Hiroshi Tanahashi & Michael Elgin Vs. Kazuchika Okada & Moose: Tanahashi and Elgin are a regular tag team in New Japan Pro Wrestling while it was the first time pairing of Moose and Okada. It must have been deafening inside the Frontier Fieldhouse because even with the poor sound, one could hear the loud cheers for Tanahashi and Okada when they entered the arena. In fact, this was the most animated the crowd was on the TV broadcast. For many, this was the first chance to see the Tanahashi/Okada rivalry live and they weren’t going to let it slip through their fingers. This was the second best match of the show. Tanahashi/Okada gave us their usual magic inside the ring. For a guy with barely two years of in-ring experience to date, Moose continues to impress me as one of the most natural wrestlers I’ve ever seen. Everything he did looked great. Elgin was his usual solid self in the ring as well. Just a great back-and-forth tag team with a surprise finish when Moose gave Elgin his Spinning Spear, causing Elgin to stumble into Okada’s Rainmaker for the pin. This was considered an upset as Elgin and Tanahashi are an established tag team while Okada and Moose are not. ******
TV Champion Toshihiro Ishii Vs. Bobby Fish: This was billed as Fish’s last chance at the TV title, particularly since Fish was coming off of three straight unsuccessful title shots on ROH PPV. Announcer Kevin Kelly kept portraying Fish as the ultimate underdog, even mentioning his age of 39 several times throughout the match. This was one of the stiffest matches I’ve ever seen on an American PPV, as Fish matched Ishii blow-for-blow when it came to exchanging stiff, hard shots. They beat the holy crap out of each other, which made for exciting viewing at home. It made the so-called hard shots of Roman Reigns at the Payback PPV look pathetically phony by comparison. The lack of proper crowd noise hurt the match a little since it seemed as if they could care less about this great match as it was unfolding. The finish was sensational, as Fish captured the TV title by choking Ishii out. Ishii never tapped, so he didn’t come off as weak even with the loss. I imagine this match was even better live than it was on TV, where the rabid crowd noise would have given the bout that little bit extra. Still a great match. ****3/4 The Bullet Club (The Young Bucks & IWGP World Tag Team Champions Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa) Vs. Kushida & Matt Sydal & The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin): I don’t know about you, but these multi-man tag team matches featuring The Young Bucks are all starting to look alike. Don’t get me wrong- they are good matches. But after a while, we can pretty much predict how they’re going to go down. Tonight was no different. Thankfully, the level of talent within made it well worth watching, even when the inevitable spots of the Bucks superkicking everyone in sight and stalling for gags came to fruition. Match was largely a collection of high spots, all of which were well executed but psychology was sorely missed. Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa are the sons of wrestling legend Haku. You may even remember Loa during his brief WWE tenure as Camacho. They worked as total monster heels, no selling one spot after another. Meanwhile, the Bucks just about oversold on every offensive move dished out to them. Finish came when Kushida finally took out the Tonga brothers with a running flip dive, but inside the ring, the Bucks leveled Alex Shelley with- what else? – a superkick and the Meltzer Driver for the pin. ***1/4 ROH World Heavyweight Champion Jay Lethal Vs. Colt Cabana: This was an excellent match that wound up being treated as merely setup for an angle to close the show. Having abandoned the goofy comedy gimmick of old, Cabana was a real revelation, doing some of his best work in the ring to date. Lethal’s been a phenomenal World champion, just weeks away from his one year anniversary of winning the title at last year’s Best in the World PPV. Billed as an unresolved grudge match, it was a solid mix of brawling and wrestling action. It seemed as if Cabana was going to pull off the win of his career when all hell broke loose. He had Lethal in the Billy Goat’s Curse and it appeared as if Lethal was going to tap. Before he could, Lethal’s valet Taeler Hendrix yanked ref Todd Sinclair out the ring. Considering Sinclair is pushing 400 pounds, Hendrix is indeed one strong woman. The Young Bucks hit the ring and did- what else- one superkick after another. They superkicked Sinclair, then shockingly superkicked Hendrix. They entered the ring with Bullet Club T-shirts for Lethal and Cabana, but both men refused to accept the shirts. So what did you think happened? That’s right- the Bucks superkicked both men. But not before the lights went out and Adam Cole clad in a Bullet Club T-shirt appeared out of nowhere. The trio began superkicking everyone in sight- including announcers Kevin Kelly and Mr. Wrestling III (Steve Corino in a mask). Lethal was bound to the ring ropes with zip ties while the trio superkicked him to death. In other words, it’s the NWO/Nexus all over again. I’m so tired of evil factions of malcontents causing havoc through violence already. However, unlike WCW or WWE’s versions, there was a method to booker Delirious’ madness here that would pay off later in the week. ***3/4
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