Ring of Honor returns to pay-per-view tonight as Best in the World 2018 takes place at the UMBC Event Center in Baltimore, Maryland.
Wer’e looking for yoru thoughts on tonight’s show, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected]
The show will be headlined by a triple threat match for the ROH World Championship, with Dalton Castle defending against Bullet Club members Cody Rhodes and Marty Scurll. If Cody wins the championship, he’ll be set to defend it in a title vs. title match against the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion, which is currently Nick Aldis, at All In this September.
Three other title matches are also set for tonight: Tag Team Champions The Briscoes vs. The Young Bucks, Six-Man Tag Team Champions The Kingdom vs. SANADA, EVIL & BUSHI, and TV Champion Punishment Martinez vs. Hangman Page in a street fight.
Austin Aries vs. Kenny King, Jay Lethal vs. KUSHIDA, an eight-woman tag match pitting Sumie Sakai, Mayu Iwatani, Tenille Dashwood & Jenny Rose vs. Kelly Klein, Hazuki, Kagetsu & Hana Kimura, and Bully Ray vs. Flip Gordon round out the rest of the card.
Our live coverage starts at 9 p.m. Eastern time.
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By Dave Meltzer
MATT TAVEN & VINNY MARSEGLIA & TK O’RYAN VS. EVIL & SANADA & BUSHI FOR THE SIX MAN TITLES
Match was fine. It never got past a certain level but it was all action. Sanada did a Paradise lock on both Taven and Marseglia. But not much else as far as big stuff went. The finish saw Taven pin Bushi after rock star super nova.
FLIP GORDON VS. BULLY RAY
The match opened hot with Gordon doing dives and brawling. This was a very different style of match then you usually see from Gordon. Bully got litlte offense in, missed a Vader bomb to get a Vader chant and then used a low blow for the DQ. After the match Bully kept beating down Gordon with a garbage can and some chair shots. Eli Isom ran in but Bully Ray beat him down. Cheeseburger ran in and Bully Ray power bombed him hard. Finally Colt Cabana, doing the announcing, hit the ring with a chair and Bully backed off. Bully is super smart at getting heat so while not a classic match, this match was exactly what it was supposed to be and effective, it made Gordon show a new dimension and put heat on Bully.
HAZUKI & KAGETSU & HANA KIMURA & KELLY KLEIN VS. JENNY ROSE & SUMIE SAKAI & MAYU IWATANI & TENILLE DASHWOOD.
This match got over in the last few minutes. I thought it wasn’t good at all except when Iwatani was in with both Hauzki and Kimura. The crowd went nuts for Iwatani vs. Kimura in particular. Sakai did a great plancha onto everone and in the ring, Iwatani pinned Kimura with a dragon suplex. They tried to push Sakai vs. Kagetsu as WOH champino vs. Stardom champion.
KENNY KING VS. AUSTIN ARIES
The story here is that Aries and King were friends and Aries mentored him. King wouldn’t go for the kill but Aries would. Aries is a great wrestler and this match had a lot of heat. At one point Aries grabbed his three belts and went to walk off but King with a corkscrew plancha on him and then grabbed the Impact belt. However, Aries came back with a brainbuster on the floor and then won with a discus elbow and a brainbuster. Best match so far.
KUSHIDA VS. JAY LETHAL
The story here is that Lethal is trying to work his way back to the title and had to beat all the guys who have beaten him like Punishmant Martinez, Chuickie T, Kushida, Mark Briscoe and Kushida who have beaten him. So he’s beaten four of them and thie time pinned Kushida with the Lethal injection. These two guys are great wrestlers. It was exactly what you’d think. Kushida did three straight flip dives. Lethal teased doing three topes, but on the second one, Kushida caught him with an armbar on the floor. Lethal did the Savage elbow but Kushida turned that into an armbar. The first time Lethal went for the lethal injection, Kushida got him with a hoverboard lock. But Lethal kept blocking back to the future. Excellent match
PUNISHMENT MARTINEZ VS. HANGMAN PAGE IN A STREET FIGHT FOR THE TV TITLE
Silas Young and Beer City Bruiser are out on commentary.. Thois was a realy wild match with a lot of high spots. Martinez won with a choke slam through a table shortly after Page gave him a back body drop on thumbtacks. Page also did a moonsault off the top to the floor At one point Martinez zip-tied his hands together butg Page got free of them. Page speared him through a table on the floor. Page also supeplexed him off the barricade on the floor. It was a big brawl and the crowd completey got behind Page.
MARK & JAY BRISCOE VS. YOUNG BUCKS FOR ROH TAG TITLES
This was very close to a match of the year level bout. They did everythimg in the world and it ended with the Briscoes doing a double team die hard and neckbreaker on Matt for the pin. They pushed that the ROH champs beat the IWGP champs clean so that probably sets up a rematch. There were far too many big spots and near falls to recount. At one point The Bcks had it won with more bang for your buck on Jay, but Mark gave ref Paul Turner an elbow off the top to take him out. Later the Bucks did the Meltzer driver but there was a save. Matt kicked out of a Jay driller on a chair. At another point they tried another Meltzer driver but Mark threw a chair at Nick which knocked him off the apron. After the match, they continued to beat on the Bucks until SCU came out with Christopher Daniels having a chair. They teased attacking the Young Bucks but instead Daniels hit Jay with a chair.
DALTON CASTLE VS. MARTY SCURLL VS. CODY FOR THE ROH TITLE
Castle retained the title as Scurll did the crossroads to Cody but Castle then gave Scurll the bangarang and pinned him. Castle is hurting really bad. I think he took maybe one or two bumps. His back is a mess, both a fracture and nerve damagee. There was all kinds of shortcuts with lots of near falls and then people pulling the ref out of hte ring. Brandi and Cody pulled ref Todd Sinclair out when Scurll had the title won with a belt shot. At another point Scurll had Scurll pinned with the bangarang but Nick Aldis, who was at ringside pulled Sinclair out of the ring. Sinclair later threw Brandi, The Boys and Aldis out. The near falls were really good and a lot looked like the finish but it was tough to follow the prior match. Aldis being there made everyone figure Cody was winning, but I guess the idea is they don’t want the ROH champion losing to the IWGP champion again.
This set of television tapings is building to Ring of Honor’s Best in the World pay-per-view in Baltimore on June 29th.
Episode 347 quick summary —
Kelly Klein defeated Madison Rayne
Motor City Machine Guns defeated The Dawgs (Rhett Titus & Will Ferrara)
The “Neon Ninja” Facade vs. Eli Isom ended in a no contest as Bully Ray interfered. Cheeseburger came out to confront Bully and ate a chokeslam, which brought out Joe Koff to fire Bully from his “enforcer” position. This led to Bully announcing that he is no longer retired and will be back in action as a wrestler.
The Young Bucks defeated The Briscoes by DQ when The Briscoes used chairs to lay out the Bucks. They also laid out Hangman Page and Marty Scurll.
Episode 348: Dissension within the Bullet Club?
Jay Lethal defeated Punishment Martinez
This started with Lethal hitting seven consecutive tope dives on Martinez. Lethal then went to work on the knee of the big man. Martinez hit a step-up enzuigiri and a spinwheel kick off the top, but his leg was wobbly.
They had a classic rookie vs. veteran match. Lethal connected with an elbow drop off the top rope and went back to work on the leg with the Figure Four. Martinez escaped and went for a discus lariat, failing due to the knee injury. Lethal hit a superkick into the Lethal Injection for the win.
– A video package showed Jenny Rose cutting a promo where she challenged Women of Honor Champion Sumie Sakai.
Shane Taylor vs. Joey “Diesel” Daddiego ended in a no contest
Taylor put a beating on Daddiego, hit a double sit-out chokeslam, and followed up with a splash, but Daddiego kicked out. Taylor missed a rolling corner splash as Daddiego fired back. He hit the Daddiego Driver, but Taylor kicked out.
The two brawled outside as the match ended in a no contest, with Daddiego finding himself on the wrong end of a Taylor splash from the apron across two folding chairs. Referees ran in to stop the beating and one of them took a chokeslam for his efforts. On commentary, Ian Riccaboni mentioned that Taylor will be fined for that. Security ran in, and Taylor hit a uranage and a sit-out piledriver on them
– Cody and Brandi Rhodes talked about Cody challenging Dalton Castle for the ROH World Championship at Best in the World.
– ROH recapped Bully Ray chokeslamming Cheeseburger and his announcement from earlier. There was also a recap of last week’s main event where The Young Bucks defeated The Briscoes by disqualification.
The Bullet Club (Cody, Marty Scurll & Hangman Page) w/ Burnard the Business Bear defeated SoCal Uncensored (Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky)
A fancy cartwheel by Cody started us off, and he went for a delayed suplex and bicep flex on Sky heading into a break. Out of commercial, Scurll popped out of a headscissors by Daniels and tagged in Page, who faced off with Kazarian. Page hit a standing dropkick on Daniels and a moonsault on Kazarian.
Cody came back in and springboard kicked Scurll on accident (or was it?), allowing Daniels to cut him off. A triple team on Cody ended with Sky hitting a jumping hurricanrana. A simultaneous lariat by Cody and Daniels resulted in a double down as Daniels tagged in Sky and Cody brought in Scurll. Scurll connected with a superkick to the knee, then the Bullet Club triple teamed Sky with a drop toe hold, dropkick, and running Shooting Star Press by Page. Daniels hit an Arabian press moonsault on Cody to the outside.
A big dive sequence was followed up by a superplex on Daniels from Cody, and everyone was down. Riccaboni reminded us that ROH uses a 20 count, and everyone came in at 19. Scurll attacked the finger of Daniels, but Daniels used an STO to cut him off. Page powerbombed Daniels, but Kazarian hit a cutter. Sky slingshotted in from the outside and also landed a cutter on Cody.
Scurll used a pumphandle brainbuster on the knee to set up the chicken wing, but Sky was able to escape. Page hit a buckshot double lariat and Cody grabbed Sky, using a unique new move on him. Page then hit the Rite of Passage on Sky for the win.
SoCal Uncensored cut off the post-match celebration, but the Bullet Club grabbed Daniels. Scurll accidentally struck Cody with a cane as he went to hit Daniels. Was this retribution for the earlier kick? The show ended with everyone wondering if that cane shot was accidental, and whether the Bullet Club is in working order.
– IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion Jay White defeated Punishment Martinez to retain his title
This was a solid match. White pinned Martinez after the Blade Runner.
– Cheeseburger defeated Bully Ray by DQ
Bully Ray came out to incite the crowd and drew great heat by stirring them up. He was just beating Cheeseburger down for the brief time this lasted, with Bully hitting him with a chain for the disqualification. Cheeseburger got zero offense in and it was a 100 percent squash.
– Tetsuya Naito defeated Beer City Bruiser
Naito was over huge with this crowd and pinned Bruiser after the Destino. That was the second time he hit it as the first one did not look good. Naito had his shirt on the whole time as well as wearing some sort of thigh sleeves on both legs.
– The Young Bucks defeated Super Smash Bros (Evil Uno & Stu Grayson)
This match was crazy. There were tons of huge moves from both teams and the crowd was white hot for this one. It was unquestionably the match of the night with nothing else close. The Bucks won with the Meltzer Driver.
As the four were raising each other’s hands after the match, The Briscoes attacked and laid them out. Jay Briscoe took five minutes of mic time and said they’re the ones that rule the place, the best team, and dared anyone try and take the belts from them.
Entertaining match that the crowd was into as well. Romero was pinned after Celebrity Rehab.
– ROH Television Champion Silas Young defeated Hangman Page to retain his title
Prior to the match starting, Punishment Martinez attacked Page. He threw a chair at Page’s head as he was entering the ring — which didn’t look like it felt good — and then laid him out with a Curb Stomp on a chair. As they were taking him to the back, Page came back to the ring before getting counted out.
The match was solid. Page did a very high moonsault from the top rope to the floor, but Young retained with Misery.
– Cody Rhodes defeated Jushin Thunder Liger
Cody won with Cross Rhodes. There wasn’t much to this, but Liger was treated with the huge respect he deserves as a legend before and after the match.
– SANADA, EVIL & Hiromu Takahashi defeated Jay Lethal, Colt Cabana & Kenny King
They had a semi-comedy match that lost the crowd in the main event and many were leaving. I felt bad for them — it was entertaining but had the wrong card placement. This should have been way earlier in the night.
It was originally scheduled to be an eight-man tag with SANADA, EVIL, Takahashi & BUSHI facing Dalton Castle, Lethal, King & Flip Gordon, but Castle didn’t wrestle due to injury and Gordon had travel issues. BUSHI didn’t wrestle but was involved throughout the match.
Cabana wrestled a bit with Daryl (Takahashi’s stuffed cat) and Takahashi protected Daryl’s face to conceal his identity when he was unmasked. Lethal hit multiple dives back and forth across the ring, alternating on each LIJ member.
There was a long vertical suplex spot with Takahashi being the victim as Cabana, Lethal, and King all took turns holding him up and passing him to each other without Takahashi leaving the suplex position. BUSHI blew green mist in Cabana’s face and Cabana was pinned for the LIJ victory.
– Besties in the World (Mat Fitchett & Davey Vega) and Josh Woods won dark matches.
– Coast 2 Coast (Shaheem Ali & Leon St. Giovanni) defeated The Dawgs (Will Ferrara & Rhett Titus)
The Dawgs attacked Coast 2 Coast following the match.
– ROH Television Champion Silas Young defeated Cheeseburger to retain his title
The crowd was really cheering on Cheeseburger, with him getting near falls and coming close to becoming champion on a few occasions. Young reversed a pinfall to retain.
Bully Ray came out after the match and berated Cheeseburger. Flip Gordon came to Cheeseburger’s aid, but things got physical and Bully ended up laying both of them out. He got into a screaming match with a fan after that.
– Sumie Sakai, Tenille Dashwood & Deonna Purrazzo defeated Madison Rayne, Brandi Rhodes & Jenny Rose
Fun match with everyone getting a pretty good amount of time in the ring. Dashwood and Rayne did some nice chain wrestling. For the finish, Sakai countered a Cross Rhodes attempt into a swinging neckbreaker and pinned Rhodes.
Purrazzo then got on the mic, speaking about not winning the Women of Honor title tournament. She said it’s okay, because Kelly Klein didn’t win either. They hyped their upcoming match, with Purrazzo correcting Klein on the location of it and calling her a “bitch” twice.
– The Young Bucks, Flip Gordon & Hangman Page defeated SoCal Uncensored (Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky) & Shane Taylor
This was a really entertaining match with the crowd obviously rooting for Bullet Club, but Taylor was also somewhat of a favorite in his home state of Ohio. The Young Bucks got the win with a plethora of superkicks and the Meltzer Driver.
– ROH Tag Team Champions The Briscoes defeated Besties in the World (Mat Fitchett & Davey Vega) to retain their titles
Besties in the World got some brief offense, but it was pretty much a squash match. Mark Briscoe hit Vega with a side Russian leg sweep before applying a rear naked choke for the submission.
– Jay Lethal defeated Jonathan Gresham
Great match and both guys sold really well. Lethal attempted the Lethal Injection, but it was countered with a backslide for a near fall. He went for it again but couldn’t execute it due to selling an arm injury. Gresham tried to capitalized on that with an Oklahoma roll, with Lethal managing to get a pinfall of his own for the win.
While getting on the mic afterwards, Lethal praised Gresham for bringing out the best in him. Gresham then asked for one more match despite his two losses against him, saying he knows he can beat Lethal. Lethal shook his hand and accepted the challenge.
– Matt Taven defeated Cody Rhodes in a first blood match
It essentially started out as a handicap match with Cody having to fight off Taven and TK O’Ryan. Once Cody caused O’Ryan to bleed, it became a true one-on-one match as O’Ryan went to the back. Cody went through a table after missing a leg drop. Taven tried to cut him with a piece of the table, but Brandi Rhodes came back down to the ring and saved Cody by low blowing Taven.
Cody hit a powerslam and followed with the Cross Rhodes onto a title belt, but there was no blood. Cody got on top of Taven, repeatedly hitting him with his ring. The referee saw blood and rang the bell. It was assumed that Cody won, but Taven was announced as the winner because there was blood on Cody’s hand.
– Marty Scurll defeated Dalton Castle, Punishment Martinez, and Beer City Bruiser in a Defy or Deny match to earn a future shot at the ROH World Championship
This went on for a while before anyone was eliminated. Beer City Bruiser was the first person out after being hit with the South of Heaven chokeslam from Martinez. Castle countered an attack from Martinez, hitting him with the Bang-a-Rang for the elimination.
It came down to Castle and Scurll, with Scurll countering a Bang-a-Rang into a victory roll to become the new number one contender for Castle’s ROH World Championship.
Scurll wanted to sing a song for the crowd, but he was interrupted by SoCal Uncensored. They told him to sing a Slayer song or they would “Kick his stupid, British ass.” The Bullet Club made the save, then Scurll closed the show by singing “Real American.”
What is perhaps the biggest show in Ring of Honor history takes place at the UNO Lakefront Arena in New Orleans tonight.
With nearly 6,000 tickets sold, the Bullet Club’s issues will come to a head as Kenny Omega takes on Cody Rhodes. It’s being billed as a double main event, with Marty Scurll also challenging for Dalton Castle’s ROH World Championship.
The Young Bucks are teaming with Flip Gordon against Six-Man Tag Team Champions SoCal Uncensored (Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky) in a ladder match for the titles, The Briscoes’ tag belts will be on the line against Hiroshi Tanahashi & Jay Lethal, the first Women of Honor Champion will be decided, and Kenny King and Silas Young are facing off in a last man standing match for the TV title.
Both the finals and semifinal matches in the Women of Honor Championship tournament are scheduled for tonight. The semis will be Mayu Iwatani vs. Kelly Klein and Tenille Dashwood vs. Sumie Sakai.
Other matches on the show are: Kota Ibushi vs. Hangman Page, Tomohiro Ishii vs. Punishment Martinez, and Chuck Taylor vs. Jonathan Gresham. The show is streaming live on ROH’s HonorClub subscription service, and our coverage starts at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time, with a pre-show starting at 7:30 p.m. Eastern time.
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Kelly Klein defeated Mayu Iwatani
They start off with some back and forth action. Klein catches Iwatani and goes on offense, striking her with a big boot. Iwatani came alive after hitting a hurricanrana off the top rope and followed with a missile dropkick. She missed a double foot stomp, but then superkicked Klein and hit the foot stomp. She followed with a frog splash, but Klein kicked out.
Klein went to powerbomb Iwatani but Iwatani countered with a reverse rana. Klein hit a driver but Iwatani followed with a northern lights suplex. Klein gets in a guillotine choke, and while Iwatani resisted, she eventually passed out, giving the win to Klein as she advances to the finals. A bit sloppy at times, but otherwise a solid match.
Sumie Sakai defeated Tenille Dashwood
This starts off hot with Dashwood immediately coming after Sakai. Dashwood took out Sakai with a giant crossbody off the top rope to the floor. Dashwood puts Sakai in a submission, but Sakai manages to counter with an armbar.
Dashwood hits the Taste of Tenille in the corner, but Sakai makes a comeback until Dashwood plants her with a powerbomb. Sakai came back with the smash mouth. Dashwood goes for the spotlight, but Sumie Sakai dodged the spotlight and rolled her up in a crucifix for the win. Another good match, which makes it Sakai vs. Klein later tonight for the Women of Honor title.
After the match, Klein came down to the ring and the two finalists posed for pictures. Klein laid out Sakai with a punch in a heel move and was escorted out by referees.
Chucky T defeated Jonathan Gresham
Gresham did a big suicide dive to the floor, but overshot and really just kind of pushed Chucky T to the floor. When mat wrestling, Gresham is really smooth and good at everything he does. Gresham kept working on the leg, then went for a springboard DDT. Gresham went back to the leg but Chucky T cradled him for the win. Solid opener.
Punishment Martinez defeated Tomohiro Ishii
Martinez used his size early to dominate Ishii and absorb his offense. Martinez did a crazy running plancha to the floor, wiping out Ishii then followed with a tope con hilo and a spinning dropick off the top rope. He took Ishii to the top rope and hit a hurricanrana for a near fall.
Ishii came back and launched off the top rope with a superplex. He followed with the sliding D, but Martinez grabbed him. Ishii escaped and hit a lariat. The two traded back and forth offense until Martinez hit a kick to the side of the head and hit the south of heaven chokeslam for the win. Very good back and forth match, an intense back and forth brawl. Some of the spots Martinez did were scary, but he’s very underrated at this point at how much he’s improved.
Kota Ibushi defeated Hangman Page
Good back and forth action to start. Ibushi went for the Golden Triangle moonsault but Page pulled him off. Hangman Page went for the shooting star shoulder block on the outside. Ibushi then took Page, who was on the barricade, and German suplexed him to the floor in a crazy spot. He followed up with a giant Golden Triangle moonsault.
Back in the ring, Page hit a package powerbomb. Ibushi escapes the right of passage as they go to the apron. Ibushi teased a piledriver, but Page countered with a back body drop. Page hit a giant moonsault to the floor. They give each other forearm shots and slaps until Page hits a roaring elbow. Ibushi connects with a kick and a press powerbomb. Page kicked out and dodged the kamigoye, but Ibushi gave him a German suplex then hit the kamigoye for the win. Excellent, crazy match.
Sumie Sakai defeated Kelly Klein to win the Women of Honor title
Sakai immediately jumped Klein, probably in retaliation for the cheap shot earlier, but was immediately laid out with a suplex. They go to the outside where Klein dominates. Sakai tries to rally back, but Klein nails her with a German suplex. The rest of the Women of Honor roster come to the ring as Sakai comes to life and hits a moonsault. She follows with a DDT and pins her to win the match and becomes the first ever Women of Honor champion. Match was fine, but finish felt like it came out of nowhere.
All the women, including Daffney who was at ringside, came to the ring and posed for photos.
SoCal Uncensored defeated The Young Bucks and Flip Gordon in a ladder match to retain the ROH Six Man tag team titles
Flip Gordon and Frankie Kazarian fought each other early, which led to a big cutter to the ground. First crazy spot of the night was when the Bucks assisted Gordon in doing a 450 splash on Daniels who was on the ladder. Kazarian tries to do the ladder on the neck spot, but Flip kept dodging and hit him with a superkick.
Daniels pins Gordon on the ladder and tries to climb up, but the Bucks make a save. They rally back and isolate Flip for a while until the Bucks come in and lay everyone out. During all this, Flip did a one legged tope to the floor. The Bucks climb the ladder, but The Kingdom come in and start to beat on the Young Bucks. They lay out Gordon with their finish.
At first, the Kingdom allow SoCal Uncensored to get the titles, but they turn on them and just join the match because, well, I guess they can. O’Ryan goes to get the belts but the Bucks send him to the floor. The Bucks, Gordon and SoCal Uncensored all meet each other on the ladder. Someone grabs Flip and takes him to the floor, knocking his head on the ladder on the way down in a crazy spot.
Lots of crazy dives on the outside followed, capping off with Flip doing a double blockbuster to a sea of people on the outside. Tables are introduced and set up as Flip and one of the Bucks do stereo 450 splashes. Daniels and Matt Jackson meet on the ladder. Daniels falls to the floor, but shakes the ladder enough that Matt (who took off his weight belt supporting his bad back) is shoved off the ladder to the floor and through a table. Daniels climbs the ladder and grabs the titles to retain them. I don’t know if this was good as other recent Young Buck spectacle matches, but it had just as many crazy, unique spots that made it stand out during a weekend of crazy action.
After the match, The Kingdom steal the six man belts and escape into the crowd, so the next title match will probably be between these three teams.
The Briscoes defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi and Jay Lethal to retain the ROH tag team titles
Lethal worked a lot of the match until making the hot tag to Tanahashi. Briscoes then worked on Tanahashi forever. Lethal was finally tagged in and hit the lethal combination on Jay. Lethal applied the figure four as Tanahashi went to go for the high fly flow, but Mark shoved him to the floor. Lethal came back and hit the Lethal Injection on Mark but he kicked out.
Lethal next went for the Injection on Jay, but as Lethal went to plant him Jay countered with a German suplex. Briscoes then lifted him up and hit the Doomsday Device for the win. This was fine, and the last few minutes were good, but the bulk of it didn’t do much for me.
Silas Young defeated Kenny King to win the ROH Television title
Silas gets the advantage early by throwing King out of the ring and onto a table. He then throws him into the barricade not once but twice. Silas was on offense until King came back with a blockbuster to the floor. Young fired back and started to introduce trash cans into the ring. King escaped being suplexed from a chair but walked right into a trash can lid shot to the head.
King sets up a table on the outside and puts Young on top. He’s about to launch off the top rope when the Beer City Bruiser comes in. King beats him up, then Silas goes after him. King responds by suplexing King on a ladder. He finally gets the spot he was looking for by doing a shooting star press off the top turnbuckle onto a table on the outside in a crazy spot.
As the referee counts to ten, Silas makes it to his feet but King can’t, so Silas wins the match and the title. Immediately after, it was revealed the Beer City Bruiser was under the ring the whole time and had tied up King’s feet. Just kind of a standard weapons match with a dead crowd until the big spot.
Young and Bruiser beat up King until Aries made the save with a steel chair.
Cheeseburger and Eli Isom were about to have a match with The Dawgs when The Dawgs jumped them with steel chairs. Bully Ray came in and told Cheeseburger that his partner can’t compete. Cheeseburger wanted Bully Ray to be his partner. After a lot of talking, Bully Ray accepted.
After doing some spots that took care of the Dawgs, Bully Ray turned on Cheeseburger and laid him out with a chokeslam. He told him how dare you put him on the spot. You are what is wrong with the pro wrestling business, you and all of your kind, your selfish generation, you entitled, you think it’s all about you. Guys like Will Ospreay, Flip Gordon, Ricochet and so on.
Joe Koff comes out. Bully Ray taunts him. He says this is the reason wrestling sucks, because of guys like this, and you make these people think it’s okay. Flip Gordon comes out, but Bully Ray grabs Cheeseburger and says he’ll piledrive him and shut down the show, because the piledriver is banned in Louisiana. Gordon backs down and listens to Bully Ray when he says to stand in the corner.
Bully Ray says he’s a WWE Hall of Famer. Then he powerbombed Cheeseburger and left the ring. Cool.
Cody defeated Kenny Omega
First big spot of the match is Omega taking out Bernard the Business Bear with a baseball slide. His head fell off, but apparently it wasn’t important as to who was under the mask. Cody cut Omega off and teased he was going to hit the shattered dreams, but instead flipped off the crowd. Cody told Brandi at ringside to “throw him the gimmick”. The referee took away the gimmick, but in the process low blowed Omega.
Cody took him to the outside and threw him into a chair. Back in the ring, Omega fires back with a crossbody and eventually lands a giant tope con hilo to the outside. Omega continues his offense in the ring, hitting a snap dragon suplex. He hits another, then goes for a third but Cody connects with a disaster kick. American death lock follows but Omega fights back, trades punches with Cody and reverses it.
On the outside, Cody get a table and cuts off Omega on the apron. Cody tries for a piledriver, but Omega escapes and hits a dragon suplex on the apron. Cody somehow fights back and drives Omega’s gut through the edge of the table with a reverse suplex.
They’re back in the ring again as Omega plants Cody with a reverse rana. Brandi gets on the apron as Cody stirs. Omega goes for the v-trigger but Cody dodges and instead Omega smashes his knee into Brandi, sending her through a table. Omega tries to revive Brandi, but once he re-enters the ring Cody plants him with the crossroads for a nearfall. Flip Gordon comes out and helps Brandi to the back.
Cody makes a comeback and starts whipping Omega with the weight belt but Omega dodges a moonsault and connects with a v-trigger. He hits another and goes for the One Winged Angel but Cody reverses and hits a vertebreaker. This brings out the Young Bucks, who are conflicted and think about who they’re going to assist. They appear like they are about to superkick Cody, but as they do he ducks and they strike Omega instead. Cody revives, hits the crossroads and pins Omega.
I think this was pretty good, with some strong storytelling and pretty cool spots. It was exactly what it needed to be at this stage of the game to what they’re building to later in the year — not an all out awesome match, but a very good, dramatic match that the crowd were invested in.
The Bucks tried to explain to Kenny what happened, but Kenny wouldn’t hear any of it and shoved Matt as he headed to the back.
Dalton Castle defeated Marty Scurll to retain the ROH World title
They showed NWA World Heavyweight champion Nick Aldis at ringside. Announcers put over that he and Scurll were friends and have known each other for a long time.
After some back and forth, they go to the outside and exchange blows. Castle goes to clothesline Scurll but he dodges and Castle connects with the turnbuckle instead. Scurll starts working on the arm and fingers, but Castle fights back and starts hitting a series of suplexes. Castle takes him to the outside and hits a German suplex.
In the ring, Scurll went for the bangarang but Scurll countered with a rolling pin. Scurll took Castle back out of the ring but Castle started to fight back. They went over to the stairs where Castle took a big back body drop onto the stairs. Scurll continued his momentum by throwing Castle into the barricade.
Castle came back and planted Scurll on the apron and followed with a great deadlift bridging German suplex for a nearfall. Aldis gives Scurll the powder and tries to use it on Castle, but is blinded by it instead. He breaks the referee’s finger on accident and can’t make the count when Castle hits the bangarang. Scurll takes the umbrella and smashes everyone in sight with it. He gets a visual pinfall on Castle but when a new referee comes in Castle kicks out.
Scurll locks in the chicken wing but Castle gets to his feet and slams Scurll to the floor. Scurll comes back and locks it in again. Castle tries to get to the ropes but Scurll grabs his fingers and breaks one of them again. Scurll repeatedly stomps on Castle’s head as he looks for the chickenwing again but Castle turns it into a rollup. Castle fires back with a third bangarang and scores the win. This was a great match on a technical level, but the crowd was dead for it save for the last few minutes.
I’m not sure what to make of this show overall. There’s lot of good stuff early on, but the two matches and angle after the intermission dragged forever — the pacing for the show felt way off. This felt every bit of a 4-5 hour show, and then some. The two main events, Ishii/Martinez and Ibushi/Page were all very strong matches, so they’re worth a look for those watching the replay.
All four ROH titles will be on the line as the company celebrates its 16th anniversary in Las Vegas tonight.
Dalton Castle will defend the ROH World Championship against Jay Lethal, The Briscoes will get an ROH Tag Team title shot against Motor City Machine Guns, Kenny King takes on Silas Young for the Television title, and The Young Bucks & Hangman Page defend their Six-Man Tag Team titles against SoCal Uncensored (Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky).
We’re looking for your thoughts on tonight’s show, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected]
Other matches include Flip Gordon vs. New Japan’s Hiromu Takahashi, Cody vs. Matt Taven, and Marty Scurll vs. Punishment Martinez.
Meanwhile, two more matches in the Women of Honor tournament will take place on the pre-show. Sumie Sakai will face Hana Kimura in a first round match, while Tenille Dashwood takes on Brandi Rhodes in a quarterfinal bout.
Join us for live coverage starting at 9 p.m. ET.
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SUMIE SAKAI VS. HANA KIMURA
Sakai advanced in the tournament with the win.
BRANDI RHODES VS. TENILLE DASHWOOD
Not much to this one. Rhodes faked a knee injury and poked Dashwood in the yes, then hit the crossroads but Dashwood kicked out. Rhodes missed the missile dropkick badly and Dashwood won with a running kick to advance in the tournament.
Bully Ray is giving a pep talk speech. He said this ain’t sports entertainment, it’s ROH. Says the guy who will be putting over sports entertainment big in a few weeks.
FLIP GORDON VS. HIROMU TAKAHASHI
Good match, but not the blow away match these two are capable of doing and probably will do at some point. It felt a litle too choreographed early on. Gordon went for a 450 but Takahashi got his knees up. Takahashi did a Death Valley bomb into the corner and won with the time bomb.
MARTY SCRULL VS. PUNISHMENT MARTINEZ
Good match. Martinez did three dives, hitting a springboard flip dive, then doing a dive over the corner onto Scurll and several security guards. The third was Martijez going for a flip dive but Scurll moved and Martinez went through a table. All action, Scurll won when he pulled out a bag and faked throwing powder and when Martinez went to protect his eyes, Scurll kicked him low for the pin.
KENNY KING VS. SILAS YOUNG FOR THE TV TITLE
A solid match. About what you’d expect. The story was that Young hit mizery but ref Todd Sinclair was knocked down while he did the move. By the time Sinclair recovered, King was able to kick out. King came back to win with the Royal flush.
Austin Aries came out with a ton of belts. Aries said he’s been going all over the world collecting belts. He said he’s also won belts in ROH but the one belt he’s never won is the TV title. Aries said you’ve got something on your shoulder I want and said the belt collector never gets tired of winning belts. In other words, Impact and ROH are working together.
YOUNG BUCKS & ADAM PAGE VS. SCORPIO SKY & CHRISTOPHER DANIELS & FRANKIE KAZARIAN IN A STREET FIGHT FOR THE TRIOS TITLES
This was complete insanity. A million crazy spots. SoCal Uncensored won the titles when Page was zip tied to the post, Matt’s back went out whe he tried to set up the Meltzer driver. Sky used the diamond cutter on Matt and put him in the dragon sleeper. Then he started choking Matt with a kendo stick while Kazarian put Matt in the Boston crab and he tapped out for the title change. Highlights were never ending including Matt coming off the top of a ladder with an elbow drop on Kazarian through a table. Kazarian was bleeding heavily. There was a belt used with nails on it. Shane Taylor interfered after Nick did a 450 on Sky onto a garbage can but Taylor pulled the ref out of the ring. Page laid out Taylor with a rites of passage which included Nick doing a springboard spike on him. The match opened with the Bucks doing a double dive. Page did a moonsault off the apron. Daniels took a backdrop over the top rope onto a barricade bridge. Just a nonstop series of big moves.
Vinny Marseglia and TK O’Ryan beat up the Bucks after the match and laid them out. Bully Ray ran in.
CODY VS. MATT TAVEN
Good match. Cody survived a crossroads by Taven and his climax (the one percenter) but kicked out of both. There was a ref bump and Marseglia and O’Ryan came out and held Cody. Taven kicked him low but Cody had a steel cup that he pulled out to show why he wasn’t selling it. Bully Ray chased Marseglia and O’Ryan away. Cody hit the crossroads for the pin. Cody got his ring back. Both guys did dives and worked at a fast pace. Lots of big moves. It was tough following the previous match but came off pretty well.
After the match, Bury The Bear, who was at ringside cheering Cody on, unmasked and it was Kenny Omega and he hit the V trigger on Cody. The place went wild for that, Brandi yelled at Oemga and was alapping him around. Brandi then kissed Omega. She said that Ibushi couldn’t do that. Omega was all confused.
They didn’t announce it on the air, but should have, but Omega will be at the ROH TV tapings tomorrow in Las Vegas.
CHRIS SABIN & ALEX SHELLEY VS. MARK & JAY BRISCOE FOR THE TAG TITLES
This match was great. It was really hard to follow the Omega angle so it was hard to get the crowd. But Sabin was on fire tonight. Mark bled badly from being thrown into the post. Again nonstop big moves. Lots of near falls including Sabin using the cradle shock. Sabin kicked out of the Jay driller but Jay pinned Sabin next after a doomsday device for the title change.
DALTON CASTLE VS. JAY LETHAL FOR ROH TITLE
Great main event. Castle went for a bangarang, but Lethal escaped and cradled him but Castle broke out of it and hti the bangarang for the pin to keep the title. Lethal did a great job , working on the leg. Castle did cool suplexes including a German suplex off the apron to the floor. Lethal hit the Lethal injection in the middle but Caslte kicked out. Lethal did two tope’s at one point and then a third later in the match took out ring announcer Bobby Cruise when Castle moved and Cruise hit his head on the barricade. .
They shook hands. Marty Scurll came on to challenge Castle for the title as the show went off the air.
The night after Final Battle, Ring of Honor was at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia for their last television tapings of the year.
Pre-show —
– Brutal Bob Evans & Tim Hughes defeated Ryan Nova & a partner in a Future of Honor match
Evans and Hughes won with an assisted senton off the top. Right before the finish, Evans did a flip dive to the floor and somehow got a deep gash on the back of his head. They went right to the finish and Evans was immediately given a towel to put on the wound, which had a lot of blood coming out of it.
– Jessie Brooks defeated Gabby Ortiz in a Women of Honor match to qualify for the upcoming title tournament
Brooks got the pin with a tiger suplex.
TV tapings —
– After winning the ROH World Championship at Final Battle, Dalton Castle came out with The Boys to open the tapings. He received “You deserve it” chants and cut a victory promo, saying coming to ROH was never a mistake and mentioning that people said he would never be World Champion.
Jay Lethal then entered to challenge him. There was some funny banter between the two, including Castle telling Lethal to sit down and discuss it with him while using The Boys as seats. Lethal told Castle that people are going to be gunning for him and said he’s only requesting to be at the top of Castle’s list of contenders. Castle agreed, then Lethal thanked him before leaving.
Castle looked to close out the segment by holding up the World title, but Punishment Martinez showed up out of nowhere and hit him with the South of Heaven chokeslam.
– ROH World Television Champion Silas Young (w/ Beer City Bruiser) defeated Simon Grimm to retain his title
They had a solid match, with Young hitting Misery for the win. Kenny King appeared after and cut an angry promo from the entrance, calling out Young for using a beer bottle to eliminate him from the fatal four-way at Final Battle.
After Young replied, King said he knows he has a rematch due to him, but he’s had at least eight beers already (and had one with him) and he came out to fight. He spat beer in Young’s face before the ring crew separated them.
– The Briscoes defeated Ryan Nova & a partner
Mark Briscoe connected with the Froggy Bow to win what was a squash match. Jay Briscoe cut a promo after about how they ended Bully Ray’s career at Final Battle. He said they’re now coming after the Motor City Machine Guns to win back the ROH World Tag Team titles.
– Marty Scurll defeated Flip Gordon
This was a TV main event and one of my favorite matches of the night. Gordon used his agility to psych out Scurll and hit his regular offense, with him escaping the chicken wing and getting a near fall after hitting a 450 splash. Scurll got a two count with the Last Shot before hitting it again for the win.
– Brandi Rhodes defeated Stella Grey in a Women of Honor match to qualify for the upcoming title tournament
Though they’re less experienced, both put in a fine effort. Rhodes was very over and won with the Final Cut. Karen Q was on commentary and got up on the apron after, mockingly congratulating Rhodes on her win.
– Jay Lethal defeated Will Ospreay
They had another one of the best matches of the night, though it wasn’t announced as a TV main event. Scurll came out during the match to sit in on commentary. For the finish, Lethal countered the OsCutter with an Ace Crusher and hit the Lethal Injection.
– Kenny King defeated Brian Milonas
King hit the blockbuster neckbreaker to win. They had a fairly competitive match despite Milonas receiving an off-camera entrance. King called out Young after, and Young briefly fought with King before bailing to the floor.
Milonas came up and attacked King from behind, with Young, Beer City Bruiser, and Milonas putting the boots to King to close the segment.
– Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian, and Scorpio Sky entered. Daniels and Kazarian introduced Sky as the hottest new talent in ROH. The trio are calling themselves So-Cal Uncensored. Before they could continue, they were interrupted by Joe Koff. Koff said he knows fans don’t want to see him. They want to see the best wrestlers — not the most disruptive wrestlers, referring to Daniels, Kazarian, and Sky.
Koff said he’s thought about firing them. Kazarian threatened to beat Koff up, but Daniels told him to calm down and reminded Koff that when he was World Champion, he would stop by the office where they discussed grand plans for ROH in the future. Daniels then said that if they were to be fired, he might discuss those plans with the likes of his good friend Don Callis, or one of his best friends “named AJ,” who would have the ears of some top executives somewhere else.
Koff responded by saying that he’s a businessman, and instead of firing them, he spoke with his attorney and their ROH contracts expire in a year. Koff closed by saying that by the time Final Battle 2018 comes around, they’re done.
– ROH World Champion Dalton Castle & The Boys defeated The Kingdom (Matt Taven, Vinny Marseglia & TK O’Ryan)
Castle tapped Marseglia out with his Julie Newmar submission. This was the second TV main event. Leading up to the finish, Castle and Taven kept reversing each other on attempted tombstones before Castle finally hit it. He then hit O’Ryan with the Bang-a-Rang. The Boys dove onto Taven and O’Ryan on the floor as Castle scored the submission win.
Following the match, The Kingdom jumped Castle and The Boys from behind as they were celebrating. Taven laid out Castle and held up the World title, indicating that he’s another potential challenger for it.
– Mandy Leon & Deonna Purrazzo defeated Jenny Rose & Sumie Sakai in a Women of Honor match
Kelly Klein was on commentary for this. It was solid and seemed to be well-received by the crowd, with Leon pinning Rose with a victory roll.
Klein got up to leave, then Purrazzo got on the mic and acknowledged that Klein just recently returned from Stardom in Japan but no one really missed her. Purrazzo brought up her 30-day undefeated streak and said this is now her Women of Honor. The other wrestlers in the ring laughed when Purrazzo mentioned the undefeated streak.
Klein had some brief words for Purrazzo, who then talked about the title tournament, threatened to break Klein’s arm, and called her a bitch. The four women in the match stayed in the ring making belt motions, and Mayu Iwatani from Stardom came out to do the same.
– ROH World Tag Team Champions Motor City Machine Guns defeated The Dawgs to retain their titles
Rhett Titus made a joke at Philadelphia Eagles QB Carson Wentz’s expense during The Dawgs’ entrance. The match was just okay and fairly competitive, with MCMG retaining with a two-man slam on Will Ferrara.
After the match, The Briscoes came out to the entranceway and reiterated that they want the Tag Team titles.
– Jonathan Gresham defeated Josh Woods
Gresham worked over Woods with a number of submissions before Woods caught him with a big knee as he came off the top. Woods also got some suplexes and hit another knee before Gresham caught him in a prawn hold pin for the victory.
– Cody Rhodes made his way down for a promo. He admitted that Castle was the better man at Final Battle, but while humbled, he said that he’s still guaranteed a rematch, and he still has possession of the official Ring of Honor. He was boasting about the amount of set stones in it when The Kingdom’s music interrupted him.
O’Ryan and Marseglia stayed by the entrance while Taven came down to the ring, dressing down Cody. He said the title loss exposed him, said he relied on his father’s name that he can’t even use, and he couldn’t do things on his own and thus joined the Bullet Club. He said Cody is now nothing but a blond-haired bitch. Taven dropped his mic for emphasis, but Cody denied him the final word by saying his blond hair received a bigger reaction than Taven ever has.
Cody then requested that Taven kiss the ring. Taven indeed kissed it, but he kicked Cody in the groin. Fans chanted “You still kissed it” at Taven as he left, and Cody remarked that Brandi won’t be happy about that kick to the groin.
– Punishment Martinez won a squash match
The crowd dubbed Martinez’s opponent “Fat Jesus.” Martinez beat him with the South of Heaven chokeslam and called out Castle.
Castle came out and offered Martinez the first title shot, but he ended up hitting Martinez with a T-bone suplex to send him to the floor. Martinez leapt back onto the apron for a brief staredown before just smirking and leaving.
– Coast 2 Coast defeated War Machine
This was great and had a surprising conclusion and aftermath. It was announced online that Coast 2 Coast would disband if they lost, but that wasn’t mentioned to the live crowd. War Machine were mostly dominant, though Coast 2 Coast kept surviving their offense.
The biggest shocker was Shaheem Ali kicking out of Fallout. It was during the second attempt where Leon St. Giovanni held onto Hanson’s foot while he was up top, leading to Ali escaping Ray Rowe’s grasp and winning with a roll-up.
War Machine looked dumbfounded, but they still congratulated Coast 2 Coast. War Machine stuck around in the ring and seemed to basically be saying farewell to ROH, bowing to each section of the audience to a great reception.
– The Young Bucks defeated Dragon Lee & Titan and Best Friends in a triple threat tag team match
They had a big, wild TV main event. Beretta and Chuck Taylor provided some more lighthearted moments amid the chaos, but everyone looked great. Titan took the pin after being hit with the Meltzer Driver.
So-Cal Uncensored ran out to attack the Bucks, but Hangman Page chased them off with a chair.
– Bully Ray came out to the ring as the tapings continued. He was holding his wrestling boots and said Final Battle was indeed his final battle. He said he was born in New York but was born as a professional wrestler in Philadelphia, and mentioned how Bubba Ray Dudley was born here in October of 1995. He then laid down his boots in the ring and thanked the crowd, saying it has been his honor.
The babyface locker room came out to surround the ring, with Jay Lethal stepping in to say some words. Lethal said he’s known Bully for a long time. He said a lot of people heard rumors about him and had their guard up when he came to ROH, but then he saw how Bully would help out and listen to everyone in the locker room, helping them get better. Lethal feels that makes Bully a legend and thanked him for everything.
Taven did commentary for the match, with Marseglia and O’Ryan standing by him. This had good action throughout, though Page may have injured his ankle doing a top rope moonsault to the floor. That led into the finish where Sky pinned him with a high knee after a quick barrage of offense.
– The night closed with some post-show antics from the Bullet Club. Cody grabbed the mic and challenged Kazarian to a posedown. He agreed despite the crowd being biased in favor of the Bullet Club. The fans chanted for Ian Riccaboni to get involved, which he did as an honorary participant. Kazarian posed to boos, Cody got cheers, and Riccaboni got even more cheers and was declared the winner.
Cody and Kazarian then did a push-up contest, which Cody won by swiping at Kazarian’s arm to cause him to fall.
The Bullet Club and So-Cal Uncensored brawled briefly before The Young Bucks joined in and hit superkicks. Kazarian and Daniels were locked in submission holds as Scurll sang a Backstreet Boys song, and then Brandi Rhodes was invited out to hit Kazarian with a stunner to close the show.
The Hammerstein Ballroom hosts the last Ring of Honor pay-per-view of the year tonight as Final Battle 2017 takes place in New York City.
We’re looking for your thoughts on this show so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected]
Dalton Castle will finally get his shot at Cody Rhodes and the ROH World Championship in the main event. The match has some implications for New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Tokyo Dome show as well. If Cody retains, the title will be on the line when he wrestles Kota Ibushi on January 4th. If Cody isn’t champion then, he’ll take on Ibushi in a non-title match.
The Young Bucks & Hangman Page are also set to defend their Six-Man Tag Team Championship against Flip Gordon, Dragon Lee & Titan tonight. Kenny King’s TV title will be up for grabs in a four corners elimination match against Silas Young, Shane Taylor, and Punishment Martinez, and Beretta & Chuck Taylor will challenge for Motor City Machine Guns’ Tag Team titles.
Bully Ray is set to team with Tommy Dreamer as they battle The Briscoes in a New York street fight, Marty Scurll faces Jay Lethal, Will Ospreay is in action against Matt Taven, and The Addiction take on War Machine.
Our live coverage begins at 9 p.m. Eastern time.
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WILL OSPREAY VS. MATT TAVEN
Taven won with the headlock DDT after blocking the Oscutter. This was a great opener. They are pushing Taven as a world title contender. Both did big dives in the first 30 seconds and it started so hot it was hard to sustain. Lots of interference by Vinny Marseglia and TK O’Ryan. Ospreay did a springboard shooting star to the floor on Marseglia and O’Ryan which allowed Taven to do a sliding kick through the ropes to the back of Ospreay’s head.
WAR MACHINE VS. CHRISTOPHER DANIELS & FRANKIE KAZARIAN
Another really good fast match match. The finish saw Hanson use a tope on Kazarian and then they did the double-team fallout on Daniels and Rowe pinned him. All action from start to finish. Both teams looked great.
JAY LETHAL VS. MARTY SCURLL
This was a great match. The story of the match is Scurll told Lethal he needed to go back to being a villain and Lethal said he wouldn’t do that. But for the finish.as Scurll got the ref turned around, it was Lethal who gave him a low blow and the Lethal injection. Earlier Scurll had used the umbrella and a piledriver but Lethal kicked out. Match told a great story and the crowd ended up more into this than the first two matches, and they were into the first two matches. This is turning into a great show already.
CHRIS SABIN & ALEX SHELLEY VS. BARETTA & CHUCKIE T FOR TAG TITLES
Weird finish. Cnuckie piledrove Sabin and then Sabin pinned Baretta with a jackknife cradle. It reads weird because it was weird. Fast paced match with a lot of spots and reverrsals. Good but I don’t thinki the crowd was as into this as the other matches fo far on the show.
KENNY KING VS. SILAS YOUNG VS. PUNISHMENT MARTINEZ VS. SHANE TAYLOR FOR TV TITLE
Young ended up as champion in the elimination match. Young and Martinez were the last two. Martinez did a running dive over the top onto Beer City Bruiser but Martinez injured his ribs. So Young kept working on the ribs with repeated knees to the body and hit mizery for the pin. With the story of match the crowd ended up pretty into it by the end. The first part of the match didn’t have much heat. Martinez came across like a star and the smart move here is Martinez chasing Young. Martinez pinned Taylor first with a springboad senton. Young pinned King after hitting him in the head with a beer bottle. Long match and overall good by the end.
MARK & JAY BRISCOE VS. BULLY RAY & TOMMY DREAMER STREET FIGHT
Long match, pretty much what you’d expect. The crowd was very into this. The finish saw the Briscoes use 3D on Bully on a table, but Bully didn’t go up well adn the table didn’t break. So Mark came off he top rope with an elbow off the top on Bully and Jay pinned him. A ton of action using kendo sticks, Star Wars sabres, Dreamer did a Spicolli driver on on Mark off the apron with table on the floor. Bully bled like crazy and they.used a cheese grater on him. Lots of ECW chants as well. .
They brought out Brandi Rhodes, Deonna Purrazzo, Jenny Rose, Jessie Brooks, Kelly Klein, Mandy Leon, Stella Gray, Sumie Sakai and Stardom star Mayu Iwatani. They announced a tournament to crown the firrst Women of Honor champion. Tournament starts on 1/20 in Nashville. Said other women from Stardom would also be coming.
YOUNG BUCKS & HANGMAN PAGE VS. DRAGON LEE & TITAN & FLIP GORDON FOR THE TRIOS TITLES
This was what you’d expect. They did almost no schtick, past a ton of missed dropkicks in successon. The rest was all the flying moves on both sides. Gordon is phenomenal as far as what he can do but he still doesn’t connect well with the crowd. Dragon Lee was super as usual as Lee & Titan have no issues working with Americans because of their time in Japan. age is standig out more including a crazy moonsault off the top to the floor. Page & Matt did a shooting star Meltzer driver off the apron to the floor to take out Lee. The finish saw Page have both Lee & Gordon in the rites of passage and Matt & Nick came off the top rope with a double indy taker on them and Matt pinned Gordon. Daniels & Kazarian & Scorpio Sky (who they put over as a friend of Gordon’s but the turned on Gordon after the match) came out and beat up both teams so they look like the next challengers.
Cody is wearing a mink coat like Flair & Dusty wore in the 80s.
CODY VS. DALTON CASTLE FOR ROH TITLE
Castle won the title clean with the bangarang. Good match, I don’t think the fans expected the title change at all. Big confetti celebration at the end. Cody came out with bleached blonde hair. Brandi Rhodes did a plancha on The Boys and Todd Sinclair kicked them all out. Cody bled heavily from being pulled into the post. There was a ref bump and Castle got Cody in the Julie Newmar submission and Cody tapped out but no ref. Cody escaped from the bangarang the first time and hit crossroads but Castle kicked out. Then they went to the finish.
Going up against an NXT house show in the same city, ROH’s Survival of the Fittest tournament kicked off in San Antonio last night. In the main event, Stephen Amell (the star of Arrow) teamed with Kenny Omega, Cody Rhodes & The Young Bucks against The Addiction, Flip Gordon & Scorpio Sky.
– Cheeseburger defeated Jastin Taylor
This was the pre-show match. Cheeseburger won with a Shotei and a diving double stomp.
– Amell came out as the guest host for the show. The Addiction quickly interrupted him, but Cody defended his buddy. Amell took off his jacket to reveal an Arrow-inspired Bullet Club shirt.
The Addiction proposed changing the two scheduled tag matches (them vs. Omega & Cody and The Young Bucks vs. Flip Gordon & Scorpio Sky) to The Addiction, Gordon & Sky vs. Bullet Club. Cody accepted the proposal.
During both the opening and closing promo, Cody pointed out that ROH’s show sold out while NXT’s didn’t.
– Silas Young defeated Josh Woods in a Survival of the Fittest first round match
– Shane Taylor defeated Beer City Bruiser in a Survival of the Fittest first round match
This was a very good “mean guy match.” Taylor won with a punch.
– Punishment Martinez defeated Jay Lethal in a Survival of the Fittest first round match
Martinez hit his sit-out chokeslam to win. Marty Scurll, who is facing Lethal at Final Battle, came out during the match and offered Lethal his umbrella as a weapon. Lethal hit Scurll with it instead.
– The Kingdom (Matt Taven, Vinny Marseglia & TK O’Ryan) defeated Search and Destroy (Motor City Machine Guns & Jonathan Gresham)
Taven cradled Gresham for the pin after blocking a Shooting Star Press with his knees.
– Deonna Purrazzo defeated Britt Baker in a Women of Honor match
Purrazzo submitted her with a Fujiwara armbar.
– Rey Cometa & Esfinge defeated The Dawgs (Rhett Titus & Will Ferrara)
This was a wild match, with the crowd very into the CMLL guys. Esfinge pinned Ferrara with a lucha cradle.
– ROH World Television Champion Kenny King defeated Joey Ryan to retain his title
They had a typical Joey Ryan match before King retained with the Royal Flush.
– Dalton Castle defeated Marty Scurll
Castle hit the Bang-a-Rang to win.
– Bullet Club (Cody, Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks & Stephen Amell) defeated The Addiction, Flip Gordon & Scorpio Sky
This match was five-on-four with Amell becoming an official participant in it. He did a lot, including a dive to the floor and being put through a table by Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian. He looked good for a non-wrestler.
Gordon stopped Daniels from using a chair, which led to a brawl. Gordon and Sky then abandoned The Addiction. The finish was a double Indytaker as Omega and Nick Jackson did the move to Kazarian and Matt Jackson and Amell hit it on Daniels.
Bullet Club did their usual post-match promo, referencing the NXT show in San Antonio. Omega said he and Cody were going back to the autograph table to sign for all of the fans who they couldn’t get to earlier.
Kenny Omega makes his first stateside defense of the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship as Ring of Honor’s Global Wars tour reaches its final stop tonight.
YOSHI-HASHI will be challenging for Omega’s title in Chicago, which was set up when YOSHI-HASHI challenged Omega after NJPW’s Destruction in Kobe event last month. Omega’s only other title defense was against Juice Robinson at that show.
Members of the Bullet Club will also be involved in another key match tonight. Cody Rhodes, The Young Bucks & Hangman Page will team against the Search and Destroy team of Motor City Machine Guns, Jonathan Gresham & Jay White in an eight-man tag match.
Elsewhere on the show, Marty Scurll faces Hiromu Takahashi, Will Ospreay takes on Flip Gordon, Suzuki-gun will be in action in a six-man tag match, KUSHIDA teams with Cheeseburger against The Addiction, Colt Cabana faces off with Toru Yano in what’s sure to be a comedy match, and Trent Barreta & Chuck Taylor team up against Silas Young & Beer City Bruiser.
We’re looking for your thoughts on tonight’s show, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected]
Our live coverage starts at 8 p.m. Eastern time.
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Cody did an interview. He said this has been the most financially lucrative tour in ROH history. Cody cut a promo about Roman Reigns saying he wears a vest to hide hit gut and to hide his failed drug tests. He said it’s really hiding envy. He said ROH isn’t an indie, it’s a club. He asked Cary Silkin to kiss the ring. Silkin didn’t want to kiss the ring. He then said he was going to bring a fan into the ring to kiss the ring. He bought in a planted fan in a mask with a Cody T-shirt. The fan acted like he couldn’t get into the ring. Cody wanted to film it for “Being the Elite.” They were filming it for video. The fan unmasked and it was Dalton Castle. Castle suplexed Cody. Castle took him down and started ground and pounding him. Cody ran off. The crowd was loving Cody but the way the segment was done it worked really well. I don’t think the fans knew it was Castle until he unmasked.
CHUCKIE T & BARETTA VS. SILAS YOUNG & BEER CITY BRUISER
Good match. Bruiser hit Chuckie with a beer keg and then Young gave him misery for the pin. A lot of big moves on both sides. Bruiser did a bodyblock off the apron on Baretta after backdropping out of a piledriver on the apron. T & Baretta did a double dive spot.
MARTY SCURLL VS. HIROMU TAKAHASHI
Scurll won by reversing the time bomb into a chicken wing. Out of the 107 ROH vs. NJPW matches, it’s now 53-53 with one draw. Very good match with lots of near falls and a lot of comedy mixed in. It was worked more like an entertaining prelim match as opposed to a major main event. They did several spots with Darryl. Darryl’s wedding to Carol was brought up. Takahashi did the sunset flip out of the ring and power bomb on the floor spot. Both were really over so they took advantage of that.
KUSHIDA & CHEESEBURGER VS. CHRISTOPHER DANIELS & FRANKIE KAZARIAN
Daniels & Kazarian won by pinning Cheeseburger with the Best Meltzer ever. Some rough spots early. Unfortunately, the stream went out right before the finish. Fairly short match. Kushida looked good based on what we could see. Kazarian was about to put Cheeseburger through a table after the match, but Bully Ray showed up and put Kazarian through the table. This led to an ECW chant. Kazarian was checking his fingers. .
Bully Ray is cutting a promo about wrestling in this building in 1999 and lighting a table on fire in ECW. Bully Ray did the teasing retirement interview he’s been doing all week. He said it was time and the fans were chanting “No.” He said for the first time he has to worry about himself and his own health. The crowd gave him a standing ovation. Thank were chanting “Thank You Bubba.” He said “Thank you.” Said Chicago was one of his favorite places to wrestle. He grabbed a piece of a broken table. They brought a fan in a Cody shirt into the ring. Bully said tonight you represent every single fan I’ve been in front of. He said he can’t thank every single person so he’ll represent everyone in the world and said “Thank you.” Bully claimed this was the last table he’ll ever break and told Chase (the kid) to hold the piece of the table high in the air. Fans were chanting “Chase.” He then apologized if he was taking too much time. He said ROH was always a place he wanted to go and if this is his last day, he wants to Thank God he got to set foot in an ROH ring. The announcers played it up like this was his last match.
CHRIS SABIN & ALEX SHELLEY & JONATHAN GRESHAM & JAY WHITE VS. YOUNG BUCKS & ADAM PAGE & CODY
This was a crazy match. Page used the last rites to pin Gresham. The Young Bucks worked as the babyfaces here, as they got heat on Nick and then heat on Page and then they went crazy with move in the last three-and-a-half minutes. There was a Bullet Club crazy dive sequence which led to a flip stage dive by Matt on everyone. A lot of shtick early including a teased four-way sharpshooter spot by the Bullet Club except White got Cody in it so they broke it up and all superkicked White and Cody put White in the sharpshooter. Crowd was super hot for just about everything. Page & Matt did a shooting star Meltzer driver on the floor.
THE DAWGS WILL FERRARA & RHETT TITUS VS. BRIAN JOHNSON & JUSTIN PUSSER
The crowd wasn’t into this. The Dawgs won with a combination front suplex and crossbody on Johnson.
After the match Jay Briscoe came out and destroyed Johnson & Pusser including a J Driller on Johnson. Jay talked about Mark Briscoe. He said we’ve got to get back to being the baddest tag team on the planet. He said Mark has been worried about singles matches, TV title, six man titles and told him to ice the elbow, heal up quick and it’s time for the Briscoes to take this stuff over.
Shane Taylor did an interview. He said he gets paid to take people out and put people down. He’s replacing Mark Briscoe in the six-man tag match. He said ROH officials have made him the tag team partner.
MINORU SUZUKI & LANCE ARCHER & DAVEY BOY SMITH JR. VS. JAY LETHAL & KENNY KING & SHANE TAYLOR
Long match. The crowd was really into Suzuki, especially in with Lethal. King’s stuff was off but he did a lot of flying moves. The last few minutes was built around Suzuki trying to do the Gotch piledriver on Taylor, who is way over 300 pounds. Suzuki would choke him, but not choke him out because he wanted to beat him with the Gotch piledriver. Time after time it failed until he finally hit it for the pin. Suzuki kicked ref Paul Turner in the gut and threw him out of the ring after. Suzuki just said “We are Suzuki-gun, Ichiban.”
COLT CABANA VS. TORU YANO
They had a comedy match. It was entertaining but the feed went down before the finish. Yano did all his shtick. The crowd liked this a lot.
WILL OSPREAY VS. FLIP GORDON
So this was the match of the show. Ospreay won with the Robinson kick and Oscutter. This was meant for a showcase to get Gordon over. Gordon has unbelievable flying moves with the highlight being a double springboard flip plancha. The beginning was Ospreay doing his cat shtick, but it got going with Ospreay doing a space flying tiger drop and springboard forearm and a shooting star to Gordon’s back as Gordon was draped over the top rope. The crowd was doing the “Fight Forever” at the end.
KENNY OMEGA VS. YOSHI-HASHI FOR U.S TITLE
This was very different from any Omega matches this year. The match featured a ton of interference including all of The Bullet Club, as well as Chaos, which included Flip Gordon and Chuckie T, all after ref Todd Sinclair got bumped. Omega did some of his usual big match stuff like the moonsault off the guard rail and Terminator dive, and the snap dragon suplex. Yoshi-Hashi worked hard but never connected and nobody saw him as having a chance to win. What really made the match was the interference, and it was everyone doing their big moves ending with Ospreay doing a springboard shooting star press to the floor and Nick doing a 450 off the top rope to the floor onto Gordon since Gordon had used a sueprkick earlier in the sequence. Omega did the One Winged Angel at one point but Yano pulled Sinclair out of the ring. The ending saw Omega get his knees up after a swanton, and Omega hit the V trigger and One Winged Angel.
Cody asked the people to raise their hands if they’re life long wrestling fans. Almost everyone did. He said you remember 95-96 when wrestling got cool again, it wasn’t 1995 for sure, more like 96. He said remember that, because wrestling has never been cooler. Cody said he wanted to thank New Japan Pro Wresting. He said we should thank Atlas, the man who carries New Japan on his back and introduced Omega. Omega thanked everyone for the lucrative merchandise sales. Omega said he doesn’t sell merchandise to impolite people and everyone was such a joy. He said that he’s not a full-time member of ROH, that “I represent New Japan by contract only, really I represent Bullet Club and Being the Elite.” He said Being the Elite is everyone who subscribes and even those who leave disparaging remarks on our page. He said Yoshi-Hashi tried hard, but he’s nothing more than try-harder. Omega said he’s suffering form jetlag and it’s after my bed time. Matt took the mic and said we have to take a Bullet Club selfie. But nobody in the ring had a phone. He asked the fans if they have a phone. Everyone did. So he went into the crowd and there was Jimmy Jacobs. Jacobs shot the photo with Bullet Club while people chanted his name. Nick said sorry we got your ass fired. Omega got the mic and asked no profanity, Matt said I’m a Christian boy but we need one more F bomb and we had yet another :F*** The Revival” chant, at least the third one of the night. Kenny bid adieu.
– The Addiction (Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian) defeated Search and Destroy (Jonathan Gresham & Jay White)
Daniels cut a promo before the match, claiming that he and Kazarian are responsible for ROH’s success. He said Motor City Machine Guns are dodging them — so they’ll beat up the other half of Search and Destroy as punishment.
The Addiction ended up winning with Celebrity Rehab, though the match was a good showcase for Gresham as he shined here.
– Kenny King came out to say that his tag team partner Mark Briscoe is injured with a dislocated elbow. King put over Ohio State since they were in Columbus, then called Marty Scurll and Hangman Page the Bullet Club “B Club.” King challenged both since he didn’t have a partner.
Scurll fired back by saying King couldn’t get a date on a TV reality show (King was on The Bachelorette) and couldn’t get a partner because no one likes him. Scurll said King could even choose a fan, referee, or commentator as his partner, which led to Colt Cabana being brought out as King’s partner.
– Jay Lethal defeated Hiromu Takahashi (w/ Daryl)
Everyone involved in this match was really over, including Daryl.They ended up having the best match on the show, which ended when Lethal hit the Lethal Injection. These two had great chemistry.
– ROH World Tag Team Champions Motor City Machine Guns defeated Silas Young & Beer City Bruiser to retain their titles
Will Ferrara and Rhett Titus joined Ian Riccaboni on commentary for this. Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin were posing on the turnbuckles before the match, then they were jumped by Young and Bruiser.
These teams worked well together and had a great match, with Motor City Machine Guns retaining after a combo top rope crossbody/neckbreaker on Bruiser.
– Chaos (Will Ospreay, Toru Yano & YOSHI-HASHI) defeated Suzuki-gun (Minoru Suzuki, Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr.)
BJ Whitmer came out to do color commentary for the rest of the show in place of Cabana. Suzuki-gun offered the Code of Honor to start, but that didn’t end well for Chaos.
The story of the match was that Suzuki-gun had Chaos completely outmatched except for Ospreay’s high-risk moves, YOSHI-HASHI refusing to quit, and Yano’s self-survival skills. Archer and Smith were setting up for the win, but Ospreay hit Archer with a springboard forearm into a roll-up by YOSHI-HASHI for the pin. Chaos then got the heck out of there while Suzuki-gun tried to figure out what happened.
– Sumie Sakai defeated Holidead in a Women of Honor match
Holidead was making her Women of Honor debut here. She dominated with power moves and hit a Samoan drop that looked to finish it, but Sakai caught her with a small package for the pin.
– Shane Taylor defeated Josh Woods
This had plenty of power and strikes. Woods gave his much larger opponent a German suplex but got caught trying a running forearm. Taylor made him pay by hitting a sit-out tombstone for the win.
– ROH World Television Champion Kenny King & Colt Cabana defeated Marty Scurll & Hangman Page
The story of the match early was that Scurll and Page weren’t expecting Cabana, who got in their heads. Scurll and Page played to the crowd a lot. At one point, Scurll went for the finger-break spot, but Cabana had an oven mitt stashed in his tights to keep Scurll from snapping his fingers. Cabana then slapped Page around and out of the ring with the mitt.
King got the pin on Page with the Royal Flush. He celebrated after by holding up the TV title with the oven mitt. There was an interesting dynamic where King played it mostly straight in the match while the others did comedy.
– ROH World Champion Cody defeated KUSHIDA to retain his title
Cody did a lot of stalling early, using the kiss-the-ring gimmick and arguing with fans. He appeared to be walking out of the match at one point. KUSHIDA had the advantage early and kept wanting Cody to engage, but Cody would bail out of the ring whenever he was in trouble.
KUSHIDA had Cody set up for the small package driver, but Cody reversed it into the Cross Rhodes to retain. The match was getting hot towards the end.
– The Elite (Kenny Omega & The Young Bucks) defeated Trent Barreta, Chuck Taylor & Flip Gordon to retain the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship
The Bullet Club again said they were using “Bullet Club rules,” meaning any members of the stable can defend The Young Bucks & Hangman Page’s six-man tag titles.
This match could have been its own episode of “Being the Elite” as Barreta and Taylor kept having to keep Gordon from getting suckered into a handshake rib, which is a storyline on the YouTube show. They kept the gag going as one of the Bucks would pretend to be his partner in the corner and grab his hand.
The match was a great showcase for Gordon, who was impressive the entire time. There was a lot of comedy and a lot of playing to the crowd, but it picked up towards the end. Cody, Scurll, and Page all came out at one point to interfere, but they were kicked out of the ringside area.
Barreta and Taylor set up a table to double chokeslam one of the Bucks off the stage, but the rest of The Elite came in for the save — with triple superkicks putting Barreta and Taylor through the table.
Gordon was left alone and took a Meltzer Driver on the floor as one of the Bucks jumped from the stage. They brought him into the ring for the One Winged Angel Meltzer Driver to get the pin. The rest of the Bullet Club came out to celebrate after. They cut a promo saying nothing will stop them from being more creative than the competition and they’ll carry on as long as the fans are with them.
ROH’s Global Wars tour hit its second stop as they came to Pittsburgh last night. Here’s a rundown of the show:
– Coast to Coast defeated One Mean Team
This was the pre-show match.
– Hiromu Takahashi defeated Mark Briscoe after the match was stopped due to Briscoe suffering an injury
Unfortunately, this only went for a couple of minutes. Takahashi was in control in the corner throwing some kicks, then Briscoe rolled out of the ring. The referee checked on him and called off the match, declaring Takahashi the winner. It wasn’t clear what happened from my point of view, but Briscoe ended up suffering a dislocated elbow.
– Best Friends (Trent Barreta & Chuck Taylor) defeated The Dawgs (Rhett Titus & Will Ferrara)
This was supposed to be Best Friends vs. The Addiction, but Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian came out in their street clothes and said they weren’t going to wrestle tonight. Titus and Ferrara replaced them, with Barreta eventually pinning Titus after Best Friends hit their combo finisher.
– Jay Lethal defeated Jay White
This started slow, eventually going fairly long and getting hotter and hotter by the end. Lethal hit the Lethal Injection to get the pin. They both sold heavily after the match and shook each other’s hand.
– ROH World Tag Team Champions Motor City Machine Guns defeated The Kingdom and The Young Bucks to retain their titles
Vinny Marseglia and TK O’Ryan represented The Kingdom here. The crowd went nuts when The Young Bucks made their entrance. The match had a lot of high flying, about a dozen superkicks, and Chris Sabin pinned Matt Jackson with a cradle in a surprise finish to retain.
– Deonna Purrazzo, Mandy Leon & Jenny Rose defeated Faye Jackson, Britt Baker & Sumie Sakai in a Women of Honor match
Purrazzo submitted Jackson with an armbar.
– ROH World Television Champion Kenny King defeated Josh Woods, Punishment Martinez, Hangman Page, Matt Taven, and KUSHIDA in a Proving Ground Instant Reward match
The winner would have gotten a shot at the ROH World Television Championship if it wasn’t King, but King won with two not-so-smooth Royal Flushes on Woods.
– War Machine defeated Killer Elite Squad
Ray Rowe pinned Lance Archer after War Machine hit a double team backbreaker/knee drop from the top rope.
– Bully Ray came out and gave an emotional speech saying he has a head injury and doesn’t know if he’ll ever wrestle again. He said he wanted to see the Pittsburgh crowd one more time if that was the case.
– Minoru Suzuki defeated Silas Young (w/ Beer City Bruiser)
Suzuki got a huge reaction, then had a fun match with Young. Eventually, Davey Boy Smith Jr. came back out. The referee was bumped, Smith Jr. interfered, and Suzuki hit Young with a chair and the Gotch-style piledriver to get the victory.
– Bullet Club (Kenny Omega, ROH World Champion Cody & Marty Scurll) defeated Chaos (Will Ospreay, Toru Yano & YOSHI-HASHI) to retain the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship for Bullet Club
The Bullet Club said they were invoking the Freebird rule, or rather the Bullet Club rule, before the match and that this would be for The Young Bucks & Hangman Page’s six-man tag titles. The match went about 20 minutes, with the crowd going absolutely nuts for it.
The crowd was definitely there to see the Bullet Club, and there to see Omega in particular. The Young Bucks and Page ran in towards the end of the match, resulting in Scurll running Yano into all 10 boots of the Bullet Club in the corner. Scurll submitted Yano with the chicken wing shortly after.
After the match, pretty much everyone stayed in the venue to listen to Cody and Omega’s promos. They taunted WWE and thanked the crowd to close the show.
ROH was in Buffalo, New York for the first night of their Global Wars tour last night. Here’s a rundown of the event:
– Deonna Purrazzo defeated Sumie Sakai in a Women of Honor match
Purrazzo hit a gourdbuster into an armbar for the submission win. Sakai tried to shake her hand after the match, but Purrazzo declined to a chorus of boos.
– Bobby Cruise came out to start the main portion of the show with a lot of people still in line for the Kenny Omega meet and greet. Cruise said that they’re taping the show for VOD.
– Rhett Titus & Will Ferrara defeated Coast to Coast
Titus hit a superkick and they followed it up with a top rope suplex/splash combo to get the win.
– KUSHIDA defeated Hangman Page
The crowd went crazy for Page when the Bullet Club’s music hit. He tried to Too Sweet the crowd, but shook his head before their fingers touched. The crowd started a big “One Sweet” chant.
KUSHIDA won with the Hoverboard Lock after holding onto the submission when he hit a superplex.
– Jay Lethal defeated Frankie Kazarian
Kazarian got a mixed reaction, but Lethal got maybe the biggest non-Bullet Club pop of the night. They had an excellent match with a lot of near falls. Lethal won with the Lethal Injection and the crowd popped huge for the finish.
– Minoru Suzuki & Killer Elite Squad defeated War Machine & Mark Briscoe
Silas Young came out to a nice reaction before the match. He cut a promo hyping his match with Suzuki in Pittsburgh tomorrow, drawing “What about us?” chants from the crowd. Young said that he was going to do commentary with Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana.
War Machine were pretty over and Briscoe got “Man up” chants. KES didn’t get much of a reaction and Suzuki only got a respectful pop, but there were eventually chants for Suzuki-gun and the crowd got more into him.
These guys beat the snot out of each other immediately. Eventually, Suzuki got a choke on Briscoe into a delayed Gotch-style piledriver for the win. Silas Young demanded for Suzuki to notice him while they were celebrating, but Suzuki completely ignored him. The crowd thanked War Machine and Briscoe as they stood in the ring and bowed after their loss.
– Unannounced, Bully Ray walked out and the crowd lost their minds. He got huge “ECW” chants and a huge pop. Bully Ray was tearing up, then said he was injured at Death Before Dishonor last month and doesn’t know what the future holds, but he hasn’t been feeling good. The crowd chanted that they love Bully and thanked him as he choked up in tears again.
Bully said this is the first time he’s been at a loss for words. He mentioned ECW and said something about ROH doing what they did 20 years ago. He said he loves Buffalo, and if nothing else he just wants to thank the city for all they’ve meant for him. He got on his knees and said thank you and started to tear up again. If this is an angle, this alone was worth running in Buffalo. The crowd just ate everything up.
– Mandy Leon defeated Jenny Rose in a Women of Honor match
Neither got much of a reaction as the crowd was burnt out after the Bully Ray segment. The crowd picked up a bit as the match went on, with Leon winning with a modified pumphandle driver. She hugged Rose after the match and raised her arm.
– Hiromu Takahashi defeated Christopher Daniels
There were “Daryl” chants (for Takahashi’s stuffed cat) and a lot of people had their own Daryls. There was even a “Daryl’s gonna kill you” chant. Daniels tried to shush the crowd, leading to massive chants for Takahashi. Daniels stalled for a bit before the match got going.
Daniels mocked the “Adam Cole Bay-Bay!” pose to boos during the match. Daniels grabbed Daryl and started biting him, which the crowd was horrified by. He used Daryl to hit Takahashi, but Takahashi hulked up from it. Daniels kissed Daryl and tried to roll-up Takahashi, with Takahashi countering with a hurricanrana into a triangle for the submission win.
Referee Todd Sinclair raised Daryl’s paw after the match. The crowd started chanting “Shake his paw” before Daniels and Takahashi embraced, but Daryl struck Daniels to get his revenge. Daniels then stumbled out and tried to attack one of the Daryls in the crowd before being restrained by security.
Yano seemed surprised by how over he was, but his pop was nothing compared to what his opponents got. Cody received the biggest pop of the night so far aside from Bully Ray. The crowd wanted to see Cody and Yano start, and they obliged. They forced Yano to kiss Cody’s ring, then Yano went for a low blow as the match started.
Seeing Yano live was more fun than I thought it would be. He finally got the turnbuckle off, but the referee stopped him from using it. While that happened, Cody hit a low blow and the Cross Rhodes for the win.
– Punishment Martinez defeated Will Ospreay
This was the sleeper match of the night. They made it work with the size difference, and there were too many excellent spots to mention. Martinez eventually got the win with his finisher. There was a huge “That was awesome” chant after the match, with Martinez yelling damn right it was as he left.
– The Young Bucks & Kenny Omega defeated The Kingdom to retain the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team titles
Chants for The Elite started as soon as everyone knew it was time for the main event, with them making us wait and building the anticipation. The venue was shaking as the crowd did the Terminator claps. The Kingdom’s music hit first to collective groans, but their music was abruptly cut and The Young Bucks’ music started. The crowd erupted for that.
The pop for Omega was unreal. There were “One Sweet” chants again as the Bucks got on the mic. They said they’ve modernized the Freedbird rule, and the ROH Six-Man Tag Team titles will be on the line here with Omega stepping in for Hangman Page.
Matt Taven is perfect as a heel. Omega wanted to shake his hand, but Taven wanted a Too Sweet. That resulted in a “You can’t do that” chant. Page, Scurll, and Cody came out at one point before the referee kicked the rest of the Bullet Club out and we were left with it being three-on-three.
There were lots of unique and creative spots in the match. The Bucks got a “cease, cease, desist” chant going to the tune of their Elite chants at one point and the crowd was totally into it. Cody came back out to make the save, then the finish was The Elite doing a One Winged Angel into a Meltzer Driver for the win.
That was a great and chaotic match. After it was over, all of the “Being the Elite” crew celebrated the victory as Omega grabbed the mic. A “Jimmy Jacobs” chant started and The Elite said what’s up to him.
Omega talked about how shocked he was at the reception he got tonight. He said he was only suppose to work the Global Wars tour show in Chicago, but supply and demand takes precedence and he goes where he’s needed and wanted. Matt Jackson took the mic and mentioned the Bullet Club “invasion” of Raw to a huge pop. He talked about having the freedom to do what he wants and said he won’t get fired for taking a selfie with a friend or fan.
Matt mentioned how we help feed their families before Nick interrupted to say that they’ll see their families on Christmas, referencing WWE having Raw live on Christmas this year. That drew a huge “F*ck Vince” chant. Matt said Vince McMahon takes fun away from fans and told the fans to tell Vince what we think — with the entire audience giving a Too Sweet.
Omega quoted the movie “Braveheart” about never taking away their freedom, then he said goodbye and goodnight to the audience. The Bullet Club’s music played and they jumped into the crowd to end the show.
Report submitted by reader James Ryder with additional notes from Martin Bentley
– The show was being taped for VOD with commentators at ringside.
– Mark Briscoe defeated Ryan Smile
Briscoe got a good pop for his entrance, then the crowd was behind Smile during the match but with dueling chants in parts. It was a good opener to begin with and then heated up as it went on. Briscoe won with a Cutthroat Driver.
– The Addiction defeated Ultimo Guerrero & Rey Bucanero
This was a good match with plenty of back-and-forth action. The crowd got into the CMLL team as it went on. Christopher Daniels pinned Bucanero with his feet on the ropes, then there was a post-match brawl with Guerrero launching himself onto The Addiction on the outside. Daniels and Kazarian retreated after that.
– Jay Briscoe defeated Kenny King
They had a basic match. There was brawling on the outside early, but the crowd wasn’t into this as much as the other matches. Briscoe won with the Jay Driller and refused a handshake after.
– Bully Ray defeated Jay Lethal, Silas Young, and Sha Samuels in a four-way match
Bully Ray and Lethal got big reactions. There were some Attitude Era fans who were into everything Bully Ray did. The match itself was fun, with everyone getting their chance to get some stuff in.
In the closing moments, Bully Ray and Lethal did the “Wassup” spot and Bully shouted for him to get the tables. Bully won with a top rope splash. After the match, he called for Lethal to come back to the ring. Bully said that ECW was his company, but ROH is Lethal’s.
– ROH SIx-Man Tag Team Champions Dalton Castle & The Boys defeated Jushin Thunder Liger, Mistico & Delirious to retain their titles
Liger and Castle got big reactions and there were really loud chants for them. The match had a lot of comedy, but it was really fun and the audience loved it. Castle launched both Boys separately over the top rope onto Mistico and Liger near the end. He then hit Delirious with the Bang-a-Rang to retain.
– ROH World Television Champion KUSHIDA defeated Titan to retain his title
Brilliant match. It got the first “this is awesome” chant of the night, as well as “fight forever” chants and a standing ovation from the crowd as soon as it was over.
Titan got himself over big with his high-flying and lucha transitions. He kept fighting off the Hoverboard Lock, but KUSHIDA eventually won with Back to the Future. Titan got a standing ovation despite many people not being familiar with him going into it.
– Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito, SANADA, EVIL, Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI) defeated Bullet Club (Cody Rhodes, The Young Bucks, Marty Scurll & Hangman Page)
Takahashi came out with Daryl (his stuffed cat), resulting in a loud “Daryl” chant. Naito also got a big reaction. Bullet Club came out together and got a big pop. There were loud “F*ck The Revival” chants, along with other Bullet Club and LIJ ones.
LIJ worked on Scurll for a short time before he got the hot tag and the Bucks cleaned house. Cody, Page, and The Bucks all wiped out LIJ with dives to the outside. There was a cool moment in the match where the Bullet Club all applied a figure four, getting “Nature Boy” chants in the process.
Each Bullet Club member then missed a top rope moonsault, with the crowd having to encourage Scurll to do it. The Bucks hit all of LIJ with a superkick to the delight of the fans.
Scurll fired up the crowd by going for the chicken wing on Daryl. Takahashi made the save, but he got hit with a superkick. The Bucks then gave Daryl the Meltzer Driver. All of the members of the Bullet Club gave Takahashi a superkick at the same time, but Naito pinned Page with the Destino to a massive pop.
That was a great main event and the audience loved it. LIJ posed after while the Bullet Club stayed in the ring and Cody got the mic. He put over that it was Page’s first time in the UK, then hyped up Saturday’s iPPV in Liverpool (which the crowd booed).
Cody called SANADA a young boy and said he’s going to beat him half to death. He gave Scurll the mic, with Scurll saying The Villain in the Bullet Club in the UK is too sweet. He put over the UK wrestling scene and how long he’s been wrestling here.
Scurll mentioned the bet Cody has with Dave Meltzer and said ROH can run a 10,000 seat arena in the USA. He then asked why ROH doesn’t run a 10,000 seat UK arena instead. He mentioned they should run Wembley Arena to a huge pop.
Matt Jackson got the mic and said the figure four in the match was in homage to Ric Flair. He plugged The Elite’s YouTube show and their T-shirts before ending with a “F*ck The Revival” chant.
Ring of Honor television from Stage AE in Pittsburgh featured a wild brawl and also a challenge that will assuredly lead to others brawling in the future.
War Machine battled the sinister BJ Whitmer and “Punishment” Martinez in a no disqualification match in the main event. Elsewhere on the show, Cody (Rhodes) issued a challenge to Jay Lethal using a classic prop from Dusty’s past.
In continuing the trend of rotating guest commentators, Alex Shelley joined the current lead voice of ROH, Ian Riccaboni, in calling most of the show.
Taped weeks before the 15th Anniversary pay-per-view and airing in syndication the weekend of the PPV, this episode was a lame duck of sorts with certain storyline advancements. It still looked towards the next major card, Supercard of Honor on April 1st in Lakeland, Florida.
While the show built towards the future card, the taping for this episode took place before recent developments that left this show with one glaring timeline issue related to the tag team titles.
The Young Bucks, in a showcase match on this episode, were still the ROH World Tag Team Champions despite them recently losing the titles to Matt and Jeff Hardy. Nonetheless, Nick and Matt Jackson’s storyline with the Hardys was a constant thread throughout the opening match on this show.
The Young Bucks defeated Coast to Coast
The Coast to Coast tag team is Leon St. Giovanni and Shaheem Ali, and they have previously appeared on ROH TV in other matches against established tag teams in the promotion. Riccaboni on commentary referred to this as a “proving ground match” for Coast to Coast.
In the match, The Young Bucks dispatched Coast to Coast to the outside leading to them teasing doing the Rise of the Terminator spot. However, Ali tripped the Jacksons as they ran the ropes. Giovanni then springboarded off the top rope into a tumbleweed onto the Jacksons at ringside.
Coast to Coast isolated Matt Jackson for a short time as the show went to commercial. After the break, The Young Bucks were making a comeback leading to a parade of moves until Coast to Coast cut them off.
Ali and Giovanni executed their namesake double coast-to-coast finisher on Matt. Nick broke up the pin, and, shortly thereafter, he and Matt were running wild and cleaning house.
Giovanni went for a last ditch springboard off the middle rope and got superkicked to set up him being draped on the rope. Matt held him in place so Nick could jump off the top rope with a 450 splash. Matt then hooked a leg and covered Giovanni for the pinfall.
Afterwards, the then-champions sent a message to the Hardys by mocking them. Matt gave Ali the twist of fate and Nick did a swanton bomb. As he stood on the top rope, Nick encouraged dueling chants of “delete/suck it” before jumping into the swanton.
Though that is very much out of place in the current climate amid the tension and legal wrangling over ownership of the Broken Hardy gimmick (as detailed in the lead story of the newest Observer), this episode was taped before the Hardys left Impact Wrestling and the legal issues began.
At this point in the timeline, the Hardys were only advertised as appearing on the Supercard of Honor card in Florida during WrestleMania weekend. The Hardys subsequently departed the Impact promotion and signed on for a more enhanced run in ROH.
Moving on, a video package chronicled Lio Rush and his issues with The Rebellion, leading to Riccaboni interviewing Rush. He likened The Rebellion to children playing games, so he played games on the last episode. He is “sick” of dealing with The Rebellion.
Kenny King of The Rebellion interrupted the interview, asking if Rush just called him a clown. He actually had not for the record. Nevertheless, King called Rush an “ungrateful piece of garbage” before saying they were no longer playing games with Rush.
King then continued cutting a promo on Rush. He hyped a match between the two for next week’s episode. He concluded with a declaration, “Everybody’s going to know it was Kenny King that put the hush on Lio Rush.”
Curt Stallion defeated Preston Quinn (w/ Andy Vineberg) to advance in the Top Prospect Tournament
The story was the wily veteran facing a young up-and-comer. Brutal Bob Evans joined commentary alongside Shelley and Riccaboni.
On commentary, they noted the tournament was not so much about finding young talent, but also giving other talented, yet possibly overlooked, names an opportunity. Preston Quinn fit the latter as a 43-year-old veteran with many years of experience.
His manager, Andy Vineberg, looked to have transported through time from a territory long ago with his antics and monogrammed powder blue sports coat.
At the outset during the Code of Honor handshake, Vineberg also wanted to shake hands with Stallion. The gesture was a ploy for Quinn to suckerpunch Stallion before the bell.
Later in the match, Vineberg caused another distraction when he tripped Stallion. Quinn thus underhandedly gained the advantage until Stallion made a comeback for a near fall. Quinn cut him off and delivered a piledriver.
With Stallion prone and close to defeat, Quinn jumped off a middle rope only to miss a flying elbow drop. Stallion capitalized by using a flying headbutt before covering Quinn for a three count and the upset victory. Stallion advances to the second round of the tournament.
In the next segment, “The American Nightmare” Cody cut a promo in the ring issuing a challenge to Jay Lethal for a Texas bull rope match.
Cody first asked the crowd in Pittsburgh if they knew the whereabouts of Jay Lethal, insinuating cowardice. He asked someone in the first row of ringside about Lethal, and the fan hurled an insult about Cody’s wife. Cody called him a liar, regrouped, and used the word “extrapolating” in transitioning into him introducing Hangman Page.
With a noose hanging around his neck, Page joined Cody in the ring. Page untied the noose, leaving just a long length of rope he presented to Cody.
By attaching the cowbell, Cody declared it would be a “Texas bull rope” as he went on to challenge Lethal for a match at Supercard of Honor.
The Texas bull rope match is scheduled for April 1st at Supercard of Honor, though Lethal has not yet accepted the challenge in the storyline narrative on TV.
In a pre-taped segment, Jay Briscoe cut a promo ahead of a return match against Jay White in the main event on the next episode of ROH TV. The two previously met in a match on TV that went to a time limit draw.
Dalton Castle (w/ The Boys) defeated Jonathan Gresham
They had a babyface match with them doing chain wrestling sequences that usually ended in stalemates. Neither had the upper hand with it being nip-and-tuck throughout.
Their reversals and counters were really good. Gresham even countered Castle’s finisher at one point before sending him to regroup outside the ring.
Gresham followed with a flying knee off the apron, and he appeared to have Castle reeling. Or did he? Gresham jumped off the top rope into the waiting arms of Castle, who delivered a Bang-a-Rang.
Castle then pinned Gresham to end a good match where Gresham shined despite losing. Castle himself also remained strong as the number one contender ahead of his upcoming challenge for the ROH World Championship.
In a pre-taped promo, ROH World TV Champion Marty Scurll plugged Supercard of Honor and encouraged the buying of tickets to see him.
For the TV main event, Mark Briscoe provided guest commentary for a wild brawl. Fittingly, Briscoe himself is very familiar with wild brawls so he was right at home and gleeful at times when calling the melee.
The back story was that the two teams met in a previous bout at the TV tapings in Atlanta, and the match was thrown out after an uncontrollable brawl erupted. This episode featured the return match with a no disqualification stipulation to settle the score.
BJ Whitmer & Damien “Punishment” Martinez defeated War Machine in a no DQ match
In a sneak attack during the spooky entrance of Whitmer and Martinez, War Machine entered the scene like Vikings on a raid. War Machine attacked them unmercifully.
Hanson did a cannonball splash off the theater stage and Rowe threw superman punches. War Machine pummeled Whitmer and Martinez around ringside, throwing them into guardrails as they brawled on the floor.
In the ring, Hanson took an unprotected chair shot to the head thrown by Whitmer. Hanson gave him his back for another shot. Whitmer and Martinez had Rowe isolated before a commercial break.
Upon the show returning from break, War Machine were already making a comeback with Hanson throwing clotheslines. He also did a cartwheel for good measure.
Martinez stopped the flurry of offense when he jumped off the ropes with a flying spin heel kick. A moment later, Rowe superman punched Martinez only to get folded up with a nasty German suplex from Whitmer.
Everybody was down selling when Whitmer and Rowe got to their feet to slug it out. Martinez jumped in to allow Whitmer to execute an exploder suplex for a near fall. Whitmer and Martinez tried to single out Hanson, but Rowe made the save.
War Machine did a double team move on Martinez where Rowe launched Martinez in the air, and Hanson caught him on his shoulder for a running powerslam. Martinez kicked out at two for a near fall.
War Machine set up a table in the ring. Whitmer fought back against Rowe and Hanson before all three spilled to the outside. As the three brawled at ringside, Martinez ran corner-to-corner across the ring and did a flip dive over the ropes to the floor.
For the finish, Hanson and Martinez were perched on the ropes fighting when Martinez chokeslammed Hanson off the ropes through a table. With Hanson laying in the debris of the demolished table, Martinez pinned him.
On the next episode of ROH TV, Jay Briscoe and Jay White collide in a return match after they previously wrestled to a draw in their last encounter.
The newest episode begins airing this weekend in syndication so check local listings. The show is then available Monday evening via the FITE TV app before airing Wednesday at midnight ET on Comet TV, including that channel’s free online live stream. The episode is then available to watch on Thursday via the official ROH website.
