ROH War of the Worlds 2015: Night 2
ROH War of the Worlds 2015: Night 2 (5/13/2015)- Philadelphia, PA
TAKAAKI WATANABE vs. ADAM PAGE (w/Colby Corino)- 6.25/10
A fun opener that made great use of Colby (although his selling of that German Suplex was bit farcical, IMO). A lot of props are also due to Steve Corino and Kevin Kelly for the superb way they’ve been handling the Colby Corino issue on commentary. It really makes the angle come alive more.
MICHAEL ELGIN vs. KUSHIDA- 7.75/10
Rather than shake hands, KUSHIDA gave Elgin the bird for no reason. Why are of the Japanese guys being dicks to Elgin? The fans still booed Elgin, but KUSHIDA’s douchebaggery had me behind Elgin all the way. They told a good story with KUSHIDA working the arm and Elgin working over the head, and had a GREAT match.
KYLE O’REILLY vs. TETSUYA NAITO- 8.25/10
Some comedy in the beginning, then an awesome wrestling match.
FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL MATCH: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Mark Briscoe vs. Jushin â€"Thunder†Liger vs. Jay Lethal (w/Truth Martini)- 7/10
Kevin Kelly described this a match with â€"a lot of different personalities,†and they made great use of all of those personalities to have a very fun match.
CHEESEBURGER WANTS TO GIVE OUT FREE STUFF, BUT BRUTAL BOB ASSAULTS HIM- I had totally forgotten that this feud was going on. Not a bad angle, though.
RODERICK STRONG vs. HIROSHI TANAHASHI- 8.5/10
It’s Roddy vs. Tanahashi. You don’t need me to tell you what the story of the match was.
THE ADDICTION vs. CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada & Gedo)- 7/10
A lot of â€"F*CK TNA!†chants to start this one off. The Addiction were great heels and got the heat on Gedo, but Okada laid Daniels out with the Rainmaker to the make the people happy at the end.
ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Jay Briscoe(c) vs. Bobby Fish (w/Kyle O’Reilly)- 7.75/10
Bobby works over Jay’s knee while Jay works over Bobby’s head. I didn’t like the finish at first but it sunk in with me after a moment. I still wish it had gone a bit longer than it did, though.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Moose comes out to have a staredown with the champ. Veda Scott encourages him to start a fight while Stokely Hathaway discourages it. Moose spears the champ, but Stokely makes sure he gets his belt back at the end of it.
THE BULLET CLUB (AJ Styles & The Young Bucks) vs. The Kingdom (w/Maria Kanellis)- 9/10
A very PWG-ish match. Not that that’s a bad thing, but it kind of felt like it didn’t need to be the main event, and I REALLY wish Roddy vs. Tanahashi would have gotten main event time. There were a lot of antics going on here (doing a crotch chop and screaming â€"SUCK IT!†is SO not AJ Styles), but everything made sense within the context of the match. I laughed my ass off when Steve Corino referred to the PWG references as the wrestlers â€"breaking the fourth wall.â€
I love the way they have been able to keep the Bullet Club as faces in ROH despite being heels in New Japan. In many ways this match felt like it was heel vs. heel, but that didn’t detract from it in anyway.
An AMAZING show from ROH. Everything was main-event worthy or better aside from the opener, and the opener was great for what it was supposed to be. Yes, some of the matches felt a bit disappointing (especially Jay vs. Fish, which I REALLY wish would have gone an extra few minutes), but the show as a whole was just so awesome that I cannot recommend it strongly enough. This has been a year of awesome show after awesome show from ROH, and this show has been the best one yet. If not for WrestleKingdom IX, this would be a clear Show of the Year. GO BUY IT!
TAKAAKI WATANABE vs. ADAM PAGE (w/Colby Corino)- 6.25/10
A fun opener that made great use of Colby (although his selling of that German Suplex was bit farcical, IMO). A lot of props are also due to Steve Corino and Kevin Kelly for the superb way they’ve been handling the Colby Corino issue on commentary. It really makes the angle come alive more.
MICHAEL ELGIN vs. KUSHIDA- 7.75/10
Rather than shake hands, KUSHIDA gave Elgin the bird for no reason. Why are of the Japanese guys being dicks to Elgin? The fans still booed Elgin, but KUSHIDA’s douchebaggery had me behind Elgin all the way. They told a good story with KUSHIDA working the arm and Elgin working over the head, and had a GREAT match.
KYLE O’REILLY vs. TETSUYA NAITO- 8.25/10
Some comedy in the beginning, then an awesome wrestling match.
FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL MATCH: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Mark Briscoe vs. Jushin â€"Thunder†Liger vs. Jay Lethal (w/Truth Martini)- 7/10
Kevin Kelly described this a match with â€"a lot of different personalities,†and they made great use of all of those personalities to have a very fun match.
CHEESEBURGER WANTS TO GIVE OUT FREE STUFF, BUT BRUTAL BOB ASSAULTS HIM- I had totally forgotten that this feud was going on. Not a bad angle, though.
RODERICK STRONG vs. HIROSHI TANAHASHI- 8.5/10
It’s Roddy vs. Tanahashi. You don’t need me to tell you what the story of the match was.
THE ADDICTION vs. CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada & Gedo)- 7/10
A lot of â€"F*CK TNA!†chants to start this one off. The Addiction were great heels and got the heat on Gedo, but Okada laid Daniels out with the Rainmaker to the make the people happy at the end.
ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Jay Briscoe(c) vs. Bobby Fish (w/Kyle O’Reilly)- 7.75/10
Bobby works over Jay’s knee while Jay works over Bobby’s head. I didn’t like the finish at first but it sunk in with me after a moment. I still wish it had gone a bit longer than it did, though.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Moose comes out to have a staredown with the champ. Veda Scott encourages him to start a fight while Stokely Hathaway discourages it. Moose spears the champ, but Stokely makes sure he gets his belt back at the end of it.
THE BULLET CLUB (AJ Styles & The Young Bucks) vs. The Kingdom (w/Maria Kanellis)- 9/10
A very PWG-ish match. Not that that’s a bad thing, but it kind of felt like it didn’t need to be the main event, and I REALLY wish Roddy vs. Tanahashi would have gotten main event time. There were a lot of antics going on here (doing a crotch chop and screaming â€"SUCK IT!†is SO not AJ Styles), but everything made sense within the context of the match. I laughed my ass off when Steve Corino referred to the PWG references as the wrestlers â€"breaking the fourth wall.â€
I love the way they have been able to keep the Bullet Club as faces in ROH despite being heels in New Japan. In many ways this match felt like it was heel vs. heel, but that didn’t detract from it in anyway.
An AMAZING show from ROH. Everything was main-event worthy or better aside from the opener, and the opener was great for what it was supposed to be. Yes, some of the matches felt a bit disappointing (especially Jay vs. Fish, which I REALLY wish would have gone an extra few minutes), but the show as a whole was just so awesome that I cannot recommend it strongly enough. This has been a year of awesome show after awesome show from ROH, and this show has been the best one yet. If not for WrestleKingdom IX, this would be a clear Show of the Year. GO BUY IT!