10 Thoughts On … Ring Of Honor January 6, 2018 (Dalton Castle, Silas Young, Marty Scurll Versus Flip Gordon)

10 Thoughts, Reviews, Top Story

Thought Zero – My apologies, everyone. I have missed the last two weeks of Ring of Honor television with lots of family commitments and holiday responsibilities. But it is a new year and we have a new ROH champion (actually a couple new ROH champions) so let’s see how the television episode works out.

1) We start off with your new Ring of Honor World Heavyweight Champion – Dalton Castle. To me, his title victory over Cody Rhodes at Final Battle smells like a perk for not signing with WWE. I like Castle, I really do, but I just don’t see that act as a world champion act. Or maybe it is just punishment for Cody’s new bleached blonde hairdo. The crowd chants “You deserve it,” as Castle enters the ring with the belt and a new personal and sparkly microphone.

2) Now the Boys get a chant of their own. That’s random. Nice line from Castle: “When I came to Ring of Honor, I was told I would never be a champion. But a lot has happened between Now and Never.” After Castle gets some time for himself, Jay Lethal interrupts and comes down. Castle is shocked that Lethal came out (according to Castle, Lethal has never even sent him a friend request on Facebook). Lethal then says that Castle is a strange dude but as champion he is the best wrestler in the world.

3) Funny bit after Lethal after congratulating Castle and challenging him. Castle says they should sit and down and discuss it, sitting on one of the boys as a chair and offering the other boy for Lethal to sit. Lethal plays along a little, even wiping down the boy’s back before sitting, but it doesn’t last long. Castle then uses the wasted boy as a footstool and lounges back. Castle agrees to put Lethal on the top of the contender list and Lethal leaves. Before we go to break though, Punishment Martinez comes in and hits Castle with a South of Heaven chokeslam. That whole this was much better than I expected.

4) Now we have the other new champion, Silas Young, the new Ring of Honor TV champion. Young won the four-way match at Final Battle to get the well deserved victory and title. Young has had a pretty terrific run over the past year or two and definitely deserves a run with this belt. His first title defense is against Simon Grimm (formerly Simon Gotch) and that is a pretty good pickup for ROH. He could probably fill the void that Bobby Fish left as a hard-hitting and tough SOB with a mustache.

5) We keep getting short little moments saying that something called Honorclub is coming soon. But that is all that is said. Is it a new stable, a new tag team, a new fan club, a new internet experience, what is it?

6) Silas Young defeats Simon Grimm after a pretty good match. Nice television debut for Grimm. After the match, Kenny King comes out with a beer bottle complaining how Young hit him with a beer bottle to eliminate him from the title match at Final Battle. Young tells him to do things the right way, and King says he already filed the paperwork for his rematch, but he’s had 8 beers already and wants to fight. Then he spits beer in Young’s face and security breaks them up. That’s not a very good example to set for the kids, Mr. King.

7) Honorclub update! Apparently it is going to be some sort of streaming service. Okay then.

8) The Briscoes just annihilate a couple of young jobbers. Froggy Bow finishes it in very short order. This was seriously reminiscent of old squash matches by the Road Warriors or Midnight Express in the old Superstation NWA days. After the match, the Briscoes declare they are coming for the ROH tag team championships. Kinda figured they would.

9) Main event time – Flip Gordon takes on “The Villain” Marty Scurll. In a little promo played over his awesome entrance, Scurll talks about how he has never gotten a shot at the ROH World title and he feels he deserves it. Can’t disagree with him there. Ian Riccaboni brings up the stupid flip counter idea again which just encourages Colt Cabana with his silly flip puns.

10) Gordon gets the crowd going with a bunch of athletic and acrobatic moves, but the crowd really likes Scurll as well. In fact, during the match, Scurll is the one that gets the majority of cheers. Scurll hit an awesome low superkick right onto Gordon’s face as Flip was doing his silly hand-walking thing. Absolutely wonderful counter there. Another fantastic match by Scurll and Gordon continues to show that his flashy flipping style is a great foil for a great wrestler. Also of note, Scurll is using Adam Cole’s old Last Shot brainbuster to the knee as a finisher. I’m okay with that, not every match can end with a tap out to the chicken wing.

 

Not a ton of matches today, but they were long and awesome. You know what, this would be a very good introduction for someone to Ring of Honor. And next week the main event is going to be Will Ospreay versus Jay Lethal. Looking forward to that. Until then…

 

Human. I think.