Live Event Results ~ September 15th, 2012

[Dustin Salyers]

Mistico vs. La Sombra vs. Titan

The opening match set the tone for the night as all three men took turns dazzling the crowd with the individual aerial prowess and majestic flow. Mistico was clearly the crowd favorite and brought the fans to their feet each time he positioned himself for La Mistica. Titan eventually found himself on the wrong end of the whirlwind and writhing in pain from the Fujiwara armbar. La Sombra made the save though, tossing Mistico through the ropes. Titan was dead weight but no problem for La Sombra who surprised the crowd with his Brillante Driver.


All Night Express vs. Tommy Mercer & Taylor Rotunda

Mercer’s impressive size and Rotunda’s athleticism helped the youngsters keep pace with the well-versed All Night Express but King & Titus had little trouble maintaining control of the match. Mercer found moments when he was able to dominate the match and Rotunda proved to be a handful due to his sheer will but their teamwork was flawed to say the least. King eventually caught Rotunda with the Coronation to give the All Night Express the victory.


Eddie Edwards vs. Tommaso Ciampa

Edwards and Ciampa gave the fans an excellent back and forth match and neither man seemed to carry an advantage for a significant amount of time. Edwards used well placed strikes and creative counters to offset the strength advantage of Ciampa. Not to be outdone, Ciampa used several suplex variations and a few submissions to attempt to bend Edwards to his will. In the end it was a well-timed trip from Velvet Sky that left Edwards stumbling into the Project Ciampa and a loss.


Rush & Texano Jr. vs. Karl Anderson & Michael Elgin

This proved to be a very competitive match with Rush & Texano Jr. slowly winning the crowd over mainly due to the actions of RD Evans. Both teams controlled the match for long stretches with Elgin showing off his power and Anderson working crisp sequences with both Rush & Texano Jr. Rush stood out with several dives to the outside and scored a huge near fall with a senton to Elgin. Rush then surprised the crowd by lifting Elgin for the Martillo Negro and securing a victory.


Kota Ibushi vs. Volador Jr. vs. Extreme Tiger

This match clearly upstaged the main event as it was full of action that happened in and out of the ring. Ibushi and Volador Jr. battled mercilessly against one another while Tiger seemed content to pick his spots. All three threw caution to the wind and flew off turnbuckles at every opportunity. Ibushi looked poised to finish Tiger as he climbed the turnbuckle until Volador Jr. ran down the apron and ascended the turnbuckle in a flash. Ibushi was clearly caught off guard and was driven into the mat with the Volador Spiral. Volador was still ailing from the hard fought match and lay next to Ibushi just long enough for Tiger to nail both men with a springboard Sabretooth Splash from across the ring. Tiger quickly hooked the leg of Volador Jr. but he was able to roll the shoulder at the last possible moment. Tiger then crawled a few feet and covered Ibushi for the unexpected three count.

Kevin Steen vs. Mike Bennett

The main event would most aptly described as a brawl. Steen controlled the majority of the match and Bennett played the underdog perfectly. Bennett would slowly gain momentum only to have Steen use an underhanded tactic to regain the advantage. Bennett continued to battle and eventually had the crowd well behind him as they teased the Box Office Smash several times. Steen would end the night with a victory though courtesy of a package piledriver.

[Deleted]

Hmmm... all I really want to say about this is that it'd be helpful is the wrestler has an accompaniment they be listed beside the worker they are alligned with. I liked Sombra going over.

[Deleted]

I don't know what Joe's feed is all about

As for my feed... hm... well, I guess it read like a house show. The writing was good! The match descriptions were excellent. I don't know many of your workers so it's hard for me to comment here...

Hopefully you keep it going... we don't want a repeat of ROH with people locked up in contracts. Especially Kota Ibushi who I could definitely use one day!

[Deleted]

I really didn't like any of the booking besides Sombra going over, and found the formatting very strange. I didn't want to go negative, like, it could have probably been pulled off better with better written matches, as far as getting me behind guys I have a prior bias against, but I really didn't get that, and felt like the wrong guy won in almost every instance, and there were just these random people interfering in matches. Neither this show nor the roster mention anybody being associated with anyone else, as far as valets and managers are concerned, so it seemed very random. I felt like this was just kind of a show to shit out a show that he wrote in 5 minutes. Like I said, I didn't want to go negative, but since Josch pretty much called me out on my response, it's whatever. I don't remember the last time Dustin ever pretended like he read one of my shows, but I really try to read all of the ones posted and give some sort of constructive feedback, or at least not overtly negative. Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot I like here.

For example, Mike Bennett has a lot more upside than Kevin Steen, as far as being built in this alliance goes. He's a much more credible opponent for Punk, and to be booked elsewhere, and the writing didn't make Steen look like a hot commodity. It's just sort of riding on the real life coattails of Steen getting a push in real life. How a physical specimen like Bennett, with a lot of upside, could be looked at as an underdog to Kevin Steen is laughable. I've come to like Kevin Steen a decent amount in the last year, but there's a reason why he's at where he's at in Ring of Honor, and it's not a very good one. Kota Ibushi losing to a Rey Misterio rip off is very laughable, as well. Extreme Tiger is a fun enough guy to watch and work with, but is he on the level of Ibushi, or even Volador? I wouldn't say so. Once again, Karl Anderson and Michael Elgin? Big upside as a team, could be HUGE potential title threats. So what do we do? We put over Rush and Texano Jr., who probably aren't going to be unseating the Rockstars of Wrestling or getting many outside bookings, though they were handled well, but this was a drop of the ball. The Anderson/Elgin team seemed very intuitive to me, and seemed like a great pairing, and I thought, "Nice move," and then this. I mean, you have two very athletic, amazing, powerful guys, and they get out powered by Rush and Texano, and needed a lot of help supressing them from RD Evans, freakin' Archibald Peck, and that wasn't even enough? I found Edwards and Ciampa to be pretty cookie cutter, I didn't see much personality at all, and what, did Ciampa just drop him with a suplex, pick him up, drop him with another, submission, unlock it, drop him with another, and then, after all of that, Velvet Sky trips Edwards and that makes all of the difference? You didn't even mention any kind of a rallying sequence, though perhaps it was those creative counters that got him out of that bind, and I'll give you the benefit of that doubt, but Ciampa over Edwards is a little questionable anyway. Not a huge fan of him, though, he's pretty mediocre, but I know some people are, and to each their own, but I'd be able to get behind him more if he was more imaginatively portrayed. Once again, I thought you might have had a good, original team in Mercer and Rotunda, as I find the ANX to be very mediocre, but, to each their own there. Wasn't too pumped about that, but hey, it's whatever. The ANX are the more experienced team, so I guess it makes sense for them to go over, but I'd of liked to see an upset there. Like I said, I'm not too hot on them, maybe some people are, I don't know, but it's all good.

Hopefully that was constructive enough. I'd like to see a little more depth, more than anything, but I felt like you really dropped the ball on some of these bookings, which could have had potential, but more than that, I really don't think this was any kind of an effort. Maybe it was? I don't know. I wasn't going to say anything, but I'm not going to look like a passive aggressive douchebag. At worst, I'll settle for looking like a regular douchebag. I just know you totally flaked on ROH, then you come back like a week later with this, and it seems like you're just putting something out so this doesn't get taken from you, I don't know. Whatever it is, I do hope you keep writing, as you've always been one of the best, and I hope this is not a sign of what is to come here. You have a decent enough roster, I'd just like to see a more imaginative execution, I suppose.