ROH on Sinclair – Episode 069 – 12th January 2013
The Ring Of Honor off-season ends with another episode of Final Battle 2012 Road Rage this evening. Next weekend we have two live events, plus the first episode of fresh SBG content to look forward to. I presume the championship scene will be spotlighted this week as none of the matches we saw on last week’s Road Rage featured the championship bouts at the year-ending ippv bash. Once again Kevin Kelly and Caleb Seltzer are in Manhattan, NY.
Kevin Kelly is still inexplicably in the Grand Ballroom for the introduction.
Jay Lethal amusingly pretends to be psyched for his “pointless” match with Rhino.
Jay Lethal vs Rhino
The score in this one is that Lethal doesn’t really want to wrestle Rhino at all. He made the point on TV that, since he’s banned from challenging Kevin Steen for the World Title, he has nothing to gain from putting himself in the ring with the Man Beast. He has agreed to fulfil his contractual obligations by working this match…but has also promised that he’ll be back later to ‘fight the World Champion’ no matter what happens. On Rhino’s side, people are interested to see what he does next since we’ve not heard from him after quitting the House Of Truth in October.
Steve Corino, who has a well-documented history with Rhino, arrives on commentary. Lethal knocks him out of the ring with a springboard dropkick then dives after him with a tope suicida. Lethal Injection misses though, with Rhino scooping him up and drilling him into the mat with a spinebuster. The Man Beast chokes Jay in the ropes right in front of Corino on commentary. Steve is hysterical on commentary, ripping on Caleb Seltzer for not saying anything and being a lousy commentator. In the ring a bear hug is applied. ‘I know for a fact that Rhino takes 45-minute showers’ – Corino. Lethal escapes from Rhino’s clutches and hits the ropes to floor him with a handspring elbow. Belly to belly by Rhino…and he then crouches down into the corner. Gore COUNTERED with a superkick. Koji Clutch locked in! But Rhino STANDS UP and hits a crazy back drop driver with Lethal still trying to apply the Clutch! LETHAL INJECTION! Lethal picks up a big win at 09:32
Rating - ** - Filler match, with Rhino’s credibility definitely damaged by having Lethal get in so much offence. If the plan was to get rid of Rhino then that would be fine as it gives Jay the rub, but as of this writing Rhino is still very much on the roster. An emphatic loss in a small-time match like this hurts him more than it benefits Lethal in my opinion. Corino on commentary was gold though
Corino gets on the mic to berate Lethal for wanting to interfere in Steen’s business later, distracting him so Jimmy Jacobs can assault him from behind. The Tag Champions declare that it’s ‘SCUM’s night’ and hold him up so Rhino can give him the Gore…Gore…Gore.
Mike Bennett vs Jerry Lynn
This is the last time former World Champion Jerry Lynn will compete in ROH. We’ve not seen him for a couple of years anyway, and he makes his return tonight as part of his retirement tour. He had a patchy relationship with the Ring Of Honor fans, but they definitely appreciated his hard work and desire to entertain. He produced some cracking matches during his Ring Of Honor run. We see clips of his title win over Nigel, but there was also the storming four-way title defence he had on HDNet, the epic technical clinic he worked with Bryan Danielson at All Star Extravaganza 4, or the bloody clash with Roderick Strong in Dayton. He bids farewell to ROH this evening and is lined up against Mike Bennett – a man who spent much of 2012 fighting off another well-respected, technically gifted former ECW star in Lance Storm.
Jerry gets tons of streamers and a huge pop, which is well-deserved. He is nearly 50 years old and is still doing this, although he now wrestles in a shirt it seems. He easily out-wrestles Bennett, making a fool of The Prodigy considering how he was supposed to have ‘learned’ from his series against Storm. Bennett dives into the ropes as Lynn goes for an early Cradle Piledriver. Satellite headscissors does score though, and he hurdles the ropes to drop Mike again with a pescado moments later. Prodigy takes to hiding behind Maria, then running away until Bob Evans comes to his aid to flatten Jerry with an illegal clothesline. Bennett hits a hanging backbreaker out of the ropes for 2 – which is significant as Lynn has had real issues with his back over recent years. He immediately seems in real pain, but refuses to stay down as the crowd rallies behind him. SOMERSAULT EYE GOUGE by Lynn! He can be dastardly too, and he follows it by dropping a blinded Prodigy into a DDT for 2. TOWER OF LONDON TO THE FLOOR! Lynn takes a page out of the man that he defeated for the World Title, but it’s still just a 2-count. Having endured that, Bennett gets back to his feet and drops Lynn on his back again with a spinebuster. Maria distracts the ref whilst Brutal Bob throws a chair in the ring…but the plan backfires as Jerry hoists Bennett up for a TKO ON THE CHAIR! Still 2! Maria distracts Lynn again, allowing. In typically classy fashion, Lynn uses Bennett to hit the Box Office Smash for the win at 10:06
Rating - *** - I was sucked into the emotion of this, but then again I always liked Jerry Lynn a lot more than some people. In reality I think a lot of fans turned on Jerry back in 2009 because a combination of bad luck, bad timing and fate meant that he was the man to dethrone Nigel McGuinness, rather than Tyler Black. Now time has healed those wounds, the NY crowd in a former ECW stronghold were enthusiastically behind him. Neither he nor Bennett had to break far from their signature spots and transitions, but it worked well. If I’m honest I thought some of this made Bennett look like an idiot, and a guy who managed to learn absolutely nothing from his trilogy against Lance Storm earlier in the year.
The Jerry Lynn appreciation ceremony is removed from the TV-cut, but the confrontation between Jay Lethal and Nigel McGuinness (and Jay subsequently being removed from the building) is included.
Ladder War 4 is only briefly shown in highlight form – with the focus actually being on selling ppv replays rather than giving away stuff for free. That’s an improvement.
Truth Martini tells fans that he won’t ‘ever be the same’ after what happened at Final Battle – and neither will the House Of Truth. Supposedly we need to keep an eye on him in the new year.
Jimmy Jacobs/Steve Corino vs Caprice Coleman/Cedric Alexander vs Jay Briscoe/Mark Briscoe – ROH Tag Title Match
This will be fought under ‘sudden death’ rules. In essence, since he doesn’t like SCUM, it’s Match Maker Nigel McGuinness’ way of stacking the decks against Corino and Jacobs. There are no elimination rules, but the only way to win the belts is to beat the champions. It does mean they can’t lose the belts without being pinned, but it also incentivises C&C and the Briscoes to work together to beat up a mutual enemy for a common purpose. We know the Briscoes hate SCUM and are now the centrepieces of ROH’s ‘Honor Lives’ era, but can they end the year by delivering a huge blow to SCUM by taking their tag belts from them and becoming 8-time champions.
Predictably, the champions are under attack immediately. Caprice and Jay join forces to chase Jimmy up the aisle whilst Mark and Cedric beat Corino against the guardrails. But their alliance is short lived as Alexander and Jay start squabbling over who gets to pin Steve. Mark lands a crab-walk Froggy Bow, only for Coleman to stop the ref from counting the fall. C&C and the Briscoes fight amongst themselves, and SCUM try to sneak away and walk out on the match. The Briscoes retrieve them right before they make it back to the curtain. C&C hit Corino with Total Elimination. SOMERSAULT PLANCHA BY CEDRIC! SPRINGBOARD BACKWARDS SPLASH BY CAPRICE! Mark barely makes the save there, before taking it to Coleman with the Redneck Kung Fu. Jacobs capitalises with the rebound Ace Crusher for 2, but is immediately taken out again with a full nelson facebuster from Alexander. MIND TRIP from Coleman to Jay! Corino then wipes Caprice out with the Saito suplex. Assisted Contra Code…into the Eternal Dream for 2! Corino has another roll of coins, but is booted by Cedric before he can use it. Mark SAVES Jacobs from C&C’s Overtime finisher…only for Cedric to decimate him with a missile dropkick. Roll of quarters shot on Cedric…for 2! Jacobs tries to use a title belt instead, but is thwarted by the Briscoes. DOOMSDAY DEVICE ON JACOBS! IT’S OVER! The Briscoes win at 07:04, meaning that, for the 8th time, they are ROH Tag Champions.
Rating - *** - People seemed to criticise this for two reasons: firstly that it was too short and secondly that C&C didn’t win. Personally I thought ROH got the booking right on both counts. The slight twist on the traditional triple threat concept (only the champions can be beaten) made for a unique spectacle, and made it completely logical that the match wouldn’t last long. The challenging teams were effectively forced to beat up the challengers – and with two teams beating them up it halves the capability of Corino and Jacobs to withstand the pressure. They tried to walk out, they tried to use foreign objects, but ultimately they could not fight off the combined talents of their challengers.
Tape Rating - DUD - Marginally better than last week as some genius in ROH’s hierarchy actually realised they should be using Road Rage to actually sell something. If you’re putting ppv stuff on TV then viewers should be HAMMERED with ‘buy the full replay’ messages. And, to be fair, that’s the message that was repeatedly put across with this episode. Lots of cool storyline advancement was also included (Lethal getting tossed out, Rhino apparently joining SCUM, the Briscoes becoming 8-time Tag Champions etc).