ROH 15th Anniversary live results: Adam Cole vs. Christopher Daniels

Preview by Bryan Rose

Ring of Honor is live on pay-per-view tonight as the promotion’s 15th Anniversary show takes place at Sam’s Town in Las Vegas, Nevada.

We’re looking for your thoughts on this show as well as the New Japan Cup day one, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

The main event will have current ROH World Champion Adam Cole defending his title against Christopher Daniels, who has been affiliated with the promotion off and on since its inception in 2002. Having never won the championship before, this may be Daniels’ last shot at ROH’s top prize.

Elsewhere on the card, the Television title will be decided as champion Marty Scurll defends against Lio Rush. The ROH Six-Man tag titles will be on the line as the new Kingdom (Matt Taven, TK O’Ryan & Vinny Marseglia) defend their titles against Dalton Castle & The Boys.

For the first time since winning the ROH Tag Team Championship, Matt & Jeff Hardy will defend against both The Young Bucks and Roppongi Vice in a triple threat Vegas street fight. Bully Ray will also make his debut in a six-man bout, teaming with The Briscoes against Davey Boy Smith Jr. & War Machine.

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The show is openeing with a Christopher Daniels and Adam Cole dueling promo package.  Daniels was one of the most underrated promos of last year and Cole is a great promo on his own.  So this was a strong package.

Keivn Kelly is back as an announcer with Ian Riccobani and Colt Cabana, but Ian is the lead announcer,

JAY WHITE PINNED KENNY KING

The match started out a little rough, but it turned into a good match. Both did dives and there were a lot of big moves at the end. The finish saw a crossbody off the top, but King did a John Cena by rolling through and putting him on his shoulders. Instead of doing the Attitude Adjustment, White took him down with an inside cradle for the pin. King kicked out right after three.

The Bullet Club (Young Bucks, Frankie Kazarian and Adam Page) did a promo with Kazarian, talking about how Kazarian turned on Christopher Daniels.

FRANKIE KAZARIAN EARNED A TV TITLE SHOT IN A SIX-WAY OVER ADAM PAGE, CHRIS SABIN, PUNISHER MARTINEZ, CHESEBURGER AND SILAS YOUNG 

This was one move after another for ten minutes, and was real crisp. Young looked really good in particular but everyone really did their jobs. If you like moves, this was really good, bujt it was just that. They built the match up for Cheesburger hitting the shote taught to him by Jushin Liger.  Once he did that, however, Kazarian pinned him with the Ace of Spades. 

JAY LETHAL PINNED BOBBY FISH

This was a hell of a match that was very Japanese style with the pacing. This came off like a fight as Fish used leg submissions, but Lethal would get to the ropes.  Lethal went for the Lethal Injection, Fish sidestepped and hit body punches and kicks, but after a missed kick, Lethal hit the Lethal Injection for the pin.

ROH SIX-MAN TAG CHAMPIONS THE KINGDOM (MATT TAVEN & VINNY MARSEGLIA & TK O’RYAN) DEFEATED DALTON CASTLE & THE BOYS TO RETAIN

The Kingdom retained when Taven used a power bomb on Boy 1 with help from Marseglia. Unfortunately, O’Ryan may have been seriously hurt as he did an Asai moonsault and it looked like his ankle cracked on the guardrail. He had to be carried out and they went right to the finish. Up until that, the match was really good.  The Boys were great (seriously) and Castle has all the charisma in the world.  

TV CHAMPION MARTY SCURLL SUBMITTED LIO RUSH TO RETAIN

This match was great. Scurll is one of the best in the world, and maybe the most underrated in the business.  There were a lot of great near falls and unique spots, but there were a couple of spots that were weird. The big moves were Rush kicking out of a piledriver and Scurll kicking out of a splash off the top. The finish saw Scurll go for the chicken wing, throw a ton of elbows to the head, tear off the kiniseo tape on Rush’s shoulder, and use the chicken wing for the submission.

THE BRISCOES & BULLY RAY DEFEATED DAVEY BOY SMITH JR. & WAR MACHINE

This was another great match. The finish was a 3-D as the Briscoes threw Rowe in the air and Bully did the cutter. After the match, Smith Jr. didn’t get along with War Machine and argued after losing. They blamed Smith and there was a pull-apart with Smith throwing security everywhere. The Briscoes worked most of the way and were at their best. This was all action from start to finish with lots of big moves and saves. They pushed Briscoes & Bully as contenders for the Trios titles.

ROH TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS THE HARDYS DEFEATED THE YOUNG BUCKS AND ROCKY ROMERO & TRENT BARETTA IN A STREET FIGHT TO RETAIN THE TITLES

Kevin Kelly said the Bucks have no belts left but the Superkick belts, but actually, they still have the PWG belts. The Hardys were called Matt & Jeff (not Broken Matt or Brother Nero) and they didn’t use their music so the legal threats probably made a difference.

This match was total insanity that ended when Jeff Hardy pinned Baretta after a flip over the top of a ladder into a swanton through a table. They used thumbtacks including a Meltzer Driver on Baretta onto thumbtacks. Matt also put thumbtacks into Baretta’s mouth and Nick superkicked him with the thumbtacks flying everywhere. There was a twist of fate onto thumbtacks. 

Romero put a sleeve on his forearm with thumbtacks and did a forever clothesline on everyone. Bucks vs. Baretta & Romero stuff was great, and the Hardys did all their spots.  Matt did the gimmick to a degree but they did nothing to encourage chants of “delete” or “obsolete”, but the fans did them anyway. The Hardys stole the Superkick belts as well.

CHRISTOPER DANIELS DEFEATED ADAM COLE FOR THE ROH CHAMPIONSHIP

Daniels did another super promo before the match. There was maybe a little too much crying, but the emotion and storytelling was great. Basically, he was crying that he had to win, this was his last chance, and that if he doesn’t win, he’ll never win the title after 24 years in the business.

Well, Daniels won the title when Kazarian turned on Cole.

They did a ref bump and Cole used a low blow. Kazarian came in and held Daniels while Cole went for a belt shot. Daniels broke free and Cole held up rather than hit Kazarian. Kazarian then asked for the belt. I thought for sure he was hitting Cole, but instead he just threw the belt out of the ring. Cole was shocked.

Daniels made a comeback, and Kazarian tore off his t-shirt to reveal a Destiny t-shirt. Daniels used a uranage and three BMEs to get the pin. Daniels bled from being kicked into the post very early in the match. The match took a while to fully develop, but turned into a really good match although it was tough to follow the previous match.

After the win, all the faces (White, War Mahcine, Cheeseburger, Rush, Mandy Leon and tons of others) were in the ring for a post-match celebration.