These are highlights from an AJ Styles interview on the Two Man Power Trip radio show.
TMPToW: Do you plan on wrestling at both Ring Of Honor’s upcoming Final Battle & New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Wrestle Kingdom 10:
AJ: As far as right now I definitely plan on doing both events. I’ve just been rehabbing a little bit on the back, I don’t know if it’s a slipped disc or a herniated disc it was very minimal which is good. The Doctor says it looks like it mostly seems like it is muscle so basically that’s just rehabbing that and I am feeling pretty good. I just got into DDPY. He (Diamond Dallas Page) doesn’t like it being called yoga. It is a little bit different and man, this thing has done wonders for me and everyday you do DDPY and you get your heart rate up to 150 just stretching and it just awesome.
TMPToW: Does potentially favoring a back issue hamper your preparation for such a big match vs. Jay Lethal at Final Battle:
AJ: Well I don’t plan on favoring it. If it’s something that I have to favor than I am not 100% and if it’s not 100% it’s just going to get worse. I believe by next week I’ll be ready and I don’t see anything messing with me and I’m not in a lot of pain. For starters I was and I didn’t want to make it worse and that’s why I came home from the (NJPW Tag League) tag tournament. After rehabbing it I feel like I’ll definitely be ready to go next week and be 100%.
TMPToW: Has there been a pursued interest by WWE to get you into NXT and join both Samoa Joe and James Storm:
AJ: I haven’t had a call from someone who wants to hire me so nothing really and I’m okay with that and that’s not a big deal to me. I think it’s more of the fans wanting something like this to happen than what I am wanting to happen. I want to be able to retire in a couple of years so I am going to go wherever that takes me. But I have no problem doing the Independents, I love it. I have a great time on the Indies. I’ve had a lot of great opportunities to wrestle a lot of great wrestlers. Also doing Ring of Honor and Japan that’s a good combination.
TMPToW: Before you retire do you even want a full time spot in NXT since that seems to be the gateway to superstardom in the WWE:
AJ: Like I said before, I want to support my family and I am going to go wherever that takes me. Would I like to have a “WrestleMania moment”? Sure. But I am very content with having a “Wrestle Kingdom moment” in front of 60,000 fans. I think that is pretty awesome walking down that long ramp of the Tokyo Dome in probably one of the bigger matches on the show. There is probably a couple other people out there that want to do the same thing.
Ring of Honor television continues on the road to Final Battle with the first in a series of episodes from the Nashville. Tag Teams were the focus of most of this episode as the main event featured Young Bucks vs. Briscoes. Also, a surprise unmasking by Alex Shelley, a TV title defense and The Boys declining to rejoin Dalton Castle round out the events taking place on the show. Another theme from the show was guest commentators featured in every match.
reDRagon (Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly) beat Silas Young & Beer City Bruiser (with The Boys)
The Boys carried the Bruiser’s keg to the ring. Fish and O’Reilly carried the IWGP jr. tag team titles. Fish and Bruiser start the match. Bruiser tries to be a bully but Fish makes a blind tag and reDRagon chop down Bruiser with a series of kicks. Silas tagged in and they double team him and make quick tags. O’Reilly gets cuts off leading to Silas and Bruiser doing a flurry of moves. Adam Cole strolled out to ringside before a commercial to provide impromptu guest commentary.
After the break, O’Reilly breaks free and tags Fish. Bobby came in off the hot tag and ran wild. Fish and Young traded strikes as the crowd did the yay/boo chants. There was action all over the place in the closing moments. Bruiser missed a frog splash off the top. One of the Boys jumped on the apron and O’Reilly kicked him off to send him flying before O’Reilly did a plancha. The other Boy snapped Fish on the top rope allowing Silas to use his Misery finisher (fireman’s carry into a diamond cutter). However, the Boys kept distracting the referee, causing him to be late to count the pin attempt and Fish kicked out. Moments later, O’Reilly tagged in and applied a guillotine on Bruiser. Silas broke up the submission and they did a series of double team moves on him leading to O’Reilly hitting a knee drop off the middle rope as Fish held Young for a backbreaker. They then executed the Chasing the Dragon finisher as best they could on the larger Bruiser and pinned him.
Afterwards, Silas ordered the Boys to attack the referee and they did so. They left him laying after a DDT. Dalton Castle came out to say he wanted his boys back. Bruiser confronted him and Dalton sent him packing. The Boys looked as if they would rejoin Dalton, but they instead left with Silas leaving Dalton bewildered and perplexed by their decision.
In another angle, Chris Sabin was in the ring and said he was hijacking the show hostage until the imposter in the KRD mask revealed himself. The masked man sauntered to the ring, confronted Sabin and, much to the surprise of everyone, revealed himself as Alex Shelley. Sabin would join Dalton in the bewildered and perplexed department.
ROH TV Champion Roderick Strong beat Samson Walker to retain
This was part of a theme of Roddy vs. the world, as Roderick wants to be a fighting champion and had vowed to take on anyone. Bobby Fish provided guest commentary and played heel in building his TV title challenge at Final Battle against Strong. Roderick dominated until Walker caught him on a dive and rammed him into the ring post twice on the outside. Walker proceeded to get heat on Strong. At one point, Walker pulled out an asthma inhaler from his singlet. He took a puff from the inhaler, put it back and pulled his straps down. However, Roddy made a comeback with a flurry and he gave Walker a gutbuster to set up a sick kick for the pinfall.
During the match, Fish grabbed the TV title belt. Following the match, Fish strapped on the belt and confronted Strong in the ring. Strong unsnapped the belt and took it back in his possession as they had a stare down with referees getting in between them.
“Inside ROH” with Mandy Leon highlighted the results from recent Survival of the Fittest tournament. Michael Elgin won the tournament and challenged Jay Lethal to a title match at the Tokyo Dome.
The Young Bucks (Nick & Matt Jackson) beat The Briscoes (Mark & Jay)
Calling this action packed would be a great understatement. There were moves and sequences all over the place. The All Night Express provided guest commentary. Eventually the action slowed just a bit and the Briscoes got heat on Nick. After a commercial break, the Bucks made a comeback and the pace quickened again with a hot tag to Matt. Mark cut him off with redneck kung fu only to get cut off himself with a superkick from Nick.
A few moments later, Nick did a moonsault off the apron to the floor. Mark moved and Nick landed on his feet. He took a flying neckbreaker from Mark, who jumped off the apron. Mark signaled for the Cactus Jack elbow off the apron but he jumped down to eat a superkick instead. Jay did a dive to the outside. Back in the ring, Jay went for the Jay Driller on Matt and Nick made the save with a superkick. Jay then gave Nick a superkick. Mark delivered a froggybow and the Briscoes went for the doomsday device. However, in taking the move, Nick landed on his feet and hit a superkick. A superkick party began. Bucks used Indytaker for a nearfall before using More Bang For Your Buck to score the pinfall.
Afterwards, ANX stormed into the ring and all three teams had a pull-apart brawl to close the show.
The Bryan & Vinny Show is back today with tons to talk about including some Smackdown notes from Bryan, Starrcade notes from Vinny, plus full reviews of ROH on Sinclair and NWA World Championship Wrestling from 30 years ago last week! A fun show as always so check it out~!
Adam Cole dominated screen time on the last in a series of Ring of Honor episodes taped in Kalamazoo as the build towards Final Battle continues. In the main event of this show, Cole was set to face Dalton Castle, but that evolves into a six-man tag team match also involving the Kingdom and War Machine. Elsewhere on the show, challenger AJ Styles confronts champion Jay Lethal and another miscue causes more tension in the Decade.
Mark Briscoe joined Kevin Kelly and Nigel McGuiness on commentary for the first match, which would play into the aftermath of the match itself.
Will Ferrara beat Adam Page (with BJ Whitmer & Colby Corino)
Page attacked Ferrara before the bell. On commentary, the announcers mentioned Page would not be at Final Battle due to the recent twist in storyline tied to Steve Corino’s neck surgery. As Page was pummeling Ferrara, Will fired up and jumped off the middle rope into a hurricanrana. Page cut him off and rammed Ferrara into the ring post on the outside. Back in the ring, Page executed a pumphandle into a fallaway slam.
Moments later, Ferrara started a comeback and used a sunset bomb for a nearfall. After clotheslining Page out to the floor, Ferrara did a dive through the ropes on to Page and Whitmer at ringside. Whitmer tried to toss his crutch to Page but Ferrara intercepted it. Ferrara hit Page with the crutch and covered him for the pin.
Afterwards, Whitmer attacked Ferrara. Mark Briscoe wanted to make the save but Kevin Kelly noted he was on commentary so he was forbidden from doing so. Whitmer suplexed Ferrara then shoved down the referee, who crotched himself on the bottom rope. Not able to let such dastardly action continue, Briscoe left the announce table to make the save as Ferrara smirked at Page for having just scored an upset. Briscoe would not return to commentary.
At ringside, Kevin Kelly interviewed the Addiction. Daniels said there is a bias in ROH against them. He gave various examples and mentioned being attacked recently by a woman (Maria) who instead belonged in a “nursery or the kitchen.” Daniels brought up the mysterious masked man also attacking them. He claimed it violated the rules of ROH saying “anytime an unknown quantity introduces himself into a match” then the match must end immediately.
Kazarian said the conspiracy continued as they were not recognized by the company or the fans as the “global superstars” they really are so they were leaving for New Japan. They vowed to win the upcoming (or actually ongoing at present time) tag team tournament before they return to reclaim their world tag team championship… of the world.
In his first (not counting a teaser of the main event in the open) and certainly not last appearance on this episode, a video package feature highlighted Adam Cole and his feud with Kyle O’Reilly. In another recap, a replay showed the angle where “Brutal” Bob Evans turned on Cheeseburger as he also tried to cut his head off (with a hacksaw no less), which led to a plug for their grudge match on the Final Battle pre-show airing on YouTube before the PPV.
Adam Cole appeared again in a commercial plugging his new t-shirt along with shilling a Kingdom shirt as well. The promo for the shirt was probably better than most promos on the last episode of Raw.
The House of Truth made their way to the ring for a Jay Lethal promo. Truth Martini along his Book of Truth and Taeler Hendrix along with her notable cleavage were in tow. Lethal congratulated Roderick Strong on finally beating him after losing previously in what Lethal sarcastically estimated as 1,000 times. Lethal predicated he would be champion again by next week because Strong would be unable to handle the stress of being champion.
Besides, Lethal claimed all the people want to talk about was how great of a TV champion he was, and they keep talking about him as the great ROH champion he is now. According to Lethal, that is why he will beat AJ Styles at Final Battle. Lethal went on to say how much he used to admire Styles as the greatest. Now, Lethal said he himself is the greatest because AJ never became TV champion or ROH champion or “undisputed” champion like Lethal had accomplished. Lethal then called out Styles.
AJ entered the scene to confront Lethal. Styles agreed that Lethal was one of the best in the world because of the bullseye on his back. Styles noted people keep calling him out and challenging Lethal. However, this time AJ pointed out it was Lethal instead that was calling out AJ. On losing the TV title, he said it was the best thing to happen to Lethal because he could now focus on AJ Styles.
Styles vowed to win the title and wanted no complaining when he did so. AJ challenged Lethal to shake his hand and say “may the best man win.” They shook hands, and then in a scene reminiscent of Ronda Rousey crazily ranting on Holly Holm at the UFC 193 weigh-ins, Lethal snapped and shouted about winning the match. He ranted about being the greatest wrestler in the world. They then had a stare down to close out the segment.
In yet another of his many appearances, it was “Story Time With Adam Cole”, which replaced what as Mandy Leon’s “Inside ROH” segment. Cole cut a marvelous promo on Kyle O’Reilly building up their upcoming match at Final Battle. That was definitely better than any promo on Raw.
In more Final Battle hype, Kevin Kelly plugged all the matches announced so far on the card. Imagine that, advertising almost the entire lineup for a PPV weeks in advance on a show taped weeks ago.
Dalton Castle beat Adam Cole (with the Kingdom) via disqualification
Before the bell sounded and as the Kingdom stalked an alone Castle, the Boys suddenly emerged dashing through the crowd, hopped the guardrail and darted into the ring to back up Castle. They even had their drama masks again. An angry Silas Young marched out and ordered the Boys out of the ring and shooed them to the back. The Boys did as they were instructed because, as it was explained by the announce team, stipulations mean something in ROH so they had to adhere to the orders.
As the match began, Matt Taven and Michael Bennett interfered early on and tripped Castle. Nevertheless, Castle sent Cole sailing out over the ropes to the floor before diving through the ropes on to Bennett and Taven. Cole dove off the apron into the waiting arms of Castle. He caught him and gave him a suplex on the floor. Cole cut him off moments later with a superkick. At ringside, Bennett and Taven joined Cole in attacking and stomping on Castle in plain view of the referee leading to the DQ.
The Kingdom looked to continue the beat down when War Machine made the save. Hansen and Raymond Rowe hit the ring to save Castle so Nigel booked an impromptu six-man tag team match.
Adam Cole & Michael Bennett & Matt Taven (with Maria Kanellis) beat Dalton Castle & Raymond Rowe & Hansen
They all brawled at the outset in and around the ring. Eventually, Cole and Hansen paired off in the ring. Behind the ref’s back, Bennett and Taven crotched Hansen and delivered a double dropkick. The Kingdom proceeded to get heat on Hansen as they proverbially cut the ring in half and made quick tags. Hansen got a hope spot and a few moments later fought off all three Kingdom members to tag out.
Rowe came in off the hot tag running wild on the Kingdom. Cole cut him off but Castle tagged in and ran wild on Cole. Castle set up and delivered a missile dropkick off the top. Castle went to lift Taven up for a tombstone piledriver and he reserved it. They reversed each other’s reversals several times before Castle executed a tombstone. Bennett and Cole then took out Castle with a double team.
Rowe jumped in the fray and cleaned house in emptying the ring. Rowe then did a dive to the outside. Hansen went to the top turnbuckle jumped off into a senton and wiped out everyone. Back in the ring, Rowe and Hansen went to set up their Path of Resistance finisher and Castle helped by giving Cole a German suplex. Then, Hansen did a splash off the top. Castle cradled Cole but Bennett and Taven broke up the pin.
In jumping in the ring, Bennett and Taven dragged a load of used streamers behind them into the ring and the streamers hung from the ropes. Rowe and Hansen clotheslined Bennett and Taven over the top rope to the floor. Rowe held the ropes open for Hansen to do a dive. However, the streamers supposedly blocked his view so Hansen missed and crashed to the outside. Bennett gave Rowe a spear on the apron.
In the ring, Castle went to give Cole his finisher but Bennett and Taven hit a double superkick to make the save. Cole followed that with a suplex into a neckbreaker to score the pinfall.
On commentary, Kevin Kelly announced the return of Kyle O’Reilly for next week in the first episode of the new series of episodes taped in Nashville. They teased O’Reilly finally getting his hands on Cole. Despite that, the show closed with Adam Cole and the Kingdom standing victorious.
The Bryan & Vinny Show is back and we’ve got tons to talk about. First, how YOU can have the opportunity to co-host the Bryan & Vinny Show~! Then, we’ve got our weekly ROH review and a new series — THIRTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK ON NWA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING! Ric Flair, evil Russians, Terry Taylor, the GOLDEN TERROR and so much more! A fun show as always so check it out~!
T Bone, Iestyn Rees, and Bubblegum beat Delirious, Kyle O’Reilly, and Bobby Fish
Solid opener that ended with Bubblegum pinning Delirious who had part of his clothing caught in the turnbuckle. Bobby Fish really great with all his little comments throughout the match as usual.
Noam Dar beat Lionheart
After some fun and games revolving around Lionheart having only one diehard fan, he once again walked out taking a count out loss. After the match both Dar and Sha Samuels stated their claim to a Heavyweight title shot.
Kenny King beat Cedric Alexander
Ring announcer Richard Parker accidentally began to call Alexander “Kenny” during his intro with prompted much mirth and references to racism/Hulk Hogan. Decent match and Alexander always seems to over deliver in these sort of situations.
Dalton Castle beat Silas Young
Good match between two of the MVPs of the weekend.
War Machine beat Roy Knight and T Bone
Originally supposed to be both members of The Hooligans but Zak Knight legitimately got drunk last night and did his ankle ligaments falling over a kerb or something. Tremendously wild match, all sorts of chaos and big bumps around the ringside/chairs. Really good stuff, T Bone and Roy as warring tag team partners in the midst of a fight.
Adam Cole beat Bubblegum to retain the PCW Cruiserweight Title Bubblegum answered Cole’s open challenge. At this point the crowd was so tired for the rest of the show, but they tried hard to get a reaction. Cole retaining presumably means he will be returning in 2016.
Joey Hayes and Martin Kirby beat Charlie Garrett and Ashton Smith
A good comedy outing. Hayes got the pin on Smith whilst holding the ropes.
Roderick Strong beat Jay Lethal (non title match)
Strong picked up the win via submission when Lethal tapped to the Stronghold. Good mixture of some comedy to draw the crowd in and more serious stuff. Both guys seemed to enjoy the weekend, Lethal cut a pre-match promo putting over PCW and describing the weekend as not just a wrestling show but an experience. Strong spoke positively after the match, and called the rest of the ROH guys out to share the ring.
Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer returns today to talk all the news in wrestling and MMA including a full review of a very fun UFC in Korea show on Fight Pass, the Fight of the Century signed again, some very interesting Ronda Rousey PPV notes, an update on AJ Styles back injury, ROH and NXT TV notes from this past week, Dave’s notes on the passing of Tommy Gilbert, plus the mailbag and more! A fun show as always so check it out~!
Roderick Strong beat Dave Rayne, Charlie Garrett, El Ligero, Bubblegum, and Kenny King.
Usual fun 6 man opener.
Sha Samuels beat Dalton Castle.
The East End Butcher vs the Peacock of Professional Wrestling was everything one thought it might be. Sha remains undefeated.
Adam Cole beat Ashton Smith to retain the PCW Cruiserweight title.
Decent match.
Noam Dar beat Cedric Alexander.
This was really good and a lesson in how to work with a tired crowd.
T Bone and Rampage Brown beat Martin Kirby and Joey Hayes, War Machine (Hansen and Rowe), and reDRagon (Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish).
All action 4 way tag action with T Bone and Rampage picking up the win with a double pin on Martin and Joey. A highlight of this match was just how ill O’Reilly looked, clearly very hungover.
Dave Mastiff beat Silas Young.
Solid match and Silas has impressed this weekend.
Lionheart beat Delirious.
Not much to say about this one. Lionheart is not a popular man amongst the fans.
Jay Lethal beat Doug Williams to retain the ROH World Title.
These two renewing acquaintances from TNA days. Looked like they had fun and it was a well worked match.
Show Three —
Dalton Castle beat Silas Young, Ashton Smith, Charlie Garrett, Martin Kirby, and Cedric Alexander.
Possibly the best multi man of the weekend so far. The very popular Dalton Castle got the pin on Silas.
Roderick Strong beat Lionheart.
Relatively short. Strong won by countout after Lionheart walked out. Such is Lionheart’s unpopularity that Strong’s usual “shitty little boots” chant became “awesome little boots” as he was very much the face here.
War Machine (Hanson and Rowe) beat reDRagon (O’Reilly and Fish).
This was really good and garnered “this is awesome” chants by end. Eventually War Machine killed O’Reilly and got the win.
El Ligero beat Kenny King.
King came out in BDC jacket and then faked a leg injury early on which got him some heel heat but generally fairly split crowd. Decent match, Ligero got the match after hitting the C4L.
X-Pac, Dave Rayne, Roy and Zak Knight w/ Scott Hall beat T Bone, Rampage Brown, Bubblegum, and Iestyn Rees w/ Joanna Rose.
Big reaction for X-Pac, Hall, and the Hooligans who were all surprises. Feel good match with the faces triumphing with Pac pinning Rees after some toothpick action from Hall.
Jay Lethal beat Joey Hayes to retain the ROH World Title.
With Hayes still on the mend from a pec injury this was a very respectable 10 minute match. Lethal winning with the Lethal Injection.
Sha Samuels beat Delirious.
Another clash of personalities and another choke out win for Sha.
Noam Dar beat Drew Galloway.
Originally billed as Dar vs PCW Academy trainee Jack Baron, Galloway came through the crowd and attacked him to set up Dar-Galloway III. This was really really good, match of the night. Brawling outside the ring, heated action inside it, and Dar having kicked out of the futureshock DDT made Galloway tap out.
Dave Mastiff drew 3-3 with Adam Cole in a 30-minute iron man match to retain the PCW Heavyweight Title.
This struggled to follow the previous match especially given the downsides of the iron man format. Still a decent match though, Cole took an early 2-0 lead, Mastiff came back to lead 3-2 before Cole equalised in the last minute. Declared a draw, a 5 minute overtime period was then declared a double DQ when Sha Samuels attacked both men. A bit of a flat ending to a good show.
Two-time IWGP Champion and current NJPW star A.J. Styles missed today’s New Japan show in Yamaguchi, Japan, due to a back injury.
Styles & Yujiro Takahashi were scheduled against Hirooki Goto & Katsuyori Shibata, but Goto & Shibata were awarded the win via forfeit. Goto & Shibata beat Sho Tanaka & Yohei Komatsu after some changes to the undercard.
According to those close to the situation, Styles took the show off for rest and treatment and he is expected back in action shortly. Styles & Takahashi’s next tournament match is scheduled against ROH tag team champions Michael Bennett & Matt Taven for this Tuesday in Fukuoka at Hakata Star Lanes.
The 38-year-old Styles had been out of action a few weeks ago with back problems before the tour, causing him to miss two ROH dates. He is set for some big matches in the months ahead, facing ROH Champion Jay Lethal at December’s Final Battle iPPV and Nakamura at January’s Wrestle Kingdom 10.
