Ring of Honor – November 23rd, 2016

Howdy!

Hope everyone had a fine Thanksgiving and are still enjoying their food comas.

Let’s watch some wrestling, shall we?

But first, it’s the return of…..

Notable news from around the world of ROH:

–The Ring of Honor TV title has become something of a hot potato recently on the UK tour. On the very first show, Will Ospreay defeated Bobby Fish to win the strap in Will’s first ROH match; his reign was cut short 48 hours later, as “The Villain” Marty Scurll unseated Ospreay to win the title, and is the current champ coming out of the tour. First off….

….YEAH! I love Scurll!

But also, it looks like ROH has decided to bring in their newest signees with a bang with this move. Ospreay is one of the more celebrated wrestlers on the independent circuit, working full time in NJPW along with working feds like PWG and making the BOLA 2016 Final. Marty Scurll is also from the UK, and he was the winner of BOLA this year. Both have signed with ROH and should be appearing with some regularity. While I enjoyed Fish’s reign, it’s nice to see that anything can still happen on the ROH live show circuit.

–As such, the TV title match for Final Battle has been changed, and will now be a 4 corners survival match between Scurll, Ospreay, Fish, and Dragon Lee. Should be a fun time. More on that in my upcoming Final Battle 2016 preview, available at finer Blogs of Doom everywhere this week!

–Cody Rhodes’ opponent for Final Battle will be Jay Lethal, as Rhodes tweeted the information out this week.

–ACH has confirmed that he has asked to be released from his ROH contract early, and Ring of Honor has complied with that request. Rumors have surfaced that he will be replaced by Lio Rush in the finals of the tourney.

–Steve Corino is apparently set to finish with ROH in the near future and join the WWE Performance Center as a trainer. He recently spent time there as a guest trainer, and it apparently worked out to everyone’s satisfaction.

Final Battle is one week away! Time to lock this card up!

Ring of Honor TV – 11/23/16

We are TAPED from the William J Myers Pavilion in Baltimore, Maryland! Your hosts are Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino. Tonight, we’ll find out who the other finalists are in the ROH 6-man tag team championship tournament, which will be decided at Final Battle!

But up first, we hear the music of Silas Young! The last real man stalks to the ring as we see highlights of him almost defeating Adam Cole in Florida to win the ROH World title. Alas, Cole managed to hold him off. And that can only be the music of one Kyle O’Reilly! The current #1 contender to the ROH World title and Final Battle challenger for Adam Cole marches to the ring, boring a hole in Young as he does. This should be quite the nifty bout of gentlemanly fisticuffs.

Kyle O’Reilly vs Silas Young

Code of Honor is declined by Young. That rake! I hope Kyle takes mighty umbrage with this sign of disrespect. Chain wrestling turns into the two trading go-behinds. Kyle grabs the arm to force Silas to the mat into a headscissors, with Young kicking out and we have ourselves a stalemate. Lockup again and Kyle gets a full-nelson and goes for a snapmare, but Young blocks it, sweeping the legs of Kyle and covering for one. Kyle returns the favor and Young counters that into a cradle for two. Standing side headlock by O’Reilly now, Young shoots him off, Kyle knocks him over by running through with a shoulder. Off the ropes and Silas tries a hiptoss, Kyle blocks and tries one of his own; Young blocks that, so Kyle rolls him through into a kneebar. Young grabs the ropes to break, Kyle up and he stomps away on the knee now, picking Silas up and dropping him knee-first. O’Reilly sets up a standing figure-four, then rolls forward to smash Young’s legs into the mat. O’Reilly with kicks to the knee in the corner, then kicks to the arm as the commentators put over the style of O’Reilly, pointing out that he’s able to work multiple body parts and get a submission with any of them. It’s actually a part of Kyle’s work that I enjoy very much, in that he doesn’t just work any single body part to get the win with; he takes care to work over multiples to ensure that the story of the match doesn’t get lost in his finish, which helps out the other wrestler in looking like a million bucks. Kyle tries to whip Young out of the corner; Silas blocks it, so Kyle kicks the knee for his insolence, then tries again. Young reverses it, Kyle attempts to go over the top, but Young didn’t actually charge and they exchange a few reversals before Silas tosses him to the floor. Young follows him out and lays into Kyle there, tossing him into the barricade a few times. And now it’s time for something else that will happen a few times this hour; a look at these great ads!

We’re back with Young covering O’Reilly in the ring for two. Chinlock by Young, O’Reilly gets back to his feet, Young tries a belly-to-back suplex, but Kyle flips over the top and hits combination kicks and strikes into a legsweep. Running forearm into the corner by Kyle, followed by an arm snap across the shoulder of O’Reilly and a belly-to-back suplex that gets two for Kyle, and he grabs the leg of Young on the kickout into a kneebar. Young tries to kick free with his good leg so Kyle turns that into a heel hook, and Young is forced to roll for the ropes. Kyle with kicks to the leg of Young, and when Silas gives up the arm trying to get to his feet using the ropes, Kyle kicks that instead and goes for an armbar on the mat. Young rolls through it; Kyle goes for a brainbuster, but Silas blocks it with a knee, then catches an O’Reilly clothesline and turns that into a neckbreaker across the knees that gets two for Young. Full nelson by Young is countered into a sleeper from Kyle, who snaps the arm of Silas over the shoulder again. Young grabs the tights to stop Kyle from hitting the ropes, then hits a knee and a cutter. 1,2, no! Fireman’s carry by Young, O’Reilly wiggles free of that and goes for an exploder, Silas stops that, so O’Reilly just calmly goes to a standing front choke, then forces the exploder anyway. Wrestle, counter, wrestle. Young pops up and hits a big German suplex, Kyle fires back with a discus forearm, then Silas responds in kind, and a kick from Kyle puts both guys on the mat. Why, who’s that gentleman with the manly man-bun walking towards the ring down the aisle? It’s none other than the Ring of Honor World Champion himself, Adam Cole, bay-bay! He takes a seat at commentary as Young hits a running knee on a kneeling Kyle after escaping another arm snap by O’Reilly. Fireman’s carry by Silas into a rolling drop, but he gets caught by Kyle doing the handstand on the top rope. O’Reilly brings him back to the center of the ring and just drops him straight down onto Kyle’s knee, Kyle covers. 1,2, NO! Not much torque on the kickout as Kyle grabs the arm for the cross-armbreaker, although Young is able to block it for a few moments. Kyle sinks it in, and Young is again forced to roll for the ropes. Young gives it one last go with a strike and an attempt at Misery, but O’Reilly lands on his feet after the spin and hits the brainbuster to get the 1,2,3. (Kyle O’Reilly over Silas Young, pinfall, 11:08)

WORTH WATCHING? – Good stuff from these two, with most of the match being a showcase for Kyle, which is fine with Final Battle looming. YES, I’d take a minute to watch this match. This is two matches in a row where Kyle has basically been given a squash on ROH TV, but the difference is pronounced between the match here against Young and the match a few weeks ago against Gresham; the latter didn’t give any hope spots to Gresham and was just a methodical beatdown, while Silas at least got to go out fighting for his finisher and having knocked O’Reilly to the mat more than once. Young was just out there to build up Kyle for the big show in a few weeks, and his did his job admirably.

Post-match, Kevin Kelly meets up with Silas Young on the outside. He came close tonight, he came close against Adam Cole for the title in Florida; tell us, Silas Young, what are your thoughts after coming so close? “I gotta be honest, Kevin Kelly, I don’t even know what you just said to me, because I was too busy looking at what is an adult man in 2016!” The camera pans over to show us that Young is talking about a man in the front row wearing a full-on Jushin Liger costume. You people are all the same, sayeth Young; a bunch of adults playing make-believe, a bunch of grown men playing dressup! You know the worst thing, Kevin Kelly; the guy dressed up like Liger is idolizing a coward! Because whenever Silas Young comes out, win, lose, or draw, he makes no excuses, and he can’t say the same about Jushin “Thunder” Liger! 30+ years in the wrestling business, and he’s never shown his face, because he’s embarrassed! Well, come Final Battle, you’ll find out that Young is everything that he says he is, and Jushin Liger will be exposed as an actor playing dress-up!

Oh, in case it isn’t clear, they have a match at Final Battle. I know that with ROH’s usual crackerjack job of promoting the card, you probably already knew that, but I just wanted to make that crystal clear.

And with that, let’s go to some comments from Jay Lethal! “Cody Rhodes, this is the moment that YOU have been waiting for!” See, Cody Rhodes, no one cares about where you came from, and these ROH fans certainly don’t care about who your father was. No, ROH fans only truly care about what you can do inside the ROH ring! And we’re going to find out, putting two wrestlers in the world to prove that they are the best in the world! Jay Lethal has already won the ROH World title; he has nothing to prove. We’ll see what you prove, Cody Rhodes!

Jay made sure to call him Cody Rhodes the entire time, and it said Cody Rhodes on the chyron, so I’m assuming that it’s all good for them to refer to Cody as such. Or they’ll get sued, who knows? Maybe they can find some lawyers from these great ads!

We’re back with the Motor City Machine Guns! Shelley tells us that they should be the Ring of Honor World tag team champions, and that it didn’t end up mattering, because they couldn’t bring those belts down. Ten years of fighting from underneath, as the underdogs, they wanted to reunite in ROH; but they choked. Sabin tells us that the Motor City Machine Guns are the best team of the millennium; slow down there, tiger. You’re in the discussion for top 10 maybe, but slow down. They mention the Addiction, the Bullet Club, guys that use questionable tactics to get ahead; they’re fixated on the Bullet Club in particular, as they talk about Page turning on ROH during that big ten-man tag match. Ah yes, can’t go a week without mentioning Page, can we? Shelley is sick of the Bullet Club, having gotten his ass kicked by them in Japan for the last 4 years and still having it happen today. They’re getting together a group of guys, guys who represent ROH’s core values, guys to help them fight the Bullet Club. Guys like Jay White, guys like Lio Rush, guys to fight! It’s Darwinism at its finest, because if the Guns can’t hang, they won’t be here much longer; but they may end up surprising people.

Yeah, sorry, but the Addiction’s story is much more compelling right now, with Daniels in particular just hammering every promo and moment out of the park. They should be the ones to get the belts back before Chris calls it a career. And, while I do like the Guns just fine, Shelley and Sabin weren’t exactly spitting hot fire in that promo. It was okay at best. Something that’s not okay at best? These great ads!

We’re back with the Addiction! Hey guys, I was just talking about you! What do you have to say, gentlemen? Daniels: “Yes, Ladder War did change me. Ladder War affected me.” But it wasn’t just the physical pain, it was the mental pain that his strategy failed us, and it directly led to them losing in the first round of the 6-man tournament! But his best friend reminded him that the best way to build their legacy is to destroy the legacy of someone else, and that’s what they’re going to do to the Briscoes! Kaz tells us that what the Briscoes must understand is that they are the lions, and the Briscoes are the sheep; the lion goes out and gets what he wants, and that’s not just the ROH World tag team titles….of the world back, but also to cement THEIR legacy as the greatest tag team in the history of Ring of Honor.

Short, to the point, logical thru-line on the promo. Good stuff.

Back to Kelly and Corino, who tell us that the Briscoes and the Addiction will face off next week on Ring of Honor TV! But tonight, there’s more tag team action, as we’re going to see a team next that needs a win, that being the team of Dalton Castle and Colt Cabana!

In the back with Colt: “So, we’ve got a tag match this week, and last week’s tag match didn’t go so well.” Castle wanted to talk about that; he feels like last week, they lost because he was just too nervous without the Boys! So what, the boys are still locked in the damn closet? Someone feed them or something, because it’s been a week! Anyway, Cabana has that covered and shows Castle a line of 4 new Boys, and Dalton picks two of them to be the new Boys this week.

“Boom Boom! It’s Colt Cabana!” And indeed it is, as Colt makes his way out to the ramp, followed by the music of Dalton Castle, who’s back in his regular outfit this week with the replacement Boys. Their opponents, hailing from that special city that can only be described as ‘already in the ring’, are Preston Quinn and Ken Dixon! I can feel it, this is gonna be the week where already in the ring finally has some winners to be proud of!

Dalton Castle & Colt Cabana (w/ The (new) Boys) vs Preston Quinn & Ken Dixon

The Boys fan off Castle from the outside as he gets to his feet in the ring. He’ll be starting off against Dixon, as their first lockup goes to the corner. Clean break by Castle, but the ref is preoccupied with Colt on the apron and Dixon gets in a cheap shot with a kick. Castle ducks a clothesline and hits the leanback pose, and then catches a charging Dixon with the Bangarang. Better luck next time, already in the ring! 1,2,3. (Dalton Castle & Colt Cabana over Preston Quinn & Ken Dixon, pinfall, 0:53)

WORTH WATCHING? – NOPE.

Post-match, Castle gets a mic and tells Cabana that he can see it on Colt’s face, that it came from Colt’s mouth, that these people love us! And yeah, it seems impossible right now, now that they’re at the bottom, and they have to just start over! Colt gets the mic and tells Dalton that the reason that he came back to Ring of Honor after being gone so long was to be a champion! He was one of the cornerstones of this very company, and it was about time that he became a champion, and then he saw Castle, who people just love! So he decided to get on the Dalton Castle train, but now that they’re starting at the bottom again, maybe it’s in Colt’s interest to get that championship as a singles competitor. He thinks they call it a clean break and go their separate ways. He gives the mic back to Dalton and goes to leave, but Castle stops him. Colt comes back and offers the handshake, but Castle wants more than that and offers the hug instead. “Hug it out!” is the chant from the crowd, and Colt seems like he’s open to it. They go to hug, but Colt knees Dalton in the balls! The substitute Boys’ expressions on the outside are HILARIOUS, by the way. Colt has a big ol’ shit-eating grin on his face as he leaves Castle crumpled on the mat in a heap and leaves. The Boys come in to fan Dalton off, so Colt comes back in, tossing one Boy to the floor and slamming the other onto Castle, then choking him out with one of the fans. He mounts Dalton and slams the sharp end of the fan into Castle’s face, busting him open at the nose, then leaves to chorus of boos. Well, that was interesting. Much like the following great ads!

We’re back to the still bitching music of The Kingdom! Matt Taven, TK O’Ryan, & Vinny Marseglia make their way to the ring. They pose as the music of Team CMLL hits! Ultimo Guerrero, Shigeo Okumura, & Hechicero make their way to the ring; CMLL is probably the last team really standing in the way of the Kingdom taking this tournament down, if ROH wants to please their new business partners. Let’s see what happens.

Team CMLL (Ultimo Guerrero, Shigeo Okumura, & Hechicero) vs The Kingdom (Matt Taven, TK O’Ryan, & Vinny Marseglia)

Hechicero & TK will start us off here. Hechicero freaks TK out a bit before locking up, and they go to the mat for a quick sequence, with O’Ryan coming out of it holding a wristlock, followed by a kneelift and him slamming Hechicero face first to the mat. TK off the ropes, but he gets tripped and Hechicero goes to wrap up the legs for a submission hold before O’Ryan grabs the ropes. TK gains the advantage by going to the eyes to take Hechicero to the corner, following that up with some chops. Hechicero kindly takes a few before backing TK off, then pulling off the straps. Jumping kick by Hechicero, off the ropes, TK tries a sunset flip, Hechicero rolls through. He fakes TK out and then goes behind him into a crucifix for two. TK wants no more of this, and tags in Vinny while Hechicero tags in Guerrero. Bicycle kick by Vinny, and he follows that with a forearm to Ultimo in the corner. Charge by Vinny, but he gets alley-ooped to the apron by Guerrero, who then sweeps the legs of Vinny out from under him; Ultimo runs the ropes and hits a baseball slide dropkick to send Vinny crashing to the floor. Triple-team by CMLL on the floor now, as Hechicero leaps over Okumura and crashes onto an outstretched Marseglia. And that’ll send us crashing into this next great ad break!

We’re back with Okumua and Taven slapping it out in the middle of the ring. Taven goes to the eyes and comes off the ropes, but Okumura catches him with an overhead throw. Michinoku Driver by Okumura! 1,2, no! Off the ropes and Okumura goes for a sunset flip on Taven, but TK distracts the ref and Vinny yanks Okumura to the outside, tossing him to the barricade. Back in and we get a tag to O’Ryan, who comes in with some forearms for Okumura. Triple team in the corner by the Kingdom, including some boot choking on Okumura. TK distracts the ref while Taven and Vinny hit dropkicks to the head of Okumura as he slumps against the buckles. TK yanks Okumura out of the corner into a powerbomb, then stacks it up for a 2 count before tagging Vinny back in. Irish whip attempt is reversed by Okumura, but Vinny still manages to get a side Russian legsweep out of it. Taven comes off with a lionsault and Vinny covers. 1,2, NO! TK comes in for a double-team now, but Okumura fights them off with a combination DDT/Stunner combo to free himself for a few seconds, allowing him to make the tag to Ultimo Guerrero. Taven runs in to put a stop to that by slugging Ultimo down as soon as he comes into the ring. The Kingdom then proceeds to triple-team Ultimo as the ref does nothing, as per the usual in ROH. They whip Ultimo to the corner, Taven goes for a corner splash but eats the buckle when Ultimo moves. Clothesline by Guerrero takes out Vinny, then a biiiig back body drop sends TK crashing down to the mat. Ultimo kicks at Taven, who’s hung up on the top rope, sending him down to a sitting position on the mat against the buckles, with TK right in front of him. Guerrero does his handstand on the top rope into a broncobuster on both guys, then slams Vinny and goes for pin, with Taven interrupting at 2. Tag now to Hechicero, who sends Vinny to the CMLL corner, then hits him with a step-up knee to the face. Abdominal stretch takes Vinny down to the mat and gets two, and now they start that silly rolling around the ring bullshit. That ends with a crab from Hechicero that’s broken up by TK, because, well, why not? What possible consequence could there be in Ring of Honor for continually breaking the tag rules in a completely blatant fashion? And yes, I get that the heels are supposed to break the rules, but there’s a line of subterfuge that should and shouldn’t be crossed for a match to work. This apparently makes TK the legal man (of COURSE it does), and he reverses an armwringer into a Pele kick, but poses and Okumura has finally had ENOUGH of this shit and comes in with a kick to the back of O’Ryan. He alley-oops TK to the apron and hits a VICIOUS DDT to bring him back in through the middle rope; that was nasty. Made Randy Orton’s version look pretty shitty, though. Awkward sequence as Taven is already in the ring to make the save, even though he’s a bit early, and Okumura has to get in position for Taven to spring off the second rope with a kick. Ultimo comes in now, with a kick and some chops on Taven, but Matt is able to break that up with an enzuigiri in the corner, and we’re going to break now for some great ads! Which I need, because I’m extra bitchy about this match right now.

We’re back with TK hitting a pumphandle slam on Ultimo Guerrero, then Vinny comes off the top with a Swanton Bomb, but there’s no water in the pool for Taven, who misses with a frog splash. Team CMLL are all out on the floor now, so TK and Vinny hit topes on Ultimo and Okumura, while Taven takes out Hechicero with an enzuigiri on the apron. Matt gets a running start and hits a tope onto everyone. The Kingdom tosses Hechicero back in, and a triple powerbomb hits to send the Kingdom to the Finals of the tournament. (The Kingdom over Team CMLL, pinfall, 9:34)

WORTH WATCHING? – I dunno, man, if this is how the 6-man division is gonna be, you can really count me out of it. Boring match without a ton of heat, and I’m not that impressed with the new Kingdom, although I do think that O’Ryan has some promise. NO, while the match itself was okayish, there really wasn’t much to watch here; the high spots weren’t great, the story was non-existent, and the off and on enforcement of the rules is gonna drive me to drink in ROH one of these days. I really, really hope that there’s more to the new Kingdom stuff than we’ve seen, but I have to ask what exactly we’re getting with this new division, because at this point; it’s pretty clear that the Kingdom are walking out with the belts at Final Battle. Who are the great 6-man teams that are going to challenge them? I swore to myself that I would let the tourney play out before I brought this up, but still; there’s very few factions in ROH that are going to go for these belts. I just don’t get the reason for their existence.

Post-match, the Kingdom celebrates as the graphic shows that they will indeed be in the Finals at Final Battle. Kevin tells us that next week, we will hear from both Kyle O’Reilly and Adam Cole before their world title match, and the Briscoes will face off against the Addiction!

A Briscoes promo sends us out for the week, as they wonder if the Addiction is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after the Ladder War, because they aren’t going to get back in contention facing off against Dem Boys next week; they’re going to get beaten as the Briscoes head to Final Battle to claim their 9th ROH World Tag Team titles! And now we’re done for the week on ROH TV.

FINAL THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: A decent Kyle O’Reilly squash does not an episode of ROH TV make; but the promos and setups for Final Battle were necessary and I’m fine with them. They got a lot accomplished tonight, with most of the show segments being setups for Final Battle, and that’s what they need to do before the PPV. I was less than a fan of the main event, and I’m sure it’s because I don’t ‘get’ Lucha or something like that, but it was fine enough for what it was if that’s your bag. A middling hour, but enough work was done to give it a mild thumbs up if you want some catch-up on ROH before the PPV. And hey, there was no Corino/Whitmer/Sullivan carnival of crapola, so that’s almost an automatic thumbs-up right there!

See you all later on this week multiple times! I’ll be taking over recapping duties for 205 Live along with my usual ROH TV, and we’ll of course have the BEST DAMN Final Battle 2016 PPV preview up as well!

As always, thanks for reading this thing I wrote,

Rick Poehling
@MrSoze on Twitter