ROH on Sinclair – Episode 117 – 14th December 2013
With Final Battle being taped the very weekend this show aired, you’d imagine that the wrestling will take centre stage this evening, whilst the climactic end-of-year spectacular will be heavily mentioned. To that end, the main event of this episode is the outstanding reDRagon vs Coleman/Alexander Tag Title match which really deserves to be seen by as many as possible. We return to Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino, positioned at ringside in Columbus, OH.
Silas Young vs Tadarius Thomas
The Last Real Man had a bad night yesterday, and lost to Jay Briscoe in mere minutes. That’s a loss he’ll be looking to rebound from quickly. As will Tadarius, who will know Adrenaline RUSH’s Tag Title prospects took a hit yesterday when both he and ACH failed to win their respective triple threats with the members of reDRagon and C&C.
TD has shaved his head since yesterday’s show. The two trade bad tempered headlocks in the first couple of minutes…but every time Silas pauses to run his mouth he finds himself getting tagged with an unorthodox strike from Thomas. Finally Young has had enough and BOOTS him in the mouth! He looks to keep Tadarius on the ground, and does so for several minutes until he connects with a cartwheel kick then the Slingblade. HALF NELSON SUPLEX for 2! Silas retorts by springboarding off the ropes into a lariat. Capoeira strikes from Thomas…then a fisherman neckbreaker for another close nearfall! Young leaves the ring to kill his momentum…and when he returns he quickly blasts him with the backbreaker/lariat combo. KICK OF DEATH! HEADSTAND ARABIAN PRESS! Silas actually gets a rare, clean victory at 08:14
Rating - ** - This really wasn’t anything remarkable, but it was perfectly passable entertainment and the live audience seemed really into it. The contrast between Silas’ rugged, no-thrills approach and the ornate, complicated striking offence of Tadarius was a lot of fun to see play out. After getting crushed at Pursuit Night 1 I’m glad Silas got the win here. I know ROH want to build Adrenaline RUSH as top contenders for reDRagon, but Young has heaps more potential as a singles guy and needed to comeback strong after getting crushed yesterday.
Adam Cole vs ACH
This is a Proving Ground Match (the World Title doesn’t get many of those), so if ACH can win or force any kind of draw with Cole then he’ll earn a future Championship opportunity. We’ve been saying all year that ACH produces incredible matches when put in the ring with the ‘big dogs’ in the Ring Of Honor yard. After losses to the likes of Roderick Strong, Michael Elgin, Davey Richards, Karl Anderson, Kevin Steen and more, will tonight be the time he pulls off the career-making victory?
ACH picked up a leg injury last night, and comes in with a heavily taped knee. Cole wisely keeps the pace slow and looks to ground his athletic adversary. ACH doesn’t shy away from that confrontation, but Cole’s power advantage, plus ACH’s injury really start to grind him down. SUPERKICK TO THE KNEE! Adam launches into an onslaught on the injured knee – stretching it out, and driving countless stomps, knees and elbows onto it. Within a couple of minutes ACH is now rendered unable to even run the ropes. Despite that, he capitalises on Cole wasting time posing to the fans by dragging him into a one-legged turnbuckle flatliner. SHOTEEEIIIIII cleans Adam’s clock though, sending him all the way through the ropes to the apron. PESCADO NAILED! As is the slingshot cutter for 2! But he doesn’t stand any chance of getting Cole up for the Big Bang Attack, and is dropped on his ass again with a Shining Wizard. Cole SPITS on ACH…who responds by dragging him for a sit-out driver. FROG SPLASH GETS 2! But it hurts ACH’s knee and he needs the ropes to drag himself up. BASEMENT SUPERKICK by Cole! FIGURE 4 LEGLOCK! ACH immediately taps at 11:21
Rating - **** - I thought this was awesome! Even whilst being way shorter than I’d have liked, these guys packed in a hell of a match. For a guy who works an almost-exclusive high-flying game, ACH’s selling of the leg was incredible. He’s already a proven, sympathetic babyface who takes a hell of a beating, but the added psychological depth of his performance here was something new from him and truly outstanding. It’s also great to see Cole finally get the chance to explore the heel side of his character in Ring Of Honor. He’s been doing this act for a long time in other promotions, and is infinitely better in this role than as the smiling, babyface worker he’d been presented as throughout his ROH run. Unsurprisingly, his match quality has also massively improved from the first half of 2013 too. This was taped for the SBG show, and it was an absolutely brilliant TV match. Exactly the kind of action ROH should be showcasing to differentiate their television show from their rivals.
NEXT WEEK – It’s an Adam Cole special
reDRagon vs Caprice Coleman/Cedric Alexander – ROH Tag Title Match
C&C WrestleFactory have been campaigning for this opportunity for a long time. They feel that whenever they have earned an ROH Tag Title shot it’s always been as part of a three-way, or there’s always been another feud going on which has led to interference that wound up costing them (mostly during the Briscoe/WGTT feud). They won back to back triple threats at Pursuit Night 1, and finally tonight they do have the straight-up title shot they’ve always wanted. Aside from a couple of weeks of madness during the summer when the Forever Hooligans and the American Wolves both had a brief flirtation with the belts, Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly have controlled the titles since February. They have a tentative match scheduled for Final Battle now (Homicide and Eddie Kingston wait in the wings – another team who reDRagon have had issues with), but they need to emerge victorious from another stern examination of their championship credentials this evening.
Caprice got a nasty shiner during his match yesterday, and it looks worse today. He looks like he’s seeing just fine though, as he and Cedric waste no time in simultaneously dropkicking both champs off the apron during their entrance! SOMERSAULT PLANCHA BY CEDRIC! They are super aggressive, trawling all around ringside slamming the champs into the guardrails, the floor, the ringposts and everything else in between. It leaves O’Reilly struggling on the outside whilst they pull Fish into the ring to isolate him. With a cut on his nose, Fish tries to run away…eventually bringing Kyle in for some double team strike combos on Alexander. Such is the fire in Cedric it takes repeated double teams for reDRagon to restrain him…but then the action spills to the floor where Coleman comes to his aid with a 619 around the ringpost! Rolling northern lights by Caprice, into the DOUBLE northern lights on both champions for 2. O’Reilly manages to drive Coleman’s shoulder into the ringpost, then pulls referee Todd Sinclair aside as Fish hits a FLYING ARMDRAG OFF THE APRON! reDRagon start working on Caprice’s arm, but it’s noticeable they keep going back to strikes where possible to ensure that eye flares up as much as possible. After nearly 10 minutes of fast-paced C&C dominance, the pace slows dramatically as the champions methodically pick Coleman apart. Camel clutch applied, with eye gouging and close-range punches which apparently cause his eye to open up.
Fujiwara armbar from O’Reilly, and for the first time Ced has to start invading the ring to save the match for his partner. Caprice lands a double dropkick…then a DOUBLE HURRICANRANA before finally making the hot tag. Alexander hits a PSYCHOTIC high angle slingshot DDT (the kind where a botch winds up making it look twice as vicious as it would have originally been), then drops O’Reilly with the full nelson facebuster for 2. Total Elimination by C&C for another nearfall, and when Kyle runs for the hills they turn on Fish to ground him with the Hart Attack leg lariat. O’Reilly saves his partner by destroying Alexander against the rails, then storms the ring for a series of knee strikes, then a backbreaker/flying knee drop combo on Coleman for 2. MIND TRIP on Fish! CORKSCREW ENZI FROM CEDRIC TO KYLE! DETONATION KICK! FLYING LEG DROP GETS 2! C&C start firing each other up…but give reDRagon too much time to recover. O’Reilly boots Ced off the apron…INTO THE MISSILE DROPKICK TO THE FLOOR! AVALANCHE FALCON ARROW from Fish to Coleman! How much does Caprice have left? His eye is a mess, he only has one good arm, and he’s on his own with both champions. But he pisses them off still, rolling away every time Fish attempts a move from the top rope. Fish misses a diving headbutt…STANDING SUPER RANA ON O’REILLY! OVERTIME…BUT KYLE GETS THE KNEES UP! Caprice is in tears! He is driven onto his arm again. CHASING THE DRAGON! reDRagon retain at 21:33
Rating - **** - This match was one of the highlights of reDRagon’s remarkable 2013 run. They’ve had some excellent matches this year, but this has to count amongst their best title defences. For Caprice and Cedric, we don’t get to see them compete in main event level tag team matches like this very often. They had an awesome match with the American Wolves earlier this year at WAR, but other than that they spend most of the time dwelling far lower down the card. They worked this one like they KNEW it was their chance to take centre stage. In kayfabe this was the chance they’d worked their whole ROH careers for, but as workers, you could see they were putting everything into this. The story was outstanding too – with the pumped up challengers dominating the opening portion of the contest as the adrenaline flowed…but gradually being dragged back by the street-wise champions who began picking apart Caprice like predators on wounded prey. I nearly gave this an extra half star, but my issue with it was that they sort of forgot that story for a while. They forgot the heat segment on Caprice and just started chucking spots around. I’m not complaining necessarily, as the spots were terrific. I just wanted to see the emotional impact of those spots cranked up with a little more focus on Caprice’s arm or eye. They came back to it (the end, with Caprice actually CRYING when they failed to hit Overtime, then having his arm attacked again for the finish), but I wanted more. A great main event, a complete showstealer and undoubtedly the pinnacle of C&C WrestleFactory’s ROH tenure.
Tape Rating - N/A - Here’s what I don’t get: why don’t Ring Of Honor or Sinclair ever even MENTION you can watch their live events via VOD on their website? I mean, there is the occasional promo video for ROHWrestling.com…but this is Final Battle. Why have ROH not mentioned ONCE that you can watch the entire show on VOD? I would bet the farm that they are going to be putting Final Battle on free TV in a few weeks, which is a joke, even an in era where TV has to take priority. You wouldn’t catch WWE putting the best bits of WrestleMania on television, even though their TV gets significantly more views than WrestleMania gets ppv buys. This was an awesome hour of pro-wrestling, I really praise ROH highly for that. But they didn’t mention watching Final Battle on VOD a single time. It’s like this company doesn’t want to make money. They didn’t want to record new commercials or waste extra money in a production suite to market their VOD product. It’s lazy as hell, and it will REALLY piss me off if I’m watching Final Battle highlights on the TV show soon.