ROH HITS & MISSES 12/3: Bruiser vs. Scurll, Castle, Briscoes Invade 3D Academy, Coleman’s Pulpit, ROH Tag Title Match, Gordon vs. Page

HITS

Beer City Bruiser vs. Marty Scurll: This match might not have long term implications in ROH but you would not know it by watching these two guys. Bruiser and Scurll laid into each other as you might expect. Scurll was Scurll with his typical style of attack and Bruiser was well, a bruiser. I thought Scurll did a good job of taking Bruiser off his feet at times during the match. I also liked the spot where Scurll had Bruiser pinned after a power bomb of sorts, but referee Todd Sinclair caught Scurll with his feet on the ropes. Soon after Bruiser missed a nasty cannon ball from the ring apron to the floor and Bruiser almost is counted out. Bruiser does fight back and unfortunately misses a bunch of moves in the ring with one of them taking out referee Todd Sinclair. While Sinclair is knocked out, Scurll hits Bruiser with his umbrella. Sinclair is now up and makes the count giving Scurll the victory. Lethal watched the entire match from the stage and upon Scurll’s victory, appeared to give a nod of approval. Very solid opening match on this week’s ROH TV.

Dalton Castle: Dalton Castle talks about his upcoming match at Final Battle for the ROH World title. They recap Castle’s loss to Christopher Daniels and then Cody’s attack afterwards on Castle. They show the segment again where Cody tells Castle that Castle is a novelty act and that’s it. Castle stated that he is going to kick Cody’s read end at Final Battle and Castle will win the ROH World title. I thought this was well done and did a good job of communicating the bad blood between these two. The recap of the storyline was put together well and we should have a great match to look forward to at Final Battle.

The Briscoes Invade Bully Ray’s Training Academy: Three of Bully Ray’s students are in the middle of a training session when Mark and Jay Briscoe interrupt the session. The students attempt to shake the hands of The Briscoes but the two male students are attacked by Jay. Jay and Mark then proceed to semi-trash the place by breaking a bunch of Bully and Devon’s framed pictures. One of the students calls the cops but before they pan to commercial one of the other students is attacked one final time by The Briscoes who hit the guy with 3D. I’ve always been a fan of offsite promos or segments like this. I thought this was well done and I look forward to seeing what happens at Final Battle and how this thing concludes between The Briscoes, Bully Ray, and Tommy Dreamer.

Motor City Machine Guns vs. The Kingdom (Marseglia & O’Ryan): This was not a part of a normal TV taping and was a sneak peek into ROH Elite. This was a really good live crowd in what looked like a packed venue. I mention the crowd because often I feel like a good crowd combined with a good match like this can make a good match into something exceptional. I’m not one to say that this was the best match ever, but I thought all four guys really had a good showing. The only thing I did not like about this is Marseglia’s axe. I like Marseglia a lot, but I could do without any spots with an axe potentially being used. It’s no different than Abyss’ Janice but I digress. In the end, the Motor City Machine Guns do retain in an entertaining match. I expected them to retain and since they did the Motor City Machine Guns and Best Friends have been confirmed to do battle at Final Battle for the ROH World Tag Team titles.

Flip Gordon vs. Adam Page: I cannot say enough that I am a big Flip Gordon fan. I feel like Flip incorporates his moves so that they always look fluid. I thought that these two were a great match up going in and they didn’t disappoint at all. I feel like Page is an underrated member of The Bullet Club and Flip’s future is very bright. Both guys are agile and their agility was on full display here. I cannot even describe some of the move that these two guys pulled off but I can tell you they left it all out there. The finish was great when Flip hit Page with a corkscrew stunner of sorts and Flip pulls off the upset against Page. This was a great win by Flip but The Young Bucks came out to ruin Flips’ celebration and they attack Flip and leave him laying as we sign off. Great win by Flip but more is to come after the attack by The Young Bucks on Flip.

MISSES

Coleman’s Pulpit: For the record, I loved these segments when they first started. I really don’t have much to say about this episode of Coleman’s Pulpit. Coleman interviewed himself going into next week’s match with Kenny King for the ROH TV title. I really like Coleman and I’ve enjoyed these segments but this one was a miss.

Final Thoughts

This was a very good episode of ROH. I really enjoyed Flip Gordon vs. Adam Page. I thought it was great to see Flip get a big win against Page. Additionally, having The Young Buck ruin the celebration for Flip had an old school feel to it that I enjoyed. All of the matches and promo segments were also solid except for Coleman’s Pulpit. I didn’t hate Coleman’s Pulpit but of everything presented this week, it just didn’t do anything for me. Overall, everything is lining up well as we are only two weeks away from Final Battle 2017.

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. Also, check out his old school wrestling podcasts at tinyurl.com/BTTPod.

NOW CHECK OUT LAST WEEK’S COLUMN: ROH HITS & MISSES 11/25: Young vs. Gresham, The Kingdom, Bully Ray, War Machine attacked by The Addiction, Eight-Man Tag Main Event