Ring of Honor – June 15th, 2016

Howdy!

Let’s get the preliminaries out of the way here….

Notable news from around the world of ROH this week:

–Changes from the original (probably mostly faked) Best in the World card. As of right now, our match lineup looks like this:

Jay Lethal vs Jay Briscoe – ROH World Title
Bobby Fish vs Dalton Castle – ROH Television Title
The Addiction vs The Motor City Machine Guns – ROH World Tag Team Titles
BJ Whitmer vs Steve Corino – Fight Without Honor
ACH vs Silas Young
Mark Briscoe vs Roderick Strong
Kyle O’Reilly vs Kamaitachi

I am much more in favor of this card than the last one, particularly O’Reilly getting a decent singles match instead of a relatively dead end tag. No word yet on booking for either the Young Bucks, Adam Cole or Adam Page; one would think that they’d be involved to further the Bullet Club angle, so there may be a bit of shenanigans, especially in the main.

Let’s watch some wrestling, shall we?

Ring of Honor TV – 6/15/16

We are TAPED from the Ted Reeve Arena in Toronto Ontario, Canada! Your hosts this week are Kevin Kelly, Nigel McGuinness, & Mark Briscoe (Yeah!). Tonight, our main event is Kyle O’Reilly vs KUSHIDA! Why yes Virginia, there is indeed a Santa Claus. But we’re not wasting time as we start off with the music of Moose! He makes his way to the ring with Stokely Hathaway, and there’s the music of the IWGP Heavyweight Champion, Tetsuya Naito! Wearing his absolutely SWEET leisure suit and mask, he drops the belt on the ramp and slowly comes to the ring; in the words of Mark Briscoe “That’s alright, there!” I may stop recapping the show and just start typing out Mark’s commentary. It’ll be better and funnier!

So who wears the suit better; Naito or Cesaro?

Tetsuya Naito vs Moose (w/ Stokely Hathaway)

Wonder if the events of the last week have soured Moose on Florida, if you know what I mean? I’m sorry, that was really awful. Mark Briscoe actually manages to pronounce ‘Los Ingobernables de Japon’ correctly in a truly stunning moment. He can also eat the most hard-boiled eggs in one sitting of anyone on the ROH roster!

Oh right, there’s a match here.

Code of Honor is not followed. Naito stalls, refusing the lockup to start. Naito ducks the lockup attempt finally and gets a go-behind, Moose backs him to the corner to break and does his fist pump. Naito responds by spitting on him, and it was good one too. Moose goes after him and Naito fires punches and kicks in the corner, but Moose catches him coming off the ropes with a dropkick. Moose charges in the corner but Naito gets the boots up as Briscoe is talking up his issue with Roderick Strong on commentary, which amounts to Roderick Strong ‘cheesing him off’. Naito goes up, but Moose dropkicks him to the floor. Moose goes to fly, but Naito slides back in and clobbers him from the apron to the floor, then he looks to dive….naw, he just somersaults and lies down in the middle of the ring, posing, then mocking Moose’s hand gesture. He continues to lie there while an enraged Moose hits the ring and pulls Naito to his feet and starts a-poundin’. Moose charges Naito against the ropes, but Naito ducks and Moose goes flying to the floor, Naito tries a springboard crossbody; Moose catches him and hits a fallaway slam to the barricade! That was cool. Moose rolls Naito back in as Mark Briscoe continues to explain why he’s got beef with Strong on commentary; funny enough, the reason doesn’t seem to be that ‘Jay is in the main event at the PPV, so I’ve gotta wrestle someone!’ Naito leapfrogs a Moose spear, sending him to the buckles, then dropkicks him in the corner while going over the top to the apron, then a legsweep drops Moose to a sitting position and Naito comes back in with a dropkick to a seated Moose. That sequence was really, really smooth and well-done; Naito is in a crazy groove at this point. Speaking of well-done, let’s check out some well-done professional advertisements!

We’re back with Moose no-selling some shots from Naito; he’s MOOSING up! Naito gets this awesome ‘fuck it’ look on his face and charges, right into shots from Moose. Moose winds up the Popeye punch, but Naito ducks and goes for Destino. Moose gets out of that, but misses a kick and a rolling kick knocks Moose back. Naito sets Moose on the top rope and ‘ranas him off, but Moose rolls through and pops up! Discus clothesline from Moose turns Naito inside-out! 1,2, no! Moose stops short after Naito avoids a spear attempt, Naito ducks the discus and hooks a tornado DDT, Moose escapes that and suplexes Naito into the buckles! Ouch, that was dangerous and Naito almost got dropped on his head there. Fireman’s carry by Moose is countered with a go-behind by Naito, Moose breaks that up with a back elbow. Moose off the ropes, Naito catches him with a Flatliner and hooks the Koji Clutch. He’s got it on pretty loosely, though, and Moose makes the ropes. Kick by Naito hits nothing but air, Moose sells it anyway. Not a great camera angle there, ROH. Tornado DDT is attempted again, Moose tries to counter into the suplex again, but Naito shifts his weight and gets the DDT. Naito covers….for ONE, as Moose throws him off! Bicycle kick by Moose and he runs up to the top rope, goes for the crossbody, but Naito just walks out of the way! That was AWESOME by Naito, as he just casually strolled away and Moose wiped out. Enzuigiri by Naito, and he slaps Moose in the face; Moose fires a wild right in retaliation, but that’s just what Naito wanted, as he ducks underneath and hooks Destino to put Moose away for the 1,2,3, with Naito doing Moose’s hand gesture during the fall. (Tetsuya Naito over Moose, pinfall, 7:44)

WORTH WATCHING? This was the single best 1 on 1 match involving Moose that I’ve EVER seen; I actually enjoyed this more than his match with Okada. Seriously, I could have watched 10 more minutes of this; Naito is on the roll of a lifetime now, and Moose’s timing in the ring is getting better and better by the match. There were a few too many no-sell comebacks from the big guy (3 by my count), but he did a great job in this match. Naito playing his mindgames and using his wily veteran tricks to get Moose to make the mistake and allow Tetsuya to win was a great story and it was told well. This one is definitely a YES, take 8 minutes and watch it. I would be down for more. Once Moose gets the hesitation out of his game, he’s going to be a great big man. At this point, if you’re not watching NJPW, you should be because Naito is one of the best wrestlers in the world.

Post-match, Naito recovers as we’re told that up next, it’s Ligerburger vs the All-Night Express!

We’re in the back with Rhett Titus. “Do you miss the golden days of wrasslin’?” Kenny King chimes in, asking if we wish that wrestling had a little more ‘attitude’? Heh. They ask if you’re tired of wrestlers not being grown men? Aren’t you tired of superkick, after superkick, after superkick, after superkick!? Well, the All-Night Express is here to Make Wrestling Great again! They’re throwing their name in the hat to make wrestling great again in 2016! Are we too far gone? Well, as long as Rhett Titus and Kenny King are great, even if it kills them, they will make wrestling great again! But here’s something that won’t kill them; these great ads!

We’re back to the music of the All-Night Express! Kenny and Rhett have matching tiny megaphones as they make their way to the ring, and we flash back to Las Vegas with the ANX putting the boots to Cheeseburger. I’m not exactly sold on this gimmick for the ANX, but they at least look like they’re having fun out there with it. And there’s the music of Cheeseburger, wearing a mask, followed by the music of Jushin ‘Thunder’ Liger! They make their way to the ring, and the crowd chants for Liger.

Jushin ‘Thunder’ Liger & Cheeseburger vs the All-Night Express (Kenny King & Rhett Titus)

Code of Honor is seemingly followed, but the ANX attacks during the handshake. They send Liger and Burger to the outside and follow to continue the pounding. Kenny chokes Liger against the barricade while Rhett slams Cheeseburger on the floor. They toss Liger back in, but the double clothesline misses and Liger sends Kenny into Rhett, then King eats a palm strike, followed by one for Titus. ANX goes to the outside, and now Burger wants to fly, but his crossbody gets caught by both members of ANX, so Liger gets a baseball slide to send them all to the mats on the floor. Back in, and the awesome power of Ligerburger double-teams Kenny King with a double hiptoss, followed by a kick to the chest and back combo. Liger tags Burger in as Mark Briscoe is still trying to sell his match with Strong on commentary, which just boils down to he doesn’t like the way that Strong treats him in the back. I dunno, they’re not exactly making this match a must-see to me, but points for effort nonetheless. Burger with chops on King, then a Bulldog to Kenny. Burger signals for the palm strike and charges King, but gets hung on the top rope crotch first, with Titus shaking the ropes on the outside for even more testicular pain. It’s glorious. Spinning kick to the back of Cheeseburger’s head, as he’s now your dead-cow-by-moniker in peril. ANX poses on the apron as Cheeseburger rolls out, and we’re out….for these ads!

We’re back with Rhett Titus dropping a running knee to Cheeseburger’s head. Now, I know that I’m supposed to be rooting for Cheeseburger to make the hot tag after all this abuse, but I’m just enjoying seeing him taking a shitkicking and wish for that to continue. I know, I’m a bad person. I regret nothing. Tag to Kenny and he levels Cheeseburger with a kick to the chest, then a tag back to Titus for an elbowdrop. Sunset flip attempt by Burger, but Titus is able to reach out and tag in Kenny, who just MURDERS Burger with a beautiful spinebuster for two. Armbar by Kenny, but Cheeseburger fights out. Weak-ass kicks by Burger. Shitty punches by Burger. I don’t like Cheeseburger. He scoots through the legs of Kenny, though, and there’s the hot tag to Liger. Liger with a clothesline to Titus, Rhett reverses a cross-corner whip. Rhett’s charge is met with boots from Liger, a second charges sees the same result, then a third gives us an alley-oop to the apron. Titus takes a shot at Liger and goes up, but Liger catches him up top and hits a superplex for two, King making the save. Rolling kick by Liger to Kenny, tag back to Burger. Double Palm Strike to King, but Kenny is able to toss a charging Liger to the floor. Titus catches a Cheeseburger ‘rana attempt and gets him up in the powerbomb position, King goes for the springboard off the top rope, but Liger is back up and cuts King off with a shot to the midsection, allowing Cheeseburger to finish the ‘rana for two. Liger goes to baseball slide Kenny on the outside, but Kenny dodges it and sends Jushin to the barricade, while Cheeseburger gets the Palm Strike to Titus to stagger him in the ring. He signals for the big Strike, but now King is back with the handstand kick and Titus hits a dropkick, and that gets followed by the spinning Uranage to give ANX the pinfall. (All-Night Express over Jushin Liger & Cheeseburger, pinfall, 7:14)

WORTH WATCHING? They should have given this time to Moose and Naito. ANX did a hell of a job to keep this thing watchable, but Cheeseburger just does NOTHING for me, and this didn’t change that all that much. I’m saying that NO, you can skip this one and do anything else with your life.

Post-match, Kenny has some words for Mark Briscoe as Rhett grabs the megaphones and ANX heads to the back, while Liger and Burger exchange bows in the ring and Liger bows to the crowd while they chant for him.

We’re back to the announcers, who want to talk about the Bullet Club. Yes, let’s do that. Next week, our main event is going to be the Briscoes, Roderick Strong, & Jay Lethal vs the Young Bucks and the Guerillas of Destiny! But wait, the teammates of the Briscoes are also their opponents for Best in the World! I suspect that it may not go very smoothly! Mark Briscoe thinks that it’s all going to be alright, but one Roderick Strong has made his way to the ringside area. Roddy is, shall we say, perturbed that he has to team with ‘the Briscoe that doesn’t matter’ next week. Oooh, them’s some fightin’ words there, Roddy. Mark seems to agree as he gets up and they go nose to nose, but here’s security and a referee to break this up before it goes any further. Before we go any further, though, we’ve got to check out these ads!

We’re back with a promo from the Bullet Club! Specifically, Adam Cole and the Bucks! Let’s hear what they have to say! Matt Jackson: “Jay Lethal, I’ll be honest with you, bro; me and Kenny Omega had a couple superkicks with your name on it!” He calls Dijak a ‘big doofus’, but Adam Cole wants to tell them what’s even worse, and that’s the fact that the show ended with Jay Briscoe and Jay Lethal, the two ‘chosen ones’ of Ring of Honor. Their big rematch? Well, that’s a match that Adam Cole should be in! Preach on, Brother Cole! Adam doesn’t like the way that the cameraman and the sound guy are looking at him, so the Bucks take over; Cole finishes by looking at the camera and promising that the Bullet Club is going to show who the best in the world is at Best in the World. Once again, Adam Cole proves he’s one of the best promo guys in the world, selling actual emotion and anger for a brief second and making you feel like he CARES about being left out of the match. While I still disagree with the choice that has been made for Best in the World (as I said previously, they should have just run with Cole/Lethal), at least Cole is making something out of it. My man-crush on Adam is starting to rival Kenny Reigns’.

We’re back at the commentary desk now and Mark Briscoe has exited, which actually makes me sad, because him calling the O’Reilly/KUSHIDA main event would have been awesome. They shill for Best in the World as Silas Young makes his way to the ring. Silas grabs him a microphone as Kelly talks about Young facing ACH at the PPV. Young: “Kevin Kelly, it’s 2016 and the things that are acceptable for a man, they make me sick!” He runs down ACH for being an annoying loudmouth and playing videogames, and for thinking he’s a superhero from a Japanese cartoon. He promises to show ACH why they call him the last real man, and why ACH is just a child living in a make-believe world. Young jaws with the fans and grabs a fan by the shirt in the front row, bringing security out to pull him away. Meanwhile, ACH has come out of the crowd and is in the ring, and he hits Silas and security with Air Jordan, putting everyone down! He crowdsurfs to the back as the crowd chants for him; he better get out of there before security comes to and sues him for that unprovoked attack! They were just trying to do their job!

We’re in the back with Kyle O’Reilly! “One year ago, KUSHIDA beat me in the Finals of the Best of the Super Juniors.” He doesn’t add ‘in a ***** match’ to end of that sentence, so allow me. He vowed that he would be a better version of himself a year later, and he would die before losing to him again! He vowed to tap him out, and it’s only been 337 days, so he’s right on time; and KUSHIDA is out of time. Yeah, Kyle is not the best promo guy in the world yet; he’s better when he has Bobby to play off of. Still, decent enough to set up the match tonight.

And there’s the music of KUSHIDA! This is developing into one of the top rivalries in pro wrestling, with these guys having crazy chemistry in the ring together; they’ve pretty much never had a bad match with each other. This will be their 4th singles encounter; the aforementioned BOSJ Final in 2015, the first round of the BOSJ this year, and RevPro Uprising in February, which is the only match of theirs I haven’t seen. I had their first match at *****, and their second match this year at ****3/4, so I’m pretty stoked for this. I know they won’t match that tonight on ROH TV, but still. I love KUSHIDA’s music, by the way. I love everything right now! The opening strains of “Dance Away” hit as Kyle O’Reilly makes his way to the ring; man, I love the guy, but I no likey his new merch. Kyle gets in the ring and KUSHIDA holds up the IWGP Jr title, and we’re going to hold up to watch these great ads!

We’re back with the bell ringing, and we’re underway!

Kyle O’Reilly vs KUSHIDA

They circle and trade go-behinds, with Kyle taking him down in a front facelock that KUSHIDA immediately reverses and hangs on through a few attempted reversals by Kyle, with KUSHIDA spinning on the back of O’Reilly and floating into a cross armbar, which Kyle immediately reverses and that forces KUSHIDA to handstand out of it into a stalemate. Smooth as silk technical wrestling as usual from these two. Kyle stays on the mat and fires kicks, so KUSHIDA cartwheels over (which makes SENSE to escape the legs of O’Reilly, as opposed to him showing off) and attempts a loose mount that Kyle reverses into a side headlock. O’Reilly cranks on it and KUSHIDA shoots him off and they run the ropes, with KUSHIDA stopping Kyle with an inverted atomic drop and a dropkick to the knee, then off the ropes with a kick to the arm to start working the arm for the Hoverboard lock. He bends Kyle’s arm back and steps on it, stepping over with his other leg and stomping the mat. Snapmare by KUSHIDA and he slams Kyle’s arm to the mat and follows with the cartwheel dropkick to put Kyle down. KUSHIDA chops away as Kyle takes a shot, but KUSHIDA just calmly kicks him in the arm. O’Reilly gets sent to the corner and KUSHIDA follows with a forearm; he gets an armwringer on Kyle and goes to snap the arm across his shoulder, but O’Reilly escapes with a sleeper, so KUSHIDA just throws him over to the mat. Charge by KUSHIDA in the corner is met with boots from Kyle, and Kyle gets the kicks/legsweep combo, clutching his arm afterwards and trying to shake it out. Kyle gets KUSHIDA up and drops him knee-first across his thigh, then puts on a figure four without stepping through and just snaps KUSHIDA’s legs over. Awesome. Just awesome. He drops the knee across the thigh again, holds it in a dragon-screw position and hits it with a forearm, then comes off the ropes and sweeps the leg out from underneath KUSHIDA. Kyle holds the leg up again, but KUSHIDA fires rights to escape. Kyle catches him off the ropes and grapevines the leg into a kneebar, twisting the ankle but rolling over to do so, allowing KUSHIDA to make the ropes. O’Reilly stomps the leg and gets KUSHIDA up for a suplex, KUSHIDA goes over the back and lands on his feet and that ends up hurting him MORE, as he landed on his feet and knees, causing him to howl in pain. Kyle charges KUSHIDA against the ropes, KUSHIDA with a kick that sends him back to the apron, he gets another from the apron, then comes springboarding in with a dropkick to put Kyle down. He can’t capitalize and just collapses as the knee is hurting too much. See, Michael Cole, this is ‘creating separation’; KUSHIDA put everything he could into the move to buy him some time against Kyle. They both get back to their feet, KUSHIDA on a wobbly knee while Kyle’s left arm is just hanging there, and they slug it out. KUSHIDA tries to stop Kyle with a kick to the arm, but Kyle powers through and kicks KUSHIDA in the leg and gets a vicious running knee to KUSHIDA’s face. This has been far too much awesome for one segment, so let’s take a break for these great ads!

We’re back with KUSHIDA trying to fight back with a Pele, but Kyle catches it and turns it into an anklelock! KUSHIDA fights up and this time, he gets the Pele for real, but Kyle gets the rebound lariat while KUSHIDA is busy trying to get his leg to work again. O’Reilly looks for a brainbuster, but KUSHIDA counters to one of his own, and both guys are down again. Both wrestlers up at 5 and KUSHIDA snaps the arm of Kyle over his shoulder, but tries to run the ropes and gets caught with an O’Reilly kneelift. Kyle runs the ropes but now KUSHIDA follows him and gets the handstand kick to send Kyle to the floor. KUSHIDA tries a springboard crossbody, but Kyle avoids it and kicks him in the leg again, crumpling KUSHIDA to the floor. O’Reilly gets a chair and drops KUSHIDA knee first onto it, then fires strikes and sits KUSHIDA in said chair. He adds a slap for good measure and goes to the apron, he comes off with the flying knee, but KUSHIDA catches him mid-air with the armbar and they flatten the chair! Now, this match was taped before the BOSJ, but it’s essentially a repeat of their famous spot from that match; more accurately, that match repeated the spot from THIS match, but who cares? It’s FUCKING AWESOME. KUSHIDA holds it for a few seconds, then hammerlocks Kyle and tosses him to the barricade arm-first. Back in the ring and KUSHIDA has a second wind now, firing kicks at Kyle’s arm. Another kick is caught by Kyle and he returns fire with a kick to KUSHIDA’s leg. And now it gets even more awesome, as they just keep kicking each other in the arm and leg respectively, ending with simultaneous shots to stop both in their tracks. Ax and Smash by Kyle, but KUSHIDA fires back with a NASTY straight right, knocking Kyle’s mouthguard out. God, I love this. The crowd thinks this is awesome, and the crowd could not be more correct. KUSHIDA gets a running kick to the arm of Kyle and they exchange some tilt-a-whirl exchanges that end with Kyle getting a guillotine chokehold. KUSHIDA just calmly reaches up to the injured arm and moves it into position for a standing Hoverboard Lock, and he rolls through to put Kyle on the mat and apply the hold there! Kyle keeps fighting it and rolls through, KUSHIDA tries to keep the hold on, which proves to be his undoing as O’Reilly manages to roll through all the way into putting KUSHIDA’s shoulders on the mat! 1,2,3!!! Whew. (Kyle O’Reilly over KUSHIDA, pinfall, 10:47)

WORTH WATCHING? Really? REALLY? It’s KUSHIDA/O’REILLY. Yes, watch the fuck out of this match. Watch the fuck out of all their matches. I mean, this was probably the worst match I’ve seen the two of them have and it’s still probably the best televised match you’ll see for awhile; these two have crazy chemistry and are just fantastic pro wrestlers. Doesn’t get much better.

Post-match, Kyle celebrates as KUSHIDA protests the count while the announcers shill next week’s episode with the big 8-man tag main event, and we’re done with ROH TV for another week.

FINAL THOUGHTS: The first match shockingly delivered and the main event was awesome. In-between, yes, the Ligerburger thing happened, but we at least got some promos for Best in the World; I’m not really sold on Briscoe/Strong, but the Bullet Club got some promo time to keep Cole relevant as well as Young getting what are likely his final shots in against ACH before they throw down. Nothing outside of a commercial for the main event, and they really need to rectify that; if that’s the match that’s supposed to sell the show, they’re lagging behind and really need to hardsell it next week. Overall, though, this was a great episode of ROH TV and well worth checking out this week.

As always, thanks for reading this thing I wrote,

Rick Poehling
@MrSoze on Twitter