ROH Champions vs. All-Stars 2014 Review

Ring of Honor's newest annual tradition continues!

ROH Champions vs. All-Stars 2014

Kalamazoo, Michigan 10/11/14

Pre-Show

1.) Jay Diesel vs. Buddy Hanlon: 3/4*

There’s really not much to say about this match. Diesel squashed a local guy pretty quickly.

Main Show

The show kicks off with Nigel McGuinness, who announces that Mark Briscoe won’t be able to compete in the Champions vs. All-Stars Match due to poison ivy. Adam Cole comes out and claims that Mark Briscoe is faking it so he doesn’t have to face his brother Jay, and so that they both don’t get shown up by Adam Cole. Mark Briscoe comes out of nowhere and chases Cole off. With Nigel alone in the ring again, Tommaso Ciampa comes out, and says that he hasn’t gotten enough opportunities as of late. Nigel puts him in as Mark Briscoe’s replacement, but reminds Ciampa that he’s under a zero-tolerance policy, where if he attacks a referee or anyone at ringside, he’d be fired.

1.) BJ Whitmer vs. Will Ferrara: **1/4

Our first match features The Decade’s BJ Whitmer against Will Ferrara, who made a name for himself at a recent TV Taping in West Virginia, when he eliminated Jay Lethal in an Honor Rumble and earned himself a World TV Title shot, where he had a good showing in defeat. This match was fine. Decent action, but as you would expect, Whitmer scored the win.

Afterwords, BJ Whitmer surprisingly, offers Will Ferrara a handshake, but of course, Whitmer tricks Ferrara and attacks him instead.

2.) TaDarius Thomas vs. Owen Travers: **¾

This is a very interesting match. I have no idea who Owen Travers is. These two put on a surprisingly good match. I don’t know what it was, but these two seemed to click decently well, and it came out to be a better-than-expected match. Thomas picks up the win.

3.) "The Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels vs. Cedric Alexander: ****

Kind of weird to see this match going on 3rd, but it doesn’t matter, because you know it will be good. As it turned out, it was more than good. This match was great! Christopher Daniels is such a great wrestler. He can have a great match with anyone, and when he’s matched up with someone like Cedric Alexander, who’s a very good wrestler, you get a really great match. Lots of great action throughout this match, and it got pretty exciting towards the end, which saw Daniels pick up the win.

After the match, Daniels takes the mic and cuts a promo about coming back to Ring of Honor, and put over Cedric Alexander as the future.

4.) Frankie Kazarian vs. Jimmy Jacobs: ***½

The Addiction was split up into singles matches on this shows, and while Daniels faced Alexander, Kazarian is facing hometown hero Jimmy Jacobs. This was a pretty good match. Of course Jimmy Jacobs would put in a really solid effort in his hometown, and I feel like seeing Kazarian in singles matches is a rarity these days (He’s been teaming with Daniels for so long that I think of him as a tag team guy), so that was a treat. Solid action throughout this one. Jacobs would get the win in this one.

Afterwords, Jacobs cut a babyface promo thanking the fans (and I think he may have mentioned that his parents were in attendance also).

5.) Matt Taven vs. The Romantic Touch: **

Interestingly enough, these two guys have a history, as The Romantic Touch got entangled in the Jay Lethal/Matt Taven World TV Title feud a few months prior, which included Taven wrestling Lethal disguised as The Romantic Touch. Taven is now heel and part of The Kingdom. It’s obvious that this was a buffer between some of the bigger matches on this show, but it went way longer than it needed to. I think it went close to 10 minutes, which was way too long. Taven gets the win, and we can move on.

6.) Champions vs. All-Stars Elimination Match - ROH World Champion Jay Briscoe, ROH World Tag Team Champions reDRagon, & ROH World TV Champion Jay Lethal (with Truth Martini) vs. ACH, Roderick Strong, "Sicilian Psychopath" Tommaso Ciampa, & Adam Cole: ****1/4

This year’s edition of the Champions vs. All-Stars Match is very interesting. Unlike last year, where the All-Star Team was made up of all babyfaces, and the Champions Team was made up of all heels, this year’s teams are mixed, with Jay Briscoe on a team with three heels, and an All-Stars Team of two heels, a babyface, and (I guess) a tweener in Ciampa.

The match starts of with Jay Lethal arguing with Jay Briscoe, and this leads to ACH getting a quick rollup on Lethal, eliminating the World TV Champion within the first 30 seconds of the match! Lethal & Martini are irate. The 2nd Elimination came about when reDRagon pulled an old Eddie Guerrero trick, where O’Reilly brought one of the Tag Team Title belts in, threw it to Ciampa, and pretended to get hit by the belt, leading to Ciampa getting disqualified. Ciampa is irate. He doesn’t attack the referees or ringside personal, but he does attack everyone else in the match. The next two eliminations were quick ones as Strong eliminated O’Reilly, and Fish eliminated Strong. Fish was then eliminated by ACH, and it comes down to Jay Briscoe vs. Adam Cole & ACH. Cole would be eliminated after Mark Briscoe came out and helped his brother after Cole went to use a chair, while the referees were checking on ACH, who had gone through a table. Finally, Jay Briscoe eliminated ACH to win the match for his team.

This wasn’t quite as good as last year’s Champions vs. All-Stars Match, but it was still a really great match. It was a long match (I think it was around 50 minutes) had a lot of stuff going on. You had some storyline elements in here, with ACH getting a quick elimination on Lethal, Ciampa getting screwed again, Cole trying to screw it to the babyfaces, as well as not wanting to face Briscoe fairly, among others. There was, of course, a lot of great action throughout this one. When put together with some of the stories told, and it was a very solid Main Event.

After the match, Jay Lethal & Truth Martini came out and attacked ACH, but Jay Briscoe made the save and chased them off. He then brought ACH back to his feet and shook hands with him to close the show.

Overall: 7.75/10

There really weren’t a lot of matches on this show, given that the Main Event took up a lot of the talent used. For a “B-Show”, this was a relatively solid outing from ROH. The Champions vs. All-Stars Match has always delivered, and this one was no different, which featured some unique teams and solid action interwoven with a lot of stories. You also had a really great match in Christopher Daniels vs. Cedric Alexander. The rest of the undercard was relatively ok, with Jacobs vs. Kazarian being the standout. Again, not an amazing show, but a solid one.

ROH Michael Bennett's Bachelor Party: Hosted By Adam Cole Review

Who's ready for a Bachelor Party?!

ROH Unauthorized: Michael Bennett’s Bachelor Party: Hosted By Adam Cole

Merrionette Park, Illinois 10/9/14

So this show is essentially the “spiritual successor” to A Night of Hoopla from 2013 (including both emanating from the same venue). Long story short, Michael Bennett & Maria Kanellis were getting married (I believe) the next day, so Adam Cole decided to throw his stablemate in The Kingdom a Bachelor Party! Cole booked all of the matches (much like Truth Martini booked all of the matches for A Night of Hoopla), so it should be a fun time.

There are balloons in the ring as Adam Cole, the host of the evening’s festivities (with a beer in-hand), makes his way out to kick off the show. He insults the crowd before introducing Steve Corino (the bachelor party’s main commentator), and BJ Whitmer (the bachelor party’s bouncer). He then introduces the newest member of The Kingdom, Matt Taven (who returned as the newest member of The Kingdom at the TV Tapings in West Virginia a few weeks prior), as his co-host. Finally, he introduces the man of the hour, Michael Bennett, who comes out with the Title of Love. Cole & Taven present some gifts to Bennett, which include a crown and light up gloves. Bennett makes a Jerry “The King” Lawler joke, saying that they both wear crowns and both use the piledriver, but unlike Lawler, he didn’t like 15 Year Old girls. They drink some more before we get the first official match.

1.) ROH World Tag Team Champions reDRagon vs. The House of Truth (ROH World TV Champion Jay Lethal & Truth Martini): ***¼

J. Diesel joined Steve Corino on commentary (and wasn’t that good at it), while Adam Cole announces reDRagon as “not as good as Future Shock”. This is a very interesting match. If you recall, back at A Night of Hoopla, reDRagon faced the oddball team of Roderick Strong & Cheeseburger. This time, they’re facing Jay Lethal and….yes….you read that right….Truth Martini!! For those who aren’t aware, Truth Martini used to be a wrestler many years ago, but some significant injuries forced him to retire. This was actually a pretty fun match. Of course you would expect great wrestling from Kyle O’Reilly, Bobby Fish & Jay Lethal, but Truth Martini looked really good as well! They really did a nice job working around his previous injuries. I think Martini even hit some variation of the Canadian Destroyer at one point!! In the end, however, Martini would get caught by a cross armbreaker from O’Reilly, and immediately tapped out, giving the win to reDRagon.

Before the next match, Adam Cole brings out Cheeseburger, and says that, for tonight, he’s an honorary member of The Kingdom.

2.) Six-Women Tag Team Match - Veda Scott, Heather Patera & Leah Von Dutch vs. Taeler Hendrix, Scarlett Bordeaux & “Crazy” Mary Dobson: **3/4

Up next we have a women’s match and, of course, The Romantic Touch comes out to join Steve Corino on commentary. I’ve seen all of these ladies before expect “Crazy” Mary Dobson. This was a solid women’s match, but of course, since it was a women’s match at a bachelor party, we get some shenanigans. I think at one point, Matt Taven just got in the ring and started throwing One Dollar Bills at the women. Despite all the wackiness, the match was fine for what it was. Veda Scott would eventually pick up the win for her team.

After the match, The Kingdom make Cheeseburger drink several shots of liquor, and Cheeseburger, being as small as he is, has a hard time with it.

3.) Loser Can’t Drink - Roderick Strong vs. Mark Briscoe: ***1/4

Bobby Fish joins Steve Corino on commentary for this match. These two have wrestled before, but never before have the steaks been so high! The loser of this match can’t have a single drop of alcohol for the rest of the night. Strong comes out wearing a polo shirt and a tight pair of khaki shorts over his wrestling gear, so he’s dressed to impress! These two never have bad matches against each other, and this one was no different. Lots of solid action between these two. It’s just so hilarious to see Roderick Strong wrestling in that attire! The match ends suddenly when Strong gets the win via small package. Strong celebrates while Mark Briscoe is very upset by the loss, as he can’t have alcohol for the rest of the bachelor party.

Up next, Cole has BJ Whitmer go around and check people’s ID’s. Then, Cole has another surprise for Michael Bennett, as he brings out Bennett’s 2nd favorite wrestler, Mad Man Pondo, who brought out a stop sign with him. He quickly becomes friends with Cheeseburger, and this does not sit well with The Kingdom. Cole then puts the intoxicated Cheeseburger in a match with Tommaso Ciampa. Oh boy...

4.) “Sicilian Psychopath” Tommaso Ciampa vs. Cheeseburger: N/A

Cheeseburger did get a tiny bit of offense in, after getting some liquid courage, but Ciampa destroys him. Pondo tries to make the save with his stop sign, but it backfires and he hits Cheeseburger instead. Ciampa brawls with Pondo and gives him a DDT on the stop sign. The match never really ends (officially), as Ciampa celebrates until Delirious comes out! Cole likes what he sees, and makes a match between the two!

5.) “Sicilian Psychopath” Tommaso Ciampa vs. Delirious: **1/2

For those who remember, this is a match that was actually supposed to take place on an ROH event over three years ago (back when Ciampa was still part of The Embassy). This was a fun little match, filled with shenanigans, including Ciampa wearing a Delirious Mask of his own! Some decent action here, but in the end, Ciampa would get the win.

Before the next match, Adam Cole brings out Jimmy Jacobs, asking him who the biggest buzzkills in the locker room her, and he responded with ACH (who is always playing video games), and Cedric Alexander (because he has a family). He then hyped them up a bit about how good they are in the ring and told them to blow the roof off.

6.) Cedric Alexander vs. ACH: ***1/2

Jacobs joins Corino on commentary, while ACH comes out playing his Nintendo 3DS (I think it was a 3DS), which was pretty hilarious! These two had a really good match. It was better than their Field of Honor Match, which was affected by a botched move that nearly killed ACH. Definitely the best match on this show. After some really solid action, Alexander would eventually get the win over ACH.

Up next, Adam Cole is invites Michael Bennett to the ring for some lap dances. He gets some lap dances from a few girls...and J. Diesel. All of things brings Maria Kanellis out. She berated them for a bit, before stripping down herself and giving a lap dance to one of the girls that was out earlier! Bennett was obviously jealous of this, and has BJ Whitmer break things up. Maria said that Bennett would “have to wait until the honeymoon to get orgasmic”.

7.) ROH World Champion Jay Briscoe vs. Rhino: N/A

Now it’s time for the Main Event, or at least what we thought was the Main Event. Rhino was Cole’s paid mercenary for the night. This is actually an interesting matchup coming in as Rhino was the one who initially injured Jay Briscoe’s shoulder back in early-2013, an injury that would later lead to Jay Briscoe vacating the World Title later that year. Jay Lethal is out on commentary for this one.

The match itself doesn’t go very long before Adam Cole tries to get Rhino to use a chair. Rhino doesn’t want to, and this leads to a scuffle between Rhino & The Kingdom. It’s a 3-on-2 beatdown of Jay Briscoe & Rhino until Mark Briscoe comes down for the save! Jay lays down the challenge, and our new Main Event is a Six-Man Tag.

8.) Six-Man Tag - The Briscoes & Rhino vs. The Kingdom (Adam Cole, Matt Taven & Michael Bennett): **½

The story with this one is that The Kingdom drank so much alcohol over the course of the show that they weren’t in the best shape to compete. There were points where Adam Cole looked like he was going to puke, while Matt Taven really had to use the bathroom. In all the madness, Jay Briscoe was eventually able to hit the Jay Driller to Bennett on the Title of Love to win the match for his team.

Afterwords, Maria was able to sneak back in the ring and take back the Title of Love. Jay Briscoe cuts a promo to close the show, while Mark Briscoe sets off some confetti cannon.

Overall: 7.75/10 (Entertainment Value)

Once again, Ring of Honor delivers another entertaining “Unauthorized” event. While this wasn’t nearly as good as A Night of Hoopla, it was still an enjoyable show to watch, simply because it was different from what you normally get with ROH. Of course, there was a ton of shenanigans with The Kingdom, but we also got some solid matches out of it. reDRagon vs. The House of Truth, Strong vs. Mark Briscoe, and Cedric Alexander vs. ACH were all pretty good matches. The other matches were fun, and if you take that into account with the shenanigans, then it was a pretty fun show on the whole.

ROH All-Star Extravaganza VI Review

Ring of Honor returns to Toronto and puts on one of their best shows of 2014!!

ROH All-Star Extravaganza VI

Toronto, Ontario, Canada 9/6/14

Pre-Show

1.) Cheeseburger vs. The Romantic Touch: *1/2

On the pre-show, we have match between Ring of Honor's resident jobbers (no offense to either guy, of course, but that's what they are). They were having an ok little match, but then Maria Kanellis comes out, with a ton of makeup and a red trench coat. She walks around ringside, distracting The Romantic Touch, which allows Cheeseburger to get the win.

Maria coming out was merely a setup for Michael Bennett to attack both Cheeseburger & The Romantic Touch. They cut a promo and say they're going to rebuild The Kingdom. Maria asks if the fans want to here a big announcement from her, but it's a swerve, and they said they're saying it now. If the fans want to here their announcement, and want to see what's under the trench coat, they've have to order the iPPV.

iPPV/Main Show

The show, oddly enough, kicks off with a promo from The House of Truth (ROH World TV Champion Jay Lethal, Truth Martini & Seleziya Sparx). They announce that ACH won't be at the show tonight (apparently he missed a flight), which is really unfortunate. During this, Truth Martini says that ACH stood for "A Crack Head", and they go on about how they have no opponent for tonight. This comment brings out Cedric Alexander, who notes that he doesn't have an opponent either, and reminded everyone that he beat Jay Lethal during an ROH World Title #1 Contender's Gauntlet back at a TV Taping in Dearborn in July. Essentially what happened was that some of the undercard had gotten shuffled around a lot. I think we were originally supposed to get Cedric Alexander vs. Silas Young, but Young got taken off after it was revealed that he had a knee injury that would keep out of action for a number of months. Then, I believe they announced Alexander vs. Michael Bennett, but I guess that got changed when ACH missed the show. Anyway, Alexander makes fun of Lethal's balls, which leads to Lethal accepting. A brawl between Lethal & Alexander breaks out, and in the melee, Alexander ducks a superkick from Lethal, who accidentally hits Seleziya Sparx! She's out cold. That was an odd way to start the show, but at least we still have an ROH World Title Match.

1.) Mark Briscoe vs. Hanson: ***1/4

The true opening of the iPPV sees Hanson continue his foray into singles competition as he takes on Mark Briscoe. This was a really fun opening match! The action started off right from the opening bell and it didn't let up until the finish. Both guys got a good deal of offense in and the crowd was into it. We saw a number of cool spots, but in the end, Mark Briscoe would score the win, but Hanson looked good in the loss.

After this first match, Tommaso Ciampa (who was suspended after what he did to Kevin Kelly & Bobby Cruise a few weeks earlier at Death Before Dishonor XII: Night 2 in Chicago). He tried to apologize to Cruise, but was confronted by Match Maker Nigel McGuinness. Ciampa aired his grievances, and Nigel was eventually able to talk him down and got him to leave the ring.

2.) Tag Team Four Corner Survival - The Monster Mafia vs. The Decade (BJ Whitmer & Adam Page) vs. Caprice Coleman & Takaaki Watanabe vs. RD Evans & Moose (with Veda Scott & Ramon): ***1/4

This is a match that essentially involves all of the lower card tag teams in ROH. Sometimes these types of match can be giant clusters, but this one worked really well. Honestly, this was another really fun match! Every team got the chance to shine, and it was just filled with exciting craziness. We of course get the parade of dives, which included Caprice Coleman hitting a moonsault onto everyone, RD Evans balancing on Moose's shoulder and hitting a dive, and even Moose himself flying over the ropes onto everyone!! We also got the usual cool looking offense of The Monster Mafia. Through all the chaos, RD Evans & Moose are able to get away with the win! The New Streak Continues! This was just a fun, exciting spring of a match. Really enjoyed it!

3.) The Decade (Jimmy Jacobs & Roderick Strong) vs. The Addiction (Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian): ***1/2

Here we have a match that's been building for a bit, as The Decade continues their crusade against guys coming back (or debuting) in ROH and getting opportunities right off the bat. In this instance, Daniels & Kazarian are taking on the combination of Jimmy Jacobs & Roderick Strong. I thought this was a really good match. I probably enjoyed this a little bit than most, but I thought it was pretty solid. You really can't go wrong with these four, who are all great wrestlers. Lots of solid action between both teams. In the end, The Addiction would get the win with a new finisher that's....an interesting one.

After the match, Roderick Strong shakes the hand of Christopher Daniels! This pisses off BJ Whitmer & Adam Page (who were at ringside, if I recall correctly), which leads to a shoving match between Strong, Whitmer & Page. Jimmy Jacobs gets in between them and cooler heads prevailed, as Strong & Whitmer shake hands.

4.) Adam Cole vs. IWGP Heavyweight Champion "The Phenomenal" AJ Styles: ****1/2

Before the match, we get a really awesome Adam Cole promo package, building up the match. This match was actually set up back at War of the Worlds when Cole attacked AJ Styles following the Main Event. They were then both in a Four-Way for the ROH World Title at Field of Honor a few weeks prior. I thought this was a fantastic match!! AJ Styles continues to prove why he is one of the best wrestlers in the world, and he had an awesome match with Adam Cole here! There were a few rough spots early on, but I didn't think it hurt the match. Sometimes when you have a big match, things get rough a little (like in CM Punk vs. John Cena). Great action throughout this one, but in the end AJ Styles puts away Adam Cole with a freaking Bloody Sunday from the top rope!! Holy Crap that was an incredible finish!

Afterwords, Styles offers Cole a handshake (in following the Code of Honor), but Cole just spits in his hand and leaves.

Coming back from intermission, and we have Michael Bennett & Maria Kanellis coming out. Earlier on the pre-show, they had mentioned earlier how they have a big announcement to make. Maria Kanellis says that The Kingdom will get stronger, nothing that "Matt" will be coming back soon. They then reveal what's under Maria's trench coat: The ICONIC Title (formerly Jay Briscoe's custom World Title), decked out in pink fur & fuzz, with a picture of Maria & Michael Bennett on it. They call it "The Title of Love". Bennett says that nobody in Toronto is invited to his wedding, and it looks like they were going to consummating the title right there & then, but Mark Briscoe comes out and chases them off.

5.) ROH World TV Title - Jay Lethal (with Truth Martini) vs. Cedric Alexander: ***1/2

Up next we have the World TV Title Match. Seleziya Sparx is not out with Lethal & Martini, presumably still feeling the effects of that kick she took earlier. This was a pretty good match, especially given the circumstances. You can always count on Cedric Alexander delivering a solid performance, and Lethal continues to get better & better with his new heel persona. Seleziya Sparx even came back out, and this time, ate a kick from Cedric Alexander! It seemed like the story they were trying to tell in the match (and on commentary) was that Cedric would take the advantage at several point, but wouldn't capitalize. This would come back to haunt him, as Jay Lethal would get the win and retains his World TV Title. Again, given that it was a last minute replacement, it was a very solid match.

6.) ROH World Title - "Unbreakable" Michael Elgin vs. Jay Briscoe: ****

Something is going to give in this match, as Elgin has made it clear that he wants to break all the records with the ROH World Title, while Jay Briscoe has still not been pinned in almost two years. As you would expect, this was a brawl right from the start. They fought each other in the ring, and on the floor. We even got a spot where Jay Briscoe hit Michael Elgin with a Jay Driller through a table! Simply brutal! Lots of back & forth between these two. Eventually, Jay is able to hit the Jay Driller on Elgin, and to the shock of everyone, scores the pin and captures the ROH World Title!!! That was a really good match with a shocking outcome. Nobody thought that Elgin was losing the title this soon (although we would all find out the reasons for that later). They told a good story and it was a lot of fun to watch. Jay Briscoe is now only the 2nd person to have held the ROH World Title on more than two occasions.

After the match, Elgin begrudgingly shakes Briscoe's hand as the latter celebrates.

7.) ROH World Tag Team Titles - reDRagon vs. The Young Bucks: ****1/2

These two teams are coming off of two incredible matches earlier in the year at Raising The Bar: Night 2 in Chicago where The Young Bucks won the World Tag Team Titles, and at War of the Worlds, where reDRagon won the titles back in a bonafide Match of the Year. They're split 1-1, so now we're getting a 2/3 Falls Match to break the tie. As you would expect, this was an awesome match, and after the previous two performances, would you expect anything less? The 1st Fall went to reDRagon after some assistance from a hockey stick. The Young Bucks won the 2nd Fall after a Package Piledriver and a number of superkicks. Finally, reDRagon was able to win the 3rd Fall (which saw The Young Bucks use The Meltzer Driver for the 1st time in ROH), to retain the World Tag Team Titles! This was just an incredible match that is a fitting end to their series (for the moment). While it wasn't as good as their match in War of the Worlds, it was right on par with their first encounter. These two teams continue to prove why they're two of the best teams in the world.

Afterwords, as The Young Bucks were recovering, Tommaso Ciampa comes out of nowhere and attacks The Young Bucks. The show goes off the air with Ciampa tearing apart the ring, as Nigel McGuinness calls for security.

I think (at the end of the iPPV) we also got a promo hyping up Matt Sydal's return to ROH!

Overall: 9.5/10

Honestly, I loved this show! I think that outside War of the Worlds (which I attended live), this was the best ROH show of 2014. Every single match was at the very least good (I don't think I had a match below ***1/4), and we saw two legitimate Match of the Year Contenders in Cole vs. Styles & reDRagon vs. The Young Bucks. We also saw a shocking World Title change as Jay Briscoe reclaimed his spot at the top of the ROH. What also helped (for me, at least), is that the undercard was made up of matches that were really fun & enjoyable to watch. ROH had certainly been having a great 2014 up to this point, and this show will certainly be a high point. Go out of you way to see this show! It is awesome!!

ROH Death Before Dishonor XII: Night 2 Review

Four of Ring of Honor's best tag teams go at it in the Main Event!

ROH Death Before Dishonor XII: Night 2

Chicago Ridge, Illinois 8/23/14

Pre-Show

1.) Six-Man Tag - Cheeseburger, Will Ferrara & Louis Lyndon vs. "Psycho" Mike Rollins, Matt Sells & Stokely Hathaway: **1/4

Before the show, we can an interesting Six-Man Tag, featured some of Ring of Honor's lower card talents as well as some standouts on the independent scene like Louis Lyndon (a regular in AAW & AIW) and Mike Rollins (a guy that's been bouncing around various indies for a few years). This was actually a pretty decent match for the pre-show. Everyone got to shine, and it was entertaining for what it was. The team of Cheeseburger, Will Ferrara, and Louis Lyndon would eventually get the win.

Main Show

1.) The Monster Mafia (Ethan Gabriel Owens & Josh Alexander) vs. The Decade (Roderick Strong & Jimmy Jacobs with Adam Page & TaDarius Thomas): ***1/4

The show officially kicks off with tag team action! It's great to see The Monster Mafia book, as they're awesome talents, both as a team and individually. Here they're taking on The Decade. This was a pretty solid opener. I really enjoy watching The Monster Mafia, and I'm very intrigued by this particular pairing of The Decade with Roderick Strong & Jimmy Jacobs. Good back & forth action throughout this one, but in the end, The Decade would score the win.

2.) ROH World TV Title - Jay Lethal (with Truth Martini) vs. Caprice Coleman: ***

I'm not exactly sure what Caprice Coleman did recently to earn a title shot against Lethal, but these two had a really good match in Nashville back in January, so that sort of balances things out, in my eyes. While not quite as good as their previous match, it was still relatively solid. There was some attempted interference towards the end of the match by Truth Martini, who slid in The Book of Truth for Lethal to use, but was intercepted by Coleman. This distraction allowed Lethal to pick up the win and retain his World TV Title. Again, aside from the finish, this was a fine match.

3.) Four-Corner Survival - Silas Young vs. BJ Whitmer vs. ACH vs. Michael Bennett (with Maria Kanellis): **3/4

This is sort of a weird match because we have three heels and one babyface. It wasn't a bad match by any means, but the odd heel/face dynamic definitely hurt the match. The match was essentially all of the heels beating up on ACH under the latter made his comeback, and eventually, ACH is able to sneak out a win with a Bridging German Suplex on BJ Whitmer, following botched interference from TaDarius Thomas. This is ACH's second win of the weekend, which builds nicely to his future match with Jay Lethal for the World TV Title.

After the match, BJ Whitmer takes the mic and berates TaDarius Thomas for screwing up again. He then announces that Thomas will not be his tag team partner at All-Star Extravaganza VI, but instead, Adam Page will be his partner. Thomas acted pretty upset (angry) towards this decision.

4.) Hanson vs. Adam Cole: ***1/4

In another big test for Hanson, he's taking on a former ROH World Champion in Adam Cole. I actually thought this was pretty good. Cole looked great as he always does, and Hanson was able to hold this own in this one. A good match, but not a great one. Cole is able to steal the victory with a small package on Hanson.

After the match, Hanson offered Cole a handshake (following through with the Code of Honor), but Cole flipped him off, and attempted to superkick him. Hanson caught him, but this leads to Michael Bennett coming out, and he & Cole beat up on Hanson. This leads to "Story Time with Adam Cole Bay Bay!" where Cole says that nobody cares about War Machine, and how he, because he was locked out of the World Title picture, was being forced to face "nobodies" like Hanson. Eventually, Michael Elgin runs out and chases off The Kingdom. He goes to speak, but Tommaso Ciampa comes out, and he wants his ROH World Title Match to be right now, and it looks like that's what we're getting!

5.) ROH World Title - "Unbreakable" Michael Elgin vs. "Sicilian Psychopath" Tommaso Ciampa: ***1/2

This is a very interesting match, since these two would go on to face each other again a week later in PWG's Battle of Los Angeles (which I will of course be talking about in upcoming PWG reviews). It was essentially a strong style type of match (that's the best way I can describe it), where both guys would hit each other with a bunch of hard hitting moves, and not really sell it. Some people like this kind of style (the crowd in Chicago seemed to like it), but I've seen others who didn't feel the same way. I thought the match was pretty good, but I wouldn't call it great. I think when you see me talk about their match the following week in PWG, you'll see that different atmospheres work better for certain types of matches (but I'll save that for later). Anyway, Elgin would score the win to retain his ROH World Title in a match that was very solid, but not the best on the show.

Afterwords, Ciampa completely looses it. He took out some of the ring crew, and then went after Kevin Kelly, but thankfully Steve Corino & security pulled him away before he could do any major damage. Unfortunately, this left Ciampa alone in the ring with ring announcer Bobby Cruise. Ciampa attacks Cruise, and gives him several of his signature running knees! That just looked brutal.

6.) Adam Page vs. Adam Pearce: **3/4

Up next we have the second match of the weekend featuring Adam Pearce. Last night he taught TaDarius Thomas a lesson, but tonight he's taking on another Adam.....Adam Page! This was a pretty solid match, where they essentially told the same story as the night before, where Pearce would bully Page. However, this time there was a different outcome, as Page won with a quick jackknife pin! All the members of The Decade were shocked, and reacted in a number of different ways (Whitmer was really happy, Jacobs was shocked but impressed, while Strong was upset). Pearce offered Page a handshake, but beat him up instead, saying that he hadn't earned a handshake, despite his victory.

7.) IWGP Heavyweight Champion "The Phenomenal" AJ Styles vs. Cedric Alexander: ****

These two had a really great match in early 2014 for PWX (and is included in the DVD put out by Highspots & PWX highlighting the best of Cedric Alexander, which I've already reviewed on my blog: http://dxvsnwo1994.blogspot.com/2014/04/pwx-cedric-alexander-dream-matches.html). They were both equally as great, but if I had to pick, I'd give the edge to this match, since it didn't have any interference. Lots of really solid action in this one, as you would expect. AJ Styles continues to be awesome, and Cedric Alexander always seems to deliver in these big time situations, whether it be in a singles match or a tag team match. There was a really scary botch that occurred which I think hurt it a little (it's something that has to be seen. I'm really surprised that Styles wasn't seriously hurt), but they were able to gather it back up and still put on a great match. Styles would pick up the submission win with the Calf Killer.

8.) 8 Man Team Elimination Match - The Addiction & The Briscoes vs. ROH World Tag Team Champions reDRagon & The Young Bucks: ****1/4

So this is an Elimination Match....but with a twist! When a member of one team gets pinned, then there whole team is eliminated from the match. This means that, at some point, we'll go from a 4-on-4 Match to a 4-on-2 Match. A little strange, but I'm willing to look past it, especially considering who was involved. As you would expect, this match was pretty freaking awesome. Lots of great tag team action throughout this one, featuring four of the best tag teams in wrestling today. Although it was a little odd seeing reDRagon & The Young Bucks on the same side, it provided for a really interesting dynamic. Surprisingly, the current ROH World Tag Team Champions reDRagon were eliminated first by The Addiction, after they got into an argument with The Young Bucks. The advantage didn't last long, as The Young Bucks eliminated The Addiction shortly thereafter. This brought us to what was essentially a rematch from the night before between The Briscoes & The Young Bucks. After a great exchange, the Superkick Party prevailed, and The Young Bucks got the win to close the show!

Overall: 8.25/10

I thought this was another really solid show from Ring of Honor, while it wasn't quite as good as the show in Milwaukee from the night before, it still had some really good wrestling on it. The undercard was relatively solid, but really didn't stand out that match, with the biggest highlight being Elgin vs. Ciampa for the ROH World Title. It's definitely a match that you're either going to like or dislike. Even though the undercard was, for the most part, average, you have two great Main Events that really delivered, making this another very enjoyable show from ROH.