My ROH Survival of the Fittest 2017 Overview

Star of the hit TV show "Arrow", Stephen Amell kicks off the show as the special host. He says "a friend friend of his" told him that he really needs to check out Ring of Honor because it's the best pro wrestling in the world. He talks about his love of professional wrestling before he is cut off by The Addiction. They poke fun at Amell who fires back by calling them washed-up has-beens. They take off their jackets and look like they're about to attack The Arrow star. ROH World Champion, Cody comes out to back up his buddy Stephen. The segment ends with Amell revealing his status as an official Bullet Club member (are they creating a celebrity wing?) and a match being made for tonight's main event involving The Bullet Club taking on The Addiction, Flip Gordon and Scorpio Sky.

Stephen Amell's appearance on this ROH show pretty much cements and legitimizes his pro wrestling fandom. Wrestling fans are used to seeing random celebs pop up on RAW to promote their wares and claim that they're a fan of this wrestling stuff. Amell proved he was more than that when he took part in that program with Cody a few SummerSlams ago. Now he shows up to what I believe is a ROH house show and professes his love for the business. It's very refreshing to see.

Match #1
Silas Young defeats Josh Woods by pinfall with Misery

There's something about Silas Young that I like. From his "Last Real Man" persona to his matches to his entrance theme. He is a cool Ring of Honor staple. I'm still reeling from the quasi-ROH exodus of guys like Adam Cole, Roderick Strong, Bobby Fish, Kyle O'Reilly and Michael Elgin. The influx of guys like Josh "The Goods" Woods still feel so new to me but watching matches like this start making guys like Josh Woods look at home here in ROH. This was a fine, fun, standard opening match.

Match #2
Shane Taylor defeats The Beer City Bruiser by pinfall with the One Hitter Quitter right hand punch

I was a big fan of the team of Shane Taylor and Keith Lee. I was there live for an outstanding match they had at All Star Extravaganza VIII in Lowell, MA where they absolutely killed it. I'm sad to see the team go but hopefully both guys will kill it in their singles run. I've already seen some great Keith Lee matches in places like EVOLVE. Taylor has this mercenary persona that has an air of bad assery to it. The BCB feels like an old school character only I'm pretty sure that a man of BCB's size in the 80's isn't jumping off the top rope to the outside and through a table.

Match #3
Punishment Martinez defeats Jay Lethal by pinfall with a Psycho Driver, Curb Stomp and South of Heaven Chokeslam

Marty Scurll interfered which allowed Martinez to capitalize. This was a fun match. Jay Lethal is one of the best guys in the company let alone the world. And as far as Martinez goes, I really dig the dark persona. That type of thing comes off really corny in some of the indies that I see but there's something about Martinez that just pulls it off greatly.

Match #4
The Kingdom (Matt Taven, Vinny Marseglia & TK O'Ryan) defeat Search and Destroy (Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin & Jonathan Gresham) by pinfall when Taven got his knees up for a shooting star press and rolled Gresham up in a small package

This was another fun match. I know The Kingdom are MA guys so that makes them cool in my book. It helps that they (and everybody else in the match for that matter) are fucking great wrestlers. I remember seeing Marseglia for the first time about a year ago at an ROH show in Warwick, RI against Jay Lethal. It's good to see him already come such a long way with The Kingdom and his psycho killer character. Also, I hear that Chris Sabin is a 311 fan. As a mammoth 311 fan, this is awesome to see. Two of my passions embodied in an awesome professional wrestler.

Okay...I couldn't see one particular spot because the camera didn't quite get a clear view but let me see if I saw it right. Shelley immobilized The Kingdom by grabbing Taven and TK's junk and then biting Marseglia's junk. Is that what he did? I couldn't really tell because of the camera view. It was a fun spot in the match and I could tell that it was something the crowd hasn't seen before. It was a very progressive Texas crowd!

Match #5
Deonna Purrazzo defeats Britt Baker by submission via Fujiwara Armbar

Apparently this was a dark match. Good stuff. I know ROH has a Women of Honor brand thing going but is there a reason why they haven't added a women's championship? I would have thought that they would have implemented that before the six-man tag team championships.


Match #6
Team CMLL [Rey Cometa & Esfinge (That means 'Sphinx' in English)] defeat The Dawgs (Rhett Titus & Will Ferrara) by pinfall when Esfinge pinned Ferrara with the Nudo Egipico (which means 'Egyptian Knot' in English)

I thought Team CMLL was going to be comprised of Dragon Lee and Volador Jr. but it's good to see some diversity in the luchadors that ROH brings in. This match was really fun.

Match #7
ROH World Television Championship Match
ROH World Television Champion, Kenny King defeated Joey Ryan with the Royal Flush.

Within the past couple of years, I've seen Joey Ryan matches here and there (like in Lucha Underground). I don't see him too often since he doesn't wrestle for the companies that I mainly follow so it was good to see him on this show. This match was built around Ryan trying to get King to touch his junk. I'm assuming it was so he can deliver the YouPorn Plex, which Ryan finally hit off the top rope. King kicks out, gets a crotch-resided lollypop stuck in his mouth, blocks a superkick and delivers the Royal Flush for the win. I really like how King made light of the recent stream of sexual harassment scandals earlier in the match by telling Ryan that "No means no".

Match #8
Dalton Castle defeats IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion "The Villain" Marty Scurll by pinfall with the Bang-a-rang

Good match here. Where are the boys? If the Tate twins are gone then can we not get two other boys for Dalton? Where was the jumpsuit? Granted that black button-up he wore was befitting of "The Party Peacock" but I digress. It all really adds to the overall presentation and sensationalism. I'm guessing it's because maybe this was a house show and only bigger shows get the boys and the jumpsuit. As far as "The Villain" goes, he's great too. I really dig his program with Jay Lethal as Scurll is on a quest to bring the villainous side of Jay Lethal back to the surface.

Match #9
Five on Four Handicap Match
The Bullet Club (Cody, Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks & Stephen Amell defeat The Addiction (Christopher Daniels, Kazarian), Flip Gordon & Scorpio Sky by pinfall when The Bullet Club hit an Indytaker on each member of The Addiction simultaneously. Gordon and Sky had walked out on the dastardly Addiction.

The fans in San Antonio are stoked to see this match and it was certainly fun to watch and impossible to properly recap.

I hope they continue to properly feature and build up these new ROH additions of Flip Gordon and Scorpio Sky. They shouldn't be "just guys on the roster". Tell their story and show the fans what makes them tick. Flip's theme is a great start and is a good example of a wrestling theme that is created for the fans to take and run with.

The Addiction are always great and are a treasure to any company that has them. I like how they were one of the focal points of the show.

When it comes to celebrities or sports figures wrestling inside of the ring, as of right now DeAngelo Williams is my top choice. He teamed up with Moose at Impact Wrestling's Slammiversary event earlier this year. It was the best in-ring performance I've ever seen from a non-wrestler. With that said, Stephen Amell is right under him on my list. He did great on this show. There wasn't a moment on this card where I thought "Yikes, what's he doing in there?". I hope we see him pop up more often!

The Bullet Club are like a rock band that's always churning out great albums. They're just so creative. From the merch to the 10-boots spot. What else is there to say about them that hasn't been said? Any match that the Bucks are in are just filled with fun and awesome spots. Props to all involved for putting on this fun match!

Overall, this was a standard ROH house show event. Nothing too crazy or out of this world but fun and great stuff all around.