Best in the World on June 22nd, 2013 in Baltimore, Maryland
Opening Match: Mike Bennett vs. BJ Whitmer
They start brawling before the opening bell as Maria Kanellis joins commentary for a second. As always, Steve Corino’s reactions are priceless. Whitmer lands a dive to the floor. Bennett throws him into the barricade and comes off the apron with a clothesline. In the ring, Whitmer hits a backbreaker but a distraction from Brutal Bob allows Bennett to connect with a superkick. He takes control until Whitmer shrugs off a few punches and hits a snap powerslam. Whitmer follows with a northern lights suplex but falls victim to a spinebuster. Bennett hits a TKO for a nearfall. Whitmer back drops out of a piledriver. Brutal Bob runs into the ring but Whitmer sends him to the floor. Whitmer hits an exploder on Bennett for the win at 8:56. This was your typical Bennett match but it served its function decently well as the opener because I cannot imagine a crowd at this point not getting behind Whitmer. It seems like Brutal Bob is on the chopping block after his failed interference. **
Match #2: Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards vs. ACH and Tadarius Thomas
ACH and Richards wrestle to a stalemate and both attempt kicks at the same time. They agree to let go of each other’s foot at the count of three, but neither man does so on the first try. Richards kicks ACH and does a little hip swivel. ACH connects with a springboard back elbow and Thomas adds a basement dropkick. Edwards enters the match with a few chops as Corino freaks out on commentary. Thomas snaps off a headscissors on Edwards and catches him with some crazy kicks. Richards connects with a diving headbutt on Thomas and the American Wolves isolate him. He connects with an enzuigiri on Richards and makes the tag. ACH headscissors Edwards into the middle turnbuckle and connects with a basement lariat. He follows with a flying crossbody after dodging a punt from Richards. ACH hits a slingshot stunner on Edwards and Thomas adds a knockout kick for a nearfall. The Wolves come back with an assisted Alarm Clock on ACH along with a superkick-german suplex combination. Richards connects with a barrage of kicks on ACH and he looks limp. Richards catches Thomas with a missile dropkick and hits a brainbuster. ACH immediately splashes Richards for a two count. ACH blocks the Alarm Clock and hits a reverse hurricanrana. He follows with an implant DDT for a nearfall. Edwards avoids a moonsault from Thomas and superkicks him. ACH takes out Edwards with a dive but finds knees on a 450 splash. Richards immediately small packages ACH for the victory at 12:54. This was a tremendous sprint with everyone on their game. Richards looks like he’s having fun with professional wrestling again and the Wolves are at their best when they colorfully act like jerks during their matches. Meanwhile, Adrenaline Rush improved upon their outing against reDRagon at the last show and there should be no doubts about their place in the tag team division. You couldn’t ask for much more here. ***½
Match #3: Adam Cole vs. Roderick Strong
This is a rematch from Honor in the Heart of Texas. They battle over a knucklelock. Cole catches Strong with an atomic drop and hits a neckbreaker. Strong is unsuccessful with an early Stronghold attempt but traps Cole in a tree of woe and lands a corner charge. Cole responds with a fireman’s carry neckbreaker. He enzuigiris Strong off the apron and lands a dive to the floor. In the ring, Strong blocks a flying crossbody with a dropkick and both men are down. Strong connects with a running knee strike and hits a bulldog. Cole answers with an enzuigiri and a shining wizard. After surviving a figure four, Strong hits a gutbuster and connects with the Sick Kick. He transitions into the Stronghold. Cole fights out, connects with a superkick, and hits a brainbuster over his knee. They battle on the apron and Cole superkicks Strong through the ringside table. Cole has a smile on his face as he wins via countout at 15:20. I was about to repeat my thoughts on their previous match, but the action kicked into a higher gear in the last five minutes. Though the crowd still didn’t know who to cheer for, the quality of their exchanges down the stretch evoked a great reaction anyway. Despite the countout finish, the fact that there was some progress with Cole’s character is a good thing. ***
Match #4: Michael Elgin vs. Tommaso Ciampa
RD Evans is on commentary. Ciampa escapes an early powerbomb attempt and stares down Elgin. Neither man budges on a test of strength so Elgin just lays in repeated headbutts. Ciampa hits an impressive delayed vertical suplex. Elgin responds with a swinging side slam and applies a crossface. Ciampa turns the hold into a rollup for a nearfall. Elgin hits a death valley driver into the turnbuckles and follows with a delayed vertical suplex of his own. They clothesline each other multiple times to no effect. Then, Ciampa clotheslines both of them to the floor. Ciampa picks up Elgin and rams him into the barricade. Elgin blocks a dive attempt and hits a delayed vertical suplex onto the exposed floor. Elgin follows with a powerbomb into the barricade! He follows with a top-rope senton in the ring. Ciampa reverses a powerbomb attempt into an air raid crash. He connects with a running knee strike in the corner. Elgin tries to block a second one to no avail. Ciampa hits a middle-rope air raid crash for a nearfall. Elgin hits a dead-lift uranagi and both men are down. Elgin tries to superplex Ciampa from the apron into the ring, but Ciampa counters with Project Ciampa for a two count. They battle on the apron and Ciampa hits an air raid crash. He follows with another one onto the exposed floor. Back in, Elgin back drops out of Project Ciampa and hits a bucklebomb. Elgin follows with a powerbomb but Ciampa locks in a triangle choke out of nowhere. Ciampa connects with a knee strike but Elgin is up at one! Elgin connects with a lariat and a spinning backfist. He adds a roaring elbow to the back of the head. Finally, Elgin connects with another lariat for the victory at 19:53. This was exactly the type of match that Ciampa needed to have to solidify his excellent return from injury. As exciting as Elgin is in the ring, I think Ciampa might be just as exciting and explosive. These two had an excellent back and forth that consisted of them throwing bombs at each other for twenty minutes. Nothing they did felt overtly dangerous or like overkill. Rather, they delivered a believable big-man war that capped off an extremely solid first half of the show. ***¾
QT Marshall comes out after the match and ready to attack. As soon as Elgin and Ciampa recover, Marshall heads to the back with Evans.
Match #5: ROH World Television Title: Matt Taven © vs. Jay Lethal vs. Jimmy Jacobs
Lethal superkicks Jacobs at the opening bell. Taven lands a dive to the floor onto both of them and ends up in the front row. Lethal dropkicks Jacobs’ head into the barricade. Jacobs fights back with a nice dropkick on Taven. Jacobs comes off the apron but Taven catches him with a powerslam onto the floor. In the ring, Lethal connects with a basement dropkick on Taven and adds a missile dropkick. Taven tries to skin the cat but Jacobs dropkicks him to the floor. Jacobs takes over in the ring, working over Lethal. A distraction by Truth Martini allows Taven to take control. Lethal hits a DDT-flatliner combination on both of his opponents. All three men are down. Jacobs hits the Contra Code on Taven and transitions into a satellite headscissors on Lethal. Lethal hits the Lethal Combination on Jacobs. Taven immediately splashes Lethal for a nearfall. Lethal responds with Hail to the King but Jacobs breaks up the pin attempt. Lethal lands a dive to the floor onto Taven. In the ring, Scarlett Bordeaux slaps Lethal, so he takes her shirt off. This infuriates Martini. Jacobs spears Lethal and stares down Martini. Seleziya Sparx picks up Jacobs for an air raid crash but Lethal superkicks her. Jacobs hits a springboard ace crusher on Lethal but Taven steals the pin to retain his title at 12:51. Once again, I hate the way that this match made Taven look, especially after his solid match against Eddie Edwards at Honor in the Heart of Texas. They worked in some unique three-way spots and the interference down the stretch actually led me to believe that a title change could happen, but this was just more of the same from Taven’s reign for the most part. **¾
Match #6: ROH World Tag Team Titles: Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly © vs. Caprice Coleman and Cedric Alexander vs. Rhett Titus and Cliff Compton
Coleman and Alexander start brawling with SCUM before the opening bell. Alexander lands a dive to the floor onto SCUM. Fish blocks a dive from Coleman and reDRagon take him out with a series of kicks. Alexander connects with a double missile dropkick on reDRagon. Coleman and Alexander take over with some tandem offense before SCUM reenter the ring and take control. Coleman connects with a double dropkick to create some space and makes the tag. Alexander catches Fish with an enzuigiri and hits a full nelson gourdbuster on O’Reilly. Coleman and Alexander hit Overtime on O’Reilly but SCUM pulls O’Reilly out of the ring. Coleman lands a dive to the floor onto SCUM. Alexander hits a brainbuster on O’Reilly but gets caught by a knockout kick from Fish. O’Reilly covers Alexander and reDRagon retain their titles at 6:58. Fish lets out a victory scream because he knows no one can believe that the finish happened so soon. This contest was seven minutes of everyone hitting moves at a fast pace and the crowd just patiently watching on. Nothing received a great reaction and the crowd was nearly silent for the finish. I don’t know how many more times Coleman and Alexander can unsuccessfully challenge for the titles and it might be time for them to pursue singles roles in Ring of Honor. *½
Match #7: No Disqualification: Kevin Steen vs. Matt Hardy
They exchange punches. Hardy pulls Paul Turner in the way of a corner cannonball and chop blocks Steen’s leg. Hardy begins targeting the left leg. Steen elevates him into a powerbomb and throws him into the barricade on the outside. Steen hits Hardy with a crutch and crotches him on the ringpost. Hardy finds an opening by throwing Steen into the barricade. Steve Corino brings him a garbage can to use. Hardy hits two neckbreakers but misses a top-rope moonsault. Steen hits a corner cannonball and then a garbage can-assisted corner cannonball. He sets up a table at ringside. Rhett Titus runs out but falls victim to a package piledriver. The distraction allows Hardy to hit the Side Effect for a nearfall. They battle on the apron. Jimmy Jacobs appears at ringside, so Steen powerbombs him onto the apron twice. Steen powerbombs Hardy onto the apron as well. Cliff Compton suddenly hits Steen with a chair. In the ring, Hardy grabs a ladder but Steen lays him out with a ladder-assisted lungblower. Hardy answers with the Twist of Fate for a two count. Steen counters a second Twist of Fate with a low blow and hits the F-Cinq for a nearfall. Hardy returns the favor with a low blow and hits a Side Effect onto a ladder. That only gets a two count as well. Hardy hits a Twist of Fate through two chairs for the win at 14:17. My problem with interference in no disqualification matches is that it doesn’t make any sense why SCUM would wait until the end of the match to start interfering. Though the finishing stretch was decent, there wasn’t much here aside from the imagery of Hardy truly replacing Steen as the golden boy of SCUM. It’s a shame that this contest didn’t turn out better, as a good performance from Hardy would have gone a long way with the ROH fans. **¼
Match #8: ROH World Title: Jay Briscoe © vs. Mark Briscoe
The Briscoe family is in the front row. They begin with some chain wrestling and find themselves at a stalemate. Mark playfully refuses a handshake and starts dancing. Jay misses a mafia kick and falls victim to a flipping death valley driver. Mark connects with a dropkick through the ropes. He charges at ringside but Jay is able to connect with the mafia kick. In the ring, they have a strike exchange with Mark busting out his karate offense. Jay wins the strike exchange and takes control with a flatliner into the middle turnbuckle. Mark finds life with a superkick and hits a brainbuster. The action goes to the floor where both men calmly agree to setup a table at ringside. They battle on the top rope and Mark gets military pressed to the floor. Back in, Jay connects with another mafia kick and hits a neckbreaker. Mark blocks a roaring elbow and hits an exploder. He connects with a shotgun dropkick and hits an iconoclasm. They battle on the apron but neither man can put the other through the table. Mark lands a plancha to the floor. He places Jay onto the table and puts him through it with a froggy elbow from the top rope. In the ring, Mark connects with another froggy elbow for a nearfall. He hits the Cutthroat Driver for a two count. Jay escapes another Cutthroat Driver and they trade strikes. Jay hits the Jay Driller for a nearfall. Jay connects with a lariat and hits a second Jay Driller. Mark kicks out at one! Jay connects with three superkicks and hits a third Jay Driller to retain his title at 21:10. There really wasn’t a story heading into this match aside from the fact that they’re brothers. However, I thought a story would develop throughout the course of the match. That really wasn’t the case. Sure, Jay became a bit upset with Mark’s silliness and I liked how it took a long time for someone to go through the table, but there wasn’t much else to sink your teeth into. After the match, the crowd seemed appreciative of the action, but the finishing stretch didn’t garner the reaction that you’d expect from a match between these two. The action was decent enough but I don’t think the tagline “no one fights like family” applied like they wanted. ***
Overall: Best in the World was an odd show. The first half was reminiscent of Ring of Honor’s quality house shows this year, with great matches from the usual suspects. Ciampa and Elgin especially had a match that I would go out of my way to check out. Then, the second half featured three title matches that all disappointed in some way despite having loads of potential. A lot of that disappointment falls on the booking, with tons of interference in the World Television Title match and Hardy/Steen as well as the World Tag Team Title match only receiving seven minutes. Still, the strength of the first half combined with decent yet underwhelming main event allows me to give this show a slight recommendation. However, we could have been looking at something special with a stronger second half that came through.
You can purchase this DVD at Ring of Honor’s store right here.