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(Writer’s Note: This column is dedicated to the memory of The Ultimate Warrior, who died suddenly yesterday just days after being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2014. My condolences to his friends and family.)

 

Ring of Honor completed its Wrestlemania weekend in New Orleans. Supercard of Honor VIII was indeed a “super” card in every sense of the word, while that show and the television tapings included some interesting plot developments that should guide ROH moving forward in 2014.

The John A. Alario Sr. Event Center drew over 1,500 fans to the Ring of Honor Supercard showcase and about 800 fans for the TV tapings reportedly (according to the Wrestling Observer among other sources). This continues ROH’s upward trend for attendance in 2014, though that was never in doubt during Wrestlemania weekend, which was teeming with wrestling fans in NOLA drinking in as much pro grappling as their brains (and livers) could take.

Here are a few of the most important things that happened in New Orleans. While some sources have shared concern over the level of violence in the main event, including direct chair shots to the head and ladder shots, there will be no judgments about the in-ring action by me, at least until I have seen the event in full.

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MAIN EVENT-The Road to May’s ROH vs. New Japan Shows Becomes Clearer:

Fans now know for sure that several important matches will take place at Global Wars on May 10th in Toronto, Canada and at War of the Worlds May 17th in New York City.

Adam Cole validated his claim as the real ROH World Champion by winning Ladder War 5 against the self-professed champion Jay Briscoe. Both Cole and Briscoe’s belts hung from the top of the building, but it was Cole who managed to bring them both down, consolidating them into one, “unified” championship. This was not done without interference by Jay Briscoe’s brother Mark, Adam Cole’s mentor Matt Hardy and newfound friends Michael Bennett and Maria Kanellis.

Regardless of circumstance, what Cole’s win means is that he must be considered the true and legitimate ROH World Champion. It also brings him to a title defense against Kevin Steen, who won the title in Toronto almost two years to the day he will fight for it again.

Steen has the title match locked in for Global Wars despite losing a brutal war against Michael Elgin (who it should be noted has been involved in some of the best matches for ROH’s Mania weekend shows three years and running). Elgin defeated Steen after several Powerbombs and using Steen’s own Package Piledriver.

The win earned Elgin the right to wrestle IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada for that title on May 17th in New York City. Steen versus Okada would have been an intriguing combination, but it is unlikely that Elgin will do anything but deliver again in a scenario he has been waiting to see happen (wrestling against top-flight New Japan talent).

One more match has been locked in for War of the Worlds and that is the ROH World Tag Team Title match. Former champion team reDRagon (Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly) guaranteed a rematch for the titles against The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) by winning the three-way tag match involving The Forever Hooligans (Rocky Romero & Alex Koslov) and the team of Hanson & Raymond Rowe.

Cedric Alexander also appears to have a re-match booked against Roderick Strong at Global Wars.

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THE MID CARD- Jay Goes Fully Lethal, Completes Heel Turn and Rebuilds The House in New Orleans: Hindsight makes it very clear that Jay Lethal was going to turn to the dark side sooner rather than later. His increasing frustration over losing recent high-profile matches boiled over as Lethal fought TV Champion Tomasso Ciampa in a two-out-of-three fall bout for the belt.

Lethal was exceptionally brutal to Ciampa and used his newfound aggression to win two straight falls and become the NEW Television Champion. Of course, he did this with some help from Truth Martini, who gave Ciampa’s metal-plated kneepads to Lethal to use as a weapon-the deciding factor in the match.

Afterwards, Lethal confirmed he had joined up with Truth Martini and that together they were reforming The House of Truth.

A little detail that connects Lethal and Truth Martini: Lethal had been featured often on Truth Martini’s “Hoopla” interview segments in the past year. These usually ran on ROH’s YouTube channel. Though Lethal and Truth were at odds in those videos, one could notice a certain chemistry forming between the two of them and Lethal was definitely won over by Martini’s Hoopla Hotties like Scarlett Bourdeaux. It is possible that Truth Martini’s influence on Jay Lethal began even in those very moments.

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OPENING BOUT-The Decade Wins Big (Mostly): Roderick Strong, BJ Whitmer and Jimmy Jacobs ran the table in matches at Supercard VIII and were booked as a formidable heel faction at the television tapings. First, Strong took out burgeoning rival Cedric Alexander. Then Whitmer and Jacobs, along with young boy Adam Page won a six-man tag against Adrenaline RUSH (Tadarius Thomas and ACH) and Andrew Everett. The next day Whitmer was the one who taught Alexander a lesson, but it didn’t quite sink in because he involved himself in a match with Strong which saw “Mr. ROH” lose to Tomasso Ciampa thanks to his interference. Jacobs won his match and while Page lost his, that doesn’t (or shouldn’t) count because Page is not an official member of The Decade.

Apparently, The Decade also gained another young boy in Tadarius Thomas, but there hasn’t been much in the way of details as to the how and the why this all happened and what this means for the future of Adrenaline Rush as a tag team. Say it ain’t so, TD.

ELSEWHERE AND OF IMPORTANCE: Matt Hardy was given Jay Briscoe’s old title belt by Adam Cole, with Hardy renaming it the ICONIC Title, so yes, after mocking Jay for self-professing a championship, Cole and Hardy have established their own self-professed title (and Matt even learned from his brother Jeff by putting his face on the new/old belt-a move which is sure to annoy many ROH faithful); ACH and Everett had a fantastic showing at the TV tapings; THE NEW STREAK continued when R.D. Evans won via disqualification against Silas Young (initially Evans did take a pin, that was overturned so QED and XYZ, it never happened); The Forever Hooligans lost both of their singles matches (Koslov was DQ’ed when Matt Taven ran in on his match versus Lethal, while Romero lost straight-up to Elgin).

Of course, you can catch-up on the full results and details on these shows and get spoilers for upcoming episodes of the Ring of Honor television series elsewhere on the Pro Wrestling Ponderings website, through this link and this link.

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