10 Thoughts on … Ring of Honor September 23, 2017 (Honor Rumble, Josh Woods, Mark Briscoe, Glacier!)

10 Thoughts, Reviews, Top Story

Thought Zero – I have to wonder if Ring of Honor ever considered having a Klingon wrestler. Their honor at all costs schtick could work. I’d watch Worf take on Cody for the title.

  1. ROH ran a PPV this past Friday called Death Before Dishonor. Lots of things happened during it, but this episode of Ring of Honor television was taped before it. I will drop some spoilers from the PPV throughout this column, so be aware.
  2. We start with QT Marshall’s return to ROH action. He is facing Josh Woods. I completely forgot that they were running an angle between these two. You don’t remember either? Can’t blame you for that as it was very forgettable. But to refresh your memory, apparently Marshall paid off Shane Taylor to beat up Josh Woods. Yeah, thrilling, eh?
  3. The match is pretty boring and the crowd is not having it. Until Woods misses a charge on the outside and destroys a security guard. BJ Whitmer, on commentary, cracks up over that one. This was basically a squash match until Marshall hit a suplex on the edge of the apron. But pretty soon, Woods was able to regain control. After a top rope back to belly suplex, which Marshall no-sold to hit a powerbomb, Woods snapped on a triangle choke transitioning into a knee bar for the submission victory. So I guess that Marshall/Woods program is done now.
  4. Next, we get Caprice Coleman’s Pulpit. Mark Briscoe is Coleman’s sole guest today because Jay Briscoe is not in a “good place.” Caprice starts the hard-hitting interview by asking what happened to Mark’s teeth. Mark replies that Jay knocked them out. That leads into wondering about Jay’s mental state. Caprice sows the seeds of dissent by mentioning that Mark’s championships have all come because of Jay’s role in the tag team scene. He then hints that Bully Ray is overshadowing the Briscoe Brothers. Mark, because he is the smartest man in the ROH locker room, calls Coleman on it, saying that he thinks Coleman is just trying to stir stuff up. It is quite amazing when someone on a professional wrestling show has some sense. Of course, that is coming from someone crazy like Mark Briscoe, so maybe it is supposed to be ironic. In an Alanis Morrissette way.
  5. Coleman does get Mark to open up and state that he thinks Jay needs an attitude adjustment (Breaking News! Jay Briscoe is going to the WWE to be buried by John Cena!). Mark then says that since his brain is not small it is going to take a while for him to process all his notes and thoughts from Death Before Dishonor, but the Briscoe Brothers are not going anywhere. (Side Note Spoiler – Jay Briscoe turned on Bully Ray at the PPV to cost them the match against Bullet Club.) We end the segment with Briscoe giving a wicked stink eye to the camera and Coleman busting out his eye-popper face. These two guys are just awesome!
  6. Cody Rhodes comes out to do color commentary for the Honor Rumble. I’m not sure why we need him out there, but okay. If you are not familiar with the Honor Rumble, it is a 20 man battle royal which runs on Royal Rumble rules. The time intervals are 1-2 minutes each, but some are edited down for TV time constraints. The winner gets a future world title shot. I’ll just comment on some of the more intriguing things that go down during the match. Jay White drew #1 and Sho of The Tempura Boys drew #2 to start the match.
  7. I can see Jay White winning a title shot, but does anyone buy Sho as a possible contender? #3 is Punishment Martinez. Gotta guess that Jay White might be his initial target. (Side Note Spoiler – Martinez defeated White at Death Before Dishonor after a chokeslam onto a pile of tacks.) Jonathan Gresham is next and he goes after Martinez as well. Then everyone goes after the big man Martinez because that’s what you do in a battle royal. Rhett Titus is next, followed by Frankie Kazarian, getting a weird pop from the crowd. By the way, Sho is the only one who has been eliminated so far.
  8. Now Alex Shelley comes in just as Martinez eliminates Gresham and White. Rhett Titus then just tossed by Shelley. Silas Young is #10 and he dumps Will Ferrara who I guess I missed entered the match. Looks like Yohei is in there as well. Weird. (Side Note Spoiler – Silas Young defeated Jay Lethal at Death Before Dishonor in a Last Man Standing match.) Everyone joins forces to dump Martinez and that almost overshadows entrant #11, Sal Rinauro. But of course, you can’t overshadow Sal Rinauro. Even if I knew who he was. Shane Taylor is next and he tosses Silas Young, Alex Shelley, Sal Rinauro, and finally Yohei. Cody then pays off Taylor. Ok, so I guess that is now Taylor’s gimmick – mercenary. #13 is Flip Gordon!
  9. #14 is Jay Lethal. The crowd is chanting for Lethal right away and he does after Taylor. He has things in hand until Taylor regains momentum. Back from break and Hansen is in the ring. Hansen does his corner to corner run and splat move on Lethal and Gordon and is finally flattened by Taylor. Next is Chris Sabin, the other half of the Motor City Machineguns. (Side Note Spoiler – MCMG won the ROH tag championship or the Young Bucks at Death Before Dishonor.) Bully Ray is next in the ring. #18 is Ray Rowe. #19 is Mark Briscoe who does his Suffex County Chicken gimmick, but War Machine toss him quickly.
  10. The final participant is Glacier. Really. In 2017. War Machine then dumps Taylor. Hansen gets rid of Sabin and then Bully Ray eliminates Glacier. Ray then dumps Hansen and Rowe in succession. That sucks. The final four are Jay Lethal, Flip Gordon, Bully Ray, and Frankie Kazarian. Then we fall to three as Kazarian shoves Gordon off the top rope to the floor. Kaz also dumps Bully Ray leaving just he and Jay Lethal. Christopher Daniels comes down to distract the referee while Lethal tosses Kazarian. This allows Kazarian to come back into the ring. Daniels comes into the ring and eats a Lethal Injection, but Kazarian takes advantage of the distraction and tosses Lethal to win the Honor Rumble.

 

(One final Side Note Spoiler – Kenny King defeated Kushida to become the new ROH TV champion. Congrats to the K-I-N-G King!)

And we’re out! See you next week!

Human. I think.