SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
HITS
Colt Cabana on Commentary: The show opens with Colt Cabana joining Kevin Kelly on commentary. By now, most wrestling fans know that Colt Cabana host his own successful podcast. As a long-time listener and fan of The Art of Wrestling with Colt Cabana, I have always felt that he could be very successful in broadcasting. I think Colt did an excellent job on commentary while he was out there. Colt has the voice, knowledge, and respect of wrestling fans that if ROH did want him to take on a commentary role, he would greatly succeed in it. Kevin Kelly even mentions at one point to Colt that he realizes Colt’s a great wrestler but he would do great at announcing. I say all this to say, I think this is not going to be a weekly assignment for Colt but he obviously is talented enough to be a commentator. It’s important to point out that later in the episode, Cabana gets involved with a few participants before a potential match and is sent to the back. Kevin Kelly continues halfway through the show by himself at that point. Even with that said, I hope to see Colt taking on at least some commentary duties. Colt has tremendous potential as an announcer.
War Machine vs. Punishment Martinez and BJ Whitmer: As I sit here writing this today, War Machine is my favorite tag team in wrestling. I know that NXT has DIY and the Revival. Also, I realize that ROH has The Young Bucks, The Briscoe’s, and The All Night Express. However, for my money, if I am paying for a ticket, give me War Machine. WarBeard Hanson is one of the most agile big men in the business. Together, he and Ray Rowe are monsters with incredible abilities. As we get into the match, Hanson does something that may go unnoticed by some fans. He hits a continuous series of clotheslines from corner to corner on Martinez and Whitmer that felt like it went on for five minutes straight; although, that is me exaggerating the length of it. The crowd shows their appreciation with loud cheers as WarBeard Hanson sprints from corner to corner delivering those corner clotheslines. WarBeard Hanson has a heck of a gas tank to pull that move off. This match is very hard hitting with some nice spots throughout it. These four guys beat the heck out of each other. The match tailspins out of control and ends in a double count out which is somewhat disappointing in one sense but in another, I get the feeling that this feud will continue with these teams which is a good thing. Semi-spoiler alert, we find out later in the episode that this feud is far from over.
The Kingdom (Matt Taven, Vinny Marseglia, TK O’Ryan): Once again ROH does something that seems to be lost with some organizations these days, they protect their champions. The Kingdom get another win under their belts as they continue establishing themselves as the ROH 6-man World Tag Team Champions. After the Kingdom’s quick match, we are teased with a possible feud with Dalton Castle and The Boys attempting to get their shot at the titles. This is broken up by Colt Cabana when Colt attacks The Boys before any fighting takes place in the ring. Does this lead to something down the line with these teams? Nothing is certain but I certainly like the potential of a feud with Dalton Castle and The Boys vs. The Kingdom.
The Young Bucks vs. The Tempura Boy: Most people either love The Young Bucks or hate them. I am one of those guys that does not care either way. Matt and Nick Jackson are great and very talented. However, for me as a professional wrestling fan of over 35 years, I usually do not enjoy their matches. While watching them today, I can say I fully enjoyed this match. I could talk about the great spots that Matt and Nick pulled off but nothing will compare to Nick Jackson getting a DELETE & SUCK IT chant going on during the match as they continued to tease something between themselves and The Hardy’s from Impact Wrestling. Nick Jackson hits a beautiful 450 to end the match. Once again, I am not the biggest Young Bucks fan but I fully appreciate this match. After the match was over, Kevin Kelly plugs SuperCard of Honor XI in Lakeland, FL where the Young Bucks will face Matt and Jeff Hardy. Unless you have been in hiding, I would have to say this is a highly-anticipated matchup between the ROH World Tag Team Champions and the current Impact Wrestling World Tag Team Champions.
Alex Shelley vs. Chris Sabin vs. Johnathan Gresham vs. Lio Rush vs. Jay White vs. Donovan Dijak: Credit Kevin Kelly for explaining the rules of this match where there is a man in each corner with 2 in the ring at all times. Remember, these 6 men are battling it out for a shot at Marty Scurll’s ROH TV Title. With 6 guys in this match, it is non-stop action. After lots of in the ring action, things get heated up when Donovan Dijak hits a spring board flip to the outside off the second rope where he takes out 4 of the other 5 competitors. This leads to a sequence where Lio Rush gets the upper hand on Dijak and does a reverse hurricanrana on the floor to Dijak. Rush and Gresham then end up in the ring. As Gresham is about to come off the top rope, The Rebellion interferes in the match by taking Gresham out. Everyone but Dijak and Rush go after The Rebellion which leaves just Dijak and Rush to battle for a chance at the ROH TV Title. Dijak and Rush trade a few nice moves. As Rush attempts a frogsplash off the top rope, Dijak catches Rush by the throat. Soon after Dijak hits his finisher as Kevin Kelly screams feast your eyes on Dijak. This was an excellent ending to this match.
MISSES
I’d love to say there was something about ROH that I did not like this week but that simply didn’t happen. This was an action-packed episode of ROH TV. There was nothing to be disappointed by.
Final Thoughts
As mentioned above, this was an excellent episode of ROH. There was nothing in my eyes to be dissatisfied with. I even enjoyed matches that I did not have high hopes for. For example, I was not looking forward to The Young Bucks match because I typically am not a fan of their style but I must give them credit because they had an excellent match with the Tempura Boyz. War Machine, Martinez, and Whitmer gave us all there was to give and more especially when before going off the air we see them brawling in the back. The 6-man match for a shot at Scurll’s ROH TV Title was excellent with Dijak getting the win. Once again, an excellent episode with lots of action and excitement packed into an hour of ROH TV! Lastly, credit ROH with giving us some solid episodic wrestling over the last month.
NOW CHECK OUT LAST WEEK’S ARTICLE: ROH TV HITS & MISSES 1/28: The Young Bucks, Cole, Scurll, Robinson, Jay Briscoe, Lethal
Mike Mills is the new 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 e-mail him at BookingTheTerritory@gmail.com.
It’s pretty clear the six man tag division in ROH has been a flop so far. Very few of the matches have been good, and The Kingdom are just not interesting. They took the least interesting and least talented member of the group, then pair him with 2 nobodies who fans have never heard of (the 2 of them have had very few wrestling matches in any notable organization), and the division has been a dud since the tournament ended. Either they need to jumpstart it or end it.
TJ, I greatly appreciate you reading and responding to the article. I respectfully somewhat disagree with you on The Kingdom. Marseglia is a long time independent wrestling veteran. He may not be very well known but that is because he has had very limited exposure on television. I do however believe that the group may have been best served to have a different name. One of the downsides of trying to rekindle a group or faction is that the “new” version usually never lives up to the previous version. In my eyes, keeping the name The Kingdom hurts the group because they’ll never live up to what we see as the original standard. At the same time, I have to credit ROH for at least attempting to build them into a legitimate champion. Thanks again for the response to the article. I like reading others points of view on the product.
Regards
Mike
The titles clearly need to be defended more often, but I’ll stick up for The Kingdom. They’re not big names, but in the short time they’ve been together they’ve gelled very well as a team. The real problem is that they’re only going up against random combinations of jobbers and ROH Dojo students, which defines them down. Put them against Bullet Club or some other group that matters, and it will help immensely.
It’s funny, I often think this column is too hard on ROH, but I had some issues with this week’s show. The Tempura Boyz were used mostly as a backdrop to the Bucks/Hardys build, which shouldn’t happen when titles are on the line. The Kingdom should be defending their titles and engaging in meaningful feuds, not always wrestling three random guys in non-title matches. War Machine apparently follows the same script for every feud, because we just saw them do this sort of non-finish with Shane Taylor and Keith Lee.
The in-ring is always good, but the creative is hit or miss. Hunter Johnston clearly needs somebody else in there to second guess some of the bad ideas that he currently lets filter through (like The Cabinet).
I think the show was solid. Better than the last few weeks. Odd that they never mentioned the decade of excellence tourney. I will actually be at the taping in PGH on Saturday so if you need a recap or anything let me know.