Ring of Honor on Sinclair Broadcasting presents a Road Rage edition this week, with highlights and complete matches from the Charleston event from June, headlined by a Texas Death Match between Jay Briscoe and Charlie Haas. Also in action: Davey Richards against Mike Mondo and highlights from the first ever Four Corner Survival Proving Ground match between TV Champion Roderick Strong, Adam Cole, BJ Whitmer and Kyle O’Reilly. All that and more on this edition of ROH TV.
Davey Richards vs Mike Mondo (Time Limit Draw)
Richards had an Ankle Lock on as time expired. They offered five more minutes but Mondo declined. Pretty much the same Davey match you’ve seen for the last two years. A few weeks ago I was one of the people defending Mike Mondo from all the criticism he got, but even I’m having difficulty stomaching this mega push, with Kevin Kelly claiming he’s had some of the best matches of 2012. He may be athletic, but he is kind of a move-thief and he was guilty of one of my pet peeves here: letting go of a submission for no reason.
(Clipped) Four-Corner Proving Ground Match
Adam Cole def. Roderick Strong, BJ Whitmer and Kyle O’Reilly (Crucifix Pin)
This seemed like a wild match, or at least it was from the point we picked it up, with everybody going bananas. Cole got the clean pin on the champ, earning himself a TV Title shot in the process, hence showing it on TV. This was a chance for me to finally get a look at BJ Whitmer’s 2012 ROH run, and I must say I was impressed. Strong-Rod looked fairly intense too, something I miss given how he’s been somewhat relegated since losing the title.
– Ahead of the main event, Kevin Kelly ran down the rules of a traditional Texas Death Match (you must pin your opponent and adhere to a 30-second rest period before the ref will even start his 10-count), complete with some misspelled on-screen graphics. Yep, still going to get on them for fixable production issues.
Texas Death Match
Jay Briscoe def. Charlie Haas
The win came after Jay nailed Haas in the head with a can of ether after contemplating using a rag to choke him out. For some inexplicable reason in a No DQ anything goes match they elected to use a ref bump spot and acted as if they were only allowed to use weapons while he was down. Jay hit a double stomp through a table and a Death Valley Driver through a mini guard rail and both men used a kendo stick, creating a brief, but decent little TV hardcore match in the dying stages of the bout. I appreciate them going for the old-school vibe, but the 30-second rest period on top of having to get a pin was overkill and the crowd seemed pretty confused when Jay scored a pin with a sunset flip and the bell rang after 30 seconds. As hard as I’ve been on Haas, I could envision him as a solo main event player in the mould of a Bully Ray.
Episode Review
Well, reading the results of this event it sounded like one to avoid, but what was shown here didn’t seem that bad, although they were omitting the two straight tag team title matches with BS finishes, and once you’ve seen this and the Steen/Edwards and Lethal/Elgin matches next week I can’t for the life of me think of a reason you’d buy the DVD. Still, the crowd seemed genuinely hot, so they may have a growing market there, and I can’t say I mind them taping TV in cities other than Baltimore. Nothing to go out of your way to see here, but if you’ve got the time to spare, this was a decent episode of wrestling television.