ROH HITS & MISSES 9/9: Mark Briscoe vs. Kazarian, Young and Bully Ray, Gresham vs. Lethal

HITS

Mark Briscoe vs. Frankie Kazarian: The feud continues with members of the Briscoes and SoCal Uncensored. Except this time, it is Mark Briscoe and Frankie Kazarian doing battle. The show started with these two battling. We did not even see the introductions. Ian Riccaboni, Colt Cabana, and Caprice Coleman tell us they battled down to ringside. After the first commercial break, Jay Briscoe makes his way down to ringside to support his brother. Kazarian takes Jay out though rather quickly. Mark gets back on the offensive and then goes to the top rope for a big elbow drop. Mark misses the elbow drop. Kazarian quickly rolls up Mark in a crucifix and gets the win over Mark Briscoe. Jay Briscoe attacks Kazarian after the bell. Then the rest of SCU hits the ring to help Kazarian. Punishment Martinez hits the ring and is now helping the Briscoes take out SCU. While I am still not completely invested in this feud, for what it is worth, I think they have done well building it up.

Quick Promos from Gresham and Lethal: We got a couple of very quick promos from Gresham and Lethal building up their 30-minute iron man match during today’s main event.

Update On the Six-Man Tag Titles and Jeff Cobb: Ian Riccaboni updated us on the recent 6-Man Tag Titles that changed hands with Cody and The Young Bucks winning the titles and Jeff Cobb wrecking the Top Prospect tournament. I still get the impression that the tournament is not happening and that this was a way to get Cobb started in the promotion. Again, I have not read spoilers ahead of time to check if this is the case, but this is what it looks like. Good recaps for my liking especially considering I missed most of the last two shows.

Recap of Silas Young and Bully Ray: We are thrown to a recap of Young and Bully Ray. They show the ending of the match Young had with Gordon that Young lost to Gordon. Bully came out and gave Gordon a low blow and then looked at Young and shook his head. Then we see Bully abandon Young during a tag match with the Best Friends. Young loses and then has some words with Bully backstage after the match. I thought this was a nice plug to send viewers to Honor Club to see what happened with these two. I am not sure where this is leading with Young and Bully, but I am invested in seeing where this goes.

Jay Lethal vs. Jonathan Gresham (30-minure Iron Man match for the ROH World Heavyweight Title): A lot of feeling out throughout the first few minutes of the match. One thing I did not understand was why the countdown clock was not included in the graphic with the score during the match. Although Bobby Cruise did give time updates throughout. With the slower pace throughout the match, I felt that Riccaboni and Cabana really did a nice job of calling the match and still keeping the audience engaged and interested. Additionally, it still amazes me every time I watch Gresham’s matches that his slower but more technical style works for today’s fans especially in ROH. That is a credit to Gresham more than anything else. With about 10 minutes left, Gresham and Lethal get into a chop exchange that got a great reaction. Gresham is the first to get a fall or submission. Gresham gets Lethal to submit with three minutes and 30 seconds left! Riccaboni and Cabana point out that Gresham could go on the defensive for the remaining three minutes and 30 seconds and become champion. Lethal attacks right away though after tapping out. Lethal gets Gresham in a figure four with three minutes left. Gresham holds on until just under 90 seconds but has to submit which leaves us tied at 1-1. The last minute is a great exchange with each guy trying to win but the match ends in a tie. Gresham gets the microphone though and tells Lethal there is no way he is going to come this far after 14 years and that Lethal is not leaving this building with a tie. Gresham also tells Lethal he wants five more minutes. Riccaboni and Cabana point out that Lethal has honored the terms of the match and contract is under no obligation to give Gresham more time. However, being a true fighting champion, Lethal grabs the microphone and says, “start the clock”. From this point, we have an intense final five minutes. Lethal even hits a big elbow drop off the top rope with three minutes left in overtime. Gresham kicks out though. After a great exchange, Lethal hits Lethal Injection on Gresham in a match timed at 33.5 minutes according to Riccaboni. Lethal pins Gresham in sudden death and Lethal is still your ROH World Heavyweight Champion. I have seen a bunch of iron man matches over the years. This was one of the better ones. These guys were tremendous throughout it. They told a phenomenal story. The match went down to the wire and it took Lethal winning in extra time with a sudden death pinfall after hitting Lethal Injection. Great, great match! I would go out of my way to watch this week’s ROH just for this match.

MISSES

The Dawgs (Will Ferrara & Rhett Titus) vs. Cheeseburger & Ryan Nova vs. The Bouncers (Brian Milonas & Beer City Bruiser): Riccaboni throws us to this match that is in progress. We only see the very end of it which was a little confusing to me. However, Riccaboni did say the full match is on Honor Club. I will have to watch it at a later time. It felt like this was just included to buy another few minutes before the main event with Lethal and Gresham for the World Title. I realize this is a way to plug Honor Club, but I could have done without this segment being included and I think there are better ways to plug Honor Club if that was indeed the intent.

Final Thoughts

This show was centered around the 30-minute iron man match for the ROH World Heavyweight Title which delivered big time. It was not only one of the best matches in ROH this year, but I feel it was one of the better matches I have seen in wrestling in 2018. Lethal and Gresham told a great story. Things started slow as they felt each other out. Then, things escalated considerably once we got halfway through and then 25 minutes in. The remaining five minutes of regulation was intense and then we got sudden death overtime for five minutes where we finally got a winner. It was just a fantastic all-around match from these guys. I thought the remainder of the show was also good, but the story of this week was the main event.

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 THIS REPORT: 9/9 ROH TV RESULTS: Jay Lethal vs. Jonathan Gresham in an iron man match for the ROH world title, Mark Briscoe vs. Frankie Kazarian