At the start of the show, Nigel McGuinness tells us how the SCUM war is over but there were casualties; most notably the then World champion Jay Briscoe. The title is now vacant and the title will be awarded to the winner of an all star tournament beginning this week on TV from Providence, RI!
Four Corner Survival: Vinny Marseglia v Todd Hanson v Brian Fury v Kongo
The winner of this proving ground match gets an ROH World TV title shot against Matt Taven next week on TV. Kongo looks like a monster with facepaint on while Hanson looks like the third Highlander. Truth Martini and Taven are on commentary for this one. Marseglia is the only one that ROH fans might be familiar with but all four men put on a good showing as they try to impress. Brian Fury picks up the victory over Marseglia and gets the title match against Taven next week.
Winner by pinfall: Brian Fury
ROHWorld.com’s thoughts: This was a fun four corner survival match that helped showcase all four guys. It was fast paced and a good start to this week’s show – no complaints here.
#PartyBoys (Mike Sydal & Zizou Middoux) vs. C&C Wrestle Factory
There appears to be a competition for who can say hash tag the most amount of times in a minute and Kevin Kelly is trying his best to win – #annoying. Middoux is getting ‘Justin Bieber’ chants which makes me sad because it just reminds me that the Bravado Bandwagon is long gone in ROH. The #partyboys control a lot of the early goings in this one much to the surprise of #KevinKelly. Caprice fights back and hits three Northern Lights suplexes on Middoux for two. After putting up a good fight, C&C win with the overtime.
Winners by pinfall: C&C Wrestle Factory
ROHWorld.con’s thoughts: This was another fun match but maybe a bit too competitive for my liking. C&C are great and should be putting away a new team like the #PartyBoys pretty easily. Even so, it was a high-flying contest that was an entertaining watch.
Now for ‘Inside ROH’. Kelly begins to talk and then Steve Corino walks into shot but Kelly tells him he doesn’t work here anymore but Corino says he’s a contracted broadcast journalist. We look at the brackets for the tournament again with it kicking off later tonight. Kelly then runs down the tag team division with C&C demanding another shot at the gold. He mentions that the American Wolves won the belts at ‘All Star Extravaganza V’ but then lost them. Is Vince Russo booking ROH now?! Kelly then talks to Adam Cole and asks him if Steve Corino is involved with him. He says they’re friends but that is it and he’s focusing on the title tournament.
Back to the ring and Nigel McGuinness is with Joe Koff and Cary Silkin discussing the title tournament. Silkin says it’s the most important title in all of wrestling while Koff adds that this is for us and for all of the TV viewers.
Sonjay Dutt vs. Jay Lethal
This is a first round match in the title tournament and Dutt is making his first appearance in ROH for quite some time. These two know each other well and hopefully that’ll lead to a good match. Dutt brings an array of really innovative offense including an amazing DDT that got ‘that was awesome’ chants from the Providence crowd. Standing moonsault gets him two and it looks like Lethal is struggling. Lethal takes two superkicks but comes back with the Lethal Combination for a near fall. Lethal goes for the Lethal Injection but Dutt cuts him off with a dropkick. Lethal hits a superkick to the back of the head and this time manages to hit the Lethal Injection for the win to advance.
Winner by pinfall: Jay Lethal
ROHWorld.com’s thoughts: Dutt looked great on his return to the company and this match was well worthy of kicking this tournament off. The story was of Lethal taking loads of punishment and just refusing to give up, coming back to win the match. It made him look very strong heading into the rest of the tournament. A good way to end what was otherwise a pretty average show.