Csonka’s ROH War of The Worlds (Night II) Preview

WELCOME back to column time with Larry! Today, I am going to discuss and preview tonight’s ROH War of The Worlds (Night II) event. This is one of the many ROH events that will be steaming live on the Honor Club service this year, and this time; some of the stars of NJPW are along for the ride. Feel free to make your picks in the comment section. Thanks for reading! It’s wrestling, we love it and will disagree. The only rules are “have a take, be respectful, and don’t be a dick.”

My review of night one is here.

Tetsuya Naito vs. The Beer City Bruiser: I spent the weekend complaining and wondering when ROH was going to announce more than the top four matches for this show. I should have been more specific in my match requests because this was the next match announced. I have talked a lot about The Beer City Bruiser in the past; he’s a fine act that can surprisingly over deliver at times. But the thing is that Tetsuya Naito has motivation issues when he comes to the US for these shows. I just can’t see the Bruiser being the guy to motivate him or have a good match with. Hopefully I’m wrong, I’m certainly hoping for the best, but in all honesty, am not expecting much of a match here. WINNER: Tetsuya Naito

BUSHI, EVIL, SANADA, & Hiromu Takahashi vs. Kenny King, Flip Gordon, Jay Lethal, & Dalton Castle: With Naito in singles action, the rest of Los Ingobernables de Japon is pressed into tag team action, and it’s a match that they seemingly have the advantage in. When LIJ works multi-man tags, they are a unified force that doesn’t fuck around and works effortlessly together. Kenny King, Flip Gordon, Jay Lethal, & Dalton Castle are team ROH here, and while Lethal & Castle are bigger stars, they are coming in as an all-star team (tons of talent to be sure) but are facing off with world champions that know each other well. LIJ multi-mans can be an absolute blast, and if everyone is on, this should be really enjoyable. WINNERS: Kenny King, Flip Gordon, Jay Lethal, & Dalton Castle

The Young Bucks vs. Super Smash Bros (Evil Uno & Stu Grayson): The Young Bucks vs. Super Smash Bros is a match that has happened several times over several promotions, and has been rather great much of the time. I am HYPED for this. Super Smash Bros should have been a team that got over huge in the US and had a big run here, but the whole VISA thing got in the way, which is why they are working the Canadian date on the tour. The Bucks handpicked Super Smash Bros for the match, which I love because it’s two guys helping out some friends so that they can reunite for a potentially great match, and it brings in some fresh faces to the show. The match announcement was a huge surprise, one that I really loved and made me excited for the show so job well done. In all honesty, Impact & ROH have the means to target some fresh talent that need help getting through VISA issues (Mike Bailey, Josh Alexander, Super Smash Bros, Seleziya Sparx) to freshen up their rosters, and should look into it. What’s old is new again; this should be at the very least good but has potential to be great. I absolutely love this addition and feel the should reach out to others on more occasions to freshen up the shows, just like this, book trustworthy friends of friends. WINNERS: The Young Bucks

TV Champion Silas Young vs. Adam Page: Delirious’ method of throwing darts at the ROH photo album brings us this match, for the title, with absolutely no build what so ever. I like both guys, they work hard, and they tend to have good matches. But it just doesn’t make sense here; Page seemingly has no shot since Aries has a title shot on the final night’s TV tapings, and it feels like they are going to sacrifice Young’s latest lackluster run with the title to Aries. This feels like one of those throw your hands up matches where you realize that you have two guys available that you forgot to book, they’re the left over puzzle pieces. Hopefully it will be good, because the match as to be as the booking didn’t build to anything to give us any real drama. Young should retain here. WINNER: TV Champion Silas Young

SoCal Uncensored vs. Rocky Romero, Sho, & Yoh: Rocky Romero, Sho, & Yoh picked up a win over the former champions back at Strong Style Evolved. They had a fun outing at that show, but it had some hiccups, and being the opener, it wasn’t designed to steal the show. Here they will get the chance to work with more time, to play off of that first meeting, and actually pay off the ROH six-man champions losing with little explanation. (But that was thrown away with 3k losing on night one and SoCal Uncensored losing their titles on the same night) and that caused me to cut out about 150 words on the two companies and how they book their trios titles. Oh well. WINNERS: SoCal Uncensored

IWGP United States Champion Jay White vs. Punishment Martinez: ROH his really high on Punishment Martinez, and he’s been really good over the last year plus, which is why he’s getting the title match here. White had an outstanding run of matches in ROH during his excursion and has returned to NJPW as a viable singles star, with a drastic character upgrade and new association with CHAOS. The likelihood of Martinez winning the championship here seems almost non-existent, he’s had no interaction with White, White is on a roll, and is likely heading for a title match with Juice Robinson either at Dominion or the Cow Palace show. With that being the case, the goal here needs to be to have a great match so that the ROH fans don’t dwell on another Martinez loss, although that may prove difficult as I doubt there will be much drama in terms of the crowd reaction regarding a possible title change, which may hurt things. But they did have a great street fight at ROH Death Before Dishonor 2017. Hopefully, they can recreate some of that magic here. WINNER: Champion Jay White

Cody vs. Jushin Liger: At the time of this writing, this is the scheduled main event for the show. I love Liger; I think he’s a legend, and that he can still go. So I love that he’s getting a main event spot on this tour. I’m not a big believer in the “so and so deserves it” mantra, but in Liger’s case, he does. Like I said, Liger can still go, he’s respected as a legend and the US crowds still go wild for him, even in 2018. It’s a nice treat on a show like this. Love him or hate him, Cody is a good heel and he’s a top ROH star. I’m not really sure what we’ll get here quality wise, as it depends on how they play things. Cody will heel it up, stall a lot and play to the crowd while Liger will and should play the hits because that’s what the fans want to see. Cody knows how to play the game, and has a list of things he wants to accomplish and guys he wants to work with. With his association with NJPW, respect he as for the business, and this being the main event, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Liger pick up a win here, as it won’t hurt Cody at all. WINNER: Jushin Liger

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– Thanks for reading.

“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”