ROH on Sinclair – Episode 212 – 14th October 2015
New content alert! The fact that it has been almost a month since All Star Extravaganza aired is pretty inexcusable, although I do concede that the blow has been softened by some really strong episodes featuring New Japan talent over the last fortnight. We were supposed to be getting a big double main event, but the Briscoe/Page No DQ Match they definitely advertised last week has been pushed back. The other scheduled match – Jay Lethal defending the TV Title against Takaaki Watanabe – does go ahead though. We are taping in San Antonio, TX – with Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino at the announce table.
ACH vs Matt Sydal – Best Of 5 Series Match 4
Obviously this was taped the night after the All Star Extravaganza pay-per-view, which means that technically these two have knocked out the first four matches in their Best Of 5 Series in the span of a single week. ACH enters with a 2-1 lead. The first match was evenly fought and fiercely contested before Sydal took the win. Match #2 in Chicago saw Sydal showcase his class, quality and big-time experience to completely dominate the contest, before suffering a shock, quick-fire loss at the end; ACH winning with something of a “puncher’s chance” closing salvo. That took them to All Star Extravaganza and match #3 – where ACH’s growing confidence meant he discovered ways to counteract Sydal’s skills, and took him to another victory with the devastating Midnight Star. In effect, despite being the aggressor for the majority of the first three encounters Sydal is 1-2 down in the series and now faces an ultra-confident, rapidly improving opponent who possesses a finishing move he has thus far found no answer to. All the pressure is on the former WWE star…
ACH mockingly throws up Sydal’s ‘Peace’ sign, effectively gesturing that he has two wins in the series. Matt doesn’t look impressed and makes a point of embarrassing his some-time tag partner on the canvas before getting right in his face. ACH tries to cockily backflip out of a headscissors…so Sydal gets on him again with a big dropkick! And AGAIN Matt doesn’t let ACH rest, charging again to boot him into the guardrails. REBOUND HEADSTAND HEADSCISSORS by ACH! Sydal is really struggling with his temper now; missing some wild kick attempts before ACH flies into a huge double stomp on his neck and shoulder. A frantic standing moonsault attempt is similarly blocked as we go to commercials. When we come back we see ACH smashing into the veteran again with his PK Kick from the apron – again right on the shoulder. Springboard move attempted by ACH…but countered with a spinning heel kick by Matt leaving them both down. KICK TO THE HEAD by Sydal! Delivered with such force that referee Paul Turner has to check that ACH hasn’t been knocked out cold! A flurry of pinfall attempts don’t put the younger man away…and ACH hits back again with the Hero’s Grip for 2. He goes for another top rope double stomp…Sydal tries to counter with a standing leap frankensteiner…SO ACH SOMERSAULTS OUT AND GIVES HIM A ROARING ELBOW! FATALITY…for 2! Sydal is jeered for fleeing the ring when ACH sets up the Midnight Star, but ACH simply hops down and ploughs right into him with the RUNNING MOONSAULT TO THE FLOOR! Matt comes up swinging knee strikes…BACK FLIP KICK BY ACH! BRAINBUSTER! MIDNIGHT STAR…BUT SYDAL BLOCKS IT AT LAST! HEAD DROP REVERSE RANA! SYDAL PRESS NAILED! SYDAL WINS! 11:38 (shown) is your time, and the series is tied at 2-2.
Rating - **** - This Best Of 5 really is one of my favourite things Ring Of Honor have done all year. Even condensed down and chopped up for a TV broadcast these two just absolutely killed it, combining exciting wrestling with some brilliantly layered story-telling…producing one of the best SBG episode opening matches EVER. I’ve praised him heavily throughout the four matches thus far, but Sydal was again completely brilliant here. He was faultless in the role of agitated, angry and defensive veteran getting swarmed and overtaken by a younger, hotter act. Everything he did in this match was tinged with the kind of aggression and desperation that he just didn’t show at the start of the series in Dearborn. Remember match #1 when ACH said ‘I need this more than you’? After four matches the tables had completely turned – story-telling at its very finest. I also thought the parallels between this one and match #2 were brilliant. This one saw ACH dominating for long periods, only to lose to a burst of offence by his opponent right at the death just as Sydal experienced in Chicago. I cannot wait for the conclusion to this…
Begrudgingly ACH and Sydal shake hands…before The Addiction and Chris Sabin run in to attack them both. They both get sent packing to Celebrity Rehab. Daniels and Kaz are pissed off at having been robbed of the Tag Titles and want justice. All Night Express interrupt them to point out that the only team who can legitimately claim not to have been beaten for the Tag Titles is them before laying down a challenge…which is confirmed after the commercials as booked for next week
Silas Young and Beer City Bruiser (sigh) are out next – dragging out Dalton’s Boys behind them. They are in wrestling gear (which Silas doesn’t like obviously), and their first ‘Real Man’ lesson from him is a tag match…
Silas Young/Beer City Bruiser vs The Boys
Young gained ownership of The Boys as a result of his All Star Extravaganza win over Dalton Castle. He wants to show them how to be real men, and lesson one is how to take an ass kicking apparently. This won’t be quite as one-sided as it may seem, as The Boys are legitimate tag team wrestlers the Tate Twins…but this will certainly be something of a baptism of fire for them as far as in-ring ROH competition goes. Just to flag, since they are identical twins I have no way of telling them apart. I also think they are just referred to as Boy #1 and Boy #2 in ROH – not Brandon or Brent Tate.
Bruiser murders one of The Boys with a Back Drop Driver then flattens them both with a fatty avalanche in the corner. BCB climbs the ropes but misses the fatty frog splash! The Boys start doing Dalton Castle’s headbutt spot on Beer City…so Young tries his best to kill one of them with the slingshot swinging neckbreaker. Misery on the other one gives Silas the win.
Rating - N/A - Short, sweet, and an effective introduction into the kind of treatment The Boys can expect at the hands of Silas Young. Like I said, ROH really need to invest some time and effort into filming some vignettes and skits with Young and The Boys. It could provide some real entertainment. If they limit this angle to him simply being a dick to them during the same old matches he usually has then it will go down as a massive wasted opportunity.
Truth Martini and Jay Lethal have some harsh words for Watanabe ahead of the main event…
INSIDE ROH – Mandy Leon reviews Adam Cole’s turn on Kyle O’Reilly at the pay-per-view. reDRagon get interview time to call Jay Lethal a sham champion, and declare Cole to be the most wanted man in ROH. Adam himself gets promo time too…and is so good that he almost makes the whole turn angle seem less stupid. His plan is to expose O’Reilly as inferior to him.
Jay Lethal vs Takaaki Watanabe – ROH TV Title Match
Although he just wrestled his final live events as part of the Reloaded Tour, since this has taken a month to get to air this one technically serves as Watanabe’s ROH farewell before he heads back to New Japan. He earned the right to challenge Lethal for the TV Title by surprisingly winning the contendership gauntlet at Field Of Honor. Can he score a huge upset and take the belt back to Japan with him?
Clearly Lethal is at least concerned about the power of the challenger, and acts quickly to negate it by blind-siding him after the Code Of Honor. Interestingly, despite the BS finishes to both his matches yesterday Jay is pretty much a babyface in the eyes of the Texan fans. Wata survives that early punishment and sets about methodically beating the champion into the dirt. Truth Martini has to help his client – tripping Watanabe off the apron so that Lethal can hit the Tope Trifecta. Jay bullies Watanabe; closed-fist-punching him on multiple occasions then heaving him into the guardrails to press home his advantage. Even when he resorts to basic rest-holds trying to get a reaction from the fans they still wildly cheer Lethal which makes for a unique atmosphere. HEAD DROP GERMAN SUPLEX by Watanabe! He winds up the big lariat…and eventually levels the champ with it after he fails with an attempted Lethal Injection. Martini distracts Watanabe as he prepares for the Evil STO, and Jay finishes him off with a low blow and the Lethal Injection at 08:32 (shown).
Rating - * - The amount of interference Jay Lethal needed to beat Watanabe, who has been presented as a complete nobody on ROH Television, was laughable. As usual, Delirious has a complete phobia of letting a heel go over clean…and should be embarrassed by his decision to have his Undisputed Champion need quite so much help to win this one. It also makes no sense that they gave this one so little time either. Watanabe had a decent match with Michael Elgin in the run-up to this taping, and with the end of his excursion approaching deserved more than a measly eight minutes for the biggest match of his run. The Silas/Boys segment should have been pushed to another week to give this more time. This was safe, forgettable and thoroughly flat.
As Lethal tries to celebrate the San Antonio crowd (who spent the whole match cheering for him remember) decide to heckle him with chants of ‘AJ Styles’…
NEXT WEEK – We finally do get the Briscoe/Page No DQ Match
Tape Rating - *** - There was some good stuff within this broadcast, obviously with ACH/Sydal at the very top of that list. Their match was absolutely outstanding, to the extent that I preferred it to their PPV encounter from the prior evening. I also liked Adam Cole’s promo during Inside ROH, the Addiction/ANX segment was well-done, and the first interactions between Silas and The Boys was entertaining enough as well. I can’t leave this paragraph behind without pointing out how much of a huge disappointment the main event was though. Watanabe’s excursion has been pretty rubbish on the whole, but decent matches with the likes of Elgin and Roderick Strong have proven he can go if actually given the platform to deliver something meaningful. He didn't get that with this main event, meaning his tenure ended on a resoundingly flat note. He’ll be back in the future, but under the ‘EVIL’ persona he adopted following his return to NJPW.