Perry’s Perspective: ROH Winter Warriors Tour 2016 – Indianapolis

Date: January 15, 2016
Location: Indiana State Fairgrounds; Indianapolis, IN
Commentary: Ian Riccaboni & Mr. Wrestling #3

Dalton Castle (w/The Boys) vs Will Ferrara
No Kevin Kelly tonight on commentary, he must have been still recovering from not contributing at all to the NJPW commentary on January 4th & 5th. It’s a nice site to see The Boys back with Castle, and I have high hopes for Mr. Castle’s 2016. Lots of mind game antics by Castle early and Gerrara does not seem impressed, this is certainly a little bit of character growth for the young man. Late in the match Ferrara has really had enough of Castle and The Boys’ antics. The boys had been fanning Castle off, Ferrara took exception to this and shoved both boys out of the way and Castle into the ring. Once Will returned to the ring Dalton dropped him and got the three count. The two shook hands after the match. This was a solid opener and a good way to get the night going.

Dalton Castle by pinfall @ 9:18 (**¾)

Three Way Match: ACH vs Moose (w/Stokley Hathaway) vs Silas Young:
Usually we see four corner survival matches when there are too many guys on the show, tonight we get an interesting mesh of a three way. I am a big fan of all three men for various reasons and will be interested to see what they can do together. ACH and Moose started out by eliminating Young right away before taking the battle to outside the ring. The middle portion of the match was mostly a singles match between Moose and Young, not a very interesting one either. The finish came after ACH ducked a spear from Moose and sent him to the outside. ACH took advantage of a proan Young and hit the 450. This match felt longer than 7.5 minutes and nothing really gelled. Lot’s of clunky action, all three men are capable of better.

ACH by pinfall @ 7:37 (**)

Michael Elgin vs Tim Hughes:
Is that squash I smell? Hughes refuses the handshake of Elgin before the match, Mr. Wrestling says that will get him an extra beating. After Elgin tosses Hughes a couple of times he offers the hand again, Hughes still refused. They attempted to work a little comedy sequence that saw Hughes try to shoulder block Elgin to the ground, it didn’t work. Elgin used the barricades on the outside for a long stretch of offense, as apparently the match has no count out. Hughes was able to get a 2 count around the 8 minute mark and that hit a stalling sidewalk slam for another count of 2! Elgin ends it with a triple powerbomb. It was squash that I smelt, but it was on simmer and then became very over cooked. Trim 4 minutes of this and it is no

Michael Elgin by pinfall @ 9:31 (*1/2)

Chris Sabin & Frankie Kazarian vs reDRagon:
No Christopher Daniels as he has been suspended on ROH TV, well the episode that announced the suspension would not air till the following day but you get the idea. So do we just pretend like the KRD name was never a thing? In something that I am probably in the minority for finding annoying, all four men are wearing black tights. Mr. Wrestling does in fact mention The KRD name during the match so I guess there is still some acknowledgment, still what a let down of an angle. Sabin & O’Reilly shared a long sequence of running off the opposite ropes, O’Reilly bailed out and left Sabin for the fool.had a criss cross, running exchange for a minute plus. O’Reilly would eventually bail out of the ring and leave Sabin looking silly. This becomes the first match of the night to get the most overused chant in wrestling of “this is awesome”. reDRagon eventually won with Chasing the Dragon. Good match between a great team and two guys who have not teamed a lot.

reDRagon by pinfall @ 15:41 (***)

Adam Page vs Ken Phoenix:
Mr. Wrestling III is gone from the commentary table and replaced by BJ Whitmer for this one. Riccaboni & Whitmer discuss Adam Page turning on Whitmer at the Charlotte TV tapings, even though that had not come close to airing when this was released. I know most ROH fans likely read the spoilers if they are paying money for these house shows, but still it is lame to be revealing angles like that. Riccaboni callas Adam Page the most improved wrestler of the year, I have to agree with WON and say that was Moose as far as ROH talents go. Page has been showing how talented he was for a few years in PWX, ROH needs to pull the trigger and move him up the card. Page hits the Right of Passage for the three count. Solid match between two, hungry competitors. Phoenix shows some charisma and I wouldn’t mind seeing more of him.

After the match Whitmer attempts to get answers from Page but the crowd will not stop booing him long enough for Whitmer to get a word in. Whitmer finally gets his question out and the two start to brawl. Once the two have been separated Steve Corino comes out (without mask) and challenges BJ, who walks away. Page shakes Corinos hand. I honestly have no desire to see BJ Whitmer do anything in ROH 2016 so this angle is going to have a lot of work to do to make me care.

Adam Page by pinfall @ 5:03 (**)

ROH TV Title: Roderick Strong (c) vs Curry Man:
It’s Roddy vs. The World! It has been a very long time since we last saw Curry Man inside a Ring of Honor squared circle. Whitmer has now been replaced by Bobby Fish who is keeping an eye on the Television Champion, Roderick Strong. Curry Man looks to have some hair poking out of the back of his mask, nice touch by Daniels. During his entrance, Fish let’s Roddy know that the two of them own the title together. A solid three minutes of stalling by Roddy before the match starts as Strong continues to move the needle farther towards the heel side of life. I am a little bummed to not have Corino/Mr. Wrestling on commentary as I was looking forward to the easy Daniels/Curry jokes he would make. At the 4:55 mark the fans start a countdown to a 5 minute limit. While Curry Man controlled a good portion of the first 5 minutes, Roddy took control for the following stretch. At the 16 minute mark Strong has Curry Man wrapped into the ropes when Curry Man asks for time out and a drink of water. Sinclair grabs him a bottle and they resume. This was one of the most out of place things that I have seen in a wrestling match in some time and definitely took me out of the match a little. Strong is pushing towards a heel character, so this just made little to no sense. Roddy would finish things off shortly after with the sick kick. Good match, as you would expect from 2 veterans, with that water spot aside.

Roderick Strong by pinfall @ 17:45 (***¼)

Adam Cole vs Alex Shelley:
This was a match that I had a lot of excitement for, however live reports said to “not get one’s hopes up”. Mr. Wrestling 3 is back at the booth and asks why no one told him that they were back from intermission, he is of course also very excited for Adam Cole. Chris Sabin is also now at the booth to scout his former tag team partner Alex Shelley. Lots of talk on commentary hinting that Shelley and Sabin could possibly be planning a reunion, or maybe they really don’t like each other. To be perfectly honest I doubt that Delirious has any idea what the final outcome will be, but one thing is for certain… it will be dragged on waayyyy too long. Cole spent a lot of time working over the leg of Shelley. Shelley still used some high flying offense, but did a good job at also selling the leg injury. Shelley looked for the sliced bread, Cole reversed it and kicked Shelley in the ding-ding as Kazarian distracted the referee. Cole hit the Florida Key and gets the three count. ACH made the save for Shelley post match. These guys put on a good match and I think the live reports did not give it enough credit. While I still think they could have had a better match, I am happy with what we saw. Match of the Night.

Adam Cole by pinfall @ 21:51 (***½)

Eight Man Tag: ANX & Young Bucks vs Briscoes & War Machine : Take four of the top five tag teams in your stacked division and throw them in a match, chances are the result is going to be good. This match got so chaotic down the stretch that multiple referees came out to assist Todd Sinclair. Every team got to hit their signature stuff at some point during the match, and yes “SUPER KICK” was yelled by Mr. Wrestling at least 8 times. The match was basically a really fun, back-and-forth contest that never saw one team dominate the action for long. The Brsicoe boys picked up the win for their team after hitting the Doomsday on Rhett Titus. The match had a very good flow and was very fast paced. This was the epitome of a house show main event that sends the fans home happy.

Briscoes & War Machine by pinfall @ 15:44 ((***½)

All My 2016 Match Ratings

TWITTER

6.7

The final score: review Average

The 411

This was a good show for ROH to start the year. Only the three way match really under performed it's expectations. The final two matches were both very good and helped the show out a lot, but neither will be talked about in any match of the year discussions come December. Jay Lethal was missing from the show, as I believe he was touring Europe at the time. Commentary was very good, I would love to see this pair going forward.