ROH on Sinclair – Episode 024 – 3rd March 2012

We now leave ‘Fighting February’ and move into the critical month of March. They run three massive internet ppv events in the next few weeks, starting tomorrow night when they present the 10th Anniversary Show in the Hammerstein Ballroom. This is the go home episode for the ppv so we need to see a hard sell to suck in as many viewers as possible. And tonight we’ll also find out who will challenge Davey Richards for the World Championship at Showdown In The Sun later in the month – as Eddie Edwards and Roderick Strong do battle once again with #1 contendership at stake. We’re in Baltimore, MD and join Nigel McGuinness and Kevin Kelly on commentary.

Mike Bennett and Maria take turns running down Lance Storm ahead of The Prodigy’s showdown with Canadian veteran in Florida. Unfortunately he should be talking about TJ Perkins who he has tonight…

TJ Perkins vs Mike Bennett
As we just saw, The Prodigy seems totally focused on having fun with Maria or talking about Lance Storm. TJP resents the fact that Bennett has totally overlooked him in this contest, and plans on proving a point at his expense this evening…

Now Maria is a permanent fixture with Bennett, is Bob Evans the most irrelevant waste of space in ROH? He doesn’t even appear in Bennett’s promos anymore. The Prodigy wastes no time grabbing hold of Perkins, looking to immobilise him and stop his bewitching scientific skills coming into play. TJ tries the Nigel McGuinness headstand in the corner to confuse him, and scores with a headscissors from that position. He sets up for a dive to the floor, only for Maria to distract him then Brutal Bob to trip him up. TJP still manages to hang Bennett in the ropes and deliver a springboard dropkick with almost no run up! Tope suicida nailed as well, taking out Bennett along with Evans! Prodigy is out of his depth here and goes for an ugly kick to the ribs, but TJ easily counters to a Ligerbomb for 2. They desperately go for pinning combinations with neither man able to score the decisive fall. Detonation Kick counted…Box Office Smash blocked. Perkins locks in a Border City Stretch, but is distracted by Maria trying to drag Bennett’s hand to the ropes! TKO! Bennett gets a cheap win at 06:23

Rating - *** - The constant interference was slightly annoying, but Bennett and Perkins are both very good at what they do – and they made the clash of styles work well for them tonight. TJP gets a lot of love from ROH fans in 2012 and, whilst I’m not such a fan of his, one thing he is fantastic at is making his opponents look great. He made Tommaso Ciampa look good a few weeks ago, and again here he worked as good a 6-minute bout as he could with Mike Bennett. On the flip side, lots of people hate The Prodigy (whilst I’ve always been a fan)…but after more than a year with this company he’s still waiting to have that real breakout 4* encounter, and that’s why he’s been loitering in the midcard and never broken the glass ceiling and progressed his career.

Veda Scott is with The Embassy Ltd. Tommaso Ciampa promises to continue his undefeated streak and leave the 10th Anniversary Show as the new TV Champion.

Tommaso Ciampa vs Guy Alexander
So with his eyes firmly set on taking the Television Title from Jay Lethal tomorrow night, Ciampa is using this encounter as a warm up. Apparently the newbie impressed at a recent ROH try-out day. As with all new ROH recruits he is big, jacked and totally bland – the type Cornette/SBG usually has an erection for. Maybe he’ll prove me wrong…

The geniuses who run ROH’s production put up a picture of Cedric Alexander instead of Guy, and they’ve also had blank name graphics for the last 2 weeks. Sometimes this promotion seems to go out of it’s way to embarrass itself. Ciampa immediately drops Alexander (the white muscular guy, not the black guy with a bleach blonde Mohawk) with a German suplex – apparently targeting his surgically repaired black. He kicks him in the spine then exposes the knee to deliver a brutal running knee strike right across the jaw. To the floor where Tommaso repeatedly whips Guy into both the guardrails and ring apron. He delivers more repeated knee smashes to the face whilst screaming Jay Lethal’s name. The ref stops the match as Alexander is left totally unconscious. Time is 02:34

Rating - DUD - I like Tommaso, but I’m a little bored of seeing him squash enhancement guys now. That combined with more embarrassing production oversights was enough for me to give this the DUD treatment. I am really looking forward to Lethal/Ciampa though…

INSIDE ROH – Kevin Kelly gives a rundown of the ppv tomorrow night, featuring comments from various wrestlers in the marquee matches. There’s some Showdown In The Sun hype too, including the announcement that it’ll be ANX vs Young Bucks in the ‘Dual Duel’.

Roderick Strong vs Eddie Edwards
We’ve seen these two men compete on so many occasions that it’s impossible to pick a winner here. Eddie scored a number of high profile victories over Roddy in 2011, but last time they met was last month at Rise & Prove…and it was Strong who walked out victorious. They are great rivals, and the irony is they are competing to become #1 contender and earn a World Title shot at Showdown In The Sun – versus Davey Richards, a man with whom they have also shared great partnerships and rivalries.

The heat between these two threatens to simmer over from the outset with lots of staredowns and shoving matches scattered amongst some tentative and very familiar counter sequences. Eddie tries to increase the pace but it’s actually him that has taken his head off with a Strong jumping heel kick. Edwards responds with the violent tree of woe dropkick combo for 2. Roderick doesn’t like that and devises a plan to negate the attacks of his opponent – quickly targeting the leg and attacking it with gusto. Soon Die Hard is limping but it doesn’t stop him engaging Roddy in a signature exchange of chops. Climbing Wizard from the former American Wolf - putting him back on top as we take a commercial break. During the break it turns out that Truth Martini low-bridged Eddie as he lined up the elbow suicida and Roderick has been in the ascendancy ever since. He seems to be working over the ribs now, and they are the prime focus as he bends him around the ringpost in disturbing fashion. Grounded abdominal stretch does more damage but such is Eddie’s resilience that even that doesn’t keep him off his feet and dishing out big chops for long. He flips Strong through the air with a German suplex…so both men are down and gasping for air. Edwards is up first to drop Roddy again, this time with a fisherman buster for 2. Backpack Stunner is blocked…SUPLEX FLIP OVER THE ROPES! Eddie bounces around like a ragdoll and barely kicks out of the ensuing pinfall! Urinage backbreaker, then the Death By Roderick for 2! Strong thinks about a top rope Gibson Driver…DEATH BY TURNBUCKLE COUNTERED TO A SUPER RANA FROM EDDIE! Backpack Stunner nailed – INTO THE ACHILLES LOCK! Strong kicks at the injured ribs to escape though! Martini grabs Eddie’s leg, but this time Adam Cole comes out to help his mentor…and lays Truth out with a superkick! Michael Elgin attacks Cole…SO EDDIE LEVELS BOTH OF THEM WITH AN ELBOW SUICIDA! In the melee Roderick attaches some kind of foreign object to his boot…and DESTROYS Edwards with the Sick Kick! That’s enough to get Roddy the victory at 15:49 (shown).

Rating - **** - Much like Richards/Lethal last week, the 2012 house show version of this match (Rise & Prove) was superior to this one, and the overbooked finish was a real let down. But, just as last week, I’m going to give it the same rating because this was really high quality stuff for free TV. There is so much to criticise ROH for, but amongst all the sh*t, we shouldn’t forget that guys like Eddie, Roddy and Davey are as good as any workers anywhere on the planet and are still churning out some outstanding performances. This probably wasn’t even 75% of what these two are capable of doing together and it was still absolutely super. Kudos to ROH for booking great main events over the last couple of weeks of SBG TV.

That means Strong is celebrating a title shot in his home state…but Paul Turner is in the ring pointing out the foreign object taped to his show to Todd Sinclair. Edwards gives Strong the Die Hard, flooring Sinclair in the process, and has a pinfall counted by Turner instead? What the hell? Turner awards the match to Eddie, but Sinclair disagrees…and this is degenerating into sports entertainment BS. Jim Cornette (who else) is in the middle of this, and decides that both of them should go to Showdown In The Sun, meaning it will be the three most recent World Champions in a Three Way Dance…

Rating - *** - Good show, although some typical ineptitude from Ring Of Honor did threaten to spoil things somewhat. Focusing on the positives firstly – Bennett/TJP was a fun opener, Strong/Edwards was an outstanding main event, and we got lots of hype for the big ippvs this month which will help ROH make money so that’s all positive. But what the hell was that booking at the end of Eddie vs Roddy? Don’t get me wrong, I like the idea of a triple threat between the Wolves and Roderick as they’ve been ROH’s top three guys for well over a year…but there must have been a less moronic way of booking it than that. Thankfully the good still eclipses the bad and ROH goes into their first big internet ppv of the month with some momentum.
 

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