– ROH Tag Team Champions The Addiction beat Silas Young & Beer City Bruiser to retain in a great match.
– Fish Tank segment with Mark Briscoe and ACH led to a number one contenders match for the TV title. Briscoe then beat ACH.
– Jay White made his ROH debut and beat Kamaitachi (with Christopher Daniels) by DQ. Postmatch, the Addiction beat them down which brings out the Motor City Machine Guns.
– Jay White & Motor City Machine Guns beat ROH Tag Team Champions The Addiction & Kamaitachi
– Keith Lee & Shane Taylor beat an unknown tag team.
– Dalton Castle beat Roderick Strong in Strong’s farewell ROH match
Both guys hugged afterwards and there were “Thank you Roddy” and “You deserve it” chants post-match. Strong gives an emotional speech, thanking fans for their support and says he hopes to wrestle in ROH again someday.
– Kyle O’Reilly came out for his World Title match with Jay Lethal, but before Lethal can come out, Adam Cole hits the stage and says O’Reilly has skipped him in line and doesn’t deserve this match, and, in fact, he won’t be wrestling at all tonite. Young Bucks sneak attack O’Reilly from behind and the Bullet Club injures his arm and shoulder with a steel chair.
– War Machine beat an unknown tag team.
– Caprice Coleman and the All Night Express beat Cheeseburger & Will Ferrera & Moose
– ROH World Champion Jay Lethal beat the injured Kyle O’Reilly in a great match
Bullet Club attacks both post-match, leading Nigel to declare that Adam Cole will never get a title shot as long as he’s in charge. Lethal asks that he be added to the announced main event.
– Moose beat Mike “P-Dog” Posey. Dijak came out to challenge Moose. Dijak beat Moose, then attacked Stokley Hathaway.
– ROH Champion Jay Lethal & Briscoes beat Bullet Club
After the match, the Bullets incapacitate Lethal in the ropes and Cole cuts off Lethal’s dreads, then violently shave his whole head. Bucks lead the crowd in “That was too sweet” and “You deserve it” (to Lethal) chants to end the show.
Fantastic show, crowd was really into almost all of it.
New Japan’s top star Hiroshi Tanahashi has joined The Young Bucks on the injury list for the current Best of the Super Juniors tour due to a broken left shoulder.
As noted in the current issue of the Observer, Tanahashi was hurting badly during the ROH tour last week. At yesterday’s tour opening show at Korakuen Hall, Tanahashi was destroyed by the Bullet Club in an angle, most notably by Kenny Omega. The angle was a storyline to explain his absence.
New Japan announced the injury and said he will be out the rest of the tour. They want him to heal up for one of the company’s signature events of the year like the June 19th Dominion show at Osaka Jo Hall where he is set to face Omega in a ladder match.
All of Tanahashi’s bookings for the rest of the tour will be filled by Satoshi Kojima, who will begin a new program against The Bullet Club.
– Kamaitachi and Will Ferrara started the night with a web exclusive match
Crowd didn’t seem to care for Ferrara all that much, but Kamanitachi got a nice reception. Fun opener. Both guys worked quick. Kamaitachi won with a modified Air Raid Crash. Great finisher.
– They announced that the show was being taped for VOD and DVD, so apparently these matches won’t be featured on ROH TV. Bobby Cruise got the crowd pumped up for the opener.
– Bullet Club came out, with their newest member Adam Cole, who may have been the most popular American wrestler on the show tonight.
Standard BC promo work. Called out the Briscoes, MCMG, Cabana, and Lethal. Briscoes and MCMG come out, call off their tag match and challenge Bullet Club. Cole reminds them they need a 5th man. Cue Adam Page who comes out and offers to be the 5th to the ROH team and demands the match start immediately. BC retreats, Nick Jackson says they didn’t come here to curtain jerk, and they’d see each other in the main event. Solid opening segment, crowd seemed to eat it up.
– Matt Sydal and ACH beat Silas Young and the Beer City Bruiser
Sydal and ACH worked as underdogs while Silas and Bruiser played bullies. Okay stuff overall, but ACH is a much better act in person than he is on TV in my opinion. His dive to the outside using the second rope as a spring is very impressive. ACH gets the pin with a 450, and in the post match announces that he’s learned a lot from Sydal, but has to find his own path now. Sydal and ACH split amicably to a lukewarm reaction.
– Roddy Strong vs. Lio Rush
Rush came out, followed by Strong, who got a good pop. Roderick announced that Lio was replacing the injured Jushin Liger, to the displeasure of much of the crowd. Roderick worked as a full blown heel, bullying the smaller Rush. Rush did get some sneaky offense in, and looked impressive throughout. A fun spot had Lio catching Roddy in a rear naked choke, only for Roddy to run back first into the turnbuckle.
Lio climbed back on and they repeated the spot twice more. Ultimately, Roderick won by turning a guillotine into the End of Heartache, and getting the pin. Roddy added a post match beatdown for good measure, only for Liger to make the save, forcing Roddy to retreat. Liger took a position at the commentary desk for the next couple matches.
– ROH Champions War Machine beat Kazuchika Okada and Gedo
Okada with the biggest pop of the night thus far. Seemed like a significant portion of the crowd was there just to see him. War Machine, on the other hand, people seemed indifferent on. Rowe and Hanson got on the mic, and announced they were putting the belts on the line against Okada and Gedo. War Machine worked as heels (kinda), beating down the smaller Gedo before Okada could get a hot tag. In the end, Okada hit the Rainmaker on Rowe but was not the legal man. Hanson cleared Okada out of the ring and hit Gedo with a leg lariat for the win.
Post match, The Addiction, who were not announced, hit the ring, and challenged War Machine to a title match in NYC Saturday night. War Machine declined, and offered instead to put the belts on the line tonight. Crowd was excited for another title match.
– Kushida defeated Dalton Castle
People are really into Castle, and his entrance got big cheers. Kushida was also extremely over with the crowd. Funny spot early had Dalton retreating to the corner and being fanned by the Boys, only for Kushida to do the same moments later. They briefly fought over the Boys’ services before getting serious once again. Good chemistry between these two.
– Hiroshi Tanahashi and Michael Elgin beat the All Night Express
Good match, Elgin seems much less stale with Tanahashi by his side. Tanahashi was by far the most over man in the match. Better than the War Machine/Okada & Gedo match, but not by much. A few miscues by Kenny King that the crowd really got on him for. Finish was dual High Fly Flows by Tanahashi and Elgin, with Elgin getting the pin. Tanahashi was truly the star here. Everything he did looked effortless.
– Tomohiro Ishii pinned Moose
Moose was very over, but did attract some rather vocal detractors. Ishii was well liked, and got a decent reaction. The story of this one was Ishii finding ways to chop down Moose. Moose is much larger in person, and towered over Ishii. I’m not the biggest Ishii fan, but this match was very good. Trading chops, standard headbutts from Ishii (much of the crowd was encouraging Moose to engage Ishii in a battle of headbutts). Moose got the crowd going by swinging Ishii back and forth while standing in the corner of the ring barricades. Huge reaction for Ishii nailing Moose with a superplex. Ishii finally got the win with a brainbuster. After the match, Todd Sinclair ran down and grabbed Nigel McGuiness, who had been on commentary, and brought him to the back. No announcement to the crowd as to what was going on.
– The Addiction defeated War Machine to win the ROH tag titles
Crowd seemed to be 60/40 for The Addiction from the get go. All out brawl to start. First several minutes were spent on the floor, with the ref unable to gain control. War Machine remained dominant for much of the match, until Kaz was able to slip a title belt in the ring and distract the ref, allowing Daniels to hit Rowe with the belt. Ref was distracted for too long and Rowe kicked out at 2. Kaz tried the same routine, but Daniels got caught. While the ref returned the belt to ringside, Kaz hit Rowe with a chain made of bullets (bandoleer?), allowing Daniels to get the pin. New champs. Crowd was hot for the finish. Nobody in the room seemed to expect it.
– Nigel returned to commentary after the Tag Title Match
– ReDragon beat IWGP Heavyweight Champion Tetsuya Naito and ROH World Champion Jay Lethal
All 4 men were great, but Naito in particular stood out from the beginning, starting with a great entrance (including a belt toss). Comedy spot early had O’Reilly stomping Lethal’s fingers repeatedly, prompting Taeler Hendrix to kiss Lethal’s hand to alleviate the pain. O’Reilly gave Naito the same treatment, but when Naito asked Hendrix for the same treatment she gave Lethal, Lethal intervened. Naito eventually had a fan in the front row kiss his hand, to quite the reaction. Naito teased a dive to the outside, only to roll into his signature “I don’t give a sh*t” pose. Both teams went back and forth, lots of great action all around, too much to recount.
Finish had Lethal and Naito intercommunicating in the ring, allowing O’Reilly to take advantage and make a hot comeback. Bobby Fish took out Naito by running him into the barricade, before hitting Chasing the Dragon with O’Reilly to get the pin on Lethal. Seemed to be setting up a O’Reilly/Lethal title match. After the pin, Naito entered the ring with a chair, only to sit down in it rather than take out ReDragon. Naito treated us to a second belt toss, and seemed very displeased with Lethal. Seeds planted for a match between these too at some point as well. Strongly recommend seeing this match when it becomes available.
– Bullet Club vs. MCMG/Briscoes/Colt Cabana
Finally, Bullet Club came out for the main event. Noticeable change in the audio at this point in the night, so this match may have been shot for TV. Bucks and Cole were more over than Guerrillas of Destiny, but the latter seemed to win the crowd over by the end. Briscoes and MCMG out, only for Adam Cole to tell them that the Superkick Party started early in the back, and Adam Page can’t make it to the ring anymore. Cue Bullet Club beat down. The Bucks and Guerrillas divide and conquer, each taking a man to a corner on the outside barricades.
Adam Cole begins “Story Time with Adam Cole” only to be interrupted by Colt Cabana, who got arguably the biggest pop of the night. 10 man tag was complete chaos, but a lot of fun. Guerrillas and Briscoes seem to click with one another. Bucks taunted MCMG about TNA. Everyone got their signature spots in, except for the Guerrillas who don’t seem to have any yet.
Ref got taken out by an errant superkick from one of the Bucks. This allowed Adam Page to hit the ring, who immediatly turned on the faces and joined Bullet Club. Page put Jay Bricscoe through the ringside table with a keeling reverse belly to back piledriver. Superkicks for everyone. IndyTaker from the inside to the outside on one of the Machine Guns. Triple Superkick from Cole and the Bucks to Mark Briscoe for the finish. Post match, Page and Bullet Club hung Chris Sabin from the ring with a noose. Got decent heat.
BC left through the crowd and stood on the bar to celebrate. Cabana cut a defiant promo on the Bullet Club to end the show.
Tonight’s Road to Show is a themed show! That’s great as these shows are usually a bunch of tag matches with or two singles. We are still getting a bunch of tags (well, three) but we’re also getting a best of five series tonight between New Japan and Bullet Club.
Toru Yano, Rocky Romero, Beretta and Tomohiro Ishii vs. Kushida, Jushin Thunder Liger, David Finlay and Tiger Mask
It was your standard NJPW eight man tag opener. Good, solid action that set the tone for the night. It was cool in that you saw some people interact with each other where it couldn’t happen under normal circumstances. For example, Liger and Ishii worked together and it was actually pretty interesting. Kushida worked with him briefly as well. That would be a very interesting match if it were ever to happen. Yano was only in there briefly, doing his usual deal with the Finlay made his comeback but RPG Vice countered. Romero took out Kushida with a dive, then they followed with the dropkick/dudebuster combo for the win.
Manabu Nakanishi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima and Yuji Nagata vs. Ryusuke Taguchi, Captain New Japan, Juice Robinson and Katsuyori Shibata
Why did Shibata agree to tag with Captain New Japan? Eh, I always bring this up but someone should go to management and mention CNJ’s never, like, won a match. If this were real he’d be canned a long time ago, old or not. The Old Lion Squad beat up Shibata and isolated him early. Kojima managed to thwart Taguchi’s hip attacks. It was Nagata who worked with CNJ towards the end. All of Shibata’s team mates tried to help take down Nagata but it was no use as he got the backdrop driver on CNJ and pinned him. It wasn’t that good or even interesting. Wrong team dynamics here.
Tenzan and Shibata got into a big brawl after the match, with Tenzan pelting Shibata with chairs as his team mates tried to stop him. They’re competing for the NEVER title at Invasion Attack.
Cody Hall vs. Michael Elgin
This is Hall’s first singles match in New Japan if I recall correctly. If not it’s been a very long time. He’s still green in spots but has tons of potential, has good facials and has improved dramatically in the last year. They had a short, but pretty solid back and forth match with Elgin getting the win, pinning Hall with a powerbomb pinning combination.
Jay White vs. Kenny Omega
This was pretty good. White is really good technically at this point. Crowd was kind of quiet early, but got into it towards the end, especially when White was making his comeback and was getting all the close submissions/near falls. Omega cut him off with a snap German suplex then a knee strike, pinning White to even things up.
Yujiro Takahashi vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
Yujiro seems to not even have Mao or his cool theme song anymore at this point. He just came out to the usual Bullet Club theme. Tanahashi came out but Yujiro jumped him immediately. This was fine – short, but was probably the right amount of length. Yujiro low blowed him at one point and got a near fall with a cradle. Yujiro bumped into the referee towards the end of the match, and Tanahashi returned the favor. He gave him the sling blade, high fly flow, boom, there’s your winner.
Tomoaki Honma vs. Bad Luck Fale
I liked this match in the sense it told a nice story. People were into Honma’s comebacks and were totally behind him. Honma fought hard early but Fale took him to town and dominated, as he’s the big giant of the promotion. Fale beat him up forever and ever until he escaped the Bad Luck Fall and scored a roll up for a nearfall. Fale gave him a GIGANTIC lariat in retaliation, then pinned him with the Bad Luck Fall.
Tama Tonga vs. Togi Makabe
This is the deciding match in the best of five series as they’re tied with two wins each. This wasn’t really anything interesting. Not terrible, but I couldn’t get into it. Just a lot of back and forth brawling with no real significant heat. Tonga did do a ref spot and a gun stun at one point. Makabe fought him off, hit the spider German suplex and was going for the King Kong knee drop when Tonga Roa came in and shoved him off the top rope, then continued beating him for the DQ. So technically, the New Japan guys win the best of five battle.
Roa and Tonga beat up on Makabe (Honma was destroyed in the previous match) as young lions try to intervene, but Roa throws them around easily. They laid out Makabe one more time with a modified double team version of Tonga’s finish (waistlock DDT). Tonga cut a promo saying they are GOD – Guerillas of Destruction. Cool name. Don’t know if this team will work, but we’ll see. It’s something new at the very least.
Ingobernables were mean early with Bushi choking out Yoshi-Hashi and Naito beating up Gedo all the way back to the backstage area. What’s funny here is that now Crowd were into Goto as opposed to booing him, I guess because he finally joined Chaos. He and Evil worked pretty good together. Okada and Naito had some good back and forth before he tagged in Yoshi-Hashi. He made a good comeback and battled out of the Destino and walloped Naito with a lariat. There was another ref spot. That’s like three matches tonight where there’s been some sort of ref bump, pretty excessive and unnecessary. This allowed the heels to lay everyone out and pin Yoshi-Hashi for the win.
Not wanting to be liars (again), the original alternate has actually kept its word, and recorded a show for the second consecutive week in a row. And while we’re slowly getting our groove back, the world of puroresu has been speeding along on another level. So, naturally, the main topic this week was the situation with New Japan Pro Wrestling. Who can they push? What they can do? Who would you like to see in the 2017 Dome show main? All that stuff, and a little bit of other stuff too. It’s the Adam and Mike BIG AUDIO NIGHTMARE~! proudly here at F4WOnline.com.
