ROH on Sinclair – Episode 180 – 28th February 2015
This episode went out on the majority of SBG stations the night before the 13th Anniversary Show. With just 24 hours left to promote their third major pay-per-view event, Ring Of Honor dedicate a whole hour to another preview show. That means Larry Mercer and Mandy Leon are in the studio to promote the ppv as well as entertain us with their signature blend of awkward humour and uncomfortably scripted dialogue.
Considering the limited promo skills of both Roderick Strong and BJ Whitmer, the video package that has been edited together for their match at the pay-per-view is actually rather good.
ANNIVERSARY FLASHBACK – Jay Briscoe vs Mark Briscoe at the 1st Anniversary Show. Man the footage looks SO old now, which in turn makes me feel ancient. They show the rolling Jay Driller finish which is still as crazy as it seemed way back then. Kevin Kelly’s commentary is no better than Gabe and Doug’s. I’m just putting that out there
ANNIVERSARY FLASHBACK – AJ Styles and CM Punk battle in the finals of the Pure Wrestling Title Tournament at the 2nd Anniversary Show.
Maria Kanellis’ match with ODB is next to get the hype treatment. Personally I think this is a waste of time since nobody is expecting the match to be any good and we just had the ‘end’ of the Briscoe vs Kingdom feud at Winter Warriors Atlanta. We get clips of ODB’s debut in Nashville…then head to the Briscoe farm in Delaware for clips of Jay, Mark and ODB engaging in some bizarre training methods for their big matches.
ANNIVERSARY FLASHBACK – Nigel McGuinness defending the Ring Of Honor World Title against Bryan Danielson in an absolute classic at the 6th Anniversary Show.
ANNIVERSARY FLASHBACK – Another Nigel McGuinness title defence, this time with footage of his inhuman performance against KENTA at the 7th Anniversar Show. On that night he retained the belt despite legitimately only having one healthy arm.
Next we get a re-run of the Bucks/reDRagon video package they used during intermission of the live ippv broadcast back at All Star Extravaganza 6. Their trilogy in 2014 was a quite remarkable series of matches, and they will get to add to their legacy with another clash over the Tag Titles in Las Vegas.
Some appalling gambling/Vegas related puns are forced our next segment, promoting the Television Championship bout between Jay Lethal and Alberto El Patron. They also air clips of Alberto’s match with Christopher Daniels just because.
The rest of the card gets a brief mention now with a decent promo from ACH to hype his dream match with AJ Styles, clips of Moose attacking the Briscoes at the Winter Warriors Dayton event (he has Mark in Vegas) and a passing reference to Matt Sydal vs Cedric Alexander.
The Bullet Club have taped a special promo all the way from Japan. The fact that Kenny Omega is in it makes me hopeful that we might finally get him back in Ring Of Honor at some point in the future. AJ and the Bucks have words for their opponents, with Anderson and Gallows (who are also booked on Sunday) chiming in too.
ANNIVERSARY FLASHBACK – Future World Champion Adam Cole pins then-World Champion Davey Richards as part of the tag team main event at the 10th Anniversary. Kevin Steen’s promo (which got cut from the DVD) demanding a title shot at Davey is included…
We end with all four participants in the four corner World Title main event getting some promo time.
Tape Rating - N/A - Airing 24 hours before their pay-per-view, it is perfectly acceptable that they would use this hour of television to form an elongated commercial. In all fairness to Ring Of Honor, the quality of hype and recap videos they produce has improved significantly over the past year, making this more tolerable than it could have been. I still don’t like the Mercer/Mandy duo as hosts, but other than Steve Corino and Scarlett Bordeaux I’m not sure I like any of Ring Of Honor’s non-wrestling personalities. I will say that I’m not sure ROH will be able to get away with doing this once they make the jump to Destination America later in the year.