By Nicholas Jason Lopez

Coming live from Terminal 5 in New York City, Ring Of Honor had a lot of eyes on its product, particularly on the best match it could offer – Champion Vs. Champion, as ROH World Champion Jay Briscoe took on ROH Television Champion Jay Lethal, with the winner getting both belts.

This event brought Lethal’s rise to the top of ROH full-circle, as he certainly came a long way since the days of being Hydro in Special K.

(Aired 6/19/15)

The Breakdown

– The opening video highlighted both Lethal and Briscoe’s stakes to being respective champions, with nice snippets of past footage of each man’s revolution in ROH.

– The Donovan Dijak-Mark Briscoe match was an interesting opener, given it was a twist on the House Of Truth-Briscoes feud. There were a few harsh bumps, like Briscoe getting flipped over the top rope to the outside. Some cool stuff with ODB and Martini. Why weren’t there actual pages in Martini’s book? Briscoe got the win, putting over the perseverance of his punishment from earlier on.

– The ACH/Matt Sydal-Decade match was an okay match that showcased the athleticism of ACH/Sydal and the dirty tactics of The Decade, with Colby Corino helping out things in the end. Rite of Passage is downright nasty.

– The Silas Young-Dalton Castle match was a good showing of different styles, as the two did well together, despite some rough spots and botches. Castle getting the win was good for him as it came from Young’s temper getting the best of him. Good to see Todd Sinclair not giving in either. Great post-match heat from Young’s attack on one of the boys.

– The C & C Wrestling Factory-War Machine match was also an okay effort, with not that much time for action. Would’ve been better had Cedric Alexander picked up the win by using the wrench again instead of it costing his team the match. War Machine didn’t really gain anything here. At least they salvaged it post-match with the dumping of Caprice Coleman by Alexander, not using the wrench.

– The ROH World Championship Number One Contender’s match between Michael Elgin, Roderick Strong and Moose started with quite the elaborate entrance for Moose, complete with football helmets, jerseys and cheerleaders. The match itself was a good showing from all three guys. Strong going over was a good call. Post-match involved Scott slapping Moose and Cedric coming out to hit Moose and Hathaway, aligning with Scott. Decent turnout.

– The six-man tag between The Kingdom and Young Bucks/AJ Styles was the best match of the night to that point, with the action never stopping and superkicks galore, as we expected. Lots of cool outside dive spots as well. The finish was well-done, as was the attack on Maria. Bullet Club winning puts them as winners of the war so far, but the battles were far from over, if that makes sense.

– The Tag Team Championship No Disqualification match between The Addiction and reDRagon was okay, though also slow at some points. ReDRagon had some moments of glory with the chairs, but Chris Sabin helped the Addiction win.

– The Battle of the Belts main event between Briscoe and Lethal started out slow but boy, did the last five minutes exceed the hype. Those false finishes were excellent, with the crowd on its feet for every reversal. Lethal winning made the most sense here with Strong waiting in the wings and it completes his rise to the top.

Results

– Mark Briscoe (w/ODB) def. Donovan Dijak (w/Truth Martini) via pinfall

– The Decade (w/Colby Corino) def. Matt Sydal/ACH via pinfall

– Dalton Castle (w/Dalton’s Boys) def. Silas Young via pinfall

– War Machine def. The C & C Wrestling Factory via pinfall

– ROH World Championship Number One Contender’s Match – Three Way – Roderick Strong def. Michael Elgin and Moose (w/Veda Scott, Stokely Hathaway) via pinfall

– Six-Man Tag – The Young Bucks/AJ Styles def. The Kingdom (w/Maia Kanellis) via pinfall

– Tag Team Championships – No Disqualification – The Addiction (Champions) def. reDRagon via pinfall to retain

– Battle Of The Belts – ROH World Championship/ROH Television Championship – Jay Lethal (w/Truth Martini, Donovan Dijak, J. Diesel) def. Jay Briscoe via pinfall to retain Television Championship and become new Champion