ROH on Sinclair – Episode 142 – 7th June 2014
Best In The World 2014 is now just a three weeks away, so every second of television time counts between now and ROH’s first ever live televised pay-per-view. This is the final episode taped at the ‘Second To None’ tapings, and our scheduled main event is Defy Or Deny 3 – where three top contenders will get a chance to earn a World Title shot against Adam Cole, who in return has the opportunity to shut out one a threat to his championship for the duration of his reign. Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino are in Baltimore, MD.
The show opens with the news that Matt Taven (who was scheduled to compete in Defy Or Deny III) has been taken out of the main event thanks to the House Of Truth last week.
BJ Whitmer/Adam Page vs War Machine
We haven’t seen much of War Machine (Hanson & Rowe) as a team yet, but every time they do step into the ring together you can’t help but he impressed by the relentless power and aggression they bring with them. They had current Tag Champions reDRagon fleeing the building in New Orleans and have the support of Michael Elgin so they have to be considered a threat. Whitmer is a veteran and will, of course, resent the violent way in which War Machine have forced their way onto the ROH roster, but he has to know he has a tough task ahead of him tonight given the inexperience of his tag partner. Tadarius Thomas, the other Decade young boy, is at ringside to assist though.
Page is made to start by his mentor and is violently manhandled by Rowe. Hanson clocks him with a lariat to the back of the head too as the uber-physical start to the match continues. It takes a cheap shot from Whitmer to Rowe to finally give Decade a way into the match. BJ shows what a tough guy he is though, as he manhandles Rowe – taking him to the ground for mounted forearms. Adam then gleefully tags in looking to capitalise on Whitmer’s hard work and it’s The Decade in charge as the match cuts to commercials. Rowe is isolated from his partner and quickly weakening. Somehow he mows Page down with the one-arm spinebuster and finally gets the hot tag to the massive Hanson. BRONCO BUSTER BY HANSON! Followed by the anti-clockwise powerslam for 2…as Whitmer knocks Rowe OUT with a knee strike. LARIATOOOOOOO from Hanson to BJ! Red Star Press by Page gets 2! Hanson is ominously poised on the top rope, as Rowe scoops Adam up. FALLOUT NAILED! That’s a back suplex/guillotine leg drop combo and looks absolutely brutal! War Machine win at 08:16 (shown)
Rating - ** - A decent start to the hour. Some of the early stuff was a little bland, with Decade’s heat segment on Rowe being particularly dull…but once the hot tag came things really picked up. Hanson and Rowe are awesome at throwing around big spots with surprising pace and agility, whilst Whitmer has plenty of experience and had no problem keeping up with them. And despite all that, it was actually Page’s performance I enjoyed the most. He had so many roles to play here; he was BJ’s young boy, but had to be a cocky heel, and also had to be a whipping boy for most of War Machine’s big spots too. He pretty much nailed every one of them.
Veda Scott and Ramone enter the arena, with a sign documenting RD Evans’ ‘New Streak’ to now be at 113-0. He’s not here tonight, and Romantic Touch seizes the opportunity to get some alone time with Veda. Rhett can’t decide whether the accent for his character is Spanish, Italian, French or American, but he piles on the seduction regardless. She kicks him in the balls…
Team Benchmark/Zizou Middoux vs Moose/J. Diesel/Vinny Marseglia
This is a ‘Future Of Honor showcase’ and comes after Kevin Kelly narrates a highlights package of the first Future Of Honor event. We’ve seen most of these guys before, although it will be the first in-ring appearances for Moose and Diesel. Team Benchmark (Bill Daly and Will Ferrara) have a lot of sponsors and thing they are big deals, whilst Zizou is now a generic foreign heel rather than a party boy. Marseglia has had plenty of opportunities and never looks very good, so presumably he keeps getting these opportunities because he continually pays ROH money to attend their camps and the school (that’s how you get in these days, rather than being an actual good wrestler). J. Diesel is pretty muscular, whilst Moose is a former NFL player and significantly bigger than everyone else. F*cking ridiculous name though…
‘Debuts all round’ – Kevin Kelly being clueless as usual. Diesel and Middoux start, with the South African showing deceptive power to hoist his opponent into a backbreaker/gutbuster combo. In return J gets to show his boxing skills with Ferrara in the corner. Marseglia gets a tag and schoolboys Will into the bottom turnbuckle. Unsurprisingly Vinny is the first to botch something (seriously, he sucks, and has sucked for years), and is punished by Daly jumping him from behind. The crowd are demanding Moose, and get their wish soon afterwards. He clears the ring, with Diesel already on the apron waiting to wipe out all three opponents with a diving body press off the apron. Marseglia follows with an ugly ass somersault plancha from the top. Zizou laughs as he avoids those dives, but crawls back into the ring – into a POUNCE by Moose. He wins at 04:55
Rating - * - This would have been considerably better without Vinny Marseglia. He has no excuse for being so terrible, having appeared in ROH multiple times over the last couple of years and being positioned as the ‘veteran’ of the match. He sucks, is slow, clumy and uncoordinated and has never once shown any hint of improvement. Stop giving him opportunities now. As for the rest of them, they are a bit of a mixed bunch. Middoux has plenty of potential but is still very limited in what he can do. Likewise with Moose, he has plenty of size and looks pretty athletic but is also really green. Team Benchmark look solid, but mostly pretty generic, and Diesel looked like all muscle and nothing else. If you’re being honest, none of these guys leap out at you as a future World Champion at this stage.
Adam Cole vs Jimmy Jacobs vs Mark Briscoe – Defy Or Deny Match
Remember, Matt Taven was originally scheduled to be in this but has been taken out thanks to injuries sustained brawling with the House Of Truth last week. Both Jacobs and Briscoe unsuccessfully challenged for the World Title in 2013, and are now putting it all on the line to get another shot. It’s elimination rules, with the winner getting a title shot…but being eliminated by Cole means the loser of the fall would then be barred from challenging for the belt again whilst he holds it.
Michael Elgin is inexplicably back on commentary after his dreadful appearance there at Global Wars. Jacobs puts Cole straight into End Time which, equally inexplicably, is broken by Briscoe. Jimmy and Mark have plenty of history, and they soon come to blows as the World Champion happily leaves the ring to watch them go at it. He smiles and leans on the guardrails for the whole commercial break, before getting clocked with a dropkick through the ropes from Briscoe when we come back. Suplex on the floor scores for Mark, before Jacobs levels him with the rebound cutter. Superkick from Cole to Jimmy gets 2. SENTON BOMB from Jacobs to a bridging Briscoe, but he then tries another rebound cutter only for Adam to counter with a LUNGBLOWER! Contra Code from Jacobs to Briscoe, and he turns to hit a spear on the champ for 2. End Time again, but this time Adam counters to the cradlebreaker. Froggy Bow from Mark, before Cole SUPERKICKS Briscoe, and pins Jacobs to eliminate him at 06:42 (shown). No more title shots for Jimmy! More commercials, then Redneck Kung Fu much to the delight of the Baltimore fans. Thankfully Cole flattens their enthusiasm with a Shining Wizard. Briscoe shows amazing balance, standing on first the ringpost then the top rope before hitting another Froggy Bow for 2. CACTUS ELBOW! ‘Every time I go to talk, words don’t come out’ – Michael Elgin producing perhaps the commentary line of 2014. Cole superkicks the back of the head and hits the Florida Key to win at 11:01 (shown).
Rating - ** - A few decent spots, but this was a pretty poor three way dance in all honesty. It never felt like they were working particularly hard, guys were just tossing random spots around with no real rhyme or reason and neither elimination was given much significance either. Toss in Michael Elgin droning away on commentary and an indefensible TWO commercial breaks in one match and you have a recipe for a pretty poor main event.
Elgin hops into the ring to tell Cole how good the World Title belt will look around his waist…
Tape Rating - * - Another really poor show. The Elgin/Styles 2 episode from this taping was great, but every subsequent episode has really stunk, so it’s no wonder ROH thought better about releasing this show on DVD. War Machine looked okay in the opener, and Adam Cole’s reputation was boosted by beating two guys in the main event but this was, on the whole, a real bust. There is almost no reason for even the hardest of hardcore fans to watch this one.