Kevin Steen and Steve Corino have done their share of running away from El Generico and Colt Cabana this year, so what happens when all four men are locked within the confines of a steel cage? We’ll find out together this week, as well as seeing Eddie Edwards defend the TV Title against Rhett Titus and even a Women of Honor match featuring Sara Del Rey for good measure. All this and more this week on ROH On HDNet.
Not seen this week’s episode? Check it out here before you read on.
Opening Segment
Recap: ANOTHER recap of Shane Hagadorn and the American Wolves parting ways and the Kings of Wrestling attacking Davey Richards a few weeks back. Yes, this is an awful picture to summarize the segment, but to be honest, I’ve posted stills of every part of this more than once and I couldn’t be bothered to pause to take a proper one. Got a problem? Comment.
Segment 1
ROH World Television Title Match
Eddie Edwards vs Rhett Titus
Recap: Titus took control of the match and worked the arm for the majority of the contest until Edwards found an opening and fired back. The match came to an abrupt end after Eddie injured his hand during a dive to the outside, rolling Rhett back in and pinning him before leaving in a hurry, clutching his hand the whole way.
Review: It’s difficult to give this match a fair review considering it didn’t have a real finish, but it was OK for what we did see. Titus is the real deal; I may demand that he, Jay Briscoe and Roderick Strong take part in a standing dropkick contest so I can finally break their three-way tie. Edwards is also of course awesome. I really liked the accidental shoulder tackle into the post from the apron as it came across as far more realistic than the regular overused tide-changing mechanic that Kurt Angle is so very fond of. People never get anywhere near enough speed to make up the distance between the buckles and the post, but Edwards went straight into the post with nothing to block his trajectory, so it looked great and really added to the arm-work. Speaking of things I liked, Edwards’ flying hurricanrana to a rope-hung Rhett Titus was fantastic. That’s about all I can say about this because we headed to the outside dive spot that has proven deadly to Edwards on two occasions now and an early finish. I was wondering what ROH would do about this spot after reading about it weeks ago and if they would even show it at all. I probably wouldn’t have, but they chose to show a large number of replays to mask Edwards rolling Titus back in, creating the illusion the pin came immediately after the impact. Not a bad option.
Segment 2
GeneriColt Promo
Recap: Colt talks about it not mattering which mask Generico wears, he’s there to fight, and after this cage match Steen and Corino can quit if they want.
Segment 3
Briscoes/Kings Feud Recap
Recap: Highlights of Mike Briscoe being knocked out all those months ago, the Briscoes’ angry promo from two weeks ago, and a reasonably lengthy amount of footage of last week’s main event, particularly the post-match shenanigans with Mike attacking Shane Hagadorn and the Kings.
Segment 4
Rachel Summerlyn vs. Daniel Bryan Sara Del Rey
Recap: Del Rey dominated for most of the match with Summerlyn barely registering any offense before tapping out to a knee-bar. After the match Del Rey pulls a Vladimir Kozlov and demands some real competition.
Review: This was alright for a squash and once again Death Rey proved she’s a killer. Legit. The kicks were brutal, her nice little selection of submissions look great, the girl’s got game. Am I the only one who thinks Summerlyn looks like the lovechild of Daizee Haze and Sara Del Rey? Speaking of those two, I have to believe these continuing squashes are leading to a one on one match at Final Battle… but what for? At one point I believed ROH would establish their own Women’s Title and these two would of course be the logical choices to compete for the right to be the first champion… but what then? A best of 43 series? Maybe… But more likely I think we’ll see the involvement of SHIMMER talent again in the future, perhaps even Madison Eagles and Amazing Kong joining them for a four-way title match on iPPV. It would be a decent selling point for fans of women’s wrestling, and another gimmick to make the event seem special. Either way, more ladies must be on their way to ROH, because the ones they’ve been using to enhance their main two can’t cut it in competitive action in my opinion. Wow, I’ve written three times as much about the implications of this three minute squash than the match itself. Let’s move right along, shall we?
Segment 5
GeneriColt vs Steerino Recap
Recap: We see the recent developments between the two sides since Steen unmasked Generico in iPPV, particularly Steen’s apparent decision to quit ROH instead of wrestle Corino in Pick Your Poison, and of course Jim Cornette making the cage match.
Segment 6
Steel Cage Match
Kevin Steen & Steve Corino vs. Colt Cabana & El Generico
Recap: Kevin Steen stole the key to the cage from the referee at the start of the match, something that would prove to be… well… key to the final result. Steen and Corino dominated the early portions of the match before Generico and Cabana made a big comeback and took it to their opponents in a big way, smashing each man’s face off the cage more than once. Towards the end of the match Cabana hit a huge moonsault from the top rope on Steen before eating a big lariat from Corino. Generico took matters into his own hands and nailed both of his foes with Yakuza kicks and then headed all the way to the top of the cage, presumably for a splash. Unfortunately Steen had other ideas, knocking Generico to the outside where he was forced to stay due to Steen’s possession of the only key. From there Generico could do nothing but watch as Corino & Steen brutalized his partner with a fork and turnbuckle bolt, with the referee stopping the match when Steen locked in a Crossface whilst Corino stabbed him repeatedly with the fork. After the match Generico finally got back into the cage, chasing his nemesis off and tending to the fallen Cabana.
Review: Meh.
OK, I’ll review it properly. I’m not knocking these four, because they’re very talented and have incredible chemistry as we’ve seen all year. My knock is instead on the match type; I don’t really care for steel cage matches if you want me to be honest. I just can’t remember the last time I saw a really good one. Possibly Edge & Christian vs the Hardyz waaaay back in 2000. Or Angle vs Benoit. They’re nothing more than a way to get a rise out of the fans without having to do anything actually crazy. All you’re really promising is there won’t be any lengthy brawls on the outside or distractions of the referee. You can’t even guarantee there won’t be outside interference because how difficult is it for a wrestler to climb up and in? I’m sure the steel mesh doesn’t taste like chocolate, but nor do I believe it deals a significant amount of damage given how springy cages are. The only real way to get a rise out of me with a cage is by jumping off it, and that’s pretty dangerous so I’m not going to demand they do it every time. I guess what I’m really saying is ditch the mesh and give me back the old-school blue metal bars. Sure, it’s more difficult to see through and gave a lot of wrestlers legit injuries back in the day, but it was also better in my opinion.
Now that’s out of the way… the match. Pretty formulaic cage match with only a few notable spots beyond the basic battering ram segments. Can someone PLEASE ask Corino to stop doing the thumb up the ass thing? I get it, you’re an old school villain, but is there any need to insert a part of your body into your opponent? Probably not. On the other side of the equation, Generico hit a genuinely innovative Yakuza kick to both Steen and Corino at the same time as they were crotched facing each other on the top rope. Steen was absolute gold taunting Generico from the inside as he had to watch on, and it made him stealing the key come full circle as the referee would have surely allowed Generico to re-enter the match. In fact the whole of the last two minutes were awesome. I thought it was kind of silly having Generico retrieve bolt cutters from the back only to have Steen open the door, leaving them as nothing more than an unorthodox prop with which to chase the bad guys away with.
Closing Segment
Recap: We’re promised the Kings of Wrestling vs The Dark City Fight Club, Eddie Edwards defending the TV Title against the Necro Butcher, and the debut of Homicide on HDNet.
Overall Thoughts
– There was absolutely nothing wrong with this week’s episode, it just didn’t have any pizazz. No oomph. The opening match ended prematurely (which was of course nobody’s fault), the Women of Honor match was a squash (fine on it’s own, not great if the rest of the show is lacking), there was a big chunk of recycled footage, and the main event was good but didn’t boast any kind of significant moment that people will be talking about in weeks to come.
– Almost every other interaction Steen & Generico have had has featured one happening or another that furthers the feud and makes people excited to see what’s going to happen. The finish was kind of sick I guess, and it showed what Steerino could do to either man if their partner didn’t save them, but we saw that in the chain match. Now if Generico had flown from the top of the cage, that might be a different story, but as it stands, the only thing I see coming from this match is a two second shot of Steen laughing his ass off inside the cage as Generico claws at the steel from the outside in an awesome video montage recapping the feud.
– All this being said, I greatly anticipate next week’s show, not only because it’s a fresh set of tapings and thus updated moves, ring-gear, storylines and more, but also because we get to see the best tag team in the world make another team look silly, I’m a mark for Edwards, and the wrestling return of Homicide is a pretty big deal for the company.