Episode 203: Best in the World 2012: Hostage Crisis (Presented by Patreon.com/AnHonorablePod)

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
This is an Honorable Mention with JeffSchwartz and Shane Hagedorn, part of the
CRATI General Networking podcast. Hey it'sTuesday and you know what that means.
Happy two for Tuesday and welcome anotherchapter of an Honorable Mention. The Essential
Ring of Honor retrospective podcast cover themost successful independent wrestling promotion of this generation.

(00:24):
I am your host, Jeff Schwartz. I am delighted to be here
and alongside my co host, ourexpert analysts, the head of Logistics,
all Elite wrestling content provider and operationsspecialist, the Mayor of Merchandise, the
Worry of the way Back Machine,King of k and Code of Honor author,
the Ring of Honorable Shane hagen Ornpartner. A whole lot of nothing

(00:47):
going on in our lives, right, I mean, technically speaking at the
moment we were recording this, yes, because I'm just in a holding pattern,
waiting for Elena to decide she's readyto come into this world. By
the time the strops, who knows, we could be in the delivery room,
but at this moment she is wassupposed to her due date. Our

(01:12):
due date was the fourteenth. Weare recorded this on the seventeenth, so
still waiting. She uh, She'sgoing to be entering the world soon enough,
healthy and happily along with Mary aswell. And I'm just so happy
for you guys. And I doenjoy texting Mary the worthless single gift.

(01:38):
Yes, yes see what yes responsesfeel free to feel free to send gifts
in the form of Formula diapers andthe McFarlane Parallax figure that just got released
because Nathan is obsessed with green lanternand you would make his life. Well,

(02:00):
send send me a picture of thisthing and I will. I just
tweet it, so, okay,I will get to Walmart Exclusive. Okay,
Well, I'm on the hunt forthe Ruthless Aggression series of Walmart's.
If Walmart ever decides to restock toys, maybe we'll be able to find something

(02:21):
exciting. Same goes for Target.Shame on both of you. You put
Toys r US out of business.Go to Canada. I saw somebody I
don't remember who tweet a picture ofI went to Canada just for Toys r
Us. I know. It remindsme I need to do my passport.
Yeah, me too, Just ingeneral, I need to do my passport.

(02:43):
I just thought about that because Irealized, even though mine's expired,
you have fifteen years from at leastI do. It says fifteen years from
the issue date, and I'm encroachingupon the fifteen years if fast already passed.
Otherwise I have to start the processall over again versus just a renewal.
Yeah, I'm I've got about ninemonths until I'm at the fifteen year

(03:07):
mark. Gotcher, No, whatmonth five? I think the last time
I used it was Gloria by Honorin twenty twelve with Kevin and Elgan in
Mississauga. That's probably the last timeI used my passport. Do you manage

(03:28):
you get any brotheen powder across theborder that trip? Or No? I
did not. I did not gofor protein powder. You know me.
I only go to Canada for twothings, It's true, wrestling and candy
exactly exactly coffee crisp, cough,coffee crisp. You can also send gifts

(03:51):
in the form of coffee crisp ifyou're a Canadian only apparently, yes,
yes, yes, you know Iwould. Watching Toronto Blue Jays baseball game
the other day. And for thosethat don't know, my all time favorite
baseball player beside Ken Griffey Jr.Is Vladimir Guero. So Vladimir Guarro Junior

(04:17):
is must see TV for me.So I have the MLB package. I
watch a lot of the Blue Jaysgames. Um if they're not playing at
the same time as the Guardians andthey have signed I'm laughing because of the
show. We're talking about the TimeMendians. So I'll get into them because

(04:42):
I have original coot. I haveresearch on the Goot. Got the original
the books came up before the TVshow. Yeah, man, that's true.
And there's a new Goot coming apparentlyat the end of the summer,
which yeah, probably is going tobe terrible. Hope they or redemption for

(05:03):
the last season. Who knows,We're old. But um uh they have
a Tim Hortons sign. Yeah,like as a sponsor, right, So
Vladimir girl hits this ball off thewall and hits it off the Tim Hortons
sign and the announcer goes, ohmy god, he just killed Tim Horton's

(05:27):
there's a WI found on a newjersey. Yeah, we're getting one over
by the Hall of Fame Complex.You should it's not that far from the
border. There's some. There's somein Lancing, you know, there's some
here, not even not Detroit Loot. No, but it's like Detroit Winds
Lancing. Yeah, not Canada.There's some in Lancing, not up here

(05:51):
where the state is technically above theCanadian border. As I'm doing a geography
lesson with my hands for anybody watchingon patreon dot com, vackslash an honorable
pod, the Upper Peninsula Michigan isabove the Canadian border. Well, it's
it's the same weird thing as usnot having a seven eleven anywhere within forty

(06:12):
minutes of my house, Like that'sbizarre. And it's a seven eleven inside
a BP, does it make anysense? I've got several around my house.
Three hundred and twelve wahwas within twomiles. That's another thing we need,

(06:36):
Like we need BUCkies Tim Horton's Wawa. Apparently there's BUCkies in West Virginia.
Really, I think so. Ithink that's what Jake and I found
when we were looking the other dayat BUCkies. There was like a BUCkies
in West Virginia. It was somewherethat wasn't Texas, And we're like,
what the hell is it doing therethere? Are some we know that two

(06:56):
or three in Florida. There's twothat I know, two that I've been
to in Florida and then Georgia andAlabama. I thought I had maybe,
but if there's one in West Virginiathat's drivable for me, maybe when I
come from Charleston. Not for me. Charleston's seven a half, seven and
a half hours from my house.Is that insane? That a part of

(07:20):
West Virginia. It is seven anda half hours from my house and it
borders your state. That's just yeah. But Charleston doesn't. No, But
the state of West Virginia does justlike yeah, And for me it's two
and a half. I worked inIndian West Virginia as booked by Mark Brown,
which was the anniversary of it wasyesterday I saw on Mark Brown's Facebook

(07:45):
account. Oh really, it waswhere you did the heel faction with valet
named Liz Savage. Yes, therewas a show report on there. I
read the whole thing ahead Rhett andBobby Dempsey and Pelly Grizzy. Um,
somebody who hold a lot like BrianPillman. Oh yeah he did, he

(08:09):
did. There was somebody on theshow. I don't remember his name was
looked a lot like loose Cannon.It was not junior, it was there
was no relation. Just remember lookingat him and thinking that Alex a lot
Brian Pillman, Well, the mulletis very popular in West Virginia, is
as we all know. But we'vebeentered enough, I think on interesting things
to go. Look at Mark Brown'sfacing. We're playing we're playing catch up

(08:31):
on true unlives. We are allowedthough public. Even though we had a
show that came to y'all like threeweeks ago, we have not recorded in
the beginning of June though, Yeah, June tenth. Um, it has

(08:52):
been, honest to god, Imean, one of the craziest month and
a half of my life. Um, I can't talk about any of it
in public, but rest assured everyone'sokay, okay, They're none in West
Virginia. I don't know what Iwas thinking. Maybe South Carolina is what

(09:13):
I was thinking of. I don'twant to go there. But all all
things considered, like it's been acrazy, you know, month and a
half for us, and um,you know, we think everybody over at
Patreon, we hope you're enjoying ourdaily dumps over at Patreon dot com back
slash an honorable pod. Some ofthem have a high impact, yes,

(09:37):
and uh some of them are arevery classic. Uh, some of them
have survival in them. Some ofthem. There's there's a ton of content
and more coming, and it's goingto be coming as fast and curious as
I possibly can. Over there.Hey, once I get, once I

(10:00):
get that dish tripot that you thatyou set my way via Rehet Titus,
I can add finally some of mybox of DVD hold on one sack,
keep talking. So you know thedaily dumps, and I'm calling them dumps,
not because the shows are bad,but because, um in the information

(10:20):
dumps that we've had is Haron hasthis massive box in his hands. This
see this bundle, this is allOh my god, they're not Noah.
Oh you want pro wrestling Noah onPatreon dot com, back slash Honora pod
coming your way. See this.This is all New Japan TV for nineteen

(10:41):
ninety two. That might need togo on Google Drive so I can and
under that stack is all Japan nineteenninety two. Oh um, else,
I have no idea what this isbecause oh new japel this is the two

(11:03):
thousand and seven G one from eighttwelve or seven. It's like one disc,
the G one. Yeah, Ihave in nineteen ninety three G one.
That's just one disc and it hasa lot of highlights on it.
Two hours of highlights. Uh.Dragon Gate from March eighteenth of two thousand

(11:24):
and six, they opened the BraveGate Tournament. M Yoshino versus Super She's
a Dragon Kid versus Doi Yoshino versusDragon Kids versus Joki Tonasaki. Can'ts some
good stuff here? Magnum Tokio versusGinchio tenrew. That's not ten room,

(11:52):
ten room, Yeah, that's tenroom. A series of matches between yep
between ten room and so anyway,that's the kind of stuff that we're gonna
be putting on Patreon. Yeah,and we'll be doing more podcasts as well
as is we have the free timeto do it. Um. I've got
a couple ideas for some stuff thatZack Johnson and I are going to be

(12:13):
doing. Possibly I need to kindof run through what our schedule will look
like, but maybe watch some oldclassic like WCWS Saturday Night and just kind
of do a watch along since everybodyhas access to the Cock Network. Um,

(12:33):
you know, I I'm a bigfan of the Dustin Rhodes Barry Wyndham
tag team, and I've been watchinga lot of their matches, So like
that ninety two ninety three era beforeBarry turns um, maybe we'll watch a
little of that, talk about it, talk about our feelings on a great

(12:54):
era of World Championship wrestling, Somany things to come. If toy stores
would ever stock their shelves, maybewe'll do some unboxings. Hopefully by the
time August rolls around, they'll besome unmatched Series four for me to do

(13:16):
an unboxing of. Lord knows,I need more figures. You do you
do? Actually, well, youneed a place to put them first,
Well, the basement. This hasbeen one of the things that has kind
of occupied entirely too much of mytime. But my basement is going to

(13:37):
be done within the next few weeks, and all my wrestling figures will be
making their way down to my basement, so it will no longer be the
background of my office. And we'regonna turn this desk around and it's gonna
be a whole new new thing,whole new world here the Swartz household.
So there's a paint CD in themix of my DVD box so big fan

(14:03):
of Pink and uh also a ripcopy of M and M Recovery and C
d R w oh, I wantfancy with that. When I got to
RWs, I think he's doing RecoveryVolume two coming soon. Enough talk enough

(14:28):
talk the time. Support the show. Patreon dot com, back slash honorable
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(14:48):
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(15:09):
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(15:31):
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(15:54):
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(16:17):
Well, partner, let's dive intoit. I think it's worthy of
an honorable mention. It's June twentyfourth, two thousand and twelve. It
is your eighth anniversary, and weare in Manhattan, New York at the
Hammer steam Ballroom for our Pole winnerI'm the best in the World pole that
we didn't many many months ago.Best in the World twenty twelve Hostage Crisis

(16:40):
proudly presented by Patreon dot Com backslashan honorable pod. And by anniversary,
I mean June twenty fourth, meand the Whites eight year date anniversary would
have been I am not ex caliber. I can I fit all the words
into one sense. Yeah, AndI did not celebrate it by being at

(17:03):
this show because by this time Idon't think I was. I don't remember
being here. I wasn't there,that's for sure. Now I'm pretty sure
I was not. Actually I wasnot there. This was, you know,
months after I was removed from myposition, as you can hear mentioned
during commentary in the main event fromthe Great Uncle Steve Corino. So this

(17:30):
show commentary is done by Kevin Soaringand Scoring Kelly and Nigel McGinnis. But
there is something to discuss before westart the show proper. What the fuck
is going on with the audio mixon that I don't know. There's a
delay and it actually it starts offbad and at some point during the show

(17:53):
it gets even worse. And that'sboth the DVD release version Jeff Watch and
the Honor Club version I watch,which is just a rip of the DVD.
I'm sure anyway or whatever the file. But the thing is, I
like looked at People's review that lookedat a couple different reviews and a couple
of different like live reports of thepay per view, and they weren't mentioned

(18:15):
by anybody else. So I don'tknow when this became a think if it
was not an issue on the directlive stream, but clearly it's an issue
by the time it got replicated forDVD. Well, my recollection of watching
this show live, I don't recallthe audio being bad, but I certainly

(18:38):
have other things on this show thatstand out far more than how the commentary
went. But it's not because it'snot just the commentary though, that's what
throws. It's the entire audio ofthe entire show. Moves had counts on
pinfalls everything about the show. Theaudio is off, and not just a

(19:02):
slight bit like seconds. Yeah,it's like the three you're you're you're seeing
the kick out and the next movebefore you see the two, before you
hear the two count. It's it'sbad. And from my recollection the shows
we've done in this era. Thisis not the only time this has happened.

(19:22):
Um, I don't know, Idon't recall of the time. It's
been a while since we've done atone of these shows. But like,
yeah, this was bad, thiswas really bad. There was a Dayton
show that we did that was likea horrible offender where it was Kevin Kelly
doing the commentary by himself and thenthe rotating cast of co hosts throughout the

(19:45):
night. Um, I could tellyou to the show, but it was
not good, not good at all. But it is a distraction watching and
it doesn't take away from some ofthe great moments on this show. And
it kind of is like rubbing saltin the wound on some of the how

(20:06):
shall I say it, lower endof the spectrum of this show, which
you know, in some of mycollege classes for communications, we were always
told when you're doing a speech,you open big, but you close bigger.
And in this case, the showdoes not open big, it does

(20:32):
close big. But we opened thisshow with a match that I think lingers
in the history of time as abig giant. What the fuck? I
want to rewind a second before that, not a second to something that irritated

(20:52):
me from the very beginning of Sinclairpay per view era during my time for
him. I'm sure I know itchanged down the line, but this and
the year starting with Best in theWorld from twenty eleven and anything before that

(21:12):
that was a pay per view presentation, there was nothing about it that made
it feel special. You have literallythe TV opening that has been the TV
opening for the year at this pointis still the pay per view opening,
and it's just literally close lips onCharlie's hat, Shelton's boots, and Davy's
mouthpiece. Like you don't see anywrestling in the reps open. It's just

(21:36):
these weird and it's just it's aTV open and now it's just here it
is for the pay per view itright. That drove me nuts then and
watching it back now that it's justhere's the pay per view. But if
WrestleMania opened with the raw intro,that's what this is. Well, I'll
tell you this from from where Icame from going into this show or any

(22:03):
show of the pay per view quoteunquote, the idea of being able to
watch a Ring of Honor show asit's happening and not have to rely on
the message board for results, orsomebody texting you that's there, or somebody
calling you after. Imagine saying,hey, the Briscoe's just beat Arias and
strong for the tag Belts. Butit sounds like the bus because the crowd

(22:30):
going wild, the novelty of beingable to see these shows live and fairly
often for long time periods. Thequality was good. Uh it you kind
of let some of those things slide. But I do understand what you're saying,

(22:56):
and in hindsight, I understand thesignificance of it having a far larger
impact. Um. The the soaringand scoring intro is kind of what we're
referring to. But that wasn't thathadn't even been inserted yet. Yeah,
this was just it was the sYeah. Yeah, it was just like

(23:22):
the generic. Um. I wastrying to find something because I couldn't remember,
Uh who if this was the firstNow this doesn't if this was the
first time that Saint Clair tried todo it, or if it was a

(23:45):
Go Fight Live, because Go FightLive had just done two months earlier.
M hm um with the the Showdownon the Shunt, Showdown in the Sun
train Wreck. But there was thatthey went away from Go Fight Live for

(24:06):
I want I want to say thiswas, this was, and then they
went back because things had been fixedquote unquote, and they weren't. They
weren't fixed. It's just David Cormantripped over a wire and unplugged the entire
show. But we got it screwedover, like the one of the most

(24:26):
anticipated matches. But hey, atleast they got redemption on this show.
But that's neither here nor there atthis point. Yeah, my a point
to start was like that there's nothingabout this presentation that makes it feel like
it's anything different than the show,and it's be and it's now the best
in the world. You know thatthat is now being treated the same way
as the previous decade had treated GloribaHonor Death before this honor Um, the

(24:52):
anniversary show. You know, it'sbeing created added in there as a new
tent pole event. You know thisis this is King of the r and
getting dumped in pressed them the pearlsis the perfect way to label this.
Yeah, and much how King ofthe Ring waned in like the early two
thousands, I would say probably onethousand and one two. I was at

(25:15):
the last one when brock oneing.Um, that's how I always felt about
Best in the World being grouped inwith Gloria by Honor and Supercardivanor and Final
Battle and the Anniversary show. Itjust yeah, even though the name itself
is from the Kerry era, Imean one show, one show in March,

(25:42):
it wasn't There is a difference,you know, It's like the King
of the ring House show from eightyseven or whatever, that Tito Santana one.
Uh, and then they went anddid it as a pay per view
concept in ninety three with Brett.But this there's a separation between that Best

(26:06):
in the World and Best in theWorld going forward. Well, that Best
in the World was we talked aboutin the archives that Best in the World
was called that because of one matchthe main event. These were I think
trying, you know, aiming formore than that, trying to give it
that that same that that Marquee event. Feel well, nothing says Marquis event.

(26:32):
Like Jay and Mark Risco. However, they face off with the Guardians
of Truth. Yes, alongside TruthMartini and I have research to go along
with the Guardians of Truth. Well, the whole article lovely from the from

(26:56):
barrowatresting dot com noway world doc okayspeculations how excited people were for the Guardians
the Truth. Really it's a Iliterally I thought this, uh not yesterday,
so like two or three days ago, and I said, I have

(27:18):
to reference this when we do thepod because the idea they I thought it
was it's so utterly transparent who theyare that even the commentary from Nigel,
people are banging in their heads tryingto figure out who the Guardians of Truth
arts. This was so the articlehas written before, but I'm just saying
it's I think I thought one ofthose things. It was so transparent that

(27:41):
Nigel just makes that comment on commentarybecause it's so Yeah. But and you
can see, um, I thinkit's Mosh that has the spider web tattoo
and whichever one has the I thinkit's a cross in between their shoulder blades
on their neck. Yeah, yeah, you can see the tattoo. But

(28:04):
obviously you know that's that's in themoment. So prior to what is this
rwage world dot com board post,thinking no, it's a it's an actual
article from there when they had likea website attached, and I'm opening it

(28:25):
up now. I want to readthis because it's it's actually fascinated with the
Guardians of Truth are in fact MahantThrash for the Headbangers m They had three
matches in our wage this one theyfaced the Briscoes again from the dow Burns
Um. I don't know what thetaping date or the air date was,
but it would have been around theend of June of twenty twelve, so

(28:48):
right near this show. And thenthey're back again in August for the first
round of the tag team Titles tournament, when the Dream Team of Charlie Haas
and Rhet Titus would defeat the Guardiansof Truth. Yeah, yeah, so
all right. This written was writtenby Stephen Coney on June nineteenth, twenty

(29:11):
twelve, and it features a graphicof truth Martini with two question marks next
to him, one on each side, and it says two weeks ago,
on the ROH TV show, whilecommentating on a match between Protein Powder,
Michael Elgin and Matt Taven, TruthMartini challenged the Briscoes to a match at
Best in the World Hostage Crisis.Martini added the Briscos if they were to

(29:34):
accept, they'd be facing off againstthe Guardians of Truth. He went on
to say that their identities would notbe revealed and they had been thrown out
of everywhere they had been. Onthat week's TV show, he said that
the sheer mention of their names wouldmake people flee. A lot of speculation
has been surrounding who the Guardians ofTruth really are, and in a recent

(29:57):
Roag newswire it gave us a goodclue as to what to expect. It
said Martini had claimed their identities wouldbe hidden for now and forever. That
would lead us to believe that wewill not get to see these two men
are. The only way for thatto work is for them to wear masks.
After thinking about it, it wouldbe a smart move from Ring of

(30:18):
Honor. They could literally put anybodyunder the masks and really build up an
interesting storyline. Martini claims these twomen will do anything for him, and
tag Team Gold is certainly something he'sinterested in. Names have been thrown out
on our forum with the likes offormer Rowah dresslers, Teddy Hart, Jimmy
Rab, Alex Shelley, Pete Williams, and Alex Koslov mentioned Autonic Gets Better.

(30:45):
Shelley is a possibility, although itlooks as if he is heading to
the WWE. A Motor City machineGuns returned to Roah seems out of the
question, at least for now,as Chris Saban is still contract the TNA
and recently injured his knee. Anotherpossibility is the return of former House of

(31:06):
Truth tag team Josh Raymond and ChristianAbel. The pair were put as part
of the House of Truth during muchof twenty ten and failed to really make
a mark. They were however,trained at Truth Martini's wrestling school like Shelley,
which gives them an advantage. Withit looking likely that the parable Dawn
Masks, a storyline involving the BigReveal could work well. The tag team

(31:30):
ranks need a bit of spicing up. With World's Greatest Tag Team set to
do battle with the All Men Expressover the summer, the Briscoes will need
something to do. Add to thefact that the division is low on teams
after the breakup of Future Shock,the Guardians of Truth seemed like a good
idea. This will also signal thebeginning of the end of Michael Michael Elgin's

(31:52):
involvement in the House of Truth.I can see Roderick Strong Martini and the
Guardians kicking Elgin out sooner with justRoderick that will be tough to do,
but with this new tag team toback him up as well as Rhino,
it leads to many possibilities down theline. Elgan could look for reinforcements on
his own or try to take onthe House of Truth by himself. Whatever

(32:15):
he chooses, it looks as ifElgan is set for the top of the
card. This could set up agood six month feud with the Masks eventually
being on the line and removed inthe identities of the Guardians being revealed,
maybe even at Final Battle twenty twelve. So all the exact identities of the
Guardians of the Truth is yet unknown. It looks as if we will not

(32:37):
know who they are at least forthe time being. That will keep people
guessing, and that, after all, is what pro what makes pro wrestling
must watch. You know, it'swild about that the Josh and Christian assumption,
Like, didn't it Christian Abele deadat that point? No no Christian

(32:58):
will no, no, no umAnd I just looked it up on his
cage match. I mean, there'sthere might be you know, how it
is there's not necessarily everything. It'sthere but on in his cage match.
The last date for six months isJune twenty second for AW. They worked
AW match as part of a triplethreat elimination at Bound by Hate to twenty

(33:23):
twelve for a W, So that'sJune twenty second, and then there's nothing
else on there until January of twentythirteen, So there's a six month gap
in his cage match history. Didhe not have a knee injury or something
I have, I mean factored intohis No, they just disappeared. They
were never written out. They justdisappeared. They were never written out of

(33:46):
ring amount. Their storylines are justno, they're not here anymore because now
we have Elgin and Roddy and ChristopherDaniels in the house truth, So like
I think they were gone by thetime Elgin came in. Well, but
it just that there's a I'm justsaying, it's just interesting. He wrestled
on the twenty second and then there'ssix months of nothing on cage match for

(34:07):
Christian Abel before he came back inJanuary for an a W show. So
it's um, it just it's sucha weird. I thought that they would
be the ones coming back. Umwell nothing screams House of Truth and Eddie
Hart and Pete Williams and Alex Koslowand the Teddy Hart one that wouldn't surprise

(34:30):
me. Now, I wonder ifthere is like an actual link to the
post. I just uh, that'sfascinating. I highly doubt anyone. I
mean I don't imagine anybody. Uh, I can't see any reason anybody prior

(34:52):
to laying eyes on once the showstarted would have thought Mahon Thrasher, you
know, yeah, beaver cleavage,Like they're not thinking of you know,
the Sisters of Mercy or whatever theirtag team name briefly was the number.
Yeah, like they're not thinking thatthat's who's going to come out. Um.

(35:16):
And it's like it was to theirbenefit to be mastered, because they
would have been shit all over ifit would have been Mosh and Thrasher who
walked down. I think they've restedone match as Dead Bangers too, like
in the Duke parts, like man, I remember being told that who was
getting used Like wow, that's uhterrible. Um. And it was certainly

(35:43):
one of those things that was likethis is why people or call it you
know why aries three years two yearsprior was making the Ohio Valley of Honor
jokes is because of using people likethat that were just ill suited. It'll
fit in to the Ring of Honorlandscape, no matter what you did with
them. It's interesting too that thisarticle from Stephen Coney, he's speculating like

(36:14):
this could lead to bigger things.This could mean, you know, a
big six month story. The ideaof that, like, that's not how
the booking worked at this point,like and it never did. Like there
was nothing that lasted six months.It was always all right. If Delirious

(36:37):
has an idea, it's let's justdo it and see how it works and
then maybe we have an ended orjust never get to something, or just
it's been so long by the timeit's paid off what he cares, nobody
cares and it's just too little,too or it's just too late talk about

(37:00):
that we get said tag title matchin way. But yeah, this was
this is an awful choice to startthe show off with. Besides the idea
of let's just get it out ofthe way, like for let's get the
crowd pumped and excited to go.Yeah, this is the probably the worst

(37:22):
match in the entire show. Youcould have picked open with it, and
it's just it's not the typical briskgoes you know, twenty minute banger match.
Um. The crowd is not stupid. They realize this is Mashon Thrasher.
That's why they're more interested in theextremely loose ropes on that shitty overpriced

(37:43):
ring that Sinclair got sold with thethirty thousand dollars ring skirt with a thirty
thousand dollars for a single ring skirt. Oh yes, because there's only one
that was lost twenty twenty thousand dollarsskirts. Maybe next next week and next
time we cover a show with thatring, it will be a two I
was in two million dollars per ringskirt. We'll just keep up in the

(38:04):
price. Why not. But thatthat terrible ring. So the ropes are
shaky as hell, and they maintainedThey pretty much maintained that through the entire
show, even though you know,the Bird and the Kid's crew or Ernie
or whoever was manhandling it at thispoint. It was one of the two.
I don't remember when Bird took over, like they do their best,

(38:28):
but that ring sucked and keeping theropes tied on. That ring sucked,
like I've never seen a more expensiveshitty ring than that one. Is this
the one that would have been?Like a is Danny Davis Valley Danny Davis?
Yeah, okay, so this isthe ring that we got for the
first episode of tv UM where Godbless him nobody bad communication, so literally

(38:57):
being told on Tuesday that the ringsbeing delivered Wednesday or so we need to
be out there now, and scramblingto find to get any form of a
ring crew together at the last minutea date twenty four hours thirty six hours
before we were even supposed to leave. It was the only time I evergotten
any kind of an argument with Garyjust it was about that. Yeah.

(39:22):
Yeah, So that ring had beenfloating around for a year at this point,
and I don't know how much longerit lasted, but eventually they go
back to the skinny square posts withthe caps on top. That doesn't look
as flashy and pretty as this ringor wwe as this ring, but it

(39:43):
was certainly far more functional and safeand stirty. Yeah, and that's kind
of good. The one thing Ithink fans don't realize with rings is sometimes
even though it looks shinier and brighterand more modern esque. It's not better,

(40:06):
and sometimes just old, reliable worksand you go with that and make
the best of it. Absolutely,especially with a wrestling ring where these guys
are putting their lives on the line. Just don't don't worry about esthetics,
worry about safety. So I don'tthink we need to go through this match.

(40:31):
No, No, it happened.It sucked its sun, it went
six minutes. It happened. Ithink the talking from when the cameras start
on Kevin and Nigel through Truth's promoare is longer than the actual match because
rather than getting right into a match, it's Kevin and Nigel sitting at dringside

(40:55):
table talking for a few minutes,and then it's Truth promo. So again,
as if the match itself wasn't aBell Report choice for an opener,
spending six minutes talking before you evenget to the match is um also a
difficult way to um kill the interestin watching. So in this case,

(41:24):
Jay kind of sits down in avictory role to get to win in six
minutes. That's the other part ofit too. Just like I know I've
said a win is a win,but literally this is the fucking Guardians of
Truth, like this is a doomsdaydevice, this is a spike Ja driller

(41:46):
like this is, and especially whenthe tag title match has more or less
the same thanish it. I don'tknow, I just it was another one
was like, come on, wewere in the w W, don't fuck
with us. You will not takeyour finish Indie guys. Sorry, it's

(42:07):
bullshit. It's full yeah, andwe go back to the can't color Ring
of Honor and Indie by this point. So I have one last thing I
wanted to ask about this match,and it's a big picture, a big
picture question. Okay, is thisthe biggest waste of a Briscoes tag match

(42:28):
in a Ring of Honor history?Uh? Okay, I can say I
don't know, because there's plenty ofstuff that was done in Baltimore with TV
that I don't know what it was. I have no concept. But as
far as a big, high profilematch that is hyped on TV, hyped

(42:52):
in news wires, uh, there'sa whole mystery about it. I mean,
this is Savio Vega taking Michael's placein that's the kind of way out
of text deflating. That's kind oflike deflating this is like, I think
what you go into hoping for withthis as a fan is, oh,

(43:13):
here's these two masks guys, andthen we'll think we'll find out who it
is at the end of the match, like they'll get unmasked by the Briscoes
and we'll find out, holy shit, it's it's it's Shelly and Sabin or
whatever fantasy booking you know you readthat article. Instead, it's just otter
disappointment on a Marquee, one ofthe Marquis shows for the company. And

(43:37):
yeah, it's really just like,well, I need something for the Briscos
to do, and it's the openeron what they're trying to make a tent
pole event. Yeah, it's justit's even bopping flopping one into a year
would have been all you really neededto do. Yeah, that's it.

(44:00):
Yeah, I mean it, it'sjust it's just a weird, weird,
weird, questionable decision, and Ithink you can just add it to the
list of decisions that Delirious made overthe years. But nevertheless, we go
to our second match on the showand oh boy, yeah, well yes,

(44:21):
yes, important, um, whichI guess I should bring out the
racket for this show. Um,it's sitting behind me. Um, we
go to the next match. Itis a match that on paper to me
sounds like it's booked for me.It's Eddie Edwards taking on the notorious one

(44:45):
eight seven Homicide and uh, I'mgonna tell you this starts right from the
beginning speaking to me as a homicidespits in Eddie's hand instead of shaking his
hands. I fucking loved it.I like from the beginning that it's um

(45:09):
that. I like the even thelead up to it at being this Eddie.
You know, they didn't call likea trial series or anything like that,
but like Eddie's gonna fight all formerRing of Modern World champions, Like
that's the idea behind this. Ireally didn't understand why the video package was
entirely done with a red filter.Um, I guess homicide, you know,

(45:35):
sirens going off and uh. Butman, for a TV production company,
video packages needed some work because allthey're doing is to do anything special.
It just here's the package from TV. You know, insert plug,
plug and play into the timeline forthe pay per view. But man,
they needed work or to make theminterested, to become them a little more

(46:00):
hype to make them a little morehypee they were, but just here's a
three minute clip of what God ushere. But I'm like, I don't
know. I think we come fromthat era of hype video as being hype
with some music and trying to toto make this like overly road of fade.
Yeah yeah, it's I don't Imean you got Kevin and and it's

(46:23):
and it's Kevin and Nigel talking overto explain the situation or just audio clips
from the TV. But yeah,man, I was just like, okay,
I mean underwhelming in the hype videoportion, um, but I don't
underwhelming wrestling now. No, No, And gett figured Helmicide hadn't been around.

(46:45):
He had not been there in fourmonths since the tenth anniversary show.
I think he'd been absent. Andyou know that that kind of two thou
eleven run his best work in thecompany. But he came back like a
fucking ball a fire with this one. He felt it felt like he was

(47:08):
more healthy. Mhm, you knowhe he'll busted a little bit. Yeah.
Like and and that's the thing,like I think everybody looks to Ring
of Honor and they go, oh, Samoa Joe and see him Punk and
Brian Danielson and Nigel mcginnison deservedly,so you know, not to knock any
of those legends, but homicide islike the one pillar that doesn't get the

(47:32):
credit. Oh absolutely deserves. Absolutely, I've I've had that conversation in relation
to the book as well, likehim being he's the he is a day
one. Yeah he may not,he may have had his absences, but
I mean he's as much Day onetill you know when as as as the

(47:54):
Bristoes in his own way, likehe's his foundation in that company is a
day one. But also in trainingso many of those of the people over
the years that made Ring of Honorhome at various points, or who looking

(48:15):
for whom he was the he wasan inspiration or a mentor. If he
might not have trained them directly,he was an influence on their career to
this day, you know, tothis day. Yeah, he's he is
a legend. And you know,Eddie Edwards in a sense also kind of
doesn't get the credit he deserves inthe Ring of Honor story because his top

(48:38):
run was so short in the grandscheme of twenty years before. You know,
he went to t NA obviously likegreat tag team wrestler as we know
Triple Crown winner, but as aworld champion that was so short lived ever

(49:00):
got to go back to that,and you know, this match itself is
just a great battle of top topguys. And I mean even the point
of like Paul Turner in this match, his the facial self that he does

(49:24):
as homicides bringing a chair into thering. He knows how dangerous homicide is,
you know, potentially to bring achair into the ring and what could
happen. So he twists Eddie's armin the ropes and Paul is warning him
homicide does the fishhook to Eddie ashe's twisting his arm on the mat,

(49:47):
Like this is a more aggressive violenthomicide in terms of like the wrestling without
the weapon ring and that threat ofusing the weapons is there. So you're
adding two layers to the wrestler that'spresenting. And he's in his hometown of
New York City, so obviously that'sgoing to be important, um which which

(50:12):
you mentioned that that's what made thelead up to this match so be funneling
because Eddie is a beloved figure inNew York and I'm the general ring of
our Landscape as well, you know, by twenty twelve, So the reaction
in Baltimore to him delivering the copkiller, which they're now calling the Gringo

(50:37):
Killer on commentary at this point becauseof impact DNA is healing on hom Sid,
but they're coming to New York's la. It was it was very strange
um choice to kind of have thelike, it's kind of like this match

(51:02):
and just put this match in abubble because bell the bell. If you
don't think about any of the extenuatingcircumstances before and after this devel the belle
of this match. This is likeHomicide's best singles match in years. I
would say definitely Landscape. It's phenomenal. And Eddie's selling of his arm and

(51:27):
just the way I ads. They'reso good, they're they're the perfect opponents
for each other in my opinion.At what Eddie presents is this hard hitting
straight lace that he's not a character, he's just Eddie. Edwas right.
So he's a hard hitter. Let'sget that Noah style the you know,
more physical wrestling. Homicide thrives offviolence, which is transcribed in the wrestling

(51:52):
ring as physical wrestling. So thisis just putting two guys in there,
let them beat the crap out ofeach other for our entertainment. And obviously
the crowd was a factor here,But and booking and and like you said,
put it in the bubble. Butman like, if you took this

(52:14):
Eddie Edwards and you put it againstlike a two thousand and five homicide,
Wow, it's like, it's tome the closest comparison I can make his
Daniels in an Homicides Chemistry MT stylistically. Yeah. Um, but this goes

(52:37):
twelve minutes and forty five seconds.Um, Eddie rolls homicide into the Achilles
lock. We know that's his goto homicide, kicks free from it.
He does a cradle that gets atwo count homicide, then elbows Eddie's hurt
arm, which he's been working onthe entire match, and he hits the

(52:57):
cop killer slash Green Go killer andgets to win at twelve minutes and forty
five seconds. Um, this,as I noticed, this is the best
match Onmisides had in a year.Yeah. Yeah, it's just it was.
Um, it was just one ofthose like interesting booking situations. That's

(53:19):
how I looked at it. BecauseEddie had the previous show had just lost
in a world title match to Kevinm after beating for some reason, one
of the matches is Bob Evans,but like he'd beat he'd Bennett, he
beat Davy, he beat Rhino,he'd beat Bet at another match. Like

(53:40):
it's weird because the whole what they'reselling of the the Eddie fighting former Ring
of Honor World Champions doesn't really seemto extend beyond the match with like I
don't really know whatever eyes because Iactual remember writing about that too for the

(54:01):
website, and then like it didn'treally actually seemed to apply anything, because
like, look at the matches Ijust mentioned, Yeah, Bennett had never
held the title and Ring Honor tothis point. Certainly, Bob Heavan's never
held a title to this point,Rhino had never held a like or Ring
a Honter title to this point.I mean, if you go, oh,

(54:22):
he's all World Champions, okay,then we can lump Rhino into there.
But what was being so you gotthen just Kevin who wasn't a who
we had lost to in March.The Eddie versus World Champions thing doesn't really
make sense when you get the matcheshe actually had It's another one of those

(54:46):
here's an idea and then they don'tapply it. And then, however,
Hannah as far as homicide, heliterally comes back, wins this match and
gets a world title against Kevin onTV. So it's it's one of the

(55:07):
like, I don't know anything.I said this. I love this match,
But then when I take extrapolated intothe big picture, what was going
on Eddie, The Eddie story ofwrestling form of champions does not hold water
looking at who he's worked. Hamasaid, literally has not been here in
four months, and he lost thelast time he was there, and he

(55:31):
comes in wrestles Eddie, who justlost to Kevin's so therefore would not be
a contender, and as a result, gets a title match on TV.
Well, I think the perfect thingto stay here goes back to the old
days. And I was listening tothe Gym Cornett podcast and he would be

(55:52):
criticizing modern day wrestling and the bookingof modern day wrestling, and he used
to say, lady booking. Well, I think I'm gonna apply lady booking
to this one. Just yeah,it's not it's not well thought out.

(56:20):
Yeah, but we go on anuptake a really good wrestling, man.
I should I should try and Ishould have tried to find whatever article I
wrote to and now Thomas I wrestlingfor the world title, and see how
I managed to try and explain thatone he's a former world he's a former
world champion who just beat another formerworld world champion, and therefore and Kevin,

(56:45):
Oh, that's what it was.I think the story was just that
Cornett throwing everybody and their mother atKevin to beat him. I think that's
what the story was. It's theonly reason how must I got the world
title match because literally after Davy faceyield in this rematch, it was throwing
everything at Kevin to try and umanybody to beat him. Well, lazy

(57:10):
book, you gotta figure he does. He wrestles Ryano during this title run.
He wrestles rhet on TV at somepoint during this title run, which
really, you know how, likewhy is reckoning world title match? It
really doesn't why Saints? It doesn'tmake sense in the you know it just
but it was it was that literallyeverybody wrestles Kevin at some point to try

(57:35):
and um beat him. Being storeand the hustage christis I think BJ wrestled
him that I'm trying to remember,like did BJ wrestling for the World at
some point? Like that sounds Idon't know, right yeah? Um so,
like that's a really strong wrestling matchright there, just on its own,

(57:59):
all right. Tedarius Thomas, Ohboy, the no contest with Lethal
Rhett Rhino Cedric. They did amatch at PWX. He had to add
match with Eddie Kingston like Mondo.He did said ty of defense with Mondo.
Oh yeah, so like yeah,there there were all sorts of like

(58:21):
why is this happening? And thatthat now I now it's coming back to
that. That essentially was the storyof Kevin's title run. Just throw everything
at at the at the Anti Christand Pro Wrestling Wrestlings Worst Nightmare and hope
somebody beats him. The Evil Commissionerthrowing everybody at the evil Anti Christ heel.

(58:45):
Just couldn't call me anti Christ though, couldn't do that. Oh Wrestling's
worst nightmare. Oh whatever. Butsomething that I think people forget about because
they've had so many matches against oneanother. But Future Shock explodes yet again

(59:06):
after we got the big announcement fromJudge Jeff Jones, our our longtime close
personal friend in Florida that the powerhad gone out and that the they should
stop wrestling and showdown in the sun. Um, we now have a hybrid
fighting rules match between Adam Cole andKyle O'Reilly stipulation. Kyle challenged, So

(59:35):
should we run down the rules?No pins and no dick punches are two
of it. Those are two ofthe rules. I know that no dick
punches should be a rule in everything. Okay, yeah, uh no,
no, no, no pin.It's literally submissions and knockouts. Um

(59:58):
no, you can you can winby a ten count ten count, which
is yeah, knockout. That tapout would be submission and qualification. Muh.
There are two types of fouls thatcan occur in this fifteen minute time

(01:00:21):
limit match, dick punches. Criticalfouls are given when someone intentionally cheats or
does something mischievous. Critical fouls resultin an automatic disqualification. Regular fouls are
given if someone exits the ring tossestheir opponent out of the ring for using
the ropes, hooking the tights,accidental i or groin attacks. Never want

(01:00:46):
to be of a groin attack,at least that they save that for the
main event. Three argular fouls areaccumulated, that person is disqualified and you
cannot win by pinfall. It wouldhave been useful a graphic, you think,

(01:01:10):
Yeah, but it's the same thingwe said a decade or aout a
decade, you know, seven yearsearlier, with the pure title rules,
a graphic would have been helpful.Well, pure title was foisted by its
own graphic when it was referred toas the crew title. Yes so,
but like essentially it's knockout or tapout right yest hybrid fighting US and no

(01:01:42):
punches to the NBC streaming service area. Um I I remember watching this live
and just vomiting because you hate blood. I hate blood, but at the
same time understanding when it's necessary.Oh, this wasn't necessary. It just

(01:02:02):
happened because these two maybe Kyle decidedthat Adam needed a visit to a dentist
for several years two but every damnLike I mean, this is one of

(01:02:23):
those matches that, because of whenit happened, it is forgotten about,
and it's really a shame because Iabsolutely love this. I remember live like
once it was over, I remembergoing that'll probably be my match of the
year for twenty twelve. Just verycasually. I think Stu might have been

(01:02:45):
over at my apartment that I livedin at the time to watch the show.
I vividly remember like just being inawe of this match and it ages
well. But I think one thingthat is abundantly clear to me is that

(01:03:07):
these two guys have taken so manysteps forward in rounding out their character and
their game in the last decade thatthey almost don't feel like the same person.
Kyle O'Reilly in particular, is athousand times more charismatic in twenty twenty

(01:03:35):
two than he was in twenty twelvewhen he was just like on the cusp
of figuring it out. You cansee here, though, that these are
two future top guys entering of honor. The way they go at it,
there is zero fucks given about howhard they're laying it in. They're just

(01:03:58):
throwing it all in the line.There are like a segment where Coal is
punching Kyle in the corner and Kyle'sreactions to the closed fist punches coming from
Adam of like he wants him tostop, and he's like looking up at

(01:04:19):
him, making eye contact, andthen the camera catches it and you you
know, He's like, all right, I'm gonna get punch in the face.
It's gonna really suck. And Adamlays it in and punches him right
in the face. These these twojust the kicking exchanges. Um, there's

(01:04:41):
an Insigurian are running me strike fromcoal. They do simultaneous boots and bicycle
kicks. They knock each other outin opposite ways. I'm a big sucker
for that spot, the opposite forthat spot. Really, Yes, this
one worked very well, but ifone person's got longer legs than the other,

(01:05:05):
it's a spot that cannot look great. Okay, yeah that if the
height discrepancy is a little, thatspot cannot look great. Whereas it double
clothesline stuff like that, there's noyou know you're making contact that that spot
is always a little depending on thelink of the extremities. The idea that

(01:05:28):
these two are former tag team partnersand came into ROH together and were so
closely bonded that they know what eachother is going to do. It's it
makes it feel more authentic in thefact that they know each other so they
know what they're going to go forwhen they're in a certain position. There's

(01:05:49):
also I think in the story ofthe two of them at this point,
the fact that the actual, theactual breakup was not a barbershop win.
No, it was not, youknow, it literally was just you know,
Kyle is kind of under is underDavis toutelage, and Adam is kind

(01:06:11):
of pseudo with Eddie from the tenthanniversary showing there wasn't this hard breakup,
hard split, It just kind ofdrifted m But then this made it so
much worse, Like this made it. This is what this match is,
what made it into a rivalry thatwould continue for both of their derate both

(01:06:39):
of their careers and Ring of Honor. Take them to a world title match
in Japan in the Tokyo in theTokyo Dome. It got seven stars because
of that, and you know,we have to change the seventh star thing
nine. It got ten. Itbelonged star ten stars in Tokyo because it

(01:06:59):
was in Tokyo. They'll have eight. But to get this, uh,
like, this is the match thatlaunched these two having a heated rivalry into
what you know, would have beencalled a blood feud and therefore not valid
to the Code of Honor ten yearsearlier. I think this was kind of

(01:07:21):
the one match that just completely soldme on both these guys as future world
champions. But this was like astring of them for Adam, especially between
the match with Roddy at home Comingin twenty twelve that was supposed to be
Roddy versus Eddie and Cole stepped upto Daka's place, and then I think

(01:07:41):
there was just he had a matchwith Kevin prior to Kevin winning the belt,
if I remember right, that wasshortly thereafter. I think we talked
about maybe on Underground or one ofthose shows, like there was just a
you watched his stock climb through thisyear, you know, and then this

(01:08:03):
point was just for both of them, because I don't think Kyle had really
had that breakout singles match to thispoint, not like Cole had had a
series of them. I would agree, And I think obviously, like the
CCW stuff I saw with Adam,you know, it's one thing to be

(01:08:26):
like a top guy there when youknow CCW is it like you know,
if you're watching them page round,they're like here, but Ring of Honor
is you know up here somewhere atthis point, like it is a step
so like he could be a topguy in CZW. You could see it
if you were watching the product backthen. But then he comes to the

(01:08:48):
Ring of Honor. He's low onthe total pole. They were in evolved
for a couple of shows. Ido believe, yes, maybe evolved two
and three. And then I knowit was a cop ring of her signed
them um, quote unquote signed themof honor, said no, no,
no, yeah. They waved theirfinger at Gabe and or Decay. I

(01:09:12):
was thinking more of the you knowsong song, Yes, what is that
song? Oh? Yeah, yeah? What's her face? That's the way?
Yes, Uh, I can pictureher. What the hell's her name?
Amy Winehouse, Amy Winehouse? Thankyou black hair? Picture her face?

(01:09:36):
Hol's her name? Yeah, AmyWinehouse. Um, but the forearm
exchanges in this match. The palmstrikes um. Adam Cole gives some of
the most vicious headbuts, Oh mygod, and then Kyle kicks him right
in the face with his knee andthen there's blood. Oh those body kicks

(01:10:00):
man, But Coal nasty coat kicks. Coal fires up with the bloody face.
He's got blood coming from his mouth. He's all like the crowd is
just one hundred percent invested here andand there's teeth in the rain, yes,
and and like there there are literalpeople that you can see in the

(01:10:30):
front row progress from being you know, like opposite the hard cam. In
that front row, you can seetheir faces from them being casually interested and
used to punching and kicking each otherto coal firing up and being bloody and
then just popping out of their seats. And I think it's a masterful job

(01:10:53):
of storytelling by these two guys,these um Sayido suplex that comes shortly after
the fire up. I vividly rememberfrom watching it live, and I remember
as soon as I saw it again, I'm rewatching this back, remember like

(01:11:14):
the landing and just thinking like,oh my god, the quote unquote ringside
doctor. And I don't know ifhe was a shoot doctor or not.
Cole is waving him off. I'mgonna go with legit New York Commission doctor,
but probably like hey, why todo a spot. I mean,

(01:11:43):
it's just this is what I loveabout wrestling, Like as much as I
loved Eddie and homicide, this isthe kind of wrestling. And I had
the blood whatever, like accidental.I don't need to see like a A
hell's his name? Angelo Parker Khanand yeah, I don't need to see

(01:12:06):
him trying to recreate the age ofthe false spot. But the Briscoes Um,
albeit it was slightly safer because hewas over to the ground. Um,
but that's a little much for me. Um. This was right,

(01:12:27):
This was in the heart of battle. They're going for it all m cole
super kicks Orilly to the floor andbands just run wild. They're throwing the
babies in the air. This match, to me is you said, because

(01:12:54):
of the time frame it happens.It's such a like hidden gem, because
like the coal coal coming to hisfeet and the crowd who were so so
for the early half of this match, but really coming alive with the blood
like that him Adam and this matchis Jay Briscoe at our best inside the

(01:13:20):
cage of Smoe a Joe Like.It's that kind of visual that should have
lingered in people's brains and should havebeen you know, plastered into highlight reels
and video packages, and it justwasn't, unfortunately. But the match itself,

(01:13:44):
even with al ucit even without theblood, although that accidental as it
may be, and definitely enhanced thecrowd engagement, investment and it kind of
made everything more violent and visceral.There's no dives in this match. In

(01:14:05):
a in a landscape of progressing whereevery match has at least one of them,
there's no dives in this entire match. And I'm not saying that to
shoot on dives. I'm just sayingthis match is very indicative of how to
you can you don't have to dothem, and thee of this match,

(01:14:30):
aside from you know, the superkick that Kyle falls out of the ring
and it just gets right back atthe ring anyway, even though technically Kyle
Adam Joel would draw a foul bythe rules of the match, I uh,
it goes right back into the ringanyway. Um, I think they
kind of just said, you knowwhatever, rules just kind of didn't matter.

(01:14:53):
What's the match stop anyway. Idon't think there's anybody Kevin and Nigel
do their best to be like typicallythat would be a foul, but at
this point, who cares. Butyeah, it's such a breakout performance for
both of them and this night wouldI think in the by the end of

(01:15:14):
the night, this match was thebreakout for Cole. But this match combined
with the end of the night wherea breakout evening for Kyle agreed, and
you know, it's very indicative Ithink to the tradition of Ring of Honor
dating back to the very beginning ofOkay, top guys are, you know,

(01:15:39):
there in their positions and whoever theworld champion is at that point,
but eventually they're going to leave andgo on to something else, and there's
always that next wave of people thatare going to step up and do their
thing at the top of the card, and maybe they don't do it as
good, maybe they do it better. It just depends kind of I'm where

(01:16:00):
things are at. And to me, like when you see a match and
you go book it, those twoguys should be the world champion at some
point. That's a hell of athing to do. In the third match
on the show, where you've alreadyhad two former world champions, you had
the greatest tag team in Ring ofHonor history, the Headbangers. I mean,

(01:16:30):
it's pretty hard for two guys tomake a statement like this, and
these two just kick the shit outof each other. They go twelve minutes,
thirty nine seconds. The finish isas follows. Adam Cole, Super
Kicks, Kylo Oriley to the floor. That's a foul. We just keep
it rolling though, because they're hot. This crowd is going insane. They're

(01:16:55):
in the palm of Adam Cole andKyle o'riley's hands. Riley gets back in
the ring, he falls to hisknee, which has been hurt. Cole
whips him, O'Reilly rolls Cole intoa cross arm breaker. As one last
ditch effort comes through, Cole turnsit into the clover leaf. O'Reilly escapes

(01:17:17):
and Cole locks on the figure fourleg lock, and somebody actually taps out
to the figure four and it isover a twelve minute, thirty nine seconds.
I would say this is the mostpivotal match into establishing two guys in
their upward trajectory in Ring of Honorin quite some time that we've covered on

(01:17:41):
this show. Yeah, yeah,this is yep, agreed. I'm just
gonna say yep, agreed, becausethat's that's that's way to put it in.
Solidly established both of them as players. And I think two, we
can take this this step for andsay they did it in New York City

(01:18:02):
in the Manhattan Center the Hammerstein Ballroom. If they did it in let's say
I don't know, Manassas Virginia.I don't think the long term or Dayton
or whatever you know, Friday Show, I don't think the long term impact

(01:18:26):
is made. They did this inthe biggest building in ring a lot.
Yes, yes, yes, umyeah absolutely. And then as aid Kyle,
you know you kind of would think, Okay, these former partners just
went through this war together. There'sgonna be a handshake and banging the code

(01:18:47):
of honor. And I think thefact that Kyle just bailed obviously it sets
up what's to call them in theman of fact. But Kyle bailing on
that, you know, this isthe road on the cold Yeah, we're
on the road to Red Dragon rightnow. Yep. And that's that's an
exciting time. I think it's it'sreally cool that there's there isn't after the

(01:19:13):
match segment here because it didn't needto be a herbal one. It didn't
need to be a major like beatdown get heat segment, just something little.
Yeah, leave the fans wanting more. Want to hear the ad free
version of this show and get itearly. Become a paid forron today at

(01:19:34):
pagereon dot com. Slash an horblepod if you become a patron, you'll
get early and add free access tothe show with several tiers to choose from
that started just a few bucks amonth, and each tier comes with more
bonus perks like bonus content, merch, and so much more. Support the
show at pagreon dot com. Slashan arble pod and get early add free

(01:19:57):
access, and be worthy of anhonorable mention. So we go from the
Hybrid Fighting Rules match backstage, Truthmartinis with Michael Elgan and Roderick Strong,
and he reminds us that Fit Finleylost to Roderick Strong at Border Wars and
says tonight he's gonna fall to missthe protein powder. Michael Elgan Elgin stands

(01:20:21):
by that point. Strong says hewon't be impressive since he's already defeated Fit
Finley. He's done it before.Egan would just be a copycat. He
refers to Elgin his porky henceforth whythe protein powder was taken, and says
that he will save Elgan if heneeds him. I don't think he's gonna

(01:20:44):
be saving him anymore, though.Elgan grabs Strong's hand and he says he
doesn't want either he or Truth tobe at ringside for their match, and
he can do things on his own, so it out for next matchup.
And let me tell you, I'dhave zero recall of this match. I

(01:21:09):
forgot this match ever happened. SoI am not alone in this. I
know. This was that time framewhere Fit was on the indies and working
like everyone everywhere, and he evendid a PWG. He did evolve,

(01:21:34):
He did what he had like literallylike every he worked Excite shows up in
New York because I was Gaycy atthis point of song um like he was
all over the place and he wouldwork Davy after this for aw, you

(01:21:58):
were probably there. Who knows,no, aw aw, I think that's
right. I always forget it.I don't apply if it hasn't a sorry
in a vowel. Doctor Keith's gonnacome on this show one day and we're
gonna talk to him. Ye wrestling, and I mean he worked Northeast,
Northeast Wrestling. He were like heworked everywhere and was getting like good buzz

(01:22:21):
from the work he was done.I think it was a match was with
Sammy. Yeah that got like thereviews. And I will tell you this,
you know my thoughts on Sammy Gallian. I think it might have been
the best match of Sammy Callahan's career. Yeah, and I think that match
with Sammy is what even remotely puthim in me. Oh, we should

(01:22:43):
bring him in because at this pointwe're two steps behind everybody else as far
as bringing in talent. It feltlike um and instead of getting that,
it felt like we didn't. Idon't know, because the riding match was
mah. Yeah, I don't rememberit being was anything mah, it was

(01:23:05):
mah. And this is twenty minutesof like, all right, the crowd's
a bit unnecessary on this match withthe loudness of their boring chance. Yeah,
but it's not an exciting match feltat all. It's fly. There's

(01:23:28):
a party that like watching it backand I I haven't seen it since it
happened. I just said, Iforgot it even happened until I looked at
the lineup. They're they first liketen minutes of this match feels like almost
as if it fits, having thekind of match where he's waiting for his

(01:23:51):
opponent to like take it, likefight for their spot. They're there for
control, like give it a bitmore of a struggle, and then you've
got the Elgin on the other side, who is more like I called my
spots. You call your spots likewaiting to be given that control as opposed

(01:24:15):
to fighting for the control. It'sjust I'm waiting for my turn to take
over, because there's literally like tenminutes of Elgin being made to look like
a chump when theoretically he's being eventhough it he's yet another one. You
know, we're talking twenty twelve Elganhere in the Ring of Honor, booking
of him like he's another one whotook seven million years to actually get put

(01:24:39):
up to the position they started buildinghim at three years earlier, and not
in a good way, not aslow burn like logical Bill just there's nothing
happening. We're just calling him acat miss prospect and an MVP in the
Wrestler of the Year and nothing happens. Well, this is a match that

(01:25:01):
just reaffirmed my thoughts on the DaveyRichards match from Showdown in the Sun being
just a complete fluke. I knowthat is incredibly disrespectful to say, but
like, no, I mean thereelse, It's not disrespectful. It's like

(01:25:23):
saying, oh, this is okay, I'm saying this as if you put
yourself in a fan shoes. Ilike this movie by Francis Ford Coppola,
but I hate all of the restof his So that is a fluke that
this is good. I'm not comparingto France Ford Copla. That was just
the first director's name that popped inmy head, you know. But like

(01:25:43):
if you get my point, likeyou do like this one thing by somebody,
but you don't like anything else,So that is a fluke in their
catalog for you. That Elgin matchesa fluke because you don't like anything else
he did. It's not that Idon't like anything else. There was just
nothing else that got to that level. The only other thing that was remotely
close to me he was the Kevinmatch that would come, you know,

(01:26:09):
four months, five months after this, and I felt like that was just
a major step down. And thesame with that Supercard of Honor match from
twenty fourteen when they wrestled in NewOrleans Supercard eight we covered in the archives.
That's an entirely different animal than theone from Gold. That one was

(01:26:30):
just at best mediocre, and itwas Kevin trying anything he could to get
something out of Elgin. It's weirdtoo, because you know, Fifth Finley
a big fan of Fits, likeand he and that that Monday Night Wars
time frame of watching him. Iloved watching Fit. I'll go back even

(01:26:53):
further he and I'll make this statement. He is a part of my favorite
WCW match of all time, theJunkyard Hardcore title No No Him and Regal
at Uncensored ninety six. Oh mygod, they beat the Pistive. I,

(01:27:14):
Oh my god. It was theinspiration for h and I'd have to
go back and look at like mywrestling inventory lists of DVDs, but I
made a I want to say it'sthree volumes in six discs each best of
Fit Finley because of watching that matchback in like two thousand eight or nine,

(01:27:41):
after not seeing it for twelve yearsand being like Jesus Christ, all
right, if anybody listened to Regals, not not the watch along pod,
but the one before that where hestarted his entrance into WCW, and he
talks about Claudio and says a lotof what those guys were doing in the

(01:28:01):
two early two thousands, Go watchRegal and Fit and then go watch Joe
and Key. Yeah, it's thesame. It's it's the same same spirit.
It's the same spirit of just twoguys beating the hell out of each
other. It's that and it's yeah, you just you can't. It's help

(01:28:29):
it. And as soon as we'redone taping, I'm gonna go watch and
Finley again because then watch it.I watched it like three weeks ago,
and I just I get this thisincredibly odd feeling when I watch it of
like, oh my goodness, thesetwo guys must really really hate each other.

(01:28:51):
Even all these years later, knowingall the backstory to it, nobody
gives fit Finley the credit he deserves. And to me, like he was
so different than WCW. He camein at the wrong time because the nWo

(01:29:12):
is kind of the focal points,so he's, you know, off doing
whatever. But oh, Man,Regal and Finlay at Uncensored ninety six,
it's the show with the triple tripledoom cage or whatever we're I think Zeus
was brought back for that, andum, the guy that played with he

(01:29:34):
was Bain or something and Batman JeefSwinson, Yeah, it wasn't he Baine,
And like Batman and Batman and Batmanand Robin you know, I think
he played Baine okay, maybe,but he was in Batman and Robin Um

(01:29:55):
and liked him the That was whatI was kind of hoping for when when
this match started, that kind ofenergy of like these two guys just going
there to beat the crap out ofeach other, just like Kyle and Adam
did, but without having the backstory. I didn't know in nineteen ninety six
that Regal and Finley had this storiedhistory together. I didn't know Regal was,

(01:30:21):
you know, I didn't know himfrom a hole in the wall when
he came to WCW in ninety three, but he quickly became one of my
favorites as soon as I saw himdoing a style I had never seen before.
And then Finley comes in. He'sgot the leather jacket on one side
and the LD shoulder pad on theother, and he got cash wallet.

(01:30:46):
It's it's just like, oh mygod, this guy is going to kill
Steve Regal? What U And thenthey did. They killed each other And
this was not that this was appcompared to it. Mhm. Sammy Callahan,
of all people, managed to dosomething closer with Finley than Michael Elgin

(01:31:11):
and Roderick strong did I think,uh, I think that just I think
to me, that goes to justthe type of wrestlers I said, I
feel like that was a match,that this was a match those matches Sammy
win was a fight like it wasfighting. There was a fight to it.

(01:31:32):
It was a struggle to it.It was a you want control,
you need to fight for it,as opposed to you go now I go,
you go, now I go,you go now igo this started this.
I think that's why this is mejust gasting watching it back. Is
you know someone who's yeah, Ihad a few matches in my lifetime,
but like that was like ten minutesof Fit just beating the shit out of

(01:31:56):
Elegant, like waiting but when thefirst something to happen, but Elkan's not
taking it, so he's just gettingbeat up. It's you see the effort
from Fit here, like trying toget something going. He just does.
There's just nothing to play. He'spulling nothing at an empty bag and then

(01:32:18):
it goes twenty minutes and it's justat no point was unfortunately, you know,
I was excited about the prospect ofFitmring of honor just didn't pan out
to anything. Um but there's nopoint where this match was engaging to me
at all. I had no personalityto no chemistry between the two of them.

(01:32:42):
I guess i'll throw this question out. So obviously we both love fit
Finley, and obviously we both loveWilliam Regal. Of the two, who
does Claudio have a better match with, Like if if they're going at each
other in this scenario, like ifClaudio is in the I mean I've seen

(01:33:03):
Claudio versus Regal, albeit last lastmatch of Regel's career. I think there's
the idea of Claudio and Finley issuch an intriguing prospect of fantasy, you
know, past versus present booking.Yeah, that's it. I mean,

(01:33:24):
that's one of those like Bryan andFinlay sounds amazing. It's just I don't
think there's anything even at this pointwhere Fit Finley is like fifty, Yeah,
did fifties, Probably fifties at thispoint, yeah, and then twenty
twelve. Yeah, I don't thinkthere's any And there's nothing I think that

(01:33:46):
it would have point out. Iguess there's nothing wrong with this match.
There's no blown spots, there's nomassive misscommunications. It's just not interesting or
engaging. It doesn't give you gettinga reason to be drawn into the match,
and once you stay right right unlessyou are a die hard Fit Finley

(01:34:08):
fan or a die hard Michael Elganfan, or you're covering the show for
a podcast and you have to watchthis match, there's really no reason to
sit there and go oh, especiallyafter, especially after match that was so
crowd engaging, you know, inits back half, especially as the hybrid

(01:34:30):
fighting match. Well, and thisgoes back to what we started this show
talking about. It is the matchor well, I think that's well that
I think it's hard to call withthis like it is because you don't know
Adam's gonna get busted open, andtherefore the crowd's going to suddenly become that
much more invested. Like that's afreak of NAT, that's a freak occurrence.
You know, the crowd could havecontinued the whole match to be they

(01:34:53):
were the way they were in thefirst half without blood, you don't know.
So I think you take the gambleon the established name in Fit Finley,
you know, exciting the crowd,but then you know, you get
the fact that the match before itwas what it was. That's fair.
I just I don't know. Ihad two hard hitting matches back to back.

(01:35:15):
I don't know if either of themin particular is you know, different
in terms of style, but thesubstance was there for Cole and Adam and
not for Elgin and Finley. Theygo nineteen minutes and fifteen seconds. A

(01:35:39):
tombstone pile driver doesn't get the jobdone for fifth Finley, Elgin gives him
the spinning chop, then the bucklebomb, and then the spinning power bomb,
and that gets the way In nineteenminutes fifteen seconds. Truth Martini makes
his way out to celebrate with Elgin. Fit Finley extends the hand for the

(01:36:00):
hand the handshake quote of honor.Martini says no, no, no,
no no. Elgin pushes Martini tothe side, shakes Finley's hand. Martini
gives Elgin some Finley veiled threats,and Elgin backs Truth into the corner and
leaves with Truth. Martini, eventuallystill falling under the guise of the life

(01:36:26):
intervention expert for now, then hesaw the Guardians of Truth and was like,
yeah, I go go play baseballnow. Is that takes us into
quote unquote intermission, Kevin Kelly givesus an update on Adam Cole telling about

(01:36:47):
how he needed stitches in his lip, which is true, and they're attempting
to put his teeth back in.I have so many questions. I have
never lost the tooth before, like, had one fall out knocked out of
your read. Yeah, I've nothad one knocked out. Um, So

(01:37:11):
I don't know if you can actuallyput a tooth back in. Oh,
I don't. I don't, Idon't, I don't know. I mean,
I guess that's a question for doctorGret Baker, DMD or doctor Stephanie
Kine, DMD. Uh who ismy dentist? But I don't know.
Um, I just know that I'vetalked to Adam Cole about this match several

(01:37:36):
times over the years, and hesaid, getting stitches on the inside of
your lip is one of the mostpainful things possible. And I said,
well, didn't they give you novacaineto like numb it? And he goes,
I said, nah, Donnie Beewas there? Not? Not?
Not the other one I can comeon. That was not. That was

(01:38:00):
a deep cut dad joke from theRing of Wow. No, no novacaine,
only Donnie Bee. Wow. Thatthat was boy. If you can
pull that one and that was justoff the top of my head. So
what's fun is on the actual Idon't know funds the right word, but

(01:38:23):
on the the The Honor Club version, much like we've witnessed on previous pay
per view events, the content ofintermission is left intact, but unlike when
we did Supercard whichever it was,where it's just a screen that says thirty
minutes of intermission. For thirty minutesunder theodfeed, this does show the The

(01:38:44):
Honor Club version shows the assorted highlightpackages, you know, the not so
hype hype videos for each of thematches, until it gets to the Bennett
segment, which I'll let you talkabout because I accidentally skipped over it and
didn't realize that i'd missed it inskipping over all of the highlight videos of

(01:39:04):
intermission. Well, guess what willyou do that. I'm gonna go use
the Little Boys Room one oh allright here, so much like every single
solitary Mike Bennett Prodigy service announcement thatwe have had in a Ring of Honor
in two thousand and twelve, datingback to twenty eleven, guess what we're

(01:39:29):
greeded to see him? Punk chantsso Mike Bennett lives or leans right directly
into it. He calls this hisfirst live public service announcement, but yet
he did want to showdown in thesun I believe it was night one,
and he sits down cross legged,criss cross apple sauce, I do believe

(01:39:55):
that's declared, and calls himself betterthan the best. As the crowd is
changing see him punk as loud asever. He has a makeout session with
Maria and Brutal Bob kind of juststands there third wheeling quite frankly, I'm
not sure why Brutal Bob is stillhere, but nevertheless, they're interrupted by

(01:40:17):
Mikey from the Spirit Squad, MikeMondo, and he comes out says he's
pissed it. He hasn't gotten toRussell in the Hammerstein. It's his dream.
He's pissed off that Bennett decided todo a live Prodigy service announcement instead
of Russell tonight, and they goback and forth verbally. They have a

(01:40:39):
fist fight. Bob Evans has tosave Mike Bennett from the physical wrath of
Mike Mondo, and Mike Bennett giveshim the Spinebuster into the apron Mondo is
over or outnumbered, I guess Ishould say, And they go five minutes
at thirteen seconds and Mike Bennett hitsum his move. Mando pins Bennett and

(01:41:10):
wins the match. Who knew,but the wrestling portion was like five minutes
and thirteen seconds, And yeah,I didn't didn't even realize this was a
match. This sucked, to befair, like, I don't think there's
any reason that this should have beena thing that occurred alive on this show.

(01:41:35):
Nobody cared that Mike Mondo got thepin Mike Bennett. Nobody cared that
Mike Mondo was from New York Cityand it wrestling in the Hammer sign was
important to him. He had absolutelyno connection to the audience. The audience,

(01:41:55):
in turn, had nothing invested inMike Mondo and beating Mike Bennett is
not a New York over Boston thing. On this night, nobody cared.
It was just complete app Insert mycomments about Ohio Valley of Wrestling, which

(01:42:20):
smoky Mountain of Honor. I thinkthat is how that is the the vibe
that came along with Mondo. Youknow, he may have had whoa.
I don't know what happened there.He may have had a couple we've talked

(01:42:41):
about him, like salad matches,the one with Davey in particular, but
I think there was just a statementthey came with him and there was never
anything consistent or much like I've talkedabout with many people, it's just insert
into match and Bennett on the otherhand, especially in twenty eleven with his
work with Steve uh Karino, likeit felt like a concerned an effort to

(01:43:03):
elevate Bennett. But then something likethis happens and it's contrary to that.
And it's also the way this endswith brutal Bob's involvement. We've discussed that
that that was just so Bob's character. There was so the opposite of what

(01:43:26):
Bennett's presentation was that it was detrimentalin Bennett's continued growth after like the first
six months. He's the I'm tryingto think of what the hell they called
the when Jimmy Garvin dressed in dragand came to make out with Rick Flair
and JJ Dillon's like hiding in thecloset. The hell Miss Atlanta Lively was

(01:43:50):
that it? Oh God, Idon't even remember, But like JJ Dillon's
hiding in the closet watching Flair,and this posed Miss Atlanta Lively. That's
Garven in a wig, and that'sthat's kind of how I refer to brutal
Bob here as the third wheel Bennettand Maria connection. That worked incredibly well,

(01:44:16):
and yes, obviously translates to reallife as they have a very successful
and happy marriage and two children andso on and so forth. So kuros
to them. But that that movesus into a match that I was really
looking forward to watching and glad Idid. It's the Ring of Honor Television

(01:44:40):
Championship elimination match. Roderick Strong defendinghis Ring of Honor Television Championship with Truth
Martini against Jay Lethal against Tamaso chompUp, who is alongside Prince Nanna,
Princess Mia Barris to R. D. Evans and they are representing the m
to See Incorporated. Yeah. Icame into this match thinking, but I

(01:45:11):
I love this. Yeah. No, I ended up being very happy with
it. But my initial thought wasI had low expect I had low expectations
despite being huge fans of you know, two of the three people involved at
this point. I know chomp Ithink did come into his own until n
X Team really fair. I think, you know, at this point it

(01:45:31):
was still figuring it out. ButI thought I was so wonderfully surprised by
this match and how much I actuallyenjoyed it, and the apppropriate amount of
usage of the ring side menagerie.Those are so many different people, you

(01:45:51):
know, involved between the Embassy Limitedand the House of Truth. Like,
I think they did a good jobof space and that to kind of tying
those stories together, and you know, kind of telling that story of the
Embassy being more willing to take moneyand screw over their own guy for a

(01:46:14):
paycheck. It's it's really fun becauseI don't like fruway matches in general,
but I prefer them to be anelimination style match if I'm going to have
to see one, and I likeall three guys in this match. I
actually was kind of in on theTomaso train pretty early. Not this early,

(01:46:39):
but you know, maybe within thenext year. I think I was
all bored and I thought he hadin particularly had a really good match here
and matched up with Roddy specifically reallyreally well, and I know they crossed
pass a little bit in nxt uhand then they had a couple of dark

(01:47:01):
matches before, like rr smack downwith each other. But I love the
way this match worked it And Ihave to give the credit to Jay Lethal
for kind of being the one directingtraffic in all of this. You know,
he's got Roddy Truth, Nana Mea, Hardy Evans, and Tomasso to

(01:47:29):
all be responsible for, and hekind of captains this match. Is maybe
not calling the spot for spot,but a lot of the like key moments
of this match, Lethal is theone involved. Yeah, I mean it's
there's like I said, it's justthe right amount. Like it's not this
overabundance of interference or involvement from youknow, the outside parties. It just

(01:47:55):
it was like just they fd theymanaged to find that just right, just
the right amount of seasoning to enhancethe flavor instead of overpowered. Yeah,
and that's kind of polar opposite fora truth Martini ch Yeah. Yeah,
we're Sometimes it was too much there. There are too many, too much
on the Shenanigans, too much hooplah. There you go. The Jay Lethal

(01:48:19):
Truth Martini combination always seems to workout very well. But the other probably
loved with with Jay's Crazy Hair.Now if any of our listeners are familiar
with Neil Gaiman's Crazy Hair Book,but I kept thinking during the thing,
his hair is incredibly insane, andI loved it. It just looked like

(01:48:40):
a man out of like just soit was like the equivalent of I grew
a beard when I'm feuding with homicide. His hair was just insane because he
was just I don't know a manwho asked so to speak, he'd had
enough of these people of the Houseof Truth and the Embassy Limited. I
thought his like his fire in thismatch was really strong, like stronger than

(01:49:09):
would it have been for the bulkof the time since he had returned into
the company and the previous like latesummer, early fall. He's he looks
like a top guy in this match. And obviously we know what Roddy is
like just a wrestling machine. Soyou put all this recipe together and it's

(01:49:34):
the elimination rules. There's some trianglespots, you know, with all three
guys being involved. I like theone in particular where m Lethal hits the
backspring elbow on Chompah. Then hegives Roddy the lethal combination that gets two

(01:49:57):
Lethal goes up, gives Strong orgrabs Strong. Then he does the Tornado
DDT to Chumpa off as Strong,and then Strong goes down. He immediately
puts on the figure four leg lockwith Tomaso off in the distance. He
created that space so he could tryand get a submission to eliminate Roddy.

(01:50:24):
Then Chompa, you know, Recovers, comes over, puts on a cross
face on Lethal and he's trying totake out Lethal while Lethal's trying to take
out Strong. It felt like itmade sense as opposed to like two guys
have a match. One guy's outsideand you know, guy bumps the floor,

(01:50:45):
So the third guy comes in,they do their thing. Guy comes
back in from the floor, theother guy goes out. It didn't feel
like that. Yeah, there wasa little There was more interplay amongst the
three of them than just a coupleof multiple singles matches happening. At the
same time. You have Truth Martiniand Prince Nanna trying to attack Jay Lethal

(01:51:06):
while he's on the floor. Lethalcock cuts them off, Chompa has Strong
up or the project Chompa finisher notA rolls in the ring to avoid Jay
Lethal. He ends up, knockingdown Champa. Strong sits down right on
top, cradles the legs, getsthe pinfall and the elimination at twelve minutes

(01:51:28):
and forty eight seconds, so ourfirst man out is Tomasso Chompa. That
leaves us with a rivalry that waspretty much a focal point of Roage for
the better part of a year.And Rodert Strong and Jay Lethal here and
it ends just like that. Yes, it's fast, as Dana snapped his

(01:51:49):
fingers. It ends a mere twentyone seconds later, this match is over.
Todd Sinclair is removing Tamasso from thering, and Ruth Martini nails Jaylee,
though with the Book of Truth knockingsome sense into him. Strong gives
Lethal the death by Roderick hooks thetights and he picks up the wind at

(01:52:10):
thirteen minutes and nine seconds and itbut it works. I actually really like
that because it works. Why wouldn'tthe shitty healed Truth Martini take advantage of
the ref's distraction to like, Yeah, it perfectly made sense. You are
applying the logic to a logical situationabsolutely, which is never a thing in

(01:52:34):
wrestling rarely. So I like itmade sense. I like this and the
crowd did not see it coming.Therefore I am for it. Yeah,
yep. I mean you know howI feel about three way matches in general,
through a singles matches. Let mebe more specific, anytime you have

(01:52:56):
an uneven number of participants. AndI thought this was awesome that I was,
he said, I was pleasantly surprisedor happy with how the way it
did it ended up. And Ithought all three guys ended up looking good
out of the match. It itcontinued to move forward the Tomaso, you

(01:53:17):
know, dissolution with the House ofTruth, and you know made Roddy is
the champ to look solid because wehad up he got both pins. Yep.
So he moves up in the contender'sring of sick ring of picking six

(01:53:41):
people with a trophy. Yes,um, speaking of trophies. So up
next, it's a ring about ourworld tag team titles match, and it
is the alleged world's greatest tag teamof Charlie Hoss and Shelton Benjamin defending against
the All Night Express addicted to Love, Rett Tyas and the Pretty Boy Pitbroll

(01:54:02):
Tenny King. And before we talkabout this match, I have a Charlie
Hass story I need to share now. It's a recent Charlie Hass story from
when I attended the toy Hio eventabout a month ago actually June eighteen,

(01:54:25):
so that's why I probably included thisin here. I think that's right around
the time I started watching the show, at the first of my two viewings
of this show. But uh sowe're Stu and I are walking around,
and if you're familiar with toy Hio, it's a very large toy convention,
lots of action figures of all types, and they had some guests. The

(01:54:47):
Acclaimed were there. Dan Housen andSmart Mark Sterling were there and carrying Cross
and her Killer Cross and Scarlett werethere, and Aaron the Idol Stevens Damien
Sandow was there, and for somereason Charlie Oss was there. And at

(01:55:11):
one point Charlie Hoss was supposed tobe signing until like two thirty or three
o'clock. Mind you, doors openedat like ten am or eleven am,
so he was supposed to be signingthe whole day. And at one point
Stu and I are walking around andI swear to God, somebody of God

(01:55:32):
came over the loudspeaker and said,has anyone seen Charlie Oss. Charlie Hoss,
you are wanted at the front oftoy Hio. Charlie Hass, you
are wanted, please report. AndI looked over at Stu and I said,
oh, that's the first time anybody'swanted Charlie Hoss to be anywhere anytime

(01:55:55):
in about the last twenty years.And we had a nice chuckle. You
had to have been there because itwas one of those ha ha. Did
you find out what he was?Just looking at toys? Yeah, okay,

(01:56:15):
he was walking around looking at toys. I don't know what why he
decided to get up. Maybe nobodywas wanting his autograph or remembered who it
was. I was like, ifthey had said, well, Shelton Benjamin,
you're wanted at the front of thetoy ohio, I said, I'd
get that. Charlie House not somuch. Also, apparently Cornett referenced Grizzly

(01:56:38):
stopping on Charlie's cowboy hat fairly recentlyon his one of his shows, So
that story's out there, back intopublic forefront again. Grizzly Redwood and we
do know him as Mitch Franklin refereenow of fight per Wessel with two ts.

(01:57:03):
That's right, oh on all ofyour social media's, yes, well,
will include a notation in the shownotes. Absolutely, And uh so
it's the big one, the AllNight's getting another tag team title shot against
has and Benjamin here, And man, I knew exactly what this was as

(01:57:30):
soon as as soon as I startedwatching, And uh man, it's just
it's special to me that Rhett getsto win the tag titles here with Kenny.
Um, you know when you thinkabout like special moments with with your

(01:57:54):
friends in the in the wrestling business, and um, it's it's really cool
to ten years ago to be ableto go back and look at this and
go, man, like what couldhave been here? Like if things go
a different way? Is right inw W E is he in aw?

(01:58:19):
Is he somewhere else? Like whathappens? And it was not meant to
be for some of the things tohappen that will I guess we'll reference after
the match is over. But thematch itself I didn't hate. And I
remember like not being a big fanof the title change match itself. I

(01:58:44):
remember texting Rerett and Kenny before theshow, like not having any remote clue
what was happening on the show,just like at the equivalent of now,
let's fucking go. I mean,uh, because I was I know what

(01:59:11):
I wanted out of this match,um, and obviously I was quite happy
for Friends they had to win thetag belts finally. But I watched this
match and I watched it back,and all I saw was selfishness, um

(01:59:38):
and just the way it was constructed. I didn't feel like like watching it
back, I didn't see anything beingdone that benefited from wresting her to stacte.
I didn't see a whole lot beingdone that was like, you know,
putting over the the baby face challengersthat were going to win the match.
I hated to finish with the rolefinish like and exited in this position

(02:00:01):
of chasing these belts since September oflast year, with the ladder match with
the Briscoes and that entire feud ofthe Briscoes in twenty eleven, like elevated
them into top tier tag team,not just a mid card humorous you know
Austinaries, you know, sidekicks.They had kind of been, you know,

(02:00:24):
in their initial initial introduction as atag team. They're their own by
this point, they're their own entityby twenty eleven, and they went from
being like mid car to heels totop level tag team. Through that feud
with the Briscoes, they became theydouble turned in that feud with the Briscoes.
And as we've discussed and as anybodywho's watched twenty years of Briscos,

(02:00:45):
it's a difficult thing to have toto get the crowd to turn on the
Briscoes. And naturally, you know, there was no you know, Briscos
went and beat up you know,Rhet's mom or you know they they Yeah,
there was none of that wrestling,you know, angle gimmickry stuff to
make you know, we got tofind a way to get the fans to

(02:01:06):
eate the Briscoes. And oh,it just happened that the Annex got worked
their asses off and won the fansover. Now they won the fans over
to their side. The fans turnedon the Briscoes as a result of things

(02:01:29):
like the first blood match they hadand a couple of singles match Egg through
everything that happened at center stage andto culminate in that ladder war that Annex
wins and then it just peters outand Wreck gets hurt unfortunately, which kind
of sloped things down as well.And then to have this be the chan

(02:01:55):
the title change and just it's asas as spitting in the eye of the
business to see the way has management. I just yeah, I hated it.
I hated everything about how the matchended up going. Like there's moments
in it that are decent, butlike haws management and when they're in control

(02:02:15):
of the match and uh, youknow, putting heat it's borings. Fuck
h h. I don't feel likethere was a whole lot of um you
know doing it. I guess I'mdoing anything to really make Annex look good
in this match. Um, Ican go back then and then then started

(02:02:39):
to roll up on the finish andwhat happens after the match just further cements
that. For me, I hadone hundred percent agree with everything you've said.
We can go back to the verystart of this match where the fans
are booing Charlie and they're yelling atthem and stuff. It's not because they're

(02:03:00):
booing him because he's a bad guy. They genuinely don't want him on in
front of them in the ring.Yeah, they don't. It's why it's
way to shake how much that.How it's wild to see how much that
exact same audience changed from two yearsprior when they wrestled Chris and Claudio.

(02:03:21):
Yeah. To me, they didn'tdo anything to earn that negativity. It
just naturally happened because of their efforts. How they That's how they earned it.
I think the fans just yeah,because fans were still there for them

(02:03:46):
when they won the tag belts.They were still there. It's just it
didn't take much longer after that whenthey beat Chris and Claudio. It didn't
take a long and shit like theBorder Wars finish didn't help it. Just

(02:04:08):
I remember when they came up tothe w WTV in two thousand and three,
I think with Kurt and I rememberthinking like, Wow, these guys
are great. I had seen maybeat the most two matches of Charlie Hoss
from ECWA, and it was himand Russ, his brother who's passed away,

(02:04:32):
and you know, I remember thinkinglike, wow, these guys are
pretty good and they're big and theymove well and wow, and like obviously
Russ passage, Shelton goes into thatspot. They're just as good together,
if not better. And then I'mlike they get fired. They come the

(02:04:57):
Ring of Honor and I'm excited becauseI'm like, Wow, they're gonna maybe
they'll be the tag version of JamesGibson. And we go right back to
it. Everybody that comes from wWE INDO Ring of Honor, James Gibson,
James Gibson, set the bar.If you're not James Gibson, sorry,
I'm gonna have the poofs. Yeah, and these guys sand back the

(02:05:20):
shit out of Rhet and Kenny herenot not not not a fan of how
this went down at all. Uh, it really sucked that this is how
it happens. M Rhet's bleeding afterhe's hit with the belt at one point,
Um they go you know, hawsand management, you know, they

(02:05:44):
attack Rhett. Um When he's backin the ring, Charlie gets on the
microphone and tells Paul Turner that yougotta call the match because he's gonna kill
Rhett. I mean what, Ican't even imagine sitting there calling this match

(02:06:09):
how and everybody being like, yeah, that sounds great. Yeah, Well,
Rhet's grabbing Paul's leg telling him notto stop the match. Charlie continues

(02:06:30):
throwing more punches. They set upfor the broken Arrow, Kenny dives in,
he takes out Sheldon, Benjamin Charlie, then kicks Kenny King and Rhet's
Schoolboys Charlie for the pin and thetitles at twenty two minutes forty nine seconds
and it's a kickout. That's WarriorHogan Russell Media sixth level of going two

(02:06:55):
three kicks. Yes, which thatwas something I wanted to bring up specifically,
and I'm glad you played into mymy evil plans to talk about this.
I have seen this so much onindie wrestling that I've watched in the
last couple of weeks. Um,I saw it on Dynamite. I'm not

(02:07:17):
going to mention any names, butit was on Dynamite twice in the last
two weeks. Um. I'll tellyou off air because the one really pissed
me off because it was so justunsurprised. It was totally surprising that he
would do that. Um. Soit's not inherently a bad thing. And

(02:07:45):
now it is not inherently a badthing depending on the situation in a match
like this, and I would Iwould use it. I would apply this
to Rustumania six as well. Youknow of co're going back forty years because
we're old men in a crowning moment. That is what this should have been.

(02:08:13):
To me, That is a decisivefinish, pinfall, get the heels
out of the ring so the babyFace Tag can can finally celebrate achieving their
goal. Yep, roll up,three count, kick out right afterwards.

(02:08:37):
You know, that's a few prolongingfinish like flash pin sort of thing that
that was not this moment. Thiswas not the moment for this finish.
And whether I don't know if itwas just the finish to go to the
ring, if this was a finishokay by a Hunter and Jim and the
booking of it, like, eitherway, it's a shit finish that should

(02:08:58):
have never been how this match wasended for the moving forward, even regardless
of Kenny leaving, like this isa bad, bad finish. So that
that leads us into kind of thepost you know, news of note is

(02:09:20):
kenny contract is up, he goesto t NA. The Tag belts are
kind of in an awkward position heredid obviously they would would have never put
the belts on Ratt and Kenny ifRoh's office had realized Kenny's deal was up,

(02:09:41):
you're hitting me this car. Ican't speak to this because I do
not know this point. Everything likethat is being handled in Baltimore. It's
not like it's not like the youknow, the carried days where all this
stuff was in my office and Iknew what the hell was going on with
any of that sort of stuff.Um, if they didn't know, they're

(02:10:03):
more brash. But I also wouldn'tbe surprised. Um. Well, and
that's kind of what I was gettingat. Is it like it just is
make our or just that they hopethat, Okay, we're gonna put it
on him and that will convince themto side, that'll get him to stay,
you know, or that kind oflogic of if I put a belt
on you, then you'll stay.Um, that's a risky. It's also

(02:10:28):
making the assumption that everybody is,to use the parlance of the land,
a belt mark and that's all youhave to do to convince them to stay.
It has nothing to do with treatmentor pay or you know, the
list of things that adults actually givea shit about family home. I put

(02:10:48):
a belt on him and they'll stay. And I'm not going to speak to
that part of it because I thinkI'm not. I'm not. I'm not
in the room for those conversations andin Baltimore. But I can say it
wouldn't be the last time if thatwas the case of putting a belt on
somebody they knew was not under acontract. Now there, I don't know.

(02:11:13):
It's just in my head when Ithink of how this is supposed to
play out, it's not this.Yeah, and it has now happened twice
to Wret with the tag titles yeahten years later ish oh yeah, yeah,

(02:11:37):
yeah, yeah, when when Tracygot hurt yep, yeah, So
yeah, it's just it sucks.Yeah, and it turns in a weird
free bird rule now. But thenthe Belts are not with anybody for three
months and Kenny team or Red teamswith with Charlie and then with Bean.

(02:12:01):
It's a very unusual situations that thatunravel after it. Um, yeah,
we have a tournament in August.Uh, at least two teams we know
of the Briscoast and the Guardians ofTruth. Yeah yeah, and then Jimmy
and Steve and See and See anduht BJ. Right now, it's written

(02:12:26):
Charlie, isn't It's written Charlie isthe team that's in the tournament. I
was staying, didn't reten BJ goto the final? Then they have,
but they end up wrestling it.So but I swear it's like written Charlie.
I don't know to look at itat another time, but yeah,

(02:12:50):
it's uh, it's a weird tournament. Maybe it is, I don't know,
Charlie. Charlie and Verse, Guardiansof Truth and the guests. Yeah
they do burns. Yeah that wassuffice to say. If this match is
over, but the Annex does notget their championship celebration in the ring that

(02:13:11):
they deserved. Nope, And it'sa bunch of bullshit. Oz and Benjamin
attack afterwards. Yeah, this justhas let's get heat for the sake of
getting heat written all over it.And they should have had their their's their
moment in the sun in New YorkCity. They did want to hear the

(02:13:35):
ad free version of this show andget it early. Become a paidron today
at pagreon dot com slash an ArblePod. If you become a patron,
you'll get early and add free accessto the show with several tiers to choose.
Frun that started just a few bucksa month and Each tier comes with
more bonus perks like bonus content,merch, and so much more. Support

(02:13:56):
the show at patreon dot com,slash an arble pod and get early to
add free access and be worthy ofan honorable mention that takes us to our
main event of the evening. Itis the Ring of Honor World Title match
Anything Goes rules Kevin Stein with JimmyJacobs versus Davie Richards. Dun Dun duns.

(02:14:20):
This is the last chance Davy Richardswill have at the Ring of Honor
World title as Kevin Stein is thechampion. The package pile driver is legal
in this match, and Steve Grenoheads to the commentary table so that he
could be an advocate on behalf ofKevin Stein. Package pile drivers legal because

(02:14:41):
there's no rules, anything goes.Jim Cornette is out, he takes a
seat at her in Kevinstein's core,and before the match can even begin,

(02:15:03):
Kyle O'Reilly comes out and he's notin Davy Richard's core. Of tonight,
David didn't like how Kyle had reactedafter losing to Adam Cole, and O'Reilly
says that he's not here to stabDavey in the back. He's here to
stab him in the face. No, and if I'm going to stab you

(02:15:24):
in the fucking eye. Kyle dropsa lot of curse words in this in
this moment, but it's warranted.It's a moment of cursing that is warranted.
It is not just saying you know, shit or bitch or damn because

(02:15:46):
for whatever reason, the Kyle's languagein here is justified. Davy Davy slapped
him across the face like they betreated him like a young boy, not
an equal, not his tag partner, and that Kyle's recognition of I'm not

(02:16:09):
going to ever be Kyle O'Reilly whenI'm standing next to the day there in
his words, Danny's bitch like,Kyle's language here is justified, and it
is a rarity. It's not likean every promo is dropping you know,
f bombs and ye know it's andit's the first time we're ever hearing Kyle

(02:16:31):
like this too. His why Isaid earlier, this is a night for
Kyle's career as well, even thoughhe lost. This moment right here is
defining Kyle's personality and who he ismoving forward. Aside from some of the
phrasing and the the you know messagethat Kyle's delivering. I love the physical

(02:16:58):
delivery of all of that as wellfrom Kyle, like he carried himself different.
Yes, yes, so that wasmost important to me. And then
he tells New York City to kisshis ass, which I always pop forwar
when you tell whatever city or into kiss your ass, especially New York
Yankee suck so that that leads Kyleon his way out. He bows out.

(02:17:24):
Kevin Stein commedically offers Davy Richards astreamer to cry and do, which
is just it's exactly as you imagineit. It's hysterical um. And then
he gets voisted on his own petardas Davy boots him off the apron sending
him right through the timekeeper table atringside. YEP, so that was well

(02:17:50):
done. M Jacob's a solid.Immediately, you know, Jimmy tries to
interfere in the match, Davy goesafter him. Stein tries to pop up
power bomb early on the ring apronUm that doesn't work. He stacks three

(02:18:11):
metal barricades on top of Davy andthen does a big frog splash. He's
got his eyes on Jim Cornett almostthe entire time he's doing all of this,
which I think is a nice subtletyto the match. Um here was

(02:18:33):
the one thing you forgot to mentionabout the early match, the pre pre
match pre Kyle Karino confusing Kevin,Kelly or Nigel for me. Oh yeah,
oh he doesn't work here anymore,which is a lass because I still
did at that point, but Iwas not on the road traveler it.

(02:18:54):
I think it just goes to showthat Steve is always a step ahead.
Well in the whole his whole commentaryis these lines that are simultaneously inside but
also storyline, like where he sayshe talks about you know that's not in

(02:19:15):
my contract. Oh wait, Idon't have one. You know, he's
talking about things you're not allowed like, oh wait, I'm not allowed to
say that anymore. When he madereference to something about with in relation to
Carry's ring of honor, Oh,he needles Carry, who's at Ringside as
you know for title matches. Heneedles Carry about giving up and selling the

(02:19:35):
company to Sinclair. He's the onewho ruined it for doing that. Like
Steve is on point as far aslike barbed comments in everyone, you know,
even Nigel he's like, I knowyou've had a lot of concussions,
but you know this, like youknow, I know you had a lot
of concussions, but you know howthese fans turn on you in a sense.

(02:19:56):
It's almost like some of the Antiand Claire stuff from Steve was kind
of echoing the voice of the coreof the fan base. But yeah,
yeah, the the the the theog sort of fan base. Um,
yeah, I guess you can saythat, and Steve was their voice and
so maybe not intentionally, but itwas their voice in a way, And

(02:20:18):
it makes me wonder, you know, how many talent did feel like it
was a different place, like itwas a betrayal that Carrie sold the company.
It was survival for Carrie, itwas it was absolute survival for the
company's sake, regardless of the generallack of respect. I think certain people

(02:20:41):
in the same clarin that things hadfor wrestlers and thought they were all just
you can insert anyone to do thisrole and it doesn't matter mentality of interchangeable
pieces. Sometimes the same person gotput in multiple roles they didn't want to
pay for duplicate. I'm talking aboutwrestlers though, Like they're interchangeable it doesn't

(02:21:03):
matter. You know that that mentalityof it not mattering who's in what position,
they're all the same. That thatthat mentality that would eventually take hold.
I think, um, well withthis, I don't think that could
be said for anything involving here.There was nobody else that would be replacing

(02:21:26):
Kevin in this position. There's nobodyelse replacing Davy in this position. Because
I think part of what we wascrucial to this is this leading into this
was also the moment where Davey steppedup and said and almost addressed the fan
criticisms of being Cornette's boy, ofyou know that this he's the guy that

(02:21:48):
Cornette wants as the face of thecompany. Um legit like I'm the legit
did the shoot side of things,like you know, we know he hates
Kevin the Davy's what he wants outof pro wrestling. Like Davy stepping up
leading into this and saying, I'mnot your boy, I'm not your you
know anything, like basically fuck youtoo, Jim, Like Kevin and Davy

(02:22:09):
now have that in common, likeyour ring of honor is not my ring
of honor? Sort of from Davykind of that endearing the fans back to
him a little bit after they've kindof they had soured on him throughout his
title run well, and that's kindof indicative to something I wanted to talk
about with this match is that,you know, Davey and Kevin are the

(02:22:35):
polar opposites of one another, andthat's what made their their inner ring chemistry
so great from a character standpoint,But with Davy being the quote unquote face
that Jim Cornett wanted to be,like the centerpiece. If Davey Richards of
two thousand and eleven, twenty andtwelve was on national television right now,

(02:22:58):
do you think Jim cornettou have positivethings to say about him? No,
and hate everything because he'd hate allof it because it was Yeah, because
it's a stick at this point,and that's just it's it to me,
though, Davey Richards was in thistime frame the perfect guy to represent the

(02:23:24):
good guy side going against Kevin andthe evildoers of you know, Steve and
Jimmy. And I think that ifthe previous year had been had been presented
differently in terms of Davy, thefans might have had a different response.
Um, But I think Kevin,Kevin was so good in this role.

(02:23:52):
In general, Kevin is so good. But Kevin was so good from this
a year ago best in the RORLtwenty eleven when he came back up to
this point, like so good athitting the notes, knowing what to say
and how it was done. Um, the whole way through of and also

(02:24:18):
what we said was Steve being thatvoice of the the old r H fan
in some ways and wanting to burndown this ring of honor um and rebuild
it because you know, this isn'tthe ring of honor we we want that,
we're this is this isn't the ringof honor that I fell in love

(02:24:39):
with. This isn't the ring ofthat honor. Rebuild it in my image
and recreate it. Um. SoI think that's all of that, and
we would finally get that Steve Corino, Christopher Daniels match man. There's so
many matches I'm going through stuff withthe book, or I'm like, oh
god, I forgot that ever gotbooked, it just never happened, like

(02:25:00):
the American Dragon versus Spanky to goout of three falls that never happened,
or Brian and Steve supposed to happenin two thousand and two, and it
doesn't happen until two thousand and five. I am. I think Kevin was
just so good at that role andsang so many of those things that fans
felt that he became a de factobaby face, even though nothing he did

(02:25:26):
was classic baby face stone Gold theytried to make Davy, who was never
a classic baby face. He wasthe baby face, like we said with
annex, who got over on hiswork in the ring. He didn't get
over because he was a classic babyface, didn't get over because he was

(02:25:46):
a classic heel. He got overbecause of how the game, the inarguable
quality of his in ring work.Yes, there's some of the stuff in
two thousand and eleven that that notmy favorite parts of Davy I felt excessive,
you know we've talked about in thepast, but on the whole,

(02:26:07):
like you know, he he producedin the ring, and the fans got
behind that, and that was thekind of germ of the idea of Ring
of Honor, is that the fansgot to choose their side based on the
effort you put in the ring.Yeah, yeah, I mean Lady Joe

(02:26:28):
became a superstar to the company inone match, one night He'll go back
to the very first ring of HotterWorld, Ring of Watter Champion. Low
Key. Does low Key strike youas a happy to go, luggy baby
face. No, No, buthe's a shit kicker and he does cool
stuff and therefore and he's day.Yeah, he exactly earned it. He

(02:26:50):
earned it through in ring work,and that's how Davy got there. And
then he became was turned into thislike baby We've talked about it, like
this baby face that was ill fittingto who he had been the previous five
years of his tenure in the company. Like even at his baby more baby
face moments when he first came inagainst Jimmy pret No were Moore's core and

(02:27:15):
even you know, the baby faceturned you know, as the Wolves became
more more baby face, Like noneof that was because he'd as typical baby
face character. So this between BorderWars and this felt like a course correct
of Davy coming back to what broughthim to the Dance in the first place,

(02:27:39):
and which is hilarious in the sensethat Davy becomes Kevin in this match
in so many ways. Davy wrestleshalf to match in a T shirt one
Dave's the what Davy's using chains andweapons and doing like you know, hardcore

(02:28:00):
and that that death match stuff,but like he's using fins and tools,
and like he's not going out therebeing a pure wrestler. He's being He's
kind of being Kevin in this match, which is an interesting dynamic to the
whole story. And then tossing Jimmyand Steve and Kyle lighting a fire and

(02:28:24):
Kyle lighting this fire, and thenCornett's presence out there and how that has
involved in how he would end upgetting involved in the match kind of justified
his presence out there because it wasit was kind of like the TV title
match. There's a lot of youknow, like access pieces around ringside,
but they end up using them.They used them very well, you know,

(02:28:48):
they used them very well. Andthe Cornette balancing out Carino, Um,
even though we already have Nigel andKevin out there is a nice touch
and Steve and create and created astep and Cornette going back and forth.
It was entertaining, but Cornett thengetting involved and paying the price for it.

(02:29:09):
Um, you know, it wasa good kind of taking everything and
they found a good way to takeall of the the sort of threads that
led to this match. And yeah, the uses of all the various chess
pieces around ringside I think really addedto this. You know, Bobby Cruise,

(02:29:31):
Kevin's out on the floor and hekind of notices Bobby Cruise from the
side and super kicks in. Thenhe stares to Carry, and you know,
Carry at this point has never beeninvolved in any sort of physical altercation
and ring of honor. But Davysaves the day with a suicide dive.

(02:29:52):
Um. You know they're going atit in this wild like you know,
weapons assisted. You know, Davysuperplexes Kevin onto you know the big pilot
chairs. Uh, Davy pulls atable out, Um, he puts it
in the corner. Um, he'slooking for another superlex, Steam bites Davy

(02:30:18):
and then puts Davy through the table. Davy brings the table out from under
the ring, sets it up.Davy's going through the table. You know
how this works? Um, Imean there's there's a whole bunch of things.
Uh, Todd Sinclair taking a soulbutt at one point. Um.
So then and I love that,and I love that it's not an accident.

(02:30:41):
Yeah, this is literally like it'sthe the in your house. Davy
frustration Sean and Taker like it's thethey're like just the refs are fucking up.
Boom. Davy hits him. Kevinhits Paul like it is you know
you have Karina on them on onthe comment you're saying, just sending gino.
Then he's always around doing something thinglike yeah, it's uh, it's

(02:31:03):
it's good stuff. Yeah. Paultakes a package pile driver. Um,
they got a ladder out. Atthis point, Um Davey brings Todd back
to life and Davy sets the ladderup in the corner. Jacobs jumps on
his back. He rakes his eyes, Davey fights him off. Jimmy pulls

(02:31:24):
out the railroad spike from his boot. Cornette grabs it out of Jacob's hands
and threatens to spike him. Corinocomes in. He kicks the Cornette and
the groin, which plays into thecorner the Corino commentary catchphrase of the ding
Ding, and he throws some punchesat jim Um Davy gives Jimmy the exploder

(02:31:48):
on the ladder. Richards and Steinboth have the spikes. Stein spikes Richards
in the groin and gives him apackage pile driver for the win at twenty
one minutes and twenty these seconds inthis overbooked, over creative, wild,
chaotic, beautiful mess, perfectly booked, not over. There's so much going

(02:32:15):
on and it's wonderful, but it'sall it's so much going on, but
it all fits and makes sense tothe story of all of these people involved.
Yes, so these guys that theyhave promised to continue to bring chaos
to bring over the uh suffering camefirst, then the chaos, then the

(02:32:39):
ugliness, and then the Mayhead.So it was, you know, sort
of out of order. But thiswas just really great. I don't know
if I liked it better than someof the other Kevin and Davy matches,
but this is certainly right up therewith the best of both of these guys.

(02:33:05):
I think they were magic every timethey touched. Yeah, I think
this could do is very very goodstuff, and I I think it's it's
much seeing Davy in this sort ofenvironment as a rarity. You know,
It's like you got the Latter Warwith Steve and Jenarico and the Wolves,
but Davy's usually not involved in thesesort of matches, so seeing him in

(02:33:30):
it and kind of devolving like Isaid into Kevin's playing field to try and
take the ring amount of world title, knowing he has no other chance after
this until Kevin loses, and thenthis hostage crisis is what then turns into.
As we were saying, throw everyoneand their mom at Kevin to try
and dethrone him. Well, andit's really cool. One thing that happened

(02:33:56):
in the match was the super kickto Bobby Cruz, so that plays into
Steve Karino announcing Kevin Steen is thewinner, and then Kevin having time to
talk with the microphone. He saysone thing that he cannot stand is hypocritical
people, and a prime example inhis eyes is Jim Cornett. He also

(02:34:18):
proclaims that he himself was a hypocritefor the past eighteen months, but he
had to be so he could geta title match with Davy Richards. He
said that all the things he saidabout Davy were a farce, including being
an undeserving champion. He thinks Davyis one of the best in the world.

(02:34:39):
He's a hard worker. And thenhe turns to the fans and he
calls the fans the most hypocritical peoplein wrestling, and he points out final
battle twenty ten, where they cheitteredand celebrated Jenerico's winning, exiling Kevin from
Ringo Honor until he came back atBest in the World last Er twenty eleven.

(02:35:01):
And then when he came back atthat Best in the World show,
the fans cheered, They went crazy, you know, they were so excited
and they're you know. He talksabout how fans cheered for Brian Danielson and
see him punk when they turned onother ROH World champions. They did it
to Nigel, they did it toTyler, and they did to Davey.

(02:35:24):
He doesn't care at all about thefans now and that he is the champion.
He vows to be the last championof Ring of Honor because he and
Jimmy Jacobs and Steve Karina will killthe company. He tells the fans that
they have themselves to blame for that, and at last year's Best in the
World most importantly, he said fuckRing of Honor, but what he meant

(02:35:48):
to say was fuck New York City. And the hostage crisis has officially begun.
Who like that Kevin energy is He'sgiving that passionate promo is that's where

(02:36:11):
wrestling is supposed to feel like,yeah, I I just that that was
something like that's something that Kevin hadall ways Kevin talked, you believed everything
that came out of his mouth.It's that there was no doubt that every

(02:36:31):
every word it was heartfelt and meant. You know. That was why,
like you know, him and Eddieon the mic together tent anniversary or whether
it would be down him and Kingstonon the mic together, like two people
who just everything that came out ofthem reaked of believability and genuine I think

(02:36:56):
it's what made it hard to becauseit made it hard to book Heaven Is
because he was something that felt realin in this Ring of Honor world.
At this time he felt I meanhe always did, but I mean specifically
at this moment as this champion sayingwhat he said felt like the genuine,
heartfelt feelings of a guy who gotbenched for six months, didn't know if

(02:37:18):
he was even coming back. Itwas it was the stone cold Steve Austin,
you know, type of story ofrailing against authority, speaking for yourself,
not caring about the consequences, gettingeverything you want and then now you

(02:37:43):
have the power because the Ring ofHonor titles equal power. Yes they do.
That wraps up Best in the Worldof twenty twelve Hostage Crisis the winner
for the Best in the World poll. Thank you for voting. Yeah,
encourage you highly to head over toPatreon, dot com, backslash Honorable Pod.

(02:38:07):
Sign up over there and check outour social media. We will get
all the latest and greatest on whatis coming to this show and to Patreon
as well. You never a Twitterand Instagram at an Honorable Pod, Facebook
dot com back slash and Honorable Pod. My Twitter individually is at mister Jeff

(02:38:31):
Schwartz zero. That's also my Instagramhandle. Search Jeff space Schwartz on Facebook.
Be your friend and partner. Wherecan we find you beside Dad duty
dot com d like literally it willbe Dad. Thank you. I have
been saving that up, yeah formonths. Good for you. Um at

(02:38:56):
having earned Shane on Twitter and Instagramjust Shane Haging on Facebook. But I
so rarely use it that you know. I looked at it the other day
and it was at the point whereyou just said ninety nine plus on every
notifications because I had looked at itand forever more. And don't forget Code
of Honor Book on Twitter to followmy occasional update posts as I work on

(02:39:22):
the book chronicling the history of BringThem Honor. I like little screenshots of
you know, little things that I'vetyped in that day or in recent past
and recently little teases, and thenof course, as far as the pod
YouTube dot com backslash an honorable mentionedpodcast for all sorts of fun little playlists.

(02:39:45):
Haven't made a new one in awhile, but all sorts of fun
playlists assorted wrestlers, the most consistentone being the non our Wage match of
the week, which I was lookingto see if that Filly and Regal match
was on YouTube. I could notfind it, but there are other ones,
so I'm thinking Finley and Rigo wouldhave been will probably be the not

(02:40:05):
our Ways match of the week thatgoes along with this podcast well, and
that leads us into upcoming shows thatwe have penciled in with no dates attached.
We've got Survival of the Fittest twentyeighteen from Columbus, featuring the strangest
lineup of Survival of the Fittest ofall time and probably the least favorite show

(02:40:26):
I've ever attended. We've got Deathfor us honor seven night one death for
uson or seven night two, andthat is tentatively it. So we'll see
what's coming after that as we getthrough each day, one day at a
time, hour by hour, Ithink in some cases minute by minute,

(02:40:50):
I don't know, but we'll see. Now. You just made me think
of the song lyrics. They don'tafter minute hour after the fun was that
song? I have no idea putit into your shazam. Anyone with information

(02:41:11):
regarding the murder of my friend CarnelSledge and his friend Catherine Brown is asked
to please call the Federal Bureau ofInvestigation for the City of Cleveland two one
six six two two six eight fortwo you can remain anonymous. There is
a one hundred thousand dollars reward.Of course. Carnell and Kate were murdered
in the Rocky River Reservation under LowRain Road bridge between five o four and

(02:41:35):
five thirteen pm June fourth, twentynineteen, a day that will forever be
etched in my mind, and noanswers have been found. We are still
awaiting the Unsolved Mysteries episodes to bedelivered unto the public, but they're coming

(02:41:56):
soon, featuring yours truly, andmost importantly, we'll talk about how great
Carnell was of a person, andI will beat the drum for justice for
Carnell and Kate and for all ofour friends and their families. In particular,

(02:42:18):
Partner, have you found the song? Because I see that look on
your face. Power and the money, money and the power, minute after
minute, hour after hour. Everybody'srunning, but half of them. Look
at what's going on in the kitchen, and I don't know what's cooking.
Fifty cent gangster's paradise, motherfucker.Oh money and the power was fifty cents

(02:42:41):
reality shows. That's why I wentfor the guests. Ben spended styles living
in gangs parades. I'm gonna goeat something, and now I don't know
what I've got, but I'm hungry. Well, having said that, there
is only one thing left to do. That is to quote the honorable Mayor

(02:43:03):
of an honorable mention your Palce SouthSalerinaro. No need to trip out.
It's time to dip out, slapthe porpoise. This one is over.
We're out. Be kind to oneanother, keep your chin up, happy
everything until the next episode. Ihope you take my commentary out of this
man, because I don't want tohave anything to do with it. What

(02:43:26):
I'm fucking a portion. I seetrees, some green, red roses,
I see them blue, fucking you, And I think to myself, what

(02:43:50):
I wonderful ses gys some blue andcris white, the bright blessed day,
the dark saying night. And Ithink to myself, what I wonderful world.

(02:44:24):
The colors of the rainbow so prettyin the sky, are parsol on
the faces of people going by.I see friends shaking hands saying, how

(02:44:46):
very really saying I do. Ihear bigger's ground. I want slim groun.
I much more then I never know. And I think to myself,

(02:45:09):
what I wonder world? Yeah?I think to myself what I wonder Yeah,

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