ROH "Death Before Dishonor IX" IPPV Results
Here are results of last night's ROH "Death Before Dishonor IX" iPPV, courtesy of Bryan Alvarez and F4WOnline.com:
1. Tommaso Ciampa & Rhino beat Homicide & Jay Lethal. Fine opener. Lethal got the hot tag and it broke down into a four-way. Homicide tagged back in, Lethal took out Rhino, then Ciampa pinned Homicide with his back cracker finish. Ciampa was by far the greenest guy in the ring, but he got the pin.
2. Shelton Benjamin beat Mike Bennett. Highlight of the match was the various chants, nearly all directed at Mike Bennett, whom the crowd HATED. I mean, they hated this man. He got the heat and worked over Shelton's back. Shelton did the big comeback, then Brutal Bob hit the ring right in front of the ref. It was like a TNA finish, the difference being that they actually did it very well so I was fine with it. And nothing got sprayed in anyone's eyes. Shelton tried to kick Bob, Bob spun him around, Shelton did his kick but hit Bennett, which looked great, then superkicked Bob outside and hit the paydirt on Bennett for the pin.
3. Young Bucks beat Bravado Brothers and Future Shock in a three-way elimination match. This was a hell of a lot of fun. It was like one long train wreck with a bunch of really cool three-way spots mixed in. Fans loved it and were chanting "THIS IS AWESOME!" and "THIS IS WRESTLING!" Bravados were eliminated first, then the Bucks used their combo 450/moonsault finish for the pin. The whole point of this match appeared to be to put over the Bucks and alert the world that they were, in fact, very talented despite what "a third-rate wrestling announcer" might have claimed. This was a reference to Booker T, obviously.
4. Generico NC Jimmy Jacobs. Only problem with the match was that it was largely heatless. The work was very good. Generico went for his top rope brainbuster but Jacobs turned it into a super DDT. Suddenly, through the crowd came Kevin Steen. He was SHOOTING on the mic and they cut him off, then security came out. The highlight of the brawl was when Generico tried to do a running dive onto him but Steen moved and Generico wiped out like twenty security guys. That was awesome. Steen tried to give Cary Silken the package piledriver, but it was broken up, then Cornette came out and was screaming at Steen and even threw a wild punch. Fans were super into it, screaming for Steen. The melee was very much like the one they ran with him on the last PPV.
5. Charlie Haas beat Michael Elgin in a House of Truth vs. Haas of Pain match. Match also lacked crowd heat. They did get into the big spots, including a run-up-the-ropes German by Haas, which flipped Elgin completely over. He also took a 360 bump for a Haas clothesline, which ended up being the finish. Good match, nothing blow-away or anything.
6. Roderick Strong vs. Eddie Edwards in the Ringmaster Challenge. Rules were the first fall was pinfall only, the second fall was submission only, and the third fall was a fifteen minute Iron Man match. Long story short, they split falls, Roddy winning the first via pinfall and Eddie winning the second via submission, then they ended up 1-1 at the end of the Iron Man match. Cornette came out and said this match wasn't ending in a draw, and they weren't doing the five more minutes gimmick, he was just going to ring the bell and they could go all night long. They traded a million nearfalls and hard strikes before Eddie finally hit him with two powerbombs, a lariat and a die hard cradle driver for the pin. They went about 40 minutes and it was an awesome match. They said Eddie won a future shot at Davey Richards' ROH Title. Richards, for the record, is in Japan working right now.
7. Rhett Titus & Kenny King beat the Briscoes in Ladder War III to win a future shot at the ROH Tag Team Titles. A wild, bloody, violent, nutty brawl. The peak was a spot where Mark Briscoe climbed to the very, very tippy top of a 12-to-15 foot ladder and did a big splash, putting Rhett Titus through a table on the floor. This was complete madness. Everyone but King bled, and Jay in particular was bleeding like crazy, blood just leaking out of his head like a faucet. Rhett and Mark were dead, so Jay and Kenny climbed the ladder and had a brawl at the top. Kenny ended up winning, Jay fell off the ladder, and Kenny grabbed the contract to win. This was the kind of match that WWE's "PLEASE DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME" was referring to. But a hell of a way to cap off the show.