Ring of Honor

[Face McShooty]

 

The opening video aired and then Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino introduced the 200th episodes from ringside. They hyped the main event of the show and then set up footage of Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian beat bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly to win the ROH Tag Titles with help from Chris Sabin on the April 25, 2015 show...

 

Kelly hyped the ROH Death Before Dishonor iPPV, and said more clips from past shows would be coming up after the break...

 

Footage of the July 27, 2013 Steel Cage Warfare match between Team ROH and SCUM aired...

 

At ringside, Kelly said ROH has a lot of stars born before their eyes. He spoke about the Top Prospect tournament and set up footage from the tournament.

Extended footage aired of Donovan Dijak beating Will Ferrara in the finals of the 2015 tournament...

 

Kelly hyped action from Tag Wars and highlights of A.J. Styles vs. Hanson... 

Footage from the December 27, 2014 show featuring the Tag Wars Finals involving Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly defeating ACH and Matt Sydal in the finals...

Highlights aired from the A.J. Styles vs. Hanson match that aired on November 22, 2014...

Mandy Leon hosted the Inside ROH segment. She hyped the Death Before Dishonor iPPV. A Moose and Stokely Hathaway promo aired. Adam Page then cut a brief promo about his match with ACH and boasted that he beat ACH three times. Jay Lethal and Truth Martini delivered a promo about Lethal's main event match against Roderick Strong...

Highlights aired of Lance Storm facing Michael Bennett in a match that aired on August 4, 2012...

 

Ring introductions for the main event took place...

 

1. The Briscoes, Roderick Strong, and ODB vs. Jay Lethal, Donovan Dijak, J Diesel, and Truth Martini.

ODB and Truth started the match. Truth spun on his back and then moonwalked to his corner and tagged in Lethal, so ODB tagged in Strong. Lethal ducked out and tagged in Dijak to avoid Strong.

 

The babyfaces were getting the better of Dijak going into the break. Coming out of the commercials, Lethal was working over Mark Briscoe and then the heels isolated Mark in their corner. Rinse and repeat with Jay Briscoe being worked over by the heels when he entered the match. Truth only checked in when his team had the advantage and he wore his sunglasses.

 

Coming out of the break, Jay elbowed Diesel and then performed a Death Valley Driver on him. Jay made the hot tag to Strong. Lethal also tagged in and Strong got the better of him. ODB tagged herself in and then Lethal caught Strong with a superkick. ODB jumped on Lethal's back and he flung her to the mat.

 

All four heels surrounded ODB while her teammates were all at ringside. ODB took a swig from her flask and then punched each of her male opponents. Lethal and Martini both kicked her. The Briscoes and Strong returned to the ring and the babyfaces took over. The Briscoes both did dives onto opponents. Lethal dove onto Jay, and Strong caught Lethal with a kick. Inside the ring, ODB rolled up Martini and pinned him.

 

After the match, Mark put Truth's shades on and then celebrated with his teammates to end the show as Kelly talked about how this is what makes ROH so special and how it's the best wrestling on the planet...

The Briscoes, Roderick Strong, and ODB beat Jay Lethal, Donovan Dijak, J Diesel, and Truth Martini.

 

the Death Before Dishonor iPPV will be coming your way shortly!

[Face McShooty]

 

1. Silas Young Beat Will Ferrara. Although he's been playing heel, Young still had a solid backing by the crowd. Not the hottest way to start a show, but still a fun match. Silas won in about 6 minutes. After the match, Dalton Castle's peacock boys came to the ring to fan off Silas. Young tried taking the Boys out, but ultimately ended up being ridden like a horse by both Boys. The crowd popped big for it. Dalton and his peacock boys are extremely over and the post-match segment did a good job furthering the Silas-Dalton storyline.

 

2. Cedric Alexander defeated Moose. It is incredible to see how far Moose has come as an in-ring performer in his short time in the wrestling business. Both men pulled off some great spots and worked extremely hard. The story of this match was Moose trying to get his revenge on Cedric/Veda Scott. In the end, Cedric used a wrench to get the cheap pinfall victory. Fun match that really opened my eyes to Moose's abilities.

 

3. The Briscoes over RPG Vice. Not much in terms of story development here, but who doesn't love to watch a Briscoe Brothers tag match? Lots of fun double team moves, and a funny spot where Mark stole Trent's headband before performing his trademark Redneck Kung-Fu. The Briscoes won after a Jay Driller/Froggy Bow combo on Trent.

 

4. Adam Cole defeated Dalton Castle. As over as Dalton Castle may be, the ROH faithful still believe in Adam Cole (and rightfully so). The crowd was split about 50/50 for this one. Anything involving Dalton's "boys" at ringside got a big pop from the crowd. Lots of "Fan up!" chants. Cole ultimately scored the pin after a brainbuster on his knee. After the match, Cole helped Castle up and shook his hand in a somewhat uncharacteristic show of respect. Enter: Silas Young. Young ran down the ramp to attack Dalton and his boys before ROH officials came out to break it up.

Before the next match, BJ Whitmer (on crutches) and Colby Corino came out to introduce the man who would "kick the sheet out of ACH", Adam Page.

 

5. Adam Page defeated ACH in a no DQ match. Next to the main event, this may have been my favorite match of the night. Page took a couple nasty looking ladder bumps and ACH got his flashy offense in, including a 450 splash off the apron onto the floor. It looked like ACH had Page beat, but BJ one of his crutches into the ring. ACH ate a crutch and then took Page's reverse piledriver off the apron through a table that was set up at ringside. Insane spot. Page rolled ACH back into the ring for the pin.

 

6. The Addiction defeated War Machine, reDRagon, and the Kingdom in a 4 Corner Survival match to retain the ROH Tag Team titles. This match was the typical ROH multi-team spotfest, but that's not necessarily always a bad thing. Lots of good tag team spots in a match that didn't seem to be slotted to be anything more than a showcase of the talents involved. Everyone got their moment to shine. Kazarian pinned Bobby Fish to secure the victory for his team.

 

7. Jay Lethal wrestled Roderick Strong to a 60-minute draw to retain the ROH World Title. This was far and away my favorite match of the night. I've read other reports online saying that this match seriously dragged at points on iPPV, but I couldn't disagree more. The live crowd seemed invested in every move these guys were hitting, and both men were working their asses off. I was hardly a Jay Lethal fan coming into this show, but he really won me over last night. The last 12 minutes or so had some amazing exchanges, and the nearfalls toward the end had the crowd losing their minds. Although it seemed odd to book a 60-minute draw for two men who don't have an enormous heated history between them, I thought the match worked well. Both men looked great in the ring for all 60 minutes and I can't wait to see the rematch.