ROH 386 – Aftershock Tour: Las Vegas – 17th July 2015

The DVD cover-art lists this show as taking place on a Saturday, which (having checked a calendar) is false. Low level production screw-ups aside, Ring Of Honor look like they have thrown the kitchen sink at this house show in a new building for the Vegas market – this card looks stacked. Austin Aries makes a one-night-only return to headline in a ‘Vegas Wild Card’ 6-man tag, partnering Moose and Undisputed Champion Jay Lethal to face Dalton Castle, Kyle O’Reilly and Jay Briscoe. We have a mini-tournament giving six men the chance to earn #1 contendership to Lethal’s Television Title – featuring Frankie Kazarian, ACH, Christopher Daniels, Mark Briscoe, Bobby Fish and Matt Taven. A storied New Japan rivalry comes to an ROH ring as RPG Vice make their return in a junior heavyweight tag team showdown against the Young Bucks, The Kingdom face War Machine, and ROH have even paid to bring in Nanae Takahashi and Willie Mack too! You could make a case for this card being comparable to (if not better than) the pay-per-view next weekend. Steve Corino and Kevin Kelly are at ringside to provide commentary.

The new building looks SO much better than the venue for the 13th Anniversary Show. We get some great views of it as Austin Aries wastes no time making his presence felt in Ring Of Honor. Apparently ROH was the first call he made once his TNA contract expired, and dismisses the rumours that he could never come back because he had ‘heat’. He trashes kayfabe in a heartfelt speech, buries (without naming) people he fell out with previously, makes people give Delirious a standing ovation and generally seems like a guy with a point to prove…

Matt Taven vs Bobby Fish
This is the first of three tournament matches to crown a new #1 contender for the TV Title. The three first round winners will meet in a triple threat later in the show to determine that top contender. First up we have former TV Champion Matt Taven, who previously feuded with Lethal over that belt in 2014. His opponent is Bobby Fish, fresh from one of the best singles matches of his ROH career last week in Hopkins against Adam Cole. In a post-match interview Fish announced that he and O’Reilly are now gunning for all the gold in ROH. They want their Tag Titles back, and they each want one of Jay Lethal’s belts too…

Neither man is shy about verbalising their thoughts so we have quite a vocal opening exchange. Taven looks to work fast and hit repeated aerial moves to negate Fish’s striking and grappling, and it works as he creates an opening to drive Bobby’s shoulder into the ringpost. The man from The Kingdom gets to show off his wrestling skills now, dropping Fish on his shoulder again with a divorce court then arm wrenching him down once more as he looks to rattle off a few strikes. Bobby actually falls out of the ring as a result of the punishment, but works the situation to his advantage as he manages to kick-trip Taven on the apron causing him to collapse on his face. Turnbuckle exploder gets 2 for the former ROH Tag Champion. Matt looks for a frankensteiner…but crashes down on his knee when Fish swats him away. Fish is on the injury right away, wrenching the knee with the Fish Hook Deluxe. A superkick knocks Fish away and into a Blue Thunder Driver for 2. Apparently Matt backs his ability to hit the Five Star Frog Splash…but misses it and gets put in the Fish Hook Deluxe again! Again Taven survives, then connects with a jumping enziguri (yes, his selling of the knee really is that bad). Climax blocked and Fish lands the falcon arrow for the win at 11:43.

Rating - ** - Infinitely better than the hideous Taven/Elgin match we had in Hopkins the previous weekend. Fish worked hard to provide structure and coherency to proceedings, and produced another killer little performance. Having both he and O’Reilly in more singles matches will definitely be a huge benefit to removing reDRagon from the Tag Title picture. I would possibly have gone even higher on my rating had Taven not done such a horrible job of selling the leg. I generally don’t like to be the guy that knocks down star ratings for patchy selling – but in this instance Taven’s was SO horrible it was hard not to. If he didn’t want to sell a leg injury and just wanted to hit jumping enziguris and Blue Thunder Drivers why did they bother working it into the match at all? Wrestling just looks silly when a guy is limping around one second, then effortlessly diving off the top rope the next…

Nanae Takahashi vs ODB
The rumour that ROH wants to ‘get serious’ about their Women Of Honor division once again has gone around on a constant loop for a long while, and rarely leads to anything. But, the number of female dark matches at ROH events has increased. ODB has been used as a semi-regular all year, Mandy Leon and Veda Scott are on TV most weeks and they can wrestle…but this one kicks things up a gear. Bringing in Nanae, a tenured veteran of the Joshi scene stretching way back to AJW in the 90’s, is a big step up from letting the likes of Mandy, Veda and Deonna Purrazzo scrap around before a TV taping. ODB delivered her best in-ring performance for ROH last week in a mixed-tag with Jay Briscoe against the House Of Truth – and is set to be featured in a feature match of the 200th episode of ROH on Sinclair next week too. Her regular appearances alongside the Briscoes in 2015 have made her arguably the second most visible female member of the ROH roster (behind Maria Kanellis). Now she needs to prove she can work as a focal point of the Women Of Honor…

ODB doesn’t stop drinking even once the bell rings, which seems to offend Nanae. She smacks it out of her hands and kick-starts a vicious exchange of elbow strikes. ODB is the bigger of the two and crunches the Joshi legend with a shoulder block. Takahashi is clearly feared as a superior wrestler, so ODB takes her to the outside to smash her around against the guardrails. Sensibly she brings it back inside and tries to stretch ODB out on the canvas. Flying missile dropkick gets 2 for Takahashi. DOMINATOR into the turnbuckles by Nanae! Back Drop Driver blocked into a LARIAT with significant force! ELBOW STRIKE DUEL! They are really laying them in! Takahashi starts NO SELLING! ELBOW FLURRY ON ODB! One Second blocked…fallaway slam gets a 2 for ODB. BACK DROP DRIVER! Nanae climbs for a flying splash, only to soar straight into ODB’s knees! With her lungs still drained of air Takahashi is crushed again with a running powerslam for a close nearfall. Takahashi blocks the Bam…FLYING SPLASH NAILED! FOR 2! ONE SECOND! Takahashi wins at 10:21

Rating - *** - Ring Of Honor doesn’t exactly have much history or pedigree when it comes to their female division, so this instantly becomes one of the better Women Of Honor matches EVER. Even at 36, Takahashi looked like she was having to seriously slow herself down so ODB could keep up – but ODB has plenty of size and spirit so had no problem getting rough with the Joshi star. My favourite moments of this match were when they stood in the centre of the ring and clubbed the hell out of each other. Overall this was a really enjoyable little undercard match fought in front of a respectful and enthusiastic crowd. If we get more matches like this the Women Of Honor comeback can’t come soon enough.

Christopher Daniels vs Mark Briscoe
This is the second of the three TV Title contendership qualifiers, and Chris Daniels is the second of the former Television Champions to participate. He held the belt back during the HDNet era (and also contested my favourite TV Title Match ever – in his 2/3 Falls TV Title classic with Eddie Edwards at the 9th Anniversary Show). Mark Briscoe is desperate to get back into the title hunt after failing to take the belt from Jay Lethal on television this week. To do so he needs to defeat the man who lured him into The Prophecy during ROH’s first year in business; these men really do have history stretching all the way back to 2002. 

Briscoe swarms the Ring General and actually tries to control him from the canvas – a strategy you might think Daniels would try to employ. Indeed, the Fallen Angel (although we’re not supposed to call him that anymore) has to resort to stomping and kicking Mark in the corner just to gain a foothold. Briscoe retaliates with a flurry of strikes into a brainbuster and the Uncle Mule Kick. Fisherman buster gets a close 2, but he gets too confident and casually strolls into the Koji Clutch. Mark to the top rope…only for Frankie Kazarian to run in and trip him of the apron. Angel’s Wings gives Daniels a cheap win at 08:23

Rating - ** - Delirious really didn’t need to protect Mark with that lazily booked finish, but it absolutely was the right decision to have Daniels advance to the finals. He is unquestionably the most over competitor in the tournament, and has a rich history holding together world class triple threat matches thusly giving the final every chance to be decent as well. My favourite thing about this was the way the flipped the script on what you might expect during the opening minutes – with Mark dominating Daniels with wrestling holds thus forcing the veteran to use typically ‘Briscoe’ tactics of punching, stomping and brawling outside. I said something very similar about the Lethal/Mark match from TV this week too - perhaps ROH and Mark himself are starting to get the message that working the exact same match time after time isn't ideal?

The Addiction continue to beat on Mark after the bell…until ACH’s music hits

Frankie Kazarian vs ACH
With Kaz already at ringside we’ll go into our third contendership match to determine who meets Bobby Fish and Christopher Daniels in the final. In 2014 ACH seemed on the cusp of becoming Television Champion after a couple of outstanding matches with Jay Lethal. He failed to secure the gold back then, but many believe he came closer to ending the current Lethal TV Title reign than anyone else – so he would love another shot. To do he needs to survive the experienced Kazarian, who knows his tag partner is already in the final (effectively guaranteeing that a member of The Addiction leaves Vegas as the #1 contender).

ACH fights off both members of The Addiction, which means Daniels remains at ringside for the match. RUNNING PK ON DANIELS! SLINGSHOT APRON DDT BY KAZ! With his brains still scrambled Frankie pulls him back into the ring for a rolling neckbreaker – then announces that’s the body part he’ll be targeting. ACH is soon so injured that he has to clutch the neck even whilst running the ropes – and it’s made worse with a HANGING swinging neckbreaker for 2. Running lariat by ACH, who is apparently taking boxing classes in preparation for Adam Page at Death Before Dishonor. Kazarian tries the slingshot DDT back into the ring…but ACH COUNTERS TO A BRAINBUSTER! That looked awesome, and is made better by the way he sells the neck afterwards. Kaz forces him into the air with the slingshot cutter, crushing the neck once more. Daniels scrambles onto the apron to create a scene once more…so ACH deposits Frankie out next to him and takes them both out with a RUNNING MOONSAULT TO THE FLOOR! Rolling cradle on Kaz…ACH WINS! It’s over in 09:02

Rating - *** - This was Kazarian’s best ROH singles match to date I believe (not that there have been many). It didn’t go long but they went at full speed for the duration, with a well-told story around ACH’s neck which he sold superbly until the last thirty seconds or so. Had they put a better finish on this, even at sub-ten minutes I’d definitely have gone to 4* on this.

Mark Briscoe returns to the ring to prevent The Addiction bullying ACH…

RPG Vice vs Young Bucks
These two teams have battled endlessly in New Japan’s junior tag ranks. Indeed, Rocky Romero has gone back and forth with the Bucks even longer since his previous team (Forever Hooligans) worked them on a permanent loop too. They represent opposing NJPW factions, and now battle in a 2-vs-2 bout in an ROH ring for the first time. Not only will bragging rights in Japan be at stake, but since this is ROH the winner here will be a big step closer to earning a shot at The Addiction too.

Beretta starts the match by punching Nick in the face for yelling ‘Suck It’ one time too many. That annoys the Bucks so much they make quite a spectacle of themselves then leave the ring. DOUBLE SUPERKICKS ON THE STAGE! Romero avoids the count-out by throwing his own partner back into the ring and into more tandem offence from the Jacksons. They isolate Trent for several minutes…until he finally double stomps Matt into the ground and makes a hot tag. Romero drops Nick with a RUNNING Shiranui! Beretta counters Nick’s slingshot X-Factor into a northern lights suplex, and in doing so sets up him for a Romero missile dropkick too. Strong Zero…BLOCKED WITH A SUPERKICK! SUPERKICK/CODE RED COMBO for 2! The standing moonsault/frog splash combo (after a Kevin Steen Cannonball) scores another nearfall. Trent blocks the Meltzer Driver, as Rocky sprints in and flattens Nick with a jumping knee…leaving all four flat-out on the mat. Early Onset Alzheimer’s COUNTERED to a double rana by Romero! He then hits another rana to counter More Bang For Your F*ck. Frankensteiner…COUNTERED TO MORE BANG FOR YOUR F*CK! Beretta breaks the pin! EARLY ONSET ALZHEIMER’S! German suplex by Trent followed by the Gobstopper, as Romero lands a tope suicida. STRONG ZERO! RPG Vice get a huge win at 12:31

Rating - **** - I’d say this was pretty standard stuff for these four, but they don’t lock horns in ROH too often and this felt like quite the spectacle nonetheless. I remain perplexed by quite how often Ring Of Honor job out the Young Bucks – who are their most marketable stars – although I’ll concede that the New Japan office may have had something to do with this. The standout aspect of this one was the sheer volume of familiarity counters we saw. They have wrestled each other countless times, so it made perfect sense that we would see counter after counter to all of their signature highspots. Although this was mostly a spot-fest, throwing in those counters really made you believe that each team were really having to WORK for each signature move landed, and each offensive bomb dropped.

Willie Mack vs Silas Young
Here we see the debut of a man fans have been asking for in Ring Of Honor for years. Willie was a favourite of the PWG fans on the West Coast, had a brief flirtation with the WWE developmental system in 2014, then found his way to Lucha Underground. Here he makes his ROH debut (and to date only appearance), looking to make a big impression against one of the grumpiest men on the roster. Young won’t take kindly to newcomers trying to take his spot, but given Mack’s size, experience and skill this is a huge test for the Last Real Man.

Mack doesn’t waste anytime in showing off his remarkable athleticism – driving Young from the ring then hitting a TOPE ATOMICO…and landing on his feet too! Willie wants to show off too much it seems, finally getting caught gyrating in a headstand position so Young can sweep him into the Killer Combo. Silas grounds Mack, but can’t keep him on the ground and falls victim to a running vertical suplex. Standing moonsault into the RED STAR PRESS gets 2! Six Star Frog Splash misses! Young hits a desperate Misery and scrambles for the win at 06:18

Rating - ** - If we’re basing this on wrestling ability, Mack should be in ROH now. He’s got a unique look, his style is amazing and he is so different to any other heavyweight they currently have on the roster. Unfortunately wrestling isn’t all Sinclair will base the decision on – and the fact that he’s based on the West Coast, the fact that he isn’t the proven draw that SoCal guys like the Young Bucks are, and the fact he’s getting increasing amounts of exposure in Lucha Underground mean he just isn’t likely to become a regular. Which is a shame, because he looked awesome here and the crowd loved him. Young deserves a lot of credit since he did everything he could to let Willie look good. Sadly, for now, Mack is just like Chris Dickinson in that he’s made one appearance, looked awesome yet never been invited back.

Maria Kanellis gets on the mic before the next match to announce that her contract is up in December, and that she needs to ensure Bennett and Taven become ROH Tag Champions before that date. She also plans to bring a new member into The Kingdom who can win the World Title (obviously intended to rile Adam Cole)…

Adam Cole/Michael Bennett vs War Machine
Cracks are starting to show in the foundations of The Kingdom. Cole cuts an increasingly distant figure from Bennett, Maria and Taven and they’ve had a couple of high-profile, televised arguments in recent weeks. They claim to have patched up their differences, but that patching will get a serious examination tonight. Hanson and Rowe are preparing for a Tag Title opportunity at Death Before Dishonor and will destroy Bennett and Cole here if they can’t get on the same page.

Cole shrugs Bennett aside and sprints right into an ill-advised fist fight with both opponents. He is smashed into the ground with a knee strike/western lariat combo, and needs Maria to come to his rescue. She distracts Rowe, allowing Cole to superkick his knee from under him. The Kingdom swiftly do a number on his leg, including a lengthy stretch in Adam’s signature Figure 4 Leglock. That ends with Bennett accidentally elbows Cole in the face…then gets rattled into the turnbuckles himself after the Shotgun Knees. Hanson tags and hits the cartwheel lariat, before stacking both opponents in the corner for a clobbering. Cole blocks the Bronco Buster with a superkick flurry! And gets a heap of abuse from Maria for some reason? For further punishment Hanson powerbombs Rowe into a senton splash right down on top of him too. Maria crotches Hanson as they set up Fallout, as her men hit a backpack stunner/Shining Wizard combo on Rowe for 2. The legal men are Cole and Rowe, who trade intense elbows…until Cole superkicks the knee again. Maria accidentally low-bridges Cole! FALLOUT on Bennett! War Machine take the victory at 10:03

Rating - *** - What a punchy, snappy little tag match this was. Bennett seemed to be working hurt which might explain why it didn’t go longer – but it really didn’t need to. The Kingdom split angle progressed nicely (Maria and Cole were ace in that regard), War Machine looked like big, tough, beardy bastards as usual, and the typical formulaic heel tactics from Cole and Bennett lasted just long enough to be entertaining without becoming boring. If anything, my only criticism would be that I feel like this sort of match should be done at the TV tapings (this was PERFECT for television) and something a little more substantial should be produced at live events…but again, Bennett was injured.

Maria angrily blames Cole for the loss, and walks out with Mike Bennett leaving him behind.

ACH vs Christopher Daniels vs Bobby Fish
As we know, the winner of this becomes the #1 contender for the TV Title. Fish produced arguably the most impressive performance in the first round, but his match went longer than either of the other two qualifiers. Meanwhile ACH suffered an apparent neck injury in his first round match with Frankie Kazarian. That seemingly makes Daniels the favourite, considering he had the shortest first round match, has the most experience and has even been ROH Television Champion before. He will be a targeted man here however, given how The Addiction screwed reDRagon out of the Tag Titles a couple of months ago, and assaulted ACH earlier tonight. Elimination rules apply here...

Fish and ACH have to climb over each other to attack Daniels at the bell, then take turns roughing him up. Amusingly ACH then thinks it means they are friends…which they obviously aren’t. He gets kicked in the head by Fish for his stupidity. Daniels runs back in and elbows him in the neck as well; clearly aware of the injury he is carrying. ACH cares not for injury though – and drags Bobby out of the ring for a FROG SPLASH OFF THE APRON! Daniels sensibly watches it all unfold then picks his spot to take them both down – looking to pin both of them simultaneously since this is elimination rules. He drops ACH on the neck again with a Blue Thunder Driver but takes his eye off of him to get into a strike exchange with Fish. ACH takes the opportunity to dive off the top with a frog double lariat (seriously) for 2! STUNNER on Fish! He stacks both opponents up for a MIDNIGHT STAR! Daniels moves, watches Fish get hit with the move then breaks up the pin for no reason. Kelly and Corino cover it as ‘ego’ (i.e. he wants to pin everyone) but I’ll call it what it was – silly. BME NAILED! ACH is eliminated at 09:23! The Ring General sets up the same move on Fish only to dive into Bobby’s foot! Fish suplexes him into the turnbuckles…but gets lazy throwing strikes and dropped into the Koji Clutch. Fish escales…urinage slam blocked…into the Fish Hook Deluxe! Daniels taps at 11:29!

Rating - *** - This had the potential to be a REALLY good triple threat match. ACH had a neck injury so made for a great sympathetic babyface, everyone hated Daniels so you had the ideal villain, and this is ROH so anyone can get behind a great worker like Fish. It started off really well too, with very few triple threat clichés and instead plenty of sound, enjoyable and eminently sensible wrestling. But it felt like they worked the first ten minutes of a 20-minute match, then hastily patched two rushed eliminations onto the end. Daniels, a supposed ‘ring general', broke up pins for no reason, and giving he and Fish two minutes for their climactic sequence was laughably short. This was still a fun match, but I found it slightly disappointing because it could have been much better.

Jay Briscoe/Kyle O’Reilly/Dalton Castle vs Jay Lethal/Austin Aries/Moose
What exactly separates this ‘Vegas Wildcard’ main event from a standard 6-man I’m not exactly clear on. Presumably it refers to the thrown together, unpredictable and highly combustible make-up of the two teams. Briscoe, O’Reilly and Castle don’t have a lot of obvious common ground. On the other side we have the ‘Undisputed’ Champion, a returning ROH icon and a former NFL star, so no obvious bonds or ties there either. Obviously we know the history between Briscoe and Lethal, but it’s actually O’Reilly who can boast a 2015 victory over the current World Champion (and an epic 30-minute time limit draw too). For Castle and Moose this represents a major opportunity – firstly to cement claims for World and TV Title opportunities and secondly to prove they belong in the ROH main event scene. Even outside the ring is cluttered with Truth Martini, Stokely Hathaway, The Boys and Thea Trinidad all at ringside.

Dalton has the crowd in the palm of hands for upwards of a minute simply by posturing and prancing around in front of Moose. Aries steps in for his first Ring Of Honor action in five years, and he and Kyle O’Reilly get very intense very quickly. A-Double blocks Arm-ageddon, but in turn O’Reilly instantly makes the ropes when Aries looks for the Last Chancery. Lethal tries to force his way in, only to be flattened with the Briscoe double football tackle spot (with Kyle replacing Mark obviously). Austin shuts down more of Castle’s silliness by giving him a neckbreaker in the ropes…but then accidentally nails Lethal with a double axehandle on the floor! SOMERSAULT PLANCHA BY MOOSE! Still Lethal and Aries bicker, this time with Austin successfully holding Dalton in place so Jay can execute a double axehandle. The Party Peacock has enough about him to dodge the Hitstick, and we get tags all round to put the only two 2-time ROH Champions in history in the same ring for the first time. Aries socks Briscoe in the mouth to counter the Rude Awakening…but then accidentally elbows Lethal again! Briscoe counters the Lethal Injection into a full nelson slam for 2. ROARING ELBOW! EVEREST GERMAN! AXE & SMASH! Aries saves! IED on Briscoe by Aries! Insane vertical leap dropkick from Moose to O’Reilly, who falls forward into the Lethal Combination for 2. HITSTICK on Dalton! BRAINBUSTER from Aries to O’Reilly! JAY DRILLER ON ARIES! LETHAL INJECTION! ROLLING TOPE SUICIDAS BY LETHAL! But the third one accidentally wipes out Aries! Hail To The King gets knees! JAWBREAKER LARIAT! SOLO CHASING THE DRAGON! ARM-AGEDDON! LETHAL TAPS OUT TO HIM AGAIN! O’Reilly wins at 16:21

Rating - **** - Of course this was very much a house show main event but the strength of personalities involved, followed by an outrageously exciting last five minutes, really made this worthwhile viewing. Dalton Castle only had a few cameos, but was electric every time he stepped through the ropes. Moose was right in his wheelhouse; popping in, hitting a few big spots, then tagging out to let the better workers carry the match. And Jay Lethal was absolutely awesome, delivering a performance befitting of being the ‘Undisputed’ Champion. He held together three different storyline threads simultaneously; effortlessly juggling his ongoing feud with Jay Briscoe, a brilliantly entertaining quarrel with Austin Aries, and concluding with him putting over Kyle O’Reilly. I love the idea that O’Reilly is Jay Lethal’s kryptonite, having now tapped him out twice in 2015. Lethal loses very little of his credibility since this is a throwaway house show – but as we move into needing to take reDRagon seriously as elite-level singles competitors, getting to look dangerous against the established main event scene is critical. This was a second main event in a week for O’Reilly and he’s looked like he belongs in both of them…

Maria Kanellis makes her way to ringside and tells Steve Corino she is scouting for new Kingdom talent – and has her eye on Austin Aries. A-Double himself is interviewed by Kevin Kelly, who says he could take Lethal’s World Title any time he wants.

SIDENOTE – Aries was apparently only booked as a late replacement for Roderick Strong, but he looked great here and it definitely felt like Ring Of Honor were hoping to use him for more dates in future. Obviously Austin took the chance to sign with WWE instead (which he richly deserved, and it’s a damn shame it didn’t come a few years earlier than it did)…and as an ROH fan it’s disappointing we didn’t get to see him a few more times – if only for the Aries/Cole and Aries/Lethal matches which were just hinted at.

Tape Rating - *** - Much like the Aftershock Tour Hopkins DVD, although this won’t go down as ‘show of the year’ this was a really slick and entertaining live event. The new Las Vegas venue looked superb, the crowd were great, and the show sailed by. Usually when you pack your main event with so much star-power the undercard really suffers – but this genuinely was a solid top-to-bottom effort. Names like Austin Aries, Nanae Takahashi and Willie Mack also meant this live event has three major guest stars whom you just won’t see too often in modern day ROH either – going still further to make it feel special. Perhaps the biggest compliment I could give the show is to state that, in a great many Ring Of Honor shows over the last eighteen months or so a 4* Young Bucks match has pretty much been the ONLY selling point – but actually, with this show the very good Bucks/Vice match in the midcard is actually a bonus rather than your sole reason to purchase. If you’re selective with your ROH house shows this is definitely one worth checking out.

Top 3 Matches
3) ACH vs Frankie Kazarian (***)
2) RPG Vice vs Young Bucks (****)
1) Jay Briscoe/Kyle O’Reilly/Dalton Castle vs Jay Lethal/Austin Aries/Moose (****)

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