And welcome to what will be the final ROH TV review, at least for a while. With my new job I simply don’t have time for it anymore, and to be honest I need a break anyway. I might pick it up again if my schedule changes, we’ll just have to see how it goes. Hopefully I go out on a good show…
Quick news: Adam Cole won’t be going to WWE anytime soon, as he re-signed with ROH last week. One guy you won’t be seeing anytime soon however is Mike Mondo, who was canned a couple weeks back after showing up “in no condition to participate” to a clinic. All reports have said it was due to coming back too soon from the broken leg, not the Sabu/Jeff Hardy “in no condition to participate”. That seems a little extreme to me, I can understand telling him that they won’t use him anymore until they feel he’s ready, but why fire him, especially when your full time roster is… actually 33 people according to rohwrestling.com, which is a lot more then I thought. There’s been rumors that ROH is trying to weed out all the people that were tight with Jim Cornette (they know each other from OVW), so that may be a factor.
QT Marshall & RD Evans vs. TaDarius Thomas & ACH vs. Caprice Coleman & Cedric Alexander: Winner of this gets a tag title shot at Best in the World, Corino spends most of the match bitching about how there’s no S.C.U.M. guys in the match (Corino on C+C: “These guys lose all the time!”). 3-way brawl with Marshall, Thomas, and Alexander to start, with Alexander getting the better of it. Coleman slingshots in with a senton, but Marshall nails him from behind, who then takes some kicks from Thomas. ACH in now, but Evans sneaks up behind him with a full nelson and he gets double-teamed by the white boys, including a nice reverse powerslam from Marshall for a 2 count. Most of the guys end up on the floor and Alexander hits a somersault dive to the floor. Back in the ring ACH gets a slingshot Stunner on Marshall, Evans makes the save but takes the Space Flying Tiger Drop from Thomas and we head to commercial.
We return with ACH getting a headscissors on Coleman, but he catches a boot to the face from Evans. Thomas walks into a jawbreaker from Coleman, who is then taken out from behind by Marshall. ACH hits a modified Russian legsweep on Evans, Marshall makes the save and we have a 6-man KO. Marshall takes an accidental shot in the balls from Thomas (Corino: “He hit him in the ding-ding!” Kelly: “Are you in first grade?”), be he recovers to do the idiotic Scott Hall “I’m going to try my move while standing 6 inches away from the ropes so I can get backdropped to the outside” spot and Thomas sends him to the floor for a decent bump. ACH hits Air Jordan on Marshall and Evans to a big pop, but Overtime finishes Thomas at 6:47 aired to make C+C the #1 contenders. *1/2, just a spotfest, and not the good kind, though at least it wasn’t sloppy. There’s no need for a commercial break in a match that short, either.
Clips of Davey Richards nearly killing Paul London with the double-stomp at Border Wars are shown. They really should have stopped that match right there, having a guy go to the top rope when he’s barely conscious was pretty fucking stupid.
Inside ROH: Mark Briscoe takes us back to his childhood, talking about Jay’s constant bullying. Jay claims that he needed to whip his ass when they were kids to keep him in line, and he’s going to whip his ass again at BitW.
Nigel McGuiness brings out Michael Elgin and Paul London, who were supposed to have a match that’s obviously not happening thanks to the concussion. London looks really out of it, though the weed is likely as responsible for that as the injury. RD Evans and QT Marshall interrupt to burn some time, bitching about the tag title picture. Evans bitch-slaps London, Elgin lays Evans out, Marshall wisely gets the hell out of there… and Tomaso Ciampa (with the cool entrance like he had at Border Wars) attacks, pinballing him between the barricades and dropping him on the entrance ramp. He goes after Evans, who tries to run away but gets caught by Elgin, Ciampa hits Evans with a powerbomb into a backbreaker. Elgin and Ciampa get in each other’s face as we go to break. This segment was about as useless as that yellow lemon-shaped rock. Thanks, Davey…
BJ Whitmer vs. Mike Bennett (w/ Maria Kanellis) vs. Jay Lethal: Corino: “Why is Whitmer in this match?” You read my mind, Steve. Winner of this faces Matt Taven at BitW. Whitmer holds the ropes for Maria so she can get out of the ring, Bennett takes offense to that and attacks him from behind. Lethal goes after Bennett and he and Whitmer double-team Bennett as Maria joins the commentators. The camera focuses on her even more than they usually do, making it pretty hard to even tell what’s going on the ring. Lethal hits a dropkick on Bennett for 2 as Truth Martini makes his way out to scout his client’s next opponent. Bennett gets a spinebuster on Lethal, then flapjacks Whitmer onto him. He plays to the crowd, but they don’t seem too interested in the match in general. He runs into a boot from Whitmer on a blind charge and Whitmer chops away in the corner. He hits a jumping knee and an exploder suplex on Lethal, then suplexes him into Bennett in the corner. Lethal reverses an Irish whip, but his knee is still messed up and Bennett sends him to the floor before running into a powerslam from Whitmer. Whitmer plays to the crowd now (getting NO reaction at all) and he walks into a superkick from Bennett for 2 and we go to commercial.
We’re back with Bennett beating on Whitmer in the corner and Lethal still on the floor. Bennett crotches himself on the second rope and Lethal comes in with a springboard dropkick on Whitmer. Handspring elbow and the Lethal Combination on Bennett, Whitmer makes the save. Jay calls for the Lethal Injection but catches a knee to the back. Rolling neckbreaker into a Northern Lights from Whitmer, Bennett makes the save. Box Office Smash by Bennett on Whitmer gets 2, but Lethal nails him with a diamond cutter and tries for Hail to the King, but Whitmer crotches him on the top rope. Superplex is blocked, Whitmer gets an exploder on Bennett and tries the pin, so Lethal just drops the elbow on the back of Whitmer’s head. Lethal dumps Bennett and the Lethal Injection finishes Whitmer at 9:09 shown. **1/2, this was fine, though the commentary was really distracting. Maria yells at Whitmer (just stirring shit up for the sake of stirring shit up) and Bennett attacks to close out the show.
Well, it’s been fun. Adam Curry, signing off… for now.