Last night's PPV was an important one for Ring of Honor. Reports had been running about the unhappiness in the locker room, and that people wanted to jump off the ship. They had been bringing in talent from New Japan for a while now, but the shows felt without any weight. This how did not have that issue by show end.
I am going to break down a few highlights from the undercard before I get to the big finish...
- War Machine vs. The Briscoes was a lot of fun. Good brawling and near falls aplenty. Kudos to these teams for putting on a show that provided a spark to the lower end of the card.
- Naito vs. O'Reilly was a fun match, although it suffered from the ending being obvious to the live crowd.
- Okada and Moose vs. Tanahashi and Mike Elgin was a very good match. I liked the flow of the match and Moose came out looking strong, which is good for ROH
- Bobby Fish beating Ishii was unexpected and appreciated by this viewer. Good match that put Bobby Fish over against a star in New Japan. They also set this up nicely with the pre match video of Bobby's quest for the TV title.
- The Eight-Man Tag match was fun to watch as well (a theme of the evening). The Mr. Wrestling III Superkick counter was hilarious and it also showed that the Young Bucks could wrestle in a match without any superkicks. Tonga Loa is not very good, but that is no surprise. The announce team noted that the Bucks promised the largest superkick party and a new member, and neither was delivered.
Now we get to the main event. Colt Cabana vs Jay Lethal for the ROH World Championship! This was Colt's first championship match after his return from a five year hiatus. The Chicago crowd was certainly behind Cabana in this matchup that was a decent match up until the end. Taeler Hendrix kept interfering and was kicked out. She came back out and pulled Todd Sinclair out of the ring. The Young Bucks ran down and superkicked Todd Sinclair than Taeler.
The Bucks get in the ring holding two Bullet Club shirts and throw them at Cabana and Lethal. The lights then go out and when they come back up... Adam Cole is standing in the ring with a Bullet Club shirt and tights. There is than a crazy beat down and superkick party of Cabana, Lethal, every security guy, the camera guy, and even the announce team! The Bullet Club spray painted tables and barricades then the Young Bucks dad came in the ring to make them stop. The Young Bucks and Adam Cole then did a Triple Superkick on their father. The show closed with an awesome camera shot from the camera of the superkicked camera worker.
Some people are mad that ROH charged $35.00 for a PPV only to have a screwy finish. I however am very happy with the ending and I also spent that money for the program. There were posts online questioning the future of ROH. Fans were stating that they needed to mix things up and have an interesting angle. While this angle wasn't fresh or new, it was certainly interesting. Especially for a company that usually has clean finishes to their main event matches.
At the end of the day, this finish made me want to watch ROH TV to see what happens next. That is crucial for ROH. I didn't buy the show for them, I bought it because NJPW's involvement. Granted the Bullet Club is part of New Japan, but I think that they are going to have a Bullet Club East Team that is led by Adam Cole in ROH. That will work just fine and will create a nice mix up in their main event scene. This may end up failing, but Ring of Honor has been injected with a much needed buzz. We shall see where they go from here.
Their next goal should be creating a more affordable and reliable PPV system, but that is a journey that will take time. Hopefully for their sake they figure it out before it's too late.
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