ROH on Sinclair – Episode 219 – 28th November 2015
This is the final Glory By Honor 14 episode, and the first following the cancellation of the Destination America TV deal. Our scheduled main event is Adam Cole taking on Dalton Castle, but things can change awfully quickly can’t they? Final Battle isn’t far away at all now, so we really need to see the ROH promotional machine kick into top gear. Kevin Kelly, Nigel McGuinness and Mark Briscoe are at ringside to call the action from Kalamazoo, MI.
Adam Page vs Will Ferrara
The Decade are sulking because Nigel McGuinness just banned them from Final Battle. It means that Ferrara is the man in the firing line as they look to vent their anger this evening. Page in particular may feel annoyed about the situation, as his removal from Final Battle is technically purely a result of his association with BJ Whitmer rather than anything he has directly done…
Page jumps Ferrara during his entrance, but finds the young man resilient to that onslaught and willing to swing plenty of fists back in his direction. That infuriates Page further…and he bashes Will’s head against the ringpost to punish him. He then turns his lights out with a roaring elbow and gives him a bridging wrist clutch exploder for 2. Rite Of Passage blocked with a swinging neckbreaker, and Ferrara scores with a Code Red out of the corner. Ferrara takes out both Page and Whitmer with a tope suicida, which greatly annoys BJ. With Colby Corino distracting the ref he tosses a crutch into the ring, only for Ferrara to grab it and lamp Page across the head. He snatches an unlikely win at 04:07!
Rating - * - There was nothing you need to go out of your way to see here, but I did like the direction they took with Page’s attitude and ring work. As with every other ‘character direction’ he’s been given since joining the roster, Page struck the perfect tone and looked superb trying to bully Ferrara.
BJ Whitmer storms into the ring and hurls the official down, prompting Mark Briscoe to jump up from the announce table and chase him away.
The Addiction arrive at ringside for an interview with Kevin Kelly, and call him the voice of a company which is biased against them. As a result they are going to take a leave of absence and head to New Japan Pro Wrestling…but promise to come back and regain the Tag Titles.
Highlights of Cheeseburger’s victory over Tim Hughes are shown, before we rejoin the ‘live’ action as Bob Evans breaks Cheese’s hand by stomping it in a chair. ‘Terrible Tim’ wants Bob to cut CB’s arm off with a saw – which obviously doesn’t happen. They meet in a Youtube-exclusive pre-show match before the Final Battle PPV goes live.
An upset Jay Lethal is next into the arena. He runs down Roderick despite losing to him last week, then turns his attention to praising AJ Styles. As much as he respects AJ, he now thinks he is the better man because he holds the ROH Title – something AJ has never attained. Styles makes his way to the ring and suggests it’s good that he lost the TV Title, because he’ll need to fully focus on their Final Battle match if he is to have a chance. They end the segment sharing an intense handshake…
STORYTIME WITH ADAM COLE – Adam announces that his grudge match with Kyle O’Reilly at Final Battle has been officially signed.
A video package runs through most of the Final Battle card, dropping in that Roderick Strong’s first TV Title defence has been signed; Bobby Fish challenging him at the big show.
Now it is main event time, meaning we should see Adam Cole and Dalton Castle ramping up their preparations for Final Battle. Cole brings the rest of The Kingdom with him…and The Boys sprint to the ring looking to help Dalton. But Silas Young is their keeper now and he arrives to eject them from ringside before the bell rings. Dalton does his best to fight the entire Kingdom, but numbers eventually count against him. Todd Sinclair throws the match out as all three male Kingdom members stomp Castle into the ground. War Machine have seen enough and march up the aisle. Sensing a chance to soften up their Final Battle opponents they instigate a hastily arranged trios match to end the show.
Adam Cole/Michael Bennett/Matt Taven vs Dalton Castle/Hanson/Raymond Rowe
War Machine smell blood and want to launch a pre-emptive strike against Bennett and Taven; the men they challenge for the ROH Tag Titles in a couple of weeks. Cole wants a win and a strong performance to send a potent message to Kyle O’Reilly, who missed these tapings due to a New Japan tour. Castle himself has been tearing through opponents as he struggles to come to terms with losing The Boys to Silas Young. For all the talk of Adam Cole being a future World Title challenger, Castle could actually leapfrog him in the queue if he gets a big win here.
Bodies quickly spill all over the ringside area with guardrail bumps a-plenty. Inside the ring Hanson decks Cole with the cartwheel lariat, only to be crotched against the post by the Tag Champions. At times it takes all three men but gradually The Kingdom do start to wear Hanson down. Some uneventful finish pass with everyone on total cruise control, building to a completely heat-less hot tag to Ray Rowe who smashes his way through all that cross his path. Castle and Taven jostle over a Tombstone Piledriver, with Dalton winning out and dropping the former TV Champion on his head. Rowe mows down the other two with DOUBLE Shotgun Knees! Hanson scrambles up the ropes for a SOMERSAULT SENTON TO THE FLOOR! Path Of Resistance…Everest German…HANSON SPLASH! Bennett and Taven make a last ditch rescue on their fallen comrade. Panama Sunrise blocked! Bang-A-Rang blocked! LAST SHOT! Kingdom win at 10:11 (shown).
Rating - ** - Meh, this was totally average. I like all of these guys and I appreciate the effort they made to build everyone up for Final Battle, but obviously my preference would have been to see the advertised Cole/Castle match. This one had a hot last minute but was a whole heap of average before that.
Tape Rating - * - I actually found this episode quite a hard one to rate. In terms of in-ring content there were only two matches and neither of them were very good. But as an elongated commercial for Final Battle it was relatively effective. As a result I can’t write this off as a completely wasted hour of television, but it has little or no re-watch value.
Top 5 Glory By Honor 14 TV Taping Matches
5) Adam Cole/Michael Bennett/Matt Taven vs Dalton Castle/War Machine (** - Episode 219)
4) War Machine vs Silas Young/Beer City Bruiser (** - Episode 217)
3) Michael Bennett/Matt Taven vs The Addiction (*** - Episode 217)
2) ACH vs Cedric Alexander (*** - Episode 216)
1) Jay Lethal vs Roderick Strong (**** - Episode 218)