I
should note, before the show begins, that there were some changes to card. Nick
Jackson had to pull out of the show either the day before the show or the day
of the show, since his wife was about to give birth, or had just given birth,
to a new child (not sure what the exact case was). This meant that Matt Jackson
would be flying solo this weekend.
ROH
Reloaded Tour ’15: California
California,
Pennsylvania 9/25/15
1.)
The Addiction vs. Will Ferrara & Takaaki Watanabe: **3/4
Ferrara
& Watanabe teamed together back at Reloaded Tour: Atlanta about a month
prior against The Kingdom. Here, they’re taking on The Addiction, who are
coming off of losing the ROH World Tag Team Titles at All-Star Extravaganza
VII, in a three-way tag team match where they weren’t pinned. I thought this
was a fine opening match. Ferrara & Watanabe are a fun lower card tag team.
In hindsight, I wish they had been teaming more often. The Addiction would get
the win here.
After
the match, The Addiction cut a promo expressing their anger at the fact that
they lost the ROH World Tag Team Titles without getting pinned. They demand
that the titles be returned to them, or they would “start crippling people”, as
Daniels said. They decided to start by attacking Ferrara & Watanabe!
Fortunately, The Briscoes quickly come out to make the save! Jay Briscoe
challenges The Addiction to a tag team match in the Main Event, and after
initially saying no, The Addiction says “They’ll think about it”. It was later
announced on commentary that the match would, in fact, be taking place.
2.)
ACH vs. Caprice Coleman: ***
Before
the match, Coleman cuts a promo saying that he’s not happy about people talking
about him like he’s past his prime. These two actually had a match at the Aftershock
Tour TV Tapings in Philadelphia about a month prior. This second match was
right around the same quickly as that first match, though I would prefer this
match. A fine undercard affair. ACH would, once again, pick up the win, while
Coleman’s frustrations continued.
It’s
Story Time with Adam Cole Bay Bay! Cole talks about screwing Kyle O’Reilly out
of the ROH World Title at All-Star Extravaganza VII. He decides to call out
Kyle O’Reilly for a match right now, knowing full well that Kyle O’Reilly was
overseas competing in New Japan. Cole makes fun of O’Reilly for “running away”
to Japan. He’s about to leave, when Cheeseburger comes out! It looks like we
may have a match.
3.)
Adam Cole vs. Cheeseburger: **
This
went pretty much exactly how you thought it would. Cole spent a lot of the
match toying with Cheeseburger, and did things like “pretending” that
Cheeseburger kicked out, or that he got his foot on the ropes. Cheeseburger did
get in a few hope spots in, but in the end, Cole would get the victory.
Cole
continues to attack Cheeseburger after the match, but then Matt Jackson runs
out and hits a superkick on Cole!
4.)
Six-Man Tag – Moose & War Machine vs. The House of Truth (ROH World
Champion & ROH World TV Champion Jay Lethal, Donovan Dijak, & J. Diesel
with Truth Martini & Taeler Hendrix): ***1/4
Now
this is a very interesting match, at it basically involved all of ROH’s “big
men”. To give you some perspective, I think that ROH Undisputed Champion Jay
Lethal might have been the smallest person in this match. I thought this was a
good Six-Man Tag. Nothing spectacular by any means, but it was perfectly fine
for a house show/live event. There was some decent action throughout, and we
even got to see some of these bigger guys fly (like Dijak, Moose, &
Hanson). Eventually, Hanson would score the victory for his team after pinning
J. Diesel.
5.)
“Brutal” Bob Evans vs. Shaheem Ali: *1/4
Up
next, we have a random match featuring “Brutal” Bob Evans. He cuts a heel promo
before the match that I honestly didn’t pay much attention to. I don’t
understand why this was on the main show. It would be a decent match for the
pre-show, but this added absolutely nothing to the card. Shaheem Ali got some
offense in, but in the end, “Brutal” Bob Evans would get the win.
6.)
Proving Ground Match – ROH World Tag Team Champion The Kingdom (Matt Taven
& Michael Bennett with Maria Kanellis) vs. The All-Night Express: ***1/4
Kenny
King & Rhett Titus made their return as a tag team a week prior at All-Star
Extravaganza VII, where they earned a huge victory over The Briscoes. The
Kingdom, of course, won the ROH World Tag Team Titles on that same night in San
Antonio, Texas. If ANX wins here, then they get a future shot at the ROH World
Tag Team Titles. I thought this was a pretty solid match. Both teams seemed to
work well together, and there was some good back & forth action. Towards
the end of the match, Adam Cole came out, and hit a superkick on Kenny King
while the referee was distracted. This allows Bennett & Taven to pick up
the victory. I’m not sure about having ANX losing right after their big return.
I mean, it’s not like this was a title match. It was a Proving Ground Match,
and ANX could have easily won here.
The
Kingdom taunts ANX for a little bit after the match before Bennet, Taven, &
Maria Kanellis go to the back. Cole stays behind in the ring, and keeps
taunting the crowd. This allows Matt Jackson to slip into the ring again hits
Cole with two more superkicks. As Matt Jackson is leaving, Cole takes the mic
and challenges him to a match, which we end up getting right now!
7.)
Adam Cole vs. Matt Jackson: ***
It’s
very rare to see one of The Young Bucks in singles action, but the fans in
California, Pennsylvania are getting a special treat! This was a fun little
match. There was some good action, though the crowd wasn’t as loud as you might
think, considering the competitors involved. Matt Jackson came close to winning
on a few occasions, but in the end, Adam Cole is able to secure the win.
8.)
Roderick Strong vs. “Unbreakable” Michael Elgin: ***3/4
These
two have had several matches against each other in the past. For me, this was
very similar to many of those other matches. It was very good, but it was just
shy of being great. It’s so weird, because these two are sooo great. You’d
think all of their matches would be fantastic, but the only match they’ve had
that I would say was truly awesome was a ROH World Title match they had in the
summer of 2014 when Elgin was champion. Still, this was a very good
hard-hitting match. Both guys worked very hard here, and it was a fun match to
watch. Eventually, Michael Elgin would pick up the victory.
9.)
The Addiction vs. The Briscoes: ***3/4
I
thought this was actually a really good Main Event. I’d say this was on par
with their first encounter at Survival of the Fittest 2014: Night 2. Both teams
worked very hard, and they produced a very entertaining Main Event. The
Briscoes are always fun to watch, while The Addiction continue to play their
roles as heels very well. A very good match from start to finish, in my
opinion. In the end, The Briscoes would score the win, and they celebrated to
close the show.
Overall:
7.0/10
I
thought this was a fine and completely inoffensive live event. Aside from one
match (“Brutal” Bob Evans vs. Shaheem Ali, which belonged on the pre-show),
nothing on this particular show was objectively bad. Even the Adam Cole vs.
Cheeseburger match was decent for what it was. The issue was that the majority
of the undercard was solid, but largely forgettable. The last two matches
really lifted this show up. You also had the running angle with Matt Jackson
repeatedly superkicking Adam Cole, which I thought was fine for a little house
show angle (though I could understand people not liking it). There’s no real
need to go out of your way to see this show. The last two matches are the only
things that are worth checking out.
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