Blog of Honor: Louisville + Collinsville Results

Ring of Honor completed a Mid-West swing by hitting Louisville, Kentucky for television tapings, and Collinsville, Illinois for a live event featuring a first-time meeting of the American Wolves and the All-Night Express as well as Future Shock getting a world tag team title shot against Haas & Benjamin. All this and more will be discussed in this edition of the Blog of Honor!

Matt Waters here, back to discuss some ROH results. Ari, Chris and myself previewed these two events in the most recent Podcast of Honor so it seems fitting that I should follow through with a write-up of my thoughts on the results and the implications they'll have moving forward. Obviously the TV tapings in particular are going to contain heavy spoilers, so if you want to be surprised by ROH's television product each week I'd recommend using the Flashy-Thing from Men in Black on yourself when you're finished reading this… or just don't read it.

Ring of Honor on Sinclair Television Taping Results

The Davis Arena, Louisville, Kentucky

– This marks the second consecutive taping from Louisville so expect plenty of OVW regulars, most notably the infamous Mike Mondo. Attendance was said to be in the region of 300-400 and these tapings were once again a marathon, with 5 episodes taped in just under 5 hours. Yikes.

Episode 1

– Mike Mondo pinned Alex Silva (Double Arm DDT) – Well lucky us, we get Mike Mondo in a match against a non-ROH talent. Reports went out last month that Mondo had been signed but then immediately counter-reports surfaced to debunk that horrible rumor. But here we are with Mondo getting to be the featured talent in a match he won. Hmm. We did see Mondo defeat Grizzly Redwood on the Louisville HDNet tapings and that didn't lead anywhere so perhaps there is hope.

– Mike Bennett pinned Jamin Olivencia (Box-Office Smash) – It's the attack of the Mikes! Yikes! Yes that's right folks, you'll get to enjoy Mike Mondo and Mike Bennett in the same episode at some point in the next month. Why they couldn't space these two matches out so we only had to endure them separately I don't know but hey. Anyway, Bennett declared himself the Television Champion and called this a title shot for Olivencia, an OVW talent. This was apparently an even match until Bennett used his tactic of winning out of nowhere to no reaction. So yes, Bennett does in fact feel he won the belt from Lethal via imaginary referee stoppage on a recent episode of ROH TV.

– Davey Richards defeated Kyle O'Reilly (Stoppage) – Just as Richards used Tony Kozina as a sparring partner nearly a year ago to tune up for a big upcoming world title match, Davey elected to step into the ring with fellow member of Team Richards, Kyle O'Reilly to show off his game. This was said to be a back and forth match and a contender for the best bout of the night, so good for you Mr. O'Reilly. Tony Kozina threw in the towel on O'Reilly's behalf when Davey sunk in an Ankle Lock. Notably Truth Martini had been on commentary throughout the match and made Richards some kind of offer afterward but received a beat-down from Davey and Kyle. Perhaps a Larry Sweeney (RIP) style merger offer?

Episode 2

– The Briscoes vs. Caprice Coleman & Cedric Alexander went to a no-contest – The feud between the Briscoes and ROH tag champs Haas & Benjamin continued here as Charlie and Shelton ran in with chairs and brawled with the Briscoes all the way out of the building. All of this stems from the Briscoes attacking WGTT with chairs at Best in the World and it'll come to a head at Final Battle. I'm generally not a fan of no-contests, but on the plus side apparently C&C were holding their own throughout the match.

– Michael Elgin pinned Raphael Constantine & Sean Casey (Double Alabama Slam) – Elgin is a beast. He defeated two OVW regulars at once by showing off that monstrous strength in the form of lifting and slamming both men at once. Apparently Constantine received a nasty head-drop during the match and needed an ice pack. Calm down Mr. Elgin!

– ROH TV Title Match: Jay Lethal vs. El Generico ends in a time-limit draw – The Jay Lethal Time Limit Experience Tour plays Louisville two months in a row. I honestly have no idea what they're doing here. It made sense for them to draw the first time and for Lethal to win in overtime because it says if Generico hadn't accepted the five additional minutes he might not have lost the title and keeps him looking strong. But for Lethal to go to draws against Mike Bennett and Generico in his first two defenses is just bizarre. Bennett's now declared himself the champion and watched this match from ringside with Bob Evans and at one point tried to put the title on but Lethal decked him. Bennett got his revenge by distracting the ref after Lethal nailed the Machismo Elbow, meaning time ran out on Lethal again. Lethal and Bennett brawled on the outside so Generico nailed a tope con hilo on them both as he is prone to do. The crowd wanted five more minutes but they never came. Generico and Lethal got into a bit of a shoving contest after the match. At this point it looks like they may do a three-way title match at Final Battle, and I could see Bennett winning the belt thanks to Lethal and Generico taking each other out. Unfortunately that would mean Bennett made good on his promise to win a belt before the end of 2011. Le sigh.

Episode 3

– Tommaso Ciampa pinned Shiloh Jonze (Project Ciampa) – The Dominant Male remains undefeated by defeating another OVW local. At some point Ciampa is going to have to step into the ring with an ROH regular who isn't Andy Ridge or Homicide. But for now he's gotten another squash victory over a regional jobber. Jonze got a lot of crowd support thanks to his OVW status.

– Kevin Steen Returns – So Kevin Steen came to the ring with an OVW wrestler who is also an attorney, both as part of his gimmick and in real life. I'm pretty sure ROH has a man on the roster who plays a barrister but hey! Jim Cornette, Steve Corino and Jimmy Jacobs met Steen in the ring to discuss the situation. Cornette once again acknowledges Steen is good but calls him insane. Steen throws the standard verbal jabs and correctly points out he carried ROH in 2010 and that Cornette is just afraid of him. Corino points out he started all the trouble so he wants the chance to end it by facing Steen at Final Battle. If Steen wins he is reinstated, if not… I guess he'll keep invading events until he is. Jimmy Jacobs will referee and Jim Cornette will sit ringside. Anybody else smell a turn by Jacobs? It isn't clear precisely how this came about so I'd look for some kind of backstage segment with Corino and Cornette on TV or in a video wire soon, as Corino has been asking to talk to Cornette privately for a while now. There's still time for Corino to put his career on the line as I predicted but at the moment I've gotten that part wrong.

– The Young Bucks pinned Future Shock (More Bang For Your Buck) – The Brothers Buck defeated Cole & O'Reilly in a frenetic and exciting match. No surprises there then. O'Reilly took quite a beating from his two matches at these tapings, but they were both among the best of the night, so good for him. No word on if the Bucks cheated or refused to shake hands or anything like that, but I'd expect at least the latter if not the former. I still think at some point Future Shock are beating the Bucks to launch them to the upper end of the tag division.

Episode 4

– Caprice Coleman & Cedric Alexander pinned The Bravados – Whatever the name of C&C's finisher is, they hit that for the victory. I've seen and heard it described on three separate occasions and I still have no clue what it might look like. Bad news if you're a Bravado fan because they're getting precisely nowhere recently (perhaps that'll change when they wrestle 3.0 in Chikara soon), but great news if you're a C&C fan as they're getting strong showings against the top teams and picking up victories over the lower end ones.

– TJ Perkins pinned Chris Silvio (Detonation Kick) – TJ gets his second television victory against an OVW talent, this time with one of his actual finishing moves, the awesome Detonation Kick. Not a lot to say here except 'woo!'

– The All-Night Express pinned Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin (One Night Stand) – Do not adjust your monitor, you read that right. The ANX get the biggest victory of their careers by defeating the ROH champs in a non-title match. It wasn't entirely clean unfortunately as the Briscoes attacked Shelton Benjamin while he was on the floor, leaving Haas victim to an ANX double-team. This is interesting as they've been doing an angle with the ANX where they're complaining about being overlooked after winning Ladder War 3 and have a title shot coming at Glory by Honor X. Shelton either was injured or faked an injury after the match and Haas cut a promo about considering Shelton his brother and that he knew about losing a brother. Heavy stuff.

Episode 5

– Eddie Edwards submitted Andy Ridge – Edwards won this one quickly and easily, tearing Ridge's chest to pieces in the process with the hardest chops in wrestling. Yeah, I said it. This is the second time Edwards has been described as choking someone out, so I assumed he was using a Rear Naked Choke, but later in this episode we see him use a Dragon Sleeper, which is for intents and purposes a choke, so who knows. Truth Martini did commentary on this match just as he did with the earlier Richards' one. Truth has shown interest in Edwards all year long so perhaps he'll end up being Edwards' coach after all. Hope not though.

– Proving Ground: Davey Richards

pinned Michael Elgin (Roll-Up) – As far as I can tell this was the only roll-up win of the night and it came from the world champion in the biggest match of the tapings. Fair choice though as Elgin likely looked a million bucks in this encounter, surviving a lot of Richards' offense and almost forcing the 20-minute time limit. At one point Elgin destroyed Davey on the outside and we got one of those lovely Davey-barely-beats-the-count spots. As you'd expect Elgin's power gave Richards fits, but in the end he managed to get the win with about one minute left. Apparently he used a sunset flip, so I'd guess he rolled through from an Elgin powerbomb. The Code Red style move he used to do to Claudio may be asking a bit much, but that would certainly look cooler than just a sunset flip. Elgin doesn't earn himself a title shot but at least he looked great and proved he can hang with the champ. I'd like to see a title match between these two in 2012.

– Post-Match Brawl – Elgin attacks Davey after the match so Eddie ran it to make the save. Truth Martini threw Edwards the world title and he attempted to hit Elgin with it, but ended up blasting Davey in the back of the head with it by mistake. Elgin and Martini bailed and when Richards came to he shouted at Eddie and tackled him. The Wolves brawled as Kozina and O'Reilly tried and failed to pull them apart. Jim Cornette called out the job squad to assist but they still couldn't stop the fight. At one point Eddie locked in a Dragon Sleeper and even though it wasn't a match, Davey tapped out. Nigel McGuinness then entered the fray to try and calm things down and eventually the pair were separated. If you listened to the Podcast of Honor you'll know Ari suggested Nigel as Edwards' coach, and based on him saving Eddie from a House of Truth attack a few weeks ago, and his presence here I'd say that's a strong bet and while I know it won't happen, I'd love to see the belt go back to Edwards at Final Battle thanks to Nigel's coaching. Richards is probably going to hold the title for at least a year and try and emulate AmDrag's reign, but a guy can dream.

Plenty of exciting stuff coming out of those tapings, particularly Kevin Steen returning, the Wolves brawling, and the ANX pinning the tag team champions. I'm not thrilled with Lethal drawing another match or Mike Mondo and Mike Bennett getting victories in the same episode but on the plus side only one roll-up victory.

Currently Untitled Live Event

The Gateway Center, Collinsville, Illinois

– Tommaso Ciampa pinned Andy Ridge (Project Ciampa): Since recording the Podcast, Delirious was pulled from this match due to a conflict of interests as he is ROH's head booker. R.D. Evans mocked Delirious for not being able to compete so Ciampa settled for Delirious' favorite student, Andy Ridge. Easy win as you'd expect, but Delirious did in fact appear, chasing Prince Nana around the ring at one point, but it wasn't enough as Ciampa pinned Ridge with Project Ciampa. Ciampa vs Delirious at Final Battle? You betcha. Unfortunately I have a horrible feeling Delirious is going to step down from his position and give full booking power to Jim Cornette, whose influence has been the worst stuff in ROH lately.

– Jay Briscoe pinned TJ Perkins (J-Driller): A competitive bout with TJP getting several near falls but ultimately Jay's strong singles record improved thanks to one of ROH's most effective finishers. I'd like to have seen TJ get a few victories before going under the Briscoe bus, but I don't have any real complaints given Jay's aforementioned solo success.

– Steve Corino & Jimmy Jacobs pinned The Bravados (Eternal Dream): Boy did I call this one badly. I figured the Bravados needed a win and could exploit Corino's mental distractions and the lack of teaming experience between he and Jacobs to sneak one out. The crowd were said to love the match and it had several comedy spots so that's cool, but I really did expect the Bravados to win, but instead their stock falls even further. Semi-notable is the fact that Corino and Jacobs used the Thumb in The Bum on both Bravados. Corino promised to be evil at Final Battle against Steen, so I guess he's giving his thumb a work-out in advance. Yay.

– Michael Elgin submitted Grizzly Redwood (Strong Hold): No confirmation yet as to whether or not Elgin ate Grizzly's face as I predicted, but we know that Elgin used his HoT teammate Roderick Strong's finisher to get the W. Interesting. It's also quite interesting that all three of us neglected to highlight the fact Roddy wasn't competing on this double-shot and I'm not sure why. I'd guess he's either in NOAH or spending some time with his new wife. I heard that he missed the last two PWG shows because one was on the same night as his bachelor party and the other the day of his wedding, and Steen Wolf took place a couple of weeks ago so he may be taking a short break from wrestling to enjoy being married. Or he could be in NOAH. Either way Grizzly got almost no offense which is tremendous.

– ROH World Tag Team Title Match: Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin submit Future Shock (Haas of Pain): As I predicted, this didn't main event. Shelton was sporting taped ribs either to sell the fake injury from the TV tapings or because he genuinely hurt himself. Haas worked most of the match and while Future Shock put up quite a fight, they fell to Haas' awesome finisher. Haas put Future Shock over and said they'd hold the titles one day. Could have been this day if you'd just laid down Haas.

– MsChif pinned Princess Mia Yim (Desecrator): A surprise bonus match to make up for the lack of Delirious. While I enjoy MsChif and would like to see her in ROH regularly, I can't help but think this has completely destroyed the minor storyline they were doing with Mia. Nana and ROH highlighted the fact she had been visiting Japan to train and hyped the fact she'd compete soon. And here she is competing and from all accounts MsChif murdered her. If Mia had defeated a few jobbers and gotten cocky and then MsChif beat her at Final Battle then this would make sense, but really they just killed the angle dead in my opinion.

– Proving Ground: Jay Lethal pinned Mark Briscoe (Machismo Elbow): Lethal wins a match within the time limit!!! Of course it was non-title so go figure. Still, Lethal blocked Mark from getting a title shot by beating him with the Lethal Injection followed by the Machismo Elbow. The Lethal Injection used to be some crazy face dropping move, then it was his inverted suplex lifted into a facebuster and now it's the Lethal Combination renamed. Fun fact for you there. Well, a fact.

– El Generico pinned Mike Bennett (Brainbuster): Bennett's highest position on a non-TV card sees him lose to El Generico. Phew. I was genuinely worried Generico would fall victim to the Mike Bennett show as his wins and losses are seemingly irrelevant. Instead he gets the victory after a pair of Brainbusters. I haven't heard any reports of this being a bad match, but I've also heard Generico damn near carried the entire match, so there's probably some correlation there. Bennett survived the first Brainbuster and I'm not sure how. He either kicked out, or Brutal Bob Evans distracted the ref in some way. It didn't matter though, as Generico reversed a Box Office Smash attempt into a second Brainbuster and won the match. All is right with the world. Bennett laid Generico out after the match, but that's fine, Generico won. Certainly adds fuel to the fire that is my theory about a three-way at Final Battle though.

– The All-Night Express pinned The American Wolves (Frog Splash/Shooting Star Press Combo): Though I predicted this result, it still somehow surprises me. The ANX follow a non-title victory over the champs with a clean win over the Wolves. Without a doubt their biggest weekend as a tag team. Edwards took the fall here, as pinning Davey would be a step too far. The cool part is that they won with a combination of top rope moves instead of one of their two tag team finishers. King has a great Shooting Star Press so I'm glad he finally won a match with it. The Wolves were reported to be a bit rusty together, but I'd imagine that was intentional due to their slowly disintegrating friendship heading into Final Battle. Of course the space time continuum took another hit here as the Wolves were in a pull-apart brawl the night before and didn't attack each other in any way the following day and put the ANX over on the mic after the match.

Generico won, so I'm happy. This card went down almost exactly as predicted on the Podcast but that's not a bad thing at all. I think the right people won in every match with the exception of the Bravados, but I guess Corino needs some momentum heading into Final Battle and he doesn't beat that many people on the roster so the Bravados could take (yet another) hit here. The ANX are at an all-time high and I'd really like to see their match here. Stars continued to rise and none of the matches sounded bad, but it seems like this show was really just maintaining the status quo rather than advancing many stories. Still, solid wrestling is never a bad thing.

Plugs

– Listen to the latest Podcast of Honor to see what we thought of these cards in advance.

– Check out my review of last week's episode of ROH TV and look out for my one for this week's in the coming days.

– Have a read of the latest Wrestling Press for a career retrospective of Bobby Roode.