ROH Global Wars 2017 Columbus Review

ROH Global Wars 2017 Columbus Review
10/14/2017
Columbus, Ohio

Ring of Honor’s third stop on the Global Wars tour was in Columbus, Ohio. Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana were on commentary to start the show.

The Addiction vs. Jonathan Gresham & Jay White
Christopher Daniels and Kazarian came out first, derided the fans and immediately trying to draw heat, threatening to fight the fans in an effort to rile everyone up and extinguish the support they received when they came out. Gresham spent a great deal of the time in the ring after he and White outwrestled the Addiction to begin with. Daniels and Kazarian worked a perfect hell tag team match here-when they are on, they are in synch and great to see work with anyone. Gresham sold the beating very well before making the hot tag to White, but White was outnumbered, as the referee never seemed to count Daniels or Kazarian out. The Addiction was able to hit Celebrity Rehab to pick up the pinfall victory. Commentary did well to tell the story that when they focus on wrestling, Kaz and Daniels can win matches. Post match, they both yelled at commentary about how the tag titles are theirs.

Winners: The Addiction

Kenny King & Mark Briscoe vs. The Bullet Club (Marty Scurll & Adam Page)
King came to the ring and got on the microphone to inform the crowd that Mark Briscoe was injured the night before and would not be able to compete but that he will have no problem taking the Bullet Club’s B-Team members by himself. Scurll and Page came out, with Scurll responding that they are not the Bullet Club’s B-Team at all, pointing out that King couldn’t get a date, so he had no chance to defeat the two alone.

Hiromu Takahashi vs Jay Lethal
Friendly lockup to start, but a Takashi paintbrush led to a heated exchange of stiff knife edged chops. The action spilled outside and Takahashi did his darndest to avoid Lethal’s suicide dive, but ultimately was knocked back into the barricade by that very move. Lethal curiously only went for it once and in pacing around outside, allowed Takahashi to recover and scamper inside before flinging Lethal to the arena floor with a sunset flip powerbomb. Takahashi recuperated as Lethal made the 20 count back into the ring and slowed the pace of the match down a bit. Takahashi simply couldn’t put Lethal away in this one, Lethal’s third match in three days. The end came when Takahashi went for the Time Bomb but had it reversed into a small package. Lethal leapt up and went for a Lethal Injection that was blocked, but he hit a cutter nonetheless and then hit Lethal Injection for the win. A really fun match between these two- Takahashi has grown by leaps and bounds, while Lethal continues to wrestle at a high level here, no matter what the spot.

Winner: Jay Lethal

ROH World Tag Team Championship Match
The Motor City MachineGuns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin) (c) vs. Silas Young & The Beer City Bruiser
Before the match got underway, The Dawgs, Rhett Titus and Will Ferrara joined commentary, stating that they were sponsored by the Beer City Bruiser, although it seems Ferrara had to spend the steep price of 8 dollars for the libation, which is probably more than a BCB beer cozy. Young and BCB attacked MCMG before the bell, but were quickly sent packing to the arena floor, victims of crisscrossing flying knees from the apron. Riccaboni made a Kris Kross reference in 2017 and all’s right with the world. BCB and Young dominated a large portion of the match, keeping Shelley on their side of the ring until Shelley leapt of the turnbuckle over BCB to make the hot tsg. Sabin still fell victim to Misery/Bullfrog Splash combo, but as Riccaboni said, they would not go gently into that good night. A Skull and Crossbones combo from MCMG to Bruiser secured the pinfall victory for the champions here. Young and BCB work very well as a methodical heel tag team and their chemistry is superb. This was example of a well done heel challenger tag team match, with MCMG looking as fluid as ever.

Winner: Motor City Machine Guns

CHAOS (Will Ospreay, Yoshi-HASHI & Toru Yano) vs. Minoru Suzuki & the Killer Elite Squad.
The six men brawled to start on the outside of the ring before transitioning back to the ring for the match proper. As expected, there was the usual Yano schtick, which played a good contrast to the seriousness of Suzuki-Gun. In the end,KES went for a Killer Bomb on Hashi, but Yano interrupted the move, allowing Ospreay to leap from the crowd and into the ring, catching Archer with a forearm. Hashi rolled Archer up for a quick three count victory and Chaos eked out the win against Suzuki-Gun some fun spots here, but not anything overly surprising. The match very much followed the same brawling type match that Suzuki Gun had in the Buffalo show, although Ospreay’s high flying theatrics were added here.

Winners: CHAOS

Holidead vs. Sumíe Sakai
As Holidead came out, Riccaboni mentioned that Whitney had a bit of darkness in him, a nice reference to his previously evil character. The match got underway and Sakai played a game of cat and mouse, running around the ring before sliding in and hitting a baseball slide to gain the early advantage. Sakai really worked to get the crowd involved in this one and the Two generally worked well together, but there was some sloppiness throughout this one. Holidead was overpowering Sakai, but a quick move from the top turned into a pinning predicament, but the move was botched, so Sakai released it and went for a quick cradle. The end was clearly supposed to be a quick surprising pin combination out of nowhere, but instead felt very flat. ROH did give the fans what they’ve been clamoring for in terms of a WOH in PPV, but this was not a great first showing.

Winner: Sumie Sakai

Shane Taylor vs. Josh “The Goods” Woods
This was the battle of a knockout king up against a submission expert here. The two really stayed through to their style through, with Woods continually looking for a quick submission and Taylor punishing him in an attempt t hit a knockout blow. The crowd was a bit subdued for this one, but the two worked a believable style with stiff shots being the high spot here. Taylor was able to fend off Woods’s submissions and hit a over the shoulder reverse piledriver to pick up the pinfall victory. A good match between the two, Taylor in particular. Woods is working well, but does not have the crowd behind him yet to make the matches a bit more exciting. This match did show that he’s playing to the crowd more and there was a response, albeit tepid. Taylor is quietly building to a featured spot in 2018 with strong showings like he had here.

Winner: Shane Taylor

Kenny King & Colt Cabana vs. Marty Scurll & Hangman Page
Colt and Scurll started off the match, with Cabana using European reversals, very similar to Scurll’ style. A ton of comedy spots here with Page and Scurll charging King in the corner, only for Scurll to repeatedly receive boots to the face while Page connected with clotheslines. Scurll and Page cónyuges these antics throughout, with Scurll low blowing Page as he attempted to side a sunset flip reversal. Scurll went to break Cabana’s fingers, but Colt was ready and he whipped out an oven mitt that he had at the ready. Scurll was unable to separate the fingers, but did eventually get to hit the spot. Scurll was not able to apply the Chickenwing, having it reversed into Cubs Win(formerly the Billy Goat’s Curse). Page broke it up, but King ultimately hit the Royal Flush for the win.

Winners: Kenny King & Colt Cabana

ROH World Championship Match
Cody(c) vs. KUSHIDA
Cody, as per usual, demanded that KUSHIDA kiss the ring, but to no avail as the former ROH TV champion flipped Cody the bird instead. An incensed Cody tossed chairs into the ring before calming down. He then grabbed a mic and demanded the fans cheer for him, citing that Buffalo and Pittsburgh were better towns. After asking for a fan to be removed, the wrestling finally started, with Kushida quickly gaining the advantage with his speed. Much like Cody’s match with Sanada, this featured a bit of a delayed start, but once they got going the action was good. KUSHIDA worked Cody’s arm for much of the match and the champion had to continually find new ways to avoid the hoverboard lock.In the end, Cody was able to almost reach the ropes to break the Hoverboard lock,m but KUSHIDA tried to quickly transition into the Back to the Future brainbuster pin combination. Cody was able to reverse it into the Cross Rhodes and picked up the pinfall victory.  This was certainly was one of Cody’s better title defenses- seeing more in ring work would have made this better, but he came off as arrogant, yet skilled enough to beat an accomplished opponent.

Winner: Cody

ROH 6-Man World Championship Match
The Elite ( Kenny Omega, Matt & Nick Jackson) vs.
Best Friends (Trent Baretta & Chuckie T) & Flip Gordon
Nick and Trent started the match off, basically even and giving way to Matt and Gordon. As a chorus of Harmful Ribs was chanted by the crowd, Gordon showed off his flipping ability and agility, so impressing Matt that he offered a handshake. Trent and Chuckie broke that up right away and then Chuckie demanded Omega come in. He obliged and used his agility to flip over Chuckie and gain the advantage, tagging Matt in. The Best friends combined to take Matt down, but as they went for a hug spot, Gordon cleared the apron of Omega and Nick to join in the fun. He was rebuffed, but did get to nail Omega and Nick with a flipping senton as Trent and Chuckie hugged.The Elite hit their new “normal” spot in ten boots, but the non match participants were sent to the back. Omega goes for One Winged Angel on Chuckie, but he reversed into the Awful Waffle and covered him for the pinfall. BC came out yet again and pulled the referee out to stop the count. The action spilled to the floor and Flip hit a 450 to arena floor, taking out everyone. The Elite and the Best Friends team moved to the ramp, with the Elite super kicking the Best friends off of ramp through a table.Flip ate a Meltzer driver on arena floor and Omega finally hit One Winged Indy Taker on inside for the pinfall victory.

Final Thoughts: C
This was fun, but was not the best show on the tour. Like the other shows, the focus here was the Bullet Club and Omega, even superseding the title as the main event. The draw was definitely Omega here and the crowd certainly got what they wanted here. The Bullet Club has taken a liking to Flip Gordon and his inclusion in the main event and what he was able to do really elevated him here and made him look very important. Cody’s match with KUSHIDA was a better defense than he has had before, but still felt a bit short in terms of actual action in the ring. The best match of the night was easily Takahashi/Lethal. This might have the Bullet Club’s tour, but Lethal had a strong showing each night and was a shining example of the very best of ROH wrestling.

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