Reaction of Honor 03.23.2013 (Elgin, Haas, Hardy)

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The Glimpse:

SCUM’s war on ROH continues, as Nigel McGuinness has opened the doors for their arrival.

The Action:

Match 1:  Silas Young vs Michael Elgin

Winner:  Michael Elgin via pinfall

Nice to see that one of the “extras” for the Top Prospects tournament has stuck around.  I enjoy Young’s throw back type of look, even though he has a silly generic gimmick.  Jay Lethal is on commentary, scouting his Supercard of Honor VII opponent.

Crowd is blatantly behind Elgin with an early “Elgin’s gonna kill you” chant.  Young is pressured into the corner and tries a cheap clothesline off a clean break, which Elgin ducks.  Young gets a headlock takeover and Elgin counters with a headscissors.  Young manages to roll it over, bridge and roll back into a Boston Crab, but Elgin powers out and shoulder blocks Young all the way to the floor.  Elgin continues with a jumping elbow from the apron to the ring after Young gets back in.  Elgin wants a suplex but gets driven into the corner.  Young keeps the fight close and clips the leg of the Unbreakable one to put him in peril.  Strikes in and out of the corner with the focus still on the leg, then a snapmare and a mule kick to the face.  Elgin kicks out at one and immediately starts to rise.

Elgin blocks a throw to the corner and lays into the chest of Young.  Elgin misses as he rushes the opposite corner and Young wraps his leg in the rope.  Elgin fights out of the corner with a forearm and then German suplexes his opponent into the top turnbuckle, leaving both men on the mat.  Both up to their feet and Elgin drops rights and chops in the corner, followed by repeated lariats.  Young kicks out of the corner, but gets caught in an Oklahoma slam for two.  Elgin wants a deadlift German, but Young counters into a victory roll for two.  Young follows with a big boot, but Elgin chases with a Chaos Theory style deadlift German.  Young hits a knee to the face and a butterfly facebuster (halfway between a Pedigree and Angel Wings) then takes Elgin up for a rolling fireman slam.  Young wants a headstand slingshot moonsault but lands on his feet.  Elgin answers with a pair of backfists, the buckle bomb and the Elgin bomb for the decisive win.

Adam Cole Promo

Adam Cole, the former ROH TV champ speaks to Matt Hardy about their match tonight.  Cole will “bring it to” Hardy like a champion.  Super.

Charlie Haas Promo

Charlie names Chicago sports teams then gets bleeped for whatever he says.  Why did Haas take out Shelton Benjamin?  Haas says that he put the “Greatest” in Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team for a decade.  He continues that he’s always been better than Benjamin.  Haas gets the date for Supercard of Honor VII wrong, which coupled with him calling the local hockey team the “Redhawks”, is kind of funny as he stomps around with beer in hand.  Haas challenges the fans to hop the rail and fight him, then moves to ROH management and even SCUM.  Grizzly Redwood answers the call to arms.

Match 2:  Grizzly Redwood vs Charlie Haas

Winner:  Charlie Haas via submission

Redwood is quick out of the gate but eats a pair of boots and some stomps.  Grizz tries to fight back but Haas just tosses him up, which lets Redwood hit a sunset flip.  Haas powers out and hits a clothesline and an overhead belly to belly suplex clear across the ring.  The Haas of Pain is enough to put an end to Redwood.

Haas won’t release the hold an

Mike Mondo returns to make the save, so Haas runs off.

Veda Scott comes to the ring to interview Mondo, who is back ahead of schedule.  Mondo cuts his usual “I’m short but tough as nails” promo.  Corino interrupts from the crowd and SCUM rushes the ring to brutalize Mondo and Redwood.  Compton grabs Veda by her hair while Corino tells Nigel McGuinness that war has been declared.  The ROH faithful hit the scene and Corino says to stop in their tracks or Compton will take care of Veda.  He demands a “SCUM show” for next week’s TV.  Nigel agrees and Veda is released.  Next week is all SCUM vs ROH, top to bottom.

After the dust settles, Corino makes his way back to the ring, this time alone to introduce Matt Hardy.

Match 3:  Matt Hardy vs Adam Cole

Winner:  ???

The winner receives a TV title shot against Matt Taven.

Aggression from both men out of the gate and Cole hits a crossbody followed by right fists.  Hardy clips the knee, but Cole answers with a superkick and a suicide dive.  Hardy is thrown to the barricade multiple times by the angry Adam Cole.  Hardy fights back and wants a suplex on the floor, which Cole counters by landing one of his own then rolling back into the ring.  Hardy puts a thumb into Cole’s eye when he returns to the floor, but Cole fires Hardy into the barricade once again, then leaps on him from the apron delivering more right hands.  Cole wraps Hardy around the ringpost and cinches in a hanging figure four.  Hardy reverses a rear waistlock and throws Cole head first into the barricade.  Hardy makes his way back into the ring and waits on Cole, hoping for a count out.

Cole slips in at 19 and Hardy pounces to deliver his own punches.  Cole fights out of the corner with a dropkick then puts Hardy on the top rope.  Hardy fights out and hits the Side Effect from the middle rope for a nearfall.  Hardy hits a gutwrench after a TV commercial for another two.  Cole fights up from his knees but Hardy puts a stop to him with a kick to the gut and a splash mountain powerbomb.  Cole once again kicks out and Hardy continues to pressure him in the corner.  Hardy hits another Side Effect for yet another nearfall.  Hardy picks Cole up and starts to slap him in the face which seems to fire him up.  Cole takes off his elbow pad and begs Hardy to hit him again.   Off the rope, Cole hits a bicycle kick and an enzuigiri, then a shining wizard for two.  Cole keeps the assault going with a missile dropkick, but Hardy is still able to kick out.

Cole puts boots to Hardy in the corner until the ref stops him, then hits the fireman carry to the knee for another two count.  Cole heads to the top rope as Hardy gets to his feet, and he dodges the cross body – Hardy rolls on top, but only gets a two.  Hardy puts the Figure Four on Cole for some added insult to the injury.  Cole slaps away at Hardy and turns the hold over, forcing Hardy to get to the ropes.  Hardy calls for the Twist of Fate, but Cole catches the leg and locks in his Figure Four.  Hardy holds on and gets the ropes to force a break.  Hardy slips to the apron and Cole misses the attempt at the springboard apron DDT, throwing himself to the floor.  Hardy moves the mats, exposing the concrete.  Hardy whiffs the Twist of Fate and Cole hits the Florida Key on the floor.  Hardy is deadweight as Cole tries to put him back in the ring to pin him.  Rhino flies out of the crowd and Gores Cole, then Coleman and Alexander hit the ring to fight him off.  The rest of SCUM shows up before Whitmer, Lethal, Mondo and the Briscoes show up to even the odds and take the show off the air.

The Reaction:

Lethal jaws at Elgin after the win.  Elgin should have a more decisive win leading into a PPV in my opinion – The whole point of him is he’s an absolute beast.  ROH does squashes few and far between; this might have been a good use of one.  Silas Young is an asset to ROH, both as a real competitor and “enhancement”, as he’s extremely solid in his wrestling.  A bit more of a personality other than being a “real man” with Jake Roberts facial hair would do him a world of good, but I’m glad to see him stick around, just like ACH.

Hey there’s that squash I was talking about.  Ironic that Haas cut this promo and then fought Grizzly Redwood with a beer in hand, considering that’s why ROH has let him go in the last week or so – A backstage altercation with Grizz that was repeatedly fueled by Haas being in a less than stellar mental state has led to his match with Shelton Benjamin being cancelled for the Supercard.  See ya later, Charlie.

Rare to see hands put on a female on a wrestling show in the modern era, but it got the job done.  Corino gets his way, Nigel gives in to the bad guys.

Good match and an expected shenanigans finish to set up not just a chase for the TV title, but the SCUM vs ROH show next week.  Technically Cole should be the winner as he was Gored first, but no announcement was made and it kind of looked like the ref was purposely out of position.  This feud will continue or possibly lead to a three way with Taven, who I don’t doubt will end up a transitional champion.  Certain psychological things in this match are the type of thing that bug me – Hardy hits a “super” Side Effect from the middle rope and gets a two.  A few minutes later he hits a regular one, still gets a two.  Move on from the move when you’ve done a stronger version of it minutes ago, seriously.

The Preview:

SCUM and ROH go to war one week before Supercard of Honor VII, where they…well they continue to war!

The Shill:

As always, if you like what you read here, let me know in the comments or on twitter @sbfantom.  I sincerely would like to hear what people think and strike up some conversation!

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