Matt Taven and Mike Bennett won the Ring of Honor Tag Team titles at Sunday’s Honor for All, defeating LFI’s Dragon Lee and Kenny King for the belts.
This is the second reign for Taven and Bennett, known as The OGK, who first won the titles at September 2015’s All-Star Extravaganza in San Antonio, Texas, in a three-way that included Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian, and the Young Bucks.
The end came after all four men hit their finishers, leading to Amy Rose and Max the Impaler coming out to distract both King and Bestia Del Ring who was at ringside with LFI. Taven rolled up King to get the pin and win.
Lee and King held the titles since July, but only defended them once in an October title defense over SOS.
ROH will put on their final show of the year with Final Battle, a pay-per-view set for Saturday, December 11th in Baltimore, Maryland. Following the event, the company will go dark for three months as they figure out what their future holds.
Ring Of Honor’s second to last special event of the year will see a main event between ROH World Champion Bandido and Flamita, as the two former Mexi-Squad partners clash in a No Disqualification non-title affair.
The show also features two championship matches – both of which are for separate Tag Team Titles. ROH World Tag Team Champions La Faccion Ingobernable (Dragon Lee & Kenny King) will defend their titles against the OGK (Matt Taven & Mike Bennett), while The Briscoes will defend their recently-won GCW Tag Team Championships against GCW stars Effy & AJ Gray. This will be the first time that Gray, Effy, or any GCW Championship has appeared on Ring Of Honor programming.
The war between Violence and Pure is set to come to a end, as the leaders of their respective stables, Jonathan Gresham and Brody King, will collide in singles action.
In women’s action, we’ll see a four way bout between Quinn McKay, Holidead, Trish Adora, and Vita VonStarr.
A rematch from 2020’s Pure Tournament will resurface as well, with Tracy Williams taking on Taylor Rust.
Our live coverage begins at 7 p.m. Eastern time.
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The announce team of Ian Riccaboni, Caprice Coleman and Brian Johnson welcome the viewers to the show. They ran down the six match card and introduced the opening match.
Taylor Rust defeated Tracy Williams in a Pure Rules match
This was a great opening match that saw both guys come out looking strong.
Williams and Rust exchanged strong strikes in the beginning stages of the bout, with Williams gaining the upper hand. Williams targeted the arm of Rust and worked tirelessly to apply a cross arm breaker and once he cinched in the hold, Rust used a rope break and rolled out of the ring.
Once Rust recovered, Williams went right back and targeted the arm with a few stomps and holds — to which Rust never found a good way to counter it. There were a few instances where Rust got some offense in, but it wasn’t much as the match stretched into the eight minute mark.
Rust used another rope break to escape a Williams headlock, which gave him a second wind. Rust threw a few kicks and punches as the two positioned themself in the corner. Rust escaped an armbar on the ropes and applied his own armbar to Williams, who used his second rope break.
As the bout reached its final stage, Williams and Rust began throwing forearms and kicks in a back and forth exchange. Rust eventually took the fighting to the mat and applied a double hook stretchy, which made Williams verbally give up.
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Holidead defeated Vita VonStarr, Quinn McKay and Trish Adora
This match never really picked up a consistent pace, but saw all four women shine in their own way.
The match was contested under Lucha Rules.
Holidead and Adora started off the bout. Holidead tried to take Adora off her feet but was met with strong resistance. Once Holidead rolled out of the ring, the “legal” women began to change rapidly with VonStarr and McKay getting a good chunk of action in.
Holidead began to dominate McKay, slamming her into the turnbuckle multiple times and delivering a suplex. McKay hurt her shoulder at one point, to which Holidead followed up with a powerbomb. Adora came in after McKay rolled out, but was also planted with a powerbomb. Holidead tagged out to VonStarr, who began to trade forearms with Adora.
Adora got the upper-hand in that exchange, which led to McKay coming back in. McKay tried a monkey flip on Adora, but ran straight into a back breaker. The match broke down at this point, with all four women getting in the ring and hitting moves. McKay hit a gorilla press slam on VonStarr and almost scored a victory, but Holidead broke up the pin.
McKay lost her focus and dove onto Adora on the outside, which allowed Holidead to hit a underhook slam on VonStarr and pin her for the win.
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GCW World Tag Team Championship Match – The Briscoes defeated AJ Gray & Effy to retain the titles
This was a great weapon fest of a match, but was way too short for my liking.
Effy and Jay started the match and immediately started throwing haymakers. Jay got overwhelmed and tagged out to Mark, who made Effy tag out after a chop. The match spilled to the outside for a short amount of time, but got back in order once Gray suplexed Mark on a chair in the ring.
The weapons began to spill out as a table was introduced. The Briscoes started just throwing chairs at both of their opponents faces, before slamming Gray into a chair positioned in the corner. A table was set up in the ring by Jay, but Effy jumped off the top rope and hit a blockbuster neck breaker – which didn’t break the table surprisingly. The move resulted in a two count after the pin was broken by Mark.
Another table was set up on the outside, which Effy ended up on. Mark hit a froggy bow elbow drop to the outside onto Effy, while Jay hit a Jay-Driller on AJ Gray which resulted in a three count and a pin.
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Jonathan Gresham defeated Brody King
This was a really good match and told the “David vs. Goliath” story to a tee.
King immediately planted Gresham with a gonzo bomb and tried to end the match within seconds, but Gresham kicked out of the pin at the very last second. King took the match to the outside and began beating down Gresham and taunting him. King slammed Gresham into two ring posts, before setting up “The Octopus” against the barricade and throwing his entire body into him.
Gresham somehow recovered and found a way to slow down King, hitting him with multiple dives to the outside. King was almost counted out, but made it back at a nineteen count.
Gresham started capitalizing off of King’s mistakes, moving out of the way when King attempted a cannonball in the corner. King attempted a senton shortly after, but Gresham moved out of harms way at the last second. Gresham unleashed a fury of offense, including a series of rapid fire MMA-like strikes. After that, King was introduced to a running forearm from Gresham that essentially knocked out him out — as he was pinned shortly after.
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ROH World Tag Team Championship match – The OGK (Matt Taven & Mike Bennett) defeated LFI (Dragon Lee & Kenny King) to win the titles
Both teams had really good pre-match promos. Kenny King said that The Kingdom used to be just Matt Taven and Mike Bennett polishing Adam Cole’s crotch, while Taven had some passionate words about wanting to win the tag titles and take them home forever.
This was a very story driven match with a lot of great action, and it tied up some loose story ends.
The legal man was kept fresh early on, with there being frequent tags between both teams. Taven dove onto both Lee and King on the outside before heading to the top rope. Taven went to attempt a spike piledriver with Bennett, but was shoved off the top at the last second.
Lee and King cut off the ring and isolated Taven. King saw most of the action, mostly resorting to submissions and wearing him down. After Taven eventually tagged out, Bennett and Lee had a fun exchange where they threw multiple forearms and German suplexes. When Lee got a chance to tag out, King planted Bennett with a powerbomb – but immediately ate a running knee strike from Taven which broke up a pin.
The match broke down and saw a lot of confusion about who the legal men were. All four men got to hit their finishers at one point, but nobody was able to capitalize. Amy Rose and Max The Impaler came to the ring and distracted King and Bestia Del Ring, which allowed Taven to roll King for the three count and the win.
After the match, Max speared King on the outside as the OGK celebrated.
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ROH World Champion Bandido defeated Flamita in a non-title no DQ match
This was a great way to close the current chapter of the Bandido/Flamita rivalry.
Flamita dominated Bandido from the start, keeping him down in the corner and using a chair to keep the advantage. Flamita specifically targeted the knee of his former partner, but that was a non factor when Bandido snatched back control after hitting a fosbury flop to the outside.
Bandido set a table up on the outside and rolled Flamita back in. Flamita superkicked Bandido and went to the top rope, but flipped off the camera and hopped down. The energy began to drain from both competitors after a spanish fly, but they both managed to roll to the outside and keep the match going.
Bandido tried to put Flamita through the table with a back drop bomb, but the table refused to break. Bandido rolled Flamita back in the ring and had a standoff before the action began to pick up speed again.
In the closing stage of the match, Flamita low blowed Bandido and rolled up him – but the “Most Wanted” was able to kick out. Bandido then positioned Flamita in the corner and went for a 21-Plex but when he got to the springboard part of the move, he low-blowed Flamita and completed the move – which resulted in the three count and the win.
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Final Thoughts:
This “pit-stop” show before Final Battle was an enjoyable watch that hosted six different matches and kept things short and sweet, clocking in at two hours on the dot.
The appearance of AJ Gray and Effy was surreal, given that ROH hasn’t participated in any of the “forbidden door” stuff. Although their match with The Briscoes was shorter than I would have liked, I enjoyed it for what it was.
The OGK winning the tag belts at the hands of an Amy Rose distraction was a cool way to tie up that story – which has been left untouched for a while.
Brody King vs. Jonathan Gresham was just a fantastic match, with an always interesting “David vs. Goliath” story.
Every other match on the card was at least good, which made the entire show a good watch overall.
Honor for All will air for HonorClub subscribers on Sunday, November 14. The six-match card for the show is listed below:
No DQ match: ROH World Champion Bandido vs. Demonic Flamita
ROH Tag Team Champions La Faccion Ingobernable (Kenny King & Dragon Lee) defend against The OGK (Matt Taven & Mike Bennett)
GCW Tag Team Champions The Briscoes (Jay & Mark Briscoe) defend against Effy & AJ Gray
Quinn McKay vs. Vita VonStarr vs. Trish Adora vs. Holidead
Taylor Rust vs. Tracy Williams
Brody King vs. Jonathan Gresham
The Briscoes won the Game Changer Wrestling Tag Team titles from The Second Gear Crew (Mance Warner & Matthew Justice) at GCW’s War Ready show on October 23. Neither Effy nor Gray have wrestled for ROH before.
ROH announced last week that it’s going on hiatus after December’s Final Battle pay-per-view and will take the first quarter of 2022 to “work internally to reimagine ROH.” ROH talent won’t have their contracts renewed after Final Battle and are able to start working wherever they want immediately.
Honor for All won’t have fans in attendance. The promotion has television tapings this month and then Final Battle in December before going on hiatus. Final Battle is being held at Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena in Baltimore on Saturday, December 11.
ROH was at the Nashville Fairgrounds Arena in Nashville, Tennessee on Sunday for their Honor for All event that streamed live on HonorClub. Ian Riccaboni and Caprice Coleman were the announce team for the night.
The Bouncers (Brawler Milonas & Beer City Bruiser) defeated Felino & Okumura and Coast 2 Coast (LSG & Shaheem Ali) in a three-way tag team match
Okumura and Felino were fun to watch in this, especially Felino when he’d work with The Bouncers. On commentary, Riccaboni mentioned how he thought he’d seen one of Dalton Castle’s ex-Boys watching this match in the wings. Riccaboni did an excellent job introducing the television crowd to both Felino and Okumura when they were in the ring.
For some reason, the crowd was absolutely dead at points in this. They’d come alive for big spots and some comedy spots. The Bouncers hit Closing Time (Smoking Gunns’ Sidewinder) on Ali for the win, then The Bouncers and the CMLL team shared beers afterwards.
– ROH announced that the ROH Six-Man Tag Team title match between Villain Enterprises and LifeBlood was off due to PCO’s injury from the night before. PCO smashed his face on the floor when he “malfunctioned” and did a tope to the wrong side of the ring.
PCO then came to the ring and the crowd erupted. It was like a completely different crowd in the building — they sure liked PCO. He started throwing chairs into the ring and shoved people around the ringside area.
PCO grabbed the mic. ROH security came to the ring, so PCO took everyone out by himself. After all of that, he put the last crew member through a table with a cannonball senton from the top rope to the floor.
Flip Gordon came out and PCO pushed him until Gordon could remind him who he was, that he was part of Villain Enterprises. He showed PCO his T-shirt and then PCO “snapped out of it,” but PCO kept selling his head like he was a confused, brainwashed monster. With the giant gash over his eye and forehead, PCO really does look like Frankenstein.
Joe Hendry & Dalton Castle defeated Cheeseburger & Eli Isom
Castle grabbed the microphone before the match and said that he usually sleeps 16 hours a night, but last night he could only sleep eight hours because he kept thinking about what happened between him and the most recent addition to ROH’s roster, Joe Hendry.
Like we mentioned at Saturday Night at Center Stage, Hendry sings his new ROH theme song and even made a music video to go along with it, which has lyrics that go “I believe in Joe Hendry” and cues in the video to the audience to sway back and forth like you’d see at an Amy Grant concert in 1994.
It’s hard to get Hendry’s theme song out of my head. The two went back and forth while Isom stood in the corner. They argued about Saturday night, with Castle explaining that Hendry probably didn’t really understand what Castle is capable of, so he invited him to take a seat in the front row and watch him kick the crap out of Isom.
Hendry explained that he understood just fine and that he is more entertaining than Castle. His new catchphrase is actually more of a melody, where he screams his name and then sings “So prestigious.” The crowd didn’t sing along tonight and Castle called him on it later, explaining that he was the “cumin in this curry” and that without Castle, “this place would taste disgusting.”
Hendry offered to wrestle Isom instead of Castle and told him to sit and watch as he showed the crowd how good he was. Isom finally pushed both apart and grabbed the mic and pretty much told them to stop bickering and grow up. He then challenged both Castle and Hendry to a tag team match against him and his trainer, Cheeseburger.
Hendry tried really hard to get the crowd to do the “So prestigious“ thing. Riccaboni put both Castle and Hendry over for their amateur wrestling backgrounds.
Castle and Eli Isom were good together when they were in the ring. Hendry did a delayed vertical suplex to Cheeseburger and did the arm-swaying gesture with one arm. He and Castle argued for a while so Cheeseburger could crawl away and tag out to Isom, who tore through both guys for a minute until the match fell to the floor.
Castle and Hendry inadvertently saved each other from Isom and Cheeseburger outside the ring, then argued some more until Isom landed a moonsault from the corner to the outside. Momentum shifted quickly, though. When Castle went for the Bang-a-Rang on Isom, Hendry pulled Isom off and hit a Codebreaker on him to win the match. Castle complained that he could have done it as Hendry smirked his way to the back.
This angle is interesting, but it’s ironic that of all promotions, Ring of Honor is the one with a new program centered on who’s more entertaining than who, making it feel like a polished WWE or TNA segment. It’s too soon to tell whether it’ll pan out, but for tonight I think it was fine. And Hendry’s theme is still stuck in my head, unfortunately.
Angelina Love defeated Jenny Rose, Sumie Sakai, and Damaris Dawkins in a four-way match
Kelly Klein joined Riccaboni and Coleman on commentary for this next match. This was Dawkins’ ROH debut. Riccaboni mentioned that a few members of her family were professional boxers from the Philadelphia area and that she’s been mentored by Sumie Sakai and Cheeseburger at the Worldwide Dojo in Bristol, Pennsylvania.
Love cut a promo in the ring saying that she didn’t feel like she needed to be in the match because she’d pinned Klein at Best in the World and already beat Sakai the night before in Atlanta. When The Allure tried heading to the back, Dawkins and Rose chased after them and threw them back in the ring and the match was on.
Dawkins was okay but green. When she was in with Sakai she looked better. They did a four-way headscissors submission spot. Love tried sneaking a chair in the ring, and while the ref was distracted, Mandy Leon sprayed Sakai in the face with perfume and neutralized her out of the match. Love then hit the Botox Injection running kick on Dawkins to win.
The lights went out and then Maria Manic was standing in the ring. The Allure ran to the back while Manic did a double-handed chokeslam to Dawkins and then took out Rose after she’d laid in a few elbows.
Klein left the broadcast area and confronted Manic in the ring. When Klein tossed her Women of Honor title belt to the canvas, Love snuck into the ring, grabbed the belt, and knocked Klein out from behind with it. Manic then chased The Allure to the back while Klein sold the belt shot in the ring.
PJ Black defeated Silas Young (w/ Josh Woods)
Woods is acting as Silas Young’s assistant since Saturday night. Young yelled at Woods for not being in the right spots he needed to be in when Young wanted to cheat. Woods said his shoes were untied. “Safety first,” Woods said.
This is the third singles match I’ve seen between these two in the past month or two. The only real differences were that Black finally got a win and the Woods angle. Woods kept teasing like he’d go after Black but was conflicted. Riccaboni put him over as a nice guy. Moments later, Black won out of nowhere with a cradle.
Young berated Woods after the match and told him to “be a heel.”
– The Bouncers joined the broadcast team and brought beers for Coleman and Riccaboni. Both ROH announcers declined the offer but all four toasted. The Bouncers grabbed the two extra beers for themselves.
Rush defeated Vinny Marseglia
This wasn’t bad. Rush was great and this was one of the best matches I’ve seen from Marseglia.
Rush kicked up the tempo of this early on. He tried hard to get the crowd into it, but this place sounded empty. Marseglia landed a cutter on the floor and started beating on him. He whipped Rush into the barricade. Back in the ring, he choked Rush with his handkerchief.
Rush fired back up and swore at Marseglia in Spanish. Aside from Riccaboni, the commentary was really bad during this. Marseglia was bleeding from the nose or lip towards the end of the match and he started licking his blood before Rush hit the Bull’s Horns dropkick to win.
Rush stepped on Marseglia’s face and posed before he left.
ROH TV Champion Shane Taylor defeated Chase Owens to retain his title
This was good. Owens won a qualifying match in Atlanta over PJ Black and LSG for the title shot here. He’s a really smooth wrestler, it’s a shame we don’t see him in more singles matches.
Taylor is another one who’s been underrated this year, especially when it comes to being able to trash talk and sound intimidating on the fly, it feels organic. Taylor got the win with Greetings from 216.
ROH Tag Team Champions The Briscoes (Jay & Mark Briscoe) defeated The Rock ’n’ Roll Express (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson) to retain their titles
This had no business being as good as it was. It was short but had so much energy you’d think you just got out of a time machine. I can’t believe even for one millisecond I was duped into thinking The Rock ’n’ Roll Express would actually win. Impressed.
The crowd woke up for The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express before the match got started. There were lots of “Rock ’n’ Roll” chants but also a good number of “Man up” chants in support of The Briscoes.
Morton and Jay Briscoe were in together. Morton was great, really. Not exaggerating. I mean he’s not Will Ospreay or something, but considering all the variables, he was great. Morton didn’t have to do all that much because The Briscoes are so good. The crowd sounded completely different here than from the other matches.
The teams started brawling on the floor and eventually Mark Briscoe went to do a Froggy Bow to Morton through a table, but Gibson pushed him off and Mark flipped through the table. When The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express hit the double dropkick on Jay, both Coleman and Riccaboni authentically sounded like they’d lost it. Coleman was shrieking.
Things settled for a second after Jay kicked out and then Mark eventually landed a Froggy Bow on Morton to win. They all shook hands after the match.
Villain Enterprises (Brody King & Marty Scurll) defeated LifeBlood (Bandido & Mark Haskins)
Scurll played the relentless heel role. Him and Haskins have very good chemistry. Haskins used a Boston crab on Scurll, who was lying on top of King. Scurll later got the whole crowd going wild before he was about to do the chicken wing spot, but Haskins blocked the attempt with a leg lariat.
When Bandido went to catch King off the ropes, he dropped him. The whole spot fell apart. They recovered quickly when Haskins and Bandido forced the double tope suicida to the floor. The Villain Enterprises team used some really cool double-team moves, innovative kind of things.
The last half of this match saw everyone exchange huge moves for about five minutes until Bandido hit the 21-Plex and Haskins followed up with his modified Sharpshooter to tap Scurll. LifeBlood will get a shot at The Briscoes’ ROH Tag Team titles.
Jeff Cobb defeated ROH World Champion Matt Taven, Kenny King (w/ Amy Rose), and Jay Lethal in a Defy or Deny match
The stipulation for Defy or Deny matches is that — if the champion doesn’t win — the winner will get a future shot at their title. If the champion wins, whoever is eliminated last can’t challenge for their title as long as they’re champion.
This started off really similar to the Defy or Deny match in Portland back in June with Taven talking trash at his three opponents and then getting beat up. Him and King were in first. Lethal and Cobb were good together and Cobb even attempted a cartwheel into a standing moonsault. Later he ragdolled Taven across the ring.
Taven and King formed a brief truce until King schoolboyed Taven. They started arguing and then Lethal decked King. Cobb later caught King off the ropes in a vertical suplex hold. King countered with an inside cradle.
Taven hit Cobb with the ROH World title and got disqualified. King then hit Lethal with the belt and used the Royal Flush to eliminate Lethal. After another few minutes, Cobb destroyed King with a snap German suplex and then planted him into the mat with Tour of the Islands to win the match. Cobb is now in line for a shot at the ROH World Championship.
Final thoughts —
The in-ring work was decent from beginning to end. The show was definitely stronger in the last 90 minutes or so, and while the crowd was enthusiastic in general, the low draw was audibly noticeable and made for an awkward presentation at times.
I don’t believe I’m saying this, but The Rock ’n’ Roll Express had the most exciting match of the show with their bout with The Briscoes. Cobb winning tonight’s main event means we’ll see another shot at Taven for him coming soon. The next ROH shows will be their joint events with CMLL, the Global Wars Espectacular tour that begins on September 6 in Dearborn, Michigan.
A Hall of Fame tag team is set to challenge for the ROH Tag titles later this month.
ROH announced today that The Briscoes (Jay & Mark) will defend their titles against The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson) at Honor for All in Nashville, Tennessee on Sunday, August 25. The show is taking place at the Nashville Fairgrounds Sports Arena and will air live on HonorClub.
The Briscoes vs. Rock ‘n’ Roll Express is a rematch from this year’s Crockett Cup. The Briscoes defeated Morton & Gibson in the first round of the tournament.
The Briscoes won the ROH Tag Team titles by defeating Guerrillas of Destiny in a New York City street fight at Manhattan Mayhem in July. A rematch then took place at Summer Supercard last Friday, with The Briscoes retaining in a Ladder War.
Here’s the updated lineup for Honor for All:
ROH Six-Man Tag Team Champions Villain Enterprises (Marty Scurll, PCO & Brody King) defending against LifeBlood (Bandido, Mark Haskins & Tracy Williams)
ROH Tag Team Champions The Briscoes defending against The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express
ROH World Champion Matt Taven vs. Jay Lethal vs. Jeff Cobb vs. Kenny King in a Defy or Deny elimination match (If Taven doesn’t win, the winner will get a future shot at his title. If Taven wins, whoever is eliminated last can’t challenge for the title as long as Taven is champion)
ROH Television Champion Shane Taylor defending against the winner of Chase Owens vs. PJ Black vs. LSG from ROH’s television tapings in Atlanta, Georgia on August 24
The ROH Six-Man Tag Team titles will be on the line at Honor for All later this month.
ROH has announced that Six-Man Tag Team Champions Villain Enterprises (Marty Scurll, PCO & Brody King) will defend their titles against LifeBlood (Bandido, Mark Haskins & Tracy Williams) at Honor for All. The show is taking place at the Nashville Fairgrounds Sports Arena in Nashville, Tennessee on Sunday, August 25 and will air live on HonorClub.
Villain Enterprises were supposed to defend their titles against LifeBlood at Mass Hysteria last month, but Brody King couldn’t wrestle at the show due to an ankle injury. The night before Mass Hysteria, LifeBlood & PJ Black defeated Villain Enterprises (Scurll, PCO, King & Flip Gordon) at Manhattan Mayhem.
Villain Enterprises retained against Haskins, Williams & Black at June’s Best in the World pay-per-view. LifeBlood then defeated Villain Enterprises in a non-title street fight at the post-PPV television tapings.
Scurll vs. Bandido has been confirmed for ROH’s tapings at Center Stage in Atlanta, Georgia on Saturday, August 24. ROH announced last month that the top matches from their TV tapings will be live streamed on HonorClub going forward.
Image: NWA. Live notes from Lee Thomas contributed to this report.
– Jay Lethal, who recently denied the allegations that he told Taeler Hendrix she was taken off television due to not sleeping with him, was conspicuous by his absence as he was scheduled to defend the ROH World Championship against Silas Young at one point. It will be interesting to see if he’s at tonight’s TV tapings in Atlanta.
Hendrix made the allegations earlier this month after departing ROH in April 2017. She claimed that she left “once the office did nothing” about the situation.
– Dark match: The Boys defeated The Carnies (Nick Iggy & Kerry Awful)
The Boys won with a middle turnbuckle codebreaker. The Carnies had a decent amount of fans since they are fairly well known in local circles.
– ROH Television Champion Punishment Martinez defeated Scorpio Sky to retain his title
Martinez retained with the South of Heaven chokeslam shortly after hitting a stomp on the apron.
– Women of Honor Champion Sumie Sakai defeated Karen Q in a Proving Ground match
Karen Q would have gotten a future title shot if she won, but Sakai pinned her here.
Q brought a chair into the ring and put the Women of Honor title belt on the apron. When the referee took the chair, she threw the belt to Sakai and faked like Sakai was trying to use it. Q attempted to capitalize on the distraction, but Sakai countered into the pin.
– Jonathan Gresham defeated Shane Taylor, Kenny King, and Chris Sabin in a four corner survival match
Taylor took King and Sabin out with a cannonball off the apron before throwing them into the guardrails. Gresham then dove like he was going for a suicide dive but jumped on Taylor and put him in a sleeper. He had been going for the sleeper earlier in the match. Taylor got back in the ring with Gresham still having the hold locked on. The referee called for the bell as Taylor passed out.
It was hyped that Gresham put himself in TV title contention with the win.
– Chuckie T defeated Bully Ray by DQ
Before the match, Bully Ray disingenuously said he has no problems with Taylor because he’s not a young boy and came up in the business correctly, is a fan of some of the things Taylor has done, and mentioned that PWG is kind of like ECW. He said he’d be more than happy to wrestle Taylor, but Taylor asked if Bully thinks he’s an idiot. He said he’s seen what Bully has done and none of the wrestlers want him in ROH anymore.
Bully pushed referee Todd Sinclair into the ropes to crotch Taylor near the start of the match. Bully then low blowed Taylor for the disqualification.
Bully pushed Sinclair down after and started hitting Taylor with a chain. Colt Cabana tried to make the save but was beaten down as well. Trent Barreta made his return from injury, spearing Bully and chasing him off.
– Silas Young, Beer City Bruiser & The Dawgs (Rhett Titus & Will Ferrara) defeated Cheeseburger, Eli Isom, Ryan Nova & FR Josie
Bruiser pinned Josie with a frog splash following a powerbomb from Young.
– Marty Scurll defeated Vinny Marseglia
Matt Taven was supposed to face Scurll, but he came out without wrestling gear on and holding a bag. He said the real ROH World title was in it, claiming that the company is holding him down and he should have won the last title match. He refused to reveal the title in a city like Nashville.
Taven said Scurll has failed whenever he’s challenged for the title and doesn’t deserve to face the real champion. He joined in on commentary after bringing Marseglia out to face Scurll.
Scurll countered into a chicken wing for the submission finish. Taven and TK O’Ryan ran in to attack Scurll after, with Cody Rhodes coming in to make the save. Officials broke things up until only Cody and O’Ryan were left.
– Cody defeated TK O’Ryan
Brandi Rhodes and Burnard the Business Bear came out during the match to accompany Cody. O’Ryan taunted Brandi and hit Cody with the Six-Man Tag Team title belt when Brandi tried to get into the ring, but he only got a two count.
O’Ryan shoved the referee and the referee shoved him back, with Cody rolling up O’Ryan for a near fall. Cody then hit Cross Rhodes to win.
– NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis defeated Flip Gordon to retain his title
Cody stuck around on commentary for this match. The story of it was that Gordon didn’t win the title and failed to secure his place on All In, but he seemingly earned Cody’s respect.
The match was restarted at one point. Aldis hit a piledriver and an elbow drop, but Gordon’s foot was on the rope when Aldis pinned him. Cody joined the referees who were discussing the finish, pointing out that the pin shouldn’t have counted. Gordon got a close near fall with the Star Spangled Stunner, but he passed out in a cloverleaf for the finish.
Both Aldis and Cody showed Gordon respect after the match. Cody raised Gordon’s hand and then left, with Bully Ray coming out and attacking Gordon to continue their feud.
– The Young Bucks defeated ROH Tag Team Champions The Briscoes and SoCal Uncensored (Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian) in a non-title three-way match
All of the Bullet Club guys on the show were really over. The Young Bucks hit the Meltzer Driver on Mark Briscoe to win a fun main event.
After the match, Daniels and Kazarian hung around while The Young Bucks put them over on the microphone. SCU were almost babyface-like in their thanks, but they did their gimmick where they said Nashville was the worst town they’ve ever wrestled in.
The storyline of Flip Gordon trying to get booked for All In will continue at Ring of Honor’s show in Nashville, Tennessee later this month.
At the end of a video that was uploaded by the NWA today, it was revealed that NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis’ next title defense will be against Gordon at “Honor for All” on July 20. The show is taking place at the Municipal Auditorium in Nashville and will air live on HonorClub.
The storyline is that Cody Rhodes won’t book Gordon for All In, and Gordon has fallen short in every opportunity he’s been given to be added to the show. But whoever is NWA Champion on September 1 will defend the title against Cody at All in.
ROH Television Champion Punishment Martinez defending against Scorpio Sky, Women of Honor Champion Sumie Sakai vs. Karen Q in a non-title match, ROH Tag Team Champions The Briscoes vs. The Young Bucks vs. Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian in a non-title match, Marty Scurll vs. Matt Taven, Cody vs. TK O’Ryan, and Kenny King vs. Shane Taylor vs. Chris Sabin vs. Jonathan Gresham are also set for Honor for All.
