ROH 380 – Road To Best In The World 2015: Amarillo – 29th May 2015
It’s not unfair of me to say that the 2015 ROH/NJPW US tour was only a moderate success. There were some outstanding stand-alone matches, and the general quality of wrestling was certainly higher than on many ROH shows (including this DVD I imagine)…but I’m not sure they reached much more than a par score. Did any Ring Of Honor talent really stand up as a break-out star? Did any show really jump out as a ‘Show Of The Year’ candidate? If you are honest, the answer to both of those questions is a resounding 'no'. After four solid shows, Ring Of Honor themselves haven’t progressed much at all, and they now only have a run of house shows (forming the ‘Road To Best In The World Tour’) with which to promote their biggest show of the year. A cursory search of prominent ROH review contributors will tell you that none of the Road To BITW tour shows have particularly strong write-ups. The fact that this show has an astonishing FIVE enhancement talents on the card – and that is before you get to the likes of Romantic Touch, Will Ferrara and Caprice Coleman – is extremely troubling too. The roster is stripped to the very barest of bones tonight – and Delirious will be relying heavily on his triple-whammy main events of Elgin/ACH, War Machine/Kingdom and Cole/Strong to carry this debut show in a new market. Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino are in Amarillo, TX.
Americos vs BJ Whitmer
The new guy is an American luchador, in American-coloured gear and mask. He’s not particularly tall, but I look forward to hearing from Kevin Kelly all about how wonderfully he did at one of the ‘buy your spot on an ROH show’ camps. He has the unfortunate task of squaring off with the surly BJ Whitmer, who has no problem making it known that he has no time for newbies…
Apparently it’s Steve Corino’s birthday, but even with that consideration ROH haven’t brought Colby Corino to the show tonight meaning BJ is on his own. Kelly is talking about things that haven’t aired on TV yet which really irritates me. Whitmer isn’t taking this seriously at all and spends all his time taunting and disrespecting his debuting opponent. When he does at last get serious it is even more unpleasant – smashing the masked man’s face against the canvas then back suplexing him into the guardrails. Americos’ back and neck take a real beating…and to be fair the Texas crowd do actually get behind the underdog. Wrist Clutch Exploder cements a comprehensive win for BJ at 06:10
Rating - * - A generous 1* for this, because it really had no business making the air on a Ring Of Honor DVD. This was exceptionally basic, and would have looked at home in the very early days of Ring Of Honor real low budget guys were used to pad out the card so RF Video could afford to bring in the likes of Ki, Daniels, Danielson, Williams, Joe and more. Americos wasn’t unlikeable at all – and I even got the vibe that he might even catch on in a PWG-type environment. But corporate Ring Of Honor doesn’t work like that. He was here to take his licks, get in only the most basic of offence then be put away. Whitmer is consistently one of the most over heels on the roster now, but the problem is that it isn’t the kind of heat where people want to see him wrestle.
Will Ferrara vs Silas Young vs Mark Briscoe vs Jay Lethal
Firstly I’d argue that Americos should have been cut and these guys should have opened the show. Secondly I’d argue that, on a card with such a thin talent roster, this is a colossal waste of Jay Lethal (and Silas Young for that matter). ‘Road To Best In The World’ is completely apt for Lethal, who is preparing for the biggest match of his ROH career as he prepares to face Jay Briscoe in the ‘Battle Of The Belts’. He’ll know that defeating the World Champion’s little brother just weeks away from the ppv would be a major statement of intent.
Kelly and Corino have already mentioned the Funk family about eight million times on commentary. It isn’t at all annoying. In the ring Ferrara starts with Briscoe and impresses by actually manage to carry the fight to the ROH veteran on the mat. Mark is aggressive in response, in the process knocks head with the rookie and splits his eyebrow open. Lethal makes fun of Will…and leaves himself open to be kicked right in the face! Briscoe and Lethal come to blows after Jay makes some pointed remarks about Mark’s brother, and as they brawl to the floor little Willy prepares to take advantage with a top rope suicide dive to the floor! Back in the ring Ferrara hits a flying headscissors on Lethal which in turn propels HIM into a spear on Young. Code Red on Lethal! Killer Combo by Silas! All four men are slumped on the deck after that exchange. Ferrara pops up and nearly steals the win with his tornado DDT on Mark. Urinage nailed in response! Mark wins with a fisherman buster on Will at 09:13
Rating - ** - I had a lot of fun watching this one. It was a supreme waste of the talent involved considering how underwhelming the rest of the card is, but all four played their part in making this a consistently solid and entertaining affair. Ferrara was incorporated into the match well and cleverly walked a fine line between still being the ‘rookie’ but also demonstrating growth and improvement in his work. Lethal was magnetic in every exchange he had with Mark Briscoe, and my biggest criticism was that I felt like he should have won here, rather than Mark. Ultimately this was a pointless filler match – but there are WAY worse pointless filler matches out there.
Romantic Touch vs Dalton Castle
Dalton’s emergence on the roster has actually given Romantic Touch a little relevance again, since fans immediately started asking to see these two in the ring together. We’ve not seen as much of RT recently, and he hasn’t been missed. Rhett’s wrestling has been very average for a long time and this gimmick ran its course a while ago too. What intrigues the fans here is finding out which of these ‘unique’ characters on the ROH roster is the better wrestler…and in matches with the likes of Jay Lethal, Jushin Liger and Donovan Dijak Castle has already proved himself to be a formidable competitor.
Castle’s reaction to Touch kissing his hand during the Code Of Honor is legitimately one of the highlights of the entire Romantic Touch run. RT has to escape the Everest German early, lining up a number of awkward homo-erotic exchanges. Dalton isn’t anywhere near as uncomfortable as most of Touch’s opponents…to the extent that that they even end up grinding together in the middle of the ring. The Boys on the floor aren’t exempt from Romantic’s advances much to Castle’s fury. Whenever they do actually wrestle the Party Peacock is clearly superior, as shown when he grounds RT and violently starts headbutting his neck and skull. Touch retaliates with the Snugglemonkey flip for 2 but remains consistently on the back foot in wrestling exchanges with his opponent. Apron 619 into the rana on the floor scores, before the Bang-A-Rang gets a nearfall. The Boys dive into the ring to fan Dalton…so RT decides to hit on them. That’s a distraction which Castle benefits from. He lands the Everest German to score his first major singles victory in ROH at 12:56
Rating - ** - I appreciated that Delirious gave these two plenty of time to express themselves. The truly odd interactions between Touch and Castle will probably end up being among the more memorable aspects of the entire show. The problem with this was that the match fell flat due to two critical shortcomings. Firstly the crowd were totally flat and didn’t ‘get it’ at all. I mean no disrespect to anyone in attendance, but watching two guys work like this in front of a deathly silent crowd (save a few annoying kids) was really uncomfortable. Secondly, Rhett Titus just isn’t very good. Any time he had to actually wrestle with Dalton he was made to look extremely foolish – and only part of that was by design.
Jay Briscoe vs Caprice Coleman
Whilst Lethal started his preparations for Best In The World in a cluttered four-man match earlier, the World Champion has the different proposition of charismatic veteran Caprice Coleman to contend with. This should be a straightforward victory for a man who hasn’t lost an ROH match in years, but Caprice is no mug. He has been around independent wrestling for a long time, he is far more athletic than Jay and will have plenty of clever tricks up his sleeve. The belt isn’t on the line here, but how much would Coleman’s career skyrocket if he could produce a massive upset?
Caprice has one of the best entrance themes in ROH. It’s almost a shame that he’s so superfluous as an actual performer. Credit where it is due, Kelly and Corino do a great job setting up this match with their commentary and really make you feel like you are watching far more significant than midcard filler. Coleman starts competently, but finally lands on his head missing a leg lariat in the corner…then gets planted straight on his neck again with a Saito suplex. Caprice goes big – hitting the inside-to-out springboard moonsault to the floor despite apparently suffering the ill-effects of some nasty blows to his neck. CC really dials up the intensity and punishes Jay’s midsection, but goes for the Sky Splitter way too early and gets his head snapped back again with a mid-air superkick. Briscoe looks to target the neck again with a superplex only to be tellingly prevented by some well-placed shots to the ribs. Missile dropkick nailed by Caprice – right into the increasingly injured chest! Mind Trip nailed for 2! Briscoe blocks the Trinity with elbows to the neck, and punishes it further with the Rude Awakening moments later. RUDE AWAKENING AGAIN! He tries a third but a desperate Coleman wriggles free and throws all kinds of pinning combinations his way. DEATH VALLEY DRIVER! ONE COUNT OF DISRESPECT! Coleman fights off the Jay Driller and punishes the ribs again with the Trinity! COUNTERED BACK TO THE JAY DRILLER! Briscoe wins at 14:37
Rating - *** - On an extremely low key house show like this there is a real chance these two could steal the show with this effort. It was a classic ‘if I gave half stars this would have one’ situation, as I didn’t feel it quite warranted 4* - and indeed I found the whole set-up of suddenly having to believe Caprice as a credible opponent for Jay considering he’s been nothing but a jobber for the last twelve months quite ludicrous. But once you get past that, this was an extremely sound encounter which told a great story and really got the crowd involved without taking excessive risks (particularly with Jay so close to Best In The World). Caprice made for an exceptionally sympathetic character in the final moments as the World Champion went all out to destroy his neck and end his plucky performance in a hurry.
Andy Dalton/Ken Phoenix vs Keith Lee/Shane Taylor
The Dalton/Phoenix team have appeared on ROH television before – getting destroyed by War Machine. They are called the ‘Dirty Outlaws’…because one is nicknamed ‘Dirty’ and one is nicknamed ‘The Outlaw’. Phoenix actually gets some promo time (and isn’t appalling), demanding stiff competition and a chance to make amends for that dismal showing. Their opponents are huge. Like, independent scene Men On A Mission massive. A combined weight of more than 800lbs massive.
Lee and Taylor are monsters. Taylor is shorter and fatter, but Lee is just a giant of a man. The start is just as emphatic as the ‘Outlaws’ match with War Machine…as Taylor violently punches Phoenix’s lights out then hauls him up for a DOUBLE chokeslam. CORKSCREW PESCADO BY LEE! Ken Phoenix continues to escape the majority of the punishment just as he did against War Machine. Taylor is stiff as hell with Phoenix after he is forcibly tagged in. Watching Dalton try to work front facelocks against such a behemoth has me chuckling away too. Phoenix hits a lungblower combo on Lee, into a flatliner which effectively amounts to his first offensive manoeuvres in his ROH career. POP-UP LIGERBOMB BY LEE! WARRIOR SPLASH BY TAYLOR! They win at 05:36
Rating - N/A - I’m not ashamed to say that I really liked this! Phoenix and Dalton had some Bravado Brother-esque charm as dorky heels who don’t realise what goofs they are, and the Lee/Taylor duo were solid as a giant monster team. Taylor looked somewhat indy-riffic, but Lee has an awesome look – somewhere between Samoa Joe and Moose in terms of stature. I’d be interested in seeing him brought back. In an era where the likes of Beer City Bruiser, Cheeseburger, Bob Evans and QT Marshall still get bookings he has to be worth another shot.
Michael Elgin vs ACH
These guys had a stellar match at a 2014 house show (the name of which completely escapes me) so I really hope they can recapture that magic. Best In The World 2015 is a big night for Unbreakable – as he is booked in a triple threat #1 contendership match for the World Championship (with Roderick Strong and Moose). He is desperate to regain his World Title, and knows big wins against high ranking competitors like ACH will give him all kinds of momentum as he prepares for that huge bout.
ACH is from Texas, and gets the biggest pop of the night (even over Jay Briscoe). His approach is obvious, beginning the match at a quick pace and dodging the heavyweight offence of his opponent at all costs. He then sprints all the way around the ring into a flagpole flying headscissors off the ringpost! Fatality countered into a sidewalk slam by Elgin though, and in one move he reverses almost five minutes of sustained ACH offence. Kevin Kelly reveals that New Japan officials were impressed with Elgin during the War Of The Worlds/Global Wars tour and he is now on the cusp of getting his dream of dates with that company. He’s also on the cusp of knocking ACH out and obliterates him with a double knee smash in the corner for 2. ACH escapes Elgin’s clutches and sensibly stays out of them too as he peppers the Canadian with kicks. RUNNING MOONSAULT TO THE FLOOR! Fatality gets 2! The poor kid completely gasses himself delivering never-ending running elbow strikes in the corner, and Elgin simply absorbs them all before DVD-ing him straight into the bottom turnbuckle. HALF NELSON SUPLEX gets 2 for Elgin. ACH ducks a ripcord elbow into the HERO’S GRIP for 2! TOP ROPE FLYING DOUBLE STOMP TO THE FLOOR NAILED! 450 Splash misses…so ACH delivers a Sayama flip kick instead! Super rana COUNTERED TO AN AWESOMEBOMB! FOR 2! Elgin is frustrated now and starts threatening to use the bell to his advantage – and that temper tantrum nearly costs him the match! ACH tries to bounce out of the corner, but botches his attempt at a backwards hurricanrana. Luckily Elgin is so powerful he rescues the spot by muscling ACH into a huge powerbomb. ELGIN BOMB secures the win at 16:36
Rating - **** - I recall their 2014 match being better, but on a low key house show this was a stellar little match. The messed up spot at the end took a little of the gloss off of the match (what they were attempting to execute would have been awesome) but shouldn’t necessarily dampen your enjoyment of the preceding 16+ minutes of top notch wrestling. Elgin has gradually rebuilt his career as the surly asskicker, and he contrasted wonderfully with ACH both in terms of style and personality. That juxtaposition is what made the whole match tick. The crowd-pleasing, vocal and confident ACH zipped around the ring, whereas Elgin stayed silent, violent and ultimately deadly as he decimated ACH with a few massive powerbombs in the climactic moments. They seemed to be taping this one to be aired after the Destination America debut – and this is exactly the kind of action Ring Of Honor should be spotlighting with their new higher profile TV deal.
Michael Bennett/Matt Taven vs War Machine
The Kingdom is back at full strength, with Adam Cole back from injury and competing in the main event of the evening. Bennett and Taven will be hoping his return doesn’t detract from what has been a remarkable year thus far for them. One of their few high profile losses was a surprise defeat to Hanson and Tommaso Ciampa back during the Winter Warriors Tour – so this presents not only an opportunity to cement their status as a top contender to the ROH Tag Titles, but also to avenge a loss earler in 2015. War Machine, like their former mentor Michael Elgin, could have New Japan dates on their mind – and will move far closer to cementing a spot like that if they can defeat the reigning IWGP Tag Champions.
Maria Kanellis is so surprised at ROH fans cheering for The Kingdom that she can’t help but to join in. War Machine have to stand and watch (they don’t have the personalities to upstage Maria and Mike) as all three Kingdom members goof off before the bell. There is a fun change right away – as Bennett and Taven’s usual Rock Paper Scissors game to determine who starts becomes a battle for who gets to escape starting with Ray Rowe. An early attempt at hitting Fallout is blocked and The Kingdom quickly resort to choking, clipping knees and general cheating to control Rowe. Twist Of Fate/Swanton Bomb combo gets an early nearfall! That’s before Bennett prepares the Spear…and instead gets full on punched in the mouth. Cement Mixer on Taven! War Machine set up for Fallout again, only for Bennett to stop it by hitting Rowe in the stomach with a golden bowling pin (yes, you read that correctly). The Kingdom are DQ’d at 06:21.
Rating - DUD - What the hell was this? Romantic Touch’s match gets thirteen minutes, Caprice Coleman gets to look competitive against the World Champion and Ken Phoenix gets promo time…but they can’t find more than six and a half minutes for this, one of the few fresh and interesting matches on the entire card? Promoting this match then giving it six minutes before an incredibly lazy DQ finish is ridiculously negligent. The defence that The Kingdom have IWGP belts at the moment so need to be protected holds no weight with me either. If they can’t job and you don’t want War Machine to put them over then why the f*ck are they being booked to wrestle? This isn’t New Japan playing politics, this is someone within Ring Of Honor sucking at their job. Hell, even having booked themselves into a hole through their own stupidity, if Taven and Bennett had to go over why not do the same DQ finish – but actually have a decent match first? This show is less than two hours and fifteen minutes. They had enough time to do a 20-minute time-limit draw and even that would have been preferable. I get angry with Ring Of Honor a lot these days – and screwing their audience out of this match has gotten me annoyed all over again. The monumental stupidity of this finish has let me with a bitter taste in my mouth and I’ll come away from this show considering this match one of the biggest disappointments of the entire year.
Adam Cole vs Roderick Strong
Cole hasn’t taken it easy at all since surprising everyone by returning from injury early at War Of The Worlds. He fought in one of the best matches of 2015 against AJ Styles, then reunited with The Kingdom the following night to score a memorable victory over the Bullet Club. He is a former World Champion, apparently over the injury problems which dogged him in 2014, now primed and ready to return to the hunt for the top prize in the company. Ahead of him in the pecking order right now is another former World Champion – in the form of Roderick Strong. Strong is in a #1 contenders three-way at Best In The World, so is clearly considered one of the top competitors in the company and someone Cole needs to beat if he wants to jump the queue to get his belt back. These guys had an extremely disappointing series of matches back in 2013 which are only remotely memorable because they got the ball rolling on Cole’s slow-burn heel turn – morphing him into the character fans enjoy watching perform now.
Strong is an old pro and makes a grab at Cole’s recently-healed shoulder in the first thirty seconds. Adam blocks that but is really struggling and has to leave the ring after Strong hits the Olympic Slam. That was a sensible move as the excited Mr ROH dives out after him straight into a superkick. Back in the ring Cole connects with an enziguri followed by the Shining Wizard and presumably leaves Strong seeing stars. Roddy recognises the need to get some distance and tosses his rival out of the ring where he can line up a diving boot through the ropes. Bennett, Taven and Maria run in…forcing a DQ and ruining what was progressing into a promising match at 06:33
Rating - DUD - I somewhat begrudgingly understand why Delirious aborted this one. I am of the opinion, given the current state of ROH, a Strong/Cole singles match could headline a ppv if promoted right – and is almost certainly bigger than headlining tiny B-shows now. BUT, aborting a scheduled main event for the second in consecutive matches SUCKS. Kingdom/War Machine and Cole/Strong were the clear, outstanding matches on this show. To trash both of them with asinine run-in finishes which wouldn’t look out of place on a Russo-era episode of Nitro is entirely unacceptable and another clear example of why whomever pulls the strings within Ring Of Honor’s creative is hopelessly out of touch. My head sunk into my hands as I saw Bennett and Taven appear. Unless the inevitable 6-man we are about to see is an undeniable MOTYC this show just got completely screwed.
Adam Cole/Michael Bennett/Matt Taven vs Roderick Strong/War Machine
I am completely torn here. As a wrestling fan I really want to see these guys have a great match, and given the talent they all possess that is certainly possible. But on the other hand, the only way Delirious (or whomever is making these astonishingly awful creative decisions that have persistently dogged the ROH product) will do better is if the awesome talent he has at his disposal stops digging him out of holes. If this match sucked ass, if the crowd (which whilst small, represents a new market in a Sinclair broadcast area) turns on it maybe Delirious might actually rethink his approach.
Apparently Todd Sinclair has the power to book whatever he wants when Nigel McGuinness isn’t here. He orders an impromptu 6-man which begins with every athlete beating each other senseless outside the ring. The Kingdom take all kinds of spills into the railings and onto the solid floor – which Maria passes off on commentary as her charges simply ‘catching their breath’. Rowe is starting to develop a Taz-like precision and punch in the delivery of his suplexes (which, to be clear, I consider a major compliment). He makes a point of throwing Cole directly down onto the bad shoulder with one, allowing his trio to isolate the former World Champion. Maria arrives on the apron to help him out and distracts the ref whilst Bennett and Taven crotch Hanson against the ringpost. Hanson’s response is to sit on Bennett’s chest and crush the wind out of his body. Taven blocks Death By Roderick, so Strong switches into the Muso instead with minimal effort. Mr ROH’s efforts to turn his moves on Cole backfores though as he escapes having easily countered a couple of Roddy’s core manoeuvres. Taven’s Climax is blocked into a POP-UP DEATH BY RODERICK! Shotgun knees from Rowe to Taven! Bennett storms in with a spinebuster for 2, but then gets scooped up with Hanson’s anti-clockwise spin slam. CARTWHEEL DUEL between Taven and Hanson! TRIPLE BRONCO BUSTER ON THE KINGDOM! Maria is in the ring looking to protect her husband…and as a result Hanson doesn’t see a double superkick from Cole and Taven coming! Hail Mary blocked with a superplex by Strong! SUICIDE DIVE by Taven! Kingdom win with a Hail Mary/frog splash combo on Hanson at 16:12
Rating - *** - Quite predictably, this was a fun main event. As I mentioned during the introduction, there was so much talent in play here that they could probably work a decent match in their sleep. What this didn’t do, however, is make me feel like the decision to run lousy DQ finishes on the two marquee matches on the show was correct (or even justifiable). ROH ran a number of superb multi-man tags during the ROH/NJPW tour recently. This didn’t come close to those, and was a safe, solid and rather unexciting way to end a Ring Of Honor show.
Tape Rating - * - This is legitimately one of my least favourite Ring Of Honor shows in thirteen years reviewing the promotion. Most frustratingly of all, it’s not even because all of it is that bad – rather it is because of how insipid and dour the product has become under the current creative direction. The big draws on this show were a fresh hot match in the tag division (War Machine/Kingdom) and a clash of two high profile former World Champions. I understand that this was a B-show, but reneging on the promise to deliver those, pissing fans off with two of the laziest run-in finishes you’ll ever see and replacing it with a middle-of-the-road 6-man tag main event was a shockingly poor decision. Elgin/ACH was good, Briscoe/Caprice was much better than it had any right to be at all and I found myself really entertained by the enhancement talent match after intermission too. I’m being more positive about Ring Of Honor (and wrestling in general) right now but I can’t mislead anyone reading this review and I'm certainly not here to polish a turd. This is a candidate to be one of the worst ROH shows EVER. It has so very little going for it, is barely two hours long, has a line-up full of enhancement talents, screws you out of the top two matches on the card and even its best match (Elgin/ACH) has been done better elsewhere. I don’t come away actively angry at wrestling shows very often – but this one has really cheesed me off. Avoid it.
Top 3 Matches
3) Adam Cole/Michael Bennett/Matt Taven vs Roderick Strong/War Machine (***)
2) Jay Briscoe vs Caprice Coleman (***)
1) Michael Elgin vs ACH (****)