ROH DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR

Lowell, Massachusetts

COLT CABANA vs. ANTHONY HENRY (10:00): This was a really good show. Tony Khan has certainly turned around Ring of Honor, as before he bought it, the last few years featured fairly dull shows with sparse crowds. This show wasn't sold out or anything, but they had a big crowd that was loud and hot for most of the night. What Khan is going to do with Ring of Honor is anyone's guess, though. They don't have a TV show and this was only the 2nd show since he bought it. Khan supposedly did give contracts to a few of the stars like The Briscoe Brothers and Jonathan Gresham (who already quit). Khan apparently bought the company simply because he's rich and a fan. I guess we'll see if putting a few PPV's on a year is going to work. This opener was fun, as the crowd was super into everything Colt Cabana did. The free, hour pre-show had four matches...so you definitely got your money's worth if you didn't want to pay $49 for the 3 hour PPV (I didn't). **1/2

THE TRUST BUSTERS vs. SHINOBI SHADOW SQUAD (5:30): Cheeseburger is still around, part of the Shinobi Shadow Squad. Does Cheeseburger have a real, 9-5 job? He has to, right? I don't even really remember this match and I literally watched it last night. *1/2

THE EMBASSY vs. ALEX ZAYNE, BLAKE CHRISTIAN & TONY DEPPEN (11:35): Brian Cage is in AEW. He mysteriously disappeared since last Fall but now he's in Ring of Honor in Tully Blanchard's stable, though Blanchard apparently quit because he wasn't on this show. Cage looked great. I remember him having a great match against Adam Page on an AEW PPV so I'm not entirely sure why he kind of disappeared off the face of the Earth in AEW. He was also in the cinematic match against Darby Allin and Sting years ago. This match got pretty exciting late, as Zayne and Deppen and Christian were all doing a bunch of fast, high flying, exciting moves against the three big monsters. Fun match. **1/2

WILLOW NIGHTINGALE vs. ALLYSIN KAY (7:50): This was pretty forgettable, although the crowd roared in approval for everything Willow did for some reason. Is she from Lowell, Mass or something? *1/2

CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI vs. JONATHAN GRESHAM (11:30): Gresham quit the company after this match. He mentioned that he felt disrespected because he didn't have much if any communication this week from Tony Khan. He also mentioned he was mad that this match, a ROH title match, went on first on the PPV and didn't get a lot of time. Let's face facts, though...he quit because he was mad he lost the title, a title he just won last December. Gresham is a short dude so WWE will never hire him, and if they did they wouldn't do anything with him. Quitting AEW will make him work indies for the rest of his life. That's what he has been doing lately, as he has his own company, Terminus, that runs shows here and there in Atlanta (they had a show last Thursday where he faced Takeshita in the main event). Gresham also wrestles a lot in Germany for WXW for some reason. So he won't not be working. But quitting ROH even though he just signed a contract seems like a mistake. Maybe he'll realize this and come back. Either way, I would have rather seen this as a longer, main event match. It was for the title, which Cesaro won. I understand that they wanted FTR/Briscoes on last, though. This was a good match but weird that it went on first and didn't go too long. I also think it was kind of obvious that Claudio was winning because as we saw with Adam Page vs. CM Punk...Tony Khan always goes with the more popular guy. Considering the WWE never gave Cesaro the title, and he never won the ROH title previously, it was kind of awesome seeing him in his 40's finally be a world champ. **1/2 

DALTON CASTLE & THE BOYS vs. THE RIGHTEOUS (9:40): I love Dalton Castle's entrance. I also think his gimmick is one of wrestling's best. The crowd loved him in this match, too. At one point he was tossing his boys left and right over the ropes onto his opponents. The Righteous is kind of a Charlie Manson gimmick. Vincent is a part of it. When Matt Taven and Vincent broke up I kind of thought I'd never see Vincent again. Taven is in Impact now, doing whatever the hell they do over there (I never watch that promotion). This was another fun match. Dalton and The Boys won the 6 man titles. **1/2

WHEELER YUTA vs. DANIEL GARCIA (15:55): This was the opposite of the typical AEW/crowd favorite type of matches. It was more ground and pound than spectacular high flying. While it was good it was also a little boring. Yuta retained the Pure title, a title with so many stipulations that it takes five minutes to explain it. No wonder ROH got rid of it for years. **1/2

RUSH vs. DRAGON LEE (15:50): This was fantastic. Dragon Lee was in it so of course it was. When ROH folded, the two best wrestlers in the company that became free agents were Bandido and Dragon Lee. Why Khan didn't fucking snap them up for AEW right away is baffling to me. But at least they're in ROH, though Bandido was missing tonight (he did look like he injured his neck last month at the AAA show when he landed on his head). It seemed to me that these two decided to just recreate the infamous Dragon Lee vs. Hiromu Takahashi match from CMLL years ago...because they did a lot of the same, spectacular spots. A few of the moves went off the rails but this was just as brutal and crazy as that one was. Dragon Lee of course broke Hiromu's neck at that New Japan California show years ago...so Hiromu isn't wrestling as crazy anymore. Dragon Lee still is, which is kind of shocking. Has he learned nothing? Lately he's been balancing his opponent on the guardrail and sailing through the ropes to torpedo them into the crowd. He tried this with Rush by sitting him on the announce table. His dive wasn't long enough, though, and he ended up smashing his head through the table. How he finished this match is beyond me. Also, these two are brothers in real life. And they beat the shit out of each other. What a glorious, insane match this was. ***

MERCEDES MARTINEZ vs. SERENA DEEB (17:20): Martinez did a sit up suplex on Deeb from the top rope that reminded me of that infamous, top rope Dragon suplex that Omega did to Okada. While this match wasn't particular good or anything, that move at least woke me up and take notice. Martinez retained the Women's title here. This was too slow and plodding in spots, but certainly brutal and hard hitting. **

SAMOA JOE vs. JAY LETHAL (12:20): The crowd was a frothing frenzy of wildness for the early part and the later part of this match. Great crowd tonight. I guess this was more an AEW crowd...since a ROH crowd doesn't really exist, anymore, plus half the wrestlers on this show were AEW wrestlers. For five minutes or so these two beat the shit out of each other outside the ring before the bell rang. Later on we got a ref bump and interference from Jay's cronies. Joe retained the TV title or whatever it's called. The early part and final few minutes of this were fantastic. The middle was kind of dull. **1/2

FTR vs. THE BRISCOE BROTHERS "2 OUT OF 3 FALLS" (43:25): This was a really intense, hard hitting, entertaining epic. Since it went so long, though, I think their first match back in April was better. This was so long it had the kitchen sink feel. They did everything and more. Cash Wheeler did a side suplex on one of the Briscoe's from the second rope down onto a table late in the match. They barely hit the table, though, and the Briscoe's head landed hard through the table. That was sickening. Also, Dax got so many chops on his chest that his chest started to bleed. Besides the table break, this felt like one of those exhausting, epic New Japan matches, which is a good thing. The Briscoe's won the first fall and FTR won the 2nd and 3rd fall. Really great match that truly had that epic, awesome, putting-everything-out-there feel that a main event title match should have. The final pin was pretty creative as well, as Dax gave one of the Briscoe's a second rope piledriver and both men fell over in exhaustion, but Dax laid his foot on the Briscoe's chest to score the win. Good end to a really good show. ***1/2