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 20th July 2013 Review

This week’s Ring of Honor television had been built up for quite some time, with Matt Hardy’s quest for a World Championship match being a focal point of the show for a few months. Of course, once again the show was harmed by being taped so far in advance, and by ROH already announcing that Jay Briscoe had left the company and vacated the World Title.

World Championship Match: 

Jay Briscoe © 

vs. 

Matt Hardy with Steve Corino

Matt Hardy has had something of a career renaissance in Ring of Honor the last ten months, creating a fantastic character that is easy to hate and performing consistently good promos and video spots to back it up. He’s also been helped by the ongoing SCUM storyline which has developed well over the last year and a half, as it gave him a reason to play the character he was and a group that has become not too dissimilar to the Mattitude Followers in 2003/04. The relationship Hardy has developed with SCUM leader Steve Corino is also an interesting one, with Corino seeming to worship Hardy, but you kind of get the feeling that if Hardy stepped out of line, Corino would kick him to the curb, just like he did to Kevin Steen.

Whilst, Matt’s promos and character have been top notch during his ROH run, his matches have been distinctly average, and unfortunately this was the case here, as well. Whilst the match told a decent enough story with Hardy taking advantage of Briscoe’s injured shoulder, Hardy was for the most part over reliant on his Twist of Fate move, which he used a total of four times throughout the match, and after the second attempt had failed to get a pinfall, as an audience member I wrote the move off for the rest of the match, I’m sure in Hardy’s long storied career, he’s picked up more than that move to use as a false finish. Each time, Briscoe would look close to mounting a comeback Hardy would pull out another underhanded tactic, such as hitting Briscoe with his boot, to regain the upper hand, which at times became frustrating to watch as it meant the majority of the match was worked at walking pace.

The ending saw Hardy go for his FIFTH Twist of Fate attempt, only for Briscoe to block and pull Hardy into a small package to pick up the pinfall victory and retain the World Championship. The ending wasn’t exactly an original one, and the fact that we’d seen Hardy hit the Twist of Fate four times before and fail to get a pin cover, it didn’t really have the element of danger that it should have. It’s a shame that such a strong story going into the match couldn’t deliver in terms of what we saw in the ring, as it left the whole build up feeling a little bit flat. It wasn’t an awful match, and technically there weren’t many areas that you could pull the match up on, it just needed a bit more variety and some insertion of pace to help it round of the story well.

After the contest, we went straight into the build for next week’s Steel Cage Warfare match, with SCUM’s Rhino coming out and annihilating Jay with a GORE. Whilst Jay’s brother Mark made a surprise return to attempt to even the odds, SCUM quickly gained control. With fellow SCUM member Jimmy Jacobs, Rhett Titus and Cliff Compton brawling at ringside with Team ROH member Michael Elgin, BJ Whitmer and Jay Lethal, SCUM took control using their signature zip ties to attach Team ROH to the ring ropes, allowing for the real destruction to take place in the ring. With Rhino destroying Mark Briscoe with multiple concertos (he’s obviously been learning from former stablemates Edge and Christian) Matt Hardy headed to the middle rope to take out Jay Briscoe’s arm once and for all with front elbow drop onto a chair that was wrapped around Briscoe’s arm. It was a good finish to the show that built up well for Steel Cage Warfare next week, as well as providing a storyline reason for Jay Briscoe to vacate the World title. 

Best of the Rest (In The World)

The only other match of the night pitted rivals Roderick Strong and Adam Cole in a rematch from June’s Best in the World iPPV. This match wasn’t advertised as it looked like we were getting an enhancement match with Cole facing Will Ferrera. However, with Strong coming out to talk about what happened at Best in the World, where Cole won by countout, with Cole apologising and challenging Strong to a rematch tonight. Strong accepted and we had our opening contest. It was a good set up to a highly anticipated rematch, their contest at Best in the World was one of the best matches on the show, that was left open for a rematch with the countout finish.

In comparison to the World Championship match, this was a much better encounter. The match had the changes in pace that the main event didn’t and therefore allowed them to tell a different story, with each man having periods in control of the match in what was a ultra-competitive contest, with a good combination of strikes, submissions and grapples keeping the match fresh. With the reversals coming thick and fast, as well as a number of near falls, a wrestling cliché appeared as Strong was sent crashing into referee Paul Turner who went crashing to the mat. After both men took each other out, it didn’t take long before Steve Corino, who was on commentary, threw a chain into the ring for Cole, only for Strong to get hold of the chain. With Cole taking Strong out with a Superkick, he saw the chain on Strong’s hand and decided to use it for himself, resulting in a Disqualification victory for Strong. It was another frustrating ending for Cole and Strong, and hopefully the two will be booked against each other in a rubber match soon.

There was also a nice package of interviews from Michael Elgin, Jay Lethal and BJ Whitmer building to next week’s Steel Cage Warfare match. All three men talked about Kevin Steen’s addition to Team ROH, with the trio all seemingly apprehensive about Steen’s involvement. Cleverly, we’ve seen very little of Steen and his team mates in the build up to this match, so it’s been left wide open to how Steen will react in the contest and how all the competitors will interact. We know Team ROH doesn’t like Steen, but they’re going to need him on side if they’re going to defeat SCUM next week, it’s an interesting concept. 

Finally...

What did I learn from this week's ROH on Sinclair?

1. Matt Hardy is currently a lot better at creating a character, than creating a wrestling match.

2. Adam Cole's slow heel turn is working well, the rubber match between he and Roderick Strong should be superb. 

3. Steve Corino is one of ROH's best assets at the moment, both on commentary and elsewhere.

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 Best in the World 2013 Review

Best in the World was another solid iPPV outing from Ring of Honor, with a number of interesting dynamics in the matches, throughout the show, which certainly helped to keep the show going forward. I didn’t manage to catch the show live, so couldn’t comment on the problems that occurred in the live iPPV stream, however having experienced the problems before I have to say I’m not too upset that this is the last of ROH’s live iPPV’s.

World Championship Match: Jay Briscoe © vs. Mark Briscoe

For me, the idea of two brothers fighting to see who is better, is a much more relatable idea, than say two brothers who had each other. Therefore, I anticipated this contest a lot more, than if say one of the Briscoe’s had turned on the other brother. The build to the contest was handled well with Mark being a logical challenger for Jay and making use of the years they had teamed together, with a quality contest against The American Wolves on ROH Television a few weeks ago. The face vs. face concept is one that is seen a lot more regularly in Ring of Honor than it is in either WWE or TNA, and this allows the competitors to focus on the more competitive element of the contest, rather than worry if they are getting the desired reaction from the crowd.

The contest started off well with some amateur style wrestling, each man exchanging a number of holds, with neither coming out on top, leading to separations each time. This set up the idea of how evenly match the brothers were well, with neither brother showing any signs of domination in the early goings. After the match settled down, it was Mark who took control of the bout, managing to frustrate Jay by outsmarting him on a number of occasions. There was an interesting spot where both men helped each put up a table at ringside, which I’m not sure how it was explained how the use of the table was legal, but it was certainly a unique moment, certainly something I haven’t witnessed before.

In the latter stages of the match, both men took a number of painful looking bumps, with Mark being power slammed from the top rope onto the outside, whilst Jay ended up being put through the table after a Froggy Bow from Mark. The match certainly needed these big moments to lift it to the next level and they worked in terms of pacing the match towards the finish. The finish the contest saw both men going back and forth with punches, even some redneck kung fu from Mark, until Jay eventually hit the Jay Driller for a two count. It took two further Jay Drillers and a Superkick but Jay eventually retained the ROH World Heavyweight Championship.

It was a good match between the two that flowed well and elevated as the match went a long. However, the ending may have been a little too over used by ROH, as we’ve seen similar ending to contests between Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards in 2011-12. Moving on from here, Jay would appear to have a number of challengers including Michael Elgin and Matt Hardy, both of which could produce some great matches, although if the rumours are to be believed The Briscoes are done with Ring of Honor, what that means for the World Title, I don’t know. 

No Disqualification Match: Kevin Steen vs. Matt Hardy w/Steve Corino

I’ve enjoyed the development we’ve seen from Kevin Steen and has probably been the most effective attempt at long term booking we’ve seen from any of the bigger American promotions over the last couple of years. I was sceptical of Ring of Honor bringing in Matt Hardy though, when he made his return last September, however I think they’ve made good use of his popularity whilst also playing to the diehard Ring of Honor, by playing on the reason he is disliked by some internet wrestling fans. The rivalry has been built up to well, since Hardy joined SCUM at the 11^th Anniversary show, with Steen’s reason for disliking Hardy’s participation in the group feeling legitimate and mirroring the feelings of a lot of the fans. ROH’s lean towards the longer build certainly allows these kinds of matches to feel a lot bigger than they would do in WWE with a month build to PPV.

Before the contest, SCUM leader Steve Corino cut a promo putting over Hardy, as well as attempting to get some cheap heat by insulting local heroes. It was a good promo, although I’m not sure how much it was needed, Hardy is more than capable of getting the heat on his own, especially when up against Kevin Steen. Steen replied by asking ROH Commisioner Nigel McGuiness to make the match a No Disqualification Match, Nigel quickly agreed to the change. This was a good decision by ROH, as I don’t think the match would have been nearly as it good as it turned out to be. Steen definitely benefits from this match type, as his style of wrestling works a lot better without the restrictions of a regular wrestling match.

Steen took an early advantage of the No Disqualification rules, with the use of fans crutch and sending Hardy crotch first in the ring post. Starting off so quickly certainly gave the match a fast pace throughout, and definitely brought a new element to the show. The match went on to include a dust bin, using in a nice cannonball spot from Steen, and each one of the tables, ladders and chairs that originally made Hardy a star. With Steen looking to F-5 Hardy through a table, the rest of SCUM quickly came out to help Hardy out. Rhett Titus got a package Piledriver for his troubles, with Hardy getting a near fall soon after with Side Effect. This became a running theme throughout here on in, with everytime Steen would look to be in control, a member of SCUM would come down to turn things around for Hardy. The match could be compared to the Bully Ray/Sting match from Slammiversary this year, however the main difference for me here, was SCUM members inferring separately to help Hardy regain some control, whilst Aces and Eights interference during the pre-mentioned contest, saw four member enter at once and get completely taken out by Sting!

With both men kicking out of the others respective finishing moves, you knew it was going to take something that utilized the No Disqualification gimmick to pick up the win for either Steen or Hardy. Hardy attempted to do so with a Side Effect onto the Ladder but this only managed a near fall. With help from Cliff Compton, Hardy set up two chairs, it was teased for a moment that a defiant Steen who spat in Hardy’s face might pull off a repeat of what we’ve seen a number of times in ROH and F-5 Hardy onto the chairs, however this was not to be the case with Hardy quickly gaining control and hitting a Twist of Fate onto the chairs for the victory. It was a decent enough contest and allowed Hardy and SCUM to pick up a victory somewhere on the card, but when compared to Steen’s similar matches against the likes of El Generico and Jimmy Jacobs, it doesn’t stand up that well. 

World Tag Team Championship Three Way: C&C Wrestle Factory vs. reDRagon © vs. SCUM (Cliff Compton & Rhett Titus)

The dynamic here was another interesting one, as we had the heel tag team champions reDRagon, defending their gold against the face team of C&C Wrestle Factory, as well SCUM’s team of Cliff Compton and Rhett Titus, with essentially two heel tag teams, the make up of the match should have been cut and dry, however with one of the heel teams still representing Ring of Honor the other representing SCUM, it certainly gave it an air of unpredictability. The way the match was built up also gave it an exciting feel, with C&C winning a number one contenders match, but with SCUM already holding a victory over C&C, it was difficult to really say which of the two contenders had the momentum going into the bout.

Early on in the bout reDRagon and C&C Wrestle Factory worked together to take out SCUM, but drawing on the elements talked about earlier reDRagon quickly turned on C&C and the dynamic of the match was laid out clearly for all to see. ROH went for the idea of two people in the ring at one time, with the other four on the outside waiting to get tagged in. I can’t say this is my favourite configuration for this type of match up, mainly because someone usually has to take an illogical tag at least once during the match and eventually has to break out of the mould to head towards a finish. The better parts of this match for me, were the parts pitting reDRagon against C&C Wrestle Factory as the two strung together some exciting move sequences, unfortunately Compton & Titus didn’t quite seem to fit with the style of the match those two teams wanted to have and don’t quite work as a team for me.

Unfortunately, it was the sluggishness of the SCUM team that let the ending of the match down, with Cedric Alexander hitting Overtime on Kyle O’Reilly, it took what felt like an age for Compton and Titus to pull O’Reilly out of the ring to prevent the pinfall. SCUM were then out of place for a Caprice Coleman dive, making it seems like Coleman hardly touched them, yet they were meant to stay down for the finish of the match. reDRagon retained the title after Alexander hit a Brainbuster on O’Reilly only to receive a kick to the back of the head from Bobby Fish who draped O’Reilly over Alexander for the victory. This finish would have been helped from being worked a lot quicker and closer and generally felt like a bit of a let down.

The match itself wasn’t an awful contest, we aren’t talking Great Khali in terms of slowness either by no means. It was enjoyable, but I feel it would have been a lot better match if it were just a straight forward tag team match between any combinations of these teams, unfortunately attempting to mix all three styles of these tag teams didn’t quite pay off. I know I’ve said a lot of negative stuff here about Compton and Titus, however I actually do like both men, I just don’t think they make a particularly great team to watch in the ring, hopefully they both find new roles in ROH once the SCUM angle is over and done with.

Best of the Rest (in the World)

Matt Taven defended his World Television Champion in a Three Way with a similar dynamic to the Tag Team Championship Three Way, seeing ROH face Jay Lethal and SCUM member Jimmy Jacobs going after the belt. Personally, I felt that the styles of these three men meshed together a lot better than the tag team match, certainly made for a much more enjoyable contest to watch. The match also made a better use of the dynamic it had present, with each of the competitors happy to take out anyone in the match, we didn’t see a lot of double teaming because of this. I’ve said before that a three way type bout is at it’s best when all three competitors are involved for the optimum amount of time, however in this match we had more than three people involved, we had six! Yes, Television Champion Matt Taven was accompanied by not just Truth Martini but two Hoopla Hotties as well, all of whom got involved during the contest.

 In between the interference there were number of nice three man spots, the highlight for me being Jimmy Jacobs stopping Taven’s Arm Trap Headlock Driver attempt on Lethal, to hit a Sliced Bread #2 on the Television Champion and straight in a Spinning Head Scissors on Lethal. The ending saw all three of Taven’s associates get involved, including Scarlett losing her top, much to the delight of the Du Burns Arena, until Jay Lethal hit Selezia with a Superkick as the powerful Hoopla Hotties looked to be attempting a version of Sheamus’ White Noise. Jacobs some how managed to hit Lethal with a version the Lethal Injection but with  Truth Martini holding onto Jacobs, Taven slid in to retain his championship. It was an enjoyable match, and the ending would seem to tease future face turn for Jacobs as he really should have won the championship, a possible match with Matt Hardy could be on the cards.

In another interesting twist of dynamic, we had two faces go at it once again, in Tommasso Ciampa and Michael Elgin, to finish up the first half. However, with both men taking similar paths in Ring of Honor after leaving two major heel groups in ROH, in The House of Truth and The Embassy. The match proved that two big powerful men in the ring doesn’t have to be boring. The match was brutal contest, with a number of painful looking spots, including use of the hard floor on the outside (the mats had been removed) with Elgin suplexing Ciampa onto the floor, as well as a Kryptonite Krunch from Ciampa.

It was hard hitting through out, with some nice selling (and no selling) from both men. It looked like Ciampa might have got the win after managing to hit Project Ciampa on Elgin, only for Elgin to get his foot on the rope. Elgin eventually picked up the victory, after a number of hard strike and finishing up with the Decapitation Lariat for the pinfall. It was an unusual ending, after such a spot laden brutal match, but certainly helped to make both men look very credible competitors and allows Elgin to go strong into his ROH World Title match in August. QT Marshall tried to pick the bones after the match, but Elgin and Ciampa had enough about them to see off QT with just a look. QT seems to be becoming ROH’s comedy heel along side R.D. Evans, a role which is perhaps below him. 

Adam Cole and Roderick Strong were also in action in a singles contest. As expected the match was a great technical display by both men, with a number of different holds exchanged throughout. Cole logically focused on Strong’s leg for most of the match, in an attempt to soften up the leg for a possible Figure Four Leg Lock latter on in the contest. The end of the match saw Cole superkick Strong through the timekeepers table, with Cole attempting to get Strong back in the ring for the pin, he instead decided to take the countout victory. It was a clever move, that finally seemed to cement Cole’s slow heel turn that we’ve seen since his title shot at Border Wars. I’m interested see where Adam Cole goes from here, and hopefully a much more heated rivalry with Strong could be on the cards.

The under card also featured a very good tag team contest between The American Wolves and Adrenaline Rush. The Wolves certainly did a lot to help the younger team in this match, in terms of making them look like a credible tag team, with the match being pretty much even for most of the bout. There was some great double team work through out from both teams, but Adrenaline Rush’s offense certainly stood out because it looked like they might pull out an upset victory during these times. The ending saw ACH miss a 450 splash allowing Davey Richards to pick up the victory for the American Wolves. With ROH losing a number of tag teams of the last two years including Kings of Wrestling, Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team, The All Night Express and now The Briscoes, Ring of Honor could really do with some more new teams, like Adrenaline Rush, I look forward to seeing more out of them in the future.

The show kicked off with BJ Whitmer taking on Mike Bennett. It was decent opening contest but nothing particularly out of the ordinary. Bennett worked over Whitmer for a lot of the match, until Whitmer began to no sell punches to make a comeback, which involved some nice suplexes from Whitmer. The ending saw Brutal Bob Evans try to get involved, only to get dispatched by Whitmer, with Bennett distracted by Evans, Whitmer hit an Exploder Suplex for the victory. It was a good ending but only to set up what happened afterwards with Maria Kanellis blaming Brutal Bob for the loss and Bennett to seemingly dump Evans from the group. This seemed like a logical move and probably should have been done a long time ago with Brutal Bob seemingly like a third wheel for the entertaining duo of Bennett and Kanellis. 

Finally...

What have we learned from Best in the World 2013?

1. The Briscoes are as exciting to watch as opponents as they are as a Tag Team.

2. Matt Hardy is still capable of putting on a good match, even if it wasn't one of Steen's bests (He's set the bar pretty high in those kinds of matches)

3. Steve Corino and Nigel McGuiness are both entertaining commentators, but I couldn't listen to Corino for an entire iPPV.

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