ROH 314 – Killer Instinct – 6th October 2012
Although this is only a house show, tonight does feel like a significant event. For one thing it’s the first time ROH has been back in the New Jersey area for a long time. Back in the days of the RexPlex this market used to get ROH’s biggest shows…but since they opened up New York City the NJ shows got worse and worse (although Nigel did win the World Title in this state). It was also around this time that the Sinclair guys reportedly realised the direction ROH was going in just wasn’t working. The hardcore fans were left isolated, and if anybody really thinks a ppv like Death Before Dishonor 10 stands up against what their rivals are offering (I’m not just talking about WWE and TNA – even Evolve/DGUSA wipe the floor with that one) then they are kidding themselves. Anyway, supposedly they decided enough was enough, removed Jim Cornette from creative control and plan to use tonight as a way to write him out. I say supposedly because the reality is he’s still very much part of Ring Of Honor. He will still be on hand to ‘assist’ with the tapings, and as the main broker between SBG and Cary Silkin when the Sinclair buyout took place I really struggle to believe he still won’t be exerting an influence. Delirious has apparently been put in charge again (which as far as the fans have ever been told has always been the case – even though we all knew Cornette was pulling the strings) and we can expect to see some tweaks in the ROH product from Glory By Honor later this month and the November TV tapings in Pittsburgh. That’s not to say that tonight’s show doesn’t look good – because it absolutely does. The DVD has moving menus and music, indicating the Sinclair cameras are here to capture the action for Road Rage…and the line-up is decent. Kevin Steen defends the World Title against hometown hero Jay Lethal in what should be a heated main event, SCUM defend the Tag Titles in a Three Way Dance, the Briscoes face Cole and Edwards, Strong battles O’Reilly, Davey Richards meets Mike Mondo in a rematch from Charleston…and new talent gets the chance to shine as 3.0 come in from Chikara and Bobby Fish returns to the promotion for the first time in years having been released from his Evolve commitments. We’re in the Rec Center in Rahway, NJ – which basically every promotion runs when they come through here now (Jersey All Pro, Evolve, even New Japan). Kevin Kelly commentates solo tonight…which is rarely good. He is joined by the likes of Roderick Strong, QT Marshall, Jim Cornette and Mike Bennett for guest commentary spots periodically at least.
Michael Elgin vs Mike Bennett
It’s actually such a stacked card that this match, which would have been getting top billing earlier in the year, is relegated to the opening match. Michael Elgin cashes in his SOTF 2011 title shot next weekend at Glory By Honor, so needs a big win tonight to build some momentum. Ironically, his opponent tonight is Mike Bennett – who has been selected to be Steen’s next opponent (in November) should he make it past Lethal and Elgin.
The band who do Elgin’s (and Eddie Edwards’) music are in the building tonight and play him to the ring live. He dishes out an early forearm to Bennett…who leaves the ring to get it kissed better by Maria. Things don’t get better when he returns though, with Elgin scooping him up into a big powerslam for 2. He gets another nearfall with a stalling vertical suplex which legitimately lasts the best part of a minute, prompting Bennett to try his luck with a brawl on the floor since he’s getting his ass kicked in a straight wrestling match. Turns out to be a good move as he SPINEBUSTERS Elgin into the side of the ring! It’s an immediate concern for Elgin as he comes up clutching his back and with just a week between him and the biggest match of his ROH career he has a real problem. Bennett drops him with a neckbreaker back inside to do yet more damage. TKO is blocked though, with The Prodigy unable to do enough damage to really halt the momentum of the big man. Unbreakable drops him with a Bossman Slam to bring himself right back into the match. STALLING INVERTED DDT for 2! That’s a new one! Maria Kanellis hops her beautiful behind onto the ring apron to distract Elgin…but it doesn’t work and Bennett finds himself sent crashing out of the ring. Elgin thinks about a dive – but is stopped as Truth Martini gets in his way whilst dishing out cheapshots to Bennett. Prodigy capitalises on the confusion…BOX OFFICE SMASH ON THE FLOOR! All damage to the back and Elgin barely makes it back to the ring to avoid a count-out loss. He walks into another spinebuster and barely kicks out this time. But still Mike can’t execute the TKO…and Elgin this the Back Fist out of nowhere. BUCKLE BOMB! SPIRAL BOMB! Explosive victory for Elgin at 11:57
Rating - *** - That was certainly a pleasing opening contest. I actually wanted this to go on a little longer as they were telling a good story and the end felt really rushed. Bennett getting his ass kicked then going to the outside to open up a back injury, with Elgin just a week out from his title shot, was a good move and they were doing some good stuff with it – they just needed more time to flesh out the closing stretch. The inevitable interventions from Maria and Martini were kept minimal and the wrestling was allowed to take centre stage too. That’s all positive, and I’d love to see these guys go at it again if there’s an opportunity to book it.
SIDENOTE – A few observations. Having the Sinclair cameras in does significantly improve visual quality on these DVD’s, and since they own the company I’m really not sure why they can’t use this equipment to film every show. There are some slight issues though – either the crowd is appallingly mic’d or they are deathly quiet (neither is good). Both the roving hand-cams on the floor have horrible lighting balance as well making everything look VERY dark when the action is outside the ring.
3.0 vs Bravado Brothers
Shane Matthews and Scott Parker are regulars in the Chikara promotion, but make their way to ROH for the first time this evening. Their opponents should be familiar to them though, as they face the Bravados – themselves having appeared regularly for Chikara in recent months.
Parker steals one of the Bravado sweaters and gives it an elbow drop. Grandma Bravado won’t be happy apparently. He then steps off Matthews into an elbow drop on Lancelot for 2. Lance continues to struggle with the tag team fluidity of 3.0 until Harlem helps him out with an illegal elbow to the back of Jagged’s head. It’s Harlem to the rescue again moments later as Parker rattles of a snap suplex on Lancelot and needs stopping before he can tag in Matthews. But Harlem gets distracted by the live crowd, finally allowing Scott to tag out. Matthews tags in…as Parker lands a pescado to Lancelot on the floor. BERMUDA TRIANGLE MOONSAULT TO THE FLOOR BY HARLEM! Lance rattles Shane’s jaw with a big lariat for 2. Jumping enzi/bridging German combo by the Bravados for another nearfall. 3.0 retaliate with an atomic drop/mafia kick combo…followed by a leapfrog spear for 2. DOUBLE TEAM HERO’S WELCOME! I wonder what they call that? Bravados win at 10:05 anyway.
Rating - ** - I really enjoyed this match, probably moreso than a 2* rating would suggest. Ultimately I marked it down because I thought some of the action down the stretch was pretty sloppy – but this was still decent. 3.0 were solid on debut, and looked like they could really contribute to ROH’s ailing tag division. I don’t think they’ve been booked again since this so they can’t have made that good an impression, but I liked them. ROH missed the boat on the Super Smash Bros during the HDNet era – and with the tag division as it is they could really do with a few more experienced, capable and exciting teams like 3.0. I really like Scott Parker so would love to see him get more opportunities in ROH with or without his tag partner.
QT Marshall vs Bobby Fish
This isn’t a debut for Fish. He’s made a couple of appearances for ROH before and, despite being a very capable talent, at the time the roster was much healthier and he never got a spot. That hasn’t stopped him from becoming a globally travelled fighter though. He has worked extensively in Japan for Pro-Wrestling NOAH, and across Europe too. In the US he’s most recently been working for the Evolve/DGUSA WWN group of promotions…but they had a respectful parting of ways as Bobby’s NOAH connections made him hard to book when competing in Dragon Gate’s American expansion. He is genuinely one of the more talented guys ROH have given a shot to recently so I hope this goes well. His opponent tonight is QT Marshall, who is getting a real hard time from ROH’s hardcore fans. Personally I don’t think he’s that bad – just very average and definitely not the kind of talent ROH needed to add. But Bobby is a good worker and getting a good match out of QT could be a good acid test for a full time spot in this promotion.
Marshall gets on the microphone, b*tching about facing guys who don’t even have contracts. QT calling Fish a jabroni is unbelievably ridiculous by the way. Bobby makes that point by easily taking him down and out-wrestling him on the canvas. To be fair to Marshall, his pre-match promo is getting him some real heat from the live crowd who raucously cheer Fish on as he kicks QT all the way out of the ring. Pescado finds the mark as well, leaving God’s Gift in real trouble, and a diving headbutt back into the ring gets Bobby a 2-count. Moonsault misses though, with Fish getting a little too confident and allowing Marshall to capitalise with a tilta-whirl slam. A big powerslam gets 2 as QT starts using his power advantage to establish himself in the match. A beautiful overhead belly to belly suplex scores as well. That prompts Fish back into action though – scoring with a backbreaker then a moonsault for 2. Exploder suplex scores too…and Fish takes the win with a jumping roundhouse kick at 08:06
Rating - ** - Not the greatest match, particularly when Marshall was in charge, but I was so pleasantly surprised to see Fish get the win that I’m not too concerned. I was really excited when ROH announced they were booking Bobby, and I truly hope he gets an extended run with the promotion as he would be perfect to hang with guys like Roderick, Eddie, Davey, O’Reilly and so on. QT, who was signed to a contract in August, really hasn’t done anything in ROH except join RD Evans and lose matches. He’s putting a new talent over tonight, and he went out in the qualifying round of Survival Of The Fittest. Are ROH realising they made a mistake in hiring him?
Jimmy Jacobs/Steve Corino vs Charlie Haas/Shelton Benjamin vs Rhett Titus/BJ Whitmer – ROH Tag Title Match
This is under elimination rules so there will be two falls before a winner is declared. SCUM come in as champions – having benefitted from the rivalry between Rhett Titus and WGTT to win the Tag Title tournament at Death Before Dishonor 10 last month. There it was Shelton who cost Rhett Titus (and Haas) the chance to regain his belt by laying him out with Paydirt and leaving him to lose. That feud has continued with Rhett enlisting ROH veteran and former Tag Champion himself in BJ Whitmer as his new partner. Will those two teams be able to control their emotions and focus on the ultimate prize of the Tag Titles, or will Corino and Jacobs again profit from it and leave Rahway with their belts?
Jimmy’s reaction to Corino’s ugly ass singlet is absolutely brilliant. It’s only a brief moment though as the two challenging teams kick-start a mass brawl as the bell rings. WGTT quickly break-off to work over Titus by themselves as SCUM take BJ to the floor with Jacobs in particular looking to beat up his former partner. Some semblance of normality returns with Titus giving Jacobs snake eyes…only for Haas to drag Rhett out of the ring for the brutal guardrail backbreaker. Corino gives Whitmer a ride into the guardrails too for no real reason. WGTT start isolating Titus, leaving the champions on the apron to argue with Jay Lethal’s family (who will become more significant as the night progresses). Charlie Haas is also getting the loudest reactions from this sedate New Jersey crowd of the entire show so far. SCUM take a turn in wearing Rhettski down…but nearly lose the fall as Jimmy takes too much time taunting Whitmer and nearly gets pinned from nowhere. Shelton Benjamin winds up coming to their unlikely aid by blasting Titus from behind with a jumping knee. Titus blocks the rope-run belly to belly from Shelton and gets 2 with a desperate flying crossbody, but Haas is on hand to again stop him tagging. The hot tag does finally come as we approach 10 minutes…but Charlie shuts BJ down with an AWESOME jumping knee attack! That looked really nasty, and sure enough BJ’s old pal Jimmy Jacobs is the first man in to take advantage of it. EXPLODER ON JACOBS! Benjamin hits him with a couple of Stinger splashes then his own version of the exploder for 2. Corino saves his partner with a running STO. Eternal Dream blocked…so Corino lands a discus lariat instead. Back Drop Driver countered with a Russian legsweep though. Titus tags himself in to get 2 with the Thrust Buster before Steve returns fire with the Colby Shock. Haas gives Titus the Olympic Slam…and Whitmer has to save him at 2. Corino tries to run in and waffle both Whitmer and Haas with a title belt and fails miserably. But as Haas and BJ battle to grab the belt for themselves, Charlie doesn’t see Titus sneak in. TITUS ELIMINATES HAAS AT 14:29! Exactly the same way he beat him for the belts at Best In The World! Benjamin gives Whitmer Paydirt and superkicks Jimmy Jacobs on the way out. Haas is pissed, and blasts Titus with a chair. He falls into the BACK DROP DRIVER! Corino wins it at 15:08
Rating - *** - I know quite a few people didn’t like this, but this was comfortably my favourite WGTT match in all of 2012 thus far. A lot of the guys in this match have obvious deficiencies. Benjamin is lazy, Haas and Corino are older guys who work at a slower pace, Titus is constantly working injured, Jacobs is a smaller guy whilst Whitmer is a decent worker but one who tends to lack personality. With all six of them in the ring at once they worked together remarkably well at covering each of those shortcomings. The feud between WGTT and Rhett was emphasised without taking away from the Tag Titles. Corino and Jacobs got to look like asshole champions without making their challengers look like chumps and you know what, the wrestling was really good. I loved the heat segment on Titus. I loved Jimmy Jacobs constantly winding up BJ Whitmer as a tip of the cap for the long time ROH fans. I wasn’t crazy about the finish but I suppose it made sense in the grand scheme of things. Like I said, I know lots of people didn’t like this as much – but to make my point this one got much bigger reactions from the crowd than anything else in the show so far.
Corino argues with the Lethal family again on the way out, with Lethal’s mother throwing water over him in the process. Again – that will be significant later.
Kyle O’Reilly vs Roderick Strong
These two certainly aren’t strangers to one another, but with the change in personal circumstances since the last time they met this one becomes very interesting. It’s the first time O’Reilly has fought Strong since stepping away from the Team Richards environment. He now fights on his own and a seasoned Ring Of Honor competitor like Roddy is a big test for the youngster. Strong, meanwhile, is having issues of his own with the House Of Truth. He’s still deeply unhappy that Elgin is challenging for the World Championship on ippv next week, and will want to make a point by delivering a big win over a talented up and comer like O’Reilly.
QT Marshall is on commentary calling Bobby Fish ‘Bobby Cruise’ and calling his loss a criminal offence. It’s quite funny but hugely distracting from a competitive opening sequence between the two athletes in the ring. First knockdown goes to Strong with a jumping heel kick, with the former World Champion seizing his chance and capitalising to land a flurry of chops and a backbreaker. Stranglehold camel clutch applied next as Kyle continues to take a beating. His chest is already turning a nasty colour, so it’s to his credit he finds away to return fire and score with a flurry of kicks and strikes to take Roddy of his feet for the first time. He misses a big boot in the corner, allowing Strong to drag him out into a CRADLE BACKBREAKER! That was delivered with real force and takes both men off their feet for a sometime. Roderick eventually follows up with a slingshot JACKHAMMER for 2! It doesn’t do enough damage though and O’Reilly knocks him out of the ring for the MISSILE DROPKICK OFF THE APRON! He returns to the ring with a tornado DDT for 2. Guillotine Choke COUNTERED to the Stronghold…which is immediately countered to a roll-up for 2! Regalplex blocked by a weary Strong, who goes deep into his reserves to land Death By Roderick! Gibson Driver blocked with a Roaring Elbow into the Regalplex for 2! O’Reilly goes for a cross armbreaker but himself is so beaten up he can’t lock onto it. ORANGE CRUSH BACKBREAKER! Strong wins at 10:16
Rating - *** - I was disappointed in how short this was as these two are always fun in the ring together. The hard-hitting physicality of Roderick meshes just as well with the MMA-influenced style of O’Reilly as it did with Davey Richards before him and they make for great opponents. Even in what was basically a ten-minute spotfest everything they did was still top quality. QT Marshall showed real charisma and humour on commentary with Kevin Kelly…but that was totally distracting and took away from the match as they barely talked about what was going on in front of them. ROH need to find a way of getting QT into (appropriate) situations where he can show more of that personality though.
Mike Mondo vs Davey Richards
It’s a real credit to how hard Mondo has worked in 2012 that this feels like one of the biggest matches on the show. No way did I think I’d ever be typing that about him at the start of the year. He took Davey to a time-limit draw earlier in the year at The Nightmare Begins. People called it a bit of a surprise result at the time, and really gave Mondo credit for a strong performance. But at the end of it he declined another five minutes, and in Davey’s hiatus from ROH has been proudly declaring that the American Wolf couldn’t beat him. Tonight Richards, with a renewed focus on competition in ROH, is here to silence his critics and Mondo’s bragging with a definitive victory. There’s no time limit for this one either…meaning one way or another we will see a winner.
No surprise that Jim Cornette wants to do commentary for this one. Davey goes straight into action, flooring Mondo on the floor with a succession of vicious kicks. He takes a hat from a kid at ringside, puts it on Mondo’s head…THEN BOOTS MONDO INTO THE KIDS LAP! But he allows No Fear a little too much recovery time after that, giving Mondo a window of opportunity to score with a knee strike then a neckbreaker out of the ropes for 2. He stays on the neck with a bulldog, and when Davey retreats to the floor he wastes no time in flying out after him with a CORKSCREW PESCADO! They fight on the apron next, and that’s a chance for Davey to strike – dropping Mondo on his shoulder with an armwrench into the side of the ring. ELEVATED KIMURA…INTO THE FALCON ARROW ARMBREAKER! Stunning submission sequence doing real damage to Mondo’s arm there. DIVING HEADBUTT TO THE SHOULDER! He’s right back to the armbreaker to keep doing more damage. The arm is actually bleeding such is the ferocity of the assault Richards is throwing at it. Mondo keeps Davey at bay with a spinebuster but collapses to the mat right alongside the American Wolf in pain as a result of it! He misses a diving knee strike off the top once, but FLATTENS Richards with a football tackle (with the good arm) then lands a stomp from the second for 2! Double Arm DDT attempted, but of course his arm is too damaged to pull it out. Kawada kicks from Richards…countered to short range knees from Mondo! Davey blasts him with a standing double stomp before both guys collapse in a sweaty heap once more. Richards is up first with Machine Gun Kicks, before taking Mondo all the way to the top…SUPERPLEX ROLLED INTO A BRAINBUSTER! STILL 2! Buzzsaw kick…into the cross armbreaker again! COUNTERED TO THE ANKLELOCK BY MONDO! DAVEY PUTS MONDO IN THE ANKLELOCK! ALARM CLOCK COUNTERED TO THE ANKLELOCK! Mondo grapevines the leg to minimise the amount of work his bad arm is doing, but even then Davey finds a way to counter – into the Cloverleaf! REPEATED STOMPS TO THE BAD ARM! HAMMERLOCK CLOVERLEAF! Mondo finally taps at 14:50 – but what a match.
Rating - **** - I f*cking loved that. Over the last year or so it’s been cool to trash Davey Richards on the internet. That’s not something I’ve ever done for his in-ring stuff, and it’s so good to have him back in ROH and seemingly focused on ignoring some of that internet hatred and getting back to putting on some incredible wrestling matches. I thought this one was awesome. Richards was in top form, breaking out some absolutely spectacular strike and submission sequences which were an absolute joy to watch. And the benefit of having him on offence for so much of the match was that it meant Mondo was the guy with the injury – hence he could sell it like a trooper (which has always been Davey’s big weakness). Mondo put Davey over huge here, but looked very good himself. The way he started using Davey’s own finisher against him at the end, in one last desperate bid to maintain his unbeaten record against the American Wolf was absolute genius. A real showstealer, and given that Mondo wound up breaking his ankle at the Glory By Honor ppv the following week, this was a really impressive way for him to finish off his 2012. I, along with many others, absolutely hated him. I’m still not his biggest fan. But when put in matches with ROH’s top guys he really produces the goods. This match here, and his brutal war with Roderick Strong at Boiling Point are two of my favourite undercard matches in 2012.
Davey cuts an emotional promo about the history of ROH, and saying Sinclair money shouldn’t mean they have to devalue the product. He also points out that Mondo has taken a lot of criticism all year but through hard work and great matches has proven that he belongs here.
Eddie Edwards/Adam Cole vs Jay Briscoe/Mark Briscoe
I’m not quite sure this qualifies as the ‘dream tag match’ it is being billed as, but it should be a great match nonetheless. We haven’t seen much of the Briscoes in a straight-up tag team wrestling environment in 2012. They started the year as Tag Champions and had a strong encounter with Team Ambition at Rise & Prove, but the amount of brawls and street fights they’ve had with the likes of WGTT and SCUM mean they’ve really not been that prolific in producing the high quality, 4*+ tag team wrestling encounters that they are known for. It’s a similar story for Cole and Edwards. They scored a huge win over Team Ambition in the main event of the 10th Anniversary Show but haven’t been together too much since. Indeed, they even face each other for the TV Title on pay-per-view next week. But they are still friends and, like the Briscoes, would love a chance to challenge Corino and Jacobs for the Tag Titles.
‘There’s only one person that gets to see Maria’s goodies, and that’s me’ – Bennett on commentary, as everyone watching the DVD Googles Maria’s Playboy shoot to prove him wrong. Eddie starts with Mark and it’s surprisingly ground-based much to the surprise of the two commentators. Cole tags in with Jay and comes in hot, dropkicking his leg from under him then landing a Shining Wizard for 2. Back to Mark and Eddie and this time it’s much more strike-based…with Mark’s Redneck Kung Fu getting the better of Edwards at that particular juncture. Luckily Cole is ready to come to his aid – lifting Jay to the top rope for Edwards to fire off a climbing enzi. DOUBLE TREE OF WOE DROPKICK from Cole and Edwards! Mark floors the TV Champion with a springboard dropkick to even things up. Vintage Briscoes seconds later as they hit the flying leg drop/sidewalk slam combo for 2. And the 7-time former Tag Champions show their experience as a unit as they start to isolate Cole from his partner. It’s only when Adam tags out that the momentum shifts again – with Eddie pinning Mark in the corner for Machine Gun Chops. Doi 555 into the sliding enziguri for 2. Backpack Stunner INTO A SUPERFLY SPLASH FROM COLE! Mark hits back with an awesome cartwheeling Samoan drop and we have tags all round. Jay and Adam trade strikes…and Briscoe nearly takes his head off with a snap neckbreaker! Mark hits a split-legged corkscrew senton then heads back to the top for the Froggy Bow seconds later. Edwards has to break the fall to save the match there. EDDIE BACK DROPS COLE INTO AN APRON DDT ON MARK! Cradlebreaker on Jay gets 2! Cole applies the Figure 4…as Eddie puts Mark in the Achilles Lock! MARK WITH REDNECK KUNG FU EVEN IN THE ACHILLES LOCK! Urinage on Eddie, followed by the Iconoclasm on Cole. DOOMSDAY DEVICE NAILED! Jay pins Cole to win it at 16:39. Does he get a TV Title shot now?
Rating - *** - Maybe a little disappointing, but that’s probably due to high expectations on my part. Certainly some of the work here was of a really high quality and all four wrestlers are good enough that this never felt boring. I think they were unlucky to come after Richards/Mondo which really burnt out the crowd though. Certainly the complete silence they had to wrestle 90% of this match in really didn’t help. Both teams looked really rusty in this environment too. The Briscoes are great, but have been brawling or doing TV length matches for so long that they actually looked a little out of practice in delivering main event level tag team matches – whilst Cole and Eddie lacked a little cohesion as a team, which you’d expect given how little they’ve teamed together. It was good, just maybe not the show-stopping tag bout you might have expected.
Kevin Steen vs Jay Lethal – ROH World Title Match
This is the title shot Lethal demanded from Jim Cornette, and earned by showing Killer Instinct. It isn’t his Survival Of The Fittest title shot, as I don’t think his SOTF win had even been broadcast by this point. ROH are still desperately trying to get the belt away from the increasingly dominant World Champion, and the next couple of weeks are another huge test of Mr Wrestling’s desire to remain the top guy. Tonight he faces Jay Lethal, fresh off his Survival Of The Fittest win in Lethal’s home state of New Jersey. If he survives tonight he then goes to Canada to defend against Michael Elgin (in his SOTF-earned title shot) to defend in Unbreakable’s home region of Toronto. Will he leave Rahway as a champion like his SCUM cohorts, or will Jay show the required KILLER INSTINCT to become the first (and probably only) man to complete the trilogy of ROH Pure, ROH TV and ROH World Championships.
Lethal doesn’t waste anytime, landing a huge superkick and following it up with a FLURRY of tope suicidas! The front row crowd scatter in terror as he relentlessly drives the champion into the guardrails with venomous force! Even when they return to the ring he chases Steen around the ring repeatedly delivering big shoulder tackles to the midsection. Lethal Injection BLOCKED with a brutal dropkick to the face though. APRON BOMB NAILED! Steen is still hurting, but those were some huge bombs and despite the pain he now has the challenger in trouble. He crotches Lethal into the ringpost next, despite the protests of Todd Sinclair…then he drags him across the ring to choke him in the ropes right in front of Jim Cornette (who is back on commentary). Lethal knows he needs to increase the pace, and flies off the second rope with a jumping heel kick to that effect. Handspring elbow landed too and the momentum starts to shift in his favour. Dragon Suplex blocked…Lethal Combination instead for 2! Even after missing a missile dropkick he has enough fight in him to pop right back up to land a lungblower. The Lethal family in the front row are urging him on, and are audibly stunned when Steen catches him in the pumphandle cradlebreaker. F-5 attempted but it’s too early, just as Steen appears too heavy for Jay to land the Dragon Suplex. Cannonball senton misses…LETHAL INJECTION COUNTERED WITH A SLEEPER SUPLEX! Still Lethal fights the F-5 though! Lethal Combination into the KOJI CLUTCH! Corino and Jacobs come to ringside to urge their man on as he desperately fights the hold. He makes the ropes, only to be put on the canvas again with a running DVD. REPEATED MACHO ELBOWS NAILED! THEN A TOP ROPE SUICIDE DIVE ONTO CORINO AND JACOBS ON THE FLOOR! DRAGON SUPLEX ON STEEN…FOR 2! Jay takes Steen up the ropes but takes too long setting him up and eats an AVALANCHE FISHERMAN BUSTER! STEEN-TON BOMB INTO THE KNEES! BACK FLIP LETHAL INJECTION! Steen falls out of the ring though! He crawls away from the ring…and when Lethal gives chase he starts biting him! Lethal’s mother doesn’t like that and throws her drink at him (like she did to Corino earlier)…and Steen responds by SPITTING at her. That’s pretty vile and Lethal loses it. He assaults Steen, wiping out the commentators, punching out refs and anyone else that gets in his way. We’re at 20:00 minutes so I presume that’s a no-contest. Corino and Jacobs try to pull Steen away as Cornette frantically tries to calm Lethal down. The champion tears down the entrance ramp as he leaves…
Rating - *** - It’s a shame that the angle they ran with the Lethal family came when it did, because the match really felt like it was just kicking into a higher gear. It had a really old school feel to it (which presumably Jim Cornette enjoyed). The hometown favourite was fighting the odds and a dominant champion, roared on by the audible majority of the Rahway crowd. The way he changed up his offence a little certainly gave this a ‘big match’ feel too. But after 15 minutes of that, they’d only really just got to going up through the gears before they did the non-finish angle. I like some of it. I like adding an edge to Lethal’s character. But the whole ‘worked shoot’ thing is a real risk as sometimes people just don’t buy it…and at the centre of this is Lethal who doesn’t really have the necessary charisma to pull it off. We’re supposed to feel like it’s out of control…but it never once really felt like that. I appreciate the direction they’re going in with Lethal, but compared to an example like the 1st Anniversary Show riot, this is just child’s play.
As you’d expect, the crowd aren’t happy with the non-finish. Lethal starts smashing up ringside then escorts his family out of the building. He then returns and chases Jim Cornette to the locker room (past new/former head booker Delirious who looks suitably bemused). Bobby Cruise is fed to the metaphorical wolves as he has to apologise for the language used by the likes of Lethal, Cornette and SCUM, and formally announce the result as a No Contest.
That’s where the show ends, but bonus footage backstage after the show sees Lethal continue to freak out. He throws Jim Cornette through a table, threatens Cary Silkin and Bobby Cruise then stomps off to find Kevin Steen. That’s how they wrote Cornette out of ROH by the way…which in my opinion is complete BS. After the Steen/Cornette stuff that’s been going on all year (and longer), HOW does it make sense for Lethal to take him out of ROH over Steen?
Tape Rating - *** - For a house show in front of what, to be frank, wasn’t the greatest crowd – this was actually really good. Not everything worked, but ROH were at least taking some risks and getting back to producing a hard-hitting and unpredictable pro-wrestling show. It was a vast improvement over some of the mediocre, tedious shows we’ve seen this year. The Steen/Lethal/Cornette angle wasn’t particularly to my taste, but I’m not going to completely trash it. I think it’s complete sh*t that Lethal took Cornette out of ROH instead of Steen, but I can respect what they are doing with Lethal’s character and his in-ring performances this year definitely suggest he has as much ability as anybody to step up and become a decent draw in a main event spot for the company. And further down the card I like that new talent was given a real chance to shine. 3.0 looked exciting, composed and very solid during their debut match with the Bravados. Tag wrestling has long been an ROH staple and they definitely proved themselves to be an option for the future of the division if needed. And bringing in Bobby Fish, and putting him over a contracted talent like Marshall is a really positive sign of intent for the new ‘Delirious 2.0’ era going forward. I also noticed that, up and down the card, the entire roster seemed far more out-going, hard-working and fired up than usual. On these house shows there’s always at least one match where it seems like people are phoning it in. I didn’t see any of that tonight. From the hard-hitting Elgin/Bennett opener, the surprisingly decent Tag Title match, the show-stealing Richards/Mondo clinic to the heated main event it felt that, for the first time in a while, this ROH roster was really motivated to produce a great live event.
It’s not the best show of the year. But I really think this represents a real turning point for Ring Of Honor. I’m really hoping this was the show we can point to and say ‘that’s when Sinclair realised it wasn’t working’. It’s not like ROH has been entirely atrocious this year. But they’ve been treading water, alienating hardcore fans and failing to produce a product capable of bridging the gap with the mystical ‘casual fan’ either. As a long term ROH fan, in 2012 I can turn WWE on to watch CM Punk, Bryan Danielson and Claudio Castagnoli all getting TV time. I can turn TNA on to watch Austin Aries, Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels and so on. I can watch Evolve or PWG or DGUSA to watch the likes of the Young Bucks, El Generico, the Smash Bros and others that ROH had and decided they didn’t want. That’s the reality of what ROH is competing against, and in 2012 they’ve done a half-assed job of handling that competition. Is this show, as I said, the ‘turning point’? Personally I’d say you need to own it just in case!!
Top 3 Matches
3) Michael Elgin vs Mike Bennett (***)
2) Kevin Steen vs Jay Lethal (***)
1) Davey Richards vs Mike Mondo (****)