ROH Death Before Dishonor XII: Night 2
ROH Death Before Dishonor XII: Night 2 (8/23/2014)- Chicago, IL
JOSH ALEXANDER & ETHAN GABRIEL OWENS vs. THE DECADE (w/Jimmy Jacobs & Roderick Strong) (w/Adam Page & Tadarius Thomas)- 6/10
A good showing from Owens and Alexander. It would have been better if the ref had even TRIED to enforce the most important rule of tag team wrestling: ONLY ONE GUY FROM EACH TEAM IN THE RING AT ALL TIMES!
CAPRICE COLEMAN PROMO- very good.
ROH TV TITLE MATCH: Jay Lethal(c) (w/the House of Truth) vs. Caprice Coleman- 7/10
I wasn't a big fan of the 1 inch punch spot and how it played into the match. Lethal accidentally hit Selezyia again, which you would think has to be going somewhere, except that Bennett and Maria did the same thing for a while and absolutely nothing came of it. This match was a lot better in full on the DVD than it was on TV.
Corino: â€"The old Steve Corino would have said he just superkicked the Jesus right out of him but I’m not like that anymore.â€
Kevin Kelly: â€"I’m glad you’ve changed.â€
SCRAMBLE RULES FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL: Silas Young vs. ACH vs. Michael Bennett (w/Maria Kanellis) vs. BJ Whitmer (w/Adam Page & Tadarius Thomas)- 7/10
This was called a Four Corner Survival Match, but Bobby Cruise told us it would be contested under scramble rules. So why don’t they just call it a â€"Four Man Scramble?â€
There was a lot of good action here, and a good story with ACH as the babyface the three heels took turns beating on. They also did a few spots between Bennett and Whitmer that played off of the piledriver from All-Star Extravaganza V last year that legitimately required Whitmer to be stretchered out of the arena. I know it is heel vs. heel, but playing off of that could be good for a one-off match.
Good post-match stuff from the Decade, too.
ADAM COLE vs. HANSON- 5/10
This match was going along great, with Hanson looking like a big strong babyface and Cole being a great heel and working over Hanson’s knee… and then they ruined it in the last ninety seconds of the match when Hanson just stopped selling the knee (including doing his f*cking cartwheel spot), and then Cole, who had spent the whole match working over Hanson’s knee, won with a random inside cradle. What the f*ck happened to the story you guys were telling?!
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Wrestlers=good, fans=bad
The Kingdom attacked Hanson. Bennett sang the beginning of Edge’s entrance theme before spearing Hanson. That made me laugh. Cole cut a great heel promo, saying terrible things about Hanson’s tag team partner, Raymond Rowe, who had just been injured in a serious motorcycle accident. The fans cheered this, because they suck. The same dumbsh*t fans then popped when Michael Elgin came out to chase off the heels they had just been cheering.
ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Michael Elgin(c) vs. Tommaso Ciampa- 5.5/10
Sometimes there is a match that you are SO excited for, and the wrestlers put on a great match, but you built it up in your head so much that even a â€"great†match feels disappointing. But that’s not what this was. This was a time when I was super-excited for a match, and then the wrestlers just went out and put on a crappy match.
Ciampa countered a suplex by applying testicular claw. Right in front of the referee. There was no DQ for this. They followed this up by doing one of those spots that I f*cking hate where one of them throws a hard kick to the back, then sits down on the mat and just lets the other guy kick him in the back, and then they alternate. What happened to wanting to win the ROH World Title?! These guys have been talking about how hard they have trained for this match… and now they’re doing this pointless sh*t?!
Elgin put Ciampa through a table, completely and totally on purpose, right in front of the referee. No DQ for this, either.
Ciampa being Ciampa, had to kick out at one at some point in this match. At least he didn’t do it after a finisher. Maybe he’s learning? Aw… who am I kidding? He later proceeded to blatantly poke Elgin in the eye. There was no point to doing this because he was already in control of the match, and it didn’t matter at all because after he did this, Elgin sold it, but then went on offense before Ciampa could land a single move! This really came off as two guys with no clue how to tell a story in the ring (other than the basic â€"I hit you until you fall down and can’t kick out).
POST-MATCH ANGLE- Elgin wanted a handshake. Ciampa instead picked up the title, stared at it longingly, and then dropped it and left the ring. Elgin went to the back, then Ciampa went nuts and attacked a few ringside attendants. He then went after Kevin Kelly. Steve Corino tried to talk him down, while referees and security showed up to help. Ciampa appeared to have calmed down, and people went to the back. Ciampa celebrated as if he had actually done something (totally out of character for him), and some dumbass fans actually threw streamers at him for this. Ciampa then went after ring announcer Bobby Cruise. He hit him with about eight straight running knees to the face. Not a single person came out to help Bobby Cruise because… um…
Scarlett Bordeaux has taken over Bobby Cruise’s ring-announcer duties as Bobby is being rushed to a local hospital.
ADAM PEARCE vs. ADAM PAGE (w/Tadarius Thomas & the Decade)- 6/10
Jimmy Jacobs explained that their young boys weren't learning quickly enough, so they are bringing in cranky veteran Adam Pearce to beat some respect into them. Tadarius took his lumps last night, and now it’s Adam Page’s turn. The match was good for what it was, and the post-match was good as well. I just wish the fans hadn’t gone heel.
BJ Whitmer went over to the commentary table specifically to ask Corino to â€"say hi to your sister for me.†Quite the asshole.
AJ STYLES vs. CEDRIC ALEXANDER- 7.5/10
AJ took a scary fall or two. Cedric worked over AJ’s head while AJ worked over Cedric’s knee. This was a good showing for Cedric, but I was hoping for something a bit more spectacular. When you have a guy on his way up totem pole like Cedric is, you want that guy to be prove that he is able to deliver something awesome when he is in there with a HUGE name like AJ Styles.
EIGHT MAN TAG TEAM ELIMINATION MATCH: The Young Bucks & reDRagon vs. The Briscoes & The Addiction (Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian)- 7.5/10
Rather than normal elimination rules, in this match, if you were eliminated, then your regular partner was, too. I thought this was needlessly complicated. I also thought they protected the Briscoes a bit to much on the finish. I also wasn’t thrilled with the fact that the Addiction pinned the champs but there would be no follow-up to this at all… which I find utterly baffling as allowing the Bucks (currently the #1 contenders) to go over while also setting up for one of the other teams to earn a title shot seems to me to be the only reason to make this an elimination match in the first place.
BONUS MATCH: Cheeseburger, Will Ferrara, & Louis Lyndon vs. Stokely Hathaway, Matt Sells, & Psycho Mike- 3/10
None of these guys aside from Ferrara looked ready for the main roster, ad ot even Ferrara looked particularly great.
A solid show from ROH, but one which will always be remember for the Ciampa angle and, in my book, for the extremely disappointing ROH World Title match.
JOSH ALEXANDER & ETHAN GABRIEL OWENS vs. THE DECADE (w/Jimmy Jacobs & Roderick Strong) (w/Adam Page & Tadarius Thomas)- 6/10
A good showing from Owens and Alexander. It would have been better if the ref had even TRIED to enforce the most important rule of tag team wrestling: ONLY ONE GUY FROM EACH TEAM IN THE RING AT ALL TIMES!
CAPRICE COLEMAN PROMO- very good.
ROH TV TITLE MATCH: Jay Lethal(c) (w/the House of Truth) vs. Caprice Coleman- 7/10
I wasn't a big fan of the 1 inch punch spot and how it played into the match. Lethal accidentally hit Selezyia again, which you would think has to be going somewhere, except that Bennett and Maria did the same thing for a while and absolutely nothing came of it. This match was a lot better in full on the DVD than it was on TV.
Corino: â€"The old Steve Corino would have said he just superkicked the Jesus right out of him but I’m not like that anymore.â€
Kevin Kelly: â€"I’m glad you’ve changed.â€
SCRAMBLE RULES FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL: Silas Young vs. ACH vs. Michael Bennett (w/Maria Kanellis) vs. BJ Whitmer (w/Adam Page & Tadarius Thomas)- 7/10
This was called a Four Corner Survival Match, but Bobby Cruise told us it would be contested under scramble rules. So why don’t they just call it a â€"Four Man Scramble?â€
There was a lot of good action here, and a good story with ACH as the babyface the three heels took turns beating on. They also did a few spots between Bennett and Whitmer that played off of the piledriver from All-Star Extravaganza V last year that legitimately required Whitmer to be stretchered out of the arena. I know it is heel vs. heel, but playing off of that could be good for a one-off match.
Good post-match stuff from the Decade, too.
ADAM COLE vs. HANSON- 5/10
This match was going along great, with Hanson looking like a big strong babyface and Cole being a great heel and working over Hanson’s knee… and then they ruined it in the last ninety seconds of the match when Hanson just stopped selling the knee (including doing his f*cking cartwheel spot), and then Cole, who had spent the whole match working over Hanson’s knee, won with a random inside cradle. What the f*ck happened to the story you guys were telling?!
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Wrestlers=good, fans=bad
The Kingdom attacked Hanson. Bennett sang the beginning of Edge’s entrance theme before spearing Hanson. That made me laugh. Cole cut a great heel promo, saying terrible things about Hanson’s tag team partner, Raymond Rowe, who had just been injured in a serious motorcycle accident. The fans cheered this, because they suck. The same dumbsh*t fans then popped when Michael Elgin came out to chase off the heels they had just been cheering.
ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Michael Elgin(c) vs. Tommaso Ciampa- 5.5/10
Sometimes there is a match that you are SO excited for, and the wrestlers put on a great match, but you built it up in your head so much that even a â€"great†match feels disappointing. But that’s not what this was. This was a time when I was super-excited for a match, and then the wrestlers just went out and put on a crappy match.
Ciampa countered a suplex by applying testicular claw. Right in front of the referee. There was no DQ for this. They followed this up by doing one of those spots that I f*cking hate where one of them throws a hard kick to the back, then sits down on the mat and just lets the other guy kick him in the back, and then they alternate. What happened to wanting to win the ROH World Title?! These guys have been talking about how hard they have trained for this match… and now they’re doing this pointless sh*t?!
Elgin put Ciampa through a table, completely and totally on purpose, right in front of the referee. No DQ for this, either.
Ciampa being Ciampa, had to kick out at one at some point in this match. At least he didn’t do it after a finisher. Maybe he’s learning? Aw… who am I kidding? He later proceeded to blatantly poke Elgin in the eye. There was no point to doing this because he was already in control of the match, and it didn’t matter at all because after he did this, Elgin sold it, but then went on offense before Ciampa could land a single move! This really came off as two guys with no clue how to tell a story in the ring (other than the basic â€"I hit you until you fall down and can’t kick out).
POST-MATCH ANGLE- Elgin wanted a handshake. Ciampa instead picked up the title, stared at it longingly, and then dropped it and left the ring. Elgin went to the back, then Ciampa went nuts and attacked a few ringside attendants. He then went after Kevin Kelly. Steve Corino tried to talk him down, while referees and security showed up to help. Ciampa appeared to have calmed down, and people went to the back. Ciampa celebrated as if he had actually done something (totally out of character for him), and some dumbass fans actually threw streamers at him for this. Ciampa then went after ring announcer Bobby Cruise. He hit him with about eight straight running knees to the face. Not a single person came out to help Bobby Cruise because… um…
Scarlett Bordeaux has taken over Bobby Cruise’s ring-announcer duties as Bobby is being rushed to a local hospital.
ADAM PEARCE vs. ADAM PAGE (w/Tadarius Thomas & the Decade)- 6/10
Jimmy Jacobs explained that their young boys weren't learning quickly enough, so they are bringing in cranky veteran Adam Pearce to beat some respect into them. Tadarius took his lumps last night, and now it’s Adam Page’s turn. The match was good for what it was, and the post-match was good as well. I just wish the fans hadn’t gone heel.
BJ Whitmer went over to the commentary table specifically to ask Corino to â€"say hi to your sister for me.†Quite the asshole.
AJ STYLES vs. CEDRIC ALEXANDER- 7.5/10
AJ took a scary fall or two. Cedric worked over AJ’s head while AJ worked over Cedric’s knee. This was a good showing for Cedric, but I was hoping for something a bit more spectacular. When you have a guy on his way up totem pole like Cedric is, you want that guy to be prove that he is able to deliver something awesome when he is in there with a HUGE name like AJ Styles.
EIGHT MAN TAG TEAM ELIMINATION MATCH: The Young Bucks & reDRagon vs. The Briscoes & The Addiction (Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian)- 7.5/10
Rather than normal elimination rules, in this match, if you were eliminated, then your regular partner was, too. I thought this was needlessly complicated. I also thought they protected the Briscoes a bit to much on the finish. I also wasn’t thrilled with the fact that the Addiction pinned the champs but there would be no follow-up to this at all… which I find utterly baffling as allowing the Bucks (currently the #1 contenders) to go over while also setting up for one of the other teams to earn a title shot seems to me to be the only reason to make this an elimination match in the first place.
BONUS MATCH: Cheeseburger, Will Ferrara, & Louis Lyndon vs. Stokely Hathaway, Matt Sells, & Psycho Mike- 3/10
None of these guys aside from Ferrara looked ready for the main roster, ad ot even Ferrara looked particularly great.
A solid show from ROH, but one which will always be remember for the Ciampa angle and, in my book, for the extremely disappointing ROH World Title match.