Ring of Honor – January 18th, 2017

Howdy!

Tonight, Jay Lethal takes on Jushin ‘Thunder’ Liger in the first round of the Decade of Excellence tournament!

Let’s watch some wrestling, shall we?

Ring of Honor TV – 1/18/17

We are TAPED from the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania! Your hosts are Kevin Kelly & Nigel McGuinness.

And we’re wasting zero time here, as we see the upside-down ROH logo on screen heralding the arrival of the Rebellion! Kenny King, Rhett Titus, & Caprice Coleman make their way to the ring as we see highlights from a few weeks ago, in which Lio Rush took Coleman down in less than 30 seconds for the win. And here come their opponents to the music of Donovan Dijak! The big guy brings up the rear as Jay White and Lio Rush head down to the squared circle.

The Rebellion (Kenny King, Rhett Titus, & Caprice Coleman) vs Lio Rush, Jay White, & Donovan Dijak

Code of Honor is offered by the Rebellion, but Dijak no-sirs it and the faces attack. We end up with Titus trying to suplex Dijak, but really, come on. Dijak tosses him halfway across the ring and catches Coleman out of mid-air on a crossbody attempt, hits a knee to the midsection, then tosses him to the floor over the top rope. Tag to Rush, and we’ve got Rhett and Lio in the ring now. Right hand by Titus, but he makes the mistake of trying an Irish whip to Rush, Lio catches the top rope, does a matrix dodge on a Titus clothesline, then hits a spinning back kick and an enzuigiri on Rhett. Lio comes off the ropes, Rhett catches him with an inverted atomic drop, then Kenny comes in and clotheslines Rush, Titus rolls him over into a Boston Crab and now Coleman comes in and legdrops Lio, Coleman covers for two. Kevin Kelly points out that no tag was made, and I have to wonder if he’s ever SEEN an ROH 6-man match, because that’s probably not the last time that’s gonna happen. Coleman whips Rush to the heel corner, Lio tries to fight off Titus and King, but Caprice just shoves Rush back to the buckles. Coleman jackknifes Rush and grabs the bottom ropes while doing it in a weird spot, then suplexes Lio. Tag to King, Coleman drops an elbow, King in with a spinning legdrop, Titus with a splash for two. Titus sends Rush to King’s boot, and Kenny’s in now. King taunts the faces, then drops an elbow on the back of Lio’s head, whip by Kenny, Rush slides to the floor. Coleman gives chase on the outside, Rush leapfrogs the charge and Caprice hits the barricade. Titus tries his luck, but Rush hits him with a right hand to hold him off, now Kenny goes on the chase, but Lio gets back in the ring and dives halfway across the ring to tag in Jay White. White in and he drops King with a forearm, then another one, Irish whip is reversed by King, they run the ropes, and Jay knocks Kenny down again with a forearm. Running elbow in the corner by Jay, then a running suplex to King. White goes up, high crossbody by White! 1, 2, no! White calls for the brainbuster, Kenny gets out, Jay with a right hand and he comes off the ropes, King with a BEAUTIFUL spinebuster! He does that move better than anyone right now. King drapes his arm across White for two, and we’re going to take about two minutes and check out these great ads!

We’re back with Rush getting tagged in, double handspring elbow takes out Titus and King. Rush with a tope to Titus on the outside, he runs back across the ring, tope to King on the other side! That’s so cool. Dijak and White go up as Rush gets a running start, coordinated dives onto the Rebellion on the outside! Awesome. Rush tosses Coleman back in and there’s a tag to Dijak, White goes up, missile dropkick to Coleman to send him tumbling to the floor! Rush is on the top rope as well, King comes back in, leaping enzuigiri brings Lio down! Dijak has Coleman now, he goes for Feast Your Eyes, but Coleman rolls him up with the tights! 1, 2, NO! Dijak goes for the chokeslam into the backbreaker, but Titus comes in to stop that with a dropkick, then King hits Donovan with a handstand kick, and Coleman brings him down with a cutter. 1, 2, NO! Titus and Coleman go up now, King with a fireman’s carry on Dijak, Donovan gets out and PASTES him with a right hand! Coleman jumps off the top, but Dijak moves out of the way and a returning Jay White catches him with a half-Dragon suplex, Titus comes off, Dijak catches him by the throat, chokeslam into a backbreaker by Dijak! He sends Titus to the floor and tags in Rush as White hits King with a uranage, Rush goes up to the shoulders of Dijak and hits a frog splash, now Dijak goes up, moonsault by Donovan! Rush covers, 1, 2, 3! (Lio Rush, Donovan Dijak, & Jay White over The Rebellion, pinfall, 7:48)

WORTH WATCHING? – This was a shockingly fun match that never stopped. I’m as stunned as you are that I’m typing that, but YES, this was a good 7 and a half minutes of wrestling. Was it a tag team match? Not really, and I once again think that they should just make all the 6-mans under tornado rules if they want to do this type of thing, but the structure of the match allowed the younger guys to show off a bit of what they could do, and the heel beatdown segment was just about the perfect length for a trainwreck like this. And, AND, they did the right thing and put over the young guys on television decisively. Look, Dijak isn’t exactly my cup of tea, but they’re at least recognizing that these guys are the future of the company and that they should be winning matches like this. Jay White especially has been handled very, very well, in that he hasn’t done any jobs; now, the fact that he hasn’t connected with the audience is another matter, but they’ve certainly put him over in the ring since he arrived. Rush is an amazing talent, and they’re doing a good job putting Dijak over as a huge threat, in that he got a good opening part of the match in tossing guys around, then got to survive a triple-team before hitting the moonsault to get the pin. These types of matches are how you put the new guys over, for sure. Good stuff.

Post-match, the Rebellion attacks and send Dijak to the floor, then continue the beatdown on Jay White before turning their attention to Rush, as they force him down to his knees and have him make the Rebellion pose, but no beatdown for Lio. Hmmmm. Sabin and Shelley hit the ring to make the save as the Rebellion scatters.

And now, let’s take a special look at our new World TV champ, Marty Scurll! Well, sort of, as it’s the promo from when he announced he was coming to ROH, extended to show highlights from him winning the title from Ospreay on the UK tour, and the promise that next week, we’ll see the ROH TV champ for the first time on ROH TV! Woo-hoo! And with that, let’s see if we some of these great ads for the first time!

We’re back with a look at Cody Rhodes vs Jay Lethal at Final Battle, with the year’s best heel turn at the end of the match. God, I loved watching Cody there. He was great.

“Wrestling has more than one Royal family.” And that can only mean that here he comes, as we see that Cody Rhodes has made his way to the ring! He tosses some streamers back at the fans, then takes the mic from the ring announcer. “I think we got off on the wrong foot, honor fans.” You guys were under the impression, you were misguided – you thought that it was you that were going to judge Cody, but the fact is, I’m here to judge each and every one of you! Walking out in the ballroom, there was a putrid, foul, obnoxious smell right under his nose – he didn’t know what it was until this very second! Any guesses as to what it was? It was mediocrity! Ring of Honor, my ass; Ring of Mediocrity is more like it! Hey Kevin Kelly, tell the fans I wrestled in Japan, I bet they’ll cheer! And then some fans DO, which I facepalmed. Cody says that him being here is a contractual obligation, but for you fans – “Where’s your sexy-ass wife?” yells out someone from the crowd, and Cody stops to get security to throw him out. You guys want to see Brandi? Well, you don’t deserve to see Brandi! Let’s cut to the chase – everyone should get their pictures, buy his shirt, follow him on Twitter, but he’s only going to be out here for a few more seconds, so they better take it all in! It must be nice to have a star in this building who hasn’t faded! And the lights go out…..

Hey, that’s Steve Corino! He’s out as Kevin Kelly says that “It’s all starting to make sense!” Yeah! It does! Cody shoved him on his ass at Final Battle and put him on the list on Twitter, so clearly he’s got beef with…..oh, never mind. It’s just more BJ Whitmer bullshit. And now, Sullivan, Punisher Martinez, & BJ are out on the stage behind him as Kevin Kelly tries to make sense of this, saying that BJ must have meant last week that the sacrifice is going to be Cody! And Corino is with Sullivan and Whitmer now after fighting them for months because reasons! Because WHO GIVES A SHIT?!? PRINCE OF DARKNESS SACRIFICE WHY DOES RING OF HONOR HATE ME? Corino in the ring now with a mic of his own.

Steve goes to speak, but Cody stops him. “You know, you’re taller than I thought you’d be.” He’s the king of old-school? Where’s his crown? Do you remember what you said to Dusty Rhodes in 1999? That you had no respect for him; how appropo that now, Cody can stand here and tell Corino to his face that he has no respect for him! In fact, he never did! Look me in the eye when I’m talking to you, Steve! Corino: “I loved your dad! He was my hero!” Dusty Rhodes paved the road for Steve Corino to be in this ring, in this moment! “Dusty!” chant from the crowd. Corino’s father once told him that Genghis Khan had two sons, and one of them needed to be sacrificed. Sigh. Anyway, Corino is going to give Cody a choice: either Cody…..or his brother. Rhodes slaps the mic out of Steve’s hand, bionic elbow by Corino! Ring the bell, because this is apparently a match!

Arrrghh. There’s a perfectly fine storyline here between these two guys, why involve the nonsense in it? What’s the point? Jesus Christ, sometimes this company drives batshit.

Cody Rhodes vs Steve Corino

No Code of Honor. Corino with a slam and he takes his shirt off…..and we’ll take off for a few minutes to watch these great ads!

We’re back with Cody on the outside now, jacket still on. Baseball slide by Corino sends Rhodes flying. Corino sends Cody to the barricade. Right hand by Steve as Cody tries to escape, but Corino pounds away on him in the front row as Kelly is trying his hardest to shine this turd as he talks about not having seen Corino in weeks; you know, I’ve never been the biggest fan of Steve, but this is probably his last appearance for the company, and I hate that it has to be for THIS. Another right hand, and he sends Cody to the barricade again, then tosses Cody back in. Cody goes after Corino on the apron, but gets backdropped out to said apron while Corino comes back in. Rhodes with a nice springboard dropkick, then a cartwheel as he mocks the Stardust pose. Hee! He goes over to Steve, and Corino catches him with a small package for two. Rhodes with the drop down punch, then more rights. Irish whip, but Steve counters a backdrop with a kick and Cody rolls to the floor. Rhodes takes a swig of water from the announce table, then spits it in Steve’s face, then a chop block takes Corino down. Rhodes taunts the fans, then nails Corino with lefts and rights. Rhodes goes for the Dusty elbow, but Corino answers with shots of his own, Irish whip is countered to an STO by Steve. Corino tells Cody to get up, and Cody rolls him up for two. Corino with the Dusty shots, then the Flip, Flop and Fly drops Cody to the mat. Package piledriver by Corino hits! Steve goes out to the announce table and looks in a black box for the golden spike; sure, why not? This whole thing has been a complete dumpster fire anyway. He brings it in and the ref stops him from using it, allowing Rhodes to hit a low blow and the Beautiful Disaster. Cody drops a bionic elbow and puts Corino and the rest of us out of our misery. (Cody Rhodes over Steve Corino, pinfall, 6:46)

WORTH WATCHING? – This sucked. It SUCKED. SUCKED! NO, skip with extreme prejudice. Slow, plodding, nonsensical, boring; apply a mediocre adjective to a wrestling match, and it fits here. Steve Corino does not belong near a wrestling ring in 2017 and this was a waste of an appearance by Cody.

Post-match, Cody tosses streamers back at the fans, but Jay Lethal hits the ring and attacks! Lethal chops Cody against the ropes and whips him against the ropes, but Cody catches the top rope and slides out, escaping through the crowd! Up next, let’s forget that the previous segment ever happened, as it’s time for Lethal vs Liger! But first, cleanse your palette with the following great ads!

We’re back with a replay of the low blow by Rhodes, then the kick and the pin, followed by the attack by Jay Lethal.

Lethal has something to say. “Cody Rhodes, it has got to burn you up inside knowing that I didn’t come to your doorstep, I didn’t come to your home turf to show the world that I’ve got it!” You came here! You came to Ring of Honor because you knew that this here, this ring has the greatest professional wrestlers in the world! Ring of Honor is where you see where you measure up in this business, you can put yourself to the test, a test that you failed miserably! At Final Battle, you took the easy way out, which proves to Lethal that you’re just smoke and mirrors, that you do NOT belong here! And sooner rather than later, Lethal will have his revenge, but first up, he’s got to get past Jushin Liger in this tournament, because the winner gets a shot at the Ring of Honor World championship! So, Liger, get out here and let’s do this thing!

And there’s the music of Jushin Liger! He makes his way to the ring and hits a pose as the streamers fly. We get the updated brackets for the tournament, as we see that so far, Daniels, Sabin, and Jay Briscoe have advanced to the Final 4 – who will join them? Lethal or Liger? Let’s find out! We get the big-time ring intros, and it’s time to start the match…..after the following great ads!

We’re back!

Jay Lethal vs Jushin ‘Thunder’ Liger – Decade of Excellence tournament, Round 1

Code of Honor is followed. Lockup and Lethal takes him to the corner, then lays in the kicks, walking that mudhole dry on Liger. Right hand by Lethal, cross-corner whip, blind charge by Jay hits the boot of Liger, Lethal catches Liger out of the corner with a hiptoss into a cartwheel dropkick by Jay. Cover for two. European uppercut by Lethal, then another one to drive Liger to the corner. High-angle belly to back suplex by Lethal gets two. Irish whip by Lethal, backdrop attempt is countered by a Liger kick to the face, Liger charges, Lethal sends him to the apron, Lethal with a springboard dropkick to send Jushin to the floor! Lethal gets a running start, tope to Liger! Another one! Jay hits a third! Lethal back in the ring as the ref puts the count on Liger. Jushin rolls back in at 5, and Jay slams him down. Jay goes up for the Hail to the King, but Liger gets up and catches him on top! Lethal tries to fight him off and does, jumping down. Lethal off the ropes, Liger catches him in a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Lethal rolls out to the floor and Liger follows to the apron, cannonball by Liger takes Lethal down on the floor! Jay gets back in at 9, and we’re going out to check out some great ads!

We’re back with Liger chopping Lethal in the chest, Irish whip is reversed by Lethal, Liger hooks the top rope, Lethal goes for a dropkick and turns it into a backflip! Neato. He catches a charging Liger, Lethal Combination! Jay charges at Liger in the corner, Liger moves, Lethal with a step-up enzuigiri! Lethal puts Liger in the torture rack, then drops him down to the mat by rolling forward, catching him in a crossface. Liger stretches and makes the ropes with his foot, with Lethal cranking on the hold the whole way. Jay with a backbreaker, and Lethal goes up again, Hail to the King elbow, Liger catches him coming down and rolls him over in a crucifix! 1, 2, NO! Palm Strike by Liger turns Lethal inside-out coming off the ropes! Another one in the corner! Liger puts Lethal on top, ‘rana off the top! 1, 2, NO! Liger goes for the brainbuster, but Lethal floats over and staggers Liger with a straight right hand. Liger bounces off the ropes, superkick by Jay! Lethal goes for it, Lethal Injection! 1, 2, 3! (Jay Lethal over Jushin ‘Thunder’ Liger, pinfall, 8:08)

WORTH WATCHING? – Pretty paint by the numbers match, but I like both guys. YES, this one is alright. Not a ringing endorsement, I know, but the match itself as aired was really a showcase for Lethal with a few hope spots for Liger. And they couldn’t even let Liger kick out of the Lethal Injection? Everyone gets to kick out of one at least! The match was paced well, with a few nifty nearfalls on Liger’s part, but Lethal was clearly going over. Still, these guys are consummate professional wrestlers, and they did a decent enough job here to get the mild thumbs up.

Post-match, we see that Lethal’s name is in the Final Four on the graphic, as he’ll face off against Jay Briscoe next. Lethal helps Liger to his feet as the crowd chants for Jushin, and we get a post-match Code of Honor as Liger raises Lethal’s hand in victory. They bow to each other, and Liger leaves as Kelly tells us that next week, we’ll see Marty Scurll in action, along with the next match in the Decade of Excellence tournament as Sabin faces off against Daniels, and our main event will be a triple threat between KUSHIDA, Will Ospreay, and Dragon Lee! HOLY SHIT. That’s awesome! And we’re done for the week on ROH TV.

FINAL THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: The opener was a fast, energetic tag that I enjoyed thoroughly, but beyond that, there really wasn’t much to check out this week. The middle was dumb, especially with the time it got. The main event wasn’t bad, but as I said at the end, it was a mild thumbs up that isn’t particularly worth seeking out, to be perfectly honest. I’ll give ROH their props for continuing to push the younger guys in the opener, but they HAVE to learn from the mistakes of the past, the mistakes that cost them guys like ACH and Cedric Alexander, and they need to make at least some commitment to these dudes. ROH is a way station, I get that, but showing the guys in the company that you’re willing to push newer guys makes you more attractive to the best indy wrestlers out there who now have a lot of choices about where to wrestle.

SIGN JONATHAN GRESHAM.

As always, thanks for reading this thing I wrote,

Rick Poehling
@MrSoze on Twitter