ROH on Sinclair – Episode 130 – 15th March 2013
We now have a few weeks of fresh television content, taped the night after the 12th Anniversary Show. It should feature all the fall-out from the Anniversary, plus the build up to Supercard Of Honor 8 which will be ROH’s offering to WrestleMania weekend in New Orleans. The headline bout tonight sees Jay Lethal challenge his old rival Tommaso Ciampa for his ROH Television Championship. We head to Philadelphia, PA to join Kevin Kelly and former ECW Champion Steve Corino.
TWO WEEKS TIME – AJ Styles returns to TV to face Michael Elgin
Team Benchmark vs War Machine
Technically War Machine (Hanson and Ray Rowe) hadn’t been given their team name yet, but that’s what they’d go on to be called. I’m sure Kevin Kelly would like to promote this match as a real example of what can happen if you fork out the money to attend ROH’s training camps at their dojo. These days you have to buy your way into ROH, rather than being a good wrestler or anything. All four of these guys appear on television as a result of impressing at those training events – with Hanson and Rowe making it to the finals of the 2014 Top Prospect Tournament whilst Bill Daly (half of Team Benchmark, alongside ‘The Hype’ Will Ferrara) withdrew voluntarily withdrew himself from the same tournament claiming he should already be a contender for the TV Title.
Ferrara voluntarily starts with Hanson, making you immediately question his sanity. Corino informs us that it takes a lot to take Will off his feet…as both Hanson and Rowe repeatedly drop him with no trouble at all. They hit a killer knee strike/German suplex combo meaning Daly does have to tag and enter an ROH ring for the first time. He levels Hanson with a single punch (apparently he has a boxing background), but soon tags out again when the Top Prospect Tournament winner rounds on him and comes for revenge. Ferrara isn’t posing a single problem for War Machine, so Daly resorts to cheap-shotting Raymond from behind. Hanson isn’t impressed and steams through Benchmark with a big boot. Spin Kick Of Doom misses on Will – DEATH ROWE INSTEAD! He’s done at 04:58
Rating - * - Judging them on what we’ve seen so far, I’m a fan of Hanson and Rowe. They are entertaining workers, and they seem really good at maximising the amount they can do in relatively small amounts of ring time – which is vital if they want to succeed in Sinclair’s ROH where matches rarely go longer than twenty minutes. I actually don’t mind Team Benchmark’s gimmick either, although it was impossible to tell if they are any good in the ring from this overly long and entirely one-sided beating. I can’t imagine any of these four is particularly expensive to book, and if watching them on undercards mean SBG has more cash floating around to bring in the likes of Hero, AJ and the Young Bucks more often then it’s hard to be too resentful.
Michael Elgin comes out to tell War Machine how much he respects them…and wants them to have his back when he finally challenges Adam Cole for the World Title
Kevin Steen is in the ring after commercials, apparently wanting to address Cliff Compton (who he beat at the 12th Anniversary). Outlaw Inc. interrupt before he can say anything though – handing Steen Cliff’s hat as a trophy. Apparently they’ve taken care of him…and want Kevin to join the Outlaws. Steen declines and, of course, is assaulted. Nigel doesn’t want them to brawl – so rushes out to book a singles match…
Kevin Steen vs Homicide
The Notorious 187 wins Rock, Paper, Scissors…so it’s him that faces Steen in a rematch from Episode 48 when Cide challenged Steen for the World Championship. The Outlaws appear to have sensed a kindred spirit in Mr Wrestling due to his problems with ROH management in the past, but have grown increasingly upset every time he’s spurned their advances and insulted them verbally.
Kingston joins commentary to call Steen fat, and accuse SBG of forgetting that Homicide used to be World Champion. Cide pisses off the fans by refusing to do his Tope Con Hilo, but the Philadelphia faithful are pleased enough moments later when Steen lands an Air Raid Crash for 2. The commentary goes from bad to ridiculous, with Corino calling the show ‘Raw’, Kevin implying Homicide has never beaten Steen (he has) and Eddie screaming and yelling like an idiot. In the ring the Steen-ton Bomb lands…prompting Kingston to leave commentary and drag Homicide out of the ring. Steen launches himself off the apron with a Cannonball, and returns to the ring blocking the Gringo Cutter with a powerbomb. Eddie back fists Steen to stop him hitting the Package Piledriver. That’s a DQ at 04:47
Rating - * - These two could have a good match in the right circumstances, but this was rather hard to sit through. Kingston shouting his commentary at the top his voice almost deafened me, Corino and Kelly getting multiple facts grossly wrong irritated me too…and in the ring Homicide and Steen were coasting along taking it extremely easy in a match they knew was largely pointless.
The Outlaws attack Steen again, beating him down until Cliff Compton runs in to make the save.
Nigel McGuinness is in the ring and tries to make an announcement on who will challenge for the World Championship at Supercard Of Honor. Jay Briscoe interrupts to remind him that he beat Adam Cole in Texas, making his belt the legitimate World Title in Ring Of Honor. Nigel agrees – and books Briscoe vs Cole in Ladder War 5 to unify the belts. Adam Cole stomps out to complain about his poor treatment at the hands of the ROH Match Maker, creating enough of a distraction to allow Michael Bennett to sneak through the crowd and attack Jay from behind. Mark Briscoe runs in for the save.
NEXT WEEK – The Decade vs Adrenaline RUSH and Andrew Everett
Tommaso Ciampa vs Jay Lethal – ROH TV Title Match
When the Sicilian Psychopath won the Television Championship, his first act was to issue a challenge to Jay Lethal. It’s taken a few months (and they’ve clashed a couple of times in multi-man matches already in 2014) but this is that match. Back in 2012 Ciampa was enjoying a lengthy undefeated streak but had it ended when he challenged Lethal for the ROH TV Title. He failed to take the belt from Jay, lost his undefeated streak, and in their final match (a superb 2/3 Falls Match at Boiling Point 2012) he suffered a career-threatening knee injury. Tommaso feels that he needs to beat Lethal to legitimise his TV Title reign and exorcise the demons that haunt him from his failures almost two years ago.
Ciampa’s determination to beat Lethal is such that he doesn’t want to wait for the formal introductions – and launches straight into battle. HE AVOIDS THE HIPTOSS DROPKICK COMBO! YES! At last someone evades that f*cking sequence. Lethal looks to land a springboard dropkick instead, but misses and is WHEELBARROWED INTO THE GUARDRAILS! Ole Ole Knee Strike comes next as the TV Champion starts to dominate. He looks for another running knee…COUNTERED to the hiptoss dropkick on the floor! Back in the ring Jay legit drops Ciampa on his neck with a suplex but can’t keep the champ down and he is decked seconds later with a charging lariat. Tommaso scales the ropes to hammer his challenger with elbow strikes and gets his revenge for that neck-drop suplex by delivering a superplex for 2. LETHAL INJECTION COUNTERED WITH A LUNGBLOWER! Lethal is rattled, and drives Tommaso out of the ring for the rolling tope suicidas – knocking him into the crowd! Matt Taven is on commentary and joins Corino in making fun of ‘soaring and scoring’, much to my amusement. Hail To The King nailed for 2! Lethal can’t believe he didn’t win it there, but as he drags Tommaso through the ropes the champion scoops him for an AIR RAID CRASH ON THE APRON! Truth Martini walks down the aisle as both competitors try to recover from that last spot. The Philly fans are absolutely going crazy for this match by the way, which really helps. Ciampa hits a rack bomb, but takes too long to follow up and eats the Lethal Combination…into the Koji Clutch! COUNTERED to the Sicilian Stretch! Taven and Truth are brawling in the aisle, distracting the referee as Lethal pins Tommaso for about ten seconds. That’s the second time Jay has had Tommaso pinned for the title but a referee hasn’t seen it! PROJECT CIAMPA! Sinclair is back in position and counts the pin at 12:30
Rating - *** - These two always had fantastic chemistry against each other, and got back in the ring together here to produce a storming TV main event. The crowd were awesome, they ran through some really lively sequences (obviously I loved Ciampa countering that f*cking hiptoss dropkick combo) and I loved the conclusion which saw Lethal pin Tommaso unseen for a second time. Obviously they were building to the ‘big match’ between these two guys at Supercard Of Honor, so they didn’t want to give away the farm on the free match (like ROH won’t show most of SOH8 on TV anyway…)
Jay Lethal is furious, and screams at Ciampa as he offers him the most cursory of handshakes. It is very apparent that it isn’t over between them
Tape Rating - ** - Kind of a mixed bag. The main event was great, and the segment setting up Ladder War 5 at Supercard Of Honor was solid too. However, the rest of the show missed the mark. The Outlaw Inc. vs Kevin Steen stuff felt incredibly flat, Elgin’s promo was brutally bad and the two matches were totally brief and forgettable. At this stage I find myself getting so bored with ‘Road Rage’ episodes, or so aggravated by ROH putting their big shows on TV for free that I feel I’m susceptible to over-rating whenever they do put some fresh content on the show. Hopefully I’ve been impartial, and offered some fair criticism here.