ROH on Sinclair – Episode 186 – 11th April 2015

So Episode 185 left me quite agitated. I should have been thrilled having not enjoyed a Mark Briscoe singles match more in ages – but everything else on that show left me almost numb with frustration. I suspect this episode won’t leave me feeling any better. Dubbed a ‘Supercard Of Honor showcase’, what it will showcase is the only two truly memorable and/or worthwhile matches from that event (Lethal/Liger for the TV Title and Briscoe/Joe for the World Title) making a VOD/DVD purchase worthless and making idiots of anyone who did buy it. Good for the casual fans who only watch the TV show I guess. Kevin Kelly and Adam Cole are dubbed in over action taped in Redwood City, CA.

Jay Lethal vs Jushin Liger – ROH TV Title Match
As we saw at War Of The Worlds last year, Jushin Liger is such a legendary figure he doesn’t need to earn title shots in Ring Of Honor. If a champion wants to enhance his reputation by attempting to defeat one of the greatest workers of all time then ROH is more than happy to sanction it. Lethal is the man looking to bolster his stock at the expense of the legend this evening. He is in the midst of an outstanding TV Title reign, and has already seen off a lucha libre legend in Alberto El Patron. Can he do the same to Liger, or will the years of experience that the veteran possesses see him spring a surprise on the precocious House Of Truth frontman?

ROH hasn’t paid for Truth Martini’s flight, so the champ is flying solo this evening. He looks uncertain and spends the opening period either getting schooled by the veteran of fleeing from him to the floor. He is stretched, beaten and battered but crucially evades the Shotei and any other of Liger’s signature finishing holds. Impressively, the New Japan star also has Lethal’s moves scouted – and casually dodges the hiptoss/dropkick spot that so many others have fallen foul of. Jay’s evasive action finally rewards him as yet another trip outside the ring presents him with the opportunity to smash the fifty-plus year old challenger into the guardrails. The pace slows as Lethal looks to keep Liger grounded and unable to use any of his power, striking skills or submission skills to his advantage. None of his offence is particularly exciting but the logic is sound – and soon he feels he has Jushin beaten down sufficiently to attempt Hail To The King. Liger puts up the boots to block him though…then wipes him off his feet with the Capo Kick! Liger begs the champion to hit him – which of course suits him just fine. LETHAL ATTEMPTS THE LIGERBOMB! BLOCKED! LETHAL INJECTION…COUNTERED TO THE SHOTEI! Frankensteiner nailed by a guy who is so old he frankly shouldn’t be able to do that anymore…and perhaps it takes the wind out of his sails as Lethal is able to block his attempt at a frog splash with knees moments later. Lethal Combination gets 2! We have come full circle from the start of the match as Liger crawls out of the ring to avoid the Macho Elbow. Jay lines up the rolling tope’s ONLY FOR LIGER TO COUNTER TO A BRAINBUSTER ON THE FLOOR! A desperate Lethal makes a grab for his title belt, then tries to pin the challenger using the ropes. Both are thwarted by the ref…LETHAL INJECTION! Lethal retains at 15:03

Rating - **** - Liger wasn’t a junior heavyweight here – he was a big, bad, bruising, ultra-experienced and incredibly dangerous threat to Jay Lethal’s title. They spent the first third of the match crafting that illusion supremely well with ‘Thunder’ on top of his game and Lethal selling like a pro for him. This match also felt like a much bigger deal for all the familiarity counters Liger threw in to Lethal signature spots. Frustratingly it felt like they needed another five minutes to really bring this home in style though. I think we got three quarters of a top class match before a rushed finish which took the edge off somewhat. Was there seriously not time on this show for Liger to hit a Ligerbomb for one false finish or tease of a title change? Was there really not time for Liger to escape at least one Lethal Injection? I didn’t have a problem with Jay trying to cheat – it made perfect sense in the context of a match that saw him take a real ass kicking – but I did have a problem with rushing straight from that to an immediate finish. Throw a more fluent and befitting finish on this and my rating could have gone higher.

Jay Briscoe vs Samoa Joe – ROH World Title Match
Back during Joe’s reign as World Champion Jay Briscoe was nothing more than a rowdy, up and coming punk with ideas above his station. He and little brother Mark picked a fight with Joe – and to an extent made their names at his expense. Joe tried and failed on multiple occasions to beat them in Tag Title matches – but delivered resounding beatings whenever they met for the World Championship. That feud finally ended on a notorious night in Elizabeth, New Jersey at At Our Best. Joe and Jay locked horns inside a steel cage, contesting a match which quickly turned into (and still remains) the bloodiest spectacle Ring Of Honor has ever witnessed. And that’s why things are so interesting now. Joe has been away from ROH for a long time – and the years haven’t been kind. He’s slowed down, his weight has fluctuated and he has spent years treading water in a company which didn’t always give him the calibre of opponents he enjoyed in his Ring Of Honor pomp. Briscoe, on the other hand, is in the midst of a two-year undefeated streak. Even Samoa Joe couldn’t go years without a single pinfall loss. Joe returns to a Ring Of Honor where Jay Briscoe is the man, in much the same way he was back in the day. This is Jay’s change to avenge those defeats of (what feels like) a lifetime ago. This is his chance to notch his name amongst the truly great ROH Champions – by defeating arguably the greatest of them all.

The crowd is almost completely silent as the match begins. I can’t decide if it’s a respectful silence or just a poor crowd for one of the more interesting title defences of Jay Briscoe’s two reigns. They start with plenty of chain-wrestling, and it’s hard to tell who prefers it that way. On the one hand Jay is a proficient brawler these days but on the other grappling with the big Samoan means Joe has no chance of locking in the Choke or hitting any of his signature combinations. They trade strikes next – and Briscoe takes some of the challenger’s biggest shots without going down. Tellingly he takes steps to put Joe back on the deck soon afterwards to avoid anymore though. Samoa Joe recovers on the floor before mounting a comeback, and perhaps my favourite moment of the show happens soon afterwards as he gives a DEATH STARE to some guy in the crowd who is shouting out all his spots before he does them. The guy is a jerk, but in fairness Joe does pretty much do the same thing and the same time in almost every match these days. He is selling a knee injury in this one though which admittedly makes things more interesting. ELBOW SUICIIIIIDAAAAAAA! Briscoe’s bad shoulder smashes the guardrails…but Joe comes up limping again. Limping Ole Kick BLOCKED with a chair thrown into his face! The champ tosses him leg-first into the railings next…SO JOE PICKS HIM UP AND SWINGS HIM HEAD-FIRST INTO THEM! Insert the obligatory Ole Kicks next despite the Samoan’s increasingly pronounced limp. Musclebuster blocked INTO the Rude Awakening – a really sweet transition that I really liked. BACK DROP DRIVER! Joe kicks out! CHOKE BLOCKED! RUNNING DVD BY JAY! Joe goes low to escape the Jay Driller – delivering his big boot/senton combo but it looks very ragged as a result of the punishment Briscoe has inflicted. POWERBOMB/SAMOAN CRAB/STF TRILOGY! THROW IN A CROSSFACE TOO! THEN A RINGS OF SATURN! Jay survives that reel of submission holds but apparently now has his shoulder hanging by a thread. E HONDA SLAPS! NO SOLD! JUMPING ENZIGURIIIIIIIIII! BOTH MEN DOWN! They are all messed up, Jay has a bloody nose…and still they are swinging at each other. ST-JOE! Briscoe escapes the Musclebuster again…JAY DRILLER NAILED! Briscoe retains at 20:15

Rating - **** - As with Lethal/Liger, I felt like this would have really benefited from having a few more genuine moments where it felt like a title switch might occur…but the work here was excellent. It wasn’t necessarily pretty but this was the war I wanted them to have. They beat the hell out of each other in a way that reminded me of some of the matches Joe had with the likes of Homicide and Bryan Danielson way back in 2002/3. They also did a superb job of putting Briscoe over. Throughout the match Joe was made to look weak. Not in a manner which undermined his credibility – but in a way which made it very clear that this wasn’t going to be the same type of match these two had years ago. Jay Briscoe was to be presented as Joe’s equal and it worked. He stopped Joe exploding out of the traps and dominating the opening period. He inflicted an early leg injury which Joe never really recovered from and ultimately prevented him from even hitting the Musclebuster. The effect of Joe feeling so threatened was that when he finally did start hitting a lot of his signature combinations late in the match the people LOVED them. I get why people would want more from this match. There was never a real sense of urgency and nothing here to ever make you believe a title change might happen. However, on paper this match also had a LOT going against it (SBG cared very little about this show, Delirious completely ignoring their history together in the build-up, and the fact that Joe was essentially finishing his ROH run here to concentrate on his pending WWE move)…so it went above and beyond my expectations.

Tape Rating - DUD - A DUD for milking a VOD purchase out of your loyal fans then putting the two best matches onto free television. Still TV is the priority for Ring Of Honor right now, so I suppose it’s fitting they got Joe’s last broadcast match of his 2015 comeback run onto the show.

Make a free website with Yola