SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
HITS
Kenny King vs. Chuckie T: We are shown a recap before the match of what happened recently with Aries attacking King at the end of Aries’ match with Silas Young. I think this is the second or third time they have shown this recap. Although nothing has been announced, I assume King and Aries will have a match at Best in the World June 29, 2018. I especially feel this way since Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana mentioned Aries numerous times early and at the end of the match. On to the match we go, good match between the two as one would expect. Both are obviously talented veterans of the sport. King wins the match with the Royal Flush. This is a hit because the match was good. However, if you missed this match and picked up next week or the week after you would not be missing anything critical or important.
The Young Bucks and The Briscoe Brothers Recap and Briscoes Promo: They recap the finish of The Briscoes and The Young Buck from a few weeks back. I feel like we have seen this recap a few times now. But after the recap, The Briscoes cut a great promo on the Young Bucks’ Mark told The Young Bucks that they might be great at selling t-shirts and making YouTube videos but then Jay chimes in and says that he knows what they are not good at and that is taking the ROH World Tag Titles from The Briscoes. ROH has not been doing a lot of great things lately but The Briscoes do not fall into that category. They are the most believable and intense stars they have. They are a treat to watch.
Shane Taylor vs. Josh “The Goods” Woods: Before the match, Taylor cuts a promo discussing Woods and King Mo. Taylor says that he had Woods beat a few months back until King Mo got involved. This was a reference to nearly two months ago. Thank goodness for the recap or I would not have remembered it at all. I mentioned in numerous previous columns where it seems Woods is an afterthought since winning the 2017 Top Prospect tournament. This match confirmed that in my eyes. This was not a squash match, but Taylor defeats Woods in less than five minutes. Woods got a little offense but with one quick Ronnie Garvin style hands of stone punch, Taylor knocks out Woods and that is it. Once again, I am not sure what they are doing with Woods. Not that I think he needs a top spot, but the guy won the tournament and since then nothing has been done with him. As for the match, I am good with how they have built up Taylor this year. As you will read below, more building of future stars or the younger talent on the roster needs to become a priority.
The Bullet Club (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson & Adam Page & Marty Scurll & Cody with Burnard the Business Bear) vs. Los Ingobernables De Japon ([LIJ] Tetsuya Naito & Evil & Sanada & Hiromu Takahashi & Bushi): Dalton Castle joined the commentary team for this match. I did not note anything of critical importance on commentary from him leading into the match with he, Cody, and Scurll at Best in the World. This was a fantastic match with all of the excitement you would expect with these 10 guys in here. Near the end of the match, Punishment Martinez comes to ringside and starts battling with Hangman Page. Page and Martinez fight towards the back. Martinez just won the ROH World TV title June 16, 2018 which was out of the blue. This will leave more at stake when he and Page battle in two weeks at Best in the World. Page never comes back to the ring. Burnard the business bear got misted near the end which got a loud reaction. The Bucks then broke out the superkicks to nearly all of LIJ. This leads to The Bucks hitting Bushi with the Meltzer Driver and The Bullet Club get the win. Good match but I am not sure what significance it means heading towards the PPV. It was just an exciting match for this week’s main event which serves a purpose for this show and that is it.
MISSES
Bullet Club Opening Promo: The promo itself was fine. Would have been nice if it would have been mentioned last week but at this point I am beginning to think ROH is just booking their weekly TV as they go with no real sense of direction other than the main talent. More on that below.
Miscellaneous Observations: This week, something hit me as I watched the show. Maybe it has been happening slowly and I just have not stopped to realize it but, ROH has not been as fun to watch lately as it was in the past. I feel like ROH is not even trying to make new stars. As much as I and many ROH viewers enjoy watching Cody, The Bullet Club, and The Briscoes, just to name a few, ROH is missing the boat on developing new stars. Shane Taylor and Punishment Martinez might be the exceptions to that rule. However, in general it is the same thing weekly. The tag division is made up of mostly two teams with The Young Bucks and The Briscoes. That is great but how about we actually build a few others tag teams up like Coast To Coast and Beer City Bruiser and Brian Milonas. Those two teams have the talent but, yet they are just floundering. And then there’s the six-man division. Once again, it is dominated by The Kingdom, followed by SCU, and then a combination of Bullet Club members. Nothing against those teams but that title has been around for a while now and yet no development on any potential other six-man teams.
Sure, there have been other champions like Dalton Castle and The Boys but if you are honest with yourself it is all about The Kingdom, Bullet Club, and SCU continuously. Even guys like Jay Lethal are an afterthought lately. Last week I mentioned it being nice that Lethal and Kushida would meet for a third time at Best in the World but let’s be honest, that feels thrown together. It was only three to four weeks ago where Lethal claimed he would be avenging his losses, so he could get back into title contention. That storyline on TV has gone nowhere. I think he did avenge one loss and we have heard nothing from it since. Instead of sticking to storylines like Lethal’s and developing young talent to be the next generations stars we get the Bully Ray show that has eaten up more TV time over the last six months than I care to remember.
One more head scratcher that I have. First, I want to congratulate Punishment Martinez on winning the ROH World Television Title on the last Honor Club airing June 16, 2018. He defeated Silas Young to win the Television Title. Good for Martinez because, as I said above, I think he has been treated great for the most part and pushed. He is a hard worker and deserves what he has earned. However, where does that leave Silas Young going into Best in the World? Last I checked, he is not listed on the card. Let me get this straight. Your World TV champ as of June 15, 2018 that lost the title two weeks before Best in the World will not be on the card? ROH cannot find a place for Young on the card? I am at a loss. I am not trying to come off as bitter but just as concerned viewer. I hope ROH does better and recognizes the things that they can improve on because right now creativity and building new stars in the promotion is at a standstill.
Final Thoughts
I do not have much more to say since I mentioned a lot in my observation above. If you missed this episode you did not miss much. Yes, the 10-Man tag match and Chuckie T vs. King was good but other than that we are two weeks from the next PPV and nothing special happened leading towards the PPV.
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 attinyurl.com/BTTPod
NOW CHECK OUT LAST WEEK’S COLUMN: ROH HITS & MISSES 6/11: Gresham vs. Gordon, Klein vs. Purrazzo, Lethal, Castle, Bully Ray, The Briscoes vs. Roppongi 3K
ROHtv is a shell of what it used to be several years ago. And please ROH, get a real lighting rig for god’s sake.