-- 4/2 Ring of Honor Internet PPV Roundtables Night Two

Mike Roe, PWTorch specialist (7.0)

Pretty good show, with the tag team matches stealing the show and bumping this up from a thumbs in the middle to a thumbs up. In a way, this show is a bit of a sad moment, as the last ROH TV show is this week, which is going to make it harder to build to shows. However, they certainly have the talent both in the ring and creatively to make a go of it.

The main event between the World's Greatest Tag Team and the American Wolves had a great build, starting with slow technical wrestling before building to big spots like the rolling German suplex battle. It being the first match for WGTT since capturing the Tag Titles last night, combined with the promo earlier from Edwards and Richards and the tension after the finish of the main event, provided a great context. This was my favorite match of the weekend.

Generico vs. Strong was fine, but never got off the ground floor. I was actually happy to see a run-in for once when Elgin came in, as the match had felt rather dry other than that. Daniels's heel turn after the match was the most noteworthy thing to come out of this, though.

The All Night Express continued to step up their game. Their match with the Briscoes significantly exceeded my expectations. The blood at the finish helped, but it was fast-paced and exciting throughout. Jay Briscoe's post-match promo was fantastic, and I'm looking forward to the future for the Briscoes.

The Shimmer Tag Team Title match was a little underwhelming, as it ended quicker than I'd expected and a bit abruptly, but really good while it lasted. I think I enjoyed the women's match the previous night a bit more, but this was still fun.

Daniels vs. Elgin was good, though a bit puzzling given Daniels joining Truth Martini's House of Truth stable later in the show... I thought Ciampa vs. Homicide was rather boring and created a feeling afterward like Homicide had lost momentum while Ciampa hadn't picked much up.

Cabana vs. Dave Taylor was fun while it lasted, though surprisingly short, but you don't expect a 60-minute match from an elder statesman like Dave Taylor (not that I don't think he could probably pull it off). The opener with the Kings of Wrestling against O'Reilly and Cole was good, and I thought a notch better than O'Reilly and Cole's match from last night.

Brian Leahy, PWTorch specialist (7.0)

To get straight to the point, "Honor Takes Center Stage Night 2" did not live up to the expectations set by Night 1, and parts of the undercard were stunningly below par. However, ROH did come good at the top of the card with some strong, if not exactly “must-see” matches.

The card couldn’t possibly have gotten off to a better start than the angry-looking Kings of Wrestling taking on the young duo of Cole & O’Reilly. This was the perfect start to the show, getting the crowd immediately on their feet as the four went at it hot and heavy. Cole and O’Reilly were massively over with the Atlanta crowd and came desperately close to claiming that first big win that’s been so elusive. ROH may want to pull the trigger on this duo sooner rather than later before all these losses do too much damage to Cole and O’Reilly.

The show proceeded to take a nose dive in quality as The Embassy took center stage (pun intended). Dave Taylor's appearance was criminally short, though I don’t believe that at 53-years-old, Taylor has more to offer than what was on display. In the following bout, Taylor's Embassy associate, Tomasso Ciampa, successfully sucked the life out of the room in his clash with Homicide in a lifeless affair before pulling out a shocking (interference laced) win over the notorious 187. The pre-intermission match with Daniels vs. Elgin was almost equally unimpressive as a package, but Michael Elgin continues to show moments of great promise and has certainly shown enough to have earned a permanent spot on the ROH roster.

Thankfully, after the post-intermission mic work between Cornette and The American Wolves, the Shimmer gals delivered a match worthy of a spot on Internet PPV. ROH would be well-served to continue to bring in Shimmer talent and give them 15 minutes on every PPV. This weekend, the women were rock solid and most definitely added to the occasion.

The Briscoes and The All Night Express built a heated affair with a blistering and bloody finish in their 15-minute clash. Despite the sway in support for their opponents, as per the night previous, the Briscoes came out on top with a Jay Driller out of nowhere. This constant winning is part of the reason fans have begun to cheer against the Briscoes and Jay turned that back on the crowd nicely at the end, stating that they won’t be losing to anyone anymore. The trigger has now been firmly pulled on the Briscoes heel turn and the timing couldn’t be better with the WGTT on top of the pile in ROH now.

Strong vs. El Generico was another fine clash, but the real story here was Christopher Daniels's heel turn, joining Elgin and Strong in the House of Truth. In the context of what happened over the weekend with Daniels and the HOT, this didn’t make perfect sense, but it gives Daniels and Strong some direction now as well as cementing the HOT as more than just a mid-card act.

ROH saved the best for last this weekend. The American Wolves vs. Hass & Benjamin was half-an-hour of well-built, well-paced action that didn’t suffer from the lulls of the Kings of Wrestling match on Night 1. Hass looked out of sorts at times, but Edwards, Richards, and Benjamin created sufficient movement. There was plenty of good tag team and stereo moved executed here, and it’s unfortunate that this will probably be the first and last time we’ll see these four clash in ROH. Post-match, there was some nice work done as Richards and Edwards argued over the finish, pointing towards their inevitable title match at one of the next Internet PPVs.

Center Stage Night 2 may not have been as good as Night 1, and the camera lens were even more dirty on the ringside cameras, but the opening bout combined with a strong second half to this card make it a recommended purchase along with Night 1 for a great value of $20.

Jimmy Eaton, PWTorch specialist (7.0)

Starting the second show, I was already disappointed to see the cameras were still not clean. Really, this immediately took points away for me because it seems like that would be easy to resolve, especially after last night. Not to mention the lighting was still poor despite the cool arena set-up with the crowd being loud and looking near sold-out. But, getting that out of the way, I caught the end of what seemed to be a great tag match to open the show with the KOW against O'Reilly and Cole. Next was Dave Taylor vs. Colt Cabana in what should have been a fun match, but it was cut way short. So, only about *1/2 for me. Cabana and Taylor had nice chemistry while it lasted.

Then, Homicide against Tomasso Clampa was a decent, but not very exciting match. Homicide had some fun spots, but it didn't do much for me. Like with Mike Bennett, I'm not seeing a lot of charisma. I'll give this about *1/2 as well. Then, the last match before intermission had Michael Elgin taking on Christopher Daniels in a match that actually exceeded my expectations. I'm going out on a limb and give it three stars. I can really see Elgin being someone special in the future. He showed some awesome agility with some of this top rope moves.

After intermission, there was a nice promo with Jim Cornette and Davey/Edwards. I can't wait to see a program with these two. Nothing crazy good, but simple and to the point. Davey came off a little soft, but I think that was needed to really make any kind of turn mean something down the line... The Shimmer tag title match was really good, in my opinion, with some fun spots and really solid wrestling. A nice three-star match for me.

This led into the hyped ANX vs. Briscoes tag match. This was really intense and actually used two refs, which was interesting. The finish was a bit blah, but I really liked some of the exchanges and big spots. ***1/2 for me. I also dug the heel-solidifying promo from Jay that followed the match.

Roderick Strong vs. El Generico was next, and this was a blast for me with some really impressive spots and a decent finish, but even better post-match. I liked Daniels turned and I think it'll work out in the long run. I didn't see it coming, so it was a fun surprise. The match seemed to have missed something, but it was still fun nonetheless. (***1/2)

Then came the match I was looking forward to all weekend, the American Wolves taking on Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team. This was off the charts insane, with some excellent, excellent tag team action, double teams, sequences, hot tags, etc. If the belts were on the line and there was more of a story, I would have scored it even higher than four-stars, but that's where I have this match. Just a flat out, awesome wrestling match with an interesting post-match argument with the American Wolves.

Overall, this was a good wrestling show with a fantastic main event. Unfortunately I think little things took it down a bit and the undercard, like the night before, just wasn't quite there for me. Yet, I still enjoyed it and it was well worth the money spent. I recommend checking out both shows mainly for the top matches on the card, especially if tag team wrestling is your thing. Overall, despite some bush league flaws, ROH offered a fun start to WrestleMania Weekend. Besides the DGUSA show Saturday night, you probably won't find any pure wrestling out there that's better then what ROH's shows offered over the course of the weekend.

Wes Comer PWTorch Specialist (9.0)

Ring of Honor hit another home run with this afternooon's show, and while last night may get the very slight edge in match quality, this show also had great matches and major newsworthy events coming out of the show.

I was suprised to see the Kings of Wrestling in the opening contest, yet the match was one of the best of the night. Cole and O'Reilly arguably came out of this weekend looking the best out of anyone on the roster. I thought this match surpassed last night's match with the Briscoes, which is impressive. There's still plenty of storyline left with the Kings of Wrestling getting a re-match for the belts and possibly turning face with the Briscoes turning heel, so I hope Ring of Honor doesn't break them up.

Colt Cabana and Dave Taylor had a short but fun match that was nothing special yet nothing offensive either; good to see the crowd responding positively to Taylor after all the years he has wrestled... Homicide, for the first time since he has returned to Ring of Honor, seemed to have regained that special something that had been missing. He had something extra in his step, and it was apparent he was enjoying himself. I hope he can maintain that going forward. Tommaso Ciampa looked good against Homicide and the finish was appropriate if The Embassy is to be taken seriously at all. Homicide feuding with Embassy would make them relevant for the first time in years, if not ever.

From the House of Truth, I believe Michael Elgin will win a lot of fans over after they have an opportunity to see this weekend's matches along with the recent Dayton and Chicago events on DVD. His power moves are impressive and he moves extremely well for someone his size. I'm not sure why the Elgin vs. Daniels match happened, given what took place later on the show when Daniels joined the HOT, but it was good for what it was.

I liked the interview segment with Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards back from intermission. It was a good tease to the biggest match-up ROH can offer at this point. I hope ROH has the discipline to build this properly because the crowd heat will be off the charts. You have to appreciate the irony of Jim Cornette slamming TNA for a one-minute main event and then talking to Davey about selling tickets and pay-per-view buys.

The Women's match was pretty good, mainly because of Matsumoto and Kurihara. I preferred last night's match more than this one, though... The Briscoes heel turn is complete and I am ready to get behind it and see where it goes. This is the first time I can ever remember the crowd outright getting behind King and Titus and I liked the "WrestleMania" moment of a bloody Jay and Titus staring each other down in the middle of the ring with the crowd going completely crazy. The match lived up to the hype as a grudge match - it was brutal, it built up All Night Express even furthur, and best of all, allowed this feud to continue.

Roderick Strong and El Generico had a good match that stacked up favorably with their match back in January. I think some people have forgotten how great Roderick Strong really is in the ring and it is going to take being out of the House of Truth for people to see that again. Does anyone build to babyface comebacks better in Ring of Honor then El Generico? Post-match, Daniels's turn was fine. As long as it leads to Roderick Strong exiting the House of Truth and paves the way for Generico to go after the TV Title, then it will work.

The main event of Haas & Benjamin vs. the American Wolves was great for several reasons. The first - who could have predicted one year ago that this match would happen today? Haas & Benjamin are putting on great matches, are working hard, and they are absolutely the right team to be pushing at the top right now. Shelton Benjamin's offense - with all of the kicks and pure athletcism - was stellar. Haas probably has never had a crowd cheer for him to the degree that the Ring of Honor crowd cheered for him this weekend and he deserved it. The American Wolves held up their end and I loved the German suplex sequence with both teams refusing to be hit with three in a row.

Ring of Honor comes out of this weekend with a ton of momentum, a lot of exciting storyline possibilities, and the satisfaction knowing this is one of the best pair of doubleshot shows in company history. I would like to see them continue to tighten up the production values as that still I think is holding them back from taking it to the next level. Two big thumbs up for both shows; the DVDs are a must-buy.

James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor (7.0)

Friday night's show had a stronger undercard, but Saturday afternoon's show had a stronger series of final matches. I thought both were right at the 7.0 level with a few booking, production, and match quality issues here and there, but an overall strong seven hours of pro wrestling action and storytelling.

MVP(s) of the weekend: Shelton Benjamin and Davey Richards... Moments(s) of the weekend: Two stand out - Kyle O'Reilly no-selling Chris Hero's kick strikes while clutching Claudio in a triangle choke in the first match on Saturday and the dueling German suplexes between Haas & Benjamin and Davey & Eddie Edwards.

There should be a 100-year ban on pro wrestling promoters talking about PPV buys, selling tickets, and drawing ratings in the context of a wrestling show. Yes, ROH actually had a purpose with it here trying to create hype within the hype for an eventual Eddie Edwards vs. Davey Richards clash, but there's a way to accomplish that without referencing buys, tickets, and "the business."

We suggest these recent related articles...

CALDWELL'S ROH ASE PPV REPORT 9/18: Complete "virtual-time" coverage of All-Star Extravaganza - Jay Lethal defends two titles, ANX, more

RADICAN'S "EVOLVE 47" iPPV REPORT 8/15 - Tremendous all-around show, Bailey vs. Chris Hero, Thatcher-Sabre for EVOLVE Title, more

RADICAN'S NJPW "G1 Climax Finals" PPV Report 8/16: ReDRagon-Young Bucks, KUSHIDA-Ricochet, Tanahashi-Nakamura match for the ages in final