Night One of Ring of Honor's (ROH) Showdown in the Sun is in the books! And what a night is was, indeed.
The show opened up with ROH World Tag Team Champions Mark and Jay Briscoe taking part in a Proving Ground match against the team of TMDK. The Australian tandem put up a good fight despite us not knowing what their initials stood for.
The Mighty Duck Klub? Terrible Manners, Damn Kids? Oh, I know what it is.
While Teenage Mutant Dingo Killers proved up to the challenge, "Dem Boys" came up victorious and look forward to taking on Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team tomorrow.
Speaking of Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin, they fended off the combined team of Cedric Alexander and Caprice Coleman while in other tag team action, The All Night Express defeated The Young Bucks in the first night of their Duel Dual matches. Unfortunately for Rhett Titus and Kenny King, the Jackson brothers attacked Titus after the match, zoning on his recently mended knee. We'll see how this will affect him tomorrow.
Jim Cornette made his way to the ring and brought out NWA World Heavyweight Champion Adam Pierce who had defeated ROH rising star Adam Cole just last night. Cole showed up and goaded Pierce into a rematch, minus the title implications. Continuing the momentum he started at the 10th Anniversary Show, Cole picked up not only the win but also Pierce's respect.
The title-less TV Champion Jay Lethal took on Kyle O'Reilly who has been sporting a more aggressive, less friendly attitude lately. Lethal retained his title despite not having it with him as Tomasso Ciampa -- who absconded with the belt last month -- sat at ringside, staring daggers into his rival the entire time.
Former Impact Player Lance Storm came out of retirement to take on "The Prodigy" Mike Bennett in a special attractions match. Despite having the crowd firmly in his favor, the Canadian legend was unable to come up with the win and even took a bit of a beating after a handshake from Bennett turned nefarious. "The Prodigy" may have Maria Kanellis on his arm but he didn't win himself any friends in the audience with those tactics.
The co-main event was "La Revencha," a Last Man Standing match between Kevin Steen and El Generico. Their feud throughout 2010 nearly destroyed both men and forced Steen out of ROH for most of last year. Proving there's still no love loss between the two, Generico refused to wait for the bell to ring before launching his attack. Bent chairs, broken tables and bruised bodies were the name of the game during the match which ended when Jimmy Jacobs came out to assist Steen. The former Age of the Fall leader seems to have gotten a taste of what made him so evil in the first place when he battled Steen last month and wanted a bit more.
And in the main event, Davey Richards survived two old foes in Roderick Strong and Eddie Edwards in a three-way dance for the ROH World Championship. It was a fun match, mostly because all three men stayed active for most of the match rather than the usual triangle match trope of one man rolling to the outside to recover while the other two do battle. Edwards was the first to be eliminated after getting pinned by Strong but soon after "The Messiah of the Backbreaker" found his shoulders on the mat. Immediately after the match, Strong's House of Truth stablemate and Richards' opponent tomorrow, Michael Elgin, stormed the ring and laid the champion out, promising to take the belt home with him once the weekend is over.
Overall a good show even though Steen and Generico's match should have closed it out. The crowd was insanely hot for the grudge match which ended up leaving little else for the title bout.
Check back tomorrow for a recap of Night Two of Showdown in the Sun!