Tag: the rock ‘n’ roll express

ROH was at the Nashville Fairgrounds Arena in Nashville, Tennessee on Sunday for their Honor for All event that streamed live on HonorClub. Ian Riccaboni and Caprice Coleman were the announce team for the night.

The Bouncers (Brawler Milonas & Beer City Bruiser) defeated Felino & Okumura and Coast 2 Coast (LSG & Shaheem Ali) in a three-way tag team match

Okumura and Felino were fun to watch in this, especially Felino when he’d work with The Bouncers. On commentary, Riccaboni mentioned how he thought he’d seen one of Dalton Castle’s ex-Boys watching this match in the wings. Riccaboni did an excellent job introducing the television crowd to both Felino and Okumura when they were in the ring.

For some reason, the crowd was absolutely dead at points in this. They’d come alive for big spots and some comedy spots. The Bouncers hit Closing Time (Smoking Gunns’ Sidewinder) on Ali for the win, then The Bouncers and the CMLL team shared beers afterwards.

– ROH announced that the ROH Six-Man Tag Team title match between Villain Enterprises and LifeBlood was off due to PCO’s injury from the night before. PCO smashed his face on the floor when he “malfunctioned” and did a tope to the wrong side of the ring.

PCO then came to the ring and the crowd erupted. It was like a completely different crowd in the building — they sure liked PCO. He started throwing chairs into the ring and shoved people around the ringside area.

PCO grabbed the mic. ROH security came to the ring, so PCO took everyone out by himself. After all of that, he put the last crew member through a table with a cannonball senton from the top rope to the floor.

Flip Gordon came out and PCO pushed him until Gordon could remind him who he was, that he was part of Villain Enterprises. He showed PCO his T-shirt and then PCO “snapped out of it,” but PCO kept selling his head like he was a confused, brainwashed monster. With the giant gash over his eye and forehead, PCO really does look like Frankenstein.

Joe Hendry & Dalton Castle defeated Cheeseburger & Eli Isom

Castle grabbed the microphone before the match and said that he usually sleeps 16 hours a night, but last night he could only sleep eight hours because he kept thinking about what happened between him and the most recent addition to ROH’s roster, Joe Hendry.

Like we mentioned at Saturday Night at Center Stage, Hendry sings his new ROH theme song and even made a music video to go along with it, which has lyrics that go “I believe in Joe Hendry” and cues in the video to the audience to sway back and forth like you’d see at an Amy Grant concert in 1994.

It’s hard to get Hendry’s theme song out of my head. The two went back and forth while Isom stood in the corner. They argued about Saturday night, with Castle explaining that Hendry probably didn’t really understand what Castle is capable of, so he invited him to take a seat in the front row and watch him kick the crap out of Isom.

Hendry explained that he understood just fine and that he is more entertaining than Castle. His new catchphrase is actually more of a melody, where he screams his name and then sings “So prestigious.” The crowd didn’t sing along tonight and Castle called him on it later, explaining that he was the “cumin in this curry” and that without Castle, “this place would taste disgusting.”

Hendry offered to wrestle Isom instead of Castle and told him to sit and watch as he showed the crowd how good he was. Isom finally pushed both apart and grabbed the mic and pretty much told them to stop bickering and grow up. He then challenged both Castle and Hendry to a tag team match against him and his trainer, Cheeseburger.

Hendry tried really hard to get the crowd to do the “So prestigious“ thing. Riccaboni put both Castle and Hendry over for their amateur wrestling backgrounds.

Castle and Eli Isom were good together when they were in the ring. Hendry did a delayed vertical suplex to Cheeseburger and did the arm-swaying gesture with one arm. He and Castle argued for a while so Cheeseburger could crawl away and tag out to Isom, who tore through both guys for a minute until the match fell to the floor.

Castle and Hendry inadvertently saved each other from Isom and Cheeseburger outside the ring, then argued some more until Isom landed a moonsault from the corner to the outside. Momentum shifted quickly, though. When Castle went for the Bang-a-Rang on Isom, Hendry pulled Isom off and hit a Codebreaker on him to win the match. Castle complained that he could have done it as Hendry smirked his way to the back.

This angle is interesting, but it’s ironic that of all promotions, Ring of Honor is the one with a new program centered on who’s more entertaining than who, making it feel like a polished WWE or TNA segment. It’s too soon to tell whether it’ll pan out, but for tonight I think it was fine. And Hendry’s theme is still stuck in my head, unfortunately.

Angelina Love defeated Jenny Rose, Sumie Sakai, and Damaris Dawkins in a four-way match

Kelly Klein joined Riccaboni and Coleman on commentary for this next match. This was Dawkins’ ROH debut. Riccaboni mentioned that a  few members of her family were professional boxers from the Philadelphia area and that she’s been mentored by Sumie Sakai and Cheeseburger at the Worldwide Dojo in Bristol, Pennsylvania.

Love cut a promo in the ring saying that she didn’t feel like she needed to be in the match because she’d pinned Klein at Best in the World and already beat Sakai the night before in Atlanta. When The Allure tried heading to the back, Dawkins and Rose chased after them and threw them back in the ring and the match was on.

Dawkins was okay but green. When she was in with Sakai she looked better. They did a four-way headscissors submission spot. Love tried sneaking a chair in the ring, and while the ref was distracted, Mandy Leon sprayed Sakai in the face with perfume and neutralized her out of the match. Love then hit the Botox Injection running kick on Dawkins to win.

The lights went out and then Maria Manic was standing in the ring. The Allure ran to the back while Manic did a double-handed chokeslam to Dawkins and then took out Rose after she’d laid in a few elbows.

Klein left the broadcast area and confronted Manic in the ring. When Klein tossed her Women of Honor title belt to the canvas, Love snuck into the ring, grabbed the belt, and knocked Klein out from behind with it. Manic then chased The Allure to the back while Klein sold the belt shot in the ring.

PJ Black defeated Silas Young (w/ Josh Woods)

Woods is acting as Silas Young’s assistant since Saturday night. Young yelled at Woods for not being in the right spots he needed to be in when Young wanted to cheat. Woods said his shoes were untied. “Safety first,” Woods said.

This is the third singles match I’ve seen between these two in the past month or two. The only real differences were that Black finally got a win and the Woods angle. Woods kept teasing like he’d go after Black but was conflicted. Riccaboni put him over as a nice guy. Moments later, Black won out of nowhere with a cradle.

Young berated Woods after the match and told him to “be a heel.”

– The Bouncers joined the broadcast team and brought beers for Coleman and Riccaboni. Both ROH announcers declined the offer but all four toasted. The Bouncers grabbed the two extra beers for themselves.

Rush defeated Vinny Marseglia

This wasn’t bad. Rush was great and this was one of the best matches I’ve seen from Marseglia.

Rush kicked up the tempo of this early on. He tried hard to get the crowd into it, but this place sounded empty. Marseglia landed a cutter on the floor and started beating on him. He whipped Rush into the barricade. Back in the ring, he choked Rush with his handkerchief.

Rush fired back up and swore at Marseglia in Spanish. Aside from Riccaboni, the commentary was really bad during this. Marseglia was bleeding from the nose or lip towards the end of the match and he started licking his blood before Rush hit the Bull’s Horns dropkick to win.

Rush stepped on Marseglia’s face and posed before he left.

ROH TV Champion Shane Taylor defeated Chase Owens to retain his title

This was good. Owens won a qualifying match in Atlanta over PJ Black and LSG for the title shot here. He’s a really smooth wrestler, it’s a shame we don’t see him in more singles matches.

Taylor is another one who’s been underrated this year, especially when it comes to being able to trash talk and sound intimidating on the fly, it feels organic. Taylor got the win with Greetings from 216.

ROH Tag Team Champions The Briscoes (Jay & Mark Briscoe) defeated The Rock ’n’ Roll Express (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson) to retain their titles

This had no business being as good as it was. It was short but had so much energy you’d think you just got out of a time machine. I can’t believe even for one millisecond I was duped into thinking The Rock ’n’ Roll Express would actually win. Impressed.

The crowd woke up for The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express before the match got started. There were lots of “Rock ’n’ Roll” chants but also a good number of “Man up” chants in support of The Briscoes.

Morton and Jay Briscoe were in together. Morton was great, really. Not exaggerating. I mean he’s not Will Ospreay or something, but considering all the variables, he was great. Morton didn’t have to do all that much because The Briscoes are so good. The crowd sounded completely different here than from the other matches.

The teams started brawling on the floor and eventually Mark Briscoe went to do a Froggy Bow to Morton through a table, but Gibson pushed him off and Mark flipped through the table. When The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express hit the double dropkick on Jay, both Coleman and Riccaboni authentically sounded like they’d lost it. Coleman was shrieking.

Things settled for a second after Jay kicked out and then Mark eventually landed a Froggy Bow on Morton to win. They all shook hands after the match.

Villain Enterprises (Brody King & Marty Scurll) defeated LifeBlood (Bandido & Mark Haskins)

Scurll played the relentless heel role. Him and Haskins have very good chemistry. Haskins used a Boston crab on Scurll, who was lying on top of King. Scurll later got the whole crowd going wild before he was about to do the chicken wing spot, but Haskins blocked the attempt with a leg lariat.

When Bandido went to catch King off the ropes, he dropped him. The whole spot fell apart. They recovered quickly when Haskins and Bandido forced the double tope suicida to the floor. The Villain Enterprises team used some really cool double-team moves, innovative kind of things.

The last half of this match saw everyone exchange huge moves for about five minutes until Bandido hit the 21-Plex and Haskins followed up with his modified Sharpshooter to tap Scurll. LifeBlood will get a shot at The Briscoes’ ROH Tag Team titles.

Jeff Cobb defeated ROH World Champion Matt Taven, Kenny King (w/ Amy Rose), and Jay Lethal in a Defy or Deny match

The stipulation for Defy or Deny matches is that — if the champion doesn’t win — the winner will get a future shot at their title. If the champion wins, whoever is eliminated last can’t challenge for their title as long as they’re champion.

This started off really similar to the Defy or Deny match in Portland back in June with Taven talking trash at his three opponents and then getting beat up. Him and King were in first. Lethal and Cobb were good together and Cobb even attempted a cartwheel into a standing moonsault. Later he ragdolled Taven across the ring.

Taven and King formed a brief truce until King schoolboyed Taven. They started arguing and then Lethal decked King. Cobb later caught King off the ropes in a vertical suplex hold. King countered with an inside cradle.

Taven hit Cobb with the ROH World title and got disqualified. King then hit Lethal with the belt and used the Royal Flush to eliminate Lethal. After another few minutes, Cobb destroyed King with a snap German suplex and then planted him into the mat with Tour of the Islands to win the match. Cobb is now in line for a shot at the ROH World Championship.

Final thoughts —

The in-ring work was decent from beginning to end. The show was definitely stronger in the last 90 minutes or so, and while the crowd was enthusiastic in general, the low draw was audibly noticeable and made for an awkward presentation at times.

I don’t believe I’m saying this, but The Rock ’n’ Roll Express had the most exciting match of the show with their bout with The Briscoes. Cobb winning tonight’s main event means we’ll see another shot at Taven for him coming soon. The next ROH shows will be their joint events with CMLL, the Global Wars Espectacular tour that begins on September 6 in Dearborn, Michigan.