ROH on Sinclair – Episode 222 – 19th December 2015
The official broadcast date of this episode is December 19th, meaning that officially Final Battle is now in the books leaving us with just two ROH on SBG shows remaining to round out the year. The headline act this week is a ‘Christmas Surprise 10-man Tag’ with World Champion Jay Lethal and TV Champion Roderick Strong as team captains. What makes it festive remains to be seen however. Kevin Kelly and Prince Nana (still no signs of introducing Mr Wrestling III on television it seems) provide commentary from Nashville, TN.
Will Ferrara vs Caprice Coleman
This is a rematch from TV a few weeks ago, when Caprice brought his brash, outspoken and significantly more aggressive new persona to television and made an example of young Will. Whatever the mysterious contents of Prince Nana’s letter were, they certainly have had a motivational effect on Coleman. Now with Nana again watching from ringside he’ll be looking to do the double over Ferrara. Will is also in possession of one of Nana’s notes too (did I just miss that happening altogether?), prompting Coleman to slam him on the mic before the bell rings.
Ferrara is pissed off at Coleman’s verbiage so throws him to the floor and dives right out after him with a tope. He tries to put Caprice through a steel chair…but it’s countered with a Mind Trip INTO THE RAILING! Back in the ring Coleman counters a springboard DDT attempt with the Trinity into the turnbuckles for 2. Ferrara blocks an attempt at the Sky Splitter, before they both grab steel chairs! Simultaneously each man swings chair shots at the other…prompting the ref to call the match a no-contest at 03:21. Referees have to separate the two combatants.
Rating - N/A - It hasn’t even started properly and I’m already losing interest in Prince Nana’s letters, the ‘Age Of Enlightenment’ and whatever else is being wrapped into this strange angle. But, I won’t pretend I don’t like that it’s given Caprice more of an opportunity to showcase his skills and I like what I’ve seen from him over the last couple of months. His aggression here was great; particularly in the way he countered the same old tired spots Ferrara does all the time. They packed a lot of action into just three minutes…
Jay Lethal, Truth Martini (dressed as Santa) and Taeler Hendrix are backstage in front of a bunch of Christmas presents. Each present represents a partner for their 10-Man Tag later…so Lethal picks the biggest box. He wants it to be Moose, but is left enraged when it turns out to be Cheeseburger.
Donovan Dijak/Ken Phoenix vs All Night Express
Since it is Christmas, Truth Martini is giving ‘The Outlaw’ Ken Phoenix a chance to earn a spot in the House Of Truth. His job is to impress Martini, whilst teaming with Dijak, to take on the All Nights – technically fresh off their huge win at Final Battle thus making them #1 contenders for the Tag Titles.
In his bid to impress Truth, Phoenix obviously wants to start for his team. Things don’t go well for him as he struggles to deal with Titus and needs Dijak to provide an assist from the outside to turn the table. Donovan electric chair drops Rhett into the apron…then cleans his block with a mafia kick right. The makeshift HOT duo isolate Titus and even start innovating some double team spots for good measure. But Ken refuses to let Dijak captain the team or tag in…then cocks up allowing Rhett to make the tag to King. Kenny takes down The Outlaw with a corkscrew pescado…as inside the ring Donovan folds his partner in half with the chokeslam backbreaker. Ken forcibly tags his way in to profit from that, but is put down with a rather clumsy backbreaker/slingshot corkscrew press combo. ANX win at 05:17
Rating - ** - This was a pointless match on a show which quite literally means nothing since it was pre-taped weeks earlier. Against that backdrop this was actually rather likeable. Obviously it wasn’t great, memorable or even worth going out of your way to see – but as someone that watches every show I didn’t hate this. I like the idea of the House Of Truth offering out spots to new talent – and it’s something they’ve done multiple times through previous iterations of the stable, going all the way back to the Roderick Strong days.
Martini polls the audience on whether Phoenix did enough to earn a spot. Quite predictably they turn Ken down…and Dijak duly decimates him with Feast Your Eyes. Prince Nana slips one of his mysterious envelopes to Dijak as he walks out.
Kevin Kelly brings Steve Corino to the ring for a festive interview, with Corino fresh off the neck surgery he spoke about last time we saw him on television (and sporting a heavy neck brace as a result). The neck surgery apparently went well, and he leaves with words of warning for BJ Whitmer.
Roderick Strong/Cedric Alexander/Mark Briscoe/Moose/Matt Jackson vs Jay Lethal/Cheeseburger/Adam Page/Cliff Compton/Jay Briscoe
This is dubbed a ‘Christmas Surprise’ match, with the teams selected at random via the medium of festive presents (as we got a glimpse of with Lethal earlier in the hour). The two line-ups have certainly thrown up some intriguing combinations. Cedric Alexander teams with two men (Moose and Roddy) that he has feuded extensively with – and injured – in the past. Jay Briscoe is forced to team with the man that took his World Title from him, as well as Page who tried to make a name at his expense this year too. We have Briscoes on opposing teams; something which usually doesn’t end well for anyone, Lethal and Strong continuing their great rivalry once again…plus the wildcard of Cliff Compton stopping by for another appearance before medical issues would force him to retire. Nick Jackson, Taeler Hendrix, Truth Martini, Stokely Hathaway, BJ Whitmer and Colby Corino are all at ringside.
Strong and Jay start, reigniting a competitive rivalry which stretches back years and years. Somehow that segment ends with Page getting booted off the apron by Matt Jackson…as his own partners Jay Briscoe and Cheeseburger laugh about it. Lethal steps in and works back and forth at a frantic pace with Cedric (he also can’t resist having words with Jay Briscoe at the same time). Compton and Mark decide they want to fight on the floor (just because)…and Cliffy tosses Mark through the air with a huge back body drop whilst out there. Mark wants to use a steel chair, Cliff wants to use a table and Todd Sinclair fights for control as he go to commercials. When we come back we are greeted with the comical sight of one-armed Cheeseburger trying to take the fight to Moose. Cheese stands no chance of course and the only reward for his bravery is Roderick body slamming every single one of his partners down on top of him. The crowd roar with delight as Burger somehow escapes the clutches of multiple opponents in order to make a hot tag to Jay Briscoe. DVD takes out Moose…and in comes Mark to fight his brother! They repeatedly punt each other in the face, culminating in an emphatic Roaring Elbow by Jay. SHOOTING STAR OFF THE APRON by Page! EARLY ONSET ALZHEIMER’S BY MOOSE AND MATT! Go To Hell on Page! 450 SPLASH by Matt gets 2 before being broken by Cheeseburger…who then has to fight all five opponents at once. SHOTEI ON MOOSE! SHOTEI ON MATT! SHOTEI ON RODDY! FLYING SHOTEI ON CEDRIC! HITSTICK! LETHAL INJECTION! SUPERKICK! SICK KICK! BRAINBUSTER BY CEDRIC! SUPERKICK THROUGH A TABLE FROM MATT TO COMPTON! END OF HEARTACHE ON PAGE! FROGGY BOW! Mark wins it for his team at 14:12 (shown).
Rating - *** - The last minute was nuts (and undoubtedly the most entertaining Cheeseburger has been since Night Of Hoopla last year) and as a package this was good fun without getting too deep or bogged down by detail. I’m hugely disappointed Page was the guy chosen to take the loss, and feel that as usual Delirious is completely mismanaging him (and any buzz he had after that great TV match with Jay Briscoe a few weeks ago) but in a tough spot on a filler episode this was very decent.
Tape Rating - ** - Airing the day after Final Battle but taped weeks earlier, this episode really was in an impossible position. Therefore it is to the immense credit of all involved that you really could see an obvious effort to ‘make the best of it’ and do something interesting and fun with every match. Is Nana’s ‘letters’ angle particularly good – obviously not. However, what they did with Coleman/Ferrara in the opener was interesting. Do we care about Ken Phoenix – probably not. But adding the ‘House Of Truth’ trial element to a filler tag match against ANX added some spice to that. And the action-packed, non-stop ten man main event ended the broadcast on a high note. Obviously this episode is an undeniable hour of filler that you don’t need to see…but at least it felt like ROH knew this too and did their best to make it as tolerable as possible.
Top 5 Road To Final Battle 2015: Nashville TV Taping Matches
5) Roderick Strong vs Samson Walker (*** - Episode 220)
4) reDRagon vs Silas Young/Beer City Bruiser (*** - Episode 220)
3) Matt Sydal/ACH vs RPG Vice (*** - Episode 221)
2) Team Strong vs Team Lethal (*** - Episode 222)
1) Young Bucks vs Jay Briscoe/Mark Briscoe (*** - Episode 220)