ROH on Sinclair – Episode 162 – 25th October 2014
It’s ‘Championship Week’ in Ring Of Honor, and every title will be on the line within the hour. Jay Lethal defends the TV Title against the man who spectacularly eliminated him from the Honor Rumble in rookie Will Ferrara. reDRagon put the Tag Titles on the line against an increasingly fractured Decade team…and our main event sees the winner of the Honor Rumble, Michael Bennett, challenge Jay Briscoe for the World Championship. Kevin Kelly and Nigel McGuinness are in Wheeling, WV
Jay Briscoe wants to know if Michael Bennett is focused on his big opportunity tonight, or if he is distracted by a quarrel within the ranks of The Kingdom.
reDRagon vs Roderick Strong/Jimmy Jacobs – ROH Tag Title Match
It’s rare that Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish will enter a championship defence with more attention on their challengers than themselves…but that’s where we find ourselves tonight. Last week Tadarius Thomas seemingly quit The Decade, further shining a spotlight on the growing rift between the three core members. BJ Whitmer and Adam Page appear to be increasingly isolated from Jacobs and Strong and you have to wonder if that has impacted Decade’s preparations for this major match for them. Both Jimmy and Roderick have held the Tag Titles before but have stated that they want gold around their waists again to prove they aren’t resting on their laurels and are still relevant to the company in 2014.
Jacobs belies his diminutive stature to get the better of both the champions in the opening minute. Trampoline double stomps crush O’Reilly’s chest, before Jimmy comes off Strong’s shoulders into a senton bomb for 2. Kyle hits the double dragon screw in order to make a much-needed tag to his partner. Fish catches Jacobs trying a multi-revolution headscissors…and swings him straight into a dropkick from O’Reilly. reDRagon have Jacobs isolated as we enter a commercial break and things haven’t changed minutes later when we come back. Maybe Jimmy Jacobs can call Health Alert Hotline on 800-471-2270 to get a pain relieving knee brace. A back brace might be more appropriate as the champs have been piling on the damage to his midsection. Jacobs hits the rebound cutter but can barely stand and has to crawl into the hot tag. Olympic Slam on Fish, before Strong hauls Kyle clean out of the corner into a cradle backbreaker for 2. Death By Roderick countered to a guillotine choke…as Jacobs applies END TIME on Fish! STRIKE DUEL between O’Reilly and Jacobs as they both apply chokes, before STEREO powerbombs from Strong and Fish break them up. GUARDRAIL SPEAR from Fish to Jacobs! In the ring Strong gets a hot nearfall with the Sick Kick. End Of Heartache blocked with Roaring Elbows, so Roddy turns Kyle’s lights out with a JUMPING KNEE! Adam Page hands Roderick a steel chair, only for Strong to throw it back at him! Axe & Smash from O’Reilly…into Chasing The Dragon. The champions retain at 10:08 (shown).
Rating - *** - I’m somewhat annoyed that this was relegated to opening up an SBG episode, because these four could have a freaking awesome match if they were given a feature match and 15-20 minutes to play with at a house show. They are all so good that even working well within themselves this just oozed quality. The idea that Strong and Jacobs could use their experience on Fish and O’Reilly provided an unexpectedly interesting dynamic and, even with a lacklustre heat segment on Jacobs they still built to a dramatic closing sequence (which again furthered Decade’s own angle).
BJ Whitmer is left furious, and demands to know why Strong refused Adam Page’s help.
Jay Lethal vs Will Ferrara – ROH TV Title Match
Up until two weeks ago Ferrara’s Ring Of Honor career hadn’t amounted to much. People were indifferent to his Future Of Honor stuff, his run in ‘Team Benchmark’ sank without a trace and he seemed like a waste of a spot in the Honor Rumble. That was until he went all Maven Huffman on the House Of Truth and memorably eliminated both the bodyguard Jay Diesel and the TV Champion. The HOT were furious and extracted revenge during the match. Lethal now wants to humiliate the rookie, effectively ending his career before it even gets going.
‘I thought The Decade were cleaning up the young filth’ – Jay Lethal. He marches across the ring and begins a violent assault on the young challenger. Extracting revenge for the Honor Rumble, he repeatedly and aggressively tosses Ferrara over the top rope. Even when Will catches himself, Jay simply looks him in the eyes then boots him off the apron instead. Some weak-looking elbow strikes find the mark for the challenger, drawing absolutely no response from the indifferent live crowd. Nigel’s assessment of him is that he ‘doesn’t look dangerous’. Remember when ROH was the place where the best in the world came to compete? Tornado DDT nailed, followed by the weakest looking tope you’ll ever see. NECK DROP GERMAN gets 2 for Ferrara. That’s more like it kid. Lethal Injection finishes him off at 06:40
Rating - * - In my opinion Lethal is far too talented to be stuck slumming it with the hacks who got into ROH by paying them money rather than through actual talent…but if Ring Of Honor and Sinclair are happy with this as an advertisement for their try-out/Dojo system then who am I to argue? If you’re asking me to critique it as an actual match then I’d say that it went on for far too long, the majority of Ferrara’s offence looked embarrassingly crappy…but it wasn’t a total bust thanks to Lethal being awesome and that one German suplex spot from Will. Any momentum the rookie had following the Honor Rumble is now dead.
Jay Briscoe vs Michael Bennett – ROH World Title Match
This is a feud that has been going on for a long time. Bennett has been an accomplice of Jay’s arch rival Adam Cole for most of 2014, and that association has seen them cross paths on multiple occasions. Briscoe hasn’t been pinned in over two years and has now reclaimed his spot as ROH Champion. The only loose end he has to tie up is his quest to get his property (the ‘Real’ World Title/Title Of Love) back from Bennett and Maria. Will he leave with both belts, or will Bennett follow up his Honor Rumble victory with the World Title win we’ve all been waiting for since he promised he’d be Ring Of Honor Champion in his very first promo during the HDNet era?
Bennett starts the match by slapping Briscoe in the face…then running away! The smile as he does so is awesome and the whole thing was part of a scheme to allow him to jump Jay from behind to gain the early advantage. You know you’re not going to get anything fancy from Bennett but his basic offence has the World Champion in serious trouble. Jay even has a cut open up on his face…with the blood perhaps stirring him into action as he hits a SWINGING turnbuckle flatliner for 2. The fight spills to the outside and rather surprisingly it’s Bennett who seizes the advantage out there by braining the champ against the guardrails. SUPLEX on the metal stage by Briscoe! Rude Awakening countered by Bennett…then by Jay as Michael tries to steal his move. Bennett lands a superkick, then Paydirts his opponent into Go Back To Japan! Briscoe rolls to the apron…where Mike tries to hook him up for a piledriver. Remember, he’s still banned from using that after his Final Battle 2013 encounter with Steen. Jay counters to a DVD ON THE APRON! Bennett retorts with the Spear for 2. Twist Of Fate blocked with a headbutt flurry! Just when Jay looks to have it won Maria tosses the Title Of Love in to distract him. PILEDRIVER BY BENNETT! The ref didn’t see it and it very nearly sees The Prodigy steal the World Championship! SWANTON BOMB MISSES! Jay Driller for the win at 11:34 (shown).
Rating - *** - It took an age to get going and drew some of the most ridiculous ‘this is awesome’ chants you’ll ever see. However, once they ditched all pretence of trying to wrestle a sensible match and just started throwing spots around it got a lot more interesting. This was always going to be a lame duck title defence, and these two have almost no chemistry as workers so all things considered it could have been worse.
Adam Cole runs in to attack Briscoe from behind just when he looked set to give Maria a Jay Driller. Mark Briscoe tries to rescue his brother…only for Matt Taven to make his return by hitting him from behind with the Title Of Love. Taven is revealed as the newest member of The Kingdom and the faction stand tall over the Briscoes as the show ends.
‘They said Matt was coming back…who knew it was going to be Matt Taven?’ – Kevin Kelly. Ummm...literally EVERYONE Kevin.
Tape Rating - *** - Nothing as good as the Honor Rumble or Cole/Cedric this week, but on the whole this was a solid hour of wrestling. The World and Tag Title matches were competently wrestled and exciting in patches. I liked the ‘Championship Week’ concept, although ROH really need a two hour show before they can run it properly. This definitely felt like a pretty major episode, even though nothing of great significance happened (unless you’re a big Taven fan) so call it a minor success