Best in the World: Hostage Crisis on June 24th, 2012 in New York City
Opening Match: Jay and Mark Briscoe vs. The Guardians of Truth
There is absolutely no way for me to refer to the Guardians individually. Play by play is not easy, folks. A Guardian comes off the middle rope and catches Mark with a clothesline. Mark fires back with a dropkick and Jay adds a spinebuster. Mark walks across the middle rope and lands a senton. Kevin Kelly and the crowd start noticing that the ropes are loose. The Briscoes hit stereo shoulder tackles. Truth Martini provides a distraction and the Guardians pull a switcheroo. The new Guardian DDTs Jay and the Guardians isolate him. He ducks a clothesline and makes the tag. Mark showcases his karate offense and lands a frog splash elbow drop from the ringpost. Jay blocks a victory roll from a Guardian and sneaks in a rollup of his own for the win at 6:00. The match was short enough to not expose the Guardians, but this still didn’t function well as an opener. Honestly, the highlight for me was Nigel McGuinness speculating on commentary that Martini had something to do with the loose ropes because he wanted to hinder the Briscoes’ offense. *½
After the match, the Guardians save Martini from a doomsday device and lay out Jay with a flapjack.
Match #2: Eddie Edwards vs. Homicide
Homicide spits on Edwards’ hand and gets slapped. Edwards quickly hits a saito suplex and lands a dive to the floor. They exchange chops around ringside. In the ring, Edwards connects with a missile dropkick and hits a german suplex. He charges with a shining wizard. They reach a stalemate during a strike exchange and Homicide hits an overhead suplex. He sends Edwards shoulder-first into the ringpost and takes control. Homicide continues to work over the already-injured left shoulder. Edwards comes back with a superplex. He hits a sit-out gourdbuster and a 2k1 bomb. Edwards comes off the middle rope with a lungblower and locks in a crossface. Homicide escapes the hold and hits a tornado DDT. Edwards can’t hit his backpack chinbreaker and falls victim to an ace crusher. Homicide connects with a lariat for a nearfall. Edwards flips out of the Gringo Killer and tries a quick rollup to no avail. Edwards applies the achilles lock but Homicide powers out. Homicide just forearms Edwards’ left arm and hits the Gringo Killer for the victory at 12:46. Who doesn’t love a motivated Homicide? He did an excellent job of working over Edwards’ injured shoulder and the limb work hindered Edwards from utilizing some of his offense down the stretch. This probably should have been the opener, as the crowd gave both men a great reaction. If you give Edwards, Richards, and Strong fresh opponents, quality matches will likely result and this is a good example. ***
Match #3: Hybrid Fighting Rules: Kyle O’Reilly vs. Adam Cole
You can only win by ten-count knockout, submission, TKO, or disqualification. There are many ways to get disqualified, which you don’t want me to list. They trade punches and avoid each other’s kicks. Cole starts going to work on O’Reilly’s previously-injured left leg. O’Reilly creates some space with a cross armbreaker and begins targeting the left shoulder. Cole connects with an enzuigiri and a shining wizard. They both lay in bicycle kicks and fall to the canvas. They punch each other and Cole starts bleeding from the mouth. Cole has lost teeth! They trade strikes and Cole is bleeding everywhere. He connects with a basement superkick and the crowd comes alive. O’Reilly blocks another superkick and connects with a lariat. Cole pops up with blood squirting from his teeth. Dear God. O’Reilly lays in multiple strikes and hits a saito suplex. The athletic commission comes to ringside but Cole waves them off. O’Reilly applies a guillotine choke but Cole reverses into a brainbuster across his knee. Both men are down. Cole connects with a superkick, sending O’Reilly to the floor. In the ring, O’Reilly locks in a cross armbreaker out of nowhere. Cole counters into a sharpshooter. O’Reilly tries to go back to the cross armbreaker, but Cole synchs in a figure four for the win at 12:39. Nigel’s first words after the match ended were “a star is born in Ring of Honor” and he couldn’t have been more correct. The last five minutes of this match were unlike anything I’ve ever seen in professional wrestling. The crowd completely forgot about the rules and brought such a great atmosphere to the contest. After all of the blood loss and strike exchanges, they still made the limb work pay off with the figure four finish. This was light years ahead of their Showdown in the Sun encounter. The 10th Anniversary Show win was nice, but this match has taken Cole to the next level in ROH. ***¾
O’Reilly refuses a handshake after the match and slaps Cole.
Match #4: Fit Finlay vs. Michael Elgin
Finlay takes Elgin to the ground to start. Elgin connects with a forearm and Finlay backs off. Finlay drops an elbow across Elgin’s nose and takes the action back to the mat. Elgin anticipates Finlay coming off the middle rope and connects with a lariat. At ringside, Finlay rams Elgin into the apron and drops him across the barricade. Finlay takes control until Elgin connects with an enzuigiri and lures him into the ringpost. Elgin lays in multiple lariats in the corner and follows with a basement superkick. He kind of hits a uranagi and half of the crowd gets on his case. Finlay back drops out of a powerbomb and knocks Elgin to the outside. In the ring, Finlay hits a finlay roll and an air raid crash for a nearfall. He hits a tombstone but Elgin won’t stay down. Elgin connects with a spinning backfist, hit a bucklebomb, and finishes with a spinning powerbomb for the victory at 19:14. This point has been made elsewhere, but the New York crowd did not want to see a slower, ground-based match between these two, especially after Cole and O’Reilly just had a war against each other. This match needed to be more like Finlay’s encounters with Sami Callihan but instead went the same route as Finlay’s match against Roderick Strong. There was nothing technically wrong here, but I don’t blame the crowd for being mostly apathetic towards the action. **½
Mike Bennett and company make their way to the ring. He says that he’s the best wrestler in the world and highlights the fact that he’s from Boston. Mike Mondo of all people interrupts. Well, he is from New York. Mondo and Bennett go back and forth, leading to…
Match #5: Mike Bennett vs. Mike Mondo
They aren’t in wrestling gear. Mondo reigns down punches. He takes out Brutal Bob with a dive from the apron. Bennett hits a spinebuster into the apron. In the ring, Bennett takes over until Mondo sneaks in a small package for the win at 4:17. It’ll be interesting to see how various crowds react towards Mondo’s push. I think that he’s very capable in the ring, but Ring of Honor has to be careful about shoving him down our throats. *
Match #6: ROH World Television Title: Elimination: Roderick Strong © vs. Jay Lethal vs. Tommaso Ciampa
Ciampa attacks Lethal before the opening bell. Strong tries to get involved but Lethal dropkicks him. Strong retreats to the floor where Lethal takes him out with a dive. Princess Mia superkicks Lethal behind the referee’s back. Ciampa connects with a facewash knee strike on Lethal. Strong drapes Ciampa across the top rope and hits a backbreaker on Lethal. Ciampa gets Strong in an electric chair position and slams him to the canvas. He follows with a wheelbarrow german suplex. Ciampa catches Lethal with a knee to the face. Strong throws Ciampa to the floor and covers Lethal for a nearfall. Everyone chops each other. Lethal catches Ciampa with a handspring back elbow and hits the Lethal Combination on Strong for a two count. Lethal hits a tornado DDT on Ciampa and applies a figure four on Strong. He also traps Ciampa in a crossface. Lethal elevates Strong into a neckbreaker. Ciampa connects with a flying elbow drop to mock Lethal. Strong interrupts Project Ciampa but Lethal superkicks him. Strong hits a superplex on Ciampa and Lethal adds Hail to the King for a nearfall. Prince Nana inadvertently interrupts Ciampa from hitting Project Ciampa on Strong. Strong falls onto Ciampa and pins him for the elimination. Truth Martini hits Lethal with the Book of Truth to prevent the Lethal Injection. Strong hits an orange crush backbreaker on Lethal to retain his title at 13:09. The action was moving along nicely until the finish. I strongly dislike rapid-fire eliminations in these kind of matches and the interference was less than ideal. It feels like the situation with Ciampa is in limbo and we’re waiting for someone in the Embassy to turn. Fortunately, the effort put in before the screwy finish was enough to compensate for the lame ending. ***
Match #7: ROH World Tag Team Titles: Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin © vs. Kenny King and Rhett Titus
Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team will lose the titles if they get disqualified. Shelton slams King to the canvas and hits a shoulder tackle. King snaps off a few armdrags and Shelton regroups on the outside. Both teams trade control. The All Night Express catch Shelton with a barrage of kicks. Titus hits a bulldog on Haas. King finds himself in the wrong corner and WGTT isolate him. After quite some time, King hits a double DDT and makes the tag. Titus plants Haas with the Thrust Buster and connects with a lariat on Shelton. Shelton leaps to the top rope but Titus hits snake eyes. King adds shotgun knees for a two count. Haas hits a german suplex on King and an olympic slam on Titus. King throws a chair into the ring to tempt Shelton into being disqualified. Titus DDTs Shelton onto the chair behind the referee’s back for a nearfall. King lands a dive to the floor onto Haas. Shelton clotheslines Titus to the outside and rams his head into the title belts. Titus is bleeding from the forehead. WGTT now take the attack to Titus in the ring. King springboards at Shelton to block the Leap of Faith. Titus rolls up Haas and ANX become the new ROH World Tag Team Champions at 22:47. The end result was the right one but I disagree with how they arrived there. WGTT controlled for a majority of this match and they failed to keep the action interesting when they had the advantage. Additionally, I don’t understand why WGTT needed to be protected with that finish. It genuinely came off like ANX squeaked out the win instead of taking the fight to the champions and earning the titles. Commentary likes to talk about the amount of heart that King and Titus have and you’d think their first title win in ROH would reflect that. I enjoyed the match when ANX were showcasing their offense but there were some largely uninspired stretches of action as well. **¾
WGTT attack the new champions after the match.
Match #8: ROH World Title: Anything Goes: Kevin Steen © vs. Davey Richards
Steve Corino is on commentary and initially confuses Nigel McGuinness for Shane Hagadorn. Kyle O’Reilly comes out before the match and announces that Team Ambition is done. O’Reilly is becoming his own man and to do that, he’ll have to go through Richards. Steen yells “your boyfriend just left you” at Richards. Richards responds by kicking Steen through the table at ringside. Richards throws him into the barricade and connects with a yakuza kick. A distraction by Jimmy Jacobs allows Steen to hit a powerbomb onto the apron. Steen puts pieces of the barricade on top of Richards and lands a frog splash from the apron. In the ring, Steen finds knees on a swantan attempt but recovers with a DDT in the ropes. He superkicks Bobby Cruise at ringside. Richards lands a dive to the floor. They battle on the apron where Richards hits an exploder. A table is setup at ringside. Richards puts Steen onto the table and double stomps him through it. Back in, Richards connects with a flying double stomp. He brings a few chairs into the ring. Steen hits a chair-assisted lungblower followed by a chair-assisted corner cannonball. They battle on the middle rope and Richards hits a superplex onto some chairs. He sets up another table in the ring. They once again battle on the middle rope and Steen hits a pumphandle neckbreaker through the table! Richards finds life with a german suplex onto two propped chairs. He starts choking Steen with a chain. Richards wraps the chain around his boot and connects with kawada kicks. A knockout kick gets Richards a nearfall. He kicks Todd Sinclair in frustration. Richards now brings a ladder into the ring. Steen hits the F-Cinq for a nearfall. He lays out Paul Turner with a package piledriver. Richards hits a butterfly piledriver onto a ladder but there’s no referee. Jacobs runs into the ring and attacks Richards. Jim Cornette steals Jacobs’ spike and threatens him. Corino low blows Cornette. Richards anticipates a charge from Jacobs and suplexes him into the ladder. Steen low blows Richards with the spike and hits a package piledriver to retain his title at 21:19. This match did an excellent job of furthering Steen’s reign of terror and putting into perspective how badly Cornette wants him to lose the title. I was surprised by how many innovative weapon spots they brought to this contest and Richards showed a side of himself that we don’t get to see very often. As I alluded to earlier, the interference and referee bumps added to the overall atmosphere and maybe that was the intangible missing from their encounter at Border Wars. This was a fun ride for twenty-one minutes and an excellent main event for one of the bigger shows of the year. ****
Corino announces Steen as the winner. Steen takes back what he has said about Richards and calls him the best in the world. Steen tells the crowd that they’re hypocrites, which receives a big pop from the crowd. He references Final Battle 2010 and how the fans cheered when he was forced to leave Ring of Honor. Steen also mentions how much the fans love to turn on world champions. He vows to be the last ROH World Champion and says that the fans have themselves to blame.
Overall: Best in the World was an overall positive iPPV experience from Ring of Honor. Adam Cole and Kyle O’Reilly started out by just having a back and forth wrestling match but it was soon taken to the level of a spectacle due to Cole’s mouth getting busted up. The main event was fittingly the match of the night and successfully captured everything that’s been happening with Kevin Steen and the ROH World Title. There were also some fun undercard bouts as Edwards/Homicide surprised and the Television Title match delivered. While a couple matches fell flat or under-delivered, there’s enough worthwhile action here to warrant a DVD purchase. Best in the World earns a recommendation.
You can purchase this DVD at Ring of Honor’s store right here.