Welcome to POST Wrestling’s coverage of Ring of Honor’s State of the Art event from The Aztec Theatre from San Antonio, Texas.
Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana are calling the card.
Right off the bat, they announce The Briscoe Brothers didn’t make it to the show and have forced a change in the main event eight-man tag.
THE BOYS VS MATT TAVEN & VINNY MARSEGLIA
The Boys landed tandem suicide dives followed by tope con giros to the floor.
Marseglia took Boy #2 into this gap between the ring floor. This left Boy #1 alone to be double-teamed in the ring. Boy #2 returned and received the tag.
Boy #2 fired up before falling to an Inverted DDT from Marseglia and top rope splash by Taven for the win.
WINNERS: MATT TAVEN & VINNY MARSEGLIA AT 10:21
After the match, Taven laid out Boy #1 with the Bang-a-rang as a message to Dalton Castle. Taven said Castle isn’t here tonight because he is still injured. Taven said he is the real world’s champion and The Briscoes flight was canceled and are home too. Taven and Marseglia are joining the main event to replace them.
RHETT TITUS VS FLIP GORDON
Colt Cabana stated, “we’ve seen how weird Flip is, he’s basically Canadian”.
Titus was in control until taking a springboard dropkick that sent him to the floor. Gordon landed a springboard crossbody to the floor.
Gordon hit the Samoan drop, shooting star press and moonsault sequence inside the ring. Gordon hit the Kinder Surprise and got a two-count.
Gordon landed the Star-Spangled Stunner and pinned Titus.
WINNER: FLIP GORDON AT 9:15
The audience was into all of Gordon’s offense, was a simple match with Gordon hitting some key spots and building the match around them.
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SUMIE SAKAI & TENILLE DASHWOOD VS KELLY KLEIN & THUNDER ROSA
Klein told Sakai at the start that she doesn’t want to wrestle her unless it’s for the championship and tagged in Thunder Rosa.
Dashwood landed a top rope crossbody to both Klein and Thunder Rosa and they rolled to the floor. The audience booed the heels heavily when they wouldn’t return to the ring. Dashwood began chopping Thunder Rosa in the stomach.
Klein and Thunder Rosa got control of Sakai and knocked Dashwood off the apron. Sakai fired up after taking a release German suplex and gave Thunder Rosa one of her own as the audience rallied her on as she tagged Dashwood.
Dashwood put Klein into the tarantula and hit the Taste of Tenille to both Klein and Thunder Rosa as they were seated in the corner.
Dashwood and Klein fought to the floor as Sakai countered Thunder Rosa and hit Smashmouth to pin her.
WINNERS: SUMIE SAKAI & TENILLE DASHWOOD AT 10:13
This was a very entertaining tag match, Dashwood was popular and extended to Sakai, who performed very well. This was a very solid tag match. I enjoyed this a lot.
TK O’RYAN VS JAY LETHAL
Lethal send O’Ryan off the apron with a springboard dropkick.
The audience was heckling O’Ryan with chants of “how you doin’?” and “you can’t wrestle.”
O’Ryan kept cutting Lethal off whenever he went for something. O’Ryan stopped a figure-four attempt and climbed to the top and missed a top rope elbow drop. Lethal hit ten Irish whips sending O’Ryan in the corners followed by a snap DDT for a two-count.
O’Ryan blocked the Lethal Injection and hit a fisherman DDT, which Lethal kicked out of.
Lethal went for the top rope elbow, instead went for the figure-four, which O’Ryan turned into an inside cradle, Lethal kicked out and hit the Lethal Injection for the win.
WINNER: JAY LETHAL AT 13:23
Another very good match on the card, Lethal doesn’t get enough praise as one of the most consistently solid performers each time out. O’Ryan did well in the match as his foil and both delivered.
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SOCAL UNCENSORED VS ATLANTIS, STUKA JR. & GUERRERO MAYA JR.
Frankie Kazarian cut a promo about how great it will be to leave San Antonio, just like Kawhi Leonard, who has asked to be traded from the San Antonio Spurs. Christopher Daniels called San Antonio “a diaper explosion.”
The CMLL stars got a strong reaction during their entrances.
There was a big “Lucha” chant as the match began.
It started with Daniels and Atlantis exchanging holds and was very cool to watch. The audience was red hot for the combinations as everyone took turns tagging in.
Guerrero Maya Jr. hit a series of backbreakers, was cheered heavily and then jumped from behind by Kazarian.
Stuka Jr. and did a handspring off the ropes at a ridiculous speed, which the audience was impressed by.
They did the row-your-boat spot with all six involved as Riccaboni sang along.
Stuka Jr. landed a twisting dive off the top followed by a Maya Jr. dive to the floor.
Atlantis hit a high cross to Daniels and tilt-a-whirl slam for the pin.
WINNERS: ATLANTIS, STUKA JR. & GUERRERO MAYA JR. AT 9:54
This was such a fun match to watch and Atlantis did enough for the audience, even though he has limitations. The CMLL talent was the most over on the show so far and this was such a great idea to book them on these two Texas shows. Stuka Jr. was excellent throughout the match and did some incredibly athletic spots.
SILAS YOUNG VS CURT STALLION IN A NON-TITLE MATCH
Cabana went deep explaining that Young sees this audience as his father and is yelling at them the way his father used to yell at him.
Riccaboni and Cabana began quoting ‘Lose Yourself’ by Eminem.
Stallion attacked Young as the match began but was quickly stopped and slammed on the floor. Stallion came back with a running double foot stomp in the ring. Stallion got a two-count off a backbreaker on the knee.
They countered numerous vertical suplexes from the apron, Young landed on his feet and hit a vertical suplex into a swinging neck breaker.
They had a battle of chops, Young ducked a clothesline and landed a knee and hit Misery for the win.
WINNER: SILAS YOUNG AT 7:20
Young shook his hand as he left the ring.
This was a non-stop from start-to-finish and made Stallion look great in the process of losing. This was another strong match on a card that has been very good.
Stallion received an ovation from the audience as he remained in the ring after the loss.
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BULLY RAY, SHANE TAYLOR & PUNISHMENT MARTINEZ VS SHANE HELMS, DELIRIOUS & CHEESEBURGER
J-Rocc joined Riccaboni and Cabana on commentary for this match.
Helms came out in his Hurricane attire and received a strong reaction.
Delirious hit Young with repeated clotheslines in the corner. He teased tagging in Cheeseburger and the audience chanted for him. Cheeseburger walks to the corner and shoves Bully Ray and wants him tagged in.
Bully was tagged in, teased going at it with Cheeseburger, and then tagged Martinez in. Martinez nailed Cheeseburger with a kick after he went to tag Helms in. Now, Bully tags in and attacks Cheeseburger while he’s down.
Helms eventually got the tag, he hit a chokeslam to Martinez, then Delirious & Cheeseburger took turns coming off the top onto Martinez.
Cheeseburger took out Bully and Taylor with a crossbody to the floor.
Delirious ran the ropes and was finally caught by Martinez with a big chokeslam and Martinez pinned him.
WINNERS: PUNISHMENT MARTINEZ, BULLY RAY & SHANE TAYLOR AT 9:59
The audience cheered the babyfaces, it was a showcase for Martinez and a backdrop for Bully’s feud with Cheeseburger. It was an average six-man, but the audience was into it.
CODY VS JONATHAN GRESHAM
Brandi Rhodes came out wearing a sling from her collarbone injury at Stardom. Burnard the Business Bear also came out and it was an enormous reaction for Cody’s entrance and they chanted his name.
Gresham wouldn’t kiss the ring, so Cody went to Riccaboni, who did kiss it.
Gresham took control of the left arm and mixed in head scissors that he would apply several times.
Gresham continually went for submissions and taking control of the wrist and arm of Cody. Gresham threw forearm shots at the left arm of Cody. Gresham went for a bridge and was kicked off by Cody and Gresham landed on Todd Sinclair’s leg.
The two rolled around the ring with inside cradles, Gresham got free and hit a bridging German suplex for a two-count.
Gresham has been outwrestling Cody, he goes for another suplex, it’s blocked by Cody, regains control of his waist and Cody lands on his feet and hits Cross Rhodes for the win.
WINNER: CODY AT 16:07
Cody shook hands with Gresham after the match.
The audience saw Cody as one of the major stars of the show and it was hard to position Gresham as the babyface outwrestling Cody.
Cody was endearing himself to the audience throughout the match and signalled to the audience before heading to the back.
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THE YOUNG BUCKS, MARTY SCURLL & HANGMAN PAGE VS KILLER ELITE SQUAD, MATT TAVEN & VINNY MARSEGLIA
The audience has gotten louder throughout the show and were going nuts for the entrances, specifically Scurll and The Young Bucks.
Scurll started out with Taven and it quickly turned into a brawl with all men fighting in and outside the ring. Taven hit a tope to the floor onto everyone, Archer teased a dive but pulled up and stopped, he was superkicked by Page, who proceeded with a top rope moonsault to everyone on the floor.
Nick Jackson received the hot tag after they had the heat on Page for several minutes, his foot has healed from last weekend.
The Bucks applied sharpshooters to Taven and Marseglia. Smith came in and stacked Scurll on top of Page and applied a double sharpshooter to both, which the Bucks broke up with superkicks. Smith lifted Nick for a Hart Attack, he ducked the clothesline and delivered a DDT to Smith.
Scurll called for the chicken wing to Taven, but he ran Scurll into the corner.
Scurll avoided the Killer Bomb by kicking Smith away. He took Archer’s finger and snapped it, then snapped the fingers on the other hand. The Bucks entered and superkicked all four opponents.
Archer and Smith returned and attacked everyone with slams.
Nick went for a springboard and Archer caught him by the throat, Matt assisted and saved Nick from the chokeslam as he backflipped and landed on his feet.
Archer spat water at Scurll but it was blocked by his umbrella, which was clever.
Marseglia was left in the ring, he was lifted by Page for the Rites of Passage with the Bucks and Scurll coming off the turnbuckles for the assists and Page pinned Marseglia.
WINNERS: THE YOUNG BUCKS, MARTY SCURLL & HANGMAN PAGE AT 18:07
The audience loved the main event, tons of action and capped of a very entertaining show.
This was such an enjoyable show and while it wasn’t quite at the level of a Ring of Honor pay-per-view, I don’t think it would have received many complaints.
The majority of the card was great, the audience was fantastic throughout the show and there wasn’t a bad match on the show.
The announcers conveyed just how over The Bullet Club is as a live event act if you’ve never seem them in person. They should be called “Bullet Proof” because having them headline a card is just that for ROH, they are the group the audience wants to see most and are so popular on these cards.
They are in Dallas on Saturday night at Gilley’s with the following card:
*The Briscoe Brothers vs. Killer Elite Squad for the ROH tag titles
*The Kingdom vs. Atlantis, Stuka Jr. & Guerrero Maya Jr. for the ROH six-man tag titles
*Cody vs. Shane Taylor
*Silas Young vs. Jonathan Gresham vs. Punishment Martinez vs. Hangman Page vs. Scorpio Sky vs. Cheeseburger in a “Proving Ground Match” with the winner receiving a Television title shot
*Jay Lethal vs. Marty Scurll vs. Flip Gordon
*The Young Bucks vs. The Boys
*Tenille Dashwood vs. Thunder Rosa
*Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian vs. Shane Helms & Delirious
