The SmarK Rant for Ring of Honor Wrestling–07.20.19

The SmarK Rant for Ring of Honor Wrestling – 07.20.19

Somewhat surprisingly, the ROH show from last week did really well on the blog, and I can watch them on Fite.TV for free anyway, so we might as well carry on. Here’s the link in case anyone wants to watch as well:

https://www.fite.tv/watch/rohr409mpg1080i/2ozo4/

Taped from Philly

Your hosts are Ian Riccaboni & Colt Cabana & Caprice Coleman

Four corners match: Dalton Castle v. Jonathan Gresham v. Jeff Cobb v. Kenny King

Cobb outwrestles Castle and gets a dropkick to start, and they tag out to King and Gresham. They slug it out and King SWEEPS THE LEG and takes out the knee for two, then brings in Castle, who gets a hiptoss on Gresham for two. King comes in with a springboard legdrop for two and we take a break. Back with Gresham fighting back on King, but Kenny gets a death valley driver, into a melodramatic splash from Castle for two. It’s really too bad that Castle wrecked his body because he should have moved onto something bigger and better long ago. Castle decides to antagonize Cobb for some reason, but King tags himself in again and takes Gresham down with a facelock while Castle takes out Cobb from the outside and tags himself in. So Castle and King trade tags and argue about who gets to finish Gresham, but Gresham sneaks over and tags in Cobb. THE MONSTER MATANZA IS LOOSE. He throws Castle and King around with suplexes and forearms, but Castle bulldogs him. King hits Gresham with a backbreaker and goes up to finish, but Castle cuts him off. Cobb gets rid of Castle, so King hits a blockbuster on Gresham for two. He tries the same thing on Cobb, but Cobb catches him in mid-air and turns it into a jackhammer for two. King with a powerbomb on Gresham for two. King takes a shoe from the timekeeper at ringside, but loses it via Cobb, which allows Gresham to hit King with the shoe and pin him with a rollup at 11:43. Not sure why it wasn’t just a tag team match, but it was all right. **1/2 Why did Cobb and Castle need to be in the match, though? Or why wasn’t it just a tag team match?

Meanwhile, the Shinobi Shadow Squad wants the six-man titles. Don’t know who any of these geeks are, but good for them.

Soldiers of Savagery (Moses & Khan) v. Primal Fear

Hell of a name on both teams, but the SOS are the pushed guys. They’re a couple of tattooed guys from the dojo, and they finish one of the jobbers with a double chokeslam at 0:45. I should note that Khan works with his biker vest on, and the patch reads “Sons of Savagery”, so obviously they’re still working out the kinks in the gimmick.

Meanwhile, Jay Lethal tracks down Jonathan Gresham in the parking lot, questioning why he would cheat to win. Gresham is pretty much taking the “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” route.

Meanwhile, at Best in the World, Flip Gordon teases joining Lifeblood, but then changes shirts and joins up with Villian Enterprises instead. I like the reveal with Scurll doing the pre-taped reveal of Flip on the big screen and then cutting to the ring, where the real Gordon attacks Lifeblood.

Lifeblood (Mark Haskins, Tracy Williams & Bandido) join us to discuss the previous betrayal, and they want the Villains out here RIGHT NOW. So this brings out the Villains, complete with new look Flip Gordon, but Marty sends him to the back because he already did enough at the PPV.

Philadelphia Street Fight: Mark Haskins, Tracy Williams & Bandido v. Marty Scurll, Brody King & PCO

How can we tell that Bully Ray is booking this show? We take a break before the match while Frank Thomas teaches us about the importance of testosterone supplements (REALLY?) and return with everyone brawling around the ring. Williams brings a chair into the ring and PCO beats on him, but Bandido springboards off the chair with a dropkick onto PCO. Haskins fights off Scurll and King by himself, but Scurll hits him with the chair and King gets a Bossman slam for two. Williams finds a kendo stick and uses it for a unique wristlock on Brody, but PCO breaks it up and then demands that Lifeblood hit him with chairs. So they do, and he shrugs it off and kills them both and then tosses them. King then follows by alley-ooping PCO off the apron and onto the faces. Back in, the Villains use various weapons and we take a break. Back with a bunch of chairs set up in the corner, but King tries a superplex on Haskins and the other two save and powerbomb King through the chairs for two. Next up, the tables get involved, and Bandido takes PCO to the apron for a rana through the table at ringside. And PCO sits up again. Back in, Scurll is alone with a kendo stick, Haskins puts him in a Sharpshooter and Williams gives him a crossface with the stick until Brody saves. He puts both guys on the floor and follows with a dive onto them, and then Bandido hits his own dive onto everyone as we take another break. Back with Bandido hitting PCO with forearms to set up a crazy german suplex onto an open chair, and that only gets two. Scurll and King clear the ring and bring a table in, but the faces retrieve the kendo sticks and get some shots with those. And then Scurll wins that battle with his umbrella, because apparently umbrellas are at the top of the pyramid of weapon power in this match. Scurll goes up and slugs it out with Bandido, but snaps the fingers, so Bandido rakes the eyes and puts him through the table with a moonsault fallaway slam for the pin at 16:09. This was a lot of “walk around, do the big spot, walk around, do the next spot” type of brawling and not really my thing. **1/2 PCO continues to be the weirdest comeback story in wrestling, though.

This was much more watchable than last week’s show, I’ll give it that. Still, it feels like a promotion with no direction right now and a bunch of different styles mashed together haphazardly.