After winning a fan vote, Shane Taylor is getting a shot at the ROH World Championship.
ROH has announced that “Taylor was the winner by a wide margin of a poll on the ROH The Experience Facebook group page that asked which top contender should challenge two-time ROH World Champion RUSH.” ROH wrote that they’re going to make the title match, but a date for it has yet to be set.
Rush retained the ROH World Championship against Brody King in the main event of last month’s Final Battle pay-per-view. King was announced as Rush’s challenger for that PPV after defeating Taylor in a matchup of top contenders.
Taylor defeated Jay Briscoe at Final Battle last month. Shane Taylor Promotions (Taylor & The Soldiers of Savagery) were originally supposed to challenge for Bandido, Flamita & Rey Horus’ ROH Six-Man Tag Team titles at the PPV, but Bandido and Flamita were removed from the show following pre-travel COVID-19 testing. Shane Taylor Promotions did an interview on the show and refused to be awarded the Six-Man Tag Team titles via forfeit. Taylor said they want to win the titles the right way.
Rush’s second ROH World Championship reign began when he defeated PCO and Mark Haskins in a triple threat match in February 2020. Taylor is a former ROH Television Champion.
Bestia del Ring appeared at the end of tonight’s ROH Final Battle pay-per-view event, joining the La Faccion de Ingobernable stable.
He appeared towards the end of the ROH World title match between his son, champion Rush, and challenger Brody King. Dragon Lee came out and distracted the referee as Bestia came in and attacked Brody with a steel chair. This allowed Rush to hit the knees in the corner to pin Brody and retain the title.
After the match, LFI celebrated in the ring as The Foundation (Jonathan Gresham, Jay Lethal, Tracy Williams, and Rhett Titus) came out, teasing a future feud between the two stables.
Bestia, who used to wrestle under the name Pierroth in CMLL, is the father of both Dragon Lee and Rush. He left CMLL when the company fired Lee and Rush last fall and has since made appearances in AAA.
While things are a bit different than normal, Ring of Honor begins to close out 2020 tonight with its traditional biggest pay-per-view of the year.
Final Battle 2020 will be the first ROH PPV of the pandemic era. The show was taped in advance and is being headlined by Rush defending his ROH World Championship against Brody King.
The ROH Tag Team titles will be on the line as Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham defend against Mark Briscoe & PCO. Gresham is pulling double duty and also defending his ROH Pure Championship against Flip Gordon.
Dragon Lee will defend his ROH Television Championship against the winner of a four-way match from earlier in the night, Matt Taven & Mike Bennett are facing Vincent Marseglia & Bateman in a grudge match, and Danhausen will square off with Brian Johnson. If Danhausen wins, his ROH contract will become official.
Final Battle Hour One is airing for free starting at 8 p.m. Eastern time and will feature Tony Deppen vs. Dak Draper vs. Josh Woods vs. LSG to determine Lee’s challenger and Tracy Williams & Rhett Titus vs. Fred Yehi & Wheeler Yuta in the first-ever Pure Rules tag match.
Jay Briscoe vs. EC3 was originally set for Final Battle, along with Bandido, Flamita & Rey Horus defending their ROH Six-Man Tag Team titles against Shane Taylor Promotions (Taylor & The Soldiers of Savagery). But EC3, Bandido, Flamita, and Kenny King were pulled from the PPV tapings due to pre-travel COVID-19 testing. The subsequent changes to the card will be announced during Final Battle Hour One. The Final Battle main card will then begin on PPV and HonorClub at 9 p.m. Eastern.
**********
Show Report —
The commentary team of Ian Riccaboni, Caprice Coleman, and Dalton Castle welcomed us to the broadcast. They ran down the stacked card for tonight’s show.
Tony Deppen defeated LSG, Josh Woods, and Dak Draper in a Fatal 4-Way Television Title #1 Contenders match
This match is being contested under Lucha Rules because Dragon Lee is the ROH Television Champion.
Draper and Woods began the match. Woods and Draper exchanged control a few times early on. Once Woods got control, LSG tagged himself in the match. Deppen ended up tagging himself in and sent LSG to the outside, making Draper the legal man. Draper controlled Deppen, hitting a big boot from a flying Deppen off the top rope at one point.
Draper attempted a Magnum Drop on Deppen, but it was stopped by LSG trying to tag himself in. Deppen tried to go to the top, but Draper followed him up there and hit a superplex. LSG tagged himself in and instantly hit a clothesline on Draper. Draper poached LSG on the top rope, but Woods came from behind and suplexed both men.
Draper recovered and delivered a Doctor Bomb to Woods, but Woods recovered quickly and locked in a triangle choke for a split second. Woods really needed some more offense in this showing after his weak showing against Flip Gordon on ROH TV earlier in the week. LSG came off the top rope and hit Woods, then Deppen came from behind and rolled up LSG in a pinning combination for the win.
******
A promo for RUSH aired. He’s prepared to go tonight after being locked down for 8 months.
Tony Deppen joined Quinn McKay backstage after his win. Deppen said he did it for his wife and his son that was born three weeks ago. Deppen said that Dragon Lee will have to kill him because he’s not leaving tonight without the Television Title.
Quinn McKay is joined by Shane Taylor and the Soldiers Of Savagery. The ROH Six-Man Tag Team champions Mexi-Squad offered to forfeit the championships to them, but they declined. Taylor said he wants to win the titles the right way:
Next, Quinn McKay is joined by Brian Johnson. Johnson is pumped up for tonight’s show, citing some of the best matches in ROH history have taken place at Final Battle. Johnson states that tonight is Danhausen’s funeral.
Jay Briscoe arrived at the arena. Jay tells Mark that he’s free for the Tag Team Championship match, but Mark told him he already had a partner. Shane Taylor approached Jay and told him he was going to knock him on his ass. Quinn McKay basically confirmed that the match is happening tonight.
Tracy Williams and Rhett Titus defeated Wheeler Yuta and Fred Yehi in a Pure Rules Tag Team Match.
Code Of Honor was adhered too.
Yehi and Williams began the contest. Yehi took down Williams with an arm wrench, but Williams quickly regained his composure and tagged in Titus. Yehi stayed on the attack and got Titus in a Koji Clutch, causing Titus to use his first rope break. Yuta and Williams eventually tagged in and Williams held Yuta in place as Titus dove off the second rope with an axe-handle. Yuta tagged Yehi in who went straight for the Koji Clutch again on Titus, causing the team of Titus and Williams his third and final rope break. Yehi was on par with his timing on the submissions.
Williams and Yehi became the legal men eventually, and Yehi smushed Williams in the corner with a running splash. Williams got distracted and Yehi locked in another Koji Clutch. Titus realized he couldn’t break up the hold, so he launched Yuta into the clutch, breaking the hold. Titus tagged in after Williams recovered. Yuta tagged in after and hit an atomic drop-german suplex combo on Titus. Williams came in and spiked Yuta with a piledriver, but Yehi broke it up costing his team their final rope break. Williams followed it up with a crossface but with Yuta out of rope breaks, he submitted.
******
Jonathan Gresham and Jay Lethal defeated PCO and Mark Briscoe to retain the ROH Tag Team Championships
Code Of Honor adhered too.
Briscoe and Lethal began the contest. Briscoe is aggressive early, trying to down Lethal. Commentary noted that Lethal is trying to wrestle, while Briscoe is trying to fight. Good stuff from Lethal keeping his “pure” reputation. Gresham and PCO tag in, but again PCO is trying to fight while Gresham is trying to wrestle. All hell breaks loose and PCO dove onto Lethal on the outside while he regrouped with Gresham, and Briscoe dove onto Gresham.
Briscoe set up a chair and hit another springboard dive on the outside onto Gresham and Lethal. Eventually both teams made it back in the ring and Gresham began to cut off the ring. Lethal tagged in and tried to throw Gresham into Briscoe in the corner, but Briscoe caught Gresham with an elbow. PCO tagged in and hit repeated chops on Lethal. At a later point in the match, PCO and Briscoe hit a combination Froggy Bow and PCO-sault, but only for a two count.
In the closing sequence, Gresham and Lethal hit a doomsday device, and Gresham followed it up with a phenomenal moonsault on PCO. PCO shouldn’t have kicked out of this, but somehow he did. Gresham rolled up him quickly afterwards for the win.
******
Ian Riccaboni cut to earlier in the broadcast when Dalton Castle got upset that Rey Horus was in the building with no match. Castle got the match signed, and it’s up next! Should be a fun match, but not really needed.
Rey Horus defeated Dalton Castle
Horus tried to start with a fast, lucha style pace but Castle slowed him down every time. Castle got overwhelmed and frustrated following a springboard arm drag. Castle didn’t take lightly to the maneuver and started to ground Horus. Castle held a gut wrench lock on Horus for a good minute, slowing the pace down. Horus did regain his style of pace, clearing the top rope with a diving senton onto Castle on the outside.
Later in the match, Horus baited Castle into running at him but sidestepped him, sending Castle knee first into the barricade. Horus rolled Castle back in the ring and kept on the attack with a great looking springboard tornado DDT. Castle sold it very, very well. Horus baited Castle to the top rope and planted Castle with a tornado driver for the win. Castle losing again is a choice i’ll question for now, but we’ll see where it goes.
******
Mike Bennett and Matt Taven defeated Vincent and Bateman (w/ Vita VonnStar)
Bennett and Taven rushed Vincent and Bateman as the bell rang. Taven superkicked Vincent, and Bennett followed it up with a spear. Vincent taunted Taven, but Bateman tagged in and went for the knee of Taven immediately. Taven struggled to get a tag but eventually did, and Bennett went to work on Bateman in the corner with multiple chops. Von Star distracted Bennett, and Bateman regained control with a big boot. Vincent tagged in and hit a side slam, cutting off the ring to prevent a tag from Taven.
Vincent locked in the Grim Sleeper on Bennett. Bennett escaped out of the hold with a beautiful snap brainbuster. Taven got the great hot tag and hit a rolling cutter. Taven ducked a clothesline from Bateman and dove onto Vincent at ringside. Taven attempted the Climax on Bateman after getting back in the ring, but Vincent caught him and locked in another Grim Sleeper submission. Vincent does the hold very well and hopefully he uses it as a finisher going foward.
Vincent hit a red rum on Taven which got him a win over Taven last year, but Taven powered out at 2. Bateman and Bennett both got hot tags, and Bennett ended up spearing Bateman. Bateman’s offense looked very unbelievable and slow. Taven and Vincent returned to the ring, and Taven hit his signature knee strike. Bennett drug half of Vincent’s body off the apron, and Taven came off the top rope with a frog splash onto Vincent onto the concrete. Bennett spiked Bateman with a piledriver and followed it up with the spear for the win.
After the match ended, Vita Vonn Star low blowed the winners. Vincent and Bateman began attacking Taven and Bennett. Vincent introduced a wooden block and put it between Bennett’s feet. Vincent smacked a chair into Bennett’s ankles. Commentary requested to cut away from the attack as officials helped Bennett out of the ring.
******
Danhausen defeated Brian Johnson via DQ
Code Of Honor was adhered too.
While Johnson was trash talking, Danhausen pump kicked him. Johnson almost lost the match fast, kicked out at two. Johnson grabbed a mic and told the commentary team to shut up. Johnson told the viewers at home that Danhausen looks better cross-dressing than most girls look doing their makeup. Johnson hits a scoop slam for a two count on Danhausen. Danhausen grabs the mic from Johnson and tells him not to swear, and spears him into the corner. I love when promo’s get intertwined within matches, it’s usually very entertaining.
Johnson continues to yell on the mic, saying it’s him vs everybody. Danhausen takes advantage of Johnson and hits a roll-through german suplex. Danhausen grabs his jar of teeth and hits the go to sleephausen, but Johnson kicked out. Johnson poured the jar of teeth into Danhausen’s mouth and hit him, but the teeth flew out and hit the official. Danhausen rubbed his face paint on the microphone and pretended to be hit by it. The official disqualified Johnson, therefore earning Danhausen a ROH Contract.
******
Dragon Lee defeated Tony Deppen to retain the ROH Television Championship
Deppen and Lee start fast, exchanging constant pinning attempts. Lee went to fix his mask, and Deppen tried to roll up him to no avail. Deppen kept up the constant high speed action, springing off the rope and drop kicking Lee. Lee gained control back quickly, locking in a headlock. Lee spit in his hand and slapped Deppen, which made Deppen “hulk” up. Deppen came charging off the ropes and hit a moonsault northern lights DDT.
Lee climbed the top rope but Deppen halted him with an enziguri. Lee no sold it and perched Deppen on the top rope, but Deppen grabbed Lee and dove off with a somersault neckbreaker. Deppen tried to pin again but Lee kicked out. Lee sprung up and hit a poison rana, followed up with a pump knee. Deppen still kicked out, so Lee followed it up with another pump knee strike for the win.
This match really woke up the PPV. I questioned the four-hour format going in, but so far so good.
******
Shane Taylor (w/ S.O.S) defeated Jay Briscoe
Briscoe and Taylor adhere to Code Of Honor. Taylor catches Briscoe in the corner early, delivering big blows to the top half of Briscoe. Briscoe tried to run the ropes, but Taylor mowed him over with a shoulder tackle. Taylor has one of the best shoulder tackles in wrestling. As Briscoe tried to return to his feet, Taylor delivered a great forearm to Briscoe, buckling his knees and sending him to the canvas. Taylor is easily one of the best strikers in wrestling.
Briscoe started to fight back finally, clubbing multiple forearms to the skull of Taylor. Briscoe rolled Taylor in the ring and continued the hard hitting blows. Taylor spun around and clubbed Briscoe again with a great forearm. They worked really stiff in this match and it came across great on TV. Mark Briscoe came down to the ring to try to cheer on Jay. Taylor tried to drop Briscoe with the tower city DDT, but Briscoe turned it into a chokehold from behind. Briscoe worked Taylor down to the mat with the hold, but Taylor reached the ropes eventually. Briscoe hit his signature neckbreaker, but Taylor kicked out again. Taylor hit his signature headbutt followed by Welcome To The Land piledriver to pick up the win.
After the match, Mark Briscoe tried to elbow bump Jay. Jay was hesitant, but still followed through.
******
Jonathan Gresham defeated Flip Gordon to retain the ROH Pure Championship
Code Of Honor is adhered too.
Gresham worked on the arm of Gordon early. Gordon used his first rope break when Gresham wrenched the arm hard. Gordon is clearly getting outclassed early as Gresham locks in a knee bar. The submission caused Gordon to use his second rope break. Gresham continued to completely outclass Gordon, locking in a hammerlock armbar. A few moments later, Gresham baited Gordon into using his third and final rope break.
Gordon finally ended up getting some control, popping Gresham with a superkick. Gresham used his first rope break during the pinfall attempt. At one point, Gresham dove off the top rope and hit knee first. Gordon started to work over the knee of Gresham, locking in a grounded knee bar. Gresham kept trying to get back into the contest, but Gordon kept working on the knee. Gordon tried to lock in a Submit The Flip but Gresham used his second rope break.
Gordon hit a great falcon arrow moments later, and transitioned it into the Submit The Flip, but Gresham used his third and final rope break. Gresham regained composure but Gordon struck Gresham with a closed fist. The official issued Gordon his one warning. Gordon got Submit The Flip locked in for a third time but Gresham forced himself out of the ring with both men hitting the concrete instantly. Great spot there to put over the STF as a legit submission. Gresham brought Gordon to the top rope and hit a beautiful hammerlock suplex, but Gordon still kicked out. A frustrated Gresham started charging Gordon with forearms which eventually led to a referee stoppage, giving Gresham the win.
Credit to Jon Gresham for putting on TWO amazing matches in one PPV. He’s my favorite thing in the company at the moment.
******
Rush defeated Brody King to retain the ROH WORLD Chanpionship
King offered a handshake to Rush, but Rush kicked his hand. King dove onto Rush as he was recovering on the outside. King flung Rush skull first into the turnbuckle, then body slammed him onto a pile of chairs. Both competitors made their way back in the ring, with King in firm control. King cannonballed himself onto Rush in the corner.
Rush took the match to the outside again, clearing the top rope and diving onto King. Rush grabbed a power cord that was at ringside, and began whipping King with it. Rush began to choke King with the cord, but Todd Sinclair broke it up while he was laughing it off. Rush being a confident heel is great stuff. Rush rolled King back in the ring and continued dominating him. King charged Rush at one point, but Rush caught him with an overhead suplex. King spit on his hand and chopped Rush, and then threw up the tranquilo sign. Rush didn’t take it lightly, and began delivering knees to King. Dragon Lee came to the ring and distracted the referee while Bestia came to the ring and smacked Brody King with a chair. Rush followed up with Get The Horns for the win and to retain his ROH World Championship. The broadcast ended with The Foundation staring down La Faccion Ingobernable, teasing a power struggle in ROH.
The Ring of Honor World Championship will be on the line as Rush defends against Brody King at Final Battle.
ROH confirmed today that Rush vs. King for the ROH World Championship will take place at this year’s Final Battle pay-per-view. The event is being held on Friday, December 18 and will air on PPV and HonorClub.
In a matchup of top contenders to the World title, King defeated Shane Taylor in the main event of this week’s episode of ROH TV. King then did a post-show interview where he issued a challenge to Rush for Final Battle.
King, who is now a singles act after leaving Villain Enterprises, has gotten wins against Dalton Castle and Taylor since ROH returned with new TV episodes this summer. After being on hiatus since March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, ROH returned to television production in August with closed set tapings.
Rush is a two-time ROH World Champion. He lost the title to PCO at last year’s Final Battle but regained it in a triple threat match against PCO and Mark Haskins at Gateway to Honor this February. Rush hasn’t appeared since ROH’s return to TV production.
Rush vs. King is the second match that’s been announced for Final Battle. EC3 vs. Jay Briscoe is also set for the PPV.
The show aired Saturday night live from St. Charles, MO in front of a small but energized crowd, their second show in two nights after Friday’s Bound By Honor show.
Villain Enterprises (Marty Scurll, Brody King & Flip Gordon) defeated the Briscoes (Jay & Mark Briscoe) and Slex
Like Friday night, this was a ripper of an opening match and if it happened under a different roof, it would have been torn to shreds.
Slex was impressive over this weekend. He and the Briscoes worked Gordon over for the first part of the match and both he and the Briscoes looked awesome here. King eventually got in and cleaned house, leading to some Villain Enterprises-led offense. They pulled off a handful of innovative and GIFable three-man attacks.
Mark Briscoe used a brutal looking uranage on Scurll that would surely make Sen. Hiroshi Hase proud. Then, because he’s Mark Briscoe, he busted out a flurry of Redneck Kung Fu and hit a huge dive from off a chair over the corner turnbuckles onto his opponents on the floor. Don’t sleep on the Briscoes.
When Jay called for the finish and was about to put Gordon away, Slex tagged himself in. Jay didn’t know what was going on. Slex went at the fully recovered Gordon and ate a crescent kick as a result of the hasty tag.
He bounced back and hit the Business Bomb, a spinning torture rack into a sit-out bomb which the crowd responded to. Gordon responded with a springboard spear and the Flip 5 for the win in a quick, all-action match. This was impressive stuff from everyone involved.
Shane Taylor and Sons of Savagery went after Slex after the match. Slex fended the heels off and was able to take Taylor out with a running dropkick to escape the ring.
Dan Maff defeated Alex Shelley
The two shook hands before the match, but right after the bell sounded, Shelley ran at Maff and blasted him with a low dropkick to the left knee. Maff later muscled Shelley back into a corner and connected with a big headbutt.
The mini-story inside this match was Shelley trying to get the much bigger Maff up and slam him somehow. First, he called for a German suplex and tried it on Maff, who countered and threw him to the mat with a rough waistlock slam. Shelley then shouted “You’re goin’ up!” to Maff before trying to bodyslam him. Maff ixnayed that and tore Shelley up with sharp chops in the corner.
Maff no sold a couple of Kawada-style soccer kicks to the head and screamed “COME ON YOU SON OF A B****!” which really woke the crowd up. Maff went on a tear late and whenever Shelley would try and rally back, Maff had an answer, shutting him down with a number of big power spots.
Shelley finally came through on his promise to slam Maff, getting him up into a bodyslam, followed by a German suplex and then Sliced Bread for a two count. It didn’t help though as Maff eventually took Shelley out with the Burning Hammer for the win to wrap a really nice match between these two.
— A training montage with PJ Black and Brian Johnson aired next. They were at the ROH dojo inside the ring. Black asked Johnson if he had a finishing move. Johnson got indignant with his mentor and asked Black what he could possibly teach him. Black then put Johnson out with a modified neckbreaker move and said that it would probably be his finisher.
By the end of the segment, Black had trained Johnson to focus his crazy misplaced anger and improve his in-ring skill at the dojo. He then offered Johnson his first white belt, which Johnson was ecstatic about.
The Righteous (Vincent and Bateman w/ Vita Von Star & Chuckles) defeated 2 Guys 1 Tag (Josh Woods and Silas Young)
Vincent and Bateman took Woods and Young out as soon as they stepped onto the entrance ramp. Vincent went after Young’s left knee in the ring. Ref Todd Sinclair signaled for the bell as soon as he had wrangled two men into the ring.
Bateman and Vincent both continued working over Young’s knee. Young powered out of a Vincent front facelock with a suplex and went to tag out to Woods, who was still gathering himself from the sneak attack on the entrance ramp. Woods eventually recovered and made into the match. He tossed Vincent and Bateman around with a few suplexes. He powerbombed Bateman onto Young’s knees as his knee was still tenderized from Vincent and Bateman’s cheap shots before the match.
The crowd fired up when Woods dove onto Bateman with a somersault off the apron. He’s getting into the zone and appears more comfortable with the charisma aspect of the game and is improving in sizable chunks every couple shows. He’s got some upside and ROH might have something with him.
A voice boomed over the PA and Brian Johnson stormed down the ramp and taunted 2 Guys 1 Tag for not having won the ROH tag titles Friday at Bound by Honor in Nashville. He said that when he and PJ Black got their shot at the tag titles, they wouldn’t lose like a “bunch of bozos.” Woods went after Johnson in the aisle while Vincent used the Acid Drop on Young for the crafty win.
Angelina Love defeated Session Moth Martina
The Bouncers (Brawler Milonas/Beer City Bruiser) were on commentary for this one and did a bit where Brawler Milonas has a crush on Martina.
Martina danced on her way to the ring, clad in a leopard print Snuggie, kissing a few older gentlemen on the hands around ringside. She didn’t have a problem getting over tonight and both she and Love looked to have some chemistry off the bat.
Martina offered Love a beer and everyone started chanting “Beer!” She made referee Steven Dumeng dance with her before the match. Love then attacked her at the bell and took her out with a running forearm.
Once the wrestling started, this was fine. The crowd was into the comedy and Mandy Leone interfered now and then. Midway through, they took each other out with a double clothesline. Love locked on a Koji Clutch until Martina got her foot on the bottom rope. Martina landed a pretty springboard codebreaker, but when she went for the pin, Leone stood up on the apron as a distraction so Dumeng ejected (or tried ejecting) her.
Martina came close to pinning Love with a few quick roll-ups, but Love finished her with a Botox Injection kick in a well-worked match.
The Bouncers got in the ring and offered Martina beers of condolence, and Martina went head-over-heels for the Bruiser but not Milonas.
Dalton Castle (w/ Joe Hendry) defeated Tracy Williams, Kenny King & Jeff Cobb
This was all action from the start. Cobb was on fire midway through, first ragdolling Williams with a spinning backdrop suplex and then planteing King with an Oklahoma Stampede powerslam, wrapping up the sequence by landing a standing moonsault onto all three opponents only to get a frustrating two count. Later, he busted out a tope con giro over the top to the floor onto all three. The guy is from another planet, I swear. This spot got an “R-O-H!” chant going.
Castle landed a spinning hurricanrana onto Cobb from off the apron, and Cobb then was launched into King at ringside with both crashing into the barricade. Castle went on to pin Williams after using the Bang-a-Rang to get the win.
— Bully Ray came out next and got tons heat from his promo. He made fun of fans for not being able to hit him with streamers, and once someone did nail him, the crowd popped. He also wanted to give a shoutout to Stan Kroenke (sports owner that also owns the stadium next year’s WrestleMania will be at), plus that Ring of Honor fans are the worst fans on the planet. He made fun of Bobby Cruise and went on to challenge anyone in the back to a match. If the winner won, he’d leave the company.
Caprice Coleman then stepped down from the announce table walked to the ring. Coleman told Bully Ray he understood what he was trying to prove. Since Ray said in his promo that none of the veterans would challenge him because he had dirt on them, Coleman responded that Ray didn’t have any dirt on him, and that he was ready to take Ray on in a match. Ray argued that Coleman was only an announcer now and wouldn’t wrestle him. Coleman said it was happening right here in St. Charles, MO, and the match was on.
Bully Ray defeated Caprice Coleman
Coleman speared Ray at the bell and laid in some punches. Ray countered with the Bubba Bomb and pinned Coleman in a squash that lasted under a minute or two.
Cheeseburger came out and made the save, but ate a big boot from Ray. A fiery Eli Isom ran out next and took Ray out, smashing him with a steel chair a couple times. Isom went to the floor and grabbed a table to the joy of the crowd, but once the table was set up inside the ring, Ray hit him with a low blow and powerbombed him through the aforementioned table.
Ray ordered referee Steven Dumeng to raise his hand and then called him stupid, pusheing him over before walking to the back.
ROH TV Champion Dragon Lee defeated Dak Draper to retain
Brian Zane joined Ian Riccaboni for commentary.
Instead of shaking hands, Draper teased Lee about his height. (Draper has to be at least a foot taller than Lee.) This was booked to have Draper look strong while in the ring with a national name as he dominated much of the match.
Lee rallied and caught Draper with a diving double stomp while Draper hung in a Tree of Woe in the corner. Draper later responded with a press slam into a powerslam for two.
When Draper went for a springboard attack, Lee caught him with a knee strike that looked a bit off. As Lee went for another running knee, he noticed Draper wasn’t in position to take the move and had to stop, get his attention, and then do the move.
Lee picked up the win after the Incineration knee to the back of Draper’s head.
ROH Tag Team Champions Jay Lethal and Jonathan Gresham defeated Mexasquad (Bandido and Rey Horus) in a Proving Ground match
The stipulation in Proving Ground matches is that If Bandido and Horus defeated the champions or took them to a time limit draw, they earn a future title shot.
Lethal and Gresham attacked Mexasquad at the bell. They both worked Bandido over for a couple minutes until he tagged out to Horus, who went on a run of nonstop flashy spots including a big dive over the corner turnbuckle to the floor.
Gresham and Horus looked great in the ring together, especially in the middle of the match which is where the crowd really started to heat up.
Bandido used a Shooting Star Press but sold his knees after he landed and missed his chance at a three count. The finish came a bit after this when Lethal countered Bandido’s X-Knee and locked on the figure four for win via submission. Another solid match on tonight’s show in St. Charles.
Rush defeated PCO and Mark Haskins in a three-way to win the ROH World Championship
The crowd was chanting PCO’s name over and over before the match. Rush cursed at the crowd told them to shut up in both English and Spanish. It was all action from the start with lots of brawling and a number of dives. Haskins went for a dive at one point, but PCO caught him and chokeslammed him onto the apron.
When PCO went for the cannonball, Rush pulled Haskins out of the way and missed. He crashed against the apron, vicious looking as always.
Rush punished Haskins and whipped him into the barricades around the ring. There were a couple of enthusiastic Rush fans in the crowd and a few would yell for him while he brawled on the floor.
Haskins rallied back and ran from side to side in and out of the ring, serving up a penalty kick to PCO and a diving double footstep onto Rush, which he didn’t get quite all of.
Rush snapped PCO over with a belly-to-belly into the corner but was up immediately and laid Rush out with a running lariat. Haskins landed the Soldier Shoulder Roll on Rush for two. PCO landed the PCOsault on Haskins and at 2.5 of referee Todd Sinclair’s count, Rush pulled him out of the ring. He claimed he was distracted by a teenage fan in the front row, pulling rSinclair’s attention down to ringside and away from the match.
NWA World Champion Nick Aldis then did a run in and took PCO out with a belt shot to the face.
Rush got back into the ring and blasted PCO in the face with the Bull’s Horns and dragged him from the corner into the center of the ring to pin the champion.
La Faccion celebrated in the ring with Rush after the match. Haskins got into Rush’s face and the two jawed at each other until Dragon Lee threw Haskins to the mat. All three Faccion members stomped away at Haskins as the show ended.
Haskins is scheduled to face Rush, which will now apparently be a title match, on March 13 in Las Vegas at the ROH 18th Anniversary show.
Final thoughts
For the most part, it was another quality show from ROH this weekend. The main event title change was a shock in that a) it kinda came out of nowhere and b) there wasn’t a real explanation as to what and why it happened. It makes it hard to discuss here as we have no idea where the ROH title picture is going into the coming spring season of joint shows with NJPW.
Hotshot booking aside, many of the matches were above average and worth checking out.
In the main event of Gateway to Honor on Saturday night, Rush regained the ROH World title by defeating PCO and Mark Haskins in a triple threat match. Nick Aldis, who is facing PCO at Supercard of Honor XIV in April, came out towards the end of the match and hit PCO with the NWA World title belt.
That would eventually lead to the finish, where Rush hit PCO with the dropkick to the corner, pinning him to win the championship. PCO held the title for 78 days, defeating Rush back at Final Battle on December 13.
Rush will now defend his title against Haskins at ROH’s 18th Anniversary pay-per-view at Sam’s Town Live in Las Vegas, Nevada on Friday, March 13. ROH announced leading up to Gateway to Honor that whoever wasn’t involved in the finish would challenge for the World title at the Anniversary PPV.
Haskins confronted Rush at the end of Gateway to Honor and was attacked by La Faccion Ingobernable (Rush, ROH Television Champion Dragon Lee, and Kenny King).
Here’s the updated card for the Anniversary PPV:
ROH World Champion Rush defending against Mark Haskins
ROH Television Champion Dragon Lee defending against Bandido
ROH Tag Team Champions Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham defending against Villain Enterprises (Marty Scurll & Flip Gordon)
The Briscoes vs. Dalton Castle & Joe Hendry
Dealer’s Choice match: Dan Maff vs. Kenny King vs. Shane Taylor vs. Bateman (winner gets a future title shot of his choosing)
Free Enterprise, Ring of Honor’s experimental free show took place this past Sunday afternoon at the UMBC Arena in Baltimore, MD. The lower level of the venue appeared to be more or less full even though there were still pockets of empty seats in the upper bowl of the arena.
Ian Riccaboni and Caprice Coleman were our announcers for this Honor Club show
Mark Haskins submitted Alex Shelley
The two first traded wristlocks and side headlocks with Haskins looking to be in control of the offense early on. A couple ironic fans shouted “WRESTLING!” — the new flavor of the month chant when fans see “serious” pro wrestling. (Imagine if someone went to a play or movie and screamed “ACTING!” during dialogue between characters.)
Shelley used a few llave-style submissions, stretching Haskins into a pretzel. Haskins laid in a number of hard kicks and elbows, which Shelley continued to eat. “Come on Haskins, you stupid son of a b**ch!” he screamed at Haskins midway through. From watching it, the crowd bought into the match as they seemed to realize how hard these two in the ring were working. There were lots of chants for Shelley around this point in the match, too.
The two knocked each other out at one point, the first real peak in the match, but both were up at referee Todd Sinclair’s nine count. Haskins landed the Shoulder Soldier Roll for a close two, leaving Haskins stunned. He then went to the top and missed a diving double foot stomp which allowed Shelley to nail Sliced Bread and then a Blade Runner for another close two.
Haskins countered Shelley’s Sliced Bread #2 attempt and eventually locked him in a sharpshooter and armlock for the win. Shelley immediately rolled to the floor and sold his the submission as he stumbled backstage.
This was a solid match. Haskins needs more guys like Shelley to work with. Riccaboni mentioned afterward that Haskins had a counter for everything Shelley threw at him, the essential takeaway from this match going forward, I’d guess. Haskins called out PCO into the camera as he exited the ring.
Righteous (Vincent and Bateman w/ Vida Von Star & Chuckles) defeated Dalton Castle and Joe Hendry
Castle was cheered upon his entrance, so I guess he’s not a heel anymore. He also has a new pair of Boys that accompany him to the ring now. Hendry received the loudest reaction he has had in ROH since signing. I think fans are finally catching on to his theme song. Riccaboni and Coleman said they couldn’t control their hands while it was playing and they had to clap.
We first saw Vincent’s new stable of spooksters last month at Honor Reigns Supreme. Chuckles was a clown last month, but here, he just looked like a shabby older fellow without any facepaint on. Vincent used put on a late-’60s hippie accent and kept asking if Castle could “dig” what he was saying. It’s the Diet Wyatt Family, which was itself a Diet Manson Family.
Vincent and Bateman didn’t shake hands beforehand. Castle and Hendry are kayfabe buddies now whereas a couple months back, their gimmick was just them arguing over egos in the ring. Hendry has gained some noticeable muscle mass recently. Even Ricaboni later described Hendry as being built “as thick as a soda machine.”
Vincent used a cool schoolboy-into-second turnbuckle move at one point. Castle returned offense with a big delay German suplex and the crowd chanted for him after that. Hendry used a double fallaway slam on both Vincent and Bateman followed by a kip-up, all of which elicited the loudest response of the night so far. The finish saw Vincent hit an Acid Drop on Hendry for the pin after Castle was dragged from the ring.
Quinn McKay came out and announced they’ll be back UMBC Arena on June 19 for Best in the World.
Referee Todd Sinclair would not allow Slex to wear his sunglasses in the ring during the match and the crowd sounded bummed out when he took them off
Slex is about the same height as Gordon but is more muscular. His offense isn’t flashy, but his execution of it is. He used a spinning sitout torture rack bomb for a close two. Gordon rallied back and landed a moonsault to the floor and then a springboard spear into the ring for a two count. He picked up the win after a Curb Stomp.
This was really good and after all the hype, I can say with confidence that Slex is the real deal.
Shane Taylor and the Sons of Savagery came out afterward and attacked Slex. Taylor laid him out with a butterfly package piledriver and then got on the mic and said that everybody should be talking about Taylor’s demands and his return to ROH, not all of the recent debuts people have paid attention to instead.
Alex Zayne defeated Andrew Everett
These two are very creative. There were lots of innovative aerial moves in this one — moves that don’t have official names yet. Everett played light heel here, but with he and Zayne going tit-for-tat on each spot, it seemed hard for the crowd to boo him for too long. He planted Zayne face first into the second turnbuckle with a running bulldog and then landed a GIF-worthy springboard tornillo into the ring for two.
As the match slowed, the volume level in the audience softened, often between its big spots. Everett went for a top rope poisonrana, but Zayne landed on his feet. Everrett then spiked him with standing version of the same move, but missed a shooting star press which gave Zayne the opportunity to land a shooting star double knee strike onto a bent over Everett.
He then put Everett away with a sit out pumphandle slam that resembled Shingo Takagi’s Last of the Dragon. This match would be great on the weekly ROH TV show.
The Briscoes Brothers (Jay & Mark Briscoe) defeated Mexablood (Bandido and Flamita)
This was an awesome match.
Jay and Bandido kicked off the match for their teams. Both Bandido and the Briscoes had the crowd hot from the start. Flamita and Jay almost botched a headscissors spot, but recovered within seconds. When action spilled to the floor, Flamita hit a perfect Asai moonsault from the top, followed by Bandido landing a picture-perfect springboard shooting star press from the top rope to the floor. The crowd started chanting “R-O-H!”
Bandido showcased his freaky strength in the ring with with a one-armed delayed suplex. The crowd started heating up for the Briscoes here and they then took Flamita out with a dragon suplex/single-leg dropkick combo. Mark unfolded a chair in the ring and did a triple jump tope con giro to the floor, which the Baltimore crowd loved. They chanted for Mark to do it again, which he then did on both Mexabloods. He then landed the Cactus Jack elbow off the apron onto floor on Flamita.
The crowd chanted “Let’s go Briscoes!” as the bout returned to the ring, but it didn’t stay inside for too long. Bandido launched Flamita over his head with a back body drop which Flamita turned into a tope con giro to the floor.
Flamita kicked out of the Briscoes’ Redneck Boogie finisher only a few minutes after he stuck a 450 splash. He took both Briscoes out with a frog splash dropkick, literally hanging in the air like gravity stopped being a thing in his life for a split second. Mark used a Froggy ‘bow but again, Flamita kicked out, leading to more chants of “this is awesome!”.
Crowd volume began fading after the Mexabloods landed stereo Spanish Flys. Jay finally took Bandido out of the match with a brutal looking suplex on the apron, and the Briscoes scored the victory after decimating Flamita with a Doomsday Device. All four in this looked excellent.
— There was an intermission next. For those watching along at home, production aired an old match between Mark and Jay Briscoe from 8/24/02 when they were 17 and 18 years old. This was introduced as a way of promoting the March 14th Past vs. Present nostalgia show in Las Vegas. I hope they continue airing these matches on Honor Club broadcasts as it’s a great way of making use of the ROH library while giving their live crowds a break.
Flip Gordon won a 20-person battle royal to earn an ROH world title shot
Participants included Delirious, Danhausen, Dak Draper, Cheeseburger, Eli Isom, Tracy Williams, Crowbar, Rhett Titus, The Bouncers, the Blue Meanie, Maria Manic, Gangrel, Kenny King, Dragon Lee, PJ Black, Silas Young, Josh Woods, and Brian Johnson
Gangrel spit something in Kenny King’s eyes before the match started, and King sold it on the outside. He stayed on the floor once the match got started. Dragon Lee came out separately and King acted like he was miffed at him because of that.
Gangrel was first in and hit a double overhook suplex to Danhausen and then an Impaler on Draper. Draper got back up and eliminated Gangrel when he went for another Impaler. Draper then eliminated LSG and then Crowbar/Eli Isom at the same time. (It’s the same Crowbar/Devon Storm from WCW, for the record.) Cheeseburger eliminated Draper when he pulled the top rope down as Draper ran toward him.
When the Blue Meanie got the Bouncers to start dancing with him in the ring, Brian Johnson threw Meanie out. Johnson then eliminated his recent storyline mentor, PJ Black. As Johnson screamed about how he’s “the mecca,” Maria Manic walked over to him and used what I believe would be termed a scrotal claw in wrestling parlance, then press slamming him to the floor which got a nice reaction.
Rhett Titus and Manic then had a short posedown and Manic used a hip toss to eliminate Titus. She then saved Danhausen from the Bouncers and eliminated both at the same time, so she got the full-on Brock Lesnar Royal Rumble treatment here. Danhausen then thanked Manic for the save and hugged her, but then she shoved him to the mat. Maria’s not a hugger. Silas Young then got in Manic’s face and asked if she wanted to be a “real man.” Manic called him a b*tch which riled the crowd up.
They exchanged chops until Young took her out with a backbreaker and short lariat. When Young went to eliminate her, Bully Ray ran down to help eliminate Manic. Ray then hit her with a chair and powerbombed her through a table. The crowd chanted “a**hole” at Ray until he walked to the back.
Delirious and Danhausen did zany comedy together next. Danhausen gave Delirious some loose teeth in a jar (part of his gimmick) and Delirious swallowed them. Danhausen then did a jump kick so the teeth went flying and Delirious was eliminated. Young later eliminated Cheeseburger and the final four were now Young, his tag partner Josh Woods, Tracy Williams, and Dragon Lee. Kenny King still hadn’t entered the match yet exactly like he did last year during the Honor Rumble last year at MSG.
Woods and Young eliminated Williams, who I forgot was even in the match even though I saw him on camera earlier. Dragon Lee took out Young and Woods, so King tried running in and eliminating Lee from behind. King thought he had the match won when Lee skinned the cat, rolling himself over the top rope and back into the ring. Shocked, King ran at Lee, but Lee pulled the top rope down and eliminated King.
Lee then ripped his mask off to reveal it was Flip Gordon the whole time. He even shaved his beard between this and his earlier bout with Slex, so it took a second for everyone to pick up on who it was. It was a nice twist to wrap up a pretty bad battle royal. Gordon will now receive a shot at the ROH World title, held by Villain Enterprises partner, PCO.
Angelina Love and Mandy Leone of the Allure joined Riccaboni and Coleman on commentary for the next match.
Session Moth Martina defeated Sumie Sakai
This was Martina’s ROH debut. Her gimmick is that of a party girl who likes to booze it up and dance during her matches. She danced with referee Steven Dumeng and offered Sakai a beer before the bell. She used a Bronco Buster on Sakai in the corner and even threw in a few extra Bronco thrusts. She ran the ropes like she was going for a dive but got out of breath. Sakai, now on the floor, offered Martina a beer, but it was a ruse. Sakai turned heel recently, for those who aren’t aware.
Sakai worked Martina over in the ring with submissions and stomps, but Martina got her second wind when she took a swig of mystery liquid and put Sakai down with a few short lariats. The crowd was into mildly into Martina but it was around this point that they started losing steam. Martina drank some beer and used an accidental stinkface on Dumeng, taking him out of the match temporarily.
Sakai then tossed a chair in the ring and hit Martina followed by a DDT on it before helping Dumeng back into the match. Martina recovered quickly and headbutted Sakai before pinning her with her finish, the Jaeger Bomb. It sounded like the Allure might have an angle coming up with Martina in the near future.
Jeff Cobb and Dan Maff defeated ROH Tag Team Champions Jonathan Gresham and Jay Lethal for a future ROH tag team title shot
Gresham and Cobb were in together first. Gresham’s new heel nickname is “The Foundation” and both he and Lethal are wearing what look like matching black tights. Maff and Lethal were next and exchanged hard chops. Maff ploughed Lethal with a pounce. Maff was fired up for the whole match, his gravely voice booming across the arena like he was mic’d up throughout most of this.
Things heated up midway through with a lot of double team action. Cobb knelt down at one point and Maff used Cobb as a launchpad, crashing onto Lethal with a senton in the ring. On the floor, Lethal and Gresham tried taking Maff out with tope suicidas but he wouldn’t go down. Later, when they went for the Cornette Cutter, Cobb caught Gresham in mid-air and planted him with an Oklahoma Stampede.
The last couple minutes of this were good as the finish saw Maff putting Lethal away clean with a Burning Hammer. Maff and Cobb have now earned a title shot at the ROH tag champions, Gresham and Lethal.
Brody King defeated Rey Horus
This was good for a squash match. King, who re-signed with ROH last week, worked Horus over early on. It was deliberately paced as he used a few throws, chops, slams, and splashes. Horus countered with a big dive over the corner ringpost to the floor, but King returned the attacks and slowed the pace. Horus landed a wild looking tornado DDT out of the corner, but not long after that, King spiked Horus with the Gonzo Bomb in this souped-up squash.
Villain Enterprises (ROH World Champion PCO and Marty Scurll) defeated NWA World Champion Nick Aldis and Rush
This was good.
Aldis and the new NWA are doing another crossover angle with Scurll and this played more into their NWA storyline. Rush and PCO are still feuding over the ROH World title even though, at this time last year, they weren’t with the company.
Aldis and Scurll looked great together. They had an unsung singles match last year at the ROH/NWA Crockett Cup special and looked equally impressive together in this tonight.
PCO missed a somersault onto the apron early and it looked nuts like it always does. There were scattered “holy sh*t” chants for that, and later a louder chorus of “P-C-O” chants. Rush basically stayed on PCO while Aldis stayed with Scurll throughout which made the story psychology easy to interpret in the ring. The “heels” double teamed PCO in the corner for a few minutes until he burst through their attacks with a double lariat to tag out to Scurll, who cleaned house.
Scurll then chopped his partner, a spot that “wakes him up” which allowed PCO to power up so Scurll could back body drop him onto Rush and Aldis who stood prone on the floor. Scurll flexed on the top rope and then hit a superplex on Aldis. He did his best Jacques Rougeau impression and assisted PCO doing the old Quebecers somersault senton off the top.
Later, when Aldis landed a diving elbow drop on PCO, he accidentally hit Rush as well who then yelled at Aldis. Rush and Aldis got into an argument which led to Rush walking up the entrance and watching the rest of the match from there. Aldis grabbed his NWA title and went for a belt shot, but Scurll spun him around and snapped his fingers, causing him to drop the belt. PCO then chokeslammed Aldis to put him away clean with the PCOsault for the win. Rush then walked to the back.
Scurll got on the mic and expanded on their upcoming NWA title match. Scurll said he would put his money where his mouth is as long as that if he beats Aldis, he wins the NWA World title and offered to write a check for $500,000 if he were to beat him in that match. Scurll announced that Aldis’ opponent for ROH Supercard of Honor would be PCO.
Riccaboni insinuated this could possibly turn into a champion vs. champion match.
Final thoughts
This was a good but very long show that lost steam after the intermission. The crowd in Baltimore was enthusiastic, but it’s hard for fans to keep their energy up on a four-hour matinee show with ten matches.
The Briscoes vs. Mexabloods was the show stealer. The battle royal was not good but was meant to do a lot of storyline work without having to book more matches, so I get it. Slex looked very good in his debut, and Session Moth Martina’s character got over during hers.
The rest of the show was just there. It wasn’t bad, often good actually, but with such a glut of top-tier wrestling available now, this can’t be considered a must-watch show. If anything, ROH here did more of a service for NWA’s upcoming PPV than for their own with no significant angles introduced for Bound by Honor at the end of this month (PCO vs. Dragon Lee is the main event), nor for their Past vs. Present show in March.
Marty Scurll and NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis will face off in a tag match at ROH’s Free Enterprise event.
ROH has announced that Villain Enterprises (Scurll & ROH World Champion PCO) will face Aldis & Rush in the main event of Free Enterprise. The show is taking place at the UMBC Event Center in Baltimore on the afternoon of Sunday, February 9 and is free to attend.
After he was confronted by Scurll at the NWA’s Into the Fire pay-per-view last month, Aldis appeared at ROH’s Saturday Night at Center Stage and Honor Reigns Supreme shows last weekend and continued his feud with Scurll and Villain Enterprises.
An inter-promotional match between Aldis and Villain Enterprises member Flip Gordon is set for the NWA’s Hard Times PPV on Friday, January 24.
It was announced yesterday that Scurll will appear at the NWA’s television tapings in Atlanta on January 26. The NWA posted a video this morning with Aldis responding to that announcement by revealing that he’ll be at Free Enterprise. He sent a call of action to NWA fans to come to the show and wear their NWA colors.
ROH’s Kevin Eck wrote that — in storyline — “The tag match at Free Enterprise was put together by ROH matchmakers without consulting the participants, and the word is that RUSH isn’t pleased about having to team with anyone other than his teammates in La Faccion Ingobernable — his brother Dragon Lee and Kenny King. RUSH and PCO clearly have unfinished business. After PCO won the ROH World Title from RUSH at Final Battle on Dec. 13, their championship rematch at Saturday Night at Center Stage in Atlanta on Jan. 11 ended in chaos.”
Saturday Night at Center Stage in Atlanta, GA, Ring of Honor’s first Honor Club broadcast of 2020, kicked off with Ian Riccaboni and Caprice Coleman running down the night’s card, with PCO vs. Rush for ROH World Heavyweight championship in the main event.
Dragon Lee defeated Andrew Everett to retain the ROH World TV championship
Good match that might’ve been great with a larger crowd. Lee won the TV title from Shane Taylor last month at Final Battle in Baltimore; tonight was his first title defense. Everrett hasn’t wrestled for ROH since last year, so we are not clear as to why he is challenging for the belt tonight. Caprice Coleman mentioned he knew Everett from North Carolina, and that his father was the promoter for CWF Mid-Atlantic. Center Stage isn’t the largest venue but those in attendance for this show were hot for Dragon Lee. Production caught clusters of Lee fans, cheering him on before the match, most clad in masks, or some holding a Mexican flag.
Riccaboni mentioned Everett had been out of action for five months because of an injury. He looked fine tonight. The two opened their match with a few quick exchanges that finished in a stalemate until Everett took Lee out with a big tope con giro to the floor and followed it up with some showboating into the camera.
Back in the ring, Lee blasted Everett with Dragon’s Breath, his version of his brother Rush’s Bull’s Horns basement dropkick in the corner. Later, Lee went for a jumping hurricanrana over the top rope to the outside but Everett countered by cartwheeling himself across the apron and out of harm’s way. This was very impressive. Everett is very agile for his size and fluid in the ring. He landed an awesome “touch-toe” moonsault, as Coleman called it, which looked more like a reverse gainer you’d see from a diver. He got a two-count. They then went blow for blow for a few moments until Lee spit in Everett’s face. Loud boos for this; an “honorable” crowd, perhaps.
They exchanged a lot of spectacular-looking moves and counters toward the end of this one. Everett caught Lee with a stunner out of Desnucadora. They traded poison ranas. People in the crowd were chanting for Dragon Lee and blasting air horns, but the audience died down while both sold for a minute. Since the crowd wasn’t huge, it was clear when people were reacting and when were sitting on their hands waiting for the next big spot.
They reappeared when the two fought on the top rope, where Lee eventually landed a diving double-stomp to Everett hanging in a Tree of Woe from the turnbuckle, then followed with an Incinerator knee strike, but only for a one-count. Lee sold this well. He really tried getting the crowd to buy into him being in disbelief over the shock kick-out.
Everett whiffed on a Pele Kick and it killed the crowd for a moment. Some guy shouted “you f**ked up!” and another sounded like he yelled at Everett to “get a scrunchy,” presumably for Everett’s long hair. They saved it quickly, and in about a minute they went to the finish. Everett kicked out of Desnucadora, but Lee put him down for three with Incineration, a running knee-strike off the ropes, for his first win as ROH TV champion. Lee stood over Everett after the match and did some trash-talking. Commentary explained he was taking after his brother, Rush, and throughout the match tried building up the brothers’ new stable with Kenny King and Amy Rose, La Facion.
Bully Ray came out next, unannounced. He walked out to this milquetoast instrumental thrash tune that not even Riccaboni or Coleman seemed to have had heard before. Ray walked over to the ringside announce booth and began bullying (get it?) Coleman for shaking his head in Ray’s direction. Ray walked over and put Coleman on blast, claiming he was a bad announcer; Ray shouted, “You suck!” to which Coleman responded, “You swallow!” Before getting into the ring, Ray went to high-five an enthusiastic fan in the front row but faked the kid out and went into the ring. Tons of boos. Well done.
In the ring, Ray ordered ring announcer Bobby Cruise to bring him the microphone. He took it from Cruise and then pushed him to the mat, hard. Ray challenged anyone in the building to get into the ring with him if they had a problem with him or had something they wanted to say to his face. There were a couple of fans shown on camera that looked pretty happy to participate in such an event. Since ROH was in Atlanta tonight, Ray pulled the “I’m better than you because I’m from the North/We won the war” bit out of the closet and it got a lot of heat with this crowd. When they started giving him the “What?!” treatment, Ray leaned into it for a second, then called everyone puppets and explained how he’d just manipulated them to do what he wanted.
This was all a drawn-out setup for Ray to call out Maria Manic, which is what ROH had been pushing before the Atlanta show, that Manic was going to confront Bully Ray in Atlanta. When Ray finally called her out, Center Stage went black for a moment, then Manic entered from the back of the crowd behind the fans. She carries herself like a megastar already.
Bully Ray kept challenging her and threatening her, first to come down to ringside, then to face him on the apron, then to get inside the ring with him. The crowd was loud in their support of Manic, and when she got in the ring she took Ray out with a spear. Bobby Cruise then passed Manic a steel chair and laid in about five or six shots to Ray. Manic went back to the floor and grabbed a table but Ray took her down before she could put him through it. She hulked up a few seconds later and was about to powerbomb Ray through the table in the ring until the Allure came out and took Manic out. Angelina Love smashed her with a high heel shoe, then her and Mandy Leon held Manic on top of the table so Ray could put her through it with a splash from the second turnbuckle.
Before exiting, Ray yelled at Coleman and Riccaboni for being cowards for not doing anything. Some of the crowd were chanting “An-ge-lina!” before production cut to a promo for upcoming ROH events.
The Allure (Angelina Love and Mandy Leon) defeated Sumie Sakai and Nicole Savoy
The teams brawled around the ring at the start. Savoy tied Love up in a few interesting submission holds before Love escaped to tag out to Mandy Leon, who also got caught in a couple of Savoy’s submissions. She mainly worked over both Love and Leon’s neck and shoulders. Later, Leone passed Love a tassel of some sort and Love used it to choke Sakai with it.
When Savoy made her way back into the match she laid both of the Allure out with suplexes, and then both Savoy and Sakai locked on dual submission holds. Sakai landed a nice missile dropkick from the top rope that the crowd enjoyed. The finish saw Savoy accidentally take Sakai out with a big high roundhouse kick, which allowed for Leon to pin Sakai with a modified victory roll for the win.
Savoy got on her knees and apologized for kicking Sakai and took the blame for the loss. Sakai responded with a kick to the gut, then planted Savoy face-first with Smash Mouth. Before leaving, Sakai spit on Savoy.
This worked because for as long as I can remember, no matter what Sakai was doing in ROH in the past few years, I’ll always remember Riccaboni, Coleman and Colt Cabana talking about how nice of a person she is outside the ring, and not in a storyline way either. I’m not sure what this means in the context of ROH’s Women of Honor division, but it looks as though creative has a plan for her.
Next was a short exposition video package that went over a new angle ROH is working on with PJ Black and ROH Dojo wrestler Brian Johnson. The basic story is that, recently, Black got into an argument with Silas Young and Josh Woods, and Young basically challenged Black to a tag match: He and Woods–Young’s student–vs. Black and a student of his. If Black could find a student, they could have a match.
The video then followed Black as he chased Johnson around, offering to train him and help him get on TV. Johnson’s a hyper-intense lone wolf who doesn’t want help from anyone, but by the end of the package, it showed that Black had arranged for a tag team match with Johnson as his partner. They did a good job with this, especially considering that neither had much going on in terms of storylines.
Dak Draper defeated Jason Cade
Draper is another ROH Dojo guy, a big one billed at 6’6″. Cade, a Norman Smiley trainee, has been growing his name on the American indies over the past few years, most recently has wrestling for Impact and GCW, among others.
Early on, Cade slung himself over the top rope to the floor and attempted a frankensteiner, but Draper looked to have lost his balance and they both crashed to the floor in the form of what looked to be a powerbomb. Draper followed with power bombing Cade onto the apron. Cade landed some nice-looking dives and aerial spots, but Draper won with the Magnum KO slam. This was fine. It looks like they’re planning to build Draper up to be more of a player in 2020.
Jonathan Gresham (w/ Jay Lethal) defeated Josh Woods (w/ Silas Young) via countout
For those out of the loop, Gresham and Lethal are heel tag team champions right now, having won the titles from the Briscoes last month at Final Battle. Also, Young and Woods’ official tag team name is now 2 Guys 1 Tag and I’m still nonplussed about it.
These two broke into a great round of grappling at the top of this, though this Atlanta crowd didn’t seem to like it much at first. There were scattered chants about the match being boring early on, which speaks volumes about the type of audiences ROH brings in now compared to, say, ten years ago, where pure pro wrestling was the product’s selling point. I’m not quite sure what it is in 2020. Lethal and Young got into it with each other from across the ring and defused the naysayers’ taunting. When Gresham and Woods went back to the mat, it sounded like people were already more invested in the match from then on.
Gresham might be in the best physical shape of his life right now, and his transition to the heel roll in ROH has felt seamless. He and Woods looked very good in this, and Woods should be working with more guys like Gresham who understand Woods’ martial arts and grappling background and are able to blend it into the match and disguising the fact that he’s still a rookie. Woods landed an inverted TKO type of move on Gresham where he kneed Gresham in the face. Riccaboni called it a “TK-GTS,” which would be accurate.
Gresham worked over Woods knee over the last half of the match, and later on, he locked in the Figure Four leg lock until Woods got a rope break. Woods, still selling his knee, went for a high kick but sold it like he couldn’t fully extend his leg and kneeled to the mat, so Gresham went to lock on the Figure Four again, which Woods countered into a cradle. The two then rolled around the ring reversing each other’s inside cradles until they both broke the hold. Gresham landed a quebrada inside the ring next and the crowd loved that. When Gresham went for some sort of aerial attack, Woods caught him with a big gamengiri knee-strike that was timed perfectly, which led to “this is awesome!” chants from the crowd, the same crowd who jeered the two for being boring a few minutes earlier.
Woods went to suplex Gresham over the ropes to the floor but both crash-landed to the mats. Lethal and Young walked over to them and both illegally interfere by assisting their respective partners back into the ring, which resulted in both being ejected from ringside. As Young bickered with the referee of the decision, Lethal unbuttoned his ROH tag title belt and smashed Woods’ knee with it before rushing to the back. Gresham locked the Figure Four back on, this time on the floor; at the ref’s count of 16, Gresham unlocked the hold and went back into the ring. Woods wasn’t able to make it back into the ring in time and thus his countout loss here. This was really good, and arguably made better considering how they were able to win over tonight’s fickle Atlanta crowd.
They aired a vignette for Australian star Slex for his debut at ROH: Free Enterprise on February 9th. His gimmick is supposed to be cocky rich guy and his catchphrase is “Business is Boomin’,” which is ironic in so many ways. Slex garnered clout with international wrestling fans when he had a well-received match in Australia with NJPW’s Kazuchika Okada.
LifeBlood (Mark Haskins and Tracy Williams) Dan Maff and Jeff Cobb The Briscoes (Jay and Mark Briscoe)
This was all action. The Bouncers joined Coleman and Riccaboni on commentary for this one. All teams shook hands before the bout. Haskins and Cobb started things off but Mark Briscoe tagged Haskins in early on. The Briscoes were very popular with this crowd.
Cobb ragdolled Haskins around a bit, but Haskins and partner Tracy Williams used some quick tandem offense on Cobb to wear him down. Haskins and Jay Briscoe jaw-jacked at each other. Later on, Mark Briscoe chopped Haskins hard on the chest while Haskins was on the apron, so it counted as a tag. The crowd loved that. Haskins then “tagged” Briscoe back, and from here is when things spilled out of the ring and into madness, tons of dives to the floor from the ropes, from the apron, and finally with Maff taking most everyone out with a huge tope suicida. He looked very good in this and seems to have been a nice recent pickup for ROH.
LifeBlood wore Maff out later with more fast double-teaming, with Williams trying to tap Maff out with various foot- and knee locks. Mark Briscoe broke the submission with a Froggy Bow from the top. The Briscoes landed Redneck Boogie on Williams, who kicked out at two to the surprise of most. The crowd hated this. Moments later, Jay took Williams out with a Jaydriller to win the match.
The, uh, enigmatic Danhausen joined Riccaboni and Coleman on commentary afterwards. Riccaboni and then Coleman kept mouthing “Help me!” into the camera as Danhausen did his quirky onomatopoeia schtick.
Shane Taylor came out next with the Sons of Savagery. He talked about how three years ago at Center Stage he put the Briscoes through a table, and now he was in the ring and everyone was waiting to hear what he had to say. Taylor said he didn’t want to settle this on social media or anything like that so he called out Joe Koff, who came to ringside. He thanked Koff and explained how the last year and a half had been the best run of his career.
He said he had read Koff’s emails and offers for a new contract, and that he is the best homegrown ROH talent with the company today (which is arguably true), but if Koff still wanted him there, he would need a guaranteed ROH six-man tag title shot for the Sons of Savagery and himself, as well as a shot at the ROH World Heavyweight title at a time and place of his choosing. Taylor also demanded to be on every poster for every ROH show this year and for the maximum salary he’s allowed on his new contract, all while telling off hecklers in the crowd. Koff listened and walked to the back, to which Taylor responded “That was like your sex life: pretty short.”
Bandido, Flamita & Rey Horus defeated Villain Enterprises (Marty Scurll, Brody King & Flip Gordon) to win the ROH World Six-Man championship
This was really good. Fans were very loud in their support of the Mexican team beforehand. People were blowing their vuvuzelas and interrupting Scurll, which he relished. Finally, the Villain allowed to function as a villain. He announced that they’d defend their ROH six-man titles with Flip Gordon subbing in for PCO, the other champion member of the team scheduled who’d been planned to face Rush in the main event.
Brody King and Flamita started off. King really stands out when he’s in the ring with good lucha-style wrestlers because of both his size and ability to keep pace with faster guys in the ring. All six of these guys were natural together, but it helped to have such a hot crowd for this match. Bandido landed a perfect tornillo on King when he tagged into the match, and later stuck an Orihara moonsault from the top while Flamita and Horus did stereo tope con hiros to the floor. It almost looked like Bandido was about to lose his footing, but somehow all three timed it perfectly. Pretty amazing.
Flamita used a 450 splash on Gordon for a two-count. Bandido then took Flamita and wheelbarrow suplexed him onto Gordon while Horus used a legdrop on Gordon. Horus landed a flying, swinging DDT on King, then Scurll landed a tornado DDT of his own on Bandido. From here, everyone began trading fast high spots, maybe seven or eight in total, all at what felt to be 100 mph; Horus wrapped the sequence after spiking King on his head with a tilt-a-whirl DDT, and it saw everyone laid out in the mat or outside the ring by the end of it. The crowd peaked to the highest point the highest they’d been all night, and when production cut to the announce table, Riccaboni wore a look of genuine exhaustion on his face, and somehow Coleman had been cloaked in a fan’s Mexican flag.
Towards the end, Gordon and King used stereo topes of their own, and at the end of the match saw Scurll take a long while to set up the Chicken Wing facelock, but Bandio rolled him up before he Scurll lock it in–for three. The crowd erupted when Bandido scored the surprise victory. Your new ROH World six-man champions are Bandido, Flamita and Rey Horus.
Fans threw lots of money into the ring after this and Coleman mentioned on commentary that some “jive turkey” near ringside was trying to some snag loose change for himself. Again, this was very good.
PCO defeated Rush via disqualification to retain the ROH World Heavyweight title
Both Rush and PCO got loud reactions from the relatively small crowd at Center Stage. It sounded to be about 50/50, and both let the crowd chant their hearts out before they even got started. Rush hit a snap German suplex off the ropes early on. PCO landed a pop-up powerbomb and later a tope suicida, taking both Rush and himself into the barricades. Riccaboni mentioned that it was last year at Center Stage when PCO did a dive and got a gash on his head that required 20+ stitches; moments later, PCO missed a somersault senton from the top onto the edge of the apron.
When referee Todd Sinclair was giving Rush a hard time about a rope break, Rush started choking Sinclair. With both men distracted, PCO got back up from and chokeslammed Rush. While climbing to the top to go for the the PCOsault, Rush rolled a prone Sinclair in harm’s way, and PCO ended up moonsaulting Sinclair instead.
This turned into a big schmozz when the rest of La Faccion de Ingernobles (Dragon Lee and Kenny King) came out and attacked PCO. Villain Enterprises, in turn, came out and attacked La Faccion, which led to both teams brawling to the back. In the ring, Rush laid PCO out with a chair shot, then landed a diving senton onto PCO, but since Sinclair was still out, no ref around to count. Joe Mandack, another ROH official, rushed to the ring and was able to count to two before PCO kicked out.
Rush was displeased with this apparently and took this referee out too, even blasting Mandack in the face with the Bull’s Horns. Sinclair was up by this time in the match and called for the bell. PCO wins via DQ.
After the fall, a policeman came into the ring and whipped Gordon into the ringpost. The man then took off his blue police shirt to reveal a t-shirt underneath, one that read NWA POWERRR. This policeman turned out to be current NWA World Heavyweight champion, Nick Aldis. He has a match with Marty Scurll coming up at the next NWA pay-per-view, and based on ROH’s past relationship with Billy Corgan and Dave Lagana’s revamped NWA, it looks like the two companies will cross-promote again in the next few weeks, at least. La Faccion put PCO through a table in the ring, then did the Ingernobles pose, standing over the champion, as the show cut to black.
Final thoughts:
There wasn’t anything worrisome on tonight’s card, so if you’re looking for more ROH schadenfreude content, you’re out of luck here. This was a fine show. It wasn’t great, and at times it felt like a major slog to get through, but there were a few higher-quality matches, and the fans in attendance were hotter than most ROH crowds in 2019. The caveat with tonight’s crowd, though, was that it sounded like it was made up of casual fans, and primarily fans of the six Mexican superstars on the show, and not the hardcore pro wrestling fanatics that Ring of Honor built their company on, ironically enough.
Check back tomorrow for a recap of ROH’s next Honor Club broadcast from Concord, NC.
A rematch of the Final Battle main event will take place on ROH’s first show of 2020.
During last night’s Final Battle Fallout event, it was announced that PCO will defend his newly-won ROH World Championship against Rush at Saturday Night at Center Stage on January 11. The show is taking place at Center Stage in Atlanta, Georgia and will air live on HonorClub.
After PCO defeated Rush to win the ROH World title at Final Battle, Villain Enterprises opened last night’s show. PCO was interrupted by a video from Rush, who announced the formation of his La Faccion Ingobernable stable. It includes Rush, Dragon Lee, Kenny King, and Amy Rose.
PCO teamed with Marty Scurll and defeated Jeff Cobb & Dan Maff in the main event of Final Battle Fallout. Scurll pinned Maff with a cradle after countering a Burning Hammer.
ROH has also announced Nicole Savoy for Saturday Night at Center Stage. She made her ROH debut by defeating Sumie Sakai at Final Battle Fallout.
ROH came to the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia on Sunday night for their Final Battle Fallout event.
– Villain Enterprises and Destro opened the show after PCO’s ROH World Championship win against Rush at Final Battle. Marty Scurll said it’s an exciting time for Villain Enterprises and said no one deserves it more than PCO. Scurll handed the mic off to him, with PCO then thanking the fans.
PCO was interrupted by a video from Rush, who announced that Kenny King (with Amy Rose) has joined his new La Faccion Ingobernable stable in ROH. Rush’s brother Dragon Lee is also in the group.
PCO responded to Rush by asking if he thought PCO was going to give the World title back to him after he worked so hard for it. PCO said Rush may have his faction, but “we are Villain Enterprises.”
– Mark Haskins defeated Hallowicked
– Nicole Savoy defeated Sumie Sakai
This was Savoy’s ROH debut. The Allure (Angelina Love and Mandy Leon) came out after and attacked both Savoy and Sakai. Love cut a promo insulting Maria Manic and daring her to come to the ring.
Manic took out Leon and was about to put Love through a table, but Bully Ray appeared and chokeslammed Manic through the table instead.
– Jonathan Gresham defeated Alex Shelley
– A video aired announcing that Australian wrestler Slex has signed with ROH and is coming to the promotion soon.
– Tyler Bateman defeated Tracy Williams
Bateman won after distractions by two other new members of Vincent Marseglia’s faction. One of the new members was a woman and the other was a man.
Marseglia came out after and joined Bateman and the other two stable members. Marseglia complained about doing the hard work while Matt Taven was ROH World Champion but not being the person to get the credit for it. He welcomed the fans to “Ring of Horror.”
– Ian Riccaboni announced that PCO will defend his ROH World title against Rush at Saturday Night at Center Stage in Atlanta on January 11. Nicole Savoy will also be on the show.
– Silas Young & Josh Woods defeated The Briscoes in a Tag Team title number one contender’s match
Woods hit a rolling German suplex and pinned Jay Briscoe after ROH Tag Team Champions Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham interfered. Lethal & Gresham won the titles from The Briscoes at Final Battle.
– Flip Gordon defeated Rey Horus
Horus was making his ROH debut here.
– Villain Enterprises (ROH World Champion PCO & Marty Scurll) defeated Jeff Cobb & Dan Maff
Scurll pinned Maff with an inside cradle after avoiding a Burning Hammer.
ROH’s traditional biggest show of the year takes place tonight as the UMBC Event Center in Baltimore, Maryland hosts Final Battle 2019.
The pay-per-view will be headlined by Rush defending the ROH World Championship against PCO. Rush won the title from Matt Taven at Death Before Dishonor this September, while PCO was the winner of ROH’s Final Battle number one contender’s tournament. He defeated his Villain Enterprises stablemate Marty Scurll in the tournament finals.
Two other title matches are set for tonight. The Briscoes will defend their Tag Team titles against Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham, while Television Champion Shane Taylor will defend his title against Dragon Lee.
Tonight’s show will also feature Taven vs. Vincent Marseglia, Mark Haskins vs. Bully Ray in a street fight, Jeff Cobb vs. Dan Maff, Maria Manic vs. Angelina Love, Scurll & Flip Gordon vs. Bandido & Flamita, Dalton Castle & Joe Hendry vs. Silas Young & Josh Woods, and Kenny King vs. Rhett Titus.
The PPV will be four hours long. The first hour airs for free and will begin at 7 p.m. Eastern time.
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Pre-show: Josh Woods and Silas Young defeated Dalton Castle and Joe Hendry
ROH’s final major event of the year was called by Ian Riccaboni, Colt Cabana and Caprice Coleman. The crowd was sparse early on but enthusiastic. The production and lighting came across as slick on screen.
Castle came to the ring with new Boys. This was mostly comedy but the crowd was into it. Woods and Castle had a nice Greco-Roman style exchange once the match got more serious. Whenever Woods would goof around in the ring, like when he’d try and mock Castle, Silas Young would tag himself in. You could hear the production team say something about a back-up cable that we could clearly hear on the broadcast, so much so that Cabana even mentioned something about it. At one point, Hendry did a double fall-away slam to both Young and Wood, but in the end it was Woods and Young who picked up the win after Young launched Woods into Castle with a slingshot, then Woods caught Castle with a flying knee. This wasn’t bad.
-Next, Brian Zane interviewed Angelina Love and Mandy Leone in a backstage segment. Zane asked Love if she was afraid of Maria Manic, whom she’d face later on the card. Love said she’d been asked that question 1,001 times recently. She implied she wasn’t afraid and mentioned that she’s been in the business for 20 years. She called Zane sweaty and patted him on the brow and the two then walked away.
-Alex Shelley made an appearance back in the venue. He said Baltimore has been one of the most important cities in ROH history and thanked the fans in attendance. Shelley claimed that Ring of Honor is “pro wrestling’s greatest classroom,” based on the idea that so many great wrestlers in the past have come through the company and learned something important about their craft before becoming bigger stars elsewhere. He insisted on not naming anyone, though he did insist on naming certain wrestlers who left ROH for a time and came back to share knowledge with new generations; he named Jay Lethal and the Briscoe Brothers, specifically. He then went on to challenge Colt Cabana, who Shelley described as one of the greatest technical wrestlers in the world, to a singles match. He said he never had a chance to wrestle him in his career so he wanted a match with Cabana tonight at Final Battle. Cabana, who was on commentary while this was happening, turned around and accepted, and even mentioned his NWA National title and recent tour in NJPW while he was on the mic. Shelley said “see ya later” and both wrestlers went to the back. They’ll have a match later on in the show.
Kenny King (w/ Amy Rose) defeated Rhett Titus
Titus played super-babyface in this one. His wife and baby were even at ringside, Ricky Steamboat-style. Kenny King and Amy Rose walked out to the All Night Express theme song, Titus and King’s old tag entrance, and King and Rose did their old handshake. Midway through the match, when King was down by ringside, he started talking trash with Titus’ wife and even said “I’m the real dad!” about the Titus’ baby. Just seconds later, Titus landed onto King with a tope con giro, then used a nice snap front suplex on King to the floor. Later, King returned with a modified exploder suplex to Titus and planted him into the corner turnbuckles. Titus landed a flying cross-body attack for two. King went for Lethal Injection but Titus blocked it with a dropkick, then landed King’s Royal Flush for two. He took King’s headoff with a huge yakuza kick in the corner, but right before Titus could keep the momentum up, Amy Rose grabbed his ankle, distracting Titus long enough for King to sneak in and land the Royal Flush for the win. I understand this might not be the most exciting match on paper, but these two worked their asses off for a dead crowd and came out with a solid match. Titus’ new babyface roll works so much better than the oily bodybuilder thing he was doing before.
-Brian Zane interviewed the Bouncers who were sitting in the crowd near ringside. Zane throws good questions to talent and allows for everyone he interviews to sound authentic. They had a disagreement about who’d win the heavyweight title match tonight; Brawler Milonas argued Rush would win because he drinks beer with the Bouncers. “Cerveza, baby!”
Jeff Cobb defeated Dan Maff
This was fun. Maff did a tope suicida not even a minute into the match. Cobb launched Maff out of the corner and over his head with a suplex minutes later. This was cool to watch because these two are roughly the same height and weight, and both are highly, highly agile. It was an advanced hoss fight. Cobb clotheslined Maff so hard that he slid under the bottom rope and onto the floor, like he did in his match with Shane Taylor earlier this year. Maff no-sold tons of Cobb’s offense in this, which gave much of this a Japanese “fighting spirit” flavor. Maff is so charismatic. At points he made it look like he was ragdolling Cobb, first with a pounce and later with a huge spear. Riccaboni and Coleman did a nice job on commentary getting over Maff’s Burning Hammer finisher throughout this. Cobb made a killer comeback and used two Tour of the Islands on Maff for the win. It looked crazy and the crowd went nuts for it. The two shook hands and chopped each other before leaving the ring. That match was so butch that every male kid in attendance just went through an expedited version of puberty just now. Maff felt like a serious player immediately after this one.
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Bandido and Flamita defeated Marty Scurll and Flip Gordon (w/ Brody King)
ROH aired a pre-show promo for Final Battle that looked great. It looked more in line with something you’d see on AEW Dynamite than their typical segments. Gordon and Flamita were the first in for their teams. Gordon and Flamita had a really fast exchange. Flamita is ridiculously fast. Brody King joined Riccaboni and Coleman on commentary during this. Flamita stood on Bandido’s shoulders and did a falling splash for two. Later in the match, Flamita tried to jump from Bandido’s shoulders to do some sort of plancha but he lost his balance, he slipped, but he was gripping Bandido’s hands and was able to catch his balance and, somehow, springboard his way onto Gordon and Scurll on the floor. This turned into chaos from around this point, move for crazy move, all of it pretty innovative, and all at 110 MPH. It sounded like the crowd had a hard time even keeping up with them. Brody King couldn’t help but put over Bandido and Flamita during this. Bandido did his moonsault fall-away slam (and looked to almost botch it), and when he stood back up, Scurll was waiting for him and applied the chicken wing submission. From here we got another sequence of wild 5–7 spots in under a minute, and finished with Bandido doing a 42-plex–meaning he suplexed both Scurll and Gordon simultaneously–while Flamita conked Gordon in the face with 619 right beforehand. Everyone looked spectacular here, but the match itself was a sprint, which some fans will love and other fans might not.
Vincent defeated Matt Taven in a grudge match
Taven jumped Vincent, formerly Vinny Marseglia, as he ran down to the ring. He threw Vincent over the barricades and did a big dive onto him into the crowd and got an “R-O-H” chant. The Baltimore crowd was loud behind Taven for all of this. Vincent used a disgusting suplex to Taven where they landed flush against the concrete. It sounded brutal. The crowd would dip in and out of the match when Vincent was on offense. Late in the match Taven spiked Vincent with the Climax for just two and commentary put it over like crazy. Taven tried bringing an axe into the ring but Vincent knocked it out of his hands and landed Sliced Bread for the surprise win. The pro-Taven crowd was bummed.
After the match, the recently signed Bateman attacked Taven from behind and put him down with a tombstone piledriver. Vincent slid a block into the ring and set Taven’s ankle on it, then smashed it with a chair. They sold it like a Pillmanizer spot with security carrying Taven out. It looks like Vincent and Bateman are going to be a new spooky heel tag team going forward.
Mark Haskins (w/ Vicki Haskins) defeated Bully Ray in a streetfight
This was not good. Bully Ray jumped Haskins with a barbed wire board during Haskins’ entrance. He smashed Haskins in the back, then into Vicki Haskins’ face which looked especially violent. The referee shouted “What are you doing?! She’s a woman!” at Bully Ray. Well, then. Ray berated a staff member for touching him. “She don’t belong near a ring!” Ray shouted before the actual bell sounded. In the ring, Bully Ray scolded Haskins for making fun of him on Twitter. Ray grabbed a mic late in the match and screamed “God bless New York City!” and taunted him inside the ring with a kendo stick. He reminded Haskins about how Ray called his family trash. He mentioned “the Twitter machine” again and was angry about being talked trash at via that platform. He called Haskins a “low life, bottom-feeding jobber.” Haskins slapped the mic away and enticed Ray to hit him, then called him a p**sy flipped him the double bird. Ray went to power bomb Haskins onto a chair but Haskins reversed it into a drop toehold onto the chair. In theory, people are supposed to go crazy for Haskins, but they didn’t because it’s Final Battle 2019, not Final Battle 1988, unfortunately. People reacted more to Haskins pulling out a ladder than for Haskins getting his comeuppance, and understanding that is a key to realizing what year you’re booking in. The next big reaction was for when Ray pulled a table from under the apron. He threw that table and the barbed wire board into the ring. They both ended up on the top rope at one point, the barbed wire board set up in one corner, and when Haskins went for a super frankensteiner Ray reversed it into a super power bomb onto the table–not through it. Since the table didn’t break, Ray hopped onto the second rope, then hopped off with a messed up looking flip to quickly put Haskins through the table, then did the Great Muta mist taunt to the delight of the crowd. Who is supposed to be the one getting over tonight? Vicki Haskins came back from her assault earlier on and took a cheesegrater to Ray’s testicles. “My baaaalllllls!” he screamed. You could hear one male voice loudly booing all of this. Vicki Haskins then kissed Mark, then double press-slammed him through a table. After a diving double foot stomp, Haskins picked up the win. If this was supposed to get Haskins over, it didn’t. Bully Ray was the focal point of the match; the Haskins were players in his segment. This was bad, which is depressing because Mark Haskins is one of the top three pure wrestlers in the company right now.
Alex Shelley defeated Colt Cabana
This was very interesting. This match was as Shelley described it would be earlier on the pre-show, an expo of technical pro wrestling. Shelley’s matwork is still evolving and always looks like he’s updating his submission vocabulary. Cabana showcased his clever defense, and whatever whacky lock Shelley threw at him, Cabana had an equally unique response. By the time the two started to speed up, Shelley pinned Cabana out of nowhere with a modified cradle and splay pin for the surprise three-count. This couldn’t have been more than three minutes. Riccaboni mentioned on commentary and wished him good luck if this happens to be the last time we see Cabana in ROH in 2019. It should be noted that Cabana is the sitting NWA National champion and Shelley now has a clean pinfall victory over him.
Maria Manic defeated Angelina Love (w/ Mandy Leone)
Manic decked Love with a lariat before the bell rang. She raggdollded Love around the ring with slams. Mandy Leone tried interfering but Manic took her out, too, press slamming her off the top rope. She looked like she murdered Love with a low dropkick on the apron. She had a total superstar monster vibe, like a Brock Lesnar type. So much charisma. When Leone tried spraying her with a bottle of perfume she jump-kicked the bottle into the crowd. Later, she press slammed Love face-first onto the timekeeper’s table. The crowd started chanting “this is awesome.” Manic took a fan’s MJF-inspired scarf and wore it around her neck while she strutted around the ring as Love recovered. Manic threw Love back into the ring and tapped Love out with a torture rack.
Dragon Lee defeated Shane Taylor (w/ Shane Taylor Promotions) to win the ROH World Television championship
Taylor spit in Lee’s hand when Lee offered a handshake before the match. Lee blasted Taylor with a shotgun dropkick once things got underway. Only moments into the match and Taylor caught Lee and planted him onto the edge of the apron. He chopped Lee so hard it evoked the wonderful “ohhhhhhh my god!” trademark call from Caprice Coleman. He crushed Lee against the barricade with a running knee strike. So much of the first part of this was just Taylor tormenting Lee. Ron Hunt, a part of Shane Taylor promotions, was shown sitting at ringside a few times and was mentioned by commentary, so it’s fair to expect more out of that guy in the future. Lee shifted the tempo of the match with two huge, high-speed dives onto Taylor, first a tope suicida through the ropes, then a Great Sasuke-esque swandive senton over the top. Later, Lee landed on Taylor with a diving double stomp from the top rope to Taylor who was laid atop the apron. He stuck another diving stomp into the ring but only a two-count here. They later got into a chop battle and Lee looked like he had just as much power as Taylor had behind his strikes. The crowd really started to quiet down later on in this, though I think it might just have been show fatigue. Lee kicked out of Greeetings from 215, the Fire-Thunder driver Taylor has been using that has been pretty protected as a finish this year, and the crowd sort of picked up on how far they were going at this point. Lee and Taylor somehow pulled off a Canadian Destroyer, but then Ron Hunt interfered and distracted ref Todd Sinclair. Lee rocked Taylor with a sharp running knee strike with a chain wrapped around his knee, one Hunt tried passing to Taylor for him to use, but since Sinclair was distracted he didn’t immediately make the count. By the time Sinclair was in position to count, Taylor kicked out at one. Lee did a version of Des Duca Dora to Taylor, another impressive feat of strength from Dragon, but again it was only for a two-count. Hunt tried getting involved again but Lee took him out with a dropkick. The crowd sensed something special was about to happen, and after Lee smashed Taylor with another kneestrike, this one exposed, that was it: Dragon Lee is your new Ring of Honor World Television champion.
Jay Lethal and Jonathan Gresham defeated The Briscoes (Mark & Jay Briscoe) to win the ROH World Tag Team championship
Good match. PJ Black joined Riccaboni and Coleman on commentary for this. The Briscoes had family members down near the front row and were on camera before the match. Gresham and Lethal are playing heels now, for those not keeping track lately. Midway through the teams started brawling around the ring. Mark Briscoe used a flying Cactus Jack elbow off the apron. Later on, the Briscoes decapitated Gresham with a Doomsday Device that turned Gresham inside out. He and Lethal came back later on with a Lethal Injection followed by shooting star press from Gresham for a two-count that Jay Briscoe broke. The crowd peaked here and then came down for the next few minutes, then came back up again when Jay Briscoe was finally tagged in. When Lethal and Gresham went for the Cornette Cutter, the slingshot into a cutter double team finish the two have used for a while, but Jay Briscoe caught Gresham mid-air and planted him with a Death Valley Driver. He almost pinned Lethal for three until Gresham, who was outside of the ring, pulled referee Steven Dumeng to the floor to break up that pin. Lethal locked Jay in a figure-four leglock but Briscoe made it to his brother in time and crashed down into Lethal with a top rope Froggy ‘bow. When the Briscoes went for a Doomsday Device on Lethal, Gresham broke it up and Lethal schoolboy’d Jay and pinned him–with a handful of tights–for three. Lethal and Gresham are the new ROH World Tag Team champions.
PCO defeated Rush to become the new ROH World Heavyweight champion
This was something else. Rush got a megastar entrance with a huge pyro show, but PCO was the crowd’s choice for babyface. He got lots of “P-C-O” chants beforehand. They jaw-jacked early on but began smashing into each other with shoulderblocks only a few seconds after the bell. The match spilled to the floor early on. Rush hit PCO over the head with a chair and tossed him into the barricade on the floor. He shouted “They say PCO’s not human, but I’m human!” and continued to thrash PCO. Although there were a few pockets of the crowd were chanting for Rush, this was mostly a pro-PCO crowd tonight. Rush leaned into the role of heel like a natural. He went into the crowd and found a mini ladder that he tried setting up in the corner but it kept falling out of place. PCO finally returned Rush’s offense with an avalanche into the corner followed by a tope con giro through the second rope. He went on to miss the somersault senton onto the corner of the ring when Rush moved out of the way. That man’s poor tailbone. Rush dragged PCO out into the crowd and near the foggy hearse that PCO arrived at the arena in. Oh, right, there was a hearse with fog coming out of it still parked near the entrance. Rush went on to stack a few steel guardrails on top of each other, then curse the crowd in Spanish, and finally through PCO onto the aforementioned pile of steel guardrails. He was willing heel heat from this crowd. As Rush strutted back to the ring, PCO’s guru, Destro, the guy from the Monday Night PCO videos and from PCO’s MSG entrance at G1 Supercard, he arrived on the scene, cracked open the hood of the hearse, took jumper cables and electrocuted PCO back to life. It was like one of the stunts PCO does in his videos. Recharged, he chokeslammed Rush onto the hood of the hearse. A few young men nearby started chanting “shock this bitch!” over and over and I couldn’t help but crack up. PCO legdropped Rush while he was on the hood of the car, but moments later Rush was somehow able to do what looked like a tomoe nage judo throw onto the windshield of the car. Destro kept growling “you’re a monster!” at PCO, who later went after Rush with a crowbar. He missed Rush once and crashed the crowbar through the hearse window. This crowd really wanted PCO to win. Rush unveiled three doors, knobless doors, from under the ring. Doors are the new flavor of the month when it comes to hardcore matches. When Rush landed a diving senton from the top and went for the pin, PCO was up at one. Rush then started ramming one of the doors into PCO’s head, then suplexed him through another one that was set up in one corner of the ring. The crowd chanted “one more door!” before PCO used a spinebuster to put Rush through the last door set up in the ring. He then stuck a PCOsault for a two-and-three-quarters-count. Rush rolled out of the ring and beat up Destro and threw him into the crowd, but in the meantime, PCO had set up a table, then got a hold of Rush and put him through said table with a knees-first PCOsault through a table for three. PCO is the new ROH World Heavyweight champion. Riccaboni made a hell of a call for the win and did his damndest to make it feel huge. It wasn’t the prettiest match of all time, but the crowd wanted three things here: They wanted violence, they wanted PCO to win, and they wanted to boo whomever was in PCO’s way at winning. In terms of that criteria then this match was a total success. Rush worked his ass off for heat and would adjust to the mood and feel of the crowd with no effort, while the nearly 52-year-old PCO once again risked his body on a big ROH show, again going to extreme lengths to impress fans. Give the man a bonus and an icepack, or whatever you’d give Not-Humans.
Final thoughts:
Despite the tornado of bad publicity and reported backstage mishandling over the course of 2019, ROH delivered an above average show tonight. Aside from gratuitous Bully Ray vs. Mark Haskins streetfight, each match tonight was either good or very good. The pre-show didn’t drag, and actually ended with one of the best matches of the night (Jeff Cobb vs. Dan Maff), and matches that on paper you’d think be ill-fated, Kenny King vs. Rhett Titus, for example, turned out to be fine matches at worst, solid modern pro wrestling at best. Maria Manic’s segment got over very well with tonight’s crowd and she came across like a star on televison. Dan Maff also felt like a player after his match with Cobb tonight. The quick match between Alex Shelley and Colt Cabana was great for what it was, a nice surprise that didn’t overstay its welcome and served a purpose, seemingly to send Cabana off ROH television, at least based on what Ian Riccaboni mentioned after the match on the broadcast. Both the TV and tag matches were very good, and I don’t think the crowd seemed to expect those plus the ROH Heavyweight title to all change tonight. What this signified was that ROH is looking to relaunch or rebrand after the post-G1 Supercard spiral into mismanagement and publicity hell they experienced late this year. It sounded to satisfy the fans in attendance, and it wasn’t the most difficult card to watch for the viewer at home. Nothing felt like it dragged much despite this being a four-hour show in an already oversaturated wrestling market landscape. I think that speaks volumes about ROH’s locker room talent. If tonight was anything else, it was a start.
Two of the Muñoz family members will clash in November against Fenix and Pentagon Jr.
The Crash announced during this evening’s show that Rush & Dragon Lee will meet Pentagon Jr. and Fenix on their 8th anniversary event in Tijuana on November 1. However, Rush later said that it could be any Muñoz family members, meaning father Bestia del Ring could be part of the match.
Dragon Lee is part of the NJPW Super Junior Tag Tournament that takes place later this month and has not been cancelled from that tour.
Rush and Dragon Lee were released from CMLL just hours after the 86th anniversary event took place last weekend, with CMLL claiming it was due to the two not living up to the standards of the organization. There is ongoing turmoil behind the scenes which had led to younger wrestler’s guarantees being cut.
There is also a power struggle ongoing that has led to Sofia Alonso, who was put in charge of the promotion following Paco Alonso’s death, being demoted.
Jonathan Gresham and CIMA were also announced for the anniversary show.
ROH has announced when new World Champion Rush will be making his first title defense.
A 15-man battle royal will take place at Glory By Honor in New Orleans, Louisiana on Saturday, October 12. The winner will advance to challenge for Rush’s ROH World Championship later that night.
Kenny King, Joe Hendry, Silas Young, Josh Woods, Rhett Titus, Beer City Bruiser, Brian Milonas, Cheeseburger, LSG, and Shaheem Ali are the first 10 wrestlers announced for the battle royal.
Rush won the ROH World Championship by defeating Matt Taven at Death Before Dishonor last Friday. At ROH’s post-PPV tapings the next night, Rush made an appearance but didn’t wrestle due to a minor ankle injury.
Jeff Cobb is also set to challenge for Rush’s World title at ROH’s Honor United show in Bolton, England on October 27.
ROH is holding a tournament to decide their World title challenger for December’s Final Battle PPV. The semifinals and finals will be held at Glory By Honor. Jay Lethal vs. Marty Scurll and PCO vs. Dalton Castle are the semifinal matches.
Glory By Honor is taking place at the UNO Lakefront Arena in New Orleans and will air live on HonorClub. Here’s the updated card for the show:
ROH World Champion Rush defending against the battle royal winner
15-man battle royal to determine Rush’s challenger for later in the show
Finals of the Final Battle number one contender’s tournament
Jay Lethal vs. Marty Scurll in a Final Battle number one contender’s tournament semifinal match
PCO vs. Dalton Castle in a Final Battle number one contender’s tournament semifinal match
Women of Honor World Champion Angelina Love (w/ Mandy Leon) defending against Kelly Klein (ROH has announced that Klein will have someone in her corner)
ROH Tag Team Champions The Briscoes defending against Luke & PJ Hawx
Brody King & Flip Gordon vs. Mark Haskins & Tracy Williams
NXT took advantage of their head start over AEW by hitting a home run with last week’s live premiere.
It wasn’t surprising that NXT’s first live episode was good — it would have been pretty shocking if it wasn’t. Even if there have been occasional peaks and valleys, NXT has always been a good show. Triple H and his team know what they’re doing and the roster is stacked with talent. But NXT was able to pass one of their most important tests: creating a show that feels must-see and different from what they were already offering viewers.
It’s become clear that NXT is going to be a place that features all of WWE’s non-main roster sub-brands. In addition to the regular NXT talent on display, the show featured an appearance by WWE United Kingdom Champion WALTER and his Imperium stablemates. There was also a Cruiserweight Championship number one contender’s match, with Lio Rush making his return and defeating Oney Lorcan.
Due to the final episodes of the USA Network series “Suits,” the first two live editions of NXT are being split across USA and the WWE Network. Last week’s USA Network hour featured a really good fatal four-way number one contender’s match that saw Candice LeRae defeat Mia Yim, Bianca Belair, and Io Shirai to become NXT Women’s Champion Shayna Baszler’s next challenger. Cameron Grimes squashed Sean Maluta, and Roderick Strong became the new NXT North American Champion by defeating Velveteen Dream. The first NXT broadcast of the USA Network era ended with every member of Undisputed Era holding a title.
With perhaps the most important week for the U.S. industry in a decade coming up, a double issue this week:
Goes through details of the moves by WWE and AEW, what plans are, advertisers wants, promotion and much more.
Includes an extensive look at Battle of Los Angeles, New Japan’s upcoming big shows and Tokyo Dome plans, what to learn from the NXT ratings and much more.
The lead story talks about WWE’s big week, the importance of the different shows, overdoing nostalgia, ticket sales, announcing changes, 205 Live’s future, plans for all the shows, what demos to look at, what happened with AEW and ITV, NXT, Smackdown and AEW on the West Coast, replays shows, Smackdown ad rates, as well as a look at Hell in a Cell.
Impact to AXS and what the plans are for specials leading to the regular show.
The keys in week two’s NXT show and the audience change.
Brock Lesnar’s future, John Hennigan coming in, CM Punk, former UFC legend talks coming to WWE, Shayna Baszler talks her career, WWE injuries, WWE stock update, most-watched shows on WWE Network for the past week, as well as a look at every WWE & NXT arena event over the past week with results, highlights and business notes.
NJPW coverage of Destruction in Kobe, Tokyo Doe direction, King of Pro Wrestling, the Young Lions Cup and match-by-match coverage with star ratings.
Battle of Los Angeles, Bandido’s win, past winners, other PWG alumni, business notes, the good and the bad, the stars of the weekend, the stars of the future, Aramis, Alex Zayne, plus match-by-match coverage with star ratings.
Full coverage of the UFC from Mexico City along with business notes.
Full coverage of all the WWE television shows from the past week.
Results of all the major pro wrestling events around the world over the past week.
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SUNDAY NEWS UPDATE
Regarding Dwayne Johnson on Friday, it hasn’t been announced because there is no deal in place. They are working on it and it’s really up to his schedule if they can pull it off. It’s not so much they want the surprise as much as it’s probably not going to be confirmed until the last minute.
In regards to Cain Velasquez and WWE, he had a meeting with the company and we talked more details about it on today’s radio show. Every major promotion except CMLL has shown some interest in him.
Bandido suffered a knee injury, which actually happened before BOLA, but he worked BOLA since he was key to the show and also worked the ROH PPV on Friday. He is not out of action. He didn’t work yesterday for ROH and canceled the wXw tag team tournament upcoming in Germany. We don’t yet know how long he’ll be out or if he’ll be able to the NJPW tag team tournament.
All the CMLL fallout with Rush & Dragon Lee being fired was covered in depth on today’s show. There’s nothing else new past there are a lot of issues regarding names that CMLL owns, including Los Ingobernables. Rush missed yesterday’s show due to an ankle injury suffered catching Matt Taven on a dive on Friday. It’s not bad and he’s not supposed to miss any time but they didn’t want to risk their new champion aggravating it the next day.
The short version of the story as to why the New Japan show last night at the Hammerstein Ballroom started 90 minutes late, the ambulance story is pretty much legit, but it’s far more than that. The company that usually provides ambulances for the building was called the morning of the show to say it was canceled. Those backstage found out at about 5:30 p.m. and ended up getting an FDNY ambulance to the building in time for the show to start. The Athletic Commission rep said that if there was a shooting nearby the ambulance would have to leave and wouldn’t accept it or allow the show to go on. A second FDNY ambulance came but it was the same story. Two other ambulances ended up being brought in so at one point there were four ambulances there. At this point the two FDNY ones left since the commission wouldn’t accept them. Then somebody tried to tell one of the ambulances (a commission person) that two weren’t needed and one of the others could go, but those associated with the show asked, what if somebody needed an ambulance and thus, with only one, there wouldn’t be one there, and the commission said they would have to stop the show at that point until the ambulance got back. So they kept two. They also had four doctors, three more than necessary, on their own including one that spoke Japanese. At the time the video played, the two ambulances were there but the commission would not allow the show to start until they were in the back of the building and a stretcher was in the building, as they were in the front of the building when they wanted to start the show and were told they couldn’t. NJPW was also told the barricade couldn’t be used to throw wrestlers in, no fighting outside the ring, no tables and no blading. For union reasons, the show was supposed to end by 11 p.m. but we’re told even with rushing the show, NJPW decided to run overtime even with the added cost.
Expect lots of WWE media and some AEW media over the next few days. AEW has stories in TV Guide and another major publication in the next few days. WWE is sending talent to Fox & Friends TV all week with Kofi Kingston tomorrow, Stephanie McMahon on Tuesday, Charlotte Flair on Wednesday and Roman Reigns on Thursday.
WWE:
E! has moved Total Divas from Wednesday at 10 p.m. to Tuesday at 10 p.m., probably with the idea keeping it off Wednesday is a good idea for all concerned. It stars this week.
Big E gave Shawn Porter his ring intro using the New Day style intro last night on the Porter-Spence PPV which FOX was distributing. Another example of the FOX promotional power at work.
Even though Bellator ran a major show, and UFC also ran yesterday, the only combat sports related item that cracked the top 20 in searches was the Errol Spence Jr. vs Shawn Porter boxing match, which was No. 3 at 500,000. The No 20 term topped 100,000 on a list dominated by college football.
In yesterday’s show from Copenhagen, Denmark, Olympic wrestler Mark O Madsen, an Olympic medalist, was like the local hero in the semifinal.
Sergio Pettis vs. Kai Kara-France has been added to the 12/14 show in Las Vegas
MISCELLANEOUS:
Kota Ibushi had a tooth knocked out last night.
Jake Atlas, who started with ROH yesterday, has not signed with ROH.
KSW announced a match to crown its first bantamweight champion on 11/9 at Arena Zagreb in Croatia. It will be Antun Racic (23-8-1) of Croatia as the local star facing Damian Stasiak (11-6) from Poland.
AAW from last night in Chicago: Clayton Gainz b Sean Higgins, Airwolf b Jordan Oliver, Kimber Lee b Allysin Kay, Good Brother #3 (Mance Warner) b Matt Justice in a bounty match, Ace Romero won four-way to get an AAW title shot on 11/30 over Paco, Joey Lynch and Curt Stallion, Myron Reed NC Karam when Hakim Zane broke up the match, Jacob Fatu b Darby Allin, Jessicka Havok b Hawlee Cromwell to keep the women’s title, Jessicka Havok & Kris Statlander b Jimmy Jacobs & Josh Briggs, Jake Something b David Starr to keep the Heritage title, Josh Alexander b Sami Callihan to win the AAW title. So Alexander vs. Romero is the 11/30 main event. (thanks to Case Lowe)
wXw has a Femmes Fatales tournament on 10/5 in Oberhausen with eight-women. The first round matches are LuFisto vs.; Saraya Knight, Lana Austin vs. Baby Allison, Session Moth Martina vs. Wesna and Sammii Jayne vs; Leyla Hirsch. Plus Amale defends the wXw title against Faye Jackson.
WOW TV results from last night on AXS TV: Nikki Krumpus b Princess Aussie, Reyna Reyes (Gisele Shaw) b Temptress (Katarina Leigh), Chantilly Chelia (Ray Lyn) & Sassy Massy (Alisha Edwards) b Disciplinarian & Abilene Maverick (Barbi Hayden) to win the vacant tag titles, The Beast & Jungle Grrrl b Havok & Hazard (Nevaeh-DQ (thanks to Shannon
Pro Wrestling Eve from yesterday in London at the Stratford Circus Arts Centre in a retirement show for Jayla Dark: Kanji won three-way over Mercedes Blaze and NightShade, Jetta b Trish Adora, Emi Sakura b Gisele Shaw, Rhia O’Reilly b Faye Jackson, Roxxy d Sammii Jayne, Tsukasa Fujimoto b Jayla Dark (thanks to Shannon Walsh)
Defy from last night in Seattle for the farewell show for the group of Darby Allin, Joey Janela and referee Aubry Edwards, who are all with AEW. Ethan HD & Mike Santiago b Super Crazy & Guillermo Rosas, Judas Icarus & Jordan Oasis & ? & Hero b Border Patrol & Vinny Massaro & Travis Williams & ?, Rebel Kel won four-way over Danika Della Rouge, Reia Von Slasher and Sloan, Killer Kross b Douglas James, Rey Hours b Bestia 666 (fans threw money in the ring when it was over, at least 50 different bills were thrown in), Cody Chunn b Darby Allin, Schaff b Joey Janela to keep Defy title. They announced Matt Sydal and Cima for October, and that on 11/30- and 12/1 would be a Wrestling Summit show with talent from PCW, Ultra, Progress and Defy. (thanks to Scott Janicek)
Stardom from earlier today in Nagoya: Saki Kashima b Saya Kamitani, Hana Kimura & Konami b Starlight Kid & Saya Iida, Mayu Iwatani & Tam Nakano b Natsuko Tora & Sumire Natsu, Kagetsu & Hazuki & Jamie Hayter & Andras Miyagi b Bea Priestley & Momo Watanabe & AZM & Leo Onozaki, Riho b Death Yama-san to keep the High Speed title, Arisa Hoshiki b Avary to keep the Wonder of Stardom title.
