ROH on Sinclair – Episode 093 – 29th June 2013

So after last weekend, which saw the Best In The World ppv and the Briscoe Brothers TV special, we return to TV this weekend with Jay Briscoe still in possession of the World Championship and ROH very much in countdown mode to their steel cage showdown with SCUM. In many ways it felt like the TV tapings (with Steel Cage Warfare and Hardy’s title shot) were more of the focus this weekend than BITW13. Not sure that’s the way it should be, but hopefully we’re in for a good few weeks of television. Now ROH has scrapped it’s ippv’s, it puts a much greater significance onto the SBG show to sell the product and get people onto ROHwrestling.com to start buying some VOD shows. Not that you’d know it tonight as, just a week removed from the ippv, we are running Best In The World Road Rage. Sorry, but if they had time to put this together, they had time to edit the tapings from the Sunday in time for broadcast the following weekend. It’s another colossal fail for ROH in my opinion. Kevin Kelly welcomes us to Baltimore, MD.

Matt Taven vs Jay Lethal vs Jimmy Jacobs – ROH TV Title Match
This was originally scheduled to be Taven defending the title against Lethal. After all, Jay did win a #1 contenders triple threat on television – beating out BJ Whitmer and Mike Bennett to earn this spot. But SCUM leader Steve Corino was furious that Jimmy Jacobs wasn’t entered into that contendership bout. Particularly since Jimmy boasts a clean win over Lethal on television. Nigel reluctantly agreed to slot the Zombie Princess into the match, but has vowed to make sure that SCUM won’t get any more title shots if they don’t get the job done tonight.

I love Scarlett, but the other Hoopla Hottie (Seleziya Sparx) is awful. She clearly has no real interest in being a valet, totally half-asses her job and nearly falls flat on her ass stepping on poor Scarlett’s ankle as she botches the House Of Truth intro pose. Lethal clearly isn’t a fan of Jacobs, as he sprints across the ring to plant him with a superkick. They go to the floor…AND TAVEN HITS A CRAZY SUICIDE DIVE! He ended up in the damn crowd after that! YAKUZA KICK BY JACOBS! But the Zombie Princess soon finds himself having to evade an attack from Truth Martini, allowing Taven to powerslam him on the floor! Lethal capitalises on those two fighting to smash the champion into the rails. He comes back inside with a running DVD for 2. Jimmy returns, and surprises Lethal with a neckbreaker from behind as he tries to slam Matt. The champion tries to skin the cat only to be viciously dropkicked into the laps of the Hoopla Hotties by SCUM’s representative in this one. Taven takes a while to recover, but eventually returns to hit an Angel’s Wings on Lethal, dropping him on top of Jimmy in the process. Taven inadvertently gets his ass exposed, but unfortunately for Baltimore he enjoys it! Lethal swoops to hit a flatliner/DDT combo on both opponents…and all three are down. Headlock Driver COUNTERED with the Contra Code! Lethal then hoists Jacobs up into a facebuster for 2. Lethal Combination on Jacobs…FIVE STAR FROG SPLASH BY TAVEN! But still Matt can’t land the Headlock Driver, and sees it countered with a pop-up neckbreaker from Jay. Macho Elbow scores, but Jacobs rolls back into break up the pin. Lethal clears the ring to hit a tope suicida. Enter Scarlett…who slaps him in the face! HE RIPS HER SHIRT OFF! Truth Martini is furious, and preoccupies Lethal for long enough to allow Jacobs to hit a spear! Seleziya gets in Jimmy’s face now! She tries to Air Raid Crash Jacobs…SO LETHAL SUPERKICKS HER! Rebound Ace Crusher from Jimmy, but he is then held down by Martini as Taven swoops to steal his win at 12:54

Rating - *** - After a couple of strong outings for Taven at recent house shows, I could complain about how he was forced to take a back seat to the Hoopla on pay-per-view again. BUT, for all that this match had it’s shortcomings, it’s hard to deny that this was an absolute riot. Taven, when he actually got to wrestle, looked great whilst talents like Jacobs and Lethal can throw spots around for fun when the situation calls for it. The stuff with Scarlett and Seleziya at the end was undeniably entertaining too. I think we’re still waiting for a defining clean win to truly ‘make’ Matt Taven in Ring Of Honor, but decent matches against Tadarius Thomas and Eddie Edwards recently have bought him some time.

reDRagon vs Caprice Coleman/Cedric Alexander vs Rhett Titus/Cliff Compton – ROH Tag Title Match
Just as in the last match, it was ROH’s C&C who became #1 contenders and earned their title shot on television. They won a triple threat also featuring Adrenaline RUSH and the team RD Evans has now dubbed ‘Marshall Law’. But Corino pointed out that Compton and Titus have won matches over these guys recently too, and have a rightful claim to be top contenders to the belts. Much as with Jimmy Jacobs, the SCUM team have been thrown into this one, with Rhett looking to reclaim the belts he was harshly stripped of last year when Kenny King left the company.

Credit where it’s due, Titus has gotten himself into drastically better shape than he was in last year and looks a lot closer to the physical condition he was in back in 2011 when the All Night Express were really taking off. O’Reilly and Fish stand in one corner and opt to watch as C&C continue their on-going fight with SCUM. Finally they join in and actually help C&C beat up Compton and Titus. Alexander takes flight with a somersault plancha, but as reDRagon encourage Caprice to do the same they are, of course, setting him up for a cheap shot. Cedric saves his partner with a double missile dropkick to the champions. SCUM are back, with Cliffy knocking Alexander off the top rope and Rhett hitting his dropkick on Coleman. SCUM start targeting the shoulder Caprice injured at Border Wars, and he is very much a wounded animal by the time he gets to his corner for a tag to Cedric. He and O’Reilly run through a thrilling little strike exchange before C&C hit the Hart Attack leg lariat on Compton. Titus is thrown out of the ring onto his own partner, and C&C set Kyle up for Overtime! SCUM drag O’Reilly out of the ring to save him being pinned…so Caprice suicide dives from the top at both of them. Fish sneaks into the ring and kicks Alexander in the head…and it’s over at 06:58

Rating - * - Too short, too chaotic, and this would have been much better if they’d booked a straight tag match – be it reDRagon defending against SCUM or C&C. There were some neat little moments (Kyle and Cedric need to have a singles match booked between them), but this was pretty much a waste of time and did nobody involved in it any favours. Coleman and Alexander busted their asses out there, but it really was all for nothing.

Matt Hardy vs Kevin Steen
This might not be the prettiest of matches, and Hardy in ROH might not be to everyone’s taste (mine included), but beyond a shadow of doubt this is the money match for him in Ring Of Honor. Here he is lined up against ROH’s top star and biggest draw and a big grudge to be settled between them. The catalyst for Steen leaving SCUM was Corino’s decision to bring in Matt, and place him as the ‘crown jewel’ of the group. Hardy is now ‘the guy’, and it’s he that will receive the title shot SCUM earned at Border Wars (by defeating Steen) tomorrow at the TV tapings. Kevin managed to throw the first punch, and has defeated a few SCUM members in singles matches recently, but he’s been on the wrong end of more than one Twist Of Fate since Supercard Of Honor when he lost the title. Nigel McGuinness has told him to prove he’s worthy of a World Championship rematch – and one would suggest kicking ‘the Icon’s ass on ppv would be the way to do that.

There’s an ECW-esque atmosphere as Steve Corino riles the crowd up despite being under fire from a barrage of toilet paper rolls. Steen arrives and demands it’s made a No DQ match too. Hardy hides behind the referee, then goes after Steen’s legs in a desperate attempt to halt the early onslaught of the former World Champion. Mr Wrestling storms back using a crutch handed to him by someone in the crowd though. The brawl continues at ringside and even Papa Briscoe storms through the crowd cheering for Steen. Corino starts bringing out weapons for Matt to use, handing him a garbage can which he uses to good effect. Hardy misses a moonsault (he used to get a LOT more hang time on that during the TLC-era!) and eats a GARBAGE CAN-NON BALL! Steen wants to F-5 him from the ring through a table at ringside…but Rhett Titus runs in. PACKAGE PILEDRIVER on him! Of course, Matt is waiting to strike with repeated Side Effects. They fight on the apron over that perilously placed table…until Jimmy Jacobs runs out to move it. APRON BOMBS ON HIM! Hardy gets one of those too, before Cliff Compton smashes Steen in the back with a chair. Hardy has a ladder, and whacks Steen right in the face with it. On commentary Nigel points out that nobody from the ROH locker room is coming to help Steen. He doesn’t need them right now though, as he hits a LADDER-ENFORCED CODEBREAKER for 2! Corino distracts him…and he eats the Twist Of Fate – but kicks out! Hardy wants another Twist Of Fate, but is hit in the nuts then given the F-5. SIDE EFFECT ON THE LADDER! Still Steen kicks out! The Icon gives him a Twist Of Fate through two chairs, and wins the match at 14:11

Rating - ** - It was a bizarrely entertaining spectacle, but once more I’ve got to question the booking of Hardy. I know he has a title shot tomorrow, but why the f*ck is Delirious putting Matt over his top guy. The fans HATE Hardy, and they love Steen. Mr Wrestling is their top guy, and was crying out for a high profile ppv win after losing at Supercard Of Honor and Border Wars. Instead they pointlessly put Hardy over another one of their top guys on a big show. To put this in perspective – had Steen won I could have gone 3* on what was a vaguely enjoyable car wreck of a match, but seeing Matt win again has left a sour taste in my mouth. Someone tell me what the point of him going over Adam Cole (Cole never got his win back) and Steen really is?

Tape Rating - DUD - As I said at the top of the hour, this is another fail from Ring Of Honor. If they had time to edit a Road Rage episode from the ppv, they had time to put the first episode from the TV tapings the next day out. There’s no reason for them to do this, other than laziness, as I see it. They could cover the Best In The World results in an ‘Inside ROH’ segment just as easily. People are PAYING to see this stuff live (and more often than not ROH can’t even get that right) – so to see two of the three title matches, plus one of the most eagerly anticipated matches from the show put onto free TV in full just a week later is incredibly offensive. Even if, as it transpired, the Tag Title Match and Steen/Hardy were actually two of the weaker matches of the night, it doesn’t change things. Thankfully this irritating practice will stop as ROH won’t be having internet pay-per-views for the foreseeable future.

 

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