ROH HITS & MISSES 8/5: Cody vs. Christopher Daniels promos, Silas Young, Bruiser, Jay Lethal shows up

HITS

Cody and Christopher Daniels Pre-Match Promos: Cody and Daniels tell an outstanding story at the opening of the show. Cody references how Daniels acts like Cody hasn’t been just a fingertip away from grabbing the “brass ring” or “briefcase” before it was pulled away from him. It’s Cody’s way of telling Daniels that his journey has been just as hard as Daniels’ journey at times. We go to commercial and then Daniels and Kazarian come out to address the ROH fans. Kazarian proceeds to rip Bullet Club and ROH fans a new one as he talks about how the fans have basically turned their backs on Daniels. Daniels says he figured when he won the title that he would still get cheered at Best in the World going into his match with Cody. But no, the arena was filled with chants of “Daniels Sucks” and “Cody, Cody Cody” at Best in the World. He also mentions how the fans weren’t there for Cody when he was Stardust. Daniels goes on to say the fans are bandwagon and trend following idiots and jerks. Daniels says he won’t do anything for the ROH fans ever again. He’s also going to win the title back and ask for his ROH release and take the belt around the world on his own. This was fantastic and a must watch. Daniels was spot on the money with his comments about the same people cheering for Cody didn’t give a dam about him when he was Stardust. Excellent start to the show. Sure, I did want to see them go at it right away but these promos set the tone for this week’s episode.

Silas Young, Beer City Bruiser, and Jay Lethal Returns: Young and Bruiser come out to taunt the fans and Jay Lethal as they’ve done now for over a month. Young proceeds to tell us that it’s now been over 43 days since Lethal has been on ROH TV. Young also recaps how he and Bruiser brutally beat up Lethal at Best in the World. Young then calls out Lethal one last time and what do you know, Lethal is in the building. Lethal hits the ring and takes out Young first on the outside. He then takes out Bruiser with the sign. Then Lethal proceeds to beat the heck out of Bruiser and Young with a folding chair. ROH security tries to get involved to calm Lethal down but Lethal disposes of them all easily. Lastly, Lethal hits Lethal Injection on Young and leaves him laid out as the crowd chants “WELCOME BACK, WELCOME BACK, WELCOME BACK.” I’ve said it for weeks now in this column that we knew Lethal would eventually return and he did. This is just the beginning. We’ve obviously not seen the end of this. Lethal did get one back on Bruiser and Young but the feud is far from over. Young, Lethal, and Bruiser have told a solid story in this feud. Credit ROH for a job well done here.

Cody vs. Christopher Daniels: After a lengthy feeling out process during fall one, Daniels sends Cody to the barricade on the outside where Cody appears to reinjure his separated shoulder. Daniels then works on Cody for a while before Cody takes back over. We’re 20 minutes in when referee Todd Sinclair gets hit accidentally. This leads to Cody and Daniels each landing a below the belt kick to the tender regions so to say. Kazarian and Scurll come out to get involved but while those two are fighting on the outside, in the ring Daniels is about to hit Cody with a chair. Sinclair is back up and grabs the chair from Daniels. While this happens Cody school boys Daniels and gets the first fall in this best of three falls. Unfortunately for Cody, Daniels still has the chair and he cracks Cody across the back right before fall two begins. Fall two starts with Daniels almost defeating Cody with a 20-count on the outside but Cody just gets back in time to not be counted out. The near falls really pick up in fall number two with Daniels becoming more and more frustrated as he can’t seem to put Cody down for three. Cody fights off all attempts by Daniels and proceeds to hit his finisher. Cody wins the second fall and retains the ROH World title. Solid match and overall good two out of three falls match.

MISSES

Timing: I felt the timing of the show was off. Because ROH front loaded the episode with so much, by the time we got to the end of fall two, we kind of realized there would not be a fall three and that Cody would retain. There was only two minutes left in the episode as they were heading to the finish of fall two. Logic tells us we’re not getting a third fall because we’re almost out of time. The promos at the beginning with Daniels and Cody were great and well placed. Maybe start the match right after that and then put the Lethal, Young, and Bruiser segment at the end to fill in the remaining time on this week’s show after Daniels and Cody wrap up. Just a small point but something that hit me as we were coming to the close of the show.

Final Thoughts

Good show this week. Besides what I mentioned in the miss column, I thought everything was fine. Daniels’ promo before the match was excellent. I also felt that the Young, Lethal, and Bruiser segment was another great one in the list of great ones we’ve seen from Young and Bruiser over the last month. I enjoyed everything about the episode except for the timing I mentioned above.

NOW CHECK OUT LAST WEEK’S COLUMN: ROH HITS & MISSES 7/29: Women of Honor – Sakai vs. Wolf, Rose vs. Leon, Klein vs. Karen Q. vs. Purrazzo, Young & Bruiser

Mike Mills is the 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.