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Definitely more in attendance than last night for the iPPV. I suspect more casual fans looking for something to do on a Saturday night. Lively crowd that started to quiet down after Strong vs. Nakamura, but they picked up again for the last match.
Episode 1:
Match 1: KUSHIDA beat Will Ferrara in a fast-paced match. Ferrara got his fair share of offense. The Toronto crowd loves KUSHIDA. KUSHIDA gets the win after a Keylock.
After the match, The Addiction come to ringside to challenge reDRagon next week
Match 2: Silas Young pins Watanabe after a TKO. Good back and forth match. Crowd love for Watanabe seems outsized to his accomplishments, but they loved everyone from New Japan. Lots of heat for Silas.
The Decade come to the ring followed by BJ Whitmer's scheduled opponent, Moose (with Veda Scott and Stokely Hathaway). BJ insists that the Decade's new young boy, Colby Corino, "step up" and take his spot against Moose.
Match 3: Moose squashed Colby Corino in a short match. Colby took a BEATING tonight, including being thrown into the ringside barriers, and being swung back and forth into them, giant swing-style . Veda Scott gave him a great slap on the outside too. BJ spends most of the match gleefully watching Steve Corino's reaction from the commentary table. Moose wins after a spear; Veda is happy, Stokely looks remorseful before leaving. Adam Page and BJ help Colby leave the ring, before sending him back to retrieve the water bucket. BJ had the most heel heat of the evening by far.
Match 4: The Briscoes beat Donovan Dijak and J. Diesel of The House of Truth in a good tag match. No interference by Truth Martini who made it into Canada after being absent last night, or from Jay Lethal on commentary. The Briscoes got a far more positive reaction against ROH opponents than they had against the Bullet Club last night. Briscoes win after hitting the Doomsday Device on J. Diesel. After the match, Dijak pulls Mark from the ring and hits his finisher, a torture rack flipped over into a Go 2 Sleep, before being taken out with a dive from Jay Briscoe. Back in the ring, Jay Lethal tries to jump Briscoe from behind before being laid out with the Jay Driller.
Episode 2:
The Addiction come to the ring to inform the crowd that Bobby Fish is being held off the show due to injury, however their rematch challenge was to reDRagon, not to "Kyle O'Reilly and a suitable replacement". They say that if reDRagon doesn't come for their rematch now, there will be no rematch. Kyle O'Reilly comes to the ring to challenge The Addiction two on one.
Match 1: Kyle O'Reilly beats The Addiction by DQ. O'reilly holds his own in the handicap match for as long he can, eventually trapping Kazarian in an armbar. Christopher Daniels with a blatant belt shot to the head in front of the ref causes the DQ, followed by Daniels laying out the ref. ACH and Matt Sydal make the save and run-off Daniels and Kazarian.
Match 2: Jushin Thunder Liger defeats Dalton Castle in a better match than one might have guessed. What could have been just a comedy match was much more, and worth going out your way to check out. Sign that it's 2015: crowds everywhere love Dalton Castle unironically, and Toronto is no exception. During the match, Liger invites Castle's attendants into the ring to pose with him. Liger wins with a brainbuster.
Match 3: "Brutal" Bob Evans vs Cheeseburger ends in a no contest after Bob sidewalk slams Cheeseburger from the apron through the timekeeper's table. The crowd had died down early into this short match, as enthusiasm for Cheeseburger seems to wane once his entrance ends and a match that's meant to be believable starts. The table spot surprised everyone, and a "rest in peace" chant briefly started.
Match 4: The Kingdom (Matt Taven & Mike Bennett) vs The Bullet Club (Luke Gallows and Karl "Machine Gun" Anderson ended in a No Contest or double DQ after both Bennett and Anderson each and then together shoved down the referee. Anderson chased Maria around the ring to start the match, which had some good moments, but was just getting into second gear when it ended. A highlight was Anderson countering an attempted double-team move to Gallows on the outside by The Kingdom into a Gun Stun (RKO) "out of nowhere" on an airborne Taven. After the match, Maria saved Bennett from a Magic Killer (elevated twisting neckbreaker slam) onto 2 upright chairs, only to almost fall victim herself, Bennett helps Maria escape, but Taven is not so lucky and receives the Magic Killer onto the chairs. Bullet Clubs raises the IWGP Tag titles before leaving.
Episode 3:
The Decade come to the ring followed by their scheduled opponents, War Machine. In a move reminiscent of the Moose match, BJ insists that Colby Corino "step up" and take his spot as Adam Page's tag team partner against War Machine.
Match 1: War Machine defeats The Decade in a short match, more an angle again, really, to further the BJ Whitmer / Steve Corino feud that seems to be building up. A reluctant Ray Rowe tags in Hanson after an insistent Colby presses the matter with a slap to the face. War Machine squash Colby with power moves until Adam Page drops off the apron after refusing to tag-in. War Machine finish Colby off with their finisher (a back suplex by Rowe/ top rope leg drop by Hanson combo) to end the carnage. Whitmer again spends the match watching and taunting Steve Corino. Corino gets up to challenge Whitmer after the pinfall, but is restrained despite taunts by The Decade. Page paintbrushes Colby in the ring before The Decade again helps him leave, and again sends him back to retrieve the water bucket and stagger out.
Cedric Alexander comes to the ring and announces that it's "do or die time" after a less than successful past year, and he's starting by challenging the undefeated Moose.
Match 2: Cedric Alexander defeats Moose (with Veda Scott and Stokely Hathaway). I should note here that Moose is super over. Cedric begins to win back the crowd and even up the match against a dominant Moose with high spots and dives. Cedric takes it to Moose with a series of brutal running dropkicks to Moose in the corner before eating a spear. While both men are down and receiving a 10-count, Veda slips Moose a wrench from under the ring. While Stokely Hathaway distracts the ref, Moose refuses to use the wrench and argues with Veda; the distraction allows Cedric to take the wrench from Moose and nail him with it. Cedric Alexander has seemingly turned to the dark side and ended Moose's streak! Veda escapes up the entrance way and Stokely is left stunned in the ring with Moose.
Match 3: Hiroshi Tanahashi and Tetsuya Naito defeat ACH and Matt Sydal in a competitive match. This was one of the few instances where the ROH talent had even 50/50 support from the crowd against the New Japan talent. Lots of offense from ACH in this. Some brief heelish moments from the New Japan babyfaces. Worth checking out but too much action to call; Tanahashi wins with the High Fly Flow frog splash on ACH while Naito grappled with Sydal to prevent him from running in for the save.
The episode ends with Nigel McGuinness a contract signing for the Title vs Title match between Jay Briscoe and Jay Lethal. A couple funny moments to note from the crowd: with the obvious situation about to unfold, what with Nigel in front of a table in the ring with a clipboard a "Con-tract sign-ing (clap, clap, clap-clap-clap)" chant broke out, followed a few minutes later with "Sign Up (clap-clap) for Jay instead of the usual "Man Up" when it was his turn to put pen to paper. The normal war of words, but no physical action. Briscoe catches a possible attempt at a belt shot from Lethal and stares him down. Probably better than I've made it sound.
Episode 4:
The pace picked up for this last episode with 2 long matches, 1 short one and no talking segments.
Match 1: Shinsuke Nakamura defeats Roderick Strong in a hard hitting, competitive match. Words won't do this justice. The crowd loved Strong, but they loved Nakamura more than almost anyone. I'm not one for star ratings but this is a match to seek out at all costs. Nakamura wins with the Boma Ye knee strike after a number of close calls from Roddy. Cannot undersell how good this was.
Match 2: Michael Elgin defeats Gedo in a short match. Not a squash but seemingly designed to highlight Elgin, and maybe to put another win in the ROH column. Elgin wins with the buckle bomb followed by the spinning sit-out powerbomb.
Match 3: The Bullet Club (AJ Styles and The Young Bucks, with Gallows and Anderson) defeat CHAOS ("The Rainmaker" Kazuchika Okada and Roppongi Vice (Rocky Romero and Trent Baretta)). Again, words, won't do this justice. Crowd was hot for every member of both teams, giving each their own chant as they individually posed on the turnbuckles, before cheering NJPW ref "Red Shoes" to pose as well. This match was Indy wrestling insanity at its finest, in the vein of last nights main event or the last time Styles and the Young Bucks teamed on ROH TV. A glorious spotfest that Jim Cornette or Les Thatcher would hate. I'm not overly partial to this type of match sometimes myself, but if you don't enjoy this, you hate fun. The finish was an assisted spike ganso bomb piledriver (I think Styles has been calling it the Hollowpoint) by Styles to Baretta who was then passed to Matt Jackson for the Meltzer Driver springboard somersault spike tombstone; Baretta was then passed back to Styles to receive a double superkick from the Bucks as AJ hit the Styles Clash. Just that sentence was exhausting, imagine how Trent Baretta felt.
After the match, Okada approached Styles for a handshake but was attacked by the entire Bullet Club, with Romero unsuccessful with the save until The Kingdom, minus Adam Cole, ran out to even the odds. The Bullet Club were beaten back and Okada laid Styles out with the Rainmaker clothesline. Okada retrieved the IWGP title before dropping onto Styles and placing a boot on his chest and hitting the Rainmaker pose. The new allies of CHAOS and The Kingdom celebrate as the show ends.
Possibly off-air, Rocky Romero and Okada compete at playing to the crowd with the Rainmaker pose from the turnbuckles; the competition grows heated and the two have words before embracing.
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