ROH on Sinclair – Episode 113 – 16th November 2013

There is only one focus for tonight’s show – the final taped at Glory By Honor. It will be Champions vs All Stars, with Adam Cole, Matt Taven and reDRagon facing a quartet of opponents that Nigel McGuinness deems to be their top contenders. The actual match went 70 minutes, and was really spectacular, so I’m curious to see how they edit it down for television time constraints. Although please note you won’t see that reflected in my play-by-play below as I’m just going to be copy and pasting from my Glory By Honor 12 review. We go to Chicago Ridge, IL with Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino.

Adam Cole/Matt Taven/Bobby Fish/Kyle O’Reilly vs Michael Elgin/Jay Lethal/Caprice Coleman/Cedric Alexander
This is your Champions vs All-Stars match – pitting the current Ring Of Honor World, Television and Tag Champions against those considered to be their top contenders. There is a slight point to raise against Elgin’s inclusion – in that Jay Briscoe, whom many consider to be the top challenger to Adam Cole’s World Championship, wasn’t actually cleared to compete when Nigel McGuinness was putting the match together. If anyone can pin Cole tonight they get a title shot in the future. This one has a 2-hour time limit, and it seems unlikely Sinclair would have added that stipulation, and dedicated a whole episode of the TV show around this if it wasn’t going long.
 
The All-Stars are happy to let Elgin start for them, but on the Champion’s team Cole and Taven have a full-blown argument about it prompting Bobby Fish to be the voice of reason. Ironically, Cole then spends the first minute running away from Unbreakable before forcibly tagging Matt in anyway. Lethal succeeds in landing one chop on Taven before he too leaves the ring – for a rubdown from Kasey Rae and Scarlett. The first serious offensive strikes from Alexander, as he hits a running boot to the back of Fish’s head. Cole is still avoiding getting in the ring with Elgin…so Taven goes in instead and hits a STALLING SUPLEX on him! Elgin absolutely HATES that, and is on his feet before his opponent. Stalling suplex on Taven…even with reDRagon hitting him! Randy Savage Axehandle from Lethal to Taven, so he hauls Jay to the Champions’ corner so all four of them can choke him! Lethal retaliates with a quebrada on O’Reilly. The All-Stars start isolating Fish, and as we pass the 12-minute mark a team is starting to dominate for the first time. Eventually Kyle has to save his partner, stepping in to pick Cedric apart with a flurry of strikes. The Champions now start wearing down Alexander, although reDRagon find themselves distracted as they see Outlaw Inc. hanging over the guardrails. In the ring that leads to a terrific strike exchange between O’Reilly and Alexander…and with tags all round once again Cole finds himself having to run away from Michael Elgin! ST-JOE on Taven instead! Black Hole Slam next, and Fish has to save Matt from elimination. Elgin starts beating up both Tag Champions at the same time…and still Cole runs away!

All eight men are on the floor brawling now. Hilariously, Homicide is trying to give anyone fighting reDRagon a chair. We’re at 20-minutes now and it’s a completely chaotic scene. When a semblance of order is restored we have Taven beating on a disorientated Michael Elgin, then tagging in a gleeful Adam Cole who wants to beat his rival up now he’s injured. But it’s all a scheme, and Cole is on the run again to avoid the Spiral Bomb. PESCADO by Elgin! He then PRESS SLAMS Bobby Fish into O’Reilly! Taven saves the World Champion from the Spiral Bomb again…and now everyone piles into the ring for a brawl. FOUR WAY TREE OF WOE DROPKICKS FROM THE ALL-STARS! In response the Champions try to isolate Lethal, spending several minutes wearing him down – including a brief Future Shock reunion which Bobby Fish really doesn’t like. Alexander gets a hot tag at the half hour mark, coming in dishing out high-octane kicks to all comers. DETONATION KICK on Cole for 2! Adam retaliates with a jumping enzi through the ropes. SPRINGBOARD MOONSAULT TO THE FLOOR BY CAPRICE! SPEAR INTO THE GUARDRAILS BY FISH! MISSILE DROPKICK OFF THE APRON BY O’REILLY! And now Outlaw Inc. have jumped the rails! They start brawling with reDRagon…as Taven dives onto everyone! SOMERSAULT PLANCHA FROM ALEXANDER! There are security guys all over ringside trying to eject Homicide and Eddie Kingston as the eight men in the ring recover. In the ring Cedric springboards into a superkick from Cole…and becomes the first man eliminated at 33:14. Cole celebrates…and doesn’t see Elgin in the ring behind him! CROSSFACE ON COLE! Lethal breaks it! He wants the World Title shot!

Taven tags in, and eats the Lethal Combination. Scarlett Bordeaux shows off her FANTASTIC backside before planting a liplock on Jay! LETHAL COMBINATION ON TAVEN AGAIN! Now Kasey Rae tries to distract him as he goes to the top rope. TAVEN SUPERKICKS THEM BOTH THROUGH THE TIMEKEEPING TABLE! Coleman and Taven are legal apparently, with Caprice delivering the rolling northern lights suplexes for 2. CLIMAX on Coleman! But he’s not legal as Cole blind-tagged himself in! Clearly he wants to eliminate everyone, but the delay means Caprice was able to kick out. FLORIDA KEY! Caprice is eliminated at 38:12, so it’s now 4-on-2, with Elgin and Lethal not on great terms after Jay broke the Crossface earlier! Jay also hasn’t moved since he went through the table, and he now has Nigel McGuinness out checking on him. All four Champions jump Unbreakable, stomping him into the ground like it was a gang attack. They take turns beating Elgin down. Lethal still hasn’t moved from the wreckage of the table, and Nigel has joined commentary to discuss whether he has a concussion or not. Somehow Elgin rocks Kyle with a TKO over the knee…only to turn towards his corner and see nobody there to tag. O’Reilly follows him to apply the Cross Armbreaker – the move he tapped Davey Richards out with! Elgin breaks it with a powerbomb! LARIAT ON TAVEN! Kyle captures him again, this time with a guillotine choke. ELGIN COUNTERS TO A FRONT SLAM! Fish has to break the count at 45-minutes. He climbs onto his back applying a sleeper. DEAD-LIFT GERMAN ON TAVEN – WITH FISH ON HIS BACK! BACK FIST ON O’REILLY! LARIATOOOOO! Elgin eliminates O’Reilly at 46:42!

As he succumbs to another 3-on-1 attack from the remaining Champions, Lethal is on his feet and trying to convince referees and Nigel to let him back into the match. Taven inadvertently levels Fish with a superkick, and is punished with an exploder suplex! DEAD-LIFT SUPERPLEX ON COLE! And that’s after nearly FIFTY minutes! And at the same time Jay shoves all those helping him away to get onto the apron! Hot tag to Lethal! ROLLING TOPE SUICIDAS FOR EVERYONE! And a superkick on Truth Martini for good measure! COLE SUPERKICKS HIM IN THE BACK OF THE HEAD! CRADLEBREAKER! Lethal is eliminated at 51:34. That means Elgin is now formally left on his own, whilst Adam Cole has eliminated every one of the All-Stars so far. Taven MISSES the Five Star Frog Splash, but as Elgin desperately locks in the Crossface Fish and Cole are right there to break the hold. CLIMAX – COUNTERED TO THE CROSSFACE! Taven taps and is eliminated at 52:55! Fish slides in and nearly wins it seconds later with his Knock-Out Kick. Saito suplex gets 2 as well.  Florida Key blocked…and with Fish unfortunately positioned on Cole’s shoulders ELGIN GERMAN SUPLEXES BOTH OF THEM! RUNNING DVD INTO THE BUCKLES for Fish! FALLAWAY SLAM/SAMOAN DROP COMBO! How is Elgin still doing this? They’ve been wrestling for an hour! SPIRAL BOMB! Elgin eliminates Fish, becoming the first man to pin him in ROH at 57:35! Fish gets a standing ovation for his performance (he fought most of the match with a huge gash over his ear).

As the clock ticks past the hour mark we’re all set for Elgin vs Cole again…with a World Title shot up for grabs! FISH NAILS ELGIN WITH A CHAIR! Somehow that’s not a DQ, and the match continues as Elgin gets the shoulder up! Michael is out on his feat, but somehow he drags Cole into a CHAOS THEORY for 2! Cole scales the ropes, but the Panama Sunrise is countered…so he rolls through into a DVD over the knee instead! Great counter-wrestling, and he is rewarded with a nearfall off a Shining Wizard. Both of these guys look absolutely knackered now...but somehow Elgin gets a shoulder up even after enduring a superkick flurry. Florida Key blocked with an ST-Joe! LARIAT KNOCKS COLE ON HIS NECK! They go outside, where Cole blocks a Ringpost Bomb…FLORIDA KEY ON THE FLOOR! He is happy to win by count-out as he did against Roddy at Best In The World. Elgin, of course, makes it back in…but rolls straight into the Figure 4! Elgin sits up and literally SCREAMS at Cole that he won’t tap out! COUNTERED TO THE CROSSFACE! ‘I’m going to be the second colour commentator to have a heart attack this year’ – Corino. Can he say that?? Buckle Bomb! SPIRAL BOMB COUNTERED! BACK FIST INSTEAD! BOTH MEN DOWN! They wearily climb the ropes, and as Michael sets up the avalanche Elgin Bomb COLE COUNTERS WITH A SUPER RANA! PANAMA SUNRISE! GETS 2! And incredibly they start climbing the ropes again. TOP ROPE ELGIN BOMB…BACKWARDS OUT OF THE CORNER! ELGIN WINS! It’s over at 71:38!

Rating - ****1/2 - I was so prepared to dislike this match. I mean, I knew it wasn’t going to be ‘bad’ per se, but I was so prepared for it to be like the marathon 8-man they did at Battle In The Carolinas weekend under Jim Cornette’s run with the book. As with that one, I was expecting this to feature lots of stalling for TV, lots of repetitive action, very little storyline – and essentially showcase eight good wrestlers working a 70+ minute match for the sake of it. Boy was I wrong! What an utterly fantastic match this was. I thought the way this one flowed was utterly genius. There were so many intricate little touches – all sewn up in the bigger ‘Cole vs Elgin’ picture. You had the dangled carrot of the World Title shot incentive for the All-Star team (which paid off when Lethal broke up Elgin’s submission hold). You had C&C’s ongoing quest to get a 2-vs-2 shot at reDRagon, which again they didn’t get here and again couldn’t pull off a victory over them. We saw Outlaw Inc. get involved to further their chase of reDRagon. You had Cole trying to beat everyone. Taven provided one of the big selling points of the match – that being the Lethal table spot which effectively put him out of the match, and intensified their perceived ‘rivalry’ over the TV Title (which going into this show was pretty lukewarm). You had Bobby Fish’s undefeated streak. Elgin continually being thwarted in his quest to get his hands on Cole. And the big pay-off in the final ten minutes, with Elgin having fought basically on his own for half an hour, having eliminated the TV Champion, and having ended Fish’s unbeaten streak, going back and forth with the World Champion, was absolutely epic. I can’t stress how underwhelmed I was expecting to be by this, and in turn I can’t stress how excellent this on was if you’re prepared to sit through it. And ultimately, you have to praise the incredible stamina of Adam Cole and Michael Elgin. Everyone contributed to this (including the Outlaws, Scarlett, Kasey Rae, Truth Martini, Nigel McGuinness etc), but the whole thing was carried on the back of those two phenomenal performers – who have now stepped forward to become the defining rivalry of the ‘new Ring Of Honor’. Elgin is a big guy, and it was borderline super-human to see him picking two or three guys up at once after wrestling for well over an hour. An incredible effort, and a fantastic match that I can’t praise highly enough. I’d imagine this will be pushing right to the top of my ROH Top 10 matches of 2013 come Final Battle.

Both Elgin and Cole stay down needing medical attention. With those two being checked over by officials, the crowd pops as Jay Briscoe makes his way to the ring carrying an ominous black bag. He’s been medically cleared to wrestle, and wants to settle things apparently! As Elgin tries to reason with him Briscoe knocks him unconscious with whatever is in the bag! SUPERKICK ON COLE! Poetic justice there, and Jay once again calls himself the ‘Real World Champion’. He pulls his ‘Real World Title’ belt out of the bag and poses with it as the show ends!


Tape Rating - N/A - I’ve generously chosen not to give this one a rating. I was tempted to give this episode the DUD treatment, as I’m really concerned that people will watch this hugely edited version and think they can skip the Glory By Honor VOD/DVD as a result. The Glory By Honor, unedited and uncut version is infinitely better and should really be checked out – rather than this episode.
 

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