Border Wars in Toronto on May 4th, 2013
Opening Match: ACH and Tadarius Thomas vs. Caprice Coleman and Cedric Alexander
Thomas and Coleman trade quick pin attempts to no avail. ACH makes the crowd love him even more by snapping off a crazy armdrag on Alexander. Thomas and ACH catch Alexander with some tandem offense and work him over. Alexander fights back with a dive to the floor onto ACH. Coleman blocks a kick from Thomas, allowing Alexander to connect with a basement dropkick. Coleman and Alexander isolate Thomas until he stuns them with enzuigiris and makes the tag. Thomas lands a space flying tiger drop onto Coleman. ACH follows with a kick-flip dive onto Alexander. In the ring, ACH hits a pumphandle suplex on Alexander. Coleman hits rolling northern lights suplexes on ACH. ACH fights back with an awkward slingshot stunner on Alexander. Coleman hurricanranas ACH off the middle rope into a frog splash from Alexander for the win at 10:56. Not everything that they tried worked, but the complexity of everything captured the crowd’s interest and the fans did not want this match to end. reDRagon certainly has some fresh challengers with these two teams and also consider the singles matches involving these four individually. This was the type of opener you want on iPPV. ***
Match #2: Roderick Strong vs. Mike Bennett
Strong lays in a chop and Bennett immediately retreats to the floor. Back in, Strong connects with a leg lariat and hits a backbreaker. He tries for an early Stronghold but Bennett is able to reach the bottom rope. Strong chops Bennett around ringside. Bennett hits a spinebuster into the apron and takes control. Strong blocks a charge and fights back with a flurry of offense. He hits a superplex for a nearfall. Bennett hits a spinebuster but falls victim to a backbreaker. Bennett avoids a gutbuster and fires off a spear for a two count. Strong reapplies the Stronghold. Bennett taps out but Maria distracts the referee. Bennett superkicks Strong and hits the Box Office Smash for a nearfall. Cheeseburger appears at ringside and kisses Maria! Bennett gives chase but runs into the Sick Kick, giving Strong the victory at 12:42. This is the type of match that everyone would get frustrated at Bennett for having when he first debuted in ROH. Strong looked incredibly willing to engage in some interesting exchanges and try to do something different, but Bennett was content to just run through the usual offense. Luckily, there were enough bells and whistles down the stretch to hold the crowd’s attention. **¼
Match #3: I Quit Match: Rhett Titus vs. BJ Whitmer
Whitmer charges the ring and starts brawling with Titus. Nigel McGuinness has to immediately confront Steve Corino about interfering. Whitmer lands a dive to the floor as Corino gets ejected. Titus hits snake eyes and starts choking Whitmer. He boots Whitmer’s head into the ringpost and continues to target the neck. Whitmer comes back with an exploder but Titus sends him into the middle turnbuckle. Titus tries to zip-tie Whitmer to the ropes to no avail. Whitmer turns the tables and zip-ties Titus to the ropes. He grabs a chair. Corino runs to the ring and offers to sacrifice himself for Titus. Titus quits so Whitmer won’t hit Corino with the chair. That is your finish. Whitmer wins at 11:33. Then, Jimmy Jacobs and Cliff Compton immediately run out and attack Whitmer. Why couldn’t they do that during the match and save Titus? It’s best not to think of every frustrating element of this match; rather, just try to erase it from your memory. *
Match #4: Jay Lethal and Michael Elgin vs. Jimmy Jacobs and Cliff Compton
This match starts when Lethal and Elgin save Whitmer from a beatdown by SCUM. If Jacobs and Compton lose, Corino must leave Ring of Honor. However, if SCUM are victorious, Corino will become a full-time member of commentary. Both teams brawl around ringside as staff members free Titus from the zip-ties. Elgin boots Compton into the front row. In the ring, Elgin hits a delayed vertical suplex on Jacobs. He adds a senton as Corino yells at Todd Sinclair from ringside. Lethal connects with a handspring back elbow on Compton. Elgin and Lethal hit stereo delayed vertical suplexes as the crowd erupts. Lethal lands a dive to the floor onto Jacobs but clutches his knee in pain upon landing. Several referees come out to check on Lethal’s condition. Elgin decides to attempt to fight both members of SCUM by himself. He catches Jacobs during a spear attempt in mid-air and powerbombs him into Compton. Elgin follows with his fallaway slam-samoan drop combination. The numbers game eventually catches up to Elgin and SCUM work him over. Elgin fights back by german suplexing Compton with Jacobs on his back. Insane. Kevin Steen runs through the crowd and appears on the apron! Elgin refuses to tag him into the match at first but eventually goes with it. Steen cleans house with corner cannonballs and throws SCUM into the barricade. He powerbombs Jacobs onto the apron. In the ring, Compton saves Jacobs from Elgin’s spinning powerbomb. Steen goes for a package piledriver on Compton, but Jacobs rolls him up for the victory at 20:06. This was the polar opposite of the I Quit Match in terms of enjoyment and execution. Everyone thought that Lethal would simply return to the match and Steen received a tremendous ovation that took this match to the next level. Elgin also received a chance to showcase his freaky strength during the segment where he didn’t have a partner. The finish is intriguing to an extent, but I’m just glad that these five received twenty minutes to tell their story because they took advantage of it. ***¼
Back from intermission, QT Marshall and RD Evans make their way to the ring. Evans runs down the crowd until a siren starts beeping. The video screen plays a promo for Tommaso Ciampa and the lights go out. Ciampa makes his return to Ring of Honor and starts brawling with Marshall. Evans yanks Marshall out of the ring and they retreat while Ciampa stands tall.
Match #5: Eddie Edwards vs. Taiji Ishimori
They begin by wrestling to a stalemate. They avoid each other’s kicks and Ishimori hurricanranas Edwards to the floor. Ishimori follows out with a moonsault from the top rope. After a quick exchange in the ring, Edwards finds an opening to land a dive of his own. He takes over until Ishimori connects with a nice handspring gamengiri. Ishimori adds a hesitation double stomp out of the corner. He comes off the top with double knees. Edwards catches him on a handspring attempt and hits a sit-out falcon arrow. Edwards follows with a fisherman buster for a two count. Ishimori answers with a tombstone lungblower and lays in a shining wizard. Edwards shrugs off a hurricanrana and comes off the middle rope with a lungblower of his own. They exchange rollups to no avail. Ishimori ends a strike exchange by hitting a reverse hurricanrana. Edwards immediately answers with a lariat and both men are down. They trade forearms from their knees. Ishimori connects with a superkick and a knockout kick for a nearfall. Edwards blocks a 450 splash with knees. He hurricanranas Ishimori off the top rope and hits a liger bomb for a two count. Edwards finally hits a 2k1 bomb for the win at 15:40. These two delivered a fantastic exhibition and filled their fifteen minutes with nonstop action. Ishimori was incredibly impressive and he meshed well with Edwards, leading to some great exchanges that wowed the already hot crowd. I’ve seen some pretty high ratings for this match. While I would’ve most likely went higher had this contest received more time, I will say that it served its function on the card perfectly. ***½
Match #6: ROH World Television Title: Matt Taven © vs. Mark Briscoe
They trade control on the mat until the pace quickens and Mark connects with a spin kick. Taven regroups with Truth Martini at ringside. In the ring, Mark ducks an enzuigiri and lays in a series of strikes. He hits a belly-to-belly suplex and Taven once again retreats to the floor. Mark connects with a dropkick through the ropes and hits a suplex onto the apron. A distraction by Martini allows Taven to take control. The grass is green. Taven begins working over Mark’s right shoulder. Mark comes off the top rope with a karate chop and continues with his redneck karate. He hits an exploder into the turnbuckles but finds knees on the froggy elbow. Taven hits a rolling neckbreaker for a nearfall. Mark answers with a powerbomb. Taven slips on a springboard attempt and Mark tries to save things with an awkward spinebuster. Mark hits a rolling death valley driver. Martini and his women start jumping onto the apron. The women kiss in order to distract Mark. Taven sneaks in a rollup to retain his title at 13:42. How did this match help anyone? Mark looks stupid for getting distracted so easily, Taven looks merely lucky, and the ROH World Television Title looks weak because no one can take winning it seriously. The match was progressing nicely until the shenanigans kicked in, but the finish was the definition of frustrating. *¾
Match #7: Davey Richards vs. Paul London
London is replacing the injured Naomichi Marufuji here. They battle over a knucklelock and try various submissions. The crowd starts chanting “you still got it” at London like he’s Jerry Lynn. Richards quickly connects with a dropkick and antagonizes the crowd a bit. They have a quick exchange and find themselves at a stalemate. London snaps off a slingshot headscissors. He tries another headscissors but Richards shoves him to the floor. Richards connects with a punt from the apron and calls himself the best wrestler in the world. The announcers keep mentioning how much London is sweating. Richards blocks a springboard maneuver with an enzuigiri. He takes control and really starts heeling it up. London comes back with a dive to the floor and reenters the ring with a springboard double stomp. Richards hits a german suplex. London connects with two superkicks and hits a dragon suplex for a nearfall. They trade tombstone positions on the floor and Richards is able to hit the tombstone. London crawls to the apron where Richards DOUBLE STOMPS HIM IN THE FACE!! The crowd goes silent. London somewhat recovers and hits a sunset bomb. Richards blocks a shooting star press with knees and quickly pins London for the victory at 17:56. London was determined to make a good impression but oddly enough, the double stomp going awry will most likely make the current fanbase respect and cheer for London until the end of time. Aside from a few rough spots, this match was entertaining and I really liked Richards’ heel attitude. It’s the type of attitude that I think would have made his title reign work much better. Again, I’ve seen higher ratings for this match, but I really liked the work put in both in-ring and character-wise. ***¼
Match #8: ROH World Title: Jay Briscoe © vs. Adam Cole
They begin with some chain wrestling. Cole gets sent to the floor by a shoulder tackle. Back in, Cole backs Jay into the ropes and attempts a cheap shot to no avail. Jay picks up the intensity in response. Cole enzuigiris him off the apron and lands a dive to the floor. In the ring, Cole lands a flying crossbody. After taking some offense from Jay, Cole comes off the middle rope and dropkicks Jay’s left leg. Cole applies a figure four around the ringpost. Jay gets the upperhand in a strike exchange until Cole kicks out his leg. Jay hits a flatliner into the middle turnbuckle and both men are down. Jay connects with a roaring elbow but Cole responds with a fireman’s carry neckbreaker. Jay shrugs off a superkick and connects with a lariat. He hits a falcon arrow for a nearfall. Cole fights back with a brainbuster across his knee. They battle on the apron and Jay hits a death valley driver. He follows with a mafia kick and a hangman’s neckbreaker. Cole traps him in another figure four but he reaches the bottom rope. They battle up top and Cole hits a german suplex. He connects with two superkicks and hits the Florida Key for a nearfall. Jay survives another figure four. Cole attempts the submission again but Jay inadvertently pushes him into Todd Sinclair. Steve Corino runs out and gives Cole a SCUM shirt. Nigel McGuinness promptly takes care of Corino by giving him a Tower of London. Jay hits the Jay Driller on Cole to retain his title at 19:58. For an ROH World Title match without much hype surrounding it, this turned out pretty well. The real story here was the seeds being planted for Cole’s heel turn, so the Corino/McGuinness interaction before the finish didn’t hamper things too much. Actually, given five more minutes of a finishing stretch, I think they could have really had the crowd rocking. Still, everything considered, I thought this was a solid main event. ***½
Overall: Border Wars 2013 may be a polarizing show because it should draw out what you look for in an iPPV from Ring of Honor. While there were no real memorable moments or blow-away matches, five contests hit the three-star mark and the card as a whole was consistent. While the World Television Title scene and some of the sub-feuds involving SCUM are not going well, London’s reemergence and Cole’s new direction coming out of this show have me interested. Again, some people may want more from an iPPV than just a collection of solid matches, but I thought Border Wars did enough right this year to earn a recommendation.
You can purchase this DVD at Ring of Honor’s store right here.