June 1, 2019 Ring of Honor Pacific Northwest debut – National TV taping report for results/spoilers from Kent, WA.
Report by: Jerome Wilen of Wrestleview.com
My daughter and I were in attendance at the Ring of Honor Pacific Northwest debut at the accesso ShoWare Center in Kent, WA on Saturday night. This event was a national television taping that included a four corners survival match which air live exclusively on the HonorClub streaming service.
The event was being promoted as “State of The Art.”
While standing in line to get into the building, Mandy Leon came out to take video of the fans (out of character).
There was a meet and greet prior to the show. My daughter and I met her favorite ROH star Flip Gordon. We took our picture with him. He even gave my daughter hug which made her night. We also spoke briefly with Jay Lethal, The Bouncers, The Kingdom and Silas Young who were all personable and polite.
The estimated attendance was 350 to maybe 400 fans.
It is unclear what order the matches will air on TV as two back-to- back matches were announced by Bobby Cruise as the television main event.
The commentary table had Ian Riccobonni by himself during the Four Corners Survival and part of the TV tapings. For the remaining parts of the TV taping Ian was joined by Colt Cabanna and Caprice Coleman.
The Briscoes came out first and bad mouthed ROH and the NWA regarding their loss at the Crocket Cup. It is was unclear if this was taped for TV as there was no commentary team at the commentary tables during this time.
The first match of the evening was the four corners survival match which streamed live on HonorClub.
Four Corners Survival: RUSH vs. Dalton Castle vs. Flip Gordon vs. PJ Black. Flip Gordon won the match. Dalton Castle attacked Flip after the match which generated a lot boos. Also after the match, Dalton Castle called RUSH a “beefy moron” which then a loud “beefy moron” chat broke out. Dalton said he would face RUSH’s brother Dragon Lee at the Best in the World PPV on June 28.
Next up was Colt Cabanna defending the NWA National Championship against Mark Briscoe. There were a lot of chats for Colt who retained by pinfall over. Both Briscoes then attacked Colt after the match.
Silas Young then came out to a lot of boos. Silas wrestled and defeated Hijo de Squid in a Pure Wrestling Match. Hijo who was wearing an actual squid mask that looked very goofy, but the crowd loved it.. Silas touted Hijo and and up and coming wrestler. This match was to further the storyline feud between Young and Jonathan Gresham.
PCO who did some crazy moves that the crowd loved defeated Jay Briscoe by disqualification after Jay used a chair. PCO was put through a table, then fought back after both Briscoes attempted to take him out with a vicious attack.
Next up was Coast 2 Coast with little to no reaction. Then from the stage area out comes Bully Ray to a huge reaction. He did his usual “Do you know who I am” promo. He announced his tag partner for the match was current ROH TV Champion Shane Taylor which felt like a let down some of of the crowd. Bully Ray and Taylor trashed talked Coast 2 Coast. Bully generated huge heat with the fans at ringside, even picking up a garbage can and threatening to hit a fan with it that caused even more heat on Bully. Your winners were Bully Ray and Shane Taylor by pinfall.
Jay Lethal and Kenny King continued their best of three series. Lethal won by disqualification after he was hit on the head with a mic by King who then laid out Lethal with a chair. The third match in the series will be decided at the Best in the World PPV.
The Allure then came out to do a segment with the crowd that probably won’t air on TV. They said that whichever fan is the loudest would be invited into the ring to take a picture with them and wear their new The Allure T-Shirt. After the crowd went crazy. There was a dad who had his kid on his shoulders that the fans were pointing at to be picked by the The Allure. Angelina Love looked at that direction and then said told the crowd they had no intention of ever allowing a fan to come into the ring for a picture or t-shirt which generated a lot of boos.
Later in the evening Angela Love came out while a match was in progress and quietly gave a bag containing a t-shirt to the young boy which garnered a lot of applause from those of us who could see it.
Next was a short intermission.
Following the intermission was The Kingdom vs. The Bouncers. The Kingdom won by pinfall which was predicable. The Kingdom started to praise The Bouncers and then bad mouthed them. The Bouncers then both TK O’Ryan and Vinny Marseglia each a can of beer. The Kingdom teased doing a toast, but dumped out the beer on the floor outside the ring. The Bouncers then took out The Kingdom and toasted the fans. The part of this segment that may appear on TV is The Kingdom dumping out the The Beer and The Bouncers attacking The Kingdom afterwards.
The next match was #1 Brian Johnson vs. Josh “The Goods” Woods. This was an okay match that went longer than expected consider Woods has been winning quick matches on previous TV broadcasts. Woods won by pinfall.
Jeff Cobb defeated Matt Haskins by pinfall. Cobb came out to a big reaction. This match was was announced as a television main event. The match was wild and crazy.
The final match of the night which was also announced as a television main event was ROH Champion Matt Taven defending against Tracy Williams. Fans started to leave before this match began. The match went longer than expected as the event was scheduled to end at 10:30pm PT and ended around 11:00pm PT. It was a great and wild back-and-forth match with a lot of loud chest chops. At one point it looked like Williams hit the ring apron the wrong way when he came down a big red mark was visible on his left shoulder. Taven retained with clean finish. Surprisingly there were was none of the usual red balloons that came out from under the ring.
After the match, the rest of The Kingdom came out to attack Williams. Matt Haskins then came out for the save and cleared the heels from the ring. It is unclear how if the save will be on TV.
Matt Haskins then said 2019 is great year for professional wrestling and the fans, then thanked the fans for coming to the show.
Biggest heat: Bully Ray, Matt Taven, The Allure, Dalton Castle
Biggest pops: Jeff Cobb, The Briscoes, Jay Lethal
Lot of this is awesome chats.