wrestling / Video Reviews
Hall’s ROH Supercard Of Honor 2014 Review
Image Credit: ROH
Loading...Supercard Of Honor VIII
Date: April 4, 2014
Location: John A. Alario Sr. Event Center, Westwego, Louisiana
Attendance: 2,000
Commentators: Kevin Kelly, Steve Corino
We’re going back a good ways here, with a show from the original run of Ring Of Honor. This was their Wrestlemania (XXX in this case) Weekend show and that means it’s time for a major match. The main event is a Ladder War (TLC) between Jay Briscoe and Adam Cole for the Ring Of Honor World Title. Let’s get to it.
I was in the arena for this show, sitting in the general admission section, looking straight at the entrance.
The opening video looks at the main event, with Jay Briscoe winning the World Title at last year’s Supercard Of Honor. He then got hurt and the title was vacated, with Adam Cole winning it in his absence. Briscoe came back with his own title and now it’s time to put both belts above the ring and have a ladder match to find the undisputed champion.
We run down the card.
Roderick Strong vs. Cedric Alexander
Strong has the rest of the Decade (BJ Whitmer, Jimmy Jacobs, and young boy Adam Page) with him. They trade wristlocks to start with Strong bailing into the corner before grabbing a headlock. That’s broken up so they run the ropes until Alexander hits a quick dropkick. Strong has somehow cut his hand open but he chops away in the corner and then drops Alexander on the turnbuckle. Page is sent off to the back and comes back with some tape for the bloody thumb, which is hammered on Alexander’s back.
Alexander avoids a charge though and sends Strong outside, followed by a DDT back inside for two. Alexander’s faceplant gets two but Strong is right back with the Angle Slam for the same. A backbreaker gives Strong two more and they chop it out until Strong knees him in the face. Back up and Alexander kicks him in the head but has to take out the Decade, allowing Strong to dropkick him out of the air. End Of Heartache finishes Alexander at 10:28.
Rating: B-. Good opener here with a simple story that was told well. Strong had the numbers advantage and Alexander was fighting an uphill battle, which wound up catching him in the end. It helps that both of them are able to wrestle a nice match against anyone and they worked well together here to start the show off well.
Post match Jimmy Jacobs says you can’t learn anything by watching Alexander, but you can learn something by watching someone respectful like Adam Page. Now watch what he does in this six man tag!
Decade/Adam Page vs. Adrenaline Rush/Andrew Everett
Adrenaline Rush is Tadarius Thomas/ACH and this is billed as a scramble, which means a tag match under lucha libre (going to the floor counts as a tag) rule. We pause for ACH to shake A LOT of hands until even Thomas tells him to get in the ring. Thomas and Jacobs start things off but ACH tags himself in, with Jacobs handing it off to Page. ACH flips around a lot to start until a hiptoss…doesn’t do much damage.
They trade armdrags for a standoff and it’s Whitmer coming in to take over. ACH’s dropkick is shrugged off but another one to the side of the head works a lot better. Thomas comes in to roll Jacobs up but gets sent outside in a hurry. Everett fires off dropkicks and a hurricanrana as everything breaks down. Thomas dives onto a bunch of people on the floor but ACH gets pulled into a Doomsday spear for a big crash.
Back in and the 80s tribute continues as the Decade goes Demolition to pound ACH down. We settle down to Page chinlocking ACH, who is then taken into the wrong corner for some alternating chokes. Back up and ACH knocks Whitmer to the floor for a step up flip dive. It’s back to Thomas, who gets caught in a quick backbreaker. Everett comes in instead for a moonsault, followed by a springboard kick to the face. A nice shooting star press gives Everett two on Whitmer but Everett is tossed outside. The All Seeing Eye (running Dominator/cutter combination) finishes Thomas at 10:15.
Rating: B-. This was about taking a bunch of people and letting them fly around the ring for a bit. It’s a good way to keep the energy (or adrenaline, as the name would suggest) going without burning through one of the bigger matches. Granted I’m not sure how smart it is to have villains winning the first two matches of the show, but at least it was a fun match with the big flips and dives.
Post match Jacobs teases using his signature spike on Thomas but leaves instead.
We recap Truth Martini vs. Matt Taven. They were a pairing for a good while but Taven fired Martini (his former manager), who swore revenge with a special surprise.
Truth Martini vs. Matt Taven
Martini is here in his usual (awesome) suit and says he’s here to help rather than hurt. Those who don’t accept his help will get hurt though so he brings in…commentator Kevin Kelly? Martini wants him to read the last chapter of the Book Of Truth (an actual book Martini carries). Martini starts to read but Taven asks if anyone wants to hear this. His favorite chapter is about Taven beating Martini up in New Orleans, which earns him a low blow from Martini. And that’s it.
RD Evans vs. Silas Young
The idea here is that Evans, a….we’ll say odd comedy guy is on a ridiculous undefeated streak and Young is sick of the lack of seriousness. Evans (with lawyer Veda Scott and hype man Ramon, later known as Stokely Hathaway) is currently 82-0 and offers a handshake, earning a fireman’s carry and a drive into the corner.
Scott trips Young and gets chased around the ring, though Scott stops to yell at Ramon. That’s enough for Evans to clothesline him off the apron as Scott jumps in on commentary. Young slams him off the top start in on the ribs and grabs a bodyscissors, followed by a chinlock. Back up and Evans snaps Young’s neck across the top rope, setting up a nice dropkick for two. The top rope splash misses though and Young backbreakers him into a hard clothesline.
They go to the apron where Young drops him with an electric chair, with Evans diving back in to beat the count. Scott offers a distraction so Ramon can throw in a belt. Evans feigns being whipped to draw the DQ, but settles for a rollup for two instead. The referee accidentally gets bumped by Young, who hits Misery (handstand springboard moonsault) for the pin at 10:56 to end the streak…but hang on, as the original referee gets up and says Young hit him on purpose, meaning Evans wins by DQ!
Rating: C+. This is in the category of “goofy fun” and that’s exactly what it should have been. It made for a very entertaining spectacle with Evans being totally in over his head but being just good enough to frustrate Young into making mistakes. The ending was similar to how Evans was winning a lot of his matches and it worked again here. I remember getting very into this match live despite not knowing much about either guy, so something was going right.
We recap Mike Bennett vs. Mark Briscoe, which is basically a side story to the World Title match.
Bennett is ready to be the fox in a chicken coop and promises to lock in his new submission.
Briscoe loves the idea of bringing the violence and talks about putting a gorilla in the deep blue sea. He’s a baboon who is going to tear your face off. As usual, Briscoe loses something in translation but he’s nutty enough to make it work.
Mark Briscoe vs. Mike Bennett
No DQ and Maria Kanellis is here with Bennett. Briscoe grabs a Blockbuster off the apron to start fast and takes him inside to chop away. Bennett backdrops him over the top for a crash to the floor, where Briscoe gets in a hot shot onto the barricade. They fight into the crowd, with Briscoe backdropping him into the bleachers.
Briscoe heads back to ringside and steals some beer (this can’t go well) but Briscoe chucks a chair at his head. Back in and Bennett chairs him low and sets the chair in the corner. Naturally Bennett crashes head first into the chair, allowing Briscoe to hit the Bang Bang Elbow from the apron for two. They go back up to the ramp, where Briscoe strikes away. Fans: “THIS SOUNDS AWESOME!”
Briscoe sends him crashing through a table (in theory, as even commentary can’t see what’s going on) and they head back to ringside, where Briscoe unloads with a kendo stick. Maria takes it away though, allowing Bennett to hit a backbreaker. Some chair shots to the back have Briscoe down again and his neck is Pillmanized with a Conchairto. Bennett grabs an Anaconda Vice but Briscoe is already out at 9:53.
Rating: C+. It was good enough while it lasted, but I was expecting a lot more than this. The match was hyped up as this big, violent war and then it’s over that fast? The ending was violent and some of Briscoe’s offense was up there, but this was pretty much just another hardcore/weapons match with a big ending. If you want it to feel epic, give it some more resources.
Matt Taven is looking for Truth Martini and goes into the rest room…where Martini comes out. Martini: “I’m not fired. You’re fired.” Taven has been attacked by someone we don’t see.
A bunch of New Japan stars are coming for Global Wars and War Of The Worlds.
There was an intermission here, though it’s edited out of the Honor Club edition. Nigel McGuinness takes Steve Corino’s place on commentary.
Here is Cheeseburger to throw out t-shirts but Matt Hardy (a big heel around here) interrupts. He wants Cheeseburger (I was hungry too) out of the ring and says Ring Of Honor is on its way to its biggest year ever because of him. That’s why he handpicked Adam Cole to be the top star in Ring Of Honor, no matter what you “smart marks” think.
Cole is the Holy Spirit of wrestling and Hardy is the Jesus of wrestling, which is why he’s earned his $15,000 pay day. Hardy rants about people being hypocrites and promises that Cole puts Jay Briscoe down like the dog he is tonight. With that out of the way, he lets Cheeseburger come back in to apologize…and then hits the Twist Of Fate. Hardy: “You’re not on my menu anymore.”
Forever Hooligans vs. ReDRagon vs. Hanson/Rowe
That would be Alex Kozlov/Rocky Romero vs. Bobby Fish/Kyle O’Reilly vs. the team who would become known as the War Machine/Raiders and the winner gets a future shot at the Young Bucks for the Tag Team Titles. Rowe and O’Reilly start things off with the much bigger Rowe backing him into the corner. O’Reilly gets in a cheap shot on Hanson but bails to the floor, where Hanson takes him down.
Fish comes in and gets caught with an overhead belly to belly and Hanson gets to add a splash. Fish gets over for the tag to Romero, who kicks Hanson in the leg and face, which works rather well. Hanson fights back on Kozlov but O’Reilly tags himself in, allowing Kozlov to get in a shot of his own. Kozlov’s dancing kicks (it was a thing) have O’Reilly in more trouble but the Hooligans have some communication issues….and then hug.
The delay lets Rowe come back in…until O’Reilly tags himself in again, which has Rowe even angrier. A backbreaker/middle rope knee combination gets two on Romero and another knee drop gets another two. ReDRagon starts in on Romero’s arm, with O’Reilly’s armbar not lasting long. Romero brings in Kozlov and Kelly COMPLETELY misses the tag, even asking if he missed something. Geez that’s a rare major blunder from him.
Kozlov cleans house, including a springboard missile dropkick for two on Fish. Everything breaks down and Hanson gets knocked down, leaving Kozlov and O’Reilly to slug it out. That doesn’t last long as Rowe is sent outside for some running shots against the barricade. Back in and Kozlov hits a shooting star press on O’Reilly, with Fish making a save. O’Reilly is up with a rollup with trunks to pin Kozlov at 13:48.
Rating: B-. Good action here, with a nice mixture of power from Hanson/Rowe, technical/striking from ReDRagon and high flying from the Hooligans. The ending felt like something of a heel turn as ReDRagon appeared to be the crowd favorites, but that was definitely a pull of the trunks on the pin. The match would have felt bigger to have the titles on the line here but this is as good as we can get with the champs in Japan. ReDRagon would go on to defeat the Bucks for the titles in a few weeks.
Jay Lethal is ready to wrap up his feud with Tommaso Ciampa over the TV Title. He’s had Ciampa beaten multiple times and it’s time to get the title back.
TV Title: Jay Lethal vs. Tommaso Ciampa
Lethal is challenging and this is 2/3 falls. Rather than shaking hands, Ciampa removes his knee brace and hands it to Lethal, marking the first time he’s wrestled without it since coming back from a torn ACL. McGuinness isn’t sure why you would do that but here we go anyway. They fight over a lockup to start and take turns backing the other into the corner. An exchange of rollups goes just as well so it’s back to the lockup for about the same result.
Lethal misses a springboard dropkick but manages to kick Ciampa into the barricade. The three suicide dives connect and Ciampa crashes into the crowd. Ciampa is fine enough to take his knee pad down for a running knee to knock Lethal silly. Back in and Lethal is fine enough to hiptoss him into the basement dropkick. A strike off goes to Lethal but Ciampa hits a Backstabber.
That seems to bang up Ciampa’s knee but he walks it off quickly enough, only for Lethal to suplex both of them over the top. Another slugout on the floor goes to a nineteen (out of twenty count in ROH) and they’re back inside, where Lethal gets a quick rollup for the first fall at 10:19. Ciampa isn’t happy and kicks him in the face, followed by a running knee for two. Lethal is back up with a Kofi Clutch, which is reversed into the Sicilian Stretch (similar to the Rings Of Saturn), with Lethal making the ropes.
Ciampa hits his own Lethal Injection but gets caught in Project Ciampa (from Lethal) for a fast two. A Tajiri elbow hits the referee by mistake so Ciampa rolls some German suplexes. Cue Truth Martini to throw the knee brace in to Lethal, who knocks Ciampa silly….for two. The top rope elbow connects but doesn’t even get one. Instead Lethal goes after the leg and hits the Lethal Injection for the second fall and the title at 17:13 total.
Rating: B-. Sweet goodness it’s a rough night for the good guys tonight. The action here was good, but that ending didn’t exactly help. Not only did Lethal win the first fall completely clean, showing that he could beat Ciampa on his own, but then the cheating didn’t really help him. Ciampa kicked out twice after that and then Lethal pinned him clean again. If this was supposed to be some big heel turn (and it was), it was more showing that Lethal didn’t need it rather than that it was some big new pairing. Lethal would go on to hold the title for a year and a half, winning the World Title during the same reign.
Post match Lethal officially joins the House Of Truth and Kevin Kelly is NOT pleased.
Michael Elgin vs. Kevin Steen
For a future IWGP World Title shot and Steen (Kevin Owens) is a huge crowd favorite. Steen tries his package piledriver at the bell but has to settle for a Cannonball for two instead. They go outside with Steen sending him into the barricade. Elgin reverses a whip into the barricade in an exchange so nice that they do it again. Steen can’t hit an apron powerbomb so Elgin, the powerhouse, grabs a delayed suplex on the floor.
Back in and Elgin hits a dropkick for two as the fans are strongly behind Steen. Elgin misses a kick and gets caught with a hanging DDT for two, followed by the backsplash for the same. An enziguri out of the corner lets Elgin muscle him up with a German suplex. Steen is right back with a brainbuster onto the knee for two but another Cannonball is countered into a powerbomb for two more.
They forearm it out until a discus version gives Elgin another near fall. Elgin hits an enziguri to send him outside again, where Steen snaps off the apron bomb. Steen’s running flip dive off the apron misses though and Elgin powerbombs him against the post for two more. A Tombstone gets the same and Steen is in trouble (as well as pain). Steen is able to grab a pop up powerbomb and the package piledriver for two but the Swanton hits raised knees.
Back up and the buckle bomb into an Elgin Bomb gets two and Elgin is stunned. Elgin takes him up top and of course you can’t superplex Steen, who gives him the big swinging superplex instead. Another package piledriver is blocked though and Elgin rolls into a triple bomb to drop Steen again. Somehow Steen shrugs off a buckle bomb and hits a sleeper suplex, only to get buckle bombed again. Elgin hits a package piledriver of his own for the pin at 19:13.
Rating: B+. This was a hoss fight with two guys beating the fire out of each other until one of them didn’t get up. Elgin was a monster in his own right and while the fans didn’t seem to be against him, Steen was definitely the one they wanted to see win. This was the match that got the most interest from the fans and it lived up to the hype as the best match of the show thus far.
Post match, respect is shown.
We get a graphic showing that Steen is set for a World Title shot at the upcoming Global Wars event. What a great way to make your World Title feel like a consolation prize when he couldn’t get a shot at the REAL World Title.
Ring Of Honor World Title: Adam Cole vs. Jay Briscoe
Briscoe is challenging in a Ladder War. They go straight to the slugout and Briscoe clotheslines him out to the floor. Cole is right back up with the first chair shot, followed by just pelting the chair at Briscoe’s head back inside. The chair is set up in the middle of the ring for an AA, allowing Cole to grab the ladder. That takes too long so Briscoe kicks it into Cole’s face and the fight is back on the floor.
This time it’s Briscoe throwing the chair at Cole’s head and then throwing Cole into the barricade. The chair is wedged into the corner and Briscoe misses a charge, sending him head first into said chair for the crash. Cole suplexes him onto the ladder and then hits Briscoe in the head with it to keep things simple. Briscoe is busted open and he slams his bloody head into Cole’s to send him outside.
A suplex on the ramp drops Cole and it’s time for the big ladder. Instead of climbing, Briscoe bridges another ladder between two chairs on the floor, which can’t end well. Briscoe dives onto Cole onto the ladder and of course it’s time for a table. Cole gets off of the table as Briscoe climbs the ladder, meaning it’s time to bridge that ladder against the apron.
We’ll save that for later as Cole brings a regular ladder inside, only for Briscoe to powerbomb him against it. Briscoe goes up and is quickly superkicked off the top and onto the bridged ladder at ringside. Cole sets up the big ladder but somehow Briscoe is back in to send him through the ladder in the corner instead.
We pause for a second to make sure Cole is still in one piece before Briscoe gives him a neckbreaker. Rather than climb, Briscoe bridges another ladder but it breaks as he puts Cole on top of it. With that not being an option, Briscoe AA’s him onto a chair but misses a splash onto the broken ladder. They both grab chairs and pull themselves up for a duel, with the big shots leaving both of them down again.
A double climb up the big ladder means they slug it out on top, with Briscoe knocking him down. Cole flips him off though, which brings Briscoe down to hit a Jay Driller. Rather than go for the belt though, Briscoe loads up a Conchairto on the ladder. Cue Matt Hardy with a Twist Of Fate to Briscoe before helping Cole climb. This brings out Mark Briscoe to powerbomb both of them down and go up a ladder, only for Mike Bennett to come down and turn the ladder over.
Mark goes crashing through a table and it’s Jay vs. Cole back inside. They go into the hockey fight and Jay hits the Jay Driller, allowing him to climb. Bennett breaks that up and gets taken out with a Jay Driller, as does Hardy. Cole comes back in and shoves Jay off the ladder, allowing him to get the titles down, just as Jay is climbing again, to retain at 28:36.
Rating: B+. This was called a Ladder War and that felt like an appropriate name. The match felt like Cole and Jay went to war with each other to get what they wanted. A the end of the day though, Jay got caught up in the emotions of wanting revenge rather than just the title. Cole only cared about reaching his one goal and used any means to get there, which is why he won in the end. Either way, this was a heck of a fight with Cole looking like he survived rather than won.
Results
Roderick Strong b. Cedric Alexander – End Of Heartache
Decade/Adam Page b. Adrenaline Rush/Andrew Everett – All Seeing Eye to Thomas
RD Evans b. Silas Young via DQ when Young hit the referee
Mike Bennett b. Mark Briscoe – Anaconda Vice
ReDRagon b. Forever Hooligans and Hanson/Rowe – Rollup with trunks to Kozlov
Jay Lethal b. Tommaso Ciampa 2-0
Michael Elgin b. Kevin Steen – Package piledriver
Adam Cole b. Jay Briscoe – Cole pulled down the titles
