ROH 382 – Road To Best In The World 2015: Collinsville – 5th June 2015
I had the best of intentions when I said I wanted to be more positive about Ring Of Honor in 2015 and stop getting bogged down and frustrated by the numerous little issues which, in my opinion, were really starting to suck the enjoyment out of the product. However, ROH have made that extremely difficult with the triple whammy of a two dire shows on the ‘Road To Best In The World Tour’ last weekend followed by the utterly diabolical botch of their debut on Destination America. We are now just two weeks away from Best In The World 2015 and the culmination of the only actual storyline Delirious has booked well so far this year (Lethal vs Briscoe)…so to watch the company sink further into vapid mismanagement at such a crucial stage is a real disappointment. Perhaps this weekend (with a roster beefed up by the likes of Matt Sydal, The Addiction, Moose, Adam Page and Delirious himself) is the point where we really get pumped for the big pay-per-view. A rather odd main event puts Jay Briscoe in the ring with the three men vying to become #1 contender to him at BITW ’15 – but in a tag team match, meaning he teams with Roderick Strong to face Moose and Michael Elgin. Another high profile tag bout pits The Addiction against Matt Sydal and Delirious, and the rest of the undercard is at least fleshed out with intriguing singles matches like Mike Bennett versus Dalton Castle and Jay Lethal squaring off with War Machine’s Ray Rowe. Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino are in Collinsville, IL.
Adam Page vs Mark Briscoe
Despite the fact that the Briscoe brothers have been on the roster even longer than Whitmer, The Decade have never really seen eye-to-eye with either Jay or Mark. Particularly in 2014 we saw Mark Briscoe participate in a number of matches in opposition to The Decade. Page, now a full member of the group, is looking to climb the ranks in Ring Of Honor and has plenty of momentum following a big victory over ACH during the Conquest Tour. He has complained long and hard that ACH gets lots of high profile matches instead of him. And whilst opening a B-show with Mark Briscoe isn’t exactly top billing, he’ll know a win over an established veteran immediately boosts his stock in the company…
Apparently Mark’s wife is due to go into labour at any moment, which presumably distracts him and is why Page scores the first takedown then poses making fun of Redneck Kung Fu. Briscoe’s experience comes to the fore though and pretty soon he is suplexing Adam around the ring with ease. I like that Mark has toned down his silliness and is instead concentrating on being extremely rugged with his opponent. He is dominant until BJ Whitmer distracts him from the floor – allowing Page to hit the SHOOTING STAR PRESS from the apron! Whitmer relishes the opportunity to lay in some cheap shots behind the referee’s back too of course. Pumphandle cradle suplex nailed by Page…only for Mark to come up and throw a dropkick through the ropes at BJ! Slingshot somersault lariat takes Briscoe down again. Rite Of Passage countered to the urinage! Froggy Bow ensures Briscoe leaves victorious at 09:55
Rating - ** - Although it was a little sloppy, I quite liked the vibe of this one. It didn’t feel silly or predictable like most Mark Briscoe matches and had a gruff toughness to it which made it feel like a genuine scrap. Briscoe toned down his shenanigans to add levity to Page as a legitimate threat, whilst Adam contested the match like it was a big deal and didn’t look out of place when out-working a Ring Of Honor legend. Truthfully I thought it was complete madness to book Mark to go over here, and instantly kills the buzz Page had from his hot win over ACH though. We already have one Briscoe brother tearing through the roster not jobbing to anybody – do we really need the other one perpetually winning matches where he would be better suited to using his popularity to elevate deserving talent?
Silas Young vs Cheeseburger
Insert my usual ‘I hate Cheeseburger’ rant here, because I really don’t want to watch him wrestle but am bored of recycling the exact same few comments about him on every review. At least he is working one of my favourites in Silas. It should be fun watching the Last Real Man rough up a little runt.
Cheeseburger is really over in Collinsville, which sucks since they are enabling ROH to keep booking him. Quite rightly he looks to stay out of Silas’ clutches then tries to out-wit him with some of his tricks. Young, of course, manages to catch him in the end and counters an attempted headscissors into a massive backbreaker/Killer Combo variant. He spends the next couple of minutes amusingly decimating Burger, using methods such as whacking him about the ears with clubbing punches and a straight-up running boot to the head. This has gone on far too long and doesn’t show signs of stopping as Cheese springs to the top rope then takes flight into a crossbody block. Steve Corino’s burger puns are better than the wrestling if you’re interested. Misery blocked…into the Shotei by Cheesey. Killer Combo blocked…Misery nailed! Young wins at 08:07
Rating - * - I was going to DUD this, but I actually had fun watching them trade finishing moves and counter strikes in the last minute or so. This was far too long for what it was, and as far as I’m concerned the sooner Cheeseburger’s popularity dies away so we can cull him from the roster like Grizzly Redwood, Pelle Primeau and other fun but hopelessly undersized and ultimately pointless wrestling school graduates, the better. Young is awesome but another talent who is totally wasted by Ring Of Honor’s complete failure to show any interest in their undercards.
Michael Bennett vs Dalton Castle
Such is the intrigue and mystery surrounding Dalton that almost every singles match he works right now stands out on a card and makes you take notice. Here the flamboyant Party Peacock battles the charismatic and brash Mike Bennett. And of equal interest will be those that accompany the competitors to the ring – with Maria Kanellis in Bennett’s corner and ‘The Boys’ in Castle’s. Two big personalities are about to collide…
Dalton has different Boys with him tonight…and gets jumped during his entrance by an unsporting Mike Bennett. Maria gets involved to trip Dalton, prompting The Boys to trip Bennett in return. Castle’s act isn’t at all diminished by having scrawny white ‘Boys’ tonight rather than chiselled masked hunks. On the floor Mike blocks the 619 headscissors off the apron…and instead takes out his knee with a superkick. The turnbuckle bolt is exposed (by a combination of Maria and Bennett), and The Prodigy quickly capitalises by whipping Castle into it. His neck to the brunt of the impact and that is the area his opponent continues to focus on...and since the ref hasn’t noticed the turnbuckle is still exposed, pretty soon Bennett hoists him chest-first into it too. Swanton Bomb missed by Mike though, as on the floor Matt Taven frantically tries to stop The Boys fanning Dalton. T-BONE SUPLEX by Castle! He then punches Bennett in the face so hard he flops to the floor…right into a TOPE SUICIDA! Everest German blocked after Bennett accidentally thumbs referee Paul Turner in the eyes. Maria slides in one of the IWGP Tag Title belts…TWIST OF FATE ON THE BELT! FOR 2! Dalton nails an AWESOME flipping exploder then whips Michael into the still-exposed turnbuckle! They fight over the turnbuckles some more, with Bennett finally springing off the ropes looking for a crossbody only to be caught for a CAPTURE BELLY TO BELLY! Taven tries to interfere – and gets into an absurd teabag battle! BANG-A-RANG! BENNETT KICKS OUT! Taven superkicks Castle right into Bennett’s PILEDRIVER! He wins at 14:34
Rating - *** - At times ridiculous, at times frustrating and at times overcooked - this wasn’t without fault but I had a great time watching it. Bennett and Castle are always fun to watch because they are so expressive and entertaining in what they do. With a generous time allowance to play with I thought the match was paced superbly. Castle was allowed to showcase what an awesome wrestler he is (I thought in Amarillo and Oklahoma his performances were a little too gimmicky) and the little touches of comedy from all the participants (including Maria, Taven, The Boys and even the commentators) made this a decent watch.
The Addiction vs Matt Sydal/Delirious
Obviously the ROH Tag Titles aren’t on the line here since Delirious and Sydal have done nothing to earn a shot…but a victory here would surely entitle them to one? They came up together in the St Louis area so this is something of a homecoming for them. We know they’ve been partners, rivals and friends throughout their mutual Ring Of Honor careers and it will be interesting to see how they work together now, presumably both older and wiser after following their divergent career paths. Daniels and Kazarian head up a packed tag division and will be aware that they need to stack up the victories to remain on top with the likes of reDRagon, The Kingdom, War Machine and the Young Bucks all in hot pursuit of their championship belts.
The Addiction get pre-match promo time and it is fantastic. How it has taken ROH a year to unleash these guys and make them fun is beyond me. Sydal, Daniels and Kaz are all veterans, so amusingly they all leave the ring to leave Delirious to have his normal ring bell freak-out by himself. Reborn is too good for either opponent and starts to make them look incredibly foolish as he sends their bodies flying at all angles. He shows an amazing ability to understand Delirious and together they dominate Daniels for several minutes. The Fallen Angel devises an escape route by attacking Delirious’ arm which quickly puts the Lizard Man on the back foot. That is until Kaz accidentally starts trying to snap Daniels’ arm…and doesn’t even realise! Sydal tries to springboard off the top into a suicide dive, only for Addiction to catch him and THROW HIM INTO DELIRIOUS’ FACE! Not only does that incapacitate the masked man but it also leaves Matt on the outside nursing one of his knees – and we all know his legs are made of glass. Delirious is isolated and fights for survival desperately in the face of outstanding tag team wrestling from the Tag Champions. Sydal eventually comes to the rescue with a Slice/jawbreaker combo to both opponents into the standing moonsault on Daniels! But since Delirious is exhausted he is fighting single-handedly and is decimated by a double lungblower by the champs for 2. Slingshot cutter from Kaz to Sydal! Delirious COUNTERS the Tomikaze into the Cobra Stretch! So Daniels smashes Todd Sinclair into the guardrails! There’s no ref to officiate now as former tag partners Matt Sydal and Chris Daniels brawl on the top rope. Delirious rescues Sydal from the Flux Capacitor…but knocks his own partner to the floor! PANIC ATTACK! SYDAL PRESS! A Mick Hucknall-looking referee sprints in, and counts the shock victory for Delirious and Sydal at 21:53!
Rating - **** - 4* is possibly a little generous, but this really looked and felt like the ‘old’ Ring Of Honor and I really enjoyed it for that. Of course, it helps that Daniels, Sydal and Delirious being in the ring made this resemble a mid-00’s ROH match even more – but it was the style rather than the competitors which gave this such an old-school aura. Midcard matches in ROH just don’t get 20+ minutes anymore. Hell…very few SHOWS have a match which goes longer than twenty these days. The lengthy time allowance gave them plenty of freedom to explore neat little annexes – like Delirious’ insanity, Sydal’s general awesomeness, some fantastic tag team wrestling from The Addiction, plenty of comedy; all culminating in an electrifying little finale. I am desperate to see more matches like this – particularly on house show/VOD tapings where there are no TV schedules and no PPV timeslots.
Delirious and Sydal try to pose with the title belts, but are thwarted by Christopher Daniels – who reminds them that it was a non-title match. Matt Sydal demands a rematch with the belts on the line…
BJ Whitmer vs Romantic Touch
Whitmer is always good for some cheap heel heat, and is decent enough in the ring that you’d hope he can pull something watchable out of the spent force that is the Romantic Touch gimmick. Being blunt, the latest incarnation of The Decade – without Roderick Strong and Jimmy Jacobs – has sunk far further down the card than they’d like. BJ will be very aware that he needs to establish dominance over jovial, bottom-feeding comedy acts like Touch…
The crowd is completely silent as the match begins, and don’t offer much more than a few polite laughs as Romantic runs through some of his normal comedy spots. Whitmer is a solid worker – and shows all his experience by going after RT’s mask. The crowd chant for Jimmy Jacobs as a way to break up the monotony of watching these two wrestle. Corino is still hamming up his proxy-feud with BJ on commentary and is actually more compelling than the in-ring action. Touch goes after the bad neck with a swinging neckbreaker…but then spoils any potential interest that approach might generate to goof around with the rose he brings to the ring. Adam Page tries to interfere, so Touch makes out with him, before turning into a strong lariat from Whitmer. Exploder ’98 gets BJ a win at 07:41
Rating - DUD - I don’t see what the purpose of this match was at all. The crowd hated it so it definitely didn’t work for the live audience. Romantic Touch spent most of the match on offence, so it did nothing for Whitmer’s credibility…and in turn having dominated the match Touch then lost in two moves because he got distracted making out with Adam Page, so he looks like a fool as well. Nobody comes out of this looking good at all, therefore making this a raging failure. I’m glad Whitmer won, because he jobs a lot, but holy hell was this ever unnecessary. What a buzzkill after the exceptional Addiction vs Sydal/Delirious tag…
Matt Taven vs Hanson
The Kingdom and War Machine crossed paths multiple times at the previous Road To Best In The World events and it is clear bad blood is brewing between them. The next instalment in that rivalry comes now as Taven faces the imposing Hanson. The man ROH are really trying to push as ‘Warbeard’ comes in looking to rebound after coming surprisingly close to becoming World Champion – putting Jay Briscoe through a real battle in Oklahoma City the previous weekend. Interestingly this match pits the winners of the 2013 and 2014 Top Prospect Tournaments against each other.
Taven runs away, which is fine. ‘Too Sweet’-ing fans in the front row, however, is not – The Kingdom are supposed to be feuding with Bullet Club. Hanson’s push is going so well that, even whilst running away Taven is getting more chants than him. Hanson does show a surprising turn of speed when chasing his opponent round the ring…but it starts to look like a sensible strategy as pretty soon the big man is blowing hard. ELBOW SUICIIIIDAAAA! Now Hanson has a chance to catch his breath whilst smashing Taven’s head into the guardrails. The Bronco Buster lands once, but as Hanson lines up a second Mike Bennett runs out and pulls his tag partner to safety. Taven starts foot-choking his opponent in the corner – a move that he dubs ‘Shades Of Stacy Keibler’ which is just awesome. He’s not interested in following the rules at all and spends the next several minutes working through variants of chokes and hairpulls…then finally busting out a wrestling move as he floors him with a springboard enziguri. Another one knocks Hanson out of the ring, enabling Matt to receipt him from earlier and land a tope suicida of his own. Unfortunately Taven tries an ill-advised second tope only to be caught and lawn-darted straight into the ringpost. Back in the ring they trade cartwheels…CARTWHEEL SUPERKICK BY TAVEN! LARIAT BY HANSON! Both men go down! Pumphandle suplex gets a 2 for the member of War Machine, only for Taven to duck the Spin Kick Of Doom and hit a rolling neckbreaker. Asai Moonsault CAUGHT IN MID-AIR! So Taven simply PUNTS Hanson in the face! Climax blocked! DEAD-LIFT STEINER SCREWDRIVER! MATT KICKS OUT! HANSON-SAULT MISSES! FIVE STAR FROG SPLASH! ONE-COUNT OF DISRESPECT! Maria is at ringside too, distracting the referee as Bennett tries to level Hanson with the IWGP Tag Title belt! Ray Rowe runs in and saves the day, allowing Hanson to hit the Spin Kick Of Doom for the win at 15:23
Rating - *** - I did not expect this match to be anywhere near as entertaining as it ended up being. It wasn’t a wrestling classic, but it was simple in structure, fun to watch throughout and built to a rip-roaring finale. Hanson has issues connecting with audiences as a babyface, but then again Taven has the same issue as a heel. Without resorting to extreme gimmicks or an overload of interference, they actually played a straight babyface/heel dynamic extremely well – which really shocked me. Hanson got over as a bruising no-nonsense bad-ass. Taven looked as good as he ever has as a precocious, slimy heel taking shortcuts and breaking rules to even the playing field with an obviously-superior opponent. Considering how much of a bad reputation the 2015 Road To Best In The World Tour has, I’m surprised more people haven’t mentioned this match. It is a real hidden gem…
Jay Lethal vs Raymond Rowe
Rowe remains in the ring as Hanson runs The Kingdom out of the building, and grabs a microphone to call-out Jay Lethal. The title isn’t on the line, but Rowe would obviously become an immediate top contender if he can pull out a win over the dominant TV Champion tonight. And with Lethal’s mind now firmly focused on Best In The World and Jay Briscoe, he may well be significantly distracted and looking past this match. Briscoe himself went through a real battle with the other half of War Machine last weekend. Does a similar fate await Lethal this evening?
Jay clearly liked Taven’s tactics against Hanson in the preceding match, as he spends a full two minutes running away and avoiding a fight with the War Machine member. He then tries a desperation Lethal Injection only to be roundly dismissed by an aggressive Ray Rowe. A big boot nearly knocks the TV Champion into the front row as he enters complete retreat mode, and Rowe continues to give chase with a colossal body slam on the floor. Tope flurry by Lethal! I love Lethal’s strategy here, as he completely mauls his bigger opponent to prevent him from maintaining a vertical base and therefore being able to use his power. Whenever Rowe makes it back to his feet Jay either stomps him back down, trips him, or runs away to stay out of his clutches. It isn’t necessarily pretty to watch but if you like your pro-wrestling presented with logic and credibility it really works. Finally Rowe does manage to get back to his feet – and in a flash re-establishes his dominance with a Superman Punch and a belly to belly suplex. Cement Mixer nailed for 2! Lethal returns fire with a superkick flurry followed by Hail To The King…but it only gets 1! Shotgun Knees ducked, and poor Todd Sinclair takes his second ref bump of the night! DEATH ROWE NAILED! But Sinclair is down and can’t count the pinfall. Hands up if you’d forgotten how awesome Rowe’s singles finisher is? Truth Martini hands the Book Of Truth to Lethal…who waffles Rowe in the head with it and gets the win at 15:55
Rating - *** - This wasn’t as fun to watch as Hanson/Taven, but up until the pantomime finish it had a gritty intensity to it which I really enjoyed. The whole match really established Jay Lethal as a prime time player, and a World Champion in waiting, in the way he dominated and out-classed such a strong and sizeable opponent. He didn’t need to cheat, he simply took his licks in the beginning then devised a strategy to get the better of the big man. Which is why the finish annoyed me – I don’t think Rowe is at the stage where he needs protecting, particularly as Ring Of Honor is about to put their top strap on Lethal. They had a good match, Rowe got his ‘get out’ with the ref bump three-count…and from there Jay really should have gotten a clean victory. Good match, terrible finish. A criticism one can level at shows Delirious books on a frequent basis…
Michael Elgin/Moose vs Jay Briscoe/Roderick Strong
This is a strange match, in that it contains all three of the men vying to become #1 contender to the World Title at Best In The World…but two of them have to team with each other, whilst the other has to team with the man they are supposedly battling to face. The premise is a strange one, but from Jay Briscoe’s perspective it does give him a fine opportunity to scout his next opponent should be survive the challenge of Jay Lethal. It is a real opportunity for Moose to develop too, as he enters his first Ring Of Honor main event and shares the stage with one current and two former ROH Champions. Briscoe and Strong are ROH veterans and used to be friends – so will they be able to coexist tonight? The same can be said for their opposition; will the no-nonsense Michael Elgin gel with Moose? And can Elgin keep his notorious temper in check – given his history with both opponents (he used to be Strong’s back-up act in the House Of Truth, and Briscoe is the man who took his World Title from him). Booking this as a tag is somewhat perplexing, but this is nonetheless an intriguing main event with so many interwoven stories to be told just two weeks out from Best In The World 2015.
Elgin and Strong start, and it takes Roddy mere seconds to turn his former partner’s chest bright red via a chop onslaught. He has better luck with Briscoe and lifts him for a stalling vertical suplex…as Moose does the same thing with Strong! Unbreakable does not look impressed with the ex-NFL star stealing his moves and walks away as the Briscoe/Strong alliance start teaming up to do a number on him. Moose has to really battle to escape the clutches of the opposition team, and when he does so Elgin explodes back into action to take the fight to both men. The flying Codebreaker on Roddy gets the first significant nearfall from there. Strong takes a real beating, first with Moose very visibly hurting him on a couple of rough spots then taking an elbow right across the jaw from Elgin which leaves him slumped on the ground in obvious, legitimate pain. Jay takes a much-needed tag, then needs almost a full minute of uninterrupted strikes to put Moose on the ground. He then drops Elgin on his neck with DVD, despite seemingly nursing his permanently-injured shoulder. Is he selling that or is it bothering him again? Strong takes over and starts targeting Michael’s back and neck…but again the potentially isolated worker is able to tag out before any significant damage is done. The Moose/Elgin axis is now attempting to zone in on Briscoe, who’s left arm is still hanging uncomfortably down by his side. Elgin hits an impressive springboard moonsault, but looks to follow it up with an over-optimistic corkscrew senton resulting in, yet again, the isolated opponent making a swift escape. He makes the gear-changing tag to Roddy who sprints around like a maniac dishing out punishment to both of his rivals. Death By Roderick blocked…so Strong hits a back suplex on the apron instead! Now the End Of Heartache is blocked with a double stomp to the neck! CHOKEBOMB BY MOOSE! Rolling Spear dodged by Strong, and Briscoe swarms Moose with a DDT. Elgin tries to haul his partner out of the ring so Jay dives at both of them with a SOMERSAULT PLANCHA! Rude Awakening gets 2 on Moose, with Steve Corino pointing out that this is Moose’s longest ROH match by some distance now. SICK KICK ON MOOSE! Elgin blocks the Jay Driller with a roaring elbow! He then picks up both opponents for the always-impressive fallaway slam/Samoan drop combo! Jay blocks the Elgin Bomb with a kick to the face…only to eat the GAME BREAKER from Moose! Strong blocks the same move with a jumping knee! DEATH BY RODERICK ON MOOSE! WESTERN LARIAT BY ELGIN! Moose declines the opportunity to tag Elgin and instead walks into another fight with the World Champion, much to the irritation of the Canadian who starts hurling abuse at Stokely Hathaway. Strong stops Briscoe hitting the Jay Driller…because he wants to win the match, but walks into the path of the ROLLING SPEAR! Moose gets a huge victory at 25:32
Rating - **** - I suspect others wouldn’t go this high on their ratings, but I thought this really delivered. These are four big names on the 2015 Ring Of Honor landscape, and they contested this match like it was a big deal. I really FELT like this was four big egos all jostling for superiority. Moose and Elgin NEVER got on, and were constantly taking little swipes at each other. And I loved the finish where Strong essentially cost his team a victory because he so badly wanted to be the one scoring the winning pinfall. It meandered a little at points, but for twenty five minutes I never felt like any of these four weren’t conveying the sheer importance of a victory in this match. It helped that this got pretty rough and tough at times too. Moose just isn’t very polished yet so some of his contributions looked legitimately very painful. Elgin and Roddy seemed to potato each other a number of times as well. I wanted to see a gruelling, hard-hitting war between four big names – and they absolutely delivered on that. I’ve not seen much praise for this one, but like Taven/Hanson from earlier – this is a really decent little match tucked away during a well-documented slump period…
Moose exchanges tense handshakes with both of his Best In The World opponents – smiling broadly and well-aware that he has laid down a serious marker in their race to become the #1 contender.
Tape Rating - *** - The Road To Best In The World 2015 Tour has a bad reputation, and considering how poor the Amarillo and Oklahoma City shows were I can understand why. This one, however, is actually a really under-rated house show. There is a bit of crap to sift through – but it should be obvious to most that matches featuring the likes of Cheeseburger or Romantic Touch will be completely skippable. Given that this is a house show and there are no television time limits or pay-per-view schedules to meet, it was pleasing that every meaningful match got plenty of time. Guys like Hanson and Matt Taven, or Lethal and Ray Rowe benefited enormously from getting generous time allowances to really tell their stories and win over initially sceptical crowds. And it also allowed for two blockbuster tag team encounters which really carried the show. Addiction vs Sydal/Delirious and the main event were both really strong – and could potentially be the two standout matches of the entire tour. I’d say that this show, at $15 for a VOD purchase, represents great value for money.
Top 3 Matches
3) Hanson vs Matt Taven (***)
2) The Addiction vs Matt Sydal/Delirious (****)
1) Michael Elgin/Moose vs Jay Briscoe/Roderick Strong (****)