ROH on Sinclair – Episode 173 – 10th January 2015
I’ve taken a rather extended hiatus from watching or reviewing Ring Of Honor in recent months. I posted my last ROH reviews in March, and aside from Episode 172 (which was just a highlights show) I haven’t taken the time to watch that much of the product since. It’s been a time of reflection for myself, following thirteen years of uninterrupted support of this promotion. I felt increasingly isolated from the product – indifferent to far too many of the core roster, frustrated at a poorly booked, creatively shallow, persistently mediocre, middle-of-the-road, emasculated version of what Ring Of Honor once was. The company grew tangibly in 2014, and the consensus seemed to be that 2014 was a seriously good year…but I just didn’t get it. Truthfully I started to ponder whether Ring Of Honor had ‘passed me by’. Since March I have had a few issues with ROH’s customer service and my Ringside Membership which further soured me on a promotion I had already grown fatigued with. I’ve also started a new job and found out my wife is expecting our first child…and have been so busy with those two seriously life-altering events that I haven’t really missed ROH all that much. I’ve kept up to date with the results, and I’ve kept buying the DVD’s more out of habit than desire to see them. Yet there is a buzz about ROH right now that, even in my absence, I’ve found inescapable.. It started with Alberto Del Rio bring brought in. Then Samoa Joe. Then confirmation that the stars of New Japan were coming back for another tour. AJ Styles and the Bucks kept getting more dates. Roderick Strong is supposedly having an incredible year across multiple major indy promotions. We have the rise of Jay Lethal, breakout of The Kingdom, Adam Cole’s return in the works, a major TV deal with Destination America…and as I began writing this review news broke that even Austin Aries has been booked for a show. In short, it seems like ROH has been pulling out all the stops – and even when I thought I was out, managed to pull me back in again. I said after Final Battle 2014 I’d seriously evaluate whether I’d continue following Ring Of Honor as wholly, completely and persistently as I once did. Turns out I’m not ready to walk away just yet.
The first fresh content of the new year takes us to Tennessee, and returns us to the sight of Ring Of Honor’s historic debut live pay-per-view – Best In The World 2014. On that night we saw Michael Elgin overcome seemingly insurmountable odds to become ROH World Champion. This evening he returns to the same building in an entirely different headspace. No longer champ, completely disillusioned with his employers and entirely friendless, Michael Elgin locks horns with former ally Hanson in a rematch from Episode 170. Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino (who is now being referred to as ‘King’ Corino, because that’s not an appalling idea obviously…) are in Nashville, TN for the start of the Winters Warriors Tour.
Mark Briscoe vs Roderick Strong
These two must have wrestled each other more times than they can count. It does feel like a pretty big year for both of them though. Mark’s career has stagnated a little, drifting along as a comedic undercard enhancement talent whilst his big brother goes from strength to strength as World Champion. Roddy too has been drifting since leaving The Decade rather unceremoniously, with apparently nothing to leave them for except his usual spot working decent matches whilst never really getting anywhere. Writing this in July of 2015, people are touting him as a serious candidate for top wrestler in the world this year, so I’m interested to see how his ’15 began.
It’s hard to get excited about matches between these guys because you’ve seen it so often, but the start of this match does have a wonderfully seamless, ad-hoc vibe where it really feels like they had almost nothing planned but riff effortlessly off each other. They have a kick ass near miss exchange, which the bone-headed Kevin Kelly chatters over giving ‘shout outs’ to various networks and jabbering about the new year with Corino (who I steadfastly refuse to call ‘King’). Briscoe kicks up the pace and takes the fight to the outside…and we cut to commercials just as things were getting interesting. The crowd are cheering loudly when we come back so apparently we missed something hot, and Mark is still controlling with his standard silly Kung Fu routine which revs up a live audience but is tedious as sh*t to watch for the millionth time on TV. Roderick gives him a superplex, but has been on the defensive for most of the match and walks into the urinage moments later. BLOCKBUSTER TO THE FLOOR BY MARK! Roddy barely sells that for more than a few seconds before flipping Briscoe into a HIGH ANGLE APRON BACKBREAKER! END OF HEARTACHE! Strong wins at 07:22 (shown).
Rating - ** - I was probably guilty of being overly cynical during my play-by-play on this match. As I said though, it is hard to get excited when you’ve seen variants of these two wrestling each other countless times down the years. It’s even harder to get excited when you consider Mark Briscoe singles matches are almost always completely pointless now. However, stepping away from being a rather jaded, long-term viewer it is impossible to deny that this was a very slick and hard-fought start to the new year. The strikes were hard, the last couple of minutes were extremely exciting and the live crowd seemed to really enjoy it. Although they didn’t have to put up with Kevin Kelly and advertisements for pain-relieving knee (or back) braces…
Roderick takes a moment after the match and lays down a promise to make 2015 his year…
NEXT WEEK – Jay Briscoe faces ‘a member of The Kingdom’.
Nigel McGuinness is in the ring next, to announce that the winner of the Elgin/Hanson main event will be deemed the new #1 contender to Jay Briscoe. He then summons Tommaso Ciampa to discuss his inadvertent strike to an official at Final Battle. McGuinness says he stuck his neck on the line to stop the ‘higher ups’ from firing Tommaso. The Sicilian Psychopath thinks he is owed a title shot because he had Jay Briscoe beat at Supershow Of Honor. When Michael Elgin tries to interrupt, Ciampa pokes fun at him for being a ‘nobody’ in the same building where he won the World Title last summer. He successfully goads his way into the main event – meaning it’s now a triple threat for #1 contendership.
J. Diesel vs Will Ferrara
This is our first 2015 Top Prospect Tournament bout. I think it’s fair to say that the line-up for this year’s tournament didn’t excite many people, and these two definitely won’t hold any surprises having been on TV for plenty of months already. Diesel has been around as the House Of Truth’s bodyguard pretty much ever since Seleziya got trapped in Canada, and will be looking to make a statement at the expense of a plucky Dojo graduate who has been a thorn in the HOT’s side before.
Apparently Taz is a fan of Ferrara. Is that much of an endorsement these days? Diesel looks to use his power to pin the smaller man in the corner only for Will to fight out into a tope suicida. It barely resonates with the muscular HOT bodyguard…who scoops him up for a fallaway slam into the railings. He starts working on Ferrara’s back, channelling Davey Richards with an arm-capture cloverleaf. Ferrara isn’t interested in selling that and delivers a sliding Codebreaker for 2. Diesel DOUBLE STOMPS THE NECK – quite possibly the most impressive thing he’s done thus far in ROH. World’s Strongest Slam gets a nearfall, but Will is running on fumes now. He gets some crowd support as he rallies with a vicious slap…and comes close to a victory with the Sonic Boom (Code Red). Like a fool he spikes himself onto his own neck trying to execute a victory roll, but still gets the win at 05:42
Rating - ** - Far from perfect, but I thought they put forth a pretty credible effort considering the relative lack of experience and talent between them. Ferrara has something about him, and made quite the sympathetic figure as he bumped all over the building. Diesel is extremely limited but held up his end of the deal as a bruiser. Will badly needs to improve his execution on his big spots and needs to develop a moveset which crowds can familiarise themselves with, but he isn’t as chronically unbearable as some talents out of the wrestling school.
Hanson vs Michael Elgin vs Tommaso Ciampa
The winner of this is declared the new #1 contender to the World Championship and gets a title shot at the 13th Anniversary Show in Las Vegas. Elgin is fresh off a controversial victory over Ciampa at Final Battle, and despite his sour new attitude appears closer than ever to a shot at the title he lost to Jay Briscoe last autumn in Canada. He has a target on his back in this one though, as not only does Ciampa hate his guts, but he also has beef with his former ally in Hanson. Unbreakable turned his back on that friendship last year, and this was actually scheduled to be a rematch of their bitter no contest back at Episode 170.
Ciampa and Hanson launch into a tandem attack on the petulant former World Champion and eject him from the ring before turning the fight on each other. Elgin spits in Hanson’s face…before Tommaso gives the bearded one a nasty hiptoss into the guardrails. ELGIN THROWS CIAMPA AT HANSON! Flying Codebreaker gets 2 on Hanson soon afterwards. Double Arm DDT blocked though, with the winner of last year’s Top Prospect Tournament still too powerful to be put down. Elgin scoops Tommaso up to give him a running DVD into Hanson’s torso…and follows it with the Tiger Body Press for 2! Anti-clockwise slam from Hanson to Ciampa! GERMAN SUPLEX on Elgin, who in turn clings onto Tommaso to give him a fallaway slam in the process. The Psychopath retorts with the Air Raid Crash and all of a sudden all three are on the deck. Elgin is up first, giving Ciampa the ST-Joe then dragging Hanson up the ropes. SUPER RANA ON HANSON…INTO A MOONSAULT ON CIAMPA! FOR 2! I’ve never seen that done before, and it looked amazing from a guy of Elgin’s stature. DEAD-LIFT POWERBOMB ON HANSON! DISCUS LARIAT BY CIAMPA! CARTWHEEL LARIAT BY HANSON! PROJECT CIAMPA NAILED…ELGIN BREAKS THE PIN! Tommaso nearly loses his mind, and Elgin has to hide behind Todd Sinclair (because Ciampa can’t strike officials) to save himself. TOPE SUICIDA BY HANSON KILLS EVERYONE! We have a three-way brawl on the outside…which is supposedly deemed so out of control a substitute referee rules the match a no contest at 11:57 (shown).
Rating - *** - Throw a proper finish on this and I’d have probably gone up to 4*. I’m a fan of Ciampa and Hanson, particularly when they cut loose, abandon all pretence of wrestling sensibilities and just engage in a big sh*tkicking contest. Here we had three big, rugged, beardy guys beating the crap out of each other for ten minutes – and they actually produced one of the better triple threats I’ve seen in a long time. I thought Michael Elgin was the most entertaining guy in the match though, which is particularly pleasing considering he’s been in a rather lousy run of form since losing the belt. His unnecessary title reign rather clouds the fact he had a largely consistent 2014, and he looked back to his best here trading bombs with two other workers who are stylistically very similar to him.
The three men have to be separated, leaving confusion over who gets the title shot in Vegas.
Tape Rating - ** - In the grand scheme of things this wasn’t a particularly memorable episode, but on the other hand it flew by and was largely very satisfactory. ROH has a far bigger, and on the whole newer audience than niche, hardcore fans like myself these days. I’m sure they would have gotten a lot more out of Strong/Briscoe than I did so that was a decent start to the hour. Ferrara/Diesel was nowhere near as bad as it could have been on paper…and I really liked the ass-kicking main event until it was brought down by crappy booking (which I’ve largely come to expect from Delirious-era ROH anyway).