ROH Flyin' High
Dayton, Ohio 3/22/14
1.) The Decade (with Adam Page) vs. Adrenaline RUSH & Caprice Coleman: ***1/2
Adam Page is once again in the corner of The Decade, doing their bidding. I actually think this is the best Six Man Tag Team Match The Decade has been in to date. Great action here from everyone involved. ACH changed it up a bit and did the "Tyler Black-Backwards-Running-Flip-Dive" instead of his usual "Air Jordan" which was pretty cool. Lots of back & forth towards the end of the match, but The Decade is able to pull out the win.
Up next is ROH World Champion Adam Cole. He calls out The Briscoes and wants to fight the both of them right now!! Instead, we got Michael Bennett & Maria Kanellis came out dressed as The Briscoes (Bennett as Jay and Maria as Mark). They looked ridiculous. Essentially they use this opportunity to make fun on The Briscoes (such as saying that they suck and aren't better than Adam Cole, giving the Doomsday Device onto a rubber chicken, etc...), until the real Briscoes come through the crowd and chase them off! Jay Briscoe proclaims that the Real World Champion is in the building and that Cole & Bennett are going to get it in the Main Event.
2.) Four-Corner Survival - The Romantic Touch vs. Silas Young vs. "Barrister" RD Evans (with Veda Scott & Ramon) vs. Kyle O'Reilly: **1/2
While everyone was making their entrances, Silas Young threw RD Evan's "61-0" sign and it hit Kevin Kelly in the eye. Corino was alone on commentary for a bit but Kelly returned by the end of the match. This was actually pretty average by Four Corner Survival standards. Decent stuff, but not much else. Towards the end, Silas started attacking everyone with the leather strap he's been carrying around since Final Battle. The ref disqualifies him from the match but it continues as a Triple Threat, which was kind of strange, but whatever. RD Evans is able to escape with the win, in a creative finish, and goes to 64-0!! #TheNewStreak is over with the Dayton faithful!
3.) "Unbreakable" Michael Elgin vs. Cedric Alexander: ****1/2
THIS....WAS....AMAZING!!! Just awesome stuff from bell to bell. Elgin was his great usual self, while Cedric looked just incredible. Lots of great action from both guys and the crowd was into it by the end. Elgin gets the win but Alexander comes out of it looking awesome. Amazing performances.
4.) Kevin Steen vs. Bobby Fish (with Kyle O'Reilly): **
Here we had a match that was mostly Steen & Fish exchanging holds for five minutes with Steen making fun of Fish. He actually got the fans to chant for the ropes and Steen said they were more popular than Fish! This leads to Steen shooting a snot rocket at reDRagon and O'Reilly attacks Steen, causing a the DQ. Fine stuff for what it was, but it mainly served to set up the next segment and match.
reDRagon start to beat up Kevin Steen, but RD Evans makes the save with a ridiculous briefcase. Steen takes the mic and calls Kyle O'Reilly an "Illegal Weapon" (which the got over with the crowd big time). Kyle has a great response by saying "I know what I am. I'm not ashamed of it". Steen says that the tickets guarantee that the fans get to see Steen kick some ass, and challenge reDRagon to a tag team match. reDRagon don't want to wrestle a makeshift tag team, and make fun of Evans in particular. Steen says that he used to tag with someone who wasn't a typical wrestler, but now he's one of the best wrestler in the world. They eventually entice Fish & O'Reilly enough to make them accept the challenge!!
5.) Kevin Steen & "Barrister" RD Evans vs. reDRagon: ***
Honestly, how can you go wrong with four of the most entertaining characters in ROH in one match? We got a "Stretch Bobby Stretch" Chant and the Steen/Evans team got in some good tandem offense. Steen goes to pin Fish after the Package Piledriver but O'Reilly breaks up the pin with a chair for the DQ, giving the win to Steen & Evans, thus extending #TheNewStreak!!. Even though it had a DQ ending, the match was really entertaining.
Afterwords, Steen puts over #TheNewStreak!
6.) ROH World TV Title - "Sicilian Psychopath" Tommaso Ciampa vs. Matt Taven: ***1/4
Here we have a rematch from Final Battle. This was a fine match, but the crowd was kinda quiet in certain parts and of course Truth Martini got involved by getting Seleyzia Sparx to low blow Taven. Ciampa wins with an inverted Project Ciampa from an Electric Chair Position (basically he drops him gut first instead of back first). Again, it was a solid match, but once again, we have a Ciampa Title Defense that involves interference.
7.) Chris Hero vs. "The Phenomenal" AJ Styles: ****1/2
This is the first time these two are facing each other in ROH. An absolutely fantastic match!!! It can not be understated how HARD Chris Hero kicks people. There were at least three times in the match where Hero kicked Styles so hard that it looked like he either lost a tooth, broke his jaw, knocked him out, gave him a concussion, or a combination of all those things. Seriously brutal stuff, but at the same time, AJ fought back hard. I really enjoyed this. Awesome stuff. This might be Hero's best match since coming back to the indies. Same for Styles, who is able to get the win with that Calf Killer.
After the match, Jimmy Jacobs comes out, and The Decade attack Chris Hero, laying him out.
8.) The Briscoes vs. ROH World Champion Adam Cole & Michael Bennett (with Maria Kanellis): ***3/4
I think this was definitely better than their match from Philly TV Tapings in February. They got more time and it really made the match better. Corino noted that this was Bennett's first time Main Eventing an ROH show, which was pretty interesting. Towards the end of the match, Bennett puts Mark though a table with the Box Office Smash and Jay battles Cole for a few minutes afterwords, which leads to Jay getting another pinfall victory over Cole. Pretty solid main event.
Afterwords, as The Briscoes are celebrating, Cole & Bennett come back and attack them. Eventually Michael Elgin comes out and chases them off to close the show.
Overall: 8.75/10
With this being only two weeks from the big WrestleMania Weekend Shows, you think this was going to be a B-Show. Instead we got one of the best house shows of the year. Elgin/Alexander and Hero/Styles were both awesome and are well worth your money. While you might not like the prospect of two straight matches ending in a DQ, it actually worked really well (mainly because it involved four of the most entertaining characters in ROH). Steen, Evans, and reDRagon are just so much fun to watch. The main event was a great build to Supercard of Honor VIII. In short, this was a pretty great show. Definitely worth checking out.
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