ROH HITS & MISSES 7/22: Kushida vs. White for the ROH TV title, Daniels accepts Cody’s challenge, Six-Man Mayhem, Young Bucks & Page

HITS

Young Bucks & Adam Page Declare Their Intentions: Matt Jackson states that the competition is lacking in the tag division lately. Matt Jackson then declares that The Young Bucks and Adam Page are going after the ROH 6-man tag titles. Matt’s got a point. The tag team division is a little weak these days in ROH so why not have them go for more gold with the 6-man titles. The only thing I do hope for is some level of follow through. A few weeks backs The Young Bucks made an open challenge to anyone who wants a shot at their tag titles. If memory serves me correct there was only one or two challenges that happened. It felt like that angle with them having an open tag challenge weekly died before it got started.

Shane Taylor: Shane Taylor got involved in the 6-Man Mayhem match by attacking Josh Woods. It seemingly comes out of nowhere. Ian Riccaboni reminds us as Taylor is attacking Woods that The Rebellion is no longer together. This obviously means something for Woods and Taylor down the road. What that is we don’t know but at least they found a way to weave in a potential new feud into a match that I was not too high on that I speak to in the misses.

Christopher Daniels Accepts the Challenge: Plain and simple, Christopher Daniels has accepted Cody’s challenge. In two weeks, we will get a two out of three falls match for the ROH World title. Great short and effective promo by Daniels heading into the two out of three falls matchup.

Beer City Bruiser with Silas Young vs. The Kingpin Brian Milonas: Milonas is a big man and a 16-year veteran that many will remember from this year’s Top Prospect tournament. He lost in the semi-finals to the eventual winner Josh “The Goods” Woods. And then you have another big man in the old school veteran Beer City Bruiser. As Ian Riccaboni mentions on commentary, “Two very large individuals.” Milonas displays some impressive power in the very beginning of the match when he catches Bruiser in mid-air and gives Bruiser a fall away slam. That was just the beginning. These two big men aren’t here to just kick and punch. After Young gets involved, Milonas takes a Bruiser cannon ball on the outside of the ring. When they get back into the ring, Milonas takes another cannon ball in the corner that looked vicious. More hard hitting is coming though when Milonas gets back on the offensive and suplexes Bruiser from the second rope and then delivers a back senton on to Bruiser. Unfortunately, Milonas misses a second rope leg drop. Soon after Bruiser heads to the top rope and delivers a top rope splash. Bruiser goes for the pin and gets the victory. I thought these two big guys put on a very good match. It was hard hitting and just the right length of time for these two. Even though Milonas is a relative newcomer to ROH, he got in a lot of offense against Bruiser and had a great showing. With a lot of people moving on from ROH lately, I hope to see more of Milonas in the future with ROH. He’s a big man that can move and he’s got over a decade of experience in the ring.

Silas Young Continues Taunting Jay Lethal: Young, with his “Safety Starts With You” sign, continues taunting Jay Lethal and points out that it has now been 29 days since Lethal has shown his face in ROH. This is simple but effective and good because we all know Lethal will eventually come back and show his face. And we all know when that happens, Young is going to get what’s coming to him. More solid heel work on the microphone from a great heel in today’s wrestling.

Jay White vs. Kushida for the ROH TV Title: I don’t know where to start with this one but what a fantastic main event on this week’s ROH. White sold his arm throughout that Kushida worked on. It just reminded me of the old days of wrestling when someone would work a body part throughout and the guy would sell it. These guys are very athletic and can do anything they want as far as flying around the ring but they got in there and they wrestled without meaningless flips and dives. After a hard-fought match, Kushida get the victory and retains the ROH TV title. Kenny King heads down to the ring. He appears to congratulate Kushida on winning the title but he also appears to mention to Kushida that he will win the ROH TV title as soon as he gets his chance in a few weeks.

MISSES

Six-Man Mayhem: El Terrible, Will Ferrara, Vinny Marseglia, Josh Woods, Frankie Kazarian, and Marty Scurll are involved in this match. I did not enjoy this. The guys here all worked hard and did their best to make this work but this felt like six guys thrown into a match for the sake of just filling up time. I know Ian Riccaboni mentioned that 6-Man Mayhem matches are a staple of ROH during the match, but again it just does nothing for me. The action is definitely fast paced and there’s generally a lot going on but I’d rather a good ROH 6-man tag match than a Mayhem style match. I will say this about this match. I liked the finish. Marty Scurll ends up sneaking in to get a cheap victory after nearly everyone else in the match did the work. A stunned Marseglia is pinned by Scurll who literally did nothing but earns the victory like a good heel should.

Final Thoughts: This was a very good episode this week. It did not start off well with the 6-Man Mayhem match but once that match ended the show picked up considerably. Bruiser and Milonas had a very good match. Daniels accepted Cody’s challenge. Young continued taunting Lethal. Finally, we capped things off with the ROH TV title with Kushida retaining. A solid hour of ROH TV this week.

NOW CHECK OUT LAST WEEK’S COLUMN: ROH HITS & MISSES 7/15: Bully Ray & Briscoes vs. Young Bucks & Page, Cody, Gresham, Martinez, Tempura Boyz, Cheeseburger, Daddiego, Ferrara