Kevin Steen and Jimmy Jacobs take on Davey Richards and Kyle O’Reilly in the main event, while Eddie Edwards tangles with Brutal Bob Evans, Jay Lethal battles Chris Silvio, and ROH legend Homicide makes his return to television. All this and we hear from the key players on the eve of Best in the World 2012: Hostage Crisis.
Eddie Edwards def. ‘Brutal’ Bob Evans (Backslide Pin)
While it’s nice to know Brutal Bob can still go – to an extent – Edwards is a cornerstone of this company, and he needs to win with something more definitive than a backslide. Tap him out, choke him out, knock him out, something. It was impressive seeing Evans hoist Edwards up off the canvas and just dump him down with ease, but again, this should have been a squash, and was instead a fight.
Homicide Returns to ROH
As Mike Bennett helped Evans beat down Edwards after their match, Homicide made his ROH return and fended them off, offering Eddie a handshake ahead of their match at Best in the World, only to double cross him and destroy him with a Gringo Killer. Nice moment.
Embassy LTD./House of Truth Conspiracy Vignette
In case you haven’t been paying attention, apparently the sale of Rhino to the House of Truth came with a secret addendum or two, with Ciampa being instructed not to go after Roddy’s TV title, but due to his volatile nature, he’s doing it anyway. R.D. Evans has been cutting Nana off whenever he’s attempted to speak in recent weeks, while Truth Martini remains cryptic as ever.
Jay Lethal def. Chris Silvio (Lethal Injection)
Whoever was directing/editing this needs a serious talking to. It was obvious this match was little more than a set-up for the angle that took place at ringside, which would be fine, if they could execute it properly. Prince Nana, R.D. Evans and Truth Martini came out to watch the match and shared a good laugh. Tommaso (in a Jay Lethal shirt) angrily separated the two factions, and after Lethal scored the win, Ciampa shoved Martini to the floor, but instead of focusing on that, the camera cut to Lethal celebrating. This is stuff that first-year film students would get in trouble for, so how are a (allegedly) professional production team screwing it up? Anyway, Roderick Strong came to Martini’s defense, and the three wrestlers brawled with each other until separated.
Inside ROH
Another run down the Best in the World card, with interviews from the Briscoes on the Guardians of Truth, Jim Cornette confirming the Package Piledriver will be legal, and Kevin Steen and Jimmy Jacobs ahead of their match with Team Ambition.
Team Ambition Interview
More shoddy direction here, as Davey Richards basically dressed Kyle O’Reilly down for his attitude and reminded him what they were all about. They weren’t framed in the shot properly and while that sounds nitpicky, I’m not absolving them of simple mistakes anymore.
Kevin Steen & Jimmy Jacobs vs. Team Ambition (No Contest)
Well, this achieved a lot. After spending a great deal of time on the outside, this match became fairly generic until the end. It was funny seeing Steen and Jacobs mocking sportsmanship, and things did get a little wild down the stretch, with Steen picking up a concussion, either on a dive to the outside or taking an exploder on the apron. The match was thrown out after Jacobs locked in the End Time on O’Reilly on the apron and they tumbled through a table at ringside. Bizarre. Everybody of course brawled after the bell so that we can remember they hate each other. Jacobs was dangerously close to being allowed to actually wrestle here, but it was brief.
Episode Review
Ring of Honor are attempting to present an alternative to mainstream wrestling, and while nobody would expect them to be able to match the big two’s budget, that doesn’t excuse making avoidable production errors. When you’ve got television you have to know how to frame things correctly, and when its important to focus a camera on something. Oh, and they totally displayed the wrong song information for Eddie Edwards too. I understand they can’t afford HD and fancy lighting yet, but these are things they can and should get right. And it’s not like they compensated us with much in the way of great wrestling, with an elongated match between one of the company’s top 3 guys and a long-retired manager, a match that was nothing but a distraction from the ringside angle, and an abrupt main event that ended in a no contest. Lucky for them Best in the World took place hours later, so people probably didn’t care too much about this episode. Skip it.