SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
ROH TV REPORT
JUNE 16, 2019
CHICAGO, IL AT THE ODEUM
AIRED ON SINCLAIR AFFILIATES & ROHWRESTLING.COM
REPORT BY HARLEY R. PAGEOT, PWTORCH CONTRIBUTOR
Commentary: Ian Riccaboni, Colt Cabana
We opened with a series of still photos hyping this week’s four corner survival main event.
-Opening theme.
-In the arena Bullet Club’s music played. Hikuleo, the younger brother of ROH tag champions Guerrillas Of Destiny, made his entrance to silence from the live crowd. His opponent was another NJPW wrestler, Chaos member Hirooki Goto.
(1) HIROOKI GOTO vs. HIKULEO
Commercial break one minute into the match. [C]
Goto won with an ushikoroshi and GTR.
WINNER: Hirooki Goto in 7:07.
(Pageot’s Perspective: This is now the third week of ROH television in a row to feature a match that included no ROH wrestlers. Bizarre. And there was absolutely no context given for this one. Why was this booked for ROH TV? Why were these two here? Will we be seeing more of Goto in ROH going forward? Is that why he picked up this victory? Does any of this mean anything?)
-Video recap of Kenny King cheating to beat Jay Lethal in the first match of their best of three series three weeks ago on TV.
King was backstage. He bragged about whupping Lethal. He admitted he’s borderline obsessed with Lethal. He has down Lethal’s timing and move set and even beat him with his own Lethal Injection last time. He suggested he might do the same thing next week in match two.
-Women Of Honor champion Kelly Klein made her entrance with Jenny Rose at her side for a scheduled tag match against The Allure. [C]
During the break The Allure jumped Klein and Rose from behind. Angelina Love hit her pump-kick on Rose and Mandy Leon clubbed Klein with a shoe while Velvet Sky looked on. Apparently that was enough to completely incapacitate the babyfaces so the tag match is being postponed to Best In The World. Riccaboni transitioned into discussing other matches on the pay-per-view card.
-Video recap of The Briscoes getting disqualified in the Crockett Cup and attacking Villain Enterprises and the referee afterward. Jay Briscoe then called out the NWA. Last week on ROH TV the Briscoes also attacked Colt Cabana and Nick Aldis, setting up another tag match for Best In The World.
-Video recap of Bandido pinning ROH World Television Champion Shane Taylor on May 12 TV, thus earning himself a title shot at Best In The World.
-Video recap from June 2 TV of Dalton Castle outlining his plan to destroy Dragon Lee at Best In The World in order to get revenge on Lee’s brother Rush.
(Pageot’s Perspective: Good grief. Women Of Honor is so completely f’ing bad that it’s almost unbelievable. Meanwhile this new ROH approach of dumping video package after video package after video package in the middle of the show is so tedious and momentum-killing that it’s baffling anybody thinks it makes for good television.)
-Shinobi Shadow Squad made their entrance. Riccaboni talked up their winning record. Their opponents were Lifeblood’s Mark Haskins and Tracy Williams who were teaming with wannabe Lifer PJ Black.
Video recap of last week’s show closing angle where Black tried to rescue Haskins and Williams from Bully Ray, Shane Taylor, and the Soldiers Of Savagery only to be put through a table.
(2) PJ BLACK & LIFEBLOOD (Mark Haskins & Tracy Williams) vs. SHINOBI SHADOW SQUAD (Cheeseburger, Eli Isom, & Ryan Nova)
Williams and Burger started. They tagged out to Black and Isom early. [C]
Nova and Haskins were in the ring out of the break. Lifeblood isolated Nova. The rookie tried to fire up but took some triple-team offense from Lifeblood, ending with Black’s double-stomp moonsault on Nova.
WINNERS: Lifeblood in 7:24.
-Williams sent away 3S and challenged Ray and the Soldiers Of Savagery to a trios match at some point in the future. [C]
(Pageot’s Perspective: Black in Lifeblood makes a lot of sense, even if it’s still unofficial at this point. Flip Gordon has shown no interest in joining the group since they extended an invite to him five weeks ago and Bandido, who is an official member, rarely hangs out with them either. On top of that word came out this week that Juice Robinson has no interest in returning to ROH due to the dismal state of their booking so it seems that he and David Finlay may be taking the Tenille Dashwood exit. The success of 3S seemed to be setting them up to challenge Villain Enterprises for the six-man titles at Best In The World but this match put the brakes on that. It’s not clear now who VE will be defending against.)
-ROH World Champion Matt Taven joined commentary for the main event. The four wrestlers in the match each made their entrance. [C]
(3) JAY LETHAL vs. ROH WORLD SIX-MAN TAG TEAM CHAMPION PCO vs. RUSH vs. “THE HAWAIIAN JUGGERNAUT” JEFF COBB
Rush nailed PCO with a forearm. The bell presumably rang during the break. Lethal and PCO wound up alone in the ring. Hiptoss, cartwheel, dropkick from Lethal. Springboard dropkick sent PCO to the floor. PCO asked for somebody to hit him with a suicide dive. Rush did the tranquilo pose instead and took a dropkick from Lethal. Lethal hit his suicide dives on Cobb and Rush. PCO was still waiting for him. Lethal foolishly went for it and got caught by PCO into a chokeslam on the apron. Vader Bomb from PCO to Rush. Chokeslam to Cobb. Rolling German suplex from Rush to Lethal. Cobb with a superkick and delayed vertical suplex to Rush. Spinning side slam to Lethal. [C]
Lethal with a flatliner/DDT to Cobb and Rush at the same time. Lethal and PCO met on the second turnbuckle. Cobb joined them. They very slowly set up a tower of doom spot. Rush finally showed up and hit it. PCO was bleeding from his eye. PCO countered a Lethal Injection into a pop-up powerbomb. Standing moonsault from Cobb to PCO. Rush with an overhead belly to belly suplex that sent Cobb into the corner. PCO set up Rush for his cannonball onto the apron. Rush of course moved and PCO crashed onto the edge of the ring. Lethal Injection to Rush! Kenny King started walking down the ramp. Lethal Combination to Cobb. King yelled at Lethal for using “his move.” The distraction let Cobb hit a Tour Of The Islands on Lethal to a tepid reaction from the live crowd.
WINNER: Jeff Cobb in 12:28.
(Pageot’s Perspective: Decent match up until the finish. We’re at the point now where ROH has solidly conditioned us to never expect a clean finish in a match like this. That’s one thing. But a finish like this makes the veteran Lethal look like a chump for being so easily distracted. And then you have babyface world title contender Jeff Cobb stealing the victory and only winning thanks to a presence at ringside. Why wasn’t it the heel Rush using King’s distraction to gain the tainted victory? How does this make Cobb look good?)
-Next week: it’s the Best In The World go-home show with the second match in the Jay Lethal-Kenny King best of three series.
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