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What we're all supposing is one of the last steps before an official announcement occurred over the past couple of weekends, as Kevin Steen's farewell tour delivered his last three Ring of Honor (ROH) matches.
SPOILER WARNING: His final match took place at a taping for ROH TV, and contains storyline elements that may play out of the course of that Sinclair Broadcasting syndicated/online show. If you don't want to know anything about shows that probably won't air until next month, bail out now or skip down to the next item.
While you're taking your time to decide about the spoilers, check out these limited edition shirts released by the company to commemorate Mr. Wrestling's final matches. The one with all of his past shirt logos is pretty killer...you can order them at the ROH website.
Aftershock, July 12 - Hopkins, Minnesota
defeated Tommaso Ciampa, then delivered an "emotional speech" about the company and the crowd
July 18 - Cincinnati, Ohio
lost no DQ match to Silas Young - confirming that Young was "the guy" that Steen put over on his way out.
TV Taping, July 19 - Dearborn, Michigan
defeated his mentor Steve Corino in his final ROH match. Jimmy Jacobs came to the ring and the S.C.U.M. founders hugged before an angle kicked in when The Decade attacked Steen. Jacobs, Roderick Strong and B.J. Whitmer were chased off with the help of a locker room worth of babyfaces, and a celebration occurred that included balloons, silly string, a John Cena action figure and champagne.
Now, we wait and see when he shows up in Orlando.
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Meanwhile, Ring of Honor rolls on, and their next marquee show is their outdoor event Field of Honor in Brooklyn, New York on August 15th at MCU Park.
Head matchmaker Nigel McGuinness is busy, having announced that all of the company's titles will be on the line for their return to New York. Yesterday, he booked the match that will determine if Michael Elgin will keep the ROH World Heavyweight Championship he won on pay-per-view (PPV) at Best in the World - a Four Corner Survival match against the man Unbreakable beat for the strap, Adam Cole, the man who was never defeated for the belt, Jay Briscoe, and the IWGP Heavyweight Champ, AJ Styles.
The Phenomenal One is the only person to have pinned Elgin in 2014, and the pair have had a series of well-reviewed bouts over the last year.
Television champion Jay Lethal will blow off his long-running feud with Matt Taven in a steel cage (what a concept - using the cage to end feuds)! Handcuffing the champ's manager Truth Martini didn't work at Best in the World, so the idea is that the cage will keep him and his minions out of the action.
Should Taven win, he'll also get five minutes alone in the structure with his former manager, Martini. If Lethal retains, Matt can never challenge for the TV title again as long as Jay holds it.
Word is expected soon on who tag champs reDRagon will face, as well as the rest of the card.
Tickets for the show are available here. At this time, no plans exist for it to be streamed on iPPV.
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As our own Randall Ortman told you, it's rumored that Matt Hardy is done with ROH for the time being, as the company won't use him while he's working with TNA.
Supporting that is our final item...at the Aftershock show, Hardy awarded his Iconic Championship (Briscoe's self-made World title belt that Cole repurposed as a gift to "The Icon") to Maria:
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What do you make of the lastest from ROH, Cagesiders? Feel free to discuss below, and add anything we missed. If discussing developments from television tapings or other confirmed spoilers, please use the spoiler bar.