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Nigel McGuinness came out and announced Michael Bennett could not appear tonight due to food poisoning, and that Alex Koslov could not appear due to a separated shoulder. McGuinness said Tommaso Ciampa would replace Koslov and team with Rocky Romero tonight, and the replacement for Bennett to team with Adam Cole would be a surprise for later this evening. McGuinness was not seen again.
1. ReDragon(Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly) beat Rocky Romero & Tommaso Ciampa to retain the ROH World tag team titles
Fish came out with a screwdriver in his trunks, the actual tool, not the kind that Andre the Giant loved...In the end the teamwork of ReDragon proved superior as O'Reilly pinned Ciampa following the "Chasing the Dragon" finisher. Romero & Ciampa came to blows after the match, so this makeshift team is a one and done. Fine opener, though phoned in to a degree.
2. Jay Lethal w/Truth Martini beat The Romantic Touch to retain the ROH TV title
Spotty heat here, due to Touch not being too over as a babyface. Martini has his hair in cornrows now, just like Lethal's. The finish saw a towel come into play, the mask of Touch was ripped off, and Touch was pinned as he covered his face with said towel. Had its moments, but this was pretty "eh" overall.
3. The Decade(Jimmy Jacobs, BJ Whitmer & Adam Page) w/TaDarius Thomas beat Caprice Coleman, Cedric Alexander & ACH
Thomas was supposed to wrestle in this match, but Jimmy Jacobs kicked him out of it, and inserted himself in it beforehand. Really fun back and forth match. Page landed an amazing flip dive off the apron into a shoulder block on Coleman. I saw it with my own eyes, still couldn't believe it. Both Page and Coleman looked extremely sharp here. The Decade got the win when Jacobs pinned ACH following the "All seeing eye". Cedric Alexander appeared to possibly legit injure his leg/knee due to a dive to the outside late in the match where he kinda overshot those who were supposed to catch him.
4. Silas Young beat Kevin Steen in a no DQ match
This is Steen's farewell weekend in ROH, and he faced Silas Young on the way out here. Both Steen & Young went to the back a few times during this match to bring out various plunder. Steen could not locate a table, so he constructed a chair mountain of sorts, but ended up being slammed off the top thru it. Young then hit his Peegee Waja Plunge headstand moonsault finisher to beat Steen, which surprised me. Guess it shouldn't have, but it did. The crowd then gave Steen the big send off with the various chants, and Steen was still doing the "I'm going home to be with my wife and kids" routine. Uh huh.....
Intermission
5. RD Evans w/Veda Scott & Ramon beat Ethan Gabriel Owens, Moose & Matt Taven in a four corners survival match
Evans and company were now claiming to be 134-0. He's a great performer. I want to see more of Ethan Gabriel Owens going forward, he showed good personality and ability here. Moose is green as a gourd, but every time I see this guy live, the crowd is into him instantly, so he's got something. He didn't actively hurt this match either. Taven had Evans pinned, but Truth Martini ran down and yanked the ref out, so Taven chased Martini to the back. Evans then pinned Owens to win it, so "Thenewstreak" lives. Fun for what it was.
Maria Kanellis came out with the Matt Hardy "Iconic" title belt. Kanellis said since Mike Bennett had been "poisoned"(I wonder if it was her cooking??), Jay Lethal would step in and team with Adam Cole tonight. Mike Bennett sure does have bad luck when ROH comes to Cincinnati. Last time they came, he couldn't appear due to a dislocated knee, this time food poisoning.
6. The Briscoe Brothers vs War Machine(Hanson & Raymond Rowe) went to a no contest
My wife described War Machine as "Duck Dynasty on steroids". I then asked her if that's the case, how would you describe the Briscoe Brothers?? Hard fought and hard hitting. This one at times resembled a fight more than a pro wrestling match. Jay Lethal and Adam Cole ran in and attacked both teams, so this match was declared a no contest. Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian came out, immediately leading to....
7. Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian beat Adam Cole & Jay Lethal w/Truth Martini & Maria Kanellis
Daniels was in for over 90% of this match, and looked awesome. Adam Cole showed a ton of personality tonight, lots of funny comments from him. He was on fire basically. The Briscoe's came back out and chased Truth & Maria away. Shortly thereafter, Daniels pinned Lethal with the BME. War Machine then also came back out, and much posturing and menacing ensued, but no further action.
8. Michael Elgin beat Roderick Strong to retain the ROH World title by KO/ref stoppage
Adam Page came out with Strong, but Strong sent him away, he wanted to go this one alone. The heat was spotty here. It was clear Elgin wasn't as over as other main ROH acts, like the Briscoe's and the now departed Steen. But, the crowd was tired by this point too, so it was a combination of that, plus the crowd didn't think Strong had a chance to win the world title here, so all that led to crowd flatness. They went around 25 minutes. Strong was very aggressive this match, and Elgin showed surprising agility, along with his immense strength, several times. Strong unleashed his entire arsenal on Elgin, but couldn't put him away. Strong then kicked out of Elgin's buckle bowb into a spinning power bomb finisher. Elgin went for a Crippler crossface, but Strong would not tap. Elign finally took strong out with a series of knock out knees to the head on the mat, reapplied the Crippler crossface, and referee Todd Sinclair stopped the bout. This match to me mirrored this show, good to very good, but not great.
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