ROH on Sinclair – Episode 196 – 24th June 2015
I have a feeling this is the last episode taped at Global Wars Night 2, and if so it should be the best by far in terms of in-ring content. Roderick Strong will square off with Shinsuke Nakamura, whilst the main event will feature another thrilling Bullet Club multi-man tag as they take on Chaos’ RPG Vice and Kazuchika Okada. Kevin Kelly, Steve Corino and Nigel McGuinness are all in position to call the action in Toronto, ONT.
Roderick Strong vs Shinsuke Nakamura
What a week Roderick Strong had during the 2015 NJPW tour. He produced a killer match with Kushida at War Of The Worlds Night 1, contested a bloody war with Hiroshi Tanahashi at Night 2 in Philly, then came to Canada for Global Wars 2015 and was part of the victorious ‘ROH All Stars’ team that overcame the Bullet Club last night. Can he end his week by giving the legendary Nakamura his first singles defeat in Ring Of Honor competition?
Nak looks to be playing with Roddy just like he did with ACH…and is punished with a couple of chops then a jumping heel kick. The Olympic Slam gets 2…but Nakamura is too clever to get caught in a cycle of having his back endlessly worked over. He flees to the apron to break Strong’s momentum then absolutely PELTS him with a kick through the ropes. A big running knee leaves Mr ROH slumped in the front row! Nakamura starts to smirk as he hammers Strong all over ringside with his signature stiff strikes. Strong now breaks Nak’s momentum, ‘changing gears’ and scooping him up for a MUSO! Death By Roderick countered into a spinning heel kick to leave both men down! Running knee dodged by Roddy…so Nakamura scoops him up to drive a knee into his gut instead. JUMPING ELBOW TO THE FACE! NO SOLD! ROARING ELBOW BY RODDY! The cut to the head Strong sustained against Tanahashi earlier in the week has opened up again, although it doesn’t stop him nailing an inverted Death By Roderick for a close nearfall. Nakamura continues to fight but misses the Bomaye and eats turnbuckle backbreaker. End Of Heartache blocked! DIVING KNEE BY NAKAMURA! Bomaye COUNTERED TO DEATH BY RODERICK! SICK KICK…BLOCKED! STRONGHOLD INSTEAD! To the delight of the Toronto fans, Nakamura makes the ropes to continue the fight. ELBOWS! SICK KICK! END OF HEARTACHE! NAKAMURA KICKS OUT! A semi-conscious Nakamura slips out of another suplex attempt into a RUNNING KNEE! ONE COUNT OF DISRESPECT! BOMAYE…STRONG COUNTERS WITH A JUMPING KNEE TO THE FACE! BOMAYEEEEEEEE! Nakamura wins! What a fight! It’s over at 15:59
Rating - **** - Roderick Strong is an absolute machine! After the three matches he’d already contested during the New Japan tour, I’ve got no idea where he found the energy reserves to pull this classic out from. Nakamura was, as ever, electrifying with his presence – and to be fair, he was also working much harder than he did at any other time during the tour, but this was a wonderful performance from the Ring Of Honor veteran. He seemed to instinctively know when it was time to increase the pace or dial up the intensity. From his facial expressions to the way he moved around the ring, everything was masterful on his part. I liked that, for the most part, both men tried to actively stop their opponents using their preferred tactics. Strong got in a few moves on Nak’s back…so Nakamura left the ring. Then Naka started to dominate using his feared strikes…so Roddy started moving faster to the point that the New Japan star couldn’t keep up with him. With each man rendered unable to utilise their preferred strategies, they resorted to beating the crap out of each other – with the critical difference being that Nakamura found a way to kick out of Strong’s finishers, whereas Roddy couldn’t escape the Bomaye. Awesome story-telling. Terrific match.
Gedo vs Michael Elgin
One can’t help but feel a little sorry for these two. Such are the complexities and intricacies of timing and laying out weeks of television on a single night of taping that these two have been left filling the popcorn break between Nakamura/Strong and the Bullet Club trios tag main event. At least Elgin gets an up-close-and-personal chance to impress Gedo and finally get his dream spot on a NJPW tour.
Elgin looks to bully the experienced junior heavyweight – and uses his superior strength to completely bully him. There appears to be a group of fans chanting for Super Dragon, which probably indicates how into this match the crowd is. Aside from a couple of craft veteran tricks, poor Gedo gets his ass handed to him for more than five minutes. Unbreakable gets cocky and misses a somersault senton then gets punished with a superkick for 2. Elgin retaliates with the Buckle Bomb, then the Elgin Bomb for the win in a dominant 06:24
Rating - * - A commanding performance from Elgin, who was on top for all but approximately thirty seconds. Not the easiest watch but I suppose if you buy tickets to attend a TV taping you probably know you’re signing up for matches like this at an entirely inappropriate point on the card. Personally I’d rather have seen this cut and allowed both the Bullet Club/Chaos 6-man and Strong/Nakamura more time – but I’ve never produced a wrestling television show.
INSIDE ROH – Mandy Leon introduces some highlights from the first War Of The Worlds 2015 event in an event to sell some DVD’s/VOD’s. No problem with that at all.
Kazuchika Okada/RPG Vice vs AJ Styles/Young Bucks
Multiple storied New Japan feuds are intertwined within an ROH ring this evening. The Bucks and Rocky Romero (both with Koslov and Trent) have feuded seemingly interminably over the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Titles. AJ and Okada were feuding over the IWGP Heavyweight Title back during the 2014 tour…and not much has changed a year later. Both Bullet Club and Chaos have been rival factions in NJPW too. All six will look to send the live audience home happy, and also inject a New Japan flavour into Ring Of Honor’s weekly TV show.
Everyone is so over they get a chance to pose on the turnbuckles…including Red Shoes. We aren’t starting slow either as Styles and Okada demand to face each other and instantly look to start delivering their big finishing moves. RPG Vice are in next and hit a flurry of double teams to isolate Nick Jackson. SUPERKICK BY MATT! He then spits at Okada whilst the rest of the Bullet Club (including Gallows and Anderson at ringside) choke Berretta in the corner. Nick tries a swanton bomb…but sails right into Trent’s knees. Dudebuster DDT nailed, before he makes a hot tag to Romero. SUPERKICK! NO SOLD! LARIAT BY ROCKY! Okada gets his hands on Styles again and mows him down with a running uppercut for 2. Phenom DDT…COUNTERED to a kryptonite neckbreaker! DOOMSDAY KNEE STRIKE OFF THE APRON BY RPG VICE! BLOODY SUNDAY ON OKADA! NO SOLD! TOMBSTONE PILEDRIVER! TORNADO DDT TO THE FLOOR BY NICK! More Bang For Your Buck…COUNTERED WITH A ROPE RUN GERMAN SUPERPLEX BY TRENT! FLYING ELBOW BY OKADA! SPRINGBOARD ELBOW BY AJ! STRONG ZERO BLOCKED WITH A MID-AIR SUPERKICK! SUPERKICK/CODE RED COMBO ON TRENT! TRIPLE SUPERKICKS BY BULLET CLUB! OKADA REFUSES TO GO DOWN! EARLY ONSET ALZHEIMER’S/PELE KICK COMBO! POP-UP HOLLOW POINT! MELTZER DRIVER! DOUBLE SUPERKICK! STYLES CLASH! BERETTA IS DEAD! Bullet Club win at 15:33
Rating - **** - Possibly the weakest of the three Bullet Club multi-man tags from the tour, but this was still great, and a mind-blowing match for a promotion to give away for free. I really don’t understand why, having finally lured the Bucks back to the company on an almost full-time basis, ROH have now set about jobbing the Bucks out almost constantly…so it was awesome to see them win here. They were legitimately more over than either AJ or Okada and should, in my opinion, be the focal points of the promotion at this stage. Not everyone likes this style of wrestling, but it’s modern, it’s cutting edge and in the Jackson brothers, Ring Of Honor have talents who can work matches of this style better than anyone else in the world.
Tape Rating - **** - I always enjoy the episodes which are heavily focused on quality in-ring content, and we got that in abundance with this one. Strong/Nakamura and Bullet Club/Chaos were truly outstanding matches to put out on free TV and the sort of stellar episode they should have lined up to kick off the Destination America experiment. Putting three of New Japan’s top stars (Nakamura, Okada and AJ) onto ROH’s TV show – plus the most over act on the US indies in the Bucks – made this feel like a really star-studded hour of television and one of the better episodes of 2015 thus far.