ROH on Sinclair - Episode 458 - 26th June 2020
After we saw Rush and Dragon Lee spotlighted a few weeks ago, the third member of La Faccion Ingobernable now gets a profile episode dedicated to him. Former Tag and TV Champion Kenny King is the subject of this week's special episode.
Kenny King welcomes us to his home, where he has spent quarantine drinking whisky and training his diminutive dog.
A TV edit of Jay Lethal vs Kenny King for the ROH World Title from Global Wars 2018: Toronto is shown
Kenny says he selected that match to prove that he should be World Champion because he scored a visual pinfall on Lethal (with his feet on the ropes). He also calls his Honor Rumble victory ROH's defining moment of G1 Supercard, rather than Matt Taven winning the title. Then we see him present highlights of his Best Of 3 Series against Lethal last year, where he again proved that he is better than 'The Franchise' by winning the series 2-1.
Half an hour into the episode everyone remembers that Kenny King actually had a pretty significant and lengthy ROH career that pre-dates his 2018/19 feud with Jay Lethal. He talks about All Night Express' legendary and violent feud with the Briscoes in 2011. He'd like to show us the feud-ending Ladder War from that rivalry at Death Before Dishonor 9, but it was so violent he isn't allowed to show it on television.
A TV edit of Kushida vs Kenny King for the ROH TV Title from Death Before Dishonor 15 is shown
King says he picked that match for obvious reasons - he won the TV Title in his hometown, defeated a world class junior heavyweight competitor in Kushida to do so, then got to celebrate in the ring with his daughter.
Tape Rating - N/A - There has been so much churn on the Ring Of Honor roster through 2019 and 2020 that very few of the current group of wrestlers have much history in ROH at all. So when you do an episode spotlighting Kenny King - who made his ROH debut in 2007 - but then fail to acknowledge anything about his career before 2017 (aside from a brief snippet discussing the Briscoes/ANX feud, and even that took place in the very earliest days of Sinclair's ownership) feels hugely disappointing. The matches this week were good. King was fine as a host, smartly walking the line between maintaining his character whilst trying to inject some likeable personality and charm into his segments. There was nothing particularly remarkable or must-see about this one, and I couldn't shake the feeling that it felt like a missed opportunity to showcase some of King's more historic work to newer fans.