Wow! What a show! This was one of my most anticipated shows this year, and boy, did it deliver! The big matches delivered and so did everyone on the undercard. Seriously, wow. The show took place in a sold out Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC. I will say this, the worst part of the show was the crowd towards the end of the show. For the last two matches, they just cheered at select spots instead of truly getting it going. Weird. Anways, let's break this mother down!
Opening Segment- They opened the show with Bullet Club cutting a promo. Karl Anderson introduced the IWGP Champion, AJ Styles. Styles said that there were no followers in Bullet Club, they all lead. This brought out Kazuchika Okada, the former IWGP Heavyweight Champion, who got in Bullet Club's face since they screwed him at Wrestling Dontaku 2014. Styles stated that he was busy with Elgin tonight, which then brought out Michael Elgin. Elgin stated that he thought he'd be facing Okada tonight, so he wanted Nigel McGuinness to come out and make the match a Triple Threat. Nigel came out and said he would make it happen if all three men agreed to the stipulation. Okada and Elgin immediately said yes, and after a Bullet Club huddle, Styles agreed as well. So they announce a HOT main event right at the start... Awesome.
1) Takaaki Watanabe, Rocky Romero & Alex Kozlov vs. ACH, Matt Taven & Tommaso Ciampa
This was a fun opening match. The crowd was particularly hot for the ACH spot later in the match. I liked the finish with Taven hitting the Climax for the win. Overall this was fun, and the crowd seemed to enjoy it.
Rating: **1/2
2) Gedo & Jedo vs. Roderick Strong & BJ Whitmer (w/ Jimmy Jacobs & Adam Page)
This match was not bad, but there was no doubt who was winning with the Decade needing big wins. The match never got over with the crowd, but it was not bad at all. The Decade win with Roderick Strong hitting the Sick Kick. After the match Cedric Alexander attacked the Decade as revenge for separating his shoulder at Global Wars.
Rating: **
3.)ROH Television Championship Match- Jay Lethal [C](w/Truth Martini) vs. KUSHIDA
This is where the show stepped it's game up. KUSHIDA is a very good talent and brought his A-game in this matchup. The crowd enjoyed this as well. There was a sequence early where KUSHIDA and Lethal reversed everything they were throwing at each other. Really good stuff. The two went back and forth most of the match. There was a point where KUSHIDA seemed to have the match won, but Truth pulled the ref from the ring. Sinclair ejected Martini right after that, which got a pop from the crowd. Lethal hit the Lethal Combination for a two count. KUSHIDA went for a big back handspring maneuver but Lethal dodged and hit the Lethal Injection for a three count. Truly an awesome match. These two had great chemistry and the match delivered in spades.
Rating: ****
4.)IWGP Tag Team Championship- Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson (C) vs. The Briscoe Brothers
This was a pretty good match, but the crowd didn't know who to cheer for. They were cheering all the New Japan guys including Bullet Club, but they also like the Briscoes. The match had some fun moments with fun high spots from Mark Briscoe. The Bullet Club retained with the Magic Killer shortly after reversing the Doomsday device. Both teams shook hands, but Jay Briscoe got in Doc Gallows's face.
Rating: ***
5.) Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kevin Steen
This was one of the matches I was looking forward to most. It did not disappoint. These two had fun chemistry and even worked in a little comedy early in the match. I really enjoyed the two big outside spots with Nakmura walking away from Steen flipping of the apron to the floor and the Apron Bomb from Steen to Nakamura. Both men reversed the other's running corner move with the Cannonball from Steen and the running knee from Nakamura. There were quite a bit of reversals in this match.Nakamura hit two Boma Ye's but Steen kicked out at ONE! Nakamura immediately hit another Boma Ye for the victory. Awesome match.
Rating: ****
INTERMISSION- They lost the feed during part of the intermission, luckily that was the only time all night. They showed the classic Danielson vs. Liger match from ROH and they showed the finish of the last Elgin vs. Styles match.
6.) Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Michael Bennett (w/Maria)
This match was slightly disappointing. I'm not sure that Bennett and Tanahashi have a good style match. Bennett works that old school WWF style with some modern twists, while Tanahashi has that fast pace exciting Japanese style. That being said, they made it work. Tanahashi is a stud and he made the finishing sequence work. Tanahashi wins with the High Fly Flow. There was no doubt in my mind who would win, but it was damn cool seing Tanahashi in ROH.
Rating: **1/2
7.) ROH Tag Team Championship- The Young Bucks (C) vs. ReDRagon
Good Golly, Miss Molly! This match was awesome. This match alone is a reason to see this show. If you are a "purist" then you might not enjoy this "spot-fest" match, but you have to be a real curmudgeon to not see that this was extremely entertaining. There were so many great double teams and reversals that my head was spinning! There was also a RIDICULOUS superkick from Nick Jackson to Kyle O'Reilly as Kyle was attempting a running double knee to Nick, but ate a massive superkick instead. The reversal of the night goes to Kyle O'Reilly with his reversal of More Bang for you Buck into an armbar. Seriously, you need to see this. Bobby Fish stopped Nick from making the save and Matt tapped out. New Tag Team Champs!!! Wonderful match!
Rating: ****1/2
8.) ROH World Heavyweight Championship- Adam Cole vs. Jushin "Thunder" Liger
Liger is close to 50 and he looked pretty darn good. Not going to say that he looked like he did in the late 80's/early 90's but he looked great for his age. There was no doubt in the crowd's mind who was winning, and they were exhausted from the tag match. This match also ended very abruptly with Liger tapping out to the figure four. I wish they had two more minutes because they were just getting it going to another level when it ended. It was still really cool to see Liger though. He is a true legend.
Rating: *** (The rating is this high because it's friggin Jushin "Thunder" Liger!)
9.) IWGP Heavyweight Championship- AJ Styles (C) vs. Kazuchika Okada (w/Gedo) vs. Michael Elgin
I won't say too much about this match other than the fact that it's awesome. There were some fun near falls near the end. This match would have been insane if the crowd was hotter, but alas they seemed tired and had nobody to boo. The crowd was treated to an excellent main event though. So many reversals, and breakups from all three guys. Okada is the real deal, my friends. Okada hit Elgin with the Rainmaker and then styles swooped in and hit Elgin with the Styles Clash for the win. This is smart on the New Japan side, as it protects Okada for their rematch in Japan. Adam Cole ran down and laid out all three guys with a little more attention on #1 Contender, Michael Elgin. This was a great way to establish Adam Cole as the douchebag heel going into their PPV comeback, "Best in the World"
Rating: ****
OVERALL THOUGHTS-
This show was really, really good. It was certainly worth $15. If you are wondering if you should order the replay and/or the DVD... yes you should. I had four... FOUR matches in the 4 Star threshold. That's ridiculous. Please see this show, you deserve to see it. Also, after the show they had a promo of Christopher Daniels announcing that he was coming back. They censored a guy that walked in and Daniels said he wasn't coming alone. Here's hoping we get Bad Influence in ROH.
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