Submitted by Lee Thomas & Josh Baker
Overview:
ROH returned to Nashville for their 1st event at the Municipal Auditorium for four episodes of ROH TV. It was a long night that ran five hours with not a great crowd. The Municipal was a terrible venue for ROH IMO as the whole upper level was curtained off. Black curtains & covers were the name of the game as they had four sections in the mezz open & four riser sections open as well. The mezz was sparsely populated & the risers were half full. The floor had empty seats as well but I would say they were about 80%-85% filled. The crowd was good in spots but at times their was dead silence. Just too cavernous of a building for ROH. On the positive side, the new lighting rig was very nice & they had a new stage/titantron that was very large & very nice as well. It wasn’t WWE size big but pretty big.
Before the matches started, Matt & Nick Jackson did a Q&A in the ring. Fans asked easy questions such as “biggest inspiration” and “favorite arena” (Shawn Michaels/Hulk Hogan & Tokyo, respectively to those questions), although someone did ask who they would make guest of honor at a “Superkick Party” and they buried Jim Cornette in response. They were super nice to the fans though, lots of kids asking questions.
Crowd looked to be around 600-800, maybe more.
Episode 1:
Kevin Kelly & Nigel McGuinness on commentary
– YouTube match: ODB beat Faye Jackson
The debuting Jackson looks a lot like Nia Jax from NXT, and her gimmick is that she has a big butt that she can smash people with. She’s green, but she can run the ropes better than any woman that WWE has trained in the last ten years. Match wasn’t much at all. ODB won with a Thesz press off the top rope in about 6:00.
– ROH TV Champion Roderick Strong beat Jon Gresham to retain
Good match, wasn’t much, a typical TV opener. Veda Scott offered Gresham beforehand some money from her and Cedric Alexander’s lawsuit to leave ROH forever and he told her to beat it. Roddy won with a big knee in about 8:00. Bobby Fish out afterwards to brawl with Roddy.
– ROH Tag Champions War Machine beat Brutal Bob & Tim Hughes
Comedy from Bob, sending Hughes in to get his ass kicked. Squash type match, Hughes didn’t go up well on some moves. War Machine won in less than 5:00. Afterward, the lights went out and All-Night Express sauntered down to ringside, Rhett Titus with a giant lead pipe and Kenny King with a chair. They did alternating promos on War Machine while circling opposite sides of the ring. Was different and effective, as it built tension for a brawl that didn’t happen as ANX walked off before anything happened. They said they will face War Machine at the 14th Anniversary Show in a no dq match for the tag titles.
– Story Time segment with Adam Cole. ROH Champion Jay Lethal came out, full entrance with Truth Martini and Taeler Hendrix. Before he could speak, Kyle O’Reilly came out and as he started to speak, he laid into both Lethal and Cole, leading to a pull-apart brawl.
– The Briscoes (w/ODB) beat ACH & Alex Shelley
ACH had a remixed version of his “Street Fighter” theme song. Really good match, pretty much what you’d expect from these guys. Finish was Shelley attempting to break up a Doomsday Device by the Briscoes on ACH, but Daniels grabbed his leg and held him from getting in the ring, after about 10:00.. Post-match, Kazarian & Chris Sabin ran in the ring and Kaz & Daniels beat down ACH & Shelley, while Sabin looked on unsure of what to do. Kaz & Daniels held Shelley up for Sabin to hit him, but he took too long and ACH fought them off. Sabin argued off-mic with Addiction after. Looks to be setting up a possible Motor City Machine Guns reunion.
Episode 2:
– YouTube match: Hania the Huntress beat Mandy Leon in about 10:00
– Silas Young & Beer City Bruiser beat Dalton Castle’s Boys
Dalton Castle ran in before the match started, but was led away by security. Young told the Boys pre-match that if he lost to them, he would quit wrestling as of tonight. Match was a lot of fun and will be a very good TV match. The Boys were impressive, doing some dives to the outside on their opponents. Finish saw Young get the win after the Bruiser did a flipping cannonball into the Boys in the bottom of the corner. Castle ran back in afterward for the save, but was beaten down for his troubles as Young laid into him about being a loser. Funny moment where the Boys scurried over to Dalton and clung to his legs and the fans chanted “That was sweet”.
– Top Prospect Semifinal: Brian Fury beat Action Ortiz
No reaction for these guys until Ortiz did a great running flip dive onto Fury on the outside and a small “holy shit” chant broke out. Match was decent, but the main story was Ortiz ran off the ropes at one point and the ring shifted, causing a part of the mat to come loose. Fury won shortly thereafter with a pop-up sitout powerbomb. Good, quick match.
– Top Prospect Semifinal: Lio Rush beat Punisher Martinez
Martinez has a great presence to him, is deceivingly tall and has a monstrous-sounding voice. if he doesn’t end up signed by ROH or NXT soon, I’ll be surprised. Rush was the underdog here as his offense didn’t do anything to Martinez until they went to the outside. Martinez attempted his last ride powerbomb into the ring apron, but Rush escaped. Finish was Martinez on the top rope, attempting a super chokeslam, but Rush reversed it into a Spanish Fly for the win after about 10:00. Finals are Lio Rush vs. Brian Fury. Rush cut a very good promo after about winning the tournament. Both guys got a standing ovation for this match.
– BJ Whitmer beat Chase Brown
Brown wore a shirt that says “I Love Cauliflower” and he was eating on a cauliflower. So I guess his gimmick is that he love cauliflower. I think this is Whitmer’s first match back after his injury. Whitmer was the most hated man at the show, perhaps behind Todd Sinclair. Whitmer won with an exploder in less than 3:00. Whitmer then laid into Nigel McGuinness at ringside for giving him this dork as his first opponent back. He gave him a couple more exploders and called out Steve Corino, who made his way onto the stage. Adam Page ran out from behind the crowd and fought with Whitmer before the fight being broken up. I think the episode where Page turns against Whitmer aired tonight, so the crowd may have been confused as to why they were fighting.
– Matt Sydal beat Adam Cole with the Shooting Star Press
Really good TV match which ended with Sydal surprisingly getting the win clean with the shooting star press in about 13:00. Match had Cole’s trademark spot of pretending to throw his opponent into the guardrail, only to toss them into the ring and do the “up yours” to the crowd. Sydal did a kind of sloppy reverse huracanrana onto Cole, leading to the finish. Cole spat in Sydal’s hand when Sydal attempted a handshake, post-match.
Mr. Wrestling III came out to replace Nigel on commentary.
Episode 3:
– YouTube match: Veda Scott, Amber Gallows & Allysin Kay beat Sumi Sakai, Thunderkitty & Crazy Mary Dobson
Best women’s match so far tonight. Everyone did well. Kaye, Gallows and Scott won in about 8:00. Dobson & Gallows will probably end up in NXT at some point, Gallows for sure if her husband arrives soon.
– Top Prospect Final: Lio Rush beat Brian Fury
Crowd really behind Rush, kids really liked him. Lots of good action here. Lio Rush won the tournament when he hit a running C4 on Fury after about 10:00. Crowd popped for the win and Cary Silkin & Nigel McGuinness held Rush’s arms up as he celebrated. Right guy won the tournament here. He will receive a shot against the TV champion, I’m assuming at the next TV tapings they do. Regardless of if Strong or Fish is the champion, it’ll be a blinder of a match.
– Moose beat Kongo
Kongo is very jiggly, but that works when he splatted against Moose with avalanches and splashes. Moose didn’t have Stokely Hathaway with him, not sure why. Brawls to the outside and back in. Ends with Moose hitting the spear after about 7:00. Not terrible. Good for building Moose for his match with Kazuchika Okada at the 14th anniversary ppv.
– Cedric Alexander (w/Veda Scott) vs. Adam Page never got underway as BJ Whitmer attacked Page.
Alexander joined in until Jonathan Gresham made the save. Page cut a promo on Whitmer after. Page has a pretty cool new entrance video with ticking clocks and a blood-red colored version of the Decade seeing-eye design in it, along with new music.
– Cheeseburger beat Mike “P-Dawg” Posey
Posey did a horrid beatbox and rap before the match. Cheeseburger did a dive onto the Gang near the beginning of the match and one of them took a nasty bump onto his head. The gang ran in to thwart Burger at some point, but he laid them all out with the Shotei Palms, including knocking out the red-haired woman. He hit Posey with the palm for the win after 5:00. It was a match. Listen for fan interaction, it was the best part of the match.
– Christopher Daniels w/Kaz beat Dalton Castle w/The Boys
Daniels was awesome here. Good main event match. Funny spot where Daniels attempted to do Castle’s lean back with him, but fell on his ass. Finish was Kaz attempting to hit Castle with pliers, but one of the Boys poked him in the eye with a fan, then as Castle was going for the Bang-A-Rang, Kaz recovered, interfered behind the ref’s back and Daniels hit the Angel’s Wings for the win. Silas Young was on guest commentary here and he berated Castle again for losing. Castle got on the mic after and said, he’s fantastic and that he feels as bad on the inside as Silas looks on the outside. He talked about their feud and said it needed to end and he’s feeling a Fight Without Honor. That’ll probably happen at Supercard of Honor if I had to guess.
Episode 4:
– YouTube match: Kelly Klein w/BJ Whitmer beat Taeler Hendrix w/ Truth Martini
Whitmer changed his outfit every time he came out, so he is indeed a professional. Truth’s entrance video now has him doing the spin-a-rooni. Match was good. Klein is better than probably the entire TNA women’s roster with the exception of Gail Kim. Hendrix was good too, although she goes for the sultry vixen stuff a little too much in her matches. Truth pulled the mat up at one point for Hendrix to his her tombstone piledriver, but Whitmer saved Klein. The story here is that Hendrix’s top broke where it goes around her neck and if it weren’t for some probable double-sided tape, her boobs would have been on display for everyone. Klein got the win with a sitting front choke.
– 7 Team Gauntlet match:
Red Dragon & Caprice Coleman & Will Ferrara started. RD beat Coleman & Ferrara.
Red Dragon beat Joey Daddiego & Chris Larusso. One of Truth Martini’s try out guys. No introduction. Looked like a cross between Justin Bieber & the Miz. Truth & Diesel walked out on him and RD beat him.
Young Bucks out next. They gave these two teams plenty of time. Good action. Young Bucks prevail.
Bucks beat Brutal Bob & Tim Hughes pretty easily.
Bucks beat The Addiction.
Roppongi Vice beat the Young Bucks.
After the match, in what I think will be untelevised, The Bucks challenged RPG to a fight but they bailed. The Bucks called out Addiction, they came out. War Machine snuck up behind them & they were beaten handily by both teams leaving the Bucks & WM standing tall.
A long, long night. If they’re going to continue to run the Municipal they need to learn from last night & figure out a way to get the fans to make the switch from the Fairgrounds. Nothing was announced for their return which hasn’t happened since ROH returned to Nashville. Makes me think that they are re-thinking their gameplan for Nashville.