Ring of Honor held their “Road to the G1 Supercard” event on Sunday night from the UMBC Event Center in Baltimore, Maryland and was their final stop before next Saturday’s event at Madison Square Garden.
Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana are on commentary.
QUICK RESULTS:
*Rush over Tracy Williams at 12:13
*Shinobi Shadow Squad over Colin Delaney and Coast 2 Coast in 11:41
*Mark Haskins over Silas Young at 18:07
*Kris Stradtlander & Tasha Steelz over Gabby Ortiz & Karissa Rivera and Sumie Sakai & Jenny Rose at 8:44
*PCO & Brody King vs. The Briscoes went to a no contest in 14:15
*Kenny King over PJ Black in 12:58
*Marty Scurll over Shane Taylor in 12:43
*Jay Lethal & Jeff Cobb over Vinny Marseglia & TK O’Ryan and Juice Robinson & Bandido in 16:11
RUSH VS TRACY WILLIAMS
The start of the match featured Rush working off the crowd as much as he was Williams. They fought on the floor with chops delivered and each sent into the guardrail. Williams kicked out of a brainbuster and hit double underhook DDT and dropped Rush onto the turnbuckle followed by a flying DDT for a two-count.
Rush missed with the senton, Williams came off the top and missed the target allowing Rush to hit a running seated dropkick into the corner.
WINNER: Rush at 12:13
It was an average match with audience lukewarm throughout it. Rush remains undefeated in Ring of Honor.
Dalton Castle and The Boys came out, Castle is his opponent at the G1 Supercard. Castle said he’s going to beat him next weekend then write something mean on his Facebook wall. I guess, this match is also taking place in 2007. Perhaps the loser can relinquish their ICQ number.
Rhett Titus joined Riccaboni and Cabana on commentary and announced he is joining the Honor Rumble.
SHINOBI SHADOW SQUAD VS COAST 2 COAST & COLIN DELANEY
Shinobi Shadow Squad consists of Cheeseburger, Eli Isom, and Ryan Nova.
Isom hit a suicide dive to the floor and attempted a crossbody onto Shaheem Ali and was caught and slammed down. Everyone took turns laying each other out. Ali hit a Doctor Bomb onto Ali and Nova dove in for the save.
Ali and Delaney teased a simultaneous coast-to-coast dropkick onto Isom in the tree of woe, but they were stopped. Isom and Nova held Delaney as Cheeseburger came off the top with a foot stomp to the back and won the match.
WINNERS: SHINOBI SHADOW SQUAD AT 11:41
They were pushing Shinobi Shadow Squad for a future six-man tag title match against Villain Enterprises. All six shook hands after the match. There was some good stuff in the match, but the negative has been a lack of crowd reaction and it didn’t jump off the screen.
SILAS YOUNG VS MARK HASKINS
Young missed a chop and hit the post from the floor. Young wrapped Haskins’ knee around the rope and hit a lariat to twist the knee as Haskins landed on the floor. Young targeted the knee inside the ring.
Haskins was limping and used the bad leg to kick at Young, which the announcers questioned. Haskins applied a sharpshooter and Young made it to the rope. Then, Haskins hit a flying knee of the apron to the floor. Cabana said the injury was “waring off” and Riccaboni cited adrenaline. Haskins applied a Fujiwara armbar and trapped both hands forcing Young to use his foot to get the rope break.
Young hit the Plunge out of the corner and Haskins kicked out.
Young tried to grab the rope for leverage and Todd Sinclair caught him, Haskins used a sunset roll up to catch Young with the pin.
WINNER: Mark Haskins at 18:07
This went way too long for a finish like that. I was taken out of it at times by the hot and cold nature of Haskins selling the knee.
Bully Ray came out and told Sinclair he sucks at his job and blamed him for his loss to Flip Gordon at Final Battle and wants him to reverse the decision for Young. Sinclair said he couldn’t do it, so Young brought out a table. Lifeblood ran out as Young and Bully bailed.
Robinson challenged Bully Ray to fight, he got into Robinson’s face and Robinson said it’s the two of them at The Garden so Robinson is answering the Open Challenge.
SUMIE SAKAI & JENNY ROSE vs. TASHA STEELZ & KRIS STRADTLANDER vs. GABBY ORTIZ & KARISSA RIVERA
Stradtlander did Bray Wyatt’s spider walk to throw off her opponents.
Steelz took out Stradtlander with a suicide dive, Sakai came off with a high cross to both on the floor and got the audience going. Sakai hit Smashmouth to Stradtlander. Rose came in and speared Steelz, Ortiz hit Rose with a DDT and Ortiz used an arm drag to remove Sakai from the ring.
Stradtlander struck Ortiz with a knee and hit the Big Bang Theory, which was a package tombstone piledriver and pinned Ortiz.
WINNERS: Kris Stradtlander and Tasha Steelz at 8:44
This turned into a good match, the audience seemed more engaged and the women worked hard with some big spots down the stretch.
Kelly Klein came out. She said she is proud to be part of Women of Honor, she respects Mayu Iwatani but is walking out of Madison Square Garden as the new champion. She will be a fighting champion and any of them can have an opportunity. Sakai walked up to her and said Klein will need more chances because Iwatani is such a better wrestler and will beat Klein.
PCO & BRODY KING VS THE BRISCOES FOR THE ROH TAG TITLES
Riccaboni brought up PCO being part of the WWF tag title match at WrestleMania with The Quebecers defending the WWF tag titles against Men on a Mission. He also added that winning the tag titles would provide attention on Twitter and Reddit, the barometers of success in 2019.
PCO was dropped onto King on the floor with a back body drop from Mark. The audience was alive for this match as The Briscoes tossed weapons into the ring. Mark was shoved off the top through a table on the floor. PCO followed with a dive through the ropes onto both Briscoes.
PCO did his usual somersault from the top, missed and landed back first on the edge of the apron. This is not the spot to become synonymous with. King nailed Jay with a chair to the back and there were a series of chair shots as Sinclair threw out the match.
WINNERS: No Contest at 14:15
It wasn’t an idea finish, but this was a strong match and it wasn’t meant to conclude anything but to build up next weekend’s match.
The Briscoes hit a double-team superplex to PCO onto the chairs in the ring. The audience chanted “one more time” loudly as they had no care for the health of PCO. The Briscoes used a kendo stick to attack PCO and hit another superplex onto the chairs. Then, Mark did a somersault off the top putting King through a table on the floor. The audience treated The Briscoes as complete babyfaces and they celebrated in the crowd.
KENNY KING VS PJ BLACK
King landed a tornillo onto Black on the floor. Black came with one of his own moments later.
King kicked him in the ribs and head. Black hit the Darewolf sault and King kicked out. Black offered his hand and King spit on it. King repeatedly kicked out of Black’s maneuvers. King knocked referee Paul Turner into the ropes to knock Black off balance and hit the Royal Flush.
WINNER: Kenny King at 12:58
I never got into this match, it was getting later into the show, the audience seemed checked out and felt by the numbers without ever advancing to the next level.
King announced he just signed a two year deal with Ring of Honor. He has been put into the Honor Rumble and he demands to be the #1 entrant.
SHANE TAYLOR VS MARTY SCURLL
If Taylor wins, he replaces Scurll in the Ladder match for the ROH title at the G1 Supercard.
Taylor had the advantage in the beginning portion. Scurll hit a 619 and the audience enjoyed it. Scurll attempted the chicken wing but he was too big to apply it and was run into the corner. Scurll came off the turnbuckle and stomped the hand before snapping the fingers. Taylor blasted him with a right hand with the injured hand.
It built up to Scurll hitting a brainbuster and Taylor kicked out.
Matt Taven came out and threw a chain at Taylor. Taylor landed a low blow and hit him with the chain and pinned Scurll.
The audience was quiet for the ending. Todd Sinclair ran down and informed Paul Turner what happened. Turner found the chain and he re-started the match.
Scurll locked on the chicken wing and Taylor tapped out with 15 seconds of the restart
WINNER: Marty Scurll at 12:43
They had a good match with the audience behind Scurll and into the key moments of the match. They didn’t buy Taylor was going to enter the ladder match but the restart with Scurll applying the chicken wing was one of the bigger reactions of the show.
JAY LETHAL & JEFF COBB VS JUICE ROBINSON & BANDIDO VS VINNY MARSEGLIA & TK O’RYAN
Lethal and Robinson each attempted their finishers early and were blocked.
O’Ryan distracted Todd Sinclair to allow Marseglia to attack Robinson on the floor with a clothesline. The announcers brought up all the stuff involving the referees tonight, it has felt like overkill.
The announcers stated Mark Haskins has been attacked in the back.
Marseglia and O’Ryan had the advantage on Robinson until tagging in Bandido and fired up. He caught Marseglia with a standing Spanish Fly. They took turns with each other and featured Cobb throwing Robinson. Bandido caught Cobb off the turnbuckle and turned it into a powerslam that looked excellent. Bandido followed with a corkscrew off the top to the floor onto everyone and the audience was buzzing.
Bandido hit the 21 Plex onto Marseglia. The rest were sent to the floor and Lethal was the legal man and hit Marseglia with the Lethal Injection and pinned him.
WINNERS: Jay Lethal & Jeff Cobb at 16:11
This was a fun main event, they subtly teased a future match between Lethal and Juice Robinson as a fresh combination. Bandido was awesome in the match and stood out the most.
Lethal, Marty Scurll, and Matt Taven stood in the ring to close the show.
The show was not a must-see as it felt like an above average house show. It took a few matches for the audience to start reacting, but I’d say the second half of the show was pretty good. There was little in the way of storyline consequences for next weekend’s show other than Juice Robinson answering Bully Ray’s challenge and some new Honor Rumble participants. I would recommend the main event and the tag title match, even with the non-finish it was a good tag match involving the four. Also, the women’s match over-delivered and I was impressed with Kris Stradtlander.
