ROH on Sinclair – Episode 088 – 25th May 2013
Weirdly, I’m more interested in the house shows we have coming up in June than the ippv at present. Best In The World 2013 has the Briscoe/Briscoe main event, which was arranged with all the subtlety of an angry hippo in a confined space…whilst house shows in Texas and Ohio have matches like Briscoe/Richards for the World Title, Briscoe/Edwards for the World Title, Richards/Alexander, Cole/Strong, Lethal/ACH, Edwards/Taven, Steen/Rhino, reDRagon/Adrenaline Rush for the Tag Titles, and more. I guess it’s the job of the TV show to change that and get me psyched for Baltimore’s first internet ppv. This evening’s broadcast also features a scheduled main event of Roderick Strong facing NOAH’s Taiji Ishimori which should be a riot. Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino will call it from Toront, ONT.
Mark Briscoe vs Colin Delaney
I’m sure most people will recognise Colin from his run in the WWE, mostly for his year as part of the ‘ECW’ brand. For me, I saw none of that, but have seen him in the odd Chikara match, have seen a few matches from when he was working as Colin Olsen – and mostly recognise him from his appearances in the Cabana/Danielson/Rinauro ‘Wrestling Road Diaries’ movie. He gets a shot at an ROH roster spot tonight, working the younger Briscoe brother who is looking to convince Nigel McGuinness to book him into a title match with Jay at Best In The World.
Briscoe plants Colin with an early powerbomb then forces him out of the ring after a belly to belly suplex. A vertical suplex on the apron follows as Delaney struggles to make an impact on his SBG television debut. At last he connects with some offence, landing a pop-up kick to the face into a swinging neckbreaker. Mark throws some Redneck Kung Fu strikes but Colin knocks him to the deck again for a skin the cat senton splash. Froggy Bow wins it for Briscoe at 05:41
Rating – * – That went too long, and felt like it lasted for an eternity. I really wanted to like Delaney (as he really made me laugh during Wrestling Road Diaries) but this did nothing for me. He hit all his offence cleanly, but this was basically an elongated demonstration of why Mark is better as a tag wrestler. Not the most engaging of starts to the show.
Back from commercials, with Nigel McGuinness and Jay Briscoe joining Mark in the ring. The Match Maker makes Briscoe/Briscoe official for Best In The World…and is then interrupted by the American Wolves. Davey points out that the Wolves have title shots first, so it’ll be them facing each other in a rematch of the clash that made ‘Best In The World’ famous in 2011. Steve Corino is irate that Nigel didn’t book Matt Hardy in the World Title Match, given that SCUM earned their shot at Border Wars. Jay takes a swing at Corino, inadvertently punches Richards…and sure enough it breaks down to a pull apart brawl between the Briscoes and the Wolves. #1 Contender Michael Elgin surveys the scene from the aisle too. MASSIVE improvement on last week’s World Title segment…
Veda Scott ditches her backstage interviewer duties and cuts an angry promo demanding that Nigel McGuinness books her in a match with MsChif.
MsChif vs Cherry Bomb
These two were part of a four corner match a few weeks ago, and it was a rare Women Of Honor on SBG match that didn’t end with MsChif getting her hand raised in victory. She will be looking to get her momentum back here against the returning Cherry Bomb – who is from Toronto.
MsChif cheap shots Cherry out of the Code Of Honor, but despite that early setback Bomb manages to rattle through a few (incredibly sloppy) headscissors takedowns, armdrags and pinning combinations. Chif rattles her skull with some shortarm clotheslines…then camel clutches her in the ropes. Baldo Bomb nailed, but she doesn’t even cover Cherry afterwards. A gutbuster scores, and when the pin does come it looks like a real struggle for Bomb to kick out at 2. Out of nowhere Cherry breaks out a god-awful looking Cattle Mutilation. MsChif gets to the ropes…and in the highlight of the match Cherry jumps up and DESTROYS her with a sliding lariat as she tries to get to her feet. Panic Attack by MsChif…for 2. This is painfully dull. Cherry Bomb tries to scream in Chif’s face…only to take a kick in the crotch. Veda Scott has seen enough…and she runs out to guillotine MsChif over the ropes. HORRIBLE missile dropkick from Cherry Bomb…into a running DVD. She beats MsChif at 05:51
Rating – DUD – This match left me utterly confused. People are always complaining that the Women Of Honor don’t get enough time. Hell, I’ve complained about that several times. But six minutes, in the context of a 45-minute wrestling show, is plenty of time to produce something. So I have no idea why they worked at such a slow, and lifeless pace and produced a match almost entirely devoid of excitement and energy. Cherry Bomb was horribly sloppy, and MsChif looked like she wanted to be anywhere else. By the time Veda Scott got out there they’d bored the crowd into submissive silence, so nobody cared about her causing MsChif to lose.
INSIDE ROH – Kevin Kelly runs down the highlights of next week’s return to Texas, with Jay defending the World Title against Davey Richards, Whitmer and Elgin joining forces to face SCUM in a Texas Tornado Tag Match, and Texas’ own ACH facing Jay Lethal.
Kevin Steen wants to know why Nigel McGuinness hasn’t booked his rematch for the World Title yet. Nigel says he’s down the pecking order, so Steen demands to prove himself by beating every member of SCUM first. (That has already started with his wins over Rhett Titus in Pittsburgh and Jimmy Jacobs in Richmond).
Roderick Strong vs Taiji Ishimori
Ishimori returned to ROH at Border Wars, losing a fiercely contested match against Eddie Edwards. He’s the reigning GHC Jr Heavyweight Champion, and won’t want to go back to Japan having gone 0-2 in his ROH matches. For his part, ‘Mr ROH’ Roderick Strong has been talking big about wanting competition and title shots, but is a little short on high profile wins recently. A victory in a TV main event against an international star could be the boost he’s been looking for.
Nothing much happens in the early going, with men trading headlocks. Ishimori quickens the pace, and in a heartbeat has beaten Strong out of the ring with his rapid-fire offence. They chop each other on the floor…with Roddy thinking fast to block Ishi as he looks to climb the ropes and hit that top rope moonsault to the floor. He hits a back suplex on the apron to bring him down. Back from commercials, and it’s clear that Strong has slipped effortlessly into his standard strategy of picking apart the back of his opponent. Grounded abdominal stretch applied, making it extremely difficult for Taiji to utilise any of his aerial moves. Even when the NOAH competitor escapes the hold, the larger American simply climbs on top of him and ruthlessly blasts the spine and kidneys with forearms. ROLLING backbreakers, followed by a body slam into the turnbuckles for 2! At last Strong makes a mistake, sloppily trying to lift Ishimori into a powerbomb and seeing it countered to a DDT in mid-air. Handspring corkscrew enzi follows…although Ishi somewhat sells the back after hitting that which impresses me. SOMERSAULT PLANCHA TO THE FLOOR! TRAMPOLINE DOUBLE STOMP for 2! Once again Ishi tries to go to the top rope, but for a second time he finds himself cut off by the flailing kicks of ‘Mr ROH’. He knocks Strong back this time, dropping him with a flying double knee strike. Revolucion COUNTERED TO A PUMPHANDLE BACKBREAKER by Roddy! Olympic Slam scores…but still Taiji won’t stay down. He tries another handspring, only to be caught with a cradle backbreaker. STRONGHOLD! The Toronto fans rally behind Ishimori as he just keeps getting up – this time to plant Strong with a DVD. Death By Roderick blocked…INTO THE TOMBSTONE LUNGBLOWER! He climbs for a 450…Strong moves…ISHI LANDS ON HIS FEET! DEATH BY RODERICK! SNAP RANA BY ISHIMORI! Orange Crush Backbreaker…COUNTERED! Taiji landed on his feet again and decimates Strong with a roundhouse kick to the face. They climb up the ropes, with Taiji getting the upper hand with a turnbuckle gutbuster! 450 SPLASH NAILED! ISHIMORI WINS! He’s beaten the former World Champion at 14:50 (shown).
Rating – **** – I thought that was better than Ishimori/Edwards. I’m sure people will say the selling wasn’t great, but actually I thought this one told a far better to go along with the thrilling high spots than the match with Eddie did. Strong tried to beat down and nullify Taiji’s explosive offensive style, and seemed to be on the cusp of victory with that strategy – but he couldn’t put the GHC Jr Heavyweight Champion away, and it seems like be figuratively punched himself out, ran his gas tank to empty and had nothing left when Ishi started dropping bombs back at him. Great main event.
Tape Rating – *** – About 50% of this show was lousy. Briscoe/Delaney and the Women Of Honor match weren’t great at all…but thankfully the Strong/Ishimori bout, along with a much-improved attempt to sculpt Jay Briscoe’s World Title landscape over last week made this a worthwhile show. I also like that ROH have started shilling their house shows more on the TV show. They put over Davey and Eddie’s forthcoming title shots at live events (as they did previously for BJ Whitmer). They also have Adam Cole and ACH cutting promos for various matches they’ll be wrestling. It’s little things, but if they want to grow, they have to make people aware that ROH exists outside of TV and ippv – and they can see it by buying tickets, VOD’s and DVD’s. The main event makes this must see if you’re a Ringside Member and have access to the TV archive, it was spectacular.