Views from the Hawke’s Nest: Kevin Steen – Thanks Steen Thanks – Disc 2

Ring of Honor Television
Baltimore, Maryland
June 23, 2013

Team Ring of Honor (BJ Whitmer, Michael Elgin, Jay Lethal, & Kevin Steen) vs. SCUM (Jimmy Jacobs, Rhett Titus, Cliff Compton, & Rhyno) [Steel Cage Warfare]

The story of this match was about SCUM trying to keep the numbers advantage throughout the match until Steen entered last. Then the match broke down, and it no longer became possible. It was not a terrible idea for a story, and it mostly worked for the match. The SCUM angle was such a DUD that it was hard to care of course. There was a huge rush of eliminations after the breakdown, and it came down to Steen and Jacobs after Steve Corino eliminated Elgin  by throwing a fireball in his face. Corino tried to light Steen on fire, but Nigel McGuinness took out Corino with a lariat. Steen took out Matt Hardy with a package piledriver. Steen then eliminated Jacobs with a package piledriver to kill SCUM for good. This ended up being booked well to compensate for the fact that the feud was go-away heat. (***)

 

Reclamation
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
July 12, 2013

Kevin Steen vs. Silas Young

This was a solid midcard bout. They probably forced the heat segment on Steen of course, but everything else about this match was fun and engaging. Silas Young proved in AAW he could be the number one in a promotion striving to be great, and ROH never managed to come close to capitalizing on his talent. Even a year earlier in a one-off match with Michael Elgin in Milwaukee he came across like a bigger star. Matches like this, while effective in the moment, made him come across like an undercard goof when he could have been so much more. Anyway, I enjoyed this. Steen won with the package piledriver. (***1/4)

 

Manhattan Mayhem
New York City, New York
August 17, 2013

Kevin Steen vs. Roderick Strong

This was a quarterfinal match in the tournament for the ROH World Championship.

Much like the last singles matches on this set, this was another fun midcard match which has become the expectation since Steen dropped the title. The matches have lost their feeling of importance, but instead feel more casual like PWG. While that is a rather directionless approach to the biggest star in the company (shades of Bryan Danielson in 2009), it is leading to enjoyable matches. The heat segments on Steen are not working clearly though, and it would seem wise to just drop them altogether. Steen won with the package piledriver (***1/4)

 

Glory By Honor
Chicago Ridge, Illinois
October 26, 2013

Kevin Steen vs. Mike Bennett (w/ Maria)

After failing to win the ROH World Championship tournament, Steen went on to have a midcard feud with Mike Bennett in the autumn of 2013. I do not hate Mike Bennett, but it was once again an odd use of their biggest star. Steen’s final run has been reminding me a lot of Bryan Danielson’s final year in ROH where it became clear he was going out by interacting with people lower on the card as much as possible. There are pluses and minuses of that strategy.

This match was a solid brawl overall, but the storyline finish brought it down. Maria interfered twice, and the second one allowed Bennett to low blow Steen. Bennett was then able to finish Steen with a piledriver. Victoria of all people made the save for Steen after the match. Steen and Bennett then did a pull-apart brawl afterwards. Steen hit a dive to the floor on a bunch of dorks, and Victoria gave Maria the Widow’s Peak. (**1/2)

 

Final Battle
New York City, New York
December 14, 2013

Kevin Steen vs. Mike Bennett (w/ Maria) [Stretcher Match]

The promo to build up this match made clear that the payoff to this match was Kevin Steen getting his hands on Maria. It’s hard to believe that I could consider anyone close to Jim Cornette’s level of awfulness as ROH booker, but Delirious makes me thinks it’s possible. Congratulations, Adam Pearce. Your successors make 10/2008-7/2010 look much more appealing in retrospect.

The match was basically plunder brawling and Steen’s over-ness compensating for Bennett bringing virtually nothing to the table. They wisely ditched the stretcher stipulation early on, and Steen decided to turn it into a Last Man Standing match. That didn’t really hold though, and Steen won via KO when he put Bennett through a couple of chairs with a package piledriver. After the match, he gave Maria a package piledriver and screamed, “Merry Christmas, Bitch.” Terrible story. The match itself was solid enough for what it was, but it was more fun in the building. (***)

In the two Bennett matches, Nigel McGuinness kept creeping on Maria via commentary by the way. It came off as very bush league.

 

Ring of Honor Television
Nashville, Tennessee
January 4, 2014

Kevin Steen vs. Chris Hero

This continued the pre-Mike Bennett train of Steen doing fast-pace, easy-to-watch midcard matches. They wisely skipped the heat segment this time though, and the momentum of the match never ceased as a result. The only blight on the match was that The Decade interfered late in the match, which made Hero easy pickings for the sleeper suplex to give Steen the win. Fun fun fun fun. (***1/2)

 

Wrestling’s Finest
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
January 25, 2014

Kevin Steen vs. Kyle O’Reilly

This was the first match since the one with Jay Briscoe on this set to feel truly ambitious in the ring. Steen was working in a relaxed manner, but Kyle was putting in focused work on his left arm. Steen’s selling was solid but not out of this world. He made sure to be selling the arm 90% of the time, but it did not prevent him from doing anything that he normally does. So, it was not really important in any way. I guess you could argue it led to drama with him Steen sitting in arm submissions late in the match, but I don’t understand why sitting in cross armbreakers is still a thing nowadays. That should be an automatic tapout. Anyway, the match was fun in spite of that, but they could have had something special. You just could see how it could have been great, and it’s a bit disappointing as a result. Steen won when he reversed an armbar into a sharpshooter (***)

Cliff Compton, who made his presence felt late in the match, got into a brawl with Steen afterwards and put him through a table.

 

Anniversary Show
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
February 21, 2014

Kevin Steen vs. Cliff Compton [Street Fight]

While I have no earthly idea why this went close to twenty minutes, I will say that there some positives to take away from it for sure. For starters, I loved the structure of the match being Steen just beating the shit out of Compton. The crowd loved Steen and did care about Compton, and there was no reason to force a heat segment on them. Secondly, Compton genuinely took a great beating here. He put his body on the line and showed a willingness to take big bumps to get over the match. I had low expectations for him, and he easily exceeded them. Does that mean I need more Cliff Compton in my life? Not really. I can understand the temptation to use him though, and I think there are situations where he can succeed.

With all that said, this went on for way too long. If they condense it by half, they likely would have had a good match (and possibly even a great one). Poor decision-making there by someone. Steen ended up winning via package piledriver onto the ladder. (**3/4)

 

Watch Steen matches for free!

Kevin Steen vs. Claudio Castagnoli

Kevin Steen vs. Sami Callihan II

Kevin Steen vs. Eddie Edwards [ROH World Championship Match]

Kevin Steen vs. Chris Hero

Kevin Steen vs. Homicide [ROH World Championship Match]

Kevin Steen vs. Player Uno

Kevin Steen in a Royal Rumble match with Johnny Gargano, Tommy Dreamer, & many others.