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ROH TV REPORT
DECEMBER 9, 2018
PITTSBURGH, PA AT STAGE AE
AIRED ON SINCLAIR AFFILIATES & ROHWRESTLING.COM
REPORT BY HARLEY R. PAGEOT, PWTORCH CONTRIBUTOR
Commentary: Ian Riccaboni, Colt Cabana, Caprice Coleman
Video recap of last week’s closing segment wherein Christopher Daniels announced that Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky have re-signed with ROH but Daniels will have to defeat Marty Scurll at Final Battle or he’s finished with the company.
-Opening theme.
-Silas Young made his entrance in the arena without Bully Ray. A video recap showed Young defeating Sandman one month ago on TV. Flip Gordon was his opponent and grabbed a microphone before the bell. Gordon challenged him to make it an I Quit match. Young struck him in the throat and kicked him to the mat. He said he’d be more than happy to deliver.
(1) FLIP GORDON vs. “THE LAST REAL MAN” SILAS YOUNG – I QUIT MATCH
Young suplexed Gordon a couple times but Gordon came back with a Pele kick and springboard spear. Suicide dive and Gordon unloaded with right hands on the floor. Gordon reversed an Irish whip that sent Young into the guardrail. More right hands from the fired up Gordon and a suplex to Young on the ringside mats. Young avoided a 450 in the ring. Gordon avoided a lariat. They brawled at ringside and Gordon hit a second rope moonsault onto the standing Young. [C]
Gordon found a folding table under the ring and slid it in, leaning it against the turnbuckle in the corner. He went after Young on the floor but took a steel chair shot. Young drove Gordon headfirst into the ring post and tossed a second chair into the ring. Young jabbed him in the guts with a chair. Young dropped Gordon face-first across the open chair. He hit a double stomp to Gordon’s gut and stood on his ribs. Gordon refused to quit. Young hit an anarchist suplex and locked in a full nelson on the mat. Gordon rolled out and hit a superkick. He looked to slingshot onto Young on the floor but Young moved and Gordon crashed. Young found a kendo stick under the ring but Gordn caught him with two chair shots before he could use it. Gordon hit another four chair shots to Young’s back and grabbed the stick himself.
Bully Ray ran to the ring and caught Gordon from behind with his steel chain, choking him out. Young speared Gordon through the table in the corner. Fans pelted the ring with streamers and tennis balls. Ray glared at the fans as the commentators sent to commercial?
WINNER: No contest in 9:42. [C]
(Pageot’s Perspective: How do you have a non-finish to an I Quit match? My guard was up for some sort of weak finish being that this match wasn’t advertised last week but I assumed it would be something along the lines of Silas sarcastically saying he quit while he and Bully laid into Flip, emphasizing that he didn’t care about winning, it was just about softening up Flip before the pay-per-view. Instead the match just… stopped. So now we’re conditioned to believe that the Flip-Bully I Quit match at Final Battle could feasibly end the exact same way. That’s not good.)
-Video package on Jeff Cobb vs. Adam Page. They face off for the ROH World Television Championship at Final Battle this Friday.
-SoCal Uncensored made their entrance. Kazarian and Sky were without Daniels and carrying the tag team titles. Sky took a mic in the ring and began to say that Pittsburgh was the worst town he’s ever been in when The Briscoes appeared out of nowhere and jumped them from behind. They stomped away at the champions. Jay Briscoe questioned them wanting a Ladder War. He said they’re the OG’z of the Ladder War and the whole damn company. The Young Bucks hit the ring and cleared The Briscoes. They faced off with SCU and the babyface teams shook hands. As the Bucks turned to the crowd the Briscoes shoved SCU into them. SCU denied attacking them and ate stereo superkicks. As did the Briscoes. The Bucks pulled a ladder out from under the ring. Kaz dropkicked it into them. Sky flipped over the ropes onto the Briscoes on the other side. Kaz and Sky climbed the ladder in the ring and posed with the title belts.
(Pageot’s Perspective: It was a bit late to try to create some animosity between SCU and the Bucks considering how buddy-buddy they’ve become on Being The Elite since All In but the Briscoes are such consummate heels that they’ll have no issue making the three-way work at Final Battle. The Briscoes are right to brag. They defeated Kevin Owens & El Generico in the very first Ladder War back in 2007 and Jay’s appearance this Friday will give him the record of appearing in four out of seven of the wars. I don’t know why ROH hasn’t done a full video package recapping all of the past Ladder Wars. It would really sell the carnage heading into this one and hook casual WWE viewers with the appearances of Owens and Adam Cole.)
-Video recap from Global Wars: Toronto on November 11. Karen Q defeated Kaitlin Diemond to qualify for the four corner survival match for the Women Of Honor World Championship at Final Battle. Post-match she and Kelly Klein attacked Sumie Sakai until Madison Rayne showed up and everything broke down. Those four women compete for the WOH title this Friday. [C]
-Pre-recorded sit-down with Christopher Daniels. Every year there’s a moment where he has to look at his life and put things in perspective. Footage aired of a young Daniels wrestling in Windy City Pro Wrestling, circa 1993-1995. He’s done almost everything he’s set out to do. People wouldn’t blame him if he retired now. But he doesn’t want to go out. What he’s fighting for now is the possibility of fighting again tomorrow. He accepts the position he’s in. He addressed Marty Scurll. Everywhere Scurll’s gone Daniels has been before. There’s only this match. Daniels isn’t ready to go out and he’s going to prove it at Final Battle.
(Pageot’s Perspective: Strong (final?) promo from Daniels. It throws up a question mark or two as to whether this Friday actually is his retirement match but there’s a definite feeling in the air that it just might be.)
-The Kingdom, Dalton Castle & The Boys, Cody, and Jay Lethal made their entrances for the six-man main event. [C]
(2) ROH WORLD SIX-MAN TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS THE KINGDOM (Matt Taven, TK O’Ryan, & Vinny Marseglia) vs. ROH WORLD CHAMPION JAY LETHAL, “THE AMERICAN NIGHTMARE” CODY, & DALTON CASTLE (w/The Boys) – NON-TITLE MATCH
Lethal and O’Ryan started for their teams. Loud “Let’s go Lethal” chant. Cody hit a blind tag and kissed his bicep in front of Lethal. Castle tagged himself in and took down O’Ryan. Marseglia and Taven jumped on Castle while Cody and Lethal bickered. They finally caught on to what was happening behind them and things broke down with all six men fighting. Cody took out Taven and Lethal with a suicide dive. Cody and Lethal argued some more. Castle called to them and Cody tagged back in. Cody suplexed O’Ryan and tagged out to Lethal. Castle tagged back in moments later. [C]
Cody tagged in. Back body drop to O’Ryan. Taven jumped in illegally and clubbed Cody. Things broke down again. The Kingdom managed to isolate Cody in their corner. He eventually made the hot tag to Castle. Castle took out the Kingdom but Taven tripped him as he ran the apron. Taven hurled Castle into the guardrail. He and Marseglia double-teamed Castle on the floor. Taven worked over Castle. [C]
Castle caught Taven with a DDT. Tag to Lethal. He took out The Kingdom but Taven brought two steel chairs in and looked for a conchairto on Lethal. Castle saved the world champion and chased Taven off through the crowd. Cody looked to put away O’Ryan but Cody made another blind tag. Lethal looked for a Lethal Injection on O’Ryan but Cody rolled up O’Ryan to prevent it connecting. The Kingdom looked for House Of A Thousand Horses on Cody but he escaped and hit CrossRhodes on O’Ryan. Cody covered while Lethal was down at ringside.
WINNERS: Cody, Lethal, & Castle in 15:42.
-Cody and Lethal faced off mid-ring. Cody said there’s nothing left to say or do. He’ll see him at Final Battle.
(Pageot’s Perspective: Textbook pay-per-view go-home main event. We had two of the top matches highlighted and the #1 contender to the world title got a pinfall victory over a lowly minion. Yes, that minion happens to be a current tag-team champion but the six-man titles don’t really mean anything anyway so it’s fine. If The Elite don’t appear at the Philadelphia tapings on Saturday this might be the last time you ever see Cody and The Young Bucks on ROH television. It’s the end of an era.)
-Next week: it’s the annual Christmas Surprise ten-man tag match.
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