ROH on Sinclair – Episode 105 – 21st September 2013
For those of us that watch these shows in some semblance of chronological order, we now know that as of yesterday evening, Adam Cole is the new Ring Of Honor World Champion. However, as any kind of storyline development on the TV show has been jettisoned in favour of re-running every tournament match (understandably, with iPPV gone for the time being, and VOD’s seemingly doing solid business based on the die hard fan numbers alone – TV ratings is presumably the main focus of Sinclair’s ROH right now). An end to endless ‘Road Rage’ style TV episodes consisting solely of tournament matches clipped out of recent live events is in sight…but we’re not there yet. Having run through Toronto and the All Star Extravaganza matches, we now move on to Manhattan Mayhem 5. Kevin Kelly and Prince Nana call the action from the Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan, NY.
Tommaso Ciampa vs Michael Bennett
This is the first of three ROH World Title tournament quarter-finals. Both of these men came through their first round matches at All Star Extravaganza 5 – with Tommaso fighting off a spirited challenge from the wildcard entrant Silas Young whilst Bennett controversially beat BJ Whitmer with a piledriver on the apron. A win here takes you to Death Before Dishonor in Philadelphia, and a place in the final four.
Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but Bennett doesn’t look at all himself as he makes his way to the ring for his first appearance since the accident with Whitmer. How he deals with this could really shape his career – for better or worse. Ciampa’s entrance music is played live which adds to the spectacle. ‘You killed BJ’ – New York…which is funny but won’t help either. Bennett doesn’t look like he wants to get too close to Ciampa at all, doing his best to run until Tommaso catches him and throws him OFF THE APRON and into the guardrails! He hits that kneeling dropkick to a seated Bennett in the middle of the ring for 2. Michael goes after the surgically repaired knee but is dusted off…and an angry Ciampa returns the favour by attacking his leg! Tommaso drops to the mat, behind Bennett’s back, then clutches his knee. It’s an obvious fake-out to everyone except the (former) Prodigy – and there’s some almost pantomime comedy moments as Ciampa pretends to be injured, then acts fine every time Michael turns away from him. Much to Bennett’s dismay, finally the Sicilian Psychopath pops up and knees him right in the face! Too early for the bare knee strike in the corner though, and Bennett counters with a drop toehold then a dropkick from the floor. He looks for Ole Ole Kicks on the outside, but Tommaso evades and delivers OLE OLE KNEES! Bennett tries to get back to his feet…CIAMPA GRABS HIM FOR A GERMAN SUPLEX INTO A CHAIR AND THE RAILS! OLE OLE KNEE WITH SUCH FORCE TOMMASO ENDS UP IN THE CROWD! Project Ciampa blocked by an increasingly desperate Bennett – who manages to ensnare Tommaso’s bad knee in the ropes with another dropkick. No pantomime act this time, and Bennett aggressively picks apart Ciampa’s knees. KNEEBREAKER out of the corner, followed with a knee-DT. He then hits a body slam – except he drops Ciampa so his legs ricochet off the ropes. Tommaso is fighting on one leg but still manages to swing a volley of elbow smashes and a lariat in Bennett’s direction. Cobra Clutch Crossface applied, prompting Bennett to scramble desperately to the ropes. Ciampa’s leg is still bothering him, and as he tries to sprint into another knee strike Michael pounces to drop him with a spear. Bennett goes for the piledriver, but when Tommaso counters it he turns to an ELEVATED CLOVERLEAF! If he didn’t get enough heat for the piledriver, Bennett then decides to simultaneously rip of CM Punk and Ciampa’s moveset – then sit cross-legged in the middle of the ring as the fans hate on him. He picks Ciampa up. GO TO SLEEP…COUNTERED! GO 2 SLEEP BY CIAMPA! GETS 2! They go to the apron, BENNETT IS GOING FOR THE PILEDRIVER! Are you kidding me? Ciampa fights him off and knees him all the way to the floor! RUNNING AIR RAID CRASH ON THE FLOOR! Ciampa shoves Bennett back into the ring and pins him at 14:39
Rating - *** - This was a lot of fun. I’m not sure the crowd were always as into it as they should have been, but the story these guys went for still entertained the hell out of me. Bennett lacked a little bit of snap, which can perhaps be attributed to trauma following his last ROH match, and at times it felt like they were spending a little too much time limping around, posturing to the crowd and generally stalling between spots, but those are things which stopped it being a great match – not things that meant it wasn’t good. Ciampa continues to be particularly impressive since his comeback. As he has become more and more confident in the recovery of his knee he’s become progressively more explosive. He seems to combine the power and rugged, dominant offence of a Samoa Joe with the ability to explode into high-octane spots out of nowhere that people like Austin Aries possess. He really does have the ability to be World Champion in future if he stays healthy, is booked correctly and isn’t snapped up by WWE or TNA before he has the opportunity.
Roderick Strong vs Kevin Steen
This quarter final pits two former World Champions against each other as they look to emulate Austin Aries by becoming a two-time ROH Champion. Roddy had a reputation for dropping the ball in the big match before his affiliation with the House Of Truth, and being completely honest his won/loss record has been very patchy this year after he severed his ties with Truth Martini at the end of 2012. Steen, meanwhile, comes in riding plenty of momentum…as he was the man to win Steel Cage Warfare for ROH and kill SCUM (the group he created) once and for all.
Steen gets Samoa Joe levels of streamers during his entrance. Not that Roddy is deterred by that. JUMPING KNEE! DEATH BY RODERICK! He nearly won the match right there! Dropkick through the ropes attempted, only for Steen to COUNTER WITH THE APRON BOMB! STEEN-TON GETS 2! What a crazy first minute! F-5 blocked, so Steen DDT’s Strong from the middle rope to get another nearfall. Fighting at 100mph obviously doesn’t favour Mr Wrestling though, so he looks for ways to slow the pace. Headlocks don’t work so he opts for kicking and elbowing the heck out of Roderick instead. Strong desperately throws chops and knees back at him, before delivering a devastating Olympic Slam to finally bring Steen’s momentum to a grinding halt. As ever, his offence is concentrated on the sternum of his opponent – pinning Steen to the ground to crank onto a modified abdominal stretch. The crowd are still crazily behind Steen and are delighted when he finally evades a Roaring Elbow from Strong and drops him with a clothesline with such force that it leaves both men down. Pumphandle cradlebreaker scores for a nearfall on Mr ROH. Roddy just BATTERS Steen with elbows in the corner – and somehow finds the strength to hit a massive superplex. Stronghold briefly applied, but way too close to the bottom rope. And Steen’s girth is too substantial for him to hit the half nelson backbreaker. Sharpshooter blocked…Death By Roderick…COUNTERED to the Sharpshooter! Strong escapes…JUMPING KNEE! DEATH BY RODERICK! SICK KICK…GETS 2! They fight in the corner, where Steen blocks a second superplex attempt and converts it to an AVALANCHE FISHERMAN BUSTER! Still it’s not enough to get a win. Package Piledriver blocked with elbows! Orange Crush Backbreaker COUNTERED WITH A SLEEPER SUPLEX! PACKAGE PILEDRIVER NAILED! Steen advances to the semi-finals with a win at 11:59
Rating - *** - The beginning and ending portions of this match were utterly superb. But the middle (with Strong working the midsection) was so rushed and perfunctory that it really hurt it for me. I understand the motivation behind Sinclair wanting to put every World Title tournament match on the TV show. It’s good television, and it also means they can tape at their live shows rather than having to run separate TV taping nights which aren’t proving too popular with live crowds. BUT, the downside is that some of these tournament matches so far have felt rushed. This was crying out for a little more time to really flesh things out. Still, even when working with restrictions as these two were, they are so good and so experienced this was pretty decent all the same. Steen is so amazingly over. If ROH are smart they’ll give him whatever Steen wants to stick around and commit his future to the company. The last thing they need is for him, their most over and most marketable talent, deciding to go the Colt Cabana (indy wrestler/entertainment mogul) route and walk away from Ring Of Honor to earn a decent living elsewhere. He’s already starting to become very Cabana-like (with his Highspots chat show, his YouTube diaries and so forth) in his unique ways to interact with fans and sell his product. He will surely join Austin Aries as a 2-time World Champion if he does remain here for any significant period of time.
Karl Anderson vs Michael Elgin
This will easily be the biggest match in the tournament so far. Last time we were in New York these two talented heavyweights butted heads in a great SBG TV encounter. Machine Gun took the win last time out, and in doing so made Unbreakable re-evaluate his entire Ring Of Honor career. Despite being #1 contender, he stepped away from the World Title picture and turned his focus to ridding ROH of SCUM and training so that, when he did finally get a rematch with Anderson, he’d be ready to beat him. The time is now, and Karl stands between him and the World Championship he now feels ready to challenge for. But will fatigue play a factor here? Anderson got past ACH at the end of July in Providence, and has had an extra week to recover, whilst Elgin had to go through a real war with Paul London in Toronto just two weeks ago. The winner advances to meet Kevin Steen at Death Before Dishonor in the semi-finals.
Elgin isn’t holding anything back here. He follows the Code Of Honor then immediately engages the NJPW star in a VIOLENT strike exchange. Next they go straight for their finishers, but neither man manages to land the decisive early strike. Unbreakable clearly has Karl rattled though, as Anderson takes a cheap shot at him – but is still blasted off his feet with a rugged shoulder tackle from the Canadian. ONE MINUTE SUPLEX! On a guy as big as Anderson that’s no mean feat. Machine Gun looks decidedly less impressive as he has to roll out of the ring as he tries to escape the beating Elgin is dishing out. It’s a wise move, and works to his advantage as the less well-travelled ROH worker tries an ambitious dive off the apron and sees it countered in mid-air to a spinebuster on the floor! Anderson kicks Elgin’s head into the rails – then retreats again, this time into the ring looking for a count-out win. Michael beats the count, but rolls into the ring and straight into a vicious assault on his surgically repaired knees. For all his early success, Elgin is now being picked apart by the Machine Gun. He swings a volley of lariats in Karl’s direction and somehow gets him up for the Oklahoma Stampede. Dead-lift German blocked, so he delivers the Black Hole Slam instead. He fails in attempt to hit the Buckle Bomb so again starts hammering Karl lariats, which Anderson dusts off for another spinebuster. ST-JOE! Elgin heads upstairs and MISSES the corkscrew senton. Death Blow instead! DEAD-LIFT GERMAN! Anderson somehow absorbs that blow and chases Elgin up the ropes…FOR AN AVALANCHE TKO! Elgin kicks out! SIT-OUT TOMBSTONE! Still 2! Ace Crusher blocked again, and converted to the CROSSFACE! Why do the New York fans insist on chanting for Chris Benoit when he does this? Anderson escapes to the apron and does his best to knock Elgin out with a bicycle kick. In return Elgin delivers a jumping enzi which nearly knocks him through Kevin Kelly and Prince Nana’s announce table. DEAD-LIFT SUPERPLEX NAILED! BUCKLE BOMB! NO SOLD! BICYCLE KICK! NO SOLD! SUPERKICK! Back Fist…ducked! Ace Crusher…blocked! Elgin cracks Anderson with a massive elbow strike. DEAD-LIFT SUPLEX POWERBOMB…FOR 2. Anderson is still desperately trying to connect with the Ace Crusher, and doesn’t see ROLLING BACK FISTS coming! SPIRAL BOMB! Elgin wins! He advances to the semi-finals at 17:10
Rating - **** - I’m not sure if I preferred this to the first match. Some things they did much better here (everything Anderson did here was geared towards putting Elgin over), but they struggled to win over a pretty poor crowd and, as good as it was seeing them beating the snot out of each other, at times they lost focus and lost grip of the story they were trying to sell – and were just tossing big spots around without much holding it together. Ultimately, Elgin going over Anderson is a huge deal (Karl had been unbeaten since his return to Ring Of Honor, and is unquestionably a major player given his reputation in Japan) and, after besting Paul London in the previous round, gives him massive momentum as he moves to Philadelphia. This was a great, sh*t-kicking, heavyweight slug-out which achieved its primary goal of getting Elgin over. It could have done with a little more in the middle portion to keep the crowd from descending into silliness though.
Tape Rating - N/A - I am treating this episode the same as the two previous Road Rage-inspired, World Title tournament-focused episodes. The actual content of the episode was outstanding. All three matches were superb for free television. Ciampa/Bennett was underrated by a lot of people. Strong and Steen worked a brilliant little match even whilst hampered with a measly, insufficient time allowance to really flesh out the story they wanted to tell, and the Anderson/Elgin sequel was a fitting follow up to their first encounter – which was taped especially for the television show anyway. As I said somewhere earlier in my review, without iPPV’s Sinclair’s main focus is to draw the biggest ratings possible for their TV show. To that end, three weeks of absolutely stacked, action-packed instalments of pro-wrestling television is something to really commend – even if it means that a lot of the ‘die hard’ fans are perhaps tuning out of the TV product as they saw this stuff weeks ago on VOD.