Ring of Honor – November 16th, 2016

Howdy!

Tonight, Bobby Fish defends the Ring of Honor World TV title against “Hangman” Adam Page!

Let’s watch some wrestling, shall we?

Ring of Honor TV – 11/16/16

And we open with a recap of Fish/Page so far, with Page talking about how good it felt to bring a chair down on Fish and feel his ribs collapse. Fish won’t be intimidated, while Page is here to take the title tonight!

We are TAPED from the William J. Myers Pavilion in Baltimore, Maryland! Your hosts are Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino.

And there’s the music of the Addiction to start us off! We haven’t seen them in action since Ladder War, but here comes Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian, and Kamaitachi for their first round match in the ROH World 6-Man tag title tournament. And now we get new music; it’s team CMLL! Your representatives are Ultimo Guerrero, Shigeo Okumura, & Hechicero! Guerrero is a former CMLL World Champion and multi-time 6-man champ in that organization, while Okumura held the CMLL Trios championship as well. Hechicero is one of the longest reigning champions that I’ve heard of in awhile, as he is the current PyH champ and has been for 2581 days as of this writing! That would be even more impressive if he had defended that title since 2013, but hey; still listed as an active promotion by Cagematch, so scoreboard, baby! As Corino says, CMLL is the oldest wrestling promotion in the entire world, having existed since 1933, which is coincidentally the same year that Chris Daniels made his debut! Oh, Corino. Shut up.

The Addiction (Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian, & Kamaitachi) vs Team CMLL (Ultimo Guerrero, Shigeo Okumura, & Hechicero) – 1st Round, World 6-Man tag team titles

Kazarian & Okumura start us off. They trade armwringers, and Okumura trips Frankie and gets a hold on the leg of Kaz. Frankie gets back to the wristlock, but a trip puts Frankie back down into a toehold. Okumura breaks and we’re back to our feet. Side headlock by Okumura, Kaz shoots him off, they meet in the middle of the ring but nobody moves. Kaz off the ropes, same result. They slug it out and Kaz runs the ropes, ducking some clothesline attempts but getting caught with an armdrag by Shiego. Headscissors breaks for Frankie, back to their feet. Kaz gets a kick into a hammerlock, then takes him over with a headscissors pin attempt for a quick two. Neato, Kaz. Kaz gets sent to the corner; he gets his boot up on a blind charge, but Okumura quickly recovers and puts him on the top rope, then brings him off with a cutter. 1,2, no! Tag to Hechicero, but Kaz manages to hit him with a shot and bring in Daniels, who gets a nice little pop from the ROH faithful. Cool. He beats Hechicero down with forearms, then stomps away in the corner. Daniels goes for an elevated kneebar, but Hechicero kicks him then rolls through into a standing waistlock. Chris elbows out and comes off the ropes, but gets caught with a powerslam. Hechicero goes for the pin, but Daniels rolls him over and they keep rolling all around the ring until Hechicero manages to hold him down for two. Daniels is in the wrong part of town now, as the CMLL guys tee off on him from the apron, and Hechicero wrings the arm and tags in Guerrero. Daniels shoulders him back to the heel corner, though, and tags in Kamaitachi, who just wails on Ultimo in the corner with slaps. It’s pretty awesome. Kamaitachi is just so much better than everyone else in the ring at this point in time. He shoots Guerrero off the ropes, but gets bowled over by a shoulderblock from the bigger man. Chops in the corner from Guerrero, cross-corner whip is reversed by Kama. Kamaitachi charges, but gets alley-ooped to the apron and tripped up there, where a dropkick from Ultimo sends him crashing to the floor. The Addiction get taken out on the apron, and now it’s a CMLL triple-team, as Okumura holds Kama up against the barricade and Guerrero pops Hechicero over the top to crash onto Kama’s gut. I think the kids call that nifty. At least, this crowd does, ’cause they’re pretty jacked right now as Kama gets tossed over the barricade into the seats. Shiego sets Kama up in a chair, and Ultimo gets a running start and goes over the barricade with a clothesline onto a seated Kama! I’m pointedly ignoring an incredibly annoying dude who’s trying to shout over everyone else, but I won’t ignore these great ads!

We’re back with Daniels and Hechicero back in the ring, and Daniels has control, running Hechicero into the boots of Kaz. Snapmare by Daniels, and he goes to the apron and tags in Kaz. Now, that’s not legal or anything, but this is ROH and tag rules are selectively enforced. Daniels springs in with an elbow, Kaz follows with a legdrop, and now Kama, who received no tag of any kind, runs the ropes a bunch and hits a seated dropkick on Hechicero. Kama is apparently legal anyway, so he covers for two. Let’s see what happened during the break to allow the Addiction to take control of the match; apparently, Daniels tripped Hechicero up from the outside and Kama stomped on him a bunch. WOW. Dastardly! The Addiction triple teams Hechicero in the corner, and now Kaz is back in. Irish whip is reversed by Hechicero and he flapjacks Frankie, then hits a springboard dropkick off the second rope to keep Kaz down. Tags are made to Daniels and Guerrero, respectively, and Ultimo gains control with chops. Cross-corner whip and Daniels moves out of the way of a Guerrero splash, but gets caught with a drop toehold into the buckle anyway, slumping in the corner. Guerrero gets a running start and does a handstand on the top rope as Christopher Daniels has a HILARIOUS expression on his face (Oh no, Oh no, Oh no!) as Guerrero swings down with a….broncobuster? Not sure, but it didn’t look like a dropkick. Kama and Frankie come in with a double clothesline, but Guerrero ducks that and gets one of his own to take them out. Guerrero and Daniels go up, and Ultimo drops him face first off the top! 1,2, Kama and Frankie save it! Hechicero and Okumura are back in and it’s breaking loose in Tulsa! The Addiction toss Hechicero and Okumura to the floor, Kamaitachi goes up, senton onto both guys to the floor! Guerrero tries to fight it out in the ring, but gets caught with a sling blade from Daniels at the same time as a Kazarian legsweep. We’ll call that one…..PARTIAL ELIMINATION! 1,2, NO! Heel miscommunication leads to Frankie and Daniels knocking noggins, Kama comes back in with a kick to the midsection of Guerrero, Okumura back in with a fireman’s carry on Kama into a cutter, Daniels with an STO on Okumura. Daniels gloats, but turns right around into a hammerlock swing into a backbreaker from Hechicero. Hechicero goes for a dropkick to Daniels against the ropes but Chris dodges it and Hechicero ends up hitting the floor instead. Kama back in now, and he gets a release Falcon Arrow on Ultimo. Kama goes up now, but Daniels tags himself back in (awww, a tag! How quaint these boys are.) and holds Ultimo up, but Guerrero gets out and Daniels takes the double knees from Kama instead. Hechicero and Okumura take advantage of that and get a wheelbarrow DDT on Kama, then Hechicero hits Kaz with a running knee in the corner to send him to the floor. Meanwhile, Guerrero sets Daniels up on the top rope facing out, hooks him and hits an INVERTED SUPERPLEX! Wowee! 1,2,3. (Team CMLL over The Addiction, pinfall, 11:12)

WORTH WATCHING? – All action, no resting. That’s what I want from 6-man tags, and this delivered that. YES, I’d take a few minutes and check this one out, and this is coming from me, someone who is admittedly not a Lucha Libre fan at all. They worked well out there. Match had problems, but it still held together. Cool finisher, too.

Post-match, CMLL celebrates as Kazarian checks on Daniels, as we see that the Kingdom will face off against Team CMLL; I’m pretty sure they’re the last roadblock in the Kingdom’s way to winning this thing, so we’ll see what happens. Meanwhile, Kama is back in the ring and he’s none too happy with Mr. Daniels, as he shoves him and they go nose to nose. Kama shoves him away again, and now Kaz wants to get involved, but Chris stops that and apologizes to Kama, saying he messed up, and offers him a free shot. Daniels braces himself, but Kamaitachi spits at the feet of Daniels instead and leaves the ring. Chris prevents Kazarian from going after Kama, as Frankie looks like he wants to choke a bitch.

Now, without doing too much pontificating here, I really, really like what’s going on with Daniels lately. The promo that he cut before Ladder War about his career coming to an end was poignant, but the promo that Frankie cut about being Daniels’ best friend and being willing to follow him to the end was integral to all of this. It appears, at least to me, that they’re going to go with a Chris Daniels that has had his confidence shaken and can feel his body and, in the case of this match tonight, his mind not being sharp enough and him struggling with that responsibility. Frankie remained by his side while Kama spit at him and walked out; there’s so MUCH they can do with a Christopher Daniels in the twilight of his career trying his hardest to prove he’s still got something left in the tank, while Frankie can even get a boost in showing loyalty to his friend in his moment of need. In short, they’ve got a shot to do something tremendous here with a man who has been a pillar of ROH for many years; I can’t wait to see what they decide.

Of course, I’m assuming he’ll get fed to Punisher Martinez or something, I dunno.

And with that horribly depressing thought, let’s watch some great ads to lift our spirits!

We’re back as Kelly and Corino talk about our next match, which will be Colt Cabana and Dalton Castle against Keith Lee and Shane Taylor, but we’re being interrupted, as the Cabinet makes their way to ringside; they don’t seem to be wearing their Cabinet gear, however! What could this mean? Well, they’ve got a mic, so maybe they’ll explain! Coleman: “Did you just call us the Cabinet? 42 combined years of wrestling experience, and that’s the best thing that Ring of Honor could come up with? The Cabinet?” Titus gets on the mic and points out how loyal he’s been to Ring of Honor, and he’s no joke; he’s Rhett Titus! King tells us that he’s tired of being a joke; well, the joke’s on all of you! Coleman gets the mic back, and he says that there are more of them in the back; more than you think.

I don’t think these dudes voted for Trump. It appears the Cabinet is no more, which should at least make Kenny Reigns happy if nothing else.

And now, Kevin takes us back to Glory by Honor, where an 8-man elimination tag came down to the Bucks against Castle and Cabana, and Dalton decided that the time was right to cash in Dalton and Colt’s tag title shot right there; the Bucks acquiesced, and after a Meltzer Driver, the Bucks retained.

In the back, Castle is looking for Colt in the locker room. Upon finding him, he tells Cabana that he can’t find the Boys anywhere; Cabana says they don’t need the Boys, they have a match! Castle goes along reluctantly, and the camera pans down to a closet, where we see some familiar looking feathers on the floor.

So. The Boys are in the closet.

Just a bit on the nose there, ROH.

And there’s the music of Keith Lee and Shane Taylor! I like these dudes. And there’s the music of Colt Cabana! He hits the ramp and is followed by Dalton Castle to the loudest pop so far tonight, because he’s a fucking STAR and ROH needs to LISTEN for once. Castle looks a little out of sorts without the Boys, as he can’t figure out how to get into the ring, so Colt reluctantly helps him up to the apron.

Colt Cabana & Dalton Castle (without the Boys!) vs Keith Lee & Shane Taylor

Code of Honor is followed. Castle and Taylor start us off as the crowd chants for Castle. Lockup goes to the corner and Taylor gives a break, but goes for a cheap shot that Dalton ducks. Castle his the lean back pose to stop Taylor in his tracks, and there’s a tag to Colt. Crowd chants for Colt now as Taylor backs him into the heel corner and Lee tags in, firing away at Colt. Off the ropes, headscissors takeover by Cabana! Cole with a waistlock and a blind tag from Castle, and Dalton comes in while Colt distracts Lee. He hits the pose to freak out Lee now, and starts hitting rights and chops. He gets sent to the corner, but goes to the apron to avoid a charging Lee and nails him with a right from there. Keith gets a running start and shoulderblocks Castle to the floor, where Shane is waiting to run him over there and run us into our next break for some great ads!

We’re back with Taylor choking Dalton with his boot in the corner. Headbutt from Taylor staggers Castle, but Dalton fights back and tries a sunset flip; Shane punishes him for this insolence by hitting a legdrop for two. Another headbutt from Taylor as we now see that Dalton’s nose is bloodied. Castle blocks a clothesline and hits a back elbow, then rolls to his corner and it’s hot tag Cabana. Colt hits a few clotheslines, but can’t bring him down. Chops by Colt, Taylor won’t go down. Right hands by Cabana, with a bionic elbow to Lee as he tries to get in, then elbows to the head of Taylor finally bring him down, and Cabana springs across with a bridge for two. Colt mounts Taylor in the corner, but Lee brings him down. Double Irish whip by Taylor and Lee, Cabana goes under and tries a springboard moonsault off the 2nd rope, but they catch him. Castle saves and they hammer away at Taylor and Lee, and a pair of dropkicks send Keith and Shane to the floor. Castle and Cabana run the ropes, and there’s the the Castle strut from both guys! Taylor and Lee get back on the apron, but Castle and Cabana send them back down to the floor with a pair of rights, Colt follows with a dropkick to both guys, and Dalton finishes with a tope to both. Cabana tosses Taylor back in, with Lee following; Cabana chokes Lee in the corner then splashes Taylor in the other corner, but gets caught coming out of the corner by Lee with a BIG attitude adjustment. He goes for the same on Castle, but Dalton wiggles free into a waistlock and gets a CRAZY deadlift German suplex on Keith Lee! Crowd goes BATSHIT for that. He tries it on Taylor now, but Shane backs him into the corner to stop that; now Colt is back in and he tries it, but he can’t get the big man up. He calls for Castle to help, but Taylor ducks a kick attempt from Dalton and Colt takes it in the face. Big right from Taylor puts Castle down, and now it’s Cabana against Lee and Taylor. That goes about as well as one might expect, with Cabana taking a pop-up powerbomb from Lee and a 2nd rope splash from Taylor to finish this thing. (Keith Lee & Shane Taylor over Dalton Castle & Colt Cabana, pinfall, 9:17)

WORTH WATCHING? – Fun match, as the right guys went over here; Castle needs a push, sure, but I’m not sure it should be in a tag team with Colt. I dig Taylor and Lee a bunch, so I’m fine with this. YES, this was fine; nothing that’s going to set the world on fire, but a solid tag match. Cabana wanting Castle to take things more seriously by hiding the Boys (or was it revenge for his impromptu challenge costing them their tag title shot?) and the finish is a good tease for dissension amongst these two.

Post-match, we see that Castle’s nose is still bleeding as he gets in to try to help Colt to his feet, but Cabana doesn’t seem to want to be helped. Hmmmm. I’ll ponder what’s going on there during these great ads!

We’re back with the Kingdom, who tell CMLL that they’re ready for next week, and that CMLL will lose to the Kingdom next week.

Over to one ROH World Champion, Mr. Adam Cole, bay-bay! He promises that tonight, Adam Page will take that TV title from Bobby Fish, and the Bucks will be defending the ROH World Tag Team titles at Final Battle against the Briscoes; but he, Adam Cole, will be facing Jay Lethal in London and Kyle O’Reilly at Final Battle. And they’re both formidable competitors, sure, but they can’t hang with Adam Cole, bay-bay!

And there’s the music of the Bullet Club! Adam Page makes his way to the ring, our challenger for the TV title. And here comes the champ, as the music of reDRagon plays and Bobby Fish makes his way to ringside. He stops to do his throat-cutting pose for the camera; and gets BLINDSIDED by Page! Come on, Adam, Bobby LOVES the Code of Honor! Page sends him to 3 separate barricades on the outside! He rips the shirt off Fish as we see the ribs are still taped, then throws him into another barricade, then into the side of the ring. Page grabs a chair; remember the match hasn’t started yet. Fish rolls into the ring and the ref rings the bell, stopping Page from using the chair by threatening disqualification. That was actually clever, there; probably should have done it a few minutes earlier, ref, but still.

Bobby Fish (c) vs “Hangman” Adam Page – Ring of Honor World TV title match

Page tosses the chair down, pissed off, but he rolls in and starts firing away at Fish. He goes after the ribs of Fish in the corner as Kyle O’Reilly makes his way to ringside now. Shoulders from Page in the corner to Bobby, and Adam stomps away. Time for us to go away too; away to an ad break!

We’re back with Page hitting a fallaway slam into a bridge on Fish. 1,2, no! Page runs Fish into the buckle and hangs him in the tree of woe, then just leans his shoulder against the ribs of Bobby, which is a nice bit of psychology. We’re told on commentary that Dragon Lee, by virtue of his Proving Ground win last week, will challenge for the TV title at Final Battle. Fish throws rights in an attempt to fight out, but Adam sends him to the ropes and chokes him while pressing on his ribs. Page with a seated abdominal stretch now, and he fires rights into the exposed ribs of Bobby. Fish is putting on a clinic selling in there right now. Fish manages to get back to his feet and fires forearms, Page responds, and now Fish hits a few kicks to put Page down. He goes for a big roundhouse, but Page gets to his feet and buries his shoulder into the ribs of Fish, backing him to the corner and collapsing Bobby. The psychology of the match has been established so strongly now that any shot to the ribs of Bobby is like him getting shot with a cannon. Bobby staggers to the apron now and Page goes out as well, Page tries to set Fish up, but he gets caught and Fish hits an exploder from the apron to the floor on Adam! Awesome. That’s the big move that Bobby needed. Both guys are down. Fish gets back in the ring as the count continues, Page makes it back in, splash by Fish! Bobby staggers back, but manages to pick up Page and run him in the other corner, then has to take a breather again. Bobby keeps going, though, and gets an exploder in the corner. He takes too long to cover and Page kicks out at one. Page rolls to the apron as Fish rolls out to the floor; now, okay. Look, I don’t mind a lot of contrivance in pro wrestling. We kind of accept it with the territory. But the only reason that this happens is so Page can jump over a Fish attempt to sweep his legs and hit his shooting star press off the apron to Fish on the floor. It was nonsensical, and this match was in a killer groove with Fish fighting out from underneath through the rib injury. Didn’t need it. I suppose Page just had to hit his move, though. Anyway, I’ll probably get over it after I watch these great ads!

We’re back with Page hitting a forearm in the corner on Bobby, then bringing him out and hitting a gutbuster (good choice there) on Fish. 1,2, NO! Page tries to send Fish into the buckle, but Bobby blocks it. He sends Page to the corner and charges, Page gets the boot up, Fish catches it! Kicks to the knee of Page, then a dragon-screw legwhip by Bobby! Bobby collapses in pain from the ribs, but manages to pull himself up as Page is on the apron. Fish with rights now, and he gets a running start off the ropes, but Page does a somersault into the ring to hit the slingshot lariat! 1,2, NO! Page goes for the Rite of Passage, but Fish counters into the kneebar! Page reaches for the ropes, reaches…..taps! Fish retains! (Bobby Fish over “Hangman” Adam Page, submission, 8:35)

WORTH WATCHING? – Hmmm. I’m giving it a YES with reservations, to be honest. First off, the story was excellent, as Page targeted the injured ribs of Fish almost the entire match and Fish sold it like he was getting killed at every turn. That was great. But I’m not sold on the finish at all, to be perfectly honest; Page taps that quickly while he’s that close to the ropes? Really? I mean, the main body of the match was fine, with Fish hitting big moves to buy time against Page while the latter methodically beat down on the ribs, but if we’re going to follow that story to a natural conclusion, how exactly does Fish still have the strength to fully apply the kneebar with his ribs in such bad shape, considering that part of the kneebar relies on Page’s knee being pressed right into Bobby’s rib? Why didn’t Adam just kick him in the ribs with the other leg to break?

Look, I get that Adam Page isn’t going away. It’s clear that they see something in him; they put him over Jay Briscoe, they put him in the Bullet Club, he’s been prominently featured on ROH TV a bunch. I have my reservations about whether or not he’s such an elite talent that he’s on that level, and he CERTAINLY isn’t over enough to be at the level he’s at (although I’ll at least give them props for trying to get him to that level); but I’ve been bugging about ROH not pushing their younger talent for awhile, so I’ll hope for some improvement from him. He’s not a BAD worker, but I don’t see him as a top tier guy, and I hope that he eventually proves me wrong.

Post-match, Fish celebrates with the ROH TV title as an approving Kyle O’Reilly looks on, but here’s Adam Cole! He comes down with his title and gets in the ring, trashtalking Kyle the whole way. Fish opens the ropes to let Kyle come in, but Jay Lethal comes down to the ring, as a reminder that he’ll get the first crack at Cole in London, while Kyle has to wait until Final Battle. Cole wisely decides that discretion is the better part of valor here, and takes a powder as Lethal and O’Reilly look on.

Promo for Final Battle takes us out.

FINAL THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: This was a good show in ROH land, with a fun 6-man tag to start us off, a little bit of angle advancement with the tag in the middle of the show while Taylor and Lee keep getting wins, and a pretty decent main event with a few holes. Combine that with the Cabinet dropping their bullshit gimmick, I’m fine with a thumbs up for this week’s ROH TV.

As always, thanks for reading this thing I wrote,

Rick Poehling
@MrSoze on Twitter