This show featured the Finals of the TPT 2014 Tournament and had a triple-threat TV Title match which I’m glad to see has been featured more on their actual television shows. While I wasn’t impressed by the episodes taped from Nashville at least there was continuity and this episode paid off what was done there. The video packages also seem to be getting better for ROH. I’m tempted to credit Court Bauer for this as he was brought in to help re-brand and market ROH and this seems like it is going in that direction. While there aren’t solid numbers for ROH ratings due to their syndication in varied markets, it does seem obvious that SBG is keeping them around and it has helped raise ratings for their channels. Wishing SBG would spend more on ROH at this point hasn’t come to fruition, but at least I doesn’t feel like ROH is endangered of being shut down and the wrestling is more than enough to feed my fix every week that I don’t get from other mainstream companies.
Adrenaline Rush (ACH & TD Thomas) vs The Decade (Jimmy Jacobs & BJ Whitmer) w/ Roderick Strong
This match was decent and served two purposes. It helped get Adrenaline Rush look a little bit more credible in that they went toe to toe with two veterans while also giving a little bit more information about the Decade. The twist in the beginning with Jacobs and Bj saying you have to “earn” their handshake is reminiscent of what Christopher Daniels was doing for a while and could lead to something, but it lets us know that this faction is not easily impressed by flash. It’s not innovative, but at least it gave us some more insight. This was probably a match most people could imagine from these four men and we got to see the “All Seeing Eye” finisher from The Decade which was a dominator/cutter combo by Whitmer and Jacobs for the win. Adrenaline Rush is getting the tag title shot at 12th Anniversary, but I wouldn’t say this hurt them. It would have hurt The Decade even more to lose.
We got a recap video of the TPT and it did actually help me get a little more invested into the finals than if they had just gone straight to the match.
Top Prospect Tournament Finals: Raymond Rowe vs Hanson
Two big men fighting it out has been the basic formula for pro wrestling since it began. There were some things here I enjoyed more than I thought in this match despite it being a bit klunky. Rowe’s impresive uranage and German suplex on Hanson got some good reaction from the crowd, and given Hanson’s obvious size advantage I think Rowe deserves credit for that. The series of back drop suplexes/drivers was a nice play here too as I’ve always enjoyed seeing it done in puro wrestling, so why not use it here. Michael Elgin came out during the match and watched which made the match feel a bit more important as a top talent was scouting two guys who will obviously be on future shows. It lends credibility to their threat to the established roster and that’s something you don’t see often in today’s wrestling. The finish of the spinning kick of death by Hanson seemed to come out of nowhere so the finish was kinda flat to me, but overall a good match.
We got more video packages showcasing TV Champion Tommaso Ciampa and another showing what has lead to the triple threat match. It’s the little things that can make the talent of a promotion appear to be more important and this is a good start to that. Not saying they weren’t done in the past but there was an obvious lack of them. There were always backstage promos and vignettes for upcoming shows, but showing why someone should care to watch the TV product and watch particular talents is neglected sometimes as promotions just assume their fans know the wrestlers are all important. I don’t think any promotion should take that for granted. A star has to be perceived as one and that’s clearly proven by any form of sports or entertainment, particularly the case with UFC. Hope we see more of these going forward.
We had a segment where Truth Martini said Hoopla was dead and sent the hotties to the back, much to the chagrin of the fans (#NONONO) but was then sent packing by Taven. Taven would thank him for guiding him to the TV title in the first place but said he needed to do it on his own now. More interested to see where this leads, I am going to assume Martini gets packaged with someone from the TPT to feud with Taven and it would be an easy transition for any of the guys who were in it to get more involved with ROH.
TV Title Match: Tommaso Ciampa vs Jay Lethal vs Matt Taven
This was clearly the match of the night and several stories were told within it. Tommaso Ciampa defended against 1 of the best talents in ROH and against a guy who wasn’t able to show much even during his history making ROH TV title run. The story of Taven and Truth was told when Truth tried to slide the Book of Truth to him to use during the match and he sent it back. This led to the end of the match where Taven was climbing back into the ring and Truth grabbed his foot to allow Ciampa to hit Project Ciampa on Taven to retain his title. Right before this, Lethal got a visual pinfall on Ciampa which I thought was odd, but I assume we’re going to see these two battle more over the TV Title so it’s not that bad. I believe that ROH should be keeping Ciampa strong, but it didn’t make him look weak to me.
Overall: A solid episode of ROH tv with good wrestling in all the matches and the TV Title match actually had my interest a lot more than it has in the recent past. What did you think?
Send your feedback on this episode or anything I wrote to cgstong@PWPonderings.com or on twitter at Twitter.com/cgstong
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