ROH on Sinclair – Episode 020 – 4th February 2012
The effectiveness of the previous episode of ROH on SBG means we already know what to expect and look forward to here. The scheduled main event will see the Television Championship on the line as Jay Lethal defends against Mike Bennett, without a time limit. Kevin Steen makes his first in-ring appearance on Ring Of Honor television since 2010, and Jim Cornette will be here to greet him with a special announcement. Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin are also planning on addressing the apparent refusal of ROH officials to grant them an immediate Tag Title rematch with the Briscoes. Once again this is taped in Baltimore, MD with Kevin Kelly and Nigel McGuinness to call it.
Jay Lethal vs Mike Bennett – ROH TV Title Match
Since there isn’t a time limit for this one, the decision has been made to open the show with it. The last time these two met on Sinclair they went to a controversial time limit draw. The Prodigy felt he should have won by ref stoppage, and blamed Todd Sinclair for not calling it. They met again at Final Battle, where Lethal retained his belt after taking the opportunity to beat a distracted Mike Bennett just seconds after he’d eliminated El Generico from the match. Bob Evans and Maria Kanellis accompany The Prodigy this evening, which certainly stacks the deck in his favour.
Lethal wants to start hot but is frustrated as The Prodigy takes full advantage of not having a time limit by leaving the ring to let him stew. He returns, but is soon trying to run again as he evades the hiptoss dropkick. Jay gives chase and forcibly drags him back in. Lethal Injection attempted, but once more Bennett leaves. And soon both men are on the outside, as the champion counters a powerbomb attempt with a rana which topples the pair of them over the ropes. Bennett tosses Maria at Lethal to distract him, then sucker punches him with a brutal right hand. That hands the challenger a clear advantage as we go to commercials. We miss the entire heat segment, and come back just as Lethal mounts a comeback by delivering a springboard dropkick. He attempts a tope suicida…only for Mike to throw him head-first into the guardrails! Bennett seems to want to win by count-out, even though he won’t get the belt like that? Lethal struggling back in is valiant but in many ways equally senseless…and his punishment is a succession of chinlocks and sleepers. He gets to his feet and the two men go NUTS swinging punches at each other. The champ seizes the advantage, landing a quebrada then a missile dropkick for 2. TKO countered with a superkick…ONLY FOR BENNETT TO COUNTER THE LETHAL INJECTION WITH A NECKBREAKER! Awesome counter there, but The Prodigy is furious it isn’t enough to win it. Maria and Brutal Bob hop around ringside in some sort of scheme, but all it does is leave Bennett vulnerable to a crucifix pin from Lethal…which wins it at 09:11 shown.
Rating - ** - In my opinion this was the worst match they’ve had together. Their natural chemistry in the ring is good as I think their styles make them natural opponents…but the booking here was just so poor. The finish was beyond awful, but why the hell was Bennett trying to win by count-out too? And what did Maria and Bob getting involved accomplish? Lethal has defences against Roderick Strong and Tommaso Ciampa on the horizon, so you rather feel like this loss closes the book on Bennett’s pursuit of the TV Title for now.
SIDENOTE – ROH is promoting this month on the TV show as ‘Fighting February’. The idea being to put on ppv quality main events and championship matches every week this month. You won’t miss it, as Kevin Kelly says ‘Fighting February’ in pretty much every sentence.
Veda Scott wants to know what the deal was with Eddie applauding at ringside after Team Ambition’s win last week. He says that Kyle O’Reilly’s ‘mancrush’ on Davey has split up the Wolves and proves that he doesn’t care about Future Shock or Adam Cole either. Kyle crashes his locker room and angrily challenges him to a match…
Kevin Kelly reluctantly gets into the ring to introduce Kevin Steen for his interview segment. Thankfully for him Steen quickly takes the microphone and orders him to leave. Mr Wrestling wants a shot at Cornette’s ‘puppet’ World Champion as soon as possible. That brings Jim Cornette, Cary Silkin and a fleet of bodyguards to the ring to address him. The Executive Producer informs him that the piledriver in any form, including the Package Piledriver, is now banned in ROH. Steen says he’s protecting Davey and promises it won’t stop him becoming World Champion.
INSIDE ROH – Truth Martini blames the Briscoes for losing the $10,000 they could have won at Northern Aggression. Next week it’ll be HOT vs Briscoes, with each team putting up $5000 to boot.
Kelly announces that Fighting February will end with Davey Richards defending the World Title against TV Champion Jay Lethal…without mentioning that it’s a rematch from Homecoming 2012 and missing an opportunity to shill that DVD. Hopefully they’ll push the DVD at some point…
Veda Scott asks the Young Bucks about their preparation for challenging the Briscoes for the Tag Titles at the 10th Anniversary Show. They respond by trashing WGTT, ANX, the Briscoes and the entire tag division…
WGTT come to the ring and refuse to wrestle the Bravados as scheduled. They are pissed that the Steen segment ran long and officials cut their interview time…so instead choose to talk rather than fight unworthy opponents. Shelton slates Baltimore and the fans, and refuses to leave the ring until the Briscoes come out and face them. Never ones to shy away from a brawl, Jay and Mark soon oblige
Jay Briscoe/Mark Briscoe vs Charlie Haas/Shelton Benjamin – ROH Tag Title Match
Less than 5 minutes of TV time remaining, so WGTT have their work cut out if they’re going to achieve anything here. They have forced ROH’s hand and been granted the immediate Tag Title rematch they feel entitled to. With so little time to prepare, #DemBoys are at a clear disadvantage.
Of course, it’s a total brawl with bodies flying everywhere. Haas beats down Jay as the challengers take control – indicative of the fact that they’ve had more time to prepare for this than the Briscoes. WGTT isolate Jay until he blocks Shelton’s Stinger Splash with a boot to his suspect ribs. Mark gets the tag and flies at Haas with some Redneck Kung Fu. Shelton grabs a steel chair and blasts Mark in the face with it…causing his team to be disqualified at 04:15
Rating - ** - I like the crazy, out of control vibe ROH ran with to book this. However, giving these two guys just four minutes wasn’t enough time to run a match and, as such, the segment looks weaker. They had two options here – either have a big Briscoe/WGTT brawl to end the show in 5 minutes, or run this segment earlier and let these teams have a 10-15 minute impromptu main event. And that’s before I talk about another retarded finish. So yeah, I like the idea – but the execution was poor. As a match this was arguably more structured than Final Battle though…
Jim Cornette is irate that Shelton has defied him and used a steel chair again…
NEXT WEEK – It’s House Of Truth vs Briscoes and Eddie Edwards vs Kyle O’Reilly!
Tape Rating - ** - There were some really good ideas on this show. I like the Fighting February concept. ROH is still (just about) a workrate company, so building a month of shows around putting on great matches is a terrific idea. Sadly, it didn’t work out tonight in that Lethal/Bennett was a fairly mediocre way to get things started. I also liked the idea of having a wild segment end in an impromptu main event – but bad booking made a hash of the Briscoes/WGTT stuff too. Kevin Steen looked like a star though, and it’s great that ROH are giving Kyle O’Reilly to show some character and work a mini-program with Eddie Edwards. Some positives, some negatives, and not a lot of outstanding wrestling mean this episode is a sizeable step down from last week.
SIDENOTE – I’ve done a Top 5 for episodes 11-20, taking a break from the ‘Top 5 per 5 episode’ formula that I’ve always used for ROH TV reviews – simply because episodes 14-17 were taken up with highlights, repeats and Road Rage stuff.
ROH on SBG Episodes 11-20 – Top 5 Matches
5) Matt Jackson vs Kenny King (*** - Episode 018)
4) Charlie Haas/Shelton Benjamin vs All Night Express (*** - Episode 012)
3) Young Bucks vs Future Shock (*** - Episode 011)
2) Davey Richards/Kyle O’Reilly vs Caprice Coleman/Cedric Alexander (*** - Episode 019)
1) Davey Richards vs Michael Elgin (**** - Episode 013)