Background: ROH TV champion Adam Cole and his former tag team partner Kyle O’Reilly had become acquainted with each other in the ring as opponents in wars over pride. Now, Kyle O’Reilly is fighting his former teammate for a chance to prove he’s worthy of the TV title in a non-title match where if he wins Kyle gets a future championship match.
Caged Hostility
Charlotte, NC
September 8, 2012
Adam Cole vs. Kyle O’Reilly
Before the match, Davey Richards made his way to the ring. Lou Thesz press by Cole started this one in high gear. Kicking O’Reilly to the floor before using an enzuguri on the attempting-to-fly O’Reilly to set up Cole’s own tope. Steve Corino questioned if there’s ever been a sexier champion in ROH history. Right in front of Richards, O’Reilly reversed an Irish whip into the steel guardrail. Cole turned the tides quickly by using a slingshot into the steel ring post. Cole honed in on the left leg of O’Reilly by putting him in the figure four leg lock around the steel ring post. Kyle O’Reilly rolled into the ring, dropkicking Cole out of midair. O’Reilly tried to get some feeling back into this leg while tying up the champ. O’Reilly took too much time focusing on the crowd, leading to a strike exchange that O’Reilly eventually won. The challenger started focusing on the back and abdomen of Cole. Getting some help from the referee by stopping the illegal action of grabbing the rope during an abdominal strength, the champ was able to hip toss O’Reilly before kicking him down.
Both men got up, leading to another kick exchange. German suplex into the shining wizard by Cole almost got him the three count. Stopping the Florida Key, Kyle forearmed and kicked the champion into a tornado DDT. Cole shook off the impact of the maneuver, executing that over the knee brain buster. O’Reilly kicked and swept his way out of the figure four leg lock. Adam Cole pushed his way out of the guillotine choke, but not the reverse hurricarana into the Regal-plex. Unlike MMA, the counter to Kyle O’Reilly’s triangle choke was a flipping over Kyle that saw O’Reilly relinquish the hold to prevent being pinned. Both men ended fighting on the apron. Davey Richards couldn’t believe his eyes when the champion dropped O’Reilly on his head with a northern lights bomb on the apron. O’Reilly somehow kicked out of Cole’s follow up pin. Knocking the champ off the apron, O’Reilly was looking for that dropkick off of the apron. Instead, O’Reilly flew into a super kick that Cole used to set up the cross body off the top when he rolled O’Reilly back in. Kyle O’Reilly kicked out, but was open for the figure four leg lock. Being so close to the ropes cost Cole and allowed the challenger to save himself. Cole accidentally dropkicked O’Reilly off the apron, into Richards. Cole was distracted by Davey arguing with the referee, allowing O’Reilly to sweep him into a pinning predicament that gave O’Reilly a future ROH TV title shot.
Winners: Kyle O’Reilly (15:46)
Is It A Classic: Cole vs. O’Reilly was, as predicted, not as good as their “Best in the World ‘12” encounter that happened a few months earlier, but proved to be another fine outing to set up an even bigger match down the line.
