ROH 398 – Survival Of The Fittest 2015: Night 2 – 14th November 2015
Night One of SOTF 2015 weekend wound up being one of ROH’s strongest house shows all year, without a bad match to be found. The card for the second show of the weekend is pretty formidable as well. Headlining is the final of the Survival Of The Fittest tournament – featuring Christopher Daniels, Silas Young, Jay Briscoe, Michael Elgin and ACH – with the winner earning a guaranteed shot at the World Championship in 2016. The stand-out matches on the undercard include Styles vs Sydal, Young Bucks vs ANX, reDRagon vs House Of Truth and a trios tag pitting The Kingdom against War Machine and Moose. Kevin Kelly and Mr Wrestling III are in Hopkins, MN.
SIDENOTE – This is such an ugly, generic-looking venue compared to the Milwaukee building from the previous evening. I wonder why they didn’t run these events the other way round. On the plus side, they are borrowing a ring from another promotion tonight and the blue canvas and ringposts, couple with red/white/blue ropes have a delightfully old school vibe.
Cedric Alexander vs Will Ferrara
It has been a rough autumn for Cedric Alexander, with his ppv loss to Moose followed up with complete destruction against Dalton Castle on television, then elimination from Survival Of The Fittest yesterday at the hands of Roderick Strong. He quite literally has been relegated to the bottom of the card this evening, and needs to start rebuilding once more – at the expense of underdog Will Ferrara.
His recent losses haven’t softened Alexander’s bad attitude, and he smirks as he delivers a disrespectful slap to the face. Ferrara isn’t prepared to take it though and slaps him right back before landing a flying headscissors off the second rope. Cedric is heckled by the audience for being boring, but sticks to his strategy anyway and does a solid job picking apart Will’s leg. Disappointingly Ferrara’s selling is the worst kind of terrible – whereby he SUPER oversells it when moving around but then acts like it’s no big deal when he wants to his a spot. He even uses the damn bad leg to hit a jawbreaker like it’s the easiest thing in the world. Alexander counters the springboard tornado DDT attempt (which again is entirely devoid of leg selling) and rocks him with the 540 Kick for 2. Three Amigos blocked…but the Michinoku Driver isn’t and nearly puts Will away. Overtime misses and Ferrara gets 2 with the rebound tornado DDT. Alexander is apparently as pissed off by Ferrara’s chronic inability to sell the leg so f*cking DESTROYS it with a chopblock. Repeated IED’s and the Lumber Check win it at 09:40
Rating - * - To put that horrible performance by Will Ferrara into even starker perspective, it isn’t long before this guy was promoted to be an assistant trainer at the ROH Dojo. A shamefully bad outing for young Will, who quite literally destroyed this match with his laughably atrocious selling – going from hopping around like Zach Gowen one moment to hitting springboards and Codebreakers effortlessly just seconds later. Alexander was wrestling on autopilot, but what incentive does he have to put any workrate in at all considering how abysmally he has been booked and how woeful his opponent was?
BJ Whitmer grabs a microphone before the next match to complain about the mysterious masked man conducting commentary duties. He believes it is Corino under the mask and wants him fired (and also wants to have his job permanently). The sound guys eventually have to kill the mic…
Adam Page vs Dalton Castle
These two met last night when they unsuccessfully failed to advance to the SOTF finals in a match which also included Silas Young. Both men will feel a little cheated by the actions of Silas and Beer City Bruiser and will be motivated to right that wrong and salvage at least one victory from the weekend. Page doesn’t have Whitmer in his corner after referees eject him from ringside for his pre-match tirade.
Castle’s Jurassic Park inspired trunks are rather awesome…and even without The Boys Page is so unimpressed by his shenanigans that he tries to walk out. Dalton forcibly retrieves him from the entrance ramp and hauls him back into the ring to amateur wrestle him all over the canvas. The Party Peacock is dominant, leaving Adam with no choice but to take the fight outside. He ducks the tiger feint headscissors from the apron and drives him spine-first into the guardrails. The Decade man focuses his offence on the back and neck in preparation for the Rite Of Passage. He never truly negates the considerable grapple skills of his opponent though, and struggles to get a grip on his major strikes too. Dalton eventually puts together a series of suplexes to bring himself back into proceedings. Everest German blocked with the Spike DDT, planting Castle on his neck again. A frantic Castle tries a running knee strike…but misses and falls all the way over the top rope. SSP TORPEDO HEADBUTT OFF THE APRON nailed by Page! And followed with the slingshot somersault lariat which gets 2. URINAGE OVER THE TOP ROPE BY CASTLE! THEN AN EVEREST GERMAN SUPLEX BACK IN! FOR 2! Whitmer is back at ringside making a spectacle of himself by trying to get to Mr Wrestling III…and in doing so distracts Page so Castle can hit the Bang-A-Rang. Dalton wins at 11:02
Rating - *** - Despite working well within themselves I thought these two delivered a really enjoyable lower card match here. Castle is doing a great job subtly selling the psychological aftermath of losing The Boys to Silas without letting it impact the quality of his wrestling. He was completely believable as a grappling machine who could strut, pose and flex…but then still stretch Page to sh*t. Page’s response was similarly enjoyable – taking the match to the outside where Dalton’s grap skills were negated, then going after his neck to set up his big finish. This is the second time recently that Whitmer has caused Page to lose a match, which makes me optimistic that we are building towards a split and the final demise of The Decade. Page outgrew needing Whitmer or ‘The Decade’ as a brand long ago.
Frankie Kazarian vs Mark Briscoe
The tag team partners of both of these men were able to advance to the finals of Survival Of The Fittest yesterday. Forced to witness Christopher Daniels and Jay Briscoe compete for a World Title shot they too would have liked, instead Mark and Kaz will have to content themselves by beating the hell out of each other. The Addiction and the Briscoes have crossed paths multiple times, and will do so again in future I’m sure. Who leaves Minnesota with bragging rights this evening?
Kazarian can’t cope with the Redneck Kung Fu skills and is made to look rather foolish for a couple of minutes. He has to resort to hiding behind the referee then popping out from behind him to land a lungblower. Frankie prefers to work at a considerably more methodical pace and isn’t above breaking a few rules, but does a hell of a job beating down the younger Briscoe brother. Perhaps still frustrated after his loss last night though, he cuts an irritable figure and goes so far as to violently shove the referee when he fails to successfully complete a pinfall. Mark is next to feel his anger – getting kicked off the ropes into a really nasty back bump to the solid wood floor. Tomahawk chop by Briscoe, into the Uncle Mule Kick and a fisherman buster for 2…but Kaz hasn’t been neutralised and retaliates with a slingshot DDT. Slingshot cutter follows that rather predictably, and doesn’t put Briscoe away. Flux Capacitor blocked into the Froggy Bow – giving Mark the win at 10:47
Rating - * - Flat, boring and predictable in every sense. These two are vastly inferior to their tag partners, with Kazarian in particular deteriorating rapidly with age in a manner that Chris Daniels just isn’t. This looked every bit like two experienced old dudes realising their match wasn’t of any great significance to the line-up and coasting as a result. It wasn’t terrible, and I liked Kazarian’s sourpuss act to negate Briscoe’s Redneck theatrics…but there was literally nothing in here you haven’t seen before. If both of these two left Ring Of Honor tomorrow neither would be missed in the way Jay or Daniels would be…
Adam Cole/Michael Bennett/Matt Taven vs Moose/Hanson/Raymond Rowe
War Machine have earned a Tag Title shot at Final Battle, and having survived the challenge of reDRagon yesterday it now looks as though The Kingdom will oppose them as defending champions. Therefore this one represents an opportunity for both teams to fire some pre-emptive strikes and inflict a potentially devastating injury a month out from the year-ending spectacular. Cole and Moose are the wildcards, and both bitterly disappointed not to be involved in the SOTF final as they want to be in the World Title mix. A win to rebound tonight is essential for both…
Taven is no match for Rowe and runs off after spitting gum into his face. Bennett is dismissed by Hanson as well, tagging out to leave poor Adam Cole to clean up his mess. Cole pokes Moose in the eyes and drags him to the floor where they can 3-on-1 him. War Machine are instantly on the scene though – with Rowe violently booting Taven into the front row. Moose swings Cole into the railings like a wildman…and the scene is now so chaotic Maria seeks safety underneath the ring. Matt ducks the Game Breaker only for Moose to take his head off with a dropkick instead. TRIPLE SUPERKICK from The Kingdom to Moose! They isolate him through fair means or foul, giving War Machine a first-hand glimpse at the dangers Bennett and Taven pose as Tag Champions. They eventually get too cocky though; trying to make fun of Moose’s NFL background and stepping too close to War Machine – who drag the Tag Champs out and leave Cole to get flattened. Rowe takes the tag and MURDERS Cole with a knee strike then the Cement Mixer. Bennett comes to the rescue with the Spear so in comes Hanson with the Sledgehammer on all three opponents. Double superkicks from Cole and Bennett to save Taven from the Bronco Buster! Game Breaker from Moose to Cole gets 2. He then sends the former World Champion into Ray Rowe’s Path Of Resistance. ELBOW SUICIDA BY HANSON! RUNNING WIZARD BY COLE! SUPERKICK BY TAVEN! SUPERMAN PUNCH BY ROWE! INTO A HEAD DROP GERMAN SUPLEX! Hanson cartwheel lariats Cole…only for a resurgent Taven to take him out with the springboard enzi. GO TO HELL FROM MOOSE TO TAVEN! All six men are down! A dazed Moose explodes out of the corner but accidentally hits the Hitstick on his own partner Hanson. Last Shot on Rowe! HAIL MARY! Kingdom win at 18:08
Rating - **** - I’ll admit I’ve rated this exceedingly generously, but Delirious deserves praise for giving them plenty of time to play with and for letting the heels go over clean for once. They worked this extremely smartly, with War Machine made to look like major threats to The Kingdom’s Tag Titles, Moose well protected and several distinctly enjoyable ‘segments’ within the match – with the big brawl on the floor and the crazy spot-flurry at the end the obvious highlights. My expectations were considerably surpassed here.
Joey Daddiego vs Cheeseburger
Lets be completely fair – J. Diesel didn’t embarrass himself in his first ever ROH main event last night. Obviously he was the weak link and least enjoyable element of the HOT vs Bullet Club trios tag, but he could have been far worse. Now he needs to back up cracking a main event with wins over bottom dwellers like Cheeseburger. Cheese is sporting a broken hand thanks to Brutal Bob at the last TV tapings…but can still wield the Jushin Liger Shotei if needed.
I legitimately despise how popular Cheeseburger is. He can’t allow himself to get pinned down by Joey, who immediately looks to trap him in the corner and decimate him with the boxing-influenced punches. It appears the extent of Daddiego’s new gimmick is shouting ‘who’s your daddy’ after every spot…which is f*cking terrible. He’s more tolerable when he shuts his stupid mouth and concentrates on beating the sh*t out of Burger, which he eventually does and causes CB to land on his NECK after a knee to the stomach. Cheesey gets caught diving off the top rope, and almost snapped in half with a backbreaker. Shotei by Burger! Taeler Hendrix senses the danger and distracts the ref whilst Daddiego recovers. Diesel wins with a DVD at 05:08
Rating - * - Too long, completely uninteresting and contested by two individuals whom have no place in what I believe Ring Of Honor should aspire to be…but I won’t deny that the story they told was sound enough to save this from the DUD treatment. As you’d expect, Joey used his power and boxing strikes to dominate. He didn’t try anything flashy and made it watchable simply by how rough he was. Little Cheeseburger kept the impossible-to-take-seriously offence to a minimum too, so overall this was tolerable. Still completely unnecessary though…
All Night Express vs Young Bucks
This marks the re-ignition of a rather intense rivalry from back when ROH had the Young Bucks under contract first time around. These two teams worked a series of matches, all of which under-delivered and they never really got the chance to deliver the killer blow-off to the feud that they were certainly capable of. They come back together older, wiser, and equally irritated at being boxed out of the Tag Title picture for the remainder of 2015.
SUPERKICKS NAILED! The Bucks definitely haven’t forgotten this rivalry! ANX do well to survive the opening onslaught and it’s Titus that breaks the momentum with the Aries-influenced tumbling reverse elbow spot. King follows that with a capo kick/spinebuster combo on Matt for 2. The All Nights sensibly use divide and conquer tactics; keeping the Jacksons separate and unable to string together any intricate offensive flurries. Mr Wrestling also notes that everything they do is focused on keeping Matt on the canvas so totally unable to build up a head of steam. Matt tries to moonsault out of the corner, but is caught with a DROPKICK/ROYAL FLUSH COMBO for 2! ANX eventually make a mistake though – with King landing on the apron too close to Nick and instantly eating a Superkick. Nick gets the tag and tumbles straight out of the ring with the moonsault from the apron to the floor! Standing moonsault/frog splash combo on Rhett for 2. Super Sex Factor on Matt! SUPERKICK on King as he attempts another capo strike! LARIAT by Rhett! SUPERKICK ON HIM! SUPERKICK ON THE REFEREE! Quite literally everyone is down in a heap! CORKSCREW PESCADO by Kenny! ONE NIGHT STAND ON MATT! But of course there’s no referee to count the pin. Nick rescues his brother by giving King a DIVING DDT ON THE FLOOR! Kevin Steen Cannonball nailed! MELTZER DRIVER ON TITUS! The Bucks win at 11:05
Rating - **** - It won’t have been to everyone’s taste, but I loved this. Clocking in at circa ten minutes, they had no time to waste and literally sprinted through everything at breakneck speed. The tone they set was just perfect in the way it referenced their history together, and ANX looked so much more comfortable being powerful bases for the athletic and rapid Jackson brothers to fly and bump around. I genuinely thought this was better than any of the matches they produced during their actual ‘feud’ of a few years ago, and would love to see them go at it again. I’ve been undecided on the ANX comeback so far, but this was undoubtedly the best they’ve looked. Since neither team has much to do between now and the end of the year another couple of matches would certainly be welcome.
Matt Sydal vs AJ Styles
Upon returning to Ring Of Honor last year Sydal’s first opponent was AJ. He lost on that occasion but produced the kind of performance which dispelled the doubters and proved he could still deliver elite level competition despite years of injury problems with the WWE. He’s had a further year to adjust to the ROH style since then, and despite dropping the Best Of 5 Series to ACH will back himself to upset the Phenomenal One tonight. Styles himself needs big wins as he prepares for his Final Battle showdown with Jay Lethal. Who leaves Hopkins with the crucial victory?
These two were tag team partners in Ring Of Honor years ago, and that enduring familiarity means they both start the match clinging to each other and keenly aware of the dangerous speed the other possesses. Matt lets the breaks off first with a couple of hurricanranas…so AJ kills his momentum by leaving the ring. He tries to explode back in with Bloody Sunday…but no dice and Sydal sweeps him to the deck. Standing moonsault gets knees though, allowing Styles to land the pumphandle gutbuster. A rib injury is rapidly opened up on Sydal which is obviously extremely problematic for him given the nature of his finishing move. Matt’s sell job on that is surprisingly strong and earns him plenty of support from what was a largely pro-AJ audience. He strings together some kick sequences, before springboarding off the top into a flying headscissors. The Phenomenal Forearm shuts Reborn down again though, and struggling to escape the Styles Clash. He fights it with more kicks…then dodges the Pele into the standing moonsault! Frustratingly he didn’t sell the ribs one iota there. Sydal Press blocked and AJ pulls him back into the ring for BLOODY SUNDAY! Styles Clash COUNTERED TO THE SNAP RANA FOR 2! That one goes all the way back to their 2006 match at Hell Freezes Over! AJ tries a desperate springboard only to get his legs swept. SYDAL PRESS MISSES! SYDAL LANDS ON HIS FEET! AND EATS PELE KICK! HOLLOW F*CKING POINT! STYLES CLASH! AJ wins at 11:19
Rating - **** - These two have had some enjoyable matches inside a Ring Of Honor ring over the years, and if Sydal had been more consistent selling those ribs this may well have been my favourite. Like Bucks/ANX it didn’t go long, which played to the strengths of both men – who have countless neat and nifty offensive flurries and counters they can scatter about. If anything the ‘psychology’ of this (AJ attacking the ribs) was the weakest part of it. AJ has been heavily protected in ROH this year and hasn’t worked many singles matches at all. As a tune-up to Final Battle this was a solid effort and stands him in good stead for Lethal at Final Battle then Nakamura at Wrestle Kingdom.
Jay Lethal/Donovan Dijak vs reDRagon
reDRagon enter the ring with World Champion Jay Lethal once again, having both fallen to tainted defeats against him at All Star Extravaganza. O’Reilly has tapped Lethal out on more than one occasion this year, and will be desperate to do that again to earn another title shot in the future (and the same can be said for Fish too). Dijak is the potential wildcard, charged with protecting his stable-mate and with his own reputation significantly furthered after his explosive encounter with Michael Elgin back at Glory By Honor.
Absolutely no urgency comes from the House Of Truth corner, with Lethal and Dijak taking an age to decide who will lock up with Fish. The World Champion enters…and is swiftly send packing into the torso of his own tag partner. O’Reilly sneaks up behind Donovan to unleash a barrage of kicks which remove him from early competition too. reDRagon capitalise on Dijak’s inexperience to isolate him from his partner and pick apart his leg. The Top Prospect Tournament winner is dramatically hobbled, and when Lethal comes to his rescue he is immediately slapped into Arm-ageddon by O’Reilly! HOT bail again…so Dijak can NAIL Fish with a mafia kick on the floor. He has abandoned selling the leg at this point disappointingly, but is quite the intimidating specimen as he tosses Bobby across the ring with the release suplex. Fish makes a tag to Kyle…who sets on Dijak’s bad leg again with more quickfire kicks. The World Champion saves his partner from Arm-ageddon, only to be speared into the rails by Fish! Axe & TOTAL ELIMINATION on Dijak (a new combo from reDRagon it seems!) gets 2. Lethal returns the favour by drilling Bobby into the railings, before grabbing O’Reilly for the Lethal Combination…into an ELECTRIC CHAIR CHOKESLAM BACKBREAKER COMBO with Dijak! Awesome spot! O’Reilly recovers with a guillotine choke on Donovan…but the big man won’t go down and eventually Lethal makes the save. Two Man Smash Machine on Lethal! CHASING THE DRAGON ON DIJAK! reDRagon win at 14:32
Rating - *** - They have been killing it in singles action recently, so it has nice to see a reminder of just how good reDRagon are as a tag team this weekend. These four weren’t out to steal the show and were clearly working within themselves, but even with that proviso this was such a fun match to watch. Dijak, freed from teaming regularly with J. Diesel at last, looks so much better when he gets to share the ring with better talents. I wish he’d have sold the leg better, but the way he moves and interacts with his opponents has a natural, relaxed effortlessness to it which is indicative of his immense potential. The win here goes some way to restoring Fish and O’Reilly’s credibility after their losses to Lethal at the last PPV, and of course means they can quickly be pulled back into the World Title picture in 2016 if Delirious is at a loss for a house show main event.
Christopher Daniels vs Silas Young vs Jay Briscoe vs Michael Elgin vs ACH – SOTF Elimination Match
As has been covered, Roderick Strong is unable to take his spot in the final this year due to a head injury suffered in winning his match with Cedric Alexander yesterday. Having won in 2005, he was also a finalist in 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012, & 2014, so his absence effectively removes what many people would consider to be ‘the favourite’ from the running. Elgin is another former winner, having taken the prize in 2011, whilst Daniels and Briscoe have both made the finals in prior years. There are plenty of historical beefs between these five as well, from The Addiction’s problems with the Briscoes, Elgin’s career-long rivalry with Silas Young to his bitterness at Briscoe for ending his World Title reign. Can Elgin repeat? Can Briscoe add one of the few accolades missing from his thirteen year ROH career and get the rematch for the World Title he is still to receive? Can Daniels earn the right to challenge again for one of the few prizes that his lengthy and decorated career currently misses? Or will we get a breakthrough winner in either ACH or Silas (both of whom come in hot following recent triumphs over rivals Dalton Castle and Matt Sydal respectively)? As a rather bleak reminder of how gruelling this final can be – only once in history has the winner of this gone on to actually take the World Title (Eddie Edwards after his 2010 win). All of the remaining previous winners – including illustrious names like Bryan Danielson, Roderick Strong, Chris Hero, Tyler Black, Adam Cole, current World Champion Jay Lethal and Elgin himself – failed in their subsequent title shots!
Young is grumpy obviously, and inside the first minute has raked ACH’s eyes and picked a fight with Todd Sinclair. Big portions of the Hopkins crowd haven’t got the memo that New Japan success means they are supposed to like Elgin again…and loudly chant that he’s boring during his first involvement. Daniels and Young appear to form an early alliance, whilst Briscoe and Elgin have a number of rather intense exchanges with tension apparently still simmering following Big Mike’s World Title loss. ACH is the man left out, smiling like an idiot as the Ring General cheap shots him into Young’s Killer Combo for 2. He is subjected to an extended beatdown from the two heels which is far from ideal considering how tough his qualification match with Sydal was. The Daniels/Silas alliance turns their attention to Briscoe however…and Jay has too much firepower for them. Same story for Elgin whom is quite literally strong enough to suplex them both at once. Freebird Crossbody from ACH to Silas gets 2…before Elgin dishes out German suplexes to the entire field! ACH stunts his momentum with a hurricanrana, before taking flight with a RUNNING MOONSAULT ONTO EVERYONE! Todd Sinclair angrily demands that the legal men (Young and ACH) return to the ring, and Young nearly benefits from the intervention to hit Misery. Hero’s Grip by ACH…eliminates Silas at 17:03! Briscoe tries to punch ACH’s lights out on the floor only to be interrupted by the Fallen Angel’s Arabian Press. SOMERSAULT PLANCHA BY ELGIN! Ever the cranky veteran; Daniels imposes himself with the use of the guardrails to all three opponents…so Briscoe tries to give him a Jay Driller through a table! Elgin scoops Jay up…and as he puts Briscoe on his shoulders Daniels DUMPS THEM BOTH THROUGH THE TABLE! ACH is left alone with Daniels and climbs the ropes to hit the MIDNIGHT STAR! But Frankie Kazarian runs in and thwarts a pinfall! Matt Sydal is out! He and ACH forcibly eject Kaz from the arena…until of course Daniels capitalises! Low blow on ACH, followed by the BME to eliminate him at 23:49.
We are down to three – Daniels and two guys he just put through a table. He dumps Jay on his neck with a Blue Thunder Driver…and it’s only being grabbed for a Bossman Slam from Unbreakable which prevents him from another elimination right there. The two former World Champions turn the table on the man who main evented the first ever show…but still can’t help from arguing amongst themselves. BACK FIST nailed! Daniels needlessly saves Jay from the Elgin Bomb, but almost eliminates Big Mike with the Angel’s Wings as a result. BME blocked, sending him into the JAY DRILLER! Briscoe eliminates him at 31:04, and we are down to two! A year of bitterness and frustration comes to the surface as Elgin drags the man who took his ROH Title away up from the mat and absolutely batters him with elbows. They start violently stiffing each other…and finally both collapse after simultaneously elbowing each other in the face. RUNNING DVD by Jay! GERMAN BY ELGIN! NO SOLD! RUDE AWAKENING gets 2! These guys are doing a tremendous job of selling like they have been beaten to within an inch of their lives. Elgin stands there and ignores a couple of lariats…AND ELBOWS JAY RIGHT IN THE DAMN FACE! NO SOLD! LARIAT! Big Mike goes down in a heap! The disrespectful assholes start up the ‘Elgin’s Boring’ chant again, really killing their vibe and cementing the fact that this Hopkins crowd are murdering what has been a great main event. Boring or not, Elgin hauls Briscoe to the floor for a POWERBOMB INTO THE GUARDRAILS! CORKSCREW SENTON NAILED…for 2! Elgin Bomb COUNTERED TO THE JAY DRILLER! ELGIN KICKS OUT! He crawls under the ropes and collapses to the floor buying time to recover and forcing Briscoe to expend vital energy dragging his heavy carcass back in. Jay mercilessly kicks Big Mike in the head, enraged further by the Canadian spitting and swearing at him as he does so. Jay Driller blocked…BUCKLE BOMB! ELGIN BOMB! TWO COUNT! Elgin scoops Jay up…BURNING F*CKING HAMMER! Elgin wins! It’s over at 45:28
Rating - **** - It was slow to get going, and borderline ruined by a terrible crowd, but on the whole I really liked this. I loved the Elgin/Briscoe exchanges in the final third and thought they created a real ‘big match aura’ (capped off quite beautifully with Elgin using a ‘special occasion finisher’ to win it). If fifteen minutes of Elgin and Briscoe smacking the tar out of each other wasn’t enjoyable enough, there were some fun moments in the earlier portion too. I loved the central theme of Daniels trying to strategise, cheat and manipulate his way to victory – from teaming with Silas, to summoning Frankie to help him and even opportunistically putting two opponents through a table when a chance presented itself. Perhaps my biggest issue with this is that SOTF has always felt like an avenue for ROH to create a new star. It’s a tradition going all the way back to the first one when Austin Aries broke out from being Alex Shelley’s Generation Next stable-mate to legitimate future World Champion by pushing American Dragon to the limit. This year the two men who would have benefited from that treatment (ACH and Silas) were complete afterthoughts. And that’s particularly disappointing in the case of ACH, who after winning his big series with Sydal yesterday was promptly slotted right back into the same slot he’d previously occupied (talented upper midcard act who poses no real threat to top tier guys).
The fans continue to be disrespectful pricks all over Elgin’s victory speech, but it ends with the two men shaking hands…then Elgin demanding he gets his title shot in Japan.
SIDENOTE – Elgin’s Japanese title shot wound up being a hugely underwhelming match at the 2016 NJPW Wrestle Kingdom event…when it probably should have been saved for the co-promoted ROH/NJPW Honor Rising tour events that happened a month afterwards instead.
Tape Rating - *** - This should seriously be considered as one of ROH's best house shows of 2015. In fact, both of this weekend's events have been excellent - and a real tonic for the enormous frustration I had coming out of All Star Extravaganza. I liked the SOTF finals a lot more than some seemed to; I thought the punchy, brief AJ/Sydal and Bucks/ANX matches were perfectly suited to the skillsets of the combatants in question…and I thought the longer Kingdom trios tag in the midcard was hugely enjoyable. Perhaps I’m in the minority, but I was on the edge of my seat during the climactic Elgin/Briscoe stretch of the Survival Of The Fittest match – and increasingly few ROH matches capture my attention in such a manner. This whole weekend has been a considerable improvement on a lot of ROH’s recent output. Both shows get enthusiastic thumbs up from me
Top 3 Matches
3) Young Bucks vs All Night Express (****)
2) AJ Styles vs Matt Sydal (****)
1) Michael Elgin vs Jay Briscoe vs Christopher Daniels vs ACH vs Silas Young (****)
Top 5 Survival Of The Fittest Weekend Matches
5) AJ Styles/Young Bucks vs Jay Lethal/Donovan Dijak/Joey Daddiego (**** - Night 1)
4) AJ Styles vs Matt Sydal (**** - Night 2)
3) ACH vs Matt Sydal (**** - Night 1)
2) Roderick Strong vs Cedric Alexander (**** - Night 1)
1) Michael Elgin vs Jay Briscoe vs Christopher Daniels vs ACH vs Silas Young (**** - Night 2)