Thought Zero – I didn’t get a chance to see the Ring of Honor 15th Anniversary show on March 10, 2017, but I will run down the results at the end of this column if you would be so kind and stick around. Let’s get to it.
1) Today’s announce team is Ian Riccaboni and Alex Shelley. At least, I hope Shelley stays there through the show. I am getting quite tired of the multiple color guys. Just pick someone and be done with it.
2) First match out of the gate is a “proving ground” match between Coast 2 Coast and the Young Bucks. It is definitely non-title, but I still don’t see C2C getting a win here. I know I have seen C2C before, but I still know very little about them. Their names are JSG and Ali, it appears, but I don’t know who is who.
3) Alex Shelley sounds very pro-Young Bucks here. Did he turn heel and I not know it? Is he and Sabin done and not going after the belts? All in all, it is a little odd. I like Shelley as a heel though, so let’s see if this sticks. Also of dubious note, The Young Bucks have added a fake championship called the Superkick Party Titles. Is that really necessary? C2C gets to look good for a little while and showcase some quick offense, but the Young Bucks turn the tide quickly and get the win. After the match, the Jacksons mock the Hardys with a Twist of Fate and a Swanton Bomb.
4) Next is a brief rundown of Lio Rush and the Rebellion, including Rush’s interference into the 6-man tag match last week. We even here Ian’s call of “Is this legal?” when Rush inserted himself into the match. The answer is no. No, Ian, it isn’t. Ian then interviews Lio Rush and Rush insults the Rebellion. That brings out Kenny King to basically agree to a match with Rush next week. Kenny King sure likes to rhyme during his promo time.
5) Top Prospect Tournament time and Brutal Bob joins Ian and Alex at the announce table. Yay, two matches and Shelley is still there. Let’s see if he last the whole show. This first round match features a very generic looking Curt Stallion (think a skinnier Adam Cole mixed with Matt Taven) versus Preston Quinn and his manager Andy Vineberg. Since my theory that a wrestler with a manager already would have the advantage was blown out of the water last week, let’s see if it regains credibility this week.
6) Vineberg is dressed like Jim Cornette without the tennis racket. Preston Quinn is older and not in the greatest shape, but he has a little bit of a less southwest Dick Murdoch feel to him. Quinn pretty much dominates this match, looking very impressive with a lariat, a brainbuster, a Rack Attack, and a jumping piledriver all mixed in with hard clubbering. The story of the match is that Quinn wouldn’t go for pins when he could, allowing Stallion to stick around. The end comes when Quinn misses a top rope elbowdrop and Stallion hits a diving, twisting headbutt. Quinn definitely should have gone over.
7) Back from commercial and we have The American Nightmare Cody in the ring to deliver a promo against Jay Lethal. Halfway through, he switches to hyping up Hangman Page. Page then undoes the noose and gives the rope to Cody. Apparently we have a challenge for a Texas Bullrope match between Jay Lethal and Cody for Supercard of Honor. Cody seemed to get lost a bit during this promo and it dragged on forever. Lethal, just finish this bum already.
8) Alex Shelley is still at the announce table! Yay! Next match has Jonathon Gresham versus Dalton Castle. Gresham and Castle have a fun little mat-based technical display with both men looking impressive. Gresham eventually gets caught coming off the ropes and Castle wins with a Bangarang. The right guy went over and both men looked good in it. Good, albeit very short, match.
9) Main event time has War Machine versus BJ Whitmer and Punishment Martinez in a no-DQ match. War Machine attacks Martinez and Whitmer on the ramp and begin the destruction. (side note – Alex Shelley didn’t last the whole show. For some reason, we have Mark Briscoe on color commentary now. I like Briscoe, but it would have been nice to have one color commentator on the mic for an entire show.) War Machine has complete control early in the match, beating the hell out of Whitmer and Martinez. Things turn around a little when Whitmer just flings a chair at Hansen’s skull. And we go to commercial break.
10) We’re back and everyone is just destroying each other. Mark Briscoe is almost orgasmic in his enjoyment of the brutality in and around the ring. A double team pop-up powerslam by War Machine is immediately followed by a crazy Hansen dive to the outside. Wow. A table is now set up in the ring. Before we get to the finish though, Martinez goes into airplane mode and flies over the corner turnbuckle onto everyone outside. The match ends with Martinez hitting Hansen with a top rope chokeslam through a table. After the match, Martinez chokeslams Whitmer for no real reason. Well, let’s see if they can turn Martinez into their newest big, violent, athletic guy ala Moose or Donovan Dijak.
And that’s all for ROH television for this week. But, as promised, here are the results from the 15th Anniversary Show:
- Jay White defeated Kenny King. I’m cool with White going over, but they really need to do something with the Rebellion soon. They are turning into jobbers big time.
- Kazarian defeated Punishment Martinez, Hangman Page, Chris Sabin, Silas Young, and Cheeseburger to earn a future World TV title shot. I am cool with this. This gives Kazarian a chance to work his way up instead of immediately going after a world title shot.
- Jay Lethal defeated Bobby Fish in a Top Contenders match. I am not sure what that means exactly. Is Lethal now the #1 contender for the world title? Anyway, Lethal won in what was described as a very good match. Bobby Fish is really turning in some good performances lately.
- The Kingdom retained the ROH 6-man titles by defeating Dalton Castle and the Boys. The news coming out of this was that T.K. O’Ryan possibly broke his legs on the guardrail while hitting an Asai Moonsault on the Boys on the outside of the ring.
- In another match which was described as great, Marty “The Villain” Scurll retained his World TV title against Lio Rush. Again, the correct call here and Scurll is just money and ROH would be wise to build him up with Jay Lethal like dominance.
- I’m not sure how this match came about, but Bully Ray teamed with the Briscoes to take on Davey Boy Smith Jr and War Machine. The Briscoes and Bully Ray won and DBS JR and War Machine fought after the match.
- Apparently the Hardys are now ROH tag team champions. Not sure when that happened, but they defended those belts against the former champs the Young Bucks and Roppongi Vice in a triple threat street fight. The Hardys won after a Swanton off a ladder onto Baretta through a table. Baretta had a rough night as he not only took the pin by going through a table, but he also took a top-rope bulldog onto a bunch of tacks, AND having tacks shoved in his mouth then getting superkicked! After the match, the Hardys stole the Young Bucks fake Superkick Party belts. No word on if the Jacksons are pressing charges, but it seems like a pretty solid case with video evidence and everything.
- In the main event, Christopher Daniels finally wins the ROH World Heavyweight title after hitting Adam Cole with three Best Moonsaults Ever. Other notable items from this match, Daniels was sporting some major color after getting his head superkicked into the ringpost by Adam Cole early. Adam Cole continued to show himself as a classless jackass when he screamed at Daniels that after beating him he was going to basically rape his wife. Finally, Kazarian, who turned on Daniels recently to join the Bullet Club (although that hasn’t been seen on television programming yet. Seriously, that might have helped if we knew that happened before to set up the swerve.), apparently didn’t really join the Bullet Club. He faked hitting Daniels with the belt, only to remove his Bullet Club t-shirt to reveal his allegiance to his Addiction partner.
- Honestly, I don’t know if Kazarian struck Adam Cole before Daniels finished him or not, but my hope is he didn’t so Daniels can enjoy the clean victory.
- After the match, Daniels held up both the current Ring of Honor title and the original Ring of Honor title from 15 years ago. Did he rob Low Ki for that thing?
Anyway, next week gives us Jay White versus Jay Briscoe and Kenny King versus Lio Rush. Until next time…
