ROH 09/2/17 TV Review:The Bullet Club vs Mark Briscoe and Bully Ray

ROH 09/2/17 TV Review:The Bullet Club vs Mark Briscoe and Bully Ray
07/30/17
Cabarrus Arena
Concord, NC

This week was the last episode from the set of tapings from Cabarrus Arena in Concord, North Carolina. Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana were on commentary to start.

First Match: No Disqualification Match
Jay Lethal vs. The Beer City Bruiser
The match has started before the show began, with the two brawling in the aisle. They continue their fight around the ring, as the camera panned to security on the ramp, placed there to prevent Silas Young from coming to ringside. So Young simply  joined commentary and spoke about how much he loathes Jay Lethal and that he’s sick of seeing knee brace commercials.Bruiser grabbed a roll of duct tape and Cabana ended up commenting that Bruiser isn’t the brightest guy in the world. Then he and Young spoke about how Riccaboni is a cheerleader for Lethal. Bruiser went full force into a chair wedged in the corner, spilling to the outside, which prompted Young to try yet again to get to the ring.

After the break, Lethal was poised to hit Hail to the King but missed, to which Young responded by saying, smart move and Cabana comically commented “said noone ever” Lethal hit the Lethal Injection but didn’t pin Bruiser, instead opting to tie Bruiser up with the duct tape and then attacking BCB with a chair before making him tap to a figure four for the statement victory. Lethal applied the move after the match quickly releasing it and attempting to get to Silas Young through security. Despite the street fight in Edinburgh between Lethal and Young, it’s clear the program is headed to Death Before Dishonor and having Lethal go to a more violent place against the Bruiser assures that he might get a clean one on one for the blow off to this feud.

Winner: Jay Lethal

A Promo for Minor Suzuki’s upcoming match against Cody at Death Before Dishonor. A Cody promo followed, during which he said that he plans to stretch out the former MMA fighter and make him look dumber than his haircut.

Caprice Coleman’s new segment aired,  with Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian as his first guests. Kazarian spoke about how the company, the wrestlers and the fans have disrespected him and especially Daniels and that they aren’t going to take it anymore. Daniels continued by saying that they are planning to do everything to ruin the fan experience by burning ROH down to the ground.

Second Match: Cheeseburger vs. Will Ferrara vs. Howie Timberché
Short match with Timberché having all the offense to start. However, Ferrara pulled him into a ring post and created space, but still needed to low blow Timberché behind the ref’s back, allowing him to hit a Tornado DDT to pick up the pinfall victory. Cheeseburger came out after the match and said he wanted to be a real man and challenge Ferrara face to face for a match next week, which Ferrara agreed to. The story here was that although Ferrara claims to be better without Burger, he did not necessarily show that during the match, only picking up the win due to chicanery. The match itself was short and was simply a vehicle to build towards Burger and Ferrara, which will presumably see underhanded tactics from Ferrara as he seeks to prove he is better than his former partner. Timberché looked good in the ring during the brief match and his singing gimmick is different enough to work if he continues to be used.

Winner: Will Ferrara

Main Event: Cody Rhodes & Adam Page vs. Bully Ray & Mark Briscoe
A backstage promo from Jay Briscoe aired, citing that he was pulled from this match because of the attack from the Kingdom last week, which forced doctors to keep him out of the ring, as he was a liability because of his injury. He then became incensed and reminded ROH that he;s still in the building and that that is a liability for them. As Cabana said, the action was “fast… and furious…: Tokyo Drift” to start-amazing. Cody took some punishment from Mark until he turned the tables and the BC tagged in and out. Just after Mark tagged Bully in, Marty Scurll ran down to ringside and opened his umbrella. Things got out of control at this point, as Jay Briscoe ran out to even the odds. Bully used the umbrella on Page and then partnered with mark to hit a Doomsday Device, but opted to place Page on the table that Jay had set up outside. Jay and Scurll brawled into the crowd around the arena and just as it seemed Mark was about to hit the Froggy-bow and pick up the win, the Kingdom stormed the ring and O’Ryan knocked Mark off his perch. Cody took advantage and hit the Cross Rhodes for the pinfall victory and high tailed it back to the dressing room as Marseglia chased him with an axe. Matt Taven orchestrated a beatdown on Mark, which drew Jay to the ring, only to suffer a Rockstar Supernova. The show ended with The Kingdom posing on the ropes as a disgusted Ian Riccaboni signed off.

Winner: Cody & Hangman Page

Final Reaction: A-
This is easily one of my favorite ROH episodes of the summer. The no DQ match to open the show was well done, albeit the start of the show being mid-match is a bit of silly conceit because the show isn’t live. The Ferrara match wasn’t meant to be a classic and did the job in getting to a match between Ferrara and Cheeseburger. The main event felt like it would be a standard fare solid tag match and while some may not appreciate the amount of booking at the end, it came off really well and was logical. The Kingdom is being presented as very strong for their return and the match with the Briscoes will have many layers to it. The little part that was particularly strong was the Bullet Club running from The Kingdom, which keeps that open for the two heel factions to feud down the road. This episode is certainly worth your time and really moves a great deal of pieces forward. 

Thanks for stopping by again this week and look for more Ring of Honor coverage the same time next week. Until then, please go over to Running Wild Podcast and take a listen to a show that covers oodles of wrestling news and ridiculous conversations. You can find us on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud and Google Play store.

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