ROH on Sinclair – Episode 192 – 23rd May 2015

More Road Rage tonight, and fans who don’t pick up DVD’s/VOD’s are in for a treat as we return to Minnesota to check out the absolute classic Television Championship main event between Jay Lethal and Kyle O’Reilly. It is one of ROH’s top matches of 2015 thus far so, whilst it does make the DVD/VOD purchase of the Conquest Tour Hopkins show somewhat redundant, it is pleasing to see it reach the biggest audience possible via the weekly TV show. Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino are at ringside ready to call all the action from Hopkins, MN.

Michael Elgin vs Caprice Coleman
Unbreakable feels that he has been extremely harshly treated by Ring Of Honor. The fans turned on him when he was World Champion. He was left to rot in Canada after losing the World Title to Jay Briscoe, and when he finally got his rematch it was in a four-way at the 13th Anniversary Show – where he feels like he was screwed by Nigel McGuinness. He has vowed to make ROH pay and take out his misery on everyone he comes across. Tonight he has the evergreen Caprice Coleman in his sights.

Coleman unsettles Elgin and drives him out of the ring with the success of his early ventures. However, his persistent use of the inside out moonsault to the floor comes back to haunt him as Elgin knows it’s coming and blocks it. The sour former World Champion bludgeons him against the railings…until the fans start liking it so he immediately stops. 619 around the ringpost by Caprice ends the onslaught and allows him to return to the ring with a missile dropkick. It is only temporary respite tough as Michael clobbers him with the somersault leg drop to the back of the head. Springboard heel kick by Coleman, followed by the standing leap super rana for 2. Trinity blocked with a Roaring Elbow…and a double stomp to the head has Coleman on the brink. Fear not though wrestling fans. This is Ring Of Honor, where all the undercard wrestlers do the exact same spot in every match they work…which means that Caprice has another comeback sequence worked in so he can finally hit that inside-out moonsault to the floor. Sky Splitter gets 2! Elgin evades the Mind Trip and lariats the sh*t out of him. He’s still reeling from that as the Buckle Bomb/Elgin Bomb combo polishes him off. Elgin wins at 10:43

Rating - ** - Competently wrestled, but never once did this become exciting at all. It felt like two solid workers on a B-show, cruising through their routines with the minimum amount of effort required. Sadly this is what ROH is all about these days; the undercard doesn’t matter on major shows, let alone house shows in their least significant markets. In the ‘Road Rage’ context all this did was take time away from the episode that they’ll have to edit out of the main event – which sucks.

Truth Martini calls Kyle O’Reilly’s victory over Jay Lethal in the Champions Challenge tag match in Milwaukee a fluke.

Meanwhile in his locker room, O’Reilly says he is going to tap Lethal out tonight…

SIDENOTE – As a reminder, this is a cut and paste from my Conquest Tour Hopkins DVD review. I’m not re-reviewing the edited-for-TV version. Obviously they aren’t showing the full 30-minute run-time of this one in it’s unedited form.

Jay Lethal vs Kyle O’Reilly – ROH TV Title Match
At the very start of the Conquest Tour we saw O’Reilly defeat Lethal in Milwaukee. It was part of a Champions Challenge match, where the World and TV Champions joined forces to face Tag Champions reDRagon. On that night tension between Lethal and Briscoe simmered, enabling Kyle to sneak in and score a clean pinfall on the TV Champ. That was enough to earn him this opportunity, but as Lethal pointed out on television during a live Fish Tank segment recently – tonight he plans to prove that it was nothing more than a fluke.

Lethal now has a modified plate on his belt, removing all mention of it being the TV Title and simply proclaiming him ROH Champion. O’Reilly is an extremely dangerous challenger and has Lethal diving out of the ring as he dominates the opening minutes. It’s a tough ask for Jay since his natural defence of trying to ground his opponent to protect himself isn’t open to him either – since Kyle is his superior on the canvas too. The champ can’t escape O’Reilly’s headlocks, and even when he leaves the ring Kyle simply dives off the apron into another headlock. But Lethal hasn’t been TV Champion for more than a year on a fluke – he’s an opportunistic competitor and he snatches an opportunity here to throw his challenger into the guardrails. An early attempt at the Lethal Injection is blocked though, and O’Reilly launches into an assault on the arm. ARM-SELLING hiptoss dropkick by Lethal! Is it weird that moments like that are why I still love wrestling even as I grow older and more cynical? He gets tossed shoulder-first into the railings to stunt his comeback and at fifteen minutes the title is in serious jeopardy. Drastic times call for drastic measures, and Truth Martini strikes – nailing Kyle with the Book Of Truth as he tries to capture Jay into a hanging armbar. The arm is still hampering Lethal’s progress but he is in charge now – defying the injury to wear Kyle down with a battery of moves targeting his neck and back. STRIKE FLURRY by O’Reilly, before he breaks out an old signature spot of his – the rolling butterfly suplexes, all of which further wrench that damaged arm. KNEE STRIKE TO THE FACE! HANGING GUILLOTINE! WITH THE ARM CAPTURED! COUNTERED TO THE LETHAL COMBINATION! BOTH MEN DOWN! A battle-weary Jay Lethal climbs to the top rope to deliver an ARM-SELLING HAIL TO THE KING…for 2! He wants to superplex the back, but Kyle counters to A SUPER ARMBAR DDT! FUJIWARA ARMBAR! LETHAL COUNTERS TO A SUPLEX OVER THE TOP ROPE TO THE FLOOR! O’Reilly narrowly beats the count back in – and comes back in begging Jay to hit him! Both men swing for the fences until they can barely stand. AXE & SMASH! NO SOLD! SUPERKICK! NO SOLD! JAWBREAKER LARIAT! SOLO CHASING THE DRAGON! LETHAL KICKS OUT! ARM-AGEDDON! LEBELL LOCK! LETHAL MAKES THE ROPES! With just a minute left in the time limit both collapse as they desperately throw strikes. LETHAL INJECTION…COUNTERED IN MID-AIR TO ARM-AGEDDON AGAIN! FIFTEEN SECONDS LEFT! TEN SECONDS! FIVE! LETHAL HOLDS ON! 30:00 TIME LIMIT DRAW!

Rating - ****1/2 - These two have been in brilliant form thus far in 2015. Roderick Strong is getting all the plaudits for his performances, but in Ring Of Honor Lethal and O’Reilly have been every bit as good as him. Therefore it was no surprise that, with half an hour to play with, they delivered an instant classic. The Eddie Edwards vs Christopher Daniels 2/3 Falls MOTYC for the TV Title back at the 9th Anniversary Show has been my favourite Television Title Match for a LONG time – but this is now a genuine contender to that spot. As I’ve been saying for a long time, O’Reilly has all the hallmarks of a true ROH great. Combining the mat wrestling prowess of Bryan Danielson, the MMA-influenced style of Davey Richards and the blistering explosiveness of Austin Aries – he could potentially be one of the best ever if he continues to get chances like this to deliver at main event level. And as good as Kyle was tonight, Lethal was every bit as outstanding. It’s easy to see why people are now actively clamouring for Lethal to be the man that finally defeats Briscoe. His wrestling is superb, he grasps his character superbly, he interacts with and utilises Truth Martini so well (to form a partnership Matt Taven could only dream of), and he sold incredibly well for Kyle tonight too. This could even pip Strong/Alberto for MOTY thus far. Well worth seeing the full, unedited version rather than the cut down version that will air on television.

In a moment of brilliance that you just couldn’t script, the fans demand five more minutes then start chanting ‘Man Up’ at Lethal. Obviously the implication is that he should ‘man up’ and continue the match, but given what is going on with him and Jay Briscoe it is the perfect chant for him to play off. He walks out, just as he did with ACH in 2014…but is met on the ramp by Briscoe himself! Since Lethal is too much of a coward to go to extra time with O’Reilly, Briscoe is out here to defend the ROH World Title against him instead! The match barely gets started before Lethal attacks them both with the TV Title belt though.

The crap with ODB that almost ruined the entire segment at the actual live event isn’t included in the TV edit at all – which isn’t a bad thing.

Tape Rating - N/A - I’m somewhat against giving away the main draw of a DVD/VOD away for free on TV. But I’m also well aware that Sinclair view TV as their priority, not DVD sales. They are also probably aware that any of their fanbase who makes DVD/VOD purchases at this stage is already a loyal fan and would make the buy regardless of whether this was on TV or not. Lethal/O’Reilly, even in an edited-for-TV format, was absolutely outstanding and remains one of ROH’s must-see matches for 2015. The conclusion does at last provide some much-needed tension to the Briscoe/Lethal feud with mere weeks to go before BITW ’15.

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