Ring of Honor All-Star Extravaganza VII Preview

Howdy!

Name’s Rick, and I recap Ring of Honor ‘round these parts.
Tonight, it’s time for one of ROH’s PPVs, and I thought I would do a little write-up about the event, in the hopes that perhaps some of you who don’t watch ROH on a regular basis might be persuaded to check it out. I very much enjoy ROH, and I’m always happy to bring folks along. For those of you who already watch on a regular basis, this will probably not contain much you’re interested in outside of my match predictions, but feel free to read anyway.

So, the basics: the PPV’s name is All-Star Extravaganza 7, and it takes place Friday, September 18th; many of ROH’s PPVs take place on a Friday. Ring of Honor is fond of using the moniker ‘Best professional wrestling on the planet’, and while I’ll certainly concede they’re up there, it could easily be argued that NJPW, just as an example, has a superior product. I only bring this up because a lot of people seem to think that ROH is just a workrate extravaganza, and while I think that the ringwork in ROH is fantastic much of the time, there are still storylines and a lot of the wrestling you know and love. Not at all trying to be condescending, but if you’ve never watched ROH but are a regular WWE watcher, there’s plenty to love about it. If you enjoy NXT, you should love ROH if you’ve never watched it.

Let’s get to the matches, shall we?

DALTON CASTLE vs SILAS YOUNG (If Young wins the match, he wins control of the boys; if Castle wins the match, Young must become one of the boys)
WHO ARE THESE GUYS? – Silas Young markets himself as pro wrestling’s ‘Last Real Man’, and is a mustachioed brawler who’s been around off and on since 2007 in ROH. He had a cup of coffee with the WWE in OVW, but never got past that point. Dalton Castle is one of the more flamboyant characters in ROH (think David Bowie as an example), using 2 young men he calls his ‘boys’ as furniture to fan him with feathers when necessary, and occasionally get involved in the matches as distractions. Castle is the face in the feud, Young is the heel.
WHAT’S THE HISTORY HERE? Castle and Young have basically been feuding based on their personalities and the natural clash therein. They had their first match at Best in the World 2015, which Castle won. They had a rematch on ROH TV about a month ago, which Castle also won, with a little distraction from the boys. After that match, Young challenged Castle to a match because he was sick of, quote, ‘what he was doing to those boys’, and he wanted to teach them how to be real men. Castle accepted a few weeks later, with the condition that Young must put himself on the line, AKA if he loses, he becomes Castle’s newest boy. There are a lot of homoerotic overtones in the feud, very little of it subtle. Castle plays his character gay, Young plays his as that uncle you don’t really talk to at Thanksgiving. This will be their 3rd match – Castle leads 2-0.
WHO WINS? I’m a fan of Castle, I’m not a huge fan of this feud. Castle has gone over twice, so the only point to having a 3rd match is to put Young over, one would think. I just can’t see Castle going over 3 straight times, unless the ROH bookers have some GREAT ideas for Young being in vignettes as one of Castle’s boys; that having been said, I don’t really want to see the vignettes that they come up with as Young tries to teach the boys how to be ‘real men’ that much either, so while I’m hoping for Castle, I’m not really that optimistic on that front. On the other hand, for those that would argue the opposite, Castle is CLEARLY the guy they want to push, so there’s a chance that they’ll go for the clean sweep with him here. That having been said….
YOUR WINNER – Silas Young

CEDRIC ALEXANDER (with Veda Scott) vs MOOSE (with Stokely Hathaway)
WHO ARE THESE GUYS? – Cedric Alexander has been around ROH since 2011, first starting as a part of C&C Wrestling Factory, then going solo. He currently owns one of my favorite finishers in wrestling, the Lumbar Check (Suplex into a double knee backbreaker), and just recently turned heel. His manager, Veda Scott, is a former interviewer for ROH who has wrestled for several independent women’s promotions including Shimmer. She’s portrayed as an ambulance chasing attorney and a heel. Moose came into ROH in 2014 and is the face, having been managed by Scott previously but now only by Stokely Hathaway. Hathaway is a prodigy of Prince Nana, leader of The Embassy and one of ROH’s oldest managers.
WHAT’S THE HISTORY HERE? – There’s quite a bit, actually. Moose was formerly managed by both Scott and Hathaway, and had an ‘undefeated’ streak that went on for months until it was ended by Alexander at Global Wars 2015, where Alexander hit Moose with a wrench that Scott intended to pass to Moose. The following week at Best in the World 2015, Moose lost a 3-Way Dance for the #1 contender spot; after the match, Alexander (who had attempted to use the wrench in a previous match, but was stopped by his tag partner) attacked Moose and Hathaway, while Scott also turned on Moose and went with Alexander. At Death before Dishonor 13, Alexander defeated Moose using the wrench again and began to brag to everyone who would listen that he was 2-0 over Moose; naturally, that leads to a no-DQ challenge to settle this thing.
WHO WINS? – This feud has been extremely well done, even if I haven’t responded to it as well. I think Moose is a decent worker but not a great one, while Alexander is a very good worker who is clearly above Moose at this point. Moreover, Alexander has been doing extremely well with this heel turn, making him about 100x more interesting as a wrestler. I would assume that he goes over here with some type of shenanigans, if only because it will blow the roof off when Moose finally goes over. Unlike the last feud, I think this one could go several matches and not get old, so long as Cedric keeps escaping Moose as cheaply as possible and not letting Moose pick up that elusive win until the very end. The opposing argument is that Moose has lost twice and it’s time for him to go over, but the feud probably has more legs than that.
YOUR WINNER – Cedric Alexander.

THE BRISCOES vs ?????
WHO ARE THESE GUYS? – Mark and Jay Briscoe have been around ROH pretty much since the beginning. Despite a few hiatuses here and there, they’ve been consistently a part of ROH as 8-time tag champs and, in Jay’s case, as a multi-time World Champ and the man who lost that title to Jay Lethal. They portray redneck brothers who love to kick ass, essentially. (I know that’s an oversimplification, but it’s the best one-line description I can think of for the Briscoes.)
WHAT’S THE HISTORY HERE? – Well, they wanted on the PPV, so they issued an open challenge. No one knows who’s coming out; The Decade seems like a distinct possibility, but it’s ROH, so anyone could come out from behind that curtain. Plus, the Decade is basically Adam Page and Colby Corino at this point, so that would just be a slaughter.
WHO WINS? – The Briscoes have been stating publicly that they want to win the tag titles for the 9th time, and therefore I expect this won’t even be close. Whoever steps out from behind that curtain is getting murdered; this one’s a crowd-pleaser, as the Briscoes are OVER with ROH fans.
YOUR WINNER – The Briscoe Brothers

THE ADDICTION (C) vs THE KINGDOM (W/ Maria Kanellis) vs THE YOUNG BUCKS
WHO ARE THESE GUYS? – The Addiction is Christopher Daniels (AKA The Fallen Angel) and Frankie Kazarian. You may or may not remember either guy; Daniels appeared at ROH’s first show in 2002 and has been around the Indies for a LONG time. Kazarian just debuted in ROH in 2014. Both of them are probably more recognizable from their TNA runs to most who haven’t watched ROH, where they were the tag team Bad Influence. They are the champs heading into this match. The Kingdom consists of Matt Taven and Michael Bennett, Maria’s real life husband. It may or may not still also consider Adam Cole a partner, but that’ll be covered later. They’ve been together as a group for more than a year and are former IWGP tag team champions. And enter the Young Bucks, real-life brothers and one of the more polarizing tag teams that you’ll find amongst some of the ROH faithful that I know; they are responsible for some of the most athletic, spectacular double-teams that you’ll see. They’ve been seen before in TNA as Generation Me, and have also wrestled pretty much everywhere outside of the WWE. (Yes, I know that Matt did a couple of TV jobs there.)
WHAT’S THE HISTORY HERE? – There are a bunch of storylines weaved into this one. The Bucks are a part of the Bullet Club over in NJPW, who’ve had a history with The Kingdom over the last year or so. Meanwhile, in ROH, the Addiction have been the tag champs since defeating reDRagon, but needed to escape their last title defense against the Bucks with timely interference from the Kingdom, who, as stated above, has a history with the Bullet Club which the Bucks are a part of. With me? The Bucks want the titles, the Kingdom wants the titles, and so do the Addiction. That’s pretty much it.
WHO WINS? – Well, first off, if you like spotfests, this match is going to be one long glorious one. I expect intricate stuff here, probably with the Bucks and Addiction leading the way with Kingdom in the rear. This will probably be a very specific type of match, as stated above; this isn’t going to be guys fighting over wristlocks like the Danielson days. There will be sweet double-teams and I would guess it comes down to who’s best to hold the belts. The Bucks are good challengers to be sure, but I suspect that it’s best to keep the titles on a heel team, and that’s why I’m a little off in left field on this one, but I suspect that The Kingdom gets the belts here; they’ve never had the titles, I don’t think that Daniels and Kazarian need them anymore, and the Bucks are so over that they probably don’t need them either. There’s more potential in possible face turns and storylines with the Kingdom having the belts than almost anyone else, and them running like scared rabbits from the Briscoes or War Machine for months could be fun to watch – if the Addiction retains, I’m fine with that too, but I’m going to go with my feeling on this one.
YOUR WINNER – The Kingdom (New champs!)

ACH vs MATT SYDAL
WHO ARE THESE GUYS? – Well, most of you probably remember Matt Sydal from his days in WWE as Evan Bourne. He’s been kicking around ROH since back in 2004 until he left in 2007 to go to Vinceland; once released, he headed back to ROH (after a trip South of the border to ingest some psychotropic drugs, as told to Colt Cabana in a batshit insane podcast you all should listen to) and has been around ever since. ACH is awesome, so let’s start there. He’s been around ROH since about 2012. And he’s awesome.
WHAT’S THE HISTORY HERE? – ROH decided they wanted to put on a great match. Okay, fine, there’s a little more to it than that. This is match 3 in a best-of-5 series between the two wrestlers; the series is tied 1-1, as Sydal won the opener and ACH won match 2. These guys are a former tag team, first paired at Tag Wars 2014. ACH challenged Sydal to this series because he felt his career was getting bogged down in ROH and he needed to challenge himself against someone who had taught him so much; Nigel McGuinness decided to make it a best of 5 series instead of a single match.
WHO WINS? – ACH has the most upside potential of the two; he’s 5 years younger than Sydal and still could be a player in ROH, moreso than he has been up to this point. Sydal seems okay with playing a veteran in ROH these days, and I suspect that ACH will win the series; the storyline is only leading to that point, unless they want to turn him heel at the end by having him turn on Sydal, which would be intriguing. That having been said, I’d be surprised if they go that route; I’m pretty sure that this is a rehab feud for ACH, and he’ll go over in the 5th match….which is why I’m picking Sydal here. Forcing ACH to win two matches in a row is what I suspect they’ll do to tighten the odds, so that means that Sydal has to go up 2-1 here.
YOUR WINNER – Matt Sydal

AJ STYLES vs RODERICK STRONG vs MICHAEL ELGIN vs ADAM COLE (Winner becomes the #1 contender for the ROH World Title)
WHO ARE THESE GUYS? – Well, I hope that pretty much everyone knows who AJ Styles is at this point. Even most of the WWE fans I know are aware of his existence. Roderick Strong just came off two unsuccessful challenges of Jay Lethal for the World Title, one of them being a 60 minute draw, and is a former ROH World Champ. Ditto for Michael Elgin, who’s been around ROH since 2007 and is probably MORE famous for the title match he didn’t win, against Davey Richards at Showdown in the Sun 2012 which Meltzer gave *****. He is a former World Champ but had some issues, real or kayfabed, with ROH over work visa issues and hasn’t really sniffed the title scene since, losing a 3-way dance for the #1 contendership to Roderick Strong at Best in the World 2015. Adam Cole is also a former World Champ, becoming the undisputed champ at Supercard of Honor VIII, which was my first ROH show that I was in attendance for.
WHAT’S THE HISTORY HERE? – The big selling point for the match is that each of these guys is a former ROH champ, with a ton of them having history with each other over the years. Styles has been gone for awhile in TNA, but the other guys have been around each other for awhile. Cole defeated Elgin in a tournament to win his first title, and was defeated by Elgin for the belt after a 275 day reign with the belt. Strong used to be a member of the House of Truth with Elgin, and had a multi-PPV feud with him after leaving the House of Truth; he also had a feud with Cole while Cole was the champ.
WHO WINS? – Let’s start with who doesn’t. Strong just came off two losses to Jay Lethal and probably has no chance here. Elgin has been in and out of the ROH doghouse, real or otherwise, for awhile now, and I suspect he’s not going to take the victory. That leaves Cole and Styles. Cole has been working with his old tag partner Kyle O’Reilly for the last several weeks, seemingly leaving behind the Kingdom; he’s potentially the winner because either way the World Title match goes, he would have a natural feud with O’Reilly as a former tag partner and he would have a readymade feud with Lethal as a face former champ against the heel World Champ. Either one works. Styles is AJ Styles. He could win because ROH likes to trumpet his history with the company, he’s ratcheted up his international cachet even more with his Bullet Club work in NJPW, and the matches would be awesome with either Lethal or O’Reilly. I am leaning towards Cole; he’s been well-protected since his return from injury, and he’s got the most upside as a challenger in either scenario.
YOUR WINNER – Adam Cole

JAY LETHAL (W/ The House of Truth) vs BOBBY FISH – World Television Title Match
WHO ARE THESE GUYS? – Jay Lethal is the current ROH World and Television champion, having won the TV title at the aforementioned Supercard of Honor VIII and subsequently unifying the belts at Best in the World 2015, defeating Jay Briscoe for the World title. He’s been around ROH since 2003, but had a several year break wrestling for TNA – he returned to ROH in 2011. Bobby Fish is one-half of the team reDRagon with Kyle O’Reilly; they are the current IWGP junior heavyweight tag champs and are 3-time former ROH tag champs. He’s been around ROH since 2013.
WHAT’S THE HISTORY HERE? –After Best in the World 2015, ROH matchmaker Nigel McGuinness congratulated Lethal on TV and asked him which title he planned to give up; Lethal responded that he wasn’t going to give up either title, and planned to defend both at the same time. As a consequence, the story has been that Lethal is spreading himself too thin and it’s going to catch up with him as he’s been defending the belts on TV and on house shows since. reDRagon lost the tag titles to the Addiction and ever since have been taking on more and more singles matches in ROH. Fish won a 3-way elimination match to become the #1 contender to the TV title, beating ACH and Christopher Daniels.
WHO WINS? – This is Lethal’s first PPV defending both belts, and I suspect he’s walking out with both of them. I would prefer that he drop the World title first, as I think it’s better for the story since he can claim that the TV title is worth just as much anyway, which gives him the chance to keep elevating that belt along with potentially having rematches to try to unify the titles once again. Now, there’s a chance that either one of the reDRagon guys win to create some tension on the team, if they want to go that route, but I don’t think they’re going to go that way. I think that Lethal might be in for a long title reign with both belts; while a title change wouldn’t be a jaw-dropper, it would be kind of shocking.
YOUR WINNER – Jay Lethal

JAY LETHAL (W/ The House of Truth) vs KYLE O’REILLY – ROH World Title Match
WHO ARE THESE GUYS? – Jay Lethal – see above. Said my piece there. Kyle O’Reilly is my current pick for the best worker in the world outside of MAYBE Nakamura, and had what I consider to be the MOTY against KUSHIDA in the finals of the Best of the Super Juniors. O’Reilly is the other half of reDRagon, and is primarily known for his tag work in most circles; he’s acquired the nickname “the new Bryan Danielson” amongst some fans, and is a striker with an MMA style background. He’s great. He’s just great.
WHAT’S THE HISTORY HERE? – O’Reilly has wrestled Lethal to a no-contest in the last two matches they’ve had, both over the World TV title. Ever since then, he’s been itching to get another chance at Lethal, and now he has it for the first time in the main event for the World title. They’re both really good wrestlers who wrestle each other well.
WHO WINS? – God, this one pains me. I said what I said about Kyle above, and I meant it. Most of the guys over at ROH World think he’s the guy who dethrones Lethal in the end, but I don’t think it’ll be here, truthfully. As I said above, I think they’re going with Lethal retaining somehow because it’ll be better for the story when he finally loses it; that means he’s not going to drop it in his first major PPV defense. While I would love to see Kyle O’Reilly as the ROH World Champ personally, there’s very little that makes sense to build Lethal up and have him lose it here. Could they surprise me? Sure. O’Reilly is a very traditional ROH champ, in that he’s a wrestler first and can be plugged in with a variety of opponents and go on the mat – when people call him the new Danielson, I actually think that’s an accurate statement. But he’s 28 years old, he’s still a tag champ overseas with Fish, and he’ll get another shot here someday.
YOUR WINNER – Jay Lethal

Rick Poehling

@MrSoze on Twitter