ROH Conquest Tour: Chicago Ridge
Chicago Ridge, Illinois 3/14/15
Pre-Show
1.) Stokely Hathaway vs. The Romantic Touch: *½
We do have a dark match on this show, as Stokely Hathaway takes a night off from his managerial duties to take on The Romantic Touch. Nothing really much to say here. A pretty basic pre-show match that sees The Romantic Touch scoring the win.
Main Show
Before our opening contest, we get a promo from Truth Martini, who basically accepts Cliff Compton’s challenge (on behalf of Jay Lethal) for a Chicago Street Fight later that night.
1.) J. Diesel (with Truth Martini) vs. Will Ferrara: **
This is actually a rematch from the 1st Round of the 2015 Top Prospect Tournament. That match saw Ferrara pick the win over Diesel. I didn’t have an issue with this match happening, but I feel like it was the wrong decision to have this open the show. I suppose it was done so Truth Martini could accept the challenge issued by Cliff Compton, but this isn’t the type of opener you want to have. The match was just kind of there. Nothing much else to add. Diesel would get the win here over Ferrara.
2.) ACH (with Matt Sydal) vs. Jimmy Jacobs (with BJ Whitmer): ***3/4
Both men are coming off losses the previous night in Milwaukee, so both are looking to rebound. Jacobs comes out with Whitmer, while Matt Sydal (who is injured) comes out to even the sides. I figured that this match would be pretty good, but it turned out a lot better that I expected! This was bordering on great. We saw a lot of back & forth action, and both guys worked very hard. There were some especially cool moments in this one. In the end, ACH would pick up the victory here over the “Zombie Princess”.
Afterwords, Jacobs shakes ACH’s hand. Whitmer gets angry at this, and confronts Jacobs, saying that The Decade doesn’t shake hands with those that don’t belong in ROH. Jacobs counters Whitmer by saying that after everything The Decade put him through, ACH belongs in ROH. While Jacobs & Whitmer do eventually leave together, all is not well when it comes to The Decade.
3.) Four-Corner Survival - Roderick Strong vs. Silas Young vs. Matt Taven vs. Mark Briscoe: ***½
So Jay Briscoe was originally scheduled to face Matt Sydal (I think in a Proving Ground Match, but I’m not sure), but since Sydal is injured, that match is off. Instead, this match was turned into a #1 Contender’s Match of sorts, as the winner gets an Instant Reward Proving Ground Match with Jay Briscoe later on in the show. This was a pretty fun match. The action was solid from start to finish, and all four guys got a chance to shine here. Silas Young would pick up the win with a rollup on Mark Briscoe, meaning that he’ll face Jay Briscoe later on.
4.) ROH World TV Title Instant Reward Chicago Street Fight - Jay Lethal (with Truth Martini) vs. Cliff Compton: **1/4
Well, Cliff Compton is back, because…..reasons, I guess? I’m not really sure. If he wins this Chicago Street Fight, then he’ll get an immediate ROH World TV Title Match. Lethal comes out in nice Street Clothes, only for him to eventually get stripped down to his underwear like Ric Flair. This was….ok. I usually enjoy these kinds of matches in ROH, but this one really didn’t do anything for me. The crowd brawling wasn’t that interesting, and aside from a few table spots, it wasn’t that entertaining. I will say that it was nice for a heel group actually taking advantage of their numbers in a Street Fight situation. This interference eventually leads to Lethal getting the win.
5.) The Beer City Bruiser vs. Cheeseburger: *1/4
We come back from intermission, and we have two guys who involve food & beverages. This was probably the worst match on the show. I didn’t necessarily have any issues with the match happening (similar to the opener), but I think it went a little long. The Beer City Bruiser gets the win here.
So, during the actual show, Tommaso Ciampa came out and (apparently) cut a long, rambling promo about ROH management and other things, but the DVD cuts to Silas Young cutting out and interrupting him. Ciampa has a stare down with Silas Young, as well as Jay Briscoe, before our next match.
6.) ROH World Title Instant Reward Match - Jay Briscoe vs. Silas Young: ***
If Silas Young can defeat Jay Briscoe here, he’ll get an immediate ROH World Title Match. This was a good match, but it was still slightly disappointing. I was expecting a bit more from this one, but the match was a bit slower than I thought it would be. Plus, the crowd seemed to be on the quiet side for this one. Again, it was fine, but it could have been better. In the end, Jay Briscoe would pick up the victory here.
7.) ROH World Tag Team Title Instant Reward Match - reDRagon vs. Roppongi Vice (Rocky Romero & Trent Beretta): ***¾
If Roppongi Vice is able to defeat reDRagon, then they will earn an immediate ROH World Tag Team Title Match. As it turns out, Roppongi Vice did win this match, and they did get an ROH World Tag Team Title Match immediately, but they would be defeated by reDRagon. I’m counting both “matches” as one whole match, in this case. I thought this was really good. Roppongi Vice looked even better than they did the night before, and they worked well here with reDRagon. It was also a nice preview of the clashes these two teams would later have New Japan. Really good stuff from both teams.
8.) Samoa Joe vs. “Unbreakable” Michael Elgin: ****
Our Main Event of the evening is, without question, a Dream Match. When Samoa Joe first returned, a lot of people (myself included) wanted one of his opponents to be Michael Elgin, so getting to see this match actually happen was really good. While I don’t think it was quite as good as the Samoa Joe vs. ACH match that happened the night before in Milwaukee, this was still pretty freaking awesome!! It was just two bulls going at it, and it was super entertaining. It started a little slow, but once it got going, it was great. These two just went back & forth, beating the crap out of each other, and it was so much fun to watch. Eventually, Samoa Joe would come out with the win after choking out Elgin.
After the match, Samoa Joe cuts a fiery promo to close the show.
Overall: 7.75/10
While this show didn’t have the same consistent as the show in Milwaukee from the night before, I thought this still a pretty solid show. The best match on the show was easily Samoa Joe vs. Michael Elgin, but reDRagon vs. Roppongi Vice and ACH vs. Jimmy Jacobs were right up there in terms of match quality. There was also an entertaining Four-Corner Survival, but the rest of the card dragged the show down a little, in my view. Jay Briscoe vs. Silas Young was fine, but disappointing, and Lethal vs. Compton really didn’t do anything for me. The other two matches aren’t really much and are pretty skippable. As a whole, I’d say the show is worth checking out for the great matches I mentioned above.
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