ROH on Sinclair – Episode 118 – 21st December 2013
Final Battle is in the books, and ROH has reached it’s festive period off-season. The last two SBG TV episodes of the year will be one-off specials before (presumably) ROH will begin 2014 by giving away their biggest show of the year for free on television. Tonight it’s an Adam Cole special, focusing on the current World Champion’s Ring Of Honor career so far. Kevin Kelly is your host
We start with clips of Cole’s early ROH career. Kelly points out that he was part of the new class of Ring Of Honor talent which included Kyle O’Reilly, Michael Elgin, Tommaso Ciampa and Mike Bennett. We go to clips of Future Shock vs Kings Of Wrestling from Honor Takes Center Stage Chapter 2.
SIDENOTE – This footage reminds me that I really miss Dave Prazak in ROH. I loved his knowledge, and his rather dry, sarcastic, knowing delivery. However, I’ll admit that his commentary partnership with Kevin Kelly was a strange one that really didn’t work.
From there we go to the 10th Anniversary Show, where Cole defeated then-World Champion Davey Richards…after Future Shock had split up so Kyle could concentrate on Team Ambition. Of course, that split became acrimonious…and led to their Hybrid Fighting Rules Match at Best In The World 2012 – where Cole defied incredible blood loss from a wound in his mouth to win the match and produce his first true star-making performance. The footage is so graphic that it has to be shown in black and white on SBG, and by the end of it they have to censor Cole’s face as well. In fact, there are multiple adult chants from the New York fans that have to be edited out too – this footage must have taken weeks to prepare!
Steve Corino and Jay Lethal give their thoughts on Cole. Lethal doesn’t agree with his new attitude change, whilst Corino thinks we’re only seeing what has been there all along. He thinks the new alliance between Cole and Matt Hardy will lead him to greatness. On cue, they almost skip over Cole’s TV Title win, and instead move to focus on his feud with Hardy – with extended highlights of their match at Final Battle 2012.
Jay Briscoe delivers an expletive-laden promo on Cole. It’s fair to say he doesn’t like him much, and their feud isn’t over as we move into 2014.
After the break (with holiday wishes from the House Of Truth, Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino) we discuss Cole’s new attitude in 2013. He used a low blow to eliminate Hardy from a TV Title match, nearly took a cheap shot on Jay Briscoe at Border Wars 2013…and refused to shake hands whenever he lost. Kelly calls Best In The World 2013 a turning point, when Cole superkicked Roderick Strong through a table and flashed deranged smiles as he happily accepted a count-out victory.
The last part of the show charts his road to the World Championship. He controversially used Jay Briscoe’s Jay Driller to defeat a concussed Mark Briscoe. He displayed exceptional aggression and put Tommaso Ciampa in the hospital following their semi-final…and notoriously celebrated his title victory by assaulting both Jay Briscoe and Michael Elgin. The final match highlights are from the Cole/Elgin World Title tournament finals at Death Before Dishonor 11.
Tape Rating - N/A - I thought this episode got worse as it went along. It started rather well, with some interesting insights into Cole’s early career. The effort they went through to edit the Cole/O’Reilly Hybrid Rules Match for television was commendable, and really provided some interesting insight into his formative years which newer fans may not have seen. Unfortunately the second half was little more than a fluff-piece recap of his 2013. That’s not a problem, but a lot of it was really recent footage and no new ground was covered. Certainly not a bad hour of television, but you really don’t need to go out of your way to check out the episode.