Best in the World 2012: Hostage Crisis iPPV preview

The card for ROH’s June 24 internet pay-per-view from New York City, Best in the World, is now taking shape. Confirmed matches:

- Kevin Steen versus Davey Richards for the ROH World Championship.

- Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas versus The All Night Express for the ROH Tag-Team Championship.

- Roderick Strong versus Jay Lethal versus Tomasso Ciampa in a Triple Threat match.

- Adam Cole versus Kyle O’Reilly in a hybrid rules match. 

- Homicide versus Eddie Edwards.

- Fit Finlay versus Michael Elgin.

 by Jon Cronshaw

The show opened with Nigel McGuiness and Kevin Kelly introducing the show from the Ted Reeve Arena, Toronto. They showed clips from all of the matches from their recent ill-fated pay-per-view, Border Wars.

Kevin Kelly previewed the June’s Best in the World pay-per-view from New York, by noting that Michael Elgin will be facing Fit Finlay. Both of these guys are excellent in the ring, so this has the potential to be a very good match. Truth Martini said in an interview that people get wiser with age – but not Fit Finlay, at Best in the World, Elgin will break Finlay in two.

Kelly talked about the difficult time Davey Richards was having in light of his recent car accident, and how Kyle O’Reilly wasn’t involved in Border Wars due to a death in the family. Kelly noted that Cornette was also unable to make the show because of his colourful past (Cornette has an assault charge on his record, and is not allowed into Canada). Footage was shown from a recent episode of ROH TV where Kevin Steen and Jimmy Jacobs beat up O’Reilly. They then aired another clip from a Daytona show, which again showed Steen and Jacob beating the crap out of poor O’Reilly, but in this instance Davey Richards came in for the save.

Nigel interviewed Eddie Edwards in a backstage stage segment, who said that without Kyle, Davey has no one to watch his back. They are pushing the storyline that Richards’ ribs are in bad shape, and that he refuses to get medical attention – even after his car accident. Edwards noted that the fans seem to be on the side of Steen, but that he’ll always support Richards.

In interview was shown with Davey Richards talking about being the ROH champion, and facing wrestlers like Adam Cole and Michael Elgin, etc., but that it has now come back to Kevin Steen. He said that the ROH title was for real wrestlers like Brian Danielson, Samoa Joe and himself, not fat guys in baseball shorts.

Next we were shown the Kevin Steen versus Davey Richards from Border Wars. Steen won the match by pinfall in a very good showdown with the Package Piledriver.

After the match, Richards in backstage selling an injury to the neck, a trainer forbids Kevin Kelly from interviewing him. Kelly sold the fact that Richards’ previous injuries probably played huge part in him losing the match. Kevin Steen interrupted and noted at the reason why he beat Richards was because he had hit the Package Pildriver. Steen pokes fun at the film set, and notes that it is all an illusion, but that what was real was the fact that he was the ROH World Champion. The show ended with Steen bullying Kelly, by throwing cake at him.

Though this show sounds like nothing happened of note, it was actually a good way for recapping the title match (especially for thos affected by the I-pay-per-view issues). This show builds up Steen as a champion, and hopefully his reign will be a good one. A lot of wrestling fans criticise Steen for being out of shape, and for not being the best worker, but the guy is undeniably and excellent character and an awesome antagonist to Jim Cornette.