Following on from Fighting February, ROH are back with another themed month of TV, and this time it’s March Mayhem with not one but two tournaments taking place. First up several wrestlers attempt to qualify for ‘Blind Destiny’, with an ROH World Title shot hanging in the balance, followed by a second tournament for a cash prize. All that and more in the month of March in ROH.
ROH TV 3/3/12 – Here They Go Again On Their Own
– Mike Bennet beat TJP with the TKO after Maria got dragged into the ring by mistake and while Perkins and the ref were seeing to her Bennett was able to recover and get the win. Neither good nor bad, this was kind of just there and was kept pretty short. I can say for sure Bennett isn’t boring anymore, and Maria is nice to look at.
– Tommaso Ciampa cut another promo about how he will become the first ever undefeated champion in ROH and then destroyed Guy Alexander, who apparently came from one of those open tryouts everybody is doing these days. Standard Ciampa squash that ended after he delivered seven consecutive running knee strikes which caused a referee stoppage.
– The Briscoes called the Young Bucks women again, Kevin Steen put on a party hat and talked about how much he was looking forward to facing Jimmy Jacobs at the 10th Anniversary Show, we saw a few clips of Lance Storm in ROH, and the ANX and Young Bucks talked trash about each other ahead of the Dual Duel in Miami.
– Kevin Kelly did his best to sum up Chikara in 30 seconds. Chikky fans may want to avoid it.
– Eddie Edwards and Roderick Strong met in the main event for the right to face Davey for the title during Wrestlemania weekend. Roddy initially won the match after loading up his boot and hitting a Sick Kick to get the pin, but a second ref noticed and counted a pin for Edwards when he hit the Die Hard. The finish was a little screwy and the match was just a copy and paste job of their previous encounters save for a nice hurricanrana spot off the top.
– Jim Cornette ruled on the controversial finish and declared they’d both get the shot in a triple threat on March 30th.
Show Review: It was a little weird that one night before the 10th Anniversary Show they devoted so much build towards Mania weekend, but I suppose they couldn’t bank on delivering anything too major 24 hours before the event in case people were delaying watching. Three okay matches here, but a lot of what they did was the same old… stuff. If you’ve watched a lot of ROH you probably won’t find too much to get excited about here, but if you’re a casual viewer then this was decent.
ROH TV 3/10/12 – Blind Destiny
– Jim Cornette explains the concept of Blind Destiny which is actually far simpler than spoiler reports made it seem. The three competitors in the world title match on night one of Showdown in the Sun will have singles matches on night two, and whoever has the belt will defend it. Three qualifying matches will take place tonight to determine the three opponents for Mania weekend. Simple, right?
– Jay Lethal beat Kenny King with a nice pin reversal in the first Blind Destiny qualifying match and will face Roderick Strong. Put a pair of young and very athletic wrestlers into the ring and good things tend to happen. See this match for evidence of that theory. I’ve been very vocal about the idea of King breaking out on his own and I think he’d make a perfect TV champion.
– Kevin Steen defeated Adam Cole with the F-5 in the second match and will face Eddie Edwards as a result. This was a great little contest and with more time could have been even better. Steen was so incredibly over (shocking), showing off pretty much everything he’s about, and even busted out the springboard moonsault, which is never not amazing. After the match he tried to use the Package Piledriver on Cole but Edwards made the save.
– Roddy and Eddie talked some halfhearted smack about each other while trying to put over how hard triple threat matches are, while Mike Bennett cut another promo on Lance Storm, mocking his age.
– Michael Elgin won the third Blind Destiny match against Kyle O’Reilly with the Spiral Bomb thanks to some distractions from Roderick Strong, earning a match against Davey Richards in the process. This wasn’t quite as good as their match from a year ago in the semi-finals of the Top Prospect Tournament (which was when I first asserted O’Reilly would one day main event the company), but that match was so long ago that this still actually felt fresh and was by extension pretty good. There was a dangerous moment where O’Reilly back suplexed Elgin off the apron aiming for the guard rail but instead dropped him onto the floor, but Elgin was fine.
Show Review: In contrast to last week’s episode, we got two first-time match-ups and an updated version of an old match. In the span of two episodes they set up the main events of both Showdown in the Sun events, as well as several undercard matches, which is pretty impressive since the event was three weeks away at this point. You can’t really say fairer than three high quality matches on free television. Two thumbs up.
ROH TV 3/17/12 – Future Shock Explodes!
– Days after pinning Davey Richards at the 10th Anniversary Show, Adam Cole continued his winning ways against Chris Silvio thanks to the Florida Key. ROH seem to be high on Silvio as he’s appeared semi-frequently in recent months and he got way too much offense against Cole who should be on a rocket ship to the moon.
– Kyle O’Reilly, who had been on commentary, challenged Adam Cole to a match on March 31st to earn his respect. Cole said he was tired of O’Reilly’s PMS and said he’d see him in Florida. No doubt about that heel turn then.
– Steen came to the ring for an interview with Kevin Kelly. Hilarity ensued. Jim Cornette came out and informed him that he’d be facing El Generico on March 30th. Steen wasn’t phased and the two got into a pretty heated exchange.
– We saw footage of Lance Storm working out and cutting a promo on Mike Bennett. Good thing he’s a fantastic wrestler is all I’ll say.
– Davey spoke on Roderick Strong, Eddie Edwards and finally Michael Elgin, bizarrely calling him The War Machine. I don’t know if that was intentional given Rhino’s impending return, but it was strange. Speaking of strange, the Briscoes cut another promo on Haas and Benjamin that saw Mark try and concuss himself headbutting a locker. WGTT responded, unfortunately not in kind.
– Kevin Kelly explains March Mayhem, an 8-man tournament in which each man has put up some money, ROH are matching it, and the winners of the four matches singles matches meet in a four corner survival for all da moneys.
– Jay Lethal defeated Roderick Strong in the first March Mayhem match, rolling Roddy up after he accidentally collided with Elgin. I wish I knew what it was about Lethal that I don’t enjoy, but for whatever reason he doesn’t click with me. So for that reason I have a hard time assessing this match. It was objectively good but it didn’t do it for me. I do enjoy the slow burn that is the impending split of the House of Truth.
Episode Review: I can’t say I’m a fan of them essentially holding two tournaments in a row featuring many of the same people, although Blind Destiny was contained to a single episode whereas March Mayhem will take place over the course of several weeks, so that’s something. Anyway, you got a bit of everything here, Steen’s awesome promo skills, Cole and O’Reilly’s partnership officially dissolving, and a back and forth action packed main event.
ROH TV 3/24/12 – Circle of Jerks
– Davey Richards, Eddie Edwards and Roderick Strong were all invited to the ring to speak on their title match and there was plenty of name calling. Roddy claimed Elgin would donate his ROH World Title opportunity (earned by winning Survival of the Fittest) in case he didn’t win. Before Elgin could reply Jay Lethal interjected himself and used the terms Butt-Munch and Fart-Head to describe Roddy, who he pointed out he defeated last week and asked why he wasn’t getting a shot instead. Kevin Steen then came out and insulted everybody and wished Eddie good luck so he could get the title match in Florida.
– Caprice Coleman and Cedric Alexander got the biggest win of their careers over Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin with an assist from the Briscoes, with Jay creaming Haas with a chair shot to the head. The crowd absolutely erupted following the pin, which was great for C&C because they also happened to wrestle one heck of a match, better than the one from Showdown in the Sun, and far, far better than their botch-fest from late last year.
– Lance Storm cut a much better promo on Mike Bennett, condemning his desire to use ROH as a stepping stone to Hollywood. We also saw some nice footage of Storm wrestling one of his students. Bennett responded with a pretty nice promo of his own.
– Jim Cornette said he’d fine the Briscoes for their chair antics and that Haas and Benjamin would face C&C in a rematch in Florida too.
– Adam Cole defeated Michael Elgin in a March Mayhem match, rolling up the big man after Roderick Strong’s attempted interference backfired. This started off a little spotty but got real good real fast, better than the Elgin/O’Reilly match. They were in a bit of a tough spot as both men were on a roll at this point and needed to carry on that way, but I think Elgin’s ability to just murder fools means Cole was the smart choice for the winner. Kyle O’Reilly provided all-out heel commentary.
– Strong and Elgin attacked Cole after the match and while O’Reilly said he wouldn’t be helping, Eddie Edwards did come to his partner’s aid and the two fended off the House of Truth.
Episode Review: This was a strong go-home episode with all the main event players getting screen time together and all the big matches being advanced. The two matches were excellent and pretty much everyone brought it on the mic. A good fun show all around.