Ring of Honor PPV Evaluation
"Best in the World 2014"
By Nathan Kyght, PWTorch PPV specialist

BEST MATCH – THE BRISCOES VS. MATT HARDY/MICHAEL BENNETT

Wow, what a spectacle. The match started as a decent enough affair, but after Nigel McGuinness restarted the match to avoid a lame finish and made it a No DQ? Well, did this ever go haywire. Too many crazy spots to go through here, but an absolutely insane brawl that had the Nashville crowd on their feet. Everyone worked their butts off in this one, and it's definitely worth going out of your way to see.

The Briscoes continue to be the best tag team not in the WWE, Matt Hardy looked great, and Mike Bennett seems like a future big star to me. Thumbs up all around. Oh! And the lovely Maris Kanellis was at ringside. Side note - I flew back from New Orleans after WrestleMania and my connecting flight was in Chicago, and she was on my plane. We both played it cool and said nothing to each other.

WORST MATCH – BY DEFAULT, JAY LETHAL VS. MATT TAVEN

There wasn't a bad match on this show, but this is getting the nod just because it wasn't quite as good as the rest of the card. This is far from a slight. On many a TV show, this would be a stand out (particularly the closing sequences) but on this pay-per-view it didn't stand out.

BIGGEST SURPRISE – ELGIN WINS!

Now, I did assume that ROH would want to deliver a newsworthy first pay-per-view and a title change, especially in ROH, is a big deal. But, for some reason I thought Cole would retain. I'm a big fan of Adam Cole, and I think he'll end up in the WWE some day in a big way, and I thought it would have been a cool ending to the show to have the cocky champion defend successfully. Either way, a terrific main event.

BEST MOVE – INSANE SUPERPLEX

Wow, Matt Hardy and Jay Briscoe. Thank you for doing a spot where Jay superplexed Matt from the top of a preposterously huge ladder through a table. Even my two year old yelled "wrestlers!" (which I assume is a toddler's 'this is awesome'). A highlight-reel moment for ROH.

BEST MATCH FINISH – REDRAGON VS. DANIELS/KAZARIAN

Kazarian tapping out made ReDRagon look like stars. It wasn't quite as good as I'd hoped, but it was still a great tag match and I was happy to see ReDRagon get the win. Daniels and Kazarian are awesome, but it was the right move to have them come in and put the regular ROH talent over. Can't wait for the rematch.

OTHER THOUGHTS

- The opening six-way to earn a TV title match was a lot of fun, and I thought it was a great way to open the show. To those thinking "He doesn't want to type out all of the names," you are correct.

- The show looked good. I still would like the lighting to be above the ring, but I assume that ROH does as well.

- Roderick Strong and Cedric Alexander had a very entertaining submission match with some great chain wrestling. This was another highlight of the show.

- Kevin Steen and Silas Young had yet another good match on the show, and the post-match of Kevin Steen telling the crowd that he only had a month-and-a-half left before being re-attacked by Young was interesting. Is Steen NXT-bound? Hmmm......

- MOOSE! The former NFL player had an underwhelming debut in a ringside interview segment, saved by Veda Scott. Get in some mic time, sir.

- I imagine that somewhere, Vince McMahon is still losing his mind on someone for not signing Mandy Leon before ROH did. If you don't know who Mandy Leon is, google her.

WHAT IT'LL BE REMEMBERED FOR

Well, it wasn't 'Barely Legal' (what could be?), but it was still a very good way for ROH to enter the regular pay-per-view market. There was nothing bad on the show, and the majority of it was great. ROH has a simple and proven formula: cut down on the nonsense, and focus on the in-ring. As J.R. said on his podcast a few week's ago: "I think people watch wrestling to see wrestling." Amen, Sir.

UPDATED 2014 PPV EVALUATION RANKINGS

1 - WWE WRESTLEMANIA XXX (2014-04-06)
2 - WWE PAYBACK (2014-01-06)
3 - ROH BEST IN THE WORLD (2014-06-22)
4 - WWE EXTREME RULES 2014 (2014-05-04)
5 - TNA SLAMMIVERSARY (2014-06-15)
6 - WWE ELIMINATION CHAMBER (2014-02-23)
7 - WWE ROYAL RUMBLE (2014-01-26)
8 - TNA LOCKDOWN (2014-03-09)
9 - TNA SACRIFICE (2014-04-27)

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