ROH HITS & MISSES 3/25: Champ Christopher Daniels, The Hardys, The Briscoes, Adam Cole, The Young Bucks, Kazarian

HITS

Christopher Daniels Winning the ROH World Title Recap and Opening Promo: A few weeks ago, I was critical of Frankie Kazarian becoming a member of the The Bullet Club. I didn’t understand what they were doing and why this was the direction. In hindsight, it was a good move. Daniels used the Kazarian “turn” to fool The Bullet Club. Ultimately, Kazarian was still on Daniels’ side and only appeared to turn on his best friend. I liked the recap here of Daniels winning the ROH World Title and Ian Riccaboni tying up the loose ends of the story between Daniels and Kazarian for those who did not see the PPV a few weeks ago. Nice start to the show.

Marty Scurll/Kenny King: Short promo with Marty Scurll and Kenny King. Scurll mentions how the competition hasn’t been all that great for Scurll’s ROH World TV Title. King happens to be walking by and challenges Scurll by claiming that King’s resume of victims is very impressive. King then says he wants a chance at the ROH World TV Title. Good and short promo here between these two with a potential upcoming match seeming to be built.

The Hardys vs The Briscoes: What a matchup between two teams that are as accomplished as they come. I didn’t feel the match disappointed at all. These two teams gave it their all. Not to go on an Impact Wrestling rant for a second but I will say I believe Impact to be totally in the wrong on the entire Broken Hardys situation. There is a part in the match where Matt and Jeff have The Briscoes in opposite ring corners. Matt and Jeff take turns chopping their respective opponents. Each chop is followed by a large DELETE chant from the crowd. So why did I mention Impact? I mention Impact because no matter if Impact feels they own the Broken version of The Hardys, you can’t simply take the Broken version and tell the Hardy’s not to do it. Even if the Hardy’s show up like they did in this match without the Broken music or being called the “Broken Hardys”, the fans are still going to chant DELETE and see the Hardy’s from now on as the Broken Hardy’s. In my humble opinion, Impact Wrestling has embarked on a bad public relation move by trying to claim the Broken Hardy owners of the name. Back from commercial and back to the match, I must credit Ian Riccaboni for at least telling us how the Hardys got the ROH World Tag Team Titles recently. I say more about this later in this column.

Credit Kevin Kelly and Riccaboni on commentary with something else that I like from ROH lately. Next week’s Supercard of Honor is supposed to have The Hardys vs. The Young Bucks for the ROH World Tag Team Titles. Kelly talks about what will happen if The Briscoe’s win this match and speculates that the Board of Directors would look to make the match with The Hardys and Young Bucks into a 3-team tag match at next week’s Supercard of Honor which would include the Briscoe’s if they win today. As the match continues, I thought for sure when Jay Briscoe nails Matt Hardy with his top rope elbow that Matt was done but Matt kicked out on two. The false finishes in this match were really good after that. Matt kicks out of The Briscoe’s doomsday on two. Matt hits Mark with a twist of fate. Jeff then hits Mark with a Swanton but Mark is able to not only kick out but also roll Matt over for a two count from his back. The Hardys finally get the win when Matt backslides Mark Briscoe down and Jeff hits a double leg drop down on to Mark that traps his shoulders on the mat. This was a really good match between these two teams. After the match, The Young Bucks come out and challenge The Hardys to a ladder match for the superkick titles and the ROH World Tag Team Titles. The Hardy’s appear to accept the challenge. I thought this was a good way to draw some more interest for that upcoming card. Not only are the belts on the line but it’s a ladder match for the titles.

Adam Cole & The Young Bucks vs. Dalton Castle (w/The Boys) & The Addiction: The crowd was very loud throughout this match. If you have read my columns over the last 3-4 months, you will know that I am not the biggest Young Bucks fan. I don’t dislike them. I just don’t get invested in their matches. That said, I respect their accomplishments and they show how good they are in this match. There is a spot during the match where Nick Jackson hits an incredible flip on to his opponents on the outside. There is also a spot where Cole and The Young Bucks hit all three of their opponents with power bombs on the ring apron simultaneously. The action throughout this match is exceptional. I’d love to give play by play but there was so much outstanding effort and achievement by everyone involved in this match that it’s hard to single everything out. These guys all worked their tails off to put on a great match. The finish comes when Dalton Castle hits his finisher on Adam Cole. Castle gets the three count and the team of Dalton Castle w/The Boys & The Addiction win.

MISSES

The Hardys Are The ROH World Tag Team Champions? Hear me out with this. Last week we are shown a graphic with The Young Bucks still as champions. I made mention to the fact that we knew that The Hardys were champs but no mention was made about this during the show. We got a fantastic match with The Briscoes and The Hardys during this week’s episode. I just wish that we would’ve gotten a short recap of The Hardy’s winning the titles prior to the match. It’s a small thing but for those who only follow the TV shows and don’t follow what’s going on online via social media or can’t afford to watch the PPVs, I think a small recap would be nice here.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I thought that this was an excellent episode of ROH TV this week. The Hardys vs. The Briscoes was a very good match. This was followed by another fine match with Cole & The Young Bucks vs. Castle & The Addiction. They closed the episode with a few short promos for the upcoming Supercard of Honor card that ROH fans are looking forward to. Just an overall solid episode leading into next week’s live event.

(Mike Mills is the PWTorch.com ROH TV Hits and Misses Specialist, providing his point of view on ROH TV weekly. You can follow Mike at @BTT_Podcast and @Mike504Saints on Twitter and e-mail him at BookingTheTerritory@gmail.com.)

NOW CHECK OUT LAST WEEK’S ARTICLE: ROH HITS & MISSES 3/18: Riccaboni on commentary, Rush, King, Jay Briscoe, White, Six-Man Tag Titles, Woods, Lerusso