Titus O’Neil def. Tyler Breeze with the Clash of the Titus.
RAW Notes:
HHH got a good reaction for his entrance but he was being booed by the end of his promo.
Crowd was very into AJ Styles, chanting his name many times and pulling for him over Jericho. It will be interesting to see how long they tease the Styles Clash. That was probably match of the night.
The guys dressed up as Savage, Hogan, Rock, and Undertaker were sitting in the front row facing the hard camera. The Savage guy started to stand and do the Macho Man motion during the Kane vs. Wyatt match. He was asked to cut it out by security. Then he did it again and security swarmed on them. During the commercial break, they were playing some videos on the Tron with the lights out and it appeared that they were being ejected. A few minutes later, they were being escorted to the seats you saw them in during the Rock segment. The fans chanted for them a few more times but they didn’t draw attention to themselves again.
The Miz vs. Kalisto match just destroyed the crowd. Miz’s long period on offense had people begging for the end. They somewhat recovered for the main event but not fully.
They didn’t make a big deal about the Fast Lane announcement in the building after the opening promo. Many forgot that it was even coming, as people started streaming for the exits once Reigns and Ambrose won, and especially when Rusev went through the table.
After the show ended, and Ambrose and Reigns left, Rusev recovered and took another monitor to the back, to add to his collection from last night.
Fun show (better than last time they came through Atlanta). A.J. Styles popped up a few times throughout the night so I guess they’ll have to edit him out if they do a DVD like they usually do for Atlanta shows. They combined the three scheduled title defenses into an eight-man tag match with all the titles on the line: Lethal, Strong & War Machine vs. Anderson, Gallows and the Young Bucks. Admittedly, the crowd was dead following a surprisingly boring match between Adam Cole and Stevie Richards. They woke up when Matt Jackson superkicked Lethal’s female valet, which prompted Lethal to superkick Amber Gallows.
*****
Dalton Castle def. Corey Hollis
Fun match that probably went too long. The crowd liked Castle a lot but he played up his antics for a long time.
Cedric Alexander def. Mark Briscoe
Fine match that Mark had fun with. Alexander pinned him after a cool looking move kind of out of no where.
– A.J. Styles started a promo saying since he’s home, he would give us answers, but then ROH Champion Jay Lethal interrupted him. Lethal pointed out that he beat Styles so it is his show. Lethal said Duluth, GA, didn’t deserve a wordl title match so he wasn’t going to defend tonight. Then Roderick Strong came out and claimed he was the greatest champion and that he also didn’t feel like defending tonight. The Bullet Club then joined in and the ring was getting really crowded. They basically called all the ROH champions pussies. War Machine came down the aisle but didn’t get in the ring. Everybody but A.J. (who kind of disappeared) brawled for a bit and left anticlimactically. Later, we got word that Nigel rearranged the card for the new main event.
– Styles interrupted a local wrestler’s promo and hit him with a Styles Clash for a cheap pop.
All Night Express def. MooseBurger
Hometown crowd loved Moose and appreciated Cheeseburger. ANX got the pin on Cheeseburger in an okay match.
Matt Sydal & Alex Shelley & ACH def. Michael Elgin & reDRagon
Really good match that had the crowd into it. Elgin did some impressive strength spots. The best was a vertical suplex where ACH and Sydal kicked Elgin in the stomach at different times, and he almost put Sydal down but muscled him back up. Then reDRagon tried to get him to finish the move but he wouldn’t, so they eventually pushed him over themselves to end it. I was surprised that Elgin got pinned in this one but it came after all three of his opponents hit their finishers. Sydal hit the shooting star and pinned Elgin.
Amber Gallows def. Veda Scott
Crowd was still coming back from concession break so not a lot of heat. Scott was working as a babyface which didn’t make much sense either. Gallows won with her feet on the ropes. Not bad but the crowd wasn’t feeling it.
Jay Briscoe won a six man scramble pinning Will Ferrara
A lot of moves and chaos as expected, but the end was underwhelming. After the match, Briscoe tried to give Ferrara a compliment but BJ Whitmer interrupted. He tried to get the Briscoes to join him in teaching the young wrestlers their place. Jay flicked him off instead of shaking his hand and Adam Page attacked Whitmer. Steve Corino threw Whitmer back in when he tried to escape and he got beat up more. Jay shook Page’s hand. Then Jay took a fan’s sign that read “Someone Please Hit BJ with My Sign” and Page broke it over BJ’s head to a big pop.
Adam Cole def, Stevie Richards
Stevie looks to be in fantastic shape! However, both guys also looked nearly identical because they were wearing such similar gear. This match wasn’t bad, but the crowd really died during it. I can’t pinpoint why but the energy just fell during this one.
ROH Champions (World Champion Jay Lethal, Tag Champions War Machine, TV Champion Roderick Strong def. Bullet Club (Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson, Young Bucks)
Best match of the night with a lot of action. Not much in terms of ring psychology though. You knew the BC wasn’t walking out with the titles but they still shined here. War Machine took out Anderson for the win. After the match, A.J. rejoined them for a group hug “Curtain Call” style. The crowd chanted “Thank you AJ!” Then Doc took the mic and directed people to the merchandise stand and the show ended.
It’s the Royal Rumble edition of the show! After Les and Vic get done discussing a different kind of rumble; people who just don’t know how to act on the road or in the supermarket when snow is coming, we’re pretty much all about WWE (12:00) the rest of the way! Should AJ Styles be in the Rumble, is the Rumble a good place to introduce new faces you have high hopes for, the less than inspired start to Wrestlemania season, what appears to be a lack of enticing matchups for Mania, Royal Rumble predictions and more~
1) AJ Styles said goodbye but had the show stolen from under him.
Making good use of his freelance status, AJ Styles has been a frequent visitor to the UK in recent times, and was enough of a (big show) regular for Revolution Pro-Wrestling that it didn’t seem weird when he won their Undisputed British Heavyweight championship last summer. With his impending signing for WWE, this weekend’s High Stakes had something of an air of a farewell, and what better way to do it than pass the torch to Zack Sabre Jr, who became the new champion in a great main event.
While many of the tickets were sold on that main event, the show was stolen, however, by Will Ospreay and Marty Scurll, who closed the first half of the show with an almost thirty-minute classic, underlining their growing statuses and continuing the theme of 2015 – that British wrestlers are outshining the imports. Mike “Speedball” Bailey made his UK debut on the show, going down to Big Damo after dominating much of the match, and Pete Dunne retained the Undisputed British Cruiserweight title he won two weeks ago, again against “Flash” Morgan Webster. RevPro announced a return to York Hall in the summer, and another shot in Reading in April. The year is only two weeks old and RevPro have already set the standard!
2) It Was Acceptable In The 80s.
ATTACK! Pro-Wrestling had a pretty good 2015, which included teaming with Chikara-Pro on the latter’s UK tour, and sending a team over to the King of Trios tournament as well as promoting a series of super-fun, sold-out shows. They started 2016 in the same fashion with It Was Acceptable In The 80s at the Catheys Centre in Cardiff where the gimmick of furthering their storylines and dressing up for the night’s theme continued. Not everyone dressed up, although noted killjoys the Anti-Fun Police did team with a homemade RoboCop, but Mark Andrews (Marty McFly), Martin Kirby (Skeletor), Eddie Dennis (Terminator), Robbie X (a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle) and others all made the effort.
The main event saw Dennis successfully defend his ATTACK! 24/7 title against Wild Boar before Pete Dunne took advantage of the title’s constant availability by challenging and beating Dennis afterwards. The undercard featured Andrews downing Travis Banks, Mike Bird winning a four-way over Kirby, X, and “Flash” Morgan” Webster, and appearances from Nixon Newell, Chris Brookes, Sebastian Radclaw, and Love Making Demon. ATTACK! is not for everyone – as one fella in the crowd loudly made known – but it is the most fun you can have on a Sunday night in Wales, a fact probably enshrined in law.
3) Grado proved he’s more than a comedy turn (again).
On a recent TNA PPV, Grado was challenged by The Pope to prove he’s more than just a comedy wrestler, and did so by engaging Abyss in a Monster’s Ball match, whatever one of those is. For those of us on these shores, however, he has NOTHING to prove. That was evident again this week when he responded to a promo cut by Chris Renshaw at Insane Championship Wrestling’s Friday Night Fight Club tapings last week with a stunning direct-to-camera promo of his own.
Renshaw, quoting the cover of Fighting Spirit Monthly (which listed Grado as a “TNA star” and claimed he “led ICW to record breaking heights”), claimed ICW wasn’t about one man, it was about everyone there, and that they deserved the plaudits coming Grado’s way. Grado, although he could have rightly pointed out that he did have a huge part in selling out the SECC for Fear & Loathing, went on the attack, pointing out that, yes, he did work around the world and not just in ICW, but he did that for ICW. Renshaw laid the foundations but Grado knocked it out of the park. The exchange can be seen on ICW’s YouTube page.
4) Promoting wrestling shows isn’t easy.
With British wrestling very much entering a boom period, there are going to be those who seek to take advantage of that for their own ends. As an independent games developer, the people behind 5* Wrestling decided to promote a three-date tour to publicise their upcoming game, and secured the rights of Rey Mysterio Jr to not only be in the game (their previous games featured thinly-veiled parody characters) but also to lead the tour. They also booked AJ Styles, ROH champion Jay Lethal, former WWE stars John Morrison and Carlito, and a host of the top British stars.
Unfortunately, they either overestimated the drawing power of such an ensemble or underpromoted the shows, and were rewarded with sub-1000 crowds in halls set up for four times that. While that would be a very good turnout for most British promotions, they can only have lost a ton of money which you’d hope they’ll at least make back on the game when it is released. The shows themselves ran late and were strangely booked, but at least showcased some of our top guys to audiences who may have been unfamiliar with them.
5) There were some pretty fun shows.
IPW:UK and WrestleForce teamed up to stage Harlow Invasion in, erm, Harlow, headlined by a TLC match between IPW tag team champions DnD and the London Riots which turned into a wild brawl, including an imploding ladder, an unbreakable table, and Riot Rob Lynch smacking a drink out of the hand of an unruly punter. The rest of the show included an All-England title defense from Sammy Smooth (beating an understandably masked Exodus), a Women’s championship match (of sorts) between champion Tennessee Honey and challenger Nightshade, the Swords of Essex, and the UK debut of Donovan Dijak, who beat Big Damo. Launching a new era for Shropshire wrestling, VII-Pro presented the first of the Underground shows in Shrewsbury on Friday, headlined by “Flash” Morgan Webster versus Nixon Newell (who wrestles men more than she does women, and rightly so), which turned into a tag match when Webster challenged her to find a partner because he’d brought Australian doughnut-lover (not a euphemism!) Toni Storm with him. Newell was joined by Mark Andrews, and it was ON. Also on the show were the Dunne brothers, Tyler Bate, Wild Boar, and Mike Bird, and they return in February with Chuck Taylor.
Down in London, in the very weird world of the RetroFutureVerse, Freddie Mercurio became a two-time Lucha Britannia champion, downing Cassius in the main event of a show which also featured Marduk Malik continuing his unbeaten streak against Pure Britannico, Diablesa Rosa turning away the challenge of Zombie Janey, and unfrozen Viking Nordico Fuego becoming King Of Lucha Chaos. They’re back on January 29th at the Resistance Gallery once more. Finally for a weekend short on quantity (if not quality), Futureshock opened their doors for the first time in 2016 for Uproar 86, a stacked show which saw The Models reunite to take down The Fallen. Joey Hayes & Danny Hope haven’t teamed for some time so the fans in attendance were quite surprised. Another surprise was the return of Cyanide, who stormed the ring to help Damon Leigh beat down Sonar Dursen after the latter had won their match. Also on the card were Zack Gibson, T-Bone, Mikey Whiplash, Ashton Smith, and Xander Cooper, and 2016 looks like being another solid year for Futureshock.
(Thanks to Garry Vanderhorne for his help with this week’s column).
Not an especially great opener. Both guys are still inexperienced & hadn’t previously wrestled on one of the big York Hall shows. Was by no means bad, but wasn’t the best opener.
Big Damo vs. Speedball Mike Bailey
I’ve see Bailey a few times & had really enjoyed what I’d seen. Was curious here as to how he’d gel with Damo & they really delivered. Damo sold Bailey’s kicks well throughout & helped in Bailey getting over in front of a crowd who weren’t overly familiar with him. Damo won with an inverted Bloody Sunday DDT. Bailey took a lot of punishment throughout. Post match both guys shook hands in a show of respect.
Colt Cabana vs. Doug Williams
Really fun match here working mostly British style. Both guys seemed to really enjoy the fact that they had the crowd when using British style. A fun back & forth match with flashes of comedy thrown in at points. Both guys exchanged various pin fall attempts & Cabana got the three. Post match Cabana cut a promo about his history in the company & claimed he wanted the British Heavyweight belt again. I’m assuming he & Zack will work a title match using British style down the road at some point. At this point Cabana was attacked by Lord Gideon Grey who was wearing the Mat Classic mask. Grey cut an awesome, angry promo on Cabana to set up a match between them next month.
Marty Scurll vs. Will Ospreay
This is where the show went into absolute overdrive. The stipulation was that the match was for the number 1 contendership for the British Heavyweight belt. All I can say is that these guys made the belt come across as one of the most valuable in the world with the way they worked this match. It was wrestled & put over as a big match & they used several tropes seen in major WWE/New Japan matches. We had the back & forth punches with the ‘yay’ & ‘boo’ chants, we had lots of fighting spirit, headsets, guys kicking out of & reversing signature moves & we even had Ospreay putting Scurll in his very own Chicken Wing. The match was crazy & ran for almost half hour. It ended when Marty used the Bryan Danielson elbows that he always used as ROH champ & then put Ospreay into the Chicken Wing which he passed out in.
I’ve attended every major Rev Pro show for over two years now & this was by some distance the most invested I’ve ever seen the crowd in a match. What made this even better was the fact it was two Brits that managed to put the crowd at fever pitch. I’ve been to a lot of live shows & I can honestly say this is the best match I’ve seen in the UK since Bryan Danielson vs Nigel McGuinnes at the first ROH Liverpool show in 2006.
Jay Lethal vs. Mark Haskins
Lethal wasn’t that over & he didn’t come across as a major star in the way outsiders often do. It was announced that it was for the ROH Title but that made no difference & the fans hardly reacted as if this was a big deal. The match absolutely fine, but I feel they suffered going on after Marty & Ospreay. The crowd was still very much calming down making the match hard to follow at points. I really think this would have benefited from opening the show. Lethal won with the Lethal Injection.
Sha Samuels, James Castle & Josh Bodom vs. Jimmy Havoc, Tyson T-Bone & Bram
This was exactly what it needed to be. An all around the venue brawl with lots of weapons & big spots. Havoc is super over based on his Progress work which helps his Rev Pro match’s. He’s done little in Rev Pro but most fans who attend the shows follow both promotions. Bram turned up as a surprise. He got a much bigger reaction than expected on his entrance, but once the match started this died down. Some solid comedy spots with the heels almost doing slapstick comedy at points. Havoc got the pinball on Bodom.
AJ Styles vs. Zack Sabre Jr
This was a very good match. It was very different to Marty vs Osprey in terms of pacing & style using a less is more approach. AJ very much wrestled Zack’s style of match here & really hung in there with him. Very technical throughout. Zack worked over AJ’s arm which he sold to great effect throughout. AJ looked very tired. I’m assuming the gruelling week he’s had wrestling was taking effect on him. The finishing sequence wasn’t quite as epic as I thought it was going to be. Zack did kick out of a one armed Styles Clash as well as a Bloody Sunday DDT. The match ended with Zack making AJ submit after trapping his arm.
*****
I’m sure you’ve seen AJ’s post match speech but it was a great way for him to leave the UK after a year of performing in Rev Pro. The AJ goodbye needed to close the show, but ideally the entire show would have benefited from Marty vs Ospreay going on last. Post show all anyone was talking about was just how great that match was. Again, I encourage you to check out Marty vs Ospreay!
A great show with variety throughout & booked at a pace that used that variety to mostly positive effect. Scurll vs Osprey was on another level. Quite simply myself & 1200 other fans where blown away by their efforts.
The following are 5 Star Wrestling results from the January 15th Liverpool, England, show, submitted by Jay O’Leary.
5-Star Champion John Morrison vs. PJ Black
Morrison pins Black in about 10 minutes after Starship Pain to retain his 5* title. Decent opening match to get the crowd going.
Big Damo vs. Zack Gibson
Hometown boy and Liverpool’s number one Gibson is out next after challenging Nick Aldis for his GFW title in the local press. Few jeers from the blue half of Liverpool for Gibson who is in his usual Liverpool FC style t-shirt but otherwise a great reaction for Zack. Aldis comes out and talks down to the crowd before saying Gibson doesn’t deserve a shot at his GFW championship. He introduces Gibson’s opponent for the evening “The Beast of Belfast” Big Damo. Damo pinned Zack Gibson with a rollup after pulling the ref in the way of Gibsons attack. After the match, Gibson gets on the mic and challenges Damo to some sort of hardcore match to which Damo just walks off.
Colt Cabana vs. Timm Wylie
Fun match which saw Cabana pick up the win after hitting the GTS.
Will Osprey, Zack Sabre Jr and Rey Mysterio vs. Marty Scurll, Jimmy Havoc and GFW champion Nick Aldis
The kids (and adults to be fair) loved seeing Mysterio and when he hit the 619 and followed up with a frog splash on Jimmy Havoc for the pin the crowd went wild. After the match, Scurll attacked Mysterio but Rey countered. Marty ended up on the ropes primed for the 619 before Zack Sabre Jr stopped Rey from connecting. A confused crowd were stunned into silence when Osprey followed up with a superkick to Mysterio before the five british stars all attacked Mysterio together. They posed and left the ring.
Joe Coffey vs. Carlito
Cool ending when Carlito accidentally spat his apple into the face of referee Chris Roberts before Coffey rolled him up. Carlito’s shoulders came up at 2 but a partially sighted Roberts missed it, counted the 3 and called for the bell.
Zoe Lucus and Lou King Sharp beat Jamie Hayter and Kid Fyte in a mixed tag team match.
AJ Styles vs. Jay Lethal
A decent main event match ended when Lethal scored the pin with a handful of tights. They went back and forth on the mic after the match putting over 5* before they were laid out by Aldis, Osprey, Scurll, Sabre Jr and Havoc. Jimmy Havoc gets on the mic and says how sick they are of putting in the work week after week over here when the American guys come over, get paid ten times as much and all these people lap it up.
The beatdown continued until Colt Cabana and Rey Mysterio run down for the save. The British guys scarper with the exception of Havoc who gets hit with a 619, GTS, Lethal Injection and a Styles Clash before the four babyfaces pose in the corners to send the crowd home happy.
Notes:
Really fun show. Credit to 5 Star Wrestling, their production team, and every single person on their roster for ending the tour on such a high. Great turnout in the Echo arena for the show with mainly families with young kids.
These are 5 Star Wrestling results from Sheffield, England, submitted by Keith Harris
– Crowd was a mix of hardcore fans and families.
– Joe Coffey pinned Zack Sabre Jr with a discus clothesline in a good opener
– Fun bantering segment with John Morrison and Carlito to set up the main event. Some humorous self deprecating wit with Carlito dead panning “What? I was on TV six years ago.”
– Lou King Sharp & Martin Kirby beat Kid Fite & Timm Wylie in a fairly amusing comedy match. Dated cat fight spot by female seconds before the finishing stretch.
– AJ Styles pinned Rey Mysterio with the Styles Clash after pulling the referee to stop Mysterio diving on him. Fine house show level match, but didn’t live up to the dream.
– Will Ospreay beats Jimmy Havoc & Marty Scurll in a triple threat match. Really well worked. Match of the night.
– ROH Champion Jay Lethal pinned PJ Black with the Lethal Injection in a slow starter, but built to an enjoyable finishing stretch.
– Grado & Colt Cabana pinned Big Damo & Nick “Magnus” Aldis after Grado pinned Damo clean in a comedy tag match. Grado came off as a star coming out to the Madonna “Like A Prayer” theme.
-5 Star Champion John Morrison pinned Carlito after the latter accidentally spat apple in the ref’s eyes and the former used a low blow. So-so main event. Early in the match, Carlito sold for Morrison using a foam finger as a foreign object. They worked pretty hard, but they couldn’t follow Styles vs. Rey.
Show was advertised for a 7.30pm start, but started at 8.05pm.
The show kicked off with an contract signing angle for the AJ Styles/Rey Mysterio match the next night in Sheffield. AJ Styles came out and challenged Rey Mysterio to a match that very evening. A skinny Mysterio impersonator came out and Styles beat him up. The real Mysterio came out, cleaned house, both signed contracts, and Mysterio wanted the match tonight, which got what little crowd that there was excited. However, Mysterio signed the contract for the next night, meaning that the match couldn’t take placetonight. A stupid angle which made Mysterio look like a dick for signing the contract, and even worse, pissing off the crowd who thought that they were going to get a Styles/Mysterio match.
Joe Coffey beat Will Osprey
Solid match, nothing outstanding though. Coffey had his fans from ICW, Osprey clearly holding back.
Grado beat Carlito by DQ with a low blow
Five minute comedy match, Carlito beat him up afterwards calling Grado a joke. Was going to spit an apple in his face, but Carlito said he wasn’t even worth that. Crowd seemed annoyed at the length of the match, justifiably so.
Jamie Hayter beat Zoe Lucas
Nobody knew who these were (I got the names via the Wrestle Ropes site) – apparently they were trainees from the Revolution Pro group here in the UK. A terrible match – they just weren’t ready, and it felt insulting that half the crowd paid £50 ($72) for this.
Rey Misterio beat ROH Champion Jay Lethal via DQ after a belt shot.
Crowd pissed at the finish again. Both put a mild bit of effort in, Rey is still really over with the kids. Lethal’s great, even when he coasts. Lethal pulled Rey’s mask off afterwards, and Rey had to go back with his shirt pulled over his face.
Magnus & Big Damo beat Lou King Sharp
Sharp is literally under five foot tall, and they did an angle where Sharp is oblivious of his actual size and acted like he was a giant. He demanded somebody to wrestle, and out came Magnus (with GFW belt), who towers over him. Sharp, still deluded, said that this wasn’t a fair fight and Magnus should have a partner, so out came Demo. Demo killed Sharp, and Magnus gave him a middle-rope elbow drop for the finish. Demo and Magnus did a staredown post-match.
Jimmy Havoc beat Marty Scurll & Zack Sabre Jr.
Very good stuff, but too short. Crowd, hardcores and kids alike, enjoyed this, some really cool technical stuff from Zack, as per.
UEWA Cruiserweight Championship: Kid Fite def. Jason Prime
Scarlett from UK TV show Gogglebox was Kid Fite’s sidekick for the night – apparently she’s a massive wrestling fan. Kid Fite’s manager (didn’t catch name) distracted the ref and Fite got the win with a belt shot. Bog standard stuff.
P.J. Black beat Colt Cabana with a top rope Asai moonsault
Good match with some comedy spots. Again, too short though, but we were running late.
5 Star Champion John Morrison beat AJ Styles
By this time it was 11pm, and lots of people had to leave to get public transport home. So, again, short match where an average amount of effort was put in, but I wouldn’t bother making an effort in front of 600 people on a rainy night in the UK either so fair play. Rey interfered, and Morrison won with a Starship Pain, which ended up with Morrison in a senton position on Styles, rather landing on his front, moonsault style. Not sure whether that was a botch, to be honest. Carlito challenged Morrison for the championship after the match.
All in all, and I hate to say it, pretty depressing. There was a great range of talent on the show, but there were tons of awful finishes, the show started late, overran, and hardly any atmosphere with 800 people in an arena. Pretty grim stuff. I’ve been to worse shows on a local level, but folk paid £35-£50 for this.
In Barnesville, GA, Saturday for the WrestleMerica promotion, AJ Styles and Doc Gallows began what will likely be their last run of indie dates in the U.S. Larry Goodman sent us in some notes:
Styles was set to face Jimmy Rave in the highly anticipated main event. Both men cut their teeth as pro wrestlers in Georgia with NWA Wildside roughly 15 years ago. It was a decade ago that Styles feuded with Rave in ROH after Rave stole his finishing move.
The match morphed into a tag match (Styles & Gallows vs. Rave & Sal Rinauro) after just a few minutes of action. The call was made to save wear and tear on Styles, who is headed to England next week for three huge matches vs. Rey Misterio, Morrison and Jay Lethal on consecutive nights. The 450 fans in Barnesvillle didn’t seem to mind the switch. They were into the match full force, as they were for pretty much everything that went down at this event.
– Doc Gallows defeated Sal Rinauro via DQ in 6:05: Rinauro turned a handshake into a punch in the face and ran out of the ring, where he cut a promo talking about how WrestleMerica was built on the backs of people like himself and Jimmy Rave (unlike Gallows who has missed a number of show due to his New Japan commitments). Rinauro stalled and jawed and stalled some more. When Gallows finally got his hands on him, Rinauro sold his ass off. Rave sneaked in and speared Gallows. That led to an instant “AJ” chant and the save by Styles. Rinauro and Rave bailed out untouched. Beautifully done.
– AJ Styles defeated Jimmy Rave by DQ in 3:58. Neither the Bullets Club theme nor his ROH music was used in favor of his less familiar New Japan music leading to a rather flat entrance for Styles. Rave didn’t use “House of the Rising Sun” either. Oh well. They grappled. Rave bailed out to avoid Styles’ signature dropkick, and Rinauro jumped Styles for the DQ. Gallows made the save and got on the mic to make the tag match. Gallows said there was a lot of history with Rinauro and Rave, but the whole wrestling world knew there was more history with Gallows and Styles.
– Styles & Gallows defeated Rave & Rinauro in 11:56. They brawled all over the building. When the action moved inside the ring, Rave interfered to get the heat started on Gallows. A Gallows double clothesline led to the hot tag. Styles had Rave set up for the Clash, but Rinauro intervened with a superkick. The closing minutes were terrific with signature moves and saves galore. Gallows dropped Rinauro on Rave to break up his crossface submission. It appeared that Styles got dinged when Rinauro inadvertently landed on his neck. For the finish, Gallows planted Rinauro with a chokebomb and Styles pinned Rave with a Clash off the ropes.
