ROH Border Wars
ROH Border Wars (5/12/2012)- Toronto, ON
EDDIE EDWARDS vs. RHINO (w/Truth Martini)- 6.25/10
The tease during the aftermath was okay.
THE YOUNG BUCKS & MIKE MONDO vs. TJ PERKINS & THE ALL NIGHT EXPRESS (Rhett Titus & Kenny King)- 7/10
Basic tag team match formula with awesome action.
JAY LETHAL vs. TOMMASSO CIAMPA (w/The Embassy)-6.75/10
Ciampa has this beard that is gray/white enough that it belongs on a sixty year-old. Ciampa is only twenty-six! And his Mohawk is still brown. What gives?
From a purely in-ring standpoint, this was a very good match, but I just didn’t care, which is a problem in a supposedly heated feud in which a babyface is trying to end a monster heel’s undefeated streak.
More importantly, I thought that there was nothing that could make me anticipate tonight’s main event more than I already do going in to this show, but during this match, I noticed a fan in the front row wearing an El Generico mask, holding a sign that says “Steen Swallows.”
LANCE STORM vs. MIKE BENNETT (w/”Brutal” Bob Evans)- 6.75/10
I really didn’t like Lance using the chair (I assume that they did it to get the “ECW!” pop, protect Bennett and possibly build to a rematch, but that doesn’t mean that I have to like it). I think it would have been better if Lance superkicked the chair into Bennett’s face when Bennett tried to hit him with it (sort of like a Van-Daminator type thing).
ADAM COLE vs. MICHAEL ELGIN (w/Truth Martini)- 6.5/10
They did not give this match anywhere close to the amount of time that they should have. This should have gone at least twenty minutes. This was billed as the “battle of the breakout stars” but we really didn’t get enough time to see why. The aftermath was interesting, though.
NO TIME LIMIT MATCH FOR THE ROH TV TITLE MATCH: Roderick Strong(c) vs. Fit Finlay- 7.25/10
Started off well, but the finish felt very underwhelming.
FIGHT WITHOUT HONOR FOR THE ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLES: The Briscoe Brothers(c) vs. Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team (Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin)- 5.5/10
Yet another under-delivering match between these two. Ether is not an acceptable finish in a FIGHT WITHOUT HONOR. If this wasn’t going to be the blow-off, it shouldn’t have been a Fight Without Honor. If they had to do Ether as a finish, it would have worked much better in a normal match. I also think it was a major misstep to not use the chairs very much in this match, as the feud has been build around chairs. Nigel and Kelly pooping on WGTT for cheating in a No DQ’s match was also silly.
There is some silver lining here, though. WGTT’s victory likely means that ANX will be the ones to take the belts off of them.
ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Davey Richards(c) vs. Kevin Steen (w/Jimmy Jacobs)- 8.25/10
An awesome match, but considering the build going into it, it needed to be better. Like Rock vs. Cena, this was an awesome match with an awesome crowd, but it was in a place where awesome wasn’t good enough. This needed to be epic, but it wasn’t. I didn’t like the stuff with Corino afterwards. Corino is evil again all of a sudden just because Steen won? How does that make any sense? They were also surprisingly light on the false-finishes, which surprised me for a Davey match.
Overall, this was a great show, quality-wise, as almost all of the matches were consistently great or better, but the tag title match was bad and the main event, although it was awesome, was not what it needed to be.
EDDIE EDWARDS vs. RHINO (w/Truth Martini)- 6.25/10
The tease during the aftermath was okay.
THE YOUNG BUCKS & MIKE MONDO vs. TJ PERKINS & THE ALL NIGHT EXPRESS (Rhett Titus & Kenny King)- 7/10
Basic tag team match formula with awesome action.
JAY LETHAL vs. TOMMASSO CIAMPA (w/The Embassy)-6.75/10
Ciampa has this beard that is gray/white enough that it belongs on a sixty year-old. Ciampa is only twenty-six! And his Mohawk is still brown. What gives?
From a purely in-ring standpoint, this was a very good match, but I just didn’t care, which is a problem in a supposedly heated feud in which a babyface is trying to end a monster heel’s undefeated streak.
More importantly, I thought that there was nothing that could make me anticipate tonight’s main event more than I already do going in to this show, but during this match, I noticed a fan in the front row wearing an El Generico mask, holding a sign that says “Steen Swallows.”
LANCE STORM vs. MIKE BENNETT (w/”Brutal” Bob Evans)- 6.75/10
I really didn’t like Lance using the chair (I assume that they did it to get the “ECW!” pop, protect Bennett and possibly build to a rematch, but that doesn’t mean that I have to like it). I think it would have been better if Lance superkicked the chair into Bennett’s face when Bennett tried to hit him with it (sort of like a Van-Daminator type thing).
ADAM COLE vs. MICHAEL ELGIN (w/Truth Martini)- 6.5/10
They did not give this match anywhere close to the amount of time that they should have. This should have gone at least twenty minutes. This was billed as the “battle of the breakout stars” but we really didn’t get enough time to see why. The aftermath was interesting, though.
NO TIME LIMIT MATCH FOR THE ROH TV TITLE MATCH: Roderick Strong(c) vs. Fit Finlay- 7.25/10
Started off well, but the finish felt very underwhelming.
FIGHT WITHOUT HONOR FOR THE ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLES: The Briscoe Brothers(c) vs. Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team (Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin)- 5.5/10
Yet another under-delivering match between these two. Ether is not an acceptable finish in a FIGHT WITHOUT HONOR. If this wasn’t going to be the blow-off, it shouldn’t have been a Fight Without Honor. If they had to do Ether as a finish, it would have worked much better in a normal match. I also think it was a major misstep to not use the chairs very much in this match, as the feud has been build around chairs. Nigel and Kelly pooping on WGTT for cheating in a No DQ’s match was also silly.
There is some silver lining here, though. WGTT’s victory likely means that ANX will be the ones to take the belts off of them.
ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Davey Richards(c) vs. Kevin Steen (w/Jimmy Jacobs)- 8.25/10
An awesome match, but considering the build going into it, it needed to be better. Like Rock vs. Cena, this was an awesome match with an awesome crowd, but it was in a place where awesome wasn’t good enough. This needed to be epic, but it wasn’t. I didn’t like the stuff with Corino afterwards. Corino is evil again all of a sudden just because Steen won? How does that make any sense? They were also surprisingly light on the false-finishes, which surprised me for a Davey match.
Overall, this was a great show, quality-wise, as almost all of the matches were consistently great or better, but the tag title match was bad and the main event, although it was awesome, was not what it needed to be.