The Medium News: Now called War Raiders, War Machine made their NXT television debut and laid out Heavy Machinery and Riddick Moss & Tino Sabbatelli
The Little Beaver-sized News: In between the six video packages, Kairi Sane also won her match.
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The show began with the first of many video packages, this one being a recap of the full TakeOver: New Orleans card.
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Kairi Sane defeated Lacey Evans
This match was set up last week when Evans cut a promo about how she was a proper lady, unlike Sane and others. Evans was not liking being outclassed in the ring early and yanked Sane down by her hair to take over. Evans hit a slingshot elbow, which looked good.
Evans sarcastically asked Sane if she was okay before she laid in forearms to the chest. Evans got to look better here than most of her NXT matches, even the ones she won. She shoved Sane into the ropes, but Sane exploded off of them with an Interceptor.
Sane hit the flying Kabuki elbow for a near fall and an Insane Elbow for the win.
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We then got a video package for the six-way ladder match for the North American Championship, won by Adam Cole.
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We got back-to-back Cole video packages as the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic finals/NXT Tag Team Championship match was showcased, which was won by Cole & Kyle O’Reilly when Roderick Strong turned on Pete Dunne.
Cathy Kelley did a post-match promo with Undisputed Era. Well, she tried to. Before Cole could speak, Strong whispered in his ear and they all went back into their locker room.
We then got an interview with The Authors of Pain, which was after their Raw debut. Akam said this was not about Paul Ellering, this was about how they just destroyed the first-ever SmackDown Tag Team Champions. Ellering walked up and said he devised all the plans to make them successful. Rezar told him his chapter has ended.
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Then we got a video package recapping the phenomenal Johnny Gargano-Tommaso Ciampa match. If you didn’t watch TakeOver, it’s well worth your $9.99 just for this match and you owe it to yourself to go check it out.
Gargano will be on NXT next week.
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Guess what? We had another video package! This one was about Ember Moon vs. Shayna Baszler, which Baszler won to become the seventh NXT Women’s Champion.
After the match, Baszler was interviewed and said you don’t get to jump on and off her bandwagon. She knows who was with her and against her from the start. She said things will change and wrestling in the NXT women’s division isn’t going to be about who gets the most compliments on their hair and outfit, it will be about who the best wrestler is.
They showed Moon debuting on Raw and then doing a promo talking about how happy and excited she was. She said her biggest regret is that she left Baszler with the rest of the NXT women’s division.
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We got a video package for every other match, so why not the title match? We had a video package for Andrade “Cien” Almas vs. Aleister Black, where Black won the NXT Championship.
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A quick video of No Way Jose debuting on Raw and The IIconics arriving on SmackDown aired.
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Next week: Lars Sullivan faces Killian Dain.
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Heavy Machinery vs. Riddick Moss & Tino Sabbatelli ended in a no contest
Hey, a match! I almost forgot what these looked like. Moss & Sabbatelli are going through the longest breakup this side of Wesley Blake & Buddy Murphy. Murphy is finally doing something two years later, while Blake is still floundering. Perhaps Moss & Sabbatelli should take note of that.
A four-way brawl broke out, which Heavy Machinery got the best of. Tucker Knight and Otis Dozovic did a version of the Bushwhacker stomp before squishing Sabbatelli’s head in between their stomachs. As Knight went after Moss, Sabbatelli punched him in the back of the head and the heels took over.
Moss actually caught Knight on a crossbody and slammed him down, which was very impressive. Knight surprisingly used his speed to avoid Moss and Sabbatelli and made the tag to Dozovic. Dozovic ran wild on both — literally running from corner to corner with big splashes before using the Caterpillar on Sabbatelli.
Suddenly, the War Raiders (War Machine) ran in and assaulted all four men. Called Rowe and Hanson, they decimated both teams and stood tall after using the Fallout on Sabbatelli.
So, that does it for this week. The show was skippable unless you want to see the War Raiders’ debut. Until next week, remember to say your vitamins and take your prayers!
War Machine arrived on NXT television and got their WWE team name at tonight’s pre-TakeOver tapings in New Orleans.
Ray Rowe and Hanson interrupted a match between Heavy Machinery and Tino Sabbatelli & Riddick Moss, destroying both teams in the process. It was revealed that they’ll be using “War Raiders” as their name.
The other match taped tonight was Kairi Sane vs. Lacey Evans. Sane won after hitting her Insane Elbow.
Sane vs. Evans was advertised in advance for Wednesday’s episode of NXT TV, and the War Raiders’ debut should air as well. The show will also feature video packages and interviews from the fallout of TakeOver: New Orleans.
After Monday and Tuesday’s post-WrestleMania editions of Raw and SmackDown, there will be NXT TV tapings at Full Sail University this coming Wednesday. The next TakeOver special is scheduled for Chicago on June 16th as part of Money in the Bank weekend.
After making appearances at a couple of events last week, War Machine wrestled in their first match for WWE at last night’s NXT house show in Jacksonville, Florida.
Hanson & Rowe took on Cezar Bononi & Adrian Jaoude, telling them “first we’re going to shake your hand, then we’re going to kick your ass” and then getting the win. Though their names could still be changed when they debut on television, they were announced as “Hanson & Rowe, War Machine.”
WWE announced that War Machine had signed in January, with them reporting to the company in the same class as Ricochet and Candice LeRae. Hanson & Rowe were shown on camera sitting in the front row at TakeOver: Philadelphia, but they’ve yet to be featured on an NXT TV taping.
Here are the results from last night’s show in Jacksonville. The estimated attendance was 400 people:
– Tino Sabbatelli defeated Big Boa
– Ricochet defeated Riddick Moss
– Mars Wang defeated Chad Lail
Marcel Barthel and Fabian Aichner ran in and cleared the ring to challenge Lars Sullivan, who then spent the night chasing Barthel and destroying everyone that was in his path.
– War Machine defeated Cezar Bononi & Adrian Jaoude (w/ Taynara Conti)
War Machine have made their NXT debut at tonight’s house show in Sebring, Florida.
While they didn’t compete in a match, they did come out wearing familiar garb from their independent run and came out to heavy metal music. They were not called War Machine and weren’t referred to by name. They cut a promo following the Marcel Barthel & Fabian Aichner vs. Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch bout.
It was announced back on January 18th that they had signed with WWE, along with other independent names like Ricochet and Candice LeRae. They later appeared in the crowd at NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia and were referred to as War Machine.
Here are full results from tonight’s NXT event in Sebring. The crowd was estimated at around 150 people:
– Heavy Machinery defeated Dan Matha and Kona Reeves
– Babatunde defeated Raul Mendoza.
– Candice LeRae defeated Aliyah
LeRae defeated Aliyah by pinfall.
– SAnitY (Alexander Wolfe and Eric Young) defeated Adrian Jaoude and Cezar Bononi
Taynara Conti managed Jaoude and Bononi at ringside.
– Aleister Black defeated Dijak.
Black pinned Dijak after hitting the Fade to Black.
– Marcel Barthel and Fabian Aichner defeated Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch
– Killian Dain defeated Wolfgang
– EC3 defeated Trent Seven
– NXT Women’s Champion Ember Moon vs. Shayna Baszler went to a double DQ
They brawled after the match as the women’s locker room emptied for the pull apart.
Following the announcement of Ricochet officially reporting to the Performance Center, WWE has also confirmed that Candice LeRae and War Machine (Raymond Rowe & Hanson) have signed with the company.
LeRae’s final independent wrestling appearance will be against Joey Ryan, her longtime tag team partner, for Bar Wrestling on Thursday. Rowe will make his last appearance for AIW on Friday, and Hanson said farewell at Chaotic Wrestling this past week. War Machine had their last match for Ring of Honor in December and made their final appearance for New Japan Pro Wrestling at New Year’s Dash.
LeRae is one of two Mae Young Classic participants who are joining the Performance Center in this class, with Kavita Devi also reporting to Orlando.
Below is a list of other names who are part of this month’s Performance Center class:
Rinku Singh (one of the winners of India’s “Million Dollar Arm” reality series who went on to pitch in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization)
Shadia Bseiso (the first Arab woman to sign with WWE)
Nasser Alruwayeh (WWE’s first Kuwaiti signee)
Kacy Catanzaro (a gymnast who had success on “American Ninja Warrior”)
Nicolai Salchow (a former MMA fighter)
Saurav Gurjar (who has a background in acting and kickboxing in India)
Editor’s note: The results of New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Dominion show are written about in this column.
This week in wrestling, WWE held a PPV with some extreme rules, Impact aired from India, and NJPW Dominion! Here are our favorite wrestlers this week. Who’s yours?
I’m writing this only hours after Dominion went off the air and there’s no way I’ll be able to write anything that does Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega justice.
This will probably be more divisive than their Tokyo Dome match. Understandably, a lot of people aren’t fans of 60-minute draws. I probably liked the rematch more than the original (which I didn’t quite have at a six-star rating despite thinking it was great), but I like draws and believe the degree of difficulty is much greater in them. Okada and Omega put on a classic that is at least at the same level of a match that seemed impossible to equal going into it.
The finish was somewhat disappointing for me at first, then I realized pretty quickly that it was mostly because I was so invested in Omega winning the title. I was also disappointed that Cody Rhodes seems to be getting the shot at Okada’s title in Long Beach, but it was probably unwise to ever think that NJPW wouldn’t complete the trilogy on a show in Japan where it can help boost ticket sales.
There’s more story to tell here. Okada didn’t get the second win that he felt like he needed and Omega still isn’t IWGP Heavyweight Champion. I wouldn’t be that shocked if they managed to top themselves again the next time they meet.
War Machine
By Zach Dominello
My favorite wrestler(s) this week is War Machine. Or should I say Paw Machine? Raymond Rowe and Hanson did an interview on NJPW World, which you can watch for free here, to promote their IWGP tag team title match at NJPW Dominion.
The interview itself is fairly straightforward with Hanson and Rowe discussing their opponents and what it means to wrestle in Japan, but what makes it the best thing ever is that it takes place in what I believe to be a cat cafe in Japan.
I never knew this, but there is nothing better than two massive, bearded pro wrestlers cuddling little kitties. Throughout the interview, cats are walking all over Hanson and Rowe like they run the place, which I guess they do because they’re cats. Watching Hanson hand-feed some kitties is the most adorable thing you will ever see.
And that’s why Paw Machine are my favorite wrestlers this week. Oh, and they’re a pretty dang fantastic tag team too and I’ve loved their work in New Japan. But mainly the kitties.
The entire ATTACK! Pro Wrestling roster
By Alan Boon
Yeah, I realize that’s not a wrestler, per se, rather a whole load of them. But I couldn’t separate any individual from the considerable herd that were responsible for last Friday’s Press 5tart, at the Secret Bingo Hall in Cathays, Cardiff.
Press 5tart is ATTACK!’s yearly tribute to video games, and the roster get to dress up as — and behave like — characters from their favorite games. This year, however, because of a glitch in the system — as a result of, well, explaining it won’t really help so just go with there being a glitch — they did not portray those video game characters but rather each other.
This wasn’t a simple dress-up job — the wrestlers adopted the outfits, movesets, catchphrases, and mannerisms of their peers, and while it was still simple to see who was who — especially when the masked wrestlers kept those masks on regardless of whether they were playing their masked or unmasked counterparts — they did an amazing job of making everything seem like it had gone that little bit weird(er).
I’ve occasionally come across this kind of undertaking in the odd match, but to commit to a whole show — and the music, ring announcer, and ring crew all played along — is admirable in the extreme.
That ATTACK! are in position to do this — their shows routinely sell out 200-300 seat venues without a single match being announced — is a testament to their reputation as one of British (and worldwide) independent wrestling’s best.
Yes, there isn’t a single favorite wrestler this week, there’s 24 of them: Chris Brookes, Kid Lykos, Lloyd Katt, Splits McPins, Danny Jones, Beano, Brendan White, Drew Parker, Elijah Dahl, Chuck Mambo, Pete Dunne, Tyler Bate, Ryan Smile, Kyle Fletcher, Mike Bird, Wild Boar, Mark Andrews, Flash Morgan Webster, Eddie Dennis, Travis Banks, Jim Hunter, Damian Dunne, Super Santos Jr., and Lee Hunter. Thanks guys.
In addition to announcing the schedule for the Best of the Super Juniors tournament, New Japan Pro Wrestling also revealed more matches for the upcoming Dominion card last night.
Minoru Suzuki will defend the NEVER Openweight Championship for the first time in a lumberjack match against Hirooki Goto at the show. Members of Suzuki-gun and Chaos will presumably be at ringside for the match.
Suzuki previously defeated Goto to win the title at a show late last month prior to NJPW’s Wrestling Toyonokuni and Dontaku events.
Two tag title matches have been announced for Dominion as well. War Machine will put their IWGP Tag Team Championship on the line against Guerrillas of Destiny, and The Young Bucks will challenge for Roppongi Vice’s IWGP Junior Heavyweight tag titles.
Michael Elgin vs. Cody (Rhodes) is also set for Dominion.
Dominion will take place on June 11th at Osaka-jo Hall. The updated lineup is:
IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada defending against Kenny Omega
IWGP Intercontinental Champion Tetsuya Naito defending against Hiroshi Tanahashi
NEVER Openweight Champion Minoru Suzuki defending against Hirooki Goto in a lumberjack match
IWGP Tag Team Champions War Machine defending against Guerrillas of Destiny
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Roppongi Vice defending against The Young Bucks
Ring of Honor television from Stage AE in Pittsburgh featured a wild brawl and also a challenge that will assuredly lead to others brawling in the future.
War Machine battled the sinister BJ Whitmer and “Punishment” Martinez in a no disqualification match in the main event. Elsewhere on the show, Cody (Rhodes) issued a challenge to Jay Lethal using a classic prop from Dusty’s past.
In continuing the trend of rotating guest commentators, Alex Shelley joined the current lead voice of ROH, Ian Riccaboni, in calling most of the show.
Taped weeks before the 15th Anniversary pay-per-view and airing in syndication the weekend of the PPV, this episode was a lame duck of sorts with certain storyline advancements. It still looked towards the next major card, Supercard of Honor on April 1st in Lakeland, Florida.
While the show built towards the future card, the taping for this episode took place before recent developments that left this show with one glaring timeline issue related to the tag team titles.
The Young Bucks, in a showcase match on this episode, were still the ROH World Tag Team Champions despite them recently losing the titles to Matt and Jeff Hardy. Nonetheless, Nick and Matt Jackson’s storyline with the Hardys was a constant thread throughout the opening match on this show.
The Young Bucks defeated Coast to Coast
The Coast to Coast tag team is Leon St. Giovanni and Shaheem Ali, and they have previously appeared on ROH TV in other matches against established tag teams in the promotion. Riccaboni on commentary referred to this as a “proving ground match” for Coast to Coast.
In the match, The Young Bucks dispatched Coast to Coast to the outside leading to them teasing doing the Rise of the Terminator spot. However, Ali tripped the Jacksons as they ran the ropes. Giovanni then springboarded off the top rope into a tumbleweed onto the Jacksons at ringside.
Coast to Coast isolated Matt Jackson for a short time as the show went to commercial. After the break, The Young Bucks were making a comeback leading to a parade of moves until Coast to Coast cut them off.
Ali and Giovanni executed their namesake double coast-to-coast finisher on Matt. Nick broke up the pin, and, shortly thereafter, he and Matt were running wild and cleaning house.
Giovanni went for a last ditch springboard off the middle rope and got superkicked to set up him being draped on the rope. Matt held him in place so Nick could jump off the top rope with a 450 splash. Matt then hooked a leg and covered Giovanni for the pinfall.
Afterwards, the then-champions sent a message to the Hardys by mocking them. Matt gave Ali the twist of fate and Nick did a swanton bomb. As he stood on the top rope, Nick encouraged dueling chants of “delete/suck it” before jumping into the swanton.
Though that is very much out of place in the current climate amid the tension and legal wrangling over ownership of the Broken Hardy gimmick (as detailed in the lead story of the newest Observer), this episode was taped before the Hardys left Impact Wrestling and the legal issues began.
At this point in the timeline, the Hardys were only advertised as appearing on the Supercard of Honor card in Florida during WrestleMania weekend. The Hardys subsequently departed the Impact promotion and signed on for a more enhanced run in ROH.
Moving on, a video package chronicled Lio Rush and his issues with The Rebellion, leading to Riccaboni interviewing Rush. He likened The Rebellion to children playing games, so he played games on the last episode. He is “sick” of dealing with The Rebellion.
Kenny King of The Rebellion interrupted the interview, asking if Rush just called him a clown. He actually had not for the record. Nevertheless, King called Rush an “ungrateful piece of garbage” before saying they were no longer playing games with Rush.
King then continued cutting a promo on Rush. He hyped a match between the two for next week’s episode. He concluded with a declaration, “Everybody’s going to know it was Kenny King that put the hush on Lio Rush.”
Curt Stallion defeated Preston Quinn (w/ Andy Vineberg) to advance in the Top Prospect Tournament
The story was the wily veteran facing a young up-and-comer. Brutal Bob Evans joined commentary alongside Shelley and Riccaboni.
On commentary, they noted the tournament was not so much about finding young talent, but also giving other talented, yet possibly overlooked, names an opportunity. Preston Quinn fit the latter as a 43-year-old veteran with many years of experience.
His manager, Andy Vineberg, looked to have transported through time from a territory long ago with his antics and monogrammed powder blue sports coat.
At the outset during the Code of Honor handshake, Vineberg also wanted to shake hands with Stallion. The gesture was a ploy for Quinn to suckerpunch Stallion before the bell.
Later in the match, Vineberg caused another distraction when he tripped Stallion. Quinn thus underhandedly gained the advantage until Stallion made a comeback for a near fall. Quinn cut him off and delivered a piledriver.
With Stallion prone and close to defeat, Quinn jumped off a middle rope only to miss a flying elbow drop. Stallion capitalized by using a flying headbutt before covering Quinn for a three count and the upset victory. Stallion advances to the second round of the tournament.
In the next segment, “The American Nightmare” Cody cut a promo in the ring issuing a challenge to Jay Lethal for a Texas bull rope match.
Cody first asked the crowd in Pittsburgh if they knew the whereabouts of Jay Lethal, insinuating cowardice. He asked someone in the first row of ringside about Lethal, and the fan hurled an insult about Cody’s wife. Cody called him a liar, regrouped, and used the word “extrapolating” in transitioning into him introducing Hangman Page.
With a noose hanging around his neck, Page joined Cody in the ring. Page untied the noose, leaving just a long length of rope he presented to Cody.
By attaching the cowbell, Cody declared it would be a “Texas bull rope” as he went on to challenge Lethal for a match at Supercard of Honor.
The Texas bull rope match is scheduled for April 1st at Supercard of Honor, though Lethal has not yet accepted the challenge in the storyline narrative on TV.
In a pre-taped segment, Jay Briscoe cut a promo ahead of a return match against Jay White in the main event on the next episode of ROH TV. The two previously met in a match on TV that went to a time limit draw.
Dalton Castle (w/ The Boys) defeated Jonathan Gresham
They had a babyface match with them doing chain wrestling sequences that usually ended in stalemates. Neither had the upper hand with it being nip-and-tuck throughout.
Their reversals and counters were really good. Gresham even countered Castle’s finisher at one point before sending him to regroup outside the ring.
Gresham followed with a flying knee off the apron, and he appeared to have Castle reeling. Or did he? Gresham jumped off the top rope into the waiting arms of Castle, who delivered a Bang-a-Rang.
Castle then pinned Gresham to end a good match where Gresham shined despite losing. Castle himself also remained strong as the number one contender ahead of his upcoming challenge for the ROH World Championship.
In a pre-taped promo, ROH World TV Champion Marty Scurll plugged Supercard of Honor and encouraged the buying of tickets to see him.
For the TV main event, Mark Briscoe provided guest commentary for a wild brawl. Fittingly, Briscoe himself is very familiar with wild brawls so he was right at home and gleeful at times when calling the melee.
The back story was that the two teams met in a previous bout at the TV tapings in Atlanta, and the match was thrown out after an uncontrollable brawl erupted. This episode featured the return match with a no disqualification stipulation to settle the score.
BJ Whitmer & Damien “Punishment” Martinez defeated War Machine in a no DQ match
In a sneak attack during the spooky entrance of Whitmer and Martinez, War Machine entered the scene like Vikings on a raid. War Machine attacked them unmercifully.
Hanson did a cannonball splash off the theater stage and Rowe threw superman punches. War Machine pummeled Whitmer and Martinez around ringside, throwing them into guardrails as they brawled on the floor.
In the ring, Hanson took an unprotected chair shot to the head thrown by Whitmer. Hanson gave him his back for another shot. Whitmer and Martinez had Rowe isolated before a commercial break.
Upon the show returning from break, War Machine were already making a comeback with Hanson throwing clotheslines. He also did a cartwheel for good measure.
Martinez stopped the flurry of offense when he jumped off the ropes with a flying spin heel kick. A moment later, Rowe superman punched Martinez only to get folded up with a nasty German suplex from Whitmer.
Everybody was down selling when Whitmer and Rowe got to their feet to slug it out. Martinez jumped in to allow Whitmer to execute an exploder suplex for a near fall. Whitmer and Martinez tried to single out Hanson, but Rowe made the save.
War Machine did a double team move on Martinez where Rowe launched Martinez in the air, and Hanson caught him on his shoulder for a running powerslam. Martinez kicked out at two for a near fall.
War Machine set up a table in the ring. Whitmer fought back against Rowe and Hanson before all three spilled to the outside. As the three brawled at ringside, Martinez ran corner-to-corner across the ring and did a flip dive over the ropes to the floor.
For the finish, Hanson and Martinez were perched on the ropes fighting when Martinez chokeslammed Hanson off the ropes through a table. With Hanson laying in the debris of the demolished table, Martinez pinned him.
On the next episode of ROH TV, Jay Briscoe and Jay White collide in a return match after they previously wrestled to a draw in their last encounter.
The newest episode begins airing this weekend in syndication so check local listings. The show is then available Monday evening via the FITE TV app before airing Wednesday at midnight ET on Comet TV, including that channel’s free online live stream. The episode is then available to watch on Thursday via the official ROH website.
– Coast to Coast defeated The Carnies with stereo coast to coast dropkicks.
– The Briscoes defeated The Tempura Boyz when Mark hit the froggy bow on Yo.
– The Rebellion (Kenny King & Caprice Coleman) defeated Jay White & Chris Sabin (w/ Alex Shelley) after interference by Shane Taylor.
Rhett Titus was out in a wheelchair here with his right knee in a brace and wrapped up. Shane Taylor has joined the Rebellion.
– The Young Bucks defeated War Machine in an incredible ROH World Tag Team Championship match.
This was easily the best match on the show with both teams giving it their all. The Bucks won after hitting multiple superkicks like they did to the Briscoes at Final Battle.
– Cody Rhodes defeated Dalton Castle with the Cross Rhodes.
Cody came out dressed as one of Castle’s Boys, which later led to that Boy coming out dressed as Cody. Adam Cole and Hangman Page distracted Castle by holding the other Boy hostage and them attacking Castle after the match. Jay Lethal and Bobby Fish came out to make the save which led to the next match.
– Jay Lethal & Bobby Fish defeated Adam Cole & Hangman Page in a falls count anywhere match
This went all over the building, which has an upstairs balcony, and was complete insanity at times. Lethal and Fish won with Lethal hitting Lethal Injections on both Cole and Page.
– Kelly Klein defeated Scarlett Bordeaux in a Women of Honor match
Both worked hard in this match and Klein has gotten much better over the last couple of years.
– Punishment Martinez defeated David Starr, Jonathan Gresham, Will Ferrara, Shane Taylor, and Beer City Bruiser in a six-man mayhem match
– Lio Rush defeated ROH World Television Champion Marty Scurll in a non-title two-out-of-three falls proving ground match
The win gives Rush a shot at the TV title at ROH’s 15th Anniversary pay-per-view on March 10th. This was easily the second best match of the night.
– ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champions The Kingdom defeated Jay Briscoe, Cheeseburger & Chris Sabin to retain their titles
The fans voted on who would challenge for the titles. Fun match to end the show with everyone in the new Kingdom showing some ability.
We are already at the third day of World Tag League action, this time held in Guma. You’ll find prelim results, thoughts on the tournament matches and latest rankings below. Let’s do this!
Prelim results:
– Teruaki Kanemitsu defeated Hirai Kawato after Kawato submitted to the Boston Crab.
– Katsuyori Shibata, Jushin Thunder Liger, Yuji Nagata and Tiger Mask defeated Yoshitatsu, Billy Gunn, David Finlay and IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion KUSHIDA when Nagata pinned Finlay following the backdrop driver.
– SANADA, BUSHI and EVIL defeated Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma and Ryusuke Taguchi when SANADA submitted Taguchi with the skull end.
– IWGP Champion Kazuchika Okada, Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii and YOSHI-HASHI defeated Kenny Omega, Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens and Bone Soldier when Goto pinned Bone Soldier with the GTR.
Main show results:
– Yujiro Takahashi and Hangman Page defeated Manabu Nakanishi and Henare
Henare and Nakanishi come off as a good team based on the look alone while Henare comes off as a total heavyweight, at least by New Japan standards. He was worked on a lot throughout this match. This was an okay match since Henare did most of the work on his team. Yujiro got the win with the Pimp Juice DDT on Henare.
– IWGP Tag Team Champions Guerillas of Destiny defeated Leland Race and Brian Breaker
The action was fine, but the crowd was dead for a lot of it. Breaker comes off as having something while Race is just kinda there, at least at this point in the tournament. Tonga took out Breaker and sent him to the outside. They ganged up on Race and leveled him with the Guerilla Warfare for the win.
– War Machine defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi and Juice Robinson
This ws a good match. War Machine is very good, Tanahashi provided the star power and Juice works hard. It all came together here. Juice was worked on for the bulk of it until Tanahashi made the hot tag. He kept beating on War Machine until he tired out and War Machine went back on the offensive. Juice came back but War Machine dominated him. They went for their wheelbarrow/springboard clothesline combo, but Juice rolled up Rowe for a cool nearfall. They levelled Juice with a double chokeslam but he still kicked out. They finally hit Fallout to end the match.
– Tencozy defeated Rush and IWGP I-C Champion Tetsuya Naito
This was a pretty standard main event. Rush took out Kojima early outside of the ring and both Ingobernables worked on him for a long time. Then, Kojima just fired back with a lariat and pinned Rush — an anticlimactic finish. This was fine, but nothing special. Tencozy then cut a promo to close out the show.
War Machine/Tanahashi and Juice was great, and the show was fine overall, but there’s nothing here fans absolutely need to watch.
Veda wins with a back suplex while Mary is seated on top rope. Good enough match to warm up.
Kelly Klein and BJ Whitmer come out. Klein gives Mary a Michinoku-driver like move and BJ harasses the ring announcer to announce Klein as ‘the only woman that matters’ in Women of Honor.
Jay Briscoe comes out and tells the crowd the ROH officials are concerned about his health and he is not supposed to wrestle tonight. Roderick Strong comes out to tell him it is better that way and Jay should take the night off. Of course, Jay doesn’t accept that reasonable offer, so the main event is still on.
– Caprice Coleman vs ACH
Good match. Caprice yelled out ‘Buddy Landel!’ and proceeded to do a Landel-style elbow off the ropes. Maybe a dozen people in the audience got it. ACH won with the 360 splash.
– Stevie Richards vs Mark Briscoe
OK match. Mark with a DVD like move and then FroggyBo off the top for the pin.
– Beer City Bruiser (w/ Silas Young) vs Cheezburger
What you’d expect. BCB wins with his finisher. Silas mocks Cheeseburger and expresses his disgust for the crown and ACH and CB. Silas picks CB up over his shoulders, but ACH makes the save.
– ANX vs Motor City Machine Guns
Fun match. Good team spots. Heat on Alex Shelley. Finish breaks down and MCMG do a double team buster move on Rhett ( I think) for the pin. MCMG are pretty over.
– Adam Page vs. ROH Champion Jay Lethal
Big pop for Bullet Club, and a good pop for Lethal. Crowd somewhat favored Lethal during the match. Back and forth action. Lots of leg selling by Jay. Page ripped off his knee brace at one point. Big pop for a Young Bucks run in. Superkicks on Lethal, but he kicks out. Another attempt and Lethal ducks and Page gets it. Then Lethal diverts one Buck’s superkick into the other Buck. Follows with a Lethal Injection on both a Buck and Page at the same time. Good for the pin. Really good match.
– Intermission had BJ Whitmer babbling. Crowd wouldn’t let him talk at all. “We want wrestling” chant.
– Dalton Castle (w/The Boys) vs Kamaitachi
Solid match. Fun spots w/ Castle and the Boys. Crowd into it. Castle w/ a bridging suplex for the win.
– Lio Rush vs Adam Cole
The rest of the Bullet Club came out w/ Cole. He then sent them off saying he didn’t need them. Really good match. Near falls and hope spots had me believing Rush would win it, especially after he finally hit a frog splash. But Cole caught him with the knee brain buster for a pin. Afterwards, he shook Lio’s hand and called hm the future of ROH. Then he hugged Lio … but it was just a cover for a Superkick party. Bucks were out and nailed Rush and then all 3 did. MCMG ran them off. Best match on the card.
– War Machine vs. ROH Tag Champions The Addiction (Daniels/Kazarian) in a no DQ title match
Early part was just WM mauling The Addiction with hairs and trash cans. Then they got Hanson taped outside to the corner and Rowe taped inside by his legs to bottom rope. Lots of offense on Rowe, but couldn’t pin him since feet on ropes! Daniels cut him loose and they tried to pin. Rowe kicks out. Powers up and frees Hanson. More brawling. They hit finisher on Kazrian, but Daniels saved. Then War Machine decided to get the tables.
Before they can, two big guys (Shane Taylor and Keith Lee) run in and demolish WM with power bomb moves. The Addiction recover and give Hanson a double suplex with a belly landing on the table for the pin.
– Jay Briscoe vs Rodrick Strong
Lots of heat on Strong. Back and forth match. Ref bump and Jay got visual pin. Revived ref and hit the Jay Driller, but only got 2. A short exchange and Strong hit his suplex into front codebreaker like finish for a surprise victory. Solid match.
