so here's my review of the show
Ring of Honor/New Japan Pro Wrestling “War of the Worlds”
Date: Sunday May 7th, 2017
Venue: the Ted Reeve Arena in Toronto, Ontario
T-shirt worn: Kenny Omega “Final Fantasy VIII ‘G1’”
Commentators (not that I could hear them): Ian Riccaboni, Kevin Kelly and Colt Cabana
The Rebellion vs. the Motor City Machine GunsThis was a decent opener. Caprice Coleman has become one of my favourite “unsung heroes” of the under-card and it was nice to see him not only get in some good offence but also actually win a match. Shane Taylor came out on behalf of the Rebellion but he didn’t do too much. He probably interfered and helped them win but I can’t remember.
Winners: the Rebellion
After the match Shane Taylor got on the microphone and said he wanted his match RIGHT NOW. For whatever reason the other members of the Rebellion left.
Shane Taylor vs. Hirooki GotoThis match had potential but fell mostly on deaf ears. It was actually a really good match. When it was hot it was HOT but there were quite a few moments of “pin drop silence”. The finale got the crowd going.
Winner: Hiroki Goto
Chaos (Trent Beretta, Rocky Romero & Gedo) vs. Dalton Castle & the BoysThis was the first match that got the crowd off of their hands for a good portion of its time. Mainly due to Dalton Castle. The Boys both took vicious beatings at different times in the match. I kinda wish I was sitting on the other side of the arena as I was sitting right in Dalton and the Boys corner. Trent is a pretty funny guy and I’d have rather heard his banter when he wasn’t in the ring. This was a good, fun match.
Winners: Dalton Castle & the Boys
Punishment Martinez vs. “Hangman” Adam Page vs. Bully RayThis was another fun match. Most of it was playing off of Bully Rays past with either Page or Martinez filling the role of D-Von Dudley, sometimes double crossing Bully though.
Winner: Bully Ray
Will Ospreay vs. CodyI’m not a fan of either of these guys for various reasons (I don’t like Ospreays overly choreographed matches and don’t get “it” with Cody) but they both won me over with this match. Cody played a good heel and got in some great offence that I’d never seen him use in his time with the WWE and Ospreay was still jumpy-flippy but not to the ridiculous levels as he did with Ricochet.
Winner: Cody
[intermission]
The Kingdom vs. los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito and Bushi)This match wasn’t very good. The Kingdom just doesn’t do anything for me and Naito just seemed to not really be into it tonight. Bushi was fucking useless. As a tag team partner are you not supposed to stand on the apron? Well he stood on the floor for most of the match. I wasn’t impressed with this match.
Winners: los Ingobernables de Japon
Silas Young & the Beer City Bruiser vs. los Ingobernables de Japon (EVIL and Sanada) vs. the BriscoesThis was a really good match but it was pretty much all the Briscoes and Silas and the Bruiser doing all the work. I’m sorry to any of their fans reading this but EVIL and Sanada were fucking useless. They have cool masks during their entrances. That’s all I got out of this team. The rare times they were in the ring during this match showed me a bit of cool offence but they may as well have not been there. Mark Briscoe got his ass destroyed during this match and the person who had the best showing was actually the Bruiser. I threw a green streamer during the Briscoes entrances and I’m not sure but it may have hit Jay, possibly in the face. I didn’t watch. I was too busy cowering in fear and pointing at my wife.
Winners: the Briscoes
Kushida vs. Jay LethalThis match got really good towards the end but it had the unenviable spot of following up a good match and going on before Kenny Omega. The whole feeling was
“okay, do your thing and get out of the way so Kenny Omega can come out”. I felt bad for them because they put on a really good match and it did get the crowd hot towards the end. But they got the “womens match at a Wrestlemania” spot on the card and reaction. Until the end. The last five minutes were really good.
Winner: Kushida
Hiroshi Tanahashi, Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian vs. the EliteThe whole card had built up to this match. I felt really bad for Hiroshi Tanahashi, Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian. One is a legend, the other the reining Ring of Honor Champion (as well as a legend) and the last a travelled journeyman who deserves more recognition than he gets. Tanahashi came out to a decent pop but the other two came out to apathetic crickets. The Young Bucks came out to a huge pop but the crowd went nuclear for Kenny Omega. So the roles of “face” and “heel” were reversed for this match. And what a match it was. Again, Tanahashi, Daniels and Kaz were “served” for most of the match. They still got all their big spots in and even more, but if this match was thirty minutes (which I think it was) it was twenty-five minutes in favour of the Elite. The Bucks were “the Bucks” and Omega was “Omega” but it was turned up to twelve tonight. It was far from a technical masterpiece. There may have been a submission hold or two (I honestly can’t remember) but it was basically just a spotfest with a dose of comedy and Omega hitting all of it (most notably some vicious Dragon Suplexes and the One-Winged Angel), but turned up. It was probably the most fun I’ve ever had watching a match live. I didn’t want it to end.
Winners: the Elite
After the match Omega got on the microphone and thanked the crowd for coming out and promised to come back again. Then him and the Bucks hocked their merchandise and YouTube channel.
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Honestly, this was the Kenny Omega show tonight. Everything was built around him. The line-up for photos and autographs was (I’d imagine) mostly for him, half the t-shirts in the crowd were some variations of his or his various groups (hey, I was guilty too) and his pop eclipsed everyone else on the cards combined. The rest of the card had some very good very fun moments and matches. The three-way match with Page, Martinez and Bully Ray was fun to watch. The Cody verses Will Ospreay match was very good, as was Lethal verses Kushida. And the three-way tag team match was a good tag team match (since los Ingobernables de Japon were fucking useless). But the main event made up for anywhere the card may have faltered or fallen a bit flat and made going worth going just on its own.
Dark Match:
The Fraternity w/Alicia vs. Will Ferrara & CheeseburgerThis was a dark match and was fine. I think it was there more to tell people to get to their seats because the line up for autographs was still pretty long when it started.
Winners: Will Ferrara & Cheeseburger
My seats were good. I was in the front row left of the entrance ramp. In WWE language “hard camera side”. One thing that pissed me off was I bought the tickets via select a seat and purposely picked seats that were (if the stage could be considered twelve o’clock) at seven o’clock and they moved the seat numbering so I was sitting at ten o’clock. That sounds weird but if the seats were numbered 1-25 north to south when I bought my tickets I purposely bought seats 20 and 21. Well when I got there they had changed it to the seat numbering going 1-25 south to north. So a lot of the action of guys doing spots jumping out of the ring or throwing each other into the barricades was out of my line of site, when I purposely bought tickets to have it right in my line of site. There were spotlights in my eyes and everything was hard to see all night, but that would have happened regardless of if they moved the numbering around. Still, I was front row so I can’t complain. We didn't bother with many pictures because of the lighting but here are the few we took:
our view. the lights weren't quite as abrasive as the picture makes it look but if a dude was doing a top rope move out of that corner I couldn't see a thing. the Bruiser acted as a nice moon to its sun during his match.
Kenny Omega
Kenny Omega consoling Nick Jackson
The place was packed and I believe the show was sold out. But it was all because of the NJPW guys and specifically Kenny Omega. I’ll definitely go to a Ring of Honor show again with or without them being there. But they won’t get this crowd without them. The undercard was a solid card but the main event made it.
After all the ballyhoo surrounding him I didn’t even notice that Adam Cole wasn’t there.
