Ring of Honor’s 2nd stop on their War of the Worlds 2018 tour was in Toronto’s Ted Reeve Arena. The show was a legit sellout with tickets on the secondary market going for several times above face value.
The venue holds 1,500 and the live crowd was lively and fun all night. ROH could easily run a bigger venue in the city for these shows.
ROH War of the Worlds Toronto Live Report
1. IWPG United States Championship Match
Jay White (c) defeated Punishment Martinez
- This was White’s 3rd straight title defense. He’s one defense away from tying Omega’s record of 4.
- White got a big pop and streamers during his introduction.
- Martinez attempted to use a chair against Martinez but Hangman Page ran in to break it up.
- White hit the Switchblade off the distraction for the win.
2. Cheeseburger defeated Bully Ray via DQ
- Before the match, Bully cut a promo on how streamers were stupid. This led to the fans throwing streamers at him and cheering when anything hit him in the head.
- Fans chanted for streamers and also for D-Von. There were also a few jeers of “Give us hell, Quimby!” from a Simpsons-loving fan behind me.
- Bully cut a promo calling the fans marks and snowflake millennials.
- Cheeseburger came out and told Bully he wasn’t afraid of him.
- Bully beat him up considerably and then got DQ for hitting him with a chair.
- After the match, Bully made it look as though he was going to powerbomb his opponent on the outside but then simply placed Cheeseburger on the ground and left.
3. Tetsuya Naito defeated the Beer City Bruiser
- Surprisingly, the Bruiser got the bulk of the offense in this match.
- Bruiser got heat from the Canadian crowd by attempting to get a USA chant going.
- Naito won with two Destinos in a row. The first Destino didn’t land quite as he likely wanted it to, so he went for and hit a second for the win.
4. the Young Bucks defeated the Super Smash Bros.
- For those unaware, the Super Smash Bros are stars of Toronto’s independent wrestling scene, specifically for Smash Wrestling. They’ve had a rivalry with the Bucks doing back to 2009 when they met several times in Chikara and Pro Wrestling Guerilla.
- This was the first time they’ve met in almost 4 years.
- Fans were into the match from start to finish, with both teams getting chants.
- Bucks won with a Meltzer Driver and both teams celebrated in the ring after as fans cheered the match.
- After the match, the Briscoes hit the ring and took out both teams.
- The Briscoes cut a promo stating they were the ones who run ROH and insulted any fan wearing a Young Bucks or Bullet Club t-shirt.
5. Women of Honor
Jenny Rose & Tenille Dashwood defeated Xandra Bale and Alexia Nicole
- Bale and Nicole are two local wrestlers from just outside of Toronto (Thornhill and Woodbridge to be exact). Like the Super Smash Brothers, both Nicole and Bale wrestle consistently for Smash Wrestling in Toronto and surrounding areas.
- Bale and Nicole were both making their Ring of Honor debuts.
- Rose was eliminated in the 1st round of the WOH tournament but has since scored a win over Brandi Rhodes on ROH TV.
- Dashwood was the big star but Rose was the most dominant in the match.
- Rose hit a backbreaker/Rock bottom combo on Bale for the win.
- Watching the show back on Honor Club, commentary mentioned Jenny Rose is the next in line for a title shot against Sumie Sakai.
6. SoCal Uncensored defeated Roppongi 3K
- In Lowell on Thursday night, the Kingdom defeated SCU for the 6-Man Tag-Team Championships.
- SCU got back on the winning track in Toronto, defeating Roppongi 3K.
- Kazarian pinned Rocky Romero after Celebrity Rehab and a spinning kick to the face by Scorpio Sky.
- On commentary, it was suggested that SCU is now right back in the running for a shot at 6-Man Tag Team Championships.
7. Ring of Honor TV Championship
Silas Young (c) defeated Hangman Page
- Before the match, Punishment Martinez attacked Page from behind out of retaliation for Page’s earlier thwarting of Martinez’s attempt to use a chair against Jay White.
- It looked as though Page would not be able to compete but Young insisted the referee start the match and begin to count him out.
- Page made it back into the ring but the injuries he suffered before the match gave Young the advantage here.
- Page hit a moonsault to the outside, springboard Buckshot lariat, but then Silas countered the Right of Passage into Misery for the win.
8. Cody defeated Jushin Liger
- While there was some booing of Cody, for the most part, this was a pro-Cody crowd. He got streamers and a big pop.
- Liger also got a big pop, chants, and streamers. Dueling chants for both wrestlers happened a couple of times.
- Cody had to cheat to win. He grabbed Liger’s horns and twisted his mask to the side before hitting the Cross Rhodes for the win.
9. Los InGobernables (Sanada, Evil, and Hiromu Takahashi) w/Bushi defeated Kenny King, Jay Lethal, and Colt Cabana
- Dalton Castle’s injury resulted in Colt Cabana replacing him in this match.
- While Cabana and Takahashi were in the ring, Cabana proclaimed he wanted to face Darryl, the stuffed cat. Takahashi then got Darryl, placed him in the ring and then left the ring himself to cheer Darryl on.
- Cabana danced around the toy cat for a few moments pretending to wrestle him. When the cat fell over and lost his little hat, everyone decided it was time for him to go back to the timekeepers’ table. A “This is Wrestling” chant broke out during this as well.
- Following Cabana being sprayed in the eyes with poison mist by Bushi, Evil hit the STO on him and got the pin.
- After the match, Evil grabbed the microphone and welcomed everyone to the Darkness World. He reminded us that everything is evil.
- Naito then did his normal closing promo, introducing the members of LIJ to close the show.