ROH
Reloaded Tour ’15: Lockport
Lockport,
New York 9/26/15
1.)
Veda Scott vs. Sumie Sakai: **3/4
We
start the show off with a Women of Honor Match. This is actually available on
YouTube as well. From what I can remember, Cherry Bomb was scheduled to be in
this spot against Veda Scott, but wasn’t able to compete due to injury. I
wasn’t expecting much going into this, but I was pleasantly surprised with how
it turned out. A pretty solid match between these two. It’s definitely one of
the better Women of Honor matches I’ve seen. Veda Scott got the win here (which
wasn’t a surprise). If you intrigued to see this revitalized Women of Honor
division, then this match is definitely worth checking out.
2.)
The All-Night Express vs. The House of Truth (Donovan Dijak & J. Diesel
with Truth Martini): **3/4
Both
teams are coming off of losses from the night before (Kenny King & Rhett
Titus lost a Proving Ground Match to The Kingdom, while Dijak & Diesel were
on the losing end of a Six-Man Tag with fellow House of Truth member Jay
Lethal). A fine tag team match here. I wasn’t expecting it to be amazing, since
this House of Truth team isn’t the most exciting team in the world, but still,
this was a solid little tag team match. ANX get the win in this one. The only
real complaint I have is that Diesel should have eaten the pin instead of
Dijak.
3.)
Caprice Coleman vs. Pepper Parks: ***
Pepper
Parks is, of course, the husband of Cherry Bomb. Coleman cuts a pre-match promo
talking about the opportunity Parks has tonight, and how his own job with ROH
is on the line. He then makes fun of Parks, which leads to Park attacking him
right before the opening bell. I thought this was a solid match. I’m personally
not that into Caprice Coleman as a singles guy, but he handles his role well,
and always seems to perform well enough in these undercard matches on live
events. Parks looked good here as well. I would have been all for him and his
wife Cherry Bomb becoming semi-regulars in ROH (with Cherry Bomb doing stuff
with Women of Honor), but they’re both in TNA now, so there’s no chance of that
happening. Towards the end of the match, the referee got distracted by a loose
turnbuckle pad. Parks pulled a chain out of his trunks (it took him FOREVER to
get it out, as it probably slid down his tights), but when he finally got it
out, Coleman took the chain and used it himself to pick up the victory.
4.)
Roderick Strong vs. Takaaki Watanabe: ***1/2
Watanabe
had a KILLER singles match with Michael Elgin in Chicago Ridge earlier that
month, so I was excited to see that he was facing a guy who could bring a
similar caliber of match out of him in Roderick Strong. Now while this wasn’t
nearly as good as the Elgin/Watanabe match, this was still very good. It was
easily the best match on this show up to this point. There was some really
solid back & forth action between these two, and the crowd was very much
into it by the end. Roderick Strong would score the victory here, but after a
handshake with Strong, Watanabe got a standing ovation from the crowd. For
Watanabe, this would actually end up being his last match in ROH, as he
returned to New Japan a few weeks later, rechristened as EVIL, the newest
member of Tetsuya Naito’s Los Ingobernables de Japon.
It’s
Story Time With Adam Cole Bay Bay!! Cole actually keeps his promo relatively
short. He’s upset about getting superkicked multiple times by Matt Jackson the
night before, and calls him out. The Young Bucks music hits, but Matt Jackson
sneaks up from behind (after coming through the crowd) and hits Cole with a
superkick! Matt Taven then came out and attacked Matt Jackson, leading to our
next match….
5.)
ROH World Tag Team Champion Matt Taven (with Adam Cole) vs. Matt Jackson:
***1/4
To
be completely honest, I enjoyed this a little bit more than the match Matt
Jackson had with Adam Cole the night before. I’m not sure what it was, but I
just liked this one more. Some fun action between both guys here. Cole stayed
at ringside for the match and, as you would expect, got a few more superkicks
from Matt Jackson. In the end, the superkicks would be too much, as Matt
Jackson got the victory over Matt Taven, which theoretically, means that The
Young Bucks could be in line for a future title shot, since Taven is one-half
of the ROH World Tag Team Champions.
After
the match, Cole & Taven double team Matt Jackson, but Jackson ends up
getting the better of them with more superkicks.
6.)
“Brutal” Bob Evans & Tim Hughes vs. Will Ferrara & Cheeseburger: **
This
was supposed to be a singles match between “Brutal” Bob Evans & Will
Ferrara, but when Ferrara saw that Evans had is protégé Tim Hughes with him, he
called for the match to be changed to a tag team match, and brought out
Cheeseburger (who is feuding with Evans) as his tag team partner. If they’re
going to but Evans on cards, at least continue the feud with Cheeseburger.
Don’t put him in standalone singles match with prelim guys on the main show,
like they did the night before in California, PA. This was by no means
spectacular (probably the worst match on the show from a quality perspective),
but it was ok for what it was. Cheeseburger & Will Ferrara would get the
win.
Up
next we get an in-ring promo from The Addiction. They once again complain about
how there’s a conspiracy against them and that they never lost the ROH World
Tag Team Titles, since they weren’t pinned in the three-way match at All-Star
Extravaganza VII. Daniels then claims that Kazarian is injured, and is unable
to wrestle (even though Kazarian is clearly ok), while also saying that they’ve
beaten every team in ROH. This brings out War Machine. Ray Rowe says they’ve
never beaten them, and Hanson calls out Daniels for a singles match right now,
which leads to….
7.)
Christopher Daniels (with Frankie Kazarian) vs. Hanson (with Ray Rowe): **1/4
There
isn’t a lot to say about this one. The action was decent for the time they were
given, but then Daniels hits Hanson with a blatant low blow, which leads to an
immediate DQ. The two teams then brawl for several minutes, and a number of
chairs become involved. The Addiction seemed to have the upper hand, but War
Machine fought back, eventually hitting one of them with a double chokeslam
through a setup of chairs! Given that they brawled for several minutes after
the initial DQ, I’m not quite sure why this wasn’t just a regular tag team
match.
8.)
Proving Ground Match – ROH World Champion & ROH World TV Champion Jay
Lethal (with Truth Martini & Taeler Hendrix) vs. Stevie Richards): ***1/2
This
match came about after a confrontation between Jay Lethal & Stevie Richards
that took place at a live event in Atlanta, Georgia about a month prior. If
Stevie Richards is able to win, then he’ll receive a future shot at the ROH
World Title. This was a good match. I’d say it was around the same quality as
Strong/Watanabe, though I preferred Strong/Watanabe over this match. Richards
looks very good for a guy of his age (I guess that DDP Yoga really does
wonders), and I think he worked well with Lethal here. The only criticisms I
have is that the match was a little too long, and that it felt like the match
just ended out of nowhere, with some quick interference from The House of Truth
followed by the Lethal Injection.
Jay
Lethal shakes hands with Stevie Richards after the match.
9.)
Fatal Four-Way Match – Adam Cole vs. Moose (with Stokely Hathaway) vs. ACH vs.
“Unbreakable” Michael Elgin: ****
So
this was originally advertised as a Four-Corner Survival Match (where tags are
necessary), but I guess it was changed to a regular Fatal Four-Way Match at the
last minute. I thought this was a great Main Event, and it was easily the best
match on the show. Some might find it weird that this match was in this spot,
but when considering the show as a whole, this was the only realistic choice
for the Main Event. We saw some great action throughout, and all four guys got
a chance to shine here. The crowd was really into it, and it was just super fun
to watch from start to finish. Eventually, ACH would pick up the victory over
Moose to close the show. ACH winning in the Main Event of a ROH show. I never
thought I’d see the day!
Overall:
7.5/10
For
the most part, I thought this was a pretty solid live event from ROH. There
were portions of the show that dragged, which hurt the show, in my opinion (Bob
Evans/Tim Hughes vs. Cheeseburger/Will Ferrara, and the stuff between The
Addiction & War Machine). Those parts weren’t necessarily bad, but they did
hurt the overall flow of the show. The majority of the undercard was actually
relatively consistent, with Roderick Strong vs. Takaaki Watanabe & Jay
Lethal vs. Stevie Richards being the standouts. The Main Event, as I said
before, was easily the best match on the show, and is definitely worth checking
out. This was a show with a fine undercard, capped off by a great Fatal
Four-Way Match in the Main Event.
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