ROH World Title #1 Contendership Tournament Final Four Corner Survival Match: Claudio Castagnoli vs. Delirious vs. Go Shiozaki vs. Tyler Black
Cold opening for the first match. Winner gets a title shot against Nigel at the end of the show. Go Shiozaki spent a big chunk of 2008 wrestling for Ring Of Honor, doing a mini learning excursion similar to Morishima, former ROH World Champion. Tyler Black is getting momentum as a singles wrestler. Castagnoli is a popular act on the shows. Delirious is Delirious. Everyone had to go through a series of matches to get to this point so everyone has momentum. The match is super fast paced with everyone taking turns doing their exchange and then moving out. Shiozaki and Black were a little too kicky with no real substance. Castagnoli had his swing but brought not much else. It was a fine match to kick off the show. Nothing special though. **1/2
Roderick Strong vs. Kevin Steen
A good duel-limb work match. Strong goes for the thick neck of Steen with tight dragon sleepers and strikes from the back while Steen attacks the knee to set up the sharpshooter. I thought Strong sold the leg fairly well at times. There was one point where Strong struggled to deadlift Steen due to his bum knee and he hobbled around a bit. ***
No Disqualification Tag Team Match: The Briscoes (Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe) (w/Daizee Haze) vs. The Age Of The Fall (Joey Matthews & Necro Butcher) (w/Lacey)
This is a continuation of the Briscoes vs Age Of The Fall feud that began with the Age of The Fall debut at Man Up where they hung the Briscoes upside down with blood streaming to the floor. The Briscoes are in total war mode and they begin brawling with Necro and Joey Matthews backstage. There was an awesome brawl through the crowd that I wouldn’t really expect from an ROH show. CZW maybe. Mark Briscoe bleeds real bad from the back of the head and it gets worse as the match progresses. But it looks great visually and he looks like a badass for sticking through it. Necro is a notorious brawler but he and Matthews are willing to take a total ass kicking from the Briscoes. Matthews lands right on his head for the Doomsday Device and Necro takes a wicked chair shot at one point. There was a cool counter from Necro where he is set up for the Doomsday Device but he blasts Jay (?) with a punch before almost pinning Mark with a victory roll. The match does get a little overcooked towards the end, missing its peak by a few minutes but this was super good for the most part. Great brawl. ***1/2
Brent Albright vs. Erick Stevens
A very bland 6 minute match. They hit each other hard but no sell it. It’s all just bland wrestling that I can’t find myself caring for at all. **
ROH World Tag Team Title Match: No Remorse Corps (Davey Richards & Rocky Romero) (c) vs. The Vulture Squad (Jigsaw & Ruckus) (w/Julius Smokes)
This took a bit to get going but once the match gained it’s rhythm, the match took off big time. Ruckus had some complicated set ups to his moves but he made it work with some great athleticism and speed. The cartwheel leg drop looked awkward in the best way possible. Jigsaw and Romero had a sick spot where Romer suplexed him off the top rope and locked in a cross arm-breaker in the same motion. Good match with some cool spots. ***
Bryan Danielson vs. Austin Aries
Aries was a pure joy to watch in this match. I loved his performance from his great selling to his terrific offensive display. Anytime he got a sustained run in control, he exploded with fire, energy and grace. His tope was Hijo del Santo-esc in how beautiful yet impactful it looked. And him selling the arm after the impact made it all the better. He was able to not only contrast Danielson’s technical approach with a faster, aerial assault but he worked super well on defence on the mat too. Constantly wriggling away from danger whenever Danielson looked like he trapped him in an inescapable hold. Always being on the move. Danielson adapted nicely to that. He attacked the arm with tons of variety in his leverage holds. The knuckle lock row-a-boat spot looked sweet as hell. There was an awesome spot in the match where Danielson trapped Aries’ arm in the normal LeBell lock position but twisted his body more to add extra torque to it. The finish was well worked given it was all about the counters. Aries reversed Danielson. Danielson reversed Aeries. And it carried on until Danielson caught Aries out with his downward elbows and then locking on an armsisscors to finally tap out Aries. Super good match that had a brilliant effort from Aries. ****
ROH World Title Match: Nigel McGuinness (c) vs. Tyler Black
I liked this a ton but it really suffered from going far too long with a match layout that simply doesn’t hold up in 2020. The booking of Black’s journey to the ROH title is quite notable and the long 10 minute closing stretch where Tyler Black was refusing to stay down, giving the crowd hope that Black would get one big move in and get the 3 didn’t work for me. It wasn’t annoying but I didn’t buy any of the nearfalls. The crowd lost their shit so it worked for some. The rest of the match was good. Nigel brutalised Black’s arm with force. Yanking Black’s arm into the canvas several times. Black’s selling was good and it was enough to turn him face after being a heel earlier in the night. He was very sympathetic and worked oddly well as a never say die face given how bland he is. ***3/4
Overall
This was a good enough show. The best matches are high quality ones and the undercard is watchable enough with one or two good matches sprinked in throughout. The opening was an okay 4-way setting up the main event - [**1/2]. Roddy vs Steen was a decently worked duel-limb match - [***]. The tag matches - both the No DQ [***1/2] and title match [***] - were good. The Briscoes vs AOTF match in particular. Albright vs Stevens was a bland 7 minute match - [**]. A total skip. Aries vs Bryan was a great technical vs speed match w/ a brilliant Aries performance - [****]. The main event was good but a little overdone in the nearfalls that were a tad too unrealistic to buy - [***3/4].
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