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1) Michael Elgin defeated TJ Perkins. Elgin got the win in 7:25 with his spinning powerbomb finisher. Good opener and a fun contrast of styles as expected. Perkins put on a good show and hit some of his signature spots, but couldn’t hit his finisher, and Elgin hit most of his usual power moves.

2) Tomasso Ciampa defeated Jimmy Rave. The full Embassy crew accompanied Ciampa, and Prince Nana and RD Evans did some mic work before the match. Rave had an Abe Lincoln style beard and shorter hair, but generally looked pretty much the same as during his last run. Todd Sinclair was the referee, which led to “Twinkies” chants and general idiocy from the crowd. Rave utilized both the heel hook and the Rave Clash but couldn’t put Ciampa down. Inevitably, the Embassy all interfered, leading to Ciampa hitting Project Ciampa for the win at 8:29. Unless Rave is sticking around, Ciampa absolutely should have won cleanly.

There have been technical difficulties in attempting to show replays after each match.

3) ROH Television Championship elimination match: Jay Lethal defeated Mike Bennett and El Generico to retain. Pretty early in the card for a title match. Bennett entered first with Brutal Bob Evans and a scantily-clad Maria Kanellis. The crowd chanted “CM Punk” at Maria and Bennett kissed her and cut a promo. Bennett avoided the action early, and eventually both babyfaces hit a dual suicide dive on him. Later, Bennett was outside again and hid behind both Evans (in “Put up your dukes” mode) and Maria; shortly after that, there was three-way action in the ring which eventually led to Bennett hitting a spinebuster on Lethal for a near fall. Generico hit a cool double springboard dive out of the corner onto Lethal, the nearly pinned Bennett with a half nelson suplex. Generico kicked out of a Lethal flying elbow, then cut off a second one. Bennett stopped him from a brainbuster attempt and rolled him up (with two hands full of tights) for the elimination at the 18 minute mark. Lethal then immediately hit what Kevin Kelly called the Lethal Injection (although I don’t actually think it was that) for the win at 18:15. Really good match.

4) Kevin Steen defeated Steve Corino in a No DQ match to earn reinstatement in ROH. Steen was denied locker room access, so he entered through the crowd. Just like Sandman at One Night Stand, only fatter and slightly less over as a babyface. Jimmy Jacobs was the special referee and both Cary Silkin and Jim Cornette were at ringside. Corino was introduced as wrestling out of Sea Island City, NJ. I think he’s working his way toward having every city in North America as part of his intro at one point or another. Steen hit the majority of the early offense to the delight of the crowd. Weapon-like implements included a chair, a guard rail section, a table, and a garbage can (they actually had a clever excuse for this being in the ring area as they used it to discard streamers). Steen is closer than ever to not making it over and paralyzing himself on his somersault leg drop. Corino bled and Steen was expectedly disgusting. Corino slammed Steen onto a pile of chairs and then hit a top rope splash from a longer distance than I thought he was capable of jumping. Corino kicked out of a surperplex onto a guardrail bridged over chairs. Corino knocked Steen off the second rope through a stack of tables and chairs on the floor. Corino hit his sliding clothesline with one chair into another chair for a two count. Steen hit an ugly cobra clutch suplex then an exploder onto a chair for two. Nigel can’t believe it. I can’t believe I’m writing this much about this match. Jacobs finally got actively involved, stopping Steen from a big chairshot, which allowed Corino to punch Steen with a roll of quarters for a near fall. Shortly after, Steen hit a Package Piledriver through a platform of chairs and Jacobs very slowly and reluctantly counted 3. The match was about 24 minutes long. This wasn’t good, but I guess it did what they were going for.

After the match, Steen spoke briefly and then hit a Package Piledriver on Jacobs. Cornette came into check on him, and I finally got my wish as Generico decided to care about this and stopped Steen from attacking Cornette. They traded punches and Generico hit a Yakuza kick. Steen countered an attempted turnbuckle brainbuster with a Package Piledriver through a table on the floor. The crowd chanted “Welcome back!” for the conquering hero. They sold the injury in a huge way (including Kelly calling Steen a son of a bitch) and this was actually a pretty good angle which would have been great if the idiots in the crowd realized that Steen is a heel.

Intermission

5) Contenders Cup tag team gauntlet: The Young Bucks defeated the Bravado Brothers, Caprice Coleman & Cedric Alexander, Future Shock, and the All Night Express. Teams were randomly drawn for order of entry. The Bravados started out against Coleman & Alexander. For the second time in recent ROH history, a color commentator incorrectly posited that the best strategy in a gauntlet match is to go hard early in order to win quickly and therefore “save energy” for the end. Coleman got a near fall with some would-be finisher off camera. After five minutes, Alexander eliminated the Bravados with a roll-up. Cole & O’Reilly entered next. If both jobber teams were going to enter and leave first, would anyone have objected to this just being a three-team elimination match? I guess the New Combination beating the Bravados ever so slightly elevates them and further puts the Bravados’ roster status in jeopardy, but still. Good action in the second fall and one or two semi-plausible near falls for the NC, but Future Shock eliminated them with Ride the Lighting at 11:45 (total). The Young Bucks entered third. The announcers played up the issue between the Bucks and ANX, which would seem to telegraph that the Bucks would win this fall. At one point, O’Reilly hit nine straight rolling butterfly suplexes on Nick Jackson. O’Reilly missed his flying kick off the apron, allowing the Bucks to hit a double superkick and More Bang for Your Buck on Cole to eliminate Future Shock just past the 20 minute mark. Really good stuff there. Titus and King immediately started off hot against the Bucks, but the Bucks took control quickly as Titus’s knee injury was aggravated. Nick Jackson hit an awesome counter to King’s cartwheel kick by simply kicking him in the head. The Bucks targeted Titus’s knee whenever they had a chance, and won in 29 minutes by referee stoppage after Matt had Titus in a leg lock and Nick hit him with a 450 splash. Good match with a nice logical finish.

Kevin Kelly addressed the rumor that Nigel McGuinness was a rumored opponent for Roderick Strong’s open challenge, and Nigel said that Truth Martini didn’t want Strong to wrestle him.

6) Roderick Strong defeated Chris Hero. Strong cut a promo and claimed that there were no worthy opponents, so he should be declared the winner by default. Martini led ref Todd Sinclair in a ten count (with rhyming quips interspersed) for some reason until Hero came out just before ten. That would have been an awesome surprise if it hadn’t been rumored for a few days. The match started just after 10:00, with two presumably long matches still to come. Typically good stuff but nothing too noteworthy through the first ten minutes. Hero was a half-step off in a few instances. At 14 minutes, Strong hit a cool combo finishing with a Gibson Driver for a near fall. Hero fired back with three straight spinning strikes for his own 2 count. He then hit a Death Blow, and Martini came in the ring, apparently trying to break up the pin, but not really doing anything except distracting Hero. Another distraction shortly after that allowed Strong to hit the Sick Kick for the win at 16:37. Good match, but the crowd was kind of flat and the usual Martini shenanigans hurt it.

The production was uniformly unacceptable on this show.

7) ROH Tag Team Championships: The Briscoe Brothers defeated Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team to win the titles. They seemingly decided to go with the tide of the crowd reactions as Haas & Benjamin attacked before the bell, including using the belts. They brawled at ringside and the opening bell still didn’t ring. WGTT were more aggressive and dished out most of the offense. Back in the ring, they attacked with chairs, including a big unprotected shot to Mark’s head. And then a slightly protected one for Jay. Still no bell at this point, and it seemed like there would be no match. More chair shots (not to the head). Jay started to bleed and then took an unprotected shot to the head. They hit a semi-botched Leap of Faith. For some reason, Paul Turner called for the opening bell at this point. If I didn’t make it clear by now, this was a definite heel turn by WGTT. Jay hit a supekick to cut off a second Leap of Faith and had an awesome face-off with Haas. Benjamin hit a Stinger Splash on Mark but then sold his pre-existing rib injury. The Briscoes were in control at this point, and took off his shirt to expose his taped ribs. Haas tagged in and hit some nice offense. Later, Haas avoided a spike Jay Driller and hit a series of German suplexes on Jay. He got Jay in the Haas of Pain, and Benjamin blocked a flying attempt to break it up by Mark. The damage to Benjamin’s ribs allowed the Briscoes to double team Haas, and refs helped Benjamin to the back. This pretty much ruined the underdog situation that the pre-match attack set up. Turner was wiped out on an Angle Slam attempt by Haas, and Benjamin came back out (he was gone for less than two minutes) and hit Mark in the head with a wooden sheet. WGTT went for a Doomsday Device, but Mark recovered and knocked Shelton off the ropes, then the Briscoes hit their own Doomsday Device for the win in 13:13 and their 7th tag titles. Certainly not without its (arguably major) flaws, but a good match with a well-done double turn and some good drama.

8 ) ROH World Championship: Davey Richards defeated Eddie Edwards to retain the title. As advertised, Dan Severn cornered Edwards and Tony Kozina and Kyle O’Reilly cornered Richards. They had a 1990s All Japan style opening with each man going for his finisher in the opening minute. Richards controlled early on. The crowd was clearly exhausted by this point. Edwards turned the tide and maintained control after a stint on the floor. At ten minutes, Richards hit a dive, prompting Kelly to use the phrase “soaring and scoring” for at least the third time on the night. A few minutes later, Edwards hit an Asai moonsault to the floor, but hit his leg on the guard rail. They had a really nice exchange in the ring resulting in Edwards getting an STF and then an ankle lock. They faced off mid-ring and traded slaps. Twenty minutes in, they exchanged strikes on the turnbuckles, and Richards hit a superplex. He held on and attempted another suplex, but Edwards blocked and suplexed him over the top to the floor, resulting in both men being outside until the count of 19. Later, they hit strikes simultaneously and were both down. Roderick Strong came out and eventually came to blows with O’Reilly and Kozina. He backed down from Dan Severn, who was then attacked by Michael Elgin. The corner men and House of Truth briefly fought, and Severn carried Martini to the back. If they were going to involve the seconds in the match, this was a good way to do it as it had no effect on the match from a competitive/kayfabe standpoint, but in a practical sense, gave the wrestlers an extra half-minute or so of rest than they might have otherwise taken. When they got back up, they traded strikes and Edwards hit a nice combo ending with a sit-out powerbomb for a two count. Edwards applied the dragon sleeper for the first time in the match, and each man got a reversal, then Edwards hit a tombstone and a 2K1 Bomb for a near fall. Both men were clearly fatigued as they surpassed 35 minutes. They exchanged strikes in the corner again, and Richards hit a release dragon suplex. They battled on the apron, and Richards threw Edwards off with an exploder, nearly resulting in a count-out. He got another 19 count following a dragon suplex on the apron. During that count, the camera crew had perhaps their only good moment of the show as they got a good close-up of Richards exasperated face as the crowd chanted for Edwards to get up. In the final minutes, Edwards had clearly used up his ammo and was in pure “Die Hard” mode as he kicked out of a buzzsaw kick at the 40 minute mark and a running kick to the head after that. Finally, Richards hit another buzzsaw kick, a spinning back kick, and a 360 buzzsaw kick to the kneeling Edwards to win and retain the title in 41:17. An epic match that was excellent, but dragged at times and didn’t quite live up to their previous world title match. Still, comfortably the best match of the night.

After the match, Richards cut a promo and began to praise Edwards, but Kevin Steen interrupted him and cut a promo mocking their respect for each other and Team Richards. He said that he would win the title and take ROH down in 2012.

Overall, a very good show with some pretty big flaws, including a truly awful night for the production crew. We’ll have more thoughts coming soon on BS With Honor, including a guest appearance by Cal Burnside, who attended the show.