Two more matches have been added to the card for ROH’s final pay-per-view of the year.
ROH Television Champion Shane Taylor will defend his title against Dragon Lee at Final Battle. A grudge match between former Kingdom stablemates is also set for the PPV, with Matt Taven facing off with Vincent Marseglia.
ROH began building to Taylor vs. Lee when Taylor retained his title against Flip Gordon, Tracy Williams, and Lee in a four corner survival match at Death Before Dishonor this September. Taylor pinned Gordon, then Lee indicated that he wanted a one-on-one match with Taylor.
Marseglia turned against Taven and attacked him with an axe in an angle at ROH’s The Experience show earlier this month.
Final Battle is taking place at the UMBC Event Center in Baltimore, Maryland on Friday, December 13. Here’s the updated card for the PPV:
ROH World Champion Rush defending against PCO
ROH Tag Team Champions The Briscoes defending against Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham
ROH Television Champion Shane Taylor defending against Dragon Lee
Mark Haskins (w/ Vicky Haskins) vs. Bully Ray in a street fight
ROH and CMLL’s Global Wars Espectacular tour wrapped up in Milwaukee on Sunday. Ian Riccaboni, Caprice Coleman, and Colt Cabana were the commentary team for the night.
Villain Enterprises (PCO & Brody King) defeated The Bouncers (Beer City Bruiser & Brawler Milonas)
Bruiser is from Milwaukee and sounded to have more people behind him tonight. Lots of beer-centric chants and puns were thrown out at the beginning of this.
The match slipped into a brawl outside the ring early on. Bruiser did a big plancha onto every one of these large individuals. It’d be fair to say these are the four biggest wrestlers in ROH at the moment.
Bruiser went on a run late in this and took both PCO and King out, then did a rolling senton off the apron to the floor onto PCO. Everyone in this match did a few high spots that you wouldn’t normally see from guys this big.
Vinny Marseglia from The Kingdom came out and pushed Bruiser from the top rope before The Bouncers tried finishing the match. PCO later landed a PCOsault onto Milonas, and he and King both pinned Milonas to put The Bouncers away.
This was a decent hoss tag match, not always perfect but entertaining enough to get the crowd into it. Despite the loss, The Bouncers shared two tall boys of beer before heading to the back.
ROH Television Champion Shane Taylor defeated Dysfunction to retain his title
This was less of a real match and more of an impromptu segment to get Taylor on the show without having to wrestle. Taylor has been doing an angle where he’s been upset about not being booked this weekend even though he’s the TV Champion.
Dysfunction, a veteran Milwaukee wrestler, came out to take on the champion. Taylor said that if Dysfunction could last five minutes with him, he’d award him the title.
Dysfunction slid to the floor and tried waiting out the clock. Taylor got on the mic and said he heard Dysfunction was good but didn’t know he was a “little b*tch.” Taylor said that he’d give him 10 seconds where he’d put his hands behind his back and give Dysfunction a free shot. He came in and Taylor took him out quickly.
Women of Honor World Champion Kelly Klein & Stacy Shadows defeated The Allure (Angelina Love & Mandy Leon)
This wasn’t bad. Shadows was very popular with the Milwaukee crowd. She wrestled Klein here in ROH when they visited earlier this year.
Shadows took a big bump through the ropes into the ring post to the floor, then Leon dove onto her from the apron. In the ring, Klein spiked Love hard with a DDT for the win.
Leon sprayed perfume in Klein’s eyes after the match and Love posed with the belt. They’ll have a match at Death Before Dishonor at the end of the month.
– A backstage segment aired where Coleman complimented Rhett Titus on the match he had against Mark Haskins on Friday. Haskins walked up and thanked Titus for the match. Kenny King then came up and said Titus had turned soft. Titus said, “At least I wasn’t knocked out by a punk-ass cameraman.”
Marty Scurll defeated Joe Hendry
Hendry’s over-the-top cheesy theme song is really catchy, I’m embarrassed to say. He offered Scurll a handshake before the match, but Scurll declined and flapped away like a bird instead.
Once they really got the match underway it became a crisp back-and-forth exchange of grips and holds. Things heated up when they went to the floor and Scurll whipped Hendry into the barricade, then followed up with a low running European uppercut up against the barricade. This crowd loved it.
While the attendance looked to be low, similar to ROH’s other weekend shows, the audience was enthusiastic and helped carry this and other matches along. Scurll was very popular, but they sounded to have fun booing Hendry.
Scurll landed a powerbomb with a stacking pin for two and later planted Hendry with a half-and-half suplex. He opted out of the pin attempt and used a superplex on Hendry for a two count.
Hendry later returned Scurll’s attack with a Hendry Lock, a variation on Kurt Angle’s ankle lock, but Scurll was able to break the hold. The match heated up from here, and some of the crowd was even chanting Hendry’s name as he held Scurll in a powerslam position. Dalton Castle’s music then hit.
Castle was carried out by three new Boys. He waved to Hendry, and Scurll found an opening to lock on the chicken wing to get Hendry to tap. Solid match.
– ROH prospect Brian Johnson came out and started screaming until his mic was cut. Maria Manic then came out and Johnson chopped her. She no-sold it, then Johnson rolled out of the ring. Manic took out the ring crew and put one guy in a torture rack.
Silas Young & Josh Woods defeated Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham
Tonight was Young’s birthday so the crowd sang “Happy Birthday” to him. He pretended not to like it. Woods looks more comfortable in the semi-comedy role, the nice student to Young’s delusional mentor gimmick.
Woods did tons of awesome modern-style grappling with both Gresham and Lethal. He easily translates the new school Eddie Bravo/Keenan Cornelius style of grappling into pro wrestling. Lethal complimented Woods and offered to shake his hand, which Woods did and acted excited about. The crowd loved that.
Young and Gresham reignited their feud from earlier this summer, which showcased Gresham’s new more aggressive side. A good example of this was when he ripped his athletic tape from his wrist and threw it to ref Todd Sinclair, who bent over to pick it up. When he wasn’t looking, Gresham sack-tapped Young behind Sinclair’s back.
Lethal was storyline-upset with Gresham’s behavior. Gresham continued to act out and brutalize his opponents from midway through the match and on. Later, Young and Gresham got into a chop battle.
Gresham and Lethal went on an awesome tear toward the end of this. Lethal went for a flying elbow drop, but Woods caught him in an armbar. Gresham tried using a chair at the end of the match, but it backfired after Lethal wouldn’t use it. Young was able to put Lethal away after this.
Young looked pleased with Woods after the match, patting him on the back following their third win of the weekend.
Gresham and Lethal got into an argument about the chair. They played the blame game. The bickering over whether it’s ethical to use the chair to get to the top escalated into a fist fight that was quickly broken up by the ring crew. The crowd lost it and chanted “let them fight.” This was the hottest moment of the weekend so far.
PJ Black defeated Flip Gordon and Triton in a three-way match
Interesting match with tons of new-school aerial action. Triton wore his thong trunks again tonight and Cabana accurately described it as “espectacular.”
Triton did an awesome springboard quebrada to the floor early on. Gordon convincingly faked another knee injury after pretending to tweak it when he landed funny after a PJ Black moonsault. Everyone seemed to think it was a shoot until he came back a few minutes later.
Black did a big quebrada into the ring onto both Triton and Gordon. Triton was awesome when he was on offense and everything he did was over with this crowd.
When things got hotter toward the end, Gordon ripped Triton’s mask off. While the referee’s back was turned, Gordon tried using a chair on Black, but Tracy Williams ran out and took the chair from Gordon and took him to the back. Black then hit a springboard 450 splash for the win.
Caristico, Stuka Jr. & Volador Jr. defeated Okumura, Hechicero & Rey Bucanero
This was a blast to watch and a nice change of pace from the other matches on the card. Hechicero was the standout on the rudo team. The tecnicos team was always flashy, and for some reason had a teal color-coded gear scheme among them. Caristico is still wearing kinesio tape on his back.
The pace compared to everything else on the card was so much more fluid and explosive. There was a series of dives to the floor before Volador did a super frankensteiner to Hechicero to win the match for his team.
– Silas Young and Josh Woods came out and Young expressed he was thankful for Woods and was impressed with him over the weekend. Young invited The Bouncers out to make up with them in the ring.
When The Bouncers started singing “Happy Birthday” to Young, Young attacked Beer City Bruiser from behind, then Vinny Marseglia from The Kingdom came out and ambushed Milonas. Woods acted shocked. Marseglia choked Bruiser with a wrench and his mouth started bleeding. Young said “this is MY town” as he and Marseglia left the ring.
LifeBlood (Bandido, Mark Haskins & Tracy Williams) defeated The Briscoes (Jay & Mark Briscoe) & Barbaro Cavernario
This was great. Cavernario blended right into this, like he’s been wrestling with all of these guys for years. With the amount of talent in the ring at the same time, there was no way this was going to be bad.
Mark Briscoe did his running Cactus Jack elbow from the apron. LifeBlood did a triple dive to the floor. Later in the match, Williams and Haskins lifted Jay Briscoe so Bandido could land a 450 onto him.
The finish of this saw LifeBlood do a long sequence of team moves and synchronized spots from the ropes before Haskins hit a diving double stomp to pick up the win for his team. Really good stuff here.
Rush & Jeff Cobb defeated The Kingdom (ROH World Champion Matt Taven & Vinny Marseglia)
Taven and Rush have great chemistry together, and it was really Rush who shined brightest out of the bunch. They are building towards Taven and Rush’s Death Before Dishonor title match at the end of the month, and without much time left they’ve done a good job in two nights.
Cobb looked impressive as always here. I think because Rush gives Taven a lot of respect as champion it gets both of them over with the live crowd as a result. Cobb pinned Marseglia after hitting the Tour of the Islands.
They did an angle after that built more for Death Before Dishonor. Taven said no one is as good as him and teased fighting Rush, and when a Rush went to ambush Taven, Marseglia jumped him. Taven then did his own version of the Bull’s Horns after the match with the assist from Marseglia to close the show.
Final thoughts —
This was the best top-to-bottom show of the Global Wars weekend tour. The Lethal/Gresham pull-apart had great organic heat, and based on how the crowd reacted, it could be an exciting angle to follow down the line. It was the only angle to get over this weekend, really. What fans loved the most this weekend was the action.
Scurll and Hendry had the sleeper match and the first really solid one of the night. Beer City Bruiser and Silas Young were in a number of segments because they’re from the area. Josh Woods somehow improved five-fold over the weekend and seems more comfortable doing the gimmick work.
The LifeBlood vs. Briscoes & Cavernario match is worth checking out and throws yet another top-tier match onto The Briscoes’ track record for 2019. The CMLL six-man was a nice addition and added a much-needed extra flavor to the invariable ROH programming style.
While parts of the preliminary card were still weak, the Milwaukee crowd was well-behaved and were with it for pretty much the entire show. Hopefully the company can keep some of tonight’s momentum as they head into Death Before Dishonor in Las Vegas at the end of the month.
ROH has announced a tag match for Summer Supercard.
Villain Enterprises (PCO & Brody King) will face The Kingdom (Vinny Marseglia & TK O’Ryan) at the event. It’s taking place at the Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada this Friday (August 9) and will air live on HonorClub.
PCO & King currently hold the ROH Six-Man Tag Team titles with Marty Scurll. Flip Gordon was revealed as the newest member of their Villain Enterprises group in June.
The Kingdom’s Matt Taven is defending his ROH World Championship against Alex Shelley at Summer Supercard.
Here’s the updated card for the show:
ROH Tag Team Champions The Briscoes defending against Guerrillas of Destiny in a Ladder War
ROH World Champion Matt Taven defending against Alex Shelley
ROH Television Champion Shane Taylor defending against Tracy Williams
Rush vs. Dalton Castle in a no DQ match
Women of Honor World Champion Kelly Klein defending against Tasha Steelz
Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham vs. LifeBlood (Bandido & Mark Haskins)
Villain Enterprises (PCO & Brody King) vs. The Kingdom (Vinny Marseglia & TK O’Ryan)
Caristico, Soberano Jr. & Stuka Jr. vs. Barbaro Cavernario, Hechicero & Templario
“Left My Wallet” is back for a second time this week with Ring of Honor superstar and one-third of The Kingdom, “The Horror King” Vinny Marseglia!
Vinny and I go way back to when he just started to train in New England and we discuss the strange journey he’s taken to get to ROH. We talk about what Vinny “wrestled” as before he got proper training, where he trained, his evolution, our first encounter and why I said I wanted to slap him, his struggles, the time he took away from wrestling, and his repeated chances at getting into ROH. He also talks about the process it took for him to get signed and the evolution of his “Horror King” character.
Then, we talk Vinny’s specialty, horror! What are his top horror movies of all time? Which are overrated? Which ones still scare him? What famous movie memorabilia does he own?
There’s no sports talk (even though we discuss his relation to Canadian hockey icon Don Cherry), but it’s a fun listen about Vinny’s path to ROH and a whole lot of horror.
Isom put up a tough fight against the savvy veteran in the early going, landing a huge knee, but inevitably, Black’s experience edge earned him control as he caught Isom in a Boston crab.
After the break, Isom was trapped in a rocking horse style submission by Black. Isom fought out and managed to get back in the fight with an arm-trapped German suplex. A striking exchange occurred, but Isom connected with a step-up enzuigiri, which allowed him to hit a modified driver. Black then bailed to the floor and Isom followed with a suicide dive.
Isom threw Black back into the ring and went for some sort of springboard maneuver, but he slipped and nearly landed on his head. Black took control back from the rookie and hit a hurricanrana off the top rope.
Black then used a springboard 450 and went for the pin, but Isom kicked out at two. Black went up top again and landed a moonsault double stomp — and that kept Isom down for the three count.
– Rhett Titus was at the announce table flexing for Ian Riccaboni and Caprice Coleman.
Women of Honor World Champion Kelly Klein defeated Ray Lyn
Before the match, Lyn told Klein that she doesn’t like or respect her, and she will never shake her hand.
Klein disrespected Lyn right back in the early going, but Lyn grabbed a handful of hair to get the advantage. She put the boots to Klein, beat her up, and went up top. Lyn came off with a crossbody but was caught by Klein, who threw Lyn with a fallaway slam.
Klein fired up and nailed some hard strikes, finishing with a big boot. Klein then hit K-Power for the win.
After the match, Klein picked up Lyn and shook her hand. She declared that she was a fighting champion and that she was proud to defend the Women of Honor Championship. She then talked trash on Allure. She said Women of Honor is about wrestling.
This brought out Allure’s Mandy Leon and Velvet Sky. Meanwhile, Angelina Love slid in behind Klein and nailed her with the running boot. Jenny Rose came in to make the save, but she got laid out as well. Allure used lipstick to tag an “A” on the forehead of Rose.
– Dalton Castle came to the ring and called out The Boys, saying that he owed them an explanation for his attack on them. The Boys hesitantly came to the ring. Castle said that what happened at Madison Square Garden was a mistake. He said he was frustrated and took his frustrations out on them. Castle said he wanted to move past this mistake and go forward.
The Boys hugged Castle, and Castle said that the three of them are stronger than ever. He then declared that he would never put his hands on his Boys again. Castle paused and then added that these are no Boys of his. Castle attacked The Boys and left them laying. He took their masks off as well.
The Kingdom jumped LifeBlood at the bell, but bailed almost immediately.
Once the referee had control, it was Marseglia who took over on Haskins. Marseglia tagged in O’Ryan, and he began chopping away. Williams was able to make a sneaky blind tag to get LifeBlood back in the fight. Williams blocked the interference from Marseglia. LifeBlood trapped the feet of O’Ryan and Marseglia and then used a double Camel Clutch on the Kingdom.
After the break, The Kingdom had isolated Williams and were targeting his already injured shoulder. The Kingdom cut the ring off from Williams and stopped him from being able to reach Haskins. O’Ryan cranked a shoulder lock on Williams and followed it up with a double underhook suplex.
O’Ryan tagged in Marseglia, who walloped Williams in the corner. However, Williams landed on his feet off of a back suplex attempt and nailed Marseglia with a leg drop. That allowed him to get to Haskins for the tag. Haskins came in and ran wild until hooking an arm lock on O’Ryan. Marseglia pulled O’Ryan’s foot on the ropes to cause the break.
LifeBlood continued to attack O’Ryan. Williams went up top, but Marseglia distracted him. It didn’t matter though as Williams managed to drop O’Ryan with a DDT on the top turnbuckle.
Marseglia came in for the save. The Kingdom went for the House of 1000 Horses, but O’Ryan took too long and Williams escaped. Williams hoisted up O’Ryan and dropped him on his knee. Haskins came in and put O’Ryan into a Sharpshooter submission. O’Ryan had nowhere to go and had to tap.
Williams grabbed the microphone after their win and said that Ring of Honor was all about taking care of business. He called out Bully Ray and called him a company cancer. He invited Bully Ray to the ring. Bully Ray came out onto the ramp, said “go to hell,” and walked away.
ROH was in Miami, Florida on Sunday for Bound By Honor, the final night of their short Sunshine State loop this weekend.
Caprice Coleman and Nick Aldis (w/ Kamille) were on commentary for tonight’s show. Aldis filled in for Ian Riccaboni tonight, as Riccaboni was home with his family awaiting the birth of their second child.
The venue was smaller but the front area looked packed in. The seats towards the back were peppered with fans but looked to be empty, mostly.
Jay Briscoe defeated Rhett Titus
Titus flexed his baby oil-laden muscles and cut a basic promo on Briscoe in the ring before the match. He at one point flexed until his face turned red. Moments later, the crowd began chanting “Jay is gonna kill you.”
Titus worked Briscoe over with stomps, chops, and a back-rake early on. He then used a tope con giro to the floor and received applause from a confused crowd who didn’t seem to know how to react after all of Titus’ heel work.
Briscoe quickly came back with a Rude Awakening-style neckbreaker. He followed up by hitting the Jay Driller for a quick win. Not a great match — but it felt like it did its job in keeping Jay strong in singles action.
Shinobi Shadow Squad (Cheeseburger, Eli Isom & Ryan Nova) defeated Dalton Castle & The Boys
Castle and the Boys shook hands with 3S before the bout. Castle’s trash talk was funny and his mat wrestling looked great, which allowed Nick Aldis to start to shine on commentary. He did a good job at detail-oriented play-by-play.
Cheeseburger got a few chants when he tagged in. 3S used some double-team work on both Boys, and Isom hit a decent springboard splash to one of them.
The crowd died halfway through until Isom hit the ring. Nice springboard missile dropkick and a few wild suplex from Isom here. Castle started yelling at the Boys after this, which led to some miscommunication on an Irish whip a few moments later, with Castle and a Boy getting knocked off the ring. Isom used a brainbuster on the other Boy for the upset win.
This could have been about five minutes shorter. It’s looking as though Castle and the Boys will split soon. That was the only real story within the match, and it didn’t become apparent until the last few minutes.
Zack Sabre Jr. defeated Colt Cabana
This was nonstop World of Sport-style mat wrestling — both looked excellent throughout. They had natural chemistry together; Sabre, the arrogant, vicious heel, Cabana, the fun-loving wrestling craftsmen who isn’t afraid to throw a few closed-fist punches every now and then.
There were almost no strikes in this match, actually, or at least for the first five minutes or so. It was all catching, all hold-for-hold, all pin combos and reversals.
The crowd heated up once the two started chopping and kicking each other. Sabre used a harsh penalty kick on Cabana, and later finished him with a triangle choke/straight reverse armbar.
If old WOS is your thing, you should probably go out of your way to check this out. ZSJ was really “on” tonight.
Kenny King defeated Marty Scurll, Willie Mack, and Silas Young in a four corner survival match
This was all action. Young shoved all the competitors in the ring before the bell and left the ring. He continued to jaw-jack from the floor after the match kicked off.
Willie Mack gave Kenny King a nipple-twister. There was a point early on when only Mack and Scurll were in the ring together and it looked like they have the capacity to pull off something special in a singles match.
Mack did a crossbody block to all three wrestlers, then hit a huge tope con giro to the floor and received an entirely different response to the spot than Rhett Titus did earlier on.
Mack and Scurll were who people were most excited for in this match, which in a way is a shame because King and Young both looked pretty good tonight, too, tighter than usual, especially regarding Young.
Mack and Scurll did some nice double-team work on King and the crowd lit up. The two then had a chop-off.
Scurll used a half-nelson suplex on Young, then put him in the chicken wing. Young tapped, but King distracted the referee after he brought a chair into the ring. After referee Todd Sinclair grabbed the chair from King, King gave Scurll a low blow and pinned him for the victory.
This match was good but would have been better if it were either a tag match or a singles match between Scurll and Mack. The crowd hadn’t reacted to anything so vociferously up until those two were in the ring.
ROH Television Champion Jeff Cobb defeated Rocky Romero to retain his title
This was fine. A bit of a David vs. Goliath story at the start. Cobb stood like a stone and wouldn’t sell any strikes — he wouldn’t leave his feet for any wrestling-related holds.
After a couple of minutes, Romero decided to use an eye poke to shift the match’s momentum briefly. Cobb came back with ease and dominated the bout some more. He used a cool modified Oklahoma Stampede on Romero for two.
The crowd died in the middle of this until Cobb hit a standing moonsault. Romero rallied back and used an unassisted Sliced Bread on Cobb for two. Romero fluffed a few springboard spots. When he went for another Sliced Bread, Cobb reversed it into a backbreaker.
At the end of the match, Cobb went on a suplex tear and finished Romero off with Tour of the Islands.
This looked better on paper then it ended up being. I’m not sure if it was the awkwardness between the wrestlers, like with their chemistry together, or because the crowd sort of gave up halfway through the match.
Mayu Iwatani defeated Kelly Klein to win the Women of Honor World Championship
This might have been the best match of the show so far next to the ZSJ vs. Cabana WOS showcase.
Klein looks more confident with every show she’s been on since she’s won the WOH title. A few fans threw streamers in the ring for Iwatani.
The two started off with rough chops, headlocks, knees, and kicks. Up to this point in the show, no one was as good at selling as Iwatani was during this match. It helped Klein look like a monster, plus it induced the crowd to get behind Iwatani whenever she made a comeback. I mean, she was getting pops off of shoulder blocks at one point.
Iwatani hit a stunning plancha from the top turnbuckle to the floor. Klein returned with a release German suplex onto the floor.
Iwatani used two release Dragon suplexes and a few brutal kicks for two. She later used two moonsaults onto Klein for the shock win. The crowd was stunned and very into it.
LifeBlood (Juice Robinson, Mark Haskins, Bandido & Tracy Williams) w/ Tenille Dashwood defeated The Bouncers (Beer City Bruiser & Brian Milonas) & Coast to Coast (LSG & Shaheem Ali)
Too many cooks in the kitchen here. The match didn’t feel like it really began until Bandido was tagged in. He springboard around the ring a bit until the heels and babyfaces all squared off for a small skirmish. This made for a nice visual that’d fit well into a promo package.
Haskins worked very hard in this match. Great selling and intense offense. He took much of the heel defense in the middle of this one.
Beer City Bruiser did his “I ain’t got no teeth!” catchphrase. The crowd responded with a confused groan.
Robinson was quite over but didn’t do a whole lot in this one. He used a nice spinebuster at one point. He looked to be the tallest guy in the match, too, which I found strange for some reason.
Bandido used a slingshot frankensteiner to the floor onto Bruiser, then a tornillo in the ring on LSG for two.
On the apron, Bruiser used a Death Valley Driver onto Haskins and it got a “holy sh*t” chant. This looked nuts.
The biggest pop of the night came when Bandido caught Bruiser off the ropes and cleanly powerslammed him. Wow. How he doesn’t have a hernia, I don’t know. He used 21+, the rolling slingshot German suplex, on LSG for the win. Lots of action at the end of this one.
The Bouncers busted out a small cooler and all of the wrestlers — Dashwood included — chugged a few.
PCO defeated Mark Briscoe
A great modern brawl with an unfortunately tired crowd. At the start, the two exchanged heavy strikes before running to the outside of the ring to grab steel chairs. They wanted to have a chair duel, but referee Todd Sinclair broke it up.
Mark Briscoe later hit a running blockbuster to the floor on PCO. They exchanged chops after this — and every one of them sounded painful. Briscoe’s chest was purplish-red.
PCO later returned the attacks with a big chokeslam and even more chops in the corner.
The crowd woke back up when PCO used a tope con giro through the middle ropes, like the one Fenix does, it’s just here it’s, well, it’s PCO. It should be noted that PCO was bleeding from the left eye at this point in the match.
The two really started going at it after the floor spots. PCO took another insane bump onto the edge of the apron tonight, the missed somersault senton. Mark Briscoe took advantage of this and did a corkscrew senton from the top turnbuckle to the outside.
The match spilled out into the aisle, then onto the stage. Briscoe powerbombed PCO onto the stage floor and it looked really dangerous. PCO no-sold this, then Briscoe dropkicked him down the entrance stairs.
Briscoe hit PCO with two hard chair shots, then hit a Froggy Bow for two. Somehow PCO came back and landed his monstrous moonsault for the win.
If you like late-90s ECW, this was pretty much that. It’s truly unreal to see PCO take so much punishment so regularly, which is worrisome, but a spectacle, still.
ROH Six-Man Tag Team Champions The Kingdom (Matt Taven, Vinny Marseglia & TK O’Ryan) defeated ROH World Champion Jay Lethal, Jonathan Gresham & Rush in a non-title match
This weekend in Florida was Rush’s official debut as an ROH talent. He and TK O’Ryan were terrific together early in this match. The audience loved all the Los Ingobernables taunts and poses he did.
Lethal and Taven bolted at each other outside the ring after this, apropos of nothing, really, and started blasting each other with punches. It was so heated and well done that the crowd went all in on it. The rest of the competitors followed suit, and the next few minutes of the match consisted of mostly brawling.
It was hard to figure out who the legal man was at points. The referees tonight allowed for tons of leeway with the wrestlers on the outside and basically didn’t use any counts.
This bothers a lot of fans. Realistically, it’s been a part of the American scene since the ECW days, so I and others have grown used to it and often don’t mind, but it’s something worth discussing. The same idea could be applied to the PCO vs. Mark Briscoe match, where the ref felt more like a piece of furniture with wheels, always there but not really adding much else to the aesthetic of the match.
Marseglia and O’Ryan used House of a Thousand Corpses on both Rush and Gresham, then Taven pinned Lethal after the Climax.
Kenny King came out and cut a promo on Lethal and Marty Scurll. Scurll followed King and attacked him, and then — pretty much the entire locker room emptied out and it looked like a very tired battle royale.
Bully Ray came out last and started screaming at Todd Sinclair for some reason. PCO confronted Bully and they exchanged chops until the Briscoes attacked PCO, who eventually came back and did a moonsault from the top onto about 20 wrestlers.
The match was chaotic and kind of a mess, but it wasn’t bad. I didn’t really understand the underlying function of the last segment, unless it was just to come up with an excuse for PCO to moonsault onto everyone so that the company can use it for their sizzle reel.
Final thoughts —
This was a decent show that was a bit of a slog at times. ZSJ vs. Cabana, Iwatani vs. Klein and PCO vs. Mark Briscoe were probably the best matches of the night, or at least the most fun to watch.
The show opened with a recap of last week’s announcement by Christopher Daniels that Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky had new contracts, but that he did not. His last match on his current contract will be at Final Battle against Marty Scurll, and should he lose, he will be out of the company. Scurll’s future ROH World Championship shot will be on the line.
Before a match between them, Flip Gordon challenged Silas Young to man up and make it an I Quit match. Young booted Gordon and started the pummeling immediately, then grabbed the microphone and declared that he accepts.
Flip Gordon and Silas Young went to a no contest in an I Quit match
It was an intense game of cat and mouse as Young chased Gordon, but Gordon had the speed edge and out-maneuvered him. Gordon landed a moonsault to the floor on Young to gain control.
After the break, Gordon pulled a table out and set it up in the corner. As he went to get his opponent, Young tossed a chair at him and gained the advantage.
Young continued to beat Gordon with a chair inside the ring. Young landed the Anarchist suplex and applied a full-nelson stretch, but Gordon fought out and landed a superkick. Gordon then missed with a dive. That gave Young the opportunity to grab a Singapore cane.
Seeing the cane fired up Gordon. He cut off Young with a chair, laid waste to Young, and picked up the cane himself. This brought Bully Ray down. Bully choked Gordon with a chain. Young speared the helpless Gordon through a table. The match was thrown out by the referee due to interference.
A preview for ROH Television Champion Jeff Cobb vs. Hangman Page at Final Battle aired. Page called Cobb’s run in ROH so far a disappointment.
ROH Tag Team Champions Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky, representing SoCal Uncensored, came to the ring. Sky got the microphone and — just as he was about to say Pittsburgh was the worst town he’s ever been in — they were jumped from behind by The Briscoes.
The Young Bucks came down to cut off The Briscoes and save SCU. They exchanged a respectful handshake, but as the Bucks turned away, The Briscoes shoved SCU into them. The Bucks returned the favor with superkicks on both teams. They then pulled a ladder out from under the ring, but before they could set it up, Kazarian dropkicked it into the Bucks and Sky landed a flip dive on The Briscoes. SCU stood tall on the ladder holding their belts to end the segment.
Daniels discussed his last opportunity to claim a contract with ROH. He must defeat Scurll at Final Battle, and should he be successful, he will not only win a title shot down the line, but he will also gain a new lease on life with a new ROH contract.
ROH World Champion Jay Lethal, Cody Rhodes & Dalton Castle defeated The Kingdom (Matt Taven, Vinny Marseglia & TK O’Ryan)
Castle is returning from his “concussion-like symptoms” after he received a three-man con-chair-to by The Kingdom a few weeks ago.
This one started quickly as The Kingdom triple teamed Castle and Cody and Lethal bickered. Castle fought off The Kingdom while wearing his amazing “ugly” purple sweatshirt. He tagged in Cody, and Cody took over on O’Ryan.
Taven had seen enough and got involved. He took over and led the charge on Cody. He tagged in O’Ryan — who tossed Cody down by the hair. Cody swung the momentum with a powerslam and tagged in Castle. Castle came in with a fury. The Kingdom cut him off and put a hurting on him on the outside as the referee was distracted.
Marseglia got in with Castle and kept The Kingdom in control. He tagged in Taven — who antagonized Lethal. Castle finally fought back and tagged in Lethal.
Lethal ran wild until the numbers game caught up with him. Taven got a chair involved and looked to connect with a con-chair-to, but Castle came in and went after Taven. Both spilled into the crowd as Castle chased Taven. That left Lethal and Cody in against Marseglia and O’Ryan.
Lethal and Cody couldn’t work together and it looked like Cody was about to fall victim to The Kingdom, but Lethal made the save and that allowed Cody to land the Cross Rhodes on O’Ryan for the win.
