ROH on Sinclair – Episode 147 – 12th July 2014
More Road Rage from the ROH/NJPW shows now. We are going back to Global Wars to see the major stars of New Japan compete in an ROH ring. Kevin Kelly, Steve Corino and Michael Elgin provide commentary from Toronto, ONT.
Shinsuke Nakamura/Jado vs Hiroshi Tanahashi/Jushin Liger
Nakamura and Tanahashi are two of the biggest names in contemporary puroresu, so seeing them make their Ring Of Honor debuts tonight (alongside Jado, who is responsible for managing things from a NJPW perspective with Gedo on this tour) is a genuinely historic moment. They are joined by the legendary Jushin ‘Thunder’ Liger, who has appeared in Ring Of Honor before, and boasts a victory over iconic ROH wrestler Bryan Danielson.
Despite Nakamura and Tanahashi being in this match, it’s the 49 year-old Liger who is the most popular guy in the ring. It’s the aforementioned duo who begin, bringing their lengthy rivalry to the United States. It doesn’t take long for Nakamura’s offbeat, aggressive style to come to the fore – handing his team the early advantage. Liger tags in to a thunderous ovation, dishing out baseball slides to both opponents. Jado eats a Shotei, so he hits ‘Thunder’ in the balls behind the referee’s back. Nakamura and Jado isolate Liger, realising that his age makes him the weak link of his team. To his credit Liger takes everything they have and still takes Nak out with a satellite backbreaker before making the hot tag to Tanahashi. He flattens Nakamura with a somersault senton for 2…only for him to hit back with a running knee to the stomach. Tanahashi hits a basement dropkick to block the Boma Ye, so Jado sprints in and grounds him with a Crossface. When Tanahashi escapes that Jado lugs him up the ropes for a hanging DDT…bringing Liger in to make the save with another Shotei. Despite being almost 50 years old Liger still has enough in him to sprint across the apron into a CROSSBODY TO THE FLOOR! Tanahashi hits the High Fly Flow on Jado for the win at 11:34
Rating - ** - Exciting as it was to see these four in an ROH ring, this was never going to be a particularly great match. Tanahashi and Nakamura, in particular, are massively valuable commodities for New Japan. Internet reports also suggested that Tanahashi made this trip despite being rather banged up – so we were never going to see these high profile talents truly cut loose in front of a thousand people in Canada. Regardless, it was still plenty of fun seeing them hit some of their signature spots in a Ring Of Honor ring, and the response Toronto gave Jushin Liger was genuinely very special.
Clips of AJ Styles winning the IWGP Heavyweight Title from Kazuchika Okada in New Japan are shown. Rather cleverly, it’s also used as an advertisement to come and see AJ live and in person at the upcoming ‘Field Of Honor’ event in New York.
AJ Styles/Karl Anderson vs Kazuchika Okada/Gedo
The heat between Okada and the Bullet Club is red hot coming into this match. It was just one week earlier that AJ, with the help of his Bullet Club comrades, robbed Okada of his IWGP Heavyweight Championship. This is the former champion’s first opportunity to get some payback.
Okada demands to start with AJ, and gets his wish. Their exchanges are tense with Kazu looking to establish control over the man he feels undeservedly beat him for NJPW’s top prize. In the end he’s so dominant he dismissively dropkicks Styles over the top rope and out of the ring. Anderson tags himself in does much better – throwing the former champion out of the ring and decimating Gedo with a big spinebuster. The Bullet Club decide they are better off isolating Gedo – and use his prone body to taunt Okada with. Rainmaker has to wait patiently for a tag, but when he does he quickly tears through Karl with a DDT then a slingshot somersault senton. Kryptonite neckbreaker nailed…into the flying elbow drop! The Rainmaker is ducked…Ace Crusher blocked…Rainmaker blocked again! Styles comes to Machine Gun’s aid with his springboard elbow smash, but gets his face pelted with strikes as he attempts the Styles Clash. A flapjack buts the IWGP Heavyweight Champion down into the path of a basement superkick from Gedo. Pele on him! GUN STUN! BRAINBUSTER BY AJ! Karl is holding Okada, making him watch as AJ drops Gedo with the STYLES CLASH for the win at 11:47
Rating - *** - A far better match that the other NJPW tag match booked at Global Wars, largely thanks to the dynamic performances from AJ, Okada and Anderson. Gedo knew his role as the whipping boy of the match and fulfilled his duties well, but it was the ability of the other three to carry the heat and convey the residual hatred following the previous week’s title change throughout the contest. Even a casual fan, unaware of the history, would quickly have got the point that Okada didn’t like the Bullet Club. Nothing they did was overly flashy, but again, New Japan are not going to sanction their talent going balls to the wall on an independent show in front of a thousand people in Canada. Considering they were working well within themselves this was very solid.
We are shown clips of the ROH/NJPW training seminars that took place at the ROH Dojo. I’m often extremely critical of ROH’s school, and the fact that it seems like these days you have to buy your way onto the roster by attending these camps rather than actually being a world class wrestler. However, if you were on the indy scene, the chance to learn from Nakamura, Tiger Hattori, Elgin, Cole, Delirious and more is a pretty serious opportunity.
Young Bucks vs Forever Hooligans vs Time Splitters – IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Title Match
We’ve seen the Bucks and the Hooligans cross paths in ROH before, but it’s the first time we’ve seen the Time Splitters. It means an ROH return for Alex Shelley, who has produced multiple classic matches with Generation Next, The Embassy and the Motor City Machine Guns – without ever really unlocking the limits of his true potential in this promotion thanks to international and TNA commitments. His partner is Kushida, who made his Ring Of Honor debut at All Star Extravaganza 5 last summer.
Shelley gets a rousing ‘welcome back’ chant as he starts the match with Matt Jackson. He uses his bewitching technical skills to prevent Matt from building any kind of speed. Koslov hits a spinning backbreaker on Nick…prompting him to tag out to Kushida. The exchange between he and Romero is ridiculously fast. Time Splitters dish out the double teams, sending all their opponents sprawling. A Poetry In Motion elbow smash takes Koslov out…so he angrily drags Shelley out of the ring into the path of a flying knee strike from Rocky. Cossack Kicks get 2, and it’s noticeable that the Young Bucks are happily letting the Hooligans and the Splitters fight amongst themselves now. With Alex worn down they decide it’s time to strike – hitting an assisted Shiranui on him. Kushida lands a handspring double heel kick to the Hooligans but is denied the chance to dive outside by Nick Jackson. TOP ROPE SUICIDE DIVE TO THE FLOOR from Kushida! FROG SPLASH/STANDING MOONSAULT COMBO gets the Time Splitters a nearfall. They line up a Doomsday Shiranui only for Romero and Koslov to make the save with the Battering Ram. Shelley and Kushida miss stereo pescados, before Nick Jackson hits a RUNNING SKY TWISTER PRESS TO THE FLOOR! SOMERSAULT PLANCHA BY KOSLOV! SUPERKICK from Nick to Koslov! SUPERKIIIIIICK from Matt to Romero! The Time Splitters then cave in Matt’s face with a camel clutch/cartwheel dropkick combo! Sliced Bread #2 COUNTERED TO THE SPIKE TOMBSTONE by the Bucks! Shelley appears to be dead after that! DOUBLE SUPERKICK knocks Romero through the ropes to the floor! DOUBLE SUPERKIIIIIIIIIIICK on Koslov as he springboards in! MORE BANG FOR YOUR BUCK! After 12:20 of complete chaos, the Young Bucks retain.
Rating - **** - The craziest part about this match is that, given the skillset of the three teams involved, this was nothing more than a routine match for them. They didn’t do much more than toss around their standard spots in a fairly simplistic spotfest. The reason this was so good is that the six competitors are so fast, so skilful and so fluent in their ability to execute their skills. In effect they pretty much stole the show without really trying that hard. This was a 100mph riot, and one of the highlights of the Global Wars/War Of The Worlds NJPW Ring Of Honor tour.
Tape Rating - DUD - Another DUD, particularly for giving away the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag on free television. It also rendered the Global Wars DVD/VOD pretty much redundant as they’ve broadcast pretty much all of it now. However, to award praise where it is due – the segment on the ROH/NJPW training seminar was an interesting piece of TV.