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RADICAN’S ROH WAR OF THE WORLDS 2018: TORONTO REPORT
MAY 11, 2018
TORONTO, CANADA
AIRED LIVE ON FITE.TV & HONOR CLUB
(1) IWGP U.S. Champion Jay White vs. Punishment Martinez. Hangman Page came in on commentary. Martinez hit air Jordan and a psycho dragon for a great near fall. White broke out of a choke. He missed a kick and White hit a flatliner and a German and both men were down. He set up for the blade runner, but Martinez sat up out of it. They went back and forth and Martinez hit a curb stomp for a near fall. Martinez tossed an attendant out of a chair and went after White, but Hangman Page ran down and took it from him. Martinez walked right into the blade runner and it was good for the win.
Winner: Jay White to retain the IWGP U.S. Champion
Star rating: (***1/4) – This was really good match. I wasn’t a fan of the outside interference leading into a finish because of how good this was getting.
Bully Ray came out and said streamers are stupid. He said millennial snowflake marks piss him off, so the fans threw streamers into the ring and cheered. He said the fans don’t have the balls to shut him up. He called someone out to come face him. Cheeseburger came limping down to the ring.
He grabbed the mic from Bully. He told him to shut the hell up. He said I’m Cheeseburger and I’m not afraid of you. He told the ref to ring the bell.
(2) Bully Ray vs. Cheeseburger. Bully hit a big right hand and a wheelbarrow suplex. Bully went up top. The ref told Bully no and Burger pushed him out of the way and hit a low blow. He set up for a hurricanrana, but Bully hit a big powerbomb. Bully got a chain and whipped Cheeseburger for the DQ win.
Winner: Cheeseburger via DQ
Star rating: (dud)
Bully took up the mats on the floor and the ring bell rang over and over. He teased a powerbomb in the floor, but ended up dropping Cheeseburger.
(3) IWGP IC Champion Tetsuya Naito vs. The Beer City Bruiser – Non-Title. Bruiser hit a big slam on the apron and almost got a count-out win. He hit the beer city slam for a near fall. Naito fired back and hit a tornado DDT and both men were down. He went up top for the frog splash and missed. Naito hit a sloppy destino and then a good one for the win.
Winner: Tetsuya Naito
Star rating: (**3/4) – Good showing for Bruiser against Naito. They don’t have great chemistry, but Bruiser got in a lot of offense. Naito wearing his shirt the whole match took things down a notch.
Whitmer told Cabana he was needed in the back. Riccaboni mentioned Whitmer is office and he stepped in on commentary.
(4) The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) vs. The Super Smash Bros. (Evil Uno & Stu Grayson). The Young Bucks picked SSB as their opponents. Both teams shook hands as Riccaboni explained these two teams feuded in PWG. We got word from the announcers that Cheeseburger had gone to the hospital. Matt took a sustained beating from SSB. Matt finally caught Grayson with a spear. Nick got the hot tag and ran wild. The YB got stereo sharpshooters, but SSB got to the ropes. Dos arm dragged Grayson over the post to the floor to wipe out the YB. He appeared to land on the post before flipping to the floor. The SSB hit the fatality on Nick, but Matt pushed Grayson into the pin to break it up and the fans lost their mind. SSB put together some insane spots they hit a cannonball/450 combo at the same time on Matt and Nick, but Nick kicked out at the very last second! The YB ran wild win superkicks and made Uno tombstone Grayson with a double superkick. The YB finally hit the Meltzer driver for the win on Grayson.
Winners: Matt & Nick Jackson
Star rating: (****1/4)- This was really good at first they seemed to be playing their greatest hits from their feud, but then it got awesome for a long stretch leading to the finish.
The Briscoes ran out and wiped out both teams. Jay gave Nick a Jay-driller. Jay got on the mic and said they came out to remind the fans who runs this shit. He said it ain’t The YB. He said he hoped everyone wearing a Bullet Club or Young Bucks shirt burns in hell. Jay said they’d never be man enough to take the titles from them.
(5) Alexia Nicole & Xandra Bale vs. Jenny Rose & Tenille Dashwood. Sumie Sakai joined the commentary booth. Riccaboni said Flip Gordon was on the way, but he had been having flight issues. This was a solid match. Rose won with a backbreaker on Bale.
Winners: Tenille Dashwood & Jenny Rose
Star rating: (**)
(6) Roppongi 3K (Rocky Romero & SHO & YO) vs. SoCal Uncensored (Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky). Good non-stop action, but the crowd wasn’t really going crazy for it. Kazarian and Daniels hit celebrity rehab on Romero and then Sky finished him off with the big fat kill kick.
Winners: Frankie Kazarian & Christopher Daniels & Scorpio Sky
Star rating: (***)
We were supposed to get Hangman Page taking on Silas Young for the ROH World TV Title, but Punishment came down and gave him a curb stomp on a chair. Young said his job was to show up and defend his title. He wanted the ref to do a count out. He told Turner to ring the bell for a count out. Page staggered back into the ring and beat the count.
(7) ROH World TV Champion Silas Young vs. Hangman Page. Young put a beating on Page. He tried to mount a comeback, but Young hit a DDT on the apron. Young had Page pinned, but he let him roll out of it. Page kept mounting comebacks and Young got serious. Page hit a HUGE moonsault to the floor and a slingshot clothesline. He went for the last rite, but Young got out of it and hit misery for the win.
Winner: Silas Young to retain the ROH World TV Title
Star rating: (***1/2) – This was great with Page showing a ton of guts and he almost finished off Young after it looked like Young was going to win easily. This will be something ROH can use to push Page up the ladder.
(8) Cody (w/Burnard The Business Bear) vs. Jushin Liger. Liger went after Burnard on the outside and Cody hit a big rope walk splash to the floor and the fans chanted for Cody. Cody pushed Liger into the ref and then went to toss some chairs into the ring. Liger outsmarted Cody and threw a chair at Cody’s head with the ref distracted. Cody went after Liger’s mask and then hit Cross-Rhodes for the win.
Winner: Cody Rhodes
Star rating: (**1/2) – Cody’s heel Shenanigans were on display here and it was fine, but nothing memorable.
The announcers said Flip Gordon wasn’t going to make it, so his scheduled match was now going to be a six man tag. Colt Cabana ended up being Kenny King & Jay Lethal’s partner for the main event against LIJ.
(9) L.I.J. (IWGP Hvt. Tag Team Champions EVIL & SANADA & Hiromu Takahashi w/BUSHI & Daryl Jr.) vs. Jay Lethal & Kenny King & Colt Cabana. Cabana told Takahashi he wanted Daryl Jr. Takahashi brought him into the ring and left Cabana alone with the cat. Daryl Jr. fell flat on his face and Takahashi rolled up Cabana as he looked at him for a near fall. Cabana teased giving Daryl an elbow and Takahashi begged him not to. Takahashi got Daryl back and his mask fell off. Colt got the mask. Takahashi got worked over until BUSHI distracted Lethal. LIJ then went right on the attack cleaning house. SANADA tied up Lethal in the paradise lock around the ropes. Lethal took a sustained beating from LIJ. Lethal cut off EVIL with the Lethal combination. He finally made the hot tag to King, who ran wild.
BUSHI grabbed King’s leg, but it didn’t stop his momentum. The action really picked up with both teams going back and forth. Lethal went back and forth across the ring hitting six sixes to wipe down it LIJ. The fans went nuts. Lethal stopped and then hit a seventh dive. WOW! Takahashi ran across the ring and hit a sunset bomb to the floor on Lethal. WOW! BUSHI misted Cabana and EVIL nailed him with everything is evil for the win.
Winners: SANADA & EVIL & Hiromu Takahashi
Star rating: (***1/2) – I don’t know why this was the main event, but it got darn good down the stretch between Lethal’s dives and then Takahashi’s sunset bomb to the floor on Lethal.
Tetsuya Naito came down to celebrate with LIJ to close the show.
Overall thoughts: (6.5) – A much improved show compared to the last handful of ROH live streams. Nothing on the show felt like it really mattered outside of Hangman Page’s gutsy performance from a storyline standpoint.
The order of the matches was really strange ending the show with an exhibition when several other matches would have made more sense. The Young Bucks vs. SSB match is worth going out of your way to see. Thumbs up.
Write Sean at pwtorchsean@gmail.com. Follow him on twitter @sr_torch.
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