ROH TV
03/15/14
We return to our normal ROH TV reviewing after two weeks of 12th Anniversay episodes. You’ll be reading my review of 12th Anniversary very soon so I didn’t think it was necessary to repeat myself. Feel free to also check out the latest Podcast of Honor where I discussed 12th Anniversary and State of the Art with Ari Berenstein and Senior Editor Jerome Cusson. Be sure to also check Ari’s Little Column of Honors that come out on Wednesday and Saturday which have been highly praised, especially the latest on WWE tryouts and what they mean for some of the ROH roster. Anyway, let’s get to the show.
Team Benchmark: Bill Daly and Will Ferrera vs Hanson & Raymond Rowe
Power versus bravado. Team Benchmark didn’t follow the code of honor, so if you weren’t sure who to boo, you found out here. There was little here other than a squash match but I’m hoping Team Benchmark gets some work in on house shows and maybe on TV later on. Not complaining though, it was a good debut for Rowe and Hanson as a team. Elgin coming out and recruiting them only served to legitimize them even more in my eyes and probably in the eyes of many fans. I’ve seen some say that the Death Rowe finisher is merely a reverse GTS, but trust me, this move looks as dangerous as any out there right now. We’ll end this with me stating the obvious. A team of Elgin with Rowe and Hanson backing him up can only mean men will be beaten up and left in the ring bruised and beaten. Elgin is coming after Cole’s ROH title and I like it. I like it a lot.
Steen turned down Outlaw Inc’s offer to join their “kliq” but I’m probably more intrigued about this than anything else ROH could find for Homicide or Kingston to do. We got a battle of former ROH World Champions which was probably the better move between the options. I think Steen could have some fun matches with either of them as he has in the past and Compton just adds to the mix.
Kevin Steen vs Homicide
This match was fine for the short time but it was more a means to an end than anything. Ends in a disqualification as Kingston hit Steen with the backfist. Compton eventually came out to be Steen’s savior which is probably going to end up being one of those the enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend storylines.
Nigel McGuinness announces Adam Cole versus Jay Briscoe in Ladder War V at Supercard of Honor in New Orleans. Looking forward to it.
Main Event: TV Title Match
Tommaso Ciampa vs Jay Lethal
This was a good match between two very talented men but honestly the commentary took away from it for me. It sounded more like ROH is building the story around Matt Taven and maybe they are. Maybe Taven is building his way back to the TV title. But this is the main event and we’re watching two men who are obviously at the top of any ROH rankings, why is the commentary team not discussing hwo important this match is within ROH? There was little mention of Lethal countering some of Ciampa’s offense outside and inside of the ring. Then there was a countered Lethal Injection into a lung blower and the commentary team barely made anything of it. The crowd was really into this match as was I also while watching but I honestly wish I had just watched it on mute because it seemed like the match was secondary to talking about Matt Taven and his future. When we got an air raid crash on the ring apron, the discussion of the match finally seemed like it was coming together when Truth Martini came out to cause more distraction along with Taven which led to a Lethal visual pin on Ciampa being missed by the referee. A weird finish to a great match as I don’t believe Ciampa needs to look like he can be beaten at this point. But it did happen at the hands of Lethal who is one of the top wrestlers in ROH so it’s not that bad. The after match confrontation between Lethal and Ciampa will probably lead us to Lethal showing his frustrations in the future.
Overall: A good episode with two matches that were little more than exhibition and a TV Title match that was definitely worth seeing but left me with more questions than answers and wnodering what is going on within the TV division. At least though ROH is a promotion where their TV title is treated with respect and main events their TV with strong matches.