Welcome to another edition of The ROHbot Report – the only article you need for all the Ring of Honor news you have to know. ROH held its first free event in history with a card that looked stellar on paper. Lets find out if ROH’s return to Baltimore delivered the goods.
Free Enterprise Results; February 9th, 2020; Baltimore, MD
– Mark Haskins defeated Alex Shelley
– VINCENT & Bateman defeated Joe Hendry & Dalton Castle
– Flip Gordon defeated Slex
– Alex Zayne defeated Andrew Everett
– The Briscoes defeated MexiBlood
– Battle Royal For a Future ROH World Title Shot: Flip Gordon won by last eliminating Kenny King
– Session Moth Martina defeated Sumie Sakai
– Proving Ground Match: Jeff Cobb & Dan Maff defeated ROH World Tag Team champions Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham
– Brody King defeated Rey Horus
– PCO & Marty Scurll defeated Nick Aldis & RUSH
ROH’s first free event in history was built on not only a strong card featuring first-time bouts & debuts, but also the intent of creating a foundation for the near future regarding title challengers & upcoming events. The main event, post-intermission action, and pretty much everything involving Villain Enterprises and MexiSquad were perfect examples of ROH building toward the future. From an in-ring perspective nothing topped The Briscoes vs. MexiBlood. The high-octane action proved too fast to keep up with, let alone be completely conveyed correctly. The end came courtesy of the Doomsday Device to Flamita after Bandido was taken out via a suplex across the apron. The Briscoes-MexiBlood will definitely go down as an early ROH Match of the Year candidate. Though a lot shorter than everything else on the card, Brody King and Rey Horus produced a fun David vs. Goliath style encounter with Goliath winning with his Gonso Bomb; putting the current Six-Man Tag Team champions on a losing streak outside of Six-Man action. What this could mean for ROH’s trio division including Villain Enterprises challenging for the gold again and The Briscoes actually finding another person to potentially become two-time Six-Man champs is now up for debate.
Something guaranteed for the future came from the highly entertaining main event’s closing moments and the post-match declaration from a victorious Scurll. “The Villain” – who found himself on the losing end of ROH’s first events of 2020 – helped PCO moonsault his way to pinning NWA World’s champion Nick Aldis following Marty’s dislocating his old best friend’s fingers (this occurred after RUSH left his partner due to a miscommunication between the two). After the match, Scurll took the microphone to up the ante with Aldis for their match at “The Crockett Cup” for the NWA Championship by adding a monetary stipulation if the challenger loses. But what was most important in regards to ROH was Scurll formally announcing it will be PCO vs. Aldis at “Supercard of Honor”; a match that should be an interesting clash of styles similar to what’s been seen when “The National Treasure” fought former NWA champion Tim Storm.
A pair of title contenders were set during this event including Jeff Cobb & Dan Maff proving they wanted to do more than just outlast the ROH World Tag Team champs to earn a future title shot. Cobb & Maff brought the fight to Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham, producing the second best match of the evening behind the aforementioned Briscoes-MexiBlood encounter. The Lethal Injection actually proved to be Jay’s undoing as he inadvertently propelled himself into Maff’s Burning Hammer to secure the tandem featuring a former ROH World Tag Team and Television champion of monstrous proportions. The ROH World title contender battle royal was fun with some different surprises such as The Blue Meanie, Gangrel, a very dominant Maria Manic – who was eliminated by an interfering Bully Ray before being put through a table – and the eventual winner Flip Gordon posing as Dragon Lee to lure fellow finalist Kenny King into a false sense of security. Gordon had a very busy night by spoiling the debut of a very impressive Slex. Slex’s ROH debut, though memorable from an in-ring perspective thanks to his mix of slick grappling, power-based offense & impressive agility, wasn’t what many expected considering he lost and was eventually laid out by Shane Taylor before the former ROH TV champ announced his re-signing with ROH. It’ll be interesting to see if Slex comes for revenge against Taylor and gets his ROH career on track.
On the opposite end of the spectrum in regards to a successful ROH debut was Session Moth Martina. Martina and Sumie Sakai had some good chemistry in a match that was definitely overbooked, went a little too long with too many near falls; moving away from what the Women of Honor division has been gravitating toward since the start of 2020. Martina, who is a very unique character, just didn’t fully click with the ROH audience on first glance with the only major responses coming courtesy of her trying to drink. But there’s hope everyone learned from this experience and Martina is given the chance to grow a rapport with the fans like she did in Japan when no one understood or enjoyed her character initially. Mark Haskins and Alex Shelley opened the show in fine fashion with a match unlike anything else on the card while Alex Zayne is now 2-0 in ROH by overcoming Andrew Everett in a highflying encounter as expected; and The Righteous of Vincent & Tyler Bateman overcame Dalton Castle & Joe Hendry in a rather forgettable bout where both teams really needed a victory.
It also must be noted at the top of the show were fantastic promos from both ROH COO Joe Koff and Marty Scurll with the prior promising HonorClub will finally get the long-awaited back catalog of ROH events that fans have been clamoring for since the service was introduced. While the show’s length was definitely a little too reminiscent of old ROH shows where the crowd would be burned out during the last hour, every bout outside of King-Horus got a good amount of time with most delivering in fine fashion; making this another easy recommendation for viewing from ROH in 2020.
On Saturday, March 14, ROH presents a very special event, “ROH: Past vs. Present” at Sam’s Town Live in Las Vegas. The Briscoes will resurrect an old rivalry when they go one-on-one.
In ROH’s first official match in 2002, Jay Briscoe took on the Amazing Red. At ringside stood Jay’s younger brother, Mark. Mark, though competing in other companies, wasn’t allowed to wrestle on the first ROH event because he was only seventeen. Watching his brother showcase himself like a future star, Mark grew jealous. As the months progressed, Mark’s jealously turned into anger as he cost Jay matches and eventually took on his big brother in the ROH ring during the company’s debut in Boston. Mark would actually best his big brother; seemingly finding peace within himself following that night. From that moment on, The Briscoes ran hard together; becoming one of the biggest names in tag team wrestling over the last decade. That’s not to say that Dem Boys didn’t have their problems since that time they first clashed in ROH – one of those times occurred in Liverpool, England thirteen years ago after they failed to successfully defend the ROH World Tag Team Championship. There, Jay and Mark were looking to find themselves as a tag team again by beating each other. What came from that night was one of the best matches of 2007 with them wrestling to a time-limit draw.
In 2002 it was about jealousy. In 2007 it was about improvement. In 2013 it became about the biggest prize in Ring of Honor. Mark Briscoe took it upon himself, just like he did in 2002, to challenge his brother to a match at “Best in the World ’13”. Seeing his brother outshine him on the stage that is ROH again, Mark demanded his brother put the title Jay had literally bled buckets for on the line. Jay came into their first and only match contested with the World title on the line battle damaged, yet refused to let his reign end because of his brother’s aspirations. In front of their friends & family, the brothers tore the house down yet again with the end result being Jay finally proving his superiority over “The Sussex County Chicken”. It would take another five years before they shared the ring again in singles competition as both were looking to attain another ROH World Championship. Aboard the Jericho Cruise ship, Dem Boys wore each other out with everything not nailed down on the high seas. It was a positive night for the former two-time ROH World champion as Jay overcame his brother yet again. When discussing the “Past vs. Present” event, Mark specifically stated that he hadn’t paid Jay back for that loss. If it’s anything like 2002, Mark will be more serious than ever; potentially overwhelming the rarely pinned Jay in a match that could rival or even outdo the quality of their previous encounters.
For the first time in over a decade it’ll be the ROH World champion versus the NWA World’s champion in when PCO fights Nick Aldis at “Supercard of Honor XIV” on April 4 in Lakeland, FL!
The journeys of PCO and Nick Aldis are actually quite similar, just set over a decade apart. For PCO, the future ROH World champion seemed poised to become bigger than he did under the bright lights of WWF. Feuding with the likes of Bret Hart while producing incredible matches rooted in the take-no-prisoners style that would become his calling card on the independent scene, PCO’s time as a budding singles star ended as quickly as it started. It would be over twenty years before PCO’s name started making waves again; putting him on a road to World champion status that few if any other than himself & his closest supported believed he could reach. Nick Aldis didn’t have to wait as long as PCO to become a World champion, but the believed promise of the former “Magnus” in TNA didn’t pan out as many expected.
Aldis had everything from the look to the ability to talk and, most importantly, an obvious high amount of talent warranting him to become the face of the future Impact Wrestling. Instead, Magnus became a pawn in the larger story featuring Dixie Carter and the end of his Impact title reign came at the hands of Eric Young during a time people criticized TNA for copying Daniel Bryan’s rise to prominence at Aldis’ expense. It wasn’t until Aldis left Impact and really put himself in an uncomfortable situation where he looked to restore the legitimacy of a title once challenged for & held by some of the best of the best the world of pro wrestling has ever & will ever see. During his two reigns as NWA World’s champion, Nick Aldis has led the promotion back to a state of prominence not seen since, ironically enough, its association with TNA over a fifteen years ago. Though PCO has the size advantage heading into this one, “The National Treasure” isn’t a small man; showcasing strength & technical abilities that allowed for him to overcome everyone who has challenged him for the ten pounds of gold over the past year including PCO’s own stablemate Marty Scurll. This may turn out to be the wildest match in Aldis’ NWA career with the chance of him winning being more likely than PCO – who could be a former ROH World champion by this event depending on what happens between now and “Supercard of Honor” – walking out of Lakeland victorious.
Adam Brooks is the latest acclaimed international star to sign with Ring of Honor.
Rumored for a few weeks, but now official is the ROH signing of Adam Brooks. Another Australian standout has been traveling across the world for the past year; delivering must-see encounters against a variety of opponents currently signed to ROH including Marty Scurll, Brody King, Rey Horus, Bandido & fellow Australian Slex thanks to his hard-hitting approach to compliment his impressive grappling acumen. As noted by ROH when announcing the signing, Brooks is currently the Melbourne City Wrestling Heavyweight champion having defeated Slex for the gold and could bring it with him when he makes his in-ring debut. “The GLOAT” is a big get for ROH and it’ll be interesting to see who will be his first ROH opponent when the time comes.
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