The show opened with Jay Lethal announcing that tonight would be the annual Christmas Surprise 10-man tag team match. He and Matt Taven will each open gifts throughout the show and each gift will contain the name of a wrestler to join their team.
Lethal was thrilled to be opening gifts, and Taven was rather displeased that he could end up with “melvins” on his team.
Ian Riccaboni, Colt Cabana, and Caprice Coleman called the action from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This episode was taped on November 3.
The Twisted Sisterz (Holidead & Thunder Rosa) defeated Dr. Britt Baker & Madison Rayne
This one started off hot as Baker nailed a superkick and Rayne followed it up with a dive onto both of their opponents on the outside.
Back inside, Holidead planted Rayne with a sit-down facebuster slam and tagged in Rosa. They teamed up for an assisted senton drop on Rayne, which earned Rosa a two count. The Sisterz kept up the assault throughout the commercial break. Finally, Rayne hit a jawbreaker to make the tag. Baker came in and delivered slingblades to both Holidead and Rosa.
The Sisterz hit Celebrity Rehab on Baker and nearly ended the match, but Rayne broke it up. She landed a split-leg dropkick, but Rosa cut her off with a cradle driver. The Sisterz hit another driver and followed up with a double stomp off the top onto Baker for the win.
Lethal and Taven were shown opening gifts. Lethal was happy with his partners and Taven was not. After the break, Lethal was bummed about not drawing Cheeseburger, but then Coleman showed up and gave him a secret gift. Inside, it was the name “Cheeseburger.” Lethal was elated.
Christmas Surprise 10-man tag team match: Jay Lethal, Cheeseburger, Rhett Titus, Vinny Marseglia & Jeff Cobb defeated Matt Taven, Brian Milonas, Jonathan Gresham, Beer City Bruiser & Marty Scurll
There was a lot of dissension among both teams before the match began, primarily based on who was wearing the sillier Christmas outfit. Lethal and Gresham, who have recently been partners, started it off with some fancy chain wrestling.
Gresham tagged to Bruiser. Lethal lit him up with chops. Cheeseburger was then tagged in by Lethal. Bruiser tagged in Taven, who immediately tagged out to Milonas. This left the smallest man in the ring paired with the largest.
Cheeseburger snatched a side headlock and Milonas lifted him up with one arm. Cheeseburger then used his speed to make Milonas chase him until he ran out of gas and collapsed. Titus jumped in the ring and didn’t even bother to tag Cheeseburger. The two of them decided to have a go at suplexing the big man, but that failed.
After a five-man suplex, Marseglia got in with an ax and Scurll squared up with a candy cane, then switched to a real cane. Scurll tagged Taven so the two Kingdom members would have to face each other. Marseglia went to tag out as instructed by Taven, but as he went to make a tag, his team jumped off the apron. Taven’s team followed suit.
Taven and Marseglia did a criss-cross spot until they slid out and started a brawl with everyone on the outside. It was chaos. Nine of the ten men gathered to brawl, which allowed Bruiser to hit a dive off the top turnbuckle onto everyone.
After the commercial, Lethal launched everyone out of the corner one at a time to connect with big splashes on Taven. All of Lethal’s team members hit a big move and all went for the cover on Taven, but Gresham broke it up. A parade of finishers were exchanged by each team, leading to Cobb tagging himself in leaving him alone with Milonas, even though Bruiser was the legal man.
Incredibly, Cobb managed to heave Milonas up for a pumphandle suplex and tossed him overhead. He gave Bruiser an impressive Tour of the Islands, earning Lethal’s team the win.
When Daniel Bryan announced his emotional return to the ring, it was fairly inconceivable that he’d end up being a vicious and pompous environmentalist heel just eight months later. But the character change has revitalized Bryan and taken him to the highest points since the immediate aftermath of announcing his comeback. With Bryan completely buying into the change, “the new Daniel Bryan” has been far better in execution than it would have sounded on paper.
A look at New Japan going into the Tokyo Dome, notes on lots of new television deals and a story on the life of Larry Hennig heads up this week’s issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Our lead story is a preview of the Wrestle Kingdom 13 show, with the lineup, storylines, tag team tournament rundown, this weekend’s shows and full coverage of the tag team tournament finals with match-by-match coverage, star ratings and poll results.
Look at the glory days of the AWA with a story on the life of Larry Hennig. Start with his legit sports background, why he never wrestled or played football in college, how he got started in pro wrestling, and his rise to fame as a heel in the AWA.
Look at one of the 60s most successful tag teams, Harley Race & Larry Hennig, and their feud with Dick the Bruiser & The Crusher. Also look at the rest of Hennig’s career all over the world.
Also look at the future of Matt Hardy & Bray Wyatt, George Bush’s connection to pro wrestling, WWE week on USA, WWE rules for what U.K. talent can do, injury and illness updates, John Cena talks on future, notes on and WWE tryouts.
Also look at ONE attempting to become a significant player on the U.S. scene with its deal with TNT, its big signings, but also a look at the company’s real economic numbers.
ORDERING INFO: Order the print Wrestling Observer right now and get it delivered via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to Dave Meltzer, or by using PayPal directing funds to [email protected].
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TUESDAY NEWS UPDATE
WWE
Next week’s Christmas day edition of SmackDown is being taped at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, California after tonight’s episode.
Today is Steve Austin’s 54th birthday, Trish Stratus’ 43rd birthday, and RVD’s 48th birthday.
Dixie Carter congratulated EC3 on being called up to the main roster: “So proud of you E! Congrats to @wwe too… Can’t wait to watch you hold those major titles in the air. Love you, Aunt D #toponepercent #wwe #raw #smackdown”
Today’s Hidden Gem is a Christmas night 1983 match from Mid-South Pro Wrestling, with then tag team champions Butch Reed and Jim Neidhart defending the titles against Magnum TA and Mr. Wrestling II.
WWE Network News reported that tomorrow’s Hidden Gems addition will be an AWA Christmas night event from 1983 featuring a Nick Bockwinkel vs. Mad Dog Vachon AWA title match. Just over an hour of the show will be uploaded.
After it was set up at their TV tapings over the weekend, ROH announced that Jay Lethal will defend his ROH World Championship against Dalton Castle at Honor Reigns Supreme in Concord, North Carolina on January 13.
Jon Jones’ coach Brandon Gibson feels that the constant layoffs that Jon Jones had had due to various problems actually benefits him in terms of competition. “He’s not getting concussions,” he told Luke Thomas. “He’s taking care of his body and his mind, and this is such a — at this top one percent, these guys are tough. That’s not an aspect that comes with sparring or anything like that. The time off where we’re not having impact, where his body’s not getting beaten up and broken down, where we’re just continuing to evolve the skill and the technique and the strategy and develop Jon that much more as a martial artist is key. And you said he’s 31, he has a long fight career ahead of him still, and he really feels like this time off has prolonged his career that much more.
Conor McGregor says he’s “launching rockets in 19’”.
A featherweight match between Jeremy Stephens and Zabit Magomedsharipov has been confirmed for UFC 235.
Marina Rodriguez has pulled out of a scheduled February 2nd strawweight fight in Brazil against Alexa Grasso due to what is being reported as a hand injury. It isn’t known if she will be replaced or if the match will be scrapped.
JacksonWink and American Top Team’s Instagram accounts have been taken down due to UFC content.
Former UFC fighter Chris Leben was on the Comedy Suplex Podcart episode 78 promoting his upcoming appearance for FIST Combat, this Thursday, December 20, at “Jolt’n Joes” in La Mesa, CA.
Final Battle 2018 takes place at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City tonight.
With the future of the four Elite members not yet officially announced, Cody Rhodes, The Young Bucks, and Hangman Page will all be challenging for titles tonight. In the main event, Jay Lethal will defend his ROH World Championship against Cody.
SoCal Uncensored (Scorpio Sky & Frankie Kazarian) will defend their Tag Team titles against The Young Bucks and The Briscoes in Ladder War VII, and Page is challenging for Jeff Cobb’s Television title.
The Women of Honor World Championship will also be on the line as Sumie Sakai defends against Madison Rayne, Karen Q, and Kelly Klein in a four corner survival match.
Also on the card: Marty Scurll faces Christopher Daniels (with Scurll’s future ROH World Championship shot on the line), Matt Taven takes on Dalton Castle, Zack Sabre Jr. makes his ROH debut against Jonathan Gresham, Bully Ray and Flip Gordon’s feud continues with an I Quit match, and Kenny King vs. Eli Isom opens the four-hour broadcast.
Our live coverage begins at 8 p.m. Eastern time.
**********
Show Recap:
The show kicked off with a video package detailing the angles between Cody and Jay Lethal, Dalton Castle and Matt Taven, and the three-way ladder match between the the Young Bucks, SCU and the Briscoes.
1) Kenny King defeated Eli Isom
The Hammerstein Ballroom was loud and lively at the beginning of the show.
King grabbed the mic and cut a promo on Isom and Jay Lethal. He said he really didn’t need to be at the show tonight because he wasn’t getting a title shot. He then attacked Isom with the mic before the bell.
Colt Cabana called Kenny King “a star” on commentary.
King got pretty loud heat throughout this match, and was quite good outside the ring with the crowd work.
King clubbed and stomped on Isom at the start. Isom later did a big plancha onto King.
A few audience members in the front row kept screaming “KENNY’s SISTER!” and “You SUCK!”
Isom received scattered chants throughout the match. He did a few cool moves, including a high angle belly-to-belly suplex and a power bomb.
King had Isom beat but wanted to make a point of punishing him. Isom reversed the momentum with a Gory Special Bomb.
Shortly after. King used Darkness Falls on Isom for the pin. This match was totally fine, with better heat than you’d expect at the beginning of a show.
2) TV Title Match: Jeff Cobb defeated Adam Page
Quick promo package on Cobb and Page before the match. Page threatened to jump off a balcony at Hammerstein tonight.
Page dropkicked Cobb out of the ring, then tried to his the shooting star shoulder block off the apron, but Cobb reversed it into a belly-to-belly. The crowd lost it for this. ROH replayed the entire sequence.
Cobb used a flying European uppercut on Page. The crowd was hot at this point and split between the two.
Cobb later used a beautiful dropkick to Page when Page sat on the top turnbuckle. He then deadlift super-plex for, like, 30 seconds, then did a standing moonsault. He then missed a standing shooting star press. Wow.
The crowd was completely split at this point. Page reversed Cobb’s crossbody block by rolling through, then deadlifting Cobb into a fall-away slam. Unreal strength on Page’s part here.
More insanity on Page’s part in the following moments after a tope suicida and and a Orihara moonsault to the outside to Cobb, and later *two* standing shooting star presses, all for a two count.
Cobb used a swinging backdrop suplex and then the Owen Hart Summerslam 1997 tombstone piledriver on Page. The crowd did a “this is awesome” chant afterwards.
There was a ton of back-and-forth towards the end. Page countered Tour of the Islands into a crucifix for two and the crowd was on their feet. Cobb then used two Tour of the Islands on Page for the win.
This was an excellent match with tons of top-tier athleticism. Both wrestlers are studs. There wasn’t a story going into this match, really, but it didn’t matter. Very, very good stuff.
3) Women of Honor title four-way match: Kelly Klein defeated Sumie Sakai, Madison Rayne and Karen Q
Mandy Leon was on commentary for this match.
Everyone brawled at the beginning inside the ring, and Sakai did a missile dropkick to the floor early on.
Karen Q did a double Boston Crab on Sakai and Rayne. Q and Klein cut a truce and double teamed Rayne for a bit, Q accidentally hit Klein later on.
Klein did a huge double power bomb to Q and Rayne. Each wrestler did a handful of each of their highest spots, and while the crowd popped for the moves, they were mostly quiet for the majority of this match.
Karen Q used K Power on Karen Q to eliminate her from the match first. Sakai did Smash Mouth to Rayne, but Klein threw Sakai off and nabbed the pin for herself. The crowd was groaned.
Klein and Sakai went stiffer in their exchanges and submissions towards the end. Klein kicked out of Smash Mouth; Sakai kicked out of a power bomb pin combo and K Power. Klein eventually won with an avalanche K Power. Klein shook hands with and hugged Sakai after the match.
This was all right, but much more interesting in the last ten minutes. The crowd was more into these two than the four-way itself. The first half of this match was fine in the ring but the crowd was obviously burnt out from the Cobb-Page affair. Klein was booked like a monster here and the finish made sense. Not bad at all but not really worth going out of your way for.
4) Zack Sabre Jr defeated Jonathan Gresham
Sabre smacked Gresham before the match. After the bell, they had a long catch style sequence. If this is your kind of thing, these two are probably the best in the world right now at this British/UWFi grapple style. The first pinfall didn’t come for at least five minutes into the beginning of this sequence.
The obvious story here was that Zack is the big bully and Gresham is the scrappy tactician. ZSJ was in full Suzuki-gun mode in that he laid everyone strike into Gresham, every sub applied was tight. Everything between the two was crisp.
They had an insane slap boxing sequence and it looked like Gresham might have gotten his bell rung. His face was visibly red and a bit swollen, and his mouth was bloody.
After a series of reversals, Gresham attempted to use Sabre’s signature back bridge pin, though Sabre reversed back into his own, folded his arms, and got the pin and the win.
Terrific technical match with brutal striking all throughout. If you liked ZSJ and Minoru Suzuki’s tag league match in last week’s World Tag League, this is a must-watch.
5) Matt Taven w/ TK O’Ryan defeated Dalton Castle w/ The Boys
TK O’Ryan came out and had Bobby Cruise to announce that Taven is the “real” world champion.
Taven came out wearing two championship belts and a crown. Taven had Bobby Cruise announce that this match was for his purple title.
The two got into it early and did some fast-paced brawling in and out of the ring. Taven did a Disaster Kick to Castle while he was on the apron, but the Boys caught Castle and tossed him back into the ring.
Taven did a huge plancha to the outside but Castle moved out of the way. Taven landed on guardrail ribs-first. Brutal.
Castle with a running knee off the apron after this, but Taven later reversed things by throwing Castle into the entrance stairs, which also looked rough. The crowd was pretty awake by this point.
The Boys got involved when TK O’Ryan was trying to interfere. Vinny Marseglia appeared from under the ring with some balloons and did a double inverted DDT to the Boys, then dragged them under the ring. I guess he saw the It remake.
There were more schmozzy antics happening outside the ring after this, and later Castle did a Bang-a-rang into the ring post to Taven, knocking him out almost completely.
TK O’Ryan took one of the Boys and threw him, literally threw him, into the ring at Castle to break up the pin. O’Ryan was ejected by referee Paul Turner after this.
Taven later kicked out of a Bang-a-rang, then hit Just the Tip and Climax for the win. This was good, fast paced brawl, though I am not sure what’s in store for Castle in 2019 considering tonight’s booking.
6) Marty Scurll defeated Christopher Daniels via submission
Interesting note: Scurll is wearing blue tights that read “VILLAIN ENTERPRISES” on them. No references to Elite I could see.
The crowd mostly shouted each wrestlers’ catchphrases and gimmicks as the two mat wrestled for the first few minutes. The pace is slow but deliberate and allowed the crowd some breathing room, easing them into the match.
Daniels later did an Arabian Press to the outside. It looks just as it did 15 years ago; I can’t believe he still even does it.
Scurll played hard heel midway through the match. He got in some fans’ faces after super kicking Daniels in the face on the apron, his usual spot.
Things slowed down for a while after some work outside the ring. Daniels sold his neck throughout. Daniels used a Blue Thunder bomb, but Scurll did a Kobashi-style half-nelson suplex for two. He later used a rolling elbow, Misawa-style, on Daniels. I go through AJPW phases too, man.
Burning Hammer from Daniels after that and now I’m starting to think it’s all a rib. Someone should check the old Misawa-Kobashi matches from 97–98 to see if that’s what they were referencing specifically.
Scurll did the finger snap spot which he’d been teasing for a few moments. Daniels used Angel’s Wings for two and Cabana sold it well on commentary, explaining that Daniels couldn’t lock his hands together because of the finger spot.
Scurll used Graduation for only two. The crowd was back and in pretty much full support of Daniels and SCU.
The crowd chanted “Happy New Year” at Scurll, in reference to the angle he’s doing on Being the Elite. He retaliated by stomping on Daniels neck, then putting him in a chicken wing for the win via submission.
The crowd threw streamers into the ring after the match for Daniels and chanted “Thank you, Daniels.” Bully Ray came out and low blow’d Daniels as he stood on the ropes. Ray got massive heat for this.
7) I Quit match: Flip Gordon defeated Bully Ray
Bully Ray called Flip Gordon out after the low blow. Gordon came out in military tactical gear and a giant United States flag and walked from the balcony to the ring.
Gordon attacked Ray immediately. On the outside of the ring, Gordon did a Van Daminator and got an “RVD” chant.
Gordon’s girlfriend sat at ringside. They set up a table in front of her and teased a table spot early.
After Ray smashed Gordon over the head with a chain, he started screaming at Cary Silkin. Bobby Cruise and then Todd Sinclair tried to get him to cut it out but Ray bowled both of them over. He then tried to hit him with a cane but Christopher Daniels jumped in front and took the cane shot himself.
Bully Ray threatened to power bomb Flip’s “girlfriend” and tried getting him to say “I quit,” but Cary Silkin hit Ray with a Cane. The two started screaming at each other and Flip’s Girlfriend gave Ray a low blow from behind. Gordon smooched his Girlfriend for a nice long full shot.
Gordon came back and hit Ray with the US flag, then put Ray in a crossface with the stick’s end. Silas Young came out and attacked Flip. Cheeseburger attacked Young, but Young gave him Misery and rolled him out. Colt Cabana came in and hit Young with a chair.
The lights eventually went out and the Sandman appeared in the ring when they came back on. He did Sandman things, like spitting beer into Ray’s face and then smashing the can into his face. He gave his kendo stick to Flip who proceded to beat Bully Ray until he audibly gave up.
This was pure insanity. It was exactly, *exactly* like something you’d see in late ‘90s ECW; same structure, same overlapping angles via schmozzes within the match; a blackout surprise appearance. Fun match to watch and I’m sure was a blast to see live.
8) ROH World Heavyweight Title match: Jay Lethal defeated Cody w/ Brandi Rhodes via submission
Cody and Brandi Rhodes came out in GI Joe or Rambo cosplay and looked sharp. During the ring announcements, Cody received the hero’s welcome even though Lethal was is from Elizabeth, NJ. Cody defused the situation by telling the crowd to kiss his ass because he’s not coming to the MSG show in April. Lethal grabbed the mic and told Cody that ROH was his company and that once he’s done with Cody the “old toy” would be “dead and gone.”
With Cody’s eyepatch and gauntlets off, he looked very much like Guile from Street Fighter II in the ring. For what that’s worth.
Cody and Brandi jogged around the ring, taunting Lethal. Cody got into it with a fan, too: After shaking hands with the guy in the front row, he grabbed his beer and tossed it onto the fan. Just fantastic stuff.
On commentary, Caprice Coleman compared Jay Lethal to a parfait, with regard to the many layers of his offense.
The pace was slower in this one. It felt like an early ‘90s WCW match at times, with everything looking snug and deliberate, all with a handful of simple high spots mixed into the sequences at the halfway point.
Brandi Rhodes did an awesome spear to Jay Lethal behind the ref’s back . Yeah, you read that correctly. Cody used CrossRhodes for a close two-count.
Jay Lethal teased doing Shattered Dreams. Brandi used another spear, but this time on Cody, accidentally. Sinclair went to DQ Cody for the interferon but Lethal waved him off. They continued the match, and Lethal went for Lethal Injection on Cody but hit Brandi instead—Cody pushed her in his way.
Lethal later used a CrossRhodes of his own on Cody for two. He did six tope suicidas to Cody, but back in the ring Cody spit water in Lethal’s face; all for naught, apparently. Cody used a Gory Special bomb for another two-count after this. Oddly, Adam Page came out at this point and rang the bell, like they were going to tease a Montreal Screwjob spot, but Page dashed off and it didn’t amount to much tonight. Probably an angle for BtE.
Lethal swung the momentum back his way and did a bunch of low angle superkicks and a Lethal Injection to Cody. They referenced the Ric Flair vs. HBK “I’m sorry” spot, where here Lethal feigned crying and flipped Cody off before giving him yet another superkick.
After a few reversals, Lethal was able to lock on a figure four leglock to seal the win. This was a great match that was very much in the vein of Cody’s matches with Nick Aldis, who happened to come out after the match to congratulate Lethal. Before this, though, Marty Scurll walked out and got in Lethal’s face. Seems like they are going with Lethal vs. Scurll and or Aldis in the next few months.
9) Three-way Tag Team Title Ladder War match: The Briscoes defeated The Young Bucks and SoCal Uncensored
The Young Bucks came out in Rockers cosplay gear. The Briscoe Brothers threw chairs into the ring before the match.
Fast-paced action from the get-go, and way too many moves happening in succession to accurately transcribe in the moment. For example, Matt Jackson did a twisting cutter off the apron, and moments later Jay Briscoe used a double stomp to put Scorpio Sky through a table.
Frankie Kazarian was bleeding minutes into this one and sold it hard, dangling on the ropes inside the ring. Mark Briscoe did the Terry Funk ladder-spinning spot but the Bucks shut that down early with a double superkick to Mark’s head enclosed between rungs.
The crowd was split between SCU and Young Bucks throughout much of this. The two teams had an exchange on the ladders halfway through and did some neat things involving the ladders and belt-grab teases.
The Briscoes recovered from the outside of the ring and beat on Kazarian with chairs. Kazarian’s sell job here and for most of this match was top-notch.
Scorpio Sky did a tope con giro to the floor, then Nick Jackson with his Skywalker moonsault. Matt Jackson went for something but was back body dropped through a table on the outside by a bloody Jay Briscoe.
Later and in the ring, Kazarian low blow’d Jay Briscoe and threw a chair at Mark Briscoe’s head. SCU then did a slingshot cutter to Mark through a table on the outside. The table exploded, as did the crowd, after this.
Matt Jackson pulled out a sledgehammer and teased using it on Jay Briscoe, but he eventually decided against it. It’s obvious when they shoehorn angles into their matches specifically for their Youtube show, but it often throws the pace off and into an awkward direction.
A series of big, big spots came moments after this. Nick moonsault’d to the outside onto a few guys; Kazarian used a tornado dot to the outside on Nick; Mark Briscoe hurled a chair over the ropes onto SCU.
Mark intercepted Nick Jackson as the Bucks went for the Meltzer Driver and caught him with a cutter off the ladder, then a Jaydriller onto Matt. The crowd was wild and on their feet at this point.
Kazarian used a Styles Clash onto a chair on Jay Briscoe. He and Mark Briscoe fought over the belts atop the ladder. Both teams were flying off the ladders onto other ladders and onto tables outside. Nick Jackson almost killed himself soaring into a table off the ladder.
The Briscoes were finally able to knock Kazarian off the primary ladder after Mark threw a chair at Kazarian’s head. The Briscoes are 10-time ROH Tag Team champions.
This was almost nonstop high spots and chaos. While the Bucks looked great as per usual, SCU and the Briscoes were the show stealers of the match.
No PCO or Brody King tonight, nor much in the way of what the Elite will be doing in the future, but top-to-bottom this was an excellent card. The worst matches were fine and the best were some of the best ROH content all year.
The show opened with a recap of last week’s announcement by Christopher Daniels that Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky had new contracts, but that he did not. His last match on his current contract will be at Final Battle against Marty Scurll, and should he lose, he will be out of the company. Scurll’s future ROH World Championship shot will be on the line.
Before a match between them, Flip Gordon challenged Silas Young to man up and make it an I Quit match. Young booted Gordon and started the pummeling immediately, then grabbed the microphone and declared that he accepts.
Flip Gordon and Silas Young went to a no contest in an I Quit match
It was an intense game of cat and mouse as Young chased Gordon, but Gordon had the speed edge and out-maneuvered him. Gordon landed a moonsault to the floor on Young to gain control.
After the break, Gordon pulled a table out and set it up in the corner. As he went to get his opponent, Young tossed a chair at him and gained the advantage.
Young continued to beat Gordon with a chair inside the ring. Young landed the Anarchist suplex and applied a full-nelson stretch, but Gordon fought out and landed a superkick. Gordon then missed with a dive. That gave Young the opportunity to grab a Singapore cane.
Seeing the cane fired up Gordon. He cut off Young with a chair, laid waste to Young, and picked up the cane himself. This brought Bully Ray down. Bully choked Gordon with a chain. Young speared the helpless Gordon through a table. The match was thrown out by the referee due to interference.
A preview for ROH Television Champion Jeff Cobb vs. Hangman Page at Final Battle aired. Page called Cobb’s run in ROH so far a disappointment.
ROH Tag Team Champions Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky, representing SoCal Uncensored, came to the ring. Sky got the microphone and — just as he was about to say Pittsburgh was the worst town he’s ever been in — they were jumped from behind by The Briscoes.
The Young Bucks came down to cut off The Briscoes and save SCU. They exchanged a respectful handshake, but as the Bucks turned away, The Briscoes shoved SCU into them. The Bucks returned the favor with superkicks on both teams. They then pulled a ladder out from under the ring, but before they could set it up, Kazarian dropkicked it into the Bucks and Sky landed a flip dive on The Briscoes. SCU stood tall on the ladder holding their belts to end the segment.
Daniels discussed his last opportunity to claim a contract with ROH. He must defeat Scurll at Final Battle, and should he be successful, he will not only win a title shot down the line, but he will also gain a new lease on life with a new ROH contract.
ROH World Champion Jay Lethal, Cody Rhodes & Dalton Castle defeated The Kingdom (Matt Taven, Vinny Marseglia & TK O’Ryan)
Castle is returning from his “concussion-like symptoms” after he received a three-man con-chair-to by The Kingdom a few weeks ago.
This one started quickly as The Kingdom triple teamed Castle and Cody and Lethal bickered. Castle fought off The Kingdom while wearing his amazing “ugly” purple sweatshirt. He tagged in Cody, and Cody took over on O’Ryan.
Taven had seen enough and got involved. He took over and led the charge on Cody. He tagged in O’Ryan — who tossed Cody down by the hair. Cody swung the momentum with a powerslam and tagged in Castle. Castle came in with a fury. The Kingdom cut him off and put a hurting on him on the outside as the referee was distracted.
Marseglia got in with Castle and kept The Kingdom in control. He tagged in Taven — who antagonized Lethal. Castle finally fought back and tagged in Lethal.
Lethal ran wild until the numbers game caught up with him. Taven got a chair involved and looked to connect with a con-chair-to, but Castle came in and went after Taven. Both spilled into the crowd as Castle chased Taven. That left Lethal and Cody in against Marseglia and O’Ryan.
Lethal and Cody couldn’t work together and it looked like Cody was about to fall victim to The Kingdom, but Lethal made the save and that allowed Cody to land the Cross Rhodes on O’Ryan for the win.
Ring of Honor has put out the first episode of their new webseries, The Pinnacle, on their YouTube page. You can see the episode below.
The video, produced by Lightning One (who are also behind the NWA’s Ten Pounds of Gold series) mainly focuses on what Ring of Honor is and how it differentiates itself from other promotions. Founded in 2002, ROH initially focused on in-ring wrestling, with stars such as Daniel Bryan, Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, CM Punk and others becoming stars in the WWE. The video continued to push this, emphasizing in the in-ring wrestling as well as the Code of Honor.
Notable stars such as Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian, The Briscoes, Jay Lethal, and Flip Goron among others talked about their Ring of Honor experience and why they feel ROH stands out from others.
It also plugged the upcoming Final Battle card which will take place on December 14. Cody will challenge Jay Lethal for the ROH title in the main event.
Ian Riccaboni, Caprice Coleman, and Colt Cabana called the action from the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
ROH TV Champion Jeff Cobb defeated Shane Taylor in a non-title match
A battle of the big men started off with a shoulder block exchange. Cobb was able to get the edge and toss Taylor, but Taylor then suplexed Cobb. However, Cobb stood right up and a back-and-forth forearm fest garnered Cobb control.
After the break, Taylor had taken over, but Cobb fought back with some flying uppercuts. A huge dropkick from Cobb stunned Taylor as he was perched on the top rope. Cobb followed that up with a delayed vertical suplex and a standing moonsault.
Not to be outdone, Taylor landed his version of the Canadian Destroyer that he calls the Cleveland Destroyer. Amazing. The fans chanted “This is awesome.” Cobb snatched up Taylor with a huge German suplex and followed it up with the Tour of the Islands for the win.
After the match, Hangman Page came out to confront Cobb. Security followed to keep the peace, but these two were not interested in peace, as they laid out security. Cobb hoisted the TV title. One unfortunate security guard was left behind, so Cobb nailed a superkick and another Tour of the Islands.
Jay Lethal cut a promo on The Kingdom for the six-man tag team main event, which will be Lethal, Gresham, and a mystery partner against all three members of The Kingdom.
Marty Scurll recounted his feud with Hurricane Helms.
Brian Milonas found his partner Beer City Bruiser sitting at a bar backstage drinking a beer. Bruiser was depressed because the last time they were in Philadelphia, Silas Young walked out on them.
The Bouncers (Beer City Bruiser & Brian Milonas) defeated Cheeseburger & Eli Isom (w/ Ryan Nova)
The announcers made all sorts of cheeseburger-related puns. The Bouncers worked together to isolate Cheeseburger. Bruiser lost his hold on Burger — which allowed him to tag in Isom.
Isom fired off some rapid offense — including a high crossbody off the top turnbuckle. He tagged Cheeseburger back in, leading to Cheeseburger landing a DDT on Milonas and then Isom was actually able to suplex him. Isom went up top but got cut off. Milonas hoisted him up for a superplex and then Bruiser hit the splash, their finishing combination known as Closing Time. It got the job done and The Bouncers picked up the win.
SoCal Uncensored came out and said that they wanted to end the reign of terror of The Briscoes. They said they will change Joe Koff’s mind by winning the ROH Tag Team Championship.
After SCU had finished speaking and were headed to the back, Mark Briscoe came from behind and waffled Scorpio Sky with a chair. Jay Briscoe then dropped Christopher Daniels with a Jay Driller on the ramp before a commercial.
During the break, Daniels was helped to the back by ROH personnel, jeopardizing next week’s main event where The Briscoes will defend against SCU and The Young Bucks.
ROH World Champion Jay Lethal, Jonathan Gresham, & Dalton Castle defeated The Kingdom (Matt Taven, Vinny Marseglia & TK O’Ryan)
Castle got the better of The Kingdom, but they regrouped on the floor and tossed all three of their opponents into the guardrails. However, Lethal fought back and set up Taven in a chair before referee Todd Sinclair stopped the attack. Sinclair was pulled underneath the ring. This allowed Taven to hammer Lethal with the chair. Just after that, Sinclair emerged to count the fall — but Lethal kicked out.
Lethal was in big trouble and looked to make a tag, but The Kingdom came in to prevent it. Gresham finally tagged in and handled his foes and made the tag out to Castle. In the corner, Castle landed a running knee and a huge bulldog. There were more knees for everyone from Castle and an assist by Gresham with a dive to give his team the edge. Gresham went up for a Shooting Star Press, but Marseglia got his knees up.
Lethal came in and landed a Lethal Injection on O’Ryan — who rolled to the floor. That left Castle in the ring with Marseglia. Castle hit the Bang-a-Rang on Marseglia for the win.
Jay Lethal retained the ROH World title over Kenny King.
SoCal Uncensored successfully defended the ROH Tag Team titles against the Super Smash Bros from Canada.
The ringside area was crowded, but the rest of the venue looked close to empty on camera.
The final Global Wars show was a decent card with mostly good to very good matches. The crowd was high for the highs and dead for anything they viewed as taking up space.
Show Recap —
Karen Q defeated Kaitlin Diemond in a Final Battle qualifying match
Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana were joined on commentary by Kelly Klein to announce this match. The ringside area was packed, but the bleachers were virtually empty.
Diemond looked confident as she came to the ring. Karen Q slapped Diemond’s hand away before the match. Women of Honor World Champion Sumie Sakai came out to observe the two.
These two looked great together. Q was quick and flashy with great charisma. Diemond seemed pretty advanced, and though she was taller than Q, she moved in a way that had them feeling like equals.
Q won with a modified Boston Crab and qualified for the four corner survival match for the Women of Honor title at Final Battle.
Afterwards, Sakai and Q jaw-jacked and got into a scuffle. Kelly Klein ran to the ring from the announce booth and Madison Rayne followed her out. Chaos ensued, wrapping up with Sakai diving off the turnbuckle onto all of the wrestlers. Sakai and Rayne faced off in the ring after the pull-apart.
This match was a great opener and could have gone an extra few minutes. The pull-apart got a lot of heat, but the verbiage between Kelly Klein and Q was embarrassing (e.g. “That’s gonna be my belt!”). It’d work if people actually spoke that way.
Hangman Page defeated Chuck Taylor
Rhett Titus came out wearing a bikini and a hockey helmet. He joined the announce team for this match.
I wholly do not understand what went through the minds of the people who composed Page’s theme music. It sounds like the credits scene of an ‘80s action movie. Is that supposed to be his character?
They had a great exchange at the beginning of this match. Taylor apologized for pulling Page’s hair. He then challenged Page to a chop battle and lost to a shoulder block, if that makes any sense.
Taylor whipped Page twice around the ring into the guardrails. Page did a Shooting Star shoulder block to the floor but landed on his feet; Taylor then gave him a hard flatliner. The crowd was pretty awake at this point.
Taylor used a standing Sliced Bread for two. He cheesed into the camera and gave a thumbs-up as he tried to pin Page. They had a hot sequence before the match ended where Taylor went for the Awful Waffle but Page used the Rite of Passage to win. People around ringside jumped from their seats in shock, so I imagine Taylor landed hard. We couldn’t see it on the hard cam.
This was a very good match that could have gone longer. They could have a great title program together somewhere in the future.
Caprice Coleman took over for Titus on commentary for this match.
BUSHI and Naito got loud reactions. There were lots of “Naito” and “L-I-J” chants before the match. BUSHI teased a handshake with Marseglia before the match but pulled back.
People liked when BUSHI strangled Marseglia with his shirt, and when Naito did the Tranquilo pose, but booed a ton for the Kingdom when they started breaking all the LIJ taunts up. This crowd needs their taunts.
When O’Ryan threw Naito out of the ring, the cameras pulled back and exposed even more empty bleachers inside the venue.
The Kingdom worked Naito over for a long while. Coleman explained that the Kingdom were so dominant in this match because it was a “single tag team match,” which is what I thought they all were. Don’t start doing the math on that one or you’ll end up in Scott Steiner territory.
The Kingdom did House of a Thousand Horses but only got a two-count on BUSHI, who moments later blew mist into O’Ryan’s face. This later allowed Naito to use a Destino on Marseglia for the win.
Matt Taven came out after and attacked LIJ. He especially put the boots to Naito until Christopher Daniels came out and made the save. This all overlapped into the match between Taven and Daniels.
Matt Taven defeated Christopher Daniels
Daniels busted out an Arabian Press early on. 48-years-old; spectacular. Taven used Just the Tip and later a huge Falcon Arrow for two.
Dalton Castle came out with The Boys and joined Cabana and Coleman on commentary; he kicked Riccaboni out. He did mostly comedy color commentary and told a story about how Taven once ate all of his butternut squash soup while he was in the bathroom, which is the impetus for their feud, I guess.
The Kingdom came back out and tried to smash Daniels in the face with a belt. Referee Todd Sinclair did his best to break things up, but while he dealt with the Kingdom members, Taven kicked Daniels in the groin, then used a Climax on Daniels for the win.
This was a decent match. Taven and Daniels were solid for the most part, but the crowd lost interest in the middle and sounded sour on the screw-job finish.
The Briscoes defeated SANADA & EVIL
The crowd chanted for EVIL before the bell. He and Mark Briscoe started the match. They did a great spot where EVIL put Mark in a full nelson, he couldn’t break it, and he walked over to the ropes for the break. It was simple but effective, and it made EVIL look more physically powerful than he usually does.
There were more chants for EVIL as the match went on. The Briscoes felt like old school heels in this match; Mark bore a stark resemblance to toothless Canadian legend, Mad Dog Vachon, as he strangled SANADA in the corner.
The Briscoes dominated much of this. SANADA dove to his corner for a tag to EVIL, but the Briscoes had already attacked him. He did finally tag in EVIL, who played the part of charismatic leader in this match.
SANADA put both Briscoes in Paradise Locks and the crowd popped big for both dropkicks to their respective Sandy Fork asses. Mark later used a blockbuster to the outside, and Jay later used a Jay Driller on SANADA for the pin after Mark distracted the ref with a chair.
This was quite good, but the crowd wasn’t awake for it until LIJ started doing the spots they’re known for. As the Briscoes posed after their win, EVIL attacked the Briscoes with a chair, sating the crowd.
Flip Gordon defeated Jonathan Gresham
Silas Young came out to do commentary and push his angle with Bully Ray.
Gresham and Gordon shook hands before the bell. They started with some smooth chain wrestling that popped the crowd. Gordon did a tope suicida early and sold his knee here as though he seriously injured it. Gordon and Sinclair did a great job putting this over; it even quieted most of the crowd initially.
Gresham began working over Gordon’s left knee. He did the rolling half-crab Lance Storm used to use. The two later did a rolling sunset flip, spinning back-and-forth and back again in a circle. The crowd liked this.
Gordon spent a lot of time attempting moves he usually does, like the standing moonsault, but couldn’t do them because of his kayfabe injured knee. Gresham did a top rope frankensteiner, but later Gordon was able to finish Gresham off with a Flip 5.
This was short but very good. Gordon’s selling was excellent and Gresham’s reluctant handshake after the match was a nice touch.
Gordon grabbed the mic and challenged Bully Ray to an I Quit match, even though Ray was “fired” a few nights ago. The crowd chanted “What?!” after everything Gordon said.
ROH Tag Team Champions SoCal Uncensored (Scorpio Sky & Frankie Kazarian) defeated The Super Smash Bros (Stu Grayson & Evil Uno) to retain their titles
Sky did his “Worst Town Ever” bit. Daniels cut a promo talking about the prestige of ROH and said that SCU wants to defend the tag titles against the best in the world. Both teams were over with the crowd, but SCU were obviously the stars.
Kazarian and Grayson started the match. There was solid action between these two until Sky and Uno took over. Sky’s mat wrestling and chain movements were noticeably good.
Uno later kneed Kazarian in the face in the corner, but he blatantly slapped his thigh beforehand. The impact of the slap and the actual contact of his knee were out of synch.
Grayson used a High Fly Flow on Sky. Kazarian did a flying frankensteiner to the floor, which advantageously ended up spearing Grayson into Uno on the floor. Check the highlights for that one.
Smash Bros did some cool tag work together. In terms of function, Grayson was Bret Hart, Uno was Jim Neidhart.
The teams did a double Frye-Takayama spot. Grayson launched himself over the corner onto Kazarian on the outside and the crowd went nuts. Uno used a swanton. SSB got an extremely close two-count and the crowd started booing.
Kazarian and Sky came back and finished Grayson off with a new finisher: Sky did a high angle uranage/Rock Bottom while Kazarian did a lungblower. The teams shook hands after this.
Another solid match but sloppy in spots. The crowd again didn’t come alive until the end. They seemed to be convinced they were going to see a title change but no dice on that one.
Juice Robinson defeated Beretta
Robinson received a few chants at the start of this one. He did the Terry Funk jabs. They brawled on the floor for a while; Robinson broke the 20-count and missed a cannonball into the barriers and it looked crazy.
Even though he missed, the crowd chanted “Juice!” afterwards. Beretta did a double stomp off of the barrier. Robinson cut his back on the barrier and there was a roughly five-inch gash on his right lower back. He did a standing senton after this. Not the best idea for someone who just cut their back open, but hey.
Beretta did a somersault senton over to the outside and sold his ribs. He tried a crossbody block from the top, but Robinson countered it with a codebreaker. Great timing on that spot.
Beretta did a pretty tornado DDT that Robinson sold with crossed eyes. He got a very close two-count after a brutal Bomaye to the back of Robinson’s head.
Riccaboni did his best to put moments in this match over on commentary, but the crowd didn’t always match his enthusiasm. They were polite but mostly quiet until the end.
Beretta actually used two piledrivers on Robinson in this match, and one was to the outside. It wasn’t enough, though, as Robinson countered with a straight left punch and a Pulp Friction for the win.
Robinson got on the mic and cut a quick promo saying he is coming for Cody’s IWGP United States Heavyweight title.
Both wrestlers tried really hard here. It was a decent match, but it didn’t have the star power or high stakes it needed to ignite the crowd.
The Young Bucks defeated Time Machine (Chris Sabin & KUSHIDA)
Sabin & KUSHIDA received a tepid reaction. The crowd did a variety of Young Bucks/Elite-centric chants.
Nick Jackson and KUSHIDA started the match; KUSHIDA got a small chant. The two were great together for a minute or so, then Matt joined the fun.
The Bucks launched into their usual tag sequences with KUSHIDA. The crowd at one point was chanting “This is awesome” and Matt only had KUSHIDA in an armbar; the crowd made their mind up beforehand, apparently.
Sabin later joined the match and he and KUSHIDA went through a few of their own tag sequences. They’re finally beginning to feel like an established tag team, though it’s unfortunately come after the NJPW Junior Tag League.
This crowd was weird. They only seemed to respond to big spots or upon being cued in by the wrestlers themselves. It felt like the crowd would periodically check out, particularly when Sabin or KUSHIDA were on the offensive. That’s the other edge of the sword in babyface vs. babyface tag matches, that fans don’t want to boo the other team because they like them, so instead they sat quietly.
More Bang for Your Buck didn’t pan out for the Young Bucks. KUSHIDA and Sabin hit Made in Osaka for two. This didn’t lead to anything, either, and we then went on a road trip to Superkick City.
The Bucks used a Five-Star Meltzer Driver for what seemed to be the win, but KUSHIDA broke up the pin. Matt Jackson was able to slap on a sharpshooter and Sabin eventually tapped.
A good match that would have died if the Bucks weren’t in it. While Time Machine looked tighter and more crisp than they have together basically ever, the crowd wanted to see the Young Bucks do cool moves and win.
ROH World Champion Jay Lethal defeated Kenny King to retain his title
They played pre-taped promos from Lethal and King. Lethal’s was terrific and the delivery was top-notch; King’s was fine.
King came out to little reaction. Lethal got tons of streamers thrown in the ring for him. When Bobby Cruise announced that this was for the ROH World title, the crowd made a sound that I can only describe as a human ellipsis.
King jumped Lethal before the bell. He did a few kicks and then a tornillo to the outside. He worked over Lethal for a long while and the crowd booed a bit but was mostly silent until Lethal took the match’s reins.
King used a brutal suplex with a high-crotch and dumped Lethal head-first into the second turnbuckle. He did a spinebuster after this and both moves looked really good.
King tried hard to get the crowd upset with him. He succeeded, sort of. To those who wait, as I heard somewhere.
King teased using the title as a weapon on Lethal until Todd Sinclair stopped him. There were more submission/rope break/taunt sequences from King. He spit on Lethal and it got heat, but he ruined it by screaming WWE-inspired verbiage (e.g. “I’ve trained my whole life for this!”).
Lethal used a running Death Valley Driver, but King reversed it into a pin. King did the Royal Flush but couldn’t finish. He missed a Shooting Star Press, then Lethal did a Lethal Injection for another very close two. The crowd came back and finally started chanting “This is awesome” here.
Lethal began an excessive beatdown onto King. He accidentally knocked Sinclair over. King grabbed the belt but Lethal knocked it away. King then pinned Lethal for three — but his foot was on the ropes. Sinclair saw it and waved the finish off. Lethal hit the Lethal Injection a few moments later for the win.
Aside from the hot finish, this match was bad. King as the heel led the match and it was mostly slow and not in a reasonable way, it was just slow and not very good.
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.
Ian Riccaboni and Caprice Coleman called the action on this week’s episode, which was taped in Las Vegas at the end of September.
Hangman Page defeated Scorpio Sky
Page, who has been on a roll, took it to Sky early. Page put a hurting on Sky and launched him head-first into the ring post on the outside.
After the break, Sky had regained his composure and had the edge until Page caught a crossbody block and turned it into a slam. Page connected with a running dropkick into the corner, a cradle fallaway slam, and a bridging German suplex, but only got a two count.
Sky fought back and used an inside-out slingshot cutter that nearly won him the match, but Page kicked out. He followed it up with a variation of the fisherman’s suplex. Page broke free and went for the Buckshot lariat, but Sky countered with a roll-up. Page nailed him with a kick and was able to hoist him up and land the Rite of Passage for the win.
Matt Taven and The Kingdom continued their degradation of the ROH World Champion Jay Lethal and his “fake” title.
Shane Taylor defeated Eli Isom
In a complete show of disrespect, Taylor spit in Isom’s palm. However, Isom was not intimidated. He started off hot until Taylor blasted him with a punch, which set up a draping stunner. Taylor slapped Isom with a thunderous chop, which led to the commercial break.
It was all Taylor until he missed a big splash. That allowed Isom to come back with jumping forearms, and amazingly he was able to pick the big man up onto his shoulders and hit a Samoan drop. Taylor kicked out, but Isom turned it up a notch. His fury didn’t last long as Taylor ended his efforts with a Greetings from the 216 for the pin.
After the match, Taylor continued the attack until Cheeseburger came to the rescue. Burger’s save was thwarted as he too took the Greetings from the 216. Undeterred, Flip Gordon came to the ring with a chair and laid out Taylor. He grabbed a microphone and called out Bully Ray, and said he was open to any stipulation match.
Bully responded and told Gordon that he’d make a deal. Both he and Gordon would pick a representative to have a match next week, and if Gordon’s man beats Bully’s man, then Gordon gets to do whatever he wants to Bully. If Bully’s man wins, Bully can do whatever he wants to Gordon.
Silas Young will be the man to grapple on Bully’s behalf. Gordon did not announce a selection.
Kenny King came out to help call the main event.
ROH World Champion Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham defeated KUSHIDA & Jushin Thunder Liger
Mutual respect was shown by all four to begin the match. Liger used his patented offense, but Gresham hung with him. Lethal tagged in and went toe-to-toe with Liger as well. A blind tag from Gresham allowed him to snap off a German suplex on the legendary Liger.
Lethal and Gresham attacked the lower back of Liger as they cut off the ring and used some double-team attacks until Liger was able to battle back. Liger made the tag to KUSHIDA, who propelled into the ring and went to work using some of Lethal’s own offensive moves to get the advantage. A pinfall exchange with Gresham took us to the final commercial break.
After the break, Liger used his elevated surfboard and KUSHIDA used an armbar for a double submission attempt. KUSHIDA used an interesting hammerlock and octopus on Gresham. KUSHIDA and Gresham exchanged submission holds until Gresham tagged in Lethal.
Lethal hit the Lethal Combination on KUSHIDA and went for the Lethal Injection, but KUSHIDA kicked him in the head as he was inverted. KUSHIDA tagged in Liger, who used the rolling heel kick on Lethal.
The match then broke down into a melee. Gresham hit a running knee off the apron, taking out KUSHIDA. Inside the ring, Lethal finally was able to hit the Lethal Injection on Liger for the pinfall finish.
Ring of Honor returns to pay-per-view tonight as Death Before Dishonor 2018 takes place at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
We’re looking for your thughts on this show, as well as tomorrow night’s Bellator show and Sunday’s New Japan Long Beach show, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected].
Jay Lethal will defend his ROH World Championship against Will Ospreay in the main event. With much of the NJPW roster in the United States for Sunday’s Fighting Spirit Unleashed show in Long Beach, Chaos (Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, Rocky Romero, Beretta & Chuckie T) will also be facing the Bullet Club (Cody Rhodes, The Young Bucks, Marty Scurll & Hangman Page) tonight.
ROH Tag Team Champions The Briscoes will put their titles on the line against Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian, Sumie Sakai defends her Women of Honor Championship against Tenille Dashwood, and Chris Sabin challenges for Punishment Martinez’s TV title.
Flip Gordon & Colt Cabana vs. Bully Ray & Silas Young in a tables match and Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Kenny King round out tonight’s card. Our live coverage begins at 9 p.m. Eastern time.
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JUSHIN LIGER VS. KENNY KING
The story is that these are both honorable guys and they did a babyface match. Even though King is from Las Vegas and Liger is an all-time great, it didn’t seem to have a lot of heat. Mach was decent. Nothing special. Liger did a top rope superplex and then started selling his back. He got a few more near falls. The story is that King was too respectful of Liger and not aggressive enough to beat him. Then, when he was giving Liger time to recover, he nailed him with a spinebuster for the pin. He thanked Austin Aries for giving him the killer instinct. The idea was it was a heel win cheating to beat a legend, except he didn’t cheat at all.
MARK & JAY BRISCOE VS. FRANKIE KAZARIAN & CHRISTOPHER DANIELS FOR ROH TAG TITLES
The story here is that Daniels & Kazarian are going to be fired after their contracts are up at final Battle unless they have titles. The Briscoes retained with Jay pinning Daniels with the Jay driller. Earlier Jay had given him a Jay driller on the floor. The problem here was the lack of either eat or crowd micing, but on the air there was very little response. Daniels worked most of the way. First he was selling. Kazarian took a uranage by Mark on a chair and the back of his head was split open and he never tagged in again. Daniels got a near fall with a best moonsault ever, used a running flip ive over the post. Lots of near falls. Would have been a good match if the crowd was reacting but that hurt the broadcast version a lot.
SUMIE SAKAI VS. TENILLE DASHWOOD FOR WOH TITLE
Long match. The story is that Dashwood had a right shoudler injury and kept selling it. There were a lot of near falls and big spots like Sakai giving her a power bomb of the apron to the floor. Dashwood used a power bomb but Sakai then got an armbar and held it for a long time. Really too long without tapping. It almst got skilly. Then they did a ref stoppage with the idea Dashwood passed out. Crowd didn’t like the ref stoppage aspecg. At the end there was some reaction
PUNISHMENT MARTINEZ VS. CHRIS SABIN FOR TV TITLE
The action was really good. Sabin had most of hte offense with fast moves and several different dives. There was a ref bump by Paul Turner and Sabin used a tornado DDT on a chair Martinez came back and won with a curb stomp. After the match Martinez was about to curb stomp him into a chair when Jeff Cobb came out. Cobb got the biggest reaction so far on this show. Martinez backed down and left. Then Martinez hit him with a chair and Cobb no sold it. Crowd got really loud and Cobb laid him out with the Tour of the Islands. Cobb held up the TV title belt.
SILAS YOUNG & BULLY RAY VS. COLT CABANA & FLIP GORDON IN A TABLES MATCH
I don’t know what to say about this. Gordon did some cool stuff. Bully is a great heel. The match had more heat than any match so far. The rules were an elimination match. Announcer Ian Riccobani was taunted by Bully. He came to ringside. Bully ended up power bombing Cabana through a table to eliminate him. They beat on Gordon until Bully and Young has a miscue and then they started figthing each ohter. Bully threw Gordon into a table in the corner but he walked up the table and flipped. Bully went to charge at him, Gordon moved and Bully went through the table. Then we had another ref bump by Todd Sinclair. Gordon put Young through a table with a 450 splash. But the ref was down and didn’t see it. Bully then recovered and attacked Gordon, pulled Young away from the broken table and put Gordon on the broken table. Sinclair got up, saw Gordon in the table and called for the bell. Crowd wasn’t happy at all by this. Bully whipped Grodon with a chair and the knee after the mach and hit Gordon with pieces of the broken table.
Somebody attacked Dashwood backstage and injured her shoulder again.
YOUNG BUCKS & CODY & MARTY SCURLL & HANGMANB PAGE VS. KAZUCHIKA OKADA & TOMOHIRO ISHII & CHUCKIE T & BARETTA & ROCKY ROMERO
Ring of Honor returns to pay-per-view tonight as Death Before Dishonor 2018 takes place at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
We’re looking for your thughts on this show, as well as tomorrow night’s Bellator show and Sunday’s New Japan Long Beach show, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected].
Jay Lethal will defend his ROH World Championship against Will Ospreay in the main event. With much of the NJPW roster in the United States for Sunday’s Fighting Spirit Unleashed show in Long Beach, Chaos (Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, Rocky Romero, Beretta & Chuckie T) will also be facing the Bullet Club (Cody Rhodes, The Young Bucks, Marty Scurll & Hangman Page) tonight.
ROH Tag Team Champions The Briscoes will put their titles on the line against Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian, Sumie Sakai defends her Women of Honor Championship against Tenille Dashwood, and Chris Sabin challenges for Punishment Martinez’s TV title.
Flip Gordon & Colt Cabana vs. Bully Ray & Silas Young in a tables match and Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Kenny King round out tonight’s card. Our live coverage begins at 9 p.m. Eastern time.
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JUSHIN LIGER VS. KENNY KING
The story is that these are both honorable guys and they did a babyface match. Even though King is from Las Vegas and Liger is an all-time great, it didn’t seem to have a lot of heat. Mach was decent. Nothing special. Liger did a top rope superplex and then started selling his back. He got a few more near falls. The story is that King was too respectful of Liger and not aggressive enough to beat him. Then, when he was giving Liger time to recover, he nailed him with a spinebuster for the pin. He thanked Austin Aries for giving him the killer instinct. The idea was it was a heel win cheating to beat a legend, except he didn’t cheat at all.
MARK & JAY BRISCOE VS. FRANKIE KAZARIAN & CHRISTOPHER DANIELS FOR ROH TAG TITLES
The story here is that Daniels & Kazarian are going to be fired after their contracts are up at final Battle unless they have titles. The Briscoes retained with Jay pinning Daniels with the Jay driller. Earlier Jay had given him a Jay driller on the floor. The problem here was the lack of either eat or crowd micing, but on the air there was very little response. Daniels worked most of the way. First he was selling. Kazarian took a uranage by Mark on a chair and the back of his head was split open and he never tagged in again. Daniels got a near fall with a best moonsault ever, used a running flip ive over the post. Lots of near falls. Would have been a good match if the crowd was reacting but that hurt the broadcast version a lot.
SUMIE SAKAI VS. TENILLE DASHWOOD FOR WOH TITLE
Long match. The story is that Dashwood had a right shoudler injury and kept selling it. There were a lot of near falls and big spots like Sakai giving her a power bomb of the apron to the floor. Dashwood used a power bomb but Sakai then got an armbar and held it for a long time. Really too long without tapping. It almst got skilly. Then they did a ref stoppage with the idea Dashwood passed out. Crowd didn’t like the ref stoppage aspecg. At the end there was some reaction
PUNISHMENT MARTINEZ VS. CHRIS SABIN FOR TV TITLE
The action was really good. Sabin had most of hte offense with fast moves and several different dives. There was a ref bump by Paul Turner and Sabin used a tornado DDT on a chair Martinez came back and won with a curb stomp. After the match Martinez was about to curb stomp him into a chair when Jeff Cobb came out. Cobb got the biggest reaction so far on this show. Martinez backed down and left. Then Martinez hit him with a chair and Cobb no sold it. Crowd got really loud and Cobb laid him out with the Tour of the Islands. Cobb held up the TV title belt.
SILAS YOUNG & BULLY RAY VS. COLT CABANA & FLIP GORDON IN A TABLES MATCH
I don’t know what to say about this. Gordon did some cool stuff. Bully is a great heel. The match had more heat than any match so far. The rules were an elimination match. Announcer Ian Riccobani was taunted by Bully. He came to ringside. Bully ended up power bombing Cabana through a table to eliminate him. They beat on Gordon until Bully and Young has a miscue and then they started figthing each ohter. Bully threw Gordon into a table in the corner but he walked up the table and flipped. Bully went to charge at him, Gordon moved and Bully went through the table. Then we had another ref bump by Todd Sinclair. Gordon put Young through a table with a 450 splash. But the ref was down and didn’t see it. Bully then recovered and attacked Gordon, pulled Young away from the broken table and put Gordon on the broken table. Sinclair got up, saw Gordon in the table and called for the bell. Crowd wasn’t happy at all by this. Bully whipped Grodon with a chair and the knee after the mach and hit Gordon with pieces of the broken table.
Somebody attacked Dashwood backstage and injured her shoulder again.
YOUNG BUCKS & CODY & MARTY SCURLL & HANGMAN PAGE VS. KAZUCHIKA OKADA & TOMOHIRO ISHII & CHUCKIE T & BARETTA & ROCKY ROMERO
Excellent match. All action. 21 minutes of mostly great moves ending when Scurll beat Romero with the chicken wing. Baretta and Romero stood out as the stars but perhaps the bbest part of the match was Nick Aldis doing color. This was textbook. He got over the guys, buried Cody (his rival) constantly, got over his match with Cody, got over the belt plugged the rematch and how to watch the rematch. Ishii even did a flip plancha onto everyone. Chuckie did a running flip dive off the stage nad over the steps. Cody did a couple of dives. Okada refusd to face Scurll. The other story is even though they won, The Bullet Club kept messing up and hitting each other over and over. Baretta gave Nick a piledriver on the apron. .
Cody came out and accepted the 2/3 falls match with Nick Aldis in Nashville on 10/21.
JAY LETHAL VS. WILL OSPREAY FOR ROH TITLE
Super match. Ospreay has gained weight since July and worked a very different style. He was awesome but in a very different way than usual. Less acrobatics and more hard hitting but still pulled off high speed mvoes out of nowhere. The finish saw Ospreay go for a Super Frankensteiner and Lethal turned it into a power bomb on he way down and hit the Lethal injection for the pin. Lethal had earlier kicked out of the Oscutter. All kinds of great stuff here but not nonstop big moves and more building to it. You can tell Ospreay is preparing for New Japan heavywight style which is his end destiny anyway.,
TK O’Ryan and Vinny Marseglia attacked both of them after the match, Jonathan Gresham made the save and attacked Marseglia. Marseglia and O’Ryan attacked Gresham. This was looking at setting up Lethal & Gresham against them. Matt Taven showed up and hit Lethal with a purple replica ROH title belt and called it the real world title belt.
Ian Riccaboni and Caprice Coleman called the action on this week’s episode, which was the go-home show for Friday’s Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view.
Best Friends (Trent Barreta & Chuck Taylor) defeated The Boys
The Boys each used lungblowers on Barreta for a near fall. Barreta and Taylor each went for package piledrivers. The Boys countered into pins, which didn’t get it done and allowed for Barreta to hit the Dudebuster as Taylor nailed the Awful Waffle for the win.
A video package of the feud between The Briscoes and SoCal Uncensored aired. The Briscoes are set to defend their ROH Tag Team titles against Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian at Death Before Dishonor.
Kenny King defeated Hangman Page
King came to the ring wearing a sun hat, sunglasses, and with a huge blow-up inner tube that resembled a sprinkles donut and another huge blow-up raft shaped like a bottle of champagne. No explanation was given.
The two exchanged grappling maneuvers until a clean break. King took over with a high dropkick and then posed for a selfie with a fan. That lapse allowed Page to hit a Shooting Star Press off the apron, then he also posed for a selfie with the same fan. Page brought the bottle of champagne into the ring and suplexed King onto the raft for a hilariously large pop, which led to commercial.
After the break, King connected with a nice knee and wheel kick combination that set up a spinebuster. A string of reversals led to Page landing on his feet after a German suplex and landing one of his own. Page connected with the Buckshot Lariat but only got a two count.
Page was set up to hit the Rite of Passage, but King countered and used the ropes to get extra leverage on the pin. The referee saw it and didn’t count the fall. That led to a series of rolling pins that ended with King grabbing the tights and getting the three count. That makes two matches in a row that King has cheated to get wins over the Bullet Club.
Dante Caballero vs. Brian Johnson ended in a no contest
These two young guns started off quickly, but that didn’t matter as Jeff Cobb came out and mauled them with throws and slams. Cobb took the microphone and said that the Top Prospect Tournament was over because he was the top prospect. No debate.
A recap aired of Sumie Sakai calling out Tenille Dashwood. That match for the Women of Honor World Championship will happen at Friday’s PPV.
Silas Young & Bully Ray defeated Jonathan Gresham & Jay Lethal
Ray and Young were seemingly not thrilled to be teaming together as Ray tagged in Young and turned his back on him. Young mocked Gresham, but Gresham landed a hurricanrana and then slapped Ray in the face — forcing Young to tag him in. Ray then appeared to walk out of the match but instead threw a tantrum at ringside before entering the ring.
Ray launched Gresham with a backdrop and then pie-faced Lethal — causing Gresham to make the tag. Ray and Lethal had a quick exchange and both missed dropkicks. That led to the commercial.
After the break, Ray was chopping Lethal. Lethal fired back with slaps and chops of his own but then ran into a huge shoulder tackle. Lethal nailed an enzuigiri, tagged in Gresham. and both did suicide dives in tandem. Gresham got the Octopus lock on Ray, but it wasn’t for long. Ray dished out some monster chops to Gresham, who just kept getting back up.
Ray missed a back senton, allowing Lethal and Young to tag in. A Lethal Combination on Young brought in Ray. Lethal couldn’t suplex Ray over on his own — so Gresham came in for the assist. Gresham and Lethal did the “wazzup” headbutt to the groin.
Lethal took over on Young and landed the Macho Elbow and Gresham landed a Shooting Star Press, but Ray broke up the pin. Ray tossed out Lethal and Young hit Misery on Gresham for the win.
ROH World Champion Jay Lethal came to the ring to talk about his Iron Man match with Jonathan Gresham from last week. After listing some of the classic matches he’s had in ROH against opponents like Roderick Strong, Samoa Joe, and AJ Styles, he called the match with Gresham his favorite.
Lethal then went on to issue a “Lethal Challenge” to any wrestler in the world.
Will Ospreay appeared on the video screen and accepted the challenge for a World title match in Las Vegas at Death Before Dishonor on September 28.
A SoCal Uncensored promo aired. They talked about how they will beat The Briscoes & Punishment Martinez in tonight’s six-man tag team main event.
Brandi Rhodes joined Caprice Coleman and Ian Riccaboni to call the next match.
Women of Honor Champion Sumie Sakai defeated Tasha Steelz in a non-title proving ground match
Sakai put a hurting on Steelz in the opening sequence, but Steelz landed a springboard bulldog for a two count. She went for the Boricua Butterfly, but Sakai countered into her Smashmouth finisher for the three count.
Backstage, the Bullet Club talked trash about the other factions in New Japan Pro Wrestling.
Riccaboni got in the ring with Sakai and stated that the Women of Honor Championship is now known as the Women of Honor World Championship. Sakai took the microphone, said ROH is her home, and then challenged Tenille Dashwood to a match. Dashwood came out and accepted. She said the title match will be at Death Before Dishonor.
Riccaboni stayed in the ring to speak with Gresham. Before Gresham could finish, Bully Ray came to ringside. Ray claimed he single-handedly sold out Madison Square Garden and then called Gresham a jobber. Gresham took the mic and challenged Ray to a wrestling match, not a fight. It was neither as Ray immediately kicked Gresham low and the referee disqualified Ray.
Ray went for his chain, but Flip Gordon came out to make the save for Gresham. However, he ran into a big boot and looked to be in trouble too. Then Lethal came to the ring to make the save for both men. He fired up on Ray until Silas Young came out and landed Misery on Lethal.
Backstage, Lethal and Gresham went off on Ray and Young and challenged the two to a tag match on ROH TV next week.
Chris Sabin was on commentary to scout Martinez for their upcoming ROH TV Championship match.
SoCal Uncensored jumped their opponents and turned this into a brawl at the beginning. The Briscoes took over on Daniels and used quick tags to isolate him. Martinez and The Briscoes were working well together until Daniels was able to land a Blue Thunder Bomb and tag in Sky.
Wheel kicks and cutters galore sparked SCU, but Sky walked into a Spicolli driver from Mark Briscoe and a Silencer from Martinez.
Kazarian took the tag from Sky and landed a DDT on Mark Briscoe. The match broke down as everyone landed big moves. Mark Briscoe got a chair and wanted to hit Kazarian with it but accidentally nailed referee Paul Turner. That allowed Martinez to hit Kazarian with the chair. The Briscoes nailed everyone with chairs — and that caused Sabin to head to the ring to attack Martinez. The two of them brawled to the back, and Sabin used a shoe to hit him.
In the ring, Daniels and Kazarian finished the match with the Best Meltzer Ever on Mark Briscoe to get the win.
This week’s episode of Ring of Honor television continued the run of shows that were taped at Center Stage in Atlanta in July.
Frankie Kazarian defeated Mark Briscoe
This match was already in the ring with both men brawling as the show started. The brawl ended up outside the ring and Briscoe hit a backdrop on Kazarian on the apron, which looked unpleasant. Kazarian countered a suplex into a backcracker and then a front backcracker. Kazarian managed an electric chair drop for a near fall that led into a commercial.
After the break, Jay Briscoe was at ringside but Kazarian dispensed of him with a dropkick. Mark missed the Froggy Elbow, allowing Kazarian to get the crucifix roll-up for the pin.
Immediately, The Briscoes put the boots to Kazarian until SoCal Uncensored made the save. Punishment Martinez then entered the fray to beat down Daniels and even the sides. A Jay Driller on Scorpio Sky and a huge chokeslam on Daniels from Martinez ended the segment.
A hype video for the upcoming Jay Lethal vs. Jonathan Gresham 30-minute Iron Man match aired.
To ensure there was enough time to air the entire main event, they highlighted an HonorClub exclusive triple threat tag match.
The Bouncers (Beer City Bruiser & Brian Milonas) defeated Cheeseburger & Ryan Nova and The Dawgs
The Bouncers won, but there were no highlights from them. The only highlight was Ferrara mocking Cheeseburger’s Shotei palm strike, which he hit on Nova and Cheeseburger.
Caprice Coleman joined Colt Cabana and Ian Riccaboni on commentary for the main event.
ROH World Champion Jay Lethal defeated Jonathan Gresham in a 30-minute Iron Man match to retain his title (2-1 after going to sudden-death overtime)
The Code of Honor was adhered to as the match began. A lot of slow chain wrestling started it out. Some innovative counters that are Gresham trademarks were employed, but Lethal was with him every step of the way. This was very reminiscent of an old ROH Pure Wrestling Championship match. Nigel McGuinness would be proud.
Lethal decided he’d had enough of the chain wrestling and started chopping Gresham, including hitting a throat chop. Half way through this match, neither man really had an advantage.
Gresham started working on the arm of Lethal with Kimuras, hammerlocks, and a unique arm drop across the ring apron. With 20 minutes elapsed, Gresham was firmly in control, continuing to stretch and injure the left arm of Lethal.
A crazy chop exchange brought the crowd to their feet. Gresham countered the Lethal Combination twice, but Lethal countered the counter with an enzuigiri. Lethal took control with a springboard dropkick. That allowed Lethal to connect with the Lethal Combination on the third attempt, but Gresham kicked out.
With five minutes remaining, Gresham hit a deadlift German suplex for a two count. The action really picked up as Lethal went for the Lethal Injection, but Gresham countered with a kick and put Lethal in the Octopus. Shockingly, Lethal tapped out with only three minutes and 30 seconds left!
Lethal had to fire back quickly and did so, using strikes to set up a figure four leg lock. Cabana and Riccaboni questioned if Gresham could last the final two minutes in the painful hold. Gresham fought to reverse it, but he was forced to tap with about a minute left.
With only one minute remaining, Gresham went for several pin attempts, but the time expired with the match tied at one fall each.
Gresham got on the mic and declared he would not let the match end in a tie. So he demanded five more minutes! The fans wanted it, the ref agreed, Lethal accepted, and the match restarted.
A forearm battle erupted. The crowd was going nuts. Each man connected with vicious blows. Tons of reversals allowed Gresham to get a two count. Lethal looked like he was in trouble, but he valiantly fought back and went up top to hit his elbow drop, which earned him a two count.
With two minutes left in overtime, Gresham grabbed a sleeper hold, but Lethal hit a cutter out of nowhere, which set up the Lethal Injection. The finisher landed and earned Lethal the pin and the win.
Jay Lethal will be defending the Ring of Honor title at All In.
It was confirmed today on the All In Twitter account that he will be defending the title against the winner of the Over Budget Battle Royale that is set to take place during the pre-show. Lethal issued the challenge earlier this afternoon on his own Twitter account. After Nick Jackson expressed interest in booking the match, All In’s Twitter account made it official.
Participants announced for the Over Budget Battle Royale include Jordynne Grace, Moose, Rocky Romero, Colt Cabana and Ethan Page. There will be fifteen competitors overall.
All In’s pre-show, called Zero Hour, will be airing live exclusively on WGN America at 6 p.m. EDT The main card will start at 7 p.m. EDT on pay-per-view and on Fite TV for $39.95.
All In will be held on September 1 at the Sears Center Arena in Hoffman Estates, Illinois.
Episode #357 of Ring of Honor television was taped in Fairfax, Virginia and picked up where last month’s Best in the World pay-per-view left off.
The show opened with a video package highlighting the PPV.
Jay Lethal started off in the ring issuing a challenge for Dalton Castle’s ROH World Championship. Matt Taven then chimed in and said he deserved a title match as well. This brought out Cody Rhodes, who said the same thing. Then, ROH World Champion Dalton Castle showed up and granted them a four-way title match for tonight.
Women of Honor Champion Sumie Sakai defeated Hazuki to retain her title
Hazuki threw Sakai all around ringside. Hazuki was firmly in control, trying to get a notch on her belt by upsetting the champion. A TJ Special hit for Sakai, but Hazuki kicked out. Sakai hit a fisherman buster for a close two count. Hazuki landed a double knee to the face of the prone Sakai. However, Sakai battled back and landed her Smashmouth finish.
Backstage. Gregory Helms irritated Marty Scurll. He put a beating on Helms, including doing the finger-break spot.
Jay Lethal defeated Dalton Castle, Cody, and Matt Taven to win the ROH World Championship
Castle took the early lead, strutting until Taven sent him over the ropes. Lethal was ready to dive and did so like a dozen times. Back in the ring, Castle got his mojo back until Cody sunk on the American Death Lock. Taven broke up the lock with a dive on Cody.
Lethal locked the figure four on Castle. Lethal then chopped Taven 22 times. Castle went for the Bang-a-Rang, then Taven rolled up the champion and pinned him for like an eight count — but referee Todd Sinclair was busy checking on Lethal.
Cody hit the Cross Rhodes on Taven and got a near fall. Lethal landed a double Lethal Injection and then another, but Taven pulled the ref out.
Castle and Lethal swung wildly and exchanged blows. Castle hooked him for the Bang-a-Rang, but Lethal rolled through and Castle walked right into the Lethal Injection for the win. The two upheld the code of honor and shook hands as Castle handed the belt over to Lethal.
