ROH on Sinclair – Episode 107 – 5th October 2013
It’s been a long road, but we’ve finally reached the finals of the World Title tournament on the SBG TV show. The tournament has marked the start of a new era for Ring Of Honor, both in terms of crowning a new champion and Sinclair making a clear statement that, without iPPV, the TV show is now the centrepiece and primary focus of their wrestling promotion – by airing every tournament match. Adam Cole and Michael Elgin, already weary from their gruelling semi-final victories, return to the ring to complete for the ROH World Championship – with Jay Briscoe also in attendance promising to personally hand the title belt to the winner. We return to the National Guard Armory in Philadelphia, PA to join Kevin Kelly and Nigel McGuinness.
The Briscoes arrive at the building. Jay isn’t happy at having to hand his belt over and has to be convinced to enter the building by brother Mark.
After a highlight package showing the routes our two finalists have followed to the finals, we go to the segment that opened the Death Before Dishonor show. Jay Briscoe comes to the ring, looking like a hobo and in no mood to relinquish his belt. After 11 years in the promotion, and after winning the Championship back from SCUM earlier in the year, he is bitterly disappointed at the ‘higher up’s decision to take it from him. Ironically the man who announced it (Match Maker Nigel McGuinness) WAS allowed to keep the belt despite sustaining several injuries during his title reign. That said, he reluctantly agrees to come back later and give the title to the new champion – if they do it fairly.
Outlaw Inc. get a rather ominous video package. They haven’t been mentioned too much on television since their return so it’s good to get some hype on them.
Adam Cole vs Michael Elgin – ROH World Title Tournament Final
This is the final many predicted when we started down the road to replacing Jay Briscoe as World Champion via a tournament. Michael Elgin was #1 contender and top pick, but Adam Cole has been popular for a long time. Despite struggling with his moral compass and his won/loss record so far in 2013, many had Cole as a strong contender to join him in the finals. Now it really is tough to pick a winner. On paper Unbreakable remains the favourite. But his path to the final has been significantly more difficult, having already survived hard-hitting 4*+ wars with Paul London, Karl Anderson and Kevin Steen. Elgin also had to be carried to the locker room for medical attention after beating Steen earlier. Cole wrestled first, had a shorter match with Ciampa than Steen/Elgin and hasn’t had quite as physical a road here. He’s healthier, quicker, and potentially has more gas left in the tank than his bigger, stronger adversary...so who leaves Philadelphia as the 19th ROH World Champion?
Cary Silkin, Joe Koff and Prince Nana are at ringside as judges to decide a winner if we have a time limit draw. Are you kidding me? If that had happened I would be done with this company there and then. Elgin looks significantly more wounded than Cole from the bell, but spends the opening minutes laying down a marker with his massive power advantage. The pace is brutally slow, which works in the favour of a powerful but fatigued and injured worker like Unbreakable. But after four minutes of methodically paced dominance, Elgin makes a mistake. He attempts his stalling suplex, and immediately drops Adam and starts feeling his injured neck. It’s a window of opportunity Cole doesn’t miss – nailing him with a neckbreaker in seconds. Snapmares, knees to the spine and cravats come next to pile on the pressure on the injured body part. Hell, even when Elgin drops Cole with a back suplex it’s he that folds over in a heap holding the back of his head rather than the victim. Cole climbs up his back, clinging to a sleeper hold whilst driving all his weight down onto the neck. Elgin fights out of the corner with the ST-Joe…then sits on the mat next to his opponent unable to capitalise. Black Hole Slam does follow eventually but, as Nigel points out, he’s struggling to do enough damage to put Cole away, whilst getting increasingly worn out and injured himself. Adam catches him with the Shining Wizard seconds later and he’s on the back foot once again.
Cole hits a jumping enzi from the floor, but Elgin DRAGS HIM OVER THE TOP ROPE INTO ROLLING GERMANS! TURNBUCKLE GERMAN! DVD OVER THE KNEE by Cole! He absorbed more brutal offensive moves there, and went to the neck again to drop his much larger opponent to the deck. They trade strikes, breaking when Elgin hits a SNAP German suplex into a charging lariat for 2. What will happen first – will Elgin batter Cole into the ground, or will Cole survive the onslaught long enough for Elgin to succumb to exhaustion and injury? Elgin thinks about the dead-lift superplex, which seems a completely foolish move. He is rightly punished with a sunset bomb and another Shining Wizard for 2. Suplex front slam out of nowhere by Elgin! This is on a knife-edge! Elgin dropkicks Cole as he tries a slingshot manoeuvre. DEAD-LIFT AVALANCHE FALCON ARROW! BUCKLE BOMB! COLE NO SELLS…SO ELGIN BACK FISTS THE SH*T OUT OF HIM! He hit him so hard that Cole falls out of the ring and underneath the judges (lol) table. Unbreakable retrieves Cole, and they wind up fighting on the apron balanced precariously close to the judging position. Elgin tries a back drop driver, which Cole COUNTERS to a cross-body. THEY BOTH GO THROUGH THE TABLE!
Cole slides into the ring and smiles. He wants to win by count-out just like with Roderick Strong! Elgin barely beats the count, and when he does he slides in to an irate Cole superkicking him IN THE NECK! FLORIDA KEY…FOR 2! AWESOMEBOMB BY ELGIN! BUCKLE BOMB! COLE NO SELLS TO A JACK-KNIFE PIN FOR 2! DEATH BLOW! BACK FIST! SPIRAL BOMB! But the ref gets bumped in the process and you can literally hear the crowd gasp in frustration at such sh*tty cheap booking in such an important match. Elgin had it won right there, but Todd Sinclair is still shaking the cobwebs loose. Cole celebrates by dropkicking an unsuspecting Elgin’s knees out from under him then slapping on the Figure 4. Elgin escapes to the apron. SLINGSHOT DDT ON THE APRON! CRADLEBREAKER ON THE FLOOR! Elgin can barely walk, his neck is shot to pieces and he’s missed his big opportunity to win the title thanks to a poorly placed official. Does he have anything left to give? PANAMA SUNRISE NAILED BY COLE! FOR 2! That’s Cole’s version of the Canadian Destroyer if you’ve never seen it before. Michael is basically dead-weight now, lumbering across the ring only for Cole to kick his knees out whenever he gets close. Panama Sunrise again…COUNTERED! CROSSFACE! He isn’t strong enough to retain the hold! ROLLING GERMANS BY COLE! FLORIDA KEY AGAIN! HE WINS! Cole is the World Champion at 26:30!
Rating - ****1/2 - I rather fear I’m going to get some grief for this rating, but this might even have been my favourite Ring Of Honor match all year. I’ve hated the booking that got us here, I hate Delirious and Sinclair for what they’ve done to the lineage of the title. However, rarely do you watch a wrestling match and have everything feel so entirely EQUAL. This felt like a huge match, almost entirely because you really felt like it could go either way. From a non-kayfabe perspective, there were massive merits in giving the belt to either guy. And in the match itself, the story they went with had you on the edge of your seat the entire time. Elgin’s advantage in terms of size and speed was systematically stripped away by the brilliant Adam Cole. But such was the skill of Elgin that you really believed he STILL had enough left in the tank that he might be able to win the thing anyway. Cole was the ‘villain’ without ever being a heel, without really being jeered by the fans, and without using any heelish tricks. And Elgin, despite being significantly bigger, was equally superb in the role of underdog…of sympathetic babyface. He sold the neck believably without being over the top and without limiting his ability to hit big moves. They went for the best part of half an hour, and you never once felt ‘I know what is going to happen’. It was close from bell to bell. Maybe the live crowd didn’t get on board with it as quickly as they’d have liked. And the GoFightLive issues meant the people watching the stream missed out on all the subtleties too. But watching on DVD I really appreciated the masterful nuances and understated approach to this one. I’ll slam the booking, SBG and the decision to strip Jay of the belt until the day I step away from this company, but I believe in giving credit where it’s due, and Michael Elgin and Adam Cole produced a wonderful main event which I think is being really under-appreciated by a great many people. With a better crowd and without that irritating ref bump spot (I think the negatives of that spot far outweighed the positives) I think a lot more people would be hyping this one as an MOTYC.
Jay Briscoe comes to the ring, and proves to be a man of his word as he mournfully hands over his belt to Adam Cole, shakes his hand, then walks away. ADAM COLE SUPERKICKS HIM IN THE BACK OF THE HEAD! Elgin has barely recovered from the match, and he gets to his feet only to be waffled by Cole and his newly won championship belt. The heel turn is finally cemented, and Kevin Kelly screams himself silly as the show fades out. GREAT ending…
Tape Rating - N/A - I can’t pretend I’m not glad the tournament has finally concluded on TV. It was a noble gesture by Sinclair to put the whole tournament on free television, but to those of that watch the VOD’s and DVD’s it has made the Sinclair show completely pointless, skippable viewing. I’d argue it would be a dangerous precedent to set if you, as a company, decide you want to make the TV show your focal point – but do so by making it totally irrelevant to a sizeable portion of your fanbase (i.e. the non-casual, die hards). That said, it has meant the casual fans have enjoyed some phenomenal wrestling for free over the last couple of months. Never was that more apparent than this episode, which contained the vast majority of what is, thus far, quite possibly my favourite 2013 ROH match. Here’s hoping the new SBG TV content taped the night after Death Before Dishonor in Philadelphia produces some compelling follow-up episodes in the coming weeks.