ROH on Sinclair – Episode 002 – 1st October 2011
After a promising start last week we continue with ROH’s new TV venture on the Sinclair Broadcast Group stations this evening. As this is still part of the initial four episodes taped during the first night of tapings I’m not sure we can expect a drastic improvement in some of the initial problems people voiced concerns over (namely sound quality, picture quality, general indy-level presentation etc), but after hearing good things, I’m hopeful that we’ll at least have the new show’s first high quality wrestling match this evening. The main event is scheduled to be El Generico defending his Television Title against Jay Lethal and it’s a bout many people praised when it initially aired. Once again we’re in Chicago Ridge, IL. Hosts are Kevin Kelly and Nigel McGuinness.
SIDENOTE – Have ROH and myself been spelling Nigel’s name wrong the whole time, or have Sinclair made a mistake in only putting one ‘n’ in his surname – ‘Nigel McGuiness’
The show opens with Jim Cornette bringing Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team to the ring. Shelton and Charlie want to know why Jim hasn’t booked them in a match with the Briscoes yet since they’re still desperate for revenge after what happened at Best In The World. Apparently the Briscoes won’t fight WGTT unless the belts are on the line, and that means management are at an impasse because they don’t want to reward Jay and Mark for their recent bad behaviour.
FOCUS ON – Apparently this will be another feature as we look to introduce the roster to new viewers. This week we focus on Mike Bennett. The Prodigy says he’s a star and destined to make movies in Hollywood and a much better entertainer than anyone else on the roster.
Jimmy Jacobs vs Mike Bennett
Since Ring Of Honor was last on television with HDNet, we’ve seen a bitter rivalry develop between Steve Corino and Mike Bennett. The Prodigy was desperate to push Steve ‘off the wagon’ and back to his evil ways of the past, and it was only thanks to the help and support of his ‘sponsor’ Jimmy Jacobs that Corino was able to stay on track. Tonight cements Jimmy’s return to the regular ROH roster as he gets a shot wrestling on the new TV show, looking to defend the honour of his friend against the ‘most entertaining guy in ROH’.
Bennett quickly starts mocking Jimmy and urges him to break a rule and hit him with a closed fist. Finally Jimmy succumbs to temptation and beats him down in the corner…sadly for him Mike is able to come out of the corner with a hanging backbreaker. Jacobs goes for a pescado but crashes and burns on the floor. Is it me or am I the only one slightly annoyed by how often The Rock is getting mentioned on an ROH show? Bennett, reminiscent of The Rock or not, hits a ribbreaker for 2. Kelly and Nigel start talking about Kurt Angle as well as we continue to spotlight wrestlers who aren’t ROH and are arguably much better than a lot of guys in ROH. Jacobs hits back with a neckbreaker then a tornado snap suplex for 2. Mike goes after the back again with a spinebuster…but this time Jimmy is able to absorb the shock of that to hit a rebound cutter! He tries the senton bomb…only to propel himself straight into Bennett’s knees. Box Office Smash (Side Effect) wins it at 05:56
Rating - ** - Inoffensive, brief and vaguely entertaining opening match. I think both guys are capable of better, and I found the commentary extremely distracting and irrelevant at times…but that’s not to say that what Bennett and Jacobs did wasn’t decent. The crowd were certainly into the match
INSIDE ROH – Eddie Edwards talks about earning the nickname ‘Die Hard’ when he competed in Ladder War 2 despite having a fractured elbow, then the two athletes in next week’s main event (Davey Richards and Roderick Strong) get some time to hype their match. Strong plays up this new fratboy, hard-partying jock character which he actually doesn’t seem horrible at…
El Generico vs Jay Lethal – ROH TV Title Match
Of course, the drama and suspense to this one is slightly reduced by the fact that we already saw Jay Lethal running around with the TV Title at Death Before Dishonor 9 but never mind. Generico won the belt from Christopher Daniels at Best In The World 2011, and won the right to carry the TV Title coming into the first new television tapings under the new ownership – a huge honour for him. He has worked for years to be a singles champion in this promotion, and will be desperate not to let it slip away from him on his very first defence.
Generico enjoys a hot start, taking Lethal off his feet with a hurricanrana. But Jay is quick and athletic in his own right, and he BACKFLIPS into a hiptoss then nails a headscissors takedown to even things up. He lands the first major strike, hitting a dropkick to the back of the head for 2 and it’s quickly followed with the hiptoss dropkick combo. The challenger ties Generico up in a brutal surfboard stretch, showing real similarities to former ROH mentor Samoa Joe as he strings together quick strike combos with some aggressive submission work. El Generico realises he’s struggling here and rallies to get Jay out of the ring using a flurry of armdrags. The stakes are high…and he reacts with the RUNNING SOMERSAULT PLANCHA TO THE FLOOR! Both are flat out on the floor as we go to commercials (grr), and apparently during that break he managed to nail Lethal with a moonsault off the guardrail! It was a high risk strategy from the champion but it paid off and he has Jay very much on the rack at this point. He somehow musters up the energy to hit a handspring elbow but all that does is leave him flat out on the canvas next to his masked opponent. There’s only 3 minutes left in the time limit as Lethal comes form the top with a missile dropkick for 2, and he follows it with an awesome rear lift neckbreaker. And they are emptying the tanks on each other as Generico simply absorbs the punishment and gets up to hit the rope run tornado DDT! Less than a minute remaining in the time limit now! Generico lands the Blue Thunder Driver but doesn’t win it…and the Yakuza Kick is countered! They jostle for position as Generico tries a Brainbuster – as the 15:00 time limit expires (12:54 shown). Fans want five more minutes and neither wrestler seems satisfied with the conclusion either. Jim Cornette says he can’t give them 5 minutes because there isn’t that long left in the show…but gives them 3 and the fight is on again! They fly at each other with fists flying and the place goes NUTS! YAKUZA KICK BY GENERICO! HALF NELSON SUPLEX…FOR 2! Generico wants the Turnbuckle Brainbuster only for Lethal to block it with a running suplex. MACHO ELBOW NAILED! Generico kicks out and the place is jumping…TURNBUCKLE EXPLODER! Yakuza Kick COUNTERED WITH THE LETHAL INJECTION! NEW CHAMPION! Jay wins at 15:46 (shown)
Rating - **** - Great introduction for new fans into what Ring Of Honor is all about. I could complain for a long time about how I feel like Generico should be TV Champion for this new era, not Lethal, but as a match this was so fun. Jay Lethal took the advantage early on, so Generico realised he had to go high risk to do similar damage to his challenger. That meant that in the final third of the contest both guys were equally wounded and tired – but still keen to fight and drop bombs on each other. The time limit draw gimmick doesn’t always work but Cornette’s decision to give them more time blew the roof off the place and the crowd stayed red-hot for the remainder of the match.
NEXT WEEK – It’s Davey Richards vs Roderick Strong for the ROH World Championship!
Tape Rating - *** - A slightly smoother production than last week in that there were fewer lengthy video recap packages and much more relevant, current content aired. The packages for Eddie Edwards and Mike Bennett were particularly effective in spotlighting their characters before they debuts on the show. And a top quality main event to end the show certainly helps.