7/15 ROH HITS & MISSES: The Kingdom Opening Promo, The Dawgs interrupt Cody, Six-Man Gauntlet match,

HITS

The Kingdom Opening Promo: Quick opening promo from the Kingdom talking about the teams that will compete in a six-man gauntlet match for a shot at them and their six-man World Tag Team titles. Matt Taven does not seem to be too worried about whoever wins though since The Kingdom is in a world of its own. Taven does mention that he thinks it is a conspiracy that these teams can all just line up with one getting a shot at their titles. Taven does not see any of the teams as worthy of challenging them. There is also a theme in Taven’s message throughout the main event on commentary. Taven will give zero credit to any of the teams that compete as he calls them all Melvins throughout that match discussed later in this column. Overall nice opening promo leading up to this week’s main event.

The Dawgs Interrupt Cody: These segments from The Dawgs have been funny over the last few weeks. I have to say this week did not disappoint. Little Willy and Rhett Titus approach Cody looking for some cash. Cody tells them it is 2018 and he does not have any money on him since he does not carry cash. Then Cody tells them that he just financed a ten thousand seat arena so of course he does not have any money. Titus says that is ok, if you are out of money we will go talk to Marty Scurll since he just signed a new deal. Magically out of nowhere, Cody opens up an envelope of cash and throws it on the couch for the Dawgs to have at it. I guess we are supposed to assume that cash thrown up may be Scurll’s, but I am not sure? In any case, it was an entertaining segment where The Dawgs got the cash they needed to pay for Taylor’s services for the gauntlet.

Six-Man Tag Gauntlet Match: The Kingdom was on commentary at the start and they repeat how they are not happy about how all these Melvins are being granted an opportunity at their titles via this match. Taven basically states that none of these guys are deserving for a shot at their titles. While I will not quote all of the lines from The Kingdom and Taven on commentary during the match, I will say that they added to the match as they constantly made fun of or attempted to bury the credibility of any of these teams. The gauntlet starts with The Dawgs & Shane Taylor (as noted earlier, it appears The Dawgs paid Taylor what he wanted for his services) vs. Jonathan Gresham, LSG, & Alex Shelley. Ian Riccaboni points out that Shaheem Ali was in a recent car accident and that is why he is not with his normal tag partner in this match. I was glad to hear Riccaboni mention this. I am sure I was not alone in wondering what happened to Coast To Coast over the last few months. Apparently, Ali’s injury is why we have not seen them in action recently. Back to the match. The first team eliminated was The Dawgs when LSG pinned Little Willy in a roll-up pin. The next team to come out was the team of Silas Young, Beer City Bruiser, and Brian Milonas. I noticed that Bobby Cruise called Milonas & Bruiser “The Bouncers.” That said, it appears Milonas & Bruiser officially have a tag team name. Although in a losing effort, I thought the Gresham, LSG, & Shelley vs. The Bouncers & Young segment of the gauntlet made Bruiser & Milonas look strong. There were some nice double team efforts during the match that made them look good. However, LSG ended up hitting a splash off the top rope to Milonas to move on in the gauntlet. The next team out was SoCal Uncensored (SCU) to take on Gresham, LSG, & Shelley. Not much of a surprise at this moment of the gauntlet. SCU disposes of Gresham, LSG, & Shelley when LSG is pinned. The last team in the gauntlet match was really a surprise combination. Chuckie T, Kenny King, and Eli Isom come out to battle SCU. Just as shocked as I was with who the last team would be in Chuckie T, King, & Isom, I was equally as shocked when Isom pinned Daniels from SCU! Yes, I stated that correctly. The team of Chuckie T, King & Isom won the gauntlet when Isom pinned Daniels. This is no doubt Isom’s biggest moment in his short career. Overall, a fun, surprising finish, and enjoyable match that closed out this week’s episode.

MISSES

Kelly Klein vs. Jenny Rose: No code of honor at the beginning of the match from Klein which is not surprising given her persona. I liked the fact that we had a one on one Women of Honor match this week. I feel like if you are going to build the division and contenders for the Women of Honor title, it is best right now to establish the ladies as singles competition for Sumie Sakai’s title. The match itself was not that good. The crowd felt like it was relatively quiet for the most part throughout it.  If we are grading this match as a Hit or Miss in terms of the actual match, this is a Miss. I just was not overly impressed with what they did during the match. If we graded it in terms of establishing credible competition via singles matches for WOH, then I would say this was a Hit. That said, I am in limbo on this one. Although I placed it in the Misses, truthfully this one could go either way depending on your perspective.

Final Thoughts…

I have been critical of these tapings since they were recorded well before Best in the World. Please see last week’s Hits and Misses for further details on that. However, this week was good, and I suspected that it would be given the 6-man gauntlet. If you would have asked me to pick a winner prior to it and I knew all the teams that would compete in it, there’s no way Chuckie T, King, & Isom would have been my pick to win it. I may have picked them as my third or fourth favorite at the highest, but they won, and I thought it was a good surprise. Assuming this is the last airing from these tapings, I am looking forward to the next set of tapings that occurred after Best in the World.

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: 7/8 ROH HITS & MISSES: Cheeseburger vs. Bully Ray, Cody vs. Titan, The Dawgs, Coleman’s Pulpit, Daniels and Sky, Shephard & Ortiz vs. Sakai & Grey