ROH on Sinclair – Episode 189 – 2nd May 2015
It’s a strange time to follow Ring Of Honor wrestling. I’ve never felt more despairing about the direction the company has taken from a creative standpoint…but inside the ring the talent roster continues to surprise me. The past two episodes from the Texas leg of the Conquest Tour have been pretty good, the Hopkins show caught me off guard with how enjoyable it was – and we now move into an incredibly exciting period which will see the stars of New Japan arrive for a four show tour, the debut on Destination America and the Best In The World 2015 pay-per-view. Tonight we see the Killer Elite Squad make their way to ROH too, brought in at the behest of Michael Elgin to face War Machine. The main event is an even bigger match, as Tommaso Ciampa gets a long-awaited rematch against Jay Lethal for the Television Championship. Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino are, once again, at ringside in San Antonio, TX.
Killer Elite Squad vs War Machine
As we’ve seen over recent weeks on television, Michael Elgin just isn’t letting his beef with War Machine go. He was responsible for putting them together as a team in 2014, but has soured on them (as he has with everything else) and pissed on their big comeback to television. Hanson and Rowe wanted him to get a partner and face them, but since he doesn’t want to team with anyone instead he’s brought in the KES – Lance Archer and Davey Boy Smith Jr. – from Japan to oppose them. They are an imposing duo and carry multiple championships to the ring with them, including the GHC Heavyweight and NWA Tag Titles. Michael Elgin is in the corner too.
No fear from Archer or Smith. They follow the Code Of Honor then set about pummelling the ROH competitors. Shotgun knee/Bronco Buster combo from War Machine brings them back into the match, and appears to do some pretty severe damage to the ring as it is making some awful noises now. Archer makes a hell of impression by FLATTENING Hanson with a football tackle. Davey Boy Jr. has slightly more finesse to his approach but is equally imposing in the way he dominates last year’s Top Prospect Tournament winner. Hanson is isolated…and Lance is so confident he even finds time to swipe Rowe out of his own corner before using it to hit a frog splash. A piledriver attempt by Smith is countered to a sidewalk slam, finally enabling Ray Rowe to enter the fray again. He and Archer club the sh*t out of each other until Rowe dishes out a big German suplex. Double chokeslam takes Lance out, setting him up for FALLOUT! Elgin drags the referee out of the ring to prevent him counting the victory…so Hanson dives at him with a TOPE SUICIDA! Killer Bomb blocked by Hanson, into the anti-clockwise powerslam. CEMENT MIXER by Rowe! EXPLODER BY SMITH! TIGER SUPLEX ON HANSON! JUMPING PUNCH BY ROWE! CHOKESLAM BY ARCHER! CARTWHEEL LARIAT BY HANSON! Referee Paul Turner has had enough of trying to restore order between the teams and throws the match out at 12:41 (shown).
Rating - *** - Throw a finish on this and we’d be talking an easy 4* match. More often than not the opening match on Ring Of Honor’s TV show is a complete waste of time…so this was a real treat. I’ve not seen masses of the KES, and I remember hating Lance Hoyt back in the day so I was a little sceptical, but they proved themselves to be really spectacular special guest stars at this taping. Their experience as a team meant they were more polished than War Machine, and their similar styles made them ideal opponent for Hanson and Rowe to a) work with and b) learn from. The whole match had an enjoyable, rough and intense edge to proceedings, leading to a climax which saw four enormous guys throwing spots around like a Young Bucks match. Get Archer and Smith back for a rematch ASAP…
Michael Elgin dives into the ring to take a few cheapshots at War Machine but even that isn’t enough to break up the fight. We cut to a commercial break with all five men, plus multiple referees and security guys brawling all over ringside.
Jay Lethal vs Tommaso Ciampa – ROH TV Title Match
These two have an incredible amount of history together. It was Lethal who ended Ciampa’s undefeated streak in 2012. Their series of matches that year were arguably the highlight of Jay’s first reign as Television Champion. Tommaso’s career was nearly ended when he blew out his knee in a superb 2/3 falls match with Jay on pay-per-view that same year too. And at Supercard Of Honor 8 Tommaso was the unfortunate victim as Lethal memorably joined the House Of Truth and enlisted the help of Truth Martini to help him dethrone the Sicilian Psychopath and become TV Champion for a second time. Lethal has held the belt ever since, and now grants a rematch to a banged up Tommaso who is still nursing a rib injury sustained in the main event of the 13th Anniversary Show. Can Ciampa overcome that, and his ongoing issues with Ring Of Honor management to get the belt that was unfairly taken from him more than a year ago back?
Early mindgames from Ciampa as he Eddie Guerrero’s an injury and nearly fakes his way into a shock small package victory. Lethal has to be dragged to safety by Donovan Dijak as the challenger looks set to knock him out with a knee strike. There are parallels between the opening period here and Tommaso’s TV Title win against Matt Taven as he looks to steamroll the champion. He is only thwarted by a combination of both Dijak and Truth Martini…allowing Lethal to hit him with so many tope suicidas that he ends up in the front row. Now Jay slows things down to kill any momentum Ciampa had built up. His offence is totally basic – mounted punches and repeated chinlocks – but it makes perfect sense as he looks to negate the frenetic, unpredictable and ferocious style of his challenger. Tommaso breaks free with a snap German…then hits a RUNNING BARE KNEE STRIKE! Lethal bails again, and this time Ciampa goes right past Martini to continue the assault with KNEE STRIKES ON THE FLOOR! Back in the ring Ciampa blocks a Lethal superkick with another knee! JUMPING KNEE! NO SOLD! JUMPING ENZI by Lethal! Both men down! Martini tries to hand the Book Of Truth to his client, only for Ciampa to intercept and stomp it into Lethal’s hands. This has been a great babyface performance by Tommaso – the crowd are lapping it up. Project Ciampa blocked, and so is the Air Raid Crash! BACK SUPLEX NECKBREAKER drops the Psychopath, setting him up for the Lethal Combination. NO SOLD…INTO THE SICILIAN STRETCH! Jay makes the ropes and nearly gets an undeserved victory as Truth tries to hold Tommaso’s legs to the ground. Dijak gets in Ciampa’s face SO TOMMASO SLAPS HIM! Lethal tries another tope but it’s COUNTERED TO AN AIR RAID CRASH ON THE FLOOR! FOR 2! AVALANCHE AIR RAID CRASH NAILED! TWO AGAIN! MARTINI PULLED THE REF OUT OF THE RING! DIJAK LEVELS CIAMPA! NOW HE KICKS OUT AT TWO! CANNONBALL SENTON OFF THE APRON AT DIJAK! LETHAL INJECTION DODGED! CIAMPA TRIES THE LETHAL INJECTION AND GETS DROPKICKED! DISCUS LARIAT ANYWAY! HAIL TO THE KING ON LETHAL GETS 2! Dijak tries to interfere again, finally causing Todd Sinclair to eject the House Of Truth from ringside. Jay capitalises on the distraction to low blow Ciampa into the LETHAL INJECTION! He retains at 18:38 (shown).
Rating - **** - This was Tommaso’s final ROH match to date, having run his contract down and not agreed terms on a new deal. He delivered an awesome farewell performance, reminded everyone of the great chemistry he has with Jay Lethal, and hammered it home how much of a wasted opportunity his Ring Of Honor career was. He was a really under-rated worker in my opinion and never really got the opportunities I felt his skills warranted. Here (despite carrying a rib injury) he held up his end of the deal in producing another superb TV Title defence for Lethal. The crowd was split at the opening bell, but through the strength of his work as the fired up, misunderstood and outnumbered babyface he had the whole building baying for a title change by the end. I have a few issues with the presentation of the match (FOUR commercial breaks and two pauses for ROH Codeline nonsense), but I won’t let that take away from another great main event at these San Antonio tapings.
The San Antonio crowd is clearly aware of what is going on, as they give Tommaso a standing ovation for his efforts. Ciampa vents his frustrating by F*CKING DESTROYING TODD SINCLAIR! He kills him with countless knee strikes, frolics in his streamers and walks away knowing that zero tolerance means he’ll be ‘fired’. At least he got to go out with a great match and fun final segment…
Tape Rating - **** - No nonsense at all, just great wrestling from top to bottom. I understand that ROH is appealing to a broader spectrum of fans these days so can’t run episodes like this every week, but this show was right up my street. Fierce, stiff, hard working competition in two really enjoyable matches. War Machine/KES would have gone to 4* if they’d had a finish to complement their total brawl of a match, and the Lethal/Ciampa main event was one of the best matches ROH have put onto their TV show all year. Tommaso Ciampa leaving Ring Of Honor has rather flown under the radar but he’s been one of my favourites on the roster for a long time. I’ve always enjoyed his wrestling (particularly his numerous great matches with Jay Lethal)…and I wish him well as he looks to secure a WWE deal.