ROH on Sinclair – Episode 177 – 7th February 2015
What a strange first month of 2015 January was. I entered the year feeling extremely fatigued on Sinclair-owned ROH. I felt it was a poorly booked, watered down shadow of the promotion I once loved so fervently and continuing to cover all their content was becoming extremely taxing. After the first month of the year I still have a lot of the same views…but particularly after watching the Dayton show, it was hard not to feel more enthused. We now have less than a month before ROH’s next big pay-per-view event and, to Delirious’ credit, the card is starting to take shape. We know the Tag Title, World Title and TV Title matches. We know Roderick Strong is facing BJ Whitmer in a grudge match, and we know ACH is calling out AJ Styles too. I didn’t think the Winter Warriors Tour: Nashville tapings were particularly strong, but now the Tour rolls into the city of ROH’s birth with a significantly stronger line-up. Tonight we are promised an intergender grudge match as The Kingdom of Michael Bennett, Matt Taven and Maria Kanellis take on the Briscoe Brothers – and their new drinking buddy ODB. Kevin Kelly, Caprice Coleman and Steve Corino are in Philadelphia, PA.
We’re in the 2300 (ECW) Arena for the first time since it was refurbed and the owners opened their doors to professional wrestling events again. A big screen (albeit smaller than the Cary-tron) has been added to the stage set-up. This whole event looks markedly more professional than the Nashville show.
Donovan Dijak vs Ashley Sixx
This is the first Top Prospect Tournament semi-final. Dijak impressed many with his combination of size and agility when he defeated the similarly sizeable Jake Dirden. Sixx has a moving backstory, but didn’t do much to capture my attention when he overcame the far more interesting Dalton Castle in his first round match. With a full-time spot on the roster and a TV Title shot on offer for the winner of the TPT – the stakes are getting seriously high for these two.
Sixx uses some resourceful evasiveness to pepper Dijak with strikes from the opening bell…but eventually gets caught going for a springboard and TOSSED OVER THE TOP ROPE TO THE FLOOR! Donovan makes even more of a statement by gorilla pressing Sixx back in too. Pepsi Twist by Ashley, but it’s no sold so DD can put a boot through his face. DIJAK MOONSAULTS OFF HIS APRON…AND LANDS ON HIS FEET! FLATLINER INTO THE APRON BY SIXX! STAGE DIVE NAILED! Sixx lands a senton bomb back into the ring for 2 and is really getting the crowd behind him. Dijak muscles him up into Feast Your Eyes and grabs the win at 04:18
Rating - *** - A significant improvement on both first round matches from these two. It helped that they had a rowdy Philadelphia crowd, but it was the hard work of the wrestlers themselves that really got the fans going. They didn’t get much time, so just went at full speed from the opening bell. Sixx looked to use his speed and intelligence, whilst Dijak looked to use brute force. I’ll be surprised if there is a better match in the entire TPT this year (although that probably says more about the terribly weak field than it does about the quality of this one).
Beer City Bruiser vs Will Ferrara
I didn’t really like the Bruiser last time. I understand his gimmick, I just don’t find it particularly appealing and certainly don’t think it has any great longevity in this promotion. His presence in the semi-finals of ROH’s annual Top Prospect Tournament is a real sad state of affairs, even if he can hit a few token fatty moves or get a few laughs by being a toothless chubby guy drinking beer. Unfortunately it’s also hard to muster up much enthusiasm for his opponent either. Ferrara works hard and is a game little talent, but nothing about him screams ‘future World Champion’ at this stage.
Will gives the big man a big slap, buoyed by the fact that the crowd are savaging BCB with ‘Husky Harris’ chants. He then tries an ill-advised monkey flip and deservingly gets splattered into the top turnbuckles. Bruiser looks gassed inside of two minutes (again) and nearly gives himself an aneurism by sprinting across the ring into a hip attack in the corner. He tosses Will out of the ring…but then MISSES a fatty cannonball from the apron to the floor. TOPE INTO A TORNADO DDT ON THE FLOOR BY FERRARA! Eyes Wide Shut (sliding Codebreaker) wins it for Will at 05:30
Rating - * - I won’t pretend that tope/DDT spot wasn’t awesome but it doesn’t redeem what was, before that, a seriously substandard match. Did Sinclair officials not take a look at this and seriously question why they were broadcasting it on television. Certainly once they hit Destination America later in the year they cannot be putting crap like this on their show. Ferrara has some ability, and his workrate shines through every time he wrestles, but there is only so much he can do with an opponent of such limited ability.
FISH TANK LIVE – Suited and booted, reDRagon enter the arena for special live edition of their chat show. They want to celebrate the ‘reign of terror’ they have embarked on across the wrestling world, and do so by inviting out their guests (and also their opponents at the 13th Anniversary Show), the Young Bucks. O’Reilly’s disingenuous questioning of the Bucks is brilliant…and he talks his way into EARLY ONSET ALZHEIMER’S! Jobbers fill the ring trying to separate the champs and the challengers, which means the Bucks get to dish out countless superkicks! The red masks of the KRD are at ringside watching the action unfold too…
Tommaso Ciampa has been told to cut a promo about his match with Jimmy Jacobs next week. But all he can focus on is his World Title Match at the 13th Anniversary Show…
QT Marshall saunters out to the ring next. As ever, he isn’t warmly received by the Ring Of Honor fans but his promo is interrupted by Roderick Strong for their scheduled match. Although ‘match’ isn’t really the correct term – since it consists of Marshall running his mouth for around a minute then getting defeated in five seconds via a well-placed Sick Kick. BJ Whitmer comes out and points out that Roddy was becoming irrelevant in ROH until The Decade saved his career (fair point) but backs out of a fight. They meet in Vegas…
Michael Bennett/Matt Taven/Maria Kanellis vs Jay Briscoe/Mark Briscoe/ODB
The Briscoes and The Kingdom just won’t let this issue die. Jay Briscoe still has the World Title so coveted by Cole, Bennett and Taven…and Maria still has ‘Jay’s property’ in the form of the Title Of Love. We’ve seen some incredibly violent matches between them. We’ve seen non-finishes. And we’ve seen Maria persistently interject herself anytime Jay and Mark look set to get the upper hand. They grew tired of that and brought in their friend ODB (now rechristened ‘One Dirty Briscoe’) to counteract Maria. On paper this is a six-person tag match – although the skills, size and in-ring experience of ODB mean the Briscoe team has a serious advantage. We are counting down to ‘Tag Team Armageddon’ between these two teams in Atlanta later this month.
Apparently the Briscoes and ODB have been training for this by fighting animals on the farm, whilst Maria has been at a training camp hosted by Matt Hardy. Both of those Corino fallacies are pretty amusing. Taven and Bennett tag in and out frequently but it’s noticeable that they are hesitant to let Maria get involved. The Briscoes have no such concern over ODB – and she sets to work chasing Kanellis around ringside. Mark hits the Cactus Elbow on Bennett, but winds up in position for the SUICIDE DIVE by Taven! Low blow from ODB to Taven! Maria actually hides under the ring to avoid the wrath of the ‘Dirty Briscoe’. NECK DROP back suplex delivered by Mark…as Adam Cole casually strolls to the ring to take up another silent vigil on commentary. The Kingdom unsuccessfully try to isolate Mark, leaving Taven and Jay to trade strikes. ODB seems to have contributed little more than patting her tits, and gets tossed by Bennett before he hits a SPEAR ON THE APRON on Mark! Twist Of Fate/Swanton Bomb combo on Jay gets 2! The Briscoes retaliate by scooping both male members of The Kingdom onto their shoulders…as ODB climbs the ropes for a DOUBLE DOOMSDAY DEVICE! MARIA SAVES! Adam Cole jumps onto the apron to save Maria from another Doomsday Device….DOUBLE SUPERKICK ON ODB! Maria wins at 10:16 (shown).
Rating - *** - I wasn’t sure what to expect from this, but it wound up being a totally fun TV main event. There have been so many Briscoe/Kingdom matches now that they all start blurring together, but this certainly contributed to the lengthy rivalry in a positive way. I’m not sure there was a great need to bring ODB into Ring Of Honor, but she is the perfect foil for Maria Kanellis – and the brief interactions between the two women were some of the best moments in this one. ROH can’t throw out stellar main events like Daniels/Alberto every week. But when they aren’t delivering ass kicking 4* level main events, this is the kind of careless fun they should be producing.
Adam Cole seems strangely jealous of his team-mates victory and storms to the back without them…
Tape Rating - *** - Although Ferrara/Bruiser was pretty terrible, everything else on this episode was remarkably precise and on point. Dijak/Sixx opened the show at a breakneck pace. There was SO much focus on building for the 13th Anniversary Show – from reDRagon/Bucks, Strong/Whitmer, Ciampa giving the main event a mention and now Maria/ODB as well. And the main event was a downright entertaining way to end the episode – and given that there aren’t that many quality intergender matches in ROH history it had a really unique feel to it too. Couple that with the fact that the entire presentation felt more polished and professional in the revamped ECW Arena too. This show felt infinitely more watchable than some of the Nashville episodes even if the in-ring content wasn’t markedly improved.