ROH Conquest Tour: Milwaukee
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 3/13/15
1.) Roderick Strong vs. Ariya Daivari: ***¼
Ariya Daivari, for those who don’t know, is the brother of Shawn Daivari (who is, of course, famous for his runs in WWE & TNA). Here, Ariya is the “Persian Playboy”, and he’s taking on Mr. ROH. I thought this was a pretty solid opener. Strong was his usual great self, and Ariya Daivari looked good here as well. Nothing outstanding, but again, this was exactly what you’d expect from an opening match. Strong would pick up the win here.
2.) Silas Young vs. Will Ferrara: **3/4
I believe this is Silas Young’s first match back in ROH since he was injured in the Fall of 2014. The fans in Milwaukee chant “we are average”, a reference to Young calling his hometown crowd “average” the last time ROH was in Milwaukee. Here, he’s taking on Will Ferrara. Aside for one or two rough patches, this was looking like a really solid match. Then the finish came, as Young kicked Will Ferrara below the belt in clear view of the referee. Young was disqualified, and Ferrara was awarded the victory. This was on it’s way to being on-par with the opener before the finish, which really doesn’t make sense. Why would you have Silas Young lose via DQ in his return match from injury? I don’t get it.
3.) Mark Briscoe vs. The Beer City Bruiser: **¼
The Beer City Bruiser made it to the Semi-Finals of the 2015 Top Prospect Tournament, where he lost to Will Ferrara. Here, he’s taking on Mark Briscoe. This was….ok. At this point, The Beer City Bruiser really hadn’t won me over that much. Mark Briscoe wins a pretty forgettable match.
Afterwords, Mark Briscoe & The Beer City Bruiser share a beer.
4.) The Decade (Jimmy Jacobs & BJ Whitmer) vs. Roppongi Vice (Rocky Romero & Trent Beretta): ***½
So this match is not only Trent Beretta’s debut in ROH (which by itself is really cool), but the debut for Roppongi Vice as a tag team in general. They’re making debut against The Decade’s Jimmy Jacobs & BJ Whitmer, who are arguably the most infamous duo in ROH history. I thought this was a really good match. Romero & Beretta looked very good here in their debut effort as a team, and they are immediately a breath of fresh air compared to The Forever Hooligans. There was some good back & forth action in this match, and the second half in particular was very good. In the end, Roppongi Vice would hit their tag team finisher, called The Strong Zero (basically Trent Beretta’s DudeBuster with a double-stomp assist from Rocky Romero) on Jimmy Jacobs for the win.
After the match, Jacobs wants to shake hands, and does so, with Roppongi Vice, but Whitmer vehemently protests.
Matt Taven comes out for a promo after intermission. The crowd starts chanting “SHOTS!”, which is referring a ROH show that happening in Milwaukee in 2014 where Taven promised the entire crowd shots if he won the ROH World Title from Adam Cole (which he didn’t). Taven brings this us, but says he’d buy the shots all for himself, and makes fun of people from Milwaukee. Cheeseburger then comes out, and we’ve got an extra match it seems...
5.) Matt Taven vs. Cheeseburger: **
There really wasn’t much to this match. The story was that Taven didn’t take Cheeseburger seriously, but Cheeseburger would come back and actually hit a few moves on Taven, before Taven eventually got the win. Again, this was entertaining for what it was, but there’s not much else to it.
6.) “Unbreakable” Michael Elgin vs. Josh Alexander: ****
So Matt Sydal was originally scheduled to face Michael Elgin, but he was forced off of this set of shows due to a minor injury. Josh Alexander was brought in to take Sydal’s place in this match. It’s an interesting matchup for sure, and Elgin & Alexander have a long history with each other. I thought this match was pretty great!! It was the best match on the show up to this point. These two know each other so well, and that made for an awesome match. The last few minutes especially were very hard-hitting. Michael Elgin would score the victory in this one, but Josh Alexander showed a lot in this match. While I hoped that we would see more of him in ROH, this would unfortunately be his final match with the promotion, as he was forced to retire from pro-wrestling a few months later.
7.) Samoa Joe vs. ACH: ****¼
I’m a little surprised this wasn’t the Main Event, but that’s just a minor complaint. This is Samoa Joe’s 2nd match back in ROH, and he’s taking on ACH. It’s pretty cool that ACH was picked to be one of his opponents. It was definitely a good choice, as this match was awesome!! I would go as far as to say that this may have been Samoa Joe’s best match during this stint with ROH. Great back & forth action throughout this match. I thought these two just meshed really well together, and it ended up producing the match of the night! Samoa Joe was great here, and ACH showed a lot here as well, once again having another awesome match against a major star. Despite ACH’s efforts, Samoa Joe would pick up the win with the Muscle Buster.
After the match, Samoa Joe & ACH shook hands and embraced.
8.) ROH World Champion Jay Briscoe & ROH World TV Champion Jay Lethal (with Truth Martini) vs. ROH World Tag Team Champions reDRagon: ***½
Our Main Event sees the ROH World Champion & ROH World TV Champion team up to take on the ROH World Tag Team Champions. The match was pretty good, but it wasn’t great. A lot of that had to do with the fact that Briscoe & Lethal weren’t able to get along right from the start. Towards the end of the match, the two finally came to blows, as Briscoe thwarted attempted interference by Truth Martini, only to get attacked by Jay Lethal! This leads to the end of the match, where Kyle O’Reilly is able to make Lethal tap out! Again, a good match, but not great. With that said, it did continue the Briscoe/Lethal feud, and Lethal tapping out to O’Reilly will come into play in due time.
After the match, Briscoe & Lethal have a shouting match with each other, before Lethal eventually backs down.
Overall: 8.0/10
I thought this was a pretty enjoyable show from ROH. Milwaukee is always a fun location for ROH, given how great the crowds usually are, and this was no exception. Samoa Joe vs. ACH was pretty awesome, and was easily the best match on the show. We also had a pretty incredible match with Michael Elgin vs. Josh Alexander. There was also the official debut of Roppongi Vice, some storyline advancement with the Main Event, and some solid matches on the undercard. Something else I liked about this show is that there really weren't any real segments or major promos. It was just a straight wrestling show, and those are always easy to enjoy. An entertaining show from start to finish.
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