ROH on Sinclair – Episode 031 – 21st April 2012
Road Rage, recapping Showdown In The Sun weekend, continues this evening. I believe we’ll see most (if not all) of the Briscoes/WGTT and Strong/Lethal bouts. I presume there has to be some mention of the epic Richards vs Elgin MOTYC as that was Michael Elgin’s career-defining moment thus far. I’d also like to see some mention of the Chicago/Dayton double shot next week…and more announced for the Border Wars internet pay-per-view event which is coming up in mid-May. We go back to Ft. Lauderdale, FL to join Kevin Kelly and Nigel McGuinness.
As with last week, we get a live introduction to the episode, taped at the venue itself…along with some exclusive comments from the Briscoes…
Jay Briscoe/Mark Briscoe vs Charlie Haas/Shelton Benjamin – ROH Tag Title Match
These two teams have been feuding for the entire Sinclair ROH era thus far. Last June at Best In The World Jay and Mark beat the hell out of WGTT with chairs…and they haven’t gotten along since. The TV show debuted with the Briscoes in pursuit of the champions as heels – but by the time we got to Final Battle a combination of brilliant promo work from Jay and Mark, combined with some disappointing in-ring performances by Haas and Benjamin meant that the New York fans spectacularly turned on the champions…who didn’t cope with it and lost them. By this point these four want to beat each other up so much that, as the commentators discuss, the titles are almost irrelevant.
The crowd are red hot for this. Whether it’s the ‘right kind of heat’ or not, WGTT are super over as heels tonight. Haas pisses everyone off more when he rolls out of the ring and refuses to begin the match…and he keeps doing that every time Mark looks like getting the advantage. There’s a hilarious little moment in this segment where Jay smashes Haas into a road sign held up by a fan who’d taken it as a souvenir from the ANX/Bucks match. Charlie is so pissed off he swats a drink out of another front row fan’s hand…and that fan just goes NUTS! Wisely WGTT try to keep this as a wrestling match and start working on Jay’s knee. He limps to a tag on his brother, who charges in with some signature Redneck Kung Fu. Benjamin threatens to start botching things, but holds it together to whip Mark into the ringpost. Not content with that – he starts banging the back of his head into the guardrail which knocks him loopy and puts the former champions in charge again at ten minutes. The ensuing heat segment bores the crowd to near silence until Mark converts a back suplex attempt into a crossbody. Jay steams in hot, but is still limping after the attack he suffered earlier. All four pile in trading big strikes. Jay and Haas wind up flooring each other with simultaneous big boots! Fisticuffs all round, ending when Haas hits a German suplex and Benjamin nails a slingshot DDT on the floor. Olympic Slam scores, into the Haas Of Pain! Leap Of Faith attempted but Mark SAVES with a missile dropkick. Jay rolls Haas up in a small package to retain the titles at 16:14
Rating - ** - This wasn’t as bad as some people have said. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that the Briscoes looked right on point and really impressed me. The problem was, at north of 15 minutes, it just went too long. The crowd were so hot for this at the start, but Haas and Benjamin have no interest in working hard or doing anything outside of their standard spots at a brutally slow pace. When they are put in shorter, TV-length matches that actually works quite well…but in an environment like this their lack of workrate is horribly exposed by teams like the Briscoes and the crowd just got quieter and quieter the long it went on.
WGTT don’t take defeat well, as Shelton drops Jay with Paydirt. They crotch the older Briscoe into the post repeatedly then pose with the tag belts in front of a hateful live crowd. It’s clear that this feud STILL isn’t over…
Before the ‘Inside ROH’ segment Nigel introduces some clips from TJ Perkins vs Fire Ant. That sets the scene for next weekend’s ROH/Chikara co-promoted event in Chicago. Although, I'm not sure either announcer actually mentions the Unity show. Do ROH not want to sell tickets?
NEXT WEEK – Briscoes vs C&C, Strong vs Cole and Rhino’s ROH TV debut.
SIDENOTE – New DVD commercial alert! It’s taken an eternity, but the 10th Anniversary Show finally has an advertisement!
INSIDE ROH – We continue the countdown to Border Wars – with clips of Steen/Edwards from Showdown In The Sun shown to demonstrate that Mr Wrestling can beat World Title calibre workers. Davey calls Steen a ‘fat kid in basketball shorts pretending to wrestle’. Kevin Kelly announces a Bennett/Storm rematch for Toronto as well.
Jay Lethal vs Roderick Strong – ROH TV Title Match
This isn’t the match that former World Champion Roderick Strong wanted to be in this afternoon. He wanted to get his belt back yesterday, and failing that he wanted Michael Elgin to sacrifice his spot and let him challenge Davey again. But this is still an opportunity for him. He earned this TV Title shot back at Glory By Honor 10 when he took Lethal to a time limit draw in a Proving Ground Match, and cashes in here as part of Blind Destiny. If he wins he becomes the second ROH triple crown winner.
This wasn’t scheduled to be a TV Title match (even though Roddy earned one), and it’s only Tommaso goading Jay into defending it that gets the belt on the line. Ciampa then sits ringside wearing the belt just to piss Lethal off. The champion is obviously aware of the striking power Roderick possesses so quickly sets about wearing him down with submission holds. They then proceed to CHOP THE SH*T OUT OF EACH OTHER! Horrific shots there but still Lethal dominates. Strong is sent to the outside with a springboard dropkick and, with Tommaso just yards away, Jay dives through the ropes into the tope suicida. Lethal is clearly distracted by the Dominant Male which works out great for Roderick as he lies around recovering, before grabbing him to hit a back suplex into the side of the ring. That’s the cue for the usual assault on the spine…and Jay doesn’t like that at all. CHOP DUEL AGAIN! Once more it’s Strong that backs down; he stops the chop war and grabs a bear hug instead. Hiptoss dropkick COUNTERED TO THE STRONGHOLD! Finally somebody counters that f*cking combination! Stalling brainbuster gets 2 for the challenger. Strong gets complacent and, such is Lethal’s quality and resilience, the second he turns his back Jay springs into action to hit that hiptoss dropkick combo. He unleashes more ferocious chops and strikes then the handspring elbow for 2. DEATH BY RODERICK GETS 2! Four minutes left in the time limit by the way. Gibson Driver escaped with a hurricanrana…then Lethal scores another nearfall with a dropkick. Lethal Combination scores…and a tired champion starts climbing the ropes. MACHO ELBOW NAILED…FOR 2! Lethal Injection COUNTERED WITH THE SICK KICK! With some assistance from Ciampa, Roddy scoops Lethal up for the SUPLEX FLIP BACKBREAKER! STRONG WINS! New TV Champion at 13:19
Rating - *** - The best of the Strong/Lethal matches we’ve seen in ROH thus far. It still wasn’t perfect, but I liked the amount of great countering they were busting out, along with some simply amazing strike exchanges. The finish, with Tommaso smashing Lethal into the ringpost, was a little unnecessary (could he not have just distracted Jay?), and from a creative standpoint I really don’t know why you keep the belt on Lethal at the 10th Anniversary rather than put it on Tommaso who badly needed the rub…then take it off him two shows later to give it to Roderick who doesn’t need it at all. Weird booking aside this was good, and even if he doesn’t need it, it’s nice to see Roderick take the belt and guarantee his place in ROH history as a triple crown winner. For his length of service to this promotion he really does deserve that…
Tape Rating - N/A - Not as good as last week, simply because the match quality wasn’t anywhere near as good as the Bennett/Storm and Steen/Generico double header. We did get to see the TV Title change on television (which was pretty essential) but I really didn’t see this as anything like as effective a commercial for ROH live events as last week’s Road Rage. And not mentioning Richards/Elgin - ROH's MOTY thus far - at all was absolutely criminal. The only part of the show that held my interest at all was Inside ROH, which continues to be the one area where the Sinclair TV show is consistently better than HDNet…