Thought Zero – Locally, before Ring of Honor comes on, we normally get a commercial for CrimeStoppers, an anonymous tip hotline. It makes me wonder what the demographic data is for Ring of Honor watchers in my area and should I be scared. On with the show…
- We start with a recap of the Honor Rumble from the week before with Frankie Kazarian winning through shenanigans and assistance from Christopher Daniels. It seems like Kazarian’s title opportunity happens today.
- We start off with a triple threat tag team match between War Machine, Coast to Coast, and The Tempura Boys. BJ Whitmer says what we are all thinking which is that he doesn’t think things will go well for The Tempura Boys or Coast to Coast.
- This is not only a triple threat tag team match, it is a triple threat Texas Tornado tag team match. That sure is a lot of Ts to cross.
- War Machine dominates from the start and rightfully so. They even bust out some awesome new power moves, including Rowe throwing Hansen into an opponent in the corner with a Buckle Bomb. We come back from commercial with Coast to Coast and The Tempura Boys in the ring to trade some speed for a minute. Pretty soon War Machine takes over again. Everyone gets to do some high flying and double teaming as this match just gets more and more crazy. War Machine eventually gets the win as they should. After the match, Ray Rowe and Hansen cut a promo about World Domination and how they are going to stop being nice and take over the ROH tag scene.
- We get a brief musical clip showcasing Flip Gordon which might be okay if the song wasn’t so horrible. And if they didn’t just focus on his silly name.
- Next match is the aforementioned Flip Gordon versus someone named Corey Hollis. I have no idea who he is. Fun fact that Ian Riccaboni likes to mentioned every single week – Flip Gordon is active military as well as being the first ROH star from the state of Montana. I bet he also likes t flip around too, eh, Ian?
- More Flip Gordon fun facts – He was an accomplished gymnast AND he was the mascot at North Idaho College. What kind of mascot do they have? The Fighting Potato?
- Flip Gordon wins with a spingboard 450 splash preceded by a Kinder special. Hollis spent a good amount of time working on Gordon’s arm, so that was an effective old-school touch.
- Before the Main Event, Ian Riccaboni gives a review of the goings-on in the Women of Honor division. Apparently, Karen Q has turned heel and turned on her friend Deonna Purrazzo. We even get some clips to make this seem like they care about their Women’s division. Kelly Klein comes out and interrupts Ian to cut a decent promo. She then shoves Ian and walks out. They come back to the announce table and BJ Whitmer, who trained Kelly Klein, laughs at Ian and reminds him that he told him to watch what he says around Kelly Klein.
- Main event time – Cody Rhodes versus Frankie Kazarian for the ROH World Championship. Unfortunately, Cody still bores me, and even though Kazarian has upped his game lately, I still can’t help but see this as a mid-level time filler. Cody has the advantage early on until Kaz slingshots into a hurricanrana to Cody outside the ring. It’s only five minutes in and both men are selling like they’ve been in a 45 minutes struggle. They trade some punches and other offense before they get to the finishing sequence which includes Cody using Daniel Bryan’s LaBell Lock. Christopher Daniels comes down for interference and Marty Scrull comes down to counter. There is a ref bump. There is a title shot. There is multiple instances of outside interference. And in the end, Rhodes hits the Crossroads to get the three count.
And we’re out! See you next week!
