ROH on Sinclair – Episode 078 – 16th March 2013
Tonight we begin the countdown to Supercard Of Honor 7 properly. At the 11th Anniversary Show we saw new Tag and TV Champions crowned, we saw an end to the Strong/Elgin rivalry, we saw Steen successfully defend the World Title against Jay Lethal, and we saw SCUM invade the show to deliver a deafening shot of war in their quest to bring about Ring Of Honor’s demise. This is the first episode taped after the ppv, so we should be seeing all the aftermath of that show, and begin the countdown to ROH’s Wrestlemania weekend offering which is just a few weeks away. Kevin Kelly and Caleb Seltzer welcome us to Chicago Ridge, IL – where Sinclair taped the first ever ROH on SBG shows.
The show opens (in a building which looks considerably emptier than it did for the ppv the previous evening) with Nigel McGuinness in the ring to address the ROH-loyal members of the roster. He gives a stirring speech to rally the troops – then introduces the next batch of guys to be considered top contenders for Kevin Steen’s World Championship. Adam Cole, BJ Whitmer and Mark Briscoe will all get shots in the future, plus it will be Elgin vs Lethal at Supercard Of Honor to see which of those two will get a rematch too. The main event for Supercard Of Honor is also signed – and it will see Steen defend against Jay Briscoe, despite the fact that Jay suffered a severe shoulder injury in the assault by SCUM on ppv. Speaking of SCUM, they’re locked out tonight – but the doors will be open next week with the whole roster waiting to greet them should they choose to invade.
Tadarius Thomas/ACH vs American Wolves
Apparently Nigel was impressed with the work of Thomas and ACH during the Six Man Mayhem at the 11th Anniversary Show and suggested that they start teaming together. They’ve agreed and been thrown straight into the deep end of the ROH tag pool as they face former Tag and World Champions the American Wolves. Davey and Eddie have been granted a shot at reDRagon for Supercard Of Honor, so need to start their preparations for their next title shot with a win here.
Richards starts with ACH, much to the delight of the fans. Even Davey can’t keep up with ACH, and the youngster easily holds his own as they trade holds early on. Thomas goes up against Edwards, with the fight going straight to the canvas where both can show their technical skills. Even Eddie can’t handle the capoeira striking and he stumbles totally unaware into a stunning back roll kick to the jaw. Both Wolves are sent packing by the new team…before TD takes one risk too many and cartwheels across the apron right into a superkick by Davey. Richards enjoyed that so much he punts Tadarius again for good measure, then forearms ACH so hard he flops all the way off the apron to face-plant on the concrete floor. He tries a German on TD but finds it countered with the Sling Blade. ACH gets the hot tag and lights the crowd up with a crazy flurry of kicks into a flying crossbody on Richards for 2. DIVING HEADBUTT ON THE APRON! That takes Eddie out, and he’s up again in an instant for a slingshot cutter to the other Wolf. SPACE FLYING TIGER DROP FROM THOMAS! STEP-UP SOMERSAULT PLANCHA BY ACH! He’s back in the ring to drop Richards with a PUMPHANDLE BACK DROP DRIVER! EDDIE SAVES! DOUBLE ALARM CLOCK from the Wolves to TD! ACH tries to quebrada but is CAUGHT IN THE SUPERKICK TOMBSTONE! TD SAVES! The Wolves have seen enough, and decimate ACH with the POWERBOMB LUNGBLOWER to win at 08:06
Rating - **** - I’m definitely over-rating this to an extent, but I want to put over how much more fun this was than ANY other match Ring Of Honor has put on television this year. Putting the red-hot ACH with the lukewarm Tadarius Thomas doesn’t seem like a great use of ACH on paper, but if they put in a few more showings like this they’ll soon be very over as a team. People were expecting a routine victory for the Wolves – so Davey and Eddie deserve all the credit in the world for not phoning this in and giving their opponents a platform to really showcase their skills. ACH already had his ‘breakout moment’ when he fought Roderick Strong in Cincinnati – but matches like this are what ROH used to be all about. We all want to see fresh and capable new talent given a platform to produce great matches against the existing, experienced hands on the roster after all.
BJ Whitmer vs QT Marshall
With Nigel announcing that Whitmer has a World Title shot booked for the near future, he needs to follow up his big win over Charlie Haas at the Anniversary show with a string of victories in order to prove he deserves that opportunity. Marshall has struggled to make an impression in ROH, and knows a victory over one of the top contenders to the World Championship would be a good way to start climbing the card. At the moment he’s so far down the pecking order his entrance is edited out of the episode entirely. Hard times for a guy who was recruited with such fanfare last summer.
Whitmer is immediately distracted by RD Evans…and walks straight into a lariat from God’s Gift. Marshall lands a sliding DDT for 2, whilst his manager joins the commentary team to talk about his love life, his new beard and QT’s new haircut. Whitmer starts no-selling QT’s weak ass strikes then takes him off his feet with a single big boot. BJ tears into QT with knee strikes…and wins at 02:58
Rating - N/A - I’ve given this the N/A treatment. As a match it wasn’t much of anything, but decimating someone like Marshall in such quick time gives Whitmer an instant boost to his credibility, which he is absolutely crying out for if ROH want to promote him as a believable World Title contender (given that he’s been a perennial midcard act throughout his many years with the company). Squashing QT so comprehensively, I imagine, was also enjoyable to the group of ROH fans who have really taken an intense disliking to him.
INSIDE ROH – Kevin Kelly reports on all the events of the 11th Anniversary Show. This is an infinitely preferable way to reveal ppv results on the TV show to Road Rage.
Truth Martini brings ‘Hoopla Uncut’ to television, complete with multiple ‘Parental Discretion’ warnings to pimp up the gimmick. Matt Taven is with him, hanging the TV Title belt from his crotch and doing very little else. Martini tells the Hoopla Hotties to take their pants off…so we hastily cut to a graphic hyping our main event – which is up next.
Roderick Strong vs Jay Lethal
Even with nothing on the line, it’s always an important clash when these two do battle. They are now established main event level talents in ROH, meaning they are in a constant tussle for position as they look for title shots and big money main events. Strong was the man who defeated Lethal for the TV Championship at Showdown In The Sun a year ago…and this time around once again Jay has something Roddy wants. Unlike Lethal, Strong wasn’t mentioned by Nigel as being one of the top contenders to Kevin Steen’s World Championship. As an ROH Triple Crown winner that will have hurt Strong, and he’ll be looking for a victory here to emphasise the point that he should be in the reckoning for another shot at Mr Wrestling. In fact, Nigel McGuinness joins commentary and announces that Strong will get a title shot if he can beat Lethal here.
With a championship opportunity on the line, Strong explodes from the blocks and it takes a great display of defensive wrestling from Lethal to keep him at bay. They go back and forth, neither man able to land a significant strike. Finally Jay nails his hiptoss dropkick combo, then tricks Roddy into tumbling onto the apron. Lethal misses a springboard dropkick though and eats the mat hard on his landing. With very few minutes of TV time remaining Strong is quick to capitalise and immediately hits a backbreaker. A camel clutch is applied, but it isn’t doing enough damage to beat Lethal. He throws a Roaring Elbow…but it’s COUNTERED to the Lethal Combination. Strong tries to leave the ring only for Jay to nail him with a super-fast tope suicida then haul him back in. Superkicks from Jay, but the Lethal Injection is turned into the cradle backbreaker. Stronghold locked in, then turned to a small package for 2. GIBSON DRIVER COUNTERED TO THE LETHAL INJECTION! Just like that it’s over, and there’s no title shot for Roderick Strong as Lethal takes the win at 06:51
Rating - *** - It’s a shame these two weren’t given more time, but what I really liked about this match is the way they wrestled it in a totally logical, believable manner. They were both wrestling like they knew they only had eight minutes of TV time to declare a winner. Strong was the more aggressive because he knew he needed to win to get a title shot. Of course in a different environment, with a better time allocation maybe these two could produce a better match, but at the very least they made the most of what they were given here – so props to them for that.
Tape Rating - *** - My favourite episode of the SBG show for some time, possibly even all year. The in-ring speech from Nigel at the start was very well-executed and really set the scene for what’s to come in the ROH vs SCUM storyline. Wolves vs TD/ACH was a stellar little sprint of a tag match, the BJ/QT match was actually an effective squash, the results of a ppv were revealed without giving massive chunks of it away for free on TV and the main event was fun even with just a limited amount of time to play with. This episode still suffered from Delirious’ usual issue of just trying to pack too much into a single episode…but at least everything he was jamming in this week was of real quality