ROH on Sinclair – Episode 016 – 7th January 2012
It might be a new year, but we’re still very much in the Ring Of Honor close-season at the moment. After two weeks of highlight shows, we now move into the first ever ‘Road Rage’ episodes of the ROH on SBG venture. It’s actually quite a smart idea – taking the Sinclair cameras to one of the ROH live event DVD tapings and filming some matches to broadcast on TV. It makes an otherwise insignificant house show seem a little more important, and gives the television viewers an incentive to get online and pick up a few DVD’s. To those of us who watch both, I’ll admit it is slightly frustrating to have to wait a little longer for new content, but at least I see the logic. This episode features matches taped in Spartanburg, SC at the Southern Defiance event. That means Jim Cornette and Kevin Kelly calling it.
Kelly and Cornette are in the ring with a special intro live from the arena.
SIDENOTE – I’m still just cutting and pasting my match reviews from the original shows they were on. If there are any clips/edits in the TV broadcast version I won’t see or mention them.
Jay Lethal vs TJ Perkins
Proving Gound rules for this one, meaning if TJP can go to a time limit draw or beat Jay Lethal then he earns himself a TV Title shot within 90 days. As ever with these Proving Ground encounters, the challenger has everything to gain and pretty much nothing to lose. Given that Lethal already has El Generico and Mike Bennett hot on his heels, and already has to give Roderick Strong a title shot after a Proving Ground time limit draw at Glory By Honor 10, the last thing he needs is another guy in the hunt for his championship.
These two are remarkably similar in terms of being extremely young veterans. The start is slow with an extended knucklelock battle before the pace just explodes…and Lethal strikes with a tilta-whirl backbreaker for 2! It’s clear that Lethal has the edge in power and heavy hitting, but TJ’s technical wizardry makes him a threat whenever Jay tries to slow the pace and work some submission holds. He tries that crucifix stretch only for Perkins to counter to a pendulum hold. That’s the window of opportunity TJP has been waiting for and he follows up quickly with a basement dropkick. More submission work from Perkins comes next, interspersed with periods of lightning quick strike attacks. Lethal tries to trade superkicks with his opponent…but gets his skull rattled and is then dropped straight south onto it again as TJ lands a brainbuster. Both guys are growing weary, and look out on their feet as they unsuccessfully battle for the chance to land a dive to the outside. Perkins settles for landing a sit-out powerbomb on the TV Champion. Jay pops up and hits Lethal Injection #1…for 2! He climbs the ropes but eats a boot to the face as he launches himself into the Macho Elbow. LETHAL INJECTION #3 INSTEAD! Lethal defeats TJ at 11:33
Rating - *** - It’s easy to see why officials decided to put this match on the TV show. It didn’t go long but it packed so much action and entertainment into that brief time allocation. I was also pleasantly surprised by the amount of story-telling going on. They got to work early on fleshing out the story of Lethal being bigger and stronger, but totally incapable of matching up to the bewitching submission combos of his opponent. In the end it was his ability to do more damage with big moves that saw him score the victory and deny Perkins a TV Title shot any time soon.
They air a cool little video package next, mixing lots of clips from the Southern Defiance show with shots of the venue, crowd comments and footage from a fan meet and greet earlier in the day. Basically doing a good job of making TV viewers want to order some DVD’s and check out some live events.
INTERMISSION – Kevin and Jim discuss what they’ve seen in Spartanburg thus far, and introduce some clips from the Mike Bennett vs Adam Cole match that opened the show.
After commercials the announce team are in the ring kissing the ass of the GM of the networks who carry ROH TV in the Spartanburg area.
Charlie Haas/Shelton Benjamin vs Roderick Strong/Michael Elgin
Proving Ground rules here, meaning the House Of Truth can win a Tag Title opportunity with a good performance. The Proving Ground system has already benefited Roderick Strong in recent months as he went to a time limit draw with Jay Lethal to earn himself a future TV Title shot. But this HOT duo haven’t won many matches, and come up against a WGTT unit who have been beating teams up and down the roster all year.
Benjamin starts with his ribs still bandaged – a massive mistake when Roderick Strong stands across the ring from him. Roddy attacks them right away to put HOT on the front foot. Shelton foolishly responds by landing the Stinger Splash and hurts himself so much he has to tag out. Haas dropkicks Elgin with such force that he tumbles out of the ring! Unbreakable wisely goes after Benjamin instead, hoisting him up for a big powerslam which drops him south onto the damaged ribcage. Shelton certainly isn’t a small guy, so the ease with which Elgin gets him up for a stalling vertical suplex is pretty scary. House Of Truth are isolating Benjamin (with the illegal assistance of Martini to boot), doing a real number on the injured ribs. Strong gets a close nearfall with Death By Roderick and adds insult to injury by applying the Stronghold whilst facing Benjamin’s partner as he stands in the corner. Finally the Gibson Driver is countered and that allows Shelton to get the hot tag to Haas. Strong and Elgin eat multiple suplexes…but Michael is too big to get up for the Olympic Slam, so Charlie enlists the help of Benjamin with a superkick. HOT retaliate with a lungblower/Oklahoma Stampede combo for 2. Buckle Bomb/Sick Kick next, pulling Shelton back in to save his partner. He drops Elgin with a DDT then levels Roddy with the Dragon Whip too. Leap Of Faith on Strong! Truth Martini is crotched as he tries to interfere…and Elgin runs through Benjamin with a Bossman Slam. ROPE RUN GERMAN SUPERPLEX FROM BENJAMIN TO ELGIN! WGTT take the win in 15:58
Rating - *** - Nothing outstanding or overly remarkable, but this was MOTN for me in that it told a decent story, stuck with it, enabled all four performers opportunities to shine and kept the live crowd into it for the duration. Haas and Benjamin get a lot of stick (sometimes rightly) but I thought they looked good this evening. I really don’t think they needed to be going over the Survival Of The Fittest winner clean as that really damages Elgin, but everything else was good, honest house show fun.
NEXT WEEK – Road Rage continues as we get footage from Northern Aggression.
Tape Rating - *** - I didn’t get a lot out of this episode as there wasn’t much new material, but even I thought this was an effective hour of television. Lethal/TJP and WGTT/HOT were two of the better matches from Southern Defiance, and the whole show was edited together really nicely. Certainly this wasn't a bad commercial for the DVD series...