Official Road To "Best In The World" Thread

[DXvsNWO1994]

Before the massive Best In The World 2014 PPV Event, Ring of Honor rolls through The Prairie State for two live events in early June, first making their debut in Carbondale, Illinois, and then returning to Collinsville, Illinois!! Here are the cards for both shows along with other announced talents:

Road To "Best In The World": Night 1
Carbondale, Illinois 6/6/14

- ROH World Title - Adam Cole vs. The Winner of the Six Man Mayhem Match
- Six Man Mayhem #1 Contender's Match - Cedric Alexander vs. Silas Young vs. Matt Taven vs. ACH vs. ROH World Tag Team Champion Kyle O'Reilly vs. Caprice Coleman
- The Briscoes vs. The Decade (BJ Whitmer & TaDarius Thomas)
- Delirious vs. Michael Bennett (with Maria Kanellis)
- "Sicilian Psychopath" Tommaso Ciampa vs. #ALLEGO
- Jimmy Jacobs vs. "Unbreakable" Michael Elgin
- Open Challenge - ROH World TV Champion Jay Lethal (with Truth Martini) vs. ?????
- ROH World Tag Team Champion Bobby Fish vs. The Romantic Touch

Also signed to appear:

- Scarlett Bordeaux

Road To "Best In The World": Night 2
Collinsville, Illinois 6/7/14

- ROH World Title - Adam Cole vs. "Sicilian Psychopath" Tommaso Ciampa
- ROH World Tag Team Titles - reDRagon vs. The Briscoes
- Proving Ground Match - ROH World TV Champion Jay Lethal (with Truth Martini) vs. The Romantic Touch
- Michael Bennett (with Maria Kanellis) vs. "Unbreakable" Michael Elgin
- ACH vs. Silas Young
- BJ Whitmer (with TaDarius Thomas) vs. Caprice Coleman

Also signed to appear:

- Jimmy Jacobs
- Matt Taven
- #ALLEGO
- Scarlett Bordeaux

Special Thanks to TYFDK for the original post.

Keep all discussions here...

[ROHFan25]

Gonna respond to Dragon Saga in this thread.

A) I know that #ALLEGO is Ethan Page, and I know Everett is hurt. I'm saying give them contracts so they can work a lot more consistent dates.

B) TD Thomas is fucking horrible. If he wasn't close with Delirious he wouldn't have a job. He's arguably the worst wrestler in the entire company IMO. Capoiera style looks so stupid and unrealistic IMO.

BJ Whitmer is boring. He adds nothing to the company and is by far the weakest member of the Decade.


Night 1 is hit or miss for me. I think that they're going to have ACH win this. You already had Taven face Cole for the belt, Silas is a heel, O'Reilly would be a waste right now (money match in future), Caprice isn't believable and Cedric's coming off an injury. So ACH/Cole should be awesome. Briscoes/Decade should be horrible. Bennett/Ciampa, already seen it too many times. Elgin/Jacobs should steal the show. Fish/Touch meh. Ethan Page vs Jay Lethal if they add that will be really really good. So much good and so much bad.

Like I said in the other thread, the Night 2 show looks really really good. Cole/Ciampa from DBD was awesome. This should be better. Briscoes/reDRagon will be great. ACH/Silas and Elgin/Bennett should be a ton of fun. Jacobs, Taven, Ethan page and Scarlett are all great adds to the show as well. Whitmer/Caprice hahaha. Lethal/Touch could be fun I guess.

For Road to shows...these are actually pretty solid. Interesting that they've put together decent cards without Bucks, Steen, Hero, AJ and Roddy. Hope that Delirious finds a way to get these shows to build into BITW perfectly.

[jordidebaas]

- #ALLEGO

YES! YES! YES!
Really hope they're going to bring in #WalkingWeapon too sometime

[DXvsNWO1994]

Does anyone know where Andrew Everett suffered his injury (I'm presuming it happened at the CWF Mid Atlantic Show this past weekend since that's one of his home promotions), and/or how long he might be out for?

[ROHFan25]

Forgot to mention that I'm pretty sure Elgin is going to have 2 of his students on these shows as well, not including Page. Considering that Elgin trains them, you have to figure they'll be pretty good. Interested to see who they are/how they work.

And about Everett, I assume it happened at that show and he's still waiting for MRI results I believe. Hopefully nothing too serious, but with the way he works he should be cautious.

[TYFDK]

Very unfortunate to hear about Everett. I've been impressed by him in every show I've seen that he's in.

Jacobs vs. Taven or Page on Night 2 could steal the show. Calling it now.

[Robareid]

I may be alone in this, but naming these Road to Shows could hurt them, as you're basically shoving in the face of fans that they're C shows. It's something small, but if you're a fan who is on the fence, hearing they're just "Road to" shows could turn you off. Just my two pence.

Six man mayhem should be fun if they give it a good amount of time, and for mentioned reasons I'd like to see ACH win as well, and Jacobs-Elgin sounds great. Ciampa-Bennett should be good enough. They've picked probably the worse possible combination for a Decade team, but hopefully it should still be decent in there with the Briscoes. Fish-Touch I can pass on.

- ROH World Title - Adam Cole vs. "Sicilian Psychopath" Tommaso Ciampa - Should be good, but when did Ciampa earn a title shot?
- ROH World Tag Team Titles - reDRagon vs. The Briscoes - Should be very good if their previous encounter was anything to go by, and RD have had a lot more time to gell since then.
- Proving Ground Match - ROH World TV Champion Jay Lethal (with Truth Martini) vs. The Romantic Touch - Eh.
- Michael Bennett (with Maria Kanellis) vs. "Unbreakable" Michael Elgin - Should be solid and good build for Elgin-Cole
- ACH vs. Silas Young - looking forward to that, sounds great.
- BJ Whitmer (with TaDarius Thomas) vs. Caprice Coleman - Eh, neither guy really grabs me as a singles wrestler.


It's a minor thing with Ciampa not earning a title shot, but when you're having some guys need to win matches to get title shots and some guys who are on losing streaks just awarded them, then that's a bit strange for me.

[DXvsNWO1994]

These two shows, in my view, are actually quite important for a few reasons. Firstly, these shows have really no part-time outside talents on them, which have been a staple of most ROH shows this year (referring to the likes of Chris Hero, AJ Styles, and all of the New Japan Talent). When you think about it, State of the Art was the only show ROH has put on this year (includes TV Tapings, Live Events, iPPV's) that had just the regular ROH roster. It'll be interesting to see how they do without these part time talents. Secondly, these shows could be a pretty good glimpse of what a Kevin Steen-less ROH could look like, and again, it'll be interesting to see how these shows do, in terms of both the overall quality of the show and the crowds that both shows draw.

Night 1 appears to be the lesser of the two on paper, but it does have some intriguing stuff on it. That Six Man Mayhem should be insane given the talent involved, and whoever challenges Cole (I'm guessing Alexander) could get a real boost from facing the champion in a title match, even though they won't win. Elgin vs. Jacobs should be great as well. That's a first time ROH match (if I recall correctly) and I think this could be a dark horse. Bennett/Ciampa had a solid match at Manhattan Mayhem V so that should be fine as well. Briscoes vs. Whitmer & Thomas will be a good way to build up Jay & Mark for the next night, and Fish/Romantic Touch could be very entertaining.

Night 2 does appear to have the better card. Cole/Ciampa & reDRagon/Briscoes are two really strong title matches for a live event, and we know those matches have delivered in the past, so this time should be no different. Bennett/Elgin & ACH/Young should both be good as well, which Lethal/Romantic Touch & Whitmer/Coleman should be fine.

My only real complaint with these shows is that Michael Bennett is going to, more than likely, be losing on both nights, since both guys he's facing are having upcoming World Title Matches and need to look strong. It works in the sense that these guys are going through one of Adam Cole's guys before they get to Adam Cole himself, but I'm just not sure about Bennett losing twice (maybe it's just me).

Finally, it's awesome to see #ALLEGO on here. I'm guessing he'll face Jay Lethal in a Proving Ground Match on Night 1, and you can probably do several things with him on Night 2.

[TYFDK]

Eh I don't know, Robareid. There's two sides of that.

These will be good shows to watch to get hyped for the PPV.

I don't typically order VOD's (only got A Night of Hoopla last year) but I'll definitely be ordering these in anticipation for the big show. And those going to the shows more than likely know, hey, they have a big show they need to get people excited for, this will be just a taste of what's in store.

I don't think too many people will be affected by the names, is what I'm trying to say.

[Robareid]

My only real complaint with these shows is that Michael Bennett is going to, more than likely, be losing on both nights, since both guys he's facing are having upcoming World Title Matches and need to look strong. It works in the sense that these guys are going through one of Adam Cole's guys before they get to Adam Cole himself, but I'm just not sure about Bennett losing twice (maybe it's just me).

He's in the kind of role that Bully Ray was in when he was allied with Roode during his title reign. I think it's a good spot for him.

[DXvsNWO1994]

There's nothing wrong with doing "Road To..." Shows. It's clear that ROH is going off the New Japan model, which I think is completely fine.

Also, I'd have to disagree with a few of you in regards to the Six Man Mayhem. I think Cedric Alexander is the clear favorite to win this match. It's clear that ROH is building up Cedric and this is a perfect way to do it. He'll have a strong showing against the World Champion and prove he's a future threat (much like Tyler Black & Michael Elgin in their first title shots), plus we'll probably see interference from The Decade if he does challenge to further build up to Best In The World, where he's more than likely facing Roderick Strong. ACH would be my second pick to win, but I believe that Cedric Alexander is clearly winning this match.

[jordidebaas]

It's a minor thing with Ciampa not earning a title shot, but when you're having some guys need to win matches to get title shots and some guys who are on losing streaks just awarded them, then that's a bit strange for me.

Since losing in the semi-finals of the world title tournament, he's gone 8-3 in ROH. Two of his losses came in four-ways, where he wasn't the one who was pinned, and his other loss was against Lethal, which wasn't a clean loss by any means, so you could say it's pretty justified, also considering he just held the TV title for a few months, and he definitely wasn't on a losing streak. Though I agree he didn't really earn it. But the most important thing is that it'll be a great match.

[Robareid]

Maybe not a losing streak then, but losing his title, then losing his rematch, then being in a lower card six man doesn't scream world title shot to me. I would have liked it if they'd have made Ciampa-Bennett for a title shot the next night. I know it's a really small thing, but they all add up.

[jordidebaas]

There's nothing wrong with doing "Road To..." Shows. It's clear that ROH is going off the New Japan model, which I think is completely fine.

Also, I'd have to disagree with a few of you in regards to the Six Man Mayhem. I think Cedric Alexander is the clear favorite to win this match. It's clear that ROH is building up Cedric and this is a perfect way to do it. He'll have a strong showing against the World Champion and prove he's a future threat (much like Tyler Black & Michael Elgin in their first title shots), plus we'll probably see interference from The Decade if he does challenge to further build up to Best In The World, where he's more than likely facing Roderick Strong. ACH would be my second pick to win, but I believe that Cedric Alexander is clearly winning this match.

Yeah, Alexander seemed like the obvious pick to me too.
And what you said about Bennett going to lose both his matches, I wouldn't be surprised at all if Cole costs Ciampa and/or Elgin their match (most likely Ciampa, and the next night he tries to do the same but Elgin fights them off, or Ciampa comes out and makes the save, just speculating though)

[jordidebaas]

Maybe not a losing streak then, but losing his title, then losing his rematch, then being in a lower card six man doesn't scream world title shot to me. I would have liked it if they'd have made Ciampa-Bennett for a title shot the next night. I know it's a really small thing, but they all add up.

Bennett competing in a match for a title shot wouldn't make a lot of sense though. But I definitely agree Ciampa's shot comes a bit out of nowhere

[Robareid]

I was kind of thinking that the way they're building Cedric up they may want to save his challenge for a bigger show, but with Cole's reign likely ending at BitW now I think about it I agree, he is probably the favourite.

[Robareid]

Maybe not a losing streak then, but losing his title, then losing his rematch, then being in a lower card six man doesn't scream world title shot to me. I would have liked it if they'd have made Ciampa-Bennett for a title shot the next night. I know it's a really small thing, but they all add up.

Bennett competing in a match for a title shot wouldn't make a lot of sense though. But I definitely agree Ciampa's shot comes a bit out of nowhere

Why? Bennett's character doesn't seem to be the kind of guy who'd value a friendship over a title.

[187_Joeism]

Every TV Champion has had a World Title match when they lose the title, that´s the reason (Kayfabewise) why Ciampa has a title shot here i think.

Night 1 have some interesting things like the six way (I pick Alexander or Silas winning this), Jacobs vs Elgin or Michael Bennett vs Ciampa. Night 2 is the strong one, both title matches should rule, Silas vs ACH and Bennett vs Elgin are great undercard matches.

I also hope this means #AllEgo will be booked for BITW, even if its for one pre-show match.

[Robareid]

Did Lethal get one? I can't remember it? I mean he got a shot at Killer Instinct, but that was half a year later after going on a huge winning streak.

But yeah, fair enough. Getting the TV title earns you a future world title shot. That works for me. Gripe removed.

[187_Joeism]

I think he got one against Richards at some point

Edit: Yeah here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hHHg_La-aI in Lethal´s case it was while he was still the champ, like when Daniels got his shot.