Moose w/Stokely Hathaway and Veda Scott vs Caprice Coleman
Crowd serenades Moose to the ring, singing along with his entrance music and he also gets the streamer treatment. So odd to see Scott working the crowd but the crowd loves him so you gotta go with it. Coleman acknowledges and shakes hands with the guy in the Liger costume that Lethal was baiting last week. Crowd continuing to chant MOOSE during Coleman’s ring entrance. Poor dude. Scott refuses to let Moose to adhere to the Code of Honor although Hathaway wanted to. The size difference between these two is incredible and Coleman’s not that small. Coleman right away locks on a Kimura put Moose powers out and ends up throwing a beautiful drop kick that misses terribly, as Coleman holds the ropes.
Story of the match is Moose using his power to get out of everything but Coleman using his brain power to get one step ahead of him. Moose takes care of that by swinging him, brains first, into the barricade several times outside the ring. Coleman recovers and essentially chops him down to size and gets a two count that no one thought for a moment was a finish. Coleman takes out Moose with a somersault dive outside the ring. Moose hits Coleman with a dropkick as Coleman is sitting on top of the turnbuckles. Incredible. He follows up with a vicious spear to get the win.
WINNER: MOOSE by pinfall
The Decade (BJ Whitmer/Adam Page) vs Leon St. Giovanni/Shaheem Ali
You may remember Ali and Giovanni from a six man match a couple weeks ago against the full Decade team. The Decade attacked before the bell and just mauled the two jobbers relentlessly and got a quick win the “All-Seeing Eye” with Page pinning Giovanni.
WINNERS: THE DECADE by pinfall
This led into a promo by the Decade. They’re looking for their next Young Boy. It’s not either of the two people they just beat. They offer the job to Colby Corino and he happily accepts and Steve Corino is not happy about it. Steve tries to talk his son out of it and then takes off his jacket to challenge Whitmer. Jimmy Jacobs gets in between them and berates Whitmer for going after his son. Colby holds the ropes open for Whitmer and Page and leaves with them. This looks to continue the face turn of Jacobs that started last week.
After break we see Donovan Dijak joining the House of Truth last week, which leads into our next match and then highlights of the TV title match between Jay Lethal and Dalton Castle, which Lethal won thanks to the interference of Dijak.
The House of Truth (J Diesel/Donovan Dijak) w/Truth Martini vs Brutal Burgers (“Rudabon” Bob Evans/Cheeseburger)
Cheeseburger now has a Cheeseburger hat and the fans go nuts with CHEESEBURGER chants. Kevin Kelly plugs the hotline again. Which ROH talent has a law degree? Veda Scott or Bobby Cruise? Call the hotline to find out. Or just ask Dave Meltzer. Or look it up on Wikipedia. Oh yea, Wikipedia wasn’t around in 1994, the last time anyone called a hotline. Dijak doesn’t look nearly as big when he’s in there against Evans but Evans quickly lets Cheeseburger tag in and Burger bounces off him for awhile before Dijak nails him with a chokeslam backbreaker and then pulls him up at two.
Corino is off commentary after the last angle, BTW. Martini joins Kelly at commentary a couple minutes into the match. Diesel and Dijak cut off the ring and toy with Cheeseburger. Martini at one point says Dijak is 6 ft 2 or 6 ft 3 and Kelly reminds him that they say he’s 6 ft 7. Burger makes the hot tag to Rudabon and he’s a house of fire on Dijak and Diesel. He quickly tags Cheeseburger back in but Dijak fights them both on and hits Feast Your Eyes on Cheeseburger for the win.
WINNERS: THE HOUSE OF TRUTH by pinfall
Brutal Burgers work the crowd after the match and then Evans turns on Burger, laying him out with a vicious clothesline. Crowd doesn’t like that at all and Evans leaves the ring to the thunderous boos of the capacity crowd.
After a break, it’s a Jay Lethal promo that’s interrupted by KRD screwing with the video feed. No idea why he was doing the promo or what he was talking about.
Kyle O’Reilly w/Bobby Fish vs Samoa Joe
Corino is back for the main event. Crowd sings JOE IS GONNA KILL YOU before his music even starts. He gets welcomes with so many streamers you can barely see the ring. WELCOME BACK chants are next and more JOE IS GONNA KILL YOU. These fans are having so much fun. They adhere to the Code of Honor and we go to break.
An obviously recorded plug for the ROH hotline interrupts Corino doing an excellent recap of Joe’s ROH career and what he’s hoping for from Joe in his return. These things have to go. Corino says that in “two weeks”, we get the Supercard of Honor showcase with Joe against Jay Briscoe. If by “two weeks”, he means yesterday, he’s correct. Maybe he’s going to order it on demand in two weeks. THIS IS WRESTLING chants after a nice grappling exchange from Joe and O’Reilly and Corino compares it to UWFI. They bring back the OLE OLE OLE chants and Joe responds with the running knee onto O’Reilly as he’s slumped in the corner. ONE MORE TIME, the crowd pleads and Joe obliges. He’s obviously having so much fun.
After a break, we’re outside the ring and Joe sits O’Reilly in a chair and the OLE chants start up again and Joe hits another running knee, much slower than the last time we saw it. Joe gets into it with Bobby Fish, which allows O’Reilly to recover and nail Joe from behind. O’Reilly working over Joe’s arm, including an armbar draped over the bottom ring rope. He rolls him back into the ring and continues to work on the arm. Joe rights out of it with a series of punches but O’Reilly grabs the arm again and continues to work it over. Joe turns it around with a couple of clotheslines and a Senton Splash that gets two. Tilt-a-whirl powerslam from Joe gets another two. Joe tries for a powerbomb but selling the arm and shoulder, he can’t finish it. Joe with an STF and Corino reminds us that because his arm is weakened it may not be in as tight. O’Reilly makes it to the ropes for a break.
Joe goes for a Muscle buster but O’Reilly turns it into a guillotine. He transitions to an armbar after Joe powers out and then takes him to the mat and gets a Fujiwara armbar but Joe gets to the ropes for a break. Joe goes outside the ring for a power but O’Reilly with the running dropkick from the apron takes Joe out and then he rolls him back to the ring. Brainbuster from O’Reilly for two and then right back to the armbar but Joe gets his hands clenched. O’Reilly gets it locked in again but Joe gets a rope break. Fish is screaming to the ref that Joe tapped. Corino again plugging the Supercard of Honor in two weeks. O’Reilly does the Nigel/Dean Ambrose clothesline off the top ropes spot but runs into an Enziguri from Joe. THIS IS AWESOME chants. Joe hits O’Reilly with a series of knees to the head and then hits the muscle buster for the win. Incredible match
WINNER: SAMOA JOE by pinfall
THAT WAS AWESOME chants from the crowd as Fish consoles O’Reilly. After plugging Supercard of Honor in two weeks, back to the ring and O’Reilly and Joe are nose to nose and they shake hands as the show ends.
1: kudos on that.