10 Thoughts on … Ring of Honor October 7, 2017 (TV Title Match, 6-Man Title Match, Tommy Dreamer)

10 Thoughts, Reviews, Top Story

Thought Zero – Hello everyone out there in the tubes of the interwebs. As we start today’s Ring of Honor television, I notice that they have tweaked the opening theme montage a bit. Specifically, they included the sick double team from War Machine on Cheeseburger from a few weeks back. You remember the spot, don’t you? Ray Rowe tosses Cheeseburger about 25 feet in the air then Hansen catches him on his shoulder and snap powerslams him into oblivion. It’s worth seeking out if you haven’t seen it.

  1. We get some clips of Death Before Dishonor and then we get Silas Young and Beer City Bruiser come out to talk. Let’s see what he has to say. He shows off the bruises and marks on his back from the Last Man Standing match he had with Jay Lethal. Then he says that he proved himself right and deserves the shots Lethal gets. You know what works really well in any type of dramatic conflict? When the heels are telling the truth. Love it.
  2. Instead of continuing down that path and challenging Kenny King or Cody Rhodes for a title shot, Young begins to talk about the quest he and Bruiser were on to find a partner to go after the 6-man titles. Really? Really, ROH? You are digging back into that dead storyline? Well, Young sticks the landing though by announcing that they recruited Minoru Suzuki to be their partner. That works for me.
  3. And Young then adds to the awesome by calling out the Young Bucks. He tells them to stop doing their “internet shows and putting yourselves over constantly,” and come accept the challenge. The level of disgust and disdain with which Young punctuated that was fantastic. And the Jacksons come out with Hangman Page (their 6-man tag partner). Matt Jackson then name themselves The Hung Bucks. That is pretty awful. They accept the match for later. Also, possibly of note, they kept calling the 6-man titles the Trios titles. Doesn’t that have Lucha Libre origins?
  4. Back from break and Josh Woods gets his OH TV title shot earned by winning the Top Prospect tournament. Kenny King is the new champion. I really like King’s ring work, but the whole smiling and happy Kenny King doesn’t necessarily work for me. The match starts with Woods showing off his amateur wrestling skill, but none of it does much damage. He does get the advantage finally by hitting a fall away slam into the corner. That isn’t quite amateur wrestling though.
  5. We have a mid-match commercial break and when we return King has a Muta Lock on Woods. Now we start getting into the hard hitting section of the match with traded elbows and knee strikes and such. Once King gets Woods dazed, he hits a twisty dive to the outside to pop the crowd. Woods fights back with some knee strikes, two rolling gut wrench suplexes, and a powerslam. King kicks out at two. The finish comes when King dives stupidly into a triangle choke, but King rolls Woods onto his shoulders and gets the three count to retain.
  6. After the match, Kenny King says he will defend the title at every show and anybody can challenge. This prompts Shane Taylor to come out and King tells him that it isn’t Cheeseburger in the ring, so he came out here for no reason. Chucky T then comes out to challenge. He’s followed by Punishment Martinez. King is not an idiot, so he sets down the title belt in the ring because shit’s about to get real. Then Mark Briscoe comes out to throw his name in the mix. I want Mark Briscoe to win the ROH TV title at some point because he deserves it, but I want King to hold the belt for a long while first. Could be some fun TV title possibilities upcoming.
  7. We get the 6-man title championship match now. You know, for a badass like Suzuki, his entrance theme is really weak and lame. The Bucks start off with some double team work. But then, Page calls out Suzuki. Yeah, that doesn’t go so well for Page. Suzuki smacks the crap out of his chest and then everyone gets a Kimura lock for their troubles. The champs retreat outside the ring and Nick Jackson kicks the guardrail in frustration and then screams in pain and hobbles around. Okay, now that was funny.
  8. Back from break and the challengers are in control. Silas Young distracts the referee as Matt Jackson is trapped in the wrong corner. Of note, Suzuki slaps a kneebar on Matt Jackson as he (Suzuki) hangs off the apron to apply additional pressure. I’ve never seen that before, but damn, that looks painful. Matt Jackson continues to play Ricky Morton for a while and then it all breaks down. Jaw-dropping moves all around including a jumpsault from Page (dropkick to Bruiser into a backflip onto Young), a huge cross body block by Bruiser onto both Jackson brothers, Page with his shooting star off the apron to the floor immediately followed by Bruiser’s cannonball to the floor. A Gotch-style piledriver from Suzuki onto Page. A perfect frog splash by Bruiser. And a top rope moonsault by Page to the floor. Finally, a shooting star press into an Indytaker on the floor. The match ends with Page hitting the Rite of Passage on Bruiser. Post-match, Bruiser tries to blame losing on Suzuki. So Suzuki just smiles and goes after Bruiser. Young gets involved and we get a pull-apart scrum between the two tough guys.
  9. I’ve mentioned it before, but Adam Page’s moveset is much more face-friendly than heel-friendly. He also seems to have learned how to play to the crowd instead of antagonizing them only. When they decide to eventually turn him face, it could go over huge. It is interesting to look at Page now compared to a couple years back when he was BJ Whitmer’s lackey. That is some pretty incredible growth, both in-ring and as a character.
  10. That match was not the main event though. Apparently a Jay Briscoe promo is your main event this week. What’s up, Jay? Before Jay can say much of anything, Tommy Dreamer walks out to confront Briscoe. If I were Briscoe, I would just kick Dreamer’s ass full on right now for interrupting. Dreamer talks about how tough Bully Ray is and then tells a harrowing story about a concussion Bully got from Chris Jericho one time and hinting about CTE and other serious brain injuries. (Be careful where you go with this, ROH. Lawsuits are aplenty.) Dreamer ends by saying Briscoe messed up and he doesn’t know what is going to happen. And then he leaves. And Briscoe leaves. That is how you end the show? Weird.

 

Until next week, everyone be safe out there.

 

Human. I think.