ROH HITS & MISSES 8/19: Six-Man Tag Title Match, Taven, Jay Briscoe, The Kingdom, Coast to Coast, Best Friends, Lethal and Young

HITS

Cabana, Tempura Boyz, Castle, and The Boys Open: Very good quick opening promo and recap of last week where Castle and The Boys told Cabana that they’d put the 6-man titles on the line. Short, effective and to the point.

Silas Young, Jay Lethal, and Beer City Bruiser: The chaos with these three continues as Jay Lethal is once again attacked backstage by Young and Bruiser. Lethal holds his own against these two for a while but Young is able to overcome Lethal when he hits Lethal from behind with a folding chair. They take us to commercial with Lethal out on the floor and being assisted by security personnel. When we come back Lethal says that this has to end and challenges Bruiser and Young. I say this weekly and I will say it again, this feud has been and continues to be a good one. I am looking forward to the next phase of this.

Matt Taven (with Kingdom members Vinny Marseglia & TK O’Ryan) vs. Jay Briscoe:This was the match to watch this hour of ROH TV. This was a main event caliber match between these great ROH talents. Jay Briscoe always brings his “A” game and Taven does also. As we get well into the match, I just want to point out that there are wrestlers who do dives and then there’s Jay Briscoe. Jay Briscoe hits a dive through the ropes and takes out Taven with tremendous force. In a match like this where you have Briscoe out there and three members of The Kingdom, it is only a matter of time before Marseglia and TK O’Ryan get involved. Once they roll back into the ring Marseglia gets involved in the match but Jay Briscoe takes Marseglia out with a neck breaker. TK O’Ryan then gets drug into the ring by Briscoe. And this is where things turn. Briscoe turns his back on what he believes is an injured O’Ryan to go back to Taven. But O’Ryan removes his walking boot and hits Briscoe with his boot. O’Ryan played us like a fiddle. I’m sure his leg has been fine for a while now but you wouldn’t know that by watching ROH weekly. Briscoe gets the win by way of outside interference but this isn’t the end I would assume. Mark Briscoe does come out to chase off The Kingdom but it’s long after the damage is done. An excellent match and segment on this week’s ROH TV.

Dalton Castle & The Boys vs. Colt Cabana & The Tempura Boyz: As expected, there was a good bit of comedy in this match. In the opening, we get Cabana mocking Castle and his peacock strut and pose. Crowd does react with a bit of laughter and discuss at the same time. Once we settle into the match, things slow down and the teams trade comedy spots and being on the offensive. At one point as we work towards the finish, Castle bridge suplexes Cabana and I’m not sure if the Tempura Boyz actually made the save in time. It looked like The Tempura Boyz were either close to being late or they barely made the save. Soon after though all 6 guys are in the ring. Cabana then clears the ring of The Boys and is left with just Castle. Castle hits his finisher on Cabana though and Castle pins Cabana. Castle and The Boys retain their 6-man ROH titles. After the match, Castle cuts a promo and tells Cabana that he has always liked him and that he’s beaten Cabana not once, not twice but three times. Castle then attempts to bury the hatchet. Cabana agrees and they shake hands. Solid match and solid ending to this week’s episode.

MISSES

Coast to Coast vs. Best Friends: Chalk this one up to another “not sure how I feel” category. The match was good and the crowd like last week was into it. There’s definitely a good bit of typical hard-hitting Ring of Honor action. During the commentary I heard Caprice Coleman, BJ Whitmer, and Ian Riccaboni speculate on if this would be the signature win that Coast to Coast was looking for. After seeing Coast to Coast for a few months now and watching them build up their stock, I thought that this was a great opportunity for that signature win against Taylor and Barreta. Additionally, Coast to Coast got their signature maneuvers and spots in which I thought was great. Riccaboni even mentioned at one point that they just hit their finishing moves but Taylor and Barreta were able to overcome that. In the end, the Best Friends get the victory with a pump handle pile driver on LSG. Don’t get me wrong, this was a very good match but I thought Coast to Coast should’ve finally gotten their “signature” win. It wasn’t bad. Good match but if you were to grade it against the rest of the hour I thought this was the one that was potentially a miss.

Cody: Cody cuts a short promo discussing his matches as a free agent against non-ROH talents. It wasn’t bad. It was extremely short and could’ve been left out of the show.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Despite the minor misses, this was another good episode. Taven and Jay Briscoe was exceptional. The 6-man tag title match was also good although not at the level of Taven and Briscoe. And lastly, Lethal and Young furthered their feud. I definitely recommend giving this week’s show a chance.

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.

NOW CHECK OUT LAST WEEK’S REPORT: ROH HITS & MISSES 8/19: Gordon, Martinez, Cheeseburger, Titus, Castle & The Boys, Cabana & The Tempura Boyz, Kushida, King, Page, Scurll