Last week was probably the best ROH TV episode I’ve seen with the Sinclair run. The concept of taking the show on the road at least seemed to serve to freshen things up, and clipping that tag match seemed to work the pace well for the TV hour.
We open this week by getting into Final Battle 2011 highlights…this is another good move. Unfortunately, they’re showing highlights of the Davey/Eddie match and I wasn’t fully prepared to re-live that nightmare. Fortunately, they end the package by including Kevin Steen’s mic work to challenge Richards. Which was good, and, really, Steen is maybe the only saving grace of ROH at the moment.
The Mr. Burns Arena in Baltimore looks pretty cool on TV, with the bleachers set up, at least.
Kevin Kelly and Nigel in the ring cold breakin’ down the tag division for us. Briscoes are the new champs, but, hopefully you didn’t wait around for this recap for that bit of info. Kenny King wants to take revenge on a Young Buck because one of the Bucks injured Rhett Titus. Tonight, even.
WHY THE FUCK DO THEY LET MIKE MONDO SPEAK WORDS?!
Or, Eddie Edwards for that matter. Eddie is rocking a light purple dress shirt while he lets folks know it’s not about how hard you get hit, it’s about some shit about moving forward when you do get hit hard.
“He plans to block Mike Mondo’s path to the top,” Kelly on Edwards’ first action after his Final Battle loss. Yeah, uh, not so sure about this. I think Mondo’s pretty good at blocking his own path to the top. By, you know, existing. Kelly then makes mention that Edwards might be in a slump…because he lost one match…to the World Champ.
As awful as that match was, I don’t think losing it makes for a slump, y’know? Didn’t he just cash mad bank on TV last week?!
Most interesting thing about this early is that as Eddie breaks into some paint-by-numbers action, the camera man gets in his way outside the ring. Mondo gets into some work on Eddie’s right arm. So, basically, yeah, this might lead to blocking Mondo’s path to the top, limb psychology? The Main Event scene doesn’t play those cards, pal.
Eddie is also selling the arm, even on a pin attempt! So, I think that also is a telltale sign that he is on his way out of the Title picture.
Double-stomp, then a move called Die Hard and that’s murder she wrote.
After a break, we’re reaching for the sky, boy, with some footage from Final Battle and their tag match against Haas and Benjamin. That was probably the best match that night. The Shelton stuff where he ran back down after leaving was weird, as that’s a typical face move and the heel turn was on, but, otherwise, I dug things. The brawling section with WGTT dominating early was done well, and then the Briscoes turning it via Shelton’s injured ribs was good stuff.
Haas and Benjamin promo it up by talking about how they made a rookie mistake and got out of their game of wrestling. They’re insulted or some such thing, because the NYC crowd turned on them because of the Briscoes. Haas tells people to go straight to hell. Cornette then starts about concussions and handing out fines for chairshots to the dome.
Then we get an in ring Briscoes interview with Cornette. Mark wants to know about the fine WGTT got. And, “who get dat money?” They think they should get that money. And, they think if they do get the money, that everyone in the locker room should hit them in the head with chairs. We move on before settling up these debts.
They tell me the House of Truth is in action next.
They also tell me I should definitely skip ahead and NOT watch The House of Truth in action. However, when I skip ahead Ricky Reyes is out there. Didn’t see that coming, and hopefully it will lead to Rocky Romero coming back? Maybe? Please?
Truth Martini is on commentary talking about being the King Kong Mega-Mega or some such lame nonsense. ROH really needs to step up their managerial game. Decent quick back and forth match. Ricky Reyes is a step up from most of the dudes ROH seems to have in here to lose to guys.
Kevin Steen next, which is good. Steen is needed every episode.
Kelly says Steen’s left a SLEW of injuries in his wake. A slew is 27. And 23 of those injuries were to Steve Corino from Final Battle.
Steen talks shit on everyone who he took out…in one night. And says it’s going to get a lot worse. He hypes being on TV in a match in 2 weeks. He rips Davey a bit, calls himself a nightmare or some such.
WAIT A SECOND, THE EMBASSY GOT SOLD?!
Solid interview with Steen, but, we move on to this bombshell?! Nana has sold some of The Embassy?! To who? Likely to someone in Dubai or some such.
Hopefully whoever he sold The Embassy to realizes that Tomasso Ciampa is boring as hell.
And sounds like a name for a poodle.
They don’t tell us who purchased The Embassy. Hopefully the former anonymous RAW GM. They also announce they’re putting the 10th Anniversary on iPPV for 10 bucks on March 5th…then the two iPPVs from Wrestlemania at 20 bucks for both. You know, I really want to be done with these guys, but, 10 bucks for one of these iPPVs is pretty damn solid.
We get a Davey Richards and Kyle O’Reily interview. Davey is looking forward to a fight! O’Reily says Adam is cool with this, but, then suggests, “The New American Wolves.” And Davey says, woah, hold up my man, lets not get ahead of ourselves, we totally have to consider the name of “No Sell Express.”
I don’t know which Buck this is in the match. Matt maybe.
The best thing about this is that there’s only nine minutes left in the show. These guys might do really well in a sprint. The Buck mocks Rhett’s injury a bit early, so King wants to scratch the dude’s face a bit. The Doctor says Rhett needs 4 months off, Rhett says he’s only taking 2 months off. Which, really, is progress for wrestlers.
Better than like 6 days, at least. Or, having a random house show match unadvertised in England when you have no fuckin’ back. Hogan style.
The Buck catches the advantage with a diving dropkick to the outside. The Buck hits a nice kick during a cartwheel in a King attempted comeback, which was pretty cool. King of course doesn’t let much control go on and starts running through some offense. Matt Jackson eventually hits, maybe a DDT, on the ring apron. Something. Maybe the correct analysis term was “jumping clusterfuck that took them both to the floor.”
We miss a nearfall because on the outside, well SOMETHING BIG MUST BE HAPPENING, because ROH cameras never miss nearfalls! They’re the centerpiece to the entire company! Anyway, the other Buck done stole a crutch from Rhett. And eventually it ends up as a “felonious assault with a crutch,” Kelly’s words, to help the Buck win. Rhett is cold swinging the other crutch on the outside and we get some brawling to end the show. Decent short match and a quality finish to the show.
Improvement? Yeah, I’d say the last two episodes seem like improvement.
