Deltaplex
Grand Rapids, MI
Ian Riccaboni & Colt Cabana on commentary
Opening Match
Coast 2 Coast (LSG & Shaheem Ali) Vs Alex Coughlin & Karl Fredericks (NJ LA dojo Young Lions)
I’ve been super impressed by the Young Lions on this tour, no doubt that they are going to be stars in the future.
The match itself was pretty good with Coast 2 Coast showing off a new, more aggressive attitude and the Young Lions showing what training with Shibata on a daily base can do as they were more technically proficient than their opponents and they had good continuity, they even caused a few problems for LSG and Ali on more than one occasion, but on this night it would be the more experienced team getting the victory after Ali planted Coughlin with a Swing Out Slam.
Winners – Coast 2 Coast in 10:20
Up Next
WOH World Championship Match
Stacy Shadows Vs Kelly Klein
This match started before the bell when Kelly offered the handshake to adhere to the Code of Honor but Stacy shoved her down, only for Kelly to retaliate with a Spear and flurry of Punches, and from then it was a back and forth contest with both ladies trading offensive flurries, Stacy looked like she was going to win the title after rocking Kelly with a stiff Forearm shot to the face, but he delay in executing a Vader bomb allowed Kelly to follow up with a Running Knee Strike to pick up a hard fought victory.
Winner and Still WHO Champion – Kelly Klein in 4:44
Stacy showed class by offering a handshake to the champion which she took and she also raised her hand in a nice show of respect.
Moving on, and up next
Cheeseburger (Shinobi Shadow Squad) Vs Clark Conners (NJ LA dojo Young Lion)
Before the match had a chance to start Dalton Castle came to the ring and insulted both men.
Cheeseburger then got a cheap pop from the crowd only for Castle to then egotistically state that neither man deserve to have a match with him, Cheeseburger had other plans and burned Castle about his embarrassing loss to RUSH at the G1 Supercard and said he would beat him in the same time (16 Seconds if you didn’t see the event), this infuriated Castle and suddenly this match became an impromptu Triple Threat Match with Castle wrestling in his street clothes.
Castle Dominated the majority of the match, but that takes nothing away from Conners who again was impressive throughout and only inexperience cost him in this one, he almost tapped out the former World Champion with the Boston Crab (the Signature Move of the Young Lions) until Cheeseburger broke the hold with a hard Superkick.
Castle soon regained control of the match again and put Cheeseburger away with Bangarang.
Winner – Dalton Castle in 9:19
Castle seemed to do better with the ‘no frills’ approach and he is still on the lookout for new boys.
6 Man Tag Team action next as
The Kingdom (Vinny Marseglia, TK O’Ryan and ROH World Champion Matt Taven) Vs Hikuleo and Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa)
This match was entertaining on 2 levels – the amount of trash talking between the 2 teams was insane (we all know Tama Tonga is not the most ‘PG’ person, but that’s why I loved it), and it was a classic match of ‘can you top this’.
It did seem that the G.o.D were looking past The Kingdom(Which is a mistake)and more toward the impending war with The Briscoes in Chicago, they even went out of their way to antagonise them, especially when they hit the Doomsday Device (one of the Briscoes Team Finishers) and sure enough Jay and Mark showed up on stage- Not impressed , but a rookie move on the part of G.o.D left Hikuleo at the mercy of the Kingdom and Taven used the distraction to blast Hikuleo in the back of the head with the ROH Title belt and Vinny Marseglia got the 3 count.
Winners – The Kingdom in 15:16
Mark Haskins then hit the ring and explained his unfortunate situation and straight up asked Tave for a title match later in the evening- Taven refused. Haskins then dropped Mike & Maria (Mr and Mrs Kanellis- former members of The Kingdom) and this obviously upset Taven and then he agreed to the match.
Bonus Match – not originally on the card
Rhett Titus came out and did his Mr Universe bit and then he grabbed a mic and turned into Rick Rude, saying that he was not impressed with anybody in the crowds body and that he wasn’t bothered who his opponent was…………………..then out comes Flip Gordon to a great crowd reaction.
Rhett Titus Vs Flip Gordon
Code of Honor was adhered to and Titus threw in Bicep flex whilst in the handshake.
Titus controlled the opening minutes or so, then it was Flip who blitzed Titus with a series of moves that he could not defend against ( Suicide Dive , Wheelbarrow Facebuster which was transitioned into an STF) to which Titus tapped out to quickly.
Winner – Flip Gordon in 3:37
Wow that was quick, Titus with a less than stellar showing here , maybe he should stop with the posing and get on with wrestling , it could have saved him here , back to the drawing board now I’m guessing.
More Tag Team Action coming up next with
The Bouncers (Beer City Bruiser & Brian Milonas) Vs EVIL & Sanada
A contrast in style would be an understatement here.
The Bouncers did offer a beer to EVIL and Sanada which they accepted and then used them as ‘mist’ to spray in the eyes of The Bouncers.
EVIL & Sanada controlled the match for the most part , especially after EVIL (living up to his name) took out Milonas for the majority of the match after he sandwiched his head in a Steel Chair , then took another one and smashed it with it.
Milonas did get back into the match briefly, but following a huge Double Suplex it left Beer City Bruiser alone long enough for EVIL and Sanada to hit an impressive Magic Killer for the victory.
Winners – EVIL and Sanada in 7:05
The Bouncers did have a brew before leaving the ring.
Huge 4 way dance next
RUSH Vs PJ Black Vs Tracy Williams Vs Eli Isom
The winner of this match will be Number 1 contender for the ROH world Championship andwill have a match against the Champion on 1st June in Kent, Washington
This match was insane, action all over the place, inside and outside of the ring with all 4 men showing off their respective offensive abilities.
RUSH was the obvious favourite being undefeated, that did not stop the other 3 men trying to put a black mark on his record.
Williams thought he did do just that when he trapped RUSH in a nice Fujiwara Armbar and you can clearly see a tap out but the referee did not see it, Williams was also impressive in this match, so it was between RUSH and Williams for me in this one.
RUSH Could have won the match when he had Black set up for the ‘Bulls Horns’ but decided not to execute the move when he got in striking distance and that ultimately cost him, when he decided to keep his attention on Black who was on the outside and he took himself out in the process when he delivered a Missile Dropkick off the ring apron to the floor, which left ISom and Williams to slug it out, and indeed they did with Isom coming close when he hit an Over Easy DDT (Canadian Backbreaker into DDT) for a really close near fall.
Isom then tried to close the match out only for Williams to turn him inside-out with a hard Clothesline and he then polished off a very game Isom with a brutal PIledriver (nasty landing for Isom) for a deserved victory.
Winner – Tracy Williams in 10:34
I personally enjoyed this and Williams deserves a shot at the champion , he got the talent, tough as nails and relentless, whoever is the champion come 1st June , they not having an easy night with ‘Hot Sauce’ stood across from them.
Up next
An impromptu ROH World Title Match between
Mark Haskins & Matt Taven
Note- The kingdom are banned from ringside due to incident that involved PCO and the axe that Vinny Marseglia brought to the ring in Toronto, Taven flying solo in this one.
Taven tried to sucker punch Haskins before the opening bell, when he grabbed the belt from thr referee and tried to hit Haskins with it, luckily Haskins was switched on and avoided the attack sending Taven tto the outside and following him out with a Suicide Dive, that sent the champion into the guard rail hard.
What followed from this was one hell of a match, props to Matt Taven who had 2 matches tonight with this one only giving him about an hour to prepare, Haskins was like a wild animal and was even better once Taven had injured his left shoulder by posting him, Haskins went after any body part he could, left arm, left leg it didn’t matter to him, he just wanted to hurt the champion and then beat him.
Plenty of near falls and close calls from both men throughout the match.
A Diving Double Foot Stomp and A Samoan Driver gave Haskins a \couple of real close near falls and the closest Taven came to winning was when he hit a Climax (Headlock Driver) on to the ring apron, then he got Haskins in the ring and delivered the a killer combo of Running Knee Strike and a Top Rope Frog Splash for a 2.95 count.
Haskins was on the verge of a historic victory when he had the champion all tied up in a deeply applied Sharpshooter, only for Bully Ray to come out and distract Haskins by making disparaging remarks about his wife which made Haskins lose his focus.
With the referee trying to get Bully away from the ring area, Taven hit a Low Blow and a Climax to get the 3 count.
Horrible end to a great match.
Winner and Still ROH World Champion Matt Taven in 25:51
PCO shockingly makes his way to the ring and drops Taven with a Pop-Up Powerbomb and Running Tombstone Pilerdriver and then makes a definitive statement by hitting a PCOSault to leave the champ laying.
Kenny King comes out and cuts a promo about what happened to his eyesight thanks to the ‘not so’ Great Muta (his words, not mine) and he keeps going on about ‘heightened sense’ (who is he…..Daredevil or something) but before he gets his eyes fixed and gets his title shot he wants to do one more “Blind Kenny Commentary”.
A HUGE 10 Man Tag Team Main Event
Hirooki Goto , Satoshi Kojima, Yuji Nagata, Jeff Cobb & Jay Lethal Vs Shane Taylor, Jay & Mark Briscoe, Silas Young & Bully Ray
This was a hard-hitting, bad bloodied affair, lots of trash talk, lots of disrespectful actions, but somehow the quality remained, all the men involved showcased their talents and toughness in this one.
For a little under 25 minutes it felt quicker due to the nature of the action, frequent tags, different opponents pairing off regularly although Jay Lethal was isolated for an extended time and I think that he was legitimately knocked out by a vicious Head Butt from Shane Taylor, somehow Lethal made a tag to Jeff Cobb and there is definitely no love lost between him and Taylor as they traded blows, Cobb did get the upper hand when he dumped Taylor high and tight with a German Suplex.
Kojima and Bully were the legal men leading up to the end of this match and when bully couldn’t put Kojima away he got desperate and reached for his trusty Steel Chain, but before he could use it Mark Haskins ran to the ring and snatched it away leaving Bully in disbelief and at the mercy of his opponents and they all took shots at him, with Cobb putting Bully in a Kata Hajime (Tazmission) before Bully Suplexed his way out of it.
And it wasn’t to be Bully’s day when Kojima hit him with his signature Lariat to pick upa hard- fought victory.
Winners Jay Lethal, Jeff Cobb, Satoshi Kojima, Hirooki Goto & Yuji Nagata in 23:29
Show ends
On to Chicago, IL now for the final night
Where The Briscoes face G.o.D for the ROH World Tag Team Championships and this one will not be for the weak of heart I’m telling you.
Happy Reading Everyone
@BiekoDaniel
