Pop Break Live: Ring of Honor, ‘Manhattan Mayhem’ at The Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC
Ring of Honor returned back to the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York for this year’s Manhattan Mayhem. Last year’s show made a big impression with the introduction of The Hardys and Bubba Ray/Bully Ray Dudley. This year brought a different set of challenges. Trent Beretta was injured and due to a noreaster a day before, SoCal Uncensored (Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian, and Scorpio Sky) couldn’t be there due to flight cancellations.
Still, the crowd was enthused. About 85% were dressed in Bullet Club regalia, either from bananas, hoodies, and t-shirts. Many stood in line at the meet and greets before the show. There’s definitely a bigger sense of community that surrounds an Ring of Honor event. Many people recognized each other. During the intermission for the show, Matt Taven went down to the t-shirt booth and really played it up for the crowd. It was all a cool experience given that wrestlers may seem so distant in bigger events.
Tenille Dashwood and Deonna Purrazzo defeated Sumie Sakai and Jenny Rose: This match was pretty good. Dashwood and Purrazzo were both over with the crowd from the beginning. Sakai played into her heelish role well. The Women of Honor division in particular, is in good hands going forward.
Punishment Martinez defeated Soberano Jr.: The first part of the match was rough in some spots. There were some moments where Soberano Jr. didn’t seem like he was on the same page with Punishment Martinez, but it picked up during the second half of the match. Martinez was able to assert his power after Soberano Jr. settled in to pick up the victory.
Cody defeated Flip Gordon: Not only was this match good, the story that was told added to it. If you’ve seen the Being The Elite series, the ongoing thing is that Flip Gordon is trying to get on the “All In” show in Chicago in August. A win over Cody would pretty much seal this for him. Cody is one of the best heels in wrestling. He both played to the crowd from the Kenny Omega story point and the one with Flip.
Both men were able to mesh their styles together, mixing with acrobatics and some near falls. The crowd was really into this one the whole way through in one of the best matches of the night.
Silas Young, Beer City Bruiser, Brian Milonas defeated Kenny King, Cheeseburger, and Chuck Taylor: They really played to the size disadvantage that Cheeseburger had with the Beer City Bruiser and Brian Milonas at different points in the match. This match was made calling an audible because of Beretta’s injury, but it seemed to set up King vs. Young down the road.
Dalton Castle and Volador Jr. defeated Jay Lethal and Ultimo Guerrero: You can see how great the ROH and CMLL partnership benefits each other from this match. Both Volador Jr. and Ultimo Guerrero were able to interject their Luche Libre style, while Castle and Lethal built up their upcoming title match at the 16th Anniversary show on Friday.
Dalton Castle is growing more comfortable in being in the top guy role. I think the right thing to do is to pair him up against the mainstay of ROH, Jay Lethal and the tag match fed off of that.
The Young Bucks, Adam Page, and Marty Scurll defeated The Kingdom and Shane Taylor (Ultimate Mayhem Match): The crowd was really into this one. Especially, as more of the Bullet Club members entered in the match. The Kingdom really played natural heels in this. There has been a feud going with Matt Taven and Cody over the ring.
Hangman Page was one of the big stars of the match. The biggest spot was from him doing a moonsault from the second floor balcony. After the match, the Bullet Club came out and filmed a Being The Elite segment including Scurll’s singing of “Backstreet’s Back.” Everybody went home happy with another quality event.
