Here’s some notes from Friday’s ROH Final Battle from the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City:
Jeff Jarrett debuts
Jarrett can check off the ROH box in his “promotions worked for” Google spreadsheet as he made his promotional debut Friday, assisting Jay Lethal in his win over QT Marshall.
Aaron Solo was about to get physical with Karen Jarrett outside the ring when Jarrett’s music hit. He chased Solo into the ring and laid in a guitar shot that pleased the Hammerstein faithful.
Dark Order’s Silver hasn’t been seen in either AEW or ROH over the last month and made his in-ring return Friday, teaming with Alex Reynolds in a losing effort against the Grizzled Young Veterans during the pre-show.
On commentary, it was mentioned that Silver is working through a torn left hamstring as his leg was taped up. James Drake and Zack Gibson worked over the injury during the match. It’s unknown if Silver suffered the injury during his last bout (a November trios match on AEW Rampage) or otherwise.
Ruby Soho and Angelo Parker, who recently announced they are expecting their first child, appear to have gotten married over the weekend. The Dark Order’s John Silver posted a photo to social media on Saturday that he recently attended Soho and Parker’s wedding.
Silver wrote, “Congrats to the new beautiful couple. I danced the whole time.”
Soho and Parker announced last month that they are expecting their first child together in a segment taped for AEW Rampage. The couple’s real-life relationship recently became involved in AEW storylines and led to Saraya and Harley Cameron turning on Soho and kicking her out of The Outcasts.
Soho hasn’t wrestled since the February 7 edition of Rampage when she teamed with Saraya and lost to Willow Nightingale and Kris Statlander in tag-team action. Parker hasn’t wrestled since dropping a singles match to Zak Knight on the April 10 Rampage.
The first episode of “Being the Dark Order” was released on Monday.
Days after it was revealed that Being the Elite would not return, the BTE YouTube channel published a new video featuring The Dark Order on Monday. Evil Uno, Alex Reynolds, and John Silver spent the majority of today’s episode trying to recruit more people for the show.
In storyline, The Dark Order purchased the rights to BTE using sponsorship money from Chilis. At the very end of the first episode, Evil Uno is shown texting with Matt Jackson about the deal.
“I can’t believe you spent all your chilis money on a sinking ship like BTE. You are gonna F this up like you F everything up!” Jackson’s text to Uno reads.
Sources close to Matt and Nick are telling me that they have officially finished up with Being The Elite. pic.twitter.com/4o7HWV0fKw
Last week, Brandon Cutler posted to social media that The Young Bucks had “finished up” with BTE. Then on Friday, our own Dave Meltzer wrote in the Daily Update that the show really is done.
“We’ll write more about it this coming week, but BTE is not on hiatus, it’s actually done. As of this point in time, there are no plans to bring it back,” Meltzer wrote.
John Silver is set to challenge Orange Cassidy for the AEW International Championship.
Silver defeated Brother Zay & Kip Sabian in a triple threat match on Friday’s Rampage episode to earn a shot at Cassidy’s International title on the Saturday, October 21 Battle of the Belts VIII special.
Sabian had Zay pinned in the Rampage contest, but Silver punted Sabian and stole the victory and the title shot.
Cassidy vs. Silver will be a rematch from the Full Gear 2020 pay-per-view in a match won by Cassidy. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter’s Dave Meltzer gave that Full Gear bout a ***1/2 rating.
Three title bouts are official for Battle of the Belts VIII, airing immediately following Collision on TNT at 10 p.m. Eastern time.
The TBS title will be on the line Saturday as Kris Statlander defends against Willow Nightingale, plus the World Trios titles will also be up for grabs.
The updated card:
AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy defends against John Silver
TBS Champion Kris Statlander defends against Willow Nightingale
AEW World Trios Champions The Acclaimed (Max Caster & Anthony Bowens) & Billy Gunn defend against Matt Menard, Angelo Parker & Daniel Garcia
Anthony Bowens was originally supposed to face Evil Uno on the episode. This afternoon, Tony Khan revealed that Bowens will instead wrestle a different Dark Order member. It will be Bowens vs. John Silver.
Khan wrote: “When Bowens said he’d fight any Dark Order member, they’d implied he’d face Dark Order ‘I’, but they’ve added a ‘V’ at the end, number IV John Silver!”
The Acclaimed & Billy Gunn are the current AEW Trios Champions. They defeated Peter Avalon & The Outrunners in a non-title match on Rampage last night.
Following that match, Dark Order interrupted The Acclaimed & Gunn. Dark Order declared that they want a shot at the Trios titles. Evil Uno challenged an Acclaimed member to face a Dark Order member in a singles match on Collision. Bowens accepted the challenge.
Collision is taking place from the Bryce Jordan Center in State College, Pennsylvania tonight. Here’s everything that’s been announced:
Bryan Danielson & Claudio Castagnoli vs. Ricky Starks & Big Bill
AEW Tag Team Champions FTR defend against The Iron Savages (Bronson & Boulder)
TBS Champion Kris Statlander defends against Britt Baker
Kip Sabian and The Dark Order have all recently signed new multi-year contracts with AEW.
In the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer confirmed that Kip Sabian and Dark Order members Evil Uno, John Silver & Alex Reynolds have signed new AEW deals. They’ve each signed three-year contracts.
Evil Uno and Sabian first revealed the news of the new contracts on social media earlier this week.
Sabian and the three Dark Order members all made their AEW debuts in 2019, the first year the promotion was in existence.
Sabian will be in action on tonight’s episode of Rampage. He’s teaming with The Butcher & The Blade against Keith Lee & The Hardys.
On last Friday’s Rampage, Sabian lost a singles match to Komander.
Evil Uno, Silver & Reynolds defeated Stu Grayson, Vincent & Dutch in a Fight Without Honor at ROH’s Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view last month. The Dark Order were also recently victorious against Hangman Page & The Young Bucks on the 100th episode of Rampage.
It was announced this Wednesday that Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks, and Page have all signed new multi-year AEW deals.
Matt and Nick Jackson threatened to hit -1 with a BTE Trigger, but they missed. -1 then stole their shoes.
The Elite —
Footage from Adam Cole, Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly’s match on Dynamite was shown, as well as The Young Bucks and Brandon Cutler watching the match backstage before they made their run-ins. The Bucks, Cole and Cutler speculated as to whether or not O’Reilly kicked Cole on purpose.
The Bucks think O’Reilly can’t be trusted, while Cole wants to trust him.
In the closing scene, Christopher Daniels returned and announced that he has work to do.
Dark Order —
The group returned to their old Daily’s Place lair. Colt Cabana did some magic tricks and turned himself into a miniature pumpkin.
Adam Cole went to his hotel room and was secretly disappointed that Silver and Reynolds were not in this bed. They then cut to Silver and Reynolds in their hotel room, where they were a little sad that Cole wasn’t there for them to squeeze.
Trent continued his passive aggressive badgering of Wheeler Yuta. He told Yuta that he had taken his place in Best Friends while he was out injured, but he’s back now, so Wheeler can go. He then told Wheeler he was just kidding.
The Elite —
The Young Bucks talked about how they hated to leave their families to make towns, but that’s what had to be done. They said that Adam Cole promised them a surprise.
Matt and Nick went shoe shopping at a mall.
Kyle O’Reilly’s debut was shown from Dynamite.
Adam Cole told the Bucks that Bobby Fish had set up Kyle coming in, that he and O’Reilly have stuff to work through but they’re dangerous together. He said they’re a super group now with the three of them and the Bucks. Matt and Nick acted like they weren’t so sure about Kyle coming in and walked off.
BTE Championship —
2point0’s Matt Lee defended the Championship against Daniel Garcia in a rock, paper, scissors battle.
Hollywood Hunk —
Ryan Nemeth got kicked out of a casting agency.
Leva Bates & Peter Avalon–
Leva Bates was trying on a Dark Order mask. JD Drake approached and said that Peter Avalon hasn’t been the same since she started messing with his mind. Drake tried to pay Bates to leave Avalon alone. Bates took the money and said she’s going to talk to Avalon anyway.
Matt Jackson said that the was feeling blue as the holiday season approached. Nick Jackson and Adam Cole said that they knew the feeling. Cole said that he knew what would cheer Matt up — a spray tan party.
Matt, Nick, Cole and Bobby Fish spray tanned each other.
The Elite —
Cutler Cam footage showed The Elite’s match on Rampage.
Dark Order —
John Silver and Alex Reynolds have moved on from Budge and are now into Hook. Cole seemed upset by no longer being the object of their attention.
Hangman Page asked the group to keep an eye on his belt after his match with Bryan Danielson.
Hangman announced that he’s getting stitches for Christmas.
Dark Order exchanged Christmas movie quotes and decided to set up traps backstage.
2point0 —
The group fell victim to Dark Order’s traps backstage over a series of skits.
Best Friends —
Trent showed Wheeler Yuta his new gear and called him a piece of sh*t.
Leva Bates & Peter Avalon–
Avalon gave Bates a Christmas gift. Bates gave Avalon a Christmas kiss.
Avalon had a video game deal go bad and he was attacked in a hotel room.
Hollywood Hunk —
Ryan Nemeth, his assistant Milk, and Luchasaurus drank eggnog. Luchasaurus went on a bad trip from the eggnog.
A snippet of The Young Bucks appearing on Complex’s Sneaker Shopping with Joe LaPuma aired.
The Elite —
The episode heavily focused on Matt and Nick shoe shopping in New York and spending thousands of dollars. Matt and Nick both joked that their wives would be upset with them. Nick mentioned that he had just spent $100,000 on a Tesla.
They showed Cutler Cam footage from The Young Bucks and Adam Cole matches on last week’s AEW television.
The show is really desperate for content.
Dark Order —
Leva Bates confronted Alex Reynolds for leading her on even though he’s married with kids. Peter Avalon and Alex Reynolds made up, but Bates said she wanted nothing to do with either of them.
Hollywood Hunk —
Cezar Bononi sprayed Ryan Nemeth with tanner.
Nemeth showed up at audition for a Michael Bay movie and got thrown out.
Itâs Tuesday and you know what that means: new AEW Dark matches.
Enjoy that fresh new match smell! Matches were taped at âAEW Universalâ this past Friday in Orlando, Florida. Your hosts are Excalibur and Taz.
Lee Moriarty defeated Misterioso (4:59)
Moriarty has awesome entrance music while Misterioso is thicker than your typical luchador. Moriarty is very technically sound and this was a good showcase for him. He did a cool sequence that started with a headlock takeover and ended with a cradle for a near fall, later followed by an arm capture belly-to-belly suplex. Misterioso caught a double boot to the face going for a moonsault and Moriarty hit a face-first suplex to get the pinfall.
Lio Rush defeated Rayo (2:49)
On commentary, Taz buried Rushâs chances in the Dynamite Dozen rattle royal Wednesday while noting that Team Taz has a â125% chanceâ of winning. Everything Rush does is so fast and so crisp. He used the frog splash to get the victory.
Brandi Rhodes defeated Angelica Risk (3:47)
This was Rhodes’ first match back since late-2020. Risk turned her back on Rhodes and walked into a pump kick which led to a near fall. Both ladies pulled each other’s hair. Risk got on some kind of leglock, but Rhodes punched her way out of the hold and hit a superkick. She then hit an enziguri, a pop-up forearm and then tied up Risk for the submission.
This match definitely belonged on Dark.
Emi Sakura (w/ Mei Suruga) defeated Ryo Mizunami
Suruga interfered a few times throughout the bout, tripping Mizunami and attacking her on the floor. Sakura went for the Queenâs Gambit early on, but Mizunami backdropped her opponent and came back with chops. Mizunami hit a leg drop, a stiff lariat and a twisting uranage, but could not put her opponent away. Behind the refereeâs back, Suruga hit Mizunami in the head with Sakuraâs sceptre and Sakura pinned Mizunami with a La Magistral cradle to get the pinfall.
After the match, Suruga and Sakura attacked Mizunami, leading to Riho running in to make the save.
Anthony Ogogo (w/ QT Marshall) defeated Baron Black (5:13)
This was Ogogo’s first match since Double or Nothing. He went for the Olympic Slam, but Black slid down into a sunset flip for a near fall. Black hit an atomic drop, a backstabber and an exploder suplex out of the corner that got a one count. Black went for a Texas Cloverleaf, but Marshall distracted the ref and Ogogo raked Blackâs eyes. Ogogo then hit the Olympic Slam and got the pinfall.
Shawn Spears and Wardlow defeated Jay Marte and Richard King
Wardlow offered up Marte a free headlock attempt which he took and then got killed. After flooring Marte with a clothesline, King got the tag. King at least got a few kicks in, but then went for a rana and Wardlow planted him with a power bomb. Wardlow power bombed King a few more times and then Marte when he tried to run in again. Spears tagged himself in and got the pin.
Fuego Del Sol defeated Luke Sampson (5:05)
Del Sol didnât even get a pre-match graphic introducing his squash.
Sampson has long hair and is dressed like Kevin Nash, even aping some of his moveset like the elbows in the corner. He looked next to Del Sol. A half nelson slam got a near fall from Sampson. Del Sol escaped a suplex attempt and caught Sampson with a jumping neckbreaker. He came off the top with a tornado DDT followed by a double stomp to the back of Sampsonâs head for the pinfall.
Sampson looked good in his AEW debut.
Team Taz (Dante Martin, Powerhouse Hobbs & Ricky Starks) (w/ Hook) defeated Kekoa, Omkar and JT Dunn
Martin is still getting a babyface reaction, despite being on the heel team. Martin hit the double jump moonsault on Dunn to get the pinfall.
Tony Schiavone interviewed Team Taz afterward. Starks did the talking, claiming that Team Taz has a â100% chanceâ of winning the battle royal tomorrow night which was down 25% from Tazâs earlier prediction. It didn’t take long for him to start running down Lio Rush. Rush came out to retort to say that when high stakes are on the line, Team Taz always comes up short. This was a good promo from Rush.
Thunder Rosa defeated Sofia Castillo
Castillo made her AEW debut in this loss. Rosa looked impressive and was never really in trouble. Rosa hit a running dropkick in the corner and a death valley driver, followed by the submission with the Peruvian Necktie.
After the match, Schiavone interviewed Rosa and when she mentioned Jade Cargill. Mark Sterling came out. Sterling started questioning Rosa in a lawyerly fashion in a segment that felt like it belonged on Raw. With Sterling distracting Rosa, Cargill ran in and hit her with a pump kick. This made me less interested in their match.
John Silver (w/ -1) defeated Aaron Solo (5:32)
This was a nice showcase for Silver ahead of arguably the biggest singles match of his career tomorrow night on Dynamite.
Silver gorilla pressed Solo and dropped him on the top rope in an ugly way. Solo came back with a vertical suplex and worked over Silver in the corner with chops and threatened that -1 was next. A double stomp got him a near fall.
Solo walked into a boot after mocking Silverâs muscle pose. He went for a rana, but Silver countered into a sit-out power bomb for a near fall. Silver won an exchange of forearms and caught Solo with kicks to the chest. After a pump kick to the back of the head, Silver hit the Spin Doctor (helicopter slam) to get the pinfall.
After the match, Schiavone interviewed Silver and -1 about his match with Bryan Danielson on Dynamite. Johnny is âhungeeâ for some vegan meat in the form of Bryan Danielson.
Final Thoughts:
There was nothing really worth going out of your way to see here.
The Young Bucks spoke about taking a week off and how that had helped them recover from some burnout. They promised less personal information would be on BTE. They talked briefly about their three-year deals had always been three-year deals with a two-year option, and that they had their options exercised.
The Elite —
Adam Cole did a commercial for the AEW General Manager mobile game.
The Bucks shot some footage to be used for Giphy stickers.
Dark Order —
Silver and Reynolds tried to talk to Adam Cole, but he told him that he hates them and doesn’t want to see them again. Instead of calling him “Budge,” Silver and Reynolds called him Cole and said they would respect his wishes. Cole acted sad as they left the room.
The group discussed their problem with Bryan Danielson. Anna Jay told Danielson that she’s next and demonstrated on Stu Grayson what she wanted to do to Danielson, beating him up all over the backstage area.
Best Friends —
Kris Statlander prepared for her TBS tournament match. John Silver appeared and wanted to be part of the training montage, but Statlander kicked him low. Wheeler Yuta started joining in on the Silver beatdown, but Statlander choked him out.
Hollywood Hunk —
Ryan Nemeth and Peter Avalon were both still caught up on their exes.
This week’s cold open was a commercial for Killing The Business coming out in paperback tomorrow.
The Elite —
Matt Jackson stated that he and Nick were not medically cleared as of the filming of this last Wednesday. He said Nick had a foot issue and his neck was “giving him grief.”
They showed The Bucks doing a run-in on Rampage during Adam Cole’s match.
The Elite gathered in Kenny Omega’s hotel room. He informed them that he wouldn’t be around for a while. Cole offered Omega a Monster energy drink, the same way that Cole was written out of the show when he went to NXT. Omega took a sip, teased “dying,” but was okay. Nick joked that he thought Kenny had signed with WWE or that he was going to die like Cole did.
Dark Order —
John Silver and Alex Reynolds again crashed Adam Cole’s hotel room. The three argued over Cole being called Budge, they argued over Silver and Reynolds being in Cole’s bed. Cole woke up from a dream where he imagined Silver and Reynolds kissing him.
2point0 —
Matt and Jeff cut a promo on Eddie Kingston on Chew of the Week.
Matt and Jeff were informed that if they didn’t defend the BTE title in the next 30 days, they would be stripped of the belt.
Best Friends —
Rocky Romero choked out Wheeler Yuta this week for impersonating Trent last week on the show.
Hollywood Hunk —
Ryan Nemeth tried to invent a new genre of music called “the blues,” to get over his heartbreak. His assistant Milk agreed to join his band. Nemeth played the trumpet while standing in his swimming pool, then made Milk put on his “special big boy hat.”
Nick Jackson continued his bit of doing funny voices when answering spam phone calls.
The Elite —
Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks visited the Mall of America and the spot where the first WCW Monday Nitro was filmed, now a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles attraction.
The group went to a casino and played slots.
We saw backstage footage of Adam Cole and The Bucks at AEW Rampage, then preparing for their match at Full Gear. Matt explained that their gear was pink because that was his favorite color as a kid.
Cutler Cam showed footage from the Full Gear pay-per-view.
Hangman Page’s World title win from Full Gear was briefly touched on at the end of the episode. There was a little bit of backstage footage of Page being congratulated by the locker room and Omega walking away, then Page’s nameplate being put on the belt.
2point0 —
Matt and Jeff cut a promo on Aubrey Edwards in their “Chew of the Week” segment.
Best Friends —
Chuck Taylor, Orange Cassidy, Kris Statlander and Wheeler Yuta welcomed Rocky Romero to their hotel room. They tried to convince Rocky that Yuta was Trent.
Hollywood Hunk —
Ryan Nemeth cut a promo on Cutler as he was dressed as a shark on the set of an “Untitled Michael Bay project.”
