Tremendous Tirades 9.20.13: ROH Death Before Dishonor XI

The show was also announced as free to watch…

“I just want to tell you both good luck. We’re all counting on you…”

Jay Lethal vs. Silas Young: Lethal is coming off a strong run in the ROH Title Tournament, with two good performances that I really enjoyed. Young has been hit or miss for me, so I will be interested to see what they can do to open the show. This was a solid, but unspectacular way to open the show. The crowd seemed into it enough, certainly not crapping on the match, but also seemed more into cheering to entertaining themselves at points instead of reacting to the in ring action. With Lethal challenging for the TV Title at the TV tapings tomorrow, him winning was the right call. Letha won at 12-minutes with the lethal injection.

Match Rating: **¾

Semi-Final Tournament Match: Adam Cole vs. Tommaso Ciampa: I talked about the sense of urgency in the ROH Tournament matches on TV, the feeling that the matches were important and that the guys were giving it everything to win their match for a shot at the title. That was very prevalent here as Ciampa was a house of fire in the opening minutes, including a spot where they went to the floor and he hit repeated charging knees as well as a running powerbomb onto Cole into the barricade. Cole was able to battle back, with the story that Ciampa was constantly countering the Florida Key. Ciampa would hit a kryptonite crunch from the second rope for a good near fall at about 8-minutes into the match. Cole worked the knee, including a superkick to the bad knee of Ciampa while he was on the ropes. Cole then went all Bret Hart and did the ring post figure four, showing that crazy look like he had in the Mark Briscoe match. Ciampa gets sloppy when he’s tired, as he had two issues pulling Cole up for the Project Ciampa, thankfully Cole saved it both times. Cole scored the win at 14-minutes when he locked in the figure four, and landed repeated kicks to the head of Ciampa. Ciampa was KOd, and Cole scored the pin from the figure four position. The crowd didn’t react that well to the finish, sort of like they were confused. This was god back and forth match, and clicked much better for me than the opener did. It was a little sloppy down the stretch, but overall was good stuff and I really liked the finish.

Match Rating: ***¾

Semi-Final Tournament Match: Michael Elgin vs. Kevin Steen: The first thing that I liked about this match was that it felt completely different from the previous tournament match. They started off with grappling and some one upsmanship, while establishing the power of Elgin. They did a quick tease of finishes, with both men escaping, showing that they know each other well. Also, Cole and Ciampa worked a break neck pace, while these guys were setting a deliberately slower pace. The contrast is always appreciated, because variety always helps a show. The prior match was about accumulated punishment after a ton of shit was thrown at the fan, this ended up about power ad bigger moves taking the toll. Ina simple but effective spot, Steen missing the charge and posting his shoulder leading to an immediate crossface from Elgin was well done and a believable finish. Steen survived the buckle bomb and locked in the sharp shooter, but (psychology) Steen had issues holding on due to the shoulder being dinged earlier and Elgin was able to escape. Steen also couldn’t do the package piledriver, so he had to resort to sleeper suplexes, which Elgin survived. Steen tried the package piledriver, again, which Elgin turned into a crossface, which led to Steen tapping. Elgin getting the big win over Steen was the story, but also doing it via clean submission was even better for Elgin and his path to the title. I really liked the match, thought it was rather awesome, but also felt that it was hurt from the lack of reaction at times from the crowd. In front of a hotter crowd, this comes across like a much bigger deal. I also loved the booking of the longer match. Cole took way less damage and worked a shorter match, while Elgin was in a war and looks to have expended himself before the title match. Elgin won at 20-minutes by making Steen tap to the crossface.

Match Rating: ****

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title Match: The Forever Hooligans © vs. The American Wolves: I really like both teams, so I was very much looking forward to this match. The story was a miscommunication about halfway through the match, where Richards was left to fight on his own for a while, leading to his selling an abdomen injury. The Wolves would battle back, but in the end, scroed the pin at about 20-minutes with the burning hammer flying knee combo (contract killer) on Richards. The one thing I felt hurt the match was the fact that while the crowd was into the overall action, they never really bit on the near falls on the Hooligans. That really took way from the heat the match had. I believe that this was due to the fact that they simply never bought that the IWGP titles would change hands.

Match Rating: ***½

Adam Page arrives, challenges Evans, and we have an impromptu match.

RD Evans vs. Adam Page: This was a short, nothing of a match. Page got pissed that Evans put on his hat, hit the face to black/Omori piledriver and that was all. Page wins in a minute in a match that didn’t need to be added to the show.

Match Rating: NR

Ricky Marvin vs. Roderick Strong : While there was some cool spots here and there, the match really lacked any kind of flow. Part of it was lucha style, and part may have been Marvin injuring his leg on a big dive to the floor. This just came off as a collection of cool and hard hitting moves, some of which looked pretty rough, but they were there with no context. They fucked up the finish as Strong hit the sick kick, and the ref counted three, but apparently Marvin got a shoulder up. Strong picks up the win at 12-minutes via the sick kick and then the Gibson driver. Not good.

Match Rating: *½

reDRagon (Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish), Matt Taven, and Michael Bennett w/ Truth Martini, the Hotties, & Maria Kanellis vs. Adrenaline RUSH (ACH & Tadarius Thomas) and C&C Wrestle Factory (Caprice Coleman & Cedric Alexander): Didn’t get to see the match due to the stream going down. Adrenaline RUSH (ACH & Tadarius Thomas) and C&C Wrestle Factory (Caprice Coleman & Cedric Alexander) won.

Match Rating: Could Not Rate

ROH World Heavyweight Championship Match: Adam Cole vs. Michael Elgin: Nigel announces three judges will be at ringside ala Flair vs. Steamboat (Carey Silkin, Joe Koff and Prince Nana) in case there is not a winner after 60-minutes. I really liked the slow start to the match, because it allowed commentary to focus on their different paths to the finals on this show. Just as Elgin was going for the big stalling suplex, he couldn’t hold Cole, allowing commentary to expand on the Steen match and the fact that Elgin was showing signs of being hurt from the multiple sleeper suplexes that Steen connected with. Cole went on the attack right away.

The stream was constantly in and out, so I really cannot comment on the match other than the opening segment.

Cole won the title at 27-minutes with the Florida key.

Match Rating: Could Not Rate