Submitted by: Mike Murray (@ScarboroughDad)
Well, here we are, ROH’s first major show after what many perceived was a poor showing on their half of the G1 Supercard during WrestleMania weekend. Here is a quick recap of the show if you missed Best in the World 2019.
ROH Best in the World 2019
June 28, 2019
UMBC Event Center
Baltimore, MD
RESULTS:
*Rush over Flip Gordon
*Dalton Castle over Dragon Lee
*The Allure over Kelly Klein & Jenny Rose
*Kenny King over Jay Lethal
*Jonathan Gresham over Silas Young in a Pure Rules match
*The Briscoes vs. Nick Aldis & Eli Drake ends in a No Contest
*Shane Taylor over Bandido to retain the ROH TV title
*Villain Enterprises over LifeBlodd & PJ Black to retain the ROH Six-Man Tag Team titles
*Matt Taven over Jeff Cobb to retain the ROH World Championship
PRE-SHOW: FLIP GORDON VS RUSH
Crowd was pretty excited for both wrestlers with a “Flip” chant to start. Best in the World was described by the announcers as a tentpole event on the ROH calendar.
Rush invites chops from Flip and isn’t fazed so Flip slaps him. Gordon is thrown out of the ring and into the barricades. Rush throws Flip over the timekeeper’s table. Back in the ring, Gordon gets the advantage for a while but eventually Rush takes him down into the corner. Rush strikes a Tranquilo pose. After a series of casual pins on Flip, Rush sets him up in the corner and delivers Bull’s Horns for the win.
This match was probably Rush’s best match I’ve watched in ROH. Seemed engaged and went more than 10 minutes.
WINNER: Rush
Rush is interviewed after the match and says he didn’t come to play. He came to destroy. And nothing happens unless he says so.
PRE-SHOW: NICK ALDIS REVEALS MYSTERY PARTNER
The other interesting part of the pre-show was NWA Champion Nick Aldis coming out to introduce his mystery partner after it was announced that Colt Cabana would be unable to compete after suffering an injury. James Storm comes out, but he is not Aldis’ partner. Former Impact Champion Eli Drake shows up and he will be Aldis’ partner instead.
DALTON CASTLE VS DRAGON LEE
Castle did not have The Boys after turning on them following his loss to Rush at the G1 Supercard. Castle has also ditched his jumpsuits and capes. Dragon Lee came out in a baseball jersey with an image of his face and “IWGP Jr” on the front as well.
Lee went for his brother’s finisher almost right out of the gate hitting Bull’s Horns twice. Castle powerbombed Lee on the apron.
Lee was thrown over the barricades and into the crowd twice. Castle kept trying to rip off Lee’s mask.
Castle eventually hits a Bangarang but instead of going for the pin, Castle sets Lee up in the corner and delivers a Bull’s Horns of his own for the win.
WINNER: Dalton Castle
THE ALLURE (ANGELINA LOVE & MANDY LEON w/ VELVET SKY) VS KELLY KLEIN & JENNY ROSE
Last year at Best in the World was the first Women of Honor match on an ROH pay-per-view.
Not much worked well in this match. Leon was not in the ring for much of it. Velvet Sky was a presence outside and when it came time for the finish, Leon hit Klein with a high-heeled shoe (that no one involved in the match was wearing), and Love hit Botox Injection on Klein for the win.
I’m not sure why they didn’t have Sky wearing the heels and remove them so that Leon could use them to hit Klein with, instead there was just the mystery shoe.
WINNERS: The Allure
After the match, a video of some dolls sitting by a pool appears on the video screen. A hand comes into frame to grab the doll and rips its head off. A graphic for “Maneater” appears. Maria Manic appears in the ring and destroys two male security guards. The crowd did pop for this.
KENNY KING VS JAY LETHAL
This is the rubber match in their Best of 3 series. King comes out with a white cane because he claims he received an eye injury after Great Muta sprayed mist at him at the G1 Supercard. Lethal doesn’t shake hands for the Code of Honor to start the match and his arm is taped up from their previous encounter. King tries Lethal’s moves because he has scouted him so much but has no success.
Both guys try to hit each other’s moves and sequences throughout the match. Lethal hits a Royal Flush. When Lethal goes for his series of dives, King catches him on the second dive and delivers a spinebuster onto the padded floor outside the ring.
Lethal gets King into the Figure Four, but Amy Rose, the time keeper, throws the white cane into the ring. Lethal releases the hold and Rose runs away up the ramp.
Lethal hits Lethal Injection but King kicks out. King hits his own Lethal Injection and Royal Flush for the win.
WINNER: Kenny King
PURE RULES MATCH: SILAS YOUNG VS JONATHAN GRESHAM
Going way back in ROH history, they pulled out the Pure Wrestling rules stipulation out for this match. Each wrestler was allowed 3 rope breaks and punches to the face were given one warning before an automatic disqualification.
The Pure rules made the match pretty interesting. The announcers did a good job keeping the flow of the match going and explaining the rules and how they affected the match as it went along. There were some clever uses of one wrestler forcing the other to use up their rope breaks.
Gresham did not shake hands at the beginning, foreshadowing the end of the match. When the ref was distracted, Gresham hit a low blow on Young and applied his submission hold, The Octopus. By then, Young had used up his rope breaks and was forced to tap out. Crowd booed Gresham for the low blow.
WINNER: Jonathan Gresham
THE BRISCOES VS NICK ALDIS & ELI DRAKE
This match never seemed to really click into gear but they had a lot to cover. The Briscoes were disqualified from the NWA tag team tournament, so they appear to be at war with the NWA over that. James Storm was with the announcers.
After some brawling, Drake ends up close to the announcers. He and Storm get into it and brawl to the back. The bell rings at some point; it’s not clear why. Aldis is left with the Briscoes who are double teaming him.
Kamille appears in the ring and spears Mark Briscoe. Security removes Kamille. The Briscoes take out the security, put Aldis on a table and Mark delivers a Froggy Bow on Aldis through it. Marty Scurll comes out and helps Aldis up. Awful lot of attention given to the NWA during an ROH pay-per-view.
RESULT: No Contest? DQ??? Who knows.
ROH WORLD TELEVISION CHAMPIONSHIP: SHANE TAYLOR (C) VS BANDIDO
Seemed like they had a hard time getting the crowd into this match. Taylor hit a second rope splash. Bandido caught Taylor jumping off the second rope. Bandido hit a shooting star press for a 2 count. Taylor hit Greetings From 216 (a sitdown belly-to-belly piledriver) for the win.
WINNER: Shane Taylor to retain the ROH World TV Championship
ROH SIX-MAN TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP: VILLAIN ENTERPRISES (MARTY SCURLL, PCO & BRODY KING) (C) VS LIFEBLOOD (MARK HASKINS & TRACY WILLIAMS) & PJ BLACK
Villain Enterprises, who have their own custom belts, receive the biggest reactions of the night. Lots of brawling and crazy PCO stuff but it’s the post match angle that seems most important.
After retaining their belts, Villain Enterprises disappears. Sons of Savagery come out and attack LifeBlood. Cabana asks who they are and Riccaboni tells him. Bandido comes in to make the save, followed by Bully Ray. Flip Gordon eventually sends Bully packing with a kendo stick.
LifeBlood give Flip a LifeBlood t-shirt and he puts it on. Marty shows up on the video screen and says, “Isn’t it great that LifeBlood have a new member at the same time that Villain Enterprises has added their fourth.” Scurll says that Villain Enterprises has an intern, an understudy. The camera pans and Flip Gordon is beside Marty Scurll on the video screen, wearing a Villain Enterprises t-shirt.
Back in the ring, Villain Enterprises lay out Haskins and Williams. Flip goes up to the top rope and hits a 450 onto Williams through a table on the floor. Looked like Gordon might have messed up his arm on that.
WINNERS: Villain Enterprises to retain the ROH Six-Man Tag Team Championship
ROH WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP: MATT TAVEN (C) VS JEFF COBB
No video package; show must be running late. This was a weird match. It would appear that Cobb was being positioned for a big win here. He has been undefeated in ROH and only lost the TV Championship in a four-way in Toronto.
During his time in ROH, Cobb has been a suplex machine but there was very little of that in this match. We got an overhead belly-to-belly, a one-handed pumphandle suplex and an attempt at Tour of the Islands.
Taven hit 3 “Just the Tip” running knees. Then a Climax and Cobb kicked out. Cobb attempted the Tour of the Islands and Taven reversed it into another Climax for the win.
WINNER: Matt Taven to retain the ROH World Championship
The decision not to put the belt on Jeff Cobb is a strange one. After the Elite leaving ROH, this seemed like the perfect time to make a new star with him. Plus, Cobb enters his first G1 Tournament next week in NJPW. It would make sense to have your champion showcased to the NJPW audience unless Cobb won’t be winning too many tournament matches.
Whatever the reason, there does not seem to be a clear direction where ROH is heading next after this show, which is what I think this company needed most.
