Highlights:
- Eddie Edwards was not medically cleared to wrestle due to a staph infection.
- Shelton Benjamin called Philly "the buttcrack of America".
- Kyle O'Reilly accidentally hit Adam Cole in the corner with a flying forearm, allowing Benjamin and Charlie Haas to hit Cole with a double-team power bomb for the victory.
- Tomasso Ciampa was able to take advantage of some chaos and a prone Andy Ridge to get the duke in a four-way, one-fall match also including Mike Bennett and Grizzly Redwood.
- Kevin Steen interrupted a Steve Corino promo telling him he was wrong for kissing Jim Cornette's ass and that he should look to earn the fans' respect by becoming the King of Old School again.
- Steen tried goading Kenny King by trying to attack a becrutched Rhett Titus.
- Steen was also threatened with disqualification by using the Package Piledriver, but ended up winning the match with the F5 anyway.
- Post-match, Steen put Titus in a sharpshooter.
- Shane Hagadorn tried to offer his services to Chris Hero before his match with Michael Elgin, but Hero rebuffed him.
- With only 17 seconds left in the match, Elgin got the win with a corner bomb into a spiral bomb.
- Afterwards, Hagadorn came out and berated Hero, getting an elbow to the face for his douchebaggery.
- "Somebody Call My Mama" was definitely played during intermission.
- Adam Cole replaced Edwards for his match against Roderick Strong. It became a no holds barred match.
- Elgin interfered on Strong's behalf, while Edwards countered for Cole, but it was Truth Martini who was the difference for Strong in a victory.
- Afterwards, Cole got a standing ovation.
- During the Briscoes/Jigsaw and Hallowicked match, the Chikara locker room emptied out to rally around their compadres who up to that point were getting their asses kicked.
- The Briscoes went for Hallowicked's mask, which led to near-chaos. In the din, Jigsaw got the rollup for a surprise victory.
- Jigsaw and Hallowicked's ROH Tag Team Championship match will take place in Chicago on April 28th in Chicago Ridge.
- Davey Richards and Jay Lethal pretty much split the crowd all night long, with Richards retaining his Championship with a bunch of kicks to the face.
- Lethal and Richards will have a rematch at the Batlimore TV tapings.
Observations:
- I actually passed Papa Briscoe and his caravan on the way to the arena.
- The Pennsylvania Guard Armory is actually a nice arena. It felt good to wait in line without being ankle deep in trash.
- A "fuck the doctor!" chant broke out when Eddie Edwards announced he had to miss the event.
- Charlie Haas totally floored me with how well he played to the crowd tonight. He was a total dick (in a good way), and it really got the fans going. It set the tone for the entire night.
- Kyle O'Reilly has turned into a little bump machine. He went hard into the turnbuckles twice and really flopped around. That was the most impressive part of the match for me.
- In terms of overpushed low-card heels, Tomasso Ciampa looks like he belongs in a pro wrestling ring, while Mike Bennett looks like he belongs on King of Queens reruns. It was all in the clotheslines. Ciampa's lariat looked pretty good. Bennett's was probably the worst I've ever seen.
- Watching RD Evans ham it up on the outside of the ring made me sad that he was there and not wrestling.
- Speaking of that Embassy entourage, Mia Yim and Prince Nana spent maybe 30 seconds out of the whole match not standing arm-in-arm. Now THAT'S dedication to the gimmick.
- It was apron-mania tonight, and Ciampa got the party started with a pretty sick Air Raid Crash from the floor to said apron on Redwood.
- Kevin Steen has been better at being the CM Punk pipe bomb character for longer than they even thought of giving it to Punk. That's saying something.
- Steen was another guy who just interacted with the crowd all night, although it was more in a positive manner, as he was pretty popular.
- Example: "Steen, were you on Tough Enough? "No, I'm a fat little prick!"
- King just keeps getting better and better at melding his natural athleticism into the art of actually making a wrestling match seem more like a fight. Some of the stuff he did tonight was jaw-dropping.
- When did they ban the Package Piledriver? Was it Final Battle?
- Hero was definitely showing off during the first portion of his match with Elgin. It was actually pretty amusing how well Elgin acted the part of the frustrated, disrespected underdog while looking like he could've snapped and feasted on Hero's innards at any time.
- Hero for his part really sold Elgin wearing him down and out well during the match. He does woozy very well.
- The time limit tease was a nice touch. For about a minute there, I totally thought they'd go draw, which if Hero is on his way out, would've been the best way to go without having him eat a pinfall.
- People really didn't like Roderick Strong tonight.
- That being said, this was the best Strong's looked in ROH since Daniel Bryan was Bryan Danielson, but for totally different reasons. He's also added crowd interaction into his repertoire, and it's made him a far more complete performer. Where he really shone though was in his viciousness. Guy can brawl, who knew.
- Adam Cole has a pretty slick shining wizard.
- Funny spot, Strong set up chairs to be lodged between turnbuckles in each corner, but it was Cole who got to ram Roddy's head into them. The last corner, the chair fell out of position, and Strong actually put the chair back in place while he was selling. IT was pretty absurd.
- Funny to see Edwards being set up as Cole's mentor. Even if people haven't heard the spoilers concerning Future Shock, it sets up an interesting dynamic going forward among both that team and the American Wolves.
- I'm also pretty sure that Cole was made tonight, and he'll be good with the ROH Philly crowd from here on out. Gutty, star-making performance.
- The Briscoes got chants all night long. They could've gone up against Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee tonight and still had gotten near unanimous crowd support.
- Until about 3/4 of the way through the match, I was literally the only one in the arena cheering for Hallowicked and Jigsaw. Of course Papa Briscoe was right behind me, so that was pretty fun.
- No, seriously, Papa Briscoe cheering for his kids was awesome, no sarcasm. He just got so into the match, it was great.
- Speaking of guys who bumped their asses off tonight, how about Jigsaw, everyone? Dude took a beating from the Briscoes something fierce. This is why he's one of the best in America. AT one point, he went so hard into the turnbuckle selling a Mark front dropkick that I thought he moved the ring.
- The Briscoes were the perfect team to use as a backdrop for this Chikara partnership. The absolute perfect team.
- By the way, yes, it was Bryce Remsburg who reffed the Chikara/Briscoes match. To his credit, he called it right down the middle, because he's Bryce Freakin' Remsburg, the best referee in wrestling history.
- The main event was the ONLY match for which the Code of Honor was followed.
- Richards and Lethal, for all their pomp as indie standouts, wrestled very much a match that could have fit as a main event for a WWE PPV. This is not a bad thing, by the way.
- Davey Richards sold. Short-term, long-term. He acted woozy. He acted like he was hurt. In this match, I saw why people consider him a great wrestler.
- Strong interfered in the match at one point, and it actually fit.
This didn't last long, as the match moved on into almost uncomfortable squash-match levels of dominance by the Briscoes. The thing though was that even though I'm almost programmed to hate on uncompetitive high up on the card, I couldn't totally not be impressed here. The Briscoes just work as such a well-oiled machine. Obviously, being brothers and tagging together for the better part of a decade will do that for a team, but there's just a certain beauty in the carnage doled out by #DemBoys. It helped that both opponents, Jigsaw especially, bumped their asses off in an effort to make them look like world-beaters. The count out spot where Jig made it back in on 19, leading to the Chikara masks all pouring out, was the exclamation point on that second act.
The third act was something special though. I loved how the mere presence of Quack and his students was enough to uplift the challengers to a point where they were now matching the Briscoes blow for blow. There was an energy, one that would be explained after the match by UltraMantis Black as family. The ring surrounded by masks clearly rattled the Briscoes, and it was perfect storytelling for two rednecks from Slower Lower to be spooked by a colorful masquerade of wrestling's motley crew of bandits. Obviously, in order to make this story last past Philly, there had to be some shenanigans, and they were played off so well, starting with Jay acting on his almost xenophobic reaction to the flood around the ring by decking Dasher Hatfield with a clothesline. One thing led to another, and before anyone knew it, Bryce had to turn away from a Hallowicked whose mask was still mangled from Mark clawing and grabbing at it to count a 1-2-3 by Jigsaw to secure the victory. It was a spectacle. It was a hard-hitting match. It was a show, and when wrestling is at its best, it's going to be a show.
Overall Thoughts: All the things that had been missing from ROH, or at the very least had not been showing through on television, returned tonight with a wondrous fury that gave the first Philadelphia house show crowd in over two years for the company a memorable show, top to bottom. All seven matches delivered in their own way, both with the actual moves and the mechanics in the ring, but also with the story. Nearly everyone interacted with the crowd in some way, and to its credit, the crowd was pretty rocking, a stark difference from the absolutely dead TV taping crowds that they used to draw to the ECW Arena for HDNet. Guys wrestled with emotion. It wasn't just finisher-kick out-even more absurd finisher-kick out-death blow strike-pin. Guys were trading funky submissions, using the apron as a weapon, embracing the fact that just because ROH espouses pure wrestling doesn't mean it has to play out like a sterile contest.
The arena had something to do with it, but I really think it was the fact that they drew a good crowd, a crowd that missed them. Fuck, I missed them, I missed this kind of show, the kind I saw when I went to those first tapings I went to. Yes, gone were Danielson and McGuinness and Castagnoli, but finally, guys like Strong and Haas and Richards stepped up and provided some color that I didn't think they had. It was amazing. This was certainly as strong a show as anyone could open the year with. Bravo.
Full Results
- The World's Greatest Tag Team defeated Future Shock via pinfall by Charlie Haas on Kyle O'Reilly.
- Tomasso Ciampa pinned Grizzly Redwood in a four-way match that also included Mike Bennett and Andy Ridge.
- Kevin Steen pinned Kenny King.
- Michael Elgin pinned Chris Hero.
- Roderick Strong pinned Adam Cole in a No Holds Barred match.
- Jigsaw and Hallowicked defeated the Briscoe Brothers in a non-title Proving Ground match when Jigsaw pinned Jay Briscoe. Jig and 'Wicked have earned a ROH Tag Team Championship opportunity at 4/28 in Chicago Ridge.
- Davey Richards retained the ROH World Heavyweight Championship via pinfall over Jay Lethal.
