I only recently learned that episodes of ROH TV are available on their website after they air on syndicated television somewhere. A lot more episodes are in their archives but you have to be some kind of member to watch them. So for about a week they have the latest episode up to view for free and if you stay on top of it you can watch along with ROH TV at home, regardless of whether or not they're broadcast in your area.
Now before I get into this review I need to say a few things. The last time that I watched ROH- I kid you not- was when it was under the power of Gabe. When I actually think about it, and think back to it (It is kind of sad and makes me feel old) I haven't really watched ROH since Bryan Danielson left because he was really one of the last guys I remember seeing there. I also remember seeing Samoa Joe and other TNA talent in ROH a lot and then they no longer can go there.
(Side Note: I was at the live show in Connecticut where Samoa Joe said something about TNA and him getting hurt there which then put into motion the idea that TNA wrestlers were no longer allowed to freelance around as much, which seemed harsh at the time but looking at it now seems to have helped ROH really grow their own talent and a somewhat more stable roster)
I've still been reading about ROH online and while they've had their dark periods they also seem to have their good ones as well. The first time I watched ROH TV recently on my laptop was when the main event saw AJ Styles take on Matt Sydal and that was well worth it. As I've been watching it somewhat regularly now I've just been waiting for the time to start writing about it again. Hopefully one day I can get into all of the other promotions I used to watch again as well but only time will tell (And I only have so much time, so CZW, PWG, CHIKARA, etc. might be a bit much)
Onto the show!
Ring of Honor is brought to us by the Health Alert Hotline, though I feel like this is something that should have been sponsoring WCW in their end days because everyone was old and subject to bad things at any second. Oh well. Whatever pays the bills.
The Briscoe Brothers start things off with a promo about how this is going to be Tag Wars and I guess this is as good a time as any to pick up the reviews, huh? They say what is old is new again and they plan on being nine time tag team champions. Wow, is that right? I wonder why they haven't been in WWE yet (Though they might be bad for business, no pun intended)
I actually really like the Ring of Honor opening video. The music combined with athletics and bits of commentary make it look like something you want to watch. All too often the downfall of a promotion can be their cheesy opening sequence, but this is pretty fitting.
Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino check in on commentary. I wish Steve Corino was calling Wrestle Kingdom 9 with Jim Ross instead of that lousy Matt Striker. They explain that there will be matches for Tag Wars and the winners will go into a four way match against ROH Tag Team Champions reDRagon, who are arguably one of the best tag teams in the world today.
Match 1: Jay Lethal (ROH Television Champion) & J Diesel (w/ Truth Martini) vs. The Briscoes (Jay Briscoe is your ROH World Champion)
During the opening moments of the match the commentary teamed hyped up the matches coming up in Tag Wars and Steve Corino talked about his one year old son being a fan of Jay Lethal. My son will be three soon enough and he is a fan of Erick Rowan, Vader, Alberto Del Rio and pretty much all masked wrestlers (lucha libre in general, not masked like Kane sometimes is) There was good back and forth action before the break with a lot of focus being put on the singles champions. After a Jaydriller on J. Diesel, Mark Briscoe hit the top rope elbow for the pin and the win.
This was a solid match but there was never really any concern on my part that the Briscoes weren't going to win it. The continual hyping of them being eight time tag team champions as well as Jay being the ROH World Champion certainly didn't hel matters any. There was also quite a bit of talk about how reDRagon takes exception to the fact that the Briscoes are often times referred to as the best tag team in ROH so you could definitely feel the seeds being planted.
None the less, I'm really not a fan of J. Diesel as he feels like a rip off of Montel Vontavious Porter, who was actually in ROH once upon a time, and so having the veteran time who actually got promo time win over the sort of newer, makeshift team makes the most sense here. Not a throwaway match really but not too great either.
Jay Lethal cut a poorly timed promo about knee and back pain for the Health Alert Hotline.
Match 2: The Addiction (Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian) vs. The Decade (BJ Whitmer & Jimmy Jacobs)
I'm wondering if this was taped before or after Jimmy Jacobs was a Rosebud. This was a good match where it did actually feel as if either team could win. Jay Lethal did cut in for another commercial, which is kind of funny to me. At one point, Christopher Daniels sent Jimmy Jacobs into BJ Whitmer causing Jacobs to spear Whitmer. Frankie Kazarian eventually picked up the pinfall over Whitmer for the win.
As Kazarian had Whitmer covered, Jimmy Jacobs looked hesitant to get back into the ring and break up the attempted pin because he must have thought Whitmer would still be able to kick out. After the three, Jacobs sold frustration by hitting the mat and it's just the little things such as this that make storytelling in matches that much better. (Works a lot better than Jacobs just standing there like a doof)
When I came back from pause, there was a graphic up with one of the teams missing but updated now to include The Addiction, yet the video had sped up without the picture and was in the middle of the main event. Get it together, ROH!
Going into the next match I will tell you that I am not really a fan of the Young Bucks but fully expect them to win based upon the makeshift duo of Matt Sydal and ACH. I'm hoping this match will at least give me a chance to see ACH, who I haven't really seen much of before, as he is one of the three opponents announced for Alberto Del Rio's ROH stint.
Match 3: The Young Bucks vs. Matt Sydal & ACH
I never really paid attention to the Young Bucks as they've always reminded me of a worse version of the Hardys and I never thought they could be singles stars the way that Jeff and Matt have become, but isn't kind of funny that Matt Jackson of the Young Bucks is the one that reminds me of Matt Hardy? It's like I've gone back in time and I'm left wondering if the Young Bucks sew their own in ring gear. The Young Bucks will, however, be on Wrestle Kingdom 9 as they are part of the Bullet Club in New Japan so maybe they can impress me there since this isn't doing it. Matt Sydal is the MVP of this match by far. The Bucks had this match won and Sydal broke it up at a very close three. A misplaced superkick and the newly formed team of Matt Sydal & ACH advance in Tag Wars.
Wow, that was a bit shocking. It did nothing to help me like the Young Bucks any more than I already don't, but it did help me to love Matt Sydal that much more and I am also impressed by ACH a little bit here. He can hit some nice moves for a larger guy, you know.
So overall we had three tag team matches and I thought that the last one had its fate sealed but boy was I wrong. The second could have gone either way for me, but you couldn't really make a case in the opener for the Briscoes losing. So it's going to be an insane match in two weeks when the three teams who won on this show take on reDRagon for the ROH Tag Team Titles.
If this was any other company and you had to pick their tag team champions to go up against reDRAgon I don't know how it'd play out. James Storm and Abyss are a makeshift team in Impact Wrestling right now, which sort of calls into question whether or not Impact Wrestling has any steady tag teams or not (Team 3D maybe, but even Magnus and Bram, EC3 and Brodus Clay are still fairly new) Maybe the American Wolves but, hey, they were already in ROH anyway so that wouldn't be a good fit to add to a match of this nature.
In WWE, The Miz and Damien Sandow are tag team champions while they have steady teams such as The Usos, Los Matadores, A New Day, Goldust and Stardust, Vaudevillains, The Ascension and Lucha Dragons. If we couldn't get Finn Balor and Hideo Itami up here to represent WWE I'd probably vote in the Usos.
Wouldn't it be something to see reDRagon (ROH) vs. Team 3D (Impact Wrestling) vs. The Usos (WWE) vs. umm... I don't really have a fourth company to put here, since reDRagon hold the tag titles in Japan as well. Lucha Underground doesn't really have a tag team division and with PWG and other promotions on that level it feels too close to ROH, so we could just leave it at three teams and say, yeah, what ROH is doing is going to be miles better.
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