ROH on Sinclair – Episode 193 – 3rd June 2015

You might notice that we’ve jumped forward more than seven days since the last episode of Ring Of Honor television. That would be because this is the debut of ROH’s brief flirtation with a relatively major US cable network, and is the first episode of the show aired on Destination America. I’m not knowledgeable enough to understand precisely how big of a deal this was for ROH, but it is significant enough to put them on the same network as TNA (now long-established as the supposed ‘number two’ promotion to WWE in United States) and gives them an apparently higher profile than anything they’ve had previously when it comes to their televised product. Not much is expected to change about the product – Sinclair have essentially sold permission to broadcast their existing show to DA. In effect, Destination America gets a wrestling product on their network at a fraction of the cost it was hosing into the black hole of TNA’s finances…essentially by broadcasting the same episode of the show that SBG have paid for, produced, and will be airing on their networks anyway. You’d like to think that Sinclair will respond to this opportunity by stepping up the quality of their production, writing and overall presentation of the show to make the most of this opportunity right? This is the big debut…and is the first episode of content taken from the TV taping portion of Global Wars 2015. Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino are at ringside in Toronto, ONT for the start of this brave new venture…

The Briscoes, in many ways the face of Ring Of Honor, open the show with a promo which is delivered well and immediately demonstrates their characters to new viewers. Unfortunately, the current ROH fanbase will have their heads in their hands watching this, as they realise the braindead idiots who run this company are genuinely putting J. F*CKING DIESEL in the main event of their big debut on Destination America…

Will Ferrara vs Kushida
Nothing could make it clearer that this is a different show to the other three nights of the New Japan tour than Ferrara getting booked. It’s a shame that Kushida’s last match is wasted on him, as his performances that week were outstanding. Many consider his match with Roderick Strong in Philadelphia to be a candidate for MOTY. Can he round off his tour with a win – or can Ferrara pull a major upset?

Kushida’s Cary-tron video is awesome, as is Corino pointing out that we are watching protégés of Tajiri (Kushida) and Taz (Ferrara) collide here. Kushida calmly and precisely controls the opening two minutes until Will turns the tables by blocking a standing moonsault. His punishment is to have his arm snapped over the top rope then his skull cracked with a springboard tomahawk chop. Handspring Tajiri Elbow misses…and fans start booing Ferrara even as he successfully takes flight for the tope tornado DDT on the floor! What a tough crowd. Kushida hits a perfect moonsault for 2, then misses a Buzzsaw Kick and almost allows Ferrara to capitalise with Eyes Wide Shut. Hoverboard Lock gets the win for the New Japan star at 07:29

Rating - * - Nothing wrong with this at all as it was short, punchy and completely inoffensive. In truth I probably rated it down solely because it was such a waste of Kushida. He will be, by some distance, the best wrestler on this episode of the DA debut episode.

The Addiction interrupt Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino shilling Best In The World 2015 to announce that reDRagon will be permitted their Tag Title rematch next week (and next week ONLY). This was cut from the DVD, and probably should have been kept in.

Silas Young vs Takaaki Watanabe
These two teamed up at the Global Wars 2015 ppv, but were unsuccessful in a match against Gedo and Moose. Silas blamed Watanabe for the loss and assaulted him, providing some (admittedly very simple) context to these two locking horns here.

Young pops Watanabe in the mouth rather than follow the Code Of Honor…so he clearly hasn’t forgiven him for their loss yet. German suplex blocked by Silas, only for him to celebrate prematurely and absorb a back suplex instead…which in turn softens him up for the German. Realising he can’t let Watanabe build up a head of steam, the Last Real Man slows the pace by raking his face across his knee brace. Clothesline off the apron by Wata, putting Young into a position where he can GERMAN SUPLEX HIM ON THE FLOOR! Silas wisely crawls away to recover, and returns to the ring to land a TKO (which he calls ‘Misery’) for the win at 06:55

Rating - ** - This was really decent. They had a plausible reason for fighting, they told that story succinctly through their wrestling, their approaches to the match were both perfectly logical, there were a couple of big spots, and it ended with Silas debuting a new finisher – which he has badly needed. As far as random, undercard filler matches on TV go this was really quite pleasant.

Up next we are scheduled to see Moose face BJ Whitmer in a grudge match following their altercation at the San Antonio Conquest Tour TV tapings. BJ is a slimeball though, and substitutes Decade young boy Colby Corino into the match instead. What follows is a total beating which barely constitutes a match. Some credit goes to Corino Jr. for taking some serious punishment though…

We head outside to the parking lot for another segment which really should have been on the Global Wars 2015 Night 2 DVD. Jay Lethal complains to Truth Martini about having to wrestle Jay Briscoe on this show – but Martini reassures him that there will be no free Best In The World preview tonight.

INSIDE ROH – This segment is being brought back for Destination America, with Mandy Leon hosting from her merchandise dungeon. She spotlights the burgeoning issue between Adam Page and ACH and broadcasts clips from their great match at the Conquest Tour. At Best In The World 2015 they each bring a partner meaning it will be ACH and Matt Sydal facing Page and BJ Whitmer.

SIDENOTE – There are some new commercials on the ROHWrestling.com Ringside Members archive version of this episode. Did these air on Destination America? Being confronted by the sight of a ‘real cowboy’ advertising ‘nearly pain-free catheters’ is one of the most surreal things I’ve ever seen whilst reviewing a wrestling show.

Jay Briscoe/Mark Briscoe vs Donovan Dijak/J. Diesel
This was originally scheduled to be an early preview of the anticipated main event for Best In The World 2015, and a chance to see World Champion Jay Briscoe square off with TV Champion Jay Lethal ahead of that event. That will now not be the case, as Truth Martini has negotiated a night off for Lethal and replaced him with the completely horrible J. Diesel. Dijak has some promise, but Diesel is arguably the worst wrestler on the entire roster (and considering that the roster now includes the likes of Cheeseburger and Beer City Bruiser that’s no mean feat). Can the House Of Truth soften up the World Champion?

Mark starts with Dijak, and immediately confused the Top Prospect Tournament winner with his tomfoolery. That is until Dijak does a BACK FLIP of his own! Diesel is more of a buffoon, doing his stupid plodding boxing stuff until he is shut down and isolated by the veteran Briscoe brothers. Inevitably Lethal makes his presence felt from the announce table, distracting Jay Briscoe for long enough for Donovan to tag in and hit a colossal SUPLEX THROW for 2. Uncle Mule Kicks from Mark to save his brother, only for Truth Martini to cause a scene when he looks set to win it with the Froggy Bow. Dijak catches him for a mid-air ribbreaker before tossing him aside like trash. Jay gives Diesel a roaring elbow then picks him up for the Doomsday Device. Briscoes win at 11:17

Rating - * - I’m slightly concerned that Ring Of Honor think that this was an acceptable standard of main event to put on television. No disrespect to Dijak, who I thought worked extremely hard – but this was a lazy and tedious match to sit through. The Briscoes were on cruise control, Diesel was abysmal as usual…and even the brief interactions between Lethal and Briscoe felt lukewarm at best. Quite a shame, as the originally scheduled Briscoes vs Lethal/Dijak match could have been really interesting and a far more exciting television main event…

Dijak gives Mark Feast Your Eyes on the floor after the match…but inside the ring Jay Briscoe gets his hands on an irate Jay Lethal and lays him out with a Jay Driller.

Tape Rating - DUD - Ring Of Honor should be utterly ashamed of themselves for airing this as their Destination America debut episode. You only get one chance at a first impression, and with Will Ferrara in the opening match and J. Diesel in their first ever DA main event it was quite clear that the Destination America venture was doomed from the start. I’m not going to debate it’s significance, as I don’t understand the American broadcast set-up to comment on that with any authority. But I can comment on the quality of this episode as a debut on a new network – and it was the dirt worst. To air this was completely inexcusable and a catastrophic early error that Ring Of Honor on Destination America seems unlikely to come back from. Even TNA (which ROH are now adjacent to in the schedules) is far better than this. I will say that, for long-time fans, the episode was actually redeemed somewhat by the fact that the DVD-cut of this material is WAY worse. Including Inside ROH, a couple of decent segments and the constant focus on Best In The World 2015 actually made this farce more tolerable than it was as a succession of bad matches on the Global Wars 2015 Night 2 DVD. I am trying to be more positive about 2015 Ring Of Honor – I really am. I understand times change, and I really hate being one of those old farts who harp on about how much better things were in ‘their day’. But this episode of the show is legitimately one of the worst things the promotion has done in its entire existence. One can only help but wonder what might have happened had the 2005/6 roster – with an energised Gabe Sapolsky at the helm – gotten this opportunity that Sinclair just pissed away. Perhaps the saddest thing is that I’m not even surprised. This is just the latest incidence of the laughable and chronic mismanagement of Ring Of Honor as a wrestling product.

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