The third and final chapter in the Mike Bennett/Lance Storm trilogy is finally upon us, but how does it compare to their first two efforts? Plus the Briscoes against the Guardians of Truth and some final words from champion and challenger ahead of the Boiling Point main event as Kevin Steen and Eddie Kingston cut promos on each other. All this and more this week on ROH TV.
1) The Briscoes def. The Guardians of Truth (Small Package)
This broke my streak of consecutive days without seeing the Guardians of Truth, a streak that began with my birth 23 years ago. That being said, with all the smack that has been talked about them, I actually thought they were perfectly fine. Anonymous masked-man gimmicks don’t bother me and they’re in good ring shape, presenting a different kind of challenge to the franchise players, Dem Boys who needed a roll-up to get the W.
2) House of Truth Beat-Down
After the match Roderick Strong and Rhino attacked the Briscoes, leading to a 4-on-2 assault. Michael Elgin stood on the ramp ominously but elected not to join in. Adam Cole and the C&C Wrestle factory made the save because they’re good guys.
3) Steen & Kingston Promos
Kevin Steen cut a pre-taped promo on his challenger for Boiling Point, but was utterly upstaged by an extremely passionate in-ring promo that demonstrated for anyone who wasn’t already aware that Kingston is one of the top stick men working the indies today.
4) Inside ROH
The Embassy/House of Truth storyline that led to Tommaso Ciampa attacking Prince Nana was recapped one more time with feeling, Shelton Benjamin was announced as suspended due to his use of a steel chair on the ANX last week, which is of course illegal in ROH these days. One strike is a fine, two is a suspension, three gets you fired. Though you can beat up 800 referees/security guys and you’re totally fine. They also ran down the Boiling Point card.
5) Mike Bennett def. Lance Storm (Photo Finish on a Chair)
Maria has a hat! But on to more important matters… Lance Storm uses Fozzy as his entrance music! Okay, okay, the wrestling. This fell short of their previous encounters, feeling less special as it was the third time out and was on television rather than iPPV. There wasn’t really much wrong with it, it just didn’t seem important. Bennett worked the arm and Storm fired back with surprising speed for his age (something they harked on and on about on commentary). They tried to add a little flair at the end by stealing each other’s finishers, but that wasn’t really enough. Maria distracted the ref and Brutal Bob slid in a chair for Bennett to facilitate the finish.
6) Inter-Gender Warfare
Maria, Bennett and Evans continued to attack Storm after the match, leading to Sara Del Rey attacking Maria, and Eddie Edwards consequently coming to her aid when she became outnumbered too.
Episode Review
I’m not sure if this is considered the Go-Home episode for Boiling Point or not, but only a third of the content related to the iPPV, with Kingston’s great promo, the brief interaction between Edwards, Del Rey, Bennett and Maria, and the decent edition of Inside ROH. The rest was settling a months old rivalry, and putting on a rematch from a bout at Best in the World that most people apparently didn’t care for in the first place. I actually liked the tag match, and if you isolate the main event from the first two matches they had together it was decent enough, but unfortunately I can’t just forget about things like that so easily, so it gets a meh from me. Still, I like how ROH puts their TV product together, so overall I’m still positive.