This was for AJ’s X-Division Championship.
This was the first ever counter between the two of them in anyway. They’re a few months away from their ROH team. They have another singles match in TNA in about 6 weeks from now, and then they don’t face off again until a HoG match in 2014 or 2015.
I don’t know if there was ever a plan to have them square off in ROH at some point other than I think AJ couldn’t make Round Robin II and was replaced by London…I think. But other than that, who knows?
The match itself is a lot of fun. Lotta flippy shit but incredible flippy shit, such as this fun exchange:
AJ stays on top of Red but you wouldn’t know it! Turns out Red can’t sell worth a damn in ROH OR TNA.
They start to work a story with AJ being better than Red, but Red being more unpredictable than AJ, leading to AJ miscuing a lot of stuff that gives Red a clear advantage, but he doesn’t have that extra umph to be able to put AJ away.
AJ works smart finally catching Red and grounding him with basic holds to wear him out and eventually control the match his way. But again, Red won’t even sell exhaustion so that gets thrown to the wayside. Red wouldn’t sell death, I bet. I mean he no sold his own career ending knee injury in real life so it makes sense.
Red hits all of his signature high spots sans the Red Star Press, and it’s all fun. The pace picks up some. Styles capitalizes on his manager, Mortimer Plumtree, yanking on Red’s ankle during a ropes sequence by blindsiding him and taking him up top.
Styles sets up for a super Styles Clash, but Red impressively lifts himself up and turns it into a Frankenstein…BUT AJ REVERSES IT IN MIDAIR INTO A SITOUT POWERBOMB AND GETS THE WIN!
Fun flippy shit. Fun finish. Probably couldn’t have gone much longer. Red’s lack of selling definitely hurt this but it was still a blast. Would’ve loved to have seen Red get a chance to mature as an overall performer, sans knee injury, and have this match happen again in a more serious setting like 3-4 years from now.
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