So this was a very interesting weekend for ROH. There were
actually supposed to have an event in Asheville, North Carolina the night
before, but a bad winter storm forced them to cancel the show entirely, leaving
this as the sole ROH show of the weekend.
ROH Winter Warriors Tour
‘16: Duluth
Duluth, Georgia 1/23/16
1.) Dalton Castle vs. Corey Hollis (with Trina Michaels): ***1/4
It’s always a nice treat to see Corey Hollis on a ROH event.
He’s been used sporadically by the company during the SBG era, and always puts
in solid performances. On this night, Trina Michaels accompanied Hollis to
ringside as he took on Dalton Castle. I thought this was a solid opening
contest. The match definitely got off to a slow start, but it definitely picked
up in the second half. They did get a good amount of time, and that certainly
helped. Hollis had a good showing, but in the end, Dalton Castle scored the
victory.
Up next, we had an in-ring promo from Georgia native AJ Styles
promo. He had recently finished up in New Japan (he was kicked out of The
Bullet Club the night after Wrestle
Kingdom X, and Kenny Omega assumed controlled of the group). Styles making
an appearance here was actually quite interesting in hindsight, as he would
make his WWE debut in the Royal Rumble Match the next night in Orlando. He got
showered with streamers as he entered the ring. Styles said that he didn’t need
a written speech to pour his heart out to all of the fans. He said that ROH was
one of the best promotions he’s ever worked for in his entire career. He didn’t
know where he’d be without ROH, as he started with them in 2002, before he
joined TNA. Styles was grateful to ROH for welcoming him back when he left TNA,
and tells the fans to enjoy themselves tonight.
Styles was then interrupted by ROH World Champion Jay Lethal
& Taeler Hendrix. Lethal said that nobody cared what AJ Styles had to say.
Lethal noted that he beat Styles in the main event at Final Battle, and reminds him that ROH belongs to The House of
Truth. He said people care about what he is doing, and brought up his ROH World
Title defense tonight against Matt Jackson of The Young Bucks. Lethal said that
normally, he doesn’t have issues with defending his title, but tonight was an
exception, as he didn’t want to defend his title in a “god-awful” place like
Duluth, adding that it isn’t even part of Atlanta proper. He claimed to be the
greatest champion in the world, which brought out ROH World TV Champion
Roderick Strong. He claimed to be the greatest champion in pro-wrestling, but
he did agree with Lethal about Duluth, saying it sucked. Strong also agreed
with Lethal on not caring about AJ Styles. He doesn’t care what AJ Styles is
doing in the future. The two champions threaten to attack Styles, but this
brought out The Bullet Club of Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows, & The Young
Bucks. Anderson said The Bullet Club had arrived, and then Matt Jackson spoke,
mentioning their attack on AJ Styles on Korakuen Hall the night after Wrestle Kingdom X. Matt Jackson said
that tonight, their issues were with Lethal & Strong. He said that, unlike
Lethal & Strong, The Young Bucks are fighting champions, and proclaimed
that they wanted their title shots. Gallows then took the mic and called out
War Machine. He said that since they weren’t out there, he assumes they don’t
want to defend their titles, and calls all the champions in ROH pussies. This
finally brought out War Machine, and they went right after Anderson &
Gallows. A big brawl broke out, and all eight men needed to be separated.
After that long segment, “P-Dog” Mike Posey came out with his
posse. He tried to start a rap concert, but AJ Styles came back out and
destroyed Posey with a Styles Clash.
2.) The All-Night Express vs. Cheeseburger & Moose (with
Stokely Hathaway): ***1/2
Moose wore a Cheeseburger hat during his entrance. Honestly, I
wasn’t expecting much from this one, but it ended up being a surprisingly good
match. There was a lot of fun back & forth action, with some great near
falls in the second half. I know people slowly soured on ANX in the year after
their return, but it’s matches like this that show that are still a very good
tag team that can produce some entertaining matches. On the other side, I
thought Cheeseburger & Moose worked well together as a team. It’s sad that
they never really were a regular duo, as that would’ve been another team to add
to (what was at the time) a stacked tag team division. Ultimately, ANX would
get the win here.
After the match, Moose went for a (reluctant) handshake, but ANX
just blew him off.
3.) Cedric Alexander (with Veda Scott) vs. Mark Briscoe: ***1/2
Ian Riccaboni (who was on commentary for this show) mentioned
very early on in the match that, coming into this show, Mark Briscoe had been
undefeated in singles competition since July of 2015. It sounds like a
fictional statistic, but it’s actually true. That’s a good six-month winning
streak that went totally under the radar. Of course, the fact that he brought
it up here meant that Cedric Alexander was going to end that streak, but that really
didn’t matter, as the match was very good regardless. There was solid action
throughout, and it was an entertaining undercard match to watch. Towards the
end, Mark Briscoe went for the Froggy Bow, but Veda Scott got up on the ring
apron to distract him. This slight delay allowed Alexander to take advantage,
and he would end up getting the win with the Lumbar Check shortly thereafter. I
didn’t mind that interference spot at all. It’s not like Veda Scott got
physically involved in any way. She just distracted Mark Briscoe for a few
seconds, which was enough for Alexander to recover and capitalize.
Before the next match began, Scarlett Bordeaux (who was the ring
announcer on this night) announced that she received a message from Nigel McGuinness
(via text, I guess), and he had ruled that the main event would now be an
eight-man tag team match with all of the titles on the line. Seems like
something WWE or TNA would do, but we’ll see how it turns out later on.
4.) Six-Man Tag – ACH, Alex Shelley, & Matt Sydal vs.
“Unbreakable” Michael Elgin & reDRagon: ****1/4
What’s interesting is that these two sides have teamed together
before. Elgin teamed with reDRagon on a few occasions in 2015 against The
Kingdom, while ACH, Alex Shelley, & Matt Sydal were essentially an
unofficial stable at this time. There wasn’t much of a backstory to this one,
but on paper, it had the potential to be the best match of the night. When the
dust settled, that’s exactly what it ended up being. I thought this was
awesome! This match featured a ton of exciting action from start to finish, and
all six guys had a chance to shine. It really sucks that these ROH live events
(especially in recent years) have almost little to no buzz, because great
matches like this end up getting missed. Alas, as I’ve already mentioned, this
particular contest was pretty great. Eventually, the team of ACH, Alex Shelley,
and Matt Sydal got the win, pinning Michael Elgin after a flurry of high-flying
offense. Elgin being the one to eat the pin was a surprise, but still, this was
fantastic.
5.) “Bullet Babe” Amber Gallows vs. Veda Scott: *
This Women of Honor match was included as a bonus on the DVD,
but in terms of match order, it took place at this point on the show. Taeler
Hendrix made her way out to ringside early on to observe this one. Normally, I
would include the match itself in this post (since ROH posts all of their Women
of Honor matches on YouTube), but I’m not going to in this case. Why? Simply
put, this match was awful. It was incredibly clunky throughout, and both women
were just….bad. I know there was a women’s match in TNA between Rebel &
Shelly Martinez that was universally proclaimed as the worst pro-wrestling
match in 2016, but this wasn’t far behind. Amber Gallows won, but this match was
hot garbage.
6.) Six-Man Mayhem – Jay Briscoe vs. Adam Page vs. Silas Young
vs. Caprice Coleman vs. Will Ferrara vs. Frankie Kazarian: ***3/4
ROH had an amazing Six-Man Mayhem Match as part of their
critically acclaimed Winter Warriors Tour
event in Atlanta in February of 2015, and they went back to the well here with
another really strong Six-Man Mayhem. Now the lineup this time around wasn’t
nearly as star-studded as the year prior, but it was still a very fun match to
watch. It was packed with action right from the start, and we saw a number of
entertaining spot. At one point, there was actually a six person sleeper hold
spot, which was actually pretty cool. Everyone got a chance to shine here as
well, which was good to see.
Towards the end of the match, BJ Whitmer (who was on commentary)
tossed Adam Page into the ring post when he was about to get back in the ring. This
allowed Jay Briscoe to score the victory after hitting Will Ferrara with the Jay
Driller. After the match, Jay Briscoe took the mic, and traded verbal shots
with Kazarian, before turning his attention to Will Ferrara. He told Ferrara that
his time was coming, but the former two-time ROH World Champion was soon
interrupted by BJ Whitmer. He said that while they (as veterans) mentor guys like
Adam Page & Will Ferrara now, they’ll eventually get big egos, and stab them
in the back. Whitmer said that he and Briscoe actually have a lot in common. He
proclaimed that there are a lot of young guys in ROH who don’t know the pecking
order, and they need to be put in their place. Whitmer proposed that The
Briscoes & The Decade (or what was left of The Decade at this point) join
forces, and offers his hand to Jay Briscoe. Instead, Briscoe just flips him
off. Adam Page then attacks Whitmer from behind. He tries to flee, but then Steve
Corino shows up! He throws Whitmer back into the ring, and Adam Page hits him
with his finisher, Right of Passage. Jay Briscoe then shook hands with Page,
which was big, since they had a feud on ROH TV in 2015 that led to a brutal No
DQ Match in San Antonio. They then took a fan sign from the crowd that read
“someone please hit BJ Whitmer with this sign”, and proceede to hit Whitmer
with it, in a funny moment.
7.) Adam Cole vs. Stevie Richards: ***
Stevie Richards (of ECW, WWE, and TNA fame) started to get some
sporadic bookings with ROH towards the end of 2015, and that led to him getting
some more bookings in 2016. Here, he took on Adam Cole. This was by no means
spectacular, but for what it was, I thought it was good. I’m sure some would
complain about ROH using a guy like Steve Richards, but it’s been clear right
from the beginning that his role was to put over younger talents. Plus it’s not
like he became a regular. I’m not thrilled to see him in ROH, but I don’t think
him making a few appearances is a major issue. Regardless, Richards put in a
solid effort against Cole. There was solid action in this one, but it was
easily overshadowed by a lot of other things on this card. Cole would
eventually get the win in this one.
After the match, Stevie Richards went for the Code of Honor, but
Cole fakes him out, and leaves him hanging.
8.) ROH World Title/ROH World TV Title/ROH World Tag Team Titles
– Jay Lethal (with Taeler Hendrix), Roderick Strong, & War Machine vs. The
Bullet Club (Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows, & IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team
Champions The Young Bucks with “Bullet Babe” Amber Gallows): ****
Even though The Bullet Club had no chance of winning here (since
Anderson & Gallows were also going to WWE in a few months), it wasn’t made
very clear what would happen with the titles if The Bullet Club won. I would
assume that the person who would get the win would get the title from the guy
they pinned, but what about the other titles? It’s a very convoluted stipulation,
but I think the reason for the change was that The Young Bucks really wanted to
do this Eight-Man Tag, which was originally scheduled to take place in
Asheville before that show got cancelled.
Amber Gallows and Taeler Hendrix both came out to the ring with
their respective sides initially, but they were both taken out fairly quickly.
First, Matt Jackson superkicked Hendrix, and Lethal responded by hitting Amber
Gallows with a superkick of his own. From there, the match devolved into a
giant brawl, but once things got back in this ring, this really ended up being
a great main event. Yes, the outcome was blatantly obvious, and that did hurt
the match a little bit, but the action in this one, especially in the second
half, more than made up for it. The final few minutes of this one were
fantastic, as bodies were flying all over the place. It wasn’t quite as good as
the Six-Man Tag from earlier on, but with that closing stretch, it came pretty
close. Ultimately, War Machine pinned Karl Anderson after hitting Fallout to
score the victory for their team.
The DVD/VOD ended there, but that wasn’t the end of the show. After
the main event finished, AJ Styles came back out, and did a final “curtain call”
with The Bullet Club as he, Anderson, & Gallows celebrated with The Young
Bucks for the last time in a ROH ring.
Overall:
8.25/10
This wasn’t quite as amazing as that crucially acclaimed February
2015 live event from Atlanta the year prior, but it was still a pretty strong
showing from ROH. Aside from the Women of Honor match, there really wasn’t anything
bad to speak of on this card. The multi-man matches were easily the highlights
of this show, with the Six-Man Tag, the Six-Man Mayhem Match, and the Eight-Man
Tag being the highlights of the night. There were also some really entertaining
matches on the rest of the undercard, and as a whole, this event was truly a
joy to watch.
No comments:
Post a Comment