WWE NXT #251 Review (7th June 2017)

On 7th June, WWE aired the 251st episode of NXT, taped at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida on May 25th. The show's main event saw the returning No Way Jose battle the man who injured him, SaNItY's Killian Dain [Damian O'Connor]. In-ring action also saw the likes of Peyton Royce, Hideo Itami [KENTA], Oney Lorcan [Biff Busick] & Heavy Machinery with appearances from Roderick Strong and NXT Champion Bobby Roode. With a solid line-up like this, what could go wrong?

Heavy Machinery def. Sullivan & Andrews

Lars Sullivan [Dylan Miley] and Tucker Knight to start, they do a big lad lock-up which is like a normal lock-up but they're big lads, Sullivan powers Knight to the corner, break, headlock by Knight, there's an odd moment as Sullivan is referred to by Nigel McGuinness as Lenny from Of Mice and Men, don't use this match as evidence in your GCSE English kids. The two big lads trade shoulder barges till Sullivan hits a clothesline, Irish whip to the corner but Knight reverses with an uppercut and a boot before hitting a huge dropkick by which I mean a standard dropkick but he's a big lad. Knight runs at Sullivan only for Sully to catch him for a slam, now Sullivan should really consider what he's doing here as he tags in the much smaller Victor Andrews who gets in no offense as Heavy Machinery rag-doll him about before hitting their Compactor tag finish for the pin. The audience seems to love Heavy Machinery though I'll never understand why, I guess it's like with the Hype Bros. Sullivan seems set to be the next Performance Centre mega-push. That taken into account, this was fine.

• After the match, Heavy Machinery start shouting about how they want the Authors of Pain and Sullivan gets annoyed at another person for failing him so decides to beat him up, just don't tag them in if you don't think they have a chance, it's your own time you're wasting.

• Christy St. Cloud tries to interview SaNItY about No Way Jose's return, Killian Dain is angry and Irish.

Strong tries to play the Roode Lottery

Roderick Strong is in pumps, skinny jeans and a plain grey tee, make an effort lad, you're on telly. He talks about how he's making a statement, how being in NXT, having a lovely wife and son is making him feel on top of the world, how he feels he's exposed the true him to the fans and they reward him with support, long story short: he wants the NXT title. As if by magic, so appears the NXT Champion Bobby Roode, wearing a very nice suit, Roddy! Roode delivers one of, if not, his most blistering promos since coming to NXT running down Roddy for coming here and assuming he's owed a title shot for his above-average win record, reasonably hot wife and seemingly normal son (his words not mine). His buzz-term that the commentators can refer back to for this is 'the Bobby Roode lottery' as he laments the working man's attitude that for a small amount, people hope to luck out and win big instead of earning their money. What works particularly well here is that Roode's motivation while it could be perceived as standard heel cowardice, is also well motivated in a surface desire to elevate the title by making people earn their shots. Equally good is how it realises that Strong doesn't need much more than a desire for the title, he doesn't have much in the way of a character beyond being a genuine human being so putting him against the Streets of Rage villain become real that is Bobby Roode creates a wonderful immediate clash of styles. Here's hoping that they can deliver in the ring on the potential built here, though I've no doubt they can.

• Nikki Cross [Nikki Storm] is being mental backstage. Talking about wanting to play again and headbutting stuff, it's nothing new but it certainly is disturbing.

• Paul Ellering reads from the Book of Pain which is long and boring, no one can lift the damn thing, it's full of facts on potential opponents and instructions for wrestling.

Royce def. Logan

More expert reporting from Nige as we find out that Sarah Logan [Crazy Mary Dobson]'s first match was as a child against a goat. Logan locks up and is powered to the corner by Royce, Irish whip to the other corner, fireman's carry takedown into an armbar by Logan, beautiful roundhouse by Royce for a two count, crosschin (or whatever you want to call a crossface on the chin), leverage pin by Logan, Royce hits a two amigos and a death valley driver for a two count, big slaps and headbutts by Logan for another close two. Royce fights back and hits the Bridging Fisherman's Suplex for the pin. A very fun match with some well-paced stretches of violence only ruined by a lack of heat for the heels. As good as their iconic mannerisms are, somehow the clean victory here almost makes their partnership feel less important as it implies they don't need each other to get a win. Hopefully the duo get something good to do soon, they're too iconic to be pushed to the sidelines.

• We cut back to an interview with Andrade Almas [La Sombra] after he lost to Cezar Bononi last week, he's walking to his limo with three ladies when Thea Trinidad [Rosita] turns up asking what has become of him before giving him a slap and walking off but Almas is too damn tranquilo to care.

Itami vs. Lorcan ends in a No Contest

This match was just full-on bonkerballs. The two men lock-up, Oney Lorcan over-powers Hideo Itami pushing him to the ropes and separates like a nice lad, graps happen, standing headlock pushes Lorcan to the ropes, as they separate a stiff slap to the cheek by Itami who's not as nice a lad, Itami gives Lorcan a stiff AF shot for a two count, Lorcan back up, strikes and runs the ropes only to be caught by a knee to the gut, back up and the same thing happens again for another two count. Into the corner and a boot and a running blockbuster from Lorcan sends Itami to the outside, Lorcan heads for a tope only to be caught on the apron by a brace of kicks, onto the top rope and a flying lariat from Itami gets another two count. Itami continues to pummel Lorcan who catches Itami in a roll-up for another two. Out of the roll-up and Lorcan decided to throw some slaps of his own but Itami decided no, he will only sell for the stiffest strikes, as Lorcan wriggles out of a GTs, Itami shows him what the stiffest strikes look and feel like as he delivers The Stiffest Strikes, Lorcan fights back, Itami to the outside and a tope rope plancha by Lorcan, back in the ring and Itami is acting 'injured' til Lorcan gets close enough to kick straight for the knee and strike him all the way to fuck and hit a GTS, while Lorcan is out, Itami thinks about going for the pin, only to hit two more GTS' and be attempting to hit a fourth when Kassius Ohno [Chris Hero] runs out...

... Ohno screams before Itami gets annoyed and shoved him, Ohno shoves back much harder, pushing Itami to the floor, Itami, giving Ohno full murder eyes, rolls away to a chorus of boos. This was not only a superb match for the time it was given but the ending managed to use the brutality of the GTS brilliantly with Lorcan doing some of the finest knocked-out acting I've seen. While some could argue that potentially this could have been called as a win for Itami by referee stoppage, it still makes Itami look like a nasty fuck and sets up not only a rematch with Lorcan down the line but a match with Ohno that could be a violent treat indeed.

• We get a Drew Packagetire, covering his time in WWE before in brief but also his re-arrival in NXT. Next week: Drew McIntyre vs someone.

• Also next week: That big women's title re-match from Takeover: Chicago.

• Christy St. Cloud is the busiest interviewer in NXT as she grills Ember Moon [Athena]. Moon talks about her missed opportunities but before she goes for the title, she needs to deal with the Iconic Duo.

Dain def. Jose

So, when do we discuss that the Nigel McGuinness-Tom Phillips-Percy Watson experiment isn't working? Can it be now? I know that chemistry isn't an immediate thing but even in early editions of teams like the heyday of 205 Live's commentary with Mauro Ranallo, Corey Graves and Austin Aries or CWC's Mauro Ranallo and Daniel Bryan or if Smackdown had literally just been Mauro Ranallo, there were suggestions that something could be made from it. Heck, even Tom Phillips has developed a decent act with Corey Graves but the three men just manage to sound constantly like they have recorded in three different rooms at three different times with only occasional interactions. I can see that NXT is the developmental brand still so it makes sense to use it as a proving ground for new commentators as Michael Cole is only awake three days a year and they need to train up the next generation but Percy Watson has managed to show both a lack of personality or insight in his time in the booth, Tom Phillips seems more distracted by sending people saucy snapchats than the matches leaving Nigel to try and actually remind them they have to do some story telling. During this match, they just about get round to talking about how No Way Jose is out for revenge after SaNItY put him on the injury shelf briefly while adding nothing that the showing of the clip from WM Axxess didn't. In an interview with the AVclub, Jim Ross spoke about how watching great wrestling like classical music and how the commentary team's job is to provide the lyrics atop that music (notice how much better the calls were when Jim and Nigel were calling the UK title match at Takeover), I am willing to give Nige, Tom and Percy time to work out their harmonies but if they keep going this way, I think it's time to try someone new. Also, please just move Nigel over to RAW/205 Live, he was great with Michael Cole and I think he would mesh well with Graves.

In regards to the match, it was a bit dull. Killian Dain got the pin off an Ulster Plantation. The most notable things were the new SaNItY music with added pan flute because if you didn't know, Dain is Irish and also the crowds interesting chant at Dain of 'Fuzzy Wuzzy'.

Finally...ATPW Scale Rating: 4.8/10

The middle section of this week's show was dynamite with Itami and Lorcan putting on the best sub-8 minute match NXT has had in a long time, possibly since Samoa Joe v Tomasso Ciampa, Royce v Logan being surprisingly fun and a great promo from Bobby Roode. It's just a shame that the opening and the closing segments were so plodding and free of excitement that it cut off the episode at the legs. Still, with no Takeover's booked until August's return to Brooklyn, it's good that they are focusing on building feuds outside of just the titles while always keeping the prize in sight.

ROH TV 3rd August 2013 Review

This week’s Ring of Honor benefitted from only being taped a week before broadcast, and being pretty much up to date with all the things that had happened since Best in the World. Namely, the World Championship being vacated by Jay Briscoe, with the announcement of a sixteen man tournament for the title, beginning with a qualifying match on the broadcast. With World Tag Team Championship match being thrown in as well, this was a return to form for ROH.

World Tag Team Championship Match: 

Forever Hooligans 

vs. 

reDRagon ©

With Nigel McGuiness announcing that because of the vacant World Championship, the coming weeks would see a focus on the tag team division, World Tag Team Champions Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish, collectively know as reDRagon, came out have their say. They asked McGuiness to change their match with Forever Hooligans, in the night’s main event, from a Proving Ground match, to a World Tag Team Championship match, with McGuiness quickly agreeing.  I was impressed with Bobby Fish’s promo here, as I hadn’t really seen much of him on the mic, and he manages to get a good mix of entertainment and heel antics into the work. Before we could find out why O’Reilly and Fish really wanted to make the change, long time rivals The American Wolves came to the ring. Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards announced they wouldn’t be part of the ROH World Championship tournament, instead focussing on Tag Team gold and they’d beat the winner of tonight’s main event. It was interesting segment, but made me want to watch reDRagon vs. American Wolves again, instead of the main event we had to come.

Having said that the main event was a very strong tag team contest, with a lot of action and excitement. Forever Hooligans, consisting of Alex Koslov and Rocky Romero, have only made two appearances in ROH as a team, and hadn’t been seen since March, after bouts with American Wolves and reDRagon. The now IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions didn’t take long to remind us of what they could do in the ring with an interesting array of moves, including a great section that lead into an advert break, which finished with Romero soaring over the top rope to take out O’Reilly and Fish. The match was fought at fast pace, with some nice double team moves being pulled out from either team.

With the Champions on a roll, hitting a number of strong strikes and suplexes on Romero, it looked like they were closing in on victory as they went for their Chasing the Dragon double team finish, only for Koslov to pull Fish out of the ring, allowing Romero to get a backslide for the pinfall victory and make Forever Hooligans the new ROH World Tag Team Champions. It was an enjoyable ending that was worked at a similar high pace to the rest of the match and built the tension well. Fish did a great job of attempting to break up the pinfall with the flailing of his arms as he tried to break the grasps of Alex Koslov.

It’s an interesting move by ROH to hand the titles to Forever Hooligans, who will surely only be with ROH for a few dates at a time, but the clever nature of the move lies in the number of dates Forever Hooligans work abroad, which will allow ROH to get exposure elsewhere, specifically Japan, with Forever Hooligans currently working for New Japan. I can’t see the title reign last particularly long, with either reDRagon regaining the title, or American Wolves picking up another title reign, if they get their title match later down the line, either way in the short term this is a good move for Ring of Honor.

Best of the Rest (In The World)

Elsewhere on the show, a World Championship Qualifying match scheduled between Adam Page and Silas Young, became a three way after QT Marshall cut a solid heel promo to convince Nigel McGuiness to allow him into a the match, even if McGuiness only allowed him into the match to keep him quiet. The bout was a competitive three way that made the most of having three people in the match. The strongest part of the match was the section between Page and Young, with both men looking impressive, similar to their surprise barn burner last month on television, with a great headstand moonsault from Young really standing out.

The end of the contest saw Marshall push Page from the top rope, but when Marshall got back in the ring, after some showboat, Young managed to get a small package for the pinfall victory and to qualify for the World Championship Tournament, with a first round match against Tomasso Ciampa. It was clever move by ROH to have Marshall involved in  the match and take the fall, as it leaves the door open for another Page and Young match later on in the year, which is a great prospect after their original match. However, I would expect Young to go far in the tournament, as he is still fairly new to ROH, and his opponent Ciampa is a lot higher up the pecking order in the company.

There was also a quick tag team contest with ACH and Ta’darius Thomas of Adrenaline Rush taking on Scott Parker and Shane Matthews of 3.0. It was a basic squash match that showcased the style of ACH and Thomas well, as they brought their unique offence of strikes to the new tag team. After Thomas had taken out one member of 3.0 with a moonsault to the outside, ACH got the win for his team with ACH’s Big Bang Attack for the pinfall victory. Hopefully, ROH will keep this young team together, after ACH ventures into the World Championship tournament with a First Round match against Karl Anderson. ROH certainly needs to start building new teams for their division with a number of team leaving over the last two years, so breaking up Adrenaline Rush would be a silly move. 

Finally...

What did I learn from this week's ROH?

1. Forever Hooligans should be on ROH more often.

2. ROH protecting the Page/Young rivalry by involving QT Marshall in their match was a clever move.

3. I've missed Nigel McGuiness on commentary.

ROH TV 29th July 2013 Review

It was a big week for ROH this week, as they presented the ending to the ROH vs. SCUM storyline with Steel Cage Warfare taking up most of the show and after two disappointing main events in a row, Ring of Honor had to deliver with this one. It also brought to a close months of ROH television being hideously behind with the real world, as next week we get footage from a brand new television taping.

Steel Cage Warfare: 

ROH 

(BJ Whitmer, Michael Elgin, Jay Lethal & Kevin Steen)

with Nigel McGuinness 

vs. 

SCUM

 (Jimmy Jacobs, Rhett Titus, Cliff Compton & Rhino)

with Steve Corino & Matt Hardy

After a built up over over two years, the ROH vs. SCUM storyline finally came to close this week on ROH television, as ROH’s Team of BJ Whitmer, Michael Elgin, Jay Lethal and former SCUM leader Kevin Steen took on SCUM’s team of Jimmy Jacobs, Rhett Titus, Cliff Compton and Rhino. For anyone unfamiliar with the Steel Cage Warfare concept, it’s very similar to a War Games or Lethal Lockdown match. With one single ring surrounded by a steel cage, two competitors start the match, with another member of one team joining after five minutes, the teams then alternate entrants every two minutes. However, the major difference between the concepts, is that Steel Cage Warfare is an elimination style match up, we generally means that my main gripe with the Lockdown and War Games matches, that the ending is usually underwhelming, is pretty much taken out of the equation.

The match kicked off with BJ Whitmer and Jimmy Jacobs locking up for five minutes with some entertaining grappling action, before Rhett Titus entered for SCUM, who used the numbers game well. With Michael Elgin entering next, the tides turned, as the layers of story began to build up nicely. Things began to get really interesting when Cliff Compton entered, throwing powder in the eyes of Michael Elgin, before using SCUM’s signature Zip Ties to keep Elgin contained. With some great heel antics, Jacobs, Titus and Compton triple teamed BJ Whitmer, finishing him off with a Spike Piledriver, making it three on one, until Jay Lethal joined the fray for Ring of Honor. With Elgin untied things looked a lot better for ROH, until the Manbeast, Rhino entered last for SCUM, hitting a Gore on Michael Elgin. Then in one of my favourite sections of the match, Rhino ended up eliminated after accidentally Goreing Rhett Titus and getting a Lethal Injection from Jay Lethal.

This earlier section of the match, whilst entertaining merely felt like build up for the chaos that would ensue once Kevin Steen entered the match. With long time rival, Matt Hardy attacking Steen before he could get into the cage, everyone spilled to the outside, in full on brawl mode. With Steen and Elgin getting the upper hand on Hardy, Titus and Compton, sending them flying into the barricades and swinging steel chairs like their life depended on it, Jimmy Jacobs was setting a table up in the ring. There was a lot to watch and keep an eye on at this point, but the camera work was strong so it didn’t feel too busy. Jay Lethal then managed to fight off a double team attack from Jacobs and Titus, ending up hitting Titus with a Lethal Injection to get his second elimination of the night and give Team ROH a three to two advantage. With Steen and Elgin, busy with Hardy and Compton on the outside, that allowed for a nice exchange between Lethal and Jacobs to occur in the ring, with Lethal building for another Lethal Injection, he instead got a chair shot for his troubles, before being speared through the table in the corner, with Cliff Compton running in to pick up the pinfall, to even the teams at two men a piece.

With Jimmy Jacobs and Cliff Compton against Kevin Steen and Michael Elgin back in the cage, we got some a nice wrestling segment, orchestrated mainly by Jimmy Jacobs, who was my man of the match. ROH looked to have the match won when Elgin eliminated Compton after a Powerbomb from the top rope. It was now two on one in favour of Ring of Honor, but of course it wasn’t with Steve Corino and Matt Hardy both making their presence felt in the closing stages of the bout. With Corino taking advantage of the open door, to through fire, yes fire, at Michael Elgin, Jimmy Jacobs was able to get a pin and make it one on one. The match then got even crazier with Corino pouring lighter feud on Steen, with Jacobs clearly not agreeing with his leader’s action, he got pushed to the ground. The ending segment for me was epic, and closed off the story fantastically, with ROH Match Maker Nigel McGuiness stopping Corino’s plan with a swift Lariat, followed by Package Piledriver’s from Steen to Hardy and Jacobs allowing Steen to pick up the victory for Team ROH. Whilst ROH vs. SCUM has for the most part been entertaining, it was nice to see it concluded here, with a good story telling match that tied up a lot of loose ends for the feud, as it means that ROH can begin to focus on something fresh over the coming months, which can only be a good thing.

Best of the Rest (In The World)

Due to the length of Steel Cage Warfare, there was only one other match on the card, which saw The American Wolves take on Mike Sydal and the debuting Zizzou Middoux. The match was a lot more competitive than I had first imagined with Sydal & Middoux getting in a lot of offence in on the ROH veterans. At times Sydal & Middoux seemed a little sloppy, but the American Wolves more than made up for any nerves that the younger duo seemed to be suffering. The new team showed signs of athleticism with a nice moonsault to outside from Sydal, the highlight, as they were clearly still in the development process for their team.

With the American Wolves beginning to dominate after Eddie Edwards broke up a near fall attempt for Sydal & Middoux, the Wolves quickly chalked up a victory, after a Double Foot Stomps from both Edwards and Davey Richards allowed Richards to pick up the pinfall victory on Middoux. The American Wolves continue to prove their worth to the tag team division as they looked impressive throughout, although Sydal & Middoux as a team are not quite ready for a regular spot on television, with Middoux looking especially ropey in this match.

Finally....

What did I learn from ROH this week?

1. I hope this isn't the last we've seen of Jimmy Jacobs, but I'm not too fussed if the rest of SCUM are not seen again in Ring of Honor.

2. American Wolves are still one of the best tag teams in the business today. 

3. It's good to know ROH are no longer two months behind the rest of the world!

ROH TV 6th July 2013 Review

Overall, this was a solid outing for Ring of Honor, with their first original weekly show since Best in the World on June 22^nd. Each match brought something new to the table and therefore the hour seemed to fly by, unlike certain TV shows from other promotions. However, it did feel like I was sitting in a time machine for most of the episode. With Ring of Honor filming four weeks of television on June 23^rd, this meant what I was witnessing was two weeks old, and a lot has happened to ROH in those last two weeks. The biggest change being the departure of The Briscoes, including former World Champion Jay Briscoe, but because of the filming schedule Briscoe is to continue as ROH World Champion for the next three weeks of television, even if the website says otherwise. ROH is in desperate need of a new schedule for Television, and should really stop letting their Champions depart the company whilst still holding gold.

World Television Championship Match: 

Eddie Edwards vs. Matt Taven © with HoT

Now two weeks ago at Best in the World 2013, we saw Matt Taven retain his World Television Championship in a three way match against both SCUM’s Jimmy Jacobs and Jay Lethal, whilst Eddie Edwards teamed with Davey Richards to defeat Adrenaline Rush. Somehow this all meant that Eddie Edwards was next in line for a World Television Title Match. Obviously, Eddie Edwards has done a lot in Ring of Honor, becoming the first Triple Crown winner in company history back in March 2011 and therefore commands a lot of respect within the company, however I can’t quite get my head around the logic that saw him getting a title match here against Taven. I can understand why ROH would want Taven in the ring with Edwards, it just wasn’t explained particularly well in terms of story.

The match, of course, was a terrific display of athletism, with both men working hard to create an exciting back and forth contest, that really allowed Taven to shine. The match was soundly wrestled, with a strong technical element with both men coming up with some nice reversals and high spots interspersed throughout the contest to build the momentum into the finish. A nice spot saw Taven get hung in the tree of woe, but instead of facing into the ring, he was on the other side of the ropes, allowing Edwards to hit and impressive dropkick from the outside. Edwards got the fans on his side well, by allowing them to hold Taven as he hit a couple of knife edge chops, much to the disdain of Steve Corino on commentary. Meanwhile, Truth Martini continued to be an asset for Taven helping him garner heat simply by being a ringside.

As the match headed towards a conclusion the pace really picked up with momentum switching sides almost constantly for about five minutes. Truth Martini’s involvement was also upped as the match progressed with Martini tripping Edwards from the outside on a number of occasions. Edwards did a lot to help Taven look like a legitmate competitor in this contest, as we saw Taven kick out of a number of Edward’s signature moves which looked to have ended the match. The end saw the culmination of Martini’s involvement as he distracted the referee, to allow Taven to attempt to hit Edwards with the World Television Title belt, only for Edwards to duck, but get distracted by Selezia of the Hoopla Hotties, allowing Taven to hit his Arm Trap Headlock Driver for the three count and to retain his World Television Championship. It was good ending for me, because it looked like Taven didn’t really need the outside interference to get the win, therefore keeping Taven from looking like a weak champion, whilst the interference allowed him to keep the heat following the victory. It’s easier to hate someone who doesn’t need to cheat, but cheats anyway than someone who just cheats.

For me, this was the biggest victory of Taven’s ROH career, beating a former World Champion is not something to be scoffed at. The performance as well was also amongst Taven’s best, in match where it would have been easy for him to coast of the ability of Eddie Edwards he did not and brought his A game making this an enjoyable television contest. I can see a lot in the future of Matt Taven and with the House of Truth by his side and what looks like is going to be a long Television Title reign, it looks like Ring of Honor has big plans for him coming up. 

Best of the Rest (In The World)

Elsewhere, Match Maker Nigel McGuiness came to the ring to discuss the Steel Cage Warfare match that will take place on the 27^th July edition of the show. McGuiness revealed that Mark Briscoe would be unable to compete in the match, due to injuries sustained at Best in the World. Obviously, we all know the Mark is done with Ring of Honor for the time being and therefore ROH would have to find a replacement. It looked like ROH had found a ready made replacement for Briscoe, when Kevin Steen made his way to the ring. The passion that both men bring to their promos made this part of the segment particularly enjoyable as you really felt what his fued meant to these men. There was some nice continuity as well, which is often forgotten in wrestling, with McGuiness reluctant to allow Steen into the match due to him originally being the leader of SCUM.

Before we could get an answer either way from McGuiness, SCUM member Jimmy Jacobs, Rhett Titus, Cliff Compton and Rhino made their way to the ring targeting Steen. With Michael Elgin, Jay Lethal and BJ Whitmer heading out to make the save for Steen, with the two sides battling in side the ring, it would seem like we have our complete Steel Cage Warfare mach for July 27^th even if Nigel McGuiness is yet to officially announce Kevin Steen as part of Team Ring of Honor.

There was also action involving the Women of Honor, involving Veda Scott and MsChif. This was a good match, not just a good women’s match, but a good match. Thee was clearl psychology going in with Veda playing the plucky young face, and MsChif the wiley and powerful veteran. They also weren’t afraid to go outside the ring either which always adds a different element to these kinds of matches with Veda getting sent into the barricade by MsChif, and take a German suplex onto the arena floor. After a number of near falls for each competitor, MsChif eventually picked up the victory with Obliteration. I’m surprised at the fact that Ring of Honor still don’t have Women’s Championship, with so many talented women at their disposle, surely giving these women something to fight over would only help to develop their division and the exposure gained from Ring of Honor surely help further these women’s careers.

Elsewhere Silas Young faced Adam Page in the surprise contest of the night. Before the contest Young cut a misogynistic promo, about the previous Women of Honor contest, saying women should remain in the kitchen and that he was a real man. What followed was a hard hitting brawl between Page and Young that really got the crowd going, impressive considering these two are relative unknowns to Ring of Honor. The highlight of the match for me saw Page superplex Young off the barricade onto the arena floor, which provided some impressive visuals. After some good chain wrestling between the two, Page picked up a shock victory with a victory roll. After the contest Young continued to attack Page and had be physically removed by security. This match really helped to set up both Young and Page, with a good mixture of brutal looking spots and technical wrestling showing what each wrestler can do well. I hope to see more from both in the future.

The Number One Contenders to the World Tag Team Championships were also in action as C&C Wrestle Factory faced the debuting Jon Silver and Alex Reynolds. This match was basically there to make C&C looked good heading into their title bout with reDRagon next week on ROH on Sinclair and it did exactly that. With Silver and Reynold getting in limited offence, although just enough to show us they can also go in the ring, C&C’s high flying skills really came into their own. With Adrenaline Rush also appearing on the entrance ramp, C&C turned it up a notch picking up the victory in a good closing sequence with their Over Time finishing move sealing the deal. It’s been great to watch C&C develop as a tag team over the last two years of Ring of Honor and hopefully they will be rewarding with a tag team title run sooner rather than later. A feud with Adrenaline Rush wouldn’t go a miss either!  

Finally...

 

What have I learnt from this weeks ROH on Sinclair?

1. Matt Taven is more than capable of having a fantastic match, he really impressed me this week.

2. ROH remembers continuity, making the show even more satisfying.

3. It is not satisfying however to know that so much has changed since this next three episode have been filmed that a lot of it will be redundant, such as Jay Briscoe's upcoming World Title defense against SCUM's Matt Hardy.

ROH TV 8th June 2013 Review

This is our first review of Ring of Honor for this blog and I have to admit I haven’t managed to catch up with Ring of Honor for some time so I was a bit out of the loop in terms of storyline. However what did surprise was how easy it was to jump in, with Nigel McGuiness and Kevin Kelly doing an excellent job on commentary explaining what was going into each match and story.

The American Wolves vs. The Briscoe Brothers

Now any who’s watched any Ring of Honor over its rich eleven year history will know that the American Wolves and The Briscoe Brothers are two of the best tag teams the promotion has ever seen. With a lot of a history between not only the two teams, but the tag partners themselves, including numerous World Title match between Wolves’ Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards. We now had an added factor to this match, with Best in the World just two weeks away, where older brother Jay Briscoe will defend his ROH World Championship against little brother Mark, how would the Briscoe’s work together in this match?

The match built up slowly throughout, starting with some good quality grappling between Eddie Edwards and Mark Briscoe and going from there. With both teams having control of the match for periods and both getting in some interesting double team manoeuvres and reversals kept the match running at a fast pace.  There was a fantastic section where the momentum switches for both teams were so quick it was difficult to keep track of who was in control until a beautiful arm bar transition from Davey Richards was broken up with a Froggy Bow from Mark Briscoe.

The ending came when Davey ducked a punch from Mark who inadvertently hit his brother. With Jay out of the equation, Richards got Mark in a Tombstone Piledriver position, with Edwards delivering a swift kick to the head, followed up by the Piledriver for the win. It was a good ending to a fantastic television contest, it would have been nice to see these two teams go at it for a little longer but with Pay-Per-View contests to build up it’s understandable they went for this ending.

With the Briscoe’s costing each other the victory in this contest, it will be interesting to see how this plays out in their contest at Best in the World. In order from them both to stay high up the Ring of Honor card prior to the pay-per-view it would be expected that one of them will have to turn on the other during or after the bout, or at least develop some bitterness to continue the rivalry, similar to what happened last year between The American Wolves. 

Best of the Rest

The SCUM storyline continued this week with Steve Corino coming out with Jimmy Jacobs, Cliff Compton and Rhett Titus. Corino cut a good promo on Nigel McGuiness, claiming McGuiness deliberately left Jacobs, Compton and Corino out of Number One Contenders matches last week. McGuiness left the commentary desk and got in ring, being joined by Jay Lethal and C&C Wrestlefactory. With Corino still spouting McGuiness kept quiet instead just continuing to stare out Corino whilst the SCUM and ROH competitors went toe to toe in the ring. It was good idea to keep McGuiness quiet as it showed he’d rather let the actions of his team speak and built the numerous match between the two at Best in the World well.

Whilst the three biggest companies in the USA all have major factions dominating their storylines at the moment, SCUM is closer in comparision to Aces and Eights in TNA, than it is to WWE’s The Shield. Whilst TNA on numerous occasion has made Aces and Eights look weak against it’s guys, ROH has kept SCUM looking strong, even after losing former leader Kevin Steen. Therefore, once SCUM get inevitably defeated by the Ring of Honor faithful, either at Best in the World or later on, it will be a much bigger deal and help elevate their opponent going forward.

The ROH World Television Champion, Matt Taven was also in action. Taven’s manager Truth Martini, flanked by the Hoopla Hotties, offered up an open challenge to the lockeroom for a Proving Ground match with Taven. The challenge was answer by Pepper Parks. Parks hasn’t been seen on ROH TV before, but McGuiness and Kelly did a good job of building him up on commentary, as well as a nice pre-match promo from Parks. It was a decent match between these two, but it felt like it could have been a lot better with neither man really hitting top gear throughout the match. Taven picked up the victory with an interesting and dangerous looking varations of the DDT. It did it’s job of building Taven further into his Best in the World title defense against Jay Lethal and Jimmy Jacobs.

Tommaso Ciampa had his in-ring return against a debuting Rip Impact. The result of the match was obvious and this was pretty much a squash as Ciampa dominated. Impact did get a surprising amount of offence in, managing to reverse a Project Ciampa attempt. Ciampa sent a message to his Best in the World opponent Michael Elgin by holding a vertical suplex for a good time, which drew out Elgin to ringside. With Elgin’s distraction giving Impact the upperhand, Rip headed for the top rope, only to be met with a devastating knee to the head from Ciampa, who finished off the match with an Air Raid Crash for the second rope. Not a particularly memorable contest but allowed the Ciampa and Elgin rivalry to develop in what could be a fascinating story between the two power houses. Elgin continued to put over the rivalry in an intense backstage promo for Inside ROH later in the night.

Inside ROH also featured good promos from Kevin Steen and Adam Cole. Steen built his rivalry with Matt Hardy in a fascinating interview, where the hatred Steen has for Hardy came across well, finishing by saying he would remove the cancer from ROH, that cancer being Matt Hardy. Adam Cole has been teasing a heel turn since his Border Wars match with Jay Briscoe and this looks like it’s about to happen. A new look Cole, revealed he’d realised all that matters any more is wins and losses, as well as putting over his Best in the World opponent Roderick Strong.

Finally…

What have we learnt from this weeks ROH on Sinclair?

1. American Wolves and Briscoe Brothers have been surprisingly overlooked by bigger companies.

2. Steve Corino has found a great role in the leader of SCUM.

3. Nigel McGuiness and Kevin Kelly are probably the best commentary pairing in wrestling today.

Announced for next week's ROH on Sinclair (Road Rage Edition)

World Championship Match: Jay Briscoe (C) vs. BJ Whitmer