10 Thoughts on … Ring of Honor September 9, 2017 (Television MOTY Candidate, Jay Lethal, Young Bucks)

10 Thoughts, Reviews, Top Story

Thought Zero – I believe Ring of Honor television is starting with a new set of TV tapings today, and I have seen no spoilers for these shows. Let’s see how they decide to hold my interest. One quick note though. WWE has announced over the past couple weeks that they have signed Lio Rush and Donovan Dijak. Personally, I think these are great pick-ups for WWE. Rush would do great in the cruiserweight division and Dijak is one of the tall, strong blokes that Vince McMahon likes, only with an athleticism which is downright scary at times. Add these guys to an NXT which is already promoting Roderick Strong, Kyle O’Reilly, Bobby Fish, and Adam Cole, and you have to wonder why Vince hasn’t just bought ROH already.

  1. We start, before the theme song, with a look at The Kingdom destroying the Briscoe brothers and Bully Ray the past few weeks. That is good as it makes the Kingdom look strong and a major force. I realize why they did the little rewind bit as the show starts with Bully Ray coming out to talk. He says he and the Briscoes will be on the same page, will beat The Kingdom at Death Before Dishonor, and then regain the 6-man tag titles. Well, that was pretty simple. Not sure we needed a whole entrance and ring promo for that.
  2. Hey, Marty “The Villain” Scurll is on color commentary today. I would rather see him wrestling, but he still should be pretty good on the commentary team. They do make mention that the Bullet Club now has the ROH 6-man tag titles. Apparently, the Young Bucks and Hangman Page defeated Dalton Castle and the Boys at War of the Worlds UK to take the belts. I am still not sold on the 6-man titles, but I am glad they got them off the Boys.
  3. Back from commercial and we get a summary of the Cheeseburger/Will Ferrara feud. I guess this is the blow off to the feud or something as these two will go at it. By the way, Scurll is not a fan of Cheeseburger, which just shows that he is a smart man. The match starts with Ferrara trying to jump Cheeseburger from behind, just to reaffirm who the crowd should cheer for and who to boo.
  4. “WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?” That is a quote from Marty Scurll during this match and I wholeheartedly agree. I apologize. I am not going to do any sort of play-by-play on this match. I am not going to point out any cool or innovative moves. I am not going to comment on the crowd reactions. I am not going to do anything like that. I am going to do say two things and two things only. A) This was a HELL of a match. Honestly, it was one of the best television matches I have seen all year. Go find a way to watch this match because it is super fun. And B) Mr. Cheeseburger, I apologize to you. That was an incredible match with a good story and you, sir, were a major reason why. I apologize for all the shit I’ve given you over the years. Huzzah, sir. Huzzah.
  5. After the match, Rhett Titus comes out to save Cheeseburger? Oh, not really. Apparently, he and Ferrara are arguing over who should get the chance to beat on Cheeseburger more. If they do a one-up type of thing with Ferrara and Titus, that could be interesting. It would be something for them to do at least.
  6. Silas Young defeated some jobber named Cauliflower Chase Brown. Of note, Bruiser is in a big leg brace which was injured by Jay Lethal in their no-hold-barred match last week. There was almost no offense for Cauliflower aside from a monkey flip out of the corner. After the match, Lethal comes down to stop Young from killing this dude and they trade challenges ahead of their Last Man Standing match at Death Before Dishonor.
  7. Lethal and Young have a pull apart brawl with a ton of security and lots of energy. That is how you do it. Afterwards, Lethal challenges Young to come back to the ring and finish things. They insult each other a bit, and end things with Young saying he will wait for PPV. The basis for this feud is that Young thinks Lethal has been given all sorts of opportunities, while he has been overlooked despite being better than Lethal and beating him multiple times. At last, a feud for Silas Young that doesn’t involve him sounding like a grumpy old guy telling the neighborhood kids to get off his lawn.
  8. We have a short backstage segment with Cody Rhodes being interviewed by someone named Matt Sale or something. Never heard of him. Where is Mandy Leon? After that nothing segment, we see Bullet Club mocking Dalton Castle backstage about losing the 6-man titles. The Young Bucks, Hangman Page, and Marty Scurll walk off and then Cody attacks Castle from behind. Cody beats down Castle and declares him a novelty act. And that, ladies and gentlemen, appears to be our next feud for the ROH World Title.
  9. Swinging to the announce table and Scurll is just laughing hysterically. That’s funny. Main event time has Search and Destroy going against Bullet Club. Bullet Club is being represented by the Young Bucks and the Guerillas of Destiny. This was a big old 8-man chaotic mess which included tons of high flying action and everyone gets to hit their signature spots, including a wild Matt Jackson giant dive off the stage to the ringside area.
  10. Tama Tonga hit a cool Gun Stun on Jonathan Gresham as he was attempting a shooting star press, recalling the famous Randy Orton/Matt Sydal/Bourne spot. The end came with the Motor City Machine Guns hitting some cool double package flip powerbomb type thing for the pin. Seems to just be a setup to continue the MCMGs/Young Bucks feud, and I am okay with that.

Another really good hour of Ring of Honor Wrestling. A fun main event, good advancement of some storylines, solid progression towards Death Before Dishonor, an enjoyable color commentator, and one match that surprised me to no end on how good it was. I didn’t even mention a couple things like: Caprice Coleman finally got his set for his Coleman’s Pulpit segment (although it is a little lame), Marty Scurll accepted a challenge from Chuck Taylor for Death Before Dishonor, and Cody made the weird backstage interview guy kiss his ring (is that something new he does now? Stop throwing more stuff into your character, Cody. Learn to edit.). Until next week…

Human. I think.