ROH Road To "Best In The World": Night 2 Review

The ROH World Title & ROH World Tag Team Titles are on the line!

ROH Road To "Best In The World" Night 2

Collinsville, Illinois 6/7/14

Pre-Show

1.) Danny Adams vs. Marco Gonzales: **1/4

I've never heard of either one of these guys, but they went to hold a pretty solid pre-show match. Basic stuff, but it was fine for what it was. Adams would score the win.

Main Show

Before I start, I should note that Kevin Kelly is once again on his own with commentary (*groans*).

1.) Ethan Gabriel Owens vs. Zizou Middoux: ***

These two met in the opening match of Future of Honor I, which E.G.O. won. This was about as good as their from Future of Honor I. Solid back & forth action throughout this one. E.G.O. eventually puts Middoux away with the Spinning Dwayne to score the win.

2.) TaDarius Thomas (with Jimmy Jacobs) vs. Cedric Alexander: ***1/4

This match came about after TaDarius Thomas attacked Cedric Alexander during the Six Man Scramble the night before, which led to Alexander losing the match and a potential World Title Match. This was actually pretty solid. I know people like to bash TaDarius Thomas, but he & Cedric Alexander worked pretty well together in this match. Lots of solid stuff here. The match ends when Thomas gets thrown into Jacobs (who was on the apron), which leads to Alexander hitting the Lumbar Check to get the win.

Cedric Alexander quickly makes his exit with a big smile on his face as BJ Whitmer & the rest of The Decade rush the ring. Jacobs cuts an angry promo towards Cedric, and says that Roderick Strong will break him at the Best In The World PPV. He then calls Caprice Coleman to come out so BJ Whitmer can take him out and make an example out of him.

3.) BJ Whitmer (with Jimmy Jacobs & TaDarius Thomas) vs. Caprice Coleman: ***

I wasn't looking forward to this one when it was announced but it actually was a bit better than I thought it would be. Some really solid action in this one, and eventually, Coleman was able to rollup Whitmer to score an upset win! The Decade beat up Coleman after the match but Cedric Alexander comes back out with a chair, which scares them off.

Jay Lethal is out next with Truth Martini & #Sparx. He tells The Romantic Touch to come out, calling him Rhett Titus. He basically says that they think he's a joke and they don't take him seriously. The Romantic Touch challenges Lethal to wrestle right now. Even though Lethal is in his street clothes, he's so confident that he can win, that he accepts!

4.) Proving Ground Match - ROH World TV Champion Jay Lethal vs. The Romantic Touch: N/A

The reason I rated it the way I did was because "The Romantic Touch" was basically in control for the entire match with Lethal only actually hitting two or three moves. He went after Lethal right from the very beginning, and eventually, strips most of Lethal's clothes off, leaving him in nothing but his underwear & socks. I will say seeing Lethal get his dress clothes stripped off was pretty hilarious. Eventually, Lethal rips off the mask, and it's Matt Taven! He hits The Climax and scores the win, humiliating the World TV Champion, along with the rest of The House of Truth.

5.) No DQ Match - Michael Bennett (with Maria Kanellis) vs. "Unbreakable" Michael Elgin: ***1/4

This originally started off as a regular singles match, but Bennett introduced a chair early on, which led to Elgin asking for the match to be changed to a No DQ Match. The referee allows it, and it's on! The match was actually pretty solid. While it went on to have essentially a No Contest Finish (which I'll get to in a second), it was still really entertaining. But obviously, what happened next was pretty big...

When it looked like Elgin was going to powerbomb Bennett into a guardrail set up on a few chairs, Adam Cole comes out and nails Elgin with the ROH World Title belt. Cole & Bennett then attack Elgin, eventually using zip ties to tie Elgin to the ropes. They then get out this back, and pull out a pair of scissors. Cole cuts off Elgin's signature mullet! He then pulls out an Electric Hair Trimmer, and starts shaving off the rest of the hair on Elgin's head! Cole then threatens to hit Elgin with a chair, but MsChif (Michael Elgin's wife) comes out to try to make them stop, but Bennett quickly restrains her. Cole talks about hurting Elgin both physically & emotionally, and says MsChif can choose what happens. Either he can hit Elgin over the head with a chair, or MsChif has to kiss Cole (with tongue) and say he was more of a man than Elgin. She spit in Cole's face, and Cole locks MsChif in the Figure Four, forcing Elgin to watch!! Elgin would eventually break free as Cole, Bennett & Maria retreated. Elgin carried his wife MsChif to the back. Words can do this segment justice. It was incredibly awesome, and did a fantastic job in building up to their World Title Match at Best In The World!

6.) Silas Young vs. ACH: ***3/4

ACH is coming off of losing his World Title Match the night before while Young is looking ahead to his collision with Kevin Steen at Best In The World. This was actually a really good match. Nothing really much to say. Great action from both guys, especially in the closing minutes. Young eventually forces ACH to tap out to the Stock Lock, and picks up the win. 

7.) ROH World Title - Adam Cole vs. "Sicilian Psychopath" Tommaso Ciampa: ****

Before the match, Cole cuts a promo, talking about his attack earlier in the show on Michael Elgin and his wife, MsChif. He says that whenever someone is after his World Title, it's personal, and that the same thing applies to Tommaso Ciampa.

These two always seem to put on good to great matches (the most recent being in the Semi-Finals of the World Title Tournament at Death Before Dishonor XI) and this one was no different. Lots of great action between these two. They play their rolls so well, which just added to their chemistry. At one point, Ciampa goes for his running knee strikes in the corner, but Cole pulls the referee in front of him and Ciampa hits the referee! This leads to Ciampa getting put through the ringside table and another referee getting punched out by Michael Bennett. Ciampa is eventually able to hit Project Ciampa, but when he goes to pin, Cole turns it into a crucifix pin and score the win, escaping Collinsville still the ROH World Champion. A very good World Title Match. I didn't mind the interference and all the referee shenanigans, because I think it worked in the sense that Adam Cole would basically do anything to keep his ROH World Title.

8.) ROH World Tag Team Titles - reDRagon vs. The Briscoes: ****

This is actually the first title shot The Briscoes have had in recent memory. A really great Main Event! Both teams are really awesome, so it's no surprise that they had a very good match. Lots of back & forth tag team action in this one. There really isn't much else I can say. These two teams speak for themselves. reDRagon eventually score the win over The Briscoes to retain their titles, and they celebrate to close the show.

Overall: 8.25/10

This really felt like an awesome "go home" show. ROH did a really good job on this one with building towards Best In The World. They added more to The Decade/Cedric Alexander and Matt Taven/House Of Truth storylines with a number of matches & segments, and in particular, the segment with Elgin & Cole is must see (in the end it might have bumped up the overall rating of the show for me). As far as the wrestling goes, it was pretty good. Every single match (with the exception of the Jay Lethal/Matt Taven stuff, which I consider to be more of a segment than a match) was at or above the *** mark, which is really impressive for an event that people might see as a minor show. The second half was especially great, with ACH/Silas Young, World Title Match & World Tag Team Title Matches all being really good. Once again, Kevin Kelly being on commentary by himself was not good, but the action definitely made up for it. If you're going to watch and/or buy Best In The World, make sure you get this as well. A very good outing from ROH.