Davey Richards faces Rhino in a Proving Ground Match, the stars of Chikara wrestle in a showcase match, Haas and Benjamin take on the D-Line, Jay Lethal does battle with Ricky Reyes and much more in the latest edition of ROH TV, plus all the latest news, match announcements, videos and more from Ring of Honor for the last week.
ROH TV 5/12/12 – CHIKARA! CHIKARA! CHIKARA!
Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin def. D-Line (Haas of Pain)
This was one of the most generic wrestling matches you will ever see. D-Line are a local team with a football gimmick comprised of Black Ice and Body Snatcher. No really.
The Colony def. Ophidian & Los Ice Creams (Ant-Hill)
Let me preface this by saying I really, genuinely love Chikara. Ophidian is one of my favourite wrestlers, I love the Colony, and the Ice Creams are pretty funny. But this wasn’t the best outing for the Chikara regulars. I’m not sure if it was nerves or just an off night, but there were a few little mistakes and awkward moments and at times the fans had no clue what to make of the match. But when the final bell rang everybody applauded, so perhaps it was pure fixation. I still enjoyed the contest, though it was little more than a Colony showcase ahead of the trios match at Unity, which of course happened weeks before this match aired, so go figure. Perhaps they’ll be back.
Jay Lethal def. Ricky Reyes (Lethal Injection)
A pretty short match that again served as little more than a showcase match, this time for Jay Lethal, as he won pretty easily. This aired on the same evening as Border Wars so I guess it gave Lethal momentum going into his match with Tommaso Ciampa.
– Davey Richards cut a promo on Rhino and pointed out Truth Martini paid big money for a man-beast when he already has Michael Elgin. Dissension.
Inside ROH
Eddie Edwards insulted Maria and Brutal Bob ahead of his match with Mike Bennett next week. The Young Bucks and the ANX discussed their tie-breaking match next week after splitting wins at Showdown in the Sun. Three men were clumsy, Kenny King was great, what a surprise.
– Rhino replied to Davey with another very intense promo.
Proving Ground: Davey Richards def. Rhino (Sunset Flip over a Gore attempt)
These two didn’t really have a whole lot of chemistry, with Rhino essentially battering the far, far smaller champion, and Davey’s strikes and submissions looking pretty weak due to the size difference. It’s odd that this is a criticism given Elgin was much bigger than Davey too, but something was off here. Rhino needs to be brought in as often as they can afford him and he’s available in my opinion because he just gets it.
– After the match Roderick Strong jumped Davey and the House of Truth delivered a beating until Jay Lethal made the save and cleared the ring.
Episode Review: Three of the four matches served as a platform to demonstrate what particular wrestlers are all about, whether it be Haas and Benjamin to set up their recapturing of the tag team titles, Jay Lethal before he ended Tommaso Ciampa’s win-streak, or Chikara as a company… after Syngergy, their opponents really stood minimal chance. There’s nothing wrong with making talent look good before big matches, but it felt a little overkill. The true Border Wars go-home episode was last week, so this one was kind of in limbo, which is strange given the majority of fans will probably have a lot of interest in seeing the Chikara and Rhino matches.
Into the News(wires)
– The first match has been announced for Best in the World 2012 and it will pit ‘Unbreakable’ Michael Elgin against the ‘Belfast Bruiser’ Finlay. Not the opponent I imagined for Finlay, but I can’t deny, a pretty good one. Much like Finlay’s match with other House of Truth member Roderick Strong, I’d expect this to be a slug-fest and for Finlay to teach Elgin a thing or two that he can take with him throughout his career.
– As you all know by now, the Border Wars iPPV was subject to monumental technical difficulties, and ROH have been apologising profusely ever since, offering either a refund or Best in the World 2012 for free. In addition, they will tape a match to be streamed as a test before the next iPPV to make sure they can handle the load to their servers this time around. Like how they tested before Border Wars and it failed.
– In what I would consider the most appealing Tuesday Roll-Out to date, ROH have released ‘Ring of Honor: Year One’, a compilation of the company’s best matches from 2002 featuring a bucket-load of Low Ki, Bryan Danielson and Paul London amongst others. As someone who is interested in the early days of ROH but doesn’t want to wade through the ugly growing pains in order to see it, this set very much appeals. Oh, and you can get an ROH Canada t-shirt too if you swing that way.
– The ROH Wrestling School – now apparently called the ROH Academy – will start accepting trainees again later in the year. With the exception of Rhett Titus and the Bravados, the school has produced a long line of failures (I liked Pelle Primeau), but it’s still encouraging that they’re not giving up on it altogether. Lord knows they need some new talent.
– Steve Corino is expected to explain his long-con style heel turn from Border Wars at the TV tapings this week. Stay tuned for how it was the plan all along or something.
– In a conference call addressing the Border Wars issues and the general state of ROH, Joe Koff mentioned there were plans to upgrade ROH TV to HD in 2013.
The Video-Zone
Moments after winning the ROH World Title, Kevin Steen released this promo claiming the rules have changed and he’s going to change the company to fit his image.
New Matches for TV
TV Title Match – Roderick Strong vs Tommaso Ciampa: I figured this match would never happen given they’re both heels, but things just got very interesting with Ciampa losing his first match. The Dominant Male stormed out of the arena alone after Border Wars and had gone pretty crazy beforehand, so I’m personally looking forward to Strong doing a “What the hell bro?!” face while Ciampa unleashes the fury on him for a DQ.
All-Night Express vs Cedric Alexander & Caprice Coleman: Two very athletic teams in the ring together. Has fun written all over it. Please no run-ins.
Eddie Edwards vs Brutal Bob Evans: Yes, you read that correctly. E-Squared and the Prodigy have faced off four times now and Edwards has been less than pleased by Bennett’s ringside cartel. As much as we all want to see Edwards fight Maria, those damn sissies at the FCC won’t allow it so instead we’re going to have to settle for seeing someone finally beat the piss and vinegar out of Evans. Dammit. Oh no wait, the other thing, awesome.
Michael Elgin vs Matt Taven: Well, they said Taven would be back and here he is. I said they’d toss him a win and… So hey, Michael Elgin is here
Adam Cole vs Mike Mondo: Cole’s been on the downturn of late so here’s an easy win to get him back on track. Mondo’s actually been decent since he got officially signed, so I’d expect a good match.
4 Corner Survival: Four of a possible eight wrestlers will be “randomly” selected and placed into an elimination match with the winner facing Steen for the world title on June 30 in Pittsburgh. The eight wrestlers are: Davey Richards, Eddie Edwards, Roderick Strong, Michael Elgin, Jay Lethal, Mike Bennett, Tommaso Ciampa, Adam Cole. This match will be streamed live to test the ROH servers ahead of Best in the World 2012.
New Virginia Matches
ROH Tag Team Title Match: Haas & Benjamin vs ANX: Late last year the ANX beat Haas and Benjamin in a Proving Ground match to earn a future title shot. For months they waited around for that shot while new champions the Briscoes defended the titles. Now ROH have finally given King and Titus their title shot and fittingly enough WGTT are champions again. Unfortunately there’s no way in hell the ANX get the belts in Virginia, so I’m a little ticked off as I figured they were waiting to do ANX/Briscoes in a face vs face match and they’d finally win the big one. Instead we probably get more WGTT cheating.
Unsanctioned Fight – Charlie Haas vs Jay Briscoe: After the scheduled main event of Steen & Jimmy Jacobs vs Team Ambition is over and long after both the Briscoes and WGTT have competed in matches, these two will meet in what ROH are going out of their way to call a fight. No entrances, no fancy lighting, and Jay had to pay the ref’s fee. I have no idea what this is going to look like but they’re claiming it will be ugly. Yawn.
I too didn’t felt like the Chikara match was a good one.
It had though, the best Ant Hill colony ever did
Yeah it was a pretty darn good Ant-Hill.