Previously on R.O.H. T.V. (6/16/2012)
The show opens with a replay of last week’s main event, Edwards vs. Richards 4.While Edwards did pick up the win after reviewing the footage and seeing that Davey was distracted by Jimmy Jacobs, Eddie went to the officials and had the match declared a no-contest. That was ever incredibly noble or stupid. Time will tell.
Mike Bennett w/ Maria & “Brutal” Bob Evans vs. Adam Page
Page is a tobacco farmer with a film degree from Virginia Tech who follows the Code of Honor. Bennett hasn’t chosen Yes or No yet. I guess that makes him a tweener. Collar-and-elbow tie-up to start. They get into a shoving match and Bennett throws a right hand. Page ducks and lights-up his chest with knife-edge chops. He escapes a fall-away slam attempt and nails a pair of arm drags and a dropkick but only gets 1. Page is distracted by Maria during a tornado ddt attempt and Bennett nails a dropkick of his own. Page is helpless as he hangs outside the ring in a tree of woe position from his left knee and Bennett lays into him with right hands. Bennett drives Page head-first into the apron and Russian-leg-sweeps him into the guardrail. This gets a 2-count. Bennett applies a chin lock and Page fights out. Bennett is whipped into the corner but catches Page running-in. He comes off the middle rope but Page catches him with another dropkick and both men are down. Both men get back to their feet and Page starts to build momentum with a trio of lariats. At least I think he uses 3 since they decided to focus on Maria after the first one. Hey I lust after her as much as the next man, ok maybe more, but there’s a match happening damn it! An atomic drop and a spinning wheel kick gets 2. Page uses a jawbreaker and hits the ropes but Bennett follows right behind him and surprises him with a spear for 2. Page slips out of the T.K.O. and gets a schoolboy for 2. Bennett catches a running Page in the fireman’s carry and hits the T.K.O. for the win at 5m 2sec. After the match Armstrong and Bennett attack Page. Eddie Edwards comes out to chase them off. Bennett grabs a mic. and says that he can’t be him or Brutal Bob and challenges him to do so. Edwards accepts, as long as the nursing home will allow Bob to stay out late, so next week it’s Evans vs. Edwards.
Nigel & Kevin talk about the upcoming world title match. Apparently officials, which probably just means Cornette, are debating whether the package pile driver will be allowed. Out comes Steen, Corino & Jacobs. Corino says that management needs to listen to their world champion. Steen agrees and reveals that he’s been requesting to fight Richards on T.V. for a while. He says that instead they’ve scheduled himself and Jacobs in a tag match against Richards & O’Reily for next week. He requests that the match at B.I.T.W. be contested under “Anything Goes Rules.”
The Briscoes vs. “Off The Wall” Sam Shaw & Q.T. Marshall
Mark is backed into a corner during a tie-up and gets a knee to the gut. Q.T. gloats and gets thrown into the corner himself to eat some left jabs and a head-butt. Truth Martini joins the commentary team and talks about Rhino (or is it Rhyno now) and the challenge that he issued to The Briscoes to face his mystery team at the P.P.V. Apparently one of The Briscoes slapped him and he wants revenge. T.Q. vaults over Mark as he charges into the corner and gloats again. This time he gets a big boot for this tomfoolery. Jay is in now and The Briscoes hit with a double shoulder block. Jay knocks Shaw off the apron with a running drop kick. Q.T. is in the wrong corner and gets and inverted ddt from Jay and Mark…does a rain dance on the middle rope? I’ll admit, I laughed at that. He finishes the dance and hits the springboard senton. He then hits Shaw with a right hand (the camera view during this is terrible). A boot to the head gets 1. Mark executes a suplex and Jay follows-up with a double foot stomp for 2. Shaw surprises Jay with an enzigiri behind the referee’s back as he hits the ropes (to be fair The Briscoes did attack him twice when he was on the apron) and Q.T. floors him with a hard lariat. This gets 2. Jay is getting double-teamed now and he gets a backdrop suplex by Shaw, who kips up and takes too long gloating so he only gets a 2-count. Q.T. picks up Jay and Shaw connects with a midsection dropkick to add more force to the suplex but this only gets 1. Q.T. with a body slam and drops a pair of elbows. He motions for a third one but opts to just step on Jay’s face instead. Jay takes offense to this at tenderizes Q.T.’s pecs. with a knife-edge chop. You’d think he’d have learned not to gloat by now. He’s only momentarily fazed though and knocks Jay into his corner with a right hand. Jay fights back immediately with left jabs and elbows and makes the hot-tag to Mark. He goes to work with chops to the neck and Kelly mentions that he’s a 3rd-degree black belt in Redneck Kung Fu. Man I haven’t laughed this much while watching a wrestling show in a long time. Well unless you count the times that I’ve viewed Raw and had to laugh to keep from crying. He floors Q.T. with a Mongolian Chop and Shaw with a forearm-ish one. Q.T. takes a running dropkick to the chest in the corner and Mark is in the zone. He gets whipped into the ropes for a back body drop but goes with the momentum and lands on his feet. Jay plants Shaw with a choke slam and Mark comes off the top with an elbow. Q.T. breaks up the pin with a double axe-handle but gets thrown out of the ring before he can do anything else. He was only delaying the inevitable as The Briscoes put away Shaw with The Doomsday Device after 5m & 2sec. of action. After the match Martini asks if they’re men or what they raise: chickens. Jay tells him to bring whoever he wants so they can whoop dey ass! So The Briscoes will face Martini’s team at B.I.T.W. Say someone should pick up Shaw off the mat. You see what I did there? He claims he’s “off the wall” and now he’s on the ground? Ha ha. Ha, ha. Meh I thought it was funny.
Back in the locker room Vera interviews R.D. Evans & Prince Nana. Evans states that they advised Ciampi not to persue the T.V. Title but he was determined to do so. When asked if they’d struck a deal with Martini Evans declines to comment and leads his client away. I’ll hand it to Evans, he makes a very convincing scumbag lawyer.
They run down the card for the P.P.V. and we get some thoughts from Jay Lethal and Fit Finaly. Lethal says he doesn’t care about any managers, he only cares about getting his title back. Finlay tells Elgin he’s going to get in his face and see what he’s made of.
Richards talks about the tag match next week and getting revenge on Steen in New York. He tells O’Reily he needs to stop talking and start taking action. O’Reily agrees.
We get a video package for tonight’s championship match between Strong and Ciampi. They cut to the locker room where Strong is yelling at Martini because he has to face Ciampi both tonight and at the P.P.V. Truth whispers in his ear, and by “whisper” I mean talk loud enough for the camera’s mic. to pick up the sound, that “The Ixvay is in.” He tells Veda that tonight’s contest will be tremendous and they make their way to the stage.
Television Championship Match: Tommaso Ciampi w/ The Embassy Lim. vs. Roderick Strong w/ Truth Martini (ch.)
Ciampi backs Strong into a corner and beats him down with forearm shots and toe kicks. Strong fights back with a leg lariat and knife-edge chops. Ciampi gets a backdrop suplex but immediately kicks out at 1. Strong goes for a toe kick near the ropes but Ciampi catches his leg, whips it onto the middle rope, kicks the thigh and comes off the ropes with a hard lariat. Strong immediately kicks-out after 1. Ciampi connects with a right to the stomach as they take their final commercial break. There is no commercial. Back from the break Ciampi dropkicks Strong’s left leg then drives his head into the mat with a jumping knee drop for 2. Strong avoids a running knee in the corner and makes a comeback with knife-edge chops and forearms. Strong floors Ciampi with a dropkick. An inverted atomic drop, running forearm strike and front suplex onto the top turnbuckle gets 2. Ciampi elbows his way out of a fireman’s carry but Strong follows him to the ropes with a knee to the midsection and plants the challenger with a blue thunder bomb for 2. Strong goes for the Strong Hold but Ciampi kicks him off. They exchange strikes and Ciampi gets the better of the exchange and drops Strong on his head with the back-to belly driver for 2. Ciampi follows-up with an electric chair drop and gets the roll-up. Strong slips out of the pin but Ciampi maintains the waist lock and dead-lifts his foe for a wheelbarrow suplex but only gets 2. Strong catches a charging Ciampi with a jumping knee and sets him up for a power bomb. Evans distracts the ref. and Nana enters the ring but Strong knocks him down with a right hand. Ciampi recovers and hits Project Ciampi (power bomb lung-blower) and Nana…attacks Strong to award him a disqualification victory at 7m & 50sec.? Kelly calls him an idiot and the way he says it makes me laugh again. Man I must be in a good mood or something. The way he “assaulted” Strong may have also contributed to my enjoyment. I don’t think I could choose the right words to describe how goofy he looked. Ciampi is pissed and goes after Nana. The rest of The Embassy gets in the ring to calm him down as Strong limps to the back with Martini. If Mia Kim’s dress was any tighter they’d need a laser to get her out of it. Ciampi leaves confused and the show ends.
