Beating Lethal

Best in the World 2015 saw Jay Lethal defeat Jay Briscoe to become the new Ring of Honor world champion. He's the twentieth man to hold the title and the first ever to hold it in conjunction with another active championship. Yeah, Bryan Danielson won the pure championship from Nigel McGuinness during his world title reign but he retired it immediately. He didn't hold belts simultaneously and work as a double champion.

Apparently Lethal will. Reports from ROH's latest TV tapings indicate that Lethal opted not to vacate the TV championship as he'd put too much effort into building it up. Matchmaker McGuinness then made the ruling that if Jay wants to stay a double champion he will have to defend the TV and world titles as separate entities. All of which makes sense from the point of view of Lethal's character and creates the chance to produce some fresh scenarios for championship defences and show-long stories at future events.

The double champ is here.

I'll be surprised if Lethal doesn't hold onto both belts for a while. It would be fairly pointless to go to the trouble of giving him a lengthy reign as TV champion (the longest ever, in fact) and not have him vacate the title only to lose it in a random title match after a few weeks. It would also be pointless to put the world title on him just to take it away quickly. That's not how things work in ROH. Wrestlers work hard to win titles and get to enjoy substantial reigns with them. It makes the titles and wrestlers, and by extension the matches involving them, mean more.

But at some point Lethal will lose the world championship, just as has happened twenty-two times before. Which is the point of this article: discussing the possible successors (as I perceive them) to Jay Lethal as the ROH world champion. As far as the TV championship goes I think he'll hold it for a few more months before losing it to guy who'd benefit from a surprise upset win, such as ACH, or being stripped of it after some form of shenanigans during a title defence.

I'll start with Jay Briscoe. There's a chance that Lethal will lose the title back to him but I think it would be dependent on him having a long title reign. I don't imagine ROH would take the gold from Briscoe only to get it back to him a couple of months later, even though it's an approach that would fit the sports-emphasis style of the promotion. But if Lethal has been made champion with no long term plan for a replacement (not that I think that's the case considering how well Delirious has done planning things out over the last few years) it's possible Briscoe could regain the belt in the far future (by which I mean some time next year). If Lethal left for WWE Briscoe would be a lead candidate for a short notice replacement.

As would Roderick Strong. My reasoning is the same as with Briscoe: he looks and wrestles the part, would be accepted in the role, and is unlikely to leave for another major promotion. I can't see him beating 'The Greatest First Generation Wrestler' at Death Before Dishonor XIII on July 24 but farther in the future he could be in with a chance. Right now he's more of a credible contender to stabilise Lethal's reign than anything else.

AJ's already got a belt though, so...

Sticking with the theme of men who probably won't defeat Lethal but might there's AJ Styles. ROH seems comfortable in presenting him as a special attraction. As such he doesn't need the championship. He's a draw for ROH with or without it. He's also won the IWGP championship twice since joining New Japan last year and is the champion right now. That places limitations on ROH, because New Japan aren't likely to be happy if their champion starts laying down for people elsewhere. And ROH have benefited too much from their relationship with New Japan to upset them. Styles is best off facing bigger names who aren't champion and losing (or indeed winning) any ROH title matches he's in via disqualification.

The first guy I'll name who I think has a crack at taking the title from Lethal in a long term planning capacity is Michael Elgin. He's one of the better wrestlers in the company despite fans having turned on him. In fact his  current status as a heat magnet is a large part of the reason I think he could end up beating Lethal for the title. People would be genuinely irate if he become a two time champion with his current persona. He has the character and in-ring ability to make a reign as heel work and it would be nice to see him get the championship run he deserved to have last year. Although I think an 'Unbreakable' title win would be reliant on Lethal becoming a babyface at some point the response to his win at BITW indicates he'd be accepted as a good guy. I don't think it's something that's going to come any time soon though, if it comes at all.

Moose is a possibility too, which isn't something I would have expected to write a few months ago. He's comfortable in the big man role and could easily introduce some flashier moves to help him fit in at the top of the card (big lads need to have stuff like the cross body block he used at Best in the World when they're main eventing). He's also really, really over. His burgeoning programme with Cedric Alexander will likely keep him busy for a few months but he should be done with that in plenty of time to challenge Lethal at whatever big show ROH promotes in September or October or perhaps even at Final Battle (although there's someone mentioned below who I think would make a far better opponent for Lethal at Final Battle).

No ROH champion has mastered the point into the crowd... until now.

A wildcard possibility is Nic 'Dolph Ziggler' Nemeth. I mention him mostly because at time of writing there are rumours floating about that he'll be leaving WWE when his contract comes to an end later in 2015. I don't think this will come to anything but if it does ROH has to be the favourite for the company he'd turn up in. It wouldn't rule out him working for New Japan and TNA is a laughable suggestion at this point. He's probably the WWE guy I'd most like to see in ROH. Everything that's needed to make it to the top of the work rate-centric promotion he has, and he could do it as a face or a heel. Nemeth would be a boon to ROH, giving him the title would only help matters.

But I'm not going to make any of those names my official prediction. That honour goes to Adam Cole. Everything I can find on the subject indicates that he has a significant amount of time left on his current contract. If Best in the World and TV spoilers are anything to go by he's on the cusp of turning face. Having him work as a face champion would be something new for him and the company. By the time he's finished with what I suspect could be a lengthy breakup with his Kingdom stablemates we should be just about ready for a build towards Final Battle. Babyface Adam Cole versus heel Jay Lethal would not only be new, it would be one of the biggest matches Ring of Honor could promote. I think this will be the match to headline Final Battle.

That is my official prediction. Now watch as I'm wrong, just as I always am when it comes to predicting ROH title changes.

ROH Best in the World 2015 review

ROH's Best in the World 2015 show started with a video package focusing on the main event, one of the most interesting matches they've presented in a long time, Jay Briscoe versus Jay Lethal. The chief reason this was an interesting match was that it was a champion versus champion scenario, Briscoe being the world champion and Lethal being the television champion, with both titles on the line. There was also the fact that Lethal had held the TV title for well over a year and Briscoe hadn't been pinned since March 2 2013. It felt like a big match because of how well the two wrestlers were presented and the video that kicked off the show only added to that. Everything from the promos the two men cut to the simple touch of listing the bigger names each man had made successful defences against drove home that the match was a big deal.

It was the main event I was most interested in. Whenever that's the case going into a wrestling show something's been done right. ROH did a great job promoting Lethal v Briscoe. Having said that the rest of the card did seen slightly underwhelming. Aside from the number one contender shop three-way nothing really stood out, and the three-way was mostly interesting because I wanted to see how a winner would be booked in a match involving guys who rarely lose in ROH.

The Addiction v reDRagon was a match I'd seen before and which had failed to grab me. The Bullet Club v Kingdom six man was a rematch. While the first encounter had been good I felt it had been slightly overhyped and so I wasn't as excited about this match as others may have been. Castle v Young sounded good mostly because I like the characters of both guys. And everything else looked like standard ROH fare: good but not necessarily the easiest stuff to engage with emotionally.

That last sentence perfectly summed up the first match, Mark Briscoe versus top prospect tournament winner and proud House of Truth member Donovan Dijak. It was a solid opener which didn't drag and saw both men get a turn in control but it didn't draw me in because I'm not the biggest fan of either guy and they did nothing to change that. Briscoe won after blocking Feast Your Eyes (a Burning Hammer into a knee strike) and hitting the Froggy Bow.

Pretty much the same thing can be said about match number two. It saw BJ Whitmer and Adam Page face off with ACH and Matt Sydal. Page and Whitmer had their Decade young boy Colby Corino with them. Colby's dad Steve (now inexplicably going exclusively by the title of King Corino) was on commentary for this match, as he is for all ROH shows, but he seemed reluctant to place any emphasis on his own personal feelings about Whitmer recruiting Colby to further their longstanding grudge. It's possible he doesn't feel comparable with the angle or, more likely, doesn't want to make it all about himself, preferring to keep The Decade in the spotlight. But if that's the case why bother doing it at all? Steve Corino's continued reaction to his son making a poor life choice is the entire story here and if he doesn't want to tell it, for whatever reason, it's not going to work. Which is a shame because there's a lot that could be done with it.

The match was entertaining enough. I like ACH a lot and couldn't help but feel he was a tad wasted here, especially considering how bland much of the rest of the card was (at least in terms of pairings). Page got the victory for his team after Colby pulled Sydal off a pin attempt from the Shooting Star press, distracting him long enough for Page to get the win with his Right of Passage finisher.

Young v Castle was a fun match that was surprising in how hard-hitting and back-and-forth it was. Although the approach they took made sense in terms of story: the match had come about because Castle had been the latest person to find himself accused of being "not a real man" by Silas. The two packed a lot in, including a Silas spear off the apron and a Castle deadlift German. Castle won off a rollup as Young was berating Todd Sinclair for not counting a pinfall, which Sinclair had refused because 'The Last Real Man' had shoved him into the ropes, crotching Castle, to get it. After the match Young hit his Misery TKO on one of Castle's lads. Castle was understandably distraught by this.

That was followed by the reformed C&C Wrestle Factory taking on War Machine. Alexander and Coleman got a nice welcome from the NYC crowd when they entered. Hanson and Rowe did not. They were mostly met with indifference, a worrying sign considering they've been in ROH for over a year.

This match was short and more about story than action. The story it was specifically concerned with was Cedric's continued edging towards the dark side. He tried using a wrench, the same weapon he'd used to hammer Moose and end his undefeated streak, but Caprice saw it in his hand and refused to tag him in. That allowed War Machine to grab Caprice and hit Fallout for the win. After the match Cedric teased using the wrench on Caprice but didn't. He did make it clear that their team was over though.

The first above average bout of the night was the number one contenders match. Michael Elgin, Moose and Roderick Strong had all been put in the match based on the strength of their performances and their win-loss records in 2015. It would be nice to think they were also selected because they're amongst the best guys Ring of Honor has. Elgin and Strong have both had their share of classic matches (and I'll say again that Elgin is a particularly fine finish man) and Moose has been constantly improving since I first saw him in EVOLVE. He understands how to work the role of the big man and doesn't go overboard on the bigger spots he's capable of.

There were plenty of highlights in this match. Amongst my favourites were: Elgin hitting a somersault tope on Moose, bowing afterwards and being jeered by the crowd; Roddy superplexing Elgin then Moose; Roddy performing another feat of strength by giving Moose a double knee gut buster; Elgin buckle bombing on Moose only to be immediately hit with a spear; Moose running across the ring, leaping to the top rope, and hitting a cross body to the outside on both guys; and the finish, which saw Elgin double power bomb Moose and being sick kicked as he tried for a third, with Strong pulling Moose to his feet to hot him with two jumping knees and a sick kick to put him down for three.

There was a handshake between Strong and Moose after the match. We were told Elgin shook Strong's hand but we weren't shown it. Veda Scott slapped Moose twice for daring to follow the Code of Honor, something she'd done before. This time it looked like she'd pushed Moose too far. He hunched down looking like he was setting up to spear Veda but before he could make a move Cedric Alexander ran out and smacked him and Stokeley Hathaway with the wrench. Veda smiled at him then Cedric screamed about how he should have been in the number one contenders match.

I liked this as a development. It creates a reason for Moose to not be in the title picture and freshens up Cedric's act by realigning him and giving him a manager. He and Veda seem promising together, and it neatly covers up his weakness on promos. Maybe caprice will go heel too and RD Evans will return to tag with Moose in a grudge match. Then again maybe not.

The Bullet Club trio of AJ Styles and the Young Bucks versus the Kingdom trio of Matt Taven, Michael Bennett and Adam Cole followed that. As pointed out earlier this was a rematch from the ROH and New Japan War of the Worlds show, one I felt was very enjoyable but mildly overhyped in the grand scheme of things. They did pretty much the same thing here, producing another spot-heavy match with way too many highlights to mention and too fast a pace to do a full write-up.

We got the opposite result to the original encounter. The Kingdom had won at War of the Worlds so it was Bullet Club's turn to go over here. They did so in memorable fashion, wiping out Maria with two super kicks and a Pele kick from Styles (what a southern gent he is) before isolating Cole as Bennett checked on his wife and Taven sold a beating at ringside. Cole fought back valiantly, going for a Destroyer only to be caught by AJ and hit with a buckle bomb-enziguri triple team and then 'The Phenomenal One's' Bloody Sunday, kicking out and fighting back again, but eventually it was too much for him. 'The One' was finally put down with an Indytaker followed by the Styles Clash.

After the match The Kingdom looked upset with Cole. This didn't really make sense. Taven had been lying at ringside for a while when the loss happened and could probably have mustered the strength to get back in the ring. Bennett had a right to look ticked off, yeah, but why would he when his wife had just been knocked unconscious by three pro wrestlers? Logic flaws aside the prospect of Cole splitting from The Kingdom is interesting. A face turn could work well for both him and ROH.

The Addiction's no disqualification match with reDRagon was not as enjoyable as the usual reDRagon effort. Their strength is having exciting strong style matches with plenty of tag work mixed in, not crowd brawling. The stip made sense, of course, because of the personal nature of the feud and because the two teams have already met under regular rules. This meeting needed something extra to give it a bit of variety and set it apart from previous meetings. But it was never going to be as good as a regular match.

They at least made full use of the stipulation. There was plenty of ringside brawling and chairs were used liberally. A table and a ladder were introduced after things had hotted up. The table was there because in 2015 these sorts of matches require a table to satisfy the punters. The use of a ladder was interesting though. It's possible it was done to tease Ladder War VI. Then again, it's possible it wasn't.

The finish saw reDRagon hit Chasing the Dragon on Daniels on for former TNA world champion Chris Sabin to appear and pull the referee from the ring. The Addiction then recovered, Frankie took out O'Reilly by shoving him off the apron and into the crowd barricade, and hit Fish with Celebrity Rehab. The champions retained. Hopefully another team will be added to this rivalry if it continues. Addiction v reDRagon matches haven't wowed me so far.

Then came the Lethal versus Briscoe main event. It's worth sopping for a moment here to point out that the two men both have a lot of history in Ring of Honor. Briscoe has never been shy about reminding people that he was on the promotion's very first show. He's been a two time world champion and a record setting eight times. Over the last few years he's become one of ROH's most reliable headliners, working pay-per-view main events, being involved in heavily featured stories, and being well protected in terms of booking.

Lethal's pedigree is less celebrated but still impressive. He joined ROH a month shy of the company's first anniversary as Hydro, a member of Special K, and went through stints as Samoa Joe's protégé and pure champion before leaving to work for the promising-at-the-time TNA. It was easy to overlook how much he'd improved when he rejoined ROH full time in 2011 but improve he had. In the four years since he's won the television championship twice and, like Briscoe, become one of the company's most reliable wrestlers. The last eighteen months have probably been the greatest stretch of his career as he's been given the TV championship and tasked with making it mean something, which he has, been pitted against leading outside talent, and gradually been positioned as ROH's lead heel.

Briscoe versus Lethal is a match that's been brewing for a long time. Both guys have been built up so well. The atmosphere at the start of this match demonstrated what a great job both men, as well as booker Delirious, have done and how established they are as top names.

Before the first lock-up had even taken place Diesel and Dijak were sent backstage before the after Dijak had swiped his hand at Briscoe's legs. A suspenseful feeling out process, during which the combatants were bombarded by duelling chants from the crowd, was followed by a fight around ringside. Briscoe yakuza kicked Lethal. Lethal suplexed Briscoe. They threw one another into the barricade a bit.

Back in the ring Truth grabbed Briscoe's foot, distracting him and letting Lethal knock Briscoe down. Briscoe recovered and they traded uppercuts. Lethal got the better of the exchange by switching to clotheslines to knock the world heavyweight champion down. Back on their feet they traded jabs before Briscoe hit a neckbreaker.

A Lethal Injection was countered into a full nelson slam. Briscoe went for a Jay Driller but Lethal escaped into the Lethal Combination. Lethal went to the top rope but got cut off by Briscoe, who went for a superplex. Lethal fought him off but Briscoe fired back with a drop kick and went for his superplex again. Lethal fought him off again, this time pushing him down to the mat and hitting the Macho Elbow. Briscoe kicked out and immediately got put in the Koji clutch by the TV champ.

Briscoe made the ropes and rolled onto the apron. Lethal followed him out only to be set up for a Jay Driller. He escaped as Truth leapt onto the opposite apron to distract the referee. Nigel got up and sent Truth backstage as Briscoe recovered and Jay Drillered Lethal through the timekeepers table. Both men sold for a while before making it back into the ring just shy of the twenty count.

Briscoe was first to his feet and lobbed jabs at Lethal. Lethal surprised him with a super kick and went for the Lethal Injection again. Briscoe dashed forward and floored him with a rolling elbow as he rebounded off the ropes, getting himself a two count. Briscoe went for the Jay Driller. Lethal escaped it but got hit with a lariat for another two count.

Only the second double champion in ROH history.

The pair dragged themselves back up again. This time it was Lethal who struck first with a springboard cutter. He connected with another Lethal Injection but Briscoe kicked out. The crowd erupted at that as 'The Greatest First Generation Wrestler' clutched at his head in disbelief. He recovered and tried to hit Briscoe with his own Jay Driller. Briscoe escaped and tried for the move himself. Lethal escaped too, hit the move and then hit another Lethal Injection for the victory, a successful title defence and the ROH world championship.

The crowd gave him a "You deserve it!" chant. After a bit of celebrating from the new champion Briscoe came out of the corner and offered a handshake. In a nice moment Lethal accepted it with gusto before he continued celebrating. It was a touching way to close the show, watching a man who first worked for the company twelve years ago celebrate his first world title win. He'd earned it and it was lovely to see.

***

Results summary:

Mark Briscoe defeated Donovan Dijak
The Decade defeated Matt Sydal and ACH
Dalton Castle defeated Silas Young
War Machine defeated C&C Wrestle Factory
Roderick Strong defeated Moose and Michael Elgin to earn an ROH world championship match
AJ Styles and the Young Bucks defeated The Kingdom
The Addiction defeated reDRagon to retain the ROH tag team championship
Jay Lethal defeated Jay Briscoe to retain the ROH TV championship and win the ROH world championship

ROH Supercard of Honor IX review

While their disgruntled former employee Gabe Sapolsky was busy offering up in excess of half a dozen shows via his World Wrestling Network, Ring of Honor was taking a more conservative approach with WrestleMania Weekend. While they have the name value and roster to be able to put together two, possibly even three, shows on the biggest wrestling weekend of the wrestling year they decided to go for one. Less is more, and all that.

Looking at the line-up they had announced beforehand this is probably a good thing. Despite ROH's name value and roster Supercard of Honor IX looked like anything but a supercard before the fact. Of the six matches announced days before the event only the Jay Briscoe versus Samoa Joe main event and Jay Lethal's TV title defence against Jushin 'Thunder' Liger sounded like anything special. Daniels and Kazarian being placed in singles matches reeked of padding out a card, the Jimmy Jacobs v BJ Whitmer grudge battle was something that had been seen ten years earlier, and the reDRagon v Kingdom match sounded underwhelming.

In ROH's defence they suffered by losing access to regulars AJ Styles and the Young Bucks, all three of whom were busy in New Japan. But while that was beyond ROH's control it can only be taken so far as a defence. The promotion is still ultimately responsible for finding and building up its own new stars. That ACH was merely confirmed to appear with no match announced shows that the company's not as dedicated as it probably should be to establishing its next batch of headliners. And being in the position it's in (basically the last stop guys make on their way to being signed by WWE) that's something that should always be a priority for Ring of Honor.

This said the show was better than my (admittedly low) expectations had made me think it would be. It kicked off with an enjoyable match between Mark Briscoe and ACH. Recent shows had seen ACH lose to AJ Styles, Alberto El Patron and Samoa Joe. He lost again here, coming close with a bombardment of big moves in the closing moments before Mark sat down on a roll-up during a pin exchange sequence.

I understand that a guy can't just start beating big names as soon as they start getting pushed but the regularity of ACH's losses isn't going to do him any favours. They're probably going somewhere with him not being able to win in one of these matches but it's not anywhere interesting. ACH deserves more than he's currently getting and ROH need to be trying to build him up in case they lose some of their top guys in the near future. If they don't then they'll still have ACH but he'll just be the guy who lost to everyone who left.

Match two saw Michael Elgin take on Frankie Kazarian. It was a slower match than the opener and the pair took a while to find their groove. They were fine by the halfway point though, and the match ended in the typically pacey big move sequence most Elgin matches benefit from. The story of the match was that Elgers was being particularly vicious and was going out of his way to try and injure Kazarian. Kazarian survived a chair attack and all of Elgin's big moves before finally falling to a spinning back fist and the Elgin bomb.

Despite having acted like a nasty heel throughout the match the crowd chanted for Elgin after the finish. They returned to booing him as he sarcastically asked a spent Kazarian for a handshake. Kazarian's Addiction teammate Chris Daniels came out to try and keep Elgin at bay but it didn't work. Elgin initially backed off before returning to the ring with a chair and smacking Daniels in the back with it. H gave him an Elgin bomb and then used the chair on Kazarian. Because, in case you haven't noticed, Michael Elgin is now a renegade who plays by nobody's rules but his own.

Andrew Everett, Caprice Coleman, Cedric Alexander, Tommaso Ciampa (sporting his MF Doom style mask), Moose and Matt Sydal were guys stuffed into the show's six man mayhem offering. That Sydal, Ciampa and Alexander were thrown into a multi-man match was disappointing. A more meaningful match could have happened in its place, or the card could have been reshuffled to put The Addiction in a tag match. It's hardly surprising that Ciampa asked for his release when he went from main eventing shows to being in filler matches. There were clearly no long term ideas for him.

This match was a good use of Moose though. With five men against him he had plenty of guys to throw around and look powerful against. The match was a fun spot-fest, which is all it was intended to be. Sydal won off a shooting star press on Everett. Moose was just a little too slow to break the pin up.

After the match Veda Scott again stopped Moose shaking hands, as she had at the start and in other matches since she turned heel. Cedric also refused to shake hands with people. He just looked angry as Adam Cole (who was working as guest commentator for the evening) and Kevin Kelly discussed how he'd had lots of exciting matches but couldn't win. That story would be more impactful if they weren't also running it with ACH. They may be building to those two confronting one another on their different outlooks on losing but so what? We've seen them wrestle one another before so the prospect of them facing off again isn't particularly interesting, even if Cedric's a heel when it happens.

That was followed by the Epic Grudge Match between BJ Whitmer and Jimmy Jacobs. Whitmer had his new young boy Colby Corino with him (which was why Steve Corino wasn't on commentary). They started with a handshake before immediately pummelling each other. They headed outside, fought more, then got back into the ring and had a chair duel. Whitmer whipped Jacobs into chairs set up in the corner. Jacobs fought back with a spear (which brought about a "Better than Reigns!" chant) and smacked Whitmer with chairs before dropping him with Sliced Bread Number Two onto a chair.

Whitmer got a fisherman suplex for two. Jacobs brought out a table. Whitmer tried to exploder Jacobs through it. Jacobs fought him off. Whitmer helpfully rolled onto the table in just the right place for a Jacobs senton. The table didn't break so Jacobs set it up between the ring apron and the crowd barrier. A second senton in that position worked. Whitmer kicked out of a pin attempt and got clamped in a guillotine choke. Whitmer muscled out into a brainbuster then hit a second brainbuster onto a chair. Jacobs kicked out.

Whitmer tried a top rope power bomb (a call-back to one of their more grizzly encounters against one another). Jacobs back dropped him off the top rope and gave him an Ace crusher, holding on to follow up with another Sliced Bread. Whitmer floored Jacobs twice with lariats before giving him an exploder suplex onto a pair of chairs. That was enough to put 'The Zombie Princess' down for three.

A "Thank you, Jimmy!" chant rang in, it being an open secret that this was Jacobs' final match with Ring of Honor before taking a creative job with WWE. Jacobs went for a handshake. Whitmer pulled away then said he only shakes hands with guys who belong. Colby then smacked Jimmy with a water bottle shot from behind and pummelled him before Lacey ran in through the crowd to make the save. They embraced as the Ballad of Lacey played, finally bringing an end to ROH's ancient Jimmy Loves Lacey story which began back in the Gabe Sapolsky days. It was a nice touch and a fitting end to Jimmy Jacobs' time in Ring of Honor.

The love story moment was immediately undercut by Chris Daniels dancing out to the ring to his jaunty entrance music. It would have been nice if ROH had had a video package to play at this point, or a heel promo to schedule to deliberately kill the mood. But they had neither because despite this show being held on WrestleMania weekend it was still just a VOD event. As  rule they don't get video packages, and there were no heel promos on the show.

Daniels versus Roderick Strong was predictably sharp but I still think it would have been better to have The Addiction in a tag match and Roddy doing something against someone else. Matt Sydal, for example. Strong won with the Stronghold following a torture rack into a back breaker.

That was followed by The Kingdom team of Matt Taven and Michael Bennett, with Maria Kanellis, challenging reDRagon, with MMA personality Tom Lawler, for the ROH tag team championship. The Kingdom played rock, paper scissors to decide who'd start (Bennett won with rock). I've always been a fan of that in tag matches.

As stated above I hadn't expected a great deal from this match. reDRagon are great and Taven and Bennett are good but it just seemed like an awkward bout waiting to happen. It took a while to get going, the first half being characterised by Taven and Bennett employing cheap heat shenanigans, featured a needless run-in from a lone KRD member, and faltered in the closing moments because of an injury to Kyle O'Reilly, but it ended up better than I'd expected. Fish got the pin for reDRagon with a falcon arrow on Bennett.

Cole returned to commentary (he'd left after Kelly had questioned him about The Kingdom's relationship with the Knights of the Rising Dawn during Whitmer v Jacobs) and promised he hadn't been the masked KRD guy. He probably wasn't, but in storyline he likely was. That's wrestling logic, that is.

Jay Lethal's television title defence against Jushin Liger took the semi-main spot. Lethal has been great as the aggressive heel champion and his reign is doing the championship's credibility a lot of good. He's the sort of guy ROH could elevate to the world title picture should they lose a bunch of their top guys. Liger is Liger. Not as good as he is in 80's and 90's videos but still very reliable and a definite crowd-pleaser.

What I liked about the Liger and Lethal pairing was that a title change wasn't inconceivable, something that can't often be said when a champion defends against an outsider. With ROH promoting shows with New Japan a month and a half after this they could have switched the title to Liger and had him enter those shows as champion. The TV title could have been defended on New Japan shows by Liger in the meantime and a rematch would have been a natural addition to one of the four inter-promotional shows. It wasn't likely but it made suspension of disbelief a bit easier than it had been in Liger's world title match with Cole at War of the Worlds 2015.

The match was very good and had a entertaining finishing sequence. After stopping a Lethal suicide dive Liger dropped the champ with a brainbuster. They made it back into the ring at the nineteen count. Lethal grabbed the TV title belt. The referee took it from him and Liger went for a rollup, which Lethal countered into a pin attempt of his own by grabbing hold of the ropes. The ref noticed and called a halt to the count. Lethal took the belt again and tried lamping Liger with it. Liger ducked and snatched the belt for himself. The referee started a tug-of-war over the belt with the challenger, allowing Lethal to sneak in a super kick and a Lethal Injection for the victory.

The main event saw Samoa Joe challenge Jay Briscoe for the ROH world championship. This was a match with a lot of history behind it. Briscoe and Joe had feuded with one another in the early years of ROH, Briscoe never managing to defeat Joe when it really counted. Joe is the man most readily associated with the championship, thanks to his dominant twenty-one month title reign during the company's formative years, a reign yet to be bettered in length. Briscoe is the dominant champion of the present, not having been pinned in two years and having defeated everyone that's been put in front of him just as Joe did during his reign.

Joe got the best of an early feeling out process. The match gradually got more physical with forearms, chops, jabs, a Jay boot to the face and a Joe enziguri. Jay went for a suplex. Got it on fourth try following a jab. He peppered the big man with more jabs and applied a sleeper. Joe muscled out, tweaked his knee on a bungled spill over the top rope, and rolled to the outside to counter a suicide dive with a high kick as planned.

Back in the ring Joe hit Briscoe with jabs of his own and used a Hogan-esque leg drop in place of his usual knee drop. Joe got the best of an exchange of blows with an uppercut. Briscoe tried climbing to the top rope but Joe booted him to the outside and hit a suicide dive. He went for the Olé kick but Briscoe threw a chair in his face (the lack of a DQ being explained away with talk of referee lenience). The champ threw Joe into the barricade before getting grabbed off of the apron and slung into the barricade himself. A second try for the Olé kick was successful. So was a third.

Joe pulled Briscoe back into the ring and got a two count. He peppered him with jabs and hauled him into position for the Muscle Buster. Briscoe fought out of it and dropped Joe with a neck breaker. Jay got more jabs on Joe and went for a Death Valley driver. Joe and his weight blocked it. Jay took some elbow strikes before firing back with a super kick and a belly-to-back suplex as Joe came off the ropes.

Briscoe got in several uppercuts and finally connected with the DVD. Joe kicked out at two. Briscoe went for the Jay driller. Joe back dropped out of it and sent Jay sprawling with clotheslines, an inverted atomic drop, a yakuza kick and a senton. Jay kicked out and slugged away at Joe before hit ting the ropes. He was met with a power slam. Joe went through the power bomb, Boston crab, STF, crossface sequence to loud cheers. Briscoe managed to make the ropes, forcing a break.

The two returned to their feet and traded forearms, slaps, and jabs, just as they had at the start of the match. Just as he had then Joe won out, this time when he smashed Jay with a kick to the chest. Joe again went for the Muscle Buster. Briscoe again fought out and caught him with a Jay Driller for the three count. Jay Briscoe finally defeated Samoa Joe in an ROH world championship match.

After the match the two shared a handshake and hugged. Joe presented Briscoe with his championship belts and raised his hand to end the show. Everything about Joe's performance, from his post-match actions to the fact that he went down to a single Jay driller, was designed to endorse Jay Briscoe as a great champion, which was a good call. In ROH terms Joe is one of the biggest guys a wrestler can receive a rub from. That said, the match wasn't anything amazing. It was good and a worthwhile main event, but Joe and Briscoe have both done far better and ROH has had more fitting headline bouts.

While this event was better than I'd expected it to be it still didn't feel particularly special. There was nothing bad on it but there also isn't really anything worth revisiting. There's nothing wrong with an enjoyable wrestling show (obviously) but sometimes it's nice to make a show feel a bit special, and that's something ROH can struggle with. Which was all too apparent here.

***

Results summary:

Mark Briscoe defeated ACH
Michael Elgin defeated Frankie Kazarian
Matt Sydal defeated Andrew Everett, Cedric Alexander, Tommaso Ciampa, Caprice Coleman and Moose to win a six man mayhem
BJ Whitmer defeated Jimmy Jacobs
Roderick Strong defeated Christopher Daniels
reDRagon defeated The Kingdom to retain the ROH tag team championship
Jay Lethal defeated Jushin Liger to retain the ROH television championship
Jay Briscoe defeated Samoa Joe to retain the ROH world championship

ROH 13th Anniversary Show review

Ring of Honor's anniversary shows fall t an awkward time for the company. They come just two months after Final Battle, generally the company's biggest card of the year, and around a month before WrestleMania weekend, at which ROH always has a presence (usually with a show called Supercard of Honor). It makes the pacing of storylines difficult and can result in a show which is more about bridging the gap between the bigger shows on either side of it and not giving too much away.

To an extent that happened this year. The four-way main event was a way to put on a significant card-topper while also holding more impactful singles confrontations in reserve for Supercard of Honor IX and beyond. Meanwhile the ACH versus AJ Styles match was a big match but not something that was likely to draw many viewers if used elsewhere and the Bucks versus reDRagon outing was the latest in a lengthy series. The only big match on offer that could have been saved was Lethal versus El Patron, but then whenever the former WWE champion debuted it was going to be of significance.

All told Ring of Honor put forth a good effort with this anniversary show. They struck the right balance between conservation and making it appealing in its own right.

The show kicked off with a Las Vegas-themed intro video (because it was being held in Las Vegas). It was a theme that continued throughout the evening and made a nice change of pace. In the arena Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino (now going under the name King Corino because why not?) talked up the evening's top three championship matches before introducing the new Spanish announce team. This addition would later be attributed to the signing of El Patron. I can believe that's true.

Cedric Alexander v Matt Sydal made a cracking opener. The two men had a lightning quick bout that gave the crowd a chance to blow off steam and kicked the broadcast off with a bang. Sydal got the win after Alexander went for a kick in the corner only to hit the ropes awkwardly, landing in position for a match-winning Shooting Star press (a botch due to unfamiliar ropes, but everyone involved styled it out well). Alexander shook hands after the match but looked like he was on the verge of a breakdown.

Match two saw Mark Briscoe take on Moose, the culmination of a feud that had begun with an errant spear from Moose to Briscoe. While the opener had lasted around fifteen minutes this match was significantly shorter, long matches not really being Moose's thing. 'The Offensive Line' muscled Briscoe around the ring, cutting off a lot of his offence with power moves and efficient ring placement before Briscoe mounted a comeback with a Blockbuster off the apron and a Cactus Jack elbow. It wasn't enough to win. Moose quickly regained control and floored Mark with a wild spear to win.

After the match Veda Scott slapped Moose's hand away from a handshake. He looked unimpressed with her but didn't push the issue. As they left Veda shouted that Briscoe was a loser.

That was followed by a three-way tag team match. The Addiction faced the Kingdom team of Matt Taven and Michael Bennett and Bullet Club representative Karl Anderson. 'The Machine Gun' was going it alone after Doc Gallows' plane had been grounded due to severe weather. The match had a steady first half and picked up a great deal for the home stretch. Taven and Bennett hit a double spike piledriver on Anderson for the victory after a Yuranage suplex and a Stun Gun to had eliminated Kazarian and Daniels respectively.

The BJ Whitmer and Roderick Strong grudge match followed that. They'd been teammates in The Decade and initially fell out over their differing views on the group's young boy Adam Page. It's developed further since then, with Whitmer feeling that Strong's selfish and desperate to protect his spot and Strong feeling Whitmer's jealous of his success and ability. It was a good story making good use of the history the two men have in ROH. It was a stiff affair. Strong won after a disrespectful "kiss of death" from BJ fired him up and he hit a pair of high knees, an elbow strike and the lumbar check.

Match five saw Maria Kanellis defend the title of love, formerly Jay Briscoe's real world title, against ODB. For the record that now stands for One Dirty Briscoe, which is pretty clever (by wrestling standards). The pre-match video featured some great verbal work from Kanellis. WWE missed a trick not rehiring her when they had the chance. She and Bennett could have been great in NXT.

Before the match Maria announced that she was unable to wrestle because she was pregnant. But that was a swerve! Bennett ran in through the crowd and super kicked Mark Briscoe, who'd accompanied ODB to ringside, as Maria hit ODB with the title belt. ODB kicked out, Briscoe evened the odds with Bennett, and then ODB clobbered Maria around ringside. Following a few minutes of that Maria floored ODB with a super kick then held her for Bennett to do the same. That backfired when ODB ducked out of the way, leaving Maria to take the move from her husband.

Briscoe fought with Bennett as Maria surprised everyone by kicking out. Presumably determined to prove she warranted a spot on the show Maria took a military press into the lads at ringside and then took part in providing a human crash mat as ODB leapt off the top rope. After giving Bennett a Doomsday Device with Briscoe's help ODB returned to ring to pin Maria with her Bam finisher. She and Briscoe then posed with the real world title (the pink love cover having been yanked off) before heading backstage. 

ACH and AJ Styles had a very good match after that, as was easily predicted, was essentially a procession through well thought out high spots. The first was an early attempt at the Styles Clash, 'The Phenomenal One' flipping himself out of a jackknife pin and into the move with smooth precision. ACH fired back with a crisp tornado DDT and a running phoenix tope straight out of the early playbook of Styles himself.

When that didn't get him the victory ACH unleashed his latest move, a fisherman buster variant called the Big Bang Attack. Styles kicked out but ACH stayed on him with a modified enziguri-cum-Pele kick as 'The Phenomenal One' clambered to the top rope. Styles avoided a 450 and applied the Calf Killer. ACH turned it into a pin but Styles slipped out to hit a Bloody Sunday and the Styles Clash for the victory. ACH was allowed to look competitive before taking the loss and Styles added to the list of solid outings his had since cutting himself loose from TNA.

reDRagon versus the Young Bucks was another predictably great match. Again it was essentially a procession of high spots with little story to link them together, but the Bucks and reDRagon are more proficient at this type of match than ACH. In some ways they're better at it than Styles.

Highlights included: a gut buster followed by a neck breaker on Fish; a top rope moonsault to the outside from Matt to Fish; O'Reilly applying an armbar to Matt while hanging in the ropes, with Nick leaping over them to wipe out Fish and then unleashing a super kick to break the hold; another super kick from Nick to O'Reilly as Matt tried to sunset bomb him to the outside, allowing him to throw O'Reilly into Fish; the ever over buckle bomb-enziguri combo; a springboard splash turned into an armbar on Nick by O'Reilly, broken up by a top rope elbow from Matt; and an Indy-taker on the floor to O'Reilly.

The finishing sequence was the best of the evening. The Bucks hit Chasing the Dragon on Fish after wiping out O'Reilly with the Indy-taker. Fish kicked out the crowd erupted in boos. Nick and Matt hit More Bang for Your Buck on Fish, only for Shayna Baszler (a UFC fighter who'd accompanied reDRagon to the ring) to pull Todd Sinclair from the ring. The Bucks left the ring and stalked stalked her around ringside, allowing O'Reilly to hit them both with a knee from the apron. He grabbed Nick and took him back into the ring to give him a tornado DDT. Fish followed that with a top rope falcon arrow.

The pair then hit Chasing the Dragon but Matt pulled Sinclair from the ring to save the match for himself and his brother. He headed back into the ring and cleaned house with super kicks and crotch chops before reDRagon hit him with the elevated DDT into a German suplex. As Matt writhed outside the ring Nick was left vulnerable for a second Chasing the Dragon for a successful reDRagon defence.

Jay Lethal's TV title defence against Alberto El Patron took the semi-main event spot. They started off quick, El Patron super kicking J Diesel off the apron and diving onto Lethal at ringside then throwing him into crowd barriers. Back in the ring Lethal took control by crotching Alberto on the top rope before unleashing a slew of cheap shots and a superplex.

The Knights of the Rising Dawn (who had briefly appeared during the tag title match) showed back up as Alberto hit a reverse suplex from the second rope. Lethal fell to clotheslines and a backstabber and signalled for the cross armbreaker but Lethal beat him to it. El Patron worked his way out of his own signature hold and rolled to the outside. Lethal stayed on him with a trio of suicide dives. The last sent El Patron tumbling over the crowd barricade (Corino was quick to point out that the lad he landed on was particularly hefty). When he rolled back into the ring at sixteen he was met with stomps by Lethal. The champ's attempt at a superplex backfired when the challenger pushed him down into a tree of woe position and double stomped him for a two count.

Lethal blocked a super kick and the pair exchanged punches. Alberto received a Lethal Combination but kicked out. Lethal headed to the top rope to attempt his Hail to the King elbow drop but got caught and crotched. Alberto fought off interference from Truth Martini and trapped him in the cross armbreaker. Lethal came off the top with the elbow but El Patron release Martini and reapplied the hold on Lethal as he landed.

Martini distracted the referee as Lethal lamped Alberto with The Book of Truth. 'The Greatest First Generation Wrestler' was stunned at the kick out but kept it together enough to catch a super kick attempt and wobble the challenger with a bicycle kick. He went for the Lethal Injection but his arm was too hurt from the cross armbreaker to support his weight, allowing El Patron up roll him up with an Okana roll for two. Lethal's kick out sent 'Mexico's Greatest Export' flying forward into a shot from The Book of Truth. He turned back around into the Lethal Injection, which was enough to put him down for a three count. The match was very good. It got over Lethal's win-at-any-costs character, kept Alberto strong and showed why he was such a good addition to the roster.

The main event was preceded by the appearance of two former ROH world champions. Nigel McGuinness joined the commentary team and Samoa Joe made a "surprise" appearance. I say surprise but it had already been announced he was returning and it had seemed a fair assumption he'd make an unannounced appearance on the anniversary card. Joe cut a pro-Ring of Honor promo and announced his intention to regain the world championship. 

The main event was a four-way match for the ROH world championship. Champion Jay Briscoe was attacked at the bell by all three challengers, Hanson, Tommaso Ciampa and Michael Elgin. That wasn't enough to faze him, he was outside the ring within minutes setting up a table.

The first half of the match was standard multi-man fare. Everyone got a turning working with everyone else and a handful of standard spots were cycled through. The highlight was an all too brief exchange between Briscoe and Elgin. I understand why ROH didn't want to do a singles match between them here and the addition of Hanson and Ciampa made a nice change, but they could have done something interesting one-on-one.

The final stretch verged on overbooking (by Ring of Honor standards) but was still enjoyable. Todd Sinclair took a bump as he headed back into the ring and was sent sprawling to the floor. Hanson ignored this and hit a a Rikishi driver on Briscoe, making a cover in excess of the required three but not having a referee to count for him. As he got up he was attacked by the KRD. Their beating of Hanson, Ciampa and Briscoe got them a distinct lack of heat. The return of Raymond Rowe did better. He chased them off through the crowd and the match continued with Elgin giving Briscoe a Jay Driller through the table that had been set up at the start of the match.

There was no referee to count the fall but it was a natural falsie anyway: nobody would fall to such a move in a pay-per-view main event. Elgin grabbed a chair and prepared to cave in Briscoe's skull with it. Nigel McGuinness got into the ring to stop him. Being a mad ol' heel Elgers went to power bomb the matchmaker. Ciampa made the save, had a bit of a stare off with McGuinnes, and then cracked Elgin with a chair as he leant out of the ring shouting. He went for a cover of his own but the match again continued because there was no healthy ref.  

Ciampa hit a power bomb on Elgin. Briscoe broke that up. Ciampa retaliated with Project Ciampa on Briscoe, who kicked out at two. Elgin power bombed Ciampa again. Briscoe broke the cover and rolled Elgin up for a two count. Hanson returned to the fray and wiped out Briscoe with a spin kick. Briscoe landed on Ciampa and got the pinfall win as Elgin pulled Hanson out of the ring.

Elgin freaked out at his own stupidity and misfortune (had he not pulled Hanson from the ring he'd have been free to make the save and the match would have continued) then headed up the aisle. There he came face-to-face with Samoa Joe. They shared a brief moment of tension before Joe continued to the ring to hand Briscoe the world championship. The show went off the air with the longest reigning champion ever and the current two time champion staring each other down in the ring. It was all very macho.

***

Results summary:

Matt Sydal defeated Cedric Alexander
Moose defeated Mark Briscoe
The Kingdom defeated The Addiction and Karl Anderson
Roderick Strong defeated BJ Whitmer
ODB defeated Maria Kanellis
AJ Styles defeated ACH
reDRagon defeated the Young Bucks to retain the tag team championship
Jay Lethal defeated Alberto El Patron to retain the television championship
Jay Briscoe defeated Hanson, Tommaso Ciampa and Michael Elgin to retain the ROH world championship

Ring of Alberto

Last Friday Ring of Honor made the surprise announcement that Alberto El Patron, formerly WWE’s Alberto Del Rio, would be appearing for them in 2015. So far he’s been confirmed for the January 3 television taping, the 13^th Anniversary Show on March 1, and a pair of house shows in between. I would assume he’ll make an appearance or two in February too.

With or without further appearances this is a big coup for ROH. El Patron himself stated a few weeks prior to the announcement that he wanted to work for multiple US-based promotions with a television presence, naming Lucha Underground and TNA. It made sense that those companies would go for such a deal. Lucha Underground is based around the lucha style that Patron is familiar with and TNA is a company with a noted predilection for former WWE wrestlers. That ROH were the ones to procure Alberto’s services says a lot about the state of TNA, and ROH’s willingness to open the chequebook for the right name.

I’m interested in the logistics of Alberto’s new deals. While I can imagine Lucha Underground and ROH would be willing to cooperate on their use of El Patron it seems unlikely they’d be comfortable with him appearing for both at the same time. My guess is that Alberto will flit between the two throughout the year, doing a stint of a few months before leaving for the other league.

But for now all that’s confirmed is his deal with Ring of Honor. There’s a good chance he could bring some new fans in with him thanks to years of exposure in WWE (a number of which were spent at the top of the card) and I’m sure that’s a factor in why ROH have signed him. But that’s not all they’ll have signed him for. ROH still prides itself on being a company where wrestling ability comes first. And Alberto has ability.

El Patron pointing. Classic stuff.

That said I can imagine tweaks being made to his repertoire. His signature moves from WWE are taken in ROH. O'Reilly uses the armbreaker, while the super kick and the back cracker are general transition moves used by anyone and everyone. Seeing him upgrade his move set will be part of the experience of seeing him in a fresh setting.

El Patron versus pretty much anyone on the ROH roster could be good but there are a handful of guys I’m particularly interested in seeing him face. I imagine AJ Styles would top most lists, a pairing many would probably label a “dream match.” They could have a cracking match, particularly if they took the cross armbreaker versus Calf Killer route.

He could have a solid match with Roderick Strong too. They’re not entirely dissimilar in terms of character. One may be a Mexican aristocrat and the other a frat boy, but they both have a degree of arrogance to them that could blend nicely.

El Patron versus Michael Elgin could have a great climactic exchange of signature moves. It's a strength of Big Maggle's. The combination of Alberto’s new moves and a few of his WWE ones (which could be deployed in select longer matches) should give him quite an arsenal to draw on. It would be nice to see a babyface Alberto against stocky heel Elgin too. I think it would be an interesting dynamic.

Personally the match I’d most like to see is El Patron versus Kyle O'Reilly. As Del Rio he worked as much of an MMA inspired style as was realistically possible. I expect he'll go further with it now he's working elsewhere. It's something O'Reilly already does, and does well. The two could do a really good strong style submission match.

Then there are guys like ACH, Matt Sydal,  Bobby Fish, Jay Lethal and Adam Cole. All of them could have a good match with Alberto. As could ROH champion Jay Briscoe. In fact I’d go as far as to say that ROH should strongly consider El Patron v Briscoe for the main event of their anniversary show. It’s easy to imagine Briscoe interrupting El Patron’s debut promo to say he wants to be challenged by the best before offering the newcomer  a March 1 title shot.

Whatever Ring of Honor end up going with it’s good to see them get a signing of this level. They put on a good product and deserve someone with that extra bit of star power. In TNA he’d have been ruined within months. In ROH he can help attract new eyes and wrestle matches suited to his style. Works for me.

ROH Final Battle 2014 review

It’s been a good year for Ring of Honor. They may have lost their top star, Kevin Steen, and seen one of their top prospects, Michael Elgin, misfire as a world champ but they’ve co-promoted shows with New Japan Pro Wrestling, made the move from internet streaming to traditional pay-per-view, and put on a number of high quality shows with world class matches. As such the pressure was on to score a hit with Final Battle, their last major show of the year. After such a strong year they didn’t want to go out on a low note.

I’m pleased to say they didn’t. The line-up that was put together looked good on paper, with reDRagon v Time Splitters, Cole v Briscoe, and the Young Bucks and ACH v Addiction and Cedric Alexander six man tag match all leaping out as potential matches of the night. On the night everyone put in their best effort. The show was great from start to finish.

The evening kicked off with a four corner survival match pitting Mark Briscoe, Caprice Coleman, Jimmy Jacobs and Hanson against one another. It was designed to do two things. The first was to start the show with something exciting. The second was to build up Hanson. It achieved both. Everyone got a moment or two to shine and Hanson muscled everyone around at one point or another and ended up with the win after he wiped out Briscoe and Jacobs with a suicide dive before pinning Caprice off a spinning heel kick.

Jimmy Jacobs and BJ Whitmer stuck around to introduce Adam Page. ‘The Zombie Princess’ started to give what probably would have been a rousing speech about it being a night for Page to step up in a match with Strong, win, lose or draw. He didn’t get very far though: Whitmer snatched the microphone and introduced Page himself. The idea was that Whitmer was ready to accept Page as an equal while Jacobs wasn’t.

The match was all Roddy to begin with. He outwrestled Page and gave him some of his famously stiff chops. Page only managed to gain control after a distraction from Whitmer. Roddy took a bit of offence then fired back with chops, a Sick kick and a back breaker on the apron (after Page had impressively landed on his feet off a Shooting Star Press). Page got a swinging neck breaker from the second rope. Roddy came back with a pair of knee strikes and a release suplex back breaker before locking in the Stronghold for the victory by referee stoppage.

Whitmer wasn’t happy. He showed his displeasure by grabbing Corino's headset and shouting about how Page was still better than Strong. Corino wasn’t impressed. Any time their apparent real-life animosity bleeds into the show (which, let’s be honest, is frequently) I enjoy it.

Michael Elgin and Tommaso Ciampa went on third. Elgin was met with apathy. Ciampa got some cheers but not as many as you may have expected. Once the bell rang and Elgers gave Ciampa a hammering he was booed. They worked a strong style match which, while good, never seemed to slick into gear, something I also felt with their Death Before Dishonor XII match.

The usual electric finishing sequence of Elgin matches was omitted here. Instead ‘The Sicilian Psycopath’ accidentally clotheslined the ref, prompting Nigel McGuinness to head backstage because he'd introduced a zero tolerance policy with regard to Ciampa attacking officials. This was an accident but the story was that McGuinness may have gone backstage to start filing the paperwork for Ciampa’s dismissal (because he’d totes do that in the middle of a show). Hether he did or not wasn’t revealed but the possibility was enough to distract Ciampa, allowing ‘Unbreakable’ to get in a boot to the face and an elevated double arm DDT to win the match.

To lighten the mood after the shady finish the all-babyface six man tag was up next: Cedric Alexander and The Addiction v ACH and The Young Bucks. It was a crazily fast match packed with great spots. Plus super kicks, obvs. Definitely a match worth watching if you get the opportunity. ACH and the Bucks won after a Meltzer driver from the Bucks and a 450 from ACH on Cedric.

The grudge match between Moose and RD Evans was billed as "The Revenge of The Streak." The story was that Moose, who had been rescued from his gig as a bodyguard for the Bravado brothers in EVOLVE and introduced as RD Evans’ tag partner, had turned on Evans and cost him his entirely fictitious 173-0 winning streak. Ramone had also turned on RD, changing his name to Stokely Hathaway and revealing that he was working for Prince Nana, who Evans had stolen some storyline dosh from several years earlier.

The important thing to note from that is Nana’s return. Because he’s always excellent entertainment.

Moose destroyed RD for a lot of the match, but not as much as you might think. Veda rocked up after a few minutes and the camera immediately started treating us to lingering shots of her looking concerned. RD managed to turn things around after a while, hitting a reverse DDT and slapping on a sharpshooter. Nana and Hathaway tried to interfere with a chair, which promoted the referee to get out of the ring and argue with them in the aisle. That was Veda’s cue to get in the ring and betray RD with a low blow. Moose then speared him for the win. It was a fun little match. Exactly how guys like Moose and Evans should be used.

Match six saw House of Truth centrepiece and TV champ Jay Lethal defend his belt against Matt Sydal. They had an enjoyable match. I could have done without the Truth Martini interference but at least it was included for a reason and they didn’t go overboard with it. It took the form of him pulling Todd Sinclair from the ring after Sydal hit a Shooting Star Press that was framed as a definite finish. So basically Trith definitely cost Sydal the TV championship. He was chased around the ring before finally being caught and laid out for an SSP. Sydal went for it and got it... but Lethal connected with an Ace crusher as he hit it. A Lethal Injection later and Sydal was a beaten man.

reDRagon's defence of the ROH tag team championship against Time Splitters took the semi-main event spot. Both teams were greeted passionately by the New York crowd. At this point I think ROH is doing the right thing with O’Reilly and Fish and basically using them as tweeners.

The match started out as a competent display of tag wrestling by both teams. O’Reilly was isolated by the challengers before turning the tide to eliminate Shelley, working over his arm in preparation for an armbar submission. Fish got in on the action there too, giving Shelley a well-executed arm wringer out on the apron.

Tags became less frequent as all four guys moved into the ring to begin running through double team spots. Kushida performed an Okana roll and German suplex on both members of reDRagon. Time Splitters hit a power bomb-Sliced Bread supermove. O’Reilly took a moonsault and before applying a triangle choke. Kushida lamped O’Reilly with a Pele kick and O’Reilly came back with the McGuinness lariat. The match ended with Kushida kicking out of Chasing the Dragon before tapping out to the armbar. It was a well laid out tag match and probably the best wrestled offering of the evening.

The video package that preceded the Cole v Briscoe Fight Without Honor world title match was very good. It recapped their feud from its start in September 2013 and provided a good recap of the characters and motivations of both guys. I thought that was particularly impressive considering how long they've been linked to one another and the fact that their rivalry felt concluded with Ladder War V at Supercard of Honor VIII. It could have been overly complex and laborious.

There were scattered chants of "Next world champ!" when Cole stepped into the ring. Briscoe's entrance elicited chants of "Man up!" The audience would be split for the pair throughout the match.

Cole kicked things off with middle fingers and a super kick. Briscoe responded with an elbow and a Jay Driller for two. They left the ring for the requisite brawling, making use of chairs, tables and a staple gun, which Cole used to staple a “Reversed for Mrs Briscoe” sign to Jay’s head. Back in the ring Cole sat on a chair to pull at Briscoe's face. He ended up getting booted off it by the champ. Seconds later he was thrown head-first into it.

Jay grabbed a table, an additional chair, and a Singapore cane from under the ring (because, y'know, people have expectations for these sorts of stipulation matches). Cole grabbed the chairs and set them up but ended up taking a Falcon Arrow onto and through them. He had more luck using the cane, smashing Briscoe repeatedly in the head with it.

Cole took a tumble to ringside and bladed under the ring. Briscoe, being Briscoe, immediately began head butting him. He didn't get to do much though, the state athletic commission (who are always booked as heels on wrestling shows) pulled Cole from the ring to give him medical attention. Briscoe attacked the security accompanying the doctor, pushed Cole back into the ring, and gave him a neck breaker. He tried to suplex him through a table at ringside but Cole escaped and super kicked Briscoe off the top rope through it instead.

That barely phased Briscoe. He staggered back into the ring a minute or so later to be met with a title belt shot, a super kick to the back of the head (a call-back to the night Cole won the title after Briscoe had vacated it) and a Florida Key. Briscoe fired back with a Death Valley driver through the table propped up in the corner then sprinkled some thumbtacks (with heads a variety of colours) in the ring. Before he could use them himself Cole grabbed a handful, stuffed them in Briscoe's mouth, and super kicked him. Naturally such an extreme move had to be kicked out of. Two yakuza kicks and a back body drop sent Cole into the tacks. A Jay Driller, not on the tacks followed immediately.

Cole kicked out. Briscoe sold exasperation for a second or two before grabbing Cole for another Jay Driller, the third of the match, on to the championship belt. That put Cole down for the three and ended a satisfying main event.

Final Battle was amongst ROH’s best shows of 2014, and considering the quality of their major events this year I think that says a great deal. No match disappointed, the title matches delivered on the (high) expectations for them, and Page v Strong and the opener were better than could have been reasonably expected. A strong end to a strong year from Ring of Honor.

*** 

Results summary:

Hanson def Mark Briscoe, Jimmy Jacobs and Caprice Coleman
Roderick Strong def Adam Page
Michael Elgin def Tommaso Ciampa
The Young Bucks and ACH def The Addiction and Cedric Alexander
Moose def RD Evans
Jay Lethal def Matt Sydal
reDRagon def Time Splitters
Jay Briscoe def Adam Cole

ROH All Star Extravaganza VI review

When I heard that ROH were holding All Star Extravaganza VI in Toronto I was pretty pleased. Over the last couple of years the city has gained a reputation as one of the best crowds the promotion attracts. The Toronto fans are enthusiastic, loud and appreciative. You can't really ask for much more from a wrestling audience. Putting them on iPPV for one of ROH's more significant shows of the year (the most significant between June's Best in the World and December's Final Battle) was a good call.

The crowd reacted as usual to the bigger matches on the show but they didn't feel as enthused for aspects of the undercard. They weren't quiet, just not as rambunctious as usual. But they were on form when it counted though, and it counted a few times on this show.

After an opening video package which looked at various members of the roster and (confusingly, I felt) referred to the company as a whole as "legendary" the show got underway with a House of Truth promo. The purpose of this was to announce that ACH hadn't shown up (he'd missed his flight to Toronto, which may have harmed his standing with the group), with Truth Martini announcing that Jay Lethal would have the night off and not have to defend his TV title. Truth also stated that ACH now stands for A Crack Head. Yeah, ACH's spot is definitely in jeopardy.

Cedric Alexander joined the gang and challenged Lethal to a title match in ACH's place. Lethal said no, Cedric commented that Selezia had bigger balls them him and Lethal, like a classic heel, immediately rose to the bait and granted Cedric a match. The segment ended with the men shoving one another and Lethal accidentally super kicking Selezia.

The opening match was Mark Briscoe versus Hanson, a match that stemmed from War Machine and the Briscoe brothers trying to outdo each other in terms toughness had having some pretty intense matches. It was a solid opener that excited the crowd and toured all around the ring. Briscoe won with his top rope frog elbow after avoiding a Hanson moonsault.

The commentary teams discussion of Elgin's desire to have a long title reign and make the most defences in the title's history was interrupted by Tommaso Ciampa. His desperate, unhinged gimmick is not terribly convincing. It could improve over time, but right now I'm sticking with my original belief that Ciampa is not a guy built for this sort of presentation or character. And depression, which we are told Ciampa is suffering from, is not a subject I feel is well suited to what is meant to be an escapist art form.

Match two was a four-way tag bout: Ethan Gabriel Owens and Josh Alexander v BJ Whitmer and Adam page (of The Decade) v Caprice Coleman and 'I've Misplaced My First Name' Watanabe v Moose and RD Evans. It felt a little random but there was a lot to like. Coleman and Watanabe, with similar heights and builds and wearing not entirely dissimilar entrance gear, looked good together, and they're making the effort to act like a unit. Alexander and Owens are a team I'd seen on an EVOLVE show and thought deserved a crack in the larger ROH environment, so it was nice to see them get it. Evans, Moose and their entourage were very over and Moose was (gasp!) showing a bit of personality. And The Decade pairing were there to further the overall gimmick of the group (respect them because they've been around for a while, yeah?) and a story about Page being Whitmer's handpicked young boy.

This was another good match well received by the audience. The large number of guys involved ensured a quick pace, with lots of high spots and pin breakups thrown in to keep us on our toes. Naturally The New Streak continued, Evans stealing the pin off a burning hammer into a power bomb combo manoeuvre by Owens and Alexander on Page. Everyone else stood around looking miffed as RD did his OTT celebration. It was enjoyable. I'm a big fan of RD Evans' shtick in the usually serious ROH.

After Bad Influence, now The Addiction, recapped their issues with The Decade (the heels interfered in a tag title match Daniels and Kazarian had at Field of Honor) the two teams faced off. The former TNA world tag team champions of the world won a slick but perhaps slightly too long match with total elimination and an assisted gut buster on Roddy Strong. The Addiction shook hands with Strong after the match, which led to Page shoving Strong and Whitmer interjecting on his boy's behalf. Whitmer and Strong had words before Jacobs talked them both around. A split is clearly on the way for The Decade. I think there are still things they could do together bit maybe the plan was only for them to remain affiliated for long enough to make a split and rivalry mean something.

A really good Adam Cole video preceded his match with AJ Styles. They started things slow and gradually upped the speed, setting up and attempting to lock in their Calf Killer and figure four leg submission holds. Cole, as the heel, would be the first man to get the advantage for an extended period, super kicking Styles' knee as he attempted a springboard and then applying the ring post figure four. In the ring Styles attempted to flip into a hurricanrana but instead found himself placed in a traditional figure four. There was a story going on: Cole was targeting his foe’s knee.

Styles dropped Cole with what Kevin Kelly described as a suplex (it was more of a brainbuster) on the ring apron, following up with a marvellous 450 splash back into the ring. The pair exchanged punches in the corners before Styles was dropped head first onto Cole's knee for two. Moments later Cole was floored with a Styles Clash. He didn't kick out but he did sling a foot onto the bottom rope to stop the count.

Top rope antics followed, Cole halting an AJ attempt at something or other and German suplexing him down into the ring. An immediate Florida Key earned him a two count. By this point AJ was selling some serious fatigue and Cole was the ruthless aggressor desperate for the kill. A right hand sent AJ down to his knees. So did a second, a third, and a fourth. 'The Phenomenal One' got an adrenalin burst for long enough to enter a spirited punch exchange which escalated to include super and Pele kicks and which, as the face, Styles naturally got the better of.

Once recovered Cole headed to the top rope and got waffled with a second Pele kick. Styles then hauled Cole off the top with a Bloody Sunday (which he’s adopted from former Bullet Club leader Prince Devitt in one of those lovely little touches you don’t get often enough in wrestling outside of Japan), a brutal and believable finishing move. It was a very good match. Cole was protected in defeat by having AJ really have to work to put him down. They avoided going overboard on false endings and finishing moves and had a decidedly old school match that built logically and saw both men show game plans. It could very well have been Cole's best ROH match.

After the match Styles helped Cole to his feet and proffered his hand for the Code of Honor. Cole spat on it and walked backstage. Lucky AJ wears gloves, eh?

After a short intermission during which viewers at home were "treated" to clips from previous Bucks v reDRagon encounters (I've always felt promos and ads for upcoming events are a better use of the time) Michael Bennett and Maria Kanellis headed to the ring to fulfil their promise that they'd reveal what was underneath Maria's red trench coat. Both Steve Corino and Nigel McGuinness (who'd joined commentary for his now traditional second half stint) both put over Maria's looks. As the play-by-play man Kevin Kelly is not permitted to comment on things like this.

Maria announced that Matt Hardy would be returning to Ring of Honor. Then Michael Bennett peeled off Maria's coat to reveal the Iconic championship, originally Jay Briscoe's "real" world title, repurposed to become the Title of Love. It now has pink fur and a picture of Mike and Maria kissing on it. Bennett then suggested the pair "consummate" their marriage early on the title belt. Mark Briscoe, wearing a natty little do-rag around his head, ran out and chased the heels off, telling Bennett that when his brother found out about the disrespectful antics it would "be [his] ass."

The entire thing had a very Attitude Era vibe thanks to the sexual connotations, Bennett's love of cheap heat, and Mark Briscoe's do-rag. The marriage consummating that didn't happen had a tinge of Edge and Lita's 2006 sex celebration too.

Match five saw Jay Lethal defeat Cedric Alexander with his own Lethal Injection and Matt Taven's Climax. Because good lord it's not as though the Lethal versus Taven feud is utterly played out. It was a really good match, although the return Selezia made to get destroyed by more accidental Lethal offence wasn't entirely necessary. Hopefully they're going somewhere good with that and it wasn't just thrown in for the sake of things. If it's a bigger role for Selezia I'm all for it. She's great.

The ROH world championship match was prefaced by an excellent hype video. Both men made it clear they weren't intimidated by their opponent. They also talked about what their foe's claimed strengths. For Briscoe that was two years without a pinfall loss. Elgin said that was because Briscoe hadn't faced him in those two years. For Elgin it was his ascent to the top and a literal interpretation of his 'Unbreakable' moniker. There was also some nice stuff with Briscoe channeling Ric Flair, telling Elgin "to be the man, you've gotta the man." There are few wrestlers more unlike 1980s prime Flair than Jay Briscoe, which I think adds to the appeal of Jay becoming a modern day version of that character. I'd definitely be interested in Jay Briscoe's already lengthy winning streak continuing.

The match was a corker. It was filled, as most featured Elgin bouts are, with stiff offense, a bunch of lariats and some intense ringside brawling. These are, of course, thigns that Jay Briscoe is pretty familiar with too, so it felt like the natural direction for the pair to take the match in. It was great, everything we could have wanted. But the closing were… well, something of a surprise, to say the least.

The sequence began with Elgin being put through a table with a Jay Driller from the apron, raising his shoulder at the last moment to stay in the fight. Exhibiting disbelief Jay clambered back to his feet and belted Elgin with some fists. The champ fired himself up and blasted Briscoe with a spinning back fist as he attempted a clothesline, following up with a buckle bomb. He went for his follow-up of an Elgin bomb after that, only for Briscoe to slip out and spike him with a second Jay Driller for the victory and the championship.


ROH world champion Jay Briscoe there, looking a tiny bit awkward.

The title change was a massive shock. The build-up to the match, focusing on Jay’s two year winning streak, felt like it was intended to emphasise how significant an Elgin win would be. Plus Elgin’s a Canadian, and it seemed safe to assume ROH would want to have him win his first defence in his home country to build him up into a sort of “national treasure” role they could rely on in the future. More than that, ROH had been holding off on putting their world belt onto Elgin for an age (they waited too long in my opinion) and so it was a shock to see him lose the title after less than three months.

It felt like Elgin’s reign was cut short. In the last few days it’s not been hard to see a variety of reasons cited as to why he lost the championship, ranging from visa problems to off remarks he’d made in interviews. It’s a shame he lost the championship so quickly after having to wait so long, but on the plus side it got people talking about Ring of Honor and it could be the beginning of a far ranging storyline (although it probably isn’t). It also made me realise how my attitude towards Jay Briscoe has changed. I’m interested in him as a two time champion now, while last year I hated the idea of him as champion.

The main event as the two-out-of-three falls match for the ROH world tag team championships. reDRagon were defending against The Young Bucks. The two teams have faced off a few times now and the results have never been anything less than sensational. The most notable encounter was their show-stealing performance at the ROH and New Japan War of the Worlds crossover, which is a current frontrunner for match of the year. I mention this to illustrate the sort of level the units had been operating on and the expectations of fans for this match.

It was a great match (with the standard caveat that you have to overlook the lax attitude to selling from the Bucks), edging out Cole versus Styles and the world championship match for best of the night honours. Personally I feel it was slightly less good than their WOTW encounter, but I could fully understand people feeling the opposite. I could wake up tomorrow and feel the opposite myself, the quality of the bouts is that close. It was a fitting end to the evening and yet more proof that these two teams, particularly when working together, are both something special.

Fish and O’Reilly took the first fall with Chasing the Dragon, putting them in the advantageous position traditionally occupied by heels. The Bucks evened things up with a package piledriver-super kick combo before losing the third and deciding fall when Matt tapped out to the Fujiwara arm bar that O’Reilly applied as a counter to More Bang for Your Buck.

A standing ovation for the valiant losers was interrupted by a returning Tommaso Ciampa. He dropped Nick with a German suplex and Matt with a Project Ciampa. The final shot of the broadcast was Nick Jackson taking a neck breaker onto the exposed boards of the ring. I stand by what I said earlier: Ciampa is not a performer particularly well suited to this and the topic of depression (which Corino stated very clearly he was suffering from) is not something that wrestling should be tackling. At least not in this manner.

Even with the mood-killing closing angle I thought All Star Extravaganza VI was a very good show. It was obviously be most remembered as the show on which Michael Elgin lost the ROH championship but there was a lot more going on (and perhaps as a trivia note should it prove to be ACH's last official booking). Every match was watchable and enjoyable, with Cole v Styles and the top two title matches standing out as particularly impressive. That title change will always make this a curiosity but it’s a very watchable show in and of itself. The ROH crew turned out another good effort.