ROH Charm City Challenge
ROH Charm City Challenge (10/5/2013)- Baltimore, MD
EDDIE EDWARDS vs. ADAM PAGE- 6.75/10
Great opener, and another great showing for Page. I’d really like to see him get the time to show what he can do in a long match like Cedric Alexander got against Davey Richards at Live and Let Die.
FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL MATCH: Roderick Strong vs. Antonio Thomas vs. Tadarius Thomas vs. Caprice Coleman-5.75/10
Spotty but enjoyable. After the match, Veda Scott, who was doing commentary, got up to cut a promo about how Steve Corino should be doing commentary and the fact that ROH won’t let him is a breach of contract. She was chased off by Outlaw Inc.
OUTLAW INC. (Eddie Kingston & Homicide) vs. BLKOUT (Ruckus & Blk Jeez)- 5.25/10
This match was originally scheduled to be Outlaw Inc. vs. Monster Mafia, but apparently Monster Mafia had trouble crossing the US-Canada border. Eddie Kingston referred to them as â€"snow-Mexicans,†which made me laugh.
They did stuff. Ruckus did cool flips. The finish was so horribly botched I have no idea what move it was supposed to be.
ADAM COLE & RODERICK STRONG SEGMENT- decent
Cole comes out and starts to cut a promo on Jay Briscoe, but is interrupted by Roderick Strong. Roddy calls Cole out on his cowardice during the finish of their Ringmaster’s Challenge match at Road to Greatness: Night 2, and points out that he and Cole are 3-3 against each other in ROH. Cole tells Roddy to get in line if wants a title shot. Roddy reveals that he talked to Nigel McGuinness, and that an ROH World Title match has been booked between them for tonight. This seems like the sort of thing that should have been announced in advance. I’m sure that a No DQ’s, No Countouts World title match would have helped sell some tickets.
Cole tries to attack Roddy with the title belt but Roddy ducks, and security quickly breaks them up.
ROH TV TITLE MATCH: Matt Taven(c) (w/Truth Martini & the Hoopla Hotties) vs. Cedric Alexander- 7/10
Casey Ray hits a Code Red! Good dog and pony show stuff from the House of Truth, as usual.
Larry Mercer announces that Roddy vs. Cole will a No Count-outs, No Disqualifications match so that Cole can’t worm his way out of his title defense via underhanded means.
KEVIN STEEN vs. ACH- 6.5/10
On his way to the ring, Kevin Steen snubs a ten year old kid on a high five. I guess he got confused and thought this was the PWG show two weeks later when he was supposed to be wrestling against ACH as a heel.
Apparently there was some build here that involved both Kevin Steen and Kevin Kelly saying that ACH talked too much and was too braggadocious. Steen even tried to tape ACH’s mouth shut. Why was this never mentioned before?
This match was very disappointing . They seemed to have a cool idea for a story towards the end with ACH finding different ways to counter out of the Package Piledriver, but that was only about two minutes of the match. After the match, Steen cut promos hyping up his two upcoming matches; against Michael Bennett at Glory By Honor XII and an ROH Title shot at The Golden Dream.
JIMMY JACOBS TRIAL SERIES MATCH #3: Jimmy Jacobs vs. Michael Bennett- 7.5/10
Maria was on commentary for this match, and the first thing Kevin Kelly does is introduce himself to her. YOU HAVE BEEN WORKING IN THE SAME F*CKING COMPANY TOGETHER FOR TWO YEARS! Hell, she’s even done commentary with you before! Why the f*ck are you introducing yourself to her like you have never met before?!
In other Maria-related news, she was on commentary for this match, and apparently piledrivers and neckbreakers get her wet. Maria is hot and all, but that’s a bit too much information for me. Maria is also wearing furry boots, which coincidentally, was Jimmy Jacobs’ gimmick when he first broke in to ROH… and they actually did a spot that played into that, which got â€"HUSS!†chants from the crowd.
Anyway, they had a great match, with Bennett working over Jacobs’ neck and eventually hitting the Piledriver for the win, so that both Steen and Bennett have gotten a win with their piledrivers tonight to build up to Glory By Honor XII.
ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: reDRagon(c) vs. Jay Lethal & Michael Elgin- 7.75/10
Caprice Coleman was on commentary for this match, and he did a fantastic job of getting C&C’s angle over. Complaining that you aren’t getting one-on-one title shots when you have actually had a few more title matches than you really deserve is hard to do without sounding like a crybaby, but Caprice really managed to do it. He also did a good job of using his kayfabe frustration that a pair of random singles guys is getting a tag title shot instead of him and Cedric, and turned that into an interesting take on the match
The spot with Elgin doing to the top rope to do a corkscrew senton to break up Kyle’s armbar on Lethal instead of just walking over and stomping him or something was kind of dumb, but other than that, a GREAT match. I wish they had done more with the early chairshot to the back, too. Lethal did a great job as the babyface in peril.
Outlaws Inc. watched the match from the crowd.
NO COUNT-OUTS, NO DISQUALIFICATIONS MATCH FOR THE ROH WORLD TITLE: Adam Cole(c) vs. Roderick Strong- 8/10
In the beginning they played off of some of their earlier matches from this year, then just hit each other with everything they could muster. After the match, Steen, who was on commentary, got up to confront Cole, but Bennett jumped him from behind and the heels beat Steen down until Elgin came out and made the save.
A very good show from ROH. Well worth picking up.
EDDIE EDWARDS vs. ADAM PAGE- 6.75/10
Great opener, and another great showing for Page. I’d really like to see him get the time to show what he can do in a long match like Cedric Alexander got against Davey Richards at Live and Let Die.
FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL MATCH: Roderick Strong vs. Antonio Thomas vs. Tadarius Thomas vs. Caprice Coleman-5.75/10
Spotty but enjoyable. After the match, Veda Scott, who was doing commentary, got up to cut a promo about how Steve Corino should be doing commentary and the fact that ROH won’t let him is a breach of contract. She was chased off by Outlaw Inc.
OUTLAW INC. (Eddie Kingston & Homicide) vs. BLKOUT (Ruckus & Blk Jeez)- 5.25/10
This match was originally scheduled to be Outlaw Inc. vs. Monster Mafia, but apparently Monster Mafia had trouble crossing the US-Canada border. Eddie Kingston referred to them as â€"snow-Mexicans,†which made me laugh.
They did stuff. Ruckus did cool flips. The finish was so horribly botched I have no idea what move it was supposed to be.
ADAM COLE & RODERICK STRONG SEGMENT- decent
Cole comes out and starts to cut a promo on Jay Briscoe, but is interrupted by Roderick Strong. Roddy calls Cole out on his cowardice during the finish of their Ringmaster’s Challenge match at Road to Greatness: Night 2, and points out that he and Cole are 3-3 against each other in ROH. Cole tells Roddy to get in line if wants a title shot. Roddy reveals that he talked to Nigel McGuinness, and that an ROH World Title match has been booked between them for tonight. This seems like the sort of thing that should have been announced in advance. I’m sure that a No DQ’s, No Countouts World title match would have helped sell some tickets.
Cole tries to attack Roddy with the title belt but Roddy ducks, and security quickly breaks them up.
ROH TV TITLE MATCH: Matt Taven(c) (w/Truth Martini & the Hoopla Hotties) vs. Cedric Alexander- 7/10
Casey Ray hits a Code Red! Good dog and pony show stuff from the House of Truth, as usual.
Larry Mercer announces that Roddy vs. Cole will a No Count-outs, No Disqualifications match so that Cole can’t worm his way out of his title defense via underhanded means.
KEVIN STEEN vs. ACH- 6.5/10
On his way to the ring, Kevin Steen snubs a ten year old kid on a high five. I guess he got confused and thought this was the PWG show two weeks later when he was supposed to be wrestling against ACH as a heel.
Apparently there was some build here that involved both Kevin Steen and Kevin Kelly saying that ACH talked too much and was too braggadocious. Steen even tried to tape ACH’s mouth shut. Why was this never mentioned before?
This match was very disappointing . They seemed to have a cool idea for a story towards the end with ACH finding different ways to counter out of the Package Piledriver, but that was only about two minutes of the match. After the match, Steen cut promos hyping up his two upcoming matches; against Michael Bennett at Glory By Honor XII and an ROH Title shot at The Golden Dream.
JIMMY JACOBS TRIAL SERIES MATCH #3: Jimmy Jacobs vs. Michael Bennett- 7.5/10
Maria was on commentary for this match, and the first thing Kevin Kelly does is introduce himself to her. YOU HAVE BEEN WORKING IN THE SAME F*CKING COMPANY TOGETHER FOR TWO YEARS! Hell, she’s even done commentary with you before! Why the f*ck are you introducing yourself to her like you have never met before?!
In other Maria-related news, she was on commentary for this match, and apparently piledrivers and neckbreakers get her wet. Maria is hot and all, but that’s a bit too much information for me. Maria is also wearing furry boots, which coincidentally, was Jimmy Jacobs’ gimmick when he first broke in to ROH… and they actually did a spot that played into that, which got â€"HUSS!†chants from the crowd.
Anyway, they had a great match, with Bennett working over Jacobs’ neck and eventually hitting the Piledriver for the win, so that both Steen and Bennett have gotten a win with their piledrivers tonight to build up to Glory By Honor XII.
ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: reDRagon(c) vs. Jay Lethal & Michael Elgin- 7.75/10
Caprice Coleman was on commentary for this match, and he did a fantastic job of getting C&C’s angle over. Complaining that you aren’t getting one-on-one title shots when you have actually had a few more title matches than you really deserve is hard to do without sounding like a crybaby, but Caprice really managed to do it. He also did a good job of using his kayfabe frustration that a pair of random singles guys is getting a tag title shot instead of him and Cedric, and turned that into an interesting take on the match
The spot with Elgin doing to the top rope to do a corkscrew senton to break up Kyle’s armbar on Lethal instead of just walking over and stomping him or something was kind of dumb, but other than that, a GREAT match. I wish they had done more with the early chairshot to the back, too. Lethal did a great job as the babyface in peril.
Outlaws Inc. watched the match from the crowd.
NO COUNT-OUTS, NO DISQUALIFICATIONS MATCH FOR THE ROH WORLD TITLE: Adam Cole(c) vs. Roderick Strong- 8/10
In the beginning they played off of some of their earlier matches from this year, then just hit each other with everything they could muster. After the match, Steen, who was on commentary, got up to confront Cole, but Bennett jumped him from behind and the heels beat Steen down until Elgin came out and made the save.
A very good show from ROH. Well worth picking up.