ROH TV 03/22/2014
We’ve got a new opening which is a mix of former ROH champions including Daniel Bryan, Nigel McGuinness, Samoa Joe, and leads to Adam Cole with the words Creating Excellence which just showcases the legacy that ROH has made. Good stuff. We still have the regular title montage as well which I really think needs to update itself because it has guys like Rhino in it which just doesn’t speak to the new talent they are pushing.
We get reminded of the main event for Supercard of Honor which is Ladder War V between ROH World Champion Adam Cole and Jay Briscoe
Adrenaline Rush & Andrew Everett vs The Decade (Roderick Strong, BJ Whitmer, Jimmy Jacobs)
Good to see the one count in wrestling. As Jim Ross has said on his podcasts, it just adds another level to a match when it comes to the presentation of a sporting event. This match showed the basic reason of the Decade. Three young up-n-comers who can go in the ring are shown little respect by men who have paved the way in ROH but truly believe that everyone has to earn their handshake while using underhanded hypocritical antics. Everett, ACH, and Thomas got a lot of offense in this match which was great as the crowd was really reacting to them well. Roderick gets the win for his team but the young guys don’t look any worse for losing. Hardly anyone could kick out of a knee to the face followed by End of Heartache combo by Strong.
RD Evans with Veda Scott and Ramon (Who is 40-0 BTW #TheNewStreak) vs The Romantic Touch
One of the more fun things in wrestling right now and even has me amused. The match was secondary to the fun that Romantic Touch is having with Veda while RD Evans can show his comedic gems in the ring. It wasn’t a bad match. Decent work by both men but really it’s the whacky style of Evans against RT who is obviously more technically sound but Evans somehow keeps kicking out. RD Evans wins this by count out after RT followed Veda under the ring and the streak continues! Now 41-0 though I guess it was worth it because Romantic Touch came out from under the ring and lit one up. Silas Young came out after Evans tried to insinuate he was the last real man in wrestling. Leave it to Young to break up a good thing.
Am edited version of Ep 1 with The Fish Tank was shown with Cheeseburger. You should watch the whole thing.
Adam Page vs Cedric Alexander
These two men are no strangers as they have been competing with and against each other in the Carolina’s. The match was fine. Some interesting stuff such as Cedric going for a springboard type move and Page catching him with a forearm followed by an assisted punch to the face which causes Cedric to fall to the outside of the ring from the ring ropes. Cedric’s variation of a swinging air raid crash is always impressive to see. But it was Cedric’s version of Roddy’s End of Heartache which he calls the Lumbar Check that got the win over Page. Strong got in the ring to get in Cedric’s face but ended up having some words with Adam Page who looked very dejected at the loss. This is obviously building to something down the line and I’m looking forward to the matches Cedric and Strong can have.
Main Event: ROH World Champion Adam Cole & Mike Bennett w/ Maria vs The Briscoe Brothers
This was a great TV main event. Right amount of story telling with Jay getting another pinfall win over ROH World Champion Adam Cole while Bennett looks more and more like he deserves to be in the hunt for the title. Kinda what you would expect with the Briscoes teaming together for most of the match. Went into second great late after Bennett speared Mark through a table but that also allowed for Jay to get the win over Cole. Maria is calling them “her boys” but it would seem that somewhere down the line we’ll see them face each other. I fully expect to see Bennett vs Mark Briscoe announced for Supercard of Honor…(3/25 edit: Oh look.. they did and no DQ either.)
Overall: A decent ROH tv episode with nothing mind numbing or crazy. If anything is to be said about ROH tv, it is consistent right now and for the most part logical booking. Granted not always the most exciting but the wrestling is still good and the stories at least make sense with the talent all defining themselves easily. I’d say it’s worth checking out on the road to Supercard of Honor.
As always send your feedback to cgstong@PWPonderings.com or tweet me at @cgstong on twitter
ROH Vids