Okay guys, I’m not going to recap or review the 4/14/12 episode, because all of the matches are from Showdown in the Sun which I reviewed in both written and audio forms, so just go read/listen to that. They did announce some new matches for upcoming shows as well, so we’ll get into that in just a bit.
Border Wars
– A couple of weeks ago ROH ‘let slip’ that Fit Finlay would be making his debut in Toronto on May 12th but didn’t reveal who his opponent would be. Well everybody can put their fantasy booking hats back into their regulation hat boxes, because the man on the other side of the ring from ‘The Belfast Bruiser’ will be none other than TV Champion Roderick Strong. While both men can mix it up on the mat with the absolute best let’s make no pretenses here, they’re going to hit each other pretty darn hard. Expect Strong Rod to go over via nefarious means.
– Eddie Edwards and Rhino will mix it up for the first time ever in Toronto, fitting considering Edwards has pretty much made a living out of beating the House of Truth in the last year or so, and in Rhino he’ll find some fresh meat… or maybe not. If Rhino is going to be more than an occasional guest star then he’s going to need to start gaining some credibility, and what better way to start than to beat Eddie Edwards, something the other HoT members have been unable to do.
– The Briscoes and Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team. It’s the feud that has defined the last year for Ring of Honor… or so the company would have you believe. This rivalry has long since worn out its welcome but the end may finally be in sight as the two teams will face off in a Fight Without Honor. No word on if the belts will be on the line, but really who cares? Let’s just put the Briscoes definitively over and move the hell on with our lives.
– In the wake of their revelatory match at Showdown in the Sun, Lance Storm and Mike Bennett will tangle one more time in Storm’s native Canada. You know that old adage about not fixing things that aren’t broken? Well what if this match sucks? Kind of ruins what they achieved the first time around and Bennett is back to square one in some ways.
April 17th Newswire
– El Generico laid out a tag team challenge to Kevin Steen and Jimmy Jacobs after they formed a two-man power-trip at Showdown in the Sun at his expense, but refused to reveal who his partner would be, leading to the terrible twosome delivering this mocking message. I, like them, speculated both Steve Corino and Colt Cabana, but it turns out it’s neither of those men, but instead BJ Whitmer, aka the man that legitimately nearly killed Jimmy back in the day. I didn’t see this coming but it makes perfect sense – I love it when that happens. So those two teams will go bananas on each other at Unity, and adding flavor to the mix, Steen will tangle with Whitmer one on one the following evening in Dayton. Steen’s got to win the singles match, but I see no way the tag match ends without a disqualification and a wild brawl.
– Everybody hop back on board the bandwagon, the Bravados are back in town! After a three month stay in Pro Wrestling NOAH over in Japan, Lancelot and Harlem are back and ready to take on the Young Bucks. The Bravados left as heels but against the Young Bucks they must surely be faces? And absence does make the heart grow fonder. The interesting thing to see is if their ring skills have improved noticeably during their stay in the far east.
– Ring of Honor claim they have been “in contact with multiple wrestlers” who could find their way onto the ROH roster. Still no word on that highflier from almost a year ago though. Nope, never letting that go.
– This week’s Tuesday Rollout is the best of El Generico in ROH. A pretty fantastic release to be honest, and if not for the fact I have every match from the Japan double shot onwards I’d buy it in a heart-beat.
– Mike Bennett will be at Unity. React as you will.
– Davey Richards will compete in New Japan’s Best of Super Juniors XIX from May 27th to June 10th. He will miss no ROH events.
April 19th Newswire
– The main event for the Richmond, Virginia show on May 19th has been signed, pitting Kevin Steen and Jimmy Jacobs against Davey Richards and Kyle O’Reilly. One week after Steen and Davey finally lock up they’ll get the chance to do it again with their best friends beside them. Kyle has turned heel recently but he’s still loyal to Davey and still wants a piece of Steen for dissing his boy. Jacobs will be there too.
– TJ Perkins vs Mike Mondo has been added to the Dayton card, a rematch of TJ’s television debut, a match I thought should have been a squash but was an even match. Now that Mondo is on the permanent roster and seemingly on the rise while Perkins has been collecting a lot of losses I don’t think it’s impossible to imagine Mondo getting his hand raised.
– Also on tap for Dayton will be an All-Night Express tag team match and a Michael Elgin singles match. No word on the opponents for either contest.
– Fire Ant vs TJ Perkins from Showdown in the Sun is now available for free. The match cut out around two minutes in during the live feed as part of the blackout. ROH later uploaded two of the matches that were lost during this outage but no word was given about the missing content of this match… until now! Enjoy.
They really need to have Steen win the title as soon as possible, but they’ll likely drag this out til the year’s end, by which point no one will give a shit anymore.