By Michael Parisien
The show opens with Mike Hogewood and Dave Prazak announcing Bryan Danielsons departure from ROH to WWE. They wish him the best.
Dark City Fight Club vs. The Young Bucks
Nick Jackson of the Young Bucks and Jon Davis of the DCFC start it off and Davis dominates for the most part until tagging in his partner Kory Chavis. The Young Bucks get an opening and make quick tags in and out, hitting a variety of flying strikes, kicks, and dropkicks. They can't knock him down. They start working his arm. Chavis catches them both coming off the rope with a double clothesline. Matt becomes the victim of some ground and pound. DCFC takes control of the match, dominating Matt with power moves until he hits a springboard moonsault into a cutter. He makes the hot tag to Nick who does some high flying. Matt regains his senses and joins in for some nice double team offense. Matt gets dumped to the outside and Nick gets creamed by a flying shoulder block from Davis. Davis makes the tag to Chavis and they try to finish Nick with a double team cutter but Matt breaks the 3 count. Nick goes up top while Matt and Chavis grapple. Davis crotches Nick on the turnbuckle but Chavis has sent Matt his way. Matt hits a dropkick on Davis sending him to the floor. Chavis catches Matt on the rebound and delivers a spinning backdrop into a uranage. Nick has recovered on the turnbuckle and flies through the air rolling Chavis up in a sunset flip/bridging pin combination.
3 star match.
Winners: The Young Bucks
Pretty good little match with a few sloppy moments but nothing offensive. The Bucks continue to impress with their ring work. I'm not 100% sold on DCFC. They've got a cool name, cool music, and seem decent enough in the ring (to be fair, most of their matches on HDnet have been squashes, so hard to judge), but I can't help but feel this powerhouse gimmick isn't genuine. They are only physically imposing because most everyone else in ROH isn't. Now that I think about it, I have this issue with a number of ROH guys. Eric Stevens comes to mind.
Short taped interview segment with the Briscoes. They talked about their matches with Kevin Steen and El Generico and put over how good both guys were but said they think they are better. This was hyping the main event for the evening.
In the ring, Prince Nana and Dirty Ernie Osiris introduce Sal Rinauro to the Embassy's newest member, Bison Smith. Rinauro completely oversells being scared to death.
Sal Rinauro vs. Bison Smith
Rinauro ducks a clothesline from Bison and slaps him in the face. Not a good idea. Bison turnbucle power bombs him and then plants him with a chokeslam. Bison cover but pulls him up from the mat just before the ref counts to 3. Time to toy with him a bit. He guerilla presses him high and dumps him back first and upside down into the turnbuckle again. Rinauro rolls out of the ring in pain. He gets rammed into the outside barricade and into the crowd. Bison charges poor Sal and hits a shoulder tackle. Prince Nana does a dance. Bison presses him into the ring and pins him.
2 and 1/2 star squash match.
Winner: Bison Smith
It put Bison over as a monster. Everything looked good.
Sal rolls under the ring.
Nana introduces Joey Ryan as a hired gun that'll take care of anything that Bison can't. I didn't really get this. Doesn't this undermine Bison as any kind of threat? Especially since Ryan looks like a scrawny, out of shape, wannabe pornstar? I thought this was Rhett Titus' gimmick? Anyways, Nana issues an open challenge. Right as the words are leaving his lips, Colt Cabana makes a run to the ring. That really made things seem scripted. There are a lot of little details ROH needs to work on when putting their TV together.
Colt Cabana vs. Joey Ryan
Cabana repeatedly dumps Ryan to the floor and Ryan gets frustrated. He's wearing a pink scarf. Maybe he's supposed to be a gay pornstar? At least it'd be a different twist on that type of character. Cabana does a lot of his usual wacky unorthodox moves until Ryan got to work on Cabana's arm. Cabana makes a comeback with his bionic elbows and then goes for his flying asshole in the corner but Ryan hits a superkick for a nearfall. Nana gets on the apron and orders Ryan to finish him. Ryan sets Cabana up on the top turnbuckle and goes for what appeared to be a Russian Leg Sweep into the ring, but Cabana held on. Ryan flopped in the ring and Nana tried to interfere but got Cabana's boot in the face. Cabana applies the Billy Goat's Curse and Ryan taps.
Afterwards, Sal Rinauro appears from under the ring and tries to congratulate Colt. But a suprised Colt turns around and accidentally catches Sal with an elbow.
2 star match.
Winner: Colt Cabana
Ryan looked completey lost when dealing with Cabanas wacky offense.
Another taped interview, this time with Steen and Generico. The same basics as the Briscoe interview. They put their opponents over and hyped up their match.
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Highlights from last weeks Jerry Lynn victory over Tyler Black due to Nigel McGuinness' interference. An interview with Black will air next week.
Nana is in the back and he's mad at Cabana for ruining the Embassy's big night. He says anybody hanging around with Cabana is now an enemy.
Nigel McGuinness is sitting in the crowd with a mic. He says he kind of understands why everyone is watching the guys under the spotlight. He says people in the crowd sit in the dark and nobody cares about them. He berates the crowd and compares them to a zoo. He gets that they want attention and that's why they make their disrespectful comments to the wrestlers who are hurting themselves in the ring. But he doesn't get why the wrestlers care about the crowd. After 15 months of being the ROH champion, he stopped caring. He asks the question of who is in control? The fans or the wrestlers? Who should he blame for the physical wreck he has become? The wrestlers who beat him up or the crowd that encouraged it? The next time he gets in the ring could be his last time. He has two choices, he can take his ball and go home or he can make sure whoever he gets in the ring against goes down with him.
Pretty good interview that went on a little bit too long. Amidst his speech, he got some good insults in against ringside fans.
Austin Aries tells us he's holding a lottery next week to get a shot at the world title. He's going to put 20 names in a hat. He says he's gotten fans sending him hats to use for the drawing. He models two goofy hats. One of them is a big bird tuque and he admits to being a Mr. Snuffleupaguss fan as a kid.
This was goofy segment for a company champion but I kind of liked it and my wife thought it was hilarious.
Highlights of last weeks Steen/Generico, Briscoes, American Wolves confrontation.
MAIN EVENT
Briscoes vs. Kevin Steen and El Generico
Steen and Mark with some back and forth shoving and trash talk. Both teams mix and match with each other and everyone gets in small flurries of offense. The story is that they're all pretty equal. But tempers start to flare and Jay Briscoe starts taking it to Kevin Steen. Mark takes over for his brother. Steen reverses a vertical suplex into one of his own and tags Generico in. Generico is beat down for a little while before he pushes Jay into his corner and Steen is in to deliver some punishment. Generico and Steen are in and out with quick tags and soften Jay up with some double team maneuvers. The Briscoes make a bit of a comeback and then it spills outside of the ring. Generico and Mark both hit over the top rope flipping sentons onto their respective opponents. Back in the ring, Generico drills Mark with a Michinoku Driver for a near fall but Mark recovers enough to hit a superkick and both men tag out. Steen and Jay brawl back and forth but Steen gets backed into the corner and is pummeled into the seated position. Generico makes the save with a Yakuza kick. Mark sends Generico flying with an overhead suplex and Steen stops Mark with a power bomb. Steen stuns Jay Briscoe with a codebreaker variation and tries to flatten him with a top rope senton, but Jay gets his knees up. Generico is tagged in but he just gets double teamed. Jay stops Steen on the apron with a devastating Ace Crusher. Mark positions Generico in the crucifix and Jay delivers a neckbreaker. Generico kicks out just before 3. Jay is frustrated. He says its all over and hoists Generico up for the Doomsday Device. Steen pulls Mark off the apron before he can get up to the top rope and Generico rolls Jay up for a nearfall. Generico suplexes Jay into the corner and Steen hits his running cannonball. Generico goes coast to coast with a flipping leg drop and its looking grim for Jay. Just as Steen is looking to finish him, the American Wolves run in assaulting both teams for the DQ finish. Steen, Generico, and the Briscoes team up to beat the Wolves out of the ring. Steen takes the mic and tells the Wolves they'll meet in New York September 26th in a Ladder War. They also promise the Briscoes a rematch.
3 and 3/4 star match.
Winners: Double DQ.
Really good tv main event. I probably would've gone 4 stars if it had a clean finish.
Thanks for reading!
Michael Parisien.
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