Shore's ROH Wrestling TV Report: Week of 4/11The finals of the March Mayhem $24,000 tournament

By Chris Shore

ROH Wrestling on SBG stations
Taped in Baltimore, Maryland

A video recapped the Davey Richards/Kevin Steen confrontation from last week. The opening video aired, and Kevin Kelly and Nigel McGuinness checked in on commentary. They went straight to the first match...

1. The Young Bucks vs. TJ Perkins and Shiloh Jonze. Kevin Kelly went way out of his way to put the Bucks over before the match even started. It didn't sound natural. Nick attacked Jonze from behind to start and tagged in Matt, but Jonze hit a flying head scissor to take control. Perkins tagged in and did his hang in the ropes spot and tagged back out.

The Bucks used their double team head scissor/drop kick spot to take control. They worked in and out on Jonze with lots of double team moves. Perkins got the hot tag to absolutely no response from the crowd. Perkins tied Matt to the tree of woe in one corner. He hit a double knee to Nick in the other, and then a drop kick on Matt. Then he botched a neckbreaker on Nick. Jonze tagged in and the match broke down. Everybody ended up fighting in the corner and then Jonze jumped off the top rope, only to have Matt superkick him out of the air. The Bucks followed with More Bang for Your Buck for the win...[C]

The Young Bucks defeated TJ Perkins and Shiloh Jonze at 6:08.

Shore's Slant: Not a very good match to open the show. The crowd could not possibly have cared less about Perkins and Jonze, and the Bucks weren't flashy enough to bring the "wow" factor to make it interesting.

A video recapped the short history between Mike Mondo and Matt Taven...

2. Matt Taven vs. Mike Mondo. Mondo offered his hand to shake. Mave slapped him and said, "Shake that." A brawl broke out and Taven clotheslined Mondo over the top rope. Taven wouldn't let Mondo back in until Mondo hit a knee lift to push him back. Mondo tossed Taven over the top rope, but Taven skinned the cat and hit a nasty clothesline.

Taven went for a back suplex. Mondo flipped out and grabbed his ankle. He flashed an X sign to the ref and rolled to the floor. He snatched his boot off and started toward the back. Taven went down on the floor and yeleld at Mondo. Mondo recovered and slammed Taven into several barricades.

Mondo rolled Taven back in the ring. Taven tried to fight back, but Mondo shoved him to the floor. Mondo jumped off the apron, but Taven reversed it into a powerslam on the floor. Ouch! Taven slammed Mondo into the same barricades Mondo had slammed him into and then hit a vertical suplex on the ramp.

Taven rolled Mondo back in the ring and hit a crossbody from the top for two. Taven stomped on the foot that had no boot on it, slammed Mondo, and went back to the top. He tried for another crossbody, but Mondo turned it into a flapjack type move. He followed with the double arm DDT for the win...[C]

Mike Mondo defeated Matt Taven at 6:09.

Shore's Slant: That was a great match. Seriously, I was blown away at how good it was. It was flashy enough to impress the ROH crowd and also told a great story. I'm genuinely, and pleasantly, shocked by how good this was. Definitely check it out.

Back from commercial, Kevin Kelly stood in front of the chain link fence and said they had removed this week's Inside ROH segment to show highlights of a press conference that was held to announce the return of ROH to Toronto, that was also interrupted by Kevin Steen.

The press conference highlights were Kevin Kelly making the announcement of the Toronto event, Joe Koff putting over this being the first international event, and Jim Cornette listing some of the talent that will be there. Davey Richards spoke next and said his journey started in Toronto so he was looking forward to returning.

He said, "Whoever my opponent is," and then he was cut off as Kevin Steen come in from the side. Steen jawed with Davey and Cornette and said Cornette was preventing the fans from seeing the one match they wanted, Steen vs. Richards. Cornette cussed, a lot, and Davey said he would make it easy on everyone. He demanded Cornette make the match for Toronto or he would vacate the ROH title and go back to Japan. He said, "I did it once, I can do it again."

Steen mocked him and continued to antagonize Cornette. Davey said Steen could even bring the piledriver. Cornette argued for a while longer, but finally asked Davey if he was sure he could beat Steen. Davey said yes, so Cornette made the match for Toronto. Steen left still mocking everyone...

Shore's Slant: Good stuff. I'm not a huge fan of Davey saying he would go back to Japan like he did before, but that's a nuance issue because I do appreciate him leveraging his position as champ to force Cornette's hand. I hope Toronto is ready for this match.

All four finalist in March Mayhem cut promos on the match and then everyone made ring entrances...

3. Adam Cole vs. Tomasso Ciampa (w/The Embassy) vs. Mike Bennett (w/Maria and Brutal Bob) vs. Jay Lethal in the March Mayhem Elimination Finals. Lethal tried to attack Ciampa twice before the bell rang. Sinclair kept order until it came time for the Code of Honor, and then Lethal attacked and sent Ciampa to the floor. Cole went to the apron as this is a tag in match where you can tag anyone. Bennett and Lethal worked first while Ciampa recovered.

Ciampa begged to be tagged in but the Embassy wouldn't let him, so Lethal tagged in Cole. Cole took control on Bennett with a sit down drop kick. He tagged in Lethal, who took Bennett to the floor. Ciampa attacked Lethal from behind. All three men fought on the floor, so Cole hit a dive on all of them from the top rope...[C]

Back from commercial, Lethal and Ciampa were in the ring with Cole and Bennett recovering on the floor. Ciampa hit a clothesline and a cut in video showed Bennett hitting a spinebuster on the apron on Cole during the break.

Lethal hulked up, but Ciampa came back with a side Russian leg sweep. Bennett reached over and tagged himself in. Ciampa got in Bennett's face for tagging him and then slapped him. Lethal attacked Ciampa, so for some reason, Bennett attacked Lethal. The heels tried for a double back drop, but Lethal kicked Ciampa, and then hit the Lethal Injection on Bennett to eliminate him.

Mike Bennett was eliminated by Jay Lethal at 9:57.

Lethal turned around and got hit with the knockout knee from Ciampa to be eliminated nine seconds later.

Jay Lethal was eliminated by Tomasso Ciampa at 10:06.

Cole dragged back into the ring and Ciampa attacked. He set Cole in the corner and hit two running knees with the pad down. He went for a third, but Cole popped up and hit a superkick. Ciampa rolled to the floor and Cole went for a dive. Ciampa caught him and hit a Kryptonite Krutch on the floor. He rolled Cole back in a for a near fall.

Ciampa went for Project Ciampa, but Cole escaped and locked on a sleeper. Ciampa escaped, but Cole hit a superkick to the back of the head and locked on the sleeper again, taking Ciampa down with a body scissor. They did the three arm drops gimmick with Ciampa recovering on the third.

Cole stopped the hope spot with a slam and went to the top rope for his cross body. Jay lethal ran out with refs on him to go after Ciampa. That distracted the ref and Cole, and allowed Ciampa to hit the top rope, knocking Cole down. Ciampa hit Project Ciampa for the win. Post-match, Veda Scott tried to give Ciampa his check and talk to him, but the Embassy ran in and took the check and the mic so Prince Nana could sing, "We're in the money..."

Tomasso Ciampa defeated Adam Cole to win the March Mayhem final at 14:44

Shore's Slant: Fun match, but it is frustrating to not see any highlights from the iPPVs. Yes, I know this was taped weeks ago, but that's my point. I like these little mini-tournaments they do to fill the time gap created by their TV taping schedule vs. their iPPV events, but I would rather see something more linear. I can keep up, but I'm not sure the casual fan is going to invest that much time when they can get linear storytelling elsewhere. It was a good show, except for the first match, but ROH as a whole would be better off if they would figure out a way to make the two time lines mesh. Thanks for reading along with me.