2/11 ROH TV Taping Results from Pittsburgh, PA
Credit: WZ
Just got home from the ROH TV taping at Stage AE in Pittsburgh near Heinz Field. Here are four weeks worth of results. Ian Riccoboni does play-by play for the entire night, and I can confirm with the ringside staff that Riccoboni is now the new Voice of ROH with Kevin Kelly now focusing on NJPW. Much deserved promotion to Riccoboni and couldn’t happen to a nicer person. He does commentary with multiple wrestlers as noted, with all Top Prospect Tournament matches being done with “Brutal Bob” Evans. (Who, mercifully, doesn’t wrestle tonight.) A few matches Riccoboni calls “Joey Styles” solo.
Dark matches:
Cheeseburger, Will Ferrara, and Joey Daddiego vs. three unknown talents from the ROH Dojo. The three unknowns looked just like Michael “PS” Hayes, Ivan Koloff, and Drew Galloway. It appears Punishment Martinez is on commentary. The three developmental wrestlers play heels and eventually are overpowered by Daddiego. The familiar babyfaces that are “jobbers to the stars” beats the pure jobbers.
Women of Honor match: Taeler Hendrix vs. Jenny Rose. Mandy Leon joins Riccoboni and Martinez on commentary. Hendrix is again wearing her familiar one-piece–not sure if her or Peyton Royce’s one piece from NXT:TakeOver events shows more buttcheek, but they are close. Anyways, back and forth match with the crowd divided between the familiar Hendrix and the unknown but sympathetic Rose. Hendrix eventually wins the match after grabbing a handful of tights.
Taping 1:
Bobby Fish joins Riccoboni on commentary.
Christopher Daniels comes out to a babyface reaction and talks about having never held the ROH World Championship in 15 years with the promotion and mentions his match with Adam Cole at the 15th Anniversary special. That prompts Cole to come out with Hangman Page, which prompts Kazarian to come out and challenge them to an impromptu tag team match.
Bullet Club (Adam Cole & Hangman Page) vs. The Addiction. Very back and forth match to start the TV tapings. Bullet Club end up winning clean with Cole pinning Daniels. Afterwards, in what would turn out to be a trend for the night, Fish gets up and argues something to Riccoboni and leaves the commentary table.
Top Prospect Tournament 1sr round: John Skyler vs. Sean Carr. Back and forth match that eventually leads to Skyler winning. Skyler was the crowd favorite in the match.
Tempura Boyz vs. Motor City Machine Guns. No arrival of Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley after their titantron plays to the disappointment to the crowd. Bobby Cruise then gets notified that the two and Jay White were attacked backstage and that the match was canceled before it starts.
Main event: Donovan Dijak vs. Marty Scurll for the ROH World TV Title. Despite their obvious babyface/heel roles, Scurll actually gets a more positive crowd response than Dijak and is consistently cheered throughout the match while Dijak is booed. I do believe this is Dijak’s first shot at the TV Title since he won the Top Prospect Tournament two years ago but gave up his shot against then-champion Jay Lethal in exchange for joining the House of Truth. Back and forth match that sees both men kick out of each other’s finishers multiple times, including Dijak kicking out after a one-count following a piledriver from Scurll. Halfway through the match Lio Rush walks onto the stage and sits in a chair watching the match. Scurll eventually wins the match and retains the title (again, with the crowd firmly behind “The Villain”) by making Dijak submit. Afterwards, Rush goes down to challenge Scurll before The Rebellion comes down ready to pounce on Rush (with The Villain sneaking out of the ring in the process) before MCMG and Jay White rush down to save the day.
Taping 2:
Dalton Castle, in one of the biggest crowd responses of the night, walks out to join Riccoboni on commentary.
ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship match: The Kingdom Vs. The Rebellion. The Kingdom, in a continuance of their recent tweener ways, are the crowd favorite here. About halfway through the match Rhett Titus suffers a knee injury that initially appeared to be legitimate. (Considering the events later on in the night, I’m guessing it was a work.) Near the end of the match, Lio Rush comes down in military camo, appearing to have turned heel and joined the Rebellion. The referee makes him eligible and Rush gets to work on attacking The Kingdom–before suddenly hitting a cutter on Kenny King and going to the back, much to everyone’s confusion. The Kingdom ultimately retain.
Dalton Castle departs the commentary table for unknown reasons.
Top Prospect Tournament 1st round: Brian Milonas vs. Raphael King. King came out with a valet in an apparent frat boy/sorority sister gimmick, while Milonas (despite being from Texas) was wearing ring gear that looked like it came from the Steelers. Milonas ended up being the crowd favorite due to his ring gear, with a few people even making “Here We Go Steelers” chants. Milonas wins the match.
Mark Briscoe comes out on commentary for his brother Jay Briscoe’s match against Jay White in the main event. For some strange reason, Jay Briscoe refuses to honor the Code of Honor with White. This match, by far, was the most underrated match of the night, with many sarcastic “Let’s go Jay” chants. (Should’ve just made it a triple-threat with Jay Lethal.) Briscoe eventually puts White through the timekeeper’s table and wins with a clothesline.
Taping 3:
Alex Shelley joins Riccoboni on commentary.
Coast 2 Coast vs. the Young Bucks. Needless to say, the crowd favorites were the Young Bucks. The Jackson boys win this match easily.
Ian Riccoboni interviews Lio Rush on stage about his actions from the previous week. Rush says that he can play mind games with the Rebellion much like they have with him. This prompted Kenny King to come out on stage and challenge Rush to a match the next week.
Top Prospect Tournament, round 1: Curt Stallion vs. Preston Quinn w/manager Andy Vinesburg. Despite interference from Vinesburg, Stallion eventually wins the match–the third Top Prospect match that either had the clear babyface or at last the clear crowd favorite win.
Though not part of the taping, Virgil is acknowledged in the crowd, to much applause. Unlike the ROH show in September where Virgil was promoting basement sealing services, he was just here as a fan. Always great to talk to.
Cody comes out to much applause and forces Bobby Cruise to call out Adam Page. (Page is strictly referred to by this name and not Hangman Page in this segment.) Page hands Cody his noose, who Cody unties and mentions how his dad Dusty Rhodes had many matches with a cowbell. He then challenges Jay Lethal to a Texas Bullrope match at Supercard of Honor XI.
Jonathan Gresham vs. Dalton Castle w/The Boys. Castle’s arrival is one of the biggest reactions of the night–him being over combined with Gresham being booed for being from Philadelphia clearly put Castle as the crowd favorite. (Gresham has been booed in Pittsburgh before just for being from Philly–imagine if ROH has a wrestler from Cleveland compete here.) Castle eventually wins the match, after which the two honor the Code of Honor.
Main event: War Machine vs. BJ Whitmer and Punisher Martinez in a no-DQ tag team match. No Kevin Sullivan tonight. Whitmer and Martinez are attacked on-stage by War Machine during their entrance. This is essentially a hardcore match, with the timekeeper’s table being brought into the ring by Hanson. (Not a good night for the timekeeper’s table.) Martinez eventually puts Hanson through the table and pins him for the win. After the match, Martinez unexpectedly turns on Whitmer by chokeslamming him. He walks up to the ramp and turns around to look at the ring smiling. Whitmer eventually is helped to the back by officials.
Taping 4:
Silas Young and Beer City Bruiser vs. Cheeseburger and Will Ferrara (minus Daddiego.) Young and Bruiser eventually win the match, with Brusier staying at ringside getting drunk while Young joined Riccoboni on commentary.
Top Prospect Tournament, round 1: Chris Le Russo vs. Josh Woods. Altoona native Le Russo is clearly the crowd favorite, and ROH saved his match for the last taping. Back and forth battle before Woods started dominating. Todd Sinclair eventually called the match with Le Russo being unconscious, giving Woods the win by referee stoppage. Woods probably got the biggest heat of the night over this match.
Chris Sabin comes out for commentary.
Lio Rush vs. Kenny King w/Caprice Coleman. No Rhett Titus, who is selling his injury from earlier. Entertaining match with King ending up on top. Shane Taylor comes out (newly single with tag team partner Keith Lee having signed with WWE last month) as an apparent partner of Rush afterwards, only to attack him and join the Rebellion. It’s ashamed that the Lee/Taylor partnership ended prematurely, but in my opinion ROH kept the more talented of the two, and Taylor would be better served by them in the long run.
Christopher Daniels comes out for commentary. Hopefully, ROH finds a more permanent solution with Nigel McGuinness and Steve Corino both now with WWE. Nice to have different wrestlers do commentary but they need to have a consistent partner for Ian Riccoboni.
Main event: Bullet Club (Cody, Adam Cole, and the Young Bucks) vs. Jay Lethal, Bobby Fish, and the Briscoes. During the babyfaces introduction, Cody was laying inside the ropes on one of the turnbuckles Eddie Guerrero-style, likely as a tribute to Eddie’s brother Chavo Guerrero Sr., who died earlier in the day. Entertaining match with Fish and Lethal start arguing with each other during the match and eventually start fighting each other, eventually taking it into the crowd and to the back, leaving the Briscoes to fight off Bullet Club alone. Dem Boys did well for a while before the numbers game finally caught up with them and Bullet Club eventually getting the pinfall on Mark–since, you know, Jay Briscoe never gets pinned.
After the match the Briscoes chase after most of Bullet Club while Adam Cole goes into the ring and gloats his win. This prompts Daniels to leave the commentary table and go up behind Cole and attacking him. He eventually grabs a pair of scissors and hair clippers, planning to shave Adam Cole bald in apparent karma for Cole doing the same thing to Lethal and Michael Elgin. Kazarian comes down to help, but with Daniels back turned takes his jacket off to reveal a Bullet Club shirt. Kaz then turns on Daniels and the rest of Bullet Club comes out to beat up Daniels.
Other notes:
Cody, Marty Scurll, Cody, the Briscoes, Lio Rush, and Mandy Leon were the pre-show autographs.
Bobby Cruise informs the crowd that ROH would be returning to Pittsburgh on October 13th, but doesn’t reveal the venue. Seeing that the last two shows were at Stage AE, it could be there, but again no venue was announced.
After the taping Cruise thanks everyone for attending.
