ROH Best in the World 2012 - Results and Discussion

-The Briscoes defeated the Guardians of Truth. Prior to the match, Truth Martini introduced the debuting Guardians of Truth, who wore faceless black masks to hide their identity. After the match, Martini and the Guardians attacked the Briscoes until security arrived to break it up.

-Die Hard Challenge: Homicide defeated Eddie Edwards after hitting the Gringo Killa. Edwards was selling an arm injury throughout the match that he hurt in training. After the match, referees attended to Edwards' arm injury and helped him to the back.

-Adam Cole defeated Kyle O'Reilly in a Hybrid Fighting Rules Match. Prior to the match, I wasn't sure whether this would be a success, but turned into a decent match. The second half of the match was good anyway. After the match, a tooth was shown on the
mat, which turned out to be Adam Cole's. He required medical attention backstage later on.

-Michael Elgin defeated Finlay in a disappointing match. Unbreakable has been one of the wrestlers of the year in 2012, but this match failed to live up to expectations. After the match, Truth Martini was furious with Elgin for adhering to the post match handshake.

-In an impromptu and unofficial match, Mike Mondo defeated Mike Bennett. Mondo won over the New York crowd after telling Bennett; "I wanna fight you, and then, (pointing to Maria) I'M GONNA FUCK YOU!"

-Roderick Strong defeated Jay Lethal and Tomasso Ciampa to retain the Television title. This was after yet more shenanigans from Prince Nana, RD Evans and Truth Martini. It can't be long until Ciampa loses patience with Embassy Limited, and breaks away on his own.

-All Night Express defeated The World's Greatest Tag Team to become the new ROH Tag Team Champions. This was after Titus surprised Haas with a roll up to pick up the victory. After the match, the celebration is on as the ANX break open the champagne while Haas & Benjamin stand in the ring in disbelief. WGTT then attack ANX, laying them out before leaving. WGTT leave, but the new champions get back up and raise the belts high before heading to the back.


MAIN EVENT


Kevin Steen defeated Davey Richards in the main event to retain the ROH World Championship in an anything goes match where the Piledriver was legal. This was a hugely entertaining match that had numerous interference from Jimmy Jacobs, Steve Corino and Jim Cornette. After the match, Steen got on the microphone and proclaimed Davey to be the best in the world. He then said that the fans are the most hypocritical people in pro wrestling. They cheered when he was banned from the company at Final Battle 2010, but treated him like a god when he returned six months later. Steen then says that the fans buy tickets to an ROH show, then chant for Bryan Danielson and CM Punk, two guys who Steen says probably don't even remember the company. To end the show, Steen says that he is going to be the last ROH World Champion, and instead of saying "Fuck Ring of Honor" like he did last year, he's going to burn the company to the ground.


Despite going into the show with low expectations, I felt very satisfied at its conclusion. Although, a large part of that was from the excellent clusterfuck of a main event and Steen's promo that followed. Steve Corino's commentary during the match was absolutely hilarious at times, and Jim Cornette's contribution was good as well (especially when Corino kicked him in the balls). I'm glad ANX won the tag titles too, now ROH need to bring The Young Bucks into the title picture. I also enjoyed the fact that ROH cocked things up and gave the iPPV away for free on their website. That was a welcome bonus.

What did everyone else think of the show? Did it live up to, or even succeed your expectations? Which parts did you enjoy and perhaps not enjoy?