SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
ROH TV REPORT (ep.452)
MAY 15, 2020
AIRED ON SINCLAIR SYNDICATED TV & ROHWRESTLING.COM
REPORT BY RYAN SULLIVAN, PWTORCH CONTRIBUTOR
Host: No Host This Week
-The opening theme aired.
-The show begins with a highlight package of Dalton Castle’s top moments in his Ring of Honor career.
-The show shifts to Dalton Castle, standing in his kitchen, saying he is a former world champion who is currently at home. Castle says quarantine life has been different, and footage is shown of Dalton annoying his cats, oddly working out in the yard and fondling a plant.
-Castle then reflected on his match against Cody at Final Battle. He suffered a back injury, but was still able to win the world title. Castle then called himself the “Charismatic Milkshake”. Next, about two minutes of highlights from this match were shown, with Castle getting the 1-2-3 via his “Bang-A-Rang”. [c]
-Back from break, Castle was shown, in warp-speed, making a delicious-looking homemade pizza.
-An advertisement for Honor Club ran, highlighting their expanded archive from 2002-2010.
-Castle then reflected on his match at Supercard of Honor against Marty Scurll. He said there were people in the audience who did not think he deserved to be champion, and people who did not believe they should main event the show. Castle said anyone who thought they would not put on a dynamite main event was “a silly goose”. Castle said he broke his finger in this match. He is proud of this match with Marty, and proud he was able to leave as champion.
(1) DALTON CASTLE (c) (w/ The Boys) vs. MARTY SCURLL – ROH World Title Match
This match occurred April 2,2018 in New Orleans at Supercard of Honor. The pace was slow to begin, with Castle doing his “peacock pose,” and Scurll doing his “bird arms” in attempts to get in the other’s head. A minute later, Scurll and Castle exchange “middle fingers”, in the middle of the ring. Castle begins to get the upper hand when mat wrestling, forcing Scurll to the outside. Castle chases Scurll outside the ring, and the momentum turns, as Scurll avoided a charging Castle, allowing Dalton to run head-first into the ring post. [c]
Back live, Scurll delivers a nasty tornado DDT on Castle on the floor. Scurll throws Castle back in the ring, and soon hits his “52 pickup” kick to Castle’s leg. However, Castle soon hits a running knee to Scurll, changing the momentum again. The action against goes to the outside, and the men start fighting up the entrance way. Eventually, Castle charges at Scurll, but Marty gives Castle a back body drop onto the entrance ramp stairs. (This was a nasty looking bump.) Castle sells an injured left arm from this. Scurll drags Castle back to the ring, and begins to work over Castle’s injured arm. Scurll hits a devastating variation of the “Ghostbuster” suplex on Castle into commercial. [c]
Back from commercial, Castle is recovering, while Scurll attempts to cut the turnbuckle pad off with scissors. Scurll eventually removes the pad, and tries to throw Castle into the exposed metal, but Dalton blocks the move, and goes on the offensive. Castle delivers a crazy overhead belly-to-belly suplex, over the top rope and into the ring, into a bridge for a two-count. With the referee’s attention diverted, Scurll back-kicks Castle “low”, causing Dalton to keel over in pain. Scurll uses this time to search under the ring for a bag of powder, which he looks for WAY too long. Scurll enters the ring with the powder, but Castle kicks the powder into Scurll’s eyes, temporarily “blinding” him. Unable to see, Scurll inadvertently grabs referee Todd Sinclair, and delivers his “finger break” move on both of Sinclair’s hands. Sinclair sells the pain like he was hit with a gunshot. Castle uses this distraction to hit a “Bang-A-Rang” on Scurll, but as Sinclair tries to count the pin, the pain to his hand is too extreme to overcome, allowing him to only count one. (This was brilliant storytelling.) [c]
Returning live, the referee is outside the ring, and Scurll has retrieved his umbrella. Scurll repeatedly hits Castle with the umbrella, then hits a “Brain buster” suplex and goes for the pin, but there is still no referee. A second referee, Paul Turner, rushes to the ring to count the pin, but only counts to two. Scurll teases his “chicken wing” submission, but Castle counters with a “peacock pose” and a spinning back elbow. Castle goes for another back elbow, but Scurll reverses into a “chicken wing”. Castle reaches for the ropes to break the submission, but Scurll grabs his finger, and gives Castle a “finger break”.
The finish happens when Scurll begins stomping repeatedly on Castle’s head, and then hits two standing sidekicks. Scurll asks the referee to check on Castle, but Dalton says to continue. Scurll bounces off the ropes and charges toward Castle, but Dalton reverses into his “Bang-A-Rang”, out of nowhere, for the 1-2-3.
WINNER: Dalton Castle at 22:52.
(Ryan’s Reaction: This was a great match, and much better than I remember it. The first five minutes could have been trimmed for brevity, but this was one of the best matches from each man in their Ring of Honor careers.)
-Back at home, Castle reflected on his difficult loss to Jay Lethal and losing his title. Then he mentioned his historic loss to Rush at the G1 Supercard. He said there was not much of a match, but said he had a magnificent entrance at Madison Square Garden. [c]
-Castle pivoted to start talking about his new journey in Ring of Honor, with tag-team partner Joe Hendry. “We’re good. We’re real good”, Castle said. He said Hendry and himself understand the value of entertainment, seeing as they are both “big, beefy, muscle hunks.”
(2) DALTON CASTLE & JOE HENDRY vs. P.J. BLACK & BRIAN JOHNSON vs. TRACY WILLIAMS & MARK HASKINS vs. VINCENT & BATEMAN (w/Chuckles, Vita Von Starr) – Four-Way Tag-Team Match
This contest took place in February in Nashville, at the Bound by Honor event. Black and Hendry begin the match with impressive chain wrestling, although neither could gain an advantage. Williams tags in, and more mat wrestling occurs. The combination of Williams and Haskins start working as a cohesive unit to beat on Johnson. Castle tags Haskins, which irked Haskins. Hendry joins Castle in the ring and hits an impressive standing suplex for a two-count. Haskins tags in, as does Vincent, but Haskins does not see the tag and Vincent delivers a cutter on the floor to Haskins, into commercial. [c]
Back from break, Bateman and Vincent are working over Haskins in their corner, function as a solid unit. Vincent goes for a “double underhook” suplex, but Haskins counters into a back body drop. Johnson tags Vincent, and starts beating on the weary Haskins. Haskins escapes a suplex from Johnson, and gets the hot tag to Williams. Tracy is a “house of fire” and clears the ring. The match soon dissolves into chaos, with all eight men attacking each other. In the midst of humanity, Hendry picks up both Williams and Black for an incredible “double fall away slam”.
The finish occurs shortly thereafter, when Castle hits a “Bang-A-Rang” on Haskins, but Johnson, the legal man, sneaks into the ring and rolls up Castle for a two count. Hendry slides into the ring and hits a “codebreaker” on Johnson, followed by a modified “sling blade” by Castle on Johnson for the win.
WINNERS: Dalton Castle and Joe Hendry at 11:26
(Ryan’s Reaction: I understand wanting to show a Hendry and Castle tag-team match, to highlight and foreshadow their future path when Ring of Honor wrestling returns. But this match was rather forgettable, and did not need to be given 12 minutes of television time. Hendry and Castle have had several more impressive matchups, including their bout against Vincent and Bateman at Free Enterprise, that are more deserving of being replayed on television.)
-Castle was back in his kitchen and asked himself what his future in ROH looks like. He answered “I don’t know, but I’m sure it will be fantastic.” Castle took a bite of pizza, winked at the camera, and the show faded to black.
FINAL THOUGHTS: This episode was primarily geared to show Dalton Castle’s unique, quirky personality. However, I have generally preferred the spotlight episodes like The Briscoes and Marty Scurll, where the talent was more “themselves” and less “gimmicky”. I understand Dalton staying in character, but I wish we had been given a glimpse of the “real” Dalton Castle. Nonetheless, the Scurll match was terrific, and Castle was entertaining, making this another solid show from Ring of Honor, in spite of the difficult challenges.
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