A World title match is set for ROH’s Global Wars Espectacular tour with CMLL.
ROH and CMLL have announced that Matt Taven will defend his ROH World Championship against Volador Jr. at the Global Wars Espectacular show in Villa Park, Illinois on Saturday, September 7. The tour also has stops in Dearborn, Michigan on Friday, September 6 and Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Sunday, September 8.
Taven turned against Volador at last year’s CMLL anniversary show, with them losing to Rush & Barbaro Cavernario in a hair vs. hair main event.
Taven has been ROH World Champion since defeating Jay Lethal and Marty Scurll in a ladder match at G1 Supercard at Madison Square Garden this April.
In addition to Volador, CMLL’s Stuka Jr., Triton, Cavernario, Hechicero, Rey Bucanero, and Okumura have been announced for all three Global Wars Espectacular shows. Caristico will be in action at the Villa Park and Milwaukee events.
The Dearborn show is taking place at the Ford Community Center, Villa Park is at the Odeum Expo, and Milwaukee is at the Potawatomi Casino. The events will stream live on HonorClub.
“Left My Wallet” returns with a Boston-centric sports talk featuring current Ring of Honor World Champion Matt Taven.
He talks about the experience of throwing out the first pitch at Fenway Park recently and how he prepared for the big moment as a lifelong Red Sox fan. We then talk all of the moves that have happened in the NBA, which L.A. team will be better, our picks for the 2020 NBA Finals and the loaded Western Conference. We then finish with our beloved Celtics and why we think this team will be better with Kemba over Kyrie.
Enjoy this quick and fun episode with a longtime friend of mine from here in New England.
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 was in Baltimore, Maryland on Friday for their Best in the World pay-per-view live on the HonorClub and FITE streaming services. Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana were the announce team for the night.
*****
Quick results:
Rush defeated Flip Gordon
Dalton Castle defeated Dragon Lee
The Allure defeated Kelly Klein & Jenny Rose
Kenny King defeated Jay Lethal to win their Best-of-Three series
Jonathan Gresham defeated Silas Young in a Pure Rules match
Nick Aldis & Eli Drake and the Briscoe Brothes ended in a double-countout
Shane Taylor defeated Bandido to retain the ROH World Television Championship
Villain Enterprises defeated LifeBlood & PJ Black to retain the ROH World Six-Man World Tag Team Championships
Matt Taven defeated Jeff Cobb to retain the ROH World Heavyweight Championship
Pre-show: Rush defeated Flip Gordon
Ian Riccaboni, Colt Cabana and Caprice Coleman are on commentary for tonight’s event. There wasn’t a wide establishing shot on the pre-show feed so it was hard to gauge how many people were in the building.
Gordon came out to a good reaction from the audience and got lots of pyro. A lot of people in the crowd were into Rush as well.
Rush brawled with Gordon from the start of this one. Gordon was quickly tossed out of the ring and into the barricade. The more he chopped and posed, the louder his reactions sounded. All charisma from him. Caprice Coleman said this was like having steak as an appetizer.
Gordon botched a uranage so Ian Riccaboni called it a throw. Rush shouted “f*ck you!” a few times during this match. After speaking with Rush in Portland, he did mention he’s trying to use more English, both in and out of the ring.
Gordon made a mid-match comeback and landed a few kicks and knee strikes. At one point Rush caught Gordon who attempted a dive but slammed him into the barricade, then threw a garbage can at him. He’s been doing this a lot in ROH recently.
Rush blasted Gordon with a brutal Bull’s Horns basement dropkick in the corner. Gordon sold it like he was murdered and fell through the ropes before being pinned.
Rush was interviewed ringside afterwards and said: “Remember people, I didn’t come to play. I’m here to destroy.” He’s also transliterated his “Se pasa nada” catchphrase so that it’s now “Nothing happens — unless I say so.”
This was good but too short and kind of shallow overall. Rush is being positioned as undefeated even though I’m pretty sure he lost that Four Corners Survival match for the TV title where Shane Taylor won the title. I think they meant he wasn’t pinned in ROH.
-NWA Worlds Champion Nick Aldis came out to announce his replacement tag partner but James Storm came out to interrupt and spouted wrestle-rhetoric until Aldis introduced Eli Drake as his tag partner for tonight.
Drake got a pretty big reaction and the crowd chanted his name when he came out. He called people j-bones and mentioned he was from Maryland and essentially explained that he’s going to turn the world of NWA upside down. He’ll team with Aldis against the Briscoes later tonight.
Dalton Castle defeated Dragon Lee
Dragon Lee got the same pyro action that Flip Gordon did as he came to the ring. Fans threw some streamers in the ring for him. Riccaboni mentioned LuchaBlog, which was pretty cool.
A dropkick and a Bull’s Horns from Lee to kick off the match, for an early two. It was sold as revenge for Castle’s recent recent attacks on his brother Rush. He went for a running hurracanrana from the apron but Castle power bombed him on the apron. Lee bounced around ling one of those super-balls you get from a gum-ball machine. Castle threw him into the crowd and into the barricade.
Castle’s style as a crazy-eyed powerhouse bully works pretty well. He suplexed Lee all over the place and tried tearing his Lee’s mask off midway through.
Lee dove headfirst through the ropes onto Castle and Castle sold it with his eyes crossed ike he was Jackie Gleason or something. The crowd was quite into the match at this point.
They traded big suplexes until Lee murdered castle with an inverted hurracanrana. Brutal.
After a few attempts Castle finally caught Lee with the Bang-a-rang but didn’t pin him. He then did his own version of the Bull’s Horns for the win.
This was good. Dragon Lee has gotten even better, somehow, and was moving at 100 mph tonight. The booking makes sense considering Lee’s recent loss to Will Ospreay in New Japan.
The Allure defeated Kelly Klein & Jenny Rose
This was weak. The Allure had new gear and wore sunglasses to the ring. On commentary they were referred to a few times as “social media influencers.” Brian Hebner, son of Earl, ref’d this one.
Kelly Klein was in more professional looking gear tonight. The crowd was into her and chanted her and Jenny Rose’s names during this match a few times. They went after the Allure before the bell. This all looked like it was in slow motion compared to what Dragon Lee was doing just a few minutes before.
Velvet Sky took Rose out with a phony looking lariat on the floor. Angelina Love hit a really nice plancha to the floor a bit later.
When Jenny Rose and Mandy Leon together in the ring was like watching a regular match at half-speed. Klein was the only one to get significant reactions while she was in the ring.
After a botched spear on the apron, Rose slammed Leon onto the floor. Klein hit a super form the second rope fall-away slam for two. Velvet Sky distracted Hebner after this so Leon could hit Klein with a shoe. Love then did the Botox Injection (Yakuza Kick) for the win. They’re heading towards a program with Klein and Love based on this and the recent TV tapings.
-The lights went out and on the monitors they played the Maneater vignette that’s appeared online recently. Maria Manic came to the ring and spooked the Allure off, then attacked security. She put one guy in a torture rack and then Razor’s Edge’d the other one onto the rest of security outside the ring. People in the crowd knew who she was and chanted her name after this. This was minute-long angle was twice as effective as the match itself.
Best of Three Series: Kenny King defeated Jay Lethal (series tied 1–1)
These two had their second match of this series almost a month again in Kent, WA but it wasn’t broadcast until this week. It’s not worth watching, unfortunately. Lethal didn’t shake King’s hand beforehand.
King has been attempting a handful of Lethal’s moves but it looks really strange when he tries any of them, like the Lethal Injection that he almost botched on TV in the aforementioned match, or the springboard Jericho dropkick he did early on in this match. Despite that, the crowd was more or less on board with those one.
He did a drop toe-hold to King onto an unfolded chair. After teasing a Pillmanizer on King’s arm, he thought against it but eventually got backdropped onto the edge of the apron. It looked unsafe but if Lethal is all right then whatever.
Lethal used a Royal Flush — King’s finisher, on King, but it looked bad because King landed on his foot before bumping. Lethal then went for a suicde dive but King caught him, then dropped him. I think they were going for a spinebuster spot but King couldn’t hold Lethal up. They tried really hard to put it over as intentional on commentary but it was hard to buy.
King did a shooting star press that was five degrees away from Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania XIX but he stuck the landing, thankfully. Lethal used Lethal Injection but only got two, much to the surprise of the crowd. Crowd was relatively hot here. King then hit a Lethal Injection of his own (better than the one he used on TV) and a Royal Flush for the clean pin.
The last few minutes of this were the best part of this match. It’d have been a lot better if King wasn’t in it, I imagine.
Jonathan Gresham defeated Silas Young in a Pure/Scientific Rules match by submission
I have no idea why there is a slash mark in the ad-copy for this match. Riccaboni mentioned that this was the first match of its kind in ROH in close to a decade.
The story here is that Young lowblowed Gresham a month or so back, but Young claimed that, technically, he won with a wrestling move: a small package. Young feels more like a comedy mid-carder than anything else these days.
The basic Pure rules are that there are three rope breaks, no closed fists, no low blows, a twenty-count on the floor. Referee Todd Sinclair mumbled the convoluted list on the mic before the match.
Gresham got a rope break early on. The crowd was really quiet for this for the most part. Young sounded like he had a mic to his face when he’d taunt Gresham. Young accidentally used one of his rope breaks early on.
On commentary, Riccaboni mentioned that Cary Silkin owns the now-defunct ROH Pure Championship belt.
The wrestling itself was solid but Young didn’t necessarily shine; he was solid, but Gresham was excellent.
Young used a closed fist punch which earned him a warning. Bobby Cruise would announce whenever something of note would happen during the match which made it easier to follow.
Gresham at one point did a deadlift vertical suplex to Young, which was amazing for his size, really. He then sold this by attempting a move from the second rope and “throwing his back out,” which led to Young knocking him to the floor. At this point in the match, Gresham had used his three rope breaks. He later put Young in an octopus hold and forced Young to take his third rope break, something really subtle but clever. It sounds like the crowd didn’t apprecate it as much as I did, but the announce team did a good job over selling this.
Gresham continued selling his lower back. They did a wild double suplex over the ropes onto the floor, like how Bret Hart used to do it. Because Gresham’s back was storyline-injured, he himself snuck in a low blow on Young. This received a chorus of boos. He then put Young back in the octopus hold and Young tapped.
(Note: I initially typed this up as a DQ finish because Young didn’t have any rope breaks and he grabbed the ropes in this spot. This speaks to how convoluted everything came off as on TV.)
This was fine but Young’s schtick is just so played out that and his skill isn’t anywhere close to Gresham’s which hurt the quality of the match. The finish was creative but it didn’t get over with the crowd, and unless ROH’s booking committee has a long-term plan for Gresham, like a possible heel turn, this didn’t elevate either wrestler much at all.
Nick Aldis & Eli Drake vs. The Briscoe Brothers (Jay & Mark Briscoe) ended in a double count-out
James Storm was on commentary for this match. The Briscoes received superstar reactions all throughout this bout. They’re from Delaware, only a short drive away from Baltimore, MD, and they sure sounded like the hometown heroes here. Eli Drake is massive these days and is maybe in the best shape of his life. He screamed his own name a lot. Half-way into this match he jumped to the top rope with no-hands, like Shelton Benjamin, and did a super double-underhook suplex.
A few moments after Mark Briscoe landed the Cactus Jack elbow to the floor, but just as soon as things heated up more than they had all night, the match ended out of nowhere in a double countout.
The teams brawled around the venue for a few minutes until the Briscoes teased putting Aldis through a table until Kamille, Aldis’ bodyguard, came out and speared Jay. Security tried breaking things up and eventually got Kamille out of the ring, but the Briscoes took out security in Steve Austin-cool-heel-style and did put Aldis through Chekov’s Table with a Mark Briscoe Froggy Bow.
Marty Scurll then came out to a big response and helped Aldis out of the ring.
The crowd soured on the finish but enjoyed the post-match carnage with the Briscoes. ROH obviously didn’t want Drake to look bad on his debut night so it’s easy to understand the booking choice, but this was turning out to be the best match of the night. The same thing happened during Matt Taven’s title match with Mark Haskins a few months back, where the two were tearing down the house until the schmozz finish. Talk about a heat killer.
ROH World Television Championship match: Shane Taylor (c) defeated Bandido
This was easily the best match of the night up to this point in the card. Bandido came to the ring wearing a new mask It had teeth drawn on it. Taylor didn’t shake hands with Bandido and swore at him before the match. He actually spit in his hand a minute later after a rope-running sequence.
Bandido went for a running hurracanrana off the aprong but Taylor caught him and power bombed him onto the apron. There was a lot of that tonight. Taylor argued with a fan who was telling him to get new gear and told him off. He’s good at improvised trash talk, maybe the best at it in ROH right now.
Bandido used a beautiful tornillo on Taylor in the ring, then a big Fosbury Flop to the floor. He later tried lifting Taylor up for a slam but couldn’t Taylor up. When Taylor went for a cross body block from the second rope Bandido caught him in mid-air and did a swinging powerslam. Absolutely unreal because of the size difference. For context, Bandido is a junior heavyweight whereas Taylor is a super-heavyweight.
After almost slipping off the top rope, Bandido landed a shooting star press for a very close two-count. The crowd had finally come to life, even more so than in the Briscoes vs. Aldis/Drake match. Taylor then quickly hit a Greetings From 410 for the win. Really good match.
ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship match: Villain Enterprises (Marty Scurll/PCO/Brody King) (c) defeated Tracy Williams/Mark Haskins/PJ Black
Villain Enterprises came out with a new theme song, new gear and brand new custom title belts with Marty’s plague mask logo on them. They wore Road Warriors-inspired spikey shoulder pads with spikes and chains. They all wore a black line of makeup on their faces over their eyes, similar to what PCO usually wears these days. It looked really, really cool.
PCO got a lot of “He’s not human!” chants. Tracy Williams and Brody King had a really good exchange. King wore new tights as well, basic trunks and black boots, like a NJPW Young Lion.
King did a somersault senton off the apron, then PCO did a running catapault senton to the floor onto the other team and landed clean and flat. Amazing to see, really.
Later, Haskins and PJ Black double-teamed and triple-teamed Scurll in their corner. Scurll eventually tagged out to King who went on an in-ring rampage. He reminds me of a young Terry Gordy and could really shine at the top of the card in singles matches.
PCO did a running tope con giro through the ropes. He does it so often and so well that it doesn’t even get the reactions it did a few months ago. How crazy is that?
After Williams landed a spike pildedriver with the help of his teammates, the ref accidnetally counted three because he wasn’t in synch with PCO on the count. The crowd didn’t like this, but they really saved it on commentary because this ref is actually a rookie so that’s what they chalked it up to. Williams and Haskins spiked PCO onto the apron for what might have been the fourth or fifth apron spot of the night.
King did that insane lucha sprinboard armdrag spot he did a few times in Japan during the BOSJ tournament tour, the one that Milano Collection AT freaked out for on commentary. Tope con giro directly after this from King too. Again, unreal.
PCO landed his PCOsault on PJ Black for the win. This was excellent. Villain Enterprises came off like mega-stars but LifeBlood and Black looked really good too.
-The Sons of Savagery came out and attacked the LifeBlood guys and Black. Colt Cabana sounded like he genuinely didn’t know who they were. Bandido saved his buddies but Bully Ray came out and decked Bandido with a lariat. Flip Gordon came to the ring with a kendo stick and chased Ray off. The LifeBlood guys offered Gordon to join their group and offered him one of their shirts. He put it on and then the lights went out. Marty Scurll appeared on the screen and introduced the newest member of Villain Enterprises: “The Mercernary,” Flip Gordon.
The lights came back on and Gordon laid Bandido out with a stiff superkick. Villain Enterprises then took out all of LifeBlood, but the segment was topped off with Gordon doing the dirtiest 450 splash from the top rope to the floor through a table on Williams. The crowd lost it for all of it and loved Flip’s heel turn.
ROH World Heavyweight title match: Matt Taven (c) defeated Jeff Cobb
Taven did not adhere to the Code of Honor before the match. The crowd sounded 60/40 with the majority in favor of Cobb. Taven was popular though.
Taven tried stalling around the ring before they really got started, but once they got going they were pretty much on fire. Cobb moved around like he was 180 lbs, doing leapfrogs and standing moonsaults as gracefully as a gymanst. Taven landed a tope suicida with such impact that it legitmately knocked Cobb into the barricde headfirst.
I felt like this had the same break-neck heavyweight pace that the Roderick Strong vs. Matt Riddle had match at the most recent NXT Takeover. It was one long sequence of cool spots. Cobb used what felt like at least 10 different awesome suplexes in this match. Taven finished things off sort of out of nowhere with the craziest looking Climax. Cobb bumped on top of his neck like he was Rob Van Dam. Taven retains. This was a only a taste of what I think these two could do together.
Final thoughts —
The last three matches of this were very good and the rest of the card was fine but nothing spectacular. The crowd came across flat really until the end of Taylor vs. Bandido, and then once more for the Flip Gordon heel turn and that 450 splash through to the floor through a table onto Tracy Williams.
The last match was great the finish felt abrupt. If anything, though, it made Taven look like he actually broke Cobb’s neck because of that RVD-esque bump Cobb took for the Climax. Basically what I’m saying is you might be better off watching this card in a clipped digest form rather than sitting through the entire card.
The Allure (Mandy Leon & Angelina Love) w/ Velvet Sky defeated Notorious Nattie & Mazzerati in a dark match
Tracy Williams defeated Bully Ray in a no DQ match
Mazzerati defeated Danika Della Rouge
Mark Briscoe defeated Josh Woods
Jeff Cobb defeated PJ Black
The Bouncers (Beer City Bruiser & Brawler Milonas) defeated The Kingdom (Vinny Marseglia & TK O’Ryan), Rush & Dalton Castle, Coast 2 Coast (LSG & Shaheem Ali), Silas Young & Shane Taylor, and the Voros Twins in a tag team gauntlet match
Jay Lethal defeated Jay Briscoe
ROH World Champion Matt Taven defeated Flip Gordon, Mark Haskins, and PCO in a Defy or Deny match
Ring of Honor’s State of the Art mini-tour came to Portland, Oregon on Sunday night, marking the company’s first-ever appearance in the city. I had the privilege of covering the show in person from PSU’s Viking Pavilion.
I was told by event staff that the approximate gate was 600. Viking Pavilion’s max capacity is 3,000.
The Allure (Mandy Leon & Angelina Love) defeated Mazzerati & Notorious Nattie in a dark match
Fine match before the live stream began. Despite there only being a few hundred people in the building, the crowd was loud and sound carried extremely well in the venue.
The Allure had new ring gear tonight. They scored the win after Angelina Love landed a Botox Injection kick (yakuza kick) on Mazzerati after Velvet Sky sprayed perfume in Mazzerati’s face.
– The live broadcast kicked off after this. Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana were on commentary. The crowd was pretty wild for Cabana and chanted his name when he came out. Referee Todd Sinclair also got a surprisingly boisterous reaction. Someone even made a sign of support for him.
– Bully Ray came out before the show could properly kick off. He cut a promo on people in the crowd, said one guy looked homeless and insulted his wife, then explained that he wanted a match now because he wanted to get out of Portland as soon as possible.
Tracy Williams then came out with a trash can filled with wrestling weapons (e.g. a kendo stick, a lid, possibly another kendo stick, etc.). He challenged Ray to a no DQ match to the delight of the crowd. Before he gave Sinclair the go ahead to ring the bell, Ray low blowed Williams.
Tracy Williams defeated Bully Ray in a no DQ match
Ray abused Williams for a few minutes. He bashed Williams with a garbage can, then did a couple of suplexes and screamed “I invented Suplex City, [expletive]!” The crowd loved when Ray said that.
Williams made a comeback and put Bully Ray into a rope-assisted triangle choke/armbar. Ray came back soon, though, and laid into Williams with the kendo stick. Williams turned the tide by locking an iron claw onto Ray’s, uh, crotchal region.
When Ray missed a diving senton from the top rope, Williams slid Ray into a crucifix pin and won. Sinclair counted quickly because earlier on in the match Ray gave Sinclair a hard time for not counting fast enough.
Ray attacked both Williams and Todd Sinclair after the bell. Mark Haskins of Lifeblood came out to make the save but was put through a table for his efforts. The crowd seemed to love Haskins, but also chanted for Bully Ray after he used the table.
There wasn’t much to this. The crowd liked the violence and enjoyed screaming at Bully Ray, and he sure was in full effect. This wasn’t Heatwave ’98 levels of brutality, but the sentiment was harsh and heel-appropriate.
Mazzerati defeated Danika Della Rouge
This was short. Mazzerati was trained by Kenny King and has wrestled in China. Della Rouge has flame-pink hair and has trained at the NJPW Dojo in LA. She also took part in a WWE tryout in Orlando earlier this year and has only been wrestling for a year. Mazzerati won with a hard low roundhouse kick.
The Allure came out after the match and ambushed both wrestlers. They marked Della Rouge’s forehead in lipstick with their Allure logo.
After the match, Mandy Leon and Velvet Sky got into it with a fan in a cutoff shirt in the front row. From my perspective, it looked as though Leon threw a pulled punch or slap to intimidate the fan. A portion of the crowd went “Oooh.” Leon didn’t look happy. Velvet Sky then began pointing in the direction beyond the bleachers while jawjacking with the same fan, challenging him to get in the ring.
The fan went on social media after the show and explained that Leon spit on him. I didn’t see this, though a few other fans who attended have corroborated the aforementioned spitting.
Mark Briscoe defeated Josh Woods
Hard-hitting brawl with lots of stiff strikes. Woods, a BJJ black belt, won ROH’s 2017 Top Prospect Tournament. He was great here. Mark Briscoe was loudly over with the Portland crowd. Instead of shaking hands, Briscoe face-mushed Woods and the match was underway.
Woods used a number of Greco-Roman style suplexes, both in the ring and on the floor. He has a great knack for taking what looks good in real combat — strikes, takedowns, suplexes, functional submissions — and blends it into his in-ring work without it ever feeling forced or unnatural.
Briscoe relished the styles clash and went hard at Woods with equally stiff chops and elbows. The two brawled around the ring for a bit in the middle of this. Briscoe at one point did a diving elbow drop to the floor from the second turnbuckle.
At one point Woods even gave Briscoe a German suplex to the floor from the apron and both landed with a loud thud. The crowd ate that one up.
In the end, Briscoe teased using a chair in the ring. When referee Benjamin Roberts took the chair from Briscoe, he turned his back, which allowed for Briscoe to sneak in a low blow on Woods. Briscoe then landed a Froggy Bow from the top for the win. Good match.
Jeff Cobb defeated PJ Black
Cobb had a solid following in Portland. He’s been wrestling in the Pacific Northwest for a few years now, making appearances for both Seattle’s Defy and Vancouver, Canada’s ECCW.
The match had an even tempo from the bell, lots of chess-wrestling early. Cobb later landed a beautiful dropkick, like almost Okada-level grace without the height, but still, what the hell? It’s amazing to see in person.
At one point when Black sprung off the top rope, Cobb caught him in mid-air, almost fell, then saved the spot, deadlifting Black from a powerslam hold to a vertical suplex hold. Big reaction from the crowd on that one. Black reversed the suplex into an inside cradle for two.
Later, when Cobb went for a standing moonsault, Black switched into a perpendicular position and caught Cobb in a Koji clutch submission. This was a really cool spot. Cobb inched his way to the bottom rope to break the hold.
Black later landed a nice flying double stomp and a springboard quebrada into the ring on Cobb for a count of two. It was here I noticed that the live stream started cutting in and out and it ended up missing good portions of this match. I assure you it was good.
The finish saw Cobb use a super German suplex from the top and followed with a regular German and then the Tour of the Islands swinging powerslam for the win. This was great live, but the streaming issues were disastrous.
The Bouncers won a tag team gauntlet match
The teams involved were: Silas Young & Shane Taylor, the Voros Twins, Rush & Dalton Castle, Coast 2 Coast, and The Kingdom (Vinny Marseglia & TK O’Ryan)
The Voros Twins and Taylor & Young were in first. The Voros Twins are skinny blonde kids from Canada by way of Hungary. The crowd wasn’t familiar with them but were supportive by the end of their time in the match. After Taylor landed his Greetings From 216 fire-thunder driver on one Voros, Young put both of them into an abdominal stretch at the same time and they tapped.
Taylor then brought a cigarette into the ring and lit it for Young, who took a few drags off it while still holding that double-ab stretch. Very nice touch.
There were more issues with the live stream early on in the match.
Next team in was the “wild card” team of Rush and Dalton Castle. Castle was very popular and got a loud reaction when he arrived. Rush’s charisma is somehow even more intense and striking live than it is on television, he and wrestled like there were 10,000 people in the audience.
Rush and Castle argued with each other before they started wrestling. The two worked well together even though I don’t think they’ve ever tagged before. They did quite a bit of smooth double-team work which I don’t think anyone expected. Castle’s suplexes looked great and his new aggressive heel character looks to be working well. The two did a nice knee-strike to German suplex combo at one point. Rush landed a wicked Bull’s Horn basement dropkick to Young to eliminate him and Taylor.
Coast 2 Coast (Shaheem Ali & LSG) were in next and wrestled with a lot of energy. When Rush had another chance to use the Bull’s Horns, Castle tripped Rush. Rush then attacked Castle and they brawled to the floor, then to the stage. Rush choked Castle with some lighting equipment near commentary. The two were then counted out and eliminated.
The Bouncers were in next. Riccaboni referred to Milonas as a “walking strip mall.” Some of the stuff he does, the way he moves, it makes you forget how huge he is. He’s really agile. Bruiser, too. The crowd was pretty into the team and chanted “beer” a lot. The Bouncers hit Closing Time (aka the Sidewinder used by the Smokin’ Guns) on LSG to eliminate C2C.
Before this match, ROH staff carried Vinny Marseglia to the ring covered in what looked to be an old blanket. He waited under the ring and came out when The Kingdom’s music hit when TK O’Ryan walked to the ring. They had a short mini-match together, but the Bouncers won after Milonas hit a second rope superplex and Bruiser did a diving splash.
The Bouncers will get a future shot at the ROH Tag Team titles as a stipulation of winning here.
– Kenny King joined Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana on commentary for the next match.
Jay Lethal defeated Jay Briscoe
This was really good. It was a rematch from Final Battle 2015. Both received loud reactions, but Lethal got a superstar pop. Tons of streamers in the ring for him.
The two shook hands before the bell and the opening sequence saw some smooth and seamless counter-wrestling. Nothing at all felt rehearsed. These two have a unique chemistry together, and it now makes me want a best-of-three series between them instead of Lethal and Kenny King.
Briscoe got frustrated and teased using a chair. Lethal stopped the match and got on the mic to explain that Briscoe had changed since their match in 2015. He talked about the “real revolution” in wrestling and how ROH needed to get back on track and that instead of using a chair he needed to “man-up” and wrestle. The crowd was on board and so was Jay Briscoe after a moment.
Briscoe went back in the ring and they started with the fisticuffs, which I didn’t happen to see on the live stream because it kept cutting in and out again. If I didn’t happen to be in attendance I’d be here writing about the spinning ROH tribal logo.
Things heated up in and outside the ring after a few more minutes. Briscoe was bleeding above his eye but looked to be all right. Towards the end, just before Lethal would attempt a flying elbow drop from the top rope, Kenny King came to ringside to watch the match more closely and talk a bit of trash to Lethal, whom he beat on ROH TV this week in the first match of their best-of-three series.
Lethal was distracted and wasn’t able to land the elbow drop; Briscoe got his boot up, then hit a frankensteiner and a Jay Driller for a very close two. King then slid his folding chair in the ring for Briscoe to use. Briscoe considered using it but didn’t, but this cost him as he was caught with the Lethal Injection and then pinned for three.
King talked a lot of trash, but the sound on the stream cut out so I didn’t hear anything he said. Briscoe and Lethal shook hands after the match and it got a gigantic pop that you couldn’t hear on the live stream because the sound kept cutting out at key points.
ROH World Champion Matt Taven defeated Flip Gordon, Mark Haskins, and PCO in a Defy or Deny match
This was an elimination match. If Taven lost, the winner would receive a future shot at the ROH World Championship. If Taven won, the person he eliminated last would be unable to challenge for the World title for as long as Taven is champion.
ROH showed a Matt Taven promo beforehand. Ring announcer Bobby Cruise announced that due to injury Mark Haskins would not be competing because of an injury earlier in the night.
Everyone loved Gordon. People were stomping and banging the barricades for PCO when he came out. Taven got good heel heat.
After all three were in the ring, Haskins made his way out anyway, his arm in a sling, and grabbed the mic to say that he didn’t care that he wasn’t medically cleared because he desperately wanted Taven’s title. Riccaboni explained that Haskins had “signed a waiver” so that he could compete tonight. Riccaboni has been excellent at ad-libbing logical explanations on broadcasts, threading any of the bookers’ loose ends with a quick fix.
Taven was stellar in this match. He took “chickensh*t heel” to another level here, giving referee Todd Sinclair dozens of excuses on why he thought he didn’t have to get in the ring before the match was underway. Taven’s MO early on was to sneak a pin in on someone and roll out of the ring after a two count. He did this with both Gordon and Haskins. He jawjacked with the crowd a ton and even sat on a guy’s lap in the front row at one point.
PCO, Gordon, and Haskins all decided to triple-team Taven when they got him in the ring. They chopped him in the corner for a few minutes. Things then spilled to the floor and got crazy. Gordon powerbombed PCO to the floor from the apron, then Haskins did a tope suicida, followed by a huge Taven tope. The proverbial cherry on top was PCO moonsaulting himself onto the floor from the top, which garnered a massive reaction.
PCO did a double chokeslam and tombstone to all three wrestlers at one point. The Kingdom came out soon after and threw Taven a chair, but PCO grabbed it and used it on Taven instead, thus eliminating PCO from the match.
Before Taven pinned him a few minutes later, Haskins went on a last-minute tear and used a ton of power moves. He got a great reaction from the crowd.
Taven and Gordon had an exciting back and forth before Taven powerbombed Gordon through the announce table, which elicited a “holy sh*t” chant. Taven was later able to spike Gordon on his head with the Climax for the clean win. This was fantastic despite the sometimes convoluted rules of a Defy or Deny match.
After the broadcast finished, Taven got on the mic and called everyone virgins and said the next time he’s in Portland people can boo or cheer but it didn’t matter because he’s still Matt Taven.
Final thoughts —
This was a solid in-ring show with an enthusiastic crowd despite the embarrassing turnout.
Aside from a TV spot the day before, I saw zero advertisement for this card in town or on PSU’s campus. Some people even asked me what was happening at the venue before the show and had no idea it was happening, not even some of the lower echelon staff. This, plus the supposed menacing of a fan backstage by Bully Ray, could turn out to be the beginning of a very bad professional look for ROH in the coming months.
ROH made their Pacific Northwest debut on Saturday night as they held a set of television tapings at the ShoWare Center in Kent, Washington.
– Flip Gordon defeated PJ Black, Rush, and Dalton Castle in a four corner survival match
Gordon pinned Black to get the win. Castle attacked Gordon after and cut a promo, calling Rush a “beefy moron.” He challenged Rush to get into the ring with him, then backed off when Rush did. Castle said he’ll face Rush’s brother Dragon Lee at Best in the World on June 28.
Gordon told Rush that he’ll face him if Castle won’t. Gordon said he’ll kick Rush’s ass. He offered Rush a handshake, but Rush struck Gordon instead.
– NWA National Champion Colt Cabana defeated Mark Briscoe to retain his title
The Briscoes laid out Cabana following the match.
– Silas Young defeated Hijo de Squid Jr.
Playing off his storyline with Jonathan Gresham, Young submitted his opponent, who was wearing a squid mask, with an abdominal stretch.
– PCO defeated Jay Briscoe by DQ
Jay used a chair for the disqualification. The Briscoes then put PCO through a table, but he Frankenstein’d up and fought with them.
– ROH TV Champion Shane Taylor & Bully Ray defeated Coast 2 Coast (LSG & Shaheem Ali)
– Best-of-three series match: Jay Lethal defeated Kenny King by DQ
King was disqualified for hitting Lethal with a microphone. He attacked Lethal after the match and noted that they were 1-1 in their best-of-three series.
– The Allure (Mandy Leon, Velvet Sky & Angelina Love) did an in-ring segment where they claimed that they were going to give a free T-shirt to the loudest fan, but they ended up not giving it to anyone.
– The Kingdom (Vinny Marseglia & TK O’Ryan) defeated The Bouncers (Beer City Bruiser & Brawler Milonas)
– Josh Woods defeated Brian Johnson
– Jeff Cobb defeated Mark Haskins
– ROH World Champion Matt Taven defeated Tracy Williams to retain his title
Williams and Haskins cut the show-closing promo after the match.
Jeff Cobb is getting a World title shot at ROH’s next pay-per-view.
ROH has announced that Matt Taven will defend his World Championship against Cobb at Best in the World in Baltimore, Maryland on Friday, June 28. The show is taking place at the UMBC Event Center.
Cobb lost the ROH Television Championship to Shane Taylor in a four corner survival match earlier this month, with Taylor pinning Brody King to win the title. In a segment on the ROH TV episode that aired this week, Cobb cut an in-ring promo and talked about never being pinned or submitted in ROH. Cobb said he wasn’t out there to ask for his rematch against Taylor, he wanted Taven.
Taven then came out and responded to Cobb, telling him he has no problem defending the title against Cobb anytime or anywhere. Taven teased having the match right then and there, but the segment ended with Taven saying “not tonight” and throwing the microphone at Cobb.
Taven became ROH World Champion by defeating Jay Lethal and Marty Scurll in a triple threat ladder match at G1 Supercard last month.
This is the second match to be announced for Best in the World. Taylor will defend his TV title against Bandido at the PPV.
From Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Ian Riccaboni and Caprice Coleman called the action.
ROH Six-Man Tag Team Champions Villain Enterprises (PCO, Marty Scurll & Brody King) defeated Jay Lethal, Jeff Cobb & Rush to retain their titles
Lethal and PCO started it off for their respective teams. Lethal nailed PCO with a lot of kicks, but PCO was barely phased. PCO begged Lethal to dive on him, which distracted Lethal long enough for Scurll to cut off Lethal. PCO tagged in Scurll, and Lethal tagged in Rush.
Kenny King and Amy Rose joined the announce team mid-match and Kenny immediately brought up his “eye surgery.” Throughout the match, he kept asking what was happening because he couldn’t see.
In the ring, Rush and Scurll wrestled to a stalemate. Rush tagged in Cobb, and Scurll tagged in King. A quick exchange led to Cobb nailing a dropkick. However, King fired back and landed a running crossbody and then pulled off a hurricanrana on Cobb.
King was sent to the floor by Rush. Lethal dove on him, but King caught him. With a kick assist by Scurll, King suplexed Lethal onto the floor.
After the break, Lethal was in the ring with King attempting to suplex him but instead used a cutter to drop the big man. King tagged in Scurll, and Lethal tagged in Rush. Rush ran wild and decimated his foes until he got arrogant and Scurll cut him off with a superkick to the knee.
Scurll called for the chicken wing, but Rush nailed him with a headbutt and tagged in Cobb, who came in and gave two stalling suplexes to King and PCO. He then launched Scurll and followed it up with a moonsault.
PCO broke up the pin, but Cobb managed to hoist King and Scurll up at the same time for a double suplex. This brought in PCO, who came in and tossed Cobb to the floor. King hit a flipping dive onto Cobb and Lethal, then PCO hit a Scurll-assisted flip dive of his own and took out all three of their opponents.
Back in the ring, Scurll and King combined forces to hit a sunset German suplex on Cobb. They then hit a 619 and cannonball combo on him. Scurll tagged in PCO and grabbed Cobb, but he ate a Cobb superkick. Lethal then came off the top with an elbow, but PCO stood up. Rush then hit him with an overhead belly-to-belly.
Lethal again hit a top rope elbow, but Scurll broke up the pin. In the chaos, Lethal hit a Lethal Injection on Scurll and went for it again on King, but King caught him on his shoulders and landed a crazy spinning powerbomb. PCO followed it up with a moonsault, which got the win for Villain Enterprises.
During the commercial, as Lethal was leaving, Kenny King jumped Lethal from behind and used his cane to choke him out.
ROH World Champion Matt Taven defeated Flip Gordon to retain his title
After an early exchange sent Taven to the floor, Gordon hit a suicide dive. As Gordon was on the ring apron, TK O’Ryan attempted to get involved. That distracted Gordon enough to allow Taven to knock him to the floor. Taven launched Gordon into the ring post and then threw him back into the ring.
Gordon got the advantage and landed a kick and a one-legged moonsault. Taven kicked out at two and bailed to the floor. Taven baited him to the outside and then drilled Gordon in the knee. Taven went to follow that up with a running dropkick to the floor, but Gordon evaded and landed a superkick. Gordon charged after Taven, but Taven hip tossed him into the guardrail.
After the commercial, Taven was attacking Gordon’s injured knee with punches. Gordon fought to his feet and landed a knee to the head of Taven. However, Taven kept going back to the knee with a dragon screw leg whip, which sent Gordon to the floor. As he was out there, Taven distracted the referee. That allowed O’Ryan to attack Gordon.
Taven locked on a half Boston crab back inside the ring, but Gordon got to the ropes. Finally, Gordon managed to hit a springboard spear to buy himself some recovery time. A striking exchange ended with a huge knee by Gordon. He then hit an inverted driver to get a two count.
After the final break, Taven had Gordon perched atop the turnbuckle and landed a superplex, but it was Gordon who hooked the inside cradle. He only got a two count. Gordon fired up and landed a Russian leg sweep from the second rope and a spinning Falcon Arrow, getting a two count.
Taven spit in the face of Gordon and landed a pop-up powerbomb and a Just the Tip knee. He went for a cover, but Gordon kicked out at two.
Gordon fought back up and hit a swinging TKO. He went up top, but as he was on the top rope, the red balloons floated up from ringside, distracting Gordon long enough to allow Taven to hit the Climax DDT off the top to pick up the victory and retain his title.
ROH came to Grand Rapids, Michigan on Saturday night for the next of their War of the Worlds events live on the HonorClub streaming service. Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana were the announce team for the night.
Coast 2 Coast (LSG & Shaheem Ali) defeated Karl Fredericks & Alex Coughlin
Good opener. Almost all grappling at the top of this one, all pretty good. Riccaboni mentioned Ali has been training in BJJ recently, implying he may attempt some jiu-jitsu tonight. He and LSG did some cool double-team work early on. Ali did a mini-2 Cold Scorpio splash on Coughlin.
Fredericks has been the hot-tag guy in all of his tag matches on War of the Worlds this week. He’s very good already, but sometimes his limbs flail when he does dropkicks or power moves.
Coast to Coast won after a double-team pop-up swing-out slam.
Women of Honor World Champion Kelly Klein defeated Stacy Shadows to retain her title
Klein offered a handshake before the match, but Shadows shoved her. Shadows is a lot bigger than Klein. They brawled outside the ring early. Klein’s matches feel a lot easier to watch when she’s able to have a more physical match, like she did tonight with Shadows.
Shadows got great heat midway through this. She talked a lot of trash as she stomped and wailed on Klein. Klein returned the attack with a lariat. Riccaboni mentioned that Klein recently threw out the first pitch at a Cincinnati Reds game.
Shadows completely biffed on a spot with Klein: when Klein went for a shoulder block, Shadows took a bump before they even touched. Klein was still near the ropes and Shadows was in the middle of the ring. It was really bad, but they moved right through it. The crowd didn’t totally give up on the match yet.
Klein landed a big German suplex on Shadows. Shadows later went for a Vader Bomb but missed, so Klein used a running double knee strike to win the match. Shadows shook Klein’s hand afterwards. This could have been Klein’s best match in a long time, sans that glaring miscued botch Shadows made.
The Allure attacked Shadows after the match and branded their logo on Shadows’ head with lipstick. Klein made the save and went after Angelina Love. Those two had a good pull-apart and the crowd started chanting “let them fight.” ROH Dojo students came out to break things up.
This was hands down the best Allure segment so far. It’s not saying much but it feels like an improvement even from a few days ago.
– Riccaboni announced that PCO would not be competing tonight. He was initially scheduled to wrestle Mark Haskins of LifeBlood but wasn’t medically cleared in storyline.
Riccaboni gave a good kayfabe explanation about why The Kingdom aren’t allowed at ringside anymore. He explained that in the past, The Kingdom could always “legally” be at ringside because they had their licenses and did their paperwork, but ROH rescinded that right, which resulted in them not being allowed at ringside for the time being.
Dalton Castle defeated Cheeseburger and Clark Connors in a triple threat match
Heel Dalton Castle came out before Cheeseburger and Connors’ match. He said he was eating tiramisu in the back watching the show and he didn’t like what he saw in the ring. He said Connors looked like “half eaten vanilla fro-yo.” Castle said the audience deserve better and ordered the two to leave.
People started chanting for Cheeseburger. He offered Castle a chance to wrestle both of them in a three-way match. Castle said he couldn’t because he had a deviated septum and was now upset that Cheeseburger brought it up. He said they both didn’t deserve to be in the ring with him.
Cheeseburger then brought up Castle getting beat by Rush in 16 seconds at MSG last month. I guess that was all it took for Castle to agree to the match.
Castle manhandled Cheeseburger, but he and Connors were destined to mix it up. They traded really hard chops and forearms. Castle then blasted Connors in the face with a yakuza kick outside the ring, all in slacks and slip-on shoes. Castle is going out of his way to wrestle a meaner style, a little bit more intense and with less bells, whistles, and Boys.
Connors is scary strong. He looks like he’s been wrestling for a long while. At one point, he did rolling gutwrench suplexes to Cheeseburger until Castle German suplexed both of them at the same time, similar to what Daisuke Sekimoto has been doing in Japan.
Castle back body dropped Cheeseburger onto Connors on the floor. Connors later made a serious comeback and landed a stiff spear on Castle, then put him in the Boston crab. Cheeseburger tried chopping Connors while he sat in the submission hold, but Connors no sold it. He was eventually able to break up the attempt, but Castle made a comeback and eventually gave Cheeseburger a Bang-A-Rang to win his first match back since Madison Square Garden.
This turned out to be pretty good. Castle looked very good in the ring, more aggressive than usual. Connors will be a superstar in a few years, that’s a no-brainer. Cheeseburger played the babyface role to a T here and added a nice high-flying flavor to the match.
The Kingdom (Matt Taven, Vinny Marseglia & TK O’Ryan) defeated Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa) & Hikuleo
Both teams talked trash in the middle of the ring before the bell. Cabana warned families watching at home to turn the volume down if the Guerrillas of Destiny are on, as they tend to curse a lot.
No one locked up for the first few minutes. They all talked trash and tagged in and out, both leaned hard into the heel vs. heel vibe. Both teams kept cheating. Hikuleo looked to be a foot taller than everyone in the ring. The crowd loved his chops and went nuts when he went after O’Ryan in his corner.
The Kingdom came back and triple-teamed Tonga for while. Tonga used a spinning neckbreaker and was able to tag Hikuleo back in. I think Hikuleo is soon going to supersede Loa as the second best of the brothers.
When Loa and Tonga hit the Doomsday Device on O’Ryan, The Briscoes came out and walked to the ring. While Loa and Tonga got into it with The Briscoes at ringside, Marseglia passed the ROH title belt to Taven and he clocked Hikuleo with it. Marseglia scored the pin while GOD and The Briscoes brawled their way back to the dressing rooms.
The lights went out and Mark Haskins came down. He called Taven out, basically explaining how he’s upset that he couldn’t wrestle PCO for the ROH World title tonight and it’s because Taven cheated his way out of his title defense against PCO this past Thursday in Toronto.
Taven initially said no until Haskins said that when Michael Bennett and Maria Kanellis left him was when Taven lost his balls. Taven got angry and agreed to the match. This was actually an excellent segment.
Flip Gordon defeated Rhett Titus
This match was not originally slated for tonight, but since Gordon will not be competing in the NJPW Best of the Super Juniors tournament starting next week, he appeared for ROH tonight.
Riccaboni and Cabana talked about how Titus is going to enter the upcoming CMLL bodybuilding tournament in Mexico. He might as well, huh? Titus got in the ring and on the mic explained that he was going to show the crowd his three best poses. The lights went out before his third pose and Gordon’s music hit.
People went pretty wild for Gordon when he came out. At one point, he skinned the cat through the middle of the ropes, then did a springboard dropkick where he somehow slipped on the top rope but still stuck the move perfectly, pretty much. Titus tapped as soon as Gordon locked on the FTF. This was fine.
Los Ingobernables de Japon (SANADA & EVIL) defeated The Bouncers (Brawler Milonas & Beer City Bruiser)
To give you an idea of how over LIJ are in the United States, Colt Cabana acknowledged how the crowd was into — of all things — an arm wringer that EVIL used early on. You’re doing a good job when people “ooh” and “aah” when you do an arm wringer.
The Bouncers offered LIJ some beers before the match. EVIL and SANADA took sips and spit beer into the big guys’ faces and the bell rang.
The Bouncers did comedy spots early on. Milonas rubbed his butt in SANADA’s face in the corner, and later Bruiser did his “I can’t bite, I ain’t got no teeth!” spot.
SANADA locked Bruiser in an upside down Paradise Lock with some assistance from the bottom rope, then SANADA dropkicked him. LIJ hit a big double suplex onto Milonas, then used a Magic Killer on Bruiser for three.
Tracy Williams defeated Rush, Eli Isom, and PJ Black in a four corner survival match
This was an excellent “bang-bang-bang” type of match, sequences upon sequences within sequences. The stip here was that the winner would win a future ROH World title shot.
Everyone in this match went out of their way to make this really good. Isom and Rush were really impressive together, as were Williams and Black.
Isom is crazy good for how short a time he’s been wrestling. Rush’s rhythm in the ring is more natural when there are extra guys in the ring.
Rush did a tope con giro onto everyone on the floor and Cabana called it as: “This is what it sounds like when bulls cry.” Rush was booed when he did his Tranquilo pose, but within 20 seconds they were chanting his name.
PJ Black did a top rope quebrada and a springboard 450 into the ring. Williams did a jumping piledriver to Black and the crowd started chanting “this is awesome.” Rush did the Hiromu Takahashi running dropkick from the apron to the floor onto Black.
Williams and Isom had a heated exchange in the ring. Isom did a modified DDT at one time and got an extremely close two count. Williams used another piledriver for the win.
They explained on commentary that Rush sacrificed his body on the dropkick to the floor, which was why he couldn’t make it into the ring to break up Williams’ pin attempt.
– Riccaboni and Cabana announced the very unfortunate news about legendary luchadore, Silver King, who passed away on Saturday.
ROH World Champion Matt Taven defeated Mark Haskins to retain his title
What a match. Taven tried to jump Haskins before the bell, but Haskins kicked him to the outside and dove onto him with a tope suicida. Haskins landed a stiff Penalty Kick off the apron early on.
It’s easy to forget how acrobatic Taven is. From the get-go, this was an entirely different match than the one he had with PCO on Thursday.
Haskins dominated much of the first part of this match. Taven used rope breaks to break up a few pin attempts. Taven turned the tide and began going after Haskins’ arm. Haskins did a terrific job selling it. If you’re looking for a younger wrestler in the world that pretty closely resembles Dynamite Kid in the ring, Haskins might be that guy.
Taven seems to always have at least a cluster of diehard fans at ROH shows. He got good heat during this match, but he also went out of his way to acknowledge his non-Melvin fans.
Taven continued going after Haskins’ arm. He through him onto the ring entrance stage and tried to steal a countout victory, but Haskins made it in at 19.
Taven used a tight Fujiwara armbar on Haskins until Haskins inched over to the bottom rope for a break. Haskins fought back and eventually landed a high jumping leg lariat to knock Taven into the corner. Haskins later used a bridging armbar in the center of the ring, but Taven was able to make it to the ropes. Taven did a great job of wrestling in such a way where you actually bought into an ROH newcomer like Haskins winning the title.
Taven missed a frog splash and Haskins went back to the bridging armbar, but Taven countered into a cradle pin. They traded cradles until Haskins landed a sit-out Death Valley Driver for another close two. Whenever Taven was in trouble, he’d gouge at Haskins’ eyes or do something morally questionable in the ring.
Haskins hulked up and landed a big diving double stomp on Taven for a 2.5 count this time. When Haskins went for a Death Valley Driver on the apron, Taven somehow used a crazy looking Climax on the edge of the apron, then did Just the Tip and hit a frog splash for 2 and nine-tenths. People lost it for this fall and started chanting “R-O-H” and slamming their hands on the barricade.
Haskins was finally able to lock in the Sharpshooter on Taven, but Bully Ray walked out and started yelling at him. He said something about Haskins’ wife, which distracted Haskins and allowed Taven to low blow him, then hit another Climax for the pin. The crowd groaned and sighed. It sucked the excitement out of the room.
I really hope the future storylines pay off. It looks like they’re going with a Kingdom vs. LifeBlood program, with Tracy Williams getting a title shot soon after his win tonight. If there’s no payoff, or if it’s a flop, ROH may have just let lightning in a bottle slip through their fingers.
Taven got on the mic after the match and cut a promo, saying that if the crowd thinks he sucks so much, then what do they think about all the people he beat? He jaw-jacked for another minute until PCO came out and destroyed Taven with a rebound tombstone piledriver and a “PCO-sault.”
Aside from the schmozzy finish, this was quite possibly one of the better matches of the year so far. Haskins was spectacular. Even more impressive is that Taven worked a tag match earlier and had a wild brawl of a bout with PCO days before, then had this match. If ROH gives out awards to their employees at the end of the year, I think Taven might be up for company MVP.
– Kenny King came out with ring announcer Amy Rose, who has been his handler this week. He did his blind gimmick again. He said he has super-senses now ever since Great Muta misted him at MSG, and tonight he could sense that Bobby Cruise was wearing blue underwear. Yeah. King joined the commentary team when he finished.
Satoshi Kojima, Yuji Nagata, Hirooki Goto, Jay Lethal & Jeff Cobb defeated Bully Ray, Shane Taylor, Silas Young & The Briscoes
This was a good fan-service match, like something you’d see on NJPW World, not HonorClub. It had the same feel and followed a similar layout.
Fans threw streamers into the crowd during the entrances. Lethal and Jay Briscoe were in first and had a solid opening exchange. Goto and Mark Briscoe were in next.
Lots of people chanted for Kojima when he tagged in. Bully Ray screamed at him for a while until Kojima screamed “SHUT UP!” back at Ray. Ray has the loudest voice in pro wrestling, maybe. It’s a blessing.
Nagata tagged in and Ray tagged out to Young. It was pretty similar to how they worked a few nights earlier on the tour.
The action in this was hard-hitting, slow and steady. Seeing Taylor in the ring next to Bully Ray makes it easy to see that, in many ways, Taylor is like a modern version of Bully Ray. Both are aggressive and loud, they’re roughly the same size, and they seem to be able to work with anyone in a variety of styles.
Kojima and Ray got into it again later on in the match. Ray never seems lost when he’s in the ring with foreigners, which might be Goto’s big issue, always good but always a bit hesitant in the ring out of his comfort zone.
The heels cornered Cobb and worked him over. After a couple of minutes, Cobb was able to deadlift Taylor with a German suplex. He tagged out to house-of-fire Kojima, who landed a massive Koji Cutter on Ray for two.
Nagata took out Young with an exploder suplex. Nagata was then taken out by Jay Briscoe with a dropkick, and Jay was taken out by Cobb with a spinning back suplex. Ray snuck in the ring and landed a big back suplex of his own on Cobb.
Mark Haskins ran out to the ring at this point and stole Ray’s chain. Cobb then did a big tope con giro to the floor, and Kojima landed a lariat on Ray to win the match.
This was good and all, though it’s a shame that the World title match didn’t go on last instead.
Final thoughts —
This was a very watchable show, but the shining star match was Taven vs. Haskins, for sure. The finish was what it was, and it might have done more harm than good to both Haskins and Taven. That’s something we can only judge when ROH is given a fair chance to tell the rest of their story.
The other standout from tonight was the four corner survival match. Rush shined, PJ Black has been on a roll since last month pretty much, and both Williams and Isom looked better than ever.
When Jay Lethal vs. Matt Taven at Ring of Honor’s 17th Anniversary pay-per-view was over, the ROH World Championship match for G1 Supercard hadn’t been officially confirmed.
That changed at ROH’s television tapings in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday night. It was announced that Lethal will defend his World title against Taven and Marty Scurll in a triple threat ladder match at G1 Supercard, which is taking place at Madison Square Garden on Saturday, April 6.
Lethal and Taven went to a 60-minute draw in their title match at Friday’s Anniversary PPV. There was a spot during the match where Lethal went for an elbow drop onto Taven as he was laying on a ladder that was set up between the ring and the guardrail. Taven moved — and Lethal went crashing through the ladder.
Scurll came out after Lethal vs. Taven, picked up the ROH World title belt, and then left with it.
It was announced before the Anniversary PPV that Scurll would be challenging for the ROH World Championship at G1 Supercard. Scurll getting a future title shot was a stipulation of him winning last year’s Survival of the Fittest tournament.
Ring of Honor’s 17th Anniversary pay-per-view takes place at Sam’s Town Hotel and Gambling Hall in Las Vegas tonight.
In the main event, reigning ROH World Champion Jay Lethal defends his title against self-proclaimed “Real World Champion” Matt Taven. ROH TV Champion Jeff Cobb also finally defends his title in a one-on-one match against Shane Taylor.
In a match for the ROH Tag Team titles, The Briscoe Brothers (Jay & Mark) take on Villain Enterprises (PCO & Brody King). The winners will face IWGP Tag Team Champions Guerrillas of Destiny at G1 Supercard in New York City on Saturday, April 6.
Marty Scurll will challenge for the ROH World title at G1 Supercard. Tonight, Scurll faces Kenny King.
Recently-crowned Women of Honor Champion Mayu Iwatani defends her title in a rematch with Kelly Klein tonight. Also on the card: Bandido vs. Rush, LifeBlood’s Mark Haskins & Tracy Williams vs. The Kingdom’s Vinny Marseglia & TK O’Ryan, and Jonathan Gresham vs. Silas Young.
Our coverage begins at 9 p.m. Eastern time.
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Show recap:
With the G1 Supercard only a few weeks away, the booking on this show was interesting to say the least. The first half was good, even great at times, though the seemingly last-minute booking of the Heavyweight Title match threw the latter half of the show through an odd loop.
The show opened with a promo of Matt Taven tweaking out over not being recognized as the ROH World Heavyweight champion. The production team used special effects on Taven’s face to amp up his mania.
Ian Riccaboni was on commentary tonight alongside Caprice Coleman and NWA World Heavyweight champion Nick Aldis (with Kamille).
Marty Scurll defeated Kenny King
This was a solid opening match, and one of the best I’ve seen Kenny King in maybe ever.
A young guy dressed like Marty Scurll followed Kenny King out to the ring during his entrance. Scurll himself came out to a very loud reaction.
Scurll dashed at King out of the gate and knocked King out of the ring. He ran over to the other side of the ring and superkicked his doppleganger. The crowd sounded to be very on board with this match.
King returned Scurll’s initial attack with an enzugiri. He got great heel heat for much of this. After a few minutes, King missed a tornillo to the floor and Scurll used a tornado DDT from the apron to the floor. It looked excellent and the crowd got really excited about it.
Nick Aldis was good on commentary here and is noticeably improving from broadcast to broadcast. He adds a nice Solie-esque legitimacy to the match and puts over the “sport” of the match in a way that never feels corny.
King used a big spinebuster on Scurll. The momentum shifted constantly in this one, very quick pace throughout. The crowd was consistently behind the match and Scurll specifically; at one point they began chanting “break his fingers.”
Scurll used a floatover superplex on King, though King reversed the floatover part of the sequence with a Royal Flush. The two were down for a few moments, though when King was able to get back up he grabbed a chair and brought it into the ring. As referee Paul Turner and King had a tug-of-war for the chair, Scurll grabbed his umbrella behind Turner’s back and was able to pop King in the face with the butt of it and score the pin.
ROH World TV Title match: Jeff Cobb (c) defeated Shane Taylor
Excellent match. The pace and athletics both showed in this one was unreal, as they pretty much wrestled like 220-pounders throughout. Crazy. These two need to wrestle each other more often.
Cobb wore a shiny new black and gold singlet for tonight’s title defense. The two went at each other hard from the bell, exchanging elbows. Cobb used a back suplex on Taylor, who no sold it. Cobb used a picture-perfect dropkick early on, though Taylor himself was able to return quickly with brutal chops.
Taylor did a somersault senton off the apron to the floor onto Cobb. It wasn’t pretty, but at his size the fact that he pulled it off was amazing in itself.
The pace these two were wrestling at was astounding, and they weren’t far behind the tempo that Marty Scurll and Kenny King were at just minutes before.
The crowd lost it when Cobb used a stalling deadlift pump-handle suplex. Later, Cobb went so hard on a lariat to Taylor that he ended up sliding face-first through the first rope to the floor.
Cobb pushed the pace nonstop in this with jumping elbows, more dropkicks, and a standing moonsault. The crowd was chanting “this is awesome” after a power sequence from Cobb.
Taylor came back with a huge spinebuster, a uranage and a splash from the second turnbuckle. As I mentioned, Taylor’s execution isn’t always pretty but he essentially went move-for-move with Cobb here, plus played heel very well.
Taylor used a Canadian Destroyer—that’s right—on Cobb, for a 2.9 count which was followed up with a “holy shit” and “both these guys” chant. Cobb came back quickly and used two Tour of the Islands on Taylor for the win. Everyone in the building seemed borderline dumbfounded by what they just saw.
Women of Honor Championship match: Mayu Iwatani (w/ Sumie Sakai) defeated Kelly Klein
These two went much harder on each other than in their match from last month. The heat was better tonight, the drama, too, though it was a tad sloppy at times, though a good match, nonetheless.
Iwatani and Klein shook hands before the match. Klein was aggressive from the get, mostly brawling, using lots of elbows and knee strikes. Iwatani fired back with two slingblades followed by a great Northern Lights suplex with a single-leg hook.
Sumie Sakai was loud in her cheerleading outside the ring; you could clearly hear her screaming “Ike! Ike!” or “Go! Go!” at Iwatani, adding a bit of extra drama to the match.
The two traded German suplexes but Klein’s German was absolutely brutal, like something you’d see from Steve Williams in the 90s, drilling Iwatani onto her neck. Iwatani seemed to be fine though and came back with a moonsault. She went for another moonsault but Klein put her knees up and started pounding on Iwatani and pulling her hair.
The match ended seemingly out of nowhere with Iwatani using an inside cradle on Klein for the win. Again, a good match that was a bit short and sometimes sloppy. Considering the booking here, it seems like the blowoff for these two might happen next month at MSG.
ROH World Heavyweight Title match: Jay Lethal (c) and Matt Taven went to a 60-minute time limit draw.
The crowd, nor myself, expected this result. It was also much hotter than I expected it to be, and it seems to have been a big turning point for Matt Taven with regard to his relationship to the ROH crowd. He was really quite popular tonight.
The in-ring work was more solid than flashy, methodical, like most of Lethal’s matches lately, giving the match a meaningful world heavyweight flavor, but the last few minutes or so were fun to watch on television as the crowd really loved it and didn’t know what to expect.
Matt Taven cut a promo in the ring and called people melvins before the match. Jay Lethal was pretty over with this crowd, as well. This match, like the three that came before it, started with action as soon as the bell rang.
We started with a bit of intense back-and-forth over the course of the first few minutes, textbook and clinical, with both wrestlers looking strong, both with obvious conviction and intent, always tethered to the contextual realism inside the ring a la Bret Hart or someone with a similar style.
There were actually a smattering of chants for Taven as this match progressed. Neither wrestler seemed to dominate for more than a few minutes, and this allowed both men to look strong, to never really lose face.
At one point Lethal went for Lethal Injection but Taven blocked it and turned Lethal inside-out with a spinning roundhouse kick. Lethal was eventually able to return the attack and began working over Taven’s back.
At around this point is where the pace slowed but the two never lost the crowd. Lethal dumped Taven, now selling his left knee, to the outside, and used his signature sequence of four tope suicidas.
It should be noted that Aldis was more in character on commentary during this match compared to the others, mostly harping on Lethal and referee Todd Sinclair throughout.
Taven slowed the pace down quite a bit after the topes with a few longer submission spots. At one point the two had a standing face-off and Lethal did a Shibata-headbutt that popped the crowd.
Lethal went for a flying elbowdrop but then a few balloons floated up toward the ceiling and Vinny Marseglia came up from under the ring. TK O’Ryan came out and distracted Todd Sinclair; Marseglia hit Lethal with a baseball bat. Jonathan Gresham came out but got beatdown by the Kingdom outside the ring until LifeBlood (Tracy Williams & Mark Haskins) evened things out.
In the ring, Taven used the Climax and got a close two-count, then a frog splash for another two. He went for another one but Lethal got his knees up, then hit a cutter, both for close twos. Lethal used a rolling torture rack slam for another close-call.
Taven later suplexed Lethal from inside the ring to the floor through a table which illicit a “holy sh*t” chant. This spot probably could have come five minutes prior, but still, the crowd was there.
The pockets of Taven supporters in the crowd either got louder at this point or they turned on Lethal, and at one point someone sitting near the hard cam shouted “YOU SUCK, LETHAL!”
After Taven kicked out of Lethal Injection the crowd was so supportive of him that even the announcers had to mention it on commentary. He DDT’d Lethal onto the apron, then later pulled out a ladder and laid it flat from the apron to the guardrail. Jay Lethal missed a flying elbowdrop from the top turnbuckle and crashed through the ladder to the floor.
They teased the match ending with some ring boys carrying Lethal to the back, but Taven did a giant plancha onto everyone, including Lethal and quickly threw him back in the ring and did about five or six Just the Tips for more very close two-counts. Taven then dove off the top rope but Lethal countered with a big cutter, again for another two. The crowd was on their feet chanting “this is awesome” at this point. The two started slapping each other really hard in the face until Lethal used three superkicks and finally hit Lethal Injection … for two. The crowd was pretty much losing their mind at this point when the bell rang: a 60-minute time limit draw.
As the crowd chanted “five more minutes,” Marty Scurll came down and picked up the ROH World Heavyweight title with him to the back.
The rapper Mega Ran came out to do a song about G1 Supercard in April. Bully Ray interrupted and cut a promo on Mr. Ran and his hype man. Ray made fun of them for liking video games. Mega Ran said he used Devon instead of Ray on the Raw/Smackdown video game, then Ray kicked them out of the ring.
Bully Ray went on to say that the crowd should kiss his ass, then threatened to slap three little kids in the face. He then challenged someone whom he didn’t name to a NY Streetfight at the Garden next month.
The promo itself was good but the placement was strange, and coming after a 60-minute heavyweight title draw it felt out of place.
Rush defeated Bandido
Dalton Castle came out for commentary for this match. He asked Ian Riccaboni if it was true that Riccaboni contributed $25 to the bidding war for Bandido last year. Riccaboni did not.
This was decent but was mainly a vehicle to get Rush over as a serious ROH star. It was mostly big moves without too much story to it, aside from Rush working hard as heel.
Rush power bombed Bandido through the timekeeper’s table under five minutes into this one. He worked hard and got good heel heat here, especially when he did the tranquillo poses. Bandido did a tornillo and Fosberry flop to the outside.
A good portion of the audience seemed to like Rush but he worked hard at staying heel throughout. He used a deadlift superplex on Bandido for two midway through. Bandido later draped Rush over the second rope and did a springboard 450, which apparently didn’t hurt all that much because a minute later Rush used a wild tope con giro to the floor onto Bandido. The crowd didn’t care about the selling because they were chanting “this is awesome” afterwards.
Rush went for a Jaydriller on the apron but Bandido blocked it and did a running hurracanrana to the outside. When he went for the 21plex, Rush countered it and hit the Bull Horn, a hard basement dropkick to a prone Bandido in the corner, for the win.
Dalton Castle came into the ring afterwards and challenged Rush to a match at MSG next month. Rush spoke both English and Spanish on the mic and accepted the challenge.
Riccaboni announced that tonight’s match between Silas Young and Jonathan Gresham had been cancelled because Gresham’s knee was storyline-injured during the Jay Lethal vs. Matt Taven match when the Kingdom attacked him.
Tracy Williams & Mark Haskins vs. Vinny Marseglia & TK O’Ryan has also been cancelled.
No DQ ROH World Tag Team Title match: Villain Enterprises (Brody King & PCO) defeated The Briscoes (Jay & Mark Briscoe) (c)
This was a match you’ll either love or hate. If you love hardcore, borderline deathmatch wrestling, like late-90s ECW, this is for you. If not, beware. This was chaotic, bloody and was without much steady flow; it was big spot-for-big spot. And while it is, in fact, amazing, it’s hard not to worry about some of the spots PCO is taking these days.
Silas Young was on commentary during this match. Brody King wore a cast on his left hand in this. All four wrestlers had a chair battle in the ring at the beginning, like the ones Balls Mahoney and Masato Tanaka used to do. Mark Briscoe did a corkscrew plancha from the top rope to the outside early on. Brody King did a springboard turnaround crossbody to Jay Briscoe inside.
PCO did a Michinoku Driver off the apron through a table to Mark, then got back in the ring and yelled at King to chop him to get him amped up. Villain Enterprises then hit Jay in the groin with a chair. It was chaos, cursing and violence, nonstop.
King used a running Death Valley Bomb on Mark, putting him through a table in the corner of the ring. The match then spilled to the outside where PCO and King beat on Jay who did a nasty blade job.
There must have been a kendo tournament in Vegas this weekend because there were two sticks that found their way into the match.
After King screamed “PCO, do something insane!”, PCO ran down the ramp but was back body dropped onto the edge of the apron, then onto the steel ramp. He’s 51, for the record.
Mark Briscoe set two tables up outside the ring and did a diving blockbuster through both tables. Yikes. A bloody Jay Briscoe then used a gigantic Jaydriller on King inside the ring for two. The Briscoes brought the kendo sticks in the ring and double teamed King and took him out. PCO finally made his way back into the ring and no-sold like ten kendo stick shots, then broke both sticks over his knee. He was also bleeding at this point, and minutes later King’s face was covered in blood as well.
King threw Mark Briscoe off the top rope and it looked like it might have been meant to be a table spot but Mark landed flat on the ground onto a pile of chairs. He then botched a piledriver to Jay on the apron which also looked like it was supposed to be through a table. This looked really, really, dangerous. It looked like King may have slipped. You could see the bloody mark from Jay’s head on the apron.
PCO landed a moonsault onto Jay inside the ring for the pin and the win, putting an end to what Ian Riccaboni called what may have been the “craziest, goriest match in ROH history.” Your new ROH World Tag Team champions are Villain Enterprises, and they will face the Guerillas of Destiny at G1 Supercard next month at Madison Square Garden. Both the IWGP and ROH World Tag titles will be on the line.
Marseglia and O’Ryan jumped their opponents at the bell, but PCO powered through them and Scurll used apron superkicks to get the early advantage.
Marseglia and O’Ryan then cut off Scurll and used a double flapjack to start their attack. Inevitably, Scurll got the tag to PCO — who got in and brushed off the attacks of The Kingdom. PCO used a pop-up powerbomb and a swing-out slam to nearly finish off Marseglia, but he only got a two count as O’Ryan broke up the pin.
Scurll sent both Kingdom members to the floor and then launched PCO onto them.
Scurll used a superplex and PCO came off the top with a frog splash, but Marseglia kicked out. Marseglia used a tilt-a-whirl side Russian leg sweep on Scurll but wasn’t able to secure the pin. The Kingdom took out PCO with a Marseglia dive and followed that up with a Red Rum senton on Scurll — but again Scurll kicked out.
After the break, The Kingdom were able to take out PCO as O’Ryan managed to hip toss him off the top turnbuckle onto a chair across the apron. PCO’s lower back snapped off the apron. This allowed O’Ryan to hit a moonsault on Scurll.
It looked like PCO was out, but he made it back to his feet and took out O’Ryan. This left Scurll alone with Marseglia — and he was able to latch on the chicken wing and Marseglia had to submit.
Mayu Iwatani defeated Holidead
Sumie Sakai was at ringside but didn’t get involved at all. An even exchange started off the match, but Holidead used a stunner and a leg drop on the apron to get the advantage. Iwatani used her quickness to evade and hit a single-leg dropkick. However, Holidead caught her and hit a big spinebuster to get a two count.
Iwatani used a crucifix bomb, but Holidead kicked out at two. She then turned Iwatani inside out with a big clothesline. Holidead looked to finish off Iwatani with a double underhook powerbomb, but Iwatani landed on her feet and nailed a superkick and a German suplex.
Iwatani went up top and hit a moonsault onto Holidead to get the win.
Kenny King defeated Dalton Castle
Castle ducked some early attacks by King. He frustrated King early and it looked like King was about to bail on the match. However, after the break, King was in the ring getting hit with a few amateur suplexes from Castle. Castle followed up with a bulldog, but King kicked out at two.
King rolled to the floor. It looked like Castle was about to fly, but King picked up one of the Boys and pressed him at Castle. He got in the ring and hit the Royal Flush on Castle for the win.
King then got on the mic and challenged Scurll to a match at ROH’s 17th Anniversary pay-per-view in Las Vegas this Friday.
Backstage, Taven was holding his broken title belt and proclaimed that he would show Jay Lethal why he was Matt Taven.
Taven then went to the ring and called out Lethal. Lethal came out, but he got jumped by The Kingdom. They tore Lethal’s clothes off and Taven chopped him until Lethal broke free and fought back.
But the numbers game got the best of Lethal. Marseglia and O’Ryan hit him with the House of 1,000 Horses and then got a table out from under the ring.
Before they could set the table up, Jonathan Gresham ran in and met the same fate as Lethal. They finally set up the table, then Taven hit a giant elbow off the top rope to put Lethal through it.
The Kingdom stood strong heading into Friday’s Anniversary PPV, where Lethal will defend his ROH World Championship against Taven.
Jeff Cobb opened the show by telling Silas Young that he’s going to give him a first class Tour of the Islands in their Television Championship match tonight.
ROH Television Champion Jeff Cobb defeated Silas Young to retain his title
Young defeated Beer City Bruiser and Eli Isom in a mini-tournament to earn this title shot. Cobb took the early edge by using some amateur-style wrestling. Young scurried out of the ring to the floor.
After the break, Young asked for the Code of Honor and shook Cobb’s hand — but then used a throat thrust cheap shot. However, that only served to upset Cobb. A standing moonsault nearly led to an early Tour of the Islands, but Young held the ropes and bated Cobb to come to him. Young used a low kick and a stun gun across the ropes to gain control. Young hit strikes and chops to beat down Cobb.
After the second break, Young remained in control and used a rolling DVD and a double stomp but only got a two count. Cobb fought to his feet and used forearms to hurt Young. Cobb went for a suplex, but Young floated over and hit a backbreaker to injure Cobb’s ribs.
Young nailed the Anarchist suplex but only got two. Young taunted Cobb, which awoke the Hawaiian juggernaut and he nailed an overhead belly-to-belly suplex. Cobb went for the Tour of the Islands again, but Young grabbed the ropes — so Cobb gave him four German suplexes and then finally hit the Tour of the Islands to retain.
Matt Taven issued an open challenge to anyone — except ROH World Champion Jay Lethal.
A recap aired of Mayu Iwatani defeating Kelly Klein to win the Women of Honor World Championship.
Rush defeated Vinny Marseglia
A brawl started it off. Marseglia got the upper hand with a tilt-a-whirl side Russian leg sweep. Rush bailed to the floor and Marseglia followed. Marseglia pulled up the black mats on the floor. He went for a suplex on the floor, but Rush countered it. Marseglia landed a big knee and tossed Rush back in the ring.
Rush finally battled back and tossed Marseglia to the floor, then beat him up on the outside. Rush threw him in, nailed a boot to the face, and did the Tranquilo pose. Marseglia fought out and used a nice backbreaker on Rush, but he ran into a big boot and a belly-to-belly suplex into the corner.
A huge running double stomp dropkick called La Lanza earned Rush the win.
Jonathan Gresham answered Matt Taven’s open challenge for Taven’s “real” ROH World Championship.
Jonathan Gresham defeated Matt Taven by DQ
Referee Todd Sinclair threw Marseglia and TK O’Ryan out and sent them to the back before the match began.
Taven blindsided Gresham to start the match and then rained down punches. Gresham finally countered into an octopus lock, but Marseglia and O’Ryan immediately came back out and jumped Gresham to cause the disqualification.
Lethal ran out to make the save but also got beat down. Taven put a table into the ring. They laid Lethal out and looked to hit him with the ax — but Lifeblood, led by Juice Robinson, made the save.
Taven and The Kingdom fled, but they accidentally left Taven’s fake belt at ringside. Mark Haskins got the belt and handed it to Lethal. Lifeblood and Lethal had the belt, the bat, and the ax in the ring.
Tenille Dashwood got the mic and said that the fake belt has been a symbol of dishonor since Taven began carrying it. She suggested Lethal destroy it. Lethal obliged, and he began violently bashing the belt with the baseball bat. That wasn’t good enough, so he grabbed the ax and chopped the belt.
The gold plating peeled off and Lethal ripped the belt apart to close the show.
Editor’s note: This article references notes from ROH TV episodes that have yet to air.
The main event is set for Ring of Honor’s 17th Anniversary pay-per-view.
Jay Lethal defending his ROH World Championship against Matt Taven has been announced for the PPV. It’s taking place at Sam’s Town Live in Las Vegas, Nevada on Friday, March 15.
The storyline for Lethal and Taven’s feud has been based on Taven carrying around his own title belt and claiming to be the real ROH World Champion. Lethal destroyed Taven’s title belt during an angle at ROH’s television tapings in Lakeland, Florida over the weekend.
The Kingdom attacked Lethal later in the tapings, with Taven giving him an elbow drop through a table.
Lethal vs. Taven is the second title match to be confirmed for the 17th Anniversary event. ROH Tag Team Champions The Briscoes are set to defend their titles against Villain Enterprises (PCO & Brody King) at the PPV. Villain Enterprises got the title shot as a stipulation of winning last month’s Tag Wars tournament.
ROH was in Miami, Florida on Sunday for Bound By Honor, the final night of their short Sunshine State loop this weekend.
Caprice Coleman and Nick Aldis (w/ Kamille) were on commentary for tonight’s show. Aldis filled in for Ian Riccaboni tonight, as Riccaboni was home with his family awaiting the birth of their second child.
The venue was smaller but the front area looked packed in. The seats towards the back were peppered with fans but looked to be empty, mostly.
Jay Briscoe defeated Rhett Titus
Titus flexed his baby oil-laden muscles and cut a basic promo on Briscoe in the ring before the match. He at one point flexed until his face turned red. Moments later, the crowd began chanting “Jay is gonna kill you.”
Titus worked Briscoe over with stomps, chops, and a back-rake early on. He then used a tope con giro to the floor and received applause from a confused crowd who didn’t seem to know how to react after all of Titus’ heel work.
Briscoe quickly came back with a Rude Awakening-style neckbreaker. He followed up by hitting the Jay Driller for a quick win. Not a great match — but it felt like it did its job in keeping Jay strong in singles action.
Shinobi Shadow Squad (Cheeseburger, Eli Isom & Ryan Nova) defeated Dalton Castle & The Boys
Castle and the Boys shook hands with 3S before the bout. Castle’s trash talk was funny and his mat wrestling looked great, which allowed Nick Aldis to start to shine on commentary. He did a good job at detail-oriented play-by-play.
Cheeseburger got a few chants when he tagged in. 3S used some double-team work on both Boys, and Isom hit a decent springboard splash to one of them.
The crowd died halfway through until Isom hit the ring. Nice springboard missile dropkick and a few wild suplex from Isom here. Castle started yelling at the Boys after this, which led to some miscommunication on an Irish whip a few moments later, with Castle and a Boy getting knocked off the ring. Isom used a brainbuster on the other Boy for the upset win.
This could have been about five minutes shorter. It’s looking as though Castle and the Boys will split soon. That was the only real story within the match, and it didn’t become apparent until the last few minutes.
Zack Sabre Jr. defeated Colt Cabana
This was nonstop World of Sport-style mat wrestling — both looked excellent throughout. They had natural chemistry together; Sabre, the arrogant, vicious heel, Cabana, the fun-loving wrestling craftsmen who isn’t afraid to throw a few closed-fist punches every now and then.
There were almost no strikes in this match, actually, or at least for the first five minutes or so. It was all catching, all hold-for-hold, all pin combos and reversals.
The crowd heated up once the two started chopping and kicking each other. Sabre used a harsh penalty kick on Cabana, and later finished him with a triangle choke/straight reverse armbar.
If old WOS is your thing, you should probably go out of your way to check this out. ZSJ was really “on” tonight.
Kenny King defeated Marty Scurll, Willie Mack, and Silas Young in a four corner survival match
This was all action. Young shoved all the competitors in the ring before the bell and left the ring. He continued to jaw-jack from the floor after the match kicked off.
Willie Mack gave Kenny King a nipple-twister. There was a point early on when only Mack and Scurll were in the ring together and it looked like they have the capacity to pull off something special in a singles match.
Mack did a crossbody block to all three wrestlers, then hit a huge tope con giro to the floor and received an entirely different response to the spot than Rhett Titus did earlier on.
Mack and Scurll were who people were most excited for in this match, which in a way is a shame because King and Young both looked pretty good tonight, too, tighter than usual, especially regarding Young.
Mack and Scurll did some nice double-team work on King and the crowd lit up. The two then had a chop-off.
Scurll used a half-nelson suplex on Young, then put him in the chicken wing. Young tapped, but King distracted the referee after he brought a chair into the ring. After referee Todd Sinclair grabbed the chair from King, King gave Scurll a low blow and pinned him for the victory.
This match was good but would have been better if it were either a tag match or a singles match between Scurll and Mack. The crowd hadn’t reacted to anything so vociferously up until those two were in the ring.
ROH Television Champion Jeff Cobb defeated Rocky Romero to retain his title
This was fine. A bit of a David vs. Goliath story at the start. Cobb stood like a stone and wouldn’t sell any strikes — he wouldn’t leave his feet for any wrestling-related holds.
After a couple of minutes, Romero decided to use an eye poke to shift the match’s momentum briefly. Cobb came back with ease and dominated the bout some more. He used a cool modified Oklahoma Stampede on Romero for two.
The crowd died in the middle of this until Cobb hit a standing moonsault. Romero rallied back and used an unassisted Sliced Bread on Cobb for two. Romero fluffed a few springboard spots. When he went for another Sliced Bread, Cobb reversed it into a backbreaker.
At the end of the match, Cobb went on a suplex tear and finished Romero off with Tour of the Islands.
This looked better on paper then it ended up being. I’m not sure if it was the awkwardness between the wrestlers, like with their chemistry together, or because the crowd sort of gave up halfway through the match.
Mayu Iwatani defeated Kelly Klein to win the Women of Honor World Championship
This might have been the best match of the show so far next to the ZSJ vs. Cabana WOS showcase.
Klein looks more confident with every show she’s been on since she’s won the WOH title. A few fans threw streamers in the ring for Iwatani.
The two started off with rough chops, headlocks, knees, and kicks. Up to this point in the show, no one was as good at selling as Iwatani was during this match. It helped Klein look like a monster, plus it induced the crowd to get behind Iwatani whenever she made a comeback. I mean, she was getting pops off of shoulder blocks at one point.
Iwatani hit a stunning plancha from the top turnbuckle to the floor. Klein returned with a release German suplex onto the floor.
Iwatani used two release Dragon suplexes and a few brutal kicks for two. She later used two moonsaults onto Klein for the shock win. The crowd was stunned and very into it.
LifeBlood (Juice Robinson, Mark Haskins, Bandido & Tracy Williams) w/ Tenille Dashwood defeated The Bouncers (Beer City Bruiser & Brian Milonas) & Coast to Coast (LSG & Shaheem Ali)
Too many cooks in the kitchen here. The match didn’t feel like it really began until Bandido was tagged in. He springboard around the ring a bit until the heels and babyfaces all squared off for a small skirmish. This made for a nice visual that’d fit well into a promo package.
Haskins worked very hard in this match. Great selling and intense offense. He took much of the heel defense in the middle of this one.
Beer City Bruiser did his “I ain’t got no teeth!” catchphrase. The crowd responded with a confused groan.
Robinson was quite over but didn’t do a whole lot in this one. He used a nice spinebuster at one point. He looked to be the tallest guy in the match, too, which I found strange for some reason.
Bandido used a slingshot frankensteiner to the floor onto Bruiser, then a tornillo in the ring on LSG for two.
On the apron, Bruiser used a Death Valley Driver onto Haskins and it got a “holy sh*t” chant. This looked nuts.
The biggest pop of the night came when Bandido caught Bruiser off the ropes and cleanly powerslammed him. Wow. How he doesn’t have a hernia, I don’t know. He used 21+, the rolling slingshot German suplex, on LSG for the win. Lots of action at the end of this one.
The Bouncers busted out a small cooler and all of the wrestlers — Dashwood included — chugged a few.
PCO defeated Mark Briscoe
A great modern brawl with an unfortunately tired crowd. At the start, the two exchanged heavy strikes before running to the outside of the ring to grab steel chairs. They wanted to have a chair duel, but referee Todd Sinclair broke it up.
Mark Briscoe later hit a running blockbuster to the floor on PCO. They exchanged chops after this — and every one of them sounded painful. Briscoe’s chest was purplish-red.
PCO later returned the attacks with a big chokeslam and even more chops in the corner.
The crowd woke back up when PCO used a tope con giro through the middle ropes, like the one Fenix does, it’s just here it’s, well, it’s PCO. It should be noted that PCO was bleeding from the left eye at this point in the match.
The two really started going at it after the floor spots. PCO took another insane bump onto the edge of the apron tonight, the missed somersault senton. Mark Briscoe took advantage of this and did a corkscrew senton from the top turnbuckle to the outside.
The match spilled out into the aisle, then onto the stage. Briscoe powerbombed PCO onto the stage floor and it looked really dangerous. PCO no-sold this, then Briscoe dropkicked him down the entrance stairs.
Briscoe hit PCO with two hard chair shots, then hit a Froggy Bow for two. Somehow PCO came back and landed his monstrous moonsault for the win.
If you like late-90s ECW, this was pretty much that. It’s truly unreal to see PCO take so much punishment so regularly, which is worrisome, but a spectacle, still.
ROH Six-Man Tag Team Champions The Kingdom (Matt Taven, Vinny Marseglia & TK O’Ryan) defeated ROH World Champion Jay Lethal, Jonathan Gresham & Rush in a non-title match
This weekend in Florida was Rush’s official debut as an ROH talent. He and TK O’Ryan were terrific together early in this match. The audience loved all the Los Ingobernables taunts and poses he did.
Lethal and Taven bolted at each other outside the ring after this, apropos of nothing, really, and started blasting each other with punches. It was so heated and well done that the crowd went all in on it. The rest of the competitors followed suit, and the next few minutes of the match consisted of mostly brawling.
It was hard to figure out who the legal man was at points. The referees tonight allowed for tons of leeway with the wrestlers on the outside and basically didn’t use any counts.
This bothers a lot of fans. Realistically, it’s been a part of the American scene since the ECW days, so I and others have grown used to it and often don’t mind, but it’s something worth discussing. The same idea could be applied to the PCO vs. Mark Briscoe match, where the ref felt more like a piece of furniture with wheels, always there but not really adding much else to the aesthetic of the match.
Marseglia and O’Ryan used House of a Thousand Corpses on both Rush and Gresham, then Taven pinned Lethal after the Climax.
Kenny King came out and cut a promo on Lethal and Marty Scurll. Scurll followed King and attacked him, and then — pretty much the entire locker room emptied out and it looked like a very tired battle royale.
Bully Ray came out last and started screaming at Todd Sinclair for some reason. PCO confronted Bully and they exchanged chops until the Briscoes attacked PCO, who eventually came back and did a moonsault from the top onto about 20 wrestlers.
The match was chaotic and kind of a mess, but it wasn’t bad. I didn’t really understand the underlying function of the last segment, unless it was just to come up with an excuse for PCO to moonsault onto everyone so that the company can use it for their sizzle reel.
Final thoughts —
This was a decent show that was a bit of a slog at times. ZSJ vs. Cabana, Iwatani vs. Klein and PCO vs. Mark Briscoe were probably the best matches of the night, or at least the most fun to watch.
