ROH on Sinclair – Episode 197 – 1st July 2015
We are still waiting on new, post-Best In The World content it seems (a fact Kevin Kelly acknowledges in a pre-taped intro to the episode). Having to wait until next week to see the fall-out from that event, which took place two weeks ago now, is far from ideal. In the mean time we have a Road Rage episode shining a spotlight on more of the action from the 2015 ROH/NJPW tour. We are in Philadelphia, PA for choice cuts from War Of The Worlds 2015 (both nights) – including a main event of Adam Cole vs AJ Styles, which I have as one of my 2015 ROH MOTY’s thus far. Steve Corino and Kevin Kelly to call the action of course…
SIDENOTE – As an added bonus for this episode review, I’m going to include a review of the ‘Samoa Joe farewell’ dark match which took place at the New York TV Tapings on 20th June (the night after Best In The World) and was finally released as part of the ‘Don’t Call It A Comeback’ Joe compilation DVD set. Since I’ve seen every other match on the set I didn’t want to review the whole thing, but wanted to find somewhere relevant to post a review of that particular bout…
The Addiction vs Kazuchika Okada/Gedo
Daniels and Kazarian are the reigning ROH Tag Champions and had only recently turned heel at this point, so they are still getting weird reactions from the fans. Obviously their belts aren’t on the line here, but they’ll know they are very much in the shop window for future bookings and tours with New Japan if they are able to defeat arguably NJPW’s hottest star and their lead booker…
Gedo knows a villain when he sees one, and duly encourages his protégé Okada not to shake hands with his opponents. Watching him run through classic heel tricks on The Addiction, as they try to get over as the heels themselves is a lot of fun. Which is lucky as the vast majority of the first five minutes is spent with him doing that…until the Tag Champions finally manage to lock him down for a few double teams. The Addiction spend the next several minutes working the veteran (even more of a veteran than Daniels and Kaz themselves!) over…which means that by the time we approach the ten minute mark the extent of Okada’s involvement has been a couple of kicks and a lecture from Chris Daniels on how he ‘built’ Ring Of Honor. Red Shoes Ref sees almost as much action as the Rainmaker in fact. Okada finally does get the hot tag and quickly dropkicks the Fallen Angel off the top rope. Reverse Neckbreaker on Kazarian gets 2. Gedo gets another tag, which almost guarantees Addiction are winning this since Okada can’t job but would obviously score the win if Chaos were the scheduled victors. BME misses…but The Addiction hit Total Elimination on Okada. Celebrity Rehab on Gedo, and sure enough it’s Daniels and Frankie who get the win at 11:47
Rating - ** - Okada might be one of the biggest names on the tour, but he did literally nothing here so can rightly be criticised for a lack of effort. He wrestled for less than a minute total in this match, which is a real shame considering he was the most over worker in it. Daniels, Kazarian and Gedo brought some workrate, but when your star player sits on the sidelines with his feet up taking a night off you aren’t ever going to accomplish much. And therein lies the problem with these joint ROH/NJPW tours. For the live fans it’s a thrill seeing these big names. But there is no value in many of their matches since they just aren’t interested in working hard, they don’t job, and all of ROH’s home talents are made to look worse for it.
Takaaki Watanabe vs Adam Page
An interesting match that pits two up-and-comers from rival promotions who have rather been stuck treading water rather than starting to climb the card. Watanabe is still waiting for a performance which gives him any kind of connection with the ROH fanbase. He started well against Jay Lethal last night, but then sort of petered out. Is tonight his night or can Page sustain some of his recent growth with a win?
Watanabe starts at a much more circumspect pace than he did last night. It isn’t all his fault though, with Page retreating any time he hints at dishing out one of his big impactful suplexes. And it works for him too, as the pop when he finally does plant Page with a German is huge. Colby Corino breaks up the party by tripping Wata from the outside…so the New Japan man marches after him and hits a GERMAN SUPLEX ON THE FLOOR! Corino Jr. is obviously in pain but he has served his purpose and created a distraction for long enough to allow Page to take control of the match. That is until Watanabe muscles his opponent all the way over the top rope! Page flips out of the German suplex on the floor though…and after Colby pings Watanabe’s head off the apron his mentor scores with the SSP OFF THE APRON! Rite Of Passage blocked for Takaaki to land a flipping back superplex for 2. Colby makes his presence felt again and this time sends Wata backwards into the Rite Of Passage – giving Page a win at 09:23
Rating - ** - I thought this was better than Watanabe’s match with Lethal at Night 1 of the War Of The Worlds double-header. The pacing was far better here, and for the first time a Ring Of Honor crowd started to really get into him. Perhaps though, that is more to do with the lingering strength of The Decade brand as a heel force than it is Watanabe’s wrestling. Page is extremely effective in the problematic ‘young veteran’ character he’s been given – and I thought he worked Colby into his act very professionally too. Constant interference can sometimes have a detrimental impact on how you are perceived by fans (hence Matt Taven’s TV Title run was a real bomb) but he managed it well here.
Adam Cole vs AJ Styles
Originally this card had Styles pencilled in against a ‘mystery opponent’. The reason for that is that ROH officials kept the slot open for Adam Cole to make his return from injury, but seemed like he wasn’t going to make it in time for his first match since Final Battle 2014. Cole crashed the opening of the show to emphatically announce his comeback, and takes the match he believes was his all along. He wants to make a statement, and he wants to get right back into the World Title mix. There’s no better way to accomplish those goals than to defeat the reigning IWGP Heavyweight Champion AJ Styles. AJ already holds a win over Cole dating back to All Star Extravaganza 6 and has thus far only lost once during this entire run in ROH, so he’ll be feeling incredibly confident.
The shoulder injury hasn’t taken away any of Adam Cole’s self-belief and he doesn’t miss an opportunity to mouth off Styles. Likewise AJ isn’t shy about testing that shoulder – with an armwrench being his first attempted move of the contest. He snaps Adam down with a neckbreaker over the knee, which of course also jars the shoulder and it’s quickly noticeable that Cole is slower to recover than you’d expect. He retreats to the floor…and catches Styles trying to come after him with an OCEAN CYCLONE INTO THE APRON! Back in the ring he gets 2 with the Shining Wizard. Doubts about his shoulder have started to ease but the former World Champion is still making a point of trying to work a slow pace in order to negate ring rust becoming a factor. He also gets most of the ECW Arena to mark out by trashing Kevin Kelly too! Unfortunately that allows AJ to capitalise and give him a snap suplex into the turnbuckles. They fight up the ropes…and Styles rattles Cole’s shoulder against the ringpost. Springboard elbow COUNTERED WITH A MID-AIR SUPERKICK! Figure 4 Leglock applied! Styles survives that, and as he crawls away referee Tiger Hattori visibly checks on Cole’s shoulder. BLOODY SUNDAY ON THE APRON! Does Cole have anything left? He beats the 20-count but his arm now hangs limp by his side. PELE KICK DODGED! SUPERKICK NAILED…FOR 2! Panama Sunrise blocked…COLE CLASH NAILED INSTEAD! AJ KICKS OUT! The IWGP Champ is in trouble and fights hard to escape the Florida Key. Phenom DDT INTO A SUPERKICK TO THE BACK OF THE HEAD! HEAD DROP GERMAN! Shining Wizard blocked….Styles Clash blocked…PELE KICK! ROLLING HOLLOW POINTS! STYLES CLAAAAAAAASH! AJ wins at 17:35
Rating - ****1/2 - They had a really good match last year, but this one emphatically topped it. Cole’s comeback from injury added a real spice to proceedings. He threw everything he had at Styles, in a match that was almost impossibly good considering how rusty Adam must have been. In an ideal world AJ could have put him over to really cement his comeback, but obviously New Japan need him protected. Instead he let Cole get in as much offence as possible, steal his own finishing move – and in the end had to completely decimate him with a Bloody Sunday on the apron, repeated Hollow Points and a Styles Clash to finally put him away. The point of the match was to leave you feeling that if Cole was 100% he could have beaten AJ – and I definitely came away with that impression.
Tape Rating - N/A - As ever, I can’t pretend to be a huge fan of giving away one of your best matches of the year for free, but given that the idea of Road Rage is to promote ROH live events to boost ticket sales and DVD/VOD buys this was probably an effective episode. Cole/AJ is a stunning match which I loved checking out just as much this time, and getting Okada onto the show for a second week in a row (even though he did nothing) is impressive too. They probably could have swapped out Page/Watanabe for something better but that seems a minor criticism.
The Addiction vs Samoa Joe/AJ Styles
20th June 2015 (Manhattan, NY) – Most assumed that Joe’s fleeting return to Ring Of Honor came to an end at Supercard Of Honor when he put Jay Briscoe over for with the World Title on the line. It looked even more likely that he’d be gone when he showed up in NXT in May. However, ROH surprised everyone by booking him for one last date – and to their credit WWE surprised a few people by allowing him to honour it. Admittedly ROH appeared to be under orders to make this a dark match – meaning it wasn’t broadcast on television – but it was taped and released as part of the most recent Samoa Joe compilation set. He bids goodbye to the indies once again, this time in a ring surrounded by his closest friends in the business. The history between he, AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels is storied, and he goes way back on the SoCal scene with Frankie Kazarian too. Of course the Tag Titles aren’t on the line, but there is pride at stake and reputations to uphold as Joe steps into an ROH ring once more in 2015…
I hope The Addiction have their working boots on, because it seems unlikely that the IWGP Champion or a WWE NXT roster member are going to want to put too much effort in. Kazarian is the first whipping boy but Daniels isn’t far behind – missing a moonsault press and getting his face smeared all over Joe’s boot. Ole Kick on Kaz! Ole Kick on Daniels! After five minutes of punishment Daniels (now known as the ‘Ring General’) has seen enough and starts taking cheap shots on AJ. Soon the Tag Champions start showing their prowess as a team as they isolate the Phenomenal One. Even when Styles things about the springboard forearm Frankie has a counter – propelling him from outside the ring into a slingshot cutter. Flux Capacitor countered to the Phenom DDT…and at last we get the hot tag to Samoa Joe. He hits the ST-Joe on Daniels, only for Kaz to prevent the Musclebuster. TOPE SUICIDA by Daniels to take out AJ! The Addiction try to team up on Joe the way they did with Styles, but he is simply too powerful. Phenomenal Forearm by Styles…before Daniels clamps him into the Koji Clutch, only for Joe to break that with a running senton. Total Elimination on Joe! PELE KICK on Kazarian! CHOKE ON DANIELS! BLOODY SUNDAY gets 2! BME COUNTERED TO A GERMAN SUPLEX by Joe! MUSCLEBUSTER! STYLES CLASH ON KAZ! They win at 15:20
Rating - *** - It was a dark match including New Japan’s Champion and a guy from WWE, so I don’t think anyone would have expected them to go too crazy here. It was formulaic and a little predictable, but I got everything out of the match that I wanted. AJ and Joe hit their big spots and got a crowd-pleasing win, The Addiction looked good as a devious heel duo – and the climactic stretch was actually very good as they all broke out their greatest hits. It was so enjoyable seeing these four guys, who’s careers have interwoven for well over a decade, have fifteen minutes in a ring together to jam together and celebrate Joe FINALLY getting a chance in the WWE spotlight which he has arguably deserved for ten years.
AJ instantly hugs Joe and raises his hand to the crowd, barely able to contain his delight for his old friend…then all four hug as the locker room empties for Joe. The man himself cuts a surprisingly heartfelt speech about the importance of Ring Of Honor then bids farewell to a standing ovation