ROH on Sinclair - Episode 388 - 22nd February 2019
The main event this week was set up in the previous episode. We are promised a 'match to be proud of' as Juice Robinson leads his new Lifeblood faction into battle against what World Champion Jay Lethal has promised will be the 'heart and soul' of Ring Of Honor in 10-man tag team action. That sounds like a fun way to spend an hour whilst the ROH roster is in Japan for the annual Honor Rising weekend. Ian Riccaboni, Colt Cabana and Caprice Coleman are ringside in Atlanta, GA.
SIDENOTE - Stick around at the end of the episode as I'll be checking out Mayu Iwatani's defence of the WOH Championship in Stardom against Konami.
Jenny Rose vs Sumie Sakai vs Madison Rayne
All three of these women are in the hunt for the Women Of Honor Championship. Rose and Sumie have already lost championship matches to champion Kelly Klein and, as this goes out in the aftermath of Mayu Iwatani dethroning 'The Gatekeeper' in Florida, all three women will know victory here is essential if they want to get in line to face Stardom's Ace.
Sakai picks a fight with both opponents to get us started and dumps Rose with a back suplex. She curtails Madison's signature pinfall flurry with a series of strikes but in doing so turns her back on Jenny, who decks them both with a double clothesline. Spinning sidewalk slam by Rose rattles Madison's skull. Sakai puts her in a Lion Tamer, buying Rayne time to recover - until she uses a sleeper hold to break Sumie's hold. Judo throw INTO a cross armbreaker by Sakai! Rayne makes the ropes...but Sumie refuses to let go as she spots referee Paul Turner tending to Jenny. German suplex from Rose to Sakai! No sold...so Rose flattens her with a clothesline as well. Fisherman buster by Sakai in response gets 2. Moonsault MISSES for the former WOH Champion, leaving her vulnerable to a Spear from Rose. Only Madison's intervention stops Jenny from grabbing the win there. Ripcord Ace Crusher takes Rose out, then a running cutter lays out Sakai as well. Madison is still struggling with the arm that Sumie injured with that cross armbreaker it seems...leaving her vulnerable to Sakai's fisherman neckbreaker. MISSILE DROPKICK OFF THE APRON! Smash Mouth blocked, then countered to an inverted DDT by Rayne...and she wins at 07:41 (shown)
Rating - ** - Hectic and cluttered at times, but when they were clicking it was great to watch the three of them beat the sh*t out of each other. Sumie in particular threw herself all over ringside with real gusto. ROH's women's division has a lot of problems but it has never felt like a lack of effort was one of them. That was very apparent here and extremely admirable.
Juice Robinson/David Finlay/Tracy Williams/Mark Haskins/Bandido vs Jay Lethal/Jonathan Gresham/Flip Gordon/Dalton Castle/Jeff Cobb
All of these men want to rebuild ROH and restore the honour and prestige that the company once enjoyed. After being teased in vignettes for some time, Lifeblood finally arrived a couple of weeks ago - revealed as a group of high skilled athletes brought together by Juice Robinson to reset the wayward ROH product. Jay Lethal too has been appalled by the violent actions of certain individuals, and of Matt Taven continuing to pose as World Champion. He has pulled together a crew consisting of his tag partner (and elite Pure wrestler) Jon Gresham, former World Champion Dalton Castle, undefeated TV Champion Jeff Cobb and young superstar/conqueror of Bully Ray, Flip Gordon. The goal of all ten men here is to deliver a classic match that ROH traditionalists would be proud of. If any members of Lifeblood do have singles championship aspirations they'll know that they could earn title shots should they pin either Lethal or Cobb tonight. Lifeblood's Tenille Dashwood joins commentary...
Lethal and Juice lead from the front and start for their respective teams. It seems that Robinson impresses Dalton Castle so much that the Party Peacock demands to be tagged in. The crowd are incessantly chanting for Bandido, making it clear what a star ROH have on their hands with him. It distracts Dalton to such an extent that Juice actually gets the jump on him. Tracy and Gresh in next to reprise the clinic they produced at Survival Of The Fittest 2018. They counter and reverse each other at breakneck speed then shake hands when they've worked to a stalemate. Back from commercials we rejoin with Lethal and Finlay effortlessly countering and dodging each other too. Haskins tags and calls out big Jeff! The Englishman uses all of his speed and cunning to repeatedly counter-strike the TV Champ, even going so far as to slap him in the face! Rarely one to lose his cool, Cobb takes Mark's best shots before simply nipping up off the canvas with a smile on his face. After ten minutes it is finally time for Bandido, who gets a rockstar welcome. Flip tags in to meet him to the delight of the audience. Flip after flip after flip follow; Gordon and Bandido going move-for-move creating a frenzied atmosphere in the building. Castle and Lethal take control, using their power and mat skill to isolate the popular luchador. Dalton is particularly striking with his muscular grappling and suplexes dominating Bandido. Hot Sauce gets a precious tag and snags Flip so Lifeblood can work him over. Haskins seems hell-bent on ripping Gordon's entire arm out of its socket; almost tapping him out with a Rings Of Saturn. Flip escapes, hitting the Springboard Sling Blade to leave them both down. Finally Lethal and Haskins lock horns and recreate their classic at Honor Re-United last year. Haskins blocks the Macho Elbow and the Figure 4, putting Lethal on his ass for the Juice Robinson cannonball. SPEAR from Finlay to Flip! GUTWRENCH POWERBOMB from Bandido to Dalton! LARIAT from Tracy to Gresham! ATHLETIC-PLEX/STANDING MOONSAULT COMBO by Cobb! Tope suicida onto everyone by Haskins as the ring empties. ROPE RUN SPRINGBOARD SWANTON TO THE FLOOR BY FLIP! TORNILLO TO THE FLOOR BY BANDIDO! ROCKET LAUNCHER CUTTER by Lethal and Gresham gets 2. Haskins is taking a beating yet somehow keeps enough about him to COUNTER THE BANG-A-RANG TO THE SHARPSHOOTER! Dalton taps! Lifeblood win at an exciting 21:49 (shown)
Rating - **** - The idea was to produce a high quality, no-nonsense multi-man tag main event and this lived up to billing. It wasn't an all-time great, and if the inspiration was the legendary Generation Next 8-Man which announced the arrival of the Shelley/Aries/Strong/Evans group then they didn't hit that mark. Obviously matches of this length on ROH TV get cut to pieces with multiple advertisement breaks and that doesn't help, but even without factoring that in the match was largely a compilation of very exciting but mostly disconnected cameos. It was really fun, albeit with very little connective dots to join it all together. The standard was exceptional for free television though, and serves as a great introduction to what Lifeblood are (or would have been) capable of.
Everyone shakes hands after the match, with the exception of Dalton Castle who remains outside the ring and out of shot. Is that significant?
NEXT WEEK - Silas Young challenges Cobb for the TV Championship.
Tape Rating - *** - The Lifeblood vs Team ROH tag is an easy watch and takes up most of the show so this is an easy broadcast to recommend. The Lifeblood angle fizzled out as 2019 progressed, but as an exhibition into how commendable ROH's recent talent recruitment has been (Cobb, Tracy, Haskins, Bandido) the main event was still mightily effective. It is only right to point out that ROH's hardcore fanbase will have been watching Lifeblood for some time by this point (via the 'Road To G1 Supercard' Texas events, or Bound By Honor 2019) so the slightly frazzled and out of sync TV versus live event story-telling is far from ideal though.
Top 5 Saturday Night At Center Stage 2019 Taping Matches
5) Jay Briscoe/Mark Briscoe vs Chuck Taylor/Colt Cabana (*** - Episode 387)
4) Nick Aldis vs PJ Black (*** - Episode 386)
3) Tracy Williams vs David Finlay (*** - Episode 385)
2) Lifeblood vs Jay Lethal/Jonathan Gresham/Flip Gordon/Dalton Castle/Jeff Cobb (**** - Episode 388)
1) Bandido vs Mark Haskins (**** - Episode 385)
Mayu Iwatani vs Konami - Women Of Honor World Title Match
Stardom - 24th February 2019 (Osaka, Japan) - After winning the WOH World Title at Bound By Honor, Mayu would make her first defence of the belt back in her home promotion of Stardom. Coincidentally, this is the same weekend that a big chunk of the ROH roster was in Tokyo for New Japan's 'Honor Rising 2019' shows. Through their partnership with Stardom, ROH was able to secure the footage from Stardom's own streaming platform as an Honor Club Exclusive. Via brief, subtitled, pre-match promos we learn that Konami plans to 'attack, attack, attack' then tap Mayu out with her Triangle Lancer submission hold. Iwatani is honoured to be defending the WOH Title in Japan, and admits she is concerned about Konami's submission skills. She wants to retain the belt tonight so that she can return to America still as the Women Of Honor Champion - with Madison Square Garden on the horizon. Ian Riccaboni provides solo commentary for this, and Todd Sinclair (who was in Japan for Honor Rising) will officiate.
Konami competes with bare feet and kickpads, and has apparently publically announced her plan to target Iwatani's injured knee. Indeed, she grabs the leg in the first few seconds and uses it to drag the champion to the ground. Mayu works hard to get back to a vertical base and soon blasts her foe with a big dropkick, followed by thunderous kicks to the spine when Konami drops to the ground. Even when Konami backs into the corner Mayu drills her with a knee across the throat. Konami fires back with big kicks to the bad knee, then an anklelock to follow. Even when the champ gets to the ropes, Konami simply wraps up her injured leg in the bottom rope and punts it again. Half crab applied next, rendering Iwatani barely able to stand. She collapses trying to run the ropes...and Konami viciously kicks at her leg still more. She uses her arms to drag herself to the middle rope, flying to land a missile dropkick even thought it hurts her to deliver it. The respite is only temporary as Konami counters another kick into a knee bar. Somehow Mayu makes the ropes, then kicks Konami in the head so hard that she falls out of the ring. PALM STRIKE by Konami when Mayu tries to climb the ropes though, then a HANGING ANKLELOCK before she can collect herself. Fisherman suplex, using the bad leg of course, into another leg grapevine. Bridging German suplex by Iwatani for 2, and her whole body sinks agonisingly to the mat when it fails to get the job done. BRUTAL basement dropkick knocks Konami to the floor again. Mayu climbs to the top and hits a SUICIDE DIVE TO THE OUTSIDE! She sends Konami and her Queen's Quest stable-mates skittling around ringside with that, and Mayu lies on the ground her own stable-mates start tending to her knee injury with spray and stretches. It seems to help as Iwatani nimbly returns to the ring with a springboard out-to-in dropkick. LEG SELLING DOUBLE STOMP NAILED! Dragon Suplex blocked...Triangle Lancer blocked...Stretch Muffler by Konami instead! Mayu reaches for the ropes...so Konami stands up into a STANDING MUFFLER! Iwatani literally claws at the mat to escape, but is hauled away into a NECK DROP GERMAN! Lancer blocked again with a couple of kicks to the head, but Mayu can barely carry her own weight. Konami clings to her leg...so Iwatani AXE STOMPS HER FACE! FROG SPLASH gets 2! Repeated stomps by Iwatani, followed by the MOONSAULT! Iwatani retains at 15:52
Rating - **** - Matches like this are why some fans have struggled to maintain interest in Ring Of Honor's inconsistent women's division. Companies like Stardom bang out bouts of this quality on a regular basis, they have their own streaming platforms, they feature world class wrestlers and they allow those wrestlers time to deliver something special. This was an enjoyable match. Not perfect, and in truth offering just a glimpse of what someone like Mayu Iwatani is truly capable of...but in terms of athleticism, execution, excitement and aggression it eclipses much of what the current ROH women's division has to offer. Iwatani was a little selective in when she sold the knee, and I didn't like Konami repeatedly looking for her arm-based submission down the stretch when she'd destroyed Mayu's knee, but even with those gripes this was a blast that flew by. If you have Honor Club there's no reason not to go and check this out. I suspect even of this writing (May 2021) it still stands as the best Women Of Honor Title match thus far.