Ring of Honor’s Wrestlemania weekend spectacular, “Supercard of Honor VII,” is all sold out in New York City, but you can still grab the I-Pay-Per-View over at ROHWrestling.com.
Remember our very own Chris GST is in New York for this show and will be updating our Twitter page with live results. Follow Twitter.com/pwponderings for those results.
We! Are! Live! RD Evans was out to play up QT Marshall’s partner, and nobody cared. Fans were chanting “We Want Wrestling,” even though Evans teased guys like Tanahashi and Lacey Von Erich. After playing it up for seemingly a thousand hours, Evans announced himself as Marshall’s partner. This was painfully long.
Tadarius Thomas and A.C.H. Beat QT Marshall and RD Evans when A.C.H. Hit his Big Bang Attack. A pretty fun opener, with Evans getting some offense in. It’s really weird to me that Evans is booked as a non-wrestler, yet he has this offense that looks anything but amateur. Marshall and Evans were on the outside at one point and A.C.H. Hit Air JOrdan to Marshall. At one point Evans actually got himself a nearfall with an inverted Clash. Eventually, with Evans sent to the outside, A.c.H. Hit his Big Bang Attack for the win. An homage to Trunks and Vegeta from the Dragon Ball Z franchise.
Shelton Benjamin came out to some generic music and said he had bad news and worse news. Charlie Haas wouldn’t be at the show, and Benjamin himself wasn’t booked to wrestle on the biggest weekend in wrestling. He called out Cheeseburger, everyone’s favorite ROHDojo trainee, and instead of beating him silly, he showed him a little respect from taking beatings from Haas week after week. Then Mike Bennett came down, which made me remember he is still, in fact, in Ring of Honor. He talked for a really long time. He eventually teased making some kind of big announcement regarding his future, but before he could go any further, Cheeseburger took the mic and called Brutal Bob Bennett’s “Father” and Maria a “Gutter slut.” Bennett took out Cheeseburger and all hell broke loose, leading to …
Mike Bennett beat Shelton Benjamin . This was more of a silly match than anything, centering around some comedy with Maria. Benjamin went for paydirt early on but Bennett reversed into a Box Office Smash for a nearfall. Bennett went for Punk’s GTS, but Shelton turned it into a single leg Boston Crab until Brutal Bob hit a running tackle, which the referee somehow didn’t see. Damn, Maria’s good. Bennett takes out Benjamin and starts making out with Maria, because, wouldn’t you? Benjamin comes back and Bennett accidentally kicks Maria in the face. Terrible boyfriend! But Benjamin nearly got the win with a superkick and German for a nearfall. The finish came out of nowhere, with Brutal Bob helping out Bennett for the cheap win.
Michael Elgin beat Jay Lethal via super Elgin Bomb followed by a second to earn a future shot at the Ring of Honor World Title. They started hot right away, with both guys exchanging holds but keeping relatively even.
Elgin managed to get Lethal in his crossface, but Lethal managed to fight out. Lethal hit a dive to Elgin which sent him into the barricade, and then he followed up by doing it twice more. He charged Elgin in the corner and hit a Death valley Driver and set up for the Randy Savage elbow, but Elgin stood up before Lethal could pay homage. The beast that is Elgin hit a deadlift superplex for a nearfall. That was pretty awesome. Later Elgin sent Lethal into the buckle and went for his corkscrew senton, but he got Lethal’s knees. Lethal managed to get Elgin in the Koji Clutch, and the beast was in trouble, but only for a moment. Elgin fought out and blocked a bunch of Lethal’s moves, but Lethal kicked out of everything. They had an awesome sequence where they countered each other’s finishers in rapid succession until Lethal nailed the Lethal Combination and the elbow for, you got it, a nearfall. Elgin will not die! They tried to fight on the top but Elgin hit his powerbomb from the top and followed up with a second spinning sit-out powerbomb for the win, capping off a fantastic match. Why is it lately that everything Elgin touches turns to gold?
SCUM attacked both guys after the match, leading to the big 10-man tag.
Rhett Titus & Jimmy Rave & Cliff Compton & Jimmy Jacobs & Rhino beat B.J. Whitmer & Mark Briscoe & Caprice Coleman & Cedric Alexander & Mike mondo in a 10-man tag. Just an absolutely wild match designed to get a lot of guys on this big show. It was just a lot of guys hitting their big moves, tagging out, and having other guys running in with other big moves. I’m not sure what happened but Caleb Seltzer ended up unconscious somehow, and next thing I know Whitmer was handcuffed to the bottom rope. They fought some more and Compton spat powder into Mondo’s eyes. Eventually Rhino hit Caprice Coleman with the gore for the win. Afterward Corino got on the mic and told the fans they were cheering for the wrong team. It was chaotic. I’m sure this match was more fun live.
Intermission time.
We’re back, with Karl Anderson vs. Roddy Strong opening the second half.
Karl Anderson defeated Roderick Strong with his ace crusher. A strong, hard-hitting start to the second half. Anderson takes a suplex on the barricade. Momentum keeps changing as they get deeper into a very good match. Anderson hit a neckbreaker off the top and a powerbomb for a nearfall. Strong tried to fight back with his Sick Kick and a gutbuster, but he invariably ate an Ace Crusher for the win.
Matt Taven defeated Matt Hardy and Adam Cole to retain the Ring of Honor Television Championship. Before the match got started Steve Corino gave Hardy a big long intro, where he called him the Jesus Christ of professional wrestling. So wait, if Matt is the Jesus Christ of wrestling, and Jeff Hardy was at one point the Antichrist of pro wrestling, Hardy family dinners must have been pretty catastrophic. Highlight of the match so far was Scarlett Bordeaux trying to seduce Nigel. They spent so much time on this, somebody told Kevin Kelly to call the match, to which he replied, “What match? Oh, look! There’s a match!” Corino kept trying to get involved, at one point hitting a Twist of Fate but getting pulled off by Truth Martini. Cole came back and hit a low blow into a small package to eliminate Hardy, eliciting massive cheers from the crowd. That was the same way Hardy beat Cole back at Final Battle. But distracted by Steve Corino throwing a fit, the referee turned back in time to see Matt Taven hit his DDT for the win. Quite the anticlimactic ending, but there you go. Oh yeah. I didn’t know this was an elimination match either.
⁃ reDRagon beat the American Wolves to retain the Ring of Honor Tag Team Championships by pin while holding the tights. This was the kind of match that started off as a good match, but then got awesome. Very long, with lots of great moves and razor thin near falls. Richards put O’reilly and Fish in ankle locks, transitioning from one to the other. Later Richards hit a superplex to O’Reilly, and then both Wolves hit reDRagon with their own finish for a nearfall. They follow up with double stomps for yet another nearfall. Finally, Fish pushes Davey and O’reilly rolls him up and grabs the tights for the dirty win. So much happened in this match, so naturally this is the condensed version. Very, very good match.
And it’s time for our main event of the evening.
Jay Briscoe defeated Kevin Steen to become the new Ring of Honor World Champion. The early goings of the match focused on Steen working on Jay’s hurt shoulder, and Nigel’s commentary really helped sell it for fans who might not understand it. Steen put Jay in an armbar but he was able to make the ropes pretty quickly. Just as soon as Jay started to pick up a little momentum, Jimmy Jacobs appeared, but then Mark also made an appearance to fight him off. Jay hit a Death Valley driver for a nearfall, making sure to sell the shoulder afterward. Steen powerbombed Jay but came off the top but got Jay’s knees. Then all of SCUM tried to interfere, but the entire RoH locker room ran out and another fight started, which left Steen and Jay to fight it out between themselves. Jay kicked out of a package piledriver while SCUM came roaring back. Hardy jumped back into the ring and Steen booted him out, making the crowd go wild. Jay hit the Jay Driller for a nearfall. Jay tried for a second Jay Driller, but Steen put him in the crossface, which put loads of pressure on that injured shoulder. Just a fantastic story in this match. Stream buffers a little bit, but i got lucky because many apparently missed the finish. Mine came back on just as Jay made the final cover for a dramatic 1! 2! 3! And Jay Briscoe, after years of fighting for it and coming up short, is finally the Ring of Honor World champion. Just a fantastic main event. Not full of high spots or anything like that, but built around so much story, so much high drama. That, folks, is why this writer loves wrestling. Everybody celebrated afterward as fans chanted “You deserve it.” Jay got on the mic and requested the audio guy play some Lynyrd Skynyrd. I guess they don’t have the rights to it on iPPV, but I assume they played it when the show went off-air.
For me it was a so-so show until the end. Two great matches until the title match, but the title match, at least for me, is something to see. Great show from Ring of Honor, with only a few minor streaming issues, the timing of which could have been better, but still. A satisfied customer, signing off.
Can’t imagine this lasting. I think they just wanted someone to transition to Elgin. Don’t know why they didn’t want Elgin to just beat Steen himself, but whatever.