ROH HITS & MISSES 8/26: Young Bucks vs. War Machine, Cody, Suzuki, Coleman, War Machine, King

HITS

Jay White & Jonathan Gresham vs. War Machine: Correct me if I am wrong but I don’t remember War Machine as being announced as appearing on this week’s episode when we went off air last week. In any case, this was still a nice surprise. War Machine is my favorite tag team in the world. They’re always a treat to watch and it’s great to see the IWGP tag team champions on ROH. The fans in the arena were certainly happy to see War Machine as well as they got a nice ovation when they came out. Solid match between these teams with War Machine getting in their signature moves. I always love Hanson’s corner to corner running lariats. The crowd loved it and once again showed off the big man’s gas tank. I thought for sure we were about to see a big time upset as we got late into the match when Gresham nails a 450 from the top rope on to Rowe. Fortunately for War Machine, they get back on offense and hit their finisher on Gresham and get the win. This was a fantastic match between these two tag teams. The live crowd was also into it and electric throughout. Great start to the show.

Punishment Martinez Attacks Jay White: At the end of the War Machine/Gresham & White tag match, Martinez comes out and attacks White. Nothing spectacular but it continues to feed the feud that these two have been involved in and keeps things fresh in our minds between these two.

Caprice Coleman: I’m a big Coleman fan. I think he’s underrated as a talent in ROH. They introduce a segment with Coleman where it appears Coleman will have his own segment called Coleman’s pulpit. I’m looking forward to what they do with this. Nothing really happened in this segment other than making us aware that a new segment is coming that I think fits Coleman.

Shane Taylor vs. Josh Woods: Good recap of Taylor attacking Woods a few weeks back on ROH. Woods waste no time in the opening of the match when he goes right after Taylor. I felt like this was a good wrestling match and a brawl all in one. Woods’ strength is always impressive and this match was no different. I put this in the category of a hit because of the upset in my eyes. Taylor was about to use a chair on Woods when the referee takes the chair away. This gave time for Woods to rollup Taylor. Taylor wasn’t a happy camper and then goes on to attack Woods after he lost. Taylor was assisted by QT Marshall who was on commentary but came down to the ring. After Taylor attacks Woods and knocks him out, QT appears to hand Taylor a check. I don’t know where this is ultimately going but I’m willing to see how it plays out.

Minoru Suzuki, Death Before Dishonor, and Cody: This was a nice short video package introducing the upcoming match between Suzuki and Cody at Death Before Dishonor. Minoru Suzuki has answered Cody’s open challenge to his ROH World title. Cody doesn’t say much but he is clearly rattled by what he just watched in this package when they show him backstage and in the dressing room. I liked that they threw this out there now on ROH. It gives it a little time to build up to the upcoming PPV.

The Young Bucks vs. Motor City Machine Guns: This one is for the ROH World Tag Team titles. Entertaining match for the most part. It’s The Young Bucks and Motor City Machine Guns so of course there’s a lot of action. The superkicks didn’t come out until we were a good 10 minutes into this one. That alone shocked me in a good way and the sequence that it happened in was a nice exchange between the teams. Unfortunately, we’re not getting a clean finish in this one because right after that exchange, Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian show up out of nowhere. Good job by Ian Riccaboni of pointing out that Daniels and Kazarian said they would ruin things for ROH fans and that’s just what they did here by ruining the end of what was a very good tag team match.

MISSES

The Young Bucks Promo: Young Bucks cut a short promo before their upcoming tag match. Was there anything wrong with it? Not at all. Was it needed? Not at all.

Kenny King: They start the interview with Kenny King and how he’s been on The Bachelorette. I’m a Kenny King fan. But this show would’ve been fine if this would’ve never been aired. I really didn’t care that King was on The Bachelorette. Nor did I have a smidgeon of belief that being on reality TV affected his ROH performance over the last few months as was insinuated during this segment. The second half of the promo was fine where he talks about his upcoming match against Kushida at Death Before Dishonor for the ROH TV title. But I didn’t need to hear about King’s performance or appearance on the Bachelorette.

Final Thoughts: Solid episode of ROH this week. The matches were all good. The King segment and The Young Bucks promo left me feeling like those were just there to fill some air time. Other than this, it’s great to see War Machine make an appearance. Their match was very good. The other matches during the hour also held my attention. Nice tease at the end of the episode from Ian Riccaboni also as we look towards next week where Mark Briscoe & Bully Ray will face Cody and Adam Page.

NOW CHECK OUT LAST WEEK’S COLUMN: ROH HITS & MISSES 8/19: Six-Man Tag Title Match, Taven, Jay Briscoe, The Kingdom, Coast to Coast, Best Friends, Lethal and Young

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.