Border Wars 2013 review

Border Wars didn’t break the curse. It was another commendable (internet) pay-per-view offering from Ring of Honor. Unfortunately it kept another running theme going as well, the technical problems that plague seemingly every internet offering the company makes. These sorts of issues are what prompted ROH to move away from Go Fight Live and start producing them in house. That was a wise move. It doesn’t appear to have been followed up by the equally wise move to involve people who know how to avoid streaming issues.

There’s nothing I can say on the topic of streaming problems and Ring of Honor that I haven’t said before but I can’t provide a recap of the show without mentioning the problem. It’s something ROH need to sort out. Until they do they’ll continue to have rightly dissatisfied customers and an image of a small time indy fed.

The promotion and its talent deserve better than that but they won’t get it until they prove they can give us iPPVs without fault. The more things that go wrong the longer stretch of successes they’re going to have to shed the image.

I really hope that I can do a write-up of Best in the World in June without mentioning any of these problems.

Border Wars took place in front of a lively crowd at the Red Reeve Arena in Toronto. The C&C Wrestle Factory opened up the show with a victory over the super-popular ACH and  his tag partner Tadarius Thomas (who really need a team name). The win came after Coleman hit a no hands hurricanrana on ACH and Alexander followed up with a springboard frog splash.

The fans were into the bout, granting it with early chants of “This is awesome!” Things quietened down considerably when Thomas got isolated, a sign that ACH was the star of the four. He's a highlight of the current ROH roster, charismatic and incredibly nimble. He could make it to the top of the company given the time.

In the short term he and Thomas are likely going to get themselves a tag team title shot. I thought they’d be getting a win on iPPV to set that up but apparently not. It’s still something they’re heading towards though.

 

Streamers in the opening match? You bet!

 

Match two was Mike Bennett versus Roderick Strong one-on-one. Mike Mondo had originally been set to be a part of the match but suffered an injury while training so got pulled. Yep, his return has been delayed again.

Bennett was sporting a haircut. I prefer the shaggy look he had going on before.

The match was the average Bennett affair, meaning that there was nothing bad going on but also nothing particularly exciting either. The finish came when Roddy slapped the Stronghold on Bennett, spurring Maria to cause a distraction as her man tapped out. Strong went to chide the ref for his inattentiveness and turned around into a superkick and a Box Office Snash for two.

Cheeseburger rocked up and forced a kiss on Maria, which as basically sexual assault and was presumably done as payback for getting decked by ‘The Prodigy’ at Supercard of Honor. Bennett then dashed around ringside after the crew member, sliding back into the ring to eat the match-winning Sick Kick.

A recap of Steen speaking out against Matt Hardy and getting booted out of SCUM followed that. If you've watched the TV show you’ll be aware of the footage.

BJ Whitmer v Rhett Titus, fought under I Quit rules, was match three. ‘Addicted to Love’ was wearing Scott Hall nWo style trunks. Pretty cool touch for a guy who's part of an invading faction.

The match started with the two men brawling. That was overshadowed by Nigel McGuinness getting referees to eject Steve Corino from the arena. The fans resurrected WWE's old ‘Get the F Out’ campaign as a chant, replacing the F with something that wasn't “federation”.

The crowd were into the match. I wasn’t. I can’t be part of the in-crowd all the time. Titus brought in zip ties after the standard issue tussling. ‘The Buzzsaw’ fought him off and ended up locking Titus into the ropes. The SCUM man refused to quit as he was punched repeatedly in the face by his former tag team partner. Eventually he spat at him.  

That prompted BJ to bring in a chair. He prepared to smash Titus with an unprotected shot but Corino returned and distracted him. ‘The King of Old School’ turned his back and sank to his knees, sacrificing himself to Whitmer’s wrath. Titus quit to save his pal form the chair.

Jimmy Jacobs and Cliff Compton hit the ring and flattened BJ, which brought out Michael Elgin and Jay Lethal for the stipulation tag match. Jacobs was sporting a new hairdo too. It was clearly new haircut night in Toronto. Corinio stayed at ringside as the combatants rucked around ringside, providing time for Rhett to be cut out of the zip ties back in the ring.  

Once both teams were back into the ring a regular tag match got underway. Elgin did his stalling suplex spot to a booming reaction. It got a "That was awesome!" chant. Moments later he did it again on Compton. Lethal joined him with a stall on Jacobs. Elgin remains amazingly over despite underwhelming presentation so far this year. That’s a positive sign.

Lethal was written out of the match when he “tweaked his knee” on what appeared to be a standard suicide dive. Corino demanded a count out but it didn't happen. Instead Lethal was helped backstage, leaving 'Unbreakable' to continue the match alone. It was a work designed to keep Elgin looking strong and set up a surprise run-in from Kevin Steen.

It accomplished both goals. Jacobs was caught in mid-air and slammed with a suplex. Moments later Elgin powered both men off the mat, one on his shoulders and one in his arms. The numbers bettered him after that but he looked like a beast while battling the odds.

When Steen appeared he got officially added to the match by McGuinness. Elgin tagged him in and 'Mr Wrestling' cleaned house on SCUM. After hitting a pop-up power bomb on Compton he went for a package piledriver but ‘The Zombie Princess’ clipped his leg and snuck in a schoolboy for a victory. Steen looked crushed as Corino beamed and celebrated at ringside.

The match was a good piece of work. It created a way to get Steen on to the card and protected Elgin. It was well received. Excellent use of four guys and continuation of the SCUM plot.

During the interval we were shown two matches. Taiji Ishimori v El Generico from Tokyo Summit (Ishimori won) and Paul London v Michael Shane (remember him?) from Unscripted (London won).

The second half opened with 'Barrister' RD Evans (inexplicably dressed in wrestling gear) and 'God's Gift' QT Marshall sauntering to the ring. They got hefty streamer treatment. Fans were probably just pleased to have the chance to throw stuff again after intermission. Evans asked for silence because his voice was hoarse. That got the fans Fandangoing. Evans asked if it was the Canadian national anthem. A humorous quip from Evans? That’s his strength.

Evans said reDRagon should be stripped of the tag belts because they'd no-showed the event. No-showing was a bit strong: they were never announced to be there. As he spoke a series of beeps started up and images were shown on the screen above the entrance of Tommaso Ciampa working out.

Moments later ‘The Sicilian Psychopath’ strode out with a new (and impressive) entrance that made him look like a major star. Evans bailed and left Marshall to eat a double leg takedown and a knee to the face. The heels fled. It was a well booked return segment and Ciampa got a great reaction. He should have hit his finisher on Marshall though. The fans needed something to give a definitive pop to.

Corino returned to ringside to gloat about being the company’s new colour commentator. He promised something big for later in the show and then left. It was a peculiar addition to the show. Corino could have said what he had to say during his earlier appearance. That would have allowed the audience to hear what he had to say too.

Eddie Edwards v Taiji Ishimori was match five. Kevin Kelly frustratingly claimed this was Ishimori's ROH debut even though we'd seen him wrestle Generico in an ROH ring not half an hour earlier. Okay it was in Japan, but it was still an ROH card. Seconds after that claim Kelly followed up with "I've had the opportunity to speak to him quite a bit... through translator, over the last few days." Oh, Kevin Kelly. When will you learn?

What followed was the match of the night. It was stuffed with great exchanges and near falls. I strongly recommend checking it out. Eddie eventually got the win with a Die Hard Driver. After his victory ‘Die Hard’ did the “motion-for-the-title-around-the-waist” that wrestlers tend to do. A match for the GHC junior heavyweight championship on his next NOAH tour looks likely.

Following that we all took our pants off to enjoy the TV title match. Truth had two Hoopla hotties with him. Taven again had the belt stuffed down his tights. And JBL thinks Dolph Ziggler wearing a championship backwards is disrespectful.

I’d said in my preview that this match needed to give Matt Taven a chance to have a match free of stalling and storylines on pay-per-view. It did that and MTV had a satisfactory, technically sound match. It didn't blow anyone away but it as the outing that champ needed. That he won via Hoopla hottie distraction and a handful of tights didn't hurt him at all. It's in keeping with his character.

Following the match Truth offered a handshake to Briscoe. There was literally no reason for this. He had to return to the ring to do it. The life intervention expert got a karate chop for his trouble. The newest Hoopls hottie carried him backstage. That’s particularly impressive when you factor in her impractical heels.

London versus Richards was the evening's penultimate bout. The stream cut for London's steamer treatment. Richards' got a lot so I imagine the returning star did too. London wrestled in the same trunks he wore fit your per ROH match in 2003. That was a nice touch.

Mat and submission wrestling was the story of the first few minutes. The fans turned on Richards early. He’s had a storied history with Toronto: challenging, and failing to defeat, Tyler Black for the ROH championship and losing the belt to Kevin Steen at last year’s Border Wars being the most memorable examples. I like this sort of thing in wrestling. It’s impossible to script and adds realism.

This prompted ‘The American Wolf’ to begin playing heel, becoming more aggressive throughout the match and taunting the fans continually. His cry of “best wrestler in the world" after booting London in the face was thoroughly antagonistic.

London got a convincing near fall off a Dragon suplex. Moments later Richards retaliated with a Tombstone piledriver on the ringside mats in the second biggest move of the match. London made it back in at the count if nineteen as Richards shouted for him to stay down. ‘The Lone Wolf’ immediately nailed him with a baseball slide drop kick and followed up by a mistimed double stomp off the top rope, landing right on London's face. That was the biggest move of the match.

Richards stalled as the referee helped London to recover. The decision was made to go to the finish in order to protect him from further damage. That was a wise move. London placed Richards on the top rope and connected with a hurricanrana. He went for the Shooting Star press. Richards countered with his knees and then rolled London up for the win. Botched stomp aside it was a very good match. Had that not happened they may have topped Edwards versus Ishimori.

Davey reverted to face mode after the bout, saying ROH and guys like him, Jay Briscoe and Adam Cole wouldn't be there without him. He then asked for a standing ovation for ‘The Intrepid Traveller’. The fans obliged.

London wasn't to be outdone. He took the mic to say that the honour had been all his, proclaimed Richards will do great things and thanked the fans for the streamers. I want to see him as a regular in ROH. He’s popular, talented and willing to put the company and its stars over. Let’s hope it happens.

The on-screen graphic declared Jay Briscoe to be the "new" ROH champion as he entered for his first defence of the ROH world title. That's milking it a bit. I don't think a champion can be considered new a month into their reign, first defence or not. Cole got a mixed reaction when he was announced. Fans were massively into Briscoe.

 

The "new" champ is here

 

Things were slow and even in the early going, the story being that Cole was slightly awed by the big match situation. Tings eventually turned in favour of the challenger  when he hit a drop kick to Briscoe’s knee. That was followed up by the corner figure four spot. As that had been made famous by beloved Canadian hero Bret Hart it got a good reaction.

From there Briscoe made a few attempts at comebacks but always had to go back to favouring the knee, allowing Cole recovery time. After a failed Jay Driller and a couple of neck breakers from Cole the action picked up with a Death Valley driver on the apron from Briscoe. Back in the ring Briscoe went for the Driller again but Cole countered into the figure four leg lock.

One rope break later both men were up on the top rope and Cole nailed Briscoe with a German suplex followed by a pair of superkicks, the Florida Key and then a second figure four. The challenger was more reluctant to release the hold to the rope break the second time around.

Todd Sinclair took a bump, setting up a Steve Corino run-in. He tossed a SCUM shirt to Cole, who stood looking confused while McGuinness got into the ring, crotched Corino on the top rope and hit the Tower of London. As Nigel tossed Corino backstage Jay returned to his feet and finally connected with the Jay Driller on Cole, giving him his first successful title defence.

Briscoe celebrated in a shower of steamers as Cole pouted like a petulant child. The two shook hands and all seemed right with the world but Cole teased a superkick when Jay turned his back. It didn't happen. The challenger stormed backstage when Briscoe figured out what he was up to. It pretty much confirms Cole is now a bad guy though.

The card did a good job of satisfying on the night and building further plot developments and storylines. There wasn’t a single match that could be described as bad and the central feud, SCUM versus Ring of Honor, continued with Corino earning a commentary spot and a SCUM member being guaranteed a world title match at some point in the future. I’m expecting that to happen at next month’s Best in the World. Based on recent form that should be a great show.

Thank You, Steen

Supercard of Honor VII saw the longest ROH title reign in four years come to end. A lot of the focus of the title change has been on Jay Briscoe being the man to hand Kevin Steen his first ROH loss in over two years. Which is understandable: very few people expected Jay to ever get a reign as the champion and the WrestleMania weekend show seemed like it would be a guaranteed retention for 'Mr Wrestling'.

What not many people (or at least not enough people) are focusing on is Steen's hard work. Even before he won the title he had been the focal point of Ring of Honor. Minus a six month break due to contract disputes and-or creative disagreements with Jim Cornette, Steen has been one of the most heavily featured and enjoyable singles acts since early 2010. He was there playing a supporting role during Davey Richards' damp squib of a title run and had the feud of the year against former teammate El Generico in 2010.

Since Steen won the belt last spring he's been a rallying point for fans of the promotion, a beacon of positivity in a company that had sadly lost its way. He never entered anything less than a great performance when defending the belt (or wrestling in a non-title match come to that) and survived poor iPPV streams, slapdash booking and dwindling interest in the product he represented. His involvement in the promotion proved a saving grace. Without him there’s a very real chance 2012 could have seen Ring of Honor go under.

I was originally sceptical 'Wrestling's Worst Nightmare' could have a meaningful run as champion. His two matches against Davey Richards proved enjoyable but 'The Lone Wolf's' second loss meant that he could no longer challenge for the gold. That denied Steen a talented and popular opponent.

Further limiting the possibility of a great reign was the shallow ROH roster. During his first few months as champion he was subjected to defences against the likes of Mike Mondo, Eddie Kingston and Homicide, none of whom meant a great deal to fans and none of whom are known as the greatest wrestlers available for hire. His defences against Eddie Edwards and Roderick Strong were very good, but they were isolated affairs with no long term plan attached to them. In a sense they were teases of how good the Steen reign could be.

Shed a tear: this is a sight we may never see again

It wasn't until Jay Lethal challenged him in October that Steen had another title match that could be described as a classic. From there he entered spirited defences against Michael Elgin (at Glory by Honor XI) and El Generico (at Final Battle), had a great rematch with ‘Black Machismo’ (at the 11^th Anniversary Show), and a surprisingly satisfying non-title four-way outing against Edwards, Strong and Elgin (at Defy or Deny II).

 

From the moment Delirious took over as booker in October Steen was given the chance to cement himself as one of the greatest ROH champions. He seized upon the opportunity and proved he belonged in the same league as the likes of Samoa Joe, Nigel McGuinness and Bryan Danielson. He did a far better job of overcoming the obstacles of his reign than Davey Richards did the year before.

Steen’s loss of the championship came as a surprise. There's every chance he'll get the belt back at some point but ultimately that's neither here nor there. Steen deserves appreciation for carrying the company for a year and making sure the belt retained its prestige while in his possession. For now I want to thank Kevin Steen for having the first reign we all needed him to have.

Supercard of Honor VII review

Supercard of Honor VII had a tough act to follow coming four weeks after Ring of Honor's stellar 11^th Anniversary Show. That event had delivered two title changes, several excellent matches, and a well-executed surprise ending. While the Supercard looked good it was going to have to be a damn fine show to better all of that.

Did it manage it? No. It did come very close but in my opinion the card celebrating ROH's eleven year existence was a touch better. That's not to sell this show short. Once again everyone on the roster pulled together to put on an above average wrestling show. There was only one match that could, if you were being slightly unfair, describe as a bit of a damp squib (the TV title match) but that was made up for by two incredibly hot matches (Elgin v Lethal and reDRagon v The American Wolves) and a very surprising result.

That result came in the evening's main event. Jay Briscoe defeated Kevin Steen. There was no DQ and it wasn't a Dusty Finish. Briscoe beat 'Mr Wrestling' fair and square in the centre of the ring to become the ROH world champion.

Well that's what we're told happened at any rate. Unfortunately many watching live and anybody tuning in to watch the show on ROH's website right now has to take the word of others for this because the decision wasn't broadcast live. The promotion's technical difficulties returned once again during the most important match on the card.

In the interest of fairness I'll point out ROH has apologised for the fault several times. That’s the right thing to do but steps need to be taken to ensure this doesn't happen again. Cuts in the feed are the reason ROH dissolved their relationship with GFL and started steaming iPPVs themselves. They've done a mostly good job at doing so but they can't afford to start going through those problems again just as they're starting to win back fans.

Border Wars, scheduled for the beginning of May, needs to receive a perfect stream. Whatever checks need to be made need to be made several times more than required. Money needs to be spent guaranteeing Border Wars doesn't suffer this snag. The promotion's reputation has already taken a battering in this area. They need to pull off a perfect show from Toronto.

Back to Supercard of Honor VII. The broadcast began with a lengthy, but well-produced, video package recapping the 11^th Anniversary Show and Nigel McGuinness's troop-rallying TV promo. That ended with Jay Briscoe telling Kevin Steen the only way he'd beat him is if he killed him. Something about that claim seemed a little hyperbolic. Amusingly Kevin Kelly repeated this comment from Briscoe with a completely straight face during the opening moments of the live broadcast, as though there really was a chance we'd see Steen resort to murder to keep his belt.

Out first were RD Evans and QT Marahall. 'The Barrister' cut a promo that seemed to last an age regarding who'd be teaming with 'God's Gift'. It drew heat, but more because the fans were bored. Chants for wrestling drowned him out as he teased QT's tag partner would be Hiroshi Tanahashi or Lacey Von Erich. It ended up being 'The Barrister' himself, which earned a surprisingly loud and positive reaction.

What followed was a fast-paced, well wrestled match that portrayed ACH and Tadarius Thomas as stars. They looked great in between the comedy spots of Evans. It was far better than if expected. The faces got the win with a pair of kicks and ACH's Big Bang Attack.

Kevin Kelly went into a recap about Charlie Haas's retirement at WAR on March 30^th. We were told nobody knew what Shelton Benjamin was going to do just as the man himself came out to the ring. He cut a promo. Yes, vaunted mic maestro Shelton Benjamin got promo time in the second segment of an ROH show, just after RD Evans had had the fans chanting “We aant wrestling!” The crowd met this chatter with various chants too.

Cheeseburger (that guy on the ring crew that Charlie Haas hates) was brought into the ring. Shelton told him he respected him for standing up for himself. Mike Bennett came out to add to the promofest and tease a move to another promotion (WWE for example). All of this ended with Cheeseburger insulting Maria, which earned him a punch to the mouth from 'The Prodigy'.

The Bennett v Benjamin match that followed was pretty enjoyable but the crowd seemed reluctant to get into it. They did come to life at certain points, most notably when Bennett mocked the mannerisms of Maria's ex-boyfriend CM Punk and a spot where 'The First Lady of ROH' inadvertently let Shelton grope her. The latter led to a great spot where Bennett superkicked his girlfriend off the apron (accidentally of course) and then ate a superkick from his opponent for a convincing false finish.

It was a good night to be Shelton Benjamin

Bennett won off a 'Brutal' Bob assisted roll-up. The fans chanted "Thank you, Shelton!" afterwards. It's a pity they couldn't have been that vocal during his bout. If this was Benjamin’s last ROH appearance he’s going out with a whimper rather than a bang.

Match three was the number one contendership match between Jay Lethal and Michael Elgin. They were portrayed as even competitors and freely swapped moves and spots. Highlights included Elgin reversing a sunset flip into a power slam; Lethal hitting two suicide dives, a springboard drop kick and a third suicide dive in quick succession; 'Unbreakable' lifting Lethal off of the apron for a suplex while perched on the second rope; a great exchange of failed finisher attempts; and a sequence which saw Elgin no-sell the Lethal Injection, only to be caught with a Lethal Combination and a Macho Elbow for a great near fall.

The match finished on a high with Elgin crushing his opponent with three power bombs: one off the top rope, a second into the turnbuckle, and then a third standard Elgin Bomb. That it took such an effort to put Lethal down protected him in defeat.

Before the two men could shake hands after the match SCUM ran in through the crowd. That prompted the ten men tag match. It was dubbed a war (as in Ladder War, ROH’s answer to ladder matches) and featured the predictable wild brawling at the start. When it settled down into a more traditional match Mike Mondo was picked to work the isolated babyface routine. He eventually tagged in Whitmer and the match became more even, all the babyfaces involving themselves for crowd-pleasing high spots.

The shortcuts came in eventually. Corino attacked (pretty poor) colour commentator Caleb Seltzer to kick off an anarchic sequence that saw Cliff Compton chucking powder about and BJ Whitmer getting handcuffed to the bottom rope. SCUM got the win after Rhino Gored Caprice Coleman. Corino cut another promo (he’d grabbed some mic time before the match started) telling fans they were supporting the losing team in ROH.

As fans in the Hammerstein Ballroom enjoyed the intermission we at home were treated to a lengthy video package recapping Jay Briscoe's failed world title challenges. For those wondering he lost to Xavier, Samoa Joe (twice), Takeshi Morishima, Nigel McGuinness, Jerry Lynn, and Roderick Strong. All featured hefty amounts of outside brawling although it was more prevalent in the earlier matches. That shows Jay's improvement as a wrestler over the years in my view.

Nigel McGuinness joined Kevin Kelly as colour commentator for the second half of the show. He got a pleasantly loud reaction from the fans. Seltzer getting written off the show to make for McGuinness felt like those  scenarios we used to see on ECW pay-per-views when elaborate plots would be concocted to get Joel Gertner out of the announce booth.

In the ring the second half kicked off with 'Machine Gun' Karl Anderson and his distinctly Japanese entrance music facing ROH regular and triple crown champion Roderick Strong. They had a lively exchange which didn't disappoint anyone tuning in to see signature moves and chops. There were plenty of both. Anderson won with the Ace Crusher after making three attempts to hit the move. 'The Messiah of the Backbreaker' shook hands and embraced Anderson after the match, further cementing his recent status as a tweener.

The TV title match was up next. Matt Hardy entered first, accompanied by Steve Corino and plenty of boos. Adam Cole got himself some cheers and the new champ, accompanied by a Hoopla Hottie and 'Mr No Pants' Truth Martini, got a mixed reaction. 'The King of Old School' gave Matt Hardy his own personal introduction, mentioning Divas Hardy had slept with and the number of Twitter followers he has before dubbing him 'The Jesus Christ of Professional Wrestling'. It got solid some heat. Cole got cheers. So did Taven, which was surprising.

The match was overshadowed in the early going when Truth had his Hoopla Hottie, introduced as Scarlet, sit on Nigel's lap. This distracted Kevin Kelly, which prompted ringside fans to instruct him to call the match. In a rare moment of initiative Kelly quipped “There’s a match on?” Comedy involving him is usually wholly unintentional.

The match got going after that but suffered from a truncated run-time. They constructed some very good three-way spots. That's rarely a priority in the triple threat matches of certain other companies, one of which takes such a lax attitude to them that they’ve recently made them compulsory for an entire division. It’s nice that ROH makes use of such bouts. Also nice to see (well, hear) were the fans yelling at Hardy that he's fat. It's always nice to know that I'm not alone in my dislike of a wrestling figure.

Martini distracted the referee as 'The Sensei of Mattitude' made a cover. Fans chanted "Same old shit!" but quickly changed their tune when Cole kicked Hardy in the privates (he'd gotten to his feet to shout at the ref) and eliminated him with a small package. The fans were ecstatic that the loathed Hardy was gone. Moments later Corino was in the ring distracting Cole, which allowed Taven to sneak in his modified DDT finisher to get his second straight iPPV victory over ‘The Panama City Playboy’.

The match was great in places but the ongoing ROH v SCUM war and the number of seconds at ringside meant that it was ultimately more of an overbooked angle than a satisfying match. Not everything on an ROH show needs to be a perfect wrestling display though. Sometimes stories need to take priority. Taven's reign is still going and he's got plenty of time for good wrestling.

This guy wants his tag belt back

The American Wolves v reDRagon took the semi-final spot. It's this sort of match that makes ROH's in-ring product so good. All four men wrestled like they were trying to steal the show and as though the tag team titles mean something. That makes them mean something.

No team had the upper hand for long. The momentum switched back and forth constantly which allowed the pace to remain fast. This one had its fair share of great spots: O'Reilly sunset flipping himself over a turnbuckle to the outside; Richards applying the Kimura to O'Reilly and the ankle lock to Fish at the same time; a springboard hurricanrana from Edwards to Fish caught in the ropes; and the Wolves using Chasing the Dragon. Just to make it clear they were heels reDRagon retained after a cheap shot from Fish on Richards, allowing O'Reilly to get the pin off a Handful of Tights™ and a schoolboy.

It was stacked with near falls and stiff kicks, like most matches featuring the four. It was exactly what fans (and I) wanted to see. Richards, Edwards, Fish and O'Reilly just pipped Lethal and Elgin to the match of the night.

Topping the bill was the ROH world championship match. Kevin Steen defending against Jay Briscoe. It had a sixty minute time limit allocated to it. That was unnecessary. 'Mr Wrestling's' not going for an hour.

The match built slowly, revolving around the two men exchanging stiff blows for the most part. It was good but nothing out of the ordinary. Jimmy Jacobs ran in at around the ten minute mark. Before he could do anything Mark Briscoe appeared to fight him backstage. The match continued. Steen appeared to get the advantage with the apron bomb but lost it when Jay kneed him in the back on an attempted Swanton. Briscoe got a high angle neck breaker for a near fall, at which point SCUM members Titus and Cliff Compton ran in. Veda Scott took a bump at the hands of 'Mr Media' at which point the feed cut out.

The video resumes with both men winded and the ROH locker room surrounding the ring before cutting out again. Coming back on for a final time we find that Briscoe somehow beat the world champion. Unless ROH have taken the unusual route of turning their history of dodgy stream feeds into a storyline it's pretty poor that the issue hasn't been fixed for the website (but I mentioned all of this above).

Carey Silkin got into the ring to continue his tradition of handing the new champion the title belt. They hugged as the Briscoe family flooded into the ring.

Steen stormed back in and shoved at the new champ. He had a microphone in his hand but he didn't say anything. He stood in silence as the fans chanted "That was awesome!' and "Thank you, Steen" before shaking Jay's hand, hugging what I presume were Briscoe's wife and child, and leaving. Fans then switched to chanting "You deserve it!" at Jay.

Briscoe asked for the old Briscoe Brothers Lynard Skynard entrance music to be played and it started just as the feed cut. Nice evasion of those rights laws, ROH!

 

Since day one...

 

I can’t see WWE bettering Supercard of Honor VII with WrestleMania XXIX. Nor can I see them providing anything as surprising as the Jay Briscoe world title win. I was certain that this would be a routine defence for ‘Wrestling’s Worst Nightmare’ en route to his match with Adam Cole at Border Wars (read my certainty here). It’s too early to say that Briscoe isn’t a good champion although I will say I’m not getting my hopes up.

Still, it made for a good ending to the pay-per-view. Let’s hope ROH can make it four in a row at Border Wars. While we at it we should cross our fingers for avoiding technical troubles too.

Supercard of Honor VII preview

It may not make as much money but the likelihood is that ROH's seventh Supercard of Honor will provide a more satisfying viewing experience for fans than WrestleMania will two days later. Ring of Honor's recent return to form has seen them produce two stellar iPPVs in Final Battle and the 11^th Anniversary Show. Supercard of Honor looks like it will be a hat trick for the group.

I'm also looking forward to seeing how the SCUM storyline is progressed. The addition of more members seems unlikely, the group's already got a nice bulky roster, but we could see further hints of a split between Kevin Steen and the rest of the group. There are plenty of things that could be done with the faction and the unpredictability of it all makes for compulsive viewing.

Speaking of which, SCUM founding member and ROH world champion Kevin Steen will headline SOH VII against Jay Briscoe. Jay is a former eight time tag team champion and one of the most tenured men on the roster. While this is his first time headlining a pay-per-view in a singles match it's not his first shot at the ROH world title. Will he beat Steen? No. Briscoe is a respected and valued member of the roster but he's a tag team guy. There’s a very slim chance he could become the champ in years to come (ROH losing a swathe of key players to WWE could trigger that) but he's not the guy who will beat Steen.

I'm not the biggest fan of 'Dem Boys' but I think the style they work will match up well with 'Mr Wrestling'. It should be an enjoyable brawl. Going back to the SCUM plot I mentioned above I wouldn't be surprised to see Steen saving his opponent from a beating at the hands of his cohorts, most likely after the bout. Anything could happen though. Which is obviously a good thing.

Title matches being presented as the biggest thing on a wrestling show? What a novel concept

One match SCUM will definitely be involved in is the ten man tag team match. ROH representatives Mike Mondo, Mark Briscoe, BJ Whitmer, Caprice Coleman and Cedric Alexander will face SCUM boys Jimmy Jacobs, Cliff Compton, Rhino, Rhett Titus and Jimmy Rave. With so many men involved it's unlikely to be an orderly affair. I imagine everyone will be given a spot or two but it's mainly going to exist to deteriorate into anarchy and keep the SCUM v ROH programme running. SCUM to win to ensure they're viewed as a threat for future shows.

Jay Lethal and Michael Elgin will wrestle one another to determine which of the two gets a future shot at the ROH championship. One of the many areas the company's improved recently is the schedule for title defences. We already know that Adam Cole and BJ Whitmer have title matches coming up. Adding Elgin or Lethal to the list will take us to three. I can't remember the last time the ROH champion had three challengers announced. It must have been years. It adds a “real sports” vibe to the promotion.

Elgin v Lethal could go either way. Lethal had a title match on last month's anniversary card which may make 'Unbreakable' slightly more likely to win here. Personally I'd like to see that happen, I think Elgin has been poorly handled over the last year and he needs a substantial storyline and series of matches to rebuild him. A credible outing against 'Mr Wrestling' would accomplish that. Their match at Glory By Honor XI was very good. A rematch at Best in the World wouldn’t be a bad thing.

ROH's second tier title will be on the line too. New champion Matt Taven will defend against Matt Hardy and Adam Cole in a three-way. This is a rarity in that it's a three-way feud that actually makes sense. Matt Hardy had a TV title match scheduled against Adam Cole but Cole lost the title to Matt Taven before he could wrestle Hardy.

I like Taven and Cole and enjoy Truth Martini at ringside. That should be enough to combat Matt Hardy being in the match too. I'm not a fan of him being anywhere near an ROH contract. I'd expect this match to go on somewhere in the middle of the show and be at least decent. A title change seems unlikely as Taven only won the belt a few weeks ago. I'm picking the House of Truth boy to win.

At the 11^th Anniversary Show ROH brought in The Forever Hooligans for a match with The American Wolves. It was a return to an old booking approach: bringing in outsiders to pit against full time members of the roster. The same will be done at Border Wars with Naomichi Marafuji and Taiji Ishimori while Supercard of Honor VII will see an appearance from Karl Anderson.

'Machine Gun' Karl Anderson is the former tag team partner of Giant Bernard, better known as WWE's Tensai. Together they won the NOAH and IWGP tag team titles, setting the record for the longest reign (which still stands now) with the former. Don't judge him by the Tensai association, by all accounts he's pretty good and Tensai was presented far as more of a force in Japan than he is in WWE.

Anderson will face Roderick Strong.  It will be his first match for the company in over five years. If I thought he was going to become a regular I'd say he was going to win. That doesn't appear to be the case. This seems to be a one-off deal, so I expect 'The Messiah of the Backbreaker' to go over.

In what is likely to be the opening match ACH and Tadarius Thomas will wrestle QT Marshall and a mystery opponent. QT and his buddy will be managed by RD Evans unless Evans turns out to be the partner, which is unlikely but not impossible (Evans is a trained wrestler but only works as a manager for ROH). I think there's a chance ACH and Thomas could be managed by Prince Nana. He's still listed on ROH's roster page but hasn't appeared in a while. The storyline is that Evans stole all of Nana's money, which means that if Nana returns anytime soon it's likely to be as a babyface. That would be something new for the tried and tested Nana character. I think it could work.

I've no idea who QT's partner will be. Mike Bennett seems like a possibility. He's about the only noteworthy person not booked for the show with no clear way onto it.

An alternative is that Thomas will turn on the popular ACH and join Evans' stable. That could then set up the return of Tommaso Ciampa to turn babyface and team with ACH against the man that cost him the TV championship last year. What would be good about this scenario is that Nana could return alongside Ciampa and form a face incarnation of The Embassy, something we've not seen before.

There are a lot of maybes in there but none of it’s impossible. You heard it here first! I'm going to pick the heel team to win as ACH got a win on the last iPPV.

Former Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team partners and ROH tag team champions Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas will wrestle one another. This match came about because Haas turned on Benjamin. That's the storyline reason anyway. The backstage reason is that Benjamin is expected to leave ROH to return to a mid-card spot in WWE. With that in mind I think a win for 'The Outlaw' seems likely.

Speaking of former ROH tag team champions The American Wolves will try to become two time gold-holders when they challenge reDRagon. This match happened, without the belts involved, at Final Battle. It was one of the best matches on an excellent show. That bodes well for Supercard of Honor.

At Final Battle Richards and Edwards went over. That alone makes me thinks it's the turn of Fish and O'Reilly to win in New York. Also in reDRagon's favour is the fact that they've only had the belts a few weeks. It's far from impossible that they could lose the titles so quickly but it would seem a little strange. They appear to be due for a reign of at least a few months.

I wouldn't be surprised to see the champions pull out some shady tactics to retain their titles. That would set up future matches and add to the already rich story between O'Reilly, Edwards and Richards. It could be the Wolves' night though. Look how many predictions I got wrong for the last show.

Ring of Honor always tries to put on a good show over WrestleMania weekend. It’s a good move as it allows them to piggyback some success off of the marketing juggernaut that is WWE. The weekend has become a celebration of wrestling in general, not just WWE. It’s something for wrestling fandom as a whole, not just the viewers of one company. Expect an eventful card and a rambunctious crowd at the Hammerstein Ballroom.

As a complete show I'm looking forward to this more than WrestleMania XXIX.

Predictions summary:
Kevin Steen to defeat Jay Briscoe
reDRagon to defeat The American Wolves
Matt Taven to defeat Matt Hardy and Adam Cole
Michael Elgin to defeat Jay Lethal
SCUM to defeat Team ROH
Roderick Strong to defeat Karl Anderson
Charlie Haas to defeat Shelton Benjamin
QT Marshall and his mystery partner to defeat ACH and Tadarius Thomas

Next Gen Champ

At the most recent ROH TV tapings Nigel McGuinness told Jay Lethal that the only way he’d be awarded a match for the ROH world title was if reigning champion Kevin Steen agreed. Lethal had been banned from competing for the ROH title while Steen has the belt due to an excessive display of aggression at last year’s Lethal Instinct show. Later on at the tapings Lethal convinced ‘Wrestling’s Worst Nightmare’ to overturn the decision and grant him a match.

As things stand right now Steen versus Lethal for the ROH world championship will take place “sometime in the near future”. Which probably means at the 11^th Anniversary Show on March 2^nd.

It’s too early to tell whether or not Lethal will come through on the night and, in his mind, restore honour to ROH. This is a good opportunity to create some new headline stars and mix up the top of the card a little, something that many fans have been calling for for a long time now.

Have Lethal beat Steen at the Anniversary Show. It doesn’t have to be a clean victory. In fact it would be better if it were a tainted win for Lethal. That would make him look more desperate as well as revealing his claims to be an honourable man for the lies they are.

It would also allow ‘Mr Wrestling’ to be written off of ROH TV for a couple of months. His character is still incredibly popular but I’m beginning to think a sabbatical would do him some good, dissuading fans from turning on him as they have with other heavily pushed acts in the promotion’s history. It wouldn’t need a storyline explanation, plenty of men have taken a leave of absence after dropping the belt (usually to participate in a lengthy foreign tour that was a contributing factor to them losing their prize in the first place).

From there ROH should immediately begin preparing a new champion. Lethal doesn’t strike me as a long term option for the role and with the last two champions having enjoyed lengthy reigns it’s time for at least one relatively short one.

This approach would allow the company to promote all the big name opponents for Lethal as champion immediately, rather than trying to hold them off so that he has something to do later in his reign. Lethal could tangle with Richards, Edwards, Strong, and Homicide in rapid succession across TV and house shows, taking in his obligatory rematch with Steen along the way.

 

Put your hands in the air and wave 'em like you just don't care 

 

You may have noticed Michael Elgin’s name is conspicuous by its absence from that list. The long-winded answer for this is available here. The short reason is that I think if Elgin loses another world title match in ROH then it will be practically impossible to establish him as the dominant headline force he deserved to be last year.

Lethal’s short reign could (and should) be ended by someone unexpected. The perfect choice is Kyle O’Reilly. He’s more than a good enough wrestler to carry the belt and it would add something to his programme with Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards. Have the title switch occur on a house show and it could be presented as an even bigger shock. It’s a move that would fit snugly into the gap between Supercard of Honor VII and Best in the World in June.

O’Reilly as champion would allow for Davey Richards to have a memorable final match in August should he remain serious about leaving the group (which I think he will). He could tangle with the same names suggested above for Lethal but spaced out a little more so as to help his reign last longer. Numerous undercard performers could realistically challenge O’Reilly too. His status as a “shock champion” would make it uncertain as to where ROH were going with his reign, bringing a desirable air of unpredictability to the group.

There would be two other men on the roster who would benefit from an O’Reilly title victory. Adam Cole and Michael Elgin. Cole and O’Reilly are former tag team partners with a well-established rivalry with one another. Both men having singles would add an interesting layer to this, and also create a “whose title is better?” scenario where both men try to make their title mean more by outdoing each other on shows.

‘Unbreakable’ would benefit because he has been shown to have O’Reilly’s number on a couple of occasions. He could be built up throughout the second half of the year as the natural successor to O’Reilly, the man the champion doesn’t really want to face. Keep them apart until Final Battle 2013 and have Elgin walk out as champion, heading into 2014 as the most unstoppable force in the company, with Cole and O’Reilly in supporting roles to help bring up the next batch of talent.