Taped for 5/5:
1. Tommaso Ciampa (w/ Prince Nana, RD Evans, and Ernesto Osiris) vs. Matt Taven: Ciampa hits Taven with a stiff German Suplex during his entrance. Jay Lethal out right away with a chair, sits at ringside. Taven dives onto Ciampa from the ring. Ciampa hits an Air Raid Crash to Taven on the floor right in front of Lethal. Taven hits a vertical suplex on Ciampa on the outside. People at ringside look shocked. Both back in ring. Ciampa is getting cheered. Taven reverses Project Ciampa and an attempted top rope Air Raid Crash. Hits Frog Splash for big two. Lethal is stoic at ringside. Ciampa hits Taven with two bare knees to the temple and a Project Ciampa. Really good back and forth match. Eight minutes, lots of post match jawing between Ciampa and Lethal, no fighting which is refreshing. Nana hilariously threatens to beat up a five year old in the D-Line t-shirt.
2. Mike Mondo (!!!) vs. TJ Perkins: Nice pop and chant for Mondo and Perkins. Really fun atmosphere. Mikey in control most of the match. Crowd into it. TJ makes a comeback late. Young Bucks sneak out late, distract Teej who eventually does a top rope flip onto all three. Another distraction and Mikey wins with a double underhook draping DDT off the second rope. ANX out for the post-match save to a big pop. Eight minutes of pure fun.
– Steve Corino now at commentary.
3. Main Event: Kyle O’Reilly vs. Kevin Steen (w/ Jimmy Jacobs): KO booed coming out. Steen introduces himself as the next World Champ. Big pop for that. Yes chants for Steen. Luckily those haven’t caught on much otherwise. O’Reilly playing to boos. Steen powerbombs KO on the hardest part of the ring. Three little squeaky kids are chanting “Kill, Steen, Kill” behind me and squealing for Jimmy Jacobs. Steen and KO bite each other, leading to “Kiss, Steen, Kiss” chants. KO dropkicks Steen into the barricade, but Steen takes over in the ring with a brutal brainbuster. Jiu Jitsu Jackoff chant. KO reverse the F5 into an armbar, but Steen gets to the ropes. Steen powerbombs KO and his mouthpiece flies out, so Steen disgustingly puts it in his mouth and applies the ankle lock. KO gets out, throws the mouthpiece at Jacobs, and Steen hits an F5 for the win. Very good match. 7 mins.
– Post match, Jacobs and Steen attack KO’s hurt leg and Steen applies the ankle lock. “Break his leg” chant. Davey out and puts Steen in ankle lock, but Jacobs saves him. Steen goes for the piledriver, but security intervenes. This booking makes no sense. “Let Them Fight” chant. Steen gets a head shot in on KO with the racquet. Small “Davey sucks” chant at the end.
Davey grabs mic, says when he goes to Canada, Steen can consider his death certificate signed. Crowd chants “shut up Davey” and a four year old behind me yells “You can’t tell him what to do” to HUGE laughs. Davey cuts another slightly longer promo, saying the fat boy is getting the Wolf, not the American Strong Style Davey. Seemed like a redo because he sort of messed up the first one.
– Intermission. I have to reiterate, this taping is so much smoother than previous months. D-Line is a tag team apparently.
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