There’s nothing I can say on the topic of streaming
problems and Ring of Honor that I haven’t said before but I can’t provide a
recap of the show without mentioning the problem. It’s something ROH need to
sort out. Until they do they’ll continue to have rightly dissatisfied customers
and an image of a small time indy fed.
The promotion and its talent deserve better than that but
they won’t get it until they prove they can give us iPPVs without fault. The
more things that go wrong the longer stretch of successes they’re going to have
to shed the image.
I really hope that I can do a write-up of Best in the
World in June without mentioning any of these problems.
Border Wars took place in front of a lively crowd at the Red
Reeve Arena in Toronto. The C&C Wrestle Factory opened up the show with a
victory over the super-popular ACH and his tag partner Tadarius Thomas (who really
need a team name). The win came after Coleman hit a no hands hurricanrana on
ACH and Alexander followed up with a springboard frog splash.
The fans were into the bout, granting it with early
chants of “This is awesome!” Things quietened down considerably when Thomas got
isolated, a sign that ACH was the star of the four. He's a highlight of the
current ROH roster, charismatic and incredibly nimble. He could make it to the
top of the company given the time.
In the short term he and Thomas are likely going to get
themselves a tag team title shot. I thought they’d be getting a win on iPPV to
set that up but apparently not. It’s still something they’re heading towards
though.
Streamers in the opening match? You bet!
Match two was Mike Bennett versus Roderick Strong one-on-one.
Mike Mondo had originally been set to be a part of the match but suffered an injury
while training so got pulled. Yep, his return has been delayed again.
Bennett was sporting a haircut. I prefer the shaggy look
he had going on before.
The match was the average Bennett affair, meaning that
there was nothing bad going on but also nothing particularly exciting either.
The finish came when Roddy slapped the Stronghold on Bennett, spurring Maria to
cause a distraction as her man tapped out. Strong went to chide the ref for his
inattentiveness and turned around into a superkick and a Box Office Snash for
two.
Cheeseburger rocked up and forced a kiss on Maria, which as
basically sexual assault and was presumably done as payback for getting decked
by ‘The Prodigy’ at Supercard of Honor. Bennett then dashed around ringside
after the crew member, sliding back into the ring to eat the match-winning Sick
Kick.
A recap of Steen speaking out against Matt Hardy and
getting booted out of SCUM followed that. If you've watched the TV show you’ll
be aware of the footage.
BJ Whitmer v Rhett Titus, fought under I Quit rules, was
match three. ‘Addicted to Love’ was wearing Scott Hall nWo style trunks. Pretty
cool touch for a guy who's part of an invading faction.
The match started with the two men brawling. That was
overshadowed by Nigel McGuinness getting referees to eject Steve Corino from
the arena. The fans resurrected WWE's old ‘Get the F Out’ campaign as a chant, replacing
the F with something that wasn't “federation”.
The crowd were into the match. I wasn’t. I can’t be part
of the in-crowd all the time. Titus brought in zip ties after the standard
issue tussling. ‘The Buzzsaw’ fought him off and ended up locking Titus into
the ropes. The SCUM man refused to quit as he was punched repeatedly in the
face by his former tag team partner. Eventually he spat at him.
That prompted BJ to bring in a chair. He prepared to
smash Titus with an unprotected shot but Corino returned and distracted him. ‘The
King of Old School’ turned his back and sank to his knees, sacrificing himself
to Whitmer’s wrath. Titus quit to save his pal form the chair.
Jimmy Jacobs and Cliff Compton hit the ring and flattened
BJ, which brought out Michael Elgin and Jay Lethal for the stipulation tag
match. Jacobs was sporting a new hairdo too. It was clearly new haircut night
in Toronto. Corinio stayed at ringside as the combatants rucked around ringside,
providing time for Rhett to be cut out of the zip ties back in the ring.
Once both teams were back into the ring a regular tag match
got underway. Elgin did his stalling suplex spot to a booming reaction. It got
a "That was awesome!" chant. Moments later he did it again on
Compton. Lethal joined him with a stall on Jacobs. Elgin remains amazingly over
despite underwhelming presentation so far this year. That’s a positive sign.
Lethal was written out of the match when he “tweaked his
knee” on what appeared to be a standard suicide dive. Corino demanded a count
out but it didn't happen. Instead Lethal was helped backstage, leaving
'Unbreakable' to continue the match alone. It was a work designed to keep Elgin
looking strong and set up a surprise run-in from Kevin Steen.
It accomplished both goals. Jacobs was caught in mid-air
and slammed with a suplex. Moments later Elgin powered both men off the mat,
one on his shoulders and one in his arms. The numbers bettered him after that
but he looked like a beast while battling the odds.
When Steen appeared he got officially added to the match
by McGuinness. Elgin tagged him in and 'Mr Wrestling' cleaned house on SCUM.
After hitting a pop-up power bomb on Compton he went for a package piledriver
but ‘The Zombie Princess’ clipped his leg and snuck in a schoolboy for a
victory. Steen looked crushed as Corino beamed and celebrated at ringside.
The match was a good piece of work. It created a way to
get Steen on to the card and protected Elgin. It was well received. Excellent
use of four guys and continuation of the SCUM plot.
During the interval we were shown two matches. Taiji
Ishimori v El Generico from Tokyo Summit (Ishimori won) and Paul London v
Michael Shane (remember him?) from Unscripted (London won).
The second half opened with 'Barrister' RD Evans (inexplicably
dressed in wrestling gear) and 'God's Gift' QT Marshall sauntering to the ring.
They got hefty streamer treatment. Fans were probably just pleased to have the
chance to throw stuff again after intermission. Evans asked for silence because
his voice was hoarse. That got the fans Fandangoing. Evans asked if it was the
Canadian national anthem. A humorous quip from Evans? That’s his strength.
Evans said reDRagon should be stripped of the tag belts
because they'd no-showed the event. No-showing was a bit strong: they were
never announced to be there. As he spoke a series of beeps started up and
images were shown on the screen above the entrance of Tommaso Ciampa working
out.
Moments later ‘The Sicilian Psychopath’ strode out with a
new (and impressive) entrance that made him look like a major star. Evans
bailed and left Marshall to eat a double leg takedown and a knee to the face.
The heels fled. It was a well booked return segment and Ciampa got a great
reaction. He should have hit his finisher on Marshall though. The fans needed
something to give a definitive pop to.
Corino returned to ringside to gloat about being the
company’s new colour commentator. He promised something big for later in the
show and then left. It was a peculiar addition to the show. Corino could have
said what he had to say during his earlier appearance. That would have allowed
the audience to hear what he had to say too.
Eddie Edwards v Taiji Ishimori was match five. Kevin
Kelly frustratingly claimed this was Ishimori's ROH debut even though we'd seen
him wrestle Generico in an ROH ring not half an hour earlier. Okay it was in
Japan, but it was still an ROH card. Seconds after that claim Kelly followed up
with "I've had the opportunity to speak to him quite a bit... through
translator, over the last few days." Oh, Kevin Kelly. When will you learn?
What followed was the match of the night. It was stuffed
with great exchanges and near falls. I strongly recommend checking it out. Eddie
eventually got the win with a Die Hard Driver. After his victory ‘Die Hard’ did
the “motion-for-the-title-around-the-waist” that wrestlers tend to do. A match
for the GHC junior heavyweight championship on his next NOAH tour looks likely.
Following that we all took our pants off to enjoy the TV
title match. Truth had two Hoopla hotties with him. Taven again had the belt
stuffed down his tights. And JBL thinks Dolph Ziggler wearing a championship
backwards is disrespectful.
I’d said in my preview that this match needed to give
Matt Taven a chance to have a match free of stalling and storylines on
pay-per-view. It did that and MTV had a satisfactory, technically sound match.
It didn't blow anyone away but it as the outing that champ needed. That he won
via Hoopla hottie distraction and a handful of tights didn't hurt him at all.
It's in keeping with his character.
Following the match Truth offered a handshake to Briscoe.
There was literally no reason for this. He had to return to the ring to do it.
The life intervention expert got a karate chop for his trouble. The newest
Hoopls hottie carried him backstage. That’s particularly impressive when you
factor in her impractical heels.
London versus Richards was the evening's penultimate bout. The stream cut for London's steamer treatment. Richards' got a lot so I imagine the returning star did too. London wrestled in the same trunks he wore fit your per ROH match in 2003. That was a nice touch.
Mat and submission wrestling was the story of the first
few minutes. The fans turned on Richards early. He’s had a storied history with
Toronto: challenging, and failing to defeat, Tyler Black for the ROH
championship and losing the belt to Kevin Steen at last year’s Border Wars
being the most memorable examples. I like this sort of thing in wrestling. It’s
impossible to script and adds realism.
This prompted ‘The American Wolf’ to begin playing heel,
becoming more aggressive throughout the match and taunting the fans
continually. His cry of “best wrestler in the world" after booting London
in the face was thoroughly antagonistic.
London got a convincing near fall off a Dragon suplex.
Moments later Richards retaliated with a Tombstone piledriver on the ringside
mats in the second biggest move of the match. London made it back in at the
count if nineteen as Richards shouted for him to stay down. ‘The Lone Wolf’
immediately nailed him with a baseball slide drop kick and followed up by a
mistimed double stomp off the top rope, landing right on London's face. That
was the biggest move of the match.
Richards stalled as the referee helped London to recover.
The decision was made to go to the finish in order to protect him from further
damage. That was a wise move. London placed Richards on the top rope and
connected with a hurricanrana. He went for the Shooting Star press. Richards
countered with his knees and then rolled London up for the win. Botched stomp
aside it was a very good match. Had that not happened they may have topped
Edwards versus Ishimori.
Davey reverted to face mode after the bout, saying ROH
and guys like him, Jay Briscoe and Adam Cole wouldn't be there without him. He
then asked for a standing ovation for ‘The Intrepid Traveller’. The fans
obliged.
London wasn't to be outdone. He took the mic to say that
the honour had been all his, proclaimed Richards will do great things and
thanked the fans for the streamers. I want to see him as a regular in ROH. He’s
popular, talented and willing to put the company and its stars over. Let’s hope
it happens.
The on-screen graphic declared Jay Briscoe to be the
"new" ROH champion as he entered for his first defence of the ROH world
title. That's milking it a bit. I don't think a champion can be considered new
a month into their reign, first defence or not. Cole got a mixed reaction when
he was announced. Fans were massively into Briscoe.
The "new" champ is here
Things were slow and even in the early going, the story
being that Cole was slightly awed by the big match situation. Tings eventually
turned in favour of the challenger when he
hit a drop kick to Briscoe’s knee. That was followed up by the corner figure
four spot. As that had been made famous by beloved Canadian hero Bret Hart it
got a good reaction.
From there Briscoe made a few attempts at comebacks but
always had to go back to favouring the knee, allowing Cole recovery time. After
a failed Jay Driller and a couple of neck breakers from Cole the action picked
up with a Death Valley driver on the apron from Briscoe. Back in the ring
Briscoe went for the Driller again but Cole countered into the figure four leg
lock.
One rope break later both men were up on the top rope and
Cole nailed Briscoe with a German suplex followed by a pair of superkicks, the
Florida Key and then a second figure four. The challenger was more reluctant to
release the hold to the rope break the second time around.
Todd Sinclair took a bump, setting up a Steve Corino
run-in. He tossed a SCUM shirt to Cole, who stood looking confused while McGuinness
got into the ring, crotched Corino on the top rope and hit the Tower of London.
As Nigel tossed Corino backstage Jay returned to his feet and finally connected
with the Jay Driller on Cole, giving him his first successful title defence.
Briscoe celebrated in a shower of steamers as Cole pouted
like a petulant child. The two shook hands and all seemed right with the world
but Cole teased a superkick when Jay turned his back. It didn't happen. The
challenger stormed backstage when Briscoe figured out what he was up to. It
pretty much confirms Cole is now a bad guy though.
The card did a good job of satisfying on the night and
building further plot developments and storylines. There wasn’t a single match
that could be described as bad and the central feud, SCUM versus Ring of Honor,
continued with Corino earning a commentary spot and a SCUM member being
guaranteed a world title match at some point in the future. I’m expecting that
to happen at next month’s Best in the World. Based on recent form that should
be a great show.
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