roh 11thani2013

Welcome to our coverage of Ring of Honor’s 11th anniversary show. Be sure to REFRESH this page for updates on the show and thoughts on the action as it develops. Order the show here.

The action takes place from Chicago Ridge, IL.

Estimated Attendance: 650-700

Dark match: Grizzly Redwood def Darren Dean

The crowd really doesn’t look very impressive(written during opening of show). Hopefully those there make a lot of noise. Caleb Seltzer and Kevin Kelly are your commentators.

Tadarius Thomas vs. QT Marshall vs. Adam Page vs. Silas Young vs. ACH vs. Mike Sydal 

Super fun match, as you might expect, with lots of crazy dives. After a bunch of topes to the floor including TD hitting a Sasuke Special, Silas Young gave RD Evans a superplex to the outside, onto the stack of guys on the floor. Always a crazy spot. ACH got the win, pinning Young, which got a big pop. ACH was really over.

Winner: ACH via pinfall (6:56)

Cedric Alexander and Caprice Coleman vs. S.C.U.M. (Steve Corino and Jimmy Jacobs)

It was only two matches in before the commentary started to grate. Just every cliche in the book, and some annoying faux-outrage from Kelly in relation to S.C.U.M’s anti-ROH gimmick. It feels a little like WWE, in the sense that nothing sounds sincere and every thing’s a shill. Anyway, this was another good match, but the crowd was lacking a bit. C&C are a great babyface team, Corino and Jacobs are endlessly devious, and they all worked hard. Corino and Jacobs got the win with a spike piledriver double-team, basically clean — unless you consider that a heel move.

Winners: S.C.U.M. via pinfall (8:38)

Up next is the Haas vs. Whitmer NO HOLDS BARRED FIGHT~! I’m hoping for nothing too scary here. They had a video package for the car park brawl from a few weeks ago, which I actually thought was a a cool deal. Considering the endless hard push of Haas as a supreme a-hole, he wasn’t that over.

Charlie Haas vs. BJ Whitmer – No Holds Barred

Crowd was really into Whitmer. Really just a spot-fest, didn’t quite click with me. They did some fun stuff though, BJ took a belly-to-belly out of the ring through a table, as well as a recreation of the infamous Final Battle bump from the top rope – thankfully with a much safer landing. Haas was suplexed through a ladder bridge and then hit with a string of knees to the back of the head, leading to the referee stopping the match in favour of Whitmer. “Cheeseburger” also did a run in at one point, which probably would have been better saved for closer to the finish. Like I said, didn’t do much for me, but it was a fine street fight, bringing some variety to the show.

Winner: BJ Whitmer via stoppage (12:04)

Rocky Romero and Alex Koslov vs. The American Wolves

All action match, no real heat period, just a non-stop flurry. It really is great seeing The Wolves back as a team, and Romero and Koslov had a great showing too. They did, of course, open with the Russian national anthem. Highlights included a huge leaping frankensteiner from Rocky followed by a frogsplash by Koslov for a near-fall, and a brutal powerbomb/back cracker combo finish, which garnered the win for the Wolves. Crowd was into it and everything was executed well. It was pretty much what you expected going in, and I mean that in the best possible way. Love live the American Wolves!

Winners: The American Wolves via pinfall (15:47)

There was a handshake and a hug between Richards and Romero post match. They played up their history big time during the match. Crowd gave them standing ovation.

INTERMISSION!

It’s been a fun show thus far, and the production has been great! No hiccups on the stream, although there were some direction mistakes here or there, but that’s just to be expected on a live show like this. The only real draw backs have been the crowd, who are ‘eh’ thus far, and the commentary, which is incredibly dry.

Roderick Strong vs. Michael Elgin – 2/3 Falls

Elgin buckle-bombed Strong, and then hit the Elgin bomb for the first fall victory, inside 120 seconds.

Strong evened it up at one fall a piece, just before the 12th minute, with his suplex into a backbreaker spot – which looked brutal on Elgin. Hell of a second fall, really got the crowd into it. These guys gel really well and had a great, hard-hitting fall.

Third fall was brief, just some back and forth with each guy’s big moves. Strong kicked out of the Elgin bomb, but then tapped to the cross face. Not a great climax, but good, and it rounded off a hell of a match.

Winner: Michael Elgin, two falls to one (15:42)

Adam Cole vs. Matt Taven is next – Matt Hardy comes out to cut a promo and he is HATED. PASSIONATELY HATED. He said this match was an afterthought and he’d be Cole’s next TV title challenger.

Adam Cole vs. Matt Taven – ROH TV Championship Match

Taven won the TV title from Cole in an upset. It was a hell of a match, and the more I see of Taven the happier I am that ROH is doing something with him. Him and Cole got on the same page and had did well here. Adam Cole is possibly setting off soon for greener pastures.

Winner: Matt Taven via pinfall (13:30)

tavenTVchamp

Matt Hardy was on commentary and was perplexed about the future of his TV title match following Cole’s loss. Nigel McGuinness came out to call the next match, and said that the winner of Cole vs. Hardy tomorrow will get a TV title match at Supercard of Honor.

The Briscoes vs. Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish – ROH Tag Team Championship Match

This started slow but REALLY picked up in the last five minutes. The turning point came with a crazy doomsday device on the floor from The Briscoes to O’Reilly. All action from that point. One point saw O’Reilly and Mark swapping stiff headbutts on the apron, which wasn’t nice to see and resulted in Mark bleeding, and eventually Mark getting belly-to-belly’d off the apron. Fish and O’Reilly got the upset win with Future Shock’s old head kick/brainbuster combo. Crowd reacted huge, and it was obvious the Briscoes were the biggest stars on the show thus far.

Winners: RedDRagon via pinfall (15:18)

reddragonROHtagchamps

Kevin Steen vs. Jay Lethal – ROH World Championship Match

Excellent main event. You could argue it was overbooked – with a ref bump, repeated S.C.U.M interference, an F5 through a table, every finisher under the Sun kicked out of – but this was the right crowd for it, and by the end, after all the S.C.U.M antics, the people were begging for Lethal to finally put Steen away. Rocking atmosphere for the last few minutes. Steen eventually won with a SICK brainbustahhh on the top turnbuckle, which almost whiffed, and Lethal nearly hit the canvas. Just awesome stuff. They teased a Steen turn during the match, he turned down help from Jacobs and was going to shake Lethal’s hand at the beginning of the match, but Lethal refused.

Winner; Kevin Steen via pinfall (21:07)

Speaking of overbooked – they did a big S.C.U.M.  beatdown post match with Rhett Titus joining the group, as well as Matt Hardy and the RETURNING JIMMY RAVE! It was cool when Rave came out, but this went on and on and on and on. All the faces ran down and got their asses kicked, and then Corino began cutting a promo about the death of ROH. Cliff Compton of all people also debuted here as part of the group. While Corino is ranting, Steen looked unsure of what was happening and again, they were teasing him wanting no part of it. Corino claimed that all these guys had been wronged by ROH (they had planted seeds earlier with the likes of Hardy). They also tore up an ROH flag. This was so lame. I never want to see another invasion angle for as long as I live, and if this was supposed to make me fear for ROH’s future because Rhett Titus, Jimmy Rave and that guy from Deuce and Domino have formed the 50th NWO knock-off group, well it was a failure.

With that said however, this was an awesome show, jam-packed with great wrestling. Well worth the cost of a replay, so check it out when you get a chance. Thanks for reading PWPonderings’ coverage of the show, and be sure to check back tomorrow for the TV taping results.

WE WILL ALSO HAVE LIVE RESULTS FOR TOMORROW’S ROH TV TAPINGS, ONSITE. PWPONDERINGS FOR FULL SPOILERS AND RESULTS.

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