Taped from Toronto, hopefully we get a better crowd than we did in NYC. Hosted by Kevin Kelly and STEVE CORINO!
We open with Corino (and Jimmy Jacobs) coming in through the
crowd, and Corino takes his spot at the commentary table. Jay Lethal (selling
the knee from the night before) is out next, and he bitches about Kevin Steen replacing
him at Border Wars and informs us that Nigel McGuiness has signed a match
between Lethal and Jacobs RIGHT NOW. Jacobs goes right after the knee and drags
Lethal to the outside, and the bell rings…
Jimmy Jacobs vs. Jay
Lethal: Lethal is basically hopping around on one leg, but he still manages
to throw some chops and sits Jacobs in a chair at ringside for the 10-count
punches. However, he tweaks the knee hopping down from the chair and Jacobs
manages to get a couple shots in before Lethal sends him to the barricade and
then tosses him in the ring. Corino, as usual, is a fucking riot on commentary
insulting Lethal and his mother. Lethal chops away, Jacobs tries Sliced Bread
#2 and gets nothing but a faceplant. After a couple Lethal 2-counts Jacobs hits
a dropkick to the knee and starts working the leg, Lethal comes back with
punches (with Corino saying he should be DQ’d for the closed fist) and gets a
DDT. He calls for the Lethal Injection, but Jacobs is right there and he ties
Lethal’s bad knee in the ropes and pounds away on it, and we go to commercial.
We return with Jacobs getting some 2-counts off a modified
figure 4, Lethal punches his way out of it, but he misses and enziguri and
Jacobs goes back to the knee. Jacobs tries another leglock but Lethal cradles
him for 2, and this time the enziguri connects. They slug it out, Lethal gets a
backdrop but the knee gives out when he tries a superkick. He’s still able to get
2-counts off some rollups, then he hits the Lethal Combination. He tries for
the Injection again, but the knee can’t handle it and Sliced Bread #2 gives
Jacobs the clean win at 8:52 aired. **, a wee bit too long for the story being
told here but otherwise it was fine.
Nigel McGuiness is out next, and he announces that Adam Cole
will get a rematch against Jay Briscoe, but there are a few people who are in
line ahead of him. Michael Elgin is officially the #1 contender, but McGuiness
says that Elgin wants another shot at Karl Anderson, and wants to take care of
S.C.U.M., before he gets his shot. He also tells us that Davey Richards and
Eddie Edwards will have title shots coming (Kevin Steen also has one coming
thanks to the rematch clause, as does Matt Hardy thanks to S.C.U.M. winning at
Border Wars), and that brings out Jay Briscoe. He cuts his usual unintelligible
promo (Corino: “Do we have subtitles for this guy?”) and says “Whoop his ass” a
lot. That brings out Mark Briscoe, who isn’t happy with Jay’s new attitude. Jay
challenges Mark to a match at Best in the World, McGuiness says he needs to
think it over.
Cliff Compton &
Rhett Titus vs. Caprice Coleman & Cedric Alexander: The heels are
already in the ring as we return from commercial, C+C try to attack right away
but get caught coming in. S.C.U.M. briefly takes over, but C+C pull down the
top rope as the heels charge in and they end up on the floor. Coleman (with his
left shoulder taped up) misses a plancha but lands on his feet, Alexander wipes
out S.C.U.M. with a running somersault dive to the outside. Back in the ring
C+C do their usual double-teaming on Titus, Compton comes in and eats a nasty
enziguri from Alexander. Alexander puts his head down and gets kicked in the
face, and Compton sneaks in and sends Coleman’s injured shoulder into the
ringpost. Alexander hits Titus with an enziguri but walks into a Michinoku
driver from Compton as a gang of refs come out to check on Coleman. Alexander
is alone in the ring and he gets pounded by the heels, the refs try to bring
Coleman back to the locker room but S.C.U.M. ain’t having that shit and they
drag him back to ringside and work the shoulder on the floor. Alexander tries
to make the comeback by suplexing Titus to the floor but Compton is there to
stop it, Alexander still manages to hit a full-nelson facebuster but there’s no
one in his corner to make the hot tag to, as the refs again try to take Coleman
to the back. This time he shoves them away (Corino: “That should be a DQ!”) and
slowly makes his way back to the ring. The hot tag is made, Coleman cleans
house and hits an Edge-o-Matic variation on Titus for 2. He sidesteps a
dropkick and C+C do the slingshot into a splash across the knees spot, Compton
makes the save but gets dumped by Alexander, who follows but gets thrown into
the barricade. Compton snaps Coleman’s arm on the top rope and Titus hits him
with an implant DDT to finish at 9:16. *1/2, this was not much more than a really
long squash, but at least it was clean.
Adam Cole vs. Kevin
Steen: Steen gets a nice pop from his fellow Canadians. They slug it out in
the corner as Corino talks about Cole attending his wedding recently. Steen
dominates the early part of the match but gets dumped to the floor, Cole tries
to follow with a plancha but lands on his face. Steen sends him to the
barricade and just bounces him off the edge of the ring with a powerbomb, then
does it again even harder. Cole needs to cut back on that shit, unless he wants
to be in a wheelchair before he’s 30. So Steen powerbombs him on the edge of
the ring AGAIN. Jesus… Steen sends him back in, but decides to go bitch at
Corino instead of concentrating on the match and Cole dropkicks him in the knee
to take over. He starts working the leg as we head to break.
We’re back with Cole still working the knee, he tries the
figure 4 but Steen kicks him to the floor. Steen tries to follow him out, but
the knee is shot and he takes a jumping enziguri for 2. A forearm battle breaks
out, Steen gets the better of that and Cole runs into a powerbomb. Christ, my
back hurts just watching this. Steen gets a big clothesline for 2, but he’s
still having trouble with the knee and he gets booted in the gut trying for the
cannonball. Cole hits a German suplex and a Shining Wizard for 2, but walks
into a shoulderbreaker. Steen tries the package piledriver, but the knee gives
out and Cole tries for the figure 4 but Steen gets loose with punching. So Cole
hooks the Sharpshooter, Steen makes the ropes. Cole tries a superkick, Steen
catches it and hits one of his own, and the F5 gets 2. Now here’s Cliff Compton
up on the apron, Steen knocks him off and gets a Sharpshooter of his own.
Compton is back on the apron, and while the ref is distracted Jimmy Jacobs
sneaks in and hits Steen with the hunk of chain. Superkick to the back of the
head and the Florida Key finish it at 10:30 shown. After hearing about the wild
matches these two had in PWG I found this kind of disappointing, but it was
still pretty decent. **1/2, mostly thanks to Cole bumping to the point that we
should start calling him “pinball”.
I approve of the booking here and none of the wrestling was
terrible, so call it a good show this week. Next week: Taiji Ishimori is back
to face off against Roderick Strong.