ROH All-Star Extravaganza VI
ROH All-Star Extravaganza VI (9/6/2014)- Toronto, ON
OPENING SEGMENT- not so good, but it did its job as an info-dump.
The House of Truth come out dressed in street clothes. Truth Martini claims that ACH e-mailed ROH at 8:30 this morning and told them he couldn’t make it to the show. Kevin Kelly says that he has heard â€"rumors†of this. Truth calls ACH names. Cedric Alexander comes out, and Kelly and Corino tell us that he has the night off, too, because of the injury to Silas Young. Apparently neither one of them has checked the ROH website recently, because the announcement that Michael Bennett will be replacing Silas against Cedric was made at some point yesterday. Cedric then says that he doesn’t have a match tonight. Did I just imagine this whole Michael Bennett thing?
Anyway, Cedric points out that he pinned Jay Lethal a few weeks ago on ROH TV, so he deserves a shot at Lethal’s ROH TV Title. Lethal says that Cedric has never done anything in ROH, and claims that if he accepted the match, he would beat him badly, so he turns down the match. Talking a big game, but being cowardly when it comes down to it. Great heel stuff.
ACH says he thought Lethal would say something like that, so he was really asking Selezyia because she has bigger balls than Jay does. This would have been a good line, except for the fact that Cedric had asked for a shot at the TV Title… which Lethal holds, not Selezyia, so asking her won’t get him anything, even if she says yes.
This angered Lethal, who decided to take the match so he could â€"embarrass†Cedric. Lethal suggested that Cedric calls his mother, which was enough to set Cedric off. Cedric shoved Lethal, who responded with a superkick. Cedric ducked, and the superkick wound up hitting Selezyia, and Cedric bailed. That last part would have been an awesome angle if Cedric were the heel. Unfortunately he’s not, so we just had the babyface cause a woman to get kicked in the face, then run away and laugh about it and cut a promo about taking the other guy’s title, while the other guy was upset that his friend had been hurt.
MARK BRISCOE vs. HANSON- 6.75/10
A GREAT opener. They got time to do their stuff, and Hanson was made to look very strong in defeat.
TOMMASO CIAMPA JUMPS THE GUARDRAIL-
He is wearing a Thanks Steen Thanks shirt and an ROH hat,†presumably to prove that he is a company guy. Bobby Cruise immediately ran up the aisle, even as Ciampa tried to apologize to him and Kevin Kelly whoever else was caught in his rage at Death Before Dishonor XII: Night 2. Nigel McGuinness came out. Ciampa tried to be polite to Nigel, but when Nigel told him that â€"this isn’t the time or the place,†Ciampa got angry and started to complain that ROH wasn’t giving him opportunities on their marquee shows (which I assume MUST mean he is going heel that is just plain not true).
Nigel ordered that Ciampa’s mic be cut and tried to get him to leave. Some referees came out to help him, and, surprisingly, Ciampa went peacefully.
FOUR WAY TAG TEAM MATCH: Monster Mafia vs. Caprice Coleman & Watanabe vs. The Decade (BJ Whitmer & Adam Page) vs. R.D. Evans & Moose (w/Veda Scott & Ramon)- 6.75/10
You know how Moose’s entrance theme is just someone saying â€"MOOSE!†during a repetitive beat? Well in between the beats, R.D. was chanting his own name, and it actually came out very well.
They announced this as a Four Corner Survival tag team match, but Kevin Kelly told us that they were using scramble (Lucha) rules. Just call it what is, guys. If it’s a scramble match, don’t call it a Four Corner Survival.
Either way, this match was a lot of fun. They got a lot more time than I thought they would, but they used it all well. Every last wrestler in this match came off looking great! Moose and R.D. pick up the win, advancing R.D.’s streak to 150-0, and thus keeping alive my dream that he will go into Final Battle at 173-0, make an open challenge, and be obliterated by Goldberg.
They all did a big post-match handshake but Whitmer wouldn’t let Page shake hands (and didn’t shake hands with anyone himself, either).
THE ADDICTION (Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian) vs. THE DECADE (Jimmy Jacobs & Roderick Strong) (w/BJ Whitmer & Adam Page)- 6.25/10
The Addiction is an absolutely ATROCIOUS name. The Decade worked over Kaz’s mid-section. Kaz made the hot tag and the Addiction won
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- GREAT!
Roddy shook hands after the match, so Adam Page, one of The Decade’s young boys, SHOVED HIM. Roddy had this look of disbelief on his face, started screaming at Page and advanced on his like he was going to slap him, but BJ Whitmer stopped him. Roddy and Whitmer got into a shouting match. Whitmer told him that The Decade doesn’t shake hands, and Roddy replied that THEY don’t shake hands, but he will if he wants to. Jimmy Jacobs jumped in and tried to make peace as best he could.
AJ STYLES vs. ADAM COLE- 8.75/10
Totally AWESOME! And HOLY SH*T what a finish! Cole worked over AJ’s knee and AJ was just a great babyface the whole way through.
MICHAEL BENNETT & MARIA KANELLIS SEGMENT- Apparently during the pre-show, they had promised to reveal what Maria was wearing under her trenchcoat. I hate things like this because we all know we’re not going to get to see anything because that’s what always happens… and even if it wasn’t, something like this is SO out of character for Maria that there’s no way that she and Bennett aren’t f*cking with us.
First, though, Maria had an announcement: â€"Matt is coming back.†The natural assumption is that it is Hardy, but it’s entirely possible that they are trying to swerve us and are referring to Taven.
Anyway, they take off Maria’s trenchcoat and… wow. I was wrong. We get to see Maria wearing lingerie… and the â€"Iconic Title†(formerly Jay Briscoe’s â€"real ROH World Titleâ€) which is now lined with pink fur, and the picture of Matt Hardy that Matt had stuck onto the belt when Cole gave it to him as been covered up by a picture of Maria and Bennett making out. Bennett announces that they have renamed it â€"The Title of Love.â€
They then announce that they are going to â€"consummate†the title. Maria lies down on the ground, spreads her legs, and drapes the title over herself. Bennett starts to take off his pants… but then Mark Briscoes showed up to chase them off… and during a brief camera cut to get a better shot of Mark sliding into the ring, we see that Steve Corino had his phone out, and was planning on taping Bennett and Maria having sex. I laughed my ass off.
Mark said that once Jay wins the world title tonight, he is coming to get â€"his†version of the title back. A fun segment, made even better by Bennett’s facial expressions throughout.
ROH TV TITLE MATCH: Jay Lethal(c) (w/Truth Martini) vs. Cedric Alexander- 7.75/10
The story that the announcers were putting over was that Cedric kept trying to go the top rope for the Overtime after hitting a big move instead of going for the pin. Cedric’s overcoming of the House of Truth’s attempts to interfere was good. Not only did Truth get taken out after trying to interfere, but Selezyia came out and tried to interfere as well, but wound up getting accidentally kicked by Lethal a second time (this time with a running dropkick to the head in the corner). At one point Lethal also hit Matt Taven’s Climax finisher and shouted Taven’s name, so I guess that feud isn’t over, despite the reports that Taven had left the company.
ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Michael Elgin(c) vs. Jay Briscoe- 8/10
This was Michael Elgin’s big return to his home country after winning the ROH World Title at Best in the World 2014 in June, so he came out draped in the Canadian flag… then just dropped the flag on the entrance ramp. Some patriot he is.
Elgin worked over Jay’s back while Jay worked over Elgin’s head. The fact that the referee treated this like a Relaxed Rules match bothered me a bit. They had a hard-hitting match with some great near-falls and…
WHAT THE F*CK?!
ELGIN LOST!
That’s weird. They build him up two years as the future of the company, and then they take the belt off of him less than three months after they make such a big deal of him winning it on their first-ever live PPV?
The crowd responded remarkably well to this. I would have thought there would have been a lot more booing (that was probably why they put this in the semi-main event spot. I was suspicious when it didn’t go on last, but as things progressed, I thought that they might do a DQ or something).
MATT SYDAL RETURNS TO ROH ON 9/27! COOL!
2 OUT OF 3 FALLS MATCH FOR THE ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLES: reDRagon(c) vs. The Young Bucks- 8.5/10
HOLY SH*T THOSE YOUNG BUCKS ARE CRAZY! Between the last few years of ROH, PWG, and the last year of New Japan, I’ve seen at least one hundred Young Bucks matches… and yet they still find new and exciting ways to change things up. Oh. And reDRagon are also great (great at cheating, anyway. GRRR! I hate those heels!)
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Tommaso Ciampa attacks the Young Bucks. He uncovered the wood under the canvas and gave one of the Bucks a neckbreaker on it!
An AWESOME show from ROH, just trailing War of the Worlds as their best show of the year. I really liked how much time they gave the two opening matches. Longer openers like this are something I feel that ROH has been missing since the Sinclair Broadcasting era began, and it was great to see them back. Just because a match is essentially filler doesn’t mean you can’t get something great out of it if you give it the chance.
OPENING SEGMENT- not so good, but it did its job as an info-dump.
The House of Truth come out dressed in street clothes. Truth Martini claims that ACH e-mailed ROH at 8:30 this morning and told them he couldn’t make it to the show. Kevin Kelly says that he has heard â€"rumors†of this. Truth calls ACH names. Cedric Alexander comes out, and Kelly and Corino tell us that he has the night off, too, because of the injury to Silas Young. Apparently neither one of them has checked the ROH website recently, because the announcement that Michael Bennett will be replacing Silas against Cedric was made at some point yesterday. Cedric then says that he doesn’t have a match tonight. Did I just imagine this whole Michael Bennett thing?
Anyway, Cedric points out that he pinned Jay Lethal a few weeks ago on ROH TV, so he deserves a shot at Lethal’s ROH TV Title. Lethal says that Cedric has never done anything in ROH, and claims that if he accepted the match, he would beat him badly, so he turns down the match. Talking a big game, but being cowardly when it comes down to it. Great heel stuff.
ACH says he thought Lethal would say something like that, so he was really asking Selezyia because she has bigger balls than Jay does. This would have been a good line, except for the fact that Cedric had asked for a shot at the TV Title… which Lethal holds, not Selezyia, so asking her won’t get him anything, even if she says yes.
This angered Lethal, who decided to take the match so he could â€"embarrass†Cedric. Lethal suggested that Cedric calls his mother, which was enough to set Cedric off. Cedric shoved Lethal, who responded with a superkick. Cedric ducked, and the superkick wound up hitting Selezyia, and Cedric bailed. That last part would have been an awesome angle if Cedric were the heel. Unfortunately he’s not, so we just had the babyface cause a woman to get kicked in the face, then run away and laugh about it and cut a promo about taking the other guy’s title, while the other guy was upset that his friend had been hurt.
MARK BRISCOE vs. HANSON- 6.75/10
A GREAT opener. They got time to do their stuff, and Hanson was made to look very strong in defeat.
TOMMASO CIAMPA JUMPS THE GUARDRAIL-
He is wearing a Thanks Steen Thanks shirt and an ROH hat,†presumably to prove that he is a company guy. Bobby Cruise immediately ran up the aisle, even as Ciampa tried to apologize to him and Kevin Kelly whoever else was caught in his rage at Death Before Dishonor XII: Night 2. Nigel McGuinness came out. Ciampa tried to be polite to Nigel, but when Nigel told him that â€"this isn’t the time or the place,†Ciampa got angry and started to complain that ROH wasn’t giving him opportunities on their marquee shows (which I assume MUST mean he is going heel that is just plain not true).
Nigel ordered that Ciampa’s mic be cut and tried to get him to leave. Some referees came out to help him, and, surprisingly, Ciampa went peacefully.
FOUR WAY TAG TEAM MATCH: Monster Mafia vs. Caprice Coleman & Watanabe vs. The Decade (BJ Whitmer & Adam Page) vs. R.D. Evans & Moose (w/Veda Scott & Ramon)- 6.75/10
You know how Moose’s entrance theme is just someone saying â€"MOOSE!†during a repetitive beat? Well in between the beats, R.D. was chanting his own name, and it actually came out very well.
They announced this as a Four Corner Survival tag team match, but Kevin Kelly told us that they were using scramble (Lucha) rules. Just call it what is, guys. If it’s a scramble match, don’t call it a Four Corner Survival.
Either way, this match was a lot of fun. They got a lot more time than I thought they would, but they used it all well. Every last wrestler in this match came off looking great! Moose and R.D. pick up the win, advancing R.D.’s streak to 150-0, and thus keeping alive my dream that he will go into Final Battle at 173-0, make an open challenge, and be obliterated by Goldberg.
They all did a big post-match handshake but Whitmer wouldn’t let Page shake hands (and didn’t shake hands with anyone himself, either).
THE ADDICTION (Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian) vs. THE DECADE (Jimmy Jacobs & Roderick Strong) (w/BJ Whitmer & Adam Page)- 6.25/10
The Addiction is an absolutely ATROCIOUS name. The Decade worked over Kaz’s mid-section. Kaz made the hot tag and the Addiction won
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- GREAT!
Roddy shook hands after the match, so Adam Page, one of The Decade’s young boys, SHOVED HIM. Roddy had this look of disbelief on his face, started screaming at Page and advanced on his like he was going to slap him, but BJ Whitmer stopped him. Roddy and Whitmer got into a shouting match. Whitmer told him that The Decade doesn’t shake hands, and Roddy replied that THEY don’t shake hands, but he will if he wants to. Jimmy Jacobs jumped in and tried to make peace as best he could.
AJ STYLES vs. ADAM COLE- 8.75/10
Totally AWESOME! And HOLY SH*T what a finish! Cole worked over AJ’s knee and AJ was just a great babyface the whole way through.
MICHAEL BENNETT & MARIA KANELLIS SEGMENT- Apparently during the pre-show, they had promised to reveal what Maria was wearing under her trenchcoat. I hate things like this because we all know we’re not going to get to see anything because that’s what always happens… and even if it wasn’t, something like this is SO out of character for Maria that there’s no way that she and Bennett aren’t f*cking with us.
First, though, Maria had an announcement: â€"Matt is coming back.†The natural assumption is that it is Hardy, but it’s entirely possible that they are trying to swerve us and are referring to Taven.
Anyway, they take off Maria’s trenchcoat and… wow. I was wrong. We get to see Maria wearing lingerie… and the â€"Iconic Title†(formerly Jay Briscoe’s â€"real ROH World Titleâ€) which is now lined with pink fur, and the picture of Matt Hardy that Matt had stuck onto the belt when Cole gave it to him as been covered up by a picture of Maria and Bennett making out. Bennett announces that they have renamed it â€"The Title of Love.â€
They then announce that they are going to â€"consummate†the title. Maria lies down on the ground, spreads her legs, and drapes the title over herself. Bennett starts to take off his pants… but then Mark Briscoes showed up to chase them off… and during a brief camera cut to get a better shot of Mark sliding into the ring, we see that Steve Corino had his phone out, and was planning on taping Bennett and Maria having sex. I laughed my ass off.
Mark said that once Jay wins the world title tonight, he is coming to get â€"his†version of the title back. A fun segment, made even better by Bennett’s facial expressions throughout.
ROH TV TITLE MATCH: Jay Lethal(c) (w/Truth Martini) vs. Cedric Alexander- 7.75/10
The story that the announcers were putting over was that Cedric kept trying to go the top rope for the Overtime after hitting a big move instead of going for the pin. Cedric’s overcoming of the House of Truth’s attempts to interfere was good. Not only did Truth get taken out after trying to interfere, but Selezyia came out and tried to interfere as well, but wound up getting accidentally kicked by Lethal a second time (this time with a running dropkick to the head in the corner). At one point Lethal also hit Matt Taven’s Climax finisher and shouted Taven’s name, so I guess that feud isn’t over, despite the reports that Taven had left the company.
ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Michael Elgin(c) vs. Jay Briscoe- 8/10
This was Michael Elgin’s big return to his home country after winning the ROH World Title at Best in the World 2014 in June, so he came out draped in the Canadian flag… then just dropped the flag on the entrance ramp. Some patriot he is.
Elgin worked over Jay’s back while Jay worked over Elgin’s head. The fact that the referee treated this like a Relaxed Rules match bothered me a bit. They had a hard-hitting match with some great near-falls and…
WHAT THE F*CK?!
ELGIN LOST!
That’s weird. They build him up two years as the future of the company, and then they take the belt off of him less than three months after they make such a big deal of him winning it on their first-ever live PPV?
The crowd responded remarkably well to this. I would have thought there would have been a lot more booing (that was probably why they put this in the semi-main event spot. I was suspicious when it didn’t go on last, but as things progressed, I thought that they might do a DQ or something).
MATT SYDAL RETURNS TO ROH ON 9/27! COOL!
2 OUT OF 3 FALLS MATCH FOR THE ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLES: reDRagon(c) vs. The Young Bucks- 8.5/10
HOLY SH*T THOSE YOUNG BUCKS ARE CRAZY! Between the last few years of ROH, PWG, and the last year of New Japan, I’ve seen at least one hundred Young Bucks matches… and yet they still find new and exciting ways to change things up. Oh. And reDRagon are also great (great at cheating, anyway. GRRR! I hate those heels!)
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Tommaso Ciampa attacks the Young Bucks. He uncovered the wood under the canvas and gave one of the Bucks a neckbreaker on it!
An AWESOME show from ROH, just trailing War of the Worlds as their best show of the year. I really liked how much time they gave the two opening matches. Longer openers like this are something I feel that ROH has been missing since the Sinclair Broadcasting era began, and it was great to see them back. Just because a match is essentially filler doesn’t mean you can’t get something great out of it if you give it the chance.