Thought Zero – This pay-per-view event was probably the least anticipated of the weekend (what with WrestleMania and NXT: Takeover going on), but it was still a pretty enjoyable event, so let’s throw about 10 thoughts its way.
1) Ring of Honor started the show with former 3-time World champion Adam Cole versus the current ROH TV champion, Marty “The Villain” Scurll. Everyone and their cousin expect Cole to leave ROH once his contract expires, so the outcome of this match was not a real surprise. It worked as a very good opener and as the best actual wrestling match on the card. But because it was the first match, I missed a good part of it just trying to get my computer working properly. Erg.
2) For those who don’t read my ROH 10 Thoughts columns (and why not, they’re great fun), or have had the pleasure of seeing Scurll in the ring, get to a screen and watch Marty Scurll. He is a superb worker, has a great gimmick, puts on an excellent show, and, if things in this world were perfect, would be THE next big thing in wrestling. Let me put it this way, if I were starting a professional wrestling company right now, Jay Lethal and Marty Scurll would be my top two choices to build around.
3) The Beer City Bruiser and Silas Young then took on the non-broken leg members of The Kingdom, Matt Taven and Vinny Marseglia. Bruiser and Young pick up the victory because, well, I am not sure. Maybe because Silas Young is being set up for a bigger push? Regardless, The Kingdom appears dead at this point, and I am not sure how they resurrect them. I did hear that Taven is taking a little trip through CMLL, so that’s a good thing for him.
4) The ROH 6-man tag titles were defended by the Briscoes and Bully Ray over Hangman Page and the Guerrillas of Destiny. A lot of time was spent on a secondary story of Bully Ray having trained the G.O.D. back in the day. While I didn’t know that before, I sure as hell didn’t care. Maybe they were trying to draw focus away from how pointless this match was. The Briscoes and Bully Ray just won the belts like twenty seconds ago and weren’t going to lose it here. Decent enough match, but I still can’t get interested in Bully Ray, sorry.
5) Now we travel back to 1982, complete with retro gear, as Jay Lethal fights Cody “The American Nightmare” Rhodes in a Bull Rope Match. If you are a millennial, you may be wondering what a Bull Rope Match is. Well, basically, two opponents are tied together with a big rope and their is a cowbell in the middle. So both wrestlers get to play tug of war for most of the match to get the cowbell to use. In some cases, this match is won by dragging your opponent around and touching all of the turnbuckles. However, since that rule is stupid, we are reminded that this match does not have that stipulation. What we wind up with is Lethal and Cody trying to wrestle a regular match while trying to not get tangled in the rope. For the most part, they failed. The bull rope really got in the way a lot of times. It was used inventively a couple of times, but most of the time, it was just one or the other trying to pull their limbs out from the rope. You see, when all you do is punch and kick, having a bull rope attached to you is no big deal. But Cody and Lethal are both pretty damn talented and having a thick bull rope attached to you while hitting suplexes, dives, and various other moves is actually not that helpful. There were a few cringe-worthy moments with Cody getting busted open and the cowbell being dug into the wound, but overall, it was a pretty routine Cody match that Jay Lethal tried to elevate to the moon. By the way, Lethal got the win, so let’s let him move on to something more interesting now, please.
6) We follow that with an unannounced three-way tag team match – Cheeseburger and Will Ferrara versus Rhett Titus and Shane Taylor versus the Motor City Machine Guns. I will use short sentences here, since Ring of Honor couldn’t even be bothered to promote this match. Cheeseburger and Ferrara appear to be breaking up. Rhett Titus and Shane Taylor are both members of the Rebellion. Apparently Kenny King is getting a singles push. Taylor is a pretty decent fat guy. The Motor City Machine Guns is the only “real” tag team in this match. The real tag team won, as they should. The fat guy beats them up after. After the match, Ferrara gets mad at Cheeseburger. Burger gets tenderized by Punishment Martinez who has a match coming up next.
7) Punishment Martinez defeats Frankie Kazarian. Martinez is being pushed as the new athletic big man monster, ala Moose or Donovan Dijak. And it works for him. Kazarian has a ROH TV challenge coming up soon, so in order to keep him strong, someone from backstage sends Hangman Page out to cause a distraction. Actually, a feud between Kazarian and Page would be pretty darn awesome. I have no problem with any of this.
8) Now we get an odd moment and we get an intermission. WrestleMania sure could have used an intermission or three, right? After the intermission Bobby Fish comes out to talk. Apparently he is staying in ROH for a while because he has some scores to settle. He threatens Jay Lethal (who beat him at the 15th Anniversary), but Silas Young wanders out. What is with all these guys pulling double duty tonight? Young has words for Fish and then they brawl all around, nearly killing themselves in the process. This didn’t really need to be on the PPV, but if it is setting up a Silas Young/Bobby Fish program, I’m down with that.
9) And now we get flippy! Dragon Lee (who is all sorts of awesome) and Jay White (who still needs a haircut, or at least a scrunchie) versus Will Ospreay (who once held the ROH TV for about 22 hours before Scurll beat him pretty convincingly) and Volador Jr (who is apparently on loan from CMLL). This match was exactly what you would expect. A ton of high flying, a ton of flipping around, and a good number of spots which leave your jaw on the floor. It perked up the crowd and was a lot of fun if nothing else.
10) The Ring of Honor World Heavyweight Championship of the World was on the line next as Christopher Daniels defended against Dalton Castle. Listen, I like Castle. His act is fun and his wrestling chops are top notch. But the few times I have seen him in really big situations, he just comes off a little flat. It’s sort of like Goldust. His character was great, but you couldn’t really see him as the World champ, you know? There seems to be a ceiling for someone whose gimmick is out there just so far. Anyway, Daniels and Castle had a good little match, but it wasn’t epic by any stretch of the imagination. It was a good call that this was not the main event.
11) Then Cody attacked both men. Again with the double duty. I hope these guys are getting overtime pay. I’m good with a Cody versus Christopher Daniels summer program, but I really hope they don’t put the belt on Cody.
12) The main event of Supercard of Honor XI was a tag team ladder title match between the Hardys and the Young Bucks. This match was a bunch of chaos disguised as a tag team match, but damn it was fun. I know I am critical of the Young Bucks at times, but they busted their asses out there. And normally I am critical of the Hardys for a number of reasons, but let’s just take a minute here and think about something in a separate thought.
13) The Hardys competed on two separate PPVs in two days. The Hardys competed on two separate PPVs in two days for two different companies. The Hardys competed on two separate PPVs in two days for two different companies, one of which was holding their biggest event of the year. The Hardys competed on two separate PPVs in two days for two different companies, one of which was holding their biggest event of the year, fighting a total of four other teams. The Hardys competed on two separate PPVs in two days for two different companies, one of which was holding their biggest event of the year, fighting a total of four other teams, including two teams who have been champions all over the globe. The Hardys competed on two separate PPVs in two days for two different companies, one of which was holding their biggest event of the year, fighting a total of four other teams, including two teams who have been champions all over the globe, in two separate matches for that company’s respective tag team titles. THE HARDYS COMPETED ON TWO SEPARATE PPVS IN TWO DAYS FOR TWO DIFFERENT COMPANIES, ONE OF WHICH WAS HOLDING THEIR BIGGEST EVENT OF THE YEAR, FIGHTING A TOTAL OF FOUR OTHER TEAMS, INCLUDING TWO TEAMS WHO HAVE BEEN CHAMPIONS ALL OVER THE GLOBE, IN TWO SEPARATE MATCHES FOR THAT COMPANY’S RESPECTIVE TAG TEAM TITLES, IN FUCKING LADDER MATCHES!
14) The Hardys deserve respect for what they did this weekend. They deserve a full week of spa treatments and ice baths as well. Anyway, back to this match, the Young Bucks picked up the win and regained the ROH tag team titles. It was an excellent choice to end the show and left the crowd suitably spent after cheering nonstop for about 25 minutes.
Overall, I can not say this was the best PPV of the weekend, but it started strong, had a little lull towards the middle, and then ramped up the crazy for the finish. My biggest complaint was that this PPV overlapped with NXT: Takeover a little bit. I wish I could have seen both PPVs all the way through. But who knows, maybe WWE will buy ROH, merge it with NXT, and give us a six hour combined PPV on the Saturday before WrestleMania XXXIV.
