Ring of Honor Wrestling
March 24th, 2012
Last week, my DVR told me to go to hell, so, no ROH Recap. Did you miss it? By, “you” I only mean Martin Shaw, as I reckon he’s the only one still reading these. SUP KON?
Interested in voting in a March Madness Bracket for wrestling promos? There’s still time to vote in the Round of 16 over at Spinebuster.com
Let’s get on with this.
An in-ring interview to start the show, I like it. Unfortunately, Jim Cornette is boring and about to call out a lot of boring dudes. First, Roderick Strong. He has a grey t-shirt with a blue shield on it. Oh, that’s not a pertinent detail? Next, DIE HARD, Eddie Edwards! Eddie needs a new fuckin’ nickname. If you’re not going to have him quoting the movies, there’s no point calling the man Die Hard.
And last, and most certainly NOT least when we’re talking about boring, the ROH Champ Davey Richards.
Davey says he doesn’t need to come out here and hype the match. Uh, yes, you do. Things I’m not buying? The iPPVs. I’ll give the 2 dollar DGUSA show a shot instead.
Roderick calls Davey an “MMA mother” and Cornette told him to watch his mouth. They didn’t bleep anything after “mother” so I assume that Cornette just doesn’t want Roderick to point out how Davey is the MMA version of a soccer mom, driving Kyle O’Reily to MMA practice and baking cookies for all his matches.
Lethal comes out…then calls someone a “BUTT MUNCH” and Cornette says to watch the language. Really? Lethal beat Strong, so he wants in this three-way. C’mon man, you don’t want to be in that bore-fest.
Kevin Steen comes out. Steen is going to win the World Title at some point, he says. He leaves, so the boring dudes start to point at each other in the ring. But, hey, we at least opened with a promo segment and not a squash match…which is huge improvement format wise.
Next, Charlie Haas running his mouth about laying out the Briscoes with chairs. Shelton usually is pretty bad at promos, and his delivery wasn’t great, but, his lines were fine here. He calls Caprice Coleman and Cedric Alexander C & C Wrestling Factory. Then, tells them they’re going to get beat on National TV, but, if they don’t get out of line, they won’t bash their brains in. Which is a solid line.
Caprice Coleman needs mic time every damn show. His delivery is so much better than anyone else on the roster. They take issue with WGTT considering this a warm-up for Atlanta.
Wrestlings Greatest Tag Team vs. C & C Wrestling Factory
Haas rolls out wearing his sunglasses indoors and presumably at night. Heel turn complete, ya’ll.
Coleman’s reaction to Shelton’s sarcastic playful tap on the cheek after the handshake was pretty money. Caprice gets a couple pin attempts early, the first frustrates Shelton, the second angers him and clotheslines Coleman. Would have liked a sustained bit of WGTT working over Coleman after that, hopefully we get some of that later. But, a good start to working in the C & C taking offense to being a warmup aspect.
We quickly get Haas and Alexander in. Haas tries to get cocky, to his detriment. Benjamin tries to make a save, but, Coleman’s back in and C & C double drop kick him and then hit a pair of dives to the outside. Eventually, Alexander starts to get doubled by WGTT and they go to break.
After the break, hey, Benjamin is still in advantage, and the replay shows Benjamin hitting a gutbuster on Alexander when he goes for a move from the top. WGTT working on the midsection of Alexander, Haas gets him in an abdominal stretch. As Alexander tries to work his way out, Haas makes a blind tag. Alexander does flip the hold, but, to no avail as Benjamin leaps in. Nice spot there.
Eventually we hit the hot tag to Coleman. C & C then are gonna make them sweat, but, WGTT are having none of dancing now, as they turn it around after the hot tag beatdown by C & C. They look to take the win, but, C & C get benefited by a Things that make you go hmmmm moment when the Briscoes come out and lay out Haas with a steel chair. C & C steal the win!
Good, because that was like 8 minutes, and I need a 15 minute match between these two. WGTT as heels seem like they realize what they did not as faces…that wrestling matches should have structure and drama. And C & C look solid. But, I’m not wishful thinking here, as I burned through three C & C Music Factory references in that last paragraph.
Some hot chick comes out and has her microphone stolen by Shelton Benjamin. I probably would have let the lady talk if I was Shelton. She looks witty. But, I’d also know that I was Shelton Benjamin and I’m not good at mic work. Shelton, however, does not have that sort of self-recognition, so he growls out some words.
We get more hype for Showdown in the Sun.
Then, we get whatever an antonym of hype is as we get a Lance Storm promo where he shows off a couple moves in the ring against some random dude. Storm talks about how it’s a privilege or some such. Bennett then talks.
Bennett seems like a nice enough dude. He just doesn’t really pull this sports-entertainment thing off.
Briscoes come over to speak with Kevin Kelly. Mark is going to be the momma AND the daddy for WGTT at Showdown in the Sun. Yes sir!
Jim Cornette is in the broadcast booth. They actually have a pretty solid broadcast booth in this TV Tapings Arena these days. The set-up is kind of slick. Unfortunately, they only used it so far to have Kyle O’Reily growl down Adam Cole last week.
Michael Elgin vs. Adam Cole
Main Event time, and this is part of their March Mayhem shindig, where they have four first round matchups and then one Final Four match with the winners.
Here’s to hoping they realize that neither of these guys is served well with a back and forth vapid match.
O’Reily is in the booth, Cornette left, and he calls Cole’s pin of Davey in that 9th Anniversary tag match a fluke. Which is true. I mean, come on, Davey just no-sold all sorts of crazy shit and then a cross body finishes him off?! Crazy.
Elgin takes advantage with a suplex into the second turnbuckle. Elgin works over the back. Commercial time. Elgin still working on the back after the break. Belly to Belly by Elgin. This is a pretty solid match and Kevin Kelly and Kyle O’Reily are doing their best Tony Schiavone during a lucha match. Chinbreaker, Cole running, Elgin cuts him off and kicks the back. Then stretches it out. O’Reily is rambling about how he didn’t select Cole as a partner.
Cole eventually DDTs Elgin onto the apron and O’Reily opines that they both might be in trouble. Really? I can buy Nigel saying that. But, wouldn’t O’Reily expect a guy to hop back up from that? O’Reily knows what trouble is in a wrestling match?! Shock of the night there.
Sunset flip powerbomb and splash from the top by Cole gets a 2…and, now, we get Roderick Strong out for some interference. Strong kicks the shit out of Elgin, though, and Cole rolls him up for the win.
Strong and Elgin attacking Cole. Eddie Edwards comes out to help Cole. March Mayhem continues next week, plus, they have some iPPVs Friday and Saturday. Finish doesn’t really help sell the Showdown in the Sun PPV, does it? I guess since O’Reily walked out of the booth instead of going to help Cole?
Not a bad TV show, though. Neither match was great, but, both were good and worked like wrestling matches should be. Not just move exhibitions. The C & C/WGTT match actually made me want to see another match between those two teams. Which is what a television match should do, but, ROH so rarely pulls off. The Main Event had solid moments.
Wow, I got through that Recap with what feels like very little negativity. The hell is going on?!
