ROH on Sinclair – Episode 140 – 24th May 2014
We continue with footage taped at ‘Second To None’, with a scheduled main event of Outlaw Inc. facing the odd couple pairing of Kevin Steen and Cliff Compton in a Street Fight. We return to the (nowhere near as good as the Du Burns) William J Myers Pavillion in Baltimore, MD on the road to ROH’s return to ppv at Best In The World. Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino are on commentary
Silas Young vs Ethan Page
It’s the first time Ethan has been in ROH for some time. He’s actually been around the scene for a while but it feels like his star has been on the rise on the indies recently. He had started going by a ring name of #ALLEGO, which obviously Ring Of Honor didn’t feel was right for them because he’s not using it. They also decided that they didn’t like ‘Ethan Page’ either as he changed that name in a few shows time too. Tonight he looks to make a splash on his return against Silas Young, who is counting down the days to Best In The World as he gets an opportunity to make a star of himself in his grudge match with Kevin Steen.
Young is in his usual bad mood and berates Page before levelling him with an early dropkick. He hangs Ethan in the ropes and hits a rebound McLariat then hammers him into the ground with repeated elbow drops for 2. After minutes of getting beaten around the ring Ethan finally sprints into action, landing a swinging DDT for 2. Pee Gee Waja Plunge misses for Silas, allowing AllEgo to hit a jumping enzi kick from the second rope. Young then instantly wins with the backbreaker/lariat combo at 05:26
Rating - DUD - I like both guys, but this had nothing going for it. At over five minutes this was desperately too long for a squash match. Because it bored everyone to death it means Silas gets no benefit from a victory here, and he got in so little offence that Ethan doesn’t gain anything either. Such a waste of television time.
Silas gets on the microphone to complain about being booked against a jobber and being overlooked by Ring Of Honor. He says he’s going to start taking opportunities rather than waiting for them to be given to him by the office (which explains why he antagonised Steen at War Of The Worlds).
Tadarius Thomas vs Caprice Coleman
TD is the newest Decade young boy (although I think he’s actually older than both Roddy and Jimmy), and will now be looking to impress his new mentors by earning a victory against a veteran who doesn’t see things the way they do. Caprice has crossed paths with The Decade on a number of occasions recently. He dislikes their treatment of his friend Cedric Alexander, and disagrees with their treatment of young wrestlers in ROH.
Caprice’s entrance music sounds like the opening title sequence from a cheap 80’s movie. He tries to reason with Tadarius and Adam Page, so Jimmy instructs TD to kick him in the stomach. Thomas starts the match hammering Coleman around the ring with his signature strikes – driving him into the corner and piling into him with repeated knees to the abdomen. When we return from commercials Caprice is trying to mount a comeback with the Bless-TO then the rolling northern lights suplexes. Standing vertical leap frankensteiner lands, and Caprice wins with a flying leg lariat at 03:09 (shown).
Rating - * - Not particularly great by any means, but at least it was shorter and accomplished more than Young/Page in the opener. We now have it established that TD is another Decade young boy, and in this short space of time they made it perfectly clear just how lethal his strikes are. Coleman is such a wasted talent at the moment. He is as charismatic as anyone on the roster, cuts better promos than almost anyone else and is a solid hand in the ring as well. It fells like there should be something he could do other than bottom-feeding on TV and occasional Midwest shows.
Jimmy Jacobs grinds TD’s face into the canvas as punishment for losing the match, then starts kicking Adam Page around for no reason too.
A smiling Jay Lethal enters the arena with Truth Martini. Presumably most fans in the building haven’t seen anything after Supercard Of Honor 8 as Lethal is still over as a babyface until he heels it up on the microphone. He talks about beating legends like Kurt Angle and Ric Flair before issuing an open challenge for a TV Title shot to the first man who steps out of the locker room. Rather predictably it’s Cheeseburger that comes out to face him…
Jay Lethal vs Cheeseburger – ROH TV Title Match
The joke has already worn exceptionally thin with Cheeseburger. But since he’s cheap to book, and SBG enjoy running ROH on as tight a budget as possible he won’t be going anywhere. Hopefully Lethal disposes with him quickly and we don’t have to sit through a ‘credible’ match between them.
A smiling Jay Lethal immediately puts Burger on the ground with a superkick to the face, before posing for Truth to take some pictures on his phone. Brutal Bob is at ringside cheering Cheesebuger on, and it appears to work as he kicks out of Hail To The King. He trades strikes with Lethal (seriously), and somehow takes him off his feet with a running crossbody. Lethal Injection COUNTERED into a sliding DDT for 2! Lethal Injection second time wins it at 04:20
Rating - * - Another short, pointless and terrible match for this episode. I really wanted to give this the DUD treatment because I don’t enjoy watching Cheeseburger and I find it massively annoying when much bigger wrestlers have to sell his offence like it actually hurts. There is NO WAY Cheeseburger should be involved in striking exchanges with any of the roster and not getting completely destroyed. In the end I went 1* because the live crowd loved it a lot more than I did, and that counter to the Lethal Injection was pretty cool.
Matt Taven runs in to try and attack Lethal, and challenges him to a match as he walks out. Unfortunately Lethal can’t make it up the aisle before Tommaso Ciampa arrives to fight him too. In the end Lethal, Ciampa and Taven all have to be separated. Jay demands a triple threat next week!
Outlaw Inc. vs Kevin Steen/Cliff Compton – Street Fight
This one came about when the Outlaws started trying to recruit Kevin Steen to join their group. They even assaulted his enemy Cliff Compton as a goodwill gesture in order to convince him to join. When Steen refused, things turned ugly in a hurry and the Outlaws then started targeting him too. Cliff eventually returned to help Mr Wrestling, and tonight they’ve formed a makeshift alliance in the face of a common enemy.
Compton gets the party started by running in and attacking the Outlaws from behind with a chair, then hands it to Steen who jumps off the apron into a chair shot on Homicide. Chair duel on the floor between the former ROH Champions, forcing Kingston to come to his partner’s aid. TOPE CON HILO by the Notorious 187! He misses the Lariat though, and gets swung into a kryptonite krunch by Steen. Mr Wrestling then flashes a big grin to the camera as he pulls out a ladder from under the ring. Cide has to take evasive action as a result, coming off the ropes into a tornado DDT. STEEN SUPLEXES HIM THROUGH THE LADDER! Eddie catches him as he tries to climb the ropes for the Steen-ton, knocking him all the way to the floor with the Spinning Back Fist. Compton saves with the Raven drop toehold, before whipping Homicide through what’s left of the ladder then giving him a Michinoku Driver. Rather than win the match Cliff walks out…eventually returning with an even bigger ladder. He tries to climb it, only to be shoved off and crotched on the top rope by Kingston. Homicide is up too, clobbering Steen with a nasty Ace Crusher on the other ladder. F-5 ON A LADDER from Steen to Kingston! He wins at 08:54
Rating - *** - This actually reminded me a lot of the Steen/Compton match from the 12th Anniversary. They packed in a lot of violent stuff (surprising amounts for the SBG TV show), but it felt rather shallow as there just isn’t the depth of feud behind these four to warrant such a grudge match. That said, the Outlaws look very comfortable in that environment, and there were some awesome exchanges between Steen and Homicide. On what was a very poor episode this was a surprisingly fun main event.
Steen tries to shake Cliff’s hand, but Compton declines and walks out.
NEXT WEEK – Lethal vs Ciampa vs Taven for the TV Title.
Tape Rating - * - Terrible episode, saved from the DUD rating by four guys swinging chairs and bumping on ladders in the main event. Remember when ROH was about good wrestling rather than stuff like this? I miss those days…
ROH on SBG Episodes 136-140 – Top 5 Matches
5) Kevin Steen/Cliff Compton vs Outlaw Inc. (*** - Episode 140)
4) Jay Lethal vs Alex Koslov (*** - Episode 136)
3) reDRagon vs Cedric Alexander/Andrew Everett (**** - Episode 139)
2) Michael Elgin vs Rocky Romero (**** - Episode 137)
1) Michael Elgin vs AJ Styles (**** - Episode 139)