ROH: Best In The World

 

This past weekend, I attended Ring of Honor's "Best in the World" ippv live at the Hammerstein Ballroom. By far, "Best in the World" was the best wrestling event i ever attended. It had a lot of everything- High flying, technical wrestling, brawling and emotion. 2 titles changed hands and it was Ring of Honor's largest live crowd and largest ippv audience.

The show opened with Impact Wrestling stars and Ring of Honor alumni Generation Me taking on one of ROH's brightest new tag teams, Adam Cole and Kyle O'Riley. The match was a face paced, high flying, back and forth contest where Cole and O'Riley more than held their own with the more experienced Max and Jeremy Buck. Cole and O'Riley showed great double-team moves and both teams innovation were well on display. The match ended with Cole and O'Riley trapping the Bucks in stereo Guillotine chokes but were the disqualified after interference from the Bravado Brothers. Both teams banned together to vanquish the Bravados and shook hands after the match.

The first match to air on ippv was Colt Cabana taking on the Embassy's Tommaso Ciampa. This was my first look at Ciampa and I wasnt too impressed. After some classic Colt wrestling comedy, Chiampa got the win with a powerbomb across his knees which seemed kind of botched. Jay Lethal made his return to ROH with a victory over" the Prodigy" Mike Bennett. Loud" Randy Savage" and" f*ck TNA" chants rang out throughout the match and Lethal won the match paying homage to the Macho Man with a top rope elbow drop. The two put on a solid contest and Lethal looked fantastic. In likely his final Ring of Honor apperance, Homocide beat Rhino in a streetfight that left me wanting more. Ladders and Tables were involved and the action was hard hitting. Homocide rolled up Rhino for the win but was gored through a table after the match.

Before the Steve Corino (with Jimmy Jacobs) vs Michael Elgin (with Truth Martini) contest got underway, Corino made a plea for ROH officials to reinstate Kevin Steen. Steen was in the audience and tried to come over the barricade but was met by security and taken from ringside. Elgin and Corino tore into eachother with Elgin looking like a star. Elgin caught Corino who attempted a dive to the outside and squashed him up against the barricade and then powerslammed him on the floor. After some good back and forth action, Elgin took over, hitting a vertical suplex as Corino was keeling on the mat, a buckle bomb and finishing the match off with a seated powerbomb. Elgin and Truth Martini double-teamed Corino and Jacobs was squashed by an Elgin powerbomb after trying to help Corino. This brought out Kevin Steen who powerbombed Elgin and Superkicked Martini. After Corino lobbied for him, Steen took the mic and after asking for forgiveness, he shouted "I'm Kevin Steen... and F*CK RING OF HONOR"! He then proceeded to obliterate Corino with the package piledriver and was carried out of the building by ROH security.

After a 15 minute intermission, El Generico defeated Christopher Daniels for the Ring of Honor TV title. After a bit of a slow start, this match picked up nicely and there were a lot of good spots and close finishes. Daniels hit Generico with the last rites, and put him in the Koji clutch but couldnt finish Generico off. Generico mounted a comeback punctuated with his corner Yakuza kick follewd but the Brainbuster but Daniels fought out. After Daniels violently disposed of Generico on the floor, he grabbed his belt and celebrated thinking Generico was going to be counted out. Generico made it back in and after an exchange he hung Daniels from the tree of woe and hit a flip vanterminator follwed by his turnbuckle brainbuster for the win and the championship.

Next up was the 4 corner elimination tag team title match pitting defending champs, Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team (Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin) against Mark and Jay Briscoe, The Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli) and the All Night Express (Rhett Titus and Kenny King). The match started off with some technical wrestling and exchanges from all 4 teams. It was all puctuated by Shelton Benjamin leaping to the top rope and suplexing both Claudio and King back into the ring. In a suprise fall, the Briscoes were the first team eliminated when the All Night Express hit their backbreaker/kneedrop combo finisher. The All Night Express were, in my opinion, the most impressive of all teams in the match showinf that they could hang well with the more experienced teams. But it was Chris Hero's loaded elbow pad that spelled doom for the All Night Express and it knocked Rhett Titus out and out of the match. The Kings of Wrestling were extremely over with the live crowd but Haas and Benjamin overcame the odds and a double team spinebuster kept Chris Hero down for three.

The main event of the night was Eddie Edwards defending the Ring of Honor World Heavyweight Championship against his former American Wolves tag team partner Davey Richards. This match stole the show and was in my opinion, the match of the year. These two athletes put everything into this match and left it all in the ring. They showed mutual respect for eachother, hugging before the match. Their friendship came into play when Davey had Edwards leg trapped on the apron and hesitated to capitalize. Edwards responded by slapping Davey in the face and repeatedly shouting "do it" at him. The match had everything from great ground-based technical attacks from both men to them trading hard kicksnand strikes to submission reversals to flying attacks. Every last ounce of energy from both men was put into the contest and whhen each had the other trapped in their signature submission holds, neither man would quit. The match ended with Davey kicking Edwards violently but Edwards not staying down. but after a running soccer kick from Davey to a stunned, depleted Edwards, Davey got the pin and became the new Ring of Honor World Champion.

"Best In The World" was a fantastic event from start to finish. The sold out crowd in New York was hot as usual and the atmosphere was electric. During the main event, the crowd was split down the middle, half cheering "let's go Davey!" and the other half shouting "let's go Eddie!". The Kings of Wrestling were over HUGE as was Kevin Steen and the eruption for El Generico winning the Television title caused the building to shake. I would suggest waiting for the dvd to come out so you can see the Generation Me vs. Cole and O'Riley match. A great event to get hooked on Ring of Honor or for an ROH fan to like the company even more.