Going back to Ring of Honor for the ifrst time in a long time to watch the last show of the companies run. I missed the first match of The Righteous vs. Shane Taylor Promotions because I was making and eating lunch and making sure my dog didn't steal the food from me. What I watched seemed like a decent match to start the show.
The Hex & Chelsea Green vs. The Allure & Miranda Alize
This is my first time really watching Alize wrestle and I really like her style of hard hitting strikes and fast paced offense. After Chelsea Green gets worked over Allison Kay comes in with a killer hot tag. Love cuts off a dive from Belle with a forearm shot and Mandy Leon hits a pretty bad Made in Japan for the three count. A decent match, but nothing special and just there to get people on the show. The ending was pretty flat and didn't help with this.
3/10
The Bouncers, CB, Flip Gordon, and PJ Black vs. LSG, Demonic Flamita, Will Ferrara, Sledge, and Max the Impaler
There are a lot of wrestlers I don't care about in this match, but probably just as many that excite me and the action kept up at a good pace. Plus they put most of my favorites on a team with Sledge so that works for me. As its a giant tag match we of course get a series of dives including Sledge barely making it over on a moonsault and Max suplexing CB out of the ring onto everybody. Flamita fakes the crowd out on a dive and Bruiser teases powerbombing him to the outside, but Flamita escapes and hits a tornillo off the top. The wrong team wins, but a Canadian Destroyer to LSG off the shoulders of Gordon by Black looked cool and was a solid finish to the match. A fun ten person tag team match, but there were some rough spots scattered throughout.
4/10
Rey Horus vs. Dragon Lee
They do a short back and forth technical exchange before Lee hits a big suicide dive and then just takes control of the match and puts some work in on Horus. Horus hits some high flying moves to change the momentum including a nice change of direction tope con hilo. Lee gets control back with two spinning backbreakers as he continues to target the back and follows up by a brutal looking single leg crab. Lee gets distracted by the thought of a strike exchange and gives up the momentum. Horus hits a body scissors driver off the top rope and Lee waits until the very last moment to kick out. Lee hits an inferno knee that only gets a two count so he hits two more variations to get the win. A really good match between these two men. Good back and forth and a hard hitting and high flying match. A great way to start off the main card of the show.
7/10
Dalton Castle vs. Rhett Titus vs. Silas Young vs. Joe Hendry
Dalton is spending a lot of time goofing around and popping the crowd to start the match letting the other three men do the wrestling in the match. Hendry is doing a lot of strong man stuff in this match and it is a lof fun. Titus becomes the target of Castle and Hendry demonstrating who can do moves better who called back to their tag team before Castle gets jealous and yells at Hendry. The ref gets bumped and Hendry uses the belt on Castle and other shenanigans happen and Titus hits Young with a dropkick and gets the win. A fun fast match between these four men and Titus is the right choice as the last TV champ for the company. I don't know about winning with a dropkick though, I don't care how high he elevates on it.
6/10
Brian Johnson vs. Josh Woods
Woods gets two rope breaks out of Johnson early in the match, but Johnson hits a jawbreaker over the ropes and a suicide dive and takes control of the match. Woods can't get his footing on the ropes to count Johnson, but still powers him off with a suplex then hits a series of suplexes showing off his strength. The two men go back and forth with neither able to get the other over for a vertical suplex until Johnson lifts Woods up and they both tumble over the ropes then start forearming the shit out of each other on the floor. They get back in the ring and start firing off big shots again. Woods takes Johnson to the ropes in a head and arm choke to make him use his last rope break, but while the ref is signalling to the announcer Johnson hits a poke to the eyes and takes advantage. Woods hits a nearly deadlift chaos theory for a two count. Johnson puts Woods up top and goes for a suplex, but Woods grabs him with the head and arm choke and puts Johnson to sleep. I really liked this match. Johnson does a great job of perfectly using the rules and the ref enforcing them to cheat to win the pure title which I enjoy. Woods is just a very good wrestler and I'm looking forward to him being a big deal somewhere else soon.
8/10
Kenny King vs. Shane Taylor
This match is a brawl from the start of this match and Taylor has the advantage early but the first big spot comes when King stops Taylor from suplexing off the top then he hits a blockbuster out of the ring through two tables on Taylor because he's insane, it looked awesome as fuck. Taylor hits a monster STO out of the corner on King through a garbage can. Taylor sets King up on a table then hits a running splash off the apron that looks brutal. Taylor sets up a table in the corner and King fights back then picks Taylor up and hits a running DVD through the table. King hits a splash off a ladder through an elevated ladder for two. Taylor's right hand is very crisp looking and then a sick knee and a sitout piledriver for a very close two count, so good. They both stand on the ladder balanced across the ring and the guardrail and start exchanging strikes. King has to do too much to keep Taylor up which kind of hurts in this kind of match. Taylor hits a package piledriver, and they just kind of slide off the ladder and hit the floor, somehow King is fine. The end of this match was a little too much talking and took away from the real blood feud feel the rest of the match had, but it was still a very good brawl especially considering I've never liked Shane Taylor before so this was a lot of fun.
8/10
Willow vs. Rok C
Rok-C goes for a cartwheel and Willow pulls her arm out under her is such a good touch. This match and its reversals is dedicated to watching tape on your opponent and I like it. Rok-C blocks a moonsault attempt from Willow and hits a sitout powerbomb for two. Willow catches Rok-C up top and hits a superplex then follows up with a moonsault for a long two. Rok-C catches a superkick then hits a Code red for the three count. Rok-C has a lot of work to go on her in ring work, especially her running the ropes which was pretty rough for her here. Willow did a lot to make Rok-C look good in the match. Crowd was all in on Willow so the ending really didn't work here.
5/10
Violence Unlimited vs. The Foundation
Rocky and Williams started this off with some nice technical wrestling. Deppen tagged in and came in with a lot of fun offense. Riccaboni points out that Homicide was wearing his gear from the first show which is a very baggy jumpsuit. The match breaks down and Homicide hits a beautiful tope suicida like he hasn't aged since the first RoH show. Rocky goes for a hurrincanranna on the outside, but Rust catches him and powerbombs him through a bunch of tables. Homicide like a real sick stabs EC3 in the armpit and mouth with a fork. A bunch of crazy shit is happening while everybody is hitting RoH originals finishers. Brody King hits a Ganso bomb on Isom for the three count after a very fun multi man match. Just a bunch of chaos even if I didn't write a lot of what happened, but in these kind of matches so much stuff is happening everywhere it's kind of hard to get it all. EC3 served no purpose in this match and the aftermatch angle was dumb as fuck.
7/10
The OGK vs. The Briscoes
A really good back and forth tag team match between these two teams and of course RoH goes out with the Briscoes as tag team champions because it couldn't really go any other way. I didn't take much note of what happened in the match, but it was very good. These guys just went all out and hit great moves and a ton of tag team moves. Taven's clothesline dive into a doomsday device to the floor was fucking nuts. All of these guys put their bodies on the line to make it a great match and they did it well. It's just two polished teams doing their thing and doing it very well.
8/10
Jay Lethal vs. Jon Gresham
A back and forth match early with Lethal wrestling his style and Gresham targeting the shoulder of Lethal. Gresham nearly gets a three count with a roll up so Lethal just smacks the fuck out of him and stuns him. A rolling inerted samoan drop from Lethal was very cool looking. Lethal goes for Lethal Injection, but his shoulder gives out and Gresham hits a lionsault on the standing Lethal then gets the chicken wing locked in. Gresham gets the Octopus hold and gets the submission to be the Champion. A damn good match between these two men as much as I hate to admit Lethal does anything good, but great selling from both men and I loved to see Gresham just target the shoulder and go to work the whole match and see it pay off for him and stop Lethal from hitting the iconic moves he wanted to hit. Gresham is just so goddamn good in the ring and delivered a very good match here. Loved the lockerroom emptying to come down and watch the finish of the match. Kind of wish they had kept going for longer after the lockerroom came down or they had been there the whole match. The right call for the last RoH champion.
9/10
A really good show from Ring of Honor to end? the promotion. They ran a lot of angles that might be for the reboot, or more likely are going to happen in other promotions that kind of helped pay for the cool shit to happen after stuff matches. The last two matches and the fight without honor were very good and everything else was fine, although on rewatch I'd probably dislike the women's match more, but the crowd was so into Willow and she was killing it in that match so that helped. Loved all the taped wrestlers talking about what RoH meant to them in between matches as well. I don't know if the reboot of RoH will be good, but if this is the last show it's a great way for the company to go out.
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