ROH Aftershock
ROH Aftershock (7/12/2014)- Hopkins, MN
OPENING SEGMENT- Rather than the traditional in-ring interview for the new ROH World Champion, Elgin just cut a short promo saying that he wanted to defend the ROH World Title tonight in addition to his scheduled six-man tag with War Machine again the Kingdom. Adam Cole came out and said Elgin’s promo was boring… and he was kind of right. Matt Hardy, Michael Bennett, and Maria Kanellis all came out as well and Cole said that Elgin was just keeping the belt warm until he decided to take it back. The heels were going to attack Elgin, but he called out War Machine and we got our scheduled six-man tag team match featuring…
MICHAEL ELGIN & WAR MACHINE (Raymond Rowe & Hanson) vs. THE KINGDOM (w/Matt Hardy, Adam Cole, & Michael Bennett) (w/Maria Kanellis)- 5/10
The fans chanted â€"YOU’RE A QUEEN!†at Kingdom member Adam Cole (or they might have been chanting â€"WAR MACHINE!â€). Then they immediately undid any goodwill they had built up with me by counting WAY too fast for Elgin’s stalling suplex. Don’t you people know how long a second is?
The Kingdom got the heat on Rowe, working over his midsection. Matt Hardy wrestled almost the entire match with the â€"Iconic Title†belt around his waist. The only time it came off was when he tried to hit Elgin with it from behind. Jay Briscoe came out to stop him from doing this. All Elgin saw, though, was Jay interfering in his match, so they had a shouting match, and the match ended by DQ when Hardy dropkicked Jay into Elgin (I guess the ref thought Jay just attacked Elgin).
Matt Hardy and Maria managed to escape (with Maria snatching the â€"Iconic Title†belt in the process), but the Briscoes, Elgin, and War Machine hit some moves on Cole and Bennett. Hardy came back out to beg them not to. Elgin said he wanted to defend the title tonight and challenged Hardy to a title match. Hardy accepted, vowing that Elgin would pay for his â€"sins against the Kingdom.†Elgin vowed to send Hardy packing.
Also, the Briscoes and War Machine randomly had a staredown.
THE FISH TANK, WITH SPECIAL GUEST: Cheeseburger- okay
Kyle and Bobby were hilariously entertaining, as always. Cheeseburger came off like a huge dork. Also, he needs new gear. His current gear, which has pictures of cheeseburgers on it, makes him look like he is supposed to be a mascot for a fast-food restaurant. When reDRagon were teasing him about his very low winning percentage, his retort was to point out that Fish and O’Reilly the current ROH World Tag Team Champions, have lost the titles twice before in the past. Really.
The end result of this was Fish challenging Cheeseburger to a match, and offering to put his half of the ROH World Tag Team Titles on the line. I’m not even sure you’re allowed to do that but whatever…
MATCH FOR ONE HALF OF THE ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLES: Bobby Fish(c) (w/Kyle O’Reilly) vs. Cheeseburger- 3/10
There was a lot of talk on commentary about Chris Bosh. The basketball player, not â€"Lioncock†Chris Bosh, the wrestler. They did some antics-based comedy. Fish won, and after the match, they were going to hit Cheeseburger with Chasing the Dragon, but Cedric Alexander made the save, leading to…
CEDRIC ALEXANDER vs. KYLE O’REILLY- 7.5/10
Kyle worked over Cedric’s arm. Cedric didn’t help himself much, either, when he botched a springboard move out of the corner and fell right on his face. He didn’t let it phase him, though. He kept on going an they had a great match.
THE BRISCOES vs. THE DECADE (BJ Whitmer & Roderick Strong) (w/Tadarius Thomas)- 7/10
Really only about a 6.75, but I gave it an extra .25 for how great that Jay Driller at the finish looked.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Whiter blames Tadarius for the loss (somehow) and starts to shove him. The Briscoes step in and tell him to knock it off. Whitmer, Strong and Tadairus then attack the Briscoes.
PROVING GROUND MATCH: ROH TV Champion Jay Lethal (w/Truth Martini) vs. Takaaki Watanabe- 6.75/10
The crowd was very behind Watanabe, which is a good sign for him.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- bad.
The Romantic Touch came out and he and Lethal brawled a bit. The purpose of this was to distract Lethal so Taven could jump the barricade and attack Lethal from behind. Taven is supposed to be the babyface.
KEVIN STEEN vs. TOMMASO CIAMPA- 7.75/10
They started off with comedy antics by Steen, but Ciampa quickly got annoyed and stopped playing along, and this escalated very quickly into a fight. After the match, Steen gave a speech putting over the crowd. They chanted â€"THANK YOU KEVIN!†in response.
FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL MATCH FOR AN ROH WORLD TITLE SHOT AT DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR XII: NIGHT 1: Silas Young vs. ACH vs. Matt Taven vs. Tadarius Thomas (w/Jimmy Jacobs)- 6.5/10
Jimmy Jacobs was supposed to be in this match, but he gave his spot to Tadarius as a reward for Tadarius â€"taking the initiative†to attack the Briscoes earlier. His promo was awesome.
ACH offered Tadarius a handshake before the match, but he refused. Jacobs approved of this. This was supposed to be a Four Corner Survival match, but they played it like a scramble match (lucha rules). They did a good job of keeping Tadaius and ACH away from each other, keeping that fresh for the big singles match which should probably happen at one of the big shows in August.
MATT HARDY & MARIA SEGMENT- okay
Hardy says that because he will win the ROH World Title tonight, he doesn’t need the Iconic Title anymore, so he awards it to Maria because she has saved the belt from Jay Briscoe taking it twice in the past few weeks. They really played up the Christian imagery here. You’d think that after a solid year of this, they’d have realized that it doesn’t get heat. The good news is that with Matt leaving after this show, we won’t have to suffer through any more of it.
ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Michael Elgin(c) vs. Matt Hardy (w/Maria Kanellis)- 7.5/10 (though I can definitely see someone who doesn’t like the overbooking going lower).
A very good show from ROH, although I was actually slightly disappointed in Steen vs. Ciampa. With four straight big shows coming up from mid-August to early September, it should be an interesting summer.
OPENING SEGMENT- Rather than the traditional in-ring interview for the new ROH World Champion, Elgin just cut a short promo saying that he wanted to defend the ROH World Title tonight in addition to his scheduled six-man tag with War Machine again the Kingdom. Adam Cole came out and said Elgin’s promo was boring… and he was kind of right. Matt Hardy, Michael Bennett, and Maria Kanellis all came out as well and Cole said that Elgin was just keeping the belt warm until he decided to take it back. The heels were going to attack Elgin, but he called out War Machine and we got our scheduled six-man tag team match featuring…
MICHAEL ELGIN & WAR MACHINE (Raymond Rowe & Hanson) vs. THE KINGDOM (w/Matt Hardy, Adam Cole, & Michael Bennett) (w/Maria Kanellis)- 5/10
The fans chanted â€"YOU’RE A QUEEN!†at Kingdom member Adam Cole (or they might have been chanting â€"WAR MACHINE!â€). Then they immediately undid any goodwill they had built up with me by counting WAY too fast for Elgin’s stalling suplex. Don’t you people know how long a second is?
The Kingdom got the heat on Rowe, working over his midsection. Matt Hardy wrestled almost the entire match with the â€"Iconic Title†belt around his waist. The only time it came off was when he tried to hit Elgin with it from behind. Jay Briscoe came out to stop him from doing this. All Elgin saw, though, was Jay interfering in his match, so they had a shouting match, and the match ended by DQ when Hardy dropkicked Jay into Elgin (I guess the ref thought Jay just attacked Elgin).
Matt Hardy and Maria managed to escape (with Maria snatching the â€"Iconic Title†belt in the process), but the Briscoes, Elgin, and War Machine hit some moves on Cole and Bennett. Hardy came back out to beg them not to. Elgin said he wanted to defend the title tonight and challenged Hardy to a title match. Hardy accepted, vowing that Elgin would pay for his â€"sins against the Kingdom.†Elgin vowed to send Hardy packing.
Also, the Briscoes and War Machine randomly had a staredown.
THE FISH TANK, WITH SPECIAL GUEST: Cheeseburger- okay
Kyle and Bobby were hilariously entertaining, as always. Cheeseburger came off like a huge dork. Also, he needs new gear. His current gear, which has pictures of cheeseburgers on it, makes him look like he is supposed to be a mascot for a fast-food restaurant. When reDRagon were teasing him about his very low winning percentage, his retort was to point out that Fish and O’Reilly the current ROH World Tag Team Champions, have lost the titles twice before in the past. Really.
The end result of this was Fish challenging Cheeseburger to a match, and offering to put his half of the ROH World Tag Team Titles on the line. I’m not even sure you’re allowed to do that but whatever…
MATCH FOR ONE HALF OF THE ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLES: Bobby Fish(c) (w/Kyle O’Reilly) vs. Cheeseburger- 3/10
There was a lot of talk on commentary about Chris Bosh. The basketball player, not â€"Lioncock†Chris Bosh, the wrestler. They did some antics-based comedy. Fish won, and after the match, they were going to hit Cheeseburger with Chasing the Dragon, but Cedric Alexander made the save, leading to…
CEDRIC ALEXANDER vs. KYLE O’REILLY- 7.5/10
Kyle worked over Cedric’s arm. Cedric didn’t help himself much, either, when he botched a springboard move out of the corner and fell right on his face. He didn’t let it phase him, though. He kept on going an they had a great match.
THE BRISCOES vs. THE DECADE (BJ Whitmer & Roderick Strong) (w/Tadarius Thomas)- 7/10
Really only about a 6.75, but I gave it an extra .25 for how great that Jay Driller at the finish looked.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Whiter blames Tadarius for the loss (somehow) and starts to shove him. The Briscoes step in and tell him to knock it off. Whitmer, Strong and Tadairus then attack the Briscoes.
PROVING GROUND MATCH: ROH TV Champion Jay Lethal (w/Truth Martini) vs. Takaaki Watanabe- 6.75/10
The crowd was very behind Watanabe, which is a good sign for him.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- bad.
The Romantic Touch came out and he and Lethal brawled a bit. The purpose of this was to distract Lethal so Taven could jump the barricade and attack Lethal from behind. Taven is supposed to be the babyface.
KEVIN STEEN vs. TOMMASO CIAMPA- 7.75/10
They started off with comedy antics by Steen, but Ciampa quickly got annoyed and stopped playing along, and this escalated very quickly into a fight. After the match, Steen gave a speech putting over the crowd. They chanted â€"THANK YOU KEVIN!†in response.
FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL MATCH FOR AN ROH WORLD TITLE SHOT AT DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR XII: NIGHT 1: Silas Young vs. ACH vs. Matt Taven vs. Tadarius Thomas (w/Jimmy Jacobs)- 6.5/10
Jimmy Jacobs was supposed to be in this match, but he gave his spot to Tadarius as a reward for Tadarius â€"taking the initiative†to attack the Briscoes earlier. His promo was awesome.
ACH offered Tadarius a handshake before the match, but he refused. Jacobs approved of this. This was supposed to be a Four Corner Survival match, but they played it like a scramble match (lucha rules). They did a good job of keeping Tadaius and ACH away from each other, keeping that fresh for the big singles match which should probably happen at one of the big shows in August.
MATT HARDY & MARIA SEGMENT- okay
Hardy says that because he will win the ROH World Title tonight, he doesn’t need the Iconic Title anymore, so he awards it to Maria because she has saved the belt from Jay Briscoe taking it twice in the past few weeks. They really played up the Christian imagery here. You’d think that after a solid year of this, they’d have realized that it doesn’t get heat. The good news is that with Matt leaving after this show, we won’t have to suffer through any more of it.
ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Michael Elgin(c) vs. Matt Hardy (w/Maria Kanellis)- 7.5/10 (though I can definitely see someone who doesn’t like the overbooking going lower).
A very good show from ROH, although I was actually slightly disappointed in Steen vs. Ciampa. With four straight big shows coming up from mid-August to early September, it should be an interesting summer.