Slayer_X
06-21-2015, 02:36 AM
It was a historic night in New York City Friday when Ring of Honor made its return to pay-per-view for Best in the World: Battle of the Belts.
Before jumping into the match-by-match happenings from the show, I must say that the show was overall enjoyable.
It started kind of slow, but definitely picked up as the night went on. The crowd, although it wasn’t all that visible, was very vocal throughout the night and added to the atmosphere.
With that being said, here is a full breakdown of what happened at Best in the World.
Mark Briscoe def. Donovan Dijak
This was solid opening match and a very big one for the young Donovan Dijak.
In a perfect world, Dijak, the winner of this year’s top prospect tournament, would have probably picked up the victory here, but he still has plenty of time to mature and will eventually pick up some big victories.
Dijak is very impressive in the ring given his LEVEL of experience and I definitely think there is a bright future ahead of him in Ring of Honor.
Mark Briscoe landing the victory was a bit of foreshadowing as to what was going to happen during the main EVENt with his brother Jay Briscoe and Dijak’s running mate in the House of Truth, Jay Lethal.
The Decade (B.J. Whitmer & Adam Page) def. ACH & Matt Sydal
There wasn’t really a whole lot to see here. ACH and Matt Sydal got to pull of their usual acrobatics, which is always nice to see, but it was to no avail as The Decade CONTINUED
to pick up momentum.
Dalton Castle def. Silas Young
Whether you like Dalton Castle’s character or not, you can’t argue against its execution or his in-ring ability — both are at a high level.
When Castle first appears from behind the curtain, he may raise some eyebrows, but then he EARNS the fans’ respect with his matches, and Best in the World was a prime example of that.
Castle’s match with Silas Young wasn’t the evening’s most memorable match, but it was very good nonetheless.
Where exactly Ring of Honor goes with Castle isn’t really known because there is so many different directions the promotion can go, but I must say that I’m looking forward to it.
War Machine (Hanson & Raymond Rowe) def. C&C Wrestle Factory (Cedric Alexander & Caprice Coleman)
This was more of an angle than it was a MATCH
The match was basically about the always frustrated Cedric Alexander and Caprice Coleman not being on the same page.
At one point of the match, Alexander wanted Coleman to partake in his heel ways by tagging him in while he was holding a wrench.
Coleman refused and War Machine quickly took him out on their way to picking up the victory.
and straight to the point, but it was uneventful.
What I didn’t understand was that if Coleman could see the wrench Alexander apparently did a poor JOB
of hiding, why didn’t the official? The official was essentially right behind Coleman when he spotted it.
Oh well.
After the match Alexander thought about hitting his long-time tag team partner with the wrench but thought better of it. Instead, he picked Coleman up and simply told him that they were finished as a tag team and left the ring.
No. 1 contender’s match – Roderick Strong def. Moose & Michael Elgin
This was a great match arguably the best of the night.
All three men got ample OPPORTUNITY
image: http://cdncache-a.akamaihd.net/items/it/img/arrow-10x10.png
to shine during the match and the crowd ate every bit of it up. It was simply a fun match to watch.
The result of Roderick Strong winning also kind of telegraphed the outcome of the main event, as Strong is a babyface and would need a good heel to go up against. Well, Jay Lethal is a heel and would make for a quality opponent for Strong.
On his way to winning, Strong pinned Moose, who has gone from undefeated to being pinned twice within a week in storyline. His first loss took place back in May, but didn’t air on Ring of Honor television until this week.
While I’m not against Moose taking losses, I just figured that his first would have happened in a more eventful fashion.
After the match, Alexander popped up and decided to clock Moose upside the head with the wrench he got earlier.
He then handed it over to Veda Scott, who is seemingly loving Alexander’s heel ways. Now it looks like we have a Moose-Alexander feud moving forward. Good storytelling from Ring of Honor here.
The Bullet Club (The Young Bucks & AJ Styles) def. The Kingdom (Adam Cole, Michael Bennett & Matt Taven)
The most insane, spot-heavy match of the night was this one.
The outcome was kind of predictable since The Kingdom beat the Bullet Club in Philadelphia back in May, but it was still a very entertaining match.
While some of the spots looked a little too choreographed, they still came off looking really, really cool.
Hopefully, we can get some type of feud between these two in New Japan Pro Wrestling moving forward.
ROH World Tag Team championship – The Addiction (Christopher Daniels & Kazarian) def. reDRagon (Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish)
This was another quality match with a predictable yet sensible outcome.
The question now is who does the Addiction move on to? Is War Machine on the horizon? Or is it the Young Bucks?
Battle of the Belts – Jay Lethal def. Jay Briscoe
As expected, Jay Lethal and Jay Briscoe delivered in the main event.
Before the match even started, you can feel that this was Lethal’s night. During his entrance, Ring of Honor showed a shot of his family sitting in the crowd, and some of the booking decisions throughout the night sort of tipped ROH’s hand.
Despite that, it didn’t make the match any less entertaining.
However, the real pay off came after the match when Lethal, a genuine good guy in real life, reached a pinnacle moment in his career by holding both the ROH World and World TV titles.
The fans and Jay Briscoe paid him his proper respect despite the fact that he’s a heel. Lethal has been around for, but is still relatively young, so it was a nice moment to see him finally in this position.
For Lethal, it looks like a feud with Roderick Strong is next on the schedule. For Briscoe, who knows?
He just took his first loss in more than two years and have beaten nearly everyone there was to beat in the process.
Before jumping into the match-by-match happenings from the show, I must say that the show was overall enjoyable.
It started kind of slow, but definitely picked up as the night went on. The crowd, although it wasn’t all that visible, was very vocal throughout the night and added to the atmosphere.
With that being said, here is a full breakdown of what happened at Best in the World.
Mark Briscoe def. Donovan Dijak
This was solid opening match and a very big one for the young Donovan Dijak.
In a perfect world, Dijak, the winner of this year’s top prospect tournament, would have probably picked up the victory here, but he still has plenty of time to mature and will eventually pick up some big victories.
Dijak is very impressive in the ring given his LEVEL of experience and I definitely think there is a bright future ahead of him in Ring of Honor.
Mark Briscoe landing the victory was a bit of foreshadowing as to what was going to happen during the main EVENt with his brother Jay Briscoe and Dijak’s running mate in the House of Truth, Jay Lethal.
The Decade (B.J. Whitmer & Adam Page) def. ACH & Matt Sydal
There wasn’t really a whole lot to see here. ACH and Matt Sydal got to pull of their usual acrobatics, which is always nice to see, but it was to no avail as The Decade CONTINUED
to pick up momentum.
Dalton Castle def. Silas Young
Whether you like Dalton Castle’s character or not, you can’t argue against its execution or his in-ring ability — both are at a high level.
When Castle first appears from behind the curtain, he may raise some eyebrows, but then he EARNS the fans’ respect with his matches, and Best in the World was a prime example of that.
Castle’s match with Silas Young wasn’t the evening’s most memorable match, but it was very good nonetheless.
Where exactly Ring of Honor goes with Castle isn’t really known because there is so many different directions the promotion can go, but I must say that I’m looking forward to it.
War Machine (Hanson & Raymond Rowe) def. C&C Wrestle Factory (Cedric Alexander & Caprice Coleman)
This was more of an angle than it was a MATCH
The match was basically about the always frustrated Cedric Alexander and Caprice Coleman not being on the same page.
At one point of the match, Alexander wanted Coleman to partake in his heel ways by tagging him in while he was holding a wrench.
Coleman refused and War Machine quickly took him out on their way to picking up the victory.
and straight to the point, but it was uneventful.
What I didn’t understand was that if Coleman could see the wrench Alexander apparently did a poor JOB
of hiding, why didn’t the official? The official was essentially right behind Coleman when he spotted it.
Oh well.
After the match Alexander thought about hitting his long-time tag team partner with the wrench but thought better of it. Instead, he picked Coleman up and simply told him that they were finished as a tag team and left the ring.
No. 1 contender’s match – Roderick Strong def. Moose & Michael Elgin
This was a great match arguably the best of the night.
All three men got ample OPPORTUNITY
image: http://cdncache-a.akamaihd.net/items/it/img/arrow-10x10.png
to shine during the match and the crowd ate every bit of it up. It was simply a fun match to watch.
The result of Roderick Strong winning also kind of telegraphed the outcome of the main event, as Strong is a babyface and would need a good heel to go up against. Well, Jay Lethal is a heel and would make for a quality opponent for Strong.
On his way to winning, Strong pinned Moose, who has gone from undefeated to being pinned twice within a week in storyline. His first loss took place back in May, but didn’t air on Ring of Honor television until this week.
While I’m not against Moose taking losses, I just figured that his first would have happened in a more eventful fashion.
After the match, Alexander popped up and decided to clock Moose upside the head with the wrench he got earlier.
He then handed it over to Veda Scott, who is seemingly loving Alexander’s heel ways. Now it looks like we have a Moose-Alexander feud moving forward. Good storytelling from Ring of Honor here.
The Bullet Club (The Young Bucks & AJ Styles) def. The Kingdom (Adam Cole, Michael Bennett & Matt Taven)
The most insane, spot-heavy match of the night was this one.
The outcome was kind of predictable since The Kingdom beat the Bullet Club in Philadelphia back in May, but it was still a very entertaining match.
While some of the spots looked a little too choreographed, they still came off looking really, really cool.
Hopefully, we can get some type of feud between these two in New Japan Pro Wrestling moving forward.
ROH World Tag Team championship – The Addiction (Christopher Daniels & Kazarian) def. reDRagon (Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish)
This was another quality match with a predictable yet sensible outcome.
The question now is who does the Addiction move on to? Is War Machine on the horizon? Or is it the Young Bucks?
Battle of the Belts – Jay Lethal def. Jay Briscoe
As expected, Jay Lethal and Jay Briscoe delivered in the main event.
Before the match even started, you can feel that this was Lethal’s night. During his entrance, Ring of Honor showed a shot of his family sitting in the crowd, and some of the booking decisions throughout the night sort of tipped ROH’s hand.
Despite that, it didn’t make the match any less entertaining.
However, the real pay off came after the match when Lethal, a genuine good guy in real life, reached a pinnacle moment in his career by holding both the ROH World and World TV titles.
The fans and Jay Briscoe paid him his proper respect despite the fact that he’s a heel. Lethal has been around for, but is still relatively young, so it was a nice moment to see him finally in this position.
For Lethal, it looks like a feud with Roderick Strong is next on the schedule. For Briscoe, who knows?
He just took his first loss in more than two years and have beaten nearly everyone there was to beat in the process.