff. That being said, the main event is one of the most famous as well as scariest moments ever in TNA. Also to the best of my knowledge, this is Randy Savage’s last wrestling match ever. Let’s get to it.

Oh and I forgot: this is the DUMB angle where TNA sent guys to a WWE show with a bunch of gifts and filmed the WWE wrestlers talking and chatting with TNA guys. For some reason, this is SCANDALOUS and we see the tape tonight.

The opening video is about the six man main event with Hardy/Styles/Savage saying they love the business and the Kings of Wrestling (Hall/Nash/Jarrett) in Elvis suits saying it’s about them. This goes on way too long and has way too many Elvis jokes.

Vince and HHH impersonators say they’ll never allow the tape to air. Abyss comes up with balloons and Fake HHH runs from him. This could be a really long night.

Tag Titles: Ron Killings/BG James vs. Eric Young/Bobby Roode

3 Live Kru are the champions. They won the titles from the Canadians a month ago, making this a rematch. Young and BG get things going with Young being rammed into all of the buckles. Young tries to steal BG’s gyrating punches so the Kru hits their version of What’s Up. Here’s Roode to face Truth. Truth is a replacement for Konnan who is injured so this is under the Freebird Rule.

Truth hits his usual not-WWE stuff and gets two off a spinning kick. The Canadians double team Truth with a double backbreaker for two. They take over with Roode bringing Young back in. Young stomps on Truth in the corner but Truth won’t even sell it at all. He pulls himself up and hits a missile dropkick. No tag as it’s back to Roode. They try their own What’s Up but Truth escapes and makes the tag.

James knocks Roode to the outside and punches Young down. Roode comes back in and James gets two on him off a forearm. Young goes up but Truth hits the ax kick. Roode hits his spinebuster on James for a VERY close two. Roode sets for maybe a spear but the Kru hits a Hart Attack with a side kick instead of a clothesline. James loads up the pumphandle but Johnny Devine runs in and hits James in the back with a hockey stick so the Canadians can get the titles.

Rating: C-. Not terrible here and it was ok enough for an opener. It wasn’t particularly good and I didn’t care who won by the end. That’s a running problem for this era of TNA: the matches and feuds aren’t really compelling as they’re trying desperately to keep a show on and fill in three hours. There’s some ok stuff in here though so it’s certainly not a failure or anything.

Shane Douglas talks to the Director of Authority (GM/boss) Dusty Rhodes. Dusty says this is a huge night and that the Kings of Wrestling will get what’s coming to them. The fans are talking on the internet about Cookie Gate. Yeah it’s about the tape again.

We recap the X-Division 6 man. This involves Roddy Piper and Jimmy Snuka for some reason. Apparently Kash has been saying that Jimmy’s dive off the cage meant nothing while Sonjay’s team says don’t diss the Superfly. I’ve heard far worse reasons to have a feud.

Matt Bentley/Kazarian/Kid Kash vs. Sonny Siaki/Sonjay Dutt/Hector Garza

The beard doesn’t work on Kaz at all. Sonjay and Kash start us off with some mat wrestling. Hector comes in and it’s Bentley punching him. Garza was a guy that was supposed to get a big push in TNA, even pinning Scott Hall if I remember. Siaki vs. Kaz now as things speed up. Siaki and Sonjay team up for an assisted rana to Kaz. Traci distracts Sonjay so Kaz can hit a one armed DDT to give us our face in peril.

The heels work over Sonjay, mainly focusing on the arm. They do the whole lack of tag thing to bring Bentley in to crank on the arm even more. There’s a Stunner to the arm and the heels work on Dutt’s arm even more. They tag in and out and all take some shots at it. Kash sets for a hammerlock slam but rams the arm into the buckle instead. Dutt tries to fire back with right hands but Bentley takes him down by the arm.

Dutt is pulled back to the corner and Kaz comes in again and more arm work follows. Do any of them know a match ending arm submission? Dutt is sent to the ropes and manages to hit a miracle springboard rana and it’s hot tag to Garza. Garza hits a high moonsault on Kaz and everything breaks down. Garza backdrops Dutt 360 degrees over the top to the floor. Traci’s interference backfires and Garza gets the pin on Bentley with a corkscrew moonsault.

Rating: C+. Pretty fun tag match here with more of a classic story than a spotfest. That’s very nice for a change of pace and it worked well here. Dutt did well selling the arm and Garza looked like a big deal. Then he got busted for steroids (which to be fair were legal in Mexico) and hasn’t really appeared in America since.

Savage talks to Scott Hudson (seriously?) and says nothing of note.

Coach D’Amore says Petey will keep the title.

Video on the Serengeti Survival Match, which means hardcore I think. Monty Brown beat Abyss in a Monster’s Ball Match and then got a world title shot on Impact. Abyss jumped him before the match and the injuries cost him the title. There’s a focus on thumbtacks in this.

Monty Brown vs. Abyss

Abyss is the monster heel here and Brown has bad ribs. Brown wants to start it on the ramp and here we go. You can win by pin, submission or slamming the other person into tacks. Abyss rams him into the apron to work on the back. He pulls off the tape early on and Brown is in trouble. Abyss gets a table set up quickly and the fans want fire. Greedy freaks.

The table is set up in the corner and Abyss grabs a bag. The fans still want fire. Brown comes back with a clothesline and right hands. We’re in trouble now as Brown has used up about 50% of his offense in the first three minutes. Big boot gets two for Abyss. West calls Abyss cunning and very smart. And people wonder why he’s not announcing anymore. Abyss brings in a chair and hits him in the injured ribs with it. Why don’t heels ever have injured ribs? When you turn face do you sacrifice the strength in your ribs?

The chair is placed on Brown’s ribs and Abyss hits an Earthquake onto the chair for two. The fans chant to use the table. All Abyss at this point as he pounds on the ribs. The fans continue to get on my nerves by chanting various annoying things. Abyss sets for another Earthquake but Brown moves the chair to crotch Abyss. A chair to the head puts Abyss down and Brown hits a British Bulldog powerslam onto the chair.

The Pounce is countered into the Black Hole Slam for a delayed two. That’s not a move you often see kicked out of. Abyss wedges a chair between the turnbuckles and of course is rammed into it. The Pounce hits but it knocks Abyss to the floor. The delay results in it only getting a two count. Brown tries another Pounce but Abyss ducks, sending Brown head first into the table for two. Both guys get bags of tacks and OH SWEET MERCIFUL GOODNESS BROWN RIPS ABYSS’ SHIRT OFF!!! THEY’RE JIGGLING!!! Brown hits an Alabama Slam into the tacks and I need to go see a doctor.

Rating: C+. This was a fine lesson in hardcore wrestling. Here’s the idea: if the match is about the guys and the weapons are props, the match is usually better. When the match is about the weapons and the guys are props, the match is usually worse. This was about Abyss vs. Brown and the tacks and other stuff were there too, making for a much more entertaining match.

HHH and Vince break any tape they find, including Best of D-Ray 3000.

Mike and Don run down the rest of the card.

Pat Kenney/Johnny B. Badd vs. Glen Gilbertti/Johnny Swinger

Gilbertti and Swinger are known as the New York Connection. Great: Jacqueline is the referee. Kenney is kind of famous as Simon Diamond from ECW. He and Swinger were a tag team in ECW so there’s history there. There’s no story here that I can find so we’re in filler territory. Kenney and Swinger start as the fans chant Simon Diamond. Simon (screw it) fights off both of the NYC until Gilbertti is sent outside.

Off to Badd who looks really weird with short hair. The NYC double teams Simon to take over. Badd seems content to chill on the apron. It’s not a heel move or anything. He just doesn’t seem to care. Jackie breaks up some double teaming and Swinger gets two off a clothesline. They work on Simon’s back which was injured in the match somewhere. Simon hits a sitout spinebuster on Swinger which allows the tag to Badd. Both heels get knee lfits TKO to Glenn is broken up by Swinger. Gilbertti shoves Jackie and Stuns Badd but Jackie gets involved (of course) and slams Gilbertti. TKO by Badd ends this.

Rating: D. Imagine that: Jackie messes up a match. To be fair though the match was boring, mainly because there was no real story to this. The NYC were one of the leftovers from the older run of the company so they were brought along for about five minutes. This was nothing of note though and was pretty bad. To be fair though, it was just there to bridge us to the second half of the show.

The Kings of Wrestling (who have no relation to Hero and Castagnoli if you’re curious) put Savage (we couldn’t see him) into a car and send it off, presumably making it a handicap match later.

Recap of Raven vs. DDP. Raven wants to be world champion so DDP came in and hit him with Diamond Cutters to come out of retirement. Erik Watts is in this somehow too but his black hole of caring keeps me from looking up why.

Raven vs. Diamond Dallas Page

Watts sits in on commentary. That’s fine as long as he doesn’t wrestle. Page’s music is a complete ripoff of his WCW song. Page claims Raven has been living somewhere rent free so tonight Page is collecting. Ok then. Discus lariat puts Raven down. Page baseball slides Raven to the floor and they head into the crowd. This is Raven’s Rules apparently.

Page hits him with a trashcan and we head back to ringside. We had a ref bump in there somewhere so a replacement came out. Page tries the Cutter but Raven grabs the rope. He puts on some weird helmet he brought with him and rams it into Page almost like Juggernaut. Raven has a chair brought in and then facewashes DDP in the corner. Drop toehold onto the chair gets two.

Page gets up like it’s nothing and hammers away on Raven. Another discus clothesline sets up a regular clothesline but the Cutter is countered by a low blow. Rollup gets two. Another rollup gets two and we’ve got blood. A horrible bulldog gets two for Raven. Page belly to bellies him for two. Raven superkicks him down for two. There’s no flow to this at all as it’s more of a spotfest than the X match earlier.

Diamond Cutter only gets two and we’ve got druids. DDT kills Page but it only gets two. Raven calls in the druids but Watts comes in to stop them. Both get chokeslams and the druid is revealed to be wearing khaki shorts. Watts turns on Page and clotheslines him down. Cutter to Watts, Cutter to Raven, pin.

Rating: D. Bad match for the most part because these two don’t bother selling anything. And why should they? Raven didn’t have to in ECW because he hardly ever lost and Page didn’t have to because he was over 40 in WCW. The match was really boring as a result and I don’t think anyone cares. Watts’ turn didn’t mean anything either.

Vince and HHH complain about the lack of food. Traci comes in with milk and cookies and Vince yells at her, saying bring him Dusty.

We recap the X Title match. Sabin won an Ultimate X match and has countered the Destroyer a few times to get in Petey’s head.

X-Division Title: Petey Williams vs. Chris Sabin

They trade counters to start and the fans are split. Cradle Shock is countered and Petey is freaked out. They mess up a leapfrog and Petey hits his leg on Chris’ head. Standoff as Petey is getting frustrated. Springboard dropkick sends Petey to the outside again and he almost jumps into the Cradle Shock again. They head to the floor and Petey hits a sweet slingshot rana from the ring to the floor.

Sabin one ups that and release powerbombs Williams into the barricade. Then he heads into the crowd and dives over about three rows of fans to clothesline Petey. Sweet sequence! Petey gets in a shot though and D’Amore chokes Sabin while Petey has the referee. Back inside and Petey does the O Canada bit as he stands on Sabin’s crotch.

Standing tornado DDT gets two as well. Tenay rants about D’Amore as he’s known to do. Petey hits a few suplexes for two. He’s trying to prove that he’s not a one move wonder. The fans are still split. I think the guys are a bit tired as the match has slowed down a good bit. Petey goes up so Sabin runs the corner like Angle to suplex Williams down. So much for things slowing down I guess.

They slug it out and neither guy can do much. Other than the spinning enziguri by Sabin followed by the running powerbomb for two. Sabin gets caught in the Tree of Woe but pulls up to avoid a suicide dive, then hits a BIG plancha to take Williams out. This is REALLY good. Petey flips into a Russian legsweep for two. Destroyer is countered into the Cradle Shock which is countered by Petey into a Sharpshooter!

Sabin gets the rope and they go to the corner. Chris sets for what looks like a superplex but Petey tries a sunset bomb to counter. Sabin counters that and flips Petey backwards so that Petey’s face slams into the mat. That gets rolled through after the contact into a piledriver by Sabin for a VERY close two. Sabin tries the Cradle Shock but D’Amore gets on the apron. That lets Williams get brass knuckles to hit Sabin with for the pin to retain. That ending BLOWS after the match they were having!

Rating: B+. This was AWESOME as they were countering everything and kept the pace going for at least eighty percent of the match. The ending is horrible though as they built up the match forever and then just stop it dead with a cheap ending. This got the crowd going strong for the two main events though and that’s why these guys are out there. Excellent match and if you give it a better ending it’s a classic.

A midget (Demo from Micro Championship Wrestling) beats up Vince for no apparent reason.

Recap of the Kings of Wrestling vs. Hardy/Styles/Savage. The Kings say they’re taking over and that’s about it. The other three guys say they’re fighting for TNA.

Jeff Hardy/AJ Styles/Randy Savage vs. Kings of Wrestling

Savage was kidnapped remember. The Kings come out to Elvis impersonator music and Elvis suits. AJ looks like he’s about 19 here. Jarrett is world champion. Hall looks almost human. AJ and Jarrett start us off. Bah I can’t say Jeff in this. AJ and the champ see who can get the bigger reactions from the crowd then do some technical stuff. A headscissors takes Jarrett down and a dropkick takes him down again.

Off to Hall. He and Nash are wrestling in those Elvis suits. Give me a break. Hall works on the arm so AJ takes the knees out to control. He wants Nash so Hall spits at him and makes the tag. AJ uses the speed again and dropkicks all three Kings down. Hardy is tagged in and dropkicks Hall and Jarrett down as things speed up. Slingshot dropkick by Hardy has Nash in trouble.

Nash gets in a big boot and Hardy is in trouble. Here’s the champ who beat Hardy last month at Victory Road. I always thought that was two or three months before this show. Jarrett hot shots him on the top rope and it’s time to strut. Back to Hall for a discus punch and chokeslam for two. Nash comes in for a sideslam which gets two also. Back to Hall who hooks the abdominal stretch. Nothing but trademark stuff from the Outsiders.

Hall hooks a modified STF but pulls on the hair instead of the neck. That has to hurt. Hardy gets his mule kick (catching Hall squarely in the hand) which is enough for the tag to AJ. Things speed up again and AJ cleans house. Moonsault into the reverse DDT gets two. Styles Clash to Jarrett is avoided and Nash breaks up the springboard forearm. Fallaway slam for two as we’re just waiting on Savage to make the big miracle appearance.

Nash hits the framed elbow (complete with Karate Elvis Action!) for two. Back to Jarrett and they work over the ribs which the Outsiders started on. Naturally this leads to the Figure Four LEG Lock but AJ rolls him up for two. Hall breaks up the tag and Nash hooks a bearhug. See, THAT makes sense. AJ makes the unseen tag and it’s back to Jarrett. They slug it out and both hit cross bodies to put them down.

AJ finally makes the tag to Hardy and house is cleaned. Stroke is countered into a Twist of Stunner and AJ adds a springboard cross body to Hall. Nash takes out the referee though as the numbers are catching up with them. Hardy goes up for the Swanton but Hall hits him with the guitar. Hardy falls forward onto Jarrett for the Swanton anyway but there’s no referee. Here’s Savage with a big old bald spot as is his custom. Naturally with everyone down he wants a tag and fires off right hands. All three of the Kings get caught in sleepers for some reason. Jarrett tries a sunset flip but Savage falls on him for the pin.

Rating: C-. The match was ok but the ending was HORRIBLE (again). Savage might have been out there 90 seconds. He would be gone the next day because he proposed a one month title reign for himself and said he’d drop it back to Jarrett the next month but it was vetoed. That’s his last match, which is a sad note to go out on.

Vince is loaded into an ambulance as HHH doesn’t know what to do without him.

Video on Final Resolution. I remember this video actually.

Here’s the tape that has been talked about all night. Shane Douglash, Traci (with cookies) and Abyss (with balloons) go to see…a bunch of blurry objects. Roadie and Ron Killings are there too. They steal some catering and the only body I recognize is I think Eddie Guerrero. Seriously you can’t see ANYTHING and they don’t say any names. These could be TNA dudes for all we know. That was it? Seriously? WE SPENT TWO AND A HALF HOURS BUILDING TO THAT??? Ok to be fair this was when TNA was nothing so it’s a bigger deal I guess. Rey was there too apparently but you couldn’t see him at all.

We recap XXX vs. AMW. This was the big tag feud in TNA as they’ve fought dozens of times but there hasn’t been a distinct winner to the whole thing. They’ve had cage matches before but they were in the four sided cage. AMW hit an awesome Death Sentence from the top of the cage to win that one. Now they’re having another cage match and the losing team has to split up forever.

America’s Most Wanted vs. Triple X

This is one of the things that TNA did that was indeed different: sometimes something other than the heavyweight title feud ended the show, which is definitely a good idea here. The six man was just ok but this was a great match. This is in a cage remember. AMW brings in handcuffs. That’s a signature thing for them and they’ll come into play later so remember that.

They have to tag here but I’ll give that ten minutes tops. Daniels and Storm start us off. Is there a significance to the tape that Daniels puts on his left shoulder that I’ve never gotten? I’ve always wondered that. Off to Daniels who kicks Storm in the back to take control. It breaks down quickly and AMW double teams Daniels. Off to Harris as Daniels is already busted open.

Skipper (XXX is Daniels/Elix Skipper if you weren’t sure on that one) gets his team the advantage and gives it back over to Daniels. He’s GUSHING already. Harris takes Skipper down and it’s back to Storm. Powerslam puts Daniels down. They load up the Death Sentence on Skipper but Daniels makes the save. Skipper pulls a towel back and handcuffs Harris to the post. West: “Oh what a dirty trick!” Yes, handcuffing your mortal enemy to a cage and making him defenseless is the same sort of thing you would hear on The Brady Bunch Don. Well called.

XXX double teams Storm and Daniels taunts Harris with the key. They drive the key into the head of Storm and hit a double team powerbomb/elbow combination for two. We get some heel miscommunication and Storm spears Daniels. There’s the key and Harris in free. That’s a nice twist on the hot tag because it’s basically the same thing. Harris cleans house and Storm is back up too.

I think everyone but Harris is bleeding. Triple X gets rammed into the cage multiple times but Skipper grabs a belly to belly to Harris. A suplex/cross body combo gets two. Hart Attack gets two on Skipper. Daniels hits a quick Downward Spiral to Storm and Harris goes into the steel. Harris is busted too. Death Sentence (AMW’s finisher) gets two on Harris who kicks out.

Skipper goes to the top of the cage (I don’t think you can win by escape) to Harris POWERBOMBS HIM OFF THE CAGE for two. FOR TWO. Angel’s Wings gets two for Daniels. Daniels goes up but Harris follows him. Now it’s time for the highlight reel moment to end all highlight reel moments in TNA. Skipper is sitting on another corner than Harris and TIGHTROPE WALKS THE EDGE OF THE CAGE AND HURRICANRANAS HARRIS TO THE MAT!!! WOW!

Daniels IMMEDIATELY drops an elbow off the top of the cage BUT IT GETS TWO. Daniels goes back up as we watch replays for a four man Tower of Doom. Daniels overrotates and lands on his face. Harris powerbombed Skipper who electric chaired Storm who suplexed Daniels. Everyone is pretty much dead but Skipper and Harris counter each others’ finishers. Everyone knocks everyone else down and Harris handcuffs Daniels to the cage in a nice play off what happened to him earlier. Last Call to Skipper and AMW pins him with XXX’s PowerPlex to split up XXX.

Rating: A+. What else did you expect me to give this? This match holds up incredibly well with the few moments from the cage walk to the Tower of Doom being as breathtaking as you’ll ever see. Absolutely awesome match and if you’re a fan of bloodbath cage matches that leave your jaw hanging open, find this right now because it’s excellent.

Overall Rating: B. There’s some bad stuff on here, but considering this is their second three hour PPV ever, this was incredible. Things slowed down a bit after this when it became about DDP and Nash and Jarrett, but they would pick it right back up with Lockdown in a few months. Very good show although it’s kind of hard to find. Check out the main event for sure though.

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Final Battle 2006
Date: December 23, 2006
Location: Manhattan Center, New York City, New York
Commentators: Lenny Leonard, Dave Prazak

To say I don’t know much about ROH would be an understatement. I know it’s the biggest indy company out there and that’s about it. This is the second show of theirs that I’ve done so I’m at least trying. This is one of their bigger shows of the year and the name comes from that it’s the last show of the year. This is also three and a half hours long so it’s going to be a long night. I’ll do what I can as far as knowing names, but I make no promises about having a clue as to what’s going on. Let’s get to it.

We see Homicide and Danielson walking into the arena. That’s the main event.

And Santa Claus is here. Ok then with an elf. The fans recognize him apparently. There’s another elf in his bag. They throw out t-shirts until some guys come in and beat the heck out of them with chairs and some nice double team stuff. Ah they’re the Briscoes. I knew they looked familiar. They want the Kings of Wrestling, more commonly known as Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli. Ah apparently those were ROH students. That’s what I was betting on.

Jimmy Jacobs talks about being a stranger in this city. He talks about wanting to hurt Colt Cabana and BJ Whitmer. He loved this chick named Lacey (not that Lacey. This one has talent) and Colt slept with her and BJ messed her face up. He’s teaming with Brent Albright later against those two. This would lead into the Age of the Fall about 9 months later which is what got me to somewhat follow ROH.

The fans are chanting OLE so I’m betting on a luchador. And I’m right.

El Generico vs. Jimmy Rave vs. Davey Richards vs. Christopher Daniels

To say the fans don’t like Rave is an understatement. It’s nice to hear some good solid insults unlike a WWE show. A DIE JIMMY DIE chant starts up. Ok then. Richards is a big deal now and allegedly is the future of the company. He comes out to Runnin With The Devil so I can’t complain. This is a four corner survival match which I’m guessing means elimination rules? Daniels is a tag champion here.

The fans like fallen angels apparently. Maybe this is the Daniels I always hear about being awesome. There’s a fairly hot chick with him named Allison Danger so I can’t complain. His entrance takes a LONG time. She’s a girl scout and the fans want cookies. That’s creative at least. We’re nearly fifteen minutes in and we just now hear the announcers. Richards and Generico start.

This is two outside and two inside. We stall for a LONG time to start, namely due to Generico continuously shouting OLE! We’ll be getting a year in review kind of thing also which is a major plus for me. We hear about Rave having a heel hook that got Nigel McGuinness (Desmond Wolfe) to tap out.

Richards is confused by Generico. Hey I’m thinking like Richards! Daniels’ partner is Matt Sydal, more commonly known as Evan Bourne. Danger is the sister of Steve Corino. Dang. Scratch the elimination part as it’s first pinfall wins. That kind of makes no sense but whatever. Rave vs. Daniels now. Daniels wins. Like, wins a lot. Not the match, just the fight. Wow I worded that one badly didn’t I?

I never liked Rave in TNA and I think I’m seeing why again here. Danger gets the fans to cheer. That’s what a manager is supposed to do partially so she’s doing her job. Richards is fun to watch if nothing else. A German on Generico gets two. Best Moonsault Ever is broken up.

They’re doing a good job of keeping it at about three people in there which is nice instead of the usual two pairings these devolve into. Rave is being smart and just letting these three fight. I’m not entirely sure why the crowd is this into it though. It’s not that great. Generico hits his brainbuster on the turnbuckle on Richards, but Rave made a tag when they were in the corner.

He slips in and gets his heel hook for the submission. Pay no attention to the total lack of tagging for the five minutes before this. He gets on the mic and complains about respect but Nigel McGuinness comes out and slaps him.

Rating: B-. This was ok but it wasn’t anything great. It just came off as being all over the place and lost its structure about 10 minutes in. It’s not bad or anything, but it’s just not that good. Having the heel win the opener is a bit of a head scratcher too but that’s fine I suppose. Just nothing to make me that into the show.

Adam Pearce vs. Ricky Reyes

Pearce is the current NWA World Champion but that hadn’t happened yet. Pearce is kind of a throwback to old heels but the doesn’t have a lot of the talent to do so. He dedicates the night to Jim Cornette for no apparent reason.

He guarantees Homicide doesn’t leave with the world title. Both of these guys have seconds here, one of which is named Shane Hangadorn and the other of which is named Julius Smokes. Pearce apparently looks like Repo Man. This is impromptu even though both came down in their ring attire and they had graphics ready for their names. Sure why not.

Apparently if Homicide loses here he quits. Hagadorn throws something to Pearce and he blasts Reyes with it for the pin. Short and pretty uninteresting. Smokes gets beaten up too.

Rating: D+. Not much here at all but to be fair it was fairly short so I can’t complain much. I’ve never thought much of Pearce and this Smokes guy is getting very annoying very quickly. I’m not sure what the point of this was but it didn’t work that well.

Jimmy Jacobs/Brent Albright vs. BJ Whitmer/Colt Cabana

Cabana’s music is catchy if nothing else. It’s a brawl immediately as we’re told Albright is a gun for hire. Well that explains why he’s in there. We get a series of 2-1s until we get to…more 2-1s. I don’t think there are faces and heels here or anything as they might be all faces. Not sure though. I think Whitmer and Cabana are the default heels but I’m not sure.

We almost get a table spot but Albright makes the save. Whitmer does a cool thing as he suplexes both himself and Jacobs to the floor. It’s better than it sounds. We haven’t had anything resembling a coherent match as it’s all just a big mess so far. Not bad though. Finally we get Whitmer vs. Jacobs who used to be tag partners. They used to be tag champions if that means anything.

Albright hooks a crossface minus the arm trap on Whitmer while looks good. Jacobs is completely obsessed with Lacey but she doesn’t care for him romantically. Welcome to my world kid. Cabana hasn’t been in the match legally yet and we’re a good ways into it. Cabana just comes in after that and hits a sweet moonsault.

He’s actually dominating with a move called the Butt Butt. It’s like a headbutt but with the…you get the idea. Yeah it’s odd. Actually Goldust used to do that. It breaks down into a total mess until Albright just goes off on everyone and powerbombs Whitmer through the table at ringside. Cabana gets destroyed by rolling Germans so Jacobs can hit a senton off the top for the pin.

Rating: B-. Again not bad and while it’s better than the opener, it’s still nothing great. To be fair though there hasn’t been much build up to these matches although I’d bet on the main events to be pretty well put together. This wasn’t terrible but it certainly wasn’t great either. Decent enough match though.

Ad for ROH’s website where they have WWE and TNA DVDs. Ok then.

Kings of Wrestling vs. Briscoe Brothers

The Kings are Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli in case you weren’t sure. They’re actually the tag champions there again now which is a bit surprising. For awhile they had the ROH, CZW and CHIKARA tag belts at the same time. There was a CZW vs. ROH story for a good part of 2006 which is how Hero got to ROH permanently.

He has his new agent, Larry Sweeney, with him. Claudio might be going to WWE. He talks about signing a contract and was written out of storylines, but he didn’t go for some reason. They’re heels here but the fans love them. The Briscoes though are the most popular team ever in ROH so there we are. And we have no commentary. Ok then. One of the Briscoes hits a huge dive onto the Kings.

Ah there’s the commentary. Alright Jay has the tattoo on his back. Got it. The Briscoes are kind of like a bigger and more intense Hardys, just they’re less interesting. It’s dueling chants time. In a nice move Castagnoli hits a European Uppercut to the back of Jay. Claudio had been the abandoner of the company back in the CZW war in case you care. Both of the Kings are really tall.

I always have issues filling in time when a face is getting beaten down by nothing that impressive. Hero makes a nice save to stop the hot tag. Nice one. Hero hooks a WEIRD hold where he hooks the arms of Jay behind his own back and lifts them up with his feet. FREAKING OW! Mark finally comes in off the hot tag and of course he tidies up a bit. He didn’t do enough to classify that as cleaning.

Claudio hits a top rope European Uppercut and a Riccola Bomb (Arm Trap Sitout Powerbomb) for two. You know I wonder what would happen if you tagged one of your opponents. Would it be legal? Hard to say. Ok not really but stupid stuff like this pops into my head at times. Sweeney has been WORTHLESS here. I forgot he was there. That’s never a good sign.

A Doomsday Rana (Use your imaginations) and a Frog Splash get two on Claudio. I would have expected that to be the finish actually. In an insane looking move, Claudio has a Briscoe hanging both ways around his neck and spins them around into a half powerbomb half electric chair. Just awesome looking as far as a power display goes.

That of only gets two. Everybody busts out finishers and all four are down. GREAT sequence. Claudio kicks out at two as everyone is more or less dead. We’re closing in on twenty minutes here so I can’t blame them. With Sweeney on the apron, Claudio accidentally blasts Hero in the head with a briefcase and a Shooting Star/Guillotine Legdrop combination ends it. Dang I wish the ending had been cleaner.

Rating: B+. Fun match here as these guys just beat the heck out of each other. The one thing though is that ending. After that much they had to use a weapon shot for it? I’m not into that. Also Sweeney was more or less forgotten until the very end which is rather irritating to me for some reason. Still though, very fun match.

Post match, Claudio thanks the fans for the cheers but says he’s not going to WWE. He says just and see what the Kings of Wrestling have in store for the coming year. Sweeney then gets on the mic and says no because Claudio broke up the team and it’s over. Ok then.

With Claudio alone in the ring, here’s Samoa Joe. Joe is, in a word, huge in ROH. This is the Joe that stormed into TNA and took the place over. How did they mess him up again? Joe tells him to get out of his ring. For fear of being eaten by Joe, Claudio agrees. Joe makes a challenge to Pro Wrestling Noah and in particular Misawa.

He says bring on anyone from London or Japan but on February 16, there’s going to be a fight in New York. Nigel McGuinness comes out and accepts the challenge. And here’s Jimmy Rave to beat up McGuinness. Joe slaps him around and we’re going to get Rave vs. Nigel later on.

It’s intermission time so Adam Pearce and Shane Hagadorn harass Gary Michael Capetta who looks to be about 90. They must have edited most of  intermission as we’re already back.

Jimmy Rave vs. Nigel McGuinness

Well that didn’t take long to sanction and sign did it? It’s weird seeing Wolfe with spiked hair. He’s ridiculously popular though, just like in TNA so of course he can’t be pushed right? They shake left hands for some odd reason. That’s different. This isn’t much but to be fair they have a feud going so this works.

I still don’t get the appeal of Rave though. Nigel does an insane submission hold where he locks Rave’s arm around his leg and traps the other arm behind Nigel’s back and bends backwards which looked like it was going to rip it off. The crowd goes oooooo at that. Nigel is apparently a big deal here. Nigel takes his head off with a clothesline but it gets two. Oh I’m sorry: it was a lariat.

Tower of London hits and Nigel isn’t sure what to do. Rave hits a Pedigree for one. Rave counters a Hulking Up Nigel into a Crippler Crossface. As impressive as Rave has been, I still just don’t care about him. Nigel hits a Tower of London (Diamond Cutter) onto the apron, which would be about the same as the mat wouldn’t it? It gets two either way so it doesn’t really matter.

And then after getting destroyed for about five minutes, Rave gets the heel hook and Nigel taps despite never having his leg worked on at all. I HATE moves like that. If that’s the case, why in the world would he wait almost fifteen minutes before going for it? At least with a strike like Sweet Chin Music it’s a knockout move.

This is just a submission which makes a part of the body hurt. Why go for the Crossface earlier? That makes NO SENSE. It’s completely anti-psychology and that’s just irritating. Plus it’s Jimmy Rave so it’s even more annoying. Rave wants a world title shot.

Rating: B-. Totally annoying ending aside, this was a pretty solid match I guess. There were a ton of near falls but you could see the ending coming a mile away with about three minutes to go. Nigel looks dominant but let’s push Rave because…well just because! Didn’t like the ending at all but the rest was good.

Danielson is getting ready.

Matt Sydal/Shingo/CIMA vs. Delirious/Austin Aries/Roderick Strong

Sydal is more commonly known as Evan Bourne as I mentioned above. Shingo is from Dragon Gate and CIMA might be as well. His name is pronounced Shima so this could lead to some misspellings. Also, I’m not capitalizing his name again. It’s the same thing despite what some would have you believe. Delirious is….yeah.

Aries is the only two time ROH World Champion so he’s something special here. Strong is a guy with something like 16 ways to hit a backbreaker. This is under Dragon Gate Rules which aren’t explained. Strong, Aries and Sydal were in a team called Generation Next together.

Apparently you don’t have to tag to switch off but you have to be on offense. Ok that makes sense. Delirious goes into a trance and goes insane once the bell rings. He’s definitely interesting if nothing else. He’s great in the ring if nothing else. He starts with Sydal who I’ll likely call Bourne at least once. This is your usual insane Japanese match and apparently the fans like Cima.

There isn’t much to talk about here other than it’s just general insanity the whole time. This is what you call a spotfest with some mild wrestling involved. It’s not bad or anything, but it’s not comparable to traditional matches. It’s weird seeing Sydal being considered a serious competitor rather than a spot monkey or jobber.

The fans like both teams. Aries is getting beaten down pretty fiercely. I think the team with the Japanese guys and Sydal are the heels even though Daniels, Sydal’s partner, was ridiculously popular. Fisherman’s suplex gets two on Aries. Strong gets the tag and comes in and he and Delirious clean house.

Cima is getting his head handed to him. With everyone brawling on the floor, Sydal goes up top and the crowd just rises to their feet. Great visual there. Delirious hits Shadows Over Hell (Splash to the back of a guy not on the mat) is followed by a 450 from Aries. This is totally insane. Cobra Stretch, Delirious’ submission, is broken up. Cima hits a package piledriver on Delirious for the pin.

Rating: B. This falls into that gray arena of entertaining but bad as far as flow or anything like that goes. Then again that’s kind of the point of the Dragon Gate promotion. This was supposed to be completely insane and it more or less was. It was fun though so I can’t complain much at all.

Everybody helps everybody up in a nice moment. Not everything has to be some epic storyline.

Homicide is ready.

Jack Evans returns in 2007.

ROH World Title: Homicide vs. Bryan Danielson

We have 54 minutes left in this tape. Let’s see if these two are as good as they’re said to be. We’re in Homicide’s hometown so he’s WAY over. It’s a good thing his first name isn’t commonly known. It might be hard to take a guy named Nelson seriously as s street thug. Danielson’s Final Countdown intro is cool too so I’ll give him that. He certainly has his fans too.

I’ve heard great things about both guys in this company so show me what you’ve got. We get the big match intros which are always fun. Danielson is heel here because he more or less has to be. We stall forever as the fans chant ring the bell. Danielson flips him off instead of shaking his hand like the Code of Honor stipulates. Here we go. About forty six and a half minutes to go in the tape at the bell so we’ve got a LOT of time here.

Some guy shows up to do commentary but his name is incomprehensible. We get a long feeling out sequence and Homicide takes off his bandana. Homicide has apparently had some shady decisions in title matches and if he doesn’t win here he’s gone, more or less saying he wins. At least I think so as he came to TNA around this time.

Smokes, the guy that got hurt earlier, isn’t here due to Pearce and Hagadorn. Homicide has a bad shoulder apparently thanks to Danielson last night. Danielson has tights like Regal used to wear. We have a lot of quick holds as they try to gain control. Apparently Danielson has a bad shoulder too.

No one really has an advantage for more than a few seconds here so we’re really still feeling each other out here. Apparently in a previous title match Homicide was getting hit in the head a lot and the referee stopped it which he disagreed with. The surfboard continues to look completely insane every time I see it.

This is wrestler vs. brawler here which is always an interesting dynamic. We get a slingshot suplex as Danielson is in control at this point. Scratch that as Homicide takes over. We hit the floor and Danielson is in trouble. We get the I HAVE TIL FIVE thing which I don’t think I’ve ever seen before. Three Amigos takes over for Homicide as Eddie had been dead just over a year at this point.

And at about 11 minutes in, Pearce and Hagadorn run in for the DQ. Are you kidding me? Danielson leaves with the belt as Homicide’s Crew makes the save. The crowd LOSES IT over this as even the commentators are saying YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME. Apparently they are as the referee says no way it ends that way and let’s keep going!

Here we go again as we’re back at it. Oh and the running in heels hit a spike shoulderbreaker on Homicide’s bad shoulder so it’s hurt now. I don’t get the point of the run in at all here. At least it happened I guess you would say early on in the match rather than later so that’s good. It’s his right arm if you’re curious.

Smokes is at ringside now. Oh joy. Danielson is in control now as you would expect him to be. Danielson goes for a flying headbutt and gets caught in a Diamond Cutter (Yes I know it’s properly called an Ace Crusher. If you want to argue which name is more famous I’d love to hear it) Also, assuming the headbutt was launched when Homicide was on the mat, dang he got up fast.

Homicide speeds things up and dives into the second row through the ropes in a cool looking spot. Now Danielson’s shoulder is hurt. This has been a very back and forth match. Danielson gets caught in an armbar but gets to the ropes for the escape. I love that jumping European Uppercut off the top. A crossface chickenwing goes on but more ropes are grabbed.

They trade strikes and hit the floor. Homicide slides back in and hits the ropes so he can….slide back out. Sure why not. Danielson hits a dive into the first few rows that looked great. Can we get rid of that Smokes idiot? He’s getting on my nerves. Danielson starts the series of elbows to the head like he did in the previous match but it doesn’t work.

There’s the crossface chickenwing and the body scissors in the middle of the ring. In a cool spot, the arm comes down a third time but as the referee goes for the bell, Homicide grabs his leg. And Smokes of course has to pour water on Homicide. Seriously, can someone shoot this guy?

Danielson doesn’t let go on the five count so Homicide just gets up. Uh, why didn’t he DO THAT EARLIER? Danielson gets Cattle Mutilation. One thing I want to know: where in the world did he come up with that name? Did he throw that on one day and was thinking about what would happen if he did it to a cow?

He hooks it three times but Homicide won’t tap. He throws in more elbows to the head but he stays in it. Homicide gets the Cop Killer (Vertebreaker for you WCW fans) for a LONG two but Danielson grabs the ropes. Homicide pulls a Randy Savage and goes for the ring bell which leads nowhere.

And then Danielson gets a low blow and small package for two and then Homicide hits a lariat for the pin. Seriously, that might have been the most out of nowhere ending ever. The ring mostly fills up for a celebration. Now can we please kill Julius Smokes?

Rating: A. This was indeed a great match and well worth seeing. There were some moments I didn’t like, but they were few and far between. Homicide winning was pretty clear but it came off well. They built up to a great match and I liked what I saw. Danielson is still overrated, but this was very good stuff. Homicide just doesn’t feel like a world champion to me, but I was impressed. Solid match and worth seeing.

Danielson hands him the belt and Homicide makes his acceptance speech. The remaining eleven minutes are him celebrating and highlights of the year which mean nothing to me since I don’t know who these people are.

Overall Rating: A-. Again I liked this show a lot. There’s one bad match and the rest is all at least good with the main event being great. This was a great show to close things out with for the year and it came off great with a big time title win. This is a great look at the company as you have a title match, a big angle, a lot of high flying, some good mat work and submission stuff in front of a white hot albeit small crowd. This was a great show and well worth checking out.

Ring of Honor
Date: September 24, 2011
Location: Frontier Fieldhouse, Chicago Ridge, Illinois
Commentators: Kevin Kelly, Nigel McGuinness

This is the debut episode under the new owners of Sinclair Broadcasting and since I get the channel that it airs on, I’ll be reviewing it weekly now. I won’t be doing it live but it’ll be up by the end of Saturday. This should be interesting as I’ve heard nothing but how great ROH is and now I can watch it. I’m not sure how great it’ll be but maybe it’s worth seeing. Anyway, I don’t watch a ton of ROH but I know of it and follow it to a certain degree. Let’s get to it.

Please keep in mind I haven’t watched an ROH show in about a year so if I don’t get a reference or miss something big, please bear with me.

The arena looks kind of small and it’s dark like the old WCW arenas were but with better production values obviously.

Kevin Kelly welcomes us to the show and announces the main event of the show as being for the tag titles with Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team (Haas/Benjamin) defending against the Kings of Wrestling (both in WWE now). He also brings out the returning Nigel McGuinness (Desmond Wolfe) as the analyst. Nigel talks about how he’s here for the boys in the back and how he wanted to be a part of this.

Adam Cole and Kyle O’Riley (Futureshock) says they’re going to take over the tag division.

The Bravados (didn’t catch their first names) say they’re going to destroy Futureshock and parents shouldn’t let their kids watch. These teams had a match before and one of the Bravados was injured so there’s a story to this.

Futureshock vs. The Bravados

Both teams appear to be faces and the Bravados are Cherokees. Their names are Harlem and Lance and Kevin Kelly says their win/loss record isn’t great. They’re shaking hands to follow the Code of Honor (not defined here) and it’s Adam vs. Harlem to start. Ok so Adam has the long hair. Got it. Futureshock uses some speed moves to take out Harlem and it breaks down quickly as Lance doesn’t have much more success. They hook a weird move where the Bravados’ legs are intertwined and both Futureshock guys hook armbars.

The Bravados make a blind tag (Kelly: He didn’t see that one.) and take over on Cole. I have no idea which Bravado is which but one gets a Justin Bieber chant. Yeah he does look a bit like him and the pin spotted trunks and boots don’t help. Ok Harlem looks like Bieber and Lance has long hair. Got it also. There’s a Tweet of the Week which makes fun of Russo’s booking by saying “You should watch ROH because it’s not 1997.”

The Bravados hit a double team superkick/German suplex combo called Gentlemen’s Choice for two. Adam tries to fight out of the corner and eventually rolls through to O’Riley. He’s part of Team Richards, meaning he trains with Davey Richards, meaning I’m probably not going to like him at all. He uses a double dragon screw leg whip (he whips one Bravado and that Bravado whips his partner because letting go is too much of a stretch I guess) and a double dropkick takes the Bravados down for two.

Futureshock does a bunch of combo suplexes and Adam hits a suicide dive to take both Bravados out. A missile dropkick off the apron puts a Bravado down and top rope cross body gets two for both guys. They take out Harlem with something that has a name but I couldn’t understand Kelly. It’s Total Elimination but with a clothesline rather than a spin kick and it gets the pin at 7:20.

Rating: B-. I think I can sum up this entire series in the following statement: if you like the ROH style, you’ll like this and if you don’t, you’re not going to be that impressed. There’s some good stuff here but a lot of the moves are ones where the other team clearly had to work with them for it to work and that drives me crazy. It was entertaining but I wouldn’t call it great. That can be good but it’s not going to get to a higher level than that with this style, at least not with me.

We get a report from Best in the World, a show back in I think June. Uh yeah….shouldn’t we be seeing new stuff instead of clips from old shows? It focuses on a four team elimination match won by Haas/Benjamin and followed by a post match beatdown by the Briscos. Now we talk about the world title match where Davey Richards finally won the title by beating Eddie Edwards. Never been a fan of Richards and I don’t think I’ll start now. This eats up like 6 minutes, or 10% of the show.

Here’s a segment called Inside Ring of Honor which explains the Code of Honor. Jim Cornette says that it’s a self imposed code. The idea is you shake hands pre and post match as a show of respect etc. It’s not mandatory but the guys that don’t use it aren’t that popular. In other words, take away the aspect of hatred for the sake of a Code and respect. That’s the same issue that TNA has far too often and it gets old.

Jay Lethal vs. El Generico for the TV Title next week. Lethal says he tried to be someone else for years (Savage) but here it’s about competition and not politics. He’s taking the TV Title so he can get the respect of the fans.

Since it’s been long enough since we’ve had an actual match, here’s a second look at the elimination tag match. Is there a point to this? I mean, it’s like an ad for the website/DVD instead of talking about the show itself. I don’t get this. WE SAW THIS TEN MINUTES AGO. This is eating up like 5 more minutes. They do know they only have an hour a week right???

Nigel interviews a fan who says the champs will retain.

Tag Titles: Kings of Wrestling vs. Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team

Each time someone comes to the ring they get streamers thrown at them. It’s annoying but I guess it’s something to get used to. The Kings are Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli. The champs (Haas/Benjamin) took the belts from them after the Kings held them forever. This is the first match in 24 minutes, meaning 40% of this show had zero wrestling on it due to highlight packages. That would be like 48 minutes without wrestling on Raw. Oh wait WE HAVE A COMMERCIAL BEFORE THE BELL.

There’s the bell and it’s been 27 minutes since the last match ended, or 54 minutes in Raw time. Haas vs. Hero to start us off. How did a guy like Haas get Jackie Gayda? Off to Nigel quickly so maybe he started and I wasn’t paying enough attention. Haas counters a few hip tosses and takes Claudio down with arm drags. This is match #4 in their series and the champs are 2-1 so far.

Blind tag brings in Benjamin and he hits a top rope clothesline to take over. Off to hero who gets caught in a small package for two. Hero sells a lot and things start to break down. Benjamin can’t hit the dragon whip and the Kings take over with nefarious means. Benjamin is thrown outside and Hero hits a baseball slide to take him out again. We take a break and come back with Claudio holding a headlock and hitting a powerslam for two.

Benjamin tries the tag and hits Dragon Whip this time but Hero pulls Haas off the apron. Charlie comes in and lets Hero hit an elbow to the back of the head for two. Off to Hero (Claudio got the two) and Hero hits a senton backsplash for two. Benjamin counters a double suplex into a double neckbreaker and there’s a leaping hot tag. Roaring Elbow by Hero is countered into a German and Claudio takes a T-Bone for two.

A rana and a big boot gets the same. Haas gets taken down and another elbow called the KTFO (you figure it out) gets two for Hero. Was there a tag there? The third spinning forearm/elbow (WE GET IT ALREADY) sets up a giant swing by Claudio as we go back to the 70s. The Kings set for their finisher (KRS 1) but it’s broken up by Benjamin. A hot shot sets up the thing where Shelton jumps over Charlie to land on the other dude’s back and a Hart Attack ends this at 16:48.

Rating: B-. Not bad here but dude, this was the best they could do? This is supposed to be the big and epic tag team division that is the best in the world? It’s not bad but it’s certainly not a classic or anything at all. I’ve definitely seen better stuff on Raw or Smackdown this year. I saw a match live that was better than this and I can’t even remember who were partnering with Orton and Christian.

They’re off the air at 2:58. We didn’t even get the whole hour. WOW.

Overall Rating: D+. And that’s a stretch. This was one of the least inspiring debuts I’ve seen in a very long time. On a 58 minute show (whatsupwitdat?) we had 22 minutes of wrestling and 36 minutes of talking/highlight packages. Now I could understand that if you’re introducing characters etc, but that isn’t what they did. We got two packages OF THE EXACT SAME THING, a quick promo for a TV Title match next week and a video on Richards who won’t be here for two weeks.

If this is the debut, you need to bring out the champ for it, not the tag champs. Wrestling fans see the world champion as the top guy in any company. I don’t care if it’s different in ROH, it’s not different for fans. This was their coming out party and it didn’t work for the most part. Not a fan so far, but this was their first show so we’ll see how it goes next time. Bad show.

Results
Futureshock b. The Bravados – Ride the Lightning to Harlem
Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team b. The Kings of Wrestling – Wrestling’s Greatest Finisher to Hero

Death Before Dishonor VIII
Date: June 19, 2010
Location: Ted Reeve Arena, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Commentators: Dave Prazak, Joe DeGrowski

This is a few months old but at the time I remember more or less hearing that it was the most awesome show EVER. Granted this is normal for ROH fans as they swear up and down that only they know what REAL wrestling is which normally makes me laugh. This one however continues to get praise so I figured I should check it out. The main event is Tyler Black vs. Davey Richards, who is claimed by most ROH fans to be the best in the world. I’ve seen some of his stuff and find him vastly overrated, but maybe I’m wrong. Let’s get to it.

We open with the Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli, the current ROH Tag Champions) yelling about the Briscoes and how they’ll pay for their actions. Standard stuff but they come off as faces here.

Cabana and Corino do the talking for Generico and Steen respectively.

Richards, who is TOWERED over by Black, says he wants the world title. Black says he’s keeping the belt.

This was a PPV broadcast on the internet which isn’t a bad idea.

We’re supposed to open with Cheech and Cloudy but here’s El Generico, who wants Steen NOW. Steve Corino comes out as Steen’s mouthpiece and says Steen will never wrestle in the opening match as he’s all about the main event. Generico still says NOW. Steen sprints past Corino and IT’S ON!

El Gernerico vs. Kevin Steen

Steen is a rather fat Canadian and is supposed to be the heel but we’re in Toronto so it’s kind of split. Big old dive over the top by Generico and he controls on the floor. Standard feud here: former tag partners and tag champions but an outsider gets in one of their ears and turns him heel, setting up the big grudge match. The dueling chants start up as they slug it out on the ropes.

All Generico here in the early going and as he hits a leg lariat the audio feed starts to break up a bit. Spinning rope walk DDT is countered very nicely into a back breaker by Steen and followed up by a senton in a nice combination. They slug it out a bit and of course Steen throws a superkick. What is with so many people in this company using a superkick? Loud F YOU STEEN chant which says a lot as a Canadian (ok so they’re both Canadian which that explains a lot) is getting heel heat in Canada.

Generico makes a quick comeback and hits a Generico Driver for two. It’s more of a midlevel move for him I think so it’s not as annoying to have him kick out of it so early in the match. Package piledriver (odds are if you’re reading an ROH review you know what these moves are. If not there’s a handy device called Youtube) attempt on the apron is blocked and Generico hits a tornado DDT to the floor.

The masked dude goes up top for a big old splash that gets two. Steen manages to go for the Sharpshooter but it’s blocked. Is there a quota of Sharpshooters every Canadian wrestler has to use in a year or something? Since this is an ROH match we trade STIFF looking strikes before both guys go down. I get the whole adrenaline argument, but how can a second superkick not put Generico down while the first one did when he’s taken more punishment in between? I’ve never gotten that.

Moonsault misses and the masked Canadian hooks the Sharpshooter to fill his quota. Generico goes for…something, but in a nice counter Steen hooks him into a Package Piledriver for two. That would have been awesome if I had known what it was supposed to be in the first place. Generico proceeds to kick the heck out of Steen and we go up where Steen finds a wrench to blast him in the head with. A brainbuster type move from the top ends it for Steen.

Rating: B-. Pretty solid match here but I kind of question the whole having a big grudge match this early on the card. Granted they addressed that at the beginning of the match so I can’t complain much there. This feud continued on so the ending makes sense here. This was an intense match so points for that. Nothing incredible but a solid choice for an opener I would think.

Some wrestlers are asked who is going to win the title match. Cornette won’t answer and Steen only talks about Generico. The money seems to be on Richards. Austin Aries predicts there will be a winner and that winner will be world champion. Whoever it is though will never be as good as he is. That’s a heel promo right there.

Up in Smoke vs. All Night Express

Up in Smoke is Cheech and Cloudy who I’ve heard a lot about but never seen. The All Night Express is Rhett Titus and Kenny King, who come of you might vaguely remember as Kenny from Tough Enough 2. Rhett Titus is like Rick Rude on crack but in a good way. They’re a comedy team but they’re rather good from the little I’ve seen out of them. King jumps Cloudy to start as they follow the Code of Honor by shaking hands.

Kind of a botch on a double armdrag as the heels are sent to the floor. Cheech backdrops Cloudy onto the heels to take them out. Back in the ring and they speed things up again but a nice double team move nearly kills Cloudy. Up In Smoke are both really small guys but wrestle kind of like the Guns do. The Briscoes might not be here for their match later. Austin Aries, the Express’ manager, pulls a Jericho and runs to the announcers shouting ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT ME?

King can move out there. He was kind of memorable on Tough Enough but wasn’t really anything great. From what I’ve seen of him in ROH he’s gotten a good deal better. Rollup gets two on King. Up in Smoke pulls out something called Partly Cloudy with a Chance of Cheech. It doesn’t hit but that’s an awesome name. Kind of an eye roller but still great. A lot of double teaming here but it keeps getting broken up.

And now we get to the problem I have with a lot of wrestling companies today, including indys for the most part. The Express hits a SWEET powerbomb/springboard Blockbuster combo into a pin and Cheech kicks out of it. If you’re going to break out these huge moves then have them end the match. If they don’t get pins then yeah they’re big and flashy but they don’t actually end anything, which makes them look weak.

We get the awesomely named move from earlier which is a 619 from one and a dropkick to the back of the head from the other. And since we can’t have a double team move like that end it, King hits a spinning backbreaker onto his back (think Chris Harris’ Catatonic) but keeps Cloudy on his back, allowing Titus to go up and hit a knee drop onto Cloudy for the pin. Yeah the other move looked much better.

Rating: D+. Pretty much just a basic tag match here to get the Express on the show. It’s not bad but the breaking up of pins and constant double teaming from both teams took me out of the match too often. At times you need to just have one guy vs. one guy as it allows the double team moves to look more important and impactful. This wasn’t bad but it needed to be changed a lot to make it a truly good match.

Post match the Express talks about how awesome they are and how awesome Aries is, bringing him to the ring. Aries really is solid on the mic with basic heel stuff. Here’s Delirious for their match.

Delirious vs. Austin Aries

Delirious is in his insane red tonight. Aries tried to injure Delirious and hurt his throat, setting this up. Again, simple booking can work best at times. The Express gets thrown out for the sake of a match. Mist is shot out almost immediately and Aries is in trouble. Who came up with that thing in the first place? It’s such a staple anymore that if you had trademarked it you would make a fortune.

Chokebomb by Delirious which is a rather cool move actually. Aries is still blind about 3 minutes in. Aries goes for a brainbuster on the referee, I guess just not noticing the shirt there. He gets some water in his eyes and now we’re ready to go. Out on the floor and Aries sets Delirious up for the Savage/Steamboat axe handle spot that set up their Mania 3 match and was also used to put Delirious out. This one of course misses though as we need to brawl more.

Hot shot gets two for Aries as he takes over. Cobra Clutch suplex gets two for Delirious as he hits it out of nowhere. He starts his comeback and lands like 5 sentons to the back of Aries. Cobra Clutch is countered and Delirious goes to the floor. Aries goes for a suicide dive and faceplants into the wall in a SICK looking bump. And here’s the Express for the CHEAP DQ! This feud is still going on today so you get the idea here.

Rating: C+. This was ok but the ending crippled it. Delirious is certainly different than most guys but in the ring I’ve never quite gotten the appeal of Aries. He’s good but I’ve never found him to be great at all. This was a decent match but the ending hurt it badly. The idea was supposed to be for Delirious to get his revenge and to this day he still hasn’t. I get stretching an angle out but this is a bit much.

Fans are split on the world title match.

Gauntlet Match

This is a 6 man gauntlet where the winner gets a future title shot. The idea is two people start us off and have a match. Winner gets man #3 and so on until the last man is standing. We start with Tyson Dux vs. the TV Champion Eddie Edwards. Edwards is the partner of Davey Richards in the American Wolves. Feeling out process to start us off with some nice wrestling stuff.

They chop it out and Dux takes over. It’s pronounced Dukes if you’re curious for some odd reason. Not a lot going on here as they both want to conserve energy for later. Edwards as the TV Champion is used to having ten minute matches which is a nice little explanation for why he’s not used to going long times in the ring.

Edwards rolls through something into his half crab submission but Dux makes the ropes. Reverse chinlock goes on as Dux’s back is hurt. Dux runs into a pair of big boots as we get to the striking which just has to happen here. Release gordbuster and a snap DDT get 2 for Dux. Briscoes still aren’t here but a clothesline takes the head off of Dux. Edwards gets a Codebreaker from the middle rope into the half crab (called an Achilles Lock here because ROH has to be smarter than we are) but after getting to the ropes Dux gets a rollup out of nowhere for the SHOCKING upset.

Daivari of the Embassy is next and the overly muscular one goes after the leg. After a lot of leg work we get a decent figure four as Dux is in trouble. He slaps the mat but of course that’s not a tap because he’s trying to get the crowd into things right? And now his leg is ok once he gets out of the hold? Death Valley Driver, Dux’s finisher, hits but hey since we’re in ROH you have to have someone kick out of a finisher right (Yes I know everyone does it anymore)?

Nice neckbreaker by Dux but Prince Nana gets the foot of Daivari on the rope. And now it’s the Rude vs. Warrior at Mania 5 ending as Nana hooks the foot on a suplex and holds it down for the pin.

Colt Cabana vs. Daivari now which is a rematch from last night. A reverse Boston Crab literally ends this in less than a minute with Cabana getting the win.

Steve Corino comes in 5th and we get a reference to Bitter Friends Stiffer Enemies II which is a show I’ve actually reviewed. We get a Phil Brooks reference as a former associate of Cabana. He’s out of ROH now and got knocked out last night by Big Show in an idiotic match. Billy Goat’s Curse (the reverse Boston Crab) is hooked but we head to the floor.

Corino gets a fork from somewhere but it gets taken away. This allows a low blow to turn the tide and Steve takes over. He gets something and jabs it into Cabana’s eye and hits the Old School Expulsion. He goes for a running elbow and gets caught in a SLICK crucifix for the pin!

Roderick Strong, freshly heel, hits the ring and kicks the tar out of Cabana for two. I like Strong so this should go well. He has Truth Martini as his manager now who is rather annoying but you have to expect that in some managers. Strong kicks the heck out of him but Cabana hits a standing Lionsault for two. The camera is shaking here which is kind of annoying but acceptable given the level of this company. Strong’s knee is hurt so Martini runs in and drills Cabana in the head with his book for the pin.

Rating: C+. Pretty solid stuff here and they managed to get the quick eliminations out of the way but at the end of the day a gauntlet match doesn’t usually work that well. This was one of the better ones I’ve seen but everyone pretty much knows whoever the last guy to come in is will be the winner which is why these kind of miss the mark more often than not. Also, there was no way a freshly heel Strong was going to lose. Pretty good wrestling makes it worth watching though.

This would be intermission time at the show. The Briscoes aren’t here yet still which likely isn’t legit. Ad for ROHwrestling.com as they just say it’s intermission. Since this isn’t the live broadcast I get a screen with the sponsor’s name instead.

Davey Richards talks about his family life. Black talks about working hard. It’s one of those interviews where they each talk about something and then you cut to the other guy who answers the same question. I like those as they’re very rapid fire. This goes on for a good while but it makes you want to see the match all the more which is the idea here.

We shift into a promo about Strong wanting the title and how that ties into Edwards vs. Black. It’s kind of odd seeing how much taller Black is than Edwards. Somehow Austin Aries is involved in this too. I really need to actually watch the show to get what’s going on.

We come back to the arena which is more or less empty due to intermission going on but Generico and Steen brawl to the ring out of nowhere. Cabana and Corino come out to make it a four person brawl with Generico winning for the most part before stealing a tie from someone to choke Steen. Nice little bonus here to fill in some time. The tie choking was kind of funny as I’m pretty sure this is after Justin Roberts.

Video airs on the Briscoe Brothers vs. the Kings of Wrestling. Hero got on the Briscoes’ dad and beat him up. This should be a solid match actually. Somehow we have just now hit the halfway point of this show.

Ad for Gofightlive who is airing the PPV. It’s an MMA ad which is weird to see on a wrestling show.

Same ask the fans video from earlier.

Long shot of the arena with the GFL logo on the screen while Missippi Queen plays in the background. And now we get another song as this intermission has now broken 20 minutes. Literally the last 4 minutes have been a logo with music playing and the fans sitting around bored. This is still better than Summerslam 91 where they had a graphic and a countdown clock up for FIFTEEN MINUTES.

Jim Cornette comes out to fill in some more time. Toronto and ROH are awesome don’t you know.

Pick Six Match: Christopher Daniels vs. Kenny Omega

For those of you unfamiliar with the Pick Six, it’s the ranking system for ROH. The idea is that there are six guys ranked 1-6 with Richards being #1 at the moment. Only they can challenge for the title (most of the time. You can win special matches like the gauntlet earlier too) and to get into the list you have to beat a guy on the list. Daniels is #2 and this match is for his spot. If Omega wins here he’s the new #2 and Daniels is #3, and whoever was #6 is off the list.

We start off on the match so I have a feeling this is going to be a long match, especially with an hour and a half to go with three matches left scheduled. We get the dueling chant to show how split the crowd is here. A nice counter to a Rock Bottom results in a standoff. Very even match so far with an emphasis on arm drags. The announcers point out that this isn’t about hatred which is rare to see in wrestling anymore.

Daniels works the neck and hooks a seated Tazmission and a suplex for two. Nice sequence of a slingshot moonsault into a crossface by the bald one. Omega comes back with chops as this isn’t incredibly great but it’s ok. Springboard missile dropkick by Omega doesn’t get a cover. And naturally 3 seconds later he’s in the Koji Clutch, which is a rather difficult looking neck submission which is broken by the ropes.

More neck work doesn’t end this either. Angel’s Wings are countered again as this match is kind of dragging. We slug it out even more and Daniels does the palm strike to the chest and the Rock Bottom sets up the BME which misses. Omega hits a finisher for two of course. I really am starting to hate that. Daniels hits Angel’s Wings, another finisher, and say it with me: it gets two.

Omega hits a double palm strike (Haduken) and it’s called a knockout blow. You know what happens so I’m not even going to validate it with a joke. The fans chant THIS IS WRESTLING. I’m not sure what’s wrong with them but it’s not what I think of when I think of wrestling. An STO sets up the Best Moonsault Ever which ends it.

Rating: B-. Ok. I get the idea of the strong style where you kick out of just about everything, but dude, doing it in every single match makes it look stupid. There’s a reason a move is considered a finisher: it’s supposed to FINISH a match. Back in the late 80s can you imagine a guy kicking out of Hogan’s legdrop? The world would have come to an end. In this match there were at least three finishers that were kicked out of. When that happens continuously it makes the moves look like they’re just big moves rather than devastating ones. I can’t stand that and ROH does it as much as almost any American company. Again, there’s a place for it but don’t do it all the time.

Daniels helps him up and shakes his hand which is always nice to see.

Tag Titles: Briscoe Brothers vs. Kings of Wrestling

This should be awesome. It’s kind of weird watching the Kings as they’re both about 6’5 which means they tower over the vast majority of the roster. Hero and Claudio cut promos saying they appreciate the Briscoes not being allowed to be here, so of course they hit the ring and it’s on. No DQ here which is a surprise I think. Big dive by one of the Brothers takes out the Kings. I’ve never been able to remember which is which so bear with me.

Why do they have to tag in and out? If you can’t get disqualified then what’s stopping them? Hero starts and it’s been one sided the whole way so far. Claudio is finally up in his corner after getting destroyed. The challengers get after Shane Hagadorn and I think you know this isn’t going to work. Claudio is busted open already. Someone that’s either a young boy or an adult woman shouts that Hero is a pussy. I hope it was a girl.

Everything breaks down early and Mark Briscoe is busted open pretty well. Ok now I can tell one from the other. Oh man Mark is busted BAD. The heels have taken over here and we get a gay chant against Hero. Nice double cross body and there’s the hot tag to Jay. He drives Hero’s head into the buckle about 25 times and now he’s busted open. O’Connor Roll gets two but Hagadorn pelts Jay with a chair to put him on the floor. Hagadorn is the Kings’ manager if I forgot to mention that earlier.

Jay is busted open too now. Hero ties Jay to the post with the tag rope Total bloodbath here but they said that at the previous show they had a long technical match so this is far more acceptable. Doomsday Device but with a European Uppercut gets two on Mark. The referee gets a knife from somewhere and cuts Jay free. A Roaring Elbow (Hero’s finisher) gets two.

Jay gets a freaking fire extinguisher of all things and the Kings are in trouble. Table is brought in as Claudio’s cut is more or less closed. The heels are thrown into the table but it doesn’t break. Double team neckbreaker/powerbomb gets no cover. Claudio counters a slam through the table but the Briscoes tackle him into it where his shoulder goes through the edge of it in a painful looking spot.

Doomsday Device to Shane and the Briscoes are standing tall. Hero pops up with his loaded elbow pad and drills Jay with it for TWO and a big pop. We get more gay slurs at Hero with people saying F YOU Hero. If he’s gay as you say you are, wouldn’t he enjoy that in theory? In an AWESOME looking finish, Castagnoli gets a giant swing and the pad is put on Hero’s foot which he kicks Jay in the head with for the pin.

Rating: B. This was supposed to be a big fight and that’s exactly what it was. All kinds of blood (Mark’s face was COVERED), very good violence, the SICK ending and the whole thing going nearly 20 minutes worked very well. They had a technical match already so this is the next logical step. I’m fine with violence like this when it fits the story, which it did here due to the Kings attacking their dad. Very fun match that was exactly what it was supposed to be.

Hey let’s see the same video interviewing the fans again. Amazingly enough their opinions are the same this time too.

ROH World Title: Davey Richards vs. Tyler Black

Jim Cornette is on commentary here so all is right with the world. VERY mixed reaction for Black while the fans all cheer Davey. No handshake here and there’s the bell to a big pop. Fans are behind Davey it seems. Screw that as we slap it out. No real advantage for awhile but Richards gets an awesome surfboard on, only to have it reversed into one by Black.

Total standoff about three minutes in. And now we make fun of HHH because he has no talent or anything like that right? One little thing here is that they refer to Black as the top man in the promotion rather than the top man in the industry. At least they know their place. Sweet dropkick by Black gets one. Cornette lists off the main event scene as Black gets caught by a dropkick to take him down.

Richards has lost a tooth so he kicks the stuffing out of Black to make up for it. We get a modified and PAINFUL looking version of Konnan’s Tequila Sunrise as Richards is in control. Black is all like BRING IT ON and slaps Richards. They slug it out and an enziguri takes Davey down. Cornette on commentary is a nice thing as he can be dramatic but can talk moves as well as anyone.

Tyler throws Davey to the floor and then adds a front flip and a springboard clothesline. He gets chants of YOU STILL SUCK, despite being cheered to no end when he was chasing the title. Joe says the fans will have to respect Black if he wins. That’s just amusing. Richards goes for a German off the top but Black flips out of it. Richards is happy anyway and walks into a big boot. Richards looks like an idiot here because, to quote Marvin the Martian: “Where’s the kaboom? There was supposed to be an Earth shattering kaboom!” Did he just not notice a lack of vibration or sound? Apparently he didn’t because he got kicked in the head.

Rubiks Cube (reverse Piledriver from the shoulders for like of a better term) gets two. Dueling chants of THIS IS AWESOME/YOU STILL SUCK. It turns into a slugout as Black can’t beat him or even get a near fall. Ok, why does no one grab Davey’s leg when he kicks the EXACT same way every time? Richards misses a front flip that puts him in about the third row. Cornette says Richards would walk across fire wearing gasoline underwear to be the best in the world. I’d love to see a show of nothing but Ross and Cornette trying to out metaphor each other.

Jim thinks this is what it was like in the gladiator days. I doubt they used as much spandex…or armdrags…..theme music either….and the fans would chant in Latin. I could probably come up with some more if I had to. Richards gets a shot to the knee and hooks a Texas Cloverleaf. Since that doesn’t work Black gets a suplex off the top and floats over into an F5 for two.

Phoenix Splash (moonsault into a 450) misses and Richards hooks an ankle lock. Screw you Ken Shamrock for making that to look like the best hold ever. Pinfall reversal sequence is always fun to see. We kick it out into a grapevined ankle lock like Angle uses. Richards suplexes both himself and Black over the top to the floor. Black goes into the crowd and Richards is down in the ring.

Hagadorn, Richards’ manager, comes down with a chair but Davey stops him, allowing Black to kick him in the face, knocking the chair into Richards’ face. They slug it out again on the apron and down they both go. Richards sprints back in to save the match as he gets in at about 19.5. Richards kicks out of another finisher, in this case God’s Last Gift which is a Fisherman’s Buster into a small package. Turnbuckle powerbomb sets up a superkick but hey, he only took two finishers so of course Richards can immediately counter into a Dragon Screw Leg Whip and a Cloverleaf.

Hey take a guess as to what we do now. If you guessed slug it out, HOW DID YOU KNOW? Davey takes a superkick and of course just snaps off a clothesline and takes over. Either Richards looks like he’s no selling or Black looks weak. Black’s turn to kick out of a finisher now. Davey gets caught in the buckles and a double stomp from the top gets two for Black.

Finisher #5 or so equals kick out for Richards of course. The fans chant YOU CAN’T BEAT HIM at Tyler so Black kicks him in the face again and another God’s Last Gift ends this kind of anti-climactically. Richards gets helped out of the ring but says now you’re a champion to Black. Black thanks him and we end the show.

Rating: B. This was entertaining, but there are some major flaws in it. Number one: the no selling. I don’t care if this is the ROH style. I don’t care about adrenaline or whatever. Taking back to back finishers and being fine literally 4 seconds later is STUPID. It makes Black look like a joke and it makes Richards look ridiculous. Answer this: if Richards can no sell a buckle bomb and kick with two minutes left in the match, why do the same moves end him 100 seconds later?

Black isn’t innocent here either as the leg work by Davey was completely forgotten 30 seconds later. Number two: Richards is supposed to be the best in the world? That’s a funny one. When 80% of your offense is kicking a guy in the chest over and over, I have an issue with calling you great. That’s my main issue with ROH: there is WAY too big of an emphasis on strikes. We get it: you can chop and kick and it looks like Japan. That isn’t wrestling, it’s a martial arts contest. People can chant this is awesome all they want but the match is flawed.

That being said, the match was indeed entertaining with Black doing everything he could to finish him but never being able to until the very end. However this goes back to what I said earlier about finishers: if you have to use the finisher 4 times to get the win, how is it still classified as a finisher? By that logic you could clothesline a guy 400 times and pin him. The match ended on a clothesline so that’s the finisher. I don’t get the whole best in the world aspect of Richards but he’s pretty good I guess. Black is solid but the psychology here brings it WAY down past what it’s built up to be. Still good though.

Overall Rating: B-. It’s a good show, but to call this the show of the year and give it eternal praise like it’s gotten for three months is absurd. The last two matches are definitely both good and the show as a whole is good, but there are some matches towards the beginning and middle that are just ok. The Daniels match is long and not incredibly entertaining. The gauntlet is ok at its very best. Delirious vs. Aries I don’t even remember and I watched it yesterday. The first two matches are decent but also forgettable. It’s a good show but at three and a half hours with seven matches it’s a far cry from best show of the year.