Category Archives: United States

Ring of Honor
Tennessee State Fairgrounds Arena (Nashville, Tennessee)
ROH World Championship 

According to Dave Meltzer, at one point this match was under consideration to headline ROH’s Final Battle event in December (at least that was the impression he got).  With the PPV debut in June, it was bumped up to this event which created a predicament of sorts.  Elgin needed to win the title in his next shot.  He had failed too many times before and was on the verge of contracting Lex Luger syndrome.  At the same time, the promotion clearly would have liked to keep the title on Cole longer.  They obviously intended to at one point and Cole was just coming into his own as champion.  Something would have to give.

It should be noted that the build for this main event match included a well-executed old school angle at the previous week’s house show.  After a Michael Bennett versus Michael Elin match ended in a no-contest, Cole and Bennett tied up Elgin in the ropes and proceeded to cut off his ridiculous ratty mullet that he had been clinging onto for far too long.  Not satisfied with just that, Cole put a figure four on Elgin’s actual wife – indie wrestler Mischif – when she attempted to intervene.  It was the kind of simple, dastardly action that pro wrestling has long had great success utilizing to build up a match.  It definitely added a needed layer to the match.

Michael Elgin has gotten over with a certain segment of pro wrestling fans on the strength of a being a power wrestler in a promotion with few power wrestlers.  That is one take on Elgin.  Another is that he is not a very good power wrestler or a very good wrestler in general given his spotty selling ability, reliance on big move after big move, and lack of any real personality.  Relatively speaking, Elgin kept his less desirable tendencies under control here but I am not sure it was a great performance from him by any means.

The match was smartly booked with outside interference from Hardy, Bennett, and Maria near the end to add to the drama.  Elgin needed to be booked to overcome the odds and they effectively conveyed that.  War Machine ran those guys off allowing the match to continue.  There was one near fall from Elgin off of a combo turn buckle bomb/power bomb that the fans bought to the point that they threw streamers into the ring in celebration.  When they realized the match wasn’t over, they briefly chanted “We F***ked Up!”.  Chants are the lowest form of communication and generally can be done without, but I thought that was a cute play on a popular wrestling chant.

The actual finish came not long after and Elgin became the 20^th champion in Ring of Honor’s 12 year history.  ROH played the title switch up big, dropping a legitimately impressive amount of confetti from the ceiling as Elgin did the emotional “I can’t believe I won!” routine mid ring.  Regardless of personal opinions on Elgin, he is over enough and the story had been built to this point so he sort of needed to win.  It also gave ROH a big moment on their first PPV event which didn’t hurt.

Diagnostics
US Indie Singles | Common | Title Change

Ring of Honor
Tennessee State Fairgrounds Arena (Nashville, Tennessee) 

Kevin Steen is yet another in a constantly growing list of pro wrestlers that are currently in transition from one place/promotion to the next.  Steen reportedly is in the process of getting a WWE developmental deal.  However, these things are never final until they are final and are especially uncertain these days given WWE’s desire to trim expenses.  Steen has publicly acknowledged that his ROH contract is ending and he is likely to leave, but when and in what fashion is unknown.

This match was setup when Young interrupted what was played up as a goodbye speech from Steen at May’s War of the Worlds event in New York City.  The fans acknowledged the fact that this could be Steen’s last ROH match throughout the bout.  If that were indeed going to be the case, it seemed likely that Steen would put over the relative newcomer Silas Young on his way out.

The match opened with Steen knocking down Young and attempting his running cannonball splash in the corner, but Silas evaded.  I liked the quick start given this was a grudge match – it added a sense of urgency to the proceedings.

The body of the match was fine.  A trimmed down Steen is wrestling with more energy than he has recently and his offense looked crisp.  I think Young is fine – particularly from a personality standpoint – but his offense doesn’t match his personality.  Here is a guy with stringy shoulder length hair and a porn star mustache who calls himself “wrestling’s last real man”.  He also happens to be the legitimate nephew of Stan Hansen.  A guy with those qualities should be a knock ‘em down, drag ‘em out wrestler.  Instead Young’s signature move is a somewhat goofy springboard moonsault.  It just doesn’t fit, just as a lot of his offense doesn’t.  His brawling was a bit better here with a brawler like Steen opposite him but there is definitely a disconnect between Silas’ persona and the style of wrestling.

The match was fine, but really a set up for the post-match angle.

Steen won the match with the package pile driver (a sign he would be around for at least one more show) but then cut another leaving promo in which he put over Young and shook his hand (a sign that the feud was ending and Steen was leaving).  Young accepted the hand shake and left the ring, allowing Steen to continue the supposed farewell speech.  Just as he seemed to be wrapping it up, Young appeared suddenly and attack Steen.  The attack came off great on TV – the camera didn’t catch it until it was happening and nothing else gave it away – and it was an effective angle all around.

Young and Steen appear to have at least one other match in them before Kevin heads to greener pastures.  Young defeated Mark Briscoe in a strap match some months ago and began to proclaim himself as the “King of the Strap Match”.  That has been downplayed recently but it would not be a surprise if these two are heading to a strap match blow off sometime in the upcoming months.

Diagnostics
US Indie | Common | Angle & Quality