All the goings on in the land of Honor between April 7th and 13th, including a recap and review of the 4/7/12 episode of ROH TV featuring the finals of the March Mayhem tournament, as well as a complete break down of recent Newswires, announcements and more from ROH.
ROH TV 4/7/12 – Ring of Mondo
– The Young Bucks beat TJ Perkins and Shiloh Jonze with More Bang For Your Buck. Not a very good match to be brutally honest. Shiloh was generic, the Bucks were unexciting heels, and TJP has been booked so poorly that the crowd barely responded when he finally tagged in. Essentially, no heat whatsoever.
– Mike Mondo beat Matt Taven with the Double Arm DDT in a match that actually got a two-minute hype video beforehand. Mondo spent a while faking an ankle injury which led to a pretty good brawl on the outside that the crowd loved. Essentially, Mondo got ten minutes of TV time and the result wasn’t half bad. That being said, Nigel called Mondo “technically perfect” so I’m taking away half a star.
– Footage was shown of a ‘press conference’ about Border Ways on May 12th which Kevin Steen interrupted to call out Davey Richards again. Davey said if Cornette didn’t book the match he’d hand the title back and go to Japan, stating “I’ve done it before.” WOW. The match was reluctantly made in front of the ‘press’. Fun little segment, if a little hard to believe.
– Tommaso Ciampa won the March Mayhem tournament and thus 24,000 Monopoly Monies, outlasting Mike Bennett, Jay Lethal and Adam Cole. Bennett went first after he and Ciampa had a tiff that let Lethal hit the Lethal Injection out of nowhere. Ciampa immediately knocked Lethal out as he was getting up with a knee to the head to eliminate him next. Cole almost choked Ciampa out and then tried the flying crossbody, but was knocked down as Lethal tried to re-enter the ring (for some reason), leaving him prone to Project Ciampa. If not for the awful finish and Adam Cole committing the worst example of Fighting Spirit in wrestling history this would have been the match of the night. Ciampa catching Lethal as he hit a suicide dive and then hitting an Air Raid Crash on the floor almost saved it, but nope, Mondo vs Taven wins. What is life?!
Episode Review: You know how ROH have all the tools to the world’s best wrestling company but then trip over their own feet constantly? This episode underlined that fact. The opening tag match was just poorly conceived, the Mondo/Taven thing was bizarre but actually good, the press conference had some nice dramedy but either was or seemed fake, and the main event was a lot of fun, nearly ruined by bad booking and our old pal Fighting Spirit. Maria did make a 4-way joke though, so that made me giggle. I’d say you can skip this episode, but we’ve got two weeks of Road Rage episodes ahead so… I guess you should watch it.
TV Taping Results
You can find the full results here, so I won’t go through every little thing, but here are some of the key events.
– Davey Richards vs Kevin Steen for the ROH World Title in Toronto on May 12th is official. Another pull-apart confrontation between the two went down leading to Cornette making the match and lifting the ban on the Package Piledriver for one night only, as well as making both men sign waivers in case of injury. Those two factors must be connected in my eyes, so I’m predicting Steen uses the move on Davey multiple times and injures him and Cornette wants to punish him but can’t due to the stipulations he himself laid out. This was called Steen’s one and only shot, the crowd were said to be beginning to turn on Davey and the show is in Canada… but they surely can’t move the belt this soon.
– Tensions between the House of Truth continued when Roddy and Elgin almost came to blows after Roddy interfered in a handicap match Elgin was doing fine in, costing him the win due to a DQ.
– CHIKARA’s showcase match was very well received, featuring the Colony facing Los Ice Creams and Ophidian in a trios match. Expect this to air the week before Synergy.
– Jay Lethal seems to be moving on from Tommaso Ciampa (they did have another confrontation but nothing came of it) to the House of Truth after losing the TV Title to Strong at SITS. He twice helped other wrestlers when they were getting beaten down by the group.
– Caprice Coleman and Cedric Alexander actually won their Proving Ground match against the Briscoes after WGTT interference. AGAIN. This feud needs to end yesterday.
– It may not air, but Haas and Benjamin attacked the All Night Express moments after they beat the Young Bucks (potentially ending their feud). What followed was an 8-man tag also involving a local team called the D-Line that were said to be horrible, so perhaps the initial attack won’t air either, but it could be a sign that the two teams will begin a program together.
Newswire: April 10th
– The Colony of Fire Ant, Solider Ant and Green Ant from Chikara Pro will take on Jay Lethal, Adam Cole and TJ Perkins in a trios match contested under lucha rules (leaving the ring counts as a tag) at Unity. As thrown-together teams go, that’s not a bad one for Team ROH, but if the Colony don’t win the world turns inside out.
– Roderick Strong vs Jay Lethal in a 2/3 Falls match has been booked for the Dayton event on April 29th (my birthday). The title won’t be on the line but it’s that classic old champion vs new champion thing and with the multiple falls stipulation I’m sure we’ll have Lethal defeating Strong clean at least once and then Roddy using some nefarious tactics to prevail setting up a title rematch down the line.
– Also signed, the Briscoes vs Haas and Benjamin. If Jay and Mark retain the belts the day before against Jigsaw and Hallowicked they’ll defend them in this match.
– Steve Corino will appear at Border Wars and address Jimmy Jacobs.
– Nigel McGuinness: An ROH Career Retrospective was released this week, featuring a documentary aspect to go alongside the matches. The latter part is surely the pull here as many of the matches are on other compilations, including a previous Nigel Best-Of.
Newswire: April 12th
– The previously scheduled main event for Dayton between Davey Richards and Adam Cole has been changed from a Proving Ground match to an ROH World Title match due to Davey’s demands. Cole of course pinned Richards in the tag team main event of the 10th Anniversary Show, which in my mind is justification for a title shot, but it seems ROH don’t agree and it requires Richards throwing his weight around to make it happen. I’d fully expect this to be superb though.
– Kevin Steen & Jimmy Jacobs vs El Generico and a mystery partner has been signed for Unity. Steve Corino seems the blindingly obvious choice, but hey, maybe it’ll be Colt Cabana. That was a joke, but Jacobs actually mentioned him by name in the press release, so you never know. Either way, the partner will be revealed next week.
– El Generico will take on Kyle O’Reilly the next day in Dayton. This is a first time ever match for ROH, and I’d imagine Generico will be putting O’Reilly over and everyone will cry about it. I also can’t imagine these two not having an awesome match together.
– Eddie Edwards is teaming with Colt Cabana in Japan for NOAH’s annual Global Tag League. The duo lost their first match, likely a trend that will continue.
Other News
– Somehow escaping both newswires was the signing of the All-Night Express in a tag match against the House of Truth at Unity. The ANX are on the rise and the HoT have some tension, so look for a miscommunication between Strong and Elgin to contribute to King and Titus’ push continuing.
– The biggest news this week is the forthcoming end of the ROH/GoFightLive relationship. No official word has been given yet, but Kevin Kelly confirmed that Border Wars will be on iPPV and not on GFL “thank god.” Pretty harsh words from K-Squared in my opinion. As has been discussed at length, the other streaming services out there aren’t as good, ROH have no chance of putting together a decent in-house system in less than a month, GFL have had few if any glitches in the last year or more and the technical issues from SITS weren’t entirely their fault. In short: Boo.
– Speaking of the technical issues from SITS, Ringside Members will be getting both shows in full for free for this weekend only. Let’s be honest, if you’re a paying subscriber, you probably paid for both iPPVs already, so I’m not sure what the reasonings behind this were.
– ROH will be running one-shot events for three consecutive weeks, hitting West Virginia on June 15th, New York City for Best in the World 2012 on June 24th and then Pittsburgh on June 30th. Maybe secondary shows will be added, but if not that’s one bizarre month.