BRM Books ROH for the Rest of 2015... Including the Return of Trios Tournament

[Big Red Machine]

I have taken the rough tournament outline from a post by Marketh on the ROHWorld forum, but have added a few of my own twists and changes. Everything that happens both before and after the tournament is my own doing.

I am assuming this tournament will take place on the 8/29 Atlanta show because Atlanta had a strong crowd last time, and this would be before New Japan's Road to Destruction tour starts, so AJ and the Bucks and reDRagon should be available.
I am assuming I will have full use of reDRagon and the Kingdom (so no New Japan tours unless they’re all on ROH off days) and the ability to use any non-New Japan talent any time I want (even pulling them off someone else’s shows if the dates compete).
I am also assuming that there will be at least one show in October (currently there are none scheduled) and that it will either be in NY, Baltimore or Toronto, all of which (especially the latter two) would be due for a return at that time. I am also assuming that 2016 will have the same PPV schedule that 2015 has so far.



7/17 Vegas show brief overview:
Bucks def. RPG Vice
TV Title #1 Contendership Tournament:
1st Round Matches:
Daniels cheats to beat Mark
Fish def. Taven clean
Kaz def. ACH clean
TV TITLE #1 CONTENDERSHIP TOURNAMENT FINALS:
The Addiction work together and double team Fish until he is able to roll Daniels up and eliminate him. Kazarian then continues to work Fish over and eventually beats him. Daniels comes out after the match the heels celebrate by beating Fish down, but Kyle comes out to make the save.

AUSTIN ARIES, JAY LETHAL, & MOOSE vs. KYLE O’REILLY, JAY BRISCOE, & DALTON CASTLE (w/the boys)-
Aries pins Castle


DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR XIII- 7/24/2015- Baltimore, MD
We open with Austin Aries in the ring being adored by the fans. He lets us know that it’s good to be back. It has been a very long time. So long, in fact, that ROH management isn’t going to give him any shortcuts. They want him to work his way back up to the top (he only got the main event spot we all know he deserves in Vegas because Roddy had to pull out). But he is glad to start his quest to become the first ever THREE-TIME ROH World Champion tonight!

Austin Aries vs. Matt Sydal-
Aries wins clean


SIX MAN MAYHEM MATCH: Whitmer vs. Dijak vs. Sabin vs. Caprice vs. Silas Young vs. Will Ferrara-
Dijak gets the win, pinning Ferrara after a distraction from Truth. Ferrara looks very unhappy about this loss.

Grudge Match
Moose w/ Stokely Hathaway vs Cedric Alexander w/ Veda Scott
Cedric tries to use the wrench again but Caprice comes out to stop him, leading to Moose spearing Cedric for the win.

4 Corner Survival Match for the ROH World Tag Team Championship
The Addiction(c) (w/Chris Sabin) vs War Machine vs reDRagon vs the Kingdom (w/Maria Kanellis)
Addiction win when Kaz pins Bennett. Earlier in the match Kyle had Daniels pinned but the referee didn’t see it because of all of the chaos of having so many people around ringside, which allowed Sabin to reach in and pull Kyle off.

INTERMISSION

Adam Cole vs. Dalton Castle-
Cole wins clean in ten minutes. Cole shows Castle respect after the match by offering a handshake. Castle tentatively takes it, but just as he does, Taven and Bennett come out and jump him from behind. They start to put the boots to him but Cole shoves them off and tells them to stop so Taven and Bennett literally (double super-)kick Cole out of the Kingdom.

NO DISQUALIFICATIONS MATCH: ACH vs. Adam Page (w/the Decade)-
Adam Page wins. Colby takes a lot of punishment because BJ essentially orders him to be a human shield for Page.

ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Jay Lethal(c) (w/the House of Truth) vs Roderick Strong-
Lethal wins clean to retain


7/25 TV tapings- Baltimore, MD
RODERICK STRONG vs. AUSTIN ARIES-
Let them go out there and tear the house down. Aries wins clean in 20-25 minutes. I’d have this be the very first match from the tapings to air and also open the show.

CAPRICE COLEMAN vs. CEDRIC ALEXANDER (w/Veda Scott)-
Before the match, Veda and Cedric cut a promo declaring that Cedric’s loss to Moose last night wasn’t Cedric’s fault. Cedric attacks Caprice and then takes him out, resulting in a DQ and Caprice being stretchered off.

JAY BRISCOE vs. RAYMOND ROWE-
Briscoe wins clean

ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Addiction(c) vs. reDRagon-
reDRagon are given this title shot because they got screwed out of the titles last night. In this match, too, we have Sabin interfere and cost reDRagon the tag titles, pushing Bobby Fish off the top rope. Kyle takes him out with a big running dropkick off the apron, but Kaz and Daniels manage to take advantage of the situation and hit Celebrity Rehab for the win.

ACH & MATT SYDAL vs. THE DECADE (w/Colby Corino)-
The Decade get DQed when Whitmer orders Colby to interfere. They start to beat the babyfaces down but Sydal and ACH make a comeback and Colby winds up eating a bunch of moves while Whitmer and Page escape to the back.
Later in the tapings we get an in-ring segment where Steve Corino is interviewing ACH because ACH has a big announcement for the Decade. ACH says he is sick and tired of the Decade’s interference (at this point he apologizes to Corino for beating the crap out of Colby both tonight and at DBD- Corino tells him he understands), so he went to Nigel McGuinness and Nigel gave him a match that will end this feud once and for all the way it should end: Page vs. ACH, one-on-one, with the best man walking out the winner… and the way to ensure that no one will interfere is to surround the ring with a STEEL CAGE, and that match will take place on September 12th in Chicago (and it will be taped for TV)… but until then, if the Decade want to play with outside interferences and no rules, then he and Sydal will be glad to go hardcore on their asses in Philadelphia at the 8/21 TV tapings!

WILL FERRARA vs. J. DIESEL (w/the House of Truth)-
Ferrara has the match won, but just like last night at DBD, Martini causes a distraction which costs Ferrara the match and Ferrara is upset about it.

ADAM COLE & DALTON CASTLE (w/the boys) vs. THE KINGDOM (w/Maria Kanellis)-
Kingdom win clean. After the match they destroy Castle and his boys with a chair and then bear down on Adam Cole… but then AUSTIN ARIES COMES OUT TO STAND SIDE-BY-SIDE WITH COLE!
AND THEN HE SUPERKICKS COLE IN THE HEAD!
Aries grabs a mic and says “Sorry, kid. They decided to upgrade. Now all we need to do is get rid of the old version.” The new Kingdom set up for a Pillmanizer on Cole’s neck but Kyle O’Reilly charges out to make the save. Just as the numbers game starts to get to Kyle, Bobby Fish comes rushing out with a chair, looking unhappy, and helps chase the heels off. Bobby starts to say “Dammit, Kyle, I told you they’d just beat you down, too,” but Kyle tells him to pipe down. Kyle extends his hand to the recovering Adam Cole, who accepts the handshake.

SILAS YOUNG vs. MARK BRISCOE-
Silas wins clean and cuts a promo on Dalton Castle.

ROH TV TITLE MATCH: Jay Lethal(c) (w/the House of Truth) vs. Hanson-
Lethal wins clean.



PHILLY TV TAPING WITH NEW JAPAN GUYS- 8/21
(*=TV main event. Matches with an X air early in the cycle of tapings. Other than that, assume stuff happens roughly in the order shown, especially as relates to reDRagon/Cole and the Kingdom)
*TIME SPLITTERS vs. reDRagon-
reDRagon win clean when Kyle taps Shelley

X WILL FERRARA vs. J. DIESEL (w/the House of Truth)-
Once again Ferrara seems to have the match won when Truth Martini jumps up to cause a distraction, but this time Ferrara kicks Diesel in the nuts then knocks Truth off the apron and gets the pin.

RODDY vs. SILAS-
Roddy wins clean


X NO DISQUALIFICATIONS MATCH: ACH & Matt Sydal vs. The Decade (w/Colby Corino)-
Decade wins. Once again they use Colby as something of a human shield.

ADAM COLE vs. CEDRIC ALEXANDER-
Cedric rolls Cole up after a distraction from the Kingdom. The Kingdom then jump Cole and Kyle once again makes the save, this time with a chair to chase the Kingdom off.

X (1)*ROH WORLD TV TITLE MATCH: Jay Lethal(c) (w/the House of Truth) vs. Frankie Kazarian (w/Christopher Daniels)-
Lethal wins clean in fifteen minutes

MOOSE & STOKELY vs. TAVEN & BENNETT (w/Aries & Maria)-
Taven & Bennett win clean, pinning Stokely

LIVE FISH TANK SEGMENT-
The scheduled guest is Adam Cole but the Kingdom attack reDRagon before Kyle can finish his opening bit. Cole comes out to return the favor making the save.

CHRISTOPHER DANIELS vs. DALTON CASTLE-
Daniels wins clean. Silas jumps Castle after the match.


BRISCOES vs. WAR MACHINE-
Draw

K.E.S. kill jobbers

*MICHAEL ELGIN vs. KAZUCHIKA OKADA
Okada wins clean

*AUSTIN ARIES vs. SHINSUKE NAKAMURA-
Nakamura wins clean.



FIELD OF HONOR 2015 (8/22/2015)- Brooklyn, NY

The Kingdom open the show with the standard “we want our match to be on first so we can get out of this stinkin’ town as soon as possible” promo.
THE KINGDOM (w/Maria Kanellis) vs. ADAM COLE, MICHAEL ELGIN, & DALTON CASTLE (w/the boys)-
Kingdom wins clean after a double superkick followed by a 450 to Castle. On their way out they also give Castle’s boys some superkicks.



THE BRISCOES vs. TIME SPLITTERS- Briscoes win clean, pinning Shelley

K.E.S. vs. WAR MACHINE-
K.E.S. win- possibly by DQ, but either way, they would beat War Machine down after the match (it’d be even better if we could get a third Suzuki-Gun rep on the show to help out with this). Michael Elgin comes out to make the save and offers handshakes to his former protégés to continue on his path of redemption and righting the wrongs he has made over the past nine months.


SILAS YOUNG vs. WILL FERRARA-
Ferrara wins by roll-up when Castle distracts Silas

MATT SYDAL & ACH vs. THE ADDICTION-
Addiction win clean, pinning Sydal after a babyface double-team gone wrong results in ACH accidentally kicking Sydal in the face (then Daniels pitches ACH out of the ring before The Addiction hit Celebrity Rehab and get the pin on Sydal)

NO DISQUALIFICATIONS MATCH: Moose (w/Stokely Hathaway) vs. Cedric Alexander (w/Veda Scott)-
Not sure who wins (probably Moose), but either way I think this should be the blow-off.

reDRagon vs. SHINSUKE NAKAMURA & JAY LETHAL (w/the House of Truth)-
I REALLY want to do a 30 minute time limit draw here, but if I remember correctly the live reports all said that the Field of Honor crowd last year was a lot more casual so I don’t know how they’d respond to that so instead I would have Nakamura go over, pinning Fish with the Boma Ye, but in either case we would get one big spot before that where Kyle has Lethal tapping but the ref is distracted (in the case of a draw maybe I’d also have Kyle locking the same submission on Lethal as time expires).


KAZUCHIKA OKADA vs. RODERICK STRONG-
Okada wins clean



TRIOS TOURNAMENT 2015 (8/29/2015)- Atlanta, GA
As is the tradition the three wrestlers on the winning team will each get to book one match of their choice at any point over the course of the next year.


TRIOS TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: Roderick Strong, Will Ferrara, & Cedric Alexander vs. The Bullet Club (AJ Styles & the Young Bucks)-
Bullet Club wins clean when AJ pins Roderick. Cedric is clearly pissed at Roddy for losing the match and walks away before the handshakes. Ferrara also seems angry but doesn’t do anything

TRIOS TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: The Decade vs. The Kingdom (w/Maria Kanellis)-
The Kingdom get the win, utterly destroying Colby with a whole bunch of finishers and superkicks while Page and Whitmer watch.

TRIOS TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: Michael Elgin & War Machine vs. Knights of the Rising Dawn-
KRD win by cheating to pin one of the War Machine guys. Elgin seems angry after the match, like he might go heel on War Machine again, but calms down and helps them up instead. Kevin Kelly puts over that while the Elgin we saw after he lost the title would have lost his cool, put all of the blame on War Machine and attacked them, the Elgin we have seen recently has learned to deal with his frustration better and is now a nice person and an honorable babyface again.

TRIOS TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: Adam Cole & reDRagon vs. The House of Truth (w/Truth Martini)-
Just like at Field of Honor, Kyle has Lethal tapping but the ref is distracted by Truth so he doesn’t see it. Unlike at Field of Honor, though, Kyle does still manage to pick up the win for his team by making J. Diesel tap out.

FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL MATCH: ACH vs. Silas Young vs. Mark Briscoe vs. Jay Briscoe-
The story of the match is the Briscoes working together as a team. The finish has Jay pin Silas after a Jay Driller.

TRIOS TOURNAMENT SEMIFINAL MATCH: The Bullet Club vs. The Kingdom (w/Maria Kanellis)-
Kingdom wins clean with Aries pinning AJ if New Japan will allow it or one of the Bucks if they won’t.

TRIOS TOURNAMENT SEMIFINAL MATCH: Adam Cole & reDRagon vs. Knights of the Rising Dawn-
Babyfaces win when Kyle pins Kaz after Chasing the Dragon. Just to be spiteful, Daniels and Sabin lay all three babyfaces out with tag title belt shots after the match. Cole gigs.

MATT SYDAL vs. MOOSE (w/Stokely Hathaway)-
Moose wins clean

TRIOS TOURNAMENT FINALS: Adam Cole & reDRagon vs. The Kingdom (w/Maria Kanellis)-
The Kingdom focus their attacks on Cole’s head and get the win via referee stoppage when Aries hits him with the repeated knees to the head. Aries cuts a post-match promo bragging about how much better the Kingdom is with him instead of Cole (not only did he beat Cole in the finals, but he also did what Cole’s version of the Kingdom failed to do TWICE earlier this year: beat the Bullet Club).




Hopefully I will have the rest of the year (and some rough sketches for 2016) posted tomorrow.

[Big Red Machine]

THE KAYFABE NEWS/BUILD-UP:

As a result of Lethal pinning one half of the ROH World Tag Team Champions, Frankie Kazarian, at the most recent TV tapings in Philly on 8/21 (along with Truth Martini’s negotiating skill), ROH management is giving Lethal at shot at the World Tag Team Titles (with fellow HOT member Donovan Dijak) to main event ROH’s next live event. On September 11th in Dearborn, Jay Lethal goes “For All the Gold.”

At the last two ROH shows, Kyle O’Reilly has had ROH World and Television Champion Jay Lethal tapping but the referee has been distracted. Lethal has claimed that he was not really tapping but merely trying to trick O’Reilly into releasing the hold and never would have tapped if the referee were doing his job correctly. Regardless of the truthfulness of Lethal’s claims, O’Reilly has been racking up wins lately and went to a time limit draw with Lethal in a TV Title match back on 4/25 in Hopkins which was never resolved, so in our first match announcement for All-Star Extravaganza VII, Kyle O’Reilly will challenge Jay Lethal for the ROH TV Title on Friday September 18th in San Antonio!

O’Reilly will be having a VERY big month in September, as in addition to this TV Title match and to being considered as an All-Star for Champions vs. All-Stars 2015 on September 25th in California, PA, Kyle and his tag team partner Bobby Fish will be getting one more shot at The Addiction, but this time it will take place somewhere Chris Sabin can’t interfere: INSIDE A STEEL CAGE! It’s The Addiction vs. reDRagon for the ROH World Tag Team Titles on September 12th in Chicago for the main event of Caged Rage 2015!
Also on that show Jay Briscoe battles Austin Aries in a match-up of the only two-time ROH World Champions!


At this point I would also hopefully be able to announce the outside talent being brought in for All-Star Extravaganza VII weekend. Because we’re in San Antonio, I would try to get some guys from AAA. In particular I’d want to get one top level tag team (but not their champs) and Alberto El Patron.




ROH “FOR ALL THE GOLD”- (9/11/2015)- Dearborn, MI

X=Taped for TV, *=TV main event

MICHAEL ELGIN vs. RAYMOND ROWE-
Elgin wins clean but Rowe has a good showing. Handhsake and friendliness all around after the match.

X FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL MATCH: Mark Briscoe vs. Will Ferrara vs. Cedric Alexander (w/Veda Scott) vs. J. Diesel (w/Truth Martini)-
The finish sees Veda distract the ref, allowing Cedric to lay Mark out with two shots from a steel chair. Diesel then comes at Cedric and eats a chairshot as well. Cedric disposes of the chair and goes for the cover, but Truth pulls him out of the ring. Cedric goes after Truth, and while this is happening, Ferrara hesitates for a second before deciding to take advantage of chairshots and pins Mark Briscoe for the biggest win of his career.


X THE DECADE vs. ACH, MATT SYDAL, & DELIRIOUS-
Colby is about to pin Delirious, but Adam Page steals it.
After the match, the Decade beat Delirious down. Sydal makes the save and the Decade retreats. Then, while Sydal is tending to Delirious, Page comes back out and clips ACH’s knee from behind and gives it a few stomps before being chased off.

RODERICK STRONG vs. JAY BRISCOE vs. HANSON-
Jay wins clean, pinning Hanson.
XXXX (intermission) XXXX
ROMANTIC TOUCH vs. MOOSE (w/Stokely Hathaway)-
Moose wins clean in six minutes


X*ADAM COLE, reDRagon, & DALTON CASTLE vs. SILAS YOUNG & THE KINGDOM (w/Maria Kanellis)-
Babyfaces win clean when Kyle pins Silas after Chasing the Dragon.


ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Addiction(c) vs. Jay Lethal & Donovan Dijak
Addiction win clean, pinning Dijak








ROH CAGED RAGE 2015 (9/12/2015)- Chicago, IL
X=Taped for TV, *=TV main event
X MATT SYDAL & DELIRIOUS vs. MICHAEL BENNETT & MATT TAVEN (w/Maria Kanellis)-
Sydal & Delirious win when Sydal rolls Bennett up.

X WILL FERRARA vs. HANSON-
Ferrara gets a bullsh*t win by tricking Hanson into chasing him around the ring and then sliding back in right before the twenty-count to win by count-out.


X CEDRIC ALEXANDER vs. MICHAEL ELGIN-
Before the match, Cedric cuts a promo putting Ferrara over for “doing what is necessary” to win matches and thus blames their trios tournament loss solely on Roddy. Cedric wins the match by roll-up with his feet on the ropes for illegal leverage. Match should go about fifteen minutes



SIX MAN SCRAMBLE MATCH: Mark Briscoe vs. Silas Young vs. Adam Cole vs. Donovan Dijak (w/Truth Martini) vs. Dalton Castle (w/the boys) vs. BJ Whitmer (w/Adam Page & Colby Corino)-
Cole wins clean, pinning Whitmer

MOOSE (w/Stokely Hathaway) vs. J. DIESEL (w/Truth Martini)- squash

X* AUSTIN ARIES vs. JAY BRISCOE-
30 minute time-limit draw. Jay wants five more minutes but Aries wants to get out of this crap-hole city as quickly as possible.

RODERICK STRONG vs. RAYMOND ROWE-
Roddy wins clean, but Rowe gets a chance to shine in his loss.

XXXX (intermission) XXXX
X* STEEL CAGE MATCH: Adam Page vs. ACH-
Page wins by focusing on ACH’s leg injured from the night before

STEEL CAGE MATCH: Addiction(c) vs. reDRagon-
Addiction retain, pinning Fish to win the feud










ROHWrestling.com announces Team All-Stars for Champions vs. All-Stars 2015 on 9/25 in California, PA. Although normally there would be four guys on each team, there will only be three champions this year because of the unprecedented circumstance of Jay Lethal being a double champion. As for who the all-stars will be…
Over the course of the past few months, there are two particular members of the roster who have really shown a dedication to ROH and who have personified the honorable behavior and fighting spirit that ROH is all about. Those two men are Roderick Strong and Michael Elgin.
As for their third partner, he will be determined this very weekend in San Antonio at All-Star Extravaganza VII: Night 1 in a single elimination tournament between Bobby Fish, Matt Sydal, Adam Cole, and Moose

On the website/youtube, I’d have Cedric Alexander and Veda Scott cut a promo claiming that Roddy and Elgin only got their “All-Stars” spot because of favoritism in the office. Cedric points out that he defeated Elgin this past weekend and says he wants to show everyone that he can beat Roddy, too.
In response to this, ROH books Roddy vs. Cedric for All-Star Extravaganza VII: Night 2

Austin Aries also cuts a promo on the website/youtube in which he talks about his 30 minute time-limit draw with Jay Briscoe in Chicago. Aries says that he can’t stand the thought as being seen as an equal of Jay Briscoe’s because that is WAY below his level. To shatter this perception, he will cash in his “wish” for wining Trios Tournament and will be challenging Jay Lethal for the ROH World Title at All-Star Extravaganza VII: Night 2 where he will become the first and only THREE-TIME ROH World Champion.

FOREIGN TALENT MATCH ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Night 1: Alberto El Patron vs. Austin Aries
Night 1: Briscoes vs. AAA Tag Team
Night 2: Alberto El Patron vs. Adam Cole
Night 2: AAA Tag Team vs. ACH & Sydal vs. Ferrara & Romantic Touch vs. House of Truth (Diesel & Dijak)

War Machine is looking for redemption in Texas after suffering big losses in singles competition last weekend.


ROH All-Star Extravaganza VII: Night 1 (9/18/2015)- San Antonio, TX
X=Taped for TV, *=TV main event
ALL-STAR TOURNAMENT FIRST-ROUND MATCH: Bobby Fish vs. Matt Sydal-
Fish wins clean, making Sydal tap.

ALL-STAR TOURNAMENT FIRST-ROUND MATCH: Adam Cole vs. Moose (w/Stokely Hathaway)-
Moose wins clean, catching Cole off guard with a spear. The announcers play this up as a HUGE win for Moose as he has now pinned a former ROH World Champion.

Roderick Strong comes out and starts to cut a promo on Cedric Alexander but he is jumped by the House of Truth, who are trying to take out all of the All-Stars to make things easier for Lethal next weekend. The HOT beat Roddy down, focusing on his ribs, until War Machine makes the save, resulting in…

WAR MACHINE vs. THE HOUSE OF TRUTH (J. Diesel & Donovan Dijak) (w/Truth Martini)-
War Machine win fairly quickly after hitting Diesel with Fallout and Rowe covers him for the win.

As soon as the War Machine vs. HOT match ends, Cedric Alexander and Veda Scott come rushing out to the ring. Veda demands that the Cedric vs. Roderick match start right this instant because it was originally scheduled to occur before but War Machine vs. HOT interrupted it, and thus, to preserve the integrity of the card ROH showed the state athletic commission, Roddy vs. Cedric must happen right now. Roddy is injured from the earlier beatdown but still comes out to wrestle, so we get…

RODERICK STRONG vs. CEDRIC ALEXANDER (w/Veda Scott)-
Cedric wins clean by focusing on Roddy’s earlier injuries and getting the pin after hitting Overtime.

X* ALBERTO EL PARTON vs. AUSTIN ARIES-
The finish of this match would be whatever AAA will let me get away with. If they’re okay with Alberto putting Aries over clean (or even with some cheating) to set up a future title match down in Mexico, that’d be sweet. Hopefully they will at least let Aries win by count-out (I think I’d have him do some sort of crazy brainbuster on the ramp and have Alberto not able to make it back to the ring on time), but if they don’t want any of that and it needs to be a time limit draw, then so be it.
XXXX (intermission) XXXX

FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL MATCH: ACH vs. Michael Elgin vs. Will Ferrara vs. Romantic Touch-
ACH wins clean, pinning RT. After the match the House of Truth lay Elgin out with a weapon of some sort.

THE BRISCOES vs. AAA TAG TEAM-
Briscoes win clean

ALL-STAR TOURNAMENT FINALS: Bobby Fish vs. Moose (w/Stokely Hathaway)-
Fish makes Moose tap. After the match, the House of Truth jump Bobby Fish but Kyle O’Reilly comes out to make the save.

X* ROH TV TITLE MATCH: Jay Lethal(c) (w/The House of Truth) vs. Kyle O’Reilly(w/Bobby Fish)-
Kyle wins clean, making Lethal tap to Arm-ageddon to win the ROH TV Title!




ROH All-Star Extravaganza VII: Night 2 (9/19/2015)- San Antonio, TX
X=Taped for TV, *=TV main event

AAA TEAM vs. MATT SYDAL & ACH vs. WILL FERRARA & THE ROMANTIC TOUCH vs. THE HOUSE OF TRUTH (J. Diesel & Donovan Dijak) (w/Truth Martini)-
Ferrara tries to cheat to win by hitting ACH with chair behind the ref’s back but the others break up his pin. Eventually the AAA team wins (or, if AAA is fine with them not getting a win, the House of Truth pick up the win) pinning the Romantic Touch.
After the match, Roddy and Elgin come out and lay out Dijak and Diesel.

SHANE TAYLOR vs. MOOSE (w/Stokely Hathaway)-
Moose wins the Battle of Very Large Black Men by virtue of actually having talent. Hopefully Taylor can take a good bump for the spear.

X BOBBY FISH vs. CEDRIC ALEXANDER (w/Veda Scott)-
Cedric wins clean by focusing on the injuries caused last night by the House of Truth.

X* WAR MACHINE vs. THE BRISCOES-
Briscoes win clean when Jay pins Hanson. I’d give this match a good twenty-five minutes.

XXXX (intermission) XXXX


FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL MATCH: Kyle O’Reilly vs. Roderick Strong vs. Michael Elgin vs. Keith Lee-
Elgin pins Lee after the Elgin bomb. The announcers play up what a feat of strength this is.

X* ALBERTO EL PATRON vs. ADAM COLE-
Alberto wins clean, making Cole tap to the Cross Armbreaker.

X* ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Jay Lethal(c) (w/the House of Truth) vs. Austin Aries-
Lethal wins clean to retain

(I figure I can save a bit by not using Bennett, Taven, Silas, Castle, and the Addiction on this show so that I can afford to pay the AAA guys and the AAA office for their use). If Alberto isn’t free, you can stick Christopher Daniels in his place on night 2)

[Big Red Machine]

THE KAYFABE NEWS/BUILD-UP:

While Bobby Fish won the All-Star Tournament to win his spot on the ROH All-Stars team. Kyle O’Reilly defeating Jay Lethal for the TV Title has forced the creation of a fourth spot on the All-Star Team. ROH officials are attempting to determine who will get the final slot.
Cedric Alexander and Veda Scott post a video where they argue that Cedric deserves the final All-Star spot because he has defeated all of the other All-Stars at the last three shows. Nigel McGuinness puts out a video that basically says that while ROH doesn’t like Cedric’s attitude and newfound tendency towards rule-breaking, he does have a very strong point, so he will be given the final spot on team All-Starts. Nigel says he hopes Cedric will use this big opportunity to once again be the type of honorable competitor that he has been in the past and prove that he embodies the ideals of ROH the way that Michael Elgin, Roderick Strong and Bobby Fish do and prove that he is worthy of being an ROH All-Star.

Jay Briscoe puts out a video saying that he is finally ready for his return match for the ROH World Title against Jay Lethal. That match is signed for the TV Tapings on September 26th in Buffalo. Speaking of rematches, Jay Briscoe will also be involved in a big rematch the night before at Champions vs. All-Stars 2015 when he once again faces off against Austin Aries. Two weeks ago at Caged Rage 2015 they had a thirty-minute time limit draw, so this time they will have a forty-five minute time limit!

As a result of Will Ferrara hitting him with a chair during the multi-team match at All-Star Extravaganza VII: Night 2, ACH has challenged Ferrara to a one-on-one match. That match has been signed for this Friday night in California, PA at Champions vs. All-Stars 2015.

Also, I would ensure that the TV Title change airs exactly this weekend on TV. That show would also have a big video package to build up Lethal vs. Briscoe next week.



September 25th, 2015 – Champions vs. All-Stars 2015 - California, Pennsylvania
ROMANTIC TOUCH vs. DALTON CASTLE (w/the boys)-
Castle wins clean in a comedy match with more than a few suggestive spots. After the match, Silas Young comes out and beats up both guys (and the boys). He says that ROH is not a place for sissies. He will show these sissies what being a real man is all about.

FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL MATCH: Silas Young vs. Matt Sydal vs. Mark Briscoe vs. Michael Bennett (w/Maria Kanellis)-
Sydal wins clean, pinning Mark

CHRIS SABIN vs. DELIRIOUS-
Sabin cheats to beat Delirious, hitting him with some sort of weapon-shot.

ACH vs. WILL FERRARA-
Ferrara doesn’t shake hands at the beginning of the match. The story of the match is that Ferrara tries to cheat but ACH always thwarts him, forcing him to wrestle the match cleanly. ACH wins clean with the 450 and gives Ferrara a handshake after the match.

WAR MACHINE vs. THE DECADE (w/Colby Corino)-
Page & Whitmer win after a distraction by Colby (who winds up eating Fallout from the frustrated War Machine after the match).

JAY BRISCOE vs. AUSTIN ARIES-
Briscoe wins clean in a fast-paced twenty-minute match.

XXXX (intermission) XXXX

ADAM COLE vs. MATT TAVEN (w/Maria Kanellis & Michael Bennett)-
Cole wins clean, thwarting various attempts at Kingdom shenanigans.

TWO HOUR TIME LIMIT EIGHT-MAN ELIMINATION CHAMPIONS VS. ALL-STARS MATCH: The Addiction, Kyle O’Reilly, & Jay Lethal (w/the House of Truth) vs. Team ROH All-Stars (Roderick Strong, Bobby Fish, Michael Elgin, & Cedric Alexander) (w/Veda Scott)-
Kyle and Bobby start off against each other with some good clean mat-wrestling. As the heel champions get tagged in, they start to cheat (with Kyle often trying to point this out to the ref). We cycle though the various match-ups with the heel champions all cheating while Kyle O’Reilly does not. On the All-Stars side of things, the story is that Cedric Alexander is functioning like a chicken-sh*t heel, only tagging in when an opponent is down, and tagging in without consent to try to steal his teammate’s momentum more often than he tags in normally.
The first elimination comes about twenty-five minutes in when all hell breaks loose creating an environment that is conducive to heel shenanigans and Jay Lethal hits Bobby Fish in the head with a steel chair, then gets the pin. Kyle O’Reilly gets in Lethal’s face over this, but Cedric Alexander takes advantage of his opponents arguing to hit them both with a running dropkick.
Shockingly, the next man eliminated is the ROH World Champion Jay Lethal, who is eliminated cleanly via Elgin Bomb in about forty minutes.
They go back and forth three-on-three for a while with the champs getting heat on Roddy and then the All-Stars getting their heat on Kyle. The next man out is Christopher Daniels, who is eliminated via Roddy’s Death By Roderick/Sick Kick combo, except that as Roddy hits the ropes for the Sick Kick, Cedric makes a blind tag and rushes in to steal the pin, pissing Roddy off. Kazarian is similarly eliminated this time when Cedric tags himself in right before Roddy hits a Super Gibson Driver.
This leaves Kyle O’Reilly as the only champion left, and now facing a 3-on-1 situation. Kyle gets worked over for a while but manages to make a big comeback. During the course of this comeback he hits Elgin with some big move on the outside and follows it up with his big running dropkick off the apron with Elgin against the barricade. Kyle gets back in the ring to recover while Elgin tries to get back to the ring in time to avoid being counted out. As the ref counts eighteen, he nears the ring, and Cedric Alexander comes over to him. Cedric seems to be trying to pull Elgin back towards the ring, but isn’t moving very fast, resulting in Elgin being counted out. Elgin seems pissed at Cedric and the announcers debate if Cedric was trying to help Elgin or if he was actually holding Elgin back by moving slower than Elgin could have under his own power.
Roddy and Cedric begrudgingly work together and really work over Kyle’s back. At about the seventy-minute mark, Roddy gets Kyle in the Stronghold and that seems to be it for Kyle, who appears to be on the verge of passing out when Cedric runs in and attacks Roddy, knocking him out with a running kick to the back of the head. Cedric then quickly drags Roddy back to their corner and tags himself in, then runs over and quickly pins the limp Kyle O’Reilly.


September 26th, 2015 - Reloaded Tour: Buffalo – TV TAPING - Lockport, New York
Episode 1: (should air 10/3 on Sinclair stations, 10/7 on DA)
WAR MACHINE vs. WILL FERRARA & CEDRIC ALEXANDER (w/Veda Scott)-
Cedric and Ferrara win after Veda distracts the ref and Ferrara distracts War Machine, allowing Cedric to lay them out with a wrench and get the pin.
After the match, Caprice Coleman makes his big return. He says that it is clear that Cedric has made his choices and although he doesn’t respect Cedric’s decision, he has accepted the fact that Cedric has chosen to go down this wrong path. What he won’t accept is Cedric dragging a young, impressionable kid like Will Ferrara down this path with him. He implores Ferrara to stop cheating in his matches, etc. etc. Cedric tells Ferrara that he can either listen to a winner like him, or a career loser like Caprice. Ferrara leaves with Cedric and Veda.

*X ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Jay Lethal(c) (w/the House of Truth) vs. Jay Briscoe-
Michael Elgin is on commentary and Kevin Kelly explains to everyone that Elgin pinned Jay Lethal at Champions vs. All-Stars, so he will be getting a world title shot against the winner of this match in Toronto on October 23rd at Glory By Honor XIV, live on iPPV. They build up Elgin’s history with both guys. Lethal wins clean to retain.


Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Episode 2: (should air 10/10 on Sinclair stations, 10/14 on DA)
SILAS YOUNG vs. DALTON CASTLE (w/the boys)-
Castle def. Silas by roll-up decently quickly after doing something suggestive which distracts/freaks out Silas. After the match, Silas is angry, but Castle and the boys high-tail it out of there before Silas can attack them.

THE DECADE vs. THE KINGDOM (w/Maria Kanellis)-
Both Maria and Aries cut promos comparing Colby Corino to Adam Cole, but do so in a way that is meant to bury Cole rather than praise Colby. The Kingdom wins rather quickly, pinning Colby. After the match, Whitmer and Page slap Colby around and yell at him.

We get a video package to build up Glory By Honor XIV, including the following matches:
Austin Aries vs. Jay Briscoe
ROH World Tag Team Title match: Addiction(c) vs. The Young Bucks
ROH World Title match: Michael Elgin vs. Jay Lethal
(the focus is on the fact that Elgin is completing his path of redemption after going crazy because he lost the title in this same city- his home town of Toronto- last fall.)

MICHAEL ELGIN vs. JAY DIESEL (w/the House of Truth)-
Truth Martini says that Elgin has no chance of beating Lethal. Elgin basically squashes Diesel but Dijak hits him in the back of the head with the Book of Truth afterwards and then lays him out with a chokeslam.

New TV Champion Kyle O’Reilly comes out and says that he wants to have his first title defense right here on TV. Roddy comes out and volunteers himself as a challenger. Cedric comes out and says that he pinned Kyle at Champions vs. All-Stars, so he should get the first title shot (Kevin Kelly lets us know that Cedric stole that pinfall from Roddy and, of course, plugs the VOD of that event), but he doesn’t want his title shot right here in this cruddy town, so Kyle won’t be defending the belt tonight. Nigel comes out and says that while Cedric definitely deserves a title shot, there is no rule that says he needs to have the first title shot. Nigel sanctions the Kyle vs. Roddy title match for right now.
X ROH TV TITLE MATCH: Kyle O’Reilly(c) vs. Roderick Strong-
They go to a time-limit draw. Cedric is on commentary and buries both guys.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Episode 3: (should air 10/17 on Sinclair stations, 10/21 on DA)
We start off with Kevin Kelly plugging Glory By Honor XIV, both the matches we learned about last week as well as some new matches: Kyle O’Reilly defends the TV Title against Cedric Alexander, Roddy vs. Cole, and War Machine vs. ACH & Sydal

ADAM COLE vs. ACH-
Roddy is commentary to both put over his match with Cole and talk about his draw with Kyle last week and his dislike for Cedric, who stole his pins at Champions vs. All-Stars. Cole wins clean

Promos from Aries and Briscoe

DALTON CASTLE (w/the Boys) vs. CHRISTOPHER DANIELS (w/Frankie Kazarian & Chris Sabin)-
The KRD enter first and cut a promo comparing the Young Bucks to Castle’s boys, then claiming that at GBH they will beat the Bucks just like Castle beats his boys.
Castle comes out but he and the boys are jumped from behind by a VERY angry Silas Young. Silas beats the crap out of them and challenges Castle to face him in a “real man’s match” with No Disqualifications at Glory By Honor XIV

Promos from Kyle and Cedric to build up their TV Title match.

War Machine promo about being on a cold streak and needing wins to get another shot at the tag titles, and that starts at GBH!

Promo by Elgin to build up his title shot.
MICHAEL ELGIN vs. DONOVAN DIJAK (w/the House of Truth)-
Lethal is on commentary to build up the world title match. Elgin wins clean. The HOT try to jump him but Elgin lays all of them out with Elgin Bombs, ending with Lethal.

THE iPPV WILL HAPPEN AFTER THIS SHOW AIRS BUT BEFORE THE NEXT DOES



xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Episode 4: (should air 10/24 on Sinclair stations, 10/28 on DA)
DELIRIOUS vs. THE ROMANTIC TOUCH-
Delirious wins clean in about six minutes. On commentary Kevin Kelly reminds us that despite his craziness, Delirious is a very good wrestler. He also has a tag title shot with Matt Sydal coming up when ROH returns to Nashville on November 20th for the Road to Final Battle TV taping because they pinned the Addiction the last time ROH was in Collinsville back in June.

FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL MATCH: Cheeseburger vs. Mark Briscoe vs. Bobby Fish vs. Moose (w/Stokely Hathaway)-
Moose wins clean, pinning Mark. Caprice Coleman is on commentary to put all of these guys over for being rule-abiding babyfaces.

We get a backstage promo by Jay Briscoe in which he talks about suffering some big singles losses recently. While he is talking, Mark wanders into the frame, still clutching his stomach from Moose’s spear. Mark also laments his lack of singles success, and the brothers decide that it’s time for them to focus on tag team wrestling once again.

CHRIS SABIN vs. MATT SYDAL-
Sydal wins clean in a good long match. After the match, the Addiction jump Sydal. ACH comes out to make the save but it is still 3-on-2, but then Delirious comes out to even things up and they send the KRD packing.




Glory By Honor XIV: (10/23/2015)- Toronto, ON
The goal of this show and all of the long matches is basically to try putting on a blow-away, Show of the Year candidate (iPPV means you’ll have all of the time you want instead of the 3 hour window for regular PPV). This should hopefully get some buzz going for Final Battle.

SIX MAN SCRAMBLE: Bobby Fish vs. Will Ferrara vs. Mark Briscoe vs. Caprice Coleman vs. Moose (w/Stokely Hathaway) vs. Adam Page (w/Colby Corino & BJ Whitmer)-
Ferrara often tries to cheat but Coleman is always there to stop him. Whitmer often orders Colby to act as a human shield for Page, which Colby does, taking many bumps. One of these bumps comes when he throws himself in the way of a spear from Moose. Page tries to capitalize on this, but Moose just lays him out with a huge clothesline. Moose then goes to hit Page with a spear but Whitmer trips him up from the outside. Moose starts to chase Whitmer around the ringside area. Meanwhile, as Page is groggily getting to his feet, Bobby Fish comes in and hits Page with Sleeps With The Fishes and picks up the win.

WAR MACHINE vs. MATT SYDAL & ACH-
War Machine win clean in twelve minutes.

NO DISQUALIFICATIONS MATCH: Silas Young vs. Dalton Castle (w/the boys?)-
Castle goes over, winning the feud. Probably have something post-match where Castle offers Silas a handshake but Silas doesn’t take it.

RODERICK STRONG vs. ADAM COLE-
Roddy over clean in twenty-five minutes. It’s right before intermission, so there’s no reason to not have them go out there and tear the house down.

XXXX (intermission) XXXX

(If you’re going to show a match at intermission on the stream, I think you go with Lethal vs. Elgin from SCOH VII)

AUSTIN ARIES vs. JAY BRISCOE-
Aries over clean in seventeen minutes, kicking out of whatever move pinned him back in Pittsburgh. After the match, Aries cuts a promo on Adam Cole, saying “I just beat your biggest career rival while you couldn’t even beat my old sidekick.”

ROH TV TITLE MATCH: Kyle O’Reilly(c) vs. Cedric Alexander (w/Veda Scott)-
Cedric pins Kyle with a roll-up out of the corner with his feet on the ropes for illegal leverage to win the ROH TV Title! Match should go at least twenty minutes.

ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Addiction(c) vs. The Young Bucks-
Addiction win clean to retain the titles in about twenty minutes.

ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Jay Lethal(c) (w/Truth Martini) vs. Michael Elgin-
Lethal wins clean to retain the title in 25-30 minutes.


At this point on TV I’d air some of the less time-sensitive stuff from San Antonio (like Alberto matches with Cole and Aries, the Briscoes vs. AAA team match, and Aries vs. Lethal (to plug Trios Tournament) as well as the TV Title match from the iPPV (and possibly the world title match, too) to hold over until the next set of tapings.

[Big Red Machine]

We do the gimmick where every weekday we release one qualifier match for Survival of the Fittest
The first qualifier announced is Austin Aries vs. Bobby Fish
The second qualifier announced is Kyle O’Reilly vs. Chris Sabin
The third qualifier announced is Cedric Alexander vs. Jay Briscoe… but the next day there is an article on the website saying that Jay and Mark Briscoe have asked to be booked in tag matches this weekend instead of being part of the Survival of the Fittest Tournament because they are trying to reestablish themselves as the top tag team in ROH after focusing mainly on singles competition for the last two and a half years. ROH management is now looking for opponents for the Briscoes as well as a replacement opponent for Cedric Alexander.
The very next day, ROH announces that it has found a replacement opponent for Cedric Alexander in his Survival of the Fittest Qualifying match: RODERICK STRONG called up ROH matchmaker Nigel McGuinness as soon as he heard that Jay Briscoe had pulled out and asked to be Cedric’s opponent because he is sick of Cedric’s bullsh*t and wants to kick his ass for attacking him and stealing his pins at Champions vs. All-Stars and trying to quash his TV Title shot at the tapings the next night.

The next Monday it is announced that War Machine have stepped up and offered to face the Briscoes. They say that they want redemption against the Briscoes because they’ve never beaten them.
The fourth SOTF qualifier is Michael Elgin vs. BJ Whitmer
The fifth SOTF qualifier is Adam Cole vs. Michael Bennett
The sixth SOTF qualifier is Adam Page vs. Moose
Later in the week it is announced that Taven feels snubbed by not being chosen for SOTF so he wants to prove to ROH management what a mistake they have made… and he will do that by cashing in his “wish” from winning Trios Tournament for a shot at the ROH World Title at Survival of the Fittest 2015: Night 1. Not only this, but Taven is so confident that he will win that he has demanded that ROH management allow him to issue an open challenge on Night 2 so that he will be able to defend the title the night after he wins it.
Also appearing will be Will Ferrara, Silas Young, Caprice Coleman, Cheeseburger, ACH, Matt Sydal, and ROH World Tag Team Champions the Addiction.


Survival of the Fittest 2015: Night 1 (11/13/2015)- Milwaukee, WI
PRE-SHOW MATCH: Takaaki Watanabe vs. Ariya Daivari-
Watanabe wins clean

MAIN SHOW:
SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST QUALIFYING MATCH: Moose (w/Stokely Hathaway) vs. Adam Page (w/the Decade)-
They go for about ten minutes before Moose goes for a spear on Page but Whitmer reaches in and grabs Moose’s leg. Moose turns around to yell at Whitmer, allowing Page to roll Moose up for the (hopefully) surprising victory to (hopefully) set up a feel that anything can happen tonight. The Decade flee, but Moose closes in on them, so Whitmer shoves Colby at Moose. This allows Page and Whitmer to escape, but Moose kicks Colby’s ass.


SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST QUALIFYING MATCH: Chris Sabin vs. Kyle O’Reilly-
Kyle wins clean, making Sabin tap out in fifteen minutes.

FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL MATCH: Silas Young vs. Caprice Coleman vs. Cheeseburger vs. Will Ferrara (w/Veda Scott)-
Just like at Glory By Honor, Ferrara tries to cheat and Coleman goes around trying to stop him. This time, though, Ferrara has Veda Scott on the outside to help him cheat, so he is able to nail Cheeseburger with the wrench, knocking Cheeseburger out, but Caprice breaks up the pin. Caprice then yells at Veda, which causes Cedric Alexander to come out to also yell at Caprice. This distracts the referee, who yells at Veda and Cedric as well, and while the referee’s back is turned, Ferrara kicks Silas in the nuts. He quickly knocks Caprice out of the ring, then hits Silas with his finisher for the pin, pinning Silas in his home town for the second time this year.

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST QUALIFYING MATCH: Adam Cole vs. Michael Bennett (w/the Kingdom)-
The finish sees Bennett dump Cole to the outside. Then Bennett, Maria, and Taven all occupy the ref, allowing Aries to hit Cole from behind with a low blow, then nail him with an IED into the ringpost. Aries rolls Cole back into the ring and Bennett picks up the pin.
After the match, the Kingdom start to beat Cole down, but reDRagon come out to make the save. This transitions into a…

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST QUALIFYING MATCH: Austin Aries (w/the Kingdom) vs. Bobby Fish (w/Kyle O’Reilly and groggy Adam Cole)-
Fish gets Aries to tap to the Fish Hook but there is so much commotion going on outside the ring that the referee doesn’t see it. The ref eventually ejects everyone from ringside and Aries is able to come back and defeat Fish via ref stoppage with the grounded chancery/knees to the head combo.

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST QUALIFYING MATCH: Roderick Strong vs. Cedric Alexander (w/Veda Scott)-
Roddy wins clean in a match that almost goes the twenty-minute time limit.

XXXX (intermission) XXXX

After intermission, The Addiction come out and cut a promo bragging about how great they are… but also how kind and benevolent they are. They say that they will grant a title shot to any team on the ROH roster (“even though none of them deserve one!”) and they will do so here tonight in this crap-hole city in front of these ugly stupid fans (even though you don’t deserve to see one!”) The challenge is answered by Matt Sydal and ACH, so we get...

ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Addiction(c) Matt Sydal & ACH-
The match goes about eight minutes before Sydal manages to hit Daniels with a Shooting Sydal Press, but Chris Sabin races out from the back to break up the pin, causing a DQ. The heels beat the babyfaces up until Delirious comes out with a steel chair to make the save.
Delirious then grabs a mic and, in garbled Delirious-speak, challenges the Knights of the Rising Dawn to a six man tag team match with No DQ’s, right here, right now. The KRD say they don’t want the match.
(For the DVD, I would shoot a backstage bit with an interviewer asking the KRD for comment on almost losing their titles tonight. They would claim that they would have won the match anyway, and that Sydal and ACH should thank Sabin for giving them the DQ win in a match they would have otherwise lost. Nigel would then come up to them and say that while he can’t force them to wrestle again tonight, he does like Delirious’ idea quite a bit, so he is booking them against Sydal, Delirious and ACH tomorrow night in a No DQ’s match.

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST QUALIFYING MATCH: Michael Elgin vs. BJ Whitmer (w/Adam Page)-
Colby is not at ringside after the beating he took from Moose earlier.
Whitmer wins after we get a ref bump and Moose comes out and tries to spear Whitmer, but Whitmer avoids it and Moose winds up spearing Elgin instead. Whitmer kicks Moose in the nuts and rolls him out of the ring, then gets the pin on Elgin to qualify for the Survival of the Fittest match.

THE BRISCOES vs. WAR MACHINE-
Briscoes win clean in twenty-five minutes.

ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Jay Lethal(c) (w/the House of Truth) vs. Matt Taven (w/the Kingdom)-
After some early interference from both camps, Nigel comes out and says he’s had quite enough of this bullsh*t tonight and ejects everyone from ringside, ensuring a clean finish. Lethal wins clean in a match that will hopefully be good enough to both help sell the DVD and to raise Taven’s stock as a singles wrestler.





Survival of the Fittest 2015: Night 2 (11/14/2015)- Hopkins, MN
THE BRISCOES vs. WILL FERRARA & CEDRIC ALEXANDER (w/Veda Scott)-
We get a ref bump, which allows Cedric to hit Jay with a low blow. Cedric then sets Jay up for a powerbomb off the apron, through the timekeeper’s table, but Mark pulls his brother back over the ropes to safety, then nails Cedric with a superkick, which results in Cedric falling through the timekeeper’s table. Ferrara sneaks in from behind and hits each Briscoe with a suplex. Ferrara then gets a steel chair, but as he rears back to hit Jay with it, Caprice Coleman comes in and grabs the chair away from him. Ferrara turns around to confront Caprice. He yells at him, but Caprice simply slides out of the ring and when Ferrara turns around, the Briscoes are up. They give him the double shoulder tackle, then hit him with the Doomsday Device for the pin.
After the Briscoes have gone to the back and after Veda has helped Cedric to the back, leaving Ferrara alone in the ring with Caprice, Silas Young runs out and starts to attack Ferrara. Ferrara calls to Caprice for help, but Caprice just stands there sternly and tells him that this is a consequence of his decision to cheat last night: Sometimes the people who you cheat will try to get back at you. Now Ferrara will have to live with the consequences.
Silas continues to kick the sh*t out of Ferrara. Caprice decides that this is enough and comes in to stop Silas, but Silas shoves Caprice and tells him to butt out. This is between him and Ferrara and Silas doesn’t give a crap about whatever morality lesson Caprice is trying to teach. Caprice intercedes physically and Silas fights back. Eventually Nigel comes out and makes it an official match, so we get…


SILAS YOUNG vs. CAPRICE COLEMAN-
Silas wins clean

TAKAAKI WATANABE vs. DANNY DUGGAN-
Watanabe wins clean in eight minutes

Nigel acknowledges that last night there were a bunch of interferences and blown calls and so forth in the SOTF Qualifiers, so he is going to try to make it up to the four men who were screwed out of spots in the Survival of the Fittest match by giving them the opportunity to earn an ROH World Title shot tonight. Jay Lethal comes out and says that this isn’t fair to him because he wasn’t given prior notice by ROH management. Nigel pacifies Jay by telling him that his challenger will have to wrestle two matches tonight whereas Jay will only have to wrestle one. Nigel invites the four men who were cheated last night out to the ring and announces a…

FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL MATCH FOR AN ROH WORLD TITLE SHOT LATER TONIGHT: Bobby Fish vs. Michael Elgin vs. Adam Cole vs. Moose (w/Stokely Hathaway)-
Cole wins clean, pinning Fish. I would have Moose and Elgin kept away from each other as much as possible, aside from a few big tease spots.

NO DISQUALIFICATIONS MATCH: Matt Sydal, ACH, & Delirious vs. Knights of the Rising Dawn-
Babyfaces win clean when Sydal pins Daniels after a Shooting Sydal Press. After the match Sydal grabs a mic and reminds the heels that not only did he beat them tonight and not only did he and ACH have them beat last night, but back in June in Collinsville, he and Delirious actually did beat the Addiction in a non-title match, so he and Delirious want a title shot against the Addiction next weekend at the TV Tapings in Nashville!



ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Jay Lethal(c) (w/the House of Truth) vs. Adam Cole
Lethal wins clean in twenty minutes. After the match, the Kingdom assault Adam Cole and beat him bloody. Austin Aries says that Cole is “nothing more than an Austin Aries wanna be.” Cole bleeds a lot. Eventually Kyle O’Reilly comes out to make the save for him, wildly swinging a steel chair. Cole is taken to a local hospital.

XXXX (intermission) XXXX

MATT TAVEN’S OPEN CHALLENGE-
We get some sort of comedy segment with Taven (w/the rest of the Kingdom) running his mouth, saying he has an open challenge tonight… but that he wants to face not just one man, but any TWO men in the back because he is just that good. War Machine come out, so Taven immediately switches tunes and claims that this isn’t fair so he should be allowed to have a partner. He asks Aries and Bennett, but they both say that they have to concentrate on Survival of the Fittest and need to be fresh going into that match. Taven now tries to cancel the open challenge, but Nigel tells him that he asked for the open challenge so now he has to deal with it. Taven pleads for Nigel to assign him a tag partner, so Nigel tells him he can team with the only guy in the back who doesn’t have a match scheduled tonight: CHEESEBURGER!
MATT TAVEN & CHEESEBURGER vs. WAR MACHINE-
I’d mix in some comedy between Taven and Cheeseburger here to keep this fun, but still a dominant victory for War Machine, pinning Cheeseburger.

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST MATCH: Kyle O’Reilly vs. Roderick Strong vs. Austin Aries vs. Michael Bennett (w/Maria Kanellis) vs. Adam Page (w/Colby Corino) vs. BJ Whitmer (also w/Colby Corino)-
The announcers wonder whether Colby doing his water-boy duties will give Page and Whitmer an advantage is this marathon match.
The first twenty minutes or so is dominated by the pairings of Whitmer & Page and Aries & Bennett, with Roddy and Kyle playing babyfaces in peril. The first elimination comes about twenty minutes in when Kyle is able to roll Whitmer up for a pin, eliminating him. About five minutes later, Bennett is eliminated by Page. The next man out is Page, who is eliminated by Aries after a Brainbuster about thirty minutes in.
Aries starts to be his dickish self, bragging about the elimination until Roddy gets in the ring and things get heated. Aries outwrestles Roddy in their first sequence, but then makes the mistake of firing Roddy up when he once again refers to Roddy has his old “sidekick.” Roddy goes nuts on Aries until Aries is able to tag out to Kyle. Roddy and Kyle wrestle for a while with Roddy getting the best of it. He hits a big finisher but Aries makes a blind tag to try to steal the pin. Kyle kicks out and eventually fights back and eliminates Aries at about the forty-two minute mark. Roddy and Kyle then have a nice little mini-match until about the fifty minute mark when Kyle eliminates Roddy to win Survival of the Fittest.


On the Monday after Survival of the Fittest weekend, we get our first match announcements for Final Battle 2015:
Austin Aries will face Adam Cole one-on-one for the first time ever!
Kyle O’Reilly will challenge Jay Lethal for the ROH World Title!

We also have two huge title matches scheduled for this Friday’s TV Tapings in Nashville:
Cedric Alexander defends the TV Title against former champion Kyle O’Reilly
The Addiction defend the ROH World Tag Team Titles against Matt Sydal & Delirious

Also for the TV Tapings we have BJ Whitmer vs. Moose in a No DQ’s match, The Briscoes vs. Roppongi Vice, and the return of the Young Bucks!
Meanwhile a HUGE main event has been signed for the Nov. 21st Atlanta show: Tag Tam Four Corner Survival Match featuring the Briscoes, the Young Bucks, and two other teams whose members will be decided at the Road to Final Battle 2015 TV Tapings in Nashville: the first of these two teams will be ROH World Champion Jay Lethal teaming with whoever comes out of Nashville as the ROH TV Champion, and the second team will be either The Addiction or Matt Sydal & Delirious, depending on who walks out of Nashville as the ROH World Tag Team Champions.
Atlanta will also see the return of the Tag Team Turmoil tournament in which four teams will complete in a one-night tournament to earn a shot at the ROH World Tag Team Titles!
Also signed for at Atlanta is a singles encounter between Michael Elgin and Bobby Fish. This is only the second time these two men have ever faced each other in a singles match, and the first time was many years ago before either man had developed into the all-star wrestlers they are today!


November 20th, 2015 - Road To Final Battle 2015 - TV Tapings - Nashville, Tennessee
So apparently there will only be TWO WEEKS OF TV before Final Battle, so we’ve got to work REALLY quickly here:

WEEK ONE:
THE BRISCOES vs. ROPPONGI VICE-
Briscoes win clean in eight minutes. Kevin Kelly puts them over as the standard-bearers of tag team wrestling in ROH.

ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Addiction(c) (w/Chris Sabin) vs. Matt Sydal & Delirious-
Addiction win clean in ten minutes, pinning Delirious.

CLIPS OF MOOSE-ELGIN CHALLENGE IN ATLANTA (see next night’s show for details)
Kevin Kelly tells us that the match has been signed for Final Battle (and plugs VOD of Atlanta show) He also plugs Lethal vs. O’Reilly and Aries vs. Cole (which have been plugged on the weekly TV since the week they were announced on the website) and announces that Roderick Strong will challenge Cedric Alexander for the TV Title at Final Battle.

NO DISQAULIFICATIONS MATCH: Moose (w/Stokely Hathaway) vs. BJ Whitmer (w/the Decade)-
As usual Whitmer orders Colby to be his human shield. Moose realizes that he has to take Colby and Page out before he can get to Whitmer. He takes Page out with some big weapons shots, then does the same to Colby. He goes after Whitmer for a bit, but Colby bravely gets up to defend Whitmer again. Moose realizes that he has to really kick Colby’s ass to keep him down, so he starts to really lay into him with weapons.
Steve Corino can take no more and runs over to protect Colby with his own body. He has a tense staredown with Moose until Moose clotheslines him. Whitmer uses this distraction to attack Moose with a chair… then takes a completely uncalled-for shot at the back of the downed Steve Corino’s head. Corino sells it like he is dead and medical staff rush over to him. Meanwhile, Whitmer and Page hit Moose with some chairs and Whitmer pins him, but everyone’s concern and attention is on Corino. Whitmer laughs at the whole scene as he and Page walk off.

Over the course of the week I’d have Whitmer put out a video on Youtube/the website explaining his actions by claiming that he attacked Steve Corino because Corino was interfering in his match and he thought Corino might attack him, but you can tell from his joking tone that he is obviously full of sh*t an just used the opportunity to take a dirty, dangerous cheap-shot at Steve Corino.

WEEK TWO:
We start with a quick rundown of the Final Battle card as announced so far, and a plug for our HUGE main event which will have Future Shock reunite to take on Jay Lethal and Austin Aries.

RODERICK STRONG vs. BOBBY FISH-
Cedric Alexander is on commentary and buries Roddy. Roddy wins clean in fifteen minutes. After the match, Cedric lays Roddy out with a belt shot. Fish tries to make the save, but the House of Truth run out and jump him, then Lethal Pillmanizers his ankle, taking him out.

Nigel comes out to talk about the Corino/Whitmer situation last week. He says that BJ is a piece of crap and he’d like to suspend him, but he wants Whitmer to face real justice, so at Final Battle we will have a match YEARS in the making: BJ Whitmer vs. STEVE CORINO! Nigel also stresses that this match will be one-on-one and everyone will be barred from ringside.
The Addiction come out to ask Nigel why they don’t have a spot on the card even though they are the tag champs. Nigel responds that they do have a spot on the card, and they will get to find out who their challengers are at the same time the fans do. Nigel asks for the #1 contenders to the tag team titles to please come out:
IT’S THE BRISCOES!
They exchange some trash-talk and the Briscoes cut a promo telling us that they have rededicated themselves to tag team wrestling and those world tag team titles are coming home!

We get backstage promos to build up the world title match, TV title match, Moose vs. Elgin, and Aries vs. Cole.

We get a final card rundown for the PPV, including the six previously announced matches and the following newly-added tag team Four Corner Survival Match:
Delirious & Sydal vs. Bennett & Taven vs. War Machine vs. Caprice & Watanabe

FUTURE SHOCK vs. AUSTIN ARIES & JAY LETHAL-
Future Shock win clean in fifteen minutes with Kyle making Lethal tap out to Arm-ageddon.

WEEK 3: (should air the weekend of the PPV)

CHRIS SABIN (w/the Addiction) vs. DELIRIOUS (w/Matt Sydal & ACH)-
Sabin wins clean in about seven minutes. After the pinfall, the camera catches ACH throwing his arms up in frustration.

WILL FERRARA vs. MICHAEL BENNETT (w/Maria Kanellis)-
They do the heel vs. heel “who is a better cheater” match, but his experience (and help from Maria) allow Bennett to out-fox Ferrara and pick up the win. Caprice Coleman, who has replaced Corino on commentary, tells us that while he doesn’t condone cheating, he has no sympathy for Will Ferrara’s loss and says that Ferrara needs to reevaluate his career and start making decisions that will lead him down the right path.

ROH TV TITLE MATH: Cedric Alexander(c) (w/Veda Scott) vs. Kyle O’Reilly-
Cedric wins by count-out when the House of Truth appears after Kyle nails Cedric with a dive, distracting Kyle while Cedric slips back into the ring. The House of Truth then beat Kyle down and try to Pillmanizer him as well but Adam Cole makes the save.

Also we have lots of promos plugging the replay of the PPV.

WEEK 4:
(video package following up on the result of the ROH World Title match at Final Battle)
ACH vs. MATT TAVEN (w/the Kingdom)-
ACH manages to overcome the Kingdom’s cheating all on his own and defeats Taven clean in the middle of the ring with the Midnight Star.

TAKAAKI WATANABE vs. DALTON CASTLE (w/his boys)-
Watanabe wins clean. Kevin Kelly puts it over as big victory for this young wrestler. Caprice puts over Taka as being someone on the right path (and puts over the New Japan dojo for instilling these great values in him).

WAR MACHINE vs. THE YOUNG BUCKS-
War Machine wins clean in a barnburner.

While Bobby Fish is kayfabe injured, I’d let him work for other promotions (with the obvious no TV rule applying). If I got lucky maybe I could send him over to New Japan as a single and politick with them to get him the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title shot at the Tokyo Dome.


ROH Tag Team Turmoil 2015 (11/21/2015)- Atlanta, GA
Bobby Cruise lets everyone know that due to the dastardly attacked by the House of Truth last night in Nashville, Bobby Fish will not be able to compete tonight.
Kyle O’Reilly comes out and demands that the House of Truth come out and face him like men so he can make them pay for their heinous assault on Bobby Fish last night. Truth Martini comes out with the entire House of Truth and tells Kyle he should be carefully what he wishes for. All three HOT members attack Kyle. Kyle fights back valiantly. Adam Cole comes out to help him, which leads to the Kingdom getting involved. This leads to the Briscoes coming out which leads to the Addiction getting involved, which leads to ACH, Sydal, and Delirious coming out and now we’ve got a big schmoz that security has to break up. Nigel warns Kyle not to interfere in either the Tag Team Turmoil tournament (which Dijak and Diesel are in) or the main event (which Lethal is in).

Kevin Kelly paints the Tag Team Turmoil Tournament as a tournament for teams that have been a bit down on their luck recently and are looking to really break out.

TAG TEAM TURMOIL TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: Roppingi Vice vs. The Decade-
Colby is not at ringside tonight because of injuries sustained last night. Roppongi Vice win clean, pinning Page. After the match, Moose comes out and spears Whitmer.

CAPRICE COLEMAN vs. MOOSE (w/Stokely Hathaway)-
Moose wins clean with the spear. Caprice puts him over on the mic after the match.

TAG TEAM TURMOIL TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: Matt Sydal & Delirious vs. The House of Truth (w/Truth Martini)-
Kyle O’Reilly defies Nigel McGuinness’ orders and interferes in this match, hitting both Diesel and Dijak with a chair causing a DQ. Kyle tries to take Truth out as well but Lethal comes out to save Truth. Security pulls them apart and Nigel says he will fine Kyle. He then sends Kyle home and threatens to take away his Final Battle title shot if he returns.

THE KINGDOM vs. ADAM COLE, RODERICK STRONG, & TAKAAKI WATANABE-
Before the match, Aries gets on the mic and vows to beat his “wanna-be” his “old sidekick” and his “old sidekicks’s new Japanese sidekick.”
The babyfaces win clean in twenty-five to thirty minutes when Roddy pins Bennett. Caprice Coleman comes out to do commentary and once again puts Watanabe over as being a young wrestler who is on the right path, and says that he would like to see Watanabe get some acknowledgement for it from ROH management, pointing out that Watanabe is on a nifty little winning streak.


XXXX (intermission) XXXX

WILL FERRARA vs. DALTON CASTLE (w/his boys)-
Ferrara tries to cheat but the boys stop him. Ferrara manages to win cleanly anyway. Caprice grabs a mic and tells Ferrara that this proves that he has the tools to succeed without cheating, but Ferrara still blows him off.

Michael Elgin comes out and cuts a promo telling everyone that because his scheduled opponent, Bobby Fish, was injured last night, he is being allowed to make an open challenge here tonight. ACH comes out and says that he was expecting Sydal to team with him in the Tag Team Turmoil tournament tonight, but Sydal wanted to team with Delirious even though they just lost their tag title shot last night when Delirious got pinned, so he too finds himself without an opponent, so we get…

MICHAEL ELGIN vs. ACH-
Elgin def. ACH clean in twenty minutes. After the match Elgin grabs a mic and blames his loss in the Survival of the Fittest Qualifier on Moose. He then challenges Moose to match at Final Battle. Moose comes out and offers to do it right now, and we have yet another big pull-apart (although this one is before they can do anything more than shove each other).

TAG TEAM TURMOIL TOURNAMENT FINALS: Roppongi Vice vs. The House of Truth (w/Truth Martini)-
Roppongi Vice win clean in eighteen minutes. Hopefully this should give Dijak and Diesel a chance to see if they have long-term potential in ROH.

TAG TEAM FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL MATCH: The Briscoes vs. The Addiction vs. The Young Bucks vs. Jay Lethal & Cedric Alexander (w/Truth Martini & Veda Scott)-
We get a big, wild, crazy spotfest. One of the spots near the finish sees Cedric Alexander setting up to hit Overtime on someone but Mark Briscoe shoves him off the top rope and he falls through the timekeeper's table. The Briscoes pick up the win soon after, pinning one of the Bucks after a Spike Jay Driller.




We get an angry video from BJ Whitmer on the website saying that cheap attacks like what Moose did to him in Atlanta have no place in ROH, and as the leader of the group whose job it is to make sure that everyone in ROH is worthy to be there, Whimter wants to teach Moose a lesson at the show in Florida on December 5th. Whitmer wants Moose to prove to him that he belongs in ROH.

ROH officials have heard Caprice Coleman’s case for Takaaki Watanabe to be given a big opportunity and ROH officials agree that his recent win streak means that Watanabe deserves it! In Florida, Watanabe will have the biggest match of his young career as he takes on ROH TV Champion Cedric Alexander in a Proving Ground match! A victory or a draw will earn Taka his first title shot in ROH!

Other big matches signed for Florida include:
Kyle O’Reilly goes for revenge on one of the men who injured his partner Bobby Fish when he faces Donojan Dijak!
Two of the best in ROH history collide once again when Roderick Strong takes on Austin Aries!
Two more of ROH’s best collide when Adam Cole faces ROH World Champion Jay Lethal in a non-title match!
Tag Team Turmoil Tournament winners Roppongi Vice take on War Machine
The Young Bucks step into the Proving Ground against ROH World Tag Team Champions The Addiction!


ROH Proving Ground 2015 (12/5/2015)- Ft. Lauderdale, FL
The show opens with the Briscoes making an open challenge to any tag team in the building to come and prove themselves against the best tag team in the world. Matt Sydal comes out and accepts the challenge on behalf of himself and his tag team partner… Delirious. And just as Sydal says Delirious’ name, ACH comes out, then realizes what Sydal said and walks to the back with an annoyed look on his face.
THE BRISCOES vs. MATT SYDAL & DELIRIOUS-
ACH comes out early on to join Kevin Kelly on commentary and expresses his frustration with Sydal. The Briscoes win clean, pinning Delirious.

PROVING GROUND MATCH: ROH TV Champion Cedric Alexander (w/Veda Scott) vs. Takaaki Watanabe-
Watanabe almost lasts the time limit but Cedric lays him out with the wrench and pins him with just a few seconds left.

Truth Martini comes out and brags about how unbeatable the House of Truth is. He guarantees that they will sweep their matches tonight, and they will start now with J. Diesel making an open challenge. The challenge is answered by a pissed-off ACH, who says he has been waiting for someone to come along and be an ass so he can take out his aggression.

ACH vs. J. DIESEL (w/Truth Martini)-
ACH kicks Diesel’s ass.

SIX MAN MAYHEM: Michael Elgin vs. Silas Young vs. Will Ferrara vs. Dalton Castle (w/the boys) vs. Adam Page (w/BJ Whitmer) vs. Colby Corino (also w/BJ Whimter)-
The Decade make it very clear to Colby that he is in the match to ensure that Page wins. Unfortunately for Colby, not only doesn’t Page win, but Colby himself is the one who gets pinned (after eating Ferrara’s finisher). The Decade scold Colby afterwards.
Cedric Alexander comes out to do commentary and put over the various cheating tactics of the heels as “winning by any means necessary.” When Kevin Kelly asks him if hitting Watanabe with the wrench also qualified as “winning by any means necessary,” Cedric said that it did… but it was also an example to show everyone where you’ll end up if you listen to Caprice Coleman like Watanabe does and where you’ll end up if you ignore Caprice Coleman like Cedric has done.


WAR MACHINE vs. ROPPONGI VICE-
War Machine wins clean. Kevin Kelly paints this victory over former IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions and the team that just secured a shot at the ROH World Tag Team Titles as War Machine proving that they belong in the top echelon of tag teams not just in North America, but in the entire world.

INTERMISSION

Truth Martini comes out with Donovan Dijak to brag about how great the House of Truth is. While J. Diesel may have lost, it doesn’t matter because Dijak won’t lose. He then goes on to brag about how the House of Truth injured Bobby Fish at the TV tapings. This brings out Kye O’Reilly and a big brawl starts, which eventually becomes…

KYLE O’REILLY vs. DONOVAN DIJAK (w/Truth Martini)-
Kyle wins clean, making Dijak tap. After the match, Lethal attacks Kyle and sets him up for a Pillmanizer but Adam Cole makes the save, so we start off…

ADAM COLE (w/Kyle O’Reilly) vs. JAY LETHAL (w/Truth Martini & Donovan Dijak)-
Cole wins by count-out after a big superkick on the apron and Lethal decides to just walk out and save himself for Final Battle instead of continuing with the match.

MOOSE (w/Stokely Hathaway) vs. BJ WHITMER (w/the Decade)-
Moose kicks BJ’s ass for a few minutes but then the Decade runs in for the DQ. Moose fights them all off on his own and Colby is one again used as the sacrificial lamb to allow Whitmer and Page to escape.

AUSTIN ARIES vs. RODERICK STRONG-
Roddy wins clean. After the match, Cole comes out and cuts a promo on Aries, noting that Aries also lost to his supposed “former sidekick” while Cole had beaten the man who handed Aries his first loss since he returned to ROH. This made Aries angry.

PROVING GROUND MATCH: ROH World Tag Team Champions The Addiction vs. Young Bucks-
Addiction win clean.




ROH FINAL BATTLE 2015 (12/11/2015)- Philadelphia, PA

TAG TEAM FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL MATCH: Matt Sydal & Delirious vs. War Machine vs. Caprice Coleman & Takaaki Watanabe vs. The Kingdom (w/Maria Kanellis)-
War Machine dominate much of the match and win clean, pinning Delirious in about twelve minutes.

MICHAEL ELGIN vs. MOOSE (w/Stokely Hathaway)-
Elgin wins clean in twelve minutes

EVERYONE IS BARRED FROM RINGSIDE: BJ Whitmer vs. Steve Corino-
Corino starts to kick BJ’s ass right out of the gate. Whitmer cuts him off with an eye poke and gets some heat but Corino quickly comes back and keeps pounding on Whitmer, quickly getting DQed for not breaking a five count in the corner and shoving the ref when he tries to get between them.
Corino continues to beat on Whitmer as Page and Colby come out save BJ. Steve Corino beats up Page, but when confronted by Colby, they both freeze up, teasing hitting each other. Whitmer uses this distraction to hit Corino from behind with a low blow and then gives him some sort of crazy move (maybe you do an exploder onto the barricade to play off of the finish to Steen vs. Corino from Final Battle 2011 and also the bump Corino took against Jay Briscoe in Nov. 2012 that mostly ended his in-ring career). Corino is stretchered out. Total time should be fifteen minutes

AUSTIN ARIES vs. ADAM COLE-
We get a good twenty-eight minutes of completely clean wrestling until Aries gets the win via roll-up while grabbing the tights.

ROH TV TITLE MATCH: Cedric Alexander(c) (w/Veda Scott) vs. Roderick Strong-
Cedric wins mostly clean in about twenty three minutes. I’d definitely do some sort of spot where Roddy avoids a shot with the wrench and then hits something for a nearfall.

ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Addiction(c) (w/Chris Sabin) vs. The Briscoes-
Addiction win clean in eighteen minutes

ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Jay Lethal(c) (w/the House of Truth) vs. Kyle O’Reilly-
Kyle wins in about thirty minutes, thwarting all HOT interference and making Jay Lethal tap out clean in the middle of the ring to win the ROH World Title!

We know almost nothing about the 2016 schedule so it is impossible to accurately continue this, but at some point in the next few days I should be putting out a synopsis of the various directions I have either set up for or would like to go in 2016.

[Big Red Machine]

ANGLES & DIRECTIONS FOR 2016:

ACH & MATT SYDAL:
ACH not being booked at Final Battle would be part of an upcoming angle. Ideally I’d try to improve relations with AAA by trying to get him booked with them for this night, but I’d need to ensure he could be back for the next night’s tapings. The angle would basically be that ACH is annoyed that Sydal keeps wanting to team with Delirious instead of with him, and Sydal choosing to team with Delirious at Final Battle meant that ACH wasn’t booked on the card.
At the next night’s TV tapings, ACH would cleanly defeat Chris Sabin, a man who Delirious lost to cleanly at the previous set of tapings.
Sydal would insist that he likes teaming with both guys, but over the course of January and February (as well as those first December tapings), we would see Sydal teaming with Delirious much more often than with ACH, and when they do team together, they always lose. The ACH-Sydal team would finally break up either on TV leading up to the Anniversary Show or at the Anniversary Show itself (depending on how much TV there is to fill) after they suffer a loss and when Sydal goes over to check on ACH after the match, ACH brushes him off and walks backstage alone. Either at the Anniversary Show (if the break-up is on TV) or at either the next TV and live events after the Anniversary show (if the break-up happens at the Anniversary Show) ideally leading to Supercard of Honor, I would have them wind up in multi-man matches together or on opposite sides of tag team matches.
Over the course of the spring we’d see Sydal remain his happy-go-lucky self while ACH becomes more and more bitter, slowly going heel. In Sydal’s mind, their tag team has broken up, but in ACH’s mind, their friendship has broken up, and he blames Delirious for it. ACH attacks Delirious at some point in late-April or early May and probably faces (and defeats) him on the undercard of one of the ROH/New Japan shows. ACH tries to injure Delirious, forcing Sydal to make the save, and we build to ACH vs. Sydal at Best in the World.

STUFF INVOLVING TV CHAMPION CEDRIC ALEXANDER:
Cedric has a few angles set up for him going into 2016. The first one I would go to is to have Veda Scott file a complaint that two of Mark Briscoe’s recent victories saw him illegally put Cedric Alexander through a table (SOTF Night 2 and Tag Team Turmoil 2015) and thus those matches should be retroactively changed to victories for Cedric. ROH management would obviously ignore these petitions because Mark did not purposely put Cedric through a table either time (and retroactively changing results is not something ROH does because the decision of the official is always final). This would lead to Mark vs. Cedric being booked one-on-one, which would end when Cedric purposely puts Mark through a table right in front of the referee for a DQ. This would lead to a tables match between the two which Mark would win, which would, in turn, lead to a singles match for the TV Title which Cedric would win clean.
Possibly intertwined with this would be the fact that Cedric pinned both of the tag champs at Champions vs. All-Stars and thus would be allowed to choose a partner to challenge for the tag titles. Cedric would draft Michael Elgin, who makes it clear that he is only in this for the gold and not because he has any love for Cedric. Cedric would ask for some warm-up matches so they could develop some chemistry before their tag title shot… and one of them would inevitably be against the Briscoes. In that match Cedric would be the cowardly heel, doing things to piss the Briscoes off, and then running away to tag in Elgin. Cedric and Elgin would win through some sort of nefarious means in which Cedric would cheat but Elgin doesn’t see it so when the Briscoes want to go after Cedric after the match, Elgin steps in to defend him.
On whichever show it is that Mark challenges Cedric for the TV Title (probably the 14th Anniversary Show), I would have Elgin face Jay on the undercard with Elgin going over clean. Elgin and Cedric would challenge for the tag titles (possibly at SCOH or maybe soon thereafter) and they would lose with Elgin being pinned. After this point you could probably go with an angle where Cedric blames Elgin for the loss (or possibly for a series of losses if we want to have them put over War Machine or give the Briscoes their win back before they break up) to set up a program for the TV Title between those two that could go until BITW with Cedric winning.
Also, somewhere in this, Jay Lethal has still not gotten his return match for losing the TV Title to Kyle O’Reilly back at All-Star Extravaganza VII: Night 2. This match would probably be at one of the New Japan shows or as the main event of a regular show around then (which should be after Cedric and Elgin fail to win the tag titles but before they actually break up), which should be a pretty awesome match and another clean win over a big name for Cedric.

WILL FERRARA, CAPRICE COLEMAN, TAKAAKI WATANABE (AND MORE CEDRIC ALEXANDER):
The other angle set up with Cedric was his cheating to screw Takaaki Watanabe out of earning a TV Title match at Proving Ground 2015. I’d have Watanabe start the year with some small wins on TV. Meanwhile Caprice is trying to convince Ferrara to wrestle cleanly while Cedric is telling him to do whatever it takes to win, with Ferrara falling more in Cedric’s camp. Caprice puts Watanabe over as someone who is on the right path while Cedric and Ferrara allege that the only reason Watanabe listens to Caprice is that he comes from the Japanese dojo system where you are forced to do listen to the veterans or else. This would result in a tag match which would have Watanabe pin Ferrara. ROH management would then award Watanabe a TV Title shot which he would lose due to some sort of interference by Veda Scott before eventually succumbing cleanly in a rematch.
Ferrara and Caprice would continue to feud… and I’m not really sure how that would go or where it would end. I suppose Ferrara should go over in the end, but I’m not sure how to do that without making Caprice look pathetic (maybe you could get away with Ferrara winning clean but then turning babyface and going on to feud with Cedric, but Cedric has so much on his plate I'm not sure I'd want to do it).


THE WORLD TITLE AND ASSOCIATED FEUDS:
Coming out of Final Battle I would push Austin Aries as my #1 contender for the world title. I’d build him up with some big wins (a rubber match against Jay Briscoe, for example), a win over Michael Elgin (before he is dragged into the Cedric Alexander vs. Mark Briscoe feud) and some others. I’d probably also give him another cheating victory over Adam Cole to keep that feud going- likely via interference from Bennett, who Cole still hasn’t pinned in his quest for revenge on the Kingdom, so that's a feud that can be used to give Cole something to do while Aries is chasing the world title.
Speaking of Bennett, he still hasn’t cashed in his Trios Tournament “wish” yet, so that would make a good early title defense for Kyle. Kyle would beat Aries clean at the Anniversary Show (and you could possibly blow-off Cole vs. Bennett there, too, in a weapons match of some sort).
The former champion, Jay Lethal, would be kept away from his rematch by a feud with Bobby Fish when Bobby returns, leading up to a match at the Anniversary Show which Bobby would win. During this feud I’d do the deal where Fish takes out Diesel and Dijak and Truth via submission. This would lead to Truth firing Diesel as his head of security (and Diesel’s exit from the company). We could also have Truth fire Dijak as well to set up a feud with Lethal, but I don’t think Dijak is ready for that yet. Perhaps Truth could have Dijak use that TV Title shot he won by winning the Top Prospect Tournament to try to get some gold back for the HOT (after Lethal has used his rematch, of course).
I’d probably do my Kyle vs. Lethal rematch as the main event of SCOH. I’d try to give Cole and Aries both big wins on that show and have them do some sort of angle, but I don’t want to do a rematch between those two here so that I’m not doing two Final Battle rematches on the same show. The angle with Aries and Cole would set up a match that would main event a regular “house” show which would basically be one of those matches where you tell them to go out there and have the Match of the Year. Cole would win clean and offer Aries a tense handshake at the end, but Aries would attack him and bloody him, setting up a Fight Without Honor (probably main eventing one of the New Japan shows that would be pushed as a live iPPV) which Cole would win.
From here I would position Cole as the #1 contender to the ROH World Championship at BITW, so we have Cole vs. O’Reilly four years after the match that really helped to launch both of their careers. Kyle would win clean.
You could probably build up O’Reilly vs. Fish for either the fall PPV or Final Battle.

TAG TITLE STUFF:
Our number one contenders going into the Anniversary Show would be War Machine, who would lose to the Addiction via cheating. At SCOH I would have a draw between the Briscoes and War Machine, and then rebuild War Machine for a title shot at BITW in some sort of weapons match or something where War Machine would finally capture the tag titles.
War Machine would go on to feud with and beat a bunch of teams like the Young Bucks, The Addiction, Page & Whitmer and others (you could probably build up a title match against reDRagon or Future Shock, too) for the rest of the year, but they would never face the Briscoes (I’d find someone for the Briscoes to have a blood-feud with to keep them away). We’d then do the first ever Tag Team Defy or Deny match which would come down to War Machine and the Briscoes, with the Briscoes going over to set up a title match for Final Battle with the build being that War Machine has never beaten the Briscoes. War Machine would get their big win at Final Battle.
The title shot RPG Vice won can be slotted in at any time.

WHITMER/CORINO/DECADE STUFF:
I’d have the year start with Corino out after BJ Whitmer’s dastardly actions at Final Battle, allowing Whitmer to focus on his feud with Moose. On the post-Final Battle TV tapings I’d have an angry Moose come out, pissed off about the obvious ambush that was Whitmer’s challenge to him in Florida (we can show some clips of it), and announce that he is here to kick the entire Decade’s ass. Whitmer sends Page at Moose, which ends in another quick DQ and Decade beatdown until Elgin comes out to make the save. He says that after their battle at Final Battle he has a lot of respect for Moose, so he is willing to tag with him against the Decade and we do that match (probably with Moose or Elgin pinning Page).
For the Anniversary Show we build to Page & Whitmer vs. Moose & a mystery partner, who turns out to be Corino. We’d set up some matches between Whitmer and Moose and Page and Moose earlier in the winter that have finishes leading to Colby and Stokely both being barred from ringside. This will allow Corino to fight at his fullest. I think I’d have Corino pin Page here.
If I don’t have some sort of big gimmick match set for SCOH yet, I’d blow Moose vs. Whitmer off there (probably in a cage to avoid the logical problem of why Page, Colby, Stokely, and Corino wouldn’t interfere), and also do some angle with the Decade and Corino which would result in some sort of spot where Whitmer wants Colby to beat Steve up with a weapon but Colby refuses and Whitmer beats Colby up. This would lead to Colby turning babyface and joining his father. I’m really not sure how I would time these events out because although I know Colby has been working for years, I really have no idea what he can do because I’ve never seen him wrestle.

OTHER STUFF FOR OTHER PEOPLE:
I think I’d like to try turning Silas into more of a tweener. Someone whose “Real Man” gimmick can be seen as a sort of personal code that he follows so he can be a bit more of a babyface but still include heelish elements like disrespect for people he doesn’t believe act like real men (i.e. Dalton Castle, Romantic Touch, or just anyone he would accuse of some sort of cowardice). I think the best way to do this might be a feud with Roderick, which would also elevate his standing as a singles wrestler. Roddy would win the feud, but Silas would show him respect afterwards (think Homicide offering Cabana the handshake at the end of their feud). It might be possible to create a short-lived tag team out of this and have them challenge for the tag titles (I can see Silas quickly getting fed up with the Addiction’s bullsh*t and chicken-sh*t-ishness).
Helping make Silas a babyface would also make it easier to finally pay off the angle with him and Ferrara where Silas finally gets the win over Ferrara in his home city after losing to him there at Conquest Tour: Milwaukee and SOTF Night 1.

As for everyone else (Dalton Castle, Romantic Touch, Bobby Fish after the first PPV, all of the New Japan guys), I’m really not sure what they would do. I wish I could come up with something, but this has already spiraled a lot more out of control than I had anticipated. If anyone has any ideas, let me know.