ROH on Sinclair – Episode 157 – 20th September 2013
This week we continue Road Rage from Death Before Dishonor 12. As advertised on the previous episode, our main event will see Michael Elgin defend the Ring Of Honor World Championship against his long-time rival, Silas Young. Kevin Kelly, Caprice Coleman and Steve Corino provide commentary from Milwaukee, WI.
Adam Cole/Michael Bennett vs The Addiction
We were supposed to get this match back in Cincinnati but Bennett got sick and had to miss that show. Jay Lethal replaced him on that show, and ultimately Daniels and Kazarian were able to defeat an inexperienced and impromptu duo. Tonight, though, The Kingdom are out in force and looking to get a win back.
Daniels is crazily over, which visibly annoys Cole. The Fallen Angel is clowning around, out-wrestling him and getting major pops for it. The two veterans play punch tennis with his face then chop Bennett down too as he tries to intervene. Adam steps out of the way of a Kazarian pescado attempt, but then he pauses to celebrate his intelligence…and is promptly wiped out with a tackle off the apron from Kaz. Rolling neckbreaker/Asai moonsault combo gets 2. Maria Kanellis involves herself now, raking Daniels’ eyes – blinding him and causing him to fall backwards into the Bennett spinebuster. The Kingdom start isolating the oldest man in the match, but it’s nothing he hasn’t seen a thousand times before. Daniels runs through a loud-mouthed Adam Cole with an STO…only to have a tag denied as Maria drags Frankie off the apron. Kazarian does tag in soon afterwards though, and snapmares Cole into the turnbuckles. SLINGSHOT ACE CRUSHER NAILED! Daniels then stomps Bennett into the canvas for a nearfall. Superkick/Spear combo from The Kingdom gets 2! Box Office Smash blocked as everyone piles into the ring. Maria tries to interrupt again – and this time gets knocked to the floor. Back suplex gutbuster combo gets Addiction the win at 11:17
Rating - *** - Cole and Bennett are pretty over as heels, and worked their parts well, but they don’t have anything like the experience of Daniels and Kazarian, and it showed here. Addiction probably needed the win more than they did after two losses to reDRagon already in their brief tenure thus far.
Michael Elgin vs Silas Young – ROH World Title Match
These two man share a rivalry that goes back so far it actually predates their Ring Of Honor careers. It was a bruising war with Elgin in this very building back in 2012 that finally elevated Young from a part time talent to the cusp of a permanent contract with Ring Of Honor. Now they return to Milwaukee, Young’s home state, to battle again for the World Championship. Elgin’s reign has started strongly and he has been swatting away high profile contenders regularly. Matt Hardy, Roderick Strong, Kyle O’Reilly and Adam Cole have all bitten the dust so far. Will Silas be the next victim or will the ‘Last Real Man’ cause an upset and graft his way to the summit of ROH.
Silas is so over as a babyface in Milwaukee that even he can’t help but acknowledge the crowd as they raucously cheer for his introduction. He then KILLS the big fight atmosphere with a droning, boring, generic heel promo. Attempted cheap shot from Young to start, but such is the power of Elgin he simply shakes it off and starts tossing his challenger around. The champ becomes the second guy to nearly suffer a serious arm injury whilst taking a bump on the narrow metal ramp…but he recovers quickly and HIPTOSSES Silas into the guardrails. Running powerslam into the rails scores next, and it’s clear Michael is starting to target the lower back. The stalling suplex spot is broken out too which again punishing that spine. Young blocks the dead-lift superplex though, countering it to a hanging lungblower out of the corner even though that hurts his back executing it. Plunge blocked…so Young tosses the champ shoulder-first into the ringpost. Even the commentators are drifting away from this match now, and are talking about the coffee at local Sinclair TV offices. Whatever Silas was working on gets totally no sold by Elgin…who slides out of the ring like a cruiserweight before propelling himself back in with a slingshot splash. Flying Codebreaker gets 2 and once more punishes the midsection of the challenger. Still Elgin can’t hit the deadlift superplex, this time with it getting countered into a TKO for 2. Roaring elbow to the back nailed, followed by an Argentine backbreaker SLAM! Second rope DVD gets 2, then he cuts Silas in half with a lariat. Buckle Bomb COUNTERED to the Pee Gee Waja Plunge for 2! Silas emerges from that exchange hugely frustrated and leaves the ring to set up a table near the ramp. He can’t use it sadly, as Elgin knees him in the face then delivers a SOMERSAULT LEG DROP to the neck! Elbow suicida attempt blocked by Young, who swings the table into the onrushing World Champion’s face. They slug it out on the apron above the table now. Kevin Kelly points out that Young is struggling to walk now and that may be the deciding factor in losing that slug-out before Elgin BELLY TO BELLY SUPLEXES HIM THROUGH THE TABLE! Realising he is perhaps mortally wounded from that bump, Young musters up one last offensive flurry and desperately tries to pin Elgin. One last Plunge attempt is blocked with the back fist…then Silas is polished off with the Elgin Bomb at 21:23
Rating - ** - I want to know who’s call it was for Silas to deliver that senseless pre-match promo. Before it the atmosphere was electric, and in many ways reminiscent of the way CM Punk is perennially over as a babyface in Chicago, or Bret Hart in Canada. Whether it was Delirious, SBG or Silas himself who made the call for him to go heel on the crowd – it was a horrendous decision and murdered this match before it even began. The crowd, who were seriously up for it beforehand, largely watched in bored indifference. Elgin wasn’t their guy, and they had no interest in cheering him. Certainly he’s not a particularly likeable character as World Champion either, and gave them nothing to ‘get behind’ as a babyface. In the end we had a match between a guy the crowd didn’t like, and a guy the crowd were essentially bullied into not liking either – no wonder they got bored. The match itself wasn’t brilliant either. And much like the Matt Hardy defence, I actually think Elgin’s performance was the problem here. His assault on the back and neck of his challenger was effective, and easily my favourite part of the match. I loved how it built up and became more aggressive as the match wore on – culminating in the table spot then final offensive flurry from a battered and beaten Young before he succumbed to defeat. HOWEVER, Michael gave absolutely nothing back to Silas. At times this felt like an elongated squash. There was no coherency to Silas’ assaults – purely because Elgin but zero effort into selling ANYTHING.
Tape Rating - N/A - Same rating since it’s Road Rage content that I’ve already reviewed. If you’d not seen any of this stuff before though, this episode was nowhere near as good as last week. The Addiction vs Kingdom tag wasn’t bad but hardly set the world on fire, whilst the World Title main event was a colossal let down. Looking back on that match in hindsight, I really think you can trace the a lot of fans starting to turn on Elgin’s title reign to this match.