Original Air Date: June 11, 2017
Event Date: May 14, 2017
City: Philadelphia, PA
Venue: 2300 Arena
Attendance: 1,100
Series: War of the Worlds
Commentary: Ian Riccaboni, Colt Cabana, Kevin Kelly (title match only)
Ring Announcer: Bobby Cruise
Intro Video
“War Zone” by 615 Music
Ring Area
Bullet Club heads to the ring for a match. Roppongi Vice comes out next and Romero gets on the mic. He’s upset with Beretta for announcing that they have a mystery partner or tonight without consulting Romero, the captain of the team. Beretta takes the mic and introduces his “real tag team partner” and “best friend,” Chuck Taylor!
Match 1
Hangman Page & The Young Bucks (ROH Tag Champs) vs Roppongi Vice (IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Champs) & Chuckie T
(referee: Tiger Hattori)
Result: Chuckie T pins Matt Jackson after an Awful Waffle
Time: 10:29 (1 break)
Match Thoughts
Very good match. This was pretty much a tornado match, as you would probably expect. There were lots of big moves and dives (and superkicks) to keep it fun, and the addition of the division between the jealous Rocky Romero and the debuting Chuck Taylor made this a lot of fun.
Backstage
Matt Taven tries to calm TK O’Ryan and Vinny Marseglia prior to their match with The Boys next week.
Video
A focus on Jay White. After talking about his training and wrestling debut, he calls out Punishment Martinez for attacking him.
Match 2
Rhett Titus & Shane Taylor w/ Caprice Coleman vs Jonathan Gresham & Jay White w/ Alex Shelley
(referee: Paul Turner; guest commentary: Alex Shelley)
Result: the match ends in a no contest when Kenny King and Chris Sabin get involved in the match
Time: 5:58 (1 break)
Match Thoughts
A very good match. The Rebellion attacked before the opening bell and brawled with White and Gresham for quite a while before two men finally made it into the ring to start the match. From there Search and Destroy seemed to get the upper-hand with superior teamwork and some interesting tandem moves. I liked this match quite a lot, but the finish ended up being more about a story line than anything else. That’s not necessarily a bad thing though.
Ring Area
After the match, Alex Shelley gets on the mic and proposes an 8-Man tag match at Best in the World with the stipulation that the losing team must disband. The Rebellion doesn’t really answer, but they seem confident.
Backstage
Frankie Kazarian addresses Hangman Page, saying their problems have gone to another level. He’s looking forward to their strap match where he can “rip” at Page.
Backstage
Jay Briscoe is quite upset with Dalton Castle and The Boys.
Match 3
ROH World TV Title Match
KUSHIDA vs Marty Scurll (ROH TV Champ)
(referee: Todd Sinclair)
Result: KUSHIDA wins via pinfall with Back to the Future (small package driver) after a distraction from Adam Cole and becomes the new ROH World TV Champ
Time: 8:06 (1 break)
Match Thoughts
Very good match. There were lots of good chains in this one as both men started going for their submission finishers part-way through the match. I really enjoyed how the match went back and forth and how it felt like they were evenly matched with each other. The finish had a little bit of shenanigans going on, but it didn’t play a direct role in the outcome so it didn’t detract from the outcome. The only issue I had with this match is that it was taped a month before it aired, and with both Scurll and KUSHIDA participating in the NJPW Best of the Super Jr. tournament which aired live, the winner of this match was spoiled a long time ago.
Show Impressions
This was a great show! All the matches were very good, it was fun seeing some of the story elements, Chuck Taylor debuted, and there was a big title match. You can’t ask for a lot more from a free TV show.
Match of the Night
KUSHIDA vs Marty Scurll
All the matches were good, but I liked this one the most. It felt the most important, and the outcome made me happy even if I did know what happened a month before I saw it.