RADICAN’S ROH TV REPORT
AIRED FEB11, 2012
BALTIMORE, MD

Kelly and McGuinness introduced the show. They said the Briscoes would take on Strong & Elgin with both teams putting up $5,000 and the winner takes old.

Kelly said Eddie Edwards would be facing Kyle O’Reilly next. They pitched to an O’Reilly interview. He said Edwards had gotten a big head. O’Reilly said he’d prove to Edwards he was a man. Edwards said O’Reilly stirred up the issue between him and Richards. Edwards said O’Reilly should be careful for what he wishes for, because tonight he’s going to get it.

Kelly said O’Reilly was stirring the pot in Edwards’s mind when he told Richards that Edwards was training with Dan Severn as Edwards made his entrance. They went to the Tale of the Tape prior to the match. Both men shook hands prior to the match.

1 - - KYLE O’REILLY vs. EDDIE EDWARDS

McGuinness said Richards was in a tough spot because people treat you differently when you become champion. McGuinness said once you’re the champion, your relationships become different with the people around you. After coming to a stalemate, both men locked arms and exchanged headbutts. McGuiness said headbutts were just as dangerous as a chairshot to the head. O’Reilly mounted some offense and hit a running kick for a 2 count. Edwards kicked O’Reilly off the apron and he went into the barricade. Edwards rolled through on Edwards and grabbed an ankle lock. Richards came down to ringside and gave some encouragement to O’Reilly, who ended up getting the ropes.

(Commercial break) – Kevin Kelly was shown plugging the WrestleMania weekend iPPVs. Kelly brought in Kevin Steen to hype the show. Steen said he was going to show up and do what he does. Steen said he would get a tan in Florida before destroying some lives.

Edwards was still in control when they came back from the commercial break. O’Reilly fired back and hit a series of butterfly suplexes before applying an arm bar. Edwards struggled, but got the ropes. Edwards hit a code breaker off the second turnbuckle and then suplexed O’Reilly over the ropes and both men spilled to the outside as the crowd went nuts. Edwards went for a flying kick on the outside, but O’Reilly got out of the way and he kicked the ringpost. O’Reilly went to work on Edwards’s leg and hit a dragon screw leg whip. Edwards went for a rollup and O’Reilly kicked out and grabbed an ankle lock. Adam Cole came down to ringside and cheered on Edwards.

Edwards hit a dive through the ropes to the outside O’Reilly and the crowd popped again. Edwards went up top and hit a doublestomp, but he only got a 2 count. Both men began exchanges forearms in the middle of the ring. Both men then began exchanging slaps. Edwards hit a superkick on O’Reilly, but Edwards fired back with one of his own. Edwards nailed O’Reilly with several chops to the face, but he kicked out. O’Reilly fired back with a suplex with a bridge, but Edwards kicked out. Edwards caught O’Reilly with a big lariat coming off the ropes. He went for a powerbomb, but O’Reilly caught him with a guillotine choke. Edwards eventually countered it into a rollup for a nearfall. Edwards went for the Achilles lock, but O’Reilly countered with a rollup attempt. Edwards managed to shift his weight and pinned O’Reilly with a rollup of his own.

Winner: Eddie Edwards – This was a very good match that built up to a nice finish. The announcers did a great job talking about how the dynamic had fallen apart between Edwards, Richards, and O’Reilly in recent months. It wasn’t made clear where Adam Cole fit into all of this. (***1/4)

Edwards got on the mic and said Richards didn’t need him anymore. Edwards asked Cole if he had a tag team partner. O’Reilly looked upset as Edwards asked Cole to be his tag partner now that O’Reilly was teaming with Richards. Cole hesitated and shook Cole’s hand. Edwards said if O’Reilly and Richards wanted a match, they would do it anytime and anywhere.

Radican’s thoughts: There’s just no emotion from the wrestlers participating in this storyline to get it over. Friendships are breaking apart, but Edwards, Richards, and Cole just aren’t pulling this off and making believe the dynamic has changed and there’s an issue there. Cornette has done a bad job of putting wrestlers in a position to succeed based on what they can do and he’s exposing a lot of these guys every week. I will say that of the four, O’Reilly did a good job of looking upset about Cole teaming with Edwards.

(Commercial break) – A commercial for “Battle of the Carolinas” aired featuring clips of the action from the two shows that are included on this release. (Radican note: It’s nice to see them making house shows important with commercials like this one, but again it highlighted the action and not the issues at stake on the shows)

Kelly introduced Steve Corino. He said Corino would be commentating on ROH live event DVDs as he recovers from “Final Battle.”

They aired a recap of Kevin Steen’s promo from last week. (Radican note: I like how piledrivers have been banned, but not chairshots)

Mike Mondo made his way down to ringside. His opponent, Matt Taven, then came down to the ring. McGuinness mentioned that Mondo had a record of 1-2 on ROH TV. Taven has appeared on several DGUSA pre-show matches. Kelly ran down the Tale of the Tape before the match started. Both men followed the Code of Honor.

1 - - MIKE MONDO vs. MATT TAVEN

Both men went at it a couple of times before coming to a stalemate. Mondo took control of the match and celebrated as the crowd booed. Taven fired back with a nice moonsault press for a 2 count. Mondo tripped Taven throat-first on the ropes, but Taven ducked a legdrop from Mondo and nailed him with a dropkick. Both men went for dropkicks at the same time and came to another stalemate.

Kevin Steen made his way down to the ring with a mic and said it was baffling that ROH has time for these two men to have a match. He said it wasn’t their fault and they were just doing what they’re told. Steen said he knew Mondo, but he doesn’t know who Taven is. He told Taven he shouldn’t be surprised because he’s a cutie pie just like Jim likes. He said he saw them shake hands and he knows Jim likes that stuff. Steen said he was inspired and offered Taven a handshake. Steen then hit Taven with an F5 and the ref called for the bell.

Winner: No contest

Mondo went up to Steen and hugged him. Steen turned on him as well and nailed him with an F5. The crowd chanted for Steen. Steen got up and smiled at Corino. Corino threw off his headset and took off his jacket. Several officials came out and held Corino back.

(Commercial break)

Inside ROH began with a recap of Haas & Benjamin’s match against the Briscoes last week for the ROH World Tag Team Titles. They showed Benjamin nailing Mark with a chairshot. Cornette was shown announcing that Benjamin had been fined $5,000. Haas and Benjamin mocked the Briscoes. Benjamin did a goofy voice imitating the Briscoes. Benjamin said he wasn’t going to pay the fine. Haas said they would do whatever it takes and say whatever they want to get a rematch. He said anyone that was on the Briscoes side was a loser.

Cornette said nobody in ROH is above the law. He said until Benjamin paid the fine, he would be suspended. The Briscoes were shown backstage. Mark said they would beat them up again. Jay said they weren’t losers and held up his title. Jay said in NYC, they would beat up the Young Bucks. Jay said all the teams could line up and they would beat him. (Radican note: I guess Jay doesn’t watch his own show since Future Shock broke up)

Kelly closed by hyping the “Showdown in the Sun” He said there would be 16 matches during the course of two days during WrestleMania weekend on iPPV.

(Commercial break) – Kelly hyped the “10th Anniversary Show. He brought in Embassy Limited. Evans said it wasn’t about Nana, but instead it was about the investors. Evans said championship gold means more money in their coffers. Tomasso Ciampa said history would be made when ROH TV Champion Jay Lethal handed over his title to Embassy limited.

The House of Truth came down to ringside for the main event. Kelly discussed the $5,000 side bet between the House of Truth and the Briscoes. Bobby Cruise did the formal ring introductions. The House of Truth was booed. The Briscoes got a small pop.

Kevin Kelly ran down the Tale of the Tape. He brought in Jim Cornette on commentary. The ref held up two envelopes that said $5,000. (Radican’s note: Way to look minor league, ROH)

3 - - ROH WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS THE BRISCOES (Jay & Mark Briscoe) vs. THE HOUSE OF TRUTH (Roderick Strong & Michael Elgin w/Truth Martini) – Non Title match with both teams putting up a $5,000 side bet.

Kelly said the issues began between these two teams after they teamed up in the 8 Man Tag match in North Carolina and lost. Cornette said both teams were pointing fingers when it came who is to blame for the loss. The Briscoes ran wild on Strong during the early going with tandem running kicks in the corner. Cornette said he was disappointed in Benjamin for not paying his fine. Kelly talked about the Briscoes putting the titles up against the Young Bucks at the “10th Anniversary Show.” McGuinness said he was glad the piledriver had been banned because his career had been shortened by concussions.

The Briscoes continue to work over Strong for several minutes. Strong finally managed to tag in Elgin, who went to work on Jay. Elgin hit an impressive-looking power slam on Jay for a 2 count. Cornette hyped the upcoming Richards vs. Lethal match in 2 weeks. Mark tagged in and hit a big clothesline on Elgin. McGuinness compared the Lethal vs. Richards match to his matches against then ROH World Champion Bryan Danielson when he was the Pure Champion. The Briscoes grounded Elgin and Jay hit a nice splash off the top for a 2 count. Kelly pitched to a commercial break.

(Commercial break)

They came back from break with the Briscoes still in control. They showed some highlights of Jay hitting a sliding kick on Elgin during the break. Elgin caught Mark out of now where with a black hole slam. Strong got the tag and went to work on Mark. Cornette put over the sound of Strong’s chops to Mark’s chest. Strong caught Mark and Jay with jumping knees. The fans got behind Mark as Strong and Elgin isolated him in the corner. Strong hit a gut buster and Elgin followed up with a big clothesline for a 2 count. Mark fired back on Strong with a kick to the back of the head a short time later and crawled towards Jay. Elgin tried to stop him, but he kicked him away and tagged in Jay, who ran wild. Jay hit a DVD on Strong for a nearfall. The crowd applauded as Jay tagged in Mark. Jay hit a falcon arrow and Mark followed up with the froggy-bow, but Elgin made the save.

All four men exchanged blows in the middle of the ring. Jay ended up on the outside and Martini threw powder into Jay’s eyes. Jay got some water and cleared his eyes. Elgin and Strong put the boots to Mark in the ring with Jay heading to the backstage area. Jay came back to the ring and nailed Elgin with the bat for the DQ.

Winners: Roderick Strong & Michael Elgin via DQ – The action was good to very good leading up to the finish when Jay got powder thrown in his eyes and went backstage to get a bat, which he used on Elgin and Strong for the DQ. The finish was really lame.

Cornette was outraged and said the House of Truth would get the $10,000. Mark took the envelopes with the cash in them. The crowd chanted “$5,000” to close the show. Kelly hyped Steen’s in-ring debut next week to close the show.

Radican’s thoughts: Seeing Mark hold up those two envelopes of cash as the crowd chanted $5,000 just screamed minor league. It seems like such a small amount of money for people to get excited about in the context of a wrestling show.

Overall thoughts: (5.0) – ROH has a problem and the problem is that these old-school angles and storylines aren’t exciting enough to work in the modern world. Cornette, who has done all sorts of shoot DVDs railing against illogical in booking in wrestling, has committed quite a few sins himself during his reign as booker of ROH.

For starters, how idiotic is it to ban the piledriver, but chairshots to the head are just $5000 fine? The storyline gets even more uncomfortable when you have McGuinness talking about how his career was cut short by some of the things that the ROH wrestlers in the ring are doing right now. That isn’t cutting edge, that isn’t entertaining, and it’s not going to draw ROH a single dime to have these angles on their television shows.

Another problem with the booking is that Cornette tells some solid stories, but he’s showing off his own booking and not using his booking to make the talent better and showcase them in the best light. It’s patently obvious by now that Edwards, Richards, Cole, and O’Reilly are incapable of carrying their end of what should be an emotional storyline. The entire angle that saw Edwards ask Cole to be his partner was devoid of any emotion outside of O’Reilly’s facial expressions. I can’t see any change in these men since the angle between them started. There’s no difference between in Edwards from before his issue started with Richards up until now.

The show is frustrating to watch. In order to get any attention, ROH should be evolving the sport of pro wrestling and not taking it back 20 years. The angle to end the show sums up ROH’s problems in a nutshell. We had powder to the face, a baseball bat, and then the fans chanting “$5,000” to end the show. That’s not cutting edge, it’s just campy.

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