By Case Lowe
-Attendance was way up. Clearly more people there than in August with AJ Styles and the Young Bucks. The two side bleachers, as well as the big bleachers in the back were all fillled. Every seat was filled.
-J. Diesel def. Will Ferrara with a modified Death Valley Driver. Ferrara worked hard. Solid opener.
-ACH def. Jimmy Jacobs with a 450 Splash in a fantastic match. Matt Sydal came out with ACH, then joined Joe Dombrowski for commentary. BJ Whitmer came out with Jacobs and interfered at one point. Crowd was really into ACH and his dive to the outside. Post-match, Jacobs shook hands with ACH, much to the displeasure of Whitmer. They teased the breakup of The Decade.
-Silas Young def. Mark Briscoe, Roderick Strong, and Matt Taven with a rollup on Briscoe. Really good four-way match. Everyone looked crisp, especially Roddy. Crowd was really into Briscoe and Silas, since he’s a midwest guy and he’s returning from injury.
-Jay Lethal def. Cliff Compton in a Chicago Street Fight. Lethal wrestled in dress pants and a dress shirt, Compton in a t-shirt and shorts. Crowd didn’t care for this as most of the match was spent brawling by the merch table. Chants included “This sounds awesome” and “welcome back” when they returned to the ring. Lethal was stripped to his underwear at one point. Truth Martini threw baby powder in the face of Compton, which led to a Lethal Injection for the win.
-Coming back from intermission, Beer City Bruiser def. Cheeseburger with a Rikishi Driver. Bruiser is one of the least charismatic people I’ve ever watched.
-Tommaso Ciampa came out to cut a promo. He talked about how he hasn’t signed a new contract yet, so he’s a free agent. Compared himself to troublemakers such as CM Punk, Kevin Steen, and Colt Cabana (which got a big pop). Silas Young came out and basically told him to get out of his ring because he has a title match coming up next.
-Jay Briscoe def. Silas Young with a Jay Driller. Briscoe was probably the most over guy on the show, sans Samoa Joe. They worked hard. Didn’t produce a great match, though.
-RPG Vice def. reDRagon with a Back-to-Belly Piledriver/Double Stomp. They started off really slow, which made it obvious that RPG was going to win this and earn a title match. RPG Vice will be great by the end of the year. Fun chemistry between Rocky and Trent.
-reDRagon def. RPG Vice in a ROH World Tag Team Championship match via cradle. Very good match. There were a few near-falls that made it seem like RPG was going to win. Post-match, RPG challenged the Young Bucks to an IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championship match.
-Samoa Joe def. Michael Elgin via Coquina Clutch. Joe was insanely over. Very loud chants for “Joe is gonna kill you” and “Ole!” throughout the match. Joe looked great. He moved around well, was able to lift Elgin when he needed to, and he looked like he truly enjoyed being in the ring. Post-match, Joe put over the fans, the company, and Elgin before calling out Jay Briscoe and saying that he has something Joe wants (the ROH World TItle). Joe thanked the fans again to close the show.
Thanks,
Case Lowe
By Niel Jacoby
Romantic Touch vs Stokely Hathaway – This was a standard opening bout, really got the crowd going. Romantic Touch pinned Big Stoke with some sort of modified Pedigree looking thing with hip-thrusting theatrics.
J. Diesel vs Will Ferrara – This was pretty dull, but Ferrara did show some fire. J. Diesel pinned Ferrara.
ACH vs Jimmy Jacobs – This was great, the crowd was hot for ACH and he got a real chance to shine, busting out a dive over the ropes, and some sort of 619 looking thing before pinning Jacobs with a 450. After the match, Jacobs tried to shake ACH’s hand, BJ interrupted, and they had an argument before Jacobs shook ACH’s hand.
Silas Young vs Roddy Strong vs Mark Briscoe vs Matt Taven – This was very fun, with lots of double teams and an amazing hot tag from Roddy where he superplexed all 3 opponents one by one. If I recall correctly, Silas stole the pin from Mark Briscoe after Briscoe hit a Froggy Bow on Taven(?).
TV TItle Proving Ground:.Jay Lethal vs Cliff Compton Chicago Street Fight – The early portions of the match featured Compton and Lethal brawling through the arena where most of the crowd could not see them, prompting a “THIS SOUNDS AWESOME” chant. When they returned to the ring, Lethal eventually stripped to his underpants before hitting an elbow drop through a table on the outside, and after copious J. Diesel and Truth Martini interference, Lethal got the pin and retained the TV Title.
Beer City Bruiser vs Cheeseburger – This was the first match after intermission, and got the crowd right back into the swing of things as Bruiser simply destroyed Cheeseburger. Cheeseburger tried to mount some comebacks, but the Bruiser’s sheer size advantage ended up getting him the win.
After this, Tomasso Ciampa came out to cut a promo about the ROH title, but the speakers cut out so I couldn’t hear anything. Silas came out to interrupt him, but again, couldn’t hear anything.
ROH Title Proving Ground: Jay Briscoe vs Silas Young – I fell asleep during this one, Jay retained.
Tag Title Proving Ground: ReDRagon vs RPG Vice – The crowd was on fire for this one, chanting for all 4 men before the match even started. The match was in the vein of most IWGP Jr. Tag Title matches ReDRagon have had, fast paced and flashy. RPG Vice got the pin with a Vertebreaker/Stomp(or dropkick) combo, earning them a tag title shot right then. ReDRagon proceeded to flee to the back, prompting Romero and Trent to drag them back to the ring. The second match ended with a Chasing The Dragon from ReDRagon for the pin.
Joe vs Elgin – This was great, and the crowd was incredible, though they basically went dead anytime Elgin had a long streak on offense. Two jagoffs a few rows behind me kept chanting Joe chants but for Elgin, “Elgin’s gonna kill you”, etc. The finishing stretch had Joe catch Elgin in the Coquina Clutch three times before finally forcing him to pass out with the third.
Overall, great show, plenty of awesome matches and spectacular co-main events