MARTY SCURLL vs. KENNY KING (12:45): This was the first PPV for the "new" Ring of Honor. The "new" ROH is a company without it's biggest draw, The Young Bucks, plus Christopher Daniels, Kazarian, and Scorpio Sky of SoCal Uncensored, and Hangman Page. I'd say they did all right, as this was a good show. Marty Scurll is the one Elite/Bullet Club member to not jump ship and head to All Elite Wrestling. I guess it's because he's the one dude from the U.K., so maybe he still lives there and that's why he stayed with ROH and NJPW. Who knows? But it looks like they might be giving him the title at the MSG show next month, so maybe it's good that he stayed. Or not. The ROH title isn't exactly a big deal these days, although they tried really hard tonight to make it out to be. This opener was pretty pedestrian. Kenny King is athletic but boring. Scurll is a crowd favorite so at least the fans were alive for this (usually, at least at the house shows, these Ring of Honor shows take place amidst a silent tomb of dead crowds). Not really much to this. *1/2
JEFF COBB vs. SHANE TAYLOR (13:30): Good match. There's a reason Vince McMahon likes and pushes big, muscle guys. When two big, muscle dudes fight it sometimes is very impressive and entertaining. These two big guys did big, power moves and everything made the ring shake and the crowd was into it. Cobb is awesome. He's definitely ROH championship material, as he's big and strong but does standing, backwards flips and has a great finisher and the crowd likes him. Taylor usually sucks but he brought his A game tonight. Cobb retained the TV title and called out Will Ospreay in a title for title match at MSG next month (Ospreay has the pointless and stupid NEVER title in New Japan). ***
MAYU IWATANI vs. KELLY KLEIN (9:00): Iwatani is, supposedly, the best women's wrestler in Japan these days (she wrestles in Stardom, the all women wrestling company that I've sadly never watched but probably should). She definitely is light years better than Klein, who is more of a brute force type of wrestler. ROH just started the women's division so it's hard to bitch about it but so far it sucks. Iwatani retained the title. 1/2*
JAY LETHAL vs. MATT TAVEN (60:00): This was supposed to be the main event. And, no, that match time isn't a typo. This match went to a sixty minute draw. That definitely made this a more interesting and better match than it probably would have been if it was just a random, thirty minute main event. Taven came out and called out Lethal and said he wanted Lethal right here and right now. So they did the main event early. Everyone was suspect and wondered why this was going on early. It turned out to be for two reasons. One, a time limit draw to end a show is pretty lame, right? Even though New Japan did that two years ago when Omega/Okada went to a sixty minute draw. The other reason was that these ROH ppv's are still on cable so they have a three hour window. They didn't want to have to go long or be forced to cut the match short or anything (the show still ended up going fifteen minutes past midnight anyway). I love being surprised, and you rarely if ever see an hour long match come out of nowhere (before Okada and Omega did it, the last time I remember seeing an hour long match was probably one of those WWE Iron Man matches from fifteen or so years ago). I wasn't even checking the time of this match so I didn't even realize they had actually gone that long. That probably tells you that it was a good match then. I figured it was long because they kept kicking out of each other's finishers and I was thinking, man, this is going pretty long. They also didn't just do a standard match. They broke a table. Lethal did an elbow off the top rope through a ladder (Taven moved off of it). Taven's goons from The Kingdom ran out and then Jonathan Gresham, Mark Haskins, and Tracy Williams ran out and they all brawled and then eventually all left. By the end there were one-thousand near falls, which was getting a bit ridiculous. After the match ended in a draw, Marty Scurll came down and took the title and left. This all sets up a ladder title match at MSG with Scurll, Lethal, and Taven. The one thing to come out of this is that Taven definitely got some new found respect by the crowd. To go sixty minutes and not bore the hell out of the audience is a lofty goal to achieve. This wasn't a great match but it was a good match and one of the better ROH title matches in recent memory. And it was definitely memorable. ***
RUSH vs. BANDIDO (15:00): Good God. Try to follow a sixty minute match. Well they did. And the crowd adores Bandido. Rush is, at least personality wise, a true star. I've never been the biggest fan of his wrestling ability, but he definitely oozes charisma like Razor Ramon did. This was fun but nothing particularly special. Bandido did a bunch of high flying shit. Dalton Castle did commentary and then challenged Rush for a match at MSG. **1/2
PCO & BRODY KING vs. THE BRISCOE BROTHERS "LAS VEGAS STREET FIGHT" (19:44): PCO is a 51 year old French Canadian that does Swanton Bombs off the top rope onto the ring apron. Which means he's a crowd favorite but will probably be dead or in a wheelchair in ten years. So while it's always great to see his matches it's also hard to watch. Brody King sucks, though, so that didn't help this match. They used chairs, tables, and Singapore Canes. One of the Briscoe Brothers was a bloody mess halfway through this and by the end everyone was covered in blood. This was a classic, ECW style brawl...if that's your thing. PCO and King won the tag titles here and will face The Guerrillas of Destiny at MSG in a titles vs. titles match (the Guerrillas have the NJPW tag titles). This wasn't spectacular or anything but it was an entertaining car crash of a match, albeit a bit too sloppy. **1/2
