Michael Elgin, Michael Nakazawa, & Danny Daniels vs. Pelle Primeau, Ernie Osiris, & Mitch Franklin - ** 3/4
Rhett Titus vs. Silas Young - **
Joey Matthews vs. Jigsaw - *** 1/4
Kevin Steen & El Generico vs. Nigel McGuinness & Claudio Castagnoli - *** 1/2
Delirious vs. Necro Butcher - ** 3/4
Chris Hero & Brent Albright vs. Jack Evans & Ruckus - ** 1/2
The Briscoes vs. Austin Aries & Kota Ibushi - **** 1/4
The Age of the Fall (Tyler Black & Jimmy Jacobs) vs. The Motor City Machine Guns - **** 1/2
- So I'll be honest, I've never cared for ANYONE that's came out of the ROH Wrestling School (sorry Grizz) & I was pretty happy when they occasionally got murdered. This is Michael Elgin via 2008 & he's about 40-50 pounds fatter, yet it suits his style much more because he looked like a straight bruiser here. His extra weight made him seem taller, although that may be due to the height of his opponents.
Either way, surprisingly fun opener that's hilarious seeing Pelle Primeau pin Michael Elgin. WOW
- Silas Young comes out to 'Don't Stop Believin' by Journey. EPIC. That'll win you over with the crowd. "Look at the size of these thighs!" Gotta love Rhettski the Jettski when he had personality. Fun little short match, nothin offensive. Silas wows the fans with his handstand springboard moonsault finisher.
- Joey Matthews is PISSED OFF. I'm not entirely sure why either, but he just decides to beat the living hell out of Jigsaw & it's awesome. Some really stiff strikes bust open Jig's nose & ear until he's finally able to muster up some offense & takes Joey outside to give him a taste of his own medicine. The out-of-nowhere finish is really great too, very well put together match imo. Jigsaw sold the punishment with ease.
- Hilarious in ring pre-match conversation between Steen & Nigel. "There's no Queen in Arkansas, ya moron!" :lol Lots of intertwining storylines in this, the biggest being the World Title feud between Nigel & Steen. Steen was screwed a couple weeks earlier & was granted an instant rematch, while at the same time Claudio had challenged Nigel for a shot at the strap as well, but the champ claimed he hadn't seen anything impressive from Claudio, so he gives him the opportunity to show him something by being his tag partner tonight. Super fun match highlighted by the always great interactions between Generico & Double C. Hilarious moment when Steen's in full control of Nigel, but Generico is dying to come in so Steen tags him & he runs in just to get laid out with a clothesline and Nigel makes the tag. I had to rewind and watch it again it was so damn funny. Awesome finishing sequence too. Everyone's gunnin for the World Champ.
- Delirious/Necro is a fun brawl w/ a brutal looking finish. Also HOLY SHIT at the ringside attendants getting laid out in the chaos, one guy gets his head destroyed with a chair shot and bleeds like a stuffed pig.
- Can't say I really had any expectations for the Sweet n Sour/Vulture Squad tag, so it exceeded them easily. Awesome spot where Evans goes for the handspring dive to the outside but Albright catches him and swings him head first into the guardrail, a la Samoa Joe/AJ Styles. Good FIP segment with Evans but the Vulture's offense looked so damn weak against these bigger guys.
- JESUS CHRIST, what an awesome tag match with Briscoes & ArieBushi. Briscoes kept knocking Aries off the apron time and time again when he wasn't getting involved at all and that legit pissed him off so when Ibushi makes the hot tag, shit starts getting unreal & Aries comes out like a house of fire. The crowd absolutely went nuts for anything Ibushi did, which is understandable considering the guy's amazing. So many great, out-of-nowhere spots in this including an awesome doomsday device where Mark has to literally jump over a standing Ibushi to get to Aries & I actually jumped out of my seat when Jay TOOK IBUSHI'S HEAD OFF with a huge clothesline. Wonderful tag match with a molten crowd.
- My goodness what a draining main event. The major backstory coming in is that 6 years ago in 2002, Jimmy Jacobs lost to a man named David Decker, who would eventually go on to be called Alex Shelley. Since that day Jacobs has been haunted by the loss to the youngster and has never been able to defeat him in ROH. Constantly he hears the voices telling him that Shelley is simply better than him and he even believes it himself. From bell to bell, the match was just pure entertainment, but let me warn you, this sucker goes past 32 minutes. What I really appreciated was the complete change of pace compared to the previous match. Instead of hitting us with big time spots & out-of-nowhere dives, they gave us breathtaking sequences of constant double teams where one move would always lead to another in an awesome chain of events. The Jacobs/Shelley story was always in the back of your mind and while there were plenty of standoffs and exchanges between the two, it all came full circle at the end with Jacobs finally getting his redemption, despite the crowd not being happy with it at all. I'll admit, some viewers might get turned off by the length and possible overkill down the stretch, but the sheer quality of the sequences they were putting together were enough to make the crowd chant "please don't stop!" An absolutely fantastic end to a very very good show.