Reclamation Night 2 on July 13th, 2013 in Dearborn, Michigan
Opening Match: Kyle O’Reilly vs. Tadarius Thomas
They trade control of a wristlock and wrestle to a stalemate. They battle over a knucklelock and O’Reilly kicks away at the left arm. After narrowly dodging each other’s kicks, we’re at another stalemate. O’Reilly teases a kick but instead slaps Thomas in the face. Thomas responds with a well-placed kick and lays in a few chops in the corner. O’Reilly fires back with some kicks and takes control. He stunts a comeback attempt by divorce courting the left shoulder. Thomas connects with a few kicks to the head and hits a half nelson suplex. They battle up top and O’Reilly hits a back superplex. He follows with a shoulder-capture suplex for a nearfall. Thomas turns a triangle choke into a bridging pin attempt for a two count. They block each other’s kicks multiple times and take a breather. O’Reilly calls for a truce and then kicks Thomas in the midsection. Thomas sneaks in a rollup for the win at 11:55. Though some parts of the match worked decently, the kick exchanges felt excessive for the most part. Additionally, the exchange towards the end of the contest where they repeatedly blocked each other’s kicks felt forced and didn’t make much sense for two masters of their respective offenses. This functioned well enough as the opener but I liked their outing back at Brew City Beatdown much better. **½
Match #2: MsChif vs. Athena vs. Jenny Rose vs. Leah Von Dutch
MsChif attacks Rose and throws her into the ring. She also tells Athena to prove herself. Rose and Athena have a nice exchange that ends in a stalemate. Von Dutch enters the match but finds herself in a camel clutch. Athena superkicks Von Dutch but MsChif halts her momentum with a blind tag. The match starts to break down. Athena lands a springboard crossbody onto MsChif. Von Dutch and Rose work together to suplex Athena. They do a four-way submission spot. MsChif hits a rydeen bomb on Athena but falls victim to a facebuster from Von Dutch. Athena lands a plancha to the floor onto all three of her opponents. In the ring, Rose sunset flips MsChif, causing her to german suplex Athena. Rose hits a spinning side slam on Von Dutch for a nearfall. She adds a lariat from the top rope. Athena bicycle kicks Von Dutch and stares down MsChif. Athena hits the O-Face on Rose but MsChif breaks up the pin attempt. Von Dutch misses a moonsault and MsChif plants her with the Desecrator for the victory at 9:58. This match actually felt longer than ten minutes. Von Dutch was eerily bad in the ring and everyone else understandably seemed like they were having a hard time working with her. It’s nice that they’re trying to build something between MsChif and Athena, but this one did them no favors. *¼
Match #3: Silas Young vs. Tommaso Ciampa
It doesn’t take long for things to get intense between these two. Ciampa bites Young’s hand at one point. Ciampa applies a choke and Young quickly reaches the bottom rope. They trade forearms and Young drapes Ciampa across the top rope. Ciampa fires back with a lariat and hits a blockbuster. Young answers with a chinbreaker and connects with a boot to the face. He takes over with his backbreaker-lariat combination. Young tries a headstand in the corner but Ciampa just knees him in the face. Young escapes an air raid crash so Ciampa hits a belly to belly superplex. Both men are down. They trade punches and escape each other’s finisher. Ciampa clotheslines Young over the top rope. He connects with a facewash knee strike, sending Young into the barricade. Young hits a german suplex onto the exposed floor. They battle towards the aisle and eventually reenter the ring. Young hits Ciampa with the timekeeper’s hammer for the win…WAIT! Nigel McGuinness restarts the match after seeing the weapon usage. They exchange slaps and Ciampa hits Project Ciampa for the win at 14:55. I almost would have preferred the original finish with Young cheating because the actual finish made him look absolutely terrible. Not only was Young unable to defeat Ciampa after hitting him with a mallet, but Ciampa was able to recover quickly enough to immediately defeat him after the restart. They were having an excellent back and forth contest, but it’s going to be difficult to stomach that finish. **¾
Match #4: Adam Cole vs. BJ Whitmer
This is a rubber match for these two, as they have traded pinfalls over the past couple of months. They begin with some chain wrestling and have an awkward collision when a leapfrog goes wrong. The crowd fortunately does not get on their case. Whitmer seems to have been hurt (Nigel said he suffered a stinger on commentary). Whitmer hits a spinebuster. Cole retreats to the floor and blocks a dive with a gamengiri. He applies a figure four around the ringpost. Cole takes control until Whitmer shrugs off a superkick and connects with a lariat. Both men are down. Whitmer blocks a charge and connects with a mafia kick. He follows with a powerslam. Cole connects with two superkicks to slow him down. Whitmer blocks a third one but eats an enzuigiri. Cole hits a fireman’s carry neckbreaker for a nearfall. Whitmer responds with a northern lights suplex. Cole connects with a superkick to the leg and synchs in a figure four. Whitmer is able to reach the bottom rope. He hits an exploder for a nearfall. Cole answers with a brainbuster across his knee but Whitmer won’t stay down. Cole comes off the top rope but his knee buckles. Paul Turner backs Whitmer off. Cole sneaks in a small package for the victory at 12:52. I think they have a better match in them, but Whitmer got hurt in the opening minute and had to persevere. The injury put them in an odd place, as commentary tried to make the story of match Whitmer’s neck while Cole was intent on working over the leg. The crowd was pretty silent while they were trading moves and this just didn’t click for a number of reasons. The finish, however, was really well done. **½
Match #5: Michael Bennett vs. Andy Muscant
Bennett attacks before the opening bell. Muscant avoids a charge and hurricanranas Bennett off the middle rope. Muscant snaps off a headscissors. Bennett blocks a monkey flip and hits a spear. He connects with short-arm lariats. Muscant tries a desperate crucifix to no avail but recovers with a flying crossbody. Bennett avoids a slingshot leg drop and connects with a superkick. Bennett hits a piledriver for the win at 2:58. Muscant had a chance to look semi-competitive and Bennett looked good. *
Rhino of all people saves Muscant from a post-match attack, leading to…
Match #6: Michael Bennett vs. Rhino
They trade strikes and Bennett sends Rhino into the barricade. Rhino crotches him on the edge of the barricade. Bennett pushes Rhino off the middle rope and back to the floor. He takes control until Rhino hits a series of shoulder blocks. Rhino hits a spear in the corner and comes off the middle rope with another shoulder block. They battle up top and Bennett hits a sunset bomb. Rhino responds with a spinebuster. Maria yells at Bennett to get up. Bennett blocks the Gore with a series of superkicks. Bennett follows with the Box Office Smash for the victory at 8:12. The story seems to be that Maria has unleashed some kind of ruthlessness in Bennett. Regardless of how effective this turns out to be, at least they tried something with Bennett. The crowd was insanely behind Rhino and this match nicely broke up the card. **
Match #7: Bobby Fish vs. ACH
Fish tries to unload a knockout kick in the corner but ACH dodges it. They trade control on the mat as the crowd starts to chant for Kevin Kelly. Yeah. ACH snaps off a headscissors and connects with a corner lariat. He follows with a flying crossbody. Fish gets sent to the floor by a dropkick but blocks a plancha with double knees. In the ring, Fish hits a slingshot senton and takes control. ACH bodyscissors him to the floor. Fish tries to block a dive but something goes wrong and they just run into each other. The crowd now chants “we want tables.” ACH connects with a gamengiri and hits a slingshot ace crusher. Fish suplexes him into the turnbuckles and hits a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Fish adds a top-rope moonsault for a nearfall. ACH misses a 450 splash and runs into a knockout kick. That gives Fish the win at 12:53. These two did not work very well together and there were multiple moments in this match where things just didn’t go correctly due to miscommunication. They also went with the same finish as Fish/Richards from last night and once again, the crowd just did not react the way they wanted. This card really needed a stellar match and it’s a shame that this matchup didn’t deliver. **¼
Match #8: Matt Taven vs. Kevin Steen
Steen snaps off a few armdrags and lays in chops. Taven gets fancy with a cartwheel and eats a dropkick. He recovers with a flying crossbody. Steen avoids a springboard dropkick and hits a powerbomb onto the apron. He sends Taven into the barricade repeatedly. Steen crotches him on the ringpost as well. Taven gets crotched on the edge of the barricade. Not a great start for him tonight. In the ring, Steen connects with a clothesline and hits a senton. He follows with a corner cannonball. Taven blocks a swantan with knees. Steen elevates him into a powerbomb and adds the F-Cinq for a nearfall. A distraction from Truth Martini allows Taven to connect with a knockout kick. Steen recovers with an alabama slam and applies a sharpshooter. Martini provides yet another distraction. Taven rolls up Steen with his feet on the ropes for the victory at 10:12. Sure, Taven technically won this match but he looked completely outclassed for the entire duration. Steen just dominating him for the first five minutes was fun given Taven’s gimmick, but I was expecting the action to become a lot more competitive than it did. Any hopes of Taven being booked to win matches on his own should be erased by now. **¼
After the match, Steen challenges Martini to step into the ring. Nigel McGuinness says that he has the right to put Martini into matches if he keeps interfering. Martini tries to head to the back but Nigel stops him. Taven throws powder into Steen’s eyes and Martini hits him with the Book of Truth. That only gets a nearfall. Steen lands a swantan onto Martini and hits the package piledriver to finish him off.
Match #9: Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards vs. Michael Elgin and Jay Lethal
Richards wins an early exchange against Lethal. Elgin runs through a chop from Edwards and takes him down with a shoulder tackle. He hits a delayed vertical suplex on Richards. Elgin and Lethal have a nice sequence where they showcase some double teaming. Lethal lands a dive to the floor onto Richards. Elgin tries to superplex Edwards but falls victim to a sunset bomb. The American Wolves work over Elgin until he hits a neckbreaker on Richards and makes the tag. Lethal connects with a missile dropkick on Edwards followed by a handspring back elbow. Richards creates an opening with a double missile dropkick. He dropkicks Lethal, causing him to DDT Elgin. Edwards hits a sit-out gourdbuster on Elgin and Richards adds a flying double stomp. Richards and Elgin trade strikes. Elgin german suplexes him into the turnbuckles. Elgin hits his fallaway slam-samoan drop combination on the Wolves. The Wolves respond with combination kicks on Lethal. They apply stereo submissions but Elgin and Lethal turn the holds into rollups for nearfalls. Everyone connects with a strike and all four men are down. Edwards hurricanranas Elgin but walks into a huge lariat. Richards traps Elgin in a cross armbreaker as reDRagon watch from the aisle. Richards connects with a knockout kick on Elgin and hits a brainbuster. Lethal hits Hail to the King on Richards for a two count. Elgin backfists Richards into the Lethal Combination. Lethal superkicks Richards into a dead-lift german suplex for a nearfall. The match resets as Elgin and Richards find themselves staring each other down. They trade strikes and Richards powers him up for a tombstone. Lethal tries a quick rollup on Richards for a nearfall. Richards punts Elgin from the apron. The Wolves hit their backcracker-powerbomb on Lethal for a nearfall. Richards wipes out Elgin with a dive while Edwards applies the achilles lock on Lethal for the win at 23:41. I’m not exactly sure how to explain why I wasn’t in love with this match except that it felt like I had seen it before. Perhaps due to the lack of enthusiasm from the crowd, I didn’t get the sense that the action was building towards something special. The finishing stretch did impress at points and the Wolves look strong heading into another contest with reDRagon, but this wasn’t the standout main event that this show needed. ***¼
Also included on the DVD is footage from the pre-show question and answer session with Nigel McGuinness. The questions are once again decent and, once again, Jimmy Jacobs interrupts at an opportune time.
Overall: I don’t just want to repeat the criticisms in my match descriptions, but Reclamation Night 2 left me feeling disappointed with many of the matches. Though matches like O’Reilly/Thomas and Fish/ACH just didn’t click, some other contests suffered from head-scratching booking problems. Specifically, the finishes of Young and Taven’s matches made them look unnecessarily weak and just didn’t do anything for me. The main event is the only match on the show to crack three stars, but it wasn’t a match that makes you want to purchase this DVD just to see it. Despite Ring of Honor’s recent success with house show quality, I cannot give Reclamation Night 2 a recommendation.
You can purchase this DVD at Ring of Honor's store right here.