ROH 10/13/2017 Global Wars Pittsburgh Review
10/13/2017
Stage AE
Pittsburgh, PA
Ring of Honor second stop on the Global Wars tour was in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana were on commentary the ROH Ringside Member special event.
Mark Briscoe vs. Hiromu Takahashi
Daryl joined on commentary on commentary before this one began.
Trading chops to start.Mark was hit and went to the outside, called referee Todd sinclair and said he couldn’t’ compete- Sinclair called for the bell and Mark was escorted to the back. Just an unfortunate circumstance all around, best wish to Mark Briscoe.
Winner: Hiromu Takahashi
The Addiction vs. Best Friends (Chuck Taylor & Trent Beretta)
The Addiction came out. Kazarian told the Best Friends that the fans will let them down and that they don’t care. Kazarian then said that he and Daniels wouldn’t wrestle because the fans didn’t deserve to see them. Daniels then teased that they would fight and then went to far as too tells the fans to eat a diz.
Best Friends (Chuck Taylor & Trent Beretta) vs The Dawgs ( Rhett Titus & WIll Ferrara)
Rhett Titus grabbed the mic and started trashing Pittsburgh saying that the Browns always kick the Steeler’s asses in an effort to rile up the crowd. Dawgs denied code of honor, Best friends quicly took control despite being sucker punched by the Dawgs, the Best Friends took early control. Chuckie T hit hugelbow drop for a two count on Titus before tagging out.”Heavyweight” Trent as Riccaboni called him kept the attack going and quick tags to keep him down.A big wind up by Trent for a springboard facewash with his boot, but Rhett tagged himself in by slapping Ferra’s head, which upset Lil Willy. Finally,Rhett and Ferra got on the same page and kept Beretta on their side of the ring, with Titus using Ferrara as a weapon to great success. They went to the well one too many times, suplexing Ferrara onto Beretta, who had his knees raised. Ferrara stopped the tag and teamed with Titus to get a very near two count. Ferrara grabbed a chain, but Cheeseburger suddenly appeared and disarmed Lil Willy before distracting Titus. Beretta hit a Dudebuster on Titus, picking up the pinfall victory. Beretta and Chuckie seemed annoyed, but eventually hugged Cheeseburger before the three celebrated together. A bit too much here, the Best Friends could have won without Cheeseburger’s help, even if it is setting up a tag situation down the road, Cheeseburger could have come out post match.
Winners: The Best Friends
Jay Lethal vs. Jay White
Crowd started a Let’s Go Jay chant, which was pretty hilarious. Great chain wrestling to start the match. White eventually send Lethal to the outside and tried to dive, but Lethal thwarted him and hit a triangle dropkick that knocked White to the outside. The two then sped things up inside, with White hitting a massive dropkick that sent Lethal to the arena floor, seemingly knocked out. White followed him to the outside and rolled him inside, tearing in with knife edge chops, but Lethal hit a hip toss/ dropkick combo to gain the advantage. White was able to assert himself and locked on a Muta lock that forced Lethal to reached for the ropes and quickly followed by dropping Lethal from the second rope with a hanging neckbreaker. White struck with elbows and suplexes, but Lethal fought back and tossed him to the outside, hitting him with three tope suicidas in a row. He rolled him in and hit a Hail to the King, but only managed a two count. Lethal locked on a figure four, nut White pulled himself to the ropes for a break. White reversed Lethal Injection and hit a brainbuster, then elbowed Lethal repeatedly and oddly stopped, as Cabana grew furious that White released the hold. Lethal reversed a snap mare and hit the Lethal Injection for the win. Really good match between these two- this one had different gears and it ended in the last gear.
Winner: Jay Lethal
ROH World Tag Team Titles – The Motor City Machine Guns vs. The Kingdom (Vinny Marseglia & TK O’Ryan) vs. The Young Bucks
Riccaboni and Cabana spoke about how Marseglia shouldn’t be able to wield an axe and that the board of directors need to do something about it.Matt and Shelley to start, with the Bucks dominating both teams to start, even hitting rise of the terminators on both teams. The Kingdom were then in control, working over Matt for a good while and the team looked sharp.Matt made a hot tag to Nick after running outside and baiting the Kingdom. Nick hit a double facebuster, but Marseglia and O’Ryan still regained control, only for MCMG to then get their run, almost hitting Skull and Cross Bones for the win. Things broke down but spawned a great stretch with a Dream sequence by MCMG, dueling sharpshooters from the Bucks, only to broken up by Marseglia and O’Ryan. The Bucks and MCMG teamed to hit a quadruple superkick on O’Ryan, and Cabana and Riccaboni quoted Chumbawumba to my heart’s delight. In the end, More Bang for Your Buck was reversed with double knees, and Sabin wrapped Matt with a cradle to score the pinfall for a successful title defense. A great deal of action in this one, with Marseglia standing out as looking particularly strong. Post match, the Addiction ambushed MCMG until the Best Friends came down to ringside and took both Kazarian and Daniels out. The segment ended with the Best Friends staring down MCMG before heading to the back.
Winner: The Motor City Machineguns
Bully Ray came down to ringside , thanking the fans for their support and sharing a story about how much he loved Pittsburgh. He informed the fans that his head injury is keeping him out, but that he wanted to see the fans in person regardless.
Mandy Leon, Deonna Purrazzo & Jenny Rose vs. Sumie Sakai, Britt Baker & Faye Jackson
Sumie and Deonna to start. Leon and jackson cycled in before things became more fluid.Baker had some fun throwbacks to Adam Cole with the running chinlock and a ton of superkicks during this one. Faye Jackson flew from the top rope delivering a cross body to take out Leon and Rose, although she did hesitate for a bit, it came off looking like a huge spot. A sorry Ms. Jackson reference by Riccaboni and Cabana, was a fun little hidden moment in this one. Purrazzo eventually locked on a fujiwara armbar for the win. Pretty big night for Women of Honor, appearing for the first time on a live stream of ROH since it’s reboot. The in-ring action was good, but not especially great. The crowd did seem have reactions during this match, and it came away as something the company can do again. 6 women tags are a bit tougher-granted more of the roster competes, but there is also the lack of stronger showcase of skills between two women.
Winners: Mandy Leon, Deonna Purrazzo & Jenny Rose
Proving Ground Instant Reward Six-Man Mayhem
ROH World TV Champion Kenny King vs. “The Hangman” Adam Page vs. KUSHIDA vs. Matt Taven vs. Josh Woods vs. Punishment Martinez
Kushida and Kennt started, Martinez tagged himself in, but Martinez went to the outside, Taven came in, according to Lucha rules. He asked KUSHIDA for the time and then punched him after yelling “Hello McFly”- excellent Back to the Future spot. There was also an insane spot outside, seeing Martinez go for a chokeslam on Taven, KUSHIDA took on Martinez as Taven climbed on the barricade and broke free, hitting a spin kick off that floored Woods before Page flew off a platform in the audience with a flipping senton, clearing the barricade. Woods then suplexed Page off the apron onto everyone on the outside. Martinez had his turn, with a tope con giro that floored everyone. He rolled Woods into the ring, but King kicked Martinez off the top rope. King and Woods danced for a bit before King hit two the Royal Flush for the pinfall victory. Action packed match here,
Winner: Kenny King
IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions The Killer Elite Squad vs. War Machine
KES started off very strong, connecting with simultaneous clotheslines and bodyslam, as they did something that hasn’t happened often in ROH- a manhandling of War Machine. Rowe and Hanson recovered and hit simultaneous suicide dives. The two teams brawled on the outside, spilling over the barricade and wielding chairs, with Paul Turner adopting a Laissez Faire attitude toward the rules. Hanson scored with his ever popular forever clotheslines, but Archer recovered and the two traded cartwheels before Archer took Hanson down. Smith jr suplexed Hanson, but right two Rowe in the corner. Smith Jr. and Rowe traded rights and uranages, with Rowe hitting a knee before scoring a two count. Eventually War Machine hit a sidewalk slam leg drop combo on Archer for the pinfall victory. Great to see War Machine battle a formidable team their size, while this had many NJPW implications, it’s always great to see War Machine in ROH.
Winner: War Machine
Minoru Suzuki vs. Silas Young
Spit exchange, BCB distraction lead to early Young advantage, but as he gloated, Suzuki recovered and took control. The action spilled outside, with Suzuki grabbing a chair and striking Young in the mid section, following by simple beating Young about the barricades.Back inside Suzuki worked the arm, but Young was able to break an armbar attempt by reaching the ropes. An intense chop exchange took place mid-ring as both absorbed stiff shots back and forth before Young hit a fireman’s carrying followed by the Milwaukee Plunge. Davey Boy SMith Jr. ran down to ringside and jumped on the apron, distracting Young and allowed Suzuki to gain the advantage. Suzuki shoved into Todd SInclair. Smith Jr. stormed the ring, but BCB equaled the fight. Suzuki grabbed a chair and took out BCB and then smacked Young with hit, hitting the Gotch Style piledriver as Smith Jr. rolled Sinclair back into the ring to make the three count. The end was a bit too busy for my taste, but Young being protected was a positive outcome here and he had a hard-hitting match against one of the toughest in the world- this should move him into a new program as an elevated talent in ROH.
Winner: Minoru Suzuki
ROH Six-Man Tag Team Championship Match –
The Luxury Trio (c) (Kenny Omega, Cody & “The Villain” Marty Scurll) vs.
CHAOS (Will Ospreay, YOSHI-HASHI & Toru Yano)
Before the match Scurll got on the match and announced that he felt that because they are all part of the Bullet Club, they all can defend the titles. The crowd went wild as the belts were brought down to ringside and the match became a title match. Ospreay mocked Scurll by doing the Too Sweet gesture before the bell rang in a fun little exchange. Yoshi-Hashi hit with umbrella and Luxury dominated, tagging in and out until Yano was able to come. Yano tried to take the turnbuckle but couldn’t, eventually hitting low blows and grabbed pliers to remove the turnbuckle. The Hung Bucks came down to help Scurll hit Yano with all of their boots, but Yano slammed Scurll into the exposed turnbuckle. The Bullet Club attacked him and then hit the Warrior rope pose, but Turner told them to leave, much to the dismay of the crowd. Ospreay hit an absurd looking shooting star press of the top rope to the outside, clearing everyone out, and allowing Yano to roll up Scurll. Scurll managed to kick out and lock on the Chicken Wing to pick up the submission victory.
Winners: The Luxury Trio
Final Thoughts: B/B+
For ROH’s first foray into free live streaming a show, this was quite successful. The stream itself was excellent and had very few stutters along throughout the show. The night had a difficult start because of the injury to mark Briscoe, but the event really recovered nicely and had a little something for everyone. Commentary was engaging and entertaining throughout, and the battle of the Jays, the tag team match and the main event are the ones to watch here, but every match played it’s part well. WOH being featured here feels like a big first step and despite an intermission, which is forgivable considering this wasn’t a iPPV, the show was an enjoyable three and half hours and is recommended viewing.