Before the show starts, we get a beautiful rendition of the National Anthem from Scarlett Bordeaux. We then have an opening video package with Steve Corino, who is wearing a ROH Baseball Uniform, hyping up the show. I should also mention that, throughout the show, we get clips of some of the wrestlers playing a baseball game of their own prior to the show. Tonight's commentary team is Steve Corino & Joe Dombrowski.
ROH Field Of Honor
Brooklyn, New York 8/15/14
1.) ROH World TV Title - Steel Cage Match - Jay Lethal (with
Truth Martini) vs. Matt Taven: ****
I guess it was a smart move to have this match go on first, since it's easier to just take an intermission to take down the Steel Cage as opposed to doing both in the middle of the show. The stipulations here are that if Jay Lethal wins, then Matt Taven can no longer challenge for the World TV Title as long as Jay Lethal was champion, but if Taven wins, he would not only regain the World TV Title, but get 5 Minutes alone in the Steel Cage with Truth Martini.
Lethal has both Truth Martini & Seleziya Sparx with him at ringside. We get a lot in this match. Taven dives through the door of the Steel Cage onto The House of Truth. There's some brawling on the outside, mainly involving the Steel Cage. Even Seleziya Sparx gets involved. There were also a lot of really good action inside the Steel Cage itself. In a funny moment, Truth Martini ran the bases when Lethal had the advantage at one point. The big moment of the match occurred when Matt Taven hit a big splash of the top of the Steel Cage (reminiscent of Jimmy Snuka) onto Lethal!!! Unfortunately for Taven, interference from Truth Martini as well as Jay Diesel leads to Lethal getting the win and retains the World TV Title. This means that Matt Taven can no longer challenge for the World TV Title as long as Lethal holds the World TV Title.
After the match, Matt Taven looks visibly frustrated. He argues with some fans and shoves the camera away before heading back to the locker room. Cameras later catch Matt Taven in the locker room, where he says something to the degree of "That's all that's left. There's nothing left" before walking away.
I guess it was a smart move to have this match go on first, since it's easier to just take an intermission to take down the Steel Cage as opposed to doing both in the middle of the show. The stipulations here are that if Jay Lethal wins, then Matt Taven can no longer challenge for the World TV Title as long as Jay Lethal was champion, but if Taven wins, he would not only regain the World TV Title, but get 5 Minutes alone in the Steel Cage with Truth Martini.
Lethal has both Truth Martini & Seleziya Sparx with him at ringside. We get a lot in this match. Taven dives through the door of the Steel Cage onto The House of Truth. There's some brawling on the outside, mainly involving the Steel Cage. Even Seleziya Sparx gets involved. There were also a lot of really good action inside the Steel Cage itself. In a funny moment, Truth Martini ran the bases when Lethal had the advantage at one point. The big moment of the match occurred when Matt Taven hit a big splash of the top of the Steel Cage (reminiscent of Jimmy Snuka) onto Lethal!!! Unfortunately for Taven, interference from Truth Martini as well as Jay Diesel leads to Lethal getting the win and retains the World TV Title. This means that Matt Taven can no longer challenge for the World TV Title as long as Lethal holds the World TV Title.
After the match, Matt Taven looks visibly frustrated. He argues with some fans and shoves the camera away before heading back to the locker room. Cameras later catch Matt Taven in the locker room, where he says something to the degree of "That's all that's left. There's nothing left" before walking away.
2.) Mark Briscoe vs. Takaaki Watanabe: **3/4
Watanabe is wearing some new attire tonight. It basically looks like a red version of Goto Hirooki's attire. This was a pretty decent match. Both guys got their stuff in and looked good. Mark Briscoe is always entertaining to watch, and Watanabe certainly has a bright future ahead of him. In the end, Briscoe gets the win with the Froggy-Bow.
Watanabe is wearing some new attire tonight. It basically looks like a red version of Goto Hirooki's attire. This was a pretty decent match. Both guys got their stuff in and looked good. Mark Briscoe is always entertaining to watch, and Watanabe certainly has a bright future ahead of him. In the end, Briscoe gets the win with the Froggy-Bow.
3.) Brutal Burgers ("Brutal" Bob Evans &
Cheeseburger) vs. Moose & RD Evans (with Veda Scott & Ramon): **1/4
Price Nana comes out to join Corino & Dombrowski on commentary. Before the match begins, Veda Scott cuts a promo, putting over RD Evans & The New Streak, saying it will continue tonight. This was pretty much what you would expect. It was essentially a comedy match. We got some decent offense from all four guys. Eventually, Moose took out both "Brutal" Bob Evans & Cheeseburger with spears, but RD Evans takes advantage and steals the pinfall from his parter! RD Evans runs the bases to celebrate his victory, while Prince Nana is disgusted at him for stealing the victory from his partner.
4.) Michael Bennett (with Maria Kanellis) vs. Rocky Romero:
***
With Alex Kozlov out due to injury, Rocky Romero has entered into singles competition over the past few months. Here, he's taking on Michael Bennett. This was a pretty solid match. It's nice to see Romero in singles action, and Bennett is someone who has steadily improved over the last year or so. Good action between these two. Eventually, a distraction from Maria allowed Bennett to pick up the win over Romero.
I believe the next match was originally scheduled to be The Decade vs. War Machine, but a few days before the show, Raymond Rowe was involved in a terrible motorcycle accident, where he suffered some pretty bad injuries, and would be out of action indefinitely. The Decade comes out, and Jacobs and talks about how Daniels & Kazarian are getting another shot at the ROH World Tag Team Titles. He says while Daniels & Kazarian are takers, The Decade are gives. He says that he, BJ Whitmer & Roderick Strong are going to give three young prospects an opportunity. The call ends up being answered by John Knockout, Ken Phoenix & Will Ferrara answer the call.
With Alex Kozlov out due to injury, Rocky Romero has entered into singles competition over the past few months. Here, he's taking on Michael Bennett. This was a pretty solid match. It's nice to see Romero in singles action, and Bennett is someone who has steadily improved over the last year or so. Good action between these two. Eventually, a distraction from Maria allowed Bennett to pick up the win over Romero.
I believe the next match was originally scheduled to be The Decade vs. War Machine, but a few days before the show, Raymond Rowe was involved in a terrible motorcycle accident, where he suffered some pretty bad injuries, and would be out of action indefinitely. The Decade comes out, and Jacobs and talks about how Daniels & Kazarian are getting another shot at the ROH World Tag Team Titles. He says while Daniels & Kazarian are takers, The Decade are gives. He says that he, BJ Whitmer & Roderick Strong are going to give three young prospects an opportunity. The call ends up being answered by John Knockout, Ken Phoenix & Will Ferrara answer the call.
5.) Six Man Tag - The Decade (Jimmy Jacobs, BJ Whitmer &
Roderick Strong) vs. John Knockout, Ken Phoenix & Will Ferrara: *3/4
There's nothing really much to say about this one. It was basically a squash match. The team of Knockout, Phoenix & Ferrara got some shots in, but it was all The Decade, who picked up the win in quick fashion.
After the match, The Decade continue to beat up the young prospects, until Hanson runs out with a Baseball Bat and chases them off.
There's nothing really much to say about this one. It was basically a squash match. The team of Knockout, Phoenix & Ferrara got some shots in, but it was all The Decade, who picked up the win in quick fashion.
After the match, The Decade continue to beat up the young prospects, until Hanson runs out with a Baseball Bat and chases them off.
6.) Silas Young vs. "Sicilian Psychopath" Tommaso
Ciampa: ***1/4
Here we have a battle of two World Title Contenders, as they will both be getting title shots during Death Before Dishonor XII the following week, with Silas Young challenging in Milwaukee and Tommaso Ciampa challenging in Chicago Ridge. Now this is where the crowd really started to get rowdy. At one point, there was a women in the crowd who couldn't stop chanting "Skull Booty" (referring to the logo on Ciampa's tights), which says a lot about this crowd. The match itself, I thought, was fine, but the finish hurt it a little bit. Young brought in chairs, setting one up in a seated position and the other wedged in the turnbuckle. Ciampa then turned it around on Young and did his running knees with Young sitting in the chair (which isn't a DQ since the chair was not actually used offensively). While the referee was distracted with getting the chairs out of the ring, Young uses the ring bell on Ciampa and gets the win.
After the match, Ciampa is visibly frustrated over the loss. At one point, he hits Referee Paul Turner, and he goes for the Project Ciampa, but other referees come out to break it up. Ciampa then hits another referee on his way out.
Here we have a battle of two World Title Contenders, as they will both be getting title shots during Death Before Dishonor XII the following week, with Silas Young challenging in Milwaukee and Tommaso Ciampa challenging in Chicago Ridge. Now this is where the crowd really started to get rowdy. At one point, there was a women in the crowd who couldn't stop chanting "Skull Booty" (referring to the logo on Ciampa's tights), which says a lot about this crowd. The match itself, I thought, was fine, but the finish hurt it a little bit. Young brought in chairs, setting one up in a seated position and the other wedged in the turnbuckle. Ciampa then turned it around on Young and did his running knees with Young sitting in the chair (which isn't a DQ since the chair was not actually used offensively). While the referee was distracted with getting the chairs out of the ring, Young uses the ring bell on Ciampa and gets the win.
After the match, Ciampa is visibly frustrated over the loss. At one point, he hits Referee Paul Turner, and he goes for the Project Ciampa, but other referees come out to break it up. Ciampa then hits another referee on his way out.
7.) Cedric Alexander vs. ACH: ***1/4
I feel like this match had a lot of potential to be really good, maybe even great. Unfortunately, it was hampered by two factors. The first was the crowd. This was the worst the crowd was all night. They were chanting at each other, and weren't even paying attention to the match. It was just bad, and it took away from the entire match. The second factor was that the match ended early when ACH landed on his head/neck after taking a botched Michinoku Driver from Cedric Alexander. It's unfortunate that the match ended that way, because it had to the potential to be really good. Of course, the main concern was ACH's health, and he turned out to be ok, which was good to hear. The action had been solid up to that point, but again, those things hurt the match.
I feel like this match had a lot of potential to be really good, maybe even great. Unfortunately, it was hampered by two factors. The first was the crowd. This was the worst the crowd was all night. They were chanting at each other, and weren't even paying attention to the match. It was just bad, and it took away from the entire match. The second factor was that the match ended early when ACH landed on his head/neck after taking a botched Michinoku Driver from Cedric Alexander. It's unfortunate that the match ended that way, because it had to the potential to be really good. Of course, the main concern was ACH's health, and he turned out to be ok, which was good to hear. The action had been solid up to that point, but again, those things hurt the match.
8.) ROH World Tag Team Titles - reDRagon vs. Christopher Daniels
& Frankie Kazarian: ***1/2
Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian earned this title opportunity after winning a Four-Way Tag Team Match on an episode of ROH TV from Dearborn, Michigan. This is of course a rematch from Best In The World. As far as this match goes, it was good, but not great. The action was pretty solid, but it didn't quite reach the quality of their previous encounter. Towards the end of the match, we saw all three members of The Decade attack Daniels & Kazarian while they were on the floor, leading to reDRagon scoring the win and retaining their World Tag Team Titles.
Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian earned this title opportunity after winning a Four-Way Tag Team Match on an episode of ROH TV from Dearborn, Michigan. This is of course a rematch from Best In The World. As far as this match goes, it was good, but not great. The action was pretty solid, but it didn't quite reach the quality of their previous encounter. Towards the end of the match, we saw all three members of The Decade attack Daniels & Kazarian while they were on the floor, leading to reDRagon scoring the win and retaining their World Tag Team Titles.
9.) ROH World Title - Four Corner Survival -
"Unbreakable" Michael Elgin vs. Jay Briscoe vs. IWGP Heavyweight
Champion "The Phenomenal" AJ Styles vs. Adam Cole: ****1/4
There are a lot of stories coming into this Main Event. There's Elgin, the current ROH World Champion. Then there's Adam Cole, the man who Elgin defeated to win the ROH World Title. Then there's Jay Briscoe, the man who never lost the ROH World Title and hasn't been pinned in over two years. Finally, there's AJ Styles, the IWGP Heavyweight Champion, who's only lost once since his return to ROH (that loss coming at the hands of Michael Elgin). On top of that, there's the added stipulation that whoever is pinned or submitted in this match could be out of title contention for a long time (at least as long as Elgin is ROH World Champion). This was a really awesome match!! It is probably one of the biggest Four-Corner Survival Matches in recently memory, and given all of the talent involved, it certainly delivered. Lots of great action, and spectacular moments, as you would expect. Eventually it came down to Adam Cole & Michael Elgin, and in the end, Elgin scored the win and retained the ROH World Title in an incredible Main Event to close the show.
There are a lot of stories coming into this Main Event. There's Elgin, the current ROH World Champion. Then there's Adam Cole, the man who Elgin defeated to win the ROH World Title. Then there's Jay Briscoe, the man who never lost the ROH World Title and hasn't been pinned in over two years. Finally, there's AJ Styles, the IWGP Heavyweight Champion, who's only lost once since his return to ROH (that loss coming at the hands of Michael Elgin). On top of that, there's the added stipulation that whoever is pinned or submitted in this match could be out of title contention for a long time (at least as long as Elgin is ROH World Champion). This was a really awesome match!! It is probably one of the biggest Four-Corner Survival Matches in recently memory, and given all of the talent involved, it certainly delivered. Lots of great action, and spectacular moments, as you would expect. Eventually it came down to Adam Cole & Michael Elgin, and in the end, Elgin scored the win and retained the ROH World Title in an incredible Main Event to close the show.
Overall: 7.75/10
For the most part, I thought it was a relatively solid show in ROH. I
enjoyed the Steel Cage Match (maybe a little more than most), and I LOVED the Four-Corner Survival for the ROH World Title. I also thought that the actual setting of the show in MCU Park in Brooklyn looked really cool, especially at night. However, I feel like everything in between was a mixed bag. Without the Steel Cage
Match & the ROH World Title Match, you have a very average show. Nothing really stood out, and the fact that there were a number of finishes that were hampered by various factors hurt things as well. Of course, there was also the crowd, which was not very good during the middle portion of the show, especially during the Ciampa/Young & ACH/Alexander Matches. They were just terrible (and I know it wasn't everyone, obviously, but there definitely a bunch of bad apples in that bunch). The World Tag Team Title
Match was fine, but definitely a step down from their first encounter. On the
whole, it was a good, solid show, but there have been many better ROH shows
this year. Really only watch this for the Steel Cage Match & The ROH World
Title Match.
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