ROH Showdown in the Sun: Day 2
ROH Showdown In The Sun: Day 2 (3/31/2012)- Ft. Lauderdale, FL
JIMMY JACOBS PROMO- aside from Jimmy getting both the name of the show where he hit Steen with the railroad spike and how long he has been â€"sober from evil,†this promo was your standard Jimmy Jacobs greatness. The only other thing I didn’t like about this is Jimmy using the â€"Zombie Princess†nickname. Cutting a promo where you say â€"I am so tough that I could wear a tutu and call myself a 'Zombie Princess' and still be tough†is an awesome promo. Actually calling yourself the â€"Zombie Princess†as a nickname is incredibly stupid.
JIMMY JACOBS vs. EL GENERICO- 6.25/10
â€"LITTLE JIMMY!†chants for Jimmy Jacobs (for those who don’t know, Jacobs is 5’7, 170 lbs).
CEDRIC ALEXANDER (w/Caprice Coleman) vs. TOMASSO CIAMPA (w/The Embassy)- 4/10
TJ PERKINS vs. FIRE ANT- 6/10
ADAM COLE vs. KYLE O’REILLY- no rating. Good segment.
Once you see the finish, it is pretty clear that these guys were holding a lot back in this match, because this match was all about the way the finish happened. The rest of it really didn’t matter.
STREET FIGHT: The Young Bucks vs. The All Night Express (Kenny King & Rhett Titus)- 6.5/10
Rhett’s chairshots on the Buck’s looked ridiculously weak, and they really shouldn’t have used a CUSHIONED CHAIR. It really kills the whole effect. Other than that, this was a pretty good weapons match.
MIKE BENNETT PROMO- okay
ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Briscoe Brothers(c) vs. Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team- 6.5/10
Disappointing, considering how hot this feud should be. With all of the build-up this should have been no DQ’s unless they had Cornette come out on TV and specifically say that he didn’t want this to be DQ’s because he doesn’t want them to keep bashing each other in the head with chairs.
EDDIE EDWARDS vs. KEVIN STEEN-6.5/10
They were on the outside for WAY too long. The finish was also a bit awkward simply because you don’t expect Steen’s current character to win with a flash pin, although it was a nice reminder that Steen can wrestle, too, as he been brawling for most of the past two and a half years.
TOMASSO CIAMPA & JAY LETHAL CONFRONTATION- the words were good (especially Lethal’s), but I don’t like this on some levels and love it on others. Ciampa comes out and dares Lethal to put the TV Title on the line in this match against Roddy. Ciampa (I assume) is quite confident that he can beat Jay Lethal and win the TV Title, so why would he encourage Lethal to do something which might result in Lethal losing the belt to someone else (and especially someone whom Ciampa has never beaten)?
What I loved was that the announcers told us that ROH management had decided that this was going to be the title shot that Roddy won when he and Lethal went to a draw in a Proving Ground match back at Glory By Honor X and that the House Of Truth was fine with this. A few weeks ago in the newswire, it said that ROH had been trying to get Martini to agree to contracts for the title matches that his charges had earned (this one for Roddy and Elgin’s shot at the ROH World Title which he earned by winning Survival Of The Fittest 2011), but Truth was refusing because he wanted to wait until he thought the champs were weak. It then stated that ROH management was getting annoyed with this and had warned Truth that he couldn’t hold out forever and, at some point, ROH would sign the match anyway, even without his consent. Hopefully this will turn out to be ROH forcing Roddy to use that title shot (presumably in response to Elgin beating Davey down last night to weaken him for tonight’s title shot, as they want to tell Truth that they won’t allow Elgin to constantly attack Davey and then demand his title shot), and when Truth eventually finds out, he will go ballistic.
ROH TV TITLE MATCH: Jay Lethal(c) vs. Roderick Strong (w/Truth Martini)- 7/10
Great match, but now I am disappointed that my above statement about a possible angle between Truth Martini and ROH management is irrelevant.
ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Davey Richards(c) vs. Michael Elgin (w/Truth Martini)- a PERFECT 10/10!
I was so into this match it is not even funny. There were times when I was dead sure that Elgin was going to win the belt, second title shot in his pocket and the build-up to Steen vs. Davey be damned. There were points where I was convinced that Davey was going to get the win right there, even after he had hit a move that wasn’t even a finisher! This match was freaking AMAZING!
SPOILER WARNING! THIS SPOT IS AWESOME AND I DON’T WANT TO SPOIL IT FOR YOU IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN IT YET:
When Davey hit that sick running kick to the head of a seated opponent (the one he put Eddie down with at Best In The World 2011) and Elgin popped up at one, and I went absolutely nuts. When Punk and Aries did a similar thing at Death Before Dishonor III, I had heard about the spot going in and expected to hate it, but wound up loving it. Here, not knowing it was coming, I can understand why everyone raved about that spot. This was AWESOME! That was the point where I became absolutely convinced that Davey was going to lose the belt.
DAVEY RICHARDS PROMO- good. I didn’t like the shot at Wrestlemania, though.
Overall, this was a great show from RON, with solid matches up and down the card, capped off by a perfect main event, but despite the perfect main event, this show still felt disappointing as a lot of matches that people were expecting to be great (Steen vs. Eddie, WGTT vs. Briscoes) were only "good," which seems to be happening a bit too often in ROH nowadays. You should definitely buy this show. Davey vs. Elgin alone is worth the money.
JIMMY JACOBS PROMO- aside from Jimmy getting both the name of the show where he hit Steen with the railroad spike and how long he has been â€"sober from evil,†this promo was your standard Jimmy Jacobs greatness. The only other thing I didn’t like about this is Jimmy using the â€"Zombie Princess†nickname. Cutting a promo where you say â€"I am so tough that I could wear a tutu and call myself a 'Zombie Princess' and still be tough†is an awesome promo. Actually calling yourself the â€"Zombie Princess†as a nickname is incredibly stupid.
JIMMY JACOBS vs. EL GENERICO- 6.25/10
â€"LITTLE JIMMY!†chants for Jimmy Jacobs (for those who don’t know, Jacobs is 5’7, 170 lbs).
CEDRIC ALEXANDER (w/Caprice Coleman) vs. TOMASSO CIAMPA (w/The Embassy)- 4/10
TJ PERKINS vs. FIRE ANT- 6/10
ADAM COLE vs. KYLE O’REILLY- no rating. Good segment.
Once you see the finish, it is pretty clear that these guys were holding a lot back in this match, because this match was all about the way the finish happened. The rest of it really didn’t matter.
STREET FIGHT: The Young Bucks vs. The All Night Express (Kenny King & Rhett Titus)- 6.5/10
Rhett’s chairshots on the Buck’s looked ridiculously weak, and they really shouldn’t have used a CUSHIONED CHAIR. It really kills the whole effect. Other than that, this was a pretty good weapons match.
MIKE BENNETT PROMO- okay
ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Briscoe Brothers(c) vs. Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team- 6.5/10
Disappointing, considering how hot this feud should be. With all of the build-up this should have been no DQ’s unless they had Cornette come out on TV and specifically say that he didn’t want this to be DQ’s because he doesn’t want them to keep bashing each other in the head with chairs.
EDDIE EDWARDS vs. KEVIN STEEN-6.5/10
They were on the outside for WAY too long. The finish was also a bit awkward simply because you don’t expect Steen’s current character to win with a flash pin, although it was a nice reminder that Steen can wrestle, too, as he been brawling for most of the past two and a half years.
TOMASSO CIAMPA & JAY LETHAL CONFRONTATION- the words were good (especially Lethal’s), but I don’t like this on some levels and love it on others. Ciampa comes out and dares Lethal to put the TV Title on the line in this match against Roddy. Ciampa (I assume) is quite confident that he can beat Jay Lethal and win the TV Title, so why would he encourage Lethal to do something which might result in Lethal losing the belt to someone else (and especially someone whom Ciampa has never beaten)?
What I loved was that the announcers told us that ROH management had decided that this was going to be the title shot that Roddy won when he and Lethal went to a draw in a Proving Ground match back at Glory By Honor X and that the House Of Truth was fine with this. A few weeks ago in the newswire, it said that ROH had been trying to get Martini to agree to contracts for the title matches that his charges had earned (this one for Roddy and Elgin’s shot at the ROH World Title which he earned by winning Survival Of The Fittest 2011), but Truth was refusing because he wanted to wait until he thought the champs were weak. It then stated that ROH management was getting annoyed with this and had warned Truth that he couldn’t hold out forever and, at some point, ROH would sign the match anyway, even without his consent. Hopefully this will turn out to be ROH forcing Roddy to use that title shot (presumably in response to Elgin beating Davey down last night to weaken him for tonight’s title shot, as they want to tell Truth that they won’t allow Elgin to constantly attack Davey and then demand his title shot), and when Truth eventually finds out, he will go ballistic.
ROH TV TITLE MATCH: Jay Lethal(c) vs. Roderick Strong (w/Truth Martini)- 7/10
Great match, but now I am disappointed that my above statement about a possible angle between Truth Martini and ROH management is irrelevant.
ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Davey Richards(c) vs. Michael Elgin (w/Truth Martini)- a PERFECT 10/10!
I was so into this match it is not even funny. There were times when I was dead sure that Elgin was going to win the belt, second title shot in his pocket and the build-up to Steen vs. Davey be damned. There were points where I was convinced that Davey was going to get the win right there, even after he had hit a move that wasn’t even a finisher! This match was freaking AMAZING!
SPOILER WARNING! THIS SPOT IS AWESOME AND I DON’T WANT TO SPOIL IT FOR YOU IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN IT YET:
When Davey hit that sick running kick to the head of a seated opponent (the one he put Eddie down with at Best In The World 2011) and Elgin popped up at one, and I went absolutely nuts. When Punk and Aries did a similar thing at Death Before Dishonor III, I had heard about the spot going in and expected to hate it, but wound up loving it. Here, not knowing it was coming, I can understand why everyone raved about that spot. This was AWESOME! That was the point where I became absolutely convinced that Davey was going to lose the belt.
DAVEY RICHARDS PROMO- good. I didn’t like the shot at Wrestlemania, though.
Overall, this was a great show from RON, with solid matches up and down the card, capped off by a perfect main event, but despite the perfect main event, this show still felt disappointing as a lot of matches that people were expecting to be great (Steen vs. Eddie, WGTT vs. Briscoes) were only "good," which seems to be happening a bit too often in ROH nowadays. You should definitely buy this show. Davey vs. Elgin alone is worth the money.