ROH Champions vs. All-Stars 2014
Kalamazoo, Michigan 10/11/14
Pre-Show
1.) Jay Diesel vs. Buddy Hanlon: 3/4*
There’s really not much to say about this match. Diesel squashed a local guy pretty quickly.
Main Show
The show kicks off with Nigel McGuinness, who announces that Mark Briscoe won’t be able to compete in the Champions vs. All-Stars Match due to poison ivy. Adam Cole comes out and claims that Mark Briscoe is faking it so he doesn’t have to face his brother Jay, and so that they both don’t get shown up by Adam Cole. Mark Briscoe comes out of nowhere and chases Cole off. With Nigel alone in the ring again, Tommaso Ciampa comes out, and says that he hasn’t gotten enough opportunities as of late. Nigel puts him in as Mark Briscoe’s replacement, but reminds Ciampa that he’s under a zero-tolerance policy, where if he attacks a referee or anyone at ringside, he’d be fired.
1.) BJ Whitmer vs. Will Ferrara: **1/4
Our first match features The Decade’s BJ Whitmer against Will Ferrara, who made a name for himself at a recent TV Taping in West Virginia, when he eliminated Jay Lethal in an Honor Rumble and earned himself a World TV Title shot, where he had a good showing in defeat. This match was fine. Decent action, but as you would expect, Whitmer scored the win.
Afterwords, BJ Whitmer surprisingly, offers Will Ferrara a handshake, but of course, Whitmer tricks Ferrara and attacks him instead.
2.) TaDarius Thomas vs. Owen Travers: **¾
This is a very interesting match. I have no idea who Owen Travers is. These two put on a surprisingly good match. I don’t know what it was, but these two seemed to click decently well, and it came out to be a better-than-expected match. Thomas picks up the win.
3.) "The Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels vs. Cedric Alexander: ****
Kind of weird to see this match going on 3rd, but it doesn’t matter, because you know it will be good. As it turned out, it was more than good. This match was great! Christopher Daniels is such a great wrestler. He can have a great match with anyone, and when he’s matched up with someone like Cedric Alexander, who’s a very good wrestler, you get a really great match. Lots of great action throughout this match, and it got pretty exciting towards the end, which saw Daniels pick up the win.
After the match, Daniels takes the mic and cuts a promo about coming back to Ring of Honor, and put over Cedric Alexander as the future.
4.) Frankie Kazarian vs. Jimmy Jacobs: ***½
The Addiction was split up into singles matches on this shows, and while Daniels faced Alexander, Kazarian is facing hometown hero Jimmy Jacobs. This was a pretty good match. Of course Jimmy Jacobs would put in a really solid effort in his hometown, and I feel like seeing Kazarian in singles matches is a rarity these days (He’s been teaming with Daniels for so long that I think of him as a tag team guy), so that was a treat. Solid action throughout this one. Jacobs would get the win in this one.
Afterwords, Jacobs cut a babyface promo thanking the fans (and I think he may have mentioned that his parents were in attendance also).
5.) Matt Taven vs. The Romantic Touch: **
Interestingly enough, these two guys have a history, as The Romantic Touch got entangled in the Jay Lethal/Matt Taven World TV Title feud a few months prior, which included Taven wrestling Lethal disguised as The Romantic Touch. Taven is now heel and part of The Kingdom. It’s obvious that this was a buffer between some of the bigger matches on this show, but it went way longer than it needed to. I think it went close to 10 minutes, which was way too long. Taven gets the win, and we can move on.
6.) Champions vs. All-Stars Elimination Match - ROH World Champion Jay Briscoe, ROH World Tag Team Champions reDRagon, & ROH World TV Champion Jay Lethal (with Truth Martini) vs. ACH, Roderick Strong, "Sicilian Psychopath" Tommaso Ciampa, & Adam Cole: ****1/4
This year’s edition of the Champions vs. All-Stars Match is very interesting. Unlike last year, where the All-Star Team was made up of all babyfaces, and the Champions Team was made up of all heels, this year’s teams are mixed, with Jay Briscoe on a team with three heels, and an All-Stars Team of two heels, a babyface, and (I guess) a tweener in Ciampa.
The match starts of with Jay Lethal arguing with Jay Briscoe, and this leads to ACH getting a quick rollup on Lethal, eliminating the World TV Champion within the first 30 seconds of the match! Lethal & Martini are irate. The 2nd Elimination came about when reDRagon pulled an old Eddie Guerrero trick, where O’Reilly brought one of the Tag Team Title belts in, threw it to Ciampa, and pretended to get hit by the belt, leading to Ciampa getting disqualified. Ciampa is irate. He doesn’t attack the referees or ringside personal, but he does attack everyone else in the match. The next two eliminations were quick ones as Strong eliminated O’Reilly, and Fish eliminated Strong. Fish was then eliminated by ACH, and it comes down to Jay Briscoe vs. Adam Cole & ACH. Cole would be eliminated after Mark Briscoe came out and helped his brother after Cole went to use a chair, while the referees were checking on ACH, who had gone through a table. Finally, Jay Briscoe eliminated ACH to win the match for his team.
This wasn’t quite as good as last year’s Champions vs. All-Stars Match, but it was still a really great match. It was a long match (I think it was around 50 minutes) had a lot of stuff going on. You had some storyline elements in here, with ACH getting a quick elimination on Lethal, Ciampa getting screwed again, Cole trying to screw it to the babyfaces, as well as not wanting to face Briscoe fairly, among others. There was, of course, a lot of great action throughout this one. When put together with some of the stories told, and it was a very solid Main Event.
After the match, Jay Lethal & Truth Martini came out and attacked ACH, but Jay Briscoe made the save and chased them off. He then brought ACH back to his feet and shook hands with him to close the show.
Overall: 7.75/10
There really weren’t a lot of matches on this show, given that the Main Event took up a lot of the talent used. For a “B-Show”, this was a relatively solid outing from ROH. The Champions vs. All-Stars Match has always delivered, and this one was no different, which featured some unique teams and solid action interwoven with a lot of stories. You also had a really great match in Christopher Daniels vs. Cedric Alexander. The rest of the undercard was relatively ok, with Jacobs vs. Kazarian being the standout. Again, not an amazing show, but a solid one.
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