A Night of Hoopla

A Night of Hoopla on July 11th, 2013 in Merrionette Park, Illinois

Truth Martini begins the show in the ring with the Hoopla Hotties. Scarlett sings her take on the National Anthem, which involves her talking about her breasts. She's actually quite a good singer. Martini then introduces the first match…

Opening Match: Matt Taven vs. Eddie Edwards vs. Adam Cole
It's worth noting that the referee is not wearing pants. Cole and Edwards catch Taven with stereo baseball slides. Cole holds Taven in place while Edwards takes a picture with a fan's camera. Taven tries to escape through the crowd to no avail. Edwards stuffs him into a garbage can and rolls him into a pole. In the ring, Edwards and Cole take turns connecting with corner punches on Taven. Edwards dropkicks Cole into Taven's crotch as the crowd chants “no more babies.” A fan at ringside helps Edwards gain momentum during a running dropkick on Taven. Taven asks a fan to whip him, but he just ends up colliding into the apron. Cole lands a plancha to the floor onto Taven and blocks a dive from Edwards with an enzuigiri. Back in, Cole hits a brainbuster across his knee on Taven for a nearfall. Seleziya comes into the ring and clotheslines Cole. Edwards makes the referee inadvertently DDT Taven. He applies the achilles lock but Scarlett distracts him from the apron. Edwards chops her ass but turns around into a superkick from Cole. Taven hits the headlock driver on Edwards for the win at 9:41. The match itself was a lot of fun and perfectly set the vibe for this show. In fact, this is the kind of match that people say Ring of Honor does not feature enough. The wrestling wasn't mind-blowing and Taven once again picked up a fluky victory, but this was the right way to start the show. **¾

Jimmy Jacobs gets introduced and he appears on the balcony to sing the Ballad of Lacey. This is very nostalgic and the lyrics are from a time when Myspace was relevant. He then sings one of his new songs entitled Gypsy Soul. There’s a few “Uncle Jesse” chants afterwards, so Jacobs starts singing Forever. Awesome.


Match #2: Jay Lethal vs. Delirious

Maria Kanellis is the special referee and Lethal is in Black Machismo mode. There’s a lot of old school trash talk from Lethal and Delirious’ responses are comical. Delirious hits a chokeslam and an atomic drop. Lethal’s version of Miss Elizabeth gets involved but is knocked to the floor. Delirious starts mimicking the Ultimate Warrior’s offense. He misses a charge and falls to the floor where Elizabeth attacks him. Lethal comes off the top rope with a double axe handle. Delirious pushes Elizabeth to the ground, which infuriates Lethal. Lethal takes control in the ring until they collide in the center of the ring after both attempting clotheslines. Maria accidentally gets caught in the middle of an exchange. Elizabeth climbs to the top rope but accidentally takes out Lethal with a double axe handle. Delirious chases her around ringside. Lethal finds an opening to connect with a top-rope elbow drop. He connects with four more but Delirious won’t stay down. Delirious hulks up and hits a splash for a two count. Lethal knocks Delirious off the apron and tries to jam his throat across the edge of a chair. Delirious moves out of the way. He takes Lethal down with three shoulder blocks. Lethal sneaks in a rollup out of nowhere for the victory at 16:11. This match was clearly more about the personalities involved than the in-ring wrestling, but even so I think they lost the crowd at points. The match probably could have been cut by five minutes and achieved the same result. I’m fully aware that I may be ignorant of some kind of Randy Savage vs. Ultimate Warrior psychology that makes this match awesome, but the opener seemed much more effective. **

It’s now time for the Pants Off Dance Off. Scarlett, Seleziya, and Val are the contestants. The judge is Jeff Jones, who has appeared in ECW. The Hoopla Hotties dance around the ring. Just before the judge is about to make his final decision, Davey Richards interrupts the proceedings. Just when it seems like Richards is about to criticize the whole thing, he starts dancing with the women. Say what you want about Richards, but he was awesome here and the crowd popped huge for him. Silas Young interrupts and proves himself to be the buzzkill, leading to…

Match #3: Davey Richards vs. Silas Young
They trade control of a wristlock and Richards catches Young with a kick to the arm. Young doesn't budge during a shoulder block battle, so Richards knocks him to the floor with a dropkick. Young gets sent to the floor once again, so Truth Martini makes this a lumberjill match. And by lumberjills we mean men dressed in women’s clothing. The crowd chants “this is awkward.” Young misses a charge and falls to ringside where the lumberjills attack. Back in, Richards connects with a missile dropkick. Young dodges a flying double stomp and hits his backbreaker-lariat combination. Richards avoids the Pee Gee Waja Plunge and synchs in an ankle lock. Young powers out of the hold by sending Richards into the referee. He low blows Richards. One of the lumberjills hops onto the apron and kisses Young. Richards connects with the Alarm Clock along with a flying double stomp for a nearfall. Richards transitions into an ankle lock for the win at 10:05. With the first two matches, I did not feel as though the antics of the show robbed me of a great match. However, I was really looking forward to Richards and Young having a singles match. Though the lumberjills fit in with everything else on the show thus far and the crowd didn’t mind, I have to think that this was a missed opportunity for a stellar contest on a five-match card. **½

Truth Martini begins the second half of the show by giving a fan the chance to receive a lapdance from the Hoopla Hotties. They blindfold the fan and bring out some women that look much different from Scarlett and Seleziya. The fan’s reaction upon taking off the blindfold is tremendous.


Match #4: ROH World Tag Team Titles: Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly © vs. Roderick Strong and Cheeseburger

Fish and Strong begin the match with some chain wrestling until Strong connects with a leg lariat. O'Reilly keeps Cheeseburger in a wristlock. Cheeseburger shows his athleticism by intricately escaping. He hits a chinbreaker on O'Reilly and snaps off a satellite headscissors. Strong hits a gourdbuster on Fish and Cheeseburger adds a basement dropkick. reDRagon are sent to the floor. They catch Cheeseburger on a plancha attempt but Strong dropkicks them to the ground. In the ring, Strong hits a backbreaker on O'Reilly. Fish catches Cheeseburger with a well-timed kick and the champions isolate him. reDRagon really give him a beating and Strong interjects himself at one point to stop the madness. Cheeseburger manages to avoid stereo top-rope dives from reDRagon and makes the tag. Strong suplexes Cheeseburger onto Fish for a two count. He then lawn darts Cheeseburger into the champions propped in the corner. Strong locks in the Stronghold on Fish while Cheeseburger traps O'Reilly in an octopus hold. reDRagon find life with a high-low on Strong for a nearfall. Strong hits a gutbuster on Fish and Cheeseburger follows with a code red for a two count. reDRagon catch Cheeseburger on a dive attempt and hit their kick-brainbuster combination to retain their titles at 20:57. The Cheeseburger experiment was a success! Honestly, I thought going into this match that his wrestling talent was being underplayed and he managed to compliment Strong really well. reDRagon had fun with not taking Cheeseburger seriously as well. Sure, no one bought the titles changing hands but unlike the last match, I think the atmosphere of this show helped everything seem more believable. The rating may appear high but I was entertained for the entire twenty-one minutes. ***¼

Truth Martini is in the ring to host a segment of Hoopla Uncut. His special guest is none other than Satan. The crowd is pretty hostile towards Satan until he makes a joke about QT Marshall. Well, at least I warmed up to him after that. Martini asks him to take his pants off. Satan refuses. Scarlett low blows Satan and Seleziya lays him out with a death valley driver.


Match #5: ACH, Tadarius Thomas, and Athena vs. Michael Elgin, BJ Whitmer, and MsChif

Elgin is very protective of MsChif early on because, well, they're married. Thomas snaps off a hurricanrana on Elgin and locks in a cross armbreaker in the ropes. They actually have a dance-off and Elgin does the worm. ACH gets in on the fun and dominates everyone in my opinion. Elgin powerslams Athena and does a little dance. Whitmer and Athena have a nice exchange that ends in a stalemate. ACH almost passes out due to being startled by MsChif's scream. Athena ends up getting worked over until she snaps off a satellite headscissors on Elgin and tags out. Thomas catches Whitmer with a series of kicks and hits a german suplex. Whitmer is isolated until he hits an exploder on ACH and makes the tag. MsChif hits a chokeslam on Athena. Elgin connects with a slingshot back elbow on ACH and hits his fallaway slam-samoan drop combination on Adrenaline Rush. Whitmer hits a powerslam on Thomas along with rolling fisherman suplexes. ACH drops Whitmer with a slingshot stunner for a nearfall. Athena misses a top-rope splash and falls victim to an overhead suplex into the turnbuckles. She recovers with a reverse hurricanrana on Whitmer. MsChif hits the Desecrator on Athena for a two count. Thomas russian leg sweeps Elgin from the middle rope. Athena hits the O-Face on Whitmer but collides with MsChif on stereo crossbody attempts. All six participants are down. ACH connects with a bicycle kick on MsChif but eats a backfist from Elgin. MsChif randomly kisses Elgin. Thomas tries to interrupt but Elgin spits mist into his eyes! Elgin hits a bucklebomb on Thomas and follows with his sit-out powerbomb for the victory at 25:34. Though we’re used to seeing Elgin in main event matches, it was refreshing to see everyone else be this high up the card, even on a gimmicky show like A Night of Hoopla. The relationship between Elgin and MsChif setup a lot of entertaining spots throughout the match. It should be noted that both Athena and MsChif did not look out of place at all here and anyone unfamiliar with Athena will be blown away by her performance in this match. Ultimately, I think this is the perfect example of a match that A Night of Hoopla allowed to happen that we should be seeing every so often on regular Ring of Honor shows. ***½

Also included as bonus features are the following:
-Hoopla Roll Parts 1 and 2
-Hoopla Uncut with Delirious
-”Beach Bum Alcoholics” concert


Overall
: At the end of the day, I would call A Night of Hoopla a successful experiment and a show that illustrates Ring of Honor’s willingness to push the boundaries of how they view themselves. If you’re interested in the antics that may have occurred on this show, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. Even the matches that weren’t dominated by comedic moments still had some entertaining spots that you wouldn’t necessarily expect from the participants. On the other hand, this DVD costs twenty dollars just like every other house show DVD. With that in mind, the in-ring quality will not carry this show to a recommendation despite two solid tag team matches to round off the card. Ultimately, it’s difficult to give advice on this one because it really comes down to what you’re looking for from the show. Still, I would not be against A Night of Hoopla occurring again at some point in the distant future.

You can purchase this DVD at Ring of Honor's store right here.

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