Thought Zero – We’re here with more Ring of Honor wrestling. This week what will we get? The War of the Worlds events went down last weekend, so I am sure we will get something that doesn’t match with the timeline at all. Hey, I’m right!
1) Today’s matches are from the February 2017 Honor Rising cards with New Japan. The first match is a six-man match with Tiger Mask, Jushin “Thunder” Liger, and Delirious going up against Los Ingobernables de Japon. We join in progress with Delirious going against Evil. Delirious tags out quickly though to my dismay. Bushi and Sanada take control and attempt to pull the masks off Tiger Mask and Liger.
2) Maybe it is because I don’t see these guys all the time, but the match seems a bit slow and purposeless. I find that a lot in these multi-man matches that promotions just throw together. It doesn’t help that on commentary Rocky Romero sounds like he couldn’t give a rat’s ass about the match. I don’t know what the NJPW storyline was between Romero and Bushi, but it seems to be making Romero quite quiet.
3) Back from commercial break, Tiger Mask hits Bushi with a Tombstone piledriver but goes up top and Evil slams him down. But wait, there’s a Tiger Driver and a “hot” tag to Delirious. Delirious starts running all around the ring and off all of the ropes before hitting Bushi with a clothesline. He then misses a crazy person dive into the corner and almost knocks himself out. Sanada tags in, but Delirious regains control. He hits a DDT and locks in a cobra clutch. A little more back and forth, but the heels eventually pick up the win when Evil hits Delirious with a chair and Sanada locks in a Dragon Sleeper for the victory.
4) Marty Scurll has a new t-shirt but the timing seems really weird on that. You see, spoiler alert, Marty Scurll joined the Bullet Club as Adam Cole was fired from the Bullet Club at War of the Worlds. I am not very happy with Scurll being sucked into the Bullet Club nonsense. He didn’t need it. But, I won’t dwell on it now as there is still ROH tv to get to.
5) The next match is Punishment Martinez versus Hirooki Goto. I don’t know if this is before Martinez leaving BJ Whitmer and Kevin Sullivan, but he is displaying his badassery right from the start and the crowd seems to be digging it. You can also hear Martinez’ growls and yells and such very clearly in front of the typically subdued Japanese crowd.
6) Martinez is physically dominating Goto for the most part and I am not sure the crowd knows what to make of that. Goto does make a comeback later and trades strikes with Martinez. Goto hits a neckbreaker sending Martinez right into a commercial break! That was some neckbreaker.
7) Back from break and Martinez almost decapitates Goto with a clothesline. He gets two off a spinning kick and another close count off a Falcon Arrow. Martinez then amazes everyone with his dive over the corner onto Goto outside the ring. He hits a top rope spinning leg kick, but Goto kicks out. I think the crowd would have bought that as the finish. Martinez then goes for his chokeslam, but Goto reverses to the GTR and he retains the Never Openweight title. After the match, Goto and Martinez nod at each other, Martinez smiles and walks out as Goto poses with his belt. Goto really did not come off well in that match, in my opinion. He was pretty much dominated and it seemed like more of a fluke win. Oh well.
8) Main event is another giant cluster of a match with The Briscoes, Will Ospreay, and Okada taking on the Bullet Club represented by Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks, and Cody Rhodes. I’m sure the match will be exciting and everyone will get to hit their signature moves, but in the scheme of things, it doesn’t mean anything. It is just a match to have a match. And while that is okay for a curtain-jerking match to build up some energy, it doesn’t really work as a television main event unless it can advance a storyline. And any storyline involving the Bullet Club isn’t making me stand up and take notice.
9) Having said all that, the Briscoes tend to bring the goods whenever they wrestle, Okada is one of the very best in the world, Kenny Omega is awesome, The Young Bucks and Ospreay like to flip around, and Cody is there. So good talent is involved and Cody even gets his own chant going. Interesting start as Okada wanted to face Cody and refused to face Omega. Maybe that would make more sense if I jumped in my time machine and traveled back to February and was watching New Japan on a regular basis. Watching it now, it is more of a “hmm, that’s interesting” moment instead of a “wow, I wonder what was up with that. I should go back and check it out.”
10) We went into break with the Jacksons and Ospreay doing a bunch of flipping and flying. We came back with them still flipping and flying. Ospreay is your spot monkey in peril for a while until he makes the hot tag to Okada. Okada runs wild on the Young Bucks and drops Cody before tagging in Mark Briscoe. The Briscoes then run wild on everyone for a bit and we get a second commercial break. We come back with everyone diving to the outside and then Cody superplexes Ospreay onto everyone outside. Everyone except Omega and Okada, that is. They go at it to a huge crowd reaction and Omega seems to be the definite favorite here. The Elite hit a triple superkick on Okada to pretty much end that run. Now everyone attacks ninja-style, one at a time. Everyone hits everything and in the end, Cody hits CrossRoads on Ospreay even after Ospreay hit his insane 53980 degree rotation spinkick.
And we’re out as Ian promises that next week they will jump back into the present and tell you the results of their War of the Worlds events. Until then…
