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Ring of Honor results from Birmingham, AL at Boutwell Auditorium for September 7.
Attendance: 350-400. The quality of the wrestling was top notch all night long.
The Great Kaiser. who wrestled in the Alabama area 30 years ago, sang the national anthem wearing his mask. Kaiser did a fine job.
(1) Tommaso Ciampa defeated Luke Hawx via pinfall at 8:55 with a ropes-mounted Air Raid Crash. Crowd wanted Ciampa to annhilate Hawx, who got more offense than I expected.
(2) Kevin Steen defeated QT Marshall (with Veda Scott) in 6:30 with a swanton bomb. They mostly played it for comedy.
(3) Michael Elgin defeated Raymond Rowe in 10:50 with a spinning powerbomb. Best match of the undercard. Pure power from both and plenty stiff. Elgin did himself no favors by switching from a singlet to tights. Postmatch standing ovation.
(4) Michael Bennett (with Maria) defeated Davey Richards in 17:40. Richards kept going for the octopus submission and had it locked in when Maria got involved.
Postmatch, Richards said there was talk of him going to that company up north for the big bucks, but maybe he should stay in ROH because being the best was more important. Richards said Bennett had started a war.
Truth Martini did a deal with JC, the guy from the local Sinclair affiliate. Martini ran Alabama into the ground. He said the reason there were so many unsolved murders in Alabama was because there were no dental records and everyone had the same DNA. Martini tried to hit JC with the Book of Truth. JC ducked and laid Martini out with a stunner that didn't look bad at all.
(5) Jay Lethal defeated Matt Taven (with Truth Martin and the Hoopla Girls) in a proving ground match at 111:57. Lots of moving parts in the finish involving Martini and the girls and they pulled it off flawlessly. Lethal got the win after a double Lethal Injection on Taven and Martini.
(6) In a proving ground instant reward match, Red Dragon (Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly) defeated C & C Wrestle Factory (Caprice Coleman & Cedric Alexander) and ACH & Tadarious Thomas and Alabama Attitude (Corey Hollis & Mike Posey) in 12:45. Wall-to-wall action with ACH being the human highlight reel. Hollis was way over as the hometown hero. Fish pinned ACH after a brainbuster/kick combo by Red Dragon. Postmatch, fans chanted "that was awesome".
(7) Adam Cole defeated Roderick Strong 2 out of 3 falls. They worked a hell of a pace, lighting each ofher up with strikes, hitting all kinds of stuff and selling none of it for more than two seconds. First fall was pinfalls only won by Cole with the Florida Key in 8:40. Strong took the submissions only second fall with the Stronghold in just 2:55. Third fall was a 15 minute Iron Man. Strong went up 1-0 with that release vertical suplex into a double knee backbreaker. Cole tied it up with the Florida Key. Cole kicked out of the sick kick and caught Strong with an inside cradle to go up 2-1. There were 2 minutes left in the time limit, and Cole literally ran out the clock. The crowd, which had been behind Strong but not really against Cole, was livid. Cole left with a ton of heat.
Elgin came out to thank the fans and reminded them that ROH would have a new world champion in two weeks and got a "next world champ" chant.
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