** SPOILERS ** ROH TV Taping Results
Thanks to Wrestling Inc. reader Joseph Gerard for sending in these results from Ring of Honor's Steel City Excellence at Stage AE in Pittsburgh this past weekend:
They did four weeks worth of tapings, though judging by the order of the matches they'll probably be aired in a different order.
* Dark match: Colin Delaney vs. Chris LeRusso in a Future of Honor match. I don't know if I would classify this as a "Future of Honor" match, as LeRusso has been competing with ROH for a few years while Delaney had a rather forgettable stint in WWE over a decade ago in the rebooted ECW. Despite LeRusso being from nearby Altoona, the crowd is clearly behind Delaney. Back and forth match that eventually has Delaney come out on top. The two honor the Code of Honor afterwards.
Bobby Cruise comes out and introduces Ian Riccaboni and B.J Whitmer for commentary. No Colt Cabana tonight. Whitmer and Caprice Coleman split commentary duties throughout the night.
Chuckie T vs. Josh "The Goods" Woods. Back and forth match that eventually sees Chuckie T come out on top.
Sumie Sakai vs. Stella Ray in a non-title match. Jenny Rose is on commentary. Back-and-forth match. Sakai eventually wins–interestingly enough with the CrossRhodes. You would figure Brandi Rhodes would be using that move. Rose comes down to the ring and challenges Sakai to a match for the Women of Honor Championship, which Sakai accepts only because the title will be on the line.
* Bully Ray comes out to a chorus of boos. Ray makes a point that the last time ROH was in Pittsburgh in October everyone cheered for him. He explains his actions from Supercard of Honor that the fans and a lot of the wrestlers–including Cheeseburger–are entitled and act like they can do whatever they want. Ray is about to call out Joe Koff when a fan throws a streamer into the ring. Ray appears to go off-script by threatening the fan who threw the streamer, only to have many more fans throw streamers into the ring, including one that hit Ray in the head. Ray then returns to the promo and tells Koff that he is too nice. He then pulls out his WWE Hall of Fame ring and tells everyone that he is above everyone.
* Flip Gordon vs. Silas Young for the ROH World TV Championship. Shane Taylor on commentary. Fans are split early on between Silas Young and Flip Gordon–even Young starts encouraging fans to cheer for Gordon. Very competitive match with several near-falls. Young eventually wins the match and retains the TV Title.
* Coast 2 Coast vs. Beer City Brusier and Brian Milonas. The super heavyweights largely dominated the match but Coast 2 Coast eventually came back to win, with both members pinning Milonas at the same time.
* Will Ferrara (w/ Rhett Titus) vs. Jonathan Gresham. Gresham actually gets a pop for once, despite being from Philadelphia. Titus goes on commentary, stating that he is "hung over" and is giving "Little Willie" some singles action tonight. Back and forth match that eventually sees Gresham on top. Afterwards Titus comes back to ringside and The Dawgs double-team Gresham until the Motor City Machine Guns make the save.
* Ryan Nova vs. Shane Taylor. Taylor cuts a promo stating that he lived in Pittsburgh for eight years and that it's ashamed that ROH is bringing guys like Nova in because it's taking money out of his pocket. He announces that he's going to start going through the competition like he did during the eight years he lived in Pittsburgh. The match ends up being a quick squash match that ends in referee stoppage in Taylor's favor.
Taylor briefly goes to the back before coming back out and sitting at ringside.
* The Kingdom vs. Dalton Castle & The Boys. Matt Taven appears to be paying Taylor to protect the ROH Six-Man Tag Team Championship belts that currently belong to SoCal Uncensored. Castle has a cast on his right hand. Back and forth match that has the Kingdom dominating the Boys. Eventually Christopher Daniels comes down to try to take the belts back but Shane Taylor won't let him. While the Kingdom is distracted the Boys switch spots a la "twin magic" and begin gaining the upper hand. Taven eventually hits one of the boys with one of the belts and scores the pin. After the match, the Kingdom attack Castle and do more damage to his hand.
Tenille Dashwood comes down and thanks the ROH fans for giving her a chance with the promotion and thanks for giving women's wrestling a chance. She promises everyone that she'll win the WOH Championship.
* The Briscoes vs. the Young Bucks for the ROH World Tag Team Championship. The Briscoes attack the Young Bucks with chairs before the match officially starts. The match eventually goes back and forth, with the Young Bucks eventually winning by disqualification after the Briscoes started using chairs again. They continued to assault the team afterwards, with Jay Briscoe waiting by the entrance ramp to attack the rest of Bullet Club. Jay flips the middle finger to the fans several times.
* Women of Honor Wednesday match: Jenny Rose vs. Brandi Rhodes (w/ Bernard, the Business Bear). Mandy Leon on commentary. Rose probably got the biggest heat of the night outside of Bully Ray due to being introduced from Philadelphia. (Something that didn't happen to Gresham earlier in the night.) She gets even more heat when she mistakenly drop kicks Bernard. A quick back-and-forth match. Rose eventually wins in a pinning combination that looked like both were pinned at the same time. Both honor the Code of Honor afterwards after Rhodes initially teased that she wouldn't.
* Punishment Martinez vs. Jay Lethal. Action started immediately. Good match, though Martinez looked like he hurt his left knee in the match. Lethal eventually wins. Afterwards, Martinez is walking to the back limping when an ROH backstage worker tries to help Martinez. He responds by punching the worker. The worker ends up needing help in the back.
* Shane Taylor vs. Joey "Diesel" Daddiego. Taylor tries talking Daddiego into walking away from the match, but Daddiego still wants to fight. Any goodwill Taylor got earlier from the fans went away with chants of "Cleveland sucks" (in response to his hometown) and "Let's go jobber". (The latter showing how far Daddiego has fallen down the card, as just two years ago he was Jay Lethal's enforcer in the House of Truth.) More competitive than Taylor's earlier match with Ryan Nova, Taylor eventually dominates. Match eventually ruled a no-contest after Taylor jumped off the ring apron and onto Daddiego, who was laying on a folding chair. Taylor eventually attacks the refs and backstage personnel before heading to the back.
* Kelly Klein vs. Madison Rayne. A quick but competitive match. Klein winds up on top.
The Motor City Machine Guns come out. Chris Sabin says that since reforming with Alex Shelley two years ago, they've accomplished their goals. The two tease splitting amicably before stating that they are sticking together to dominate the tag team division. The Dawgs come out and attack the two, leading to an impromptu tag team match. The Machine Guns eventually win.
Two local competitors come out and compete against each other. The match was entertaining, until Bully Ray came out and assaulted both competitors and threw the female valet of one of the competitors out of the ring, leading to a no-contest. Ray fires all three, which leads to Cheeseburger to come out. He told Bully Ray that he respected him, but now says that he's a "piece of **bleep**". Ray assaults Cheeseburger, which leads to Joe Kopp to come out and relieve Ray of his duties as ROH enforcer. Ray takes out his WWE Hall of Fame Ring and tells Kopp that he is unretired from in-ring competition.
* SoCal Uncensored vs. Bullet Club (Cody, Marty Scurll, and Adam Page, w/ Bernard, the Business Bear). Entertaining match that at one point had all six competitors out of the ring and re-entered the ring at the count of 19. Page picks up the win over Scorpio Sky. SoCal Uncensored attacks Bullet Club afterwards, with Scurll accidentally giving a low-blow to Page and hitting Cody with his umbrella. He tries apologizing to both, but Cody wants to fight him on the spot. As they are about to fight, they end up hugging, much to Page's dismay.
Other news and notes:
Adoptive Pittsburgh native Rosa Mendes was in attendance with her husband. No Virgil tonight. Mendes was acknowledged by ROH with help from Streamers Guy, who was sitting right in front of her. Streamers Guy later got into arguments with Shane Taylor and Bully Ray.
Bullet Club (except Adam Page), Flip Gordon, Shane Taylor, Simie Sakai, and Tenille Dashwood were all available for autographs before the show. Sakai was also available during the intermission. As always, the Addiction was selling comics before the show.
It took a while for the crowd to cheer for Flip Gordon–even Silas Young broke character and was encouraging fans to cheer for his opponent during the match. One has to wonder if Gordon's military service–combined with ROH being owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group–is prompting ROH to push Gordon rather fast, considering that military personnel tend to lean Republican much like Sinclair. Let's hope the subliminal political references with ROH stop there.
All of Bullet Club including Brandi Rhodes, Flip Gordon, and Bernard the Business Bear stayed out after the cameras went off, with Bullet Club doing their shtick. The show ended with Marty Scurll singing Backstreet Boys with the crowd. Scurll then thanked everyone for attending.