ROH HITS & MISSES 5/21: Lethal vs. Martinez, Daddiego vs. Taylor, The Bullet Club vs. SoCal Uncensored, More Bullet Club Drama

HITS

Jay Lethal vs. Punishment Martinez: Martinez cuts a quick promo before the match. He addresses Lethal’s agenda of taking him out in redeeming himself. Lethal also cuts a quick promo on Martinez telling him that he will end Martinez’ momentum and this is just the first step back to his road to glory. This was a fantastic opener. I thought Lethal did great targeting Martinez’ left knee/leg as he tried to chop the big man down. Caprice Coleman and Ian Riccaboni also did a great job of focusing on this on commentary. Even when Martinez took back control of the match, he sold the left knee continuously. Good bit of back and forth from both competitors but Lethal wins when he hits Martinez with a kick and then Lethal Injection to win his first match in trying to redeem the loses he has had. Very solid opening match from Lethal and Martinez.

Recap of Jenny Rose Challenging Sumie Sakai: The formal challenge happened a few weeks back. I’m good with this placement. As always when you only have one hour per week, these quick recaps keep things fresh in the minds of fans as to not only what has happened in previous weeks but what is coming up next week.

Joey “Diesel” Daddiego vs. Shane Taylor: Riccaboni pointed out Daddiego was making his return. It had not hit me until now, but we have not seen him in a while. When Taylor comes out, we are shown a quick recap of Taylor destroying Ryan Nova and Todd Sinclair stopping the match. Riccaboni mentions that if Daddiego does not win, it might be Daddiego’s last match at ROH according to what Daddiego told Riccaboni. What a slugfest this was. Along with some power moves mixed in. At one point, Daddiego hits his Daddiego Driver (at least I thought that’s what Riccaboni said). This led to the match going to the outside where the two brawled for a minute but then Taylor took over and threw some brutal forearms to Daddiego. Taylor then laid Daddiego on the outside on two shares and hit a splash on to Daddiego from the ring apron. Paul Turner and one of the other referees tried to calm Taylor down as he was in a rage after the splash through the chairs. Taylor choke slams the ref. Then he works towards Paul Turner. Turner retreats and then four to five members of security come in individually to stop Taylor, but Taylor disposes of them all with ease. The match ended in a no contest per Riccaboni. Taylor looked like an absolute mad man on a warpath. Good stuff making Taylor look like a monster as they continue to build him up. No, he did not get the win but if the message being sent was that we should fear this guy going forward, then mission accomplished.

Cody Promo Backstage: Cody announces in short, after going back and forth with Brandi on who would make an announcement they were set to make, that he would be facing Dalton Castle at Best in the World. Short and effective.

The Briscoes Brothers attack The Young Bucks Recap: They recap last week’s attack on The Young Bucks after The Young Bucks wrestled The Briscoe Brothers. Riccaboni questions why Scurll never came out and helped The Young Bucks. Riccaboni also questioned why it took so long for the other members of The Bullet Club to come out to help The Bucks. Lots of questions but not a lot of answers which feeds into the overall story and Bullet Club drama.

The Bullet Club (Cody, Adam Hangman Page, & Marty Scurll) with Burnard The Business Bear vs. SoCal Uncensored (Christopher Daniels, Scorpio Sky, and Franke Kazarian):The match itself was a hit. These six put on a show for us. Although the match was excellent on the surface, if you missed the actual match on this week’s episode you did not miss anything critical in terms of storylines. Cody hits I believe a move called Din’s Fire or Den’s Fire on Scorpio Sky followed up with Page hitting Right of Passage on Sky. Bullet Club wins by pin. At the end of the match, Daniels and Kazarian attack Cody and Page. Scurll comes in to assist Cody and Page. Scurll, in an attempt to hit Daniels with his umbrella, inadvertently hits Cody hard across the side of the neck and face when Daniels moves. Riccaboni and Coleman question if that was intentional by Scurll. It may have been planned to look more intentional but based on what I saw it came across on TV as an accident. The match was good, but the aftermath was the story. How will Cody take Scurll inadvertently hitting him with the umbrella? Will he see it as an honest mistake or think it was done intentionally? More Bullet Club drama continues to play out here.

ROH Commentary: I mentioned this a while back in one of the hits and misses, however it bears repeating. I feel like ROH’s commentary team is solid week in and week out. Ian Riccaboni is often faced with calling matches with different partners each week. Normally it is he and Cold Cabana. However, he is also frequently teamed up with Caprice Coleman or BJ Whitmer. I feel like no matter the combination, they are always solid. Being that interchangeable but still maintaining a good flow during the matches each week may go unnoticed, but it should not. Hats off to Riccaboni, Cabana, Coleman, and Whitmer for the jobs they do in the booth.

MISSES

Video Recap of Bully Ray: The segment itself this week was fine. I always applaud quick recaps. That said, if I never see Bully Ray on ROH TV again I will be a happy person.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Solid episode throughout. Nothing spectacular like last week when The Young Bucks battled The Briscoes but still a good show. I really enjoyed Lethal vs. Martinez and Taylor vs. Daddiego. We got different outcomes in both of those matches but I felt those matches progressed things in their respective storylines. It’ll be interesting to see how Cody reacts to Scurll’s “unintentional” shot with the umbrella. That said, solid episode this week of ROH worth checking out.

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 you can check out his old school wrestling podcasts at tinyurl.com/BTTPod

NOW CHECK OUT LAST WEEK’S COLUMN: ROH HITS & MISSES 5/14: Young Bucks vs. Briscoes, Machine Guns vs. The Dawgs, Klein vs. Rayne, Lethal, Bullet Club, Bully Ray