Mike Reviews ROH Showdown in the Sun Night Two

Happy Friday Everyone!

We’ve got a notable ROH show today with Showdown in the Sun, a two day event held over WrestleMania Weekend in 2012. Davey Richards vs Michael Elgin is the match most might have heard of when it comes to Night Two, but let’s see how the rest of the card shapes up as I haven’t seen the show itself since way back in 2012 when it happened. Sadly technical issues plagued the original broadcast (and quite a few of ROH’s other forays into Internet Pay Per View at the time) so some matches are missing here but we’ll cover that further down in the review itself.

You can view the full card for Showdown in the Sun Night Two by clicking below;

ROH Showdown in the Sun Night Two Card

In results from Night One;

NWA Ring Warriors Grand Title Match
Bruce Santee (c) defeats Wes Brisco

ROH World Tag Team Title Proving Ground Match
The Briscoes (Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe) [c] defeat TMDK (Mikey Nicholls & Shane Haste) (7:19)

Non Title Match
Adam Cole defeats Adam Pearce (4:35)

Tornado Tag Team Match
The All-Night Express (Kenny King & Rhett Titus) defeat The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) (8:33)

ROH World Television Title Match
Jay Lethal (c) defeats Kyle O’Reilly (11:28)

Tag Team Bout
Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team (Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin) defeat Caprice Coleman & Cedric Alexander (11:19)

Singles Bout
Mike Bennett (w/Maria Kanellis) defeats Lance Storm (16:19)

Last Man Standing Match
Kevin Steen defeats El Generico (23:57)

ROH World Title Three Way Elimination Match
Davey Richards (c) defeats Eddie Edwards and Roderick Strong (w/Truth Martini) (21:03)

Showdown in the Sun Night Two is emanating from the War Memorial Auditorium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on the 31st of March 2012.

Calling the action are Kevin Kelly and Nigel McGuinness.

The video that plays at the start is clearly trying to ape what the UFC was doing at the time.

Kevin Kelly and Nigel McGuinness have their introduction to the show interrupted by Jimmy Jacobs. Jacobs notes that he and Steve Corino were trying to be good, but now they’d rather be evil, which leads to El Generico heading out for a match.

Opening Match
“The Zombie Princess” Jimmy Jacobs Vs “The Generic Luchador” El Generico

Jacobs cost Generico a match with Kevin Steen on Night One, so we get an impromptu match here at Night Two. Generico is fired up to start, but Jacobs lures him outside the ring for an elbow drop off the apron for the cut off. Jacobs targets the mid-section back inside whilst the crowd chants “Little Jimmy!” at him, which was what R-Truth was calling his imaginary friend at the time. Yes, R-Truth has been playing the wacky character he’s currently playing for nearly 15 years now. I don’t know how he’s managed to squeeze that much out of it, but fair play to him I guess.

Generico sells reasonably well and Jacobs focuses on antagonising the crowd whenever he can. Eventually Generico makes the comeback, leading to the crowd chanting “Olé!” for him. Jacobs gets a nice Tornado Snap Suplex at one stage for a two count, which is a cool looking move but I’m not sure it’s ultimately more effective than a regular Snap Suplex. Jacobs gets a slick counter of the Helluva Kick by going into a front guillotine for a good submission tease, but Generico makes the ropes. Jacobs finds a spike, as you do, but Generico disarms Jacobs and tries to use the spike instead. Jacobs dodges the attack though and gets a roll-up for the three count as Generico loses back to back matches over the two nights.

8 Minutes

WINNER: JIMMY JACOBS
RATING: **½

Thoughts: Decent energetic opener, with Generico’s desire for revenge causing him to make an error so that Jacobs could get a win. Jacobs got a lot of offence in the match itself, and it felt like the focus of the bout was to get Jacobs over by showing that he was a viable threat to a top of the card babyface like Generico.

Second Match
Tommaso Ciampa w/ Mr. Ernesto Osiris, Prince Nana and RD Evans Vs Cedric Alexander w/ Caprice Coleman

Alexander was only 22 at the time, with him being presented as a hot young prospect and a tag partner with Coleman. Ciampa was a member of The Embassy and was undefeated at the time of this match. There was also seemingly come kind of a backstory here where Ciampa had stolen the TV Title from Jay Lethal, which will end up becoming relevant later on at Showdown in the Sun Night Two.

Evans annoys the commentary team to talk about said storyline point, with the camera crew actually missing some of the action so that they can shoot it. I’m not sure we really needed to see that Evans was standing next to the commentary team so much that it meant missing some of the wrestling match that is going on, but hey-ho. Ciampa takes most of the match here as Alexander was more of a tag wrestler at the time whilst Ciampa was getting a singles push.

Alexander does have some flurries and looks decent, with him getting arguably the move of the match when he gives Ciampa an Exploder Suplex out on the floor. Ciampa manages to halt Alexander’s momentum by flinging him into the metal part of the turnbuckles though. Ciampa shows off some of the viciousness we’d all know him for later in his career when he knee strikes Alexander into the ring post a couple of times, and that’s enough for three.

6 Minutes

WINNER: TOMMASO CIAMPA
RATING: **

Thoughts: This was an effective way of making Ciampa look like a dangerous man whilst allowing Alexander to get enough offence that he didn’t look weak or like an enhancement talent.

Coleman and Nana argue after the match leading to Coleman taking Project Ciampa.

Mike Bennett and Maria Kanellis-Bennett join us to wind up the crowd. Bennett insults Lance Storm, who he has feuding with at the time, and then has a long make out session with Maria.

We then sadly have three matches that are missing from this version of the show that was uploaded to F&C

It’s likely because on Night Two there was a “brownout” that caused the feed to go dead for nearly 30 Minutes. If this is the live pay per view cut of the show then that will explain why the following matches are missing, as they took place whilst the technical issues were ongoing.

The matches and their results were as follows;

Third Match
TJ Perkins Vs Fire Ant

Fire Ant would eventually go on to become Orange Cassidy.

8 Minutes
WINNER: TJ Perkins
RATING: N/A

Fourth Match
Kyle O’Reilly Vs Adam Cole

I believe they tried to make these two stall for time with some unplanned mic work in order to get the feed back up and it unfortunately soured the crowd on the match itself as a result.

7 Minutes
WINNER: KYLE O’REILLY
RATING: N/A

Fifth Match
Tag Team Street Fight
The Young Bucks (Nick and Matt Jackson) Vs The All-Night Express (Kenny King and Rhett Titus)

This sounds like it would have been fun, it’s a shame it’s not included.

11 Minutes
WINNERS: YOUNG BUCKS
RATING: N/A

Right, we’re back to matches that have been included on this cut of the show.

Sixth Match
ROH World Tag Team Titles
Challengers: Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team (Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin)
Vs
Champions: The Briscoe Brothers (Mark and Jay)

These two teams had already wrestled each other four times prior to Showdown in the Sun, with the score currently tied at 2-2. The feud had intensified the longer it had gone on for, with the two teams thoroughly disliking one another by this stage. The fans have decided to side with the Briscoes here. In the early going WGTT are better on the mat whilst the Briscoe’s are better in a fight, highlighting a core difference between them.

The Briscoes get the babyface shine, but a Shelton cheap shot to Jay leads to the heat segment. WGTT target the leg of Jay, with him selling it well until it’s time for the Mark hot tag and some Redneck Kung-Fu. However, Haas bails to the floor, which distracts Mark and allows Benjamin to fling Mark into the post for our second cut off and heat segment. It’s classic southern fried tag team wrasslin’!! Mark sells well whilst WGTT look good on offence.

The crowd remains invested and cheers Mark on to make the tag, which he eventually does after shifting his weight on a Benjamin back suplex. Jay does a really good hot tag segment, showing good fire whilst WGTT bump around well for him. The crowd continue to give this good reactions, as the two teams exchange big moves and each have chances to win the bout, with Haas locking Jay in the Haas of Pain at one stage, only for Jay to make the ropes to break.

That submission tease actually calls back to the work that WGTT did on Jay’s leg during the first heat segment, so kudos to the teams for remembering and working it in. WGTT try to put Jay away with their tag team finisher (a modern take on the old Beverly Brothers’ Shaker Heights Spike, where Shelton leapfrogs over Charlie to land on the spine of their opponent). However, Mark takes out Benjamin with a dropkick and that allows Jay to roll-up Haas for three.

15 Minutes

WINNERS AND STILL CHAMPIONS: THE BRISCOES
RATING: ***3/4

Thoughts: Great match there, with WGTT playing the Heel role well and getting plenty of offence whilst The Briscoes sold well and showed some good resilience. The work was good and the crowd was invested throughout.

WGTT attack The Briscoes after the bout and lay them out, meaning the feud will continue, likely with some stipulation bouts.

Seventh Match
Kevin Steen Vs “Diehard” Eddie Edwards

Steen had turned Heel on El Generico back in 2009 and had become one of the top stars in the company during the course of the violent feud he had with his former tag team partner. With Steen winning his match with Generico on Night One, he’s now looking at going for the ROH World Title. This is supposedly a Blind Destiny Challenge bout, which they don’t really explain on commentary. Some searching suggests that it was ROH’s way of assigning wrestlers opponents rather than letting them pick their own matches. It sounds like you put your name in a hat or something and the bouts are decided that way. Steen uses the wolf howl from Richards’ entrance music here, which not only annoys Edwards due to their history as tag partners but also reinforces Steen’s growing obsession with the World Title. Someone has a Jim Cornette sign in the crowd, and they’ve seemingly wrapped it in extra strong Sellotape so that Steen finds it extra difficult to rip up.

Despite being a Heel, Steen still gets cheered here by some of the crowd, with him being a bit of a rebellious character as well as being a total jerk. This one is mostly a power battle mixed with a slugfest, and it works well in that regard, with them trading momentum and working things at a decent pace. At one stage the fight spills out to the floor, where Steen gives Edwards a Powerbomb onto the apron to a big pop from the pro-Steen sections of the crowd. Edwards is up and fighting again perhaps a bit too quickly following that, as that really should have been the cut off leading to a heat segment. Instead we get some fighting on the stage, where Steen sits Edwards on a chair and delivers a running Cannonball to pop the crowd once again.

Edwards gets a big move of his own, by leaping off the stage with a double stomp onto Steen, getting a good pop from the crowd for doing so. Steen replies with the Pop-Up Powerbomb inside the ring, but he tries for a Sharpshooter rather than going to a pin and that allows Edwards to counter into a single leg crab for a submission tease of his own. Steen survives that though and catches Edwards with a pinning hold counter OUTTA NOWHERE for the three count. I did kind of like how they were trading all these big moves and submission attempts, but then a simple pinning hold was all it took to end things, and cleanly to boot!

11 Minutes

WINNER: KEVIN STEEN
RATING: ***1/4

Thoughts: They packed a lot into the run time here and the crowd enjoyed it, with the two wrestlers trading power spots, brawling and big moves. I can understand if some find the absence of selling in some areas to be annoying, but I was mostly in agreement with the live crowd and had fun with this one. It gave Steen a battling clean win to continue his climb towards the World Title, whilst Edwards still emerged with plenty of credibility after surviving so much punishment and nearly snatching victory with the single-leg crab.

Eighth Match
ROH World Television Title
Challenger: Roderick Strong w/ Truth Martini
Vs
Champion: Jay lethal

Strong is a member of Martini’s “House of Truth” faction. Lethal doesn’t have the TV Title belt here because Tommaso Ciampa stole it previously. Speaking of Ciampa, he heads out with the belt to cut a promo, although the mic doesn’t work and he needs to use ring announce Bobby Cruise’s mic instead. Ciampa taunts Lethal on the mic, showing some good cocky Heel charisma, and demands that Lethal put the belt on the line here at Showdown in the Sun Night Two against Strong. Ciampa notes that he’ll even shake Lethal’s hand if Lethal can retain the belt here tonight, so Lethal agrees and this becomes an official Title match. Interestingly one of the pre-match graphics says that Strong doesn’t adhere to the Code of Honour, but he still shakes hands with Lethal at the start.

They have some good hard hitting exchanges to start here, with Lethal getting the better of things. However, both Ciampa and Martini cause distractions, which allows Strong to give Lethal a back suplex onto the ring apron for the cut off, giving us our heat segment. Strong is his usual violent self in the heat segment, delivering snug strikes and punishing moves and holds, with Lethal selling it all well. Lethal shows some good babyface fire and makes sporadic attempts to fight back, but Strong manages to regain control, including drilling Lethal in the face with a knee strike at one stage when Lethal is delivering some chops, with Lethal doing a great dazed and confused sell job for it.

Lethal’s selling gets the crowd behind him, and they clap for the Champ when he finds himself stuck in the Strong Hold, leading to Lethal being able to make the ropes to break the hold. Lethal eventually makes the comeback, continuing to show good fire and displaying some impressive strike based offence that Strong bumps and feeds for well. Each wrestler has chances to win it, with the near falls being executed well and the crowd continuing to be in to the action. We even get a “this is wrestling” chant at one stage, for the confused folks in the crowd who might have thought they’d bought tickets to a Tiddlywinks competition instead I guess. Eventually Ciampa gets involved, flinging Lethal into the ring post when the referee isn’t looking, leading to End of Heartache from Strong to crown a new Champ.

13 Minutes

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: RODERICK STRONG
RATING: ***3/4

Thoughts: This was very good, with the work being solid and the fans being into the action. Ciampa getting involved denies us a clean finish, but it does at least continue an ongoing storyline and protected Lethal somewhat in defeat. Lethal turned in a great performance as babyface here, showing impressive fire and keeping the crowd onside for the entirety of the bout

Main Event
ROH World Title
Challenger: “Unbreakable” Michael Elgin w/ Truth Martini
Vs
Champion: Davey Richards

Both of these two were implicated in Speaking Out to one form or another, which you can find the details about via our good friend Dr. Google (or Prof. Ecosia if you’d like to help the environment whilst searching). If that means you don’t want to read a review about possibly the most famous match of both of their respective careers, then I understand. For those of you who are not au fait with this contest, it was one of the most talked about bouts of this particular WrestleMania weekend due to it kind of coming out of nowhere and being a really hot match. Elgin was mostly the muscle for Martini’s faction at the time and wasn’t really a top of the card guy in ROH, whilst Richards had been Champion since June 2011 and had climbed the ranks from being a mid-carder in 2006 all the way up to being the main man in the promotion by this stage. That being said, the spectre of Kevin Steen was on the horizon for Richards here, and they’d be clashing over the belt soon.

This bout has a simple story, which is that Davey Richards is full speed ahead from the opening bell, but Elgin lives up to his nickname of “Unbreakable” by just absorbing everything Richards throws at him and responding with heavy strikes and power moves. This leads to the bout becoming a battle of resiliency, toughness and stoicism, with them essentially throwing bombs from the early going and just never stopping. This will make the bout divisive depending on what kind of wrestling you like to watch, although it’s not like the bout is without selling or storytelling. Richards does a good job fighting from underneath at points for instance, with him being like a Staffordshire Terrier taking on an Alsatian, in that he’s overmatched in a straight battle of power but he makes up for it by being scrappy and hitting hard when the opportunities present themselves.

Two things that really add to the bout are the crowd and the commentary, mostly from McGuinness. As the bout wears on the crowd get more and more enthusiastic, whilst Nigel starts losing his mind during some of the bigger exchanges, especially as each wrestler takes the other into deeper water. As for the crowd, they almost kind of mirror a Japanese crowd in some ways, as they are watching intently and into it at the start and then just gradually get more and more invested until they explode at one stage and are with it all the way from that point on. At one stage Elgin hits two big moves outside of the ring when he gives Richards a Fisherman’s Buster on the floor and then Powerbomb’s Richards into the metal hoardings. Richards survives the resulting pin attempt back inside the ring, leading to Elgin heading up top for some kind of twisting body splash, and they basically have the crowd from that point onwards.

Some in the crowd start to get behind Elgin after a certain point, which I feel is more because they smell the possibility of there being a Title change and they want to be part of a historical moment rather than them especially liking Elgin or disliking Richards. Richards gets a huge Dragon Suplex off the top rope onto Elgin at one stage, which Elgin somehow survives despite the landing looking less-than-fun, and that leads to Kelly delivering the line “you can’t kill that which cannot die” on commentary, which is a pretty epic line for Pro Wrestling commentary I have to say. Elgin responds soon after with a Chaos Theory of all things for a near fall, with Nigel basically losing mind at the announce desk and it really adding a jolt of excitement to things. It’s so fun to hear a commentator get invested and really sound like they care about what’s going on in the ring. I think Nigel is a bit more reserved now that he’s had more time to hone his craft, but he was a bit rawer still at this point and I think that works well for a match like this.

As far as elevating Elgin in the eyes of the fans, this is basically a textbook way of doing something like that, as he goes from being a heavy for a Heel stable to being a genuine contender over the course of the contest, with him kicking out of things that would normally floor other challengers to Richards. Again, I can see some finding the over-reliance on MOVEZ and kick outs as a negative here, but if you’re into this style of wrestling then this match gives you basically everything you could want from that style. I personally don’t feel they miss the peak that heavily either, which is sometimes a trap you can fall into in one of these contests. They take it home at roughly the right time, with the crowd being invested even into the dying seconds.

There’s so much good stuff in here though, such as when Elgin catches Richards with a knee strike out of nowhere and Nigel is going nuts on commentary yelling “He’s out! Cover him!!” only for Richards to then kick out of the follow-up Powerbomb as the crowd, and Nigel, collectively lose their minds. At one point Kevin Kelly even says on commentary that this is the greatest match he’s ever called. I’m sure some of the New Japan matches he went on to do the commentary for surpassed this one, but I can understand him feeling that way in the heat of the moment whilst this war was being waged.

As the bout gets into the closing stages they show that each wrestler is focusing not just on throwing bombs but they also have a signature submission hold that they’re trying to use as well. Elgin focuses on a version of the LaBelle Lock whilst Richards uses the ankle lock, with each wrestler having to escape the others hold at different points throughout the match. The work on the ankle eventually proves decisive, as Elgin’s leg goes out at a pivotal point in the match and that allows Richards to deliver a Shining Wizard. Elgin gets to show off one last moment of defiance by kicking out of the resulting pin at one and spitting at Richards, but with a bum wheel he’s really just a sitting duck and Richards throws more kicks until Elgin will finally stay down for three seconds so that Richards can get the win.

27 Minutes

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: DAVEY RICHARDS
RATING: *****

Thoughts: The crowd thinks that as awesome once the bout is concluded, and I have to agree with them. I was worried coming in that this wouldn’t hold up after 14 years, but it definitely still did for me. Each wrestler performed their role perfectly, with Elgin being almost literally “unbreakable” and defiant all the way to the end, whilst Richards was the undersized pit-bull who hung in there whilst on the backfoot and then wouldn’t let it go when he was in the ascendency. Would the match have been as good without the crowd going nuts and Nigel losing his mind in the commentary booth? Of course not, but that’s why we have wrestling crowds and commentary to begin with. When everything from the work, the crowd and the announcing is where it needs to be then you can create magic in there, and this was one of those occasions

Richards thanks the fans following the bout and encourages Elgin to ditch Truth Martini going forwards, before noting that Elgin will likely be Champion one day based on how the match went today.

In Conclusion

My main memory of Showdown in the Sun Night Two before I came to watch it again for this review was the final two bouts, and upon watching the show again I can see why. Both the TV Title and World Title matches are great in their own way and well worth tracking down if you have the impetus to do so. I enjoyed the Tag Title match a lot as well, so all-in-all there’s three belting bouts here that should satiate you if you take the time to seek them out. The rest of the card, at least what was included here on this cut of the show, was decent to good and there was nothing bad on there. Obviously the show being beset with technical issues is a big negative, but slightly less of an issue all these years later because this cut of the show is just over two hours and you’re getting a lot of wrestling packed in there. For that reason I’m going to recommend Showdown in the Sun Night Two.

If you’d like to read some more ROH reviews from yours truly then you can check the archives HERE