Impact Wrestling has also announced former seven-time NWA Tag Team Champion Chris Harris for TNA: There’s No Place Like Home.
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A former World, X-Division, and Tag Team Champion has been added to Impact Wrestling’s one-night-only revival of the TNA brand.
Impact announced today that Chris Sabin is set for TNA: There’s No Place Like Home. The show is part of WrestleCon’s events in Tampa, Florida during WrestleMania week.
Sabin has been out of action since suffering a torn ACL in January of last year. He wrote at the time that he expected to miss 8-12 months.
Sabin is the third wrestler announced for There’s No Place Like Home. Impact confirmed D’Lo Brown and Ken Anderson for the show last week and noted that they would both be representing their former Aces & Eights stable.
There’s No Place Like Home is taking place at The Ritz Ybor City on Friday, April 3. It will also be available live via Fite TV.
Chris Sabin has confirmed that the knee injury he suffered earlier this month is a torn ACL.
Sabin tweeted out an injury update today, writing that the injury is a “complete ACL tear” in his right knee and that he expects to be out of action for 8-12 months.
The injury occurred at ROH’s television tapings at Center Stage in Atlanta, Georgia on January 12. Sabin was facing Flip Gordon, Shane Taylor, Kenny King, Luchasaurus, and Rhett Titus in a six-way match when he suffered the injury. ROH noted that Sabin “began clutching his knee after executing a super hurricanrana on Gordon. He was unable to finish the match and was helped to the back.”
Flip Gordon also suffered a right knee injury while facing Tracy Williams at Honor Reigns Supreme in Concord, North Carolina on January 13. ROH announced that Gordon’s injury is a full MCL tear and that he should be able to return in time for G1 Supercard at Madison Square Garden on April 6.
Sabin has confirmed that the knee injury he suffered earlier this month is a torn ACL.
ROH announced that Sabin and Gordon will be undergoing MRIs this week to confirm the extent of their injuries.
ROH noted that it’s believed that Sabin suffered a torn ACL in his right knee during Saturday’s television tapings at Center Stage in Atlanta, Georgia. Sabin was facing Gordon, Shane Taylor, Luchasaurus, Rhett Titus, and Kenny King in a six-way match when the injury happened, and ROH wrote that Sabin “began clutching his knee after executing a super hurricanrana on Gordon. He was unable to finish the match and was helped to the back. “
Despite his history of ACL injuries, Sabin tweeted on Monday: “I’ll be back.”
ROH announced that it’s believed Gordon will be out of action for a minimum of four weeks due to a possible MCL sprain in his right knee. While facing Tracy Williams at Honor Reigns Supreme in Concord, North Carolina on Sunday, Gordon grabbed his knee after hitting a single-leg dropkick into the corner. He rolled out of the ring shortly after hitting a springboard spear. The referee called the match off and Williams was declared the winner by stoppage.
PWG has announced that Gordon, who was originally supposed to face Bandido, is off their Hand of Doom show this Friday. ACH is replacing Gordon in the match with Bandido.
It appears that the injury will also take Gordon out of his scheduled match against Bandido at ROH’s Road to G1 Supercard event in Dallas, Texas on January 24. Gordon was supposed to team with Colt Cabana in the Tag Wars tournament that’s taking place at the Road to G1 Supercard shows in Texas this month.
Flip Gordon and Chris Sabin both suffered knee injuries while wrestling for Ring of Honor over the weekend.
ROH general manager Greg Gilleland issued a statement confirming the injuries: “Unfortunately, Ring of Honor can confirm that both Flip Gordon and Chris Sabin suffered knee injuries during this past weekend’s events that left them each in significant pain. The severity for each injury will not be known until further tests are concluded, but we wish them a speedy recovery and hope they can return to the ROH ring soon.”
Gordon was injured while facing Tracy Williams at Honor Reigns Supreme in Concord, North Carolina on Sunday night. Gordon grabbed his knee after hitting a single-leg dropkick into the corner. He rolled out of the ring shortly after hitting a springboard spear. The referee called the match off and Williams was declared the winner by stoppage.
Sabin suffered his injury at Saturday’s ROH television tapings at Center Stage in Atlanta, Georgia. Sabin was facing Gordon, Shane Taylor, Luchasaurus, Rhett Titus, and Kenny King in a six-way match when the injury happened.
Ian Riccaboni was in the ring to kick off the first episode of 2019. He had four wrestlers in the ring with him, all of whom have earned a ROH World Championship match.
The first man, Chris Sabin, took ROH World Champion Jay Lethal to a time limit draw in a proving ground match. The next wrestler, Flip Gordon, won the Sea of Honor tournament to earn his shot. After that was Marty Scurll, who won Survival of the Fittest and a chance to challenge for the title. Finally, there was Dalton Castle, who had a contractually obligated rematch after being bested by Lethal.
Riccaboni then called out Lethal, but Matt Taven came out instead. Taven said that he in fact did retain his “real” World title at Final Battle. Then he proceeded to run down all four men saying that none were worthy.
Lethal was in the house and had heard enough smack talk. He came down to confront Taven. The two got into a brawl that ended when the referees and officials separated them.
ROH Television Champion Jeff Cobb defeated Luchasaurus in a proving ground match
Luchasaurus got the early advantage with a spinning heel kick that put Cobb down for a near fall. His edge didn’t last long as Cobb caught him in mid-air and launched him with a suplex. Cobb then took the half-man/half-dinosaur to the top rope and launched him with an overhead belly-to-belly suplex, which he followed up with a standing moonsault. Luchasaurus kicked out at two.
Not to be outdone, Luchasaurus fought back and landed a standing moonsault of his own. Luchasaurus tried some other lucha style offense — but it was to no avail as Cobb again caught him and connected with the Tour of the Islands for the the win.
Women of Honor World Champion Kelly Klein defeated Nikki Addams to retain her title
Addams was already in the ring as Klein made her way down. Klein got on the microphone and announced that she would be a fighting champion in 2019 and that every one of her singles matches would be a title bout.
Instead of following the Code of Honor, Addams punched Klein in the mouth and went right after her. Klein used her experience to keep her foe at bay. Addams was able to get in some offense, which included a running chop, but Klein was too savvy for her. Ultimately, it was Klein who got the pin after a knee strike that knocked out Addams.
After the match, Jenny Rose came out to remind Klein that the two of them have some unfinished business. They’ll be facing each other in a title match, but Rose wanted to add a stipulation to it, making it a street fight. Klein accepted — and so it will be a “Concord Street Fight” for the WOH Championship at Honor Reigns Supreme this Sunday.
Brian Milonas found Beer City Bruiser drinking and told him that it was time to move past the betrayal by Silas Young.
Christopher Daniels came to the ring dressed in a suit. He said he was there to say goodbye. He recalled his first match in the main event of the first ROH show, which was a 60-minute Iron Man match between himself, Low Ki, and Bryan Danielson. He thanked everyone, and with a tear in his eye, he said goodbye.
Joe Koff then came out and said that the two of them have had their differences, but due to Daniels being selfless when he defended Cary Silkin at Final Battle, his feelings for Daniels have changed. Because of Daniels’ courage, Koff offered him a contract for 2019.
As Koff was presenting Daniels with the new contract, Shane Taylor jumped the barricade and laid out Daniels. He tossed him around, slammed him into the ring post, and went after him with a folding chair. To finish him off, Taylor gave Daniels a Greetings from the 216 on top of the chair, then tore up the contract.
Dalton Castle defeated Chris Sabin, Marty Scurll, and Flip Gordon in a four corner survival match to earn the first title shot
Lethal joined Colt Cabana and Riccaboni on commentary for the main event.
Gordon and Sabin hit tandem dives onto Castle and Scurll. Sabin followed it up with a big missile dropkick. Gordon also landed one on Castle. The two of them then shook hands, seemingly forming an alliance. Their grappling cooperative didn’t last long as both men inevitably attacked each other.
After the break, Scurll and Gordon were in a heated chop exchange. There was a unique multi-man submission hold involving everyone. Scurll was using a toe hold on Gordon, Castle was using a chinlock on Gordon, and Sabin used an abdominal stretch on Scurll.
Scurll, Gordon, and Castle were fighting, and that allowed Sabin to go up top and land a crossbody. Sabin then hit a running tornado DDT, kicking off of his opponents. That put everyone down again. However, Castle caught him with a slam.
Next, Castle ran into Gordon, who cut him off. Gordon did a reverse fireman’s carry slam onto Castle and used the momentum to pop to his feet. Sabin got back in and thought he had Gordon with a top rope hurricanrana, but again Gordon landed on his feet.
Scurll caught Gordon from the outside, but Sabin landed a Scurll-esque kick. Sabin turned around right into Castle, who hit the Bang-A-Rang on Sabin to get the win. Castle will get his title shot against Lethal at Honor Reigns Supreme this Sunday.
Ring of Honor’s Global Wars tour began in Lewiston, Maine on Wednesday night.
The Big Takeaway —
This was a low-stakes house show. The gymnasium was clearly half-empty on camera, but the crowd was enthusiastic throughout the night. Only the Matt Taven-Dalton Castle angle was furthered to build Final Battle.
Two of the matches (The Briscoes vs. Cody & Hangman Page and Silas Young & Bully Ray vs. The Young Bucks) were interrupted by streaming issues and/or power outage issues in the town of Lewiston, according to Ian Riccaboni. Viewers were not able to see the finish of the Young & Ray vs. Young Bucks match
Show Recap —
A small but excited crowd were on their feet at the start of this show. Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana were on commentary tonight. They introduced the card.
Flip Gordon defeated Eli Isom
Rookie Eli Isom came out with Cheeseburger and Ryan Nova. Gordon got a noticeable pop from this Wednesday night crowd. Cabana brought up the “bird incident” from the Jericho Cruise last week.
Gordon and Isom began the match with a smooth set of chain wrestling and rope-running sequences. Gordon hit a great looking dropkick to Isom in the corner. He followed up with his nip-up Pele kick spots, finishing the sequence with a tope con giro.
Back in the ring, the two traded chops. Gordon’s one-foot dropkick is real pretty. Isom was pushed on commentary as a promising rookie. He didn’t look bad here. Isom hit a nice backdrop suplex onto Gordon. They did a wild spot that consisted of Gordon nipping up off the apron, a jump enzuigiri kick, and them rolling back into the ring for another kicking sequence. It was all at lightning speed, and the crowd was on their feet after this.
Isom’s suplexes are solid; he used a nice wheelbarrow German suplex for two at one point. Gordon responded with a Falcon Arrow, and later a springboard spear, before finally hitting a Flip 5 for the win. The two shook hands and posed afterwards.
A quick but satisfying opening match. These guys had great chemistry together, but Gordon was the obvious star meant to shine here.
ROH Tag Team Champions SoCal Uncensored (Scorpio Sky & Frankie Kazarian) defeated The Bouncers (Beer City Bruiser & Brian Milonas) in a non-title match
The New Age Out–I mean SoCal Uncensored came out and did their pre-match promo work in the ring. They were very over with the crowd. The gymnasium looked empty on some camera shots but the fans down in front were enthusiastic, mitigating any embarrassing camera work.
The match itself was mostly fun old school-styled tag team wrestling. The Bouncers played big bully heels, and Beer City Bruiser did a few high spots to the outside.
There was a mildly funny moment where the ref accused Bruiser of biting. The camera zoomed in just as he said “I don’t have no teeth!”
Cabana said “Oh, mylanta” at one point during this match.
The Bouncers abused Kazarian for a long while. Sky broke up a number of near falls. The pace was slowed toward the end of this match because the Bouncers aren’t athletic. It weighed the match down. Milonas is impressive to a point but is very slow.
Sky and Kazarian powerbombed Milonas off the top rope to win the match. The teams shared beers afterwards.
ROH TV Champion Jeff Cobb defeated Cheeseburger in a non-title match
Cheeseburger came out with Ryan Nova and Eli Isom. The two shook hands before the bell.
The story was clear from the start of this bout: Cobb is massive and strong, Cheeseburger is wily, scrawny, and tenacious. Cobb rag-dolled Cheeseburger around the ring and it felt more like an exhibition than a contest for a lot of it.
A big, long bear hug spot, a bigger dropkick, and an insane dangling vertical superplex from Cobb to Cheeseburger all got just two.
Cheeseburger countered a few of Cobb’s moves and was able to use a Shotei in the corner, then a springboard cannonball senton for a pity two-count.
Cobb used a tremendous spinning backdrop suplex, then hit Tour of the Islands for the win.
A fine match that was more like an enhancement match for Cobb. The crowd seemed to enjoy it.
ROH Six-Man Tag Team Champions The Kingdom (Matt Taven, Vinny Marseglia & TK O’Ryan) defeated Dalton Castle & The Boys to retain their titles
Rhett Titus came out before the match. He posed, then joined Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana on commentary.
It sounded like it was a surprise to the announce team that this had been scheduled to be for the Six-Man titles. Bobby Cruise announced it as such, though.
The crowd was into Castle and chanted for him before the match started. Marseglia attacked one of the Boys before the bell. While Castle screamed about the Boys’ bags to the referee, Taven and O’Ryan attacked. The bell finally rang.
This was chaotic from the start. Taven and company pounded on Castle with flurries of punches and kicks in the corner. O’Ryan worked over Castle’s injured back. Castle is still taped up around his left thigh, has a weight belt, and has some other serious looking knee compression gear.
O’Ryan did a cool running spot with the Boys. He carried one Boy in powerslam position and swung one Boy at the other.
The Boys did a flashy double stomp spot, then a wild nonstop sequence of “topes” that were basically just Castle taking the guys by the hair and repeatedly tossing them over the ropes onto The Kingdom.
Three red balloons flew up in the air at this point in the match.
Castle used a Bang-a-Rang on Marseglia for a near fall. Later, Taven countered out of another Bang-a-Rang attempt and booted Castle hard in the face.
One of the Boys came back into the ring wearing a rugby sweater. He was acting like Freddy Krueger and started back-raking Marseglia with his “claw.” He did a number of cool spots, like a standing Sliced Bread, and then Castle screamed “What have you become?” at the Boy, who then snapped out of it.
Taven and Castle squared off and did a Frye-Takayama punching spot all the way to the floor. The two other Kingdom members did a special tag team finisher — a modified double powerslam thing — on one of the Boys for the win here.
Taven cut a good promo on Castle. He claimed he owns this Kingdom of New England, and that he’ll get to him at Final Battle soon. The crowd booed without fire.
This match did its job. It built Taven and Castle for Final Battle, which could be better than people may expect.
The Briscoes defeated Hangman Page & IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion Cody (w/ Brandi Rhodes)
The camera got an excellent shot of a very excited Briscoes fan, someone’s mother, I imagine, hopping up and down before the match.
Mark Briscoe tossed a chair into the ring for no apparent reason. The crowd woke up for this.
Mark and Page started off the match. There was a presence that all four wrestlers carry with them into this match that is very different from the wrestlers I watched in the matches before. Their body shape and size stood out, along with the conviction in the way they got into each other’s faces and locked heads.
The way Cody would rile the crowd up was something worth mentioning. His ring instincts are so attuned to the crowd regardless of what the plan is.
The ROH feed cut out in the middle of this match. The ROH logo spun around for a few minutes until it came back to the match. Riccaboni explained that the power in the building went out and that’s why the stream went out.
The match stayed on track in the building, with the crowd fiercely behind the newly-anointed Elite members (Elitists?). When the stream came back, Cody was in the middle of a hot high spot sequence inside the ring. It was eventually slowed to a halt, with both Jay and Mark Briscoe showcasing their unsung talent as vicious heels who are mostly always exciting to watch.
Page got a hot tag into the match later on. He and Jay traded a lot of punches and elbows and they really laid them into each other.
Page used a Shooting Star shoulder block off the apron, essentially out of nowhere, onto Mark on the floor. He hopped back into the ring and German suplexed Jay for only two.
Jay and Page brawled on the outside, and Cody and Mark got into the mix. Back in the ring, the Briscoes used the Redneck Boogie powerbomb/neckbreaker combination on Cody for a two count.
They exchanged uppercuts and straight right punches. Brandi Rhodes stood on the apron and was quickly knocked off it by Mark. There was some chaos outside the ring, which was capped off by a huge moonsault from the top turnbuckle to the outside.
This turned into a wild, fast-paced brawl in and outside the ring. Jay used the Jay Driller and then Mark smashed Page with a Froggy Bow for the win.
Despite the technical difficulties in the middle of this match, this was very much worth the watch. The Briscoes are having an under-the-radar type year of very good to excellent matches in various promotions. They are a great heel matchup with any of the Elite members, and this was all without a real storyline.
If there was a just a hair of narrative between these two teams, aside from the lightly touched upon history Riccaboni mentioned over the broadcast, it could make for a very hot two to three month program in either the United States or in Japan. Keep an eye out for matches featuring any combination of these four.
Juice Robinson defeated Christopher Daniels
Riccaboni put Robinson over as an international star. The wrestlers shook hands before the match started. The crowd seemed split over Daniels and Juice. I’d say 60/40 in Robinson’s favor.
This was a well-paced match, organic and smooth in every exchange. Daniels slowed things down for a while for a chinlock, but not to the levels of stagnancy often seen in some WWE matches. Daniels later used an Arabian press on Robinson for two.
People sounded to have sided more strongly with Robinson as the match went on. They did more back and forth, with one sequence of Robinson firing up. They fought to a double knockdown spot until Robinson headed to the top turnbuckle and Daniels crotched him onto the ropes.
After a long-ish lull in the match, Robinson started doing the Terry Funk/Dusty Rhodes cowboy punches. He tried Pulp Friction a few times and eventually landed it for the win.
This was good but not great, everything the sixth match on a Wednesday night card should probably be.
Silas Young & Bully Ray defeated The Young Bucks
Bully Ray came out to only boos. He screamed at ring announcer Bobby Cruise to shut up and was generally bully-ish. As he should be. He and Matt Taven were the most loudly booed wrestlers of the night so far.
People threw ribbons in the ring for the Bucks before the match. Bully Ray was very, very loud. He did a lot of crowd work here; he screamed “Your heroes SUCK!” at someone in the crowd. It was all very house show-ish, charming in its aesthetic.
The Bucks finally were able to tope their way onto the offense. Young was the pawn in the match, the way to let the Bucks shine without devaluing Ray as a heel.
As the match slowed, the heels took over. The crowd began chanting “Yankees suck!”
Matt Jackson used a spear on Bully Ray. Young put Matt into a Boston crab, working his storyline-injured back. Nick came into the ring with energy and made a few attempts to connect with the crowd after doing some of his signature moves to Young.
Young used a handful of power moves on Nick Jackson, including an Anarchy suplex. Nick was able to turn things around quickly with a couple of superkicks and a moonsault from the apron onto Bully Ray outside of the ring.
More superkicks inside the ring, and just as things were getting exciting, the stream went out again. The ROH logo spun around Windows 98 screensaver style for a couple of minutes until the feed came back and, apparently, Silas Young pinned one of the Bucks to win the match for his team.
Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, SANADA & BUSHI) defeated Jonathan Gresham, Chris Sabin, IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion KUSHIDA & ROH World Heavyweight Champion Jay Lethal
Between the matches, Riccaboni explained that there may have been a power outage issue in Lewiston tonight and apologized for the other stream outage.
LIJ were introduced one by one, each of them in full character garb. The crowd roared for Naito. They looked like absolute superstars tonight, with a visual charisma that carries across the screen in an almost jarring way.
His name is “Constellation” Chris Sabin now. Colt Cabana was as surprised as you and I were about this because he found out when we did. “Constellation’s” hair is in currently at AJ Styles soccer-mom length.
Gresham and Naito started the match. Naito looked gigantic compared to Gresham. He quickly tagged out, rudo style, allowing for SANADA to enter.
The crowd started chanting “Sa-Na-Da!” He had a fun but forgettable exchange with Gresham. EVIL and Sabin had it out for a bit in the ring. EVIL was popular with the crowd and received loud chants.
Sabin and KUSHIDA did some good tag work to EVIL. Lethal and Gresham double-teamed EVIL for a while and showed off some of the offense they’re using together these days as a semi-regular tag team. Gresham worked over EVIL’s arm and elbow.
Naito stepped in by tripping KUSHIDA, allowing for SANADA to dropkick KUSHIDA in the face. LIJ dominated from here, using a strategy of two wrestlers standing on the apron and two seemingly guarding the area around the ring, something we see much more in Japan than in the States.
Naito and later BUSHI finally showed up in the ring. A BUSHIroonie happened. Fans rallied behind KUSHIDA minutes later, but he wasn’t able to escape SANADA’s Paradise Lock and shotgun dropkick to the posterior.
KUSHIDA fired up and used a handspring back elbow. He was able to tag Lethal back into the ring. Lethal cleaned house and soaked in some of the louder crowd reactions of the night.
The ROH/NJPW team did a triple plancha spot. SANADA did a slingshot swinging neckbreaker suplex to Lethal.
BUSHI and Gresham worked well together. I found it fresh since BUSHI was the big guy. He’s usually a few kilos lighter than whomever he’s in the match with in NJPW matches, so this matchup felt like it could lead to something new or interesting.
The finishing sequence consisted of Lethal hitting a Lethal Injection on BUSHI, then EVIL using Darkness Falls on Lethal, and finally Naito using Destino on Gresham for the win.
This was a good match but, again, not a great one. It felt like a warm-up match, a match where some of the guys who haven’t worked with each other much before (BUSHI and Gresham, for example) can feel each other out and plan a tighter set for the bigger shows this weekend.
It was announced that due to an injury, Taiji Ishimori is off tonight’s show. The opening tag match is now a singles bout between Yota Tsuji and Robbie Eagles.
Robbie Eagles defeated Yota Tsuji
Eagles was in control for a lot of the match. The size difference was real — Tsuji definately has size. Tsuji cut off Eagles with a dropkick. He fired back with punches, but Eagles grabbed him and pinned him with what I would describe as a snapmare into a falcon arrow. Okay match.
Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask and Tomoaki Honma defeated Volador Jr., Soberano Jr. and Ren Narita
This turned into a pretty good match. Narita worked a lot of the match, either being in control or selling and looked good in doing both. He and Honma worked a lot of the match together. Narita rolled up him for a big near fall, but Honma took him down and applied an STF for the submission win.
Yoshinobu Kanemaru and El Desperado defeated ACH and Shota Umino
Much like the previous match, Umino worked a lot of this bout. Maybe it was because he was working Desperado and Kanemaru here, but he seems to be a bit bigger than usual. Umino managed to escape from a Kanemaru camel clutch. ACH finally made a hot tag, then tagged back in Umino, who scored several nearfalls but fell to a stretch muffler.
Shingo Takagi and BUSHI defeated Ryusuke Taguchi and Ayato Yoshida
Tetsuya Naito arrived with the LIJ pair and observed the bout in the crowd. Taguchi worked a lot of this match and looked great. Yoshida came in and worked with Takagi. Takagi hit a lariat and a gory bomb for a nearfall. Takagi then finished off Yoshida pumping bomber for the win. Pretty much the same formula as the other matches on the card so far.
Naito left the crowd and joined up with both BUSHI and Takagi after the match.
Tomohiro Ishii and Rocky Romero defeated Minoru Suzuki and Taka Michinoku
Ishii and Suzuki continued the brawling they’ve done all tour outside of the ring while Romero and Michinoku worked in the ring. Ishii and Suzuki continued to brawl around the arena and finally found themselves in the ring. This match is gonna be wild on Saturday. Suzuki went for the Gotch piledriver. Ishii escaped and countered with a side suplex.
Michinoku and Romero were tagged back in, where they traded near falls until Romero countered a crossface with a la magistral cradle for the surprise win. This was fun.
Once again, Ishii and Suzuki had to be seperated from one another after the match.
Chase Owens and Yujiro Takahashi defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi and Toa Henare
One spot during the match had Owens going to the top rope, teasing he was going to do the high fly flow, but Henare caught him with a boot instead as he jumped off the top rope. Heels continued to get heat on Henare. Tanahashi did get a hot tag, but this crowd was dead for most of the show and the match never really got going except for the last few minutes of the match. Henare tagged back in and eventually fell to the package piledriver by Owens.
SHO & YOH defeated KUSHIDA and Chris Sabin
KUSHIDA and YOH started things off with some chain wrestling. SHO entered but was also taken down by KUSHIDA. Both he and Sabin worked on SHO’s arm. YOH is tagged in and starts to gain the upper hand, but gets cut off by the other team’s, well, teamwork, being taken out with a doomsday device dropkick.
SHO starts taking Sabin out with German suplexes but KUSHIDA catches him. Both he and Sabin kick SHO while his feet were resting on the referee with a cool spot. KUSHIDA misses a moonsault and somehow all four men are down. Sabin starts attacking both but out of nowhere they manage to connect with the 3K, YOH pinning Sabin for the win. This was fine but had no real heat at all. Never felt like it really went to the next level either.
So that makes it a three way tie between Roppongi 3K, Desperado & Kanemaru and BUSHI & Shingo Takagi. After some initial confusion, the announcer said that it would be a three way match at Power Struggle. The other two teams made their way to the ring. Desperado ran down both teams after the match. He promised to win clean.
BUSHI took the mic after, saying they’ll get payback for their loss. Romero then promised that 3K would beat up both teams at Power Struggle.
Jay White, Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa and Gedo defeated Kazuchika Okada, Hirooki Goto, Toru Yano, Beretta and Chuckie T
Bullet Club worked on Beretta for a good while, teasing a tag to Okada until he finally escapes and tags him in. Okada used the dragon screw on Fale, which is interesting given Okada and Tanahashi’s recent relationship change. Best Friends and Yano get their shine in. Okada comes in and bodyslams Fale and dropkicks Tama Tonga.
Chuckie T came in and missed a moonsault. He and White fought as he blocked a low blow. Gedo came in and blasted Chuckie with brass knuckles. White connected with the bladerunner, and that was it. A solid main event.
White and Okada went at it after the match, eventually being seperated. White mouthed off and walked to the back, but Okada ran after him and brawled in the aisle. White beat up some young lions then leaves. Okada grabbed the mic and promised that White would meet a rainmaker at Power Struggle.
Ring of Honor has confirmed the Television title match for next month’s Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view and announced one of NJPW’s top stars for the post-PPV tapings.
The Bullet Club (Cody Rhodes, The Young Bucks, Marty Scurll & Hangman Page) vs. Chaos (Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, Rocky Romero, Beretta & Chuckie T) in a 10-man tag match, Jay Lethal vs. Will Ospreay for the ROH World Championship, The Briscoes vs. Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian for the ROH Tag Team titles, and Sumie Sakai vs. Tenille Dashwood for the Women of Honor Championship are the other matches that have been made official for Death Before Dishonor.
Jushin Thunder Liger will also be wrestling at the PPV.
Death Before Dishonor is taking place at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on September 28. The venue will host a set of ROH TV tapings the next night, and ROH revealed today that Hiroshi Tanahashi will be wrestling on the tapings. Like KUSHIDA, SANADA, EVIL, and Chase Owens, Tanahashi is only advertised for the tapings.
