Shiloh Jonez and TJ Perkins team up and take on the Young Bucks in our opening match this week. This one goes for about nine minutes and ends with the Young Bucks scoring the bang for your buck finisher(standing frontflip slam followed by a 450 splash followed by a moonsault) and get the three count on Jones.
^Comparing the Young Bucks to the Hardys would be an insult to the Young Bucks. They’re brothers with long hair that are high flying. Beyond that, these two are far better wrestlers than the Hardys ever were. These two are one of the most exciting tag teams that I’ve ever had the privilege to watch in the ring. I like the potential they have for the future, provided that they stay far away from the land of the E. TJ Perkins is awesome as a singles wrestler, but this Shiloh Jonez character is new to me. I’m curious if they’ll team up again anytime soon.
Matt Taven goes one on one with Mike Mondo in our next match. These two put on a really solid nine minute contest. The match ends with Mondo catching Taven off a crossbody attempt from the top into a flapjack slam. He picks up Taven and hits the double arm DDT finisher for the win.
^Taven is a guy who I haven’t really seen a lot of, but he seems to have a solid ground game with an emphasis on being a high flier. Mondo has really come into his own since I first saw him and seems to have shrunk down some of his muscle mass. The guy is solid in the ring, and now he just needs to continue to put on good matches every week until he gets a break in the upper mid card of the roster.
A press conference is shown for an ROH event called Border Wars that will be held in Toronto on May 12th this year. Cornette announces that all three ROH titles will be defended on the show. Davey Richards talked about wrestling Tyler Black(Seth Rollins FCW) in Toronto and gets interrupted by Kevin Steen. Steen says everyone wants to see Richards defend his title against him. Richards convinces Cornette to let him defend the title against Steen at Border Wards. Richards says if he can’t beat Steen, he will go back to wrestling in Japan. He also says that Steen can use the piledriver as a legal move in this match. The match is booked!
^Steen vs Richards will be EPIC. Enough said.
Jay Lethal, Mike Bennett, Adam Cole, and Tammaso Ciampa are in the final four way for the March Mayhem tournament finals. The winner of this match gets 24,000 dollars. Lethal eliminates Mike Bennett first and then is immediately eliminated by Ciampa after a running knee. Cole gets the upper hand goes up top, but Lethal comes out going after Ciampa. The ref gets distracted by Lethal and Ciampa knocks Cole down on the ring post and then hits the huge powerbomb into a double knees to the back smash for the three count. Ciampa wins the tournament. Ciampa’s manager sings “we in the da money” after the match.
^This was a solid main event. I always enjoy watching action from all four of these guys. These frustrating losses over and over for Lethal lead me to believe that he might take his character to a new level to become angry enough to defeat Tommasso Ciampa. Ciampa is really dominant, but I don’t think he necessarily needs to use the traditional heel tactics of cheating to be the monster heel that he is. His aggressive in ring performances seem to be more than enough to make a crowd realize that he isn’t a face. Adam Cole continues to improve as he wrestles in bigger matches. I see a bright future for this young guy. Mike Bennett was boring to me, and I still haven’t been all that impressed by him. Overall though, these four put on a solid outing. Lethal always makes a match fast paced and fun to watch.
This was a really good show overall tonight. I love watching these guys put it all on the line in nearly every match, rather than just when it counts on a big pay per view. I’m excited to see how the card plays out for Border Wars, but I’m also excited to see the Chikara inter-promotional event this month. I’ll be back with my Raw column early Tuesday. Until next time, you’ve been ThunderStruck!
