ROH on Sinclair – Episode 203 – 12th August 2015
We have FINALLY escaped New York City and Best In The World weekend. We now pick up the TV tapings which took place the day after the Death Before Dishonor iPPV, in what was technically termed the Baltimore leg of the ‘Aftershock Tour’. Our scheduled main event tonight is The Kingdom of Michael Bennett and Matt Taven facing reDRagon. Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino will provide commentary in Baltimore, MD.
Takaaki Watanabe vs ACH
Even Kevin Kelly, who is perhaps the densest human being ever to walk the earth, has picked up on ACH’s abysmal track record in high profile matches. He declares that ACH’s career is at a ‘crossroads’ after his devastating loss to Adam Page at Death Before Dishonor, and he has a point. A victory over Watanabe is essential tonight, and it won’t be easy. The New Japan athlete needs a win himself, since his United States excursion has been a real flop thus far.
For some reason ACH thinks he can trade strikes with Watanabe…and EVIL is more than happy to let him try. ACH actually does better than you might think but it’s only when he starts back flipping and throwing dropkicks that he finally manages to knock Wata off his feet. PK Kick wipes Watanabe out on the floor before we break for commercials. When we come back he is trying to attack Takaaki’s taped up right arm, which the Japanese athlete sells surprisingly well. RUNNING MOONSAULT TO THE FLOOR – RIGHT ON THE SHOULDER! NO SOLD! LARIATOOOOO! Using the bad arm as well! Watanabe’s arm gives out on him again as he tries a fisherman buster though. ACH BACK FLIPS OFF THE RINGPOST! But Wata simply comes up behind him for a GERMAN SUPLEX ON THE FLOOR! Arm-selling fisherman buster gets 2. Evil STO blocked into a brainbuster, followed by the Midnight Star. ACH wins at 07:11
Rating - *** - Well that was better than anyone was expecting. It was, by some distance, Watanabe’s best Ring Of Honor match. There was no filler here as they quite literally beat the hell out of each other from the very opening bell. The work on Wata’s arm was also a lot more thorough than you might predict given how brief the bout was too. Sure they did the occasional ‘fighting spirit’ no sell spot, but you never felt like it wasn’t relevant to proceedings and I really appreciated that. What an unexpectedly bright way to begin this round of television tapings!
Bobby Fish makes a reference to drinking his own urine that neither I, nor his own tag partner, seem to understand. The point of the interview is that they plan to ‘run over’ The Kingdom tonight.
EARLIER TODAY – Nigel McGuinness welcomes the crowd to the arena. He addresses the lack of a finish to the Lethal/Strong title match, and books the rematch for the Aftershock Tour event in Philadelphia. He even goes one step further by announcing Kyle O’Reilly as the #1 contender for the next pay-per-view event (All Star Extravaganza), where he will meet the winner of that rematch. That same night TV Title #1 contender Bobby Fish will also get his championship opportunity.
Donovan Dijak/J. Diesel vs War Machine
I’ll say again, who on earth keeps booking Diesel? And why is he being allowed to drag down the reasonable prospect that is Donovan Dijak? They are the underdogs here, particularly as Hanson and Rowe enter this extremely motivated after a big loss to the Bullet Club last week on TV.
House Of Truth start superbly with a big boot/spinebuster combo on Rowe…but he doesn’t waste any time in hitting back; delivering the Cement Mixer on Dijak. Double Bronco Buster by Hanson follows that, only for him to be wiped out with a discus boot from Donovan. Ray Rowe Superman Punches Diesel, but he responds by dragging him to the floor and into the guardrails. TIGER SPLASH from Hanson to Dijak! SPIN KICK OF DOOM on Diesel! Fallout wins it for War Machine at 04:51
Rating - ** - This was actually much better than you might expect as well. Diesel was sensibly kept out of the action for the most part, although that had the negative impact of making Dijak (the actual talent of the duo) have to take all the bumps and punishment for his team. They also used this as a vessel to hype an upcoming Lethal/Hanson TV Title match which I really liked. What could have been a spectacular waste of television time actually became rather productive filler.
Lethal, on commentary, cuts a phenomenal promo hyping his pending TV Title defence against Hanson. He’s on his feet and screaming himself horse…and it really sucks viewers into the impression that this is a major event.
Up next it’s time for another Decade segment. First Adam Page (who’s performance at Death Before Dishonor was so impressive he actually gets a few cheers during his entrance) crushes a training seminar attendee in circa twenty seconds, then we get more BJ Whitmer promo time. He encourages Page to call out Jay Briscoe (who according to Kelly and Corino isn’t in the building). It ends with Whitmer getting in Corino’s face again then demanding Nigel McGuinness have him taken off commentary for putting his hands on him at the New York taping…
Michael Bennett/Matt Taven vs reDRagon
As we know given the events of last week’s main event, tensions are running high between The Kingdom, reDRagon and The Addiction. Daniels and Kazarian have antagonised both rival parties, and last week wound up in a fight with the combined forces of O’Reilly, Fish and Cole…with Bennett, Taven and Maria watching from the stage. Both of these teams want another match with The Addiction with the Tag Titles on the line. Maria has publicly stated that she and Mike Bennett may well leave ROH at the end of the year and wants to get tag team gold on their resume before they depart. Is this an unofficial #1 contendership challenge?
Adam Cole joins commentary for the main event – something that the rest of The Kingdom knew nothing about. He is here to watch four of his ‘friends’ compete and is impressed as Kyle swiftly traps Taven in the Arm-ageddon. Bennett struggles too; getting battered with kicks from Bobby Fish. reDRagon continue to dominate, with O’Reilly hitting the FLYING KNEE TO THE FLOOR! Maria has no choice but to interject, luring Kyle into a trap and enabling The Kingdom to hit a springboard enziguri/apron Spear combo! They try to isolate O’Reilly, with a heat segment that includes a slightly odd Rock/Stone Cold parody sequence. They never truly keep O’Reilly on the canvas though, with him continually mounting comebacks like a strike flurry or grabbing a submission stretch briefly to show he still has fight left. The hot tag to Bobby eventually comes of course – and he steams in to give Taven the turnbuckle exploder. Matt slides away from Chasing The Dragon…before Bennett scoops Kyle up for the backpack stunner/bicycle kick combo. Twist Of Fate/Swanton Bomb combo gets 2! Hail Mary blocked though, into the Double Dragon! Axe & Smash countered to a superkick from Mike! Running elbow by Fish! Jumping enzi by Taven! Kyle lines up the Jawbreaker Lariat, only to be superkicked FROM THE FLOOR by Bennett! HAIL MARY ON THE FLOOR destroys O’Reilly! Adam Cole is livid! Fish is left fighting by himself, and soon falls victim to the Hail Mary inside the ring. The Kingdom win at 13:02 (shown).
Rating - *** - A thoroughly decent main event. I say decent, because we all know they could probably produce a better match if asked, but for the most part they worked a sensible and solid formulaic tag which ticked all the relevant storyline boxes. The Cole/Kingdom storyline is one of the more interesting angles ROH are running with at present and although I’m not totally on board with how they’ve wrapped O’Reilly into it as well (it feels like Cole and The Kingdom benefit far more from his involvement than he does) watching the slow burn on their apparent unravelling is legitimately keeping me entertained right now.
The Kingdom try to assault Bobby Fish further after the bell, only to be prevented by Adam Cole as the show goes off the air.
Tape Rating - *** - This was a good show. Watanabe/ACH was a breathless opening match, Jay Lethal was superb in his interactions with Hanson to make even a filler match featuring J. Diesel seem relevant, once again The Decade produced some aggressive and slightly edgy (for SBG ROH) television in their segment…and the main event gave four immensely competent workers enough time and space to entertain without setting the place alight and burning out the audience. Whisper it quietly, but Ring Of Honor’s televised product has actually been quite enjoyable for large parts of 2015 so far!