ROH All-Star Extravaganza
VII
San Antonio, Texas 9/18/15
1.) ROH World TV Title -
Jay Lethal (with Truth Martini) vs. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champion
Bobby Fish: ***3/4
The big story on this show
is that ROH Undisputed Champion Jay Lethal is defending both of the ROH World
Title & ROH World TV Title against both members of reDRagon, Kyle O’Reilly
& Bobby Fish, in separate matches. In the PPV’s opening match, Lethal is
defending the ROH World TV Title against Fish. I thought this was a very good
match! Fish really took it to Lethal on a number of occasions, constantly going
after one of his legs. It got to the point where Kevin Kelly & Steve Corino
began speculating on commentary about if Lethal should tap out now to save
himself for his match with Kyle O’Reilly later on. That added another layer to
this match. As a whole, it was just a very good match between these two, with
some solid back & forth action. The match came to an end when Lethal
countered Fish’s kneebar into a rollup (while pulling Fish’s tights for the
victory) for the win. I actually really liked that finish. It came off in a
very spontaneous manner, and showed that Lethal was willing to do anything he
could to escape with the ROH World TV Title. He now has to prepare to face Kyle
O’Reilly in the Main Event later in the night for the ROH World Title.
2.) Battle For The Boys - Dalton
Castle vs. Silas Young: **3/4
So this match has one of
the most….unique....stipulations in the history of ROH. If Silas Young wins,
then he gets possession of Dalton Castle’s Boys, and had promised to turn them
into “real men”. However, if Dalton Castle wins, then Silas Young becomes one
of Castle’s Boys. This was a fine match, but it wasn’t quite as good as some of
their previous matches. However, they were really putting over the stipulation,
so that made up for it, in a sense. Towards the end of the match, Castle went
for a dive to the floor, but Young pulls The Boys into the path of Castle!
Young then takes off his knee brace, and tries to use it, but doesn’t get the
chance to use it. The knee brace would come into play again, however. One of The
Boys tried to grab the knee brace, with distracts the referee long enough for
Young to kick Castle below the belt. Young then hit Misery to pick up the
victory, meaning he has possession of The Boys!
After the match, Silas
Young grabs The Boys and drags them to the back. Dalton Castle, meanwhile, is
distraught by the loss.
Up next, The Briscoes come
out. They’ve issued an Open Challenge for this show. The Decade of BJ Whitmer
(on crutches) & Adam Page (with one of his arms in a sling) come out.
Whitmer says that they won’t be their opponents tonight, since they’re injured,
but Whitmer says he’s out here to do color commentary for this match. Of
course, this really upsets Steve Corino, who’s been feuding with Whitmer for
some time. The Romantic Touch then comes out, and is quickly beaten up by The
Briscoes. The lights then go out, and the opponents are revealed to be The
All-Night Express of Kenny King & Rhett Titus!! On their way to the ring,
Titus boots The Romantic Touch in the face (seemingly putting that character to
rest once and for all) and the match gets underway!
3.) The Briscoes vs. The
All-Night Express: ***1/4
There’s a lot to unpack
with this one. Back in 2011, these two teams engaged in a violent feud that
included bloody brawls, Street Fights, and eventually, Ladder War III. Then, in
2012, just weeks after The All-Night Express finally captured the ROH World Tag
Team Titles, Kenny King left the promotion to join TNA. He spend three years in
TNA, before leaving a month or two prior to this show. King is now back with
Rhett Titus, and they’re renewing their rivalry with The Briscoe. While this
was far from the best match these two teams have had together, this was still a
pretty solid tag team affair. We saw some decent back & forth action
between these teams. It was a fine match for its spot on the card. ANX were
looking to make an impression, and they certainly made a huge one, by beating
The Briscoes in their first match back!! That was definitely the right move to
make. It’s helps to establish ANX as a threat, and their return adds another
team to ROH’s stacked tag team division.
After the match, Adam Page
gets in the ring and hits a low blows on Jay Briscoe. He beats him up for a
bit, before ANX makes save. After the match, the two teams shake hands, which
is actually a big moment, when you consider their history.
4.) No DQ Match - Cedric
Alexander (with Veda Scott) vs. Moose (with Stokely Hathaway): ****1/4
A few months prior, Moose
had been undefeated, and had his eyes set on the ROH World Title. Then, he
suffered two defeats at the hands of Cedric Alexander (three if you count their
part of the Gauntlet Match at Field of
Honor 2015). All of those defeats came after Alexander used a wrench. Veda
Scott turned on Moose, and joined up with Alexander at Best In The World 2015, and their feud is now culminating in a No
DQ Match. I have to say that this match was A LOT better than what I was
expecting. I thought this was an awesome match, and it ended up being my Match
of the Night!! These two guys just turned it up and were able to put together a
really entertaining hardcore brawl. We saw a variety of weapons get involved,
including tables, ladders, and chairs, but we also witnessed some really cool
spots between the two. At one point, Alexander even busted out a steel
chair-assisted Coast-To-Coast dropkick!! Towards the end of the match, Veda
Scott got involved, attacking Stokely Hathaway, but Hathaway pulled her into
the path of a dropkick from Alexander! Hathaway then hit Alexander with the
infamous wrench, and Moose then speared Alexander through a table to score the
win!! An awesome No DQ Match, and my Match of the Night!! Alexander did a great
job here, and I’d say this was Moose’s best singles match in ROH by far, up to
this point.
5.) Best-of-Five Series: Match #3 - ACH vs. Matt Sydal: ***3/4
This is the third match in
the Best-of-Five Series between these two. Sydal won the first match in Dearborn,
but then ACH came right back by winning the second match the following night in
Chicago Ridge, meaning that things sat at a 1-1 tie. I thought this was a
really good match, but it didn’t quite touch their first two matches in this
series. That’s honestly not a surprise, as their matches had slightly
decreased, in terms of star ratings, just a tad for me. Still, I very much
enjoyed this mach. With these two guys, you can never really go wrong. There
was some very good back & forth action between these two. In the end, ACH
would score the victory in his home state of Texas to take a 2-1 lead in the
series!
6.) ROH World Tag Team
Titles - Triple Threat Match - The Addiction vs. The Young Bucks vs. The
Kingdom (Matt Taven & Michael Bennett with Maria Kanellis): ***1/2
These three teams actually
had a match together at War Of The Worlds 2015: Night 1 a few months prior.
This time, however, titles were actually on the line, as The Addiction are
defending the ROH World Tag Team Titles here. I thought the first 90% of this
match was really good. It was on its way to being right on par with, and might
have surpassed their previous encounter. The action was fast & furious, and
bodies were flying all over the place. However, things seemed to fall apart
towards the end of the match. Daniels punches Maria Kanellis in the face, and
in the ensuing melee, the referee gets taken out. Then a guy dressed as a KRD
Member (complete with a black hoodie and the red mask) comes out, and attacks
The Addiction! He hits one of them with Cradle Shock, which is Chris Sabin’s
finishing move. This immediately leads commentary to speculate whether Sabin
may have turned on Daniels & Kazarian. The Young Bucks then hit The Meltzer
Driver on, I think, Kazarian (I’m not sure), but before they were able to hit
the move, Matt Taven had tagged himself him. He quicked rolled up one of The
Young Bucks after The Meltzer Driver to score the win, bringing the ROH World
Tag Team Titles to The Kingdom. Again, most of the match was good, but the
finish? Eh….not so much.
7.) #1 Contender's Fatal
Four-Way Match - Roderick Strong vs. "Unbreakable" Michael Elgin vs.
Adam Cole vs. "The Phenomenal" AJ Styles: ****
So instead of getting a
traditional Four-Corner Survival, we’re getting an actual Fatal Four-Way match
here. The winner of this match will receive a future shot at the ROH World
Title. Considering the four guys involved in this match, you would expect it to
a great match, and that’s exactly what this was!! This was an awesome Fatal
Four-Way Match! This match had non-stop action from start to finish, and all
four guys had a chance to shine. This was a lot of fun to watch. Eventually, AJ
Styles would score the win after hitting the Styles Clash on Adam Cole. He’s
now the #1 Contender for the ROH World Title.
8.) ROH World Title - Jay
Lethal (with Truth Martini) vs. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champion Kyle
O'Reilly: ***3/4
Lethal comes out with a
slight limp, seemingly still feeling the effects from his earlier title defense
against Bobby Fish. Kyle O’Reilly has challenged for the ROH World Title before,
but this is his first high-profile title shot. For the most part, I really
enjoyed this match. I’d say it was right on par with Lethal’s match earlier in
the night against Bobby Fish. O’Reilly was on far for the first part of this
match. He’s such a great wrestler. Lethal was very good here as well, as he
always is (especially when it came to selling his injured leg). Much like the
ROH World Tag Team Title Match earlier in the night, the first 90% or so of
this match was really good. Then the shenanigans started….
First, Truth Martini tried
to interfere, but got thrown out. The referee gets taken out, which leads
Lethal to grab the ROH World Title in an attempt to use it on O’Reilly. Bobby
Fish comes out to stop him, and it looks like reDRagon was going to hit Chasing
The Dragon on Lethal, but Donovan Dijak runs out. He hits Fish with the ROH
World Title. Adam Cole then comes out, and tosses out Dijak. It looks like Cole
is about to assist O’Reilly, but he turns around and superkicks him! Cole goes
the outside and smirks as Lethal hits the Lethal Injection to retain the ROH
World Title. Again, the match, for the most part, was really good, but the
finish definitely hurt it. I don’t like seeing these kinds of finishes on ROH
PPV Main Events.
After the match, as Jay
Lethal exits, The Kingdom comes out. They beat up O’Reilly, eventually taken
out O’Reilly with a triple superkick in one of the corners. The Kingdom stands
tall as the PPV comes to a close.
Overall: 8.25/10
For the most part, I
thought the show was really good. There wasn't a bad match on the show, and
everything ranged from good to great. I honestly thought Cedric Alexander vs.
Moose was the best match on the show, followed closely (for me, at least), but
the #1 Contender’s Fatal Four-Way Match and the two Jay Lethal vs. reDRagon title
matches. The show, however, wasn't perfect. Two of the three title matches saw
screwy finishes. If they wanted to do Adam Cole turning on Kyle O'Reilly, there
were better ways to do it than how they did it. Despite the convoluted finish
with the Cole heel turn, Lethal/O'Reilly was still a really good Main Event. The
ROH World Tag Team Title Match had some good action, despite the finish in that
match. ANX's return was great, and their victory over The Briscoes was a
pleasant surprise. The in-ring quality was very good, but some of the
questionable booking knocked the show down a peg for me.
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