We open with a replay of the end of the 11th Anniversary
show and the McGuiness segment from last week.
Silas Young vs.
Michael Elgin: Jay Lethal joins the commentators. They stall for a bit
before locking up, Elgin sends Young into the corner and gives him a clean
break. Brief chain wrestling sequence leads to Young getting the Boston crab,
Elgin powers out of it but eats an elbow on a charge and a cris-cross ends with
Young getting shoulderblocked to the outside. Elgin follows but gets nailed
coming back in, Young tries to knock him off the apron but Elgin slingshots in
with another shoulderblock for 2. Young takes out the leg and chokes Elgin on
the middle rope, then works him over in the corner. A kick to the chest only
gets a 1 count and now Young gets pounded in the corner, a blind charge misses
and Young goes back to the leg. He takes a pretty nasty forearm and Elgin
German suplexes him into the corner. Seeing as how the ROH turnbuckle pads are
about the size of couch cushions I think it would have been more effective to
just do a standard German, but I’m not here to tell the guy how to do his job.
Elgin hits some more forearms and some chops and clotheslines in the corner.
Oklahoma gets 2, but the deadlift German is reversed into a victory roll.
Second attempt lands for 2, Young comes back with a Pedigree for 2, he gets a
Samoan drop but misses an Arabian bodypress. Bucklebomb and the spinning sitout
powerbomb finishes Young at 7:34. **1/2, solid but totally unremarkable match.
Charlie Hass is out next. Kelly: “Why would anyone ever give
Charlie Haas a live microphone?” Good question. I guess Chicago Ridge is on the
North side of Chicago, because the crowd boos when he mentions the Cubs but
pops when he mentions the White Sox. He says that he turned on Shelton Benjamin
because he’s been carrying him for 10 years and he’s sick of it. He also tells
us that Haas/Benjamin is scheduled for Supercard of Honor, but Benjamin doesn’t
have the stones to show up. He challenges anyone in the crowd or the locker
room to come out and fight him, Grizzly Redwood answers.
Charlie Haas vs.
Grizzly Redwood: Redwood attacks right away, Haas no-sells it and comes
back with a big boot. Grizzly gets a rollup, and that’s the extent of his
offense. Overhead belly to belly and the Haas of Pain ends it at 1:26. He won’t
let go of the hold, so Mike Mondo makes his return to save him. I won’t even
bother rating this.
Veda Scott is in the ring with Mondo and Redwood. Veda seems
to have a thing for Mondo (lucky bastard), and the crowd picks up on it too
with a “She wants Mondo” chant. He talks about how he came back in only 4
months because he’s in Beast Mode 24/7. And now here’s S.C.U.M. out of the
crowd Shield style to jump Mondo and Redwood. Cliff Compton grabs Veda,
Whitmer, Coleman, Alexander, and Mark Briscoe come out to try and make the save
but don’t get in the ring. Corino wants next week’s show to be S.C.U.M. TV,
Nigel McGuiness comes out and says he can get his wish if they let Veda go,
Compton lets her loose. Hey, an invading faction getting their own TV show,
where have I seen that? After the commercial McGuiness hops on the third
commentary position to let us know that Veda is OK, he leaves and Corino is
back out to introduce Matt Hardy, who also comes in through the crowd.
Matt Hardy vs. Adam
Cole: There’s still nearly 20 minutes of show left, and considering that
Hardy gets gassed after about 5 minutes I’m not sure it’s a good idea to give
them that much time. Winner of this gets Matt Taven for the TV title at
Supercard of Honor. A forearm battle starts us off, Cole hits a crossbody and
throws punches, the ref pulls him off and Hardy clips his knee. Hardy plays to
the crowd and Cole superkicks him to the outside and follows with a dive to the
floor. Cole kicks his ass all around ringside and suplexes him on the floor, he
heads back in to break the count and Hardy nails him as he heads back out. Cole
sends him to the barricade and hits the Austin Thesz press from the apron. He
gets the ringpost figure 4 but the ref makes him break the hold, he tries for
the Panama Key but Hardy reverses it and sends him into the guardrail. Cole
just barely beats the count back in and Hardy (who’s bleeding hardway from his
back) punches away, Cole comes back with more forearms and a dropkick and we go
to commercial.
Back from break Hardy hits a neckbreaker and a suplex for 2.
He gets a Razor’s Edge and a foot choke in the corner, Side Effect gets 2. More
punching from Hardy, but Cole no sells it and makes the comeback. Jumping
enziguri (there it is!) and the Shining Wizard gets 2, missile dropkick for 2,
and Cole stomps away in the corner. Fireman’s carry into a neckbreaker gets
another near fall, but a crossbody off the top misses. Hardy gets the figure 4,
Cole reverses and Hardy makes the ropes. Now Cole gets the figure 4, Hardy
makes the ropes again. Cole tries the slingshot DDT on the apron but misses and
goes face first to the floor. Hardy heads out and pulls up the mats to expose
the “concrete”, but the Twist of Fate is reversed to the Florida Key, and here’s
Rhino to Gore Cole for the DQ at 13:14. *1/2, better than the Final Battle
match but that ending can go fuck itself. Coleman and Alexander make the save,
the rest of S.C.U.M. and various ROH guys make their way out and everyone
brawls to end the show.
Not a great show this week, to say the least. Next week: All
S.C.U.M., all the time!