ROH on Sinclair – Episode 158 – 27th September 2013
After two weeks in Milwaukee, we now move to Night 2 of Death Before Dishonor 12 weekend Road Rage. I haven’t seen what the production team have selected for broadcast during this episode, but since Night 2 was one of the most solid Ring Of Honor shows of 2014 the quality should be high for those that hadn’t seen it. Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino are in Chicago Ridge, IL.
Silas Young vs BJ Whitmer vs ACH vs Michael Bennett
It seems like ROH are really starting to get behind a sustained ACH push. He defeated the TV Champion at DBD12 Night 1 in a Six Man Mayhem, after already taken him to a time limit draw in an actual TV Title Match. Tonight Kevin Kelly plays him up as a ‘superhero’ facing up to three villains at once. Whitmer is his most obvious enemy since The Decade are on record as disliking him. However, Young is another dangerous threat, having lost his World Title match last night and now presumably going right to the back of the queue. Bennett is part of The Kingdom although would love a win here to progress his own career beyond being Adam Cole’s sidekick and Maria Kanellis’ fiancé. Scramble rules for this…
The look of sheer disgust on Maria’s face as BJ and Tadarius Thomas accidentally stand in her way during Bennett’s entrance will probably be a highlight of this DVD. Whitmer starts out disrespecting ACH, then bails after the smaller man’s speed and athleticism start to catch up with him. He only returns after ACH has become distracted by fighting off both Bennett and Young. Thankfully the heat between BJ and Bennett following the infamous apron Piledriver from last year is acknowledged and they don’t form an alliance for the sake of being heels. SUPERKICK from Bennett to counter an ACH pescado! All the bad guys take turns abusing the sole babyface – although every tag is noticeably a forced, blind tag rather than them deliberately choosing to work together. Eventually ACH spins on heels multiple times over before crashing into a corkscrew enzi on Silas…before getting booted off the apron by a well-placed Michael Bennett! But at least the spill to the floor means he is technically tagged out. BENNETT TRIES TO PILEDRIVE BJ ON THE APRON! ACH inadvertently comes to BJ’s rescue…then gets decapitated by a Young lariat for 2. Exploder ’98 blocked by Silas, into a TKO! Bennett wipes Silas out with a spear for 2 as well. ACH tries to fly at Bennett…but it’s COUNTERED to a mid-air spinebuster! Bennett and Whitmer then go at it – with BJ going after his neck by hitting a swift Saito suplex. Young knocks them both over before BJ can recreate the apron piledriver though. Maria stops ACH from hitting Air Jordan, and distracts him so Bennett can superkick him in the face. She wants Bennett to dive instead! PESCADO MISSES! RUNNING MOONSAULT TO THE FLOOR BY ACH! 450 Splash misses…so ACH kicks TD Thomas out of frustration! Hero’s Grip German suplex on Whitmer! ACH wins at 13:04
Rating - *** - After nearly two years of consistently producing outstanding, unappreciated undercard performances it really does seem like ROH are starting to pull the trigger on an ACH push. Several wrestlers have gone on record as saying he’s not the easiest to get along with backstage, but as a fan that’s not my concern. Inside the ring he’s been ready for a more prominent role for a long time, so it’s nice to finally see it happen. After two multi-man match victories during DBD12, plus the 30-minute draw with Jay Lethal he certainly seems on the cusp of something. Having said that, he wasn’t the star of this match – Bennett was. Mike was involved in all the best spots, all the best moments of comedy, and the exchanges between him and BJ Whitmer were all outstanding. I normally find these throw away undercard spot matches pretty forgettable but this one had a lot going for it.
SIDENOTE – At this point they air a commercial for the VOD replay of All Star Extravaganza 6. Featuring Twitter praise from fans, quotes from prominent internet writers amidst audio clips and photo stills from the show itself – it’s one of the most simplistic, yet strikingly effective commercials for a show they’ve ever produced. The Ring Of Honor production department has really improved over the last few months.
Monster Mafia vs Roderick Strong/Jimmy Jacobs
Owens and Alexander aren’t exactly rookies, but they are still prime targets for The Decade. They are popular, have plenty of flashy moves, and are new talents trying to force their way into the promotion that Strong and Jacobs have played a huge role in for the last ten years. Roddy and Jimmy will look to make them humble and teach them respect as they battle to earn full-time spots.
Monster Mafia quickly start isolating Roderick…so Owens is slapped in the face by an irate Jacobs. EGO knocks him to the apron…where he is DESTROYED with a barrel roll from Josh. SPEAR through the ropes from Jacobs to Ethan! The Decade, of course, have their young boys at ringside who help to snare Owens in the ring apron before Jacobs sprints all the way down the aisle into a crossbody block at him. Both members of Decade start assaulting the midsection of #AllEGO for a couple of minutes, until he escapes the End Time with a release suplex and makes the tag. Strong fails to fight off both members of the Mafia, and Jimmy has to save him from the Loch Ness Lowdown. Owens eats an Olympic Slam/senton bomb combo, so Josh elbows Jacobs in the face! LOCH NESS LOWDOWN gets 2! Sick Kick on Owens! Alexander is pinned at 10:45 after a Death By Roderick/Spear combo.
Rating - *** - I actually liked this more than the Kingdom/Addiction tag match that opened Night 1. This was every bit as fundamentally sound within the well-trodden tag team formula, but featured a lot more innovation and exciting combo moves from both teams. Owens and Alexander continue to look extremely impressive in their Ring Of Honor showings. But for visa issues you have to believe they’d start getting booked more often.
NEXT WEEK – Michael Elgin explains why Tommaso Ciampa got his World Title shot. Quite simply it’s because he asked for one! I could have done with this promo on the DBD12 Night 2 DVD. Elgin himself continues to come across as incredible dislikeable as he brags about how hard he trains…
Jay Lethal vs Caprice Coleman – ROH TV Title Match
Did Caprice earn this title shot? I find a lot of the TV episodes tend to blur into one, so he may have won a #1 contendership match that I’ve forgotten somewhere along the way. Jay’s ego has gotten out of control since joining the HOT and regaining the Television Title. It makes him a natural enemy for the hard working and humble opponent he faces this evening.
The start is really fast, which apparently gives Coleman the edge. He’s also done his research as he counters the cartwheel dropkick spot into an armbar. Lethal retreats from the ring and complains that Caprice has been watching his matches! He tries to prove he can he as quick as his challenger, but has the Lethal Injection swiftly countered into a boot to the face which has him fleeing for the floor again. Coleman keeps outwitting the champion – 619’ing around the ringpost to evade him once, countering his springboard dropkick next then flying at him THROUGH the turnbuckles into a dropkick of his own. In the end the champ resorts to a malicious rake to the eyes to finally put him on the back foot. Now the pace slows as Lethal arrogantly and dismissively tries to grind his opponent into the dirt – and irritate the Chicago crowd at the same time. He also has no time for Caprice’s rather nonsensical ‘One Inch Punch’ spot…and clatters into his jaw with a superkick. THEN SELLS THE EXPLODING HEART PUNCH! Loved that! SUPERFLY SPLASH gets 2 for Caprice! Bless-TO followed by a Slingblade too but still Jay clings to his title. Lethal Combination in retaliation and now it’s Coleman’s turn to barely avoid defeat. Standing frankensteiner by Caprice! Seleziya has seen enough and starts distracting the ref…before getting inadvertently tackled off the apron by Lethal! Caprice drops Jay with the Trinity prompting Martini to try to pass the Book Of Truth to his man. It throws Caprice off his game again, and this time Jay polishes him off with a Lethal Injection at 11:54
Rating - *** - I like both guys, but didn’t have much interest in seeing the ring together…so it really caught me off guard how good this one was. Caprice brought a big match performance here, realising that it was his biggest Ring Of Honor match in a long time. He showed why he is still on the roster with a display filled with intelligence, speed and multiple layers of legitimate wrestling skill. Lethal is quietly having a really solid year too. He’s probably proving why many people consider Matt Taven a flop as TV Champion. He’s got a very similar gimmick to Taven in 2013, a lot of his matches have House Of Truth interference just like Taven. The difference is that he oozes quality, credibility and star power on his end too.
Tape Rating - N/A - A solid Road Rage episode, with three extremely solid and enjoyable matches. I really enjoyed Caprice Coleman’s performance in the TV Title match so it was nice to see that main event. Since I watch these events in broadcast order though, I am starting to hanker for fresh material. Next week makes it an entire month of Road Rage. That’s more of a personal comment though since I realise that at the time they’d held back on the VOD release so this WAS fresh content…