The ROH Tag Team titles changed hands at Saturday night’s Manhattan Mayhem event at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City.
The Briscoes won the titles by defeating Guerrillas of Destiny in a New York City street fight in the main event of last night’s show. The finish of the match was The Briscoes hitting a Doomsday Device, with Mark Briscoe pinning Tama Tonga after jumping off the top of a ladder and sending Tonga through a table while Tonga was on Jay Briscoe’s shoulders.
This is The Briscoes’ 11th reign with the ROH Tag Team titles.
Before losing the titles last night, Guerrillas of Destiny had been ROH Tag Team Champions since defeating PCO & Brody King, EVIL & SANADA, and The Briscoes in a four-way match at G1 Supercard this April.
The NYC street fight was set up after Guerrillas of Destiny retained against The Briscoes at War of the Worlds: Chicago in May. In that match, Tonga rolled up Jay Briscoe after Tanga Loa hit Jay with a title belt.
ROH was at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City on Saturday night for their Manhattan Mayhem TV tapings. Six of the matches were broadcast live on the HonorClub streaming service.
Quick results —
Dragon Lee defeated Jonathan Gresham
The Bouncers defeated Soldiers of Savagery and Coast 2 Coast in a three-way match
Rush defeated TK O’Ryan
ROH World Champion Matt Taven defeated Kenny King and Jay Lethal in a three-way match to retain his title
LifeBlood (Bandido, Mark Haskins, Tracy Williams & PJ Black) defeated Villain Enterprises (Marty Scurll, Flip Gordon, PCO & Brody King)
The Briscoes defeated Guerrillas of Destiny in a New York City street fight to win the ROH Tag Team titles
Dragon Lee defeated Jonathan Gresham
Great opener. They shook hands before the match, but Gresham was hesitant in doing so. He tried to swing himself into an octopus hold, but the two instead went into a really quick exchange of counters and strikes and the crowd began to percolate.
Gresham has been teasing a heel turn since his match with Silas Young at the last PPV. He’s gotten way jacked since seeing him at Best in the World last month. These two had a match in NJPW’s Best of the Super Juniors last month and the first few minutes of this were more heated than that one.
These two slapped the hell out of each other both on the chest and in the face until the ref turned his back and Gresham landed a very unsportsmanlike sack-tap that elicited tons of boos.
Gresham slowed things down for a while, bullying Lee and stretching him. It reminded me of Daniel Bryan when he went heel with the Wyatt Family a couple years ago, when he modified his style to make it less flashy and more mean.
Lee made a comeback and hit the Shibata running dropkick in the corner. They started trading tons of high spots and more strikes. They both wrestled on the top rope until Dragon Lee was able to land the tree of woe stomp and later an exposed running knee to Gresham’s temple to grab the win. Really good, and that’s crazy to say considering the quality of the G1 this week.
– Matt Taven came out wearing a Red Sox jersey. He recently threw out the first pitch at a Red Sox game and talked about that. He said it was the greatest moment of his life and people booed. He said tonight the rivalry between him and “that Melvin” Jay Lethal comes to an end. He said he’s going to prove the critics wrong because he’s Matt Taven. It was a good quick promo.
– Kenny King came out and called Taven’s jersey lame. He said he didn’t care who he beat because the last time he was in Manhattan he beat Jushin Liger and Great Muta. He insisted on being in Taven’s match with Jay Lethal. The crowd screamed “Noooooooo” and then started chanting “shut the f**k up” at him.
Taven basically said he was Matt Taven again and King called him more names as he went to the back. King was now in the ROH World Championship match.
Jay Lethal stormed out and got in Taven’s face. They got into it and started punching each other until “security” and referees came out and broke them up. The crowd was lukewarm at first but then started chanting “let them fight.”
The Bouncers (Beer City Bruiser & Brawler Milonas) defeated Soldiers of Savagery (Moses Maddox & Jasper Kaun) and Coast 2 Coast (LSG & Shaheem Ali) in a three-way match
The Bouncers drank beer in the crowd and Beer City Bruiser came out with a cigar in his mouth. Is he doing a Crusher parody?
LSG and Bruiser started off. Bruiser did the “I can’t bite — I ain’t got no teeth!” spot and it bombed yet again. You could here one guy chuckling as production zoomed in on Bruiser’s face.
Milonas and Moses from Sons of Savagery were in next. Milonas ironically called Moses “fat boy.” SOS are huge dudes and remind me of guys you’d see in EVOLVE or NXT these days. The big guys hoss’d out and exchanged shoulder blocks and punches.
LSG tagged Milonas as he ran the ropes and Moses then tagged out to Jasper. They later chokeslammed Bruiser through the timekeeper’s table, so referee Brian Hebner ejected them from the match. The crowd booed and started chanting “bullsh*t.” They perked back up when The Bouncers landed the Closing Time (the Smoking Gunns’ Sidewinder) on LSG to win.
Vinny Marseglia and TK O’Ryan attacked The Bouncers with chairs after the match. People booed — but aside from one girl with pink hair in the front row it felt like cold heat.
Marseglia smoked Bruiser’s cigar. The Kingdom sat on the chairs and talked about how they thought they should’ve been the Tag Team Champions long ago and then burned the cigar out on Bruiser’s chest. TK O’Ryan said he liked whiskey better. This segment was borderline embarrassing. No one seemed to care.
Rush defeated TK O’Ryan
O’Ryan stayed in the ring and called out Rush, who then made his entrance. He wrestled at Arena Mexico on Friday night. People were way into Rush but didn’t react much to O’Ryan.
O’Ryan wore new tights tonight so I guess he’s updating his look. The crowd was really quiet when he was on offense unless he cued the audience to boo for him. He did the Eddie Guerrero rolling vertical suplexes and did the Eddie shimmy to the crowd for some reason.
Rush spit on O’Ryan and started no-selling all of O’Ryan’s chops, then did a snap dragon suplex (like his brother Dragon Lee did in the match before). People started going nuts when Rush started whipping O’Ryan into the barricades.
This quickly turned into a disaster when Rush went to do a surprise back kick to O’Ryan, but Rush completely whiffed because O’Ryan was out of place. He sat up before Rush could see him and the camera caught the whole thing. Maybe on the side opposite the hard cam it looked okay because Rush smacked his thigh — but wow, that didn’t look good.
Rush then tried doing a belly-to-belly into the bottom turnbuckle, but it looked atrocious and O’Ryan bumped short and on his side. The crowd barely reacted. Rush obliterated O’Ryan with the Bull’s Horns for the win moments later. It looked crazy. He was extremely over with this crowd, but they really didn’t care about O’Ryan and it was stark.
Rush posed with fans in the front row and did the LIJ pose. One “fan” wearing a glittery Pierroth mask attacked him. It was Dalton Castle and they did the Jericho/Rey Mysterio or Jericho/Naito angle. Castle did his own Bull’s Horns and took the mask off before they cut to a promo package about Jay Lethal.
ROH World Champion Matt Taven defeated Kenny King and Jay Lethal in a three-way match to retain his title
Alex Shelley was on commentary for this match. They played up Lethal’s ties to NYC and how bummed out he was to lose the ROH title at MSG. Half the crowd was for Lethal and just about half were for Taven, but everyone seemed to hate Kenny King.
Once this got going, it was pretty good. It didn’t feel like there were any awkward transitions between any of the guys. King was a little clumsy in how he does some moves. He makes up for what he lacks in the ring as a decent heel and his ability to rile the crowd up.
Taven and Lethal started slapping each other in the corner. King broke things up and then he and Taven got into it. King was trapped in the corner when Lethal put Taven in a tree of woe and dropkicked Taven, then King. Taven and Lethal went pretty hard at each other and it looked real crisp.
King later took both Taven and Lethal out with a double lariat and everyone sold on the mat after that. King then did a capoeira kick to Lethal on the apron and Taven dropkicked king to the floor. Taven did a few dives, then Lethal did a few too. The crowd really heated up here. The rhythm was sort of fractured before but from here it felt like things began to cook.
Taven frog splashed Lethal as he tried locking on a figure four on King. All three traded submissions and about three guys in the crowd chanted “fight forever.”
King landed a double blockbuster for two on both Lethal and then Taven. When Lethal hit the Lethal Injection on Taven, the place actually went nuts. It’s so strange because they weren’t making a sound just a few seconds earlier.
King snuck in and landed his version of the Lethal Injection and a Royal Flush on Lethal, but Taven came from the corner and spiked King with the Climax. He then pinned Lethal to win the match. This was pretty good.
LifeBlood (Bandido, Mark Haskins, Tracy Williams & PJ Black) defeated Villain Enterprises (Marty Scurll, Flip Gordon, PCO & Brody King)
Good match with an excited crowd, especially towards the end. Villain Enterprises all came out in gear that looked like a steampunk remix of Demolition’s old ring gear. Williams and Scurll were in first. The crowd was hot for Scurll and chanted his name over and over. All four got in the ring and squared off a minute later.
Bandido and Gordon were in next. Ian Riccaboni said these two could be a main event anywhere. I think that might actually be true. Gordon tagged out to King, who did crazy lucha spots on the ropes.
Haskins and Scurll were solid together. Bandido later dove off the top rope and double-stomped Scurll’s left arm.
Later, King did a huge tope con giro to the floor, then Scurll back body dropped PCO onto everyone else outside. The crowd was freaking out. PCO looks huge and was great here. He has the one-strap top, old school style.
Bandido legitimately caught PCO mid-air and powerslammed him. What the hell? Then he did a dive from the top to the floor and Colt Cabana said he didn’t even know that was a move. I didn’t either. It was a crazy twisting delayed moonsault thing. He’s nuts.
PCO did a giant moonsault onto everyone and the place lost it. Bandido did a running Canadian Destroyer, but the timing was botched and PCO landed awkwardly near the edge of the apron.
King went on a tear and almost pinned Haskins when everyone started chanting “This is awesome.” Bandido hit the 21-Plex and Black landed a 450 to win the match. Black celebrated with LifeBlood afterwards.
The Briscoes (Mark & Jay Briscoe) defeated Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa) in a New York City street fight to win the ROH Tag Team titles
This was relentless. Wow. The crowd chanted “G-O-D” over and over when Tonga and Loa came to the ring. They sounded like the biggest stars on the show so far. People started chanting “New Japan” when they stepped through the ropes. Yikes.
When the bell rang, things got out of control quickly. This all felt like FMW meets Crossfit, if that makes any sense. There were always at least three chairs in the ring at all times.
The Briscoes pulled out a bunch of weapons from under the ring. They got into a rapid-paced brawl and didn’t let their feet off the pedal until the finish. Tonga did a crazy missile dropkick on the floor and landed on his back.
They beat the tar out of each other with chairs and kendo sticks. Mark Briscoe put Loa through a table, or rather down onto it, and onto the floor. Loa later body slammed him through the table and finally split it into pieces.
This just never let up. Loa dropped Mark off the apron onto a pile of chairs on the floor. Loa destroyed him with chair shots. This all had the same vibe as Jon Moxley’s G1 matches this week, raw and violent with none of the guys in the match holding back in the least.
Guerrillas of Destiny super powerbombed Mark onto Jay Briscoe off the apron through a table and the crowd freaked again. As if things couldn’t get more nuts, Mark dragged a ladder out from under the ring. Jay was cut open and was juicing everywhere.
Just as Loa and Mark were atop the ladder, the HonorClub stream cut out. It wouldn’t be a proper HonorClub show without the stream going out. Thankfully it didn’t miss the absolutely most insane finishing spot I’ve seen all year.
Mark and Tonga fought on the top of the ladder and there was a table set up in one corner of the ring. Jay came from underneath Tonga and put him on his shoulders and they did a high-angle Doomsday Device through said table and got the win. It looked crazy. The Briscoe Brothers are now 11-time ROH Tag Team Champions. Well deserved.
We’ll be back tomorrow covering ROH’s next HonorClub show, Mass Hysteria.
ROH has announced when Guerrillas of Destiny and The Briscoes’ Tag Team title rematch will be taking place.
Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa defending their ROH Tag Team titles against The Briscoes in a New York City street fight is set for next month’s ROH Manhattan Mayhem television tapings. The show is being held at the Hammerstein Ballroom on Saturday, July 20.
Guerrillas of Destiny won the ROH Tag Team titles by defeating PCO & Brody King, EVIL & SANADA, and The Briscoes in a four-way match at G1 Supercard this April. Tonga & Loa are also the current IWGP Tag Team Champions in NJPW.
Guerrillas of Destiny retained the ROH Tag Team titles against The Briscoes at War of the Worlds: Chicago in May. Tonga got the win by rolling up Jay Briscoe after Loa hit Jay with a title belt while the referee was checking on Mark Briscoe.
Following that match, ROH posted video of a promo where The Briscoes challenged Guerrillas of Destiny to a rematch and said they wanted it to have no rules this time.
The Briscoes are facing Nick Aldis & Colt Cabana at ROH’s Best in the World pay-per-view on June 28.
Jay Lethal challenging for the ROH World Championship is also set for Manhattan Mayhem. Matt Taven will defend the ROH World title against Jeff Cobb at Best in the World.
Bully Ray came out to start the show, hyping up the crowd. Said there were would be professional wrestling tonight and not sports entertainment.
They announced at the start of the show that the main event has been changed. It will now be Bullet Club vs. The Kingdom (who are replacing SoCal Uncensored) & Shane Taylor.
The Briscoes defeated Coast to Coast and The Dawgs in a triple threat match
This was a solid bout, mostly quick action between the three teams. The Dawgs were arguing with one another when the Briscoes jump then. Jay struck Will Ferrara with the Jay Driller for the win. how on Friday.
The Briscoes cut a heel promo with Jay saying they’ll do whatever the hell they want, this is their house and everyone here can go to hell. Mark says they’ll become the 9 time tag team champions. Chris Sabin, who was doing commentary, came out to the stage and posed with the title.
Tenille Dashwood and Deonna Purrazzo defeated Jenny Rose and Sumie Sakai
This was a good match, but the crowd was largely dead for it. They built a hot tag to Tenille as she finally came in and cleared house. She got some near falls on Sakai until she hit her new finisher, a running knee called the Spotlight, for the win.
Punishment Martinez defeated Soberano Jr.
Commentators said that Soberano had literally just arrived in the building. This was a total styles clash and not in a good way, as there were a ton of missed moves. Martinez is also doing the monster gimmick so he didn’t sell for a lot of Soberano’s offense early. Martinez grabbed him off the apron and chokeslammed him for the win in a short, but pretty bad match. This did no favors for Soberano, who is normally a great talent in CMLL. Beyond me why they’d book this match with this layout and finish for someone coming in from CMLL.
Martinez powerbombed Soberano Jr. on the apron after the match for good measure.
They are now having a Q&A with Jonathan Gresham.
It was revealed that, in fact, fans voted for the stipulation that if Flip Gordon wins his match tonight, he’ll be booked for All In in September.
Cody defeated Flip Gordon
This ended up being a pretty good match. To me, in terms of a heel act Cody is above and beyond everyone else right now in terms of presence and knowing his character. He stalled before the match, yelling at the crowd for being on Team Kenny and called Gordon a flat earther. He told Brandy and Bury the Bear at ringside that that they were all leaving. Eventually, Cody came back in and they did start having a match. Brandi played possum by pretending to take a bump early, so when Flip had his back turned she grabbed him, allowing Cody to strike him for the heat.
Flip came back with a dive and was going for another when Cody caught him on the top rope and attempted a superplex. Flip, well, flipped over him and hit a variation of the cheeky nandos kick Will Ospreay is known for. Cody came back with a moonsault and spiked him with the crossroads. Instead of pinning him, Cody motions that he’s going for another moonsault. He misses, allowing Flip to hit a 450 splash, but Cody kicks out.
Brandi went to the apron to confront Flip. Cody went for the disaster kick but Flip ducked and instead struck Brandi. Flip and Cody argued as Flip started to fight back, but Cody cut him off and hit the crossroads again for the win. This means Flip is still not booked for All In.
Caprice Coleman came out for his talk show, Coleman’s Culpit. He revealed that fans voted for Colt Cabana to come on the show. The Kingdom cut Cabana off as he was about to join Coleman and cut a promo running down SoCal Uncensored and hyped up tonight’s main event.
Silas Young, Beer City Bruiser and Brian Milonas defeated Chucky T, Cheeseburger and ROH TV champion Kenny King
This was solid, it told a nice story. I thought the spots between the big men (Milonas and Bruiser) and Cheeseburger were pretty good. Cheeseburger is a substitute for Baretta, who tore his pectoral and triceps muscles a few weeks ago and is out for the foreseeable future. He and Chucky T’s team are apparently called Chucky Cheese.
Kenny King and Silas Young had a good exchange early. Milonas and Bruiser worked on Cheeseburger. King made the hot tag. Cheeseburger went for a dive but Young smacked him. King followed through instead did a dive on Silas as they brawled to the back. The two big guys were in the ring with the miniscule Cheeseburger. Milonas took Cheeseburger to the top rope and launched off with a superplex, then Beer City Bruiser followed with the frog splash, in a tandem move they call the Last Call for the win.
Dalton Castle and Volador Jr. defeated Ultimo Guerrero and Jay Lethal
This was a great match. Castle and Lethal started things off, then Volador and Guerrero went at it. The latter two looked great. This turned into a really good match; Ultimo Guerrero knows exactly how to get a crowd into a match and Lethal did some great dives. He took out Castle and the Boys on the outside with a suicide dive at one point. Lots of frentic back and forth action. Lethal went for the Lethal Injection on Volador but he blocked it, allowing Castle and Ultimo Guerrero to at it. Volador stepped in and scored the win for his team with the Volador spiral on Guerrero.
Bullet Club (Hangman Page, Marty Scurll and The Young Bucks) defeated The Kingdom (Matt Taven, Vinny Marseglia and TK O’Ryan) and Shane Taylor
An absolutely crazy match, full of wild dives, crazy spots and a hot crowd. It’s your usual great Young Bucks/Bullet Club match where they put out all the stops, and people were super into it as a result.
So an Ultimate Mayhem match is akin to a War Games match in that two men start the match, with more coming in as time progresses and a winner can only be determined when all eight men are in the ring. There’s no rules beyond that, so there were a lot of weapons used during the bout.
Taven and Scurll started things off for their team. The Kingdom won the coin toss, with Vinny Marseglia coming in from what may have been under the ring. Matt Jackson came out not too long after that to even the odds, wiping out Taven with a dive off the stairs, ran to the ring and took out Marseglia with a dive to the floor. TK O’Ryan came in next, masquerading as a Bullet Club fan. He took out Matt Jackson with a trash can and was being escorted out when he revealed himself.
Nick Jackson entered the match next and was able to take out The Kingdom on his own. Matt joined in as the two continued to dominate. Matt put Marseglia through a table with an elbow. Shane Taylor came in and cleaned house on the Bullet Club. He got a table and was setting it up as Hangman Page came out with a steel chair and started whalloping people with it. He took out the Kingdon and Taylor on the outside with moonsaults, then the Young Bucks followed, then a hesitant Marty Scurll pulled one off as well.
Hangman Page went to the balcony and did an amazing dive off the balcony to the floor, wiping out pretty much anyone who could catch him. He met Shane Taylor in the ring and tried for the Rites of Passage but couldn’t get it. The Young Bucks came in and started to wipe people out with superkicks. Marseglia put Page through a table as the Kingdom started to get their heat back. So much crazy stuff going on, including a shooting star Indytaker and another Indytaker on the outside. O’Ryan was put through a table as well. Nick Jackson jumped off the top rope to the outside with a 450 splash, taking out Shane Taylor who was, you guessed it, on a table.
O’Ryan was put back in the ring, where Hangman Page grabbed him and finished him with the Rites of Passage for the win. Overall, a pretty good show with the top two matches delivering.
Image: @ringofhonor. Report submitted by reader Matt Singer. Check out our post on The Hardys and Bully Ray showing up for more on their surprise appearances.
– Christopher Daniels defeated TK O’Ryan
– Dalton Castle defeated Colt Cabana
This was a solid comedy match. Castle won after a distraction (and a big bump) from the Boys.
– ROH Television Champion Marty Scurll defeated Sonjay Dutt to retain his title
Scurll vs. Dutt was a really good match with probably the best psychology on the show. The crowd loved Scurll. He worked over Dutt’s arm and then won with the crossface chicken wing.
– Dragon Lee defeated Will Ospreay
This was the match I came to see and it didn’t disappoint. It was a total spotfest, but a spectacular one. Lee won after they traded one big move after another. Ospreay is incredible live.
– ROH Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks defeated Lio Rush & Jay White to retain their titles
The Hardys appeared after to confront the Bucks, leading to a title match between the teams.
– The Hardys defeated The Young Bucks to win the ROH Tag Team Championship
– Matt Taven won a battle royal to earn a future ROH World title shot
– Cody, Hangman Page & Frankie Kazarian defeated The Briscoes & Jay Lethal
The match was mostly a brawl. They went up the aisle and onto the stage and back. Lethal got a great reception when he came out, but didn’t get much of a spotlight. He was mostly teasing a match with Cody.
– ROH World Champion Adam Cole defeated Bobby Fish to retain his title
Cole won by roll-up with a handful of tights. Bullet Club tried to beat down Fish after, which led to Bully Ray making the save and saying that he’s now with ROH.
There were surprise appearances by both The Hardys and Bully Ray at Manhattan Mayhem VI, with Broken Matt & Brother Nero (in their full Broken gimmicks) even going on to defeat The Young Bucks and win the ROH Tag Team Championship.
Both The Hardys and Bully Ray indicated that they were now with ROH, though how long they’ll be with the company remains to be seen. The Hardys listed dates they’ll be at going forward, including ROH’s 15th Anniversary pay-per-view, but none of those were after WrestleMania weekend.
Below is a report from reader Matt Singer about the relevant segments:
– ROH Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks defeated Lio Rush & Jay White to retain their titles
The Bucks were the most over act on the show by far (at least until The Hardys showed up). This was a chaotic match. It had nonstop action, and it was pretty fun even though there wasn’t much of a story. The Bucks won after hitting the Meltzer Driver.
The lights then went out. They came back after a minute and The Hardys were in the ring, saying the Bucks’ time has come. The Bucks accepted their challenge and told the ref to ring the bell. That moment was probably the single biggest pop of the night when the crowd realized they were actually having a match.
– The Hardys defeated The Young Bucks to win the ROH Tag Team Championship
The Hardys won and then cut a promo saying they had left TNA (prompting huge “f*ck TNA” chants) and that the rumors that they were going to WWE were wrong. They claimed that they have signed with the “Honorable Ring” and then rattled off a bunch of dates, which were all before WrestleMania.
– ROH World Champion Adam Cole defeated Bobby Fish to retain his title
This was a good match, though the crowd was kind of dead. Cole got the pin with a roll-up by using a handful of tights. Bully Ray showed up to make the save after the Bullet Club came out to beat up Fish and tried putting him through a table.
Ray said he had offers from other places (more “f*ck TNA” chants) but he was a fan of ROH and wanted to say he retired having fought there. He said he wasn’t there for money or for a guy’s spot — he was there because he wanted to be.
It ended with him asking for Joe Koff, which didn’t happen, but he said he was now with ROH and that was it.
