On Saturday March 2nd Ring of Honor promoted
what I’m convinced was their strongest show in years. The 11th
Anniversary Show did the business on every conceivable level. The only
complaints that could be fired at it were either minor or trivial. It was both
a celebration of the promotion’s history, pushing young talent to the fore and
emphasising the style that made ROH stand out in the first place, and a
launching point for future rivalries and storylines.
Maybe we should have paid more attention to this poster
The first match of the night was a six man mayhem match.
That’s something that used to be an ROH staple. They were popular with previous
booker Gabe Sapolsky because they allowed him to get multiple names onto a card
while not overloading on matches. They fell by the wayside when Gabe left due
to a ruling from Carey Silkin that cards should feature no more than eighteen
wrestlers. Unsurprisingly, putting a third of the card into one match never
caught on.
The 11th Anniversary six man did exactly what
it needed to, providing the show with a fast opener that got the fans vocal and
excited for the evening. Everyone got a chance to perform a big move but it was
ultimately ACH that got the win (pinning Silas Young). That was the right call,
ACH was massively over with the Chicago (Ridge) fans. If he’s not used
prominently over the next few months there’s something very wrong in ROH.
The showdown between SCUM boys Steve Corino and Jimmy
Jacobs and C&C followed the lightning quick opener. It was an equally
lightning quick tag match. Despite its surprisingly meagre runtime a lot was
packed into the match. Coleman and Alexander
looked trememndous. Sadly it was the veterans that won.
So much for building for the future.
In fairness it wasn’t a clean win. ‘The King of Old
School’ used what Kevin Kelly described as a “hunk of metal” to strike Alexander
and then hit a spike piledriver. C&C were at least protected a bit in their
loss.
BJ Whitmer got a surprising win (to me anyway) over
Charlie Haas in a 90s style garbage match. This was referred to as a street
fight, a falls count anywhere match, and a no holds barred match at various
points. These kind of simple inconsistencies are bush league and very easy to
fix, yet Ring of Honor has been plagued by them for years. It’s not a big deal
but it doesn’t really paint the promotion in the right light.
The two men took some insane bumps through tables, chairs
and ladders, with BJ kicking out of every big move he was subjected to. Haas
kicked out of his fair share but was made to look fallible when the referee
stopped the match and awarded it to Whitmer as ‘The Buzzsaw’ rained down knees
on Haas’s head. Fans seemed disappointed by this call. I thought it was a
realistic finish considering the torture the two men had inflicted on one
another.
There was a pre-match video for the American Wolves v Forever
Hooligans match that featured Davey Richards talking about his time teaming
with Rocky Romero in Japan. They also held the ROH tag titles together, but he
didn’t mention that (unless you consider his “No remorse” comment at the end).
Any excuse to namedrop New Japan, eh, Davey?
Like something out of the 1980s Alex Koslov insisted on
singing the Russian national anthem before the match. The crowd heavily booed
this, naturally.
The four men constructed a great match. As with
everything else on the show until this point they set a breakneck speed early
on and kept it up. There were touches of comedy in the opening minutes between
Romero and Richards (rare in a Richards match) but the match became serious and
the two teams exchanged stiff shots and a wide variety of double team moves.
The Wolves won a great bout with a power bomb and top rope lung-blower combo.
The four shook hands after the bout, with the former No
Remorse Corps members hugging to a cheer from the crowd.
Following intermission we had the battle of the former
House of Truth members, Roderick Strong and Michael Elgin. My first thought as
‘Unbreakable’ entered was that he needs to drop the fetishwear. Entering in a
long leather coat doesn’t do him any favours. It doesn’t fit with his character
either.
Elgin picked up the first fall with a buckle bomb within
two minutes. The match then spilled to the outside and Strong managed to grab
the upper hand with a belly-to-back suplex on the floor and some manly barrier
shoving. He eventually evened up the fall count with a backbreaker onto the
turnbuckle followed by a suplex into a backbreaker in the ring.
The closing moments didn’t seem to pick up as much as
steam as I’d expected. Strong managed to connect with a power bomb, only for
Elgin to kick out and come back with an Elgin bomb of his own. Strong kicked
out of that and then found himself locked into the Crossface. He tapped to it
instantly. No trying to reach the ropes here.
A recap of the Hot Prospect tournament finals, which saw
Matt Taven beat Tadarius Thomas with help from Truth Martini’s shoe and then
join forces with him, was followed by a nonsensical promo by the HOT boss. Matt
Hardy hit the ring and cut a promo which was drowned in boos and negative
chants. The fans didn’t care about Hardy’s feelings on the TV championship,
they just wanted him to leave the ring.
Matt Taven entered with a slightly altered look which was
completely overshadowed by his manager. Truth, not known for being shy and-or
retiring, wore a tuxedo jacket and a pair of wrestling trunks with a bow tie on
them. There was, as always, a top hat in the mix too.
‘The Sensei of Mattitude’ was on commentary for the
match. He spent most of the time putting himself over. That’s part of his character.
It doesn’t stop it being detrimental to the product or viewers’ enjoyment. Hardy
was obviously scripted to behave in this fashion, but there was no need to bury
the two men wrestling. That sort of thing never does anyone any good.
The match was slow but proficient. Cole was on defence
for a lot of the run time, getting in occasional flurries which excited the
audience. When the challenger was on offence the fans quietened down
considerably.
The surprise result saw Taven beat Cole to win the gold.
Irritatingly the post-match scene focused more on Matt
Hardy, who had been wittering on about being the man who would challenge Cole
at the next day’s TV taping. Cole’s reaction was made out to be less important
than Hardy’s, as was the celebration of the new champion. Hardy was the star of
the scene, not the new champ or the former champ. It was a stupid move.
The tag team titles were on the line in the penultimate
match of the night. It was a blistering display. There were numerous very
convincing false finishes from both teams, which kept viewers guessing as to
who’d win. The finish saw Mark Japanese arm dragged off of the apron, leaving
Jay to eat a Doomsday Device and Chasing the Dragon.
The right team won. The Briscoes have been overexposed
for a long time. Putting the belts on the fresher team should liven up the
doubles scene. A match between redDRagon and The American Wolves seems likely
for Supercard of Honor VII. That should be very good.
O'Reilly looks very pleased. Perhaps this was taken just after he was told he and Fish were getting the belts
As Kevin Steen made his entrance for the main event Kevin
Kelly screeched, “He is the ROH world champion not because he has fans that
like him but because he is the best wrestler in the world today.” It felt like
a not-very-subtle dig at The Rock. If it was it was a weird move. WWE and Ring
of Honor have very different criteria when it comes to selecting their
champions.
Steen and Lethal started off slugging away at each other
in the centre of the ring before breaking off into a surprisingly fluid
wrestling match. The story of the bout was that Lethal had scouted Steen well
and was able to avoid all of the champ’s standard moves. Doing so allowed him
to remain competitive against the stronger, bulkier ‘Mr Wrestling’.
Steen’s SCUM teammates ran in after a ref bump. They hit
their second spike piledriver of the evening on Lethal. It wasn’t enough to
keep the challenger down though. Corino went to use a chair on him but Nigel
McGuinness ran out and chased him off. ‘The Zombie Princess’ tried to interfere
but got an enziguri instead.
Lethal connected with two dragon suplexes. Steen kicked
out. The champion smashed the challenger with an elevated power bomb. Lethal
kicked out. Steen charged a corner but Lethal dodged him and nailed him with five super kicks, a Lethal Combination,
and a Macho Elbow. Steen, again, kicked out.
Locking in a Koji Clutch Lethal tried to win the title
via submission. It didn’t work: ‘Wrestling’s Worst Nightmare’ managed to roll
to the ropes and force a break. The two clambered to their feet and Lethal
looked as though he was planning a move that would take Steen out of the ring.
Instead Steen gave Lethal an F5 through the timekeeper’s table.
Despite having his foot grabbed by Jimmy Jacobs, who was
still skulking about at ringside, Lethal made it back into the ring before the
count of twenty (yeah, it’s a twenty count in ROH). He was immediately met with
a package piledriver, which he kicked out of for a very close near fall. Perhaps inspired by Truth Martini, Jacobs
offered the services of a loosened shoe (or, y’know, the spike he keeps there)
to the champion. That was turned down and Steen told Jacobs to leave ringside,
shoving him and getting caught in a rollup by Lethal for another convincing two count.
Lethal then hit yet another super kick on Steen, who
retaliated with a lariat. Moments later they were back up and on the
turnbuckle. Lethal went for a Macho Elbow but Steen leapt up and blasted his
foe with El Generico’s turnbuckle brainbuster. That finally earned him the victory in a tremendous main event.
Post-match Steen took a microphone to make a speech but
was interrupted by Rhino. ‘The War Machine’ charged into the ring and Gored
Lethal. The Briscoes came to the ring, knocking Steen down before brawling with
Jacobs and Rhino. ‘Dem Boys’ were disposed of quickly but were replaced by
valiant young bucks C&C. They cleaned house on the heels until Jimmy Rave
ran in through the crowd, sporting a natty SCUM shirt, and tossed them out of
the ring.
Next out in the ECW-inspired run-in session (which I
thoroughly enjoyed, by the way) were BJ Whitmer and Rhett Titus. Within seconds
Titus drop kicked his tag partner and tore open his ROH shirt to reveal, you
guessed it, a SCUM shirt. Elgin came down and sliced through a few guys before yet another SCUM member debuted, tossing
powder into ‘Unbreakable’s eyes.
It was Cliff Compton.
As the SCUM boys gave C&C, the Briscoes, Elgin and
Lethal a good kicking Steen stood at the edge of the ring watching. The Wolves
and Adam Cole hit the ring but they ended up going down too, Cole being taken
down by (sigh) Matt Hardy, who was also decked out in SCUM merch.
Corino returned to the ring, sporting glasses, to announce
that ROH was going to die SCUM, you see, is waging war on Ring of Honor, using
guys who have been mistreated by its fans over the years. This logic does
admittedly make Matt Hardy a perfect fit for the gang. Rave too, considering
the amazing levels of heat he used to get.
Steen didn’t speak but seemed less than enthused by the
turn of events. An official face turn for him seems very likely.
The 11th Anniversary Show was a triumph. The
show-closing angle, the restocking of SCUM, was executed wonderfully and
provided several genuine surprises for fans. Even if that’s overlooked the show
has to be considered a success. There wasn’t a single bad match on the show,
there were title changes that should freshen the promotion up, and there was a
match of the year candidate in the headline slot. What more could have been
asked for?
I’m keen to see where the SCUM v ROH angle goes. The
decision to bulk up the group of villains to the point where they’re
practically a mini roster could indicate that this feud is going to go on for a
while. As long as it provides good matches and doesn’t outstay its welcome I’m
all for it.
