ROH on Sinclair – Episode 146 – 5th July 2014
This episode is Road Rage from War Of The Worlds. Since the featured matches are Lethal/Kushida and Bucks/reDRagon – arguably the two outstanding matches on the show thus making ordering the VOD/DVD irrelevant - I'm warming up my DUD rating already. Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino are in Manhattan, NY.
Jay Lethal vs Kushida – ROH TV Title Match
At Global Wars we saw Kushida as part of the Time Splitters in an unsuccessful challenge to the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Titles. Alex Shelley isn’t booked for tonight’s show, but Kushida can ensure this isn’t a completely wasted trip for him if he can dethrone Jay Lethal and become Ring Of Honor Television Champion. Presumably he has done his homework and will be aware that Truth Martini may pose just as much of a threat from outside as his opponent will in the ring with him.
The pace is seriously quick from the bell…with Kushida amusingly trying to lift both the hiptoss dropkick and the Lethal Injection from Jay’s own repertoire! Lethal is thoroughly unimpressed and stomps his young opponent out of the ring. Martini tries to give his charge a pep-talk and winds up distracting the challenger – as Jay lines up the rolling topes. The Japanese athlete is rattled and finds himself hung up in the ropes seconds later. Truth takes a picture of Jay grinding his foot into Kushida’s face whilst hung in that unfortunate position. Having struggled to keep up with him in the opening moments, it’s clear that Jay wants to slow Kushida down to a crawl in order to beat him. And in response Kushida is keenly aware he needs to quicken the pace – springboarding off the ropes for a chop then delivering a standing moonsault for 2. Lethal Combination blocked, and Kushida counters the Lethal Injection moments later with a dropkick to the face! SWANTON BOMB OVER THE RINGPOST TO THE FLOOR! And the challenger puts boots into Lethal’s face as he tries to re-enter the ring, softening him up for a satellite DDT. Truth Martini prevents Todd Sinclair from counting to three...so is ejected from ringside! SNAP GERMAN gets 2 for Kushida! Lethal Combo nailed for 2! Hail To The Truth attempted – but Lethal takes way too long climbing the ropes and is caught with a HANDSPRING HEEL KICK! SUPERNOVA RANA NAILED! Somehow the champ kicks out, much to the annoyance of the raucous New York crowd. Kushida misses the Tajiri Handspring Elbow and eats a superkick. LETHAL INJECTION wins it at 11:36. ROH goes 3-0 up over NJPW
Rating - **** - Since Taven held the TV Title for a year without ever really living up to his full potential, and Ciampa only had a ‘blink-and-you’ll-miss-it’ title run, this was comfortably one of the best ROH Television Championship matches since 2012. On the surface it was a thrilling, non-stop offensive splurge, but what I liked was that there was actually some attempt to give the contest some real depth. Lethal’s burgeoning heel persona adds much-needed freshness to his act which had been becoming massively stale, and his attempts to bring some psychology into play by slowing Kushida down were appreciated. I also really liked Kushida not only scouting and countering Jay’s moveset – but actually trying to steal his moves and use them for himself. The underlying intelligence to what was already an exciting and dramatic contest meant I had no qualms about going to 4*.
Forever Hooligans/Takaaki Watanabe vs Tommaso Ciampa/Matt Taven/ACH
The Hooligans are former ROH Tag Champions and will want to recover from the disappointment of failing to become IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Champions at Global Wars the previous weekend. The task of facing two former ROH TV Champions in Taven and Ciampa, plus exciting high-flier ACH, isn’t an easy one for them this evening either.
ACH is SUPER excited for this and comically gets shoved into the ROH corner by Ciampa, who isn’t remotely impressed by him. Taven impresses early, holding his own against a world-travelled competitor like Romero. ACH is still full of enthusiasm as he finally gets tagged in and takes out all three of his opponents with dropkicks. Watanabe gets genuine heat for stopping little ACH hitting Air Jordan…as the Hooligans and the ex-TV Champions brawl on the floor beneath them. Cossack Kicks rattle ACH’s brains as the NJPW team set about isolating the smallest member of their opposition. Finally ACH catches Rocky with a turnbuckle flatliner and gets a hot tag to the Sicilian Psychopath. Ciampa drops Koslov on his head with a snap German suplex then piles into Romero with repeared Bare Knee strikes. Taven gets battered into the corner by all three New Japan guys, before Watanabe gives him a spinning back suplex for 2. ACH double stomps Watanabe…and sprints across the ring to finally hit AIR JORDAN! CLIMAX from Taven to Watanabe wins it for ROH in 09:10
Rating - ** - I’d say this was a functional rather than overly fantastic way to open the ppv. I’ve been criticising ROH’s time allocations for months now, but in fairness, the best part of ten minutes should have been long enough for these six to accomplish a little more than they did.
Young Bucks vs reDRagon – ROH Tag Title Match
At Raising The Bar Night 2 they produced a stunning encounter, with the Young Bucks ending the second dominant Tag Title reign of reDRagon. Fish and O’Reilly were livid, as it was the second time they’d seen off every challenger Ring Of Honor had only to lose to a team from New Japan (last summer they briefly lost them to Forever Hooligans). After instantly earning a rematch at Supercard Of Honor 8, they are more focused than ever on regaining their belts. In fact, they’ve been training with UFC’s Tom Lawlor to further hone their skills ahead of one of the biggest matches of their careers.
The Jacksons kick the middle rope into Tom Lawlor’s crotch before the bell even rings. I wonder if UFC were happy about that? Nick gives Fish the handspring back rake, before joining his brother for a DOUBLE BACK RAKE on Kyle! CRAZY DIVE TO THE FLOOR BY NICK! Lawlor then gets some retribution by crotching Matt on the top rope as he attempts his own dive. Having proven their superiority when it comes to throwing spots around, reDRagon realise they need to slow the pace down if they want to beat the Bucks. After a backbreaker/knee drop combo O’Reilly takes Matt to the canvas and wears him down with multiple submission holds. They seem to be targeting Matt’s ribs which will make it hard for him to breathe and significantly more difficult to string together endless high spots. Even when Matt edges towards a tag to Nick, Tom Lawlor is again on hand to drag the other Buck off the apron. O’Reilly scores the first serious nearfall of the match with the Regalplex. Finally Matt lands a springboard blockbuster on Kyle and does get the hot tag to Nick. TORNADO DDT ON THE FLOOR for O’Reilly! He returns with the slingshot X-Factor on Fish for 2. Moonsault off the apron misses though, with Fish COUNTERING WITH A SPEAR INTO THE RAILS! MATT SPEARS FISH! MISSILE DROPKICK OFF THE APRON BY O’REILLY…COUNTERED WITH A SUPERKICK! Fish barely kicks out of a springboard splash/standing moonsault combo whilst his partner is totally incapacitated on the floor. More Bang For Your F*ck countered (damnit) into an Anklelock by Bobby…as Matt lunges into the ring for a Superkick on O’Reilly. The Bucks position their opponents then superkick them into a FORCED TOMBSTONE FROM FISH TO O’REILLY! DOUBLE DRAGON SCREW by O’Reilly! MISSILE DROPKICK FROM THE APRON TO THE GUARDRAILS! Fish slips on the ropes, but STILL manages to plant Matt with an avalanche falcon arrow! Chasing The Dragon countered with a Superkick. Axe & Smash COUNTERED WITH ANOTHER SUPERKICK! Fish kicks Nick’s legs from under him though, with Kyle cranking on Matt with a front choke. NICK SAVES WITH AN ELEVATED 450 SPLASH! FOR 2! SUICIDE DIVE TO THE FLOOR! MORE BANG FOR YOUR BUCK…COUNTERED WITH KNEES ON NICK THEN A TRIANGLE CHOKE ON MATT! COUNTERED TO THE RAISING THE BAR ROLL-UP FINISH…FOR 2! AXE & SMASH! BRAINBUSTER! MATT KICKS OUT! CHASING THE DRAGON! MATT KICKS OUT AGAIN! ARM-AGEDDON! MATT TAPS! New champs at 12:40
Rating - **** - Consider the show stolen. I could be critical and say that a scrooge-like mere 13-minutes for these two teams was another dick move by ROH/SBG. I could complain that I really hated Tom Lawlor’s persistent interference (although not as much as his UFC bosses did I’d wager). And I could point out that giving reDRagon the belts for a third time feels a little stale as there really isn’t a team in Ring Of Honor they’ve not beaten already. But, to complain would be wholly out of place following a match which was such unashamedly good fun. Raising The Bar was a more intelligent, spaced out and, to be frank, BETTER match. However, for non-stop thrills, constant action and mind-bogglingly complex tag team sequences this was as entertaining as it gets. In 2014 most wrestling fans know that what they are watching is a ‘work’. They come to have fun and to enjoy themselves watching great athletes do amazing things inside the ring. Sometimes ‘super serious’ ROH can lose sight of that. Not tonight. This was stunning
Tape Rating - DUD - Giving away the best match from War Of The Worlds for free sucks. Now Ring Of Honor has national pay-per-view it really can’t do this anymore. If you haven’t purchased War Of The Worlds on DVD/VOD, don’t bother and just watch this episode of the show.