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Ring of Honor returned to Miami last night for Bound by Honor, which was streamed live for Honorclub subscribers.
With Ian Riccaboni off awaiting the birth of his second child, NWA Champion Nick Aldis stepped in and did a pretty damn good job announcing alongside Caprice Coleman. Results & thoughts from the show, which I watched on demand:
*ROH Tag Team Champion Jay Briscoe pinned Rhett Titus. Titus was the substitute for Brody King, whose son was born a few days ago and was given the weekend off. Titus played the babyface in peril for most of this, getting worked over but getting in some early offense and a nice dive to the floor. He was cut off by Briscoe with a Neckbreaker, then hit with the Jay Driller for the pin. It was a nice spotlight for Briscoe and Titus did well in his role.
*The Shinobi Shadow Squad (Cheeseburger & Eli Isom & Ryan Nova) defeated Dalton Castle & The Boys. Everyone upheld the Cody of Honor early. Castle did some nice mat wrestling going back and forth with Nova. Isom shined here when he got the hot tag with some nice suplexes and a big springboard splash onto one of the Boys. There was an issue with Castle and The Boys and he berated one of them, allowing them to get knocked to the floor. Isom scored the pin on the other Boy with a brainbuster. It seemed like they were teasing a Castle split (and potential heel turn?) with the Boys. Match was solid and a nice way to show off Isom, who has some rising star potential.
*Zack Sabre Jr. defeated Colt Cabana via a triangle choke submission. Cabana has long studied Johnny Saint and was touring Europe well before that style became popularized again. ZSJ is perhaps the most dominant of the current generation of grapplers who epitomize that style. As you might expect, this was great with ZSJ playing the vicious, cocky villain and Cabana mixing his wrestling with his comedy, although this was more geared towards the wrestling side. Lots of great reversals and pinfall attempts early, but as they got more and more frustrated, they started mixing in striking and kicks. Sabre finally killed Cabana with a harsh kick and sunk in the choke. This was great!
*Kenny King won a Four Corner Survival bout against NWA National Champion Willie Mack, Silas Young and Marty Scurll when King attempted to use a chair, it was taken away by the referee and he used that distraction to low blow Scurll. Fast paced match and really solid. Mack and Scurll had some nice exchanges (MSG preview?) that were a lot of fun. Everyone looked good here and Young was great as the pissy veteran talking trash on everyone. Scurll had Young tapping to the crossface chicken wing, but the story was that the referee missed it because King brought the chair in, setting up the finish. Enjoyable!
*ROH TV Champion Jeff Cobb pinned Rocky Romero with Tour of the Islands. The early story was that Romero couldn’t move the unstoppable monster Cobb early on, so he cheated and attacked the eyes. Cobb made a comeback, whipping out suplexes and a running powerslam. They had a few near falls until Romero went for Sliced Bread #2 but was caught and drilled with a big backbreaker. Decent but nothing out of the ordinary.
*STARDOM’s Mayu Iwatani defeated Kelly Klein to become the third ROH Women of Honor Champion. This was GREAT as they really took it to each other with hard strikes and really tied up as if they were trying to take the other out. There was a nice intensity here vs. the previous matches on the show. Klein began working her over and Iwatani was great at selling like mad here in a believable way. Every time she kicked up, it was at the last second and you could feel the crowd rising for her, getting into her comeback. Klein was knocked to the floor with Iwatani hitting a great dive down off the top onto Klein. Iwatani finally scored the win after a moonsault and the crowd was legitimately shocked, which made the moment seem even bigger. Great stuff that was probably Klein’s best showing to date in ROH. REALLY great.
*Juice Robinson & Mark Haskins, Bandido & Tracy Williams (with Tenille Dashwood) defeated The Bouncers & Coast to Coast (LSG & Shaheem Ali) when Bandido pinned LSG. There were lots of spots that were fun, and this would make a hell of a highlight reel but at times, it felt like they kept losing momentum. Bandido caught Bruiser coming off the ropes with ease and slammed him, which was insane. Mark Haskins REALLY shined here as well. Bandido was whipping out all sorts of insane dives including a slingshot over the ropes into a rana on the floor for Bruiser, who really doesn’t get the credit he deserves working as a base for the smaller talents. Haskins ate an insane DVDR on the apron at one point. They did a takeoff of the Sandman beer bash after with everyone showing respect to the other.
*PCO pinned ROH Tag Team Champion Mark Briscoe with a moonsault. PCO is pretty much the closest thing we have today to a Terry Funk, working so hard in his 50s and a Sabu, taking insane bumps and punishment – and he’s channeling both AT THE SAME TIME! As I told him when I interviewed him last week for the Elite section, I love his work, but I am in great fear for his well-being. This match did nothing to change that! Lots of brawling all over the place. They chopped the hell out of each other. PCO hit an insane flip dive to the outside. Mark caught PCO under his eye with a punch and it was swelling and bleeding a little. PCO went for a senton on the apron but Briscoe moves and BOOM, no water in the pool. It was rough to watch. They battled to the stage, where PCO took an insanely scary looking powerbomb but felt no pain and came back. Chairshots didn’t hurt him and finally he scored the pin. BRUTAL and Physical stuff here. Really entertaining but I am sounding the alarm now – the PCO story is going to end with him in a lot of pain
*ROH Six Man Tag Team Champions the Kingdom defeated ROH Champion Jay Lethal, Rush & Jonathan Gresham. Lots of brawling early on. This was all frantic action and brawling as opposed to an old school tag team story. Taven pinned Lethal, bolstering his claim that he’s the true ROH Champion. It made sense from a booking standpoint and I really wonder if that’s the MSG direction for Lethal. Kenny King came out cutting a promo on Lethal about the title shot he deserves. He knocked Scurll, which led to Scurll attacking him. The locker room emptied, leading to a huge brawl. Bully Ray showed up and he went at it with PCO. The Briscoes attacked PCO, who made a comeback and the big spot to end the chaos was PCO hitting a moonsault onto everyone, who went down like bowling pins.
Overall, a fun house show with some really good wrestling. Cabana vs. Sabre and Briscoe vs. PCO were fun but on completely different realms for pro wrestling genres. It was a nice little buffet of different wrestling matches. Nick Aldis was a nice addition to the announcing team, especially when he was calling mat wrestling. You can watch it now at www.ROHWrestling.com if you sub to the Honor Club service.
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