Views from the Hawke’s Nest: Ring of Honor TV Review 10.29.11

This will be a review of the show; for a complete report on the show, check out Shawn S. Lealos’ most recent Column of Honor

Your commentators are Kevin Kelly and Nigel McGuinness and they hype this week’s main event: Briscoe Brothers vs. All Night Express for a tag title shot at Final Battle 2011.

Quick video segment showing Roderick Strong and Kyle O’Reilly discussing their differences in life philosophy…Roddy describes “Team Richards” with what will likely be the funniest thing said on ROH TV all year: “They drive around the country just to train…not to get laid?!?!”…Roddy’s video promos have been a weekly highlight (I never thought I would type “Roderick Strong,” “promos,” and “highlight” in the same sentence)…Roddy says he is going to embarrass O’Reilly and beat him in less than two minutes

Roderick Strong (w/ Truth Martini) vs. Kyle O’Reilly
After an early back and forth sequence to start the match, O’Reilly was able to get some nearfalls, but Roddy cut him off with a backbreaker. Roddy worked over O’Reilly after that for a while. O’Reilly came back with a belly-to-belly suplex and a hurricanranna. Roddy was able to get O’Reilly to the outside, but Kyle came right back with a missile dropkick. Roddy tripped up O’Reilly in the corner and then pounded him with forearms. Gutbuster by Roddy: 1…2…NO! Roddy locks in the Boston Crab, but O’Reilly makes the ropes. Tornado DDT by O’Reilly: GUILLOTINE LOCKED IN BY O’REILLY! Roddy escapes and hits a high knee, and he then hits the SICK KICK: 1…2…3!

This was a good, athletic match. If O’Reilly is mostly going to be featured as tag team wrestler, it doesn’t really hurt him too much to lose a competitive match to a former World champion. Also of note, Truth Martini further promoted on commentary the Roderick Open Invitational Challenge for Final Battle; I hope ROH has a good person in mind for that.
Match Rating: ***

The House of Truth mauls O’Reilly after the match, but Tony Kozina runs in only to get beat down himself. Davey finally comes out, but he is overwhelmed by the numbers game as well. Eddie Edwards made the save, and the Wolves sent the House of Truth running. Truth Martini ate a double team Alarm Kick. This sets up the Wolves/HoT tag team main event on November 12th. The House of Truth caused damage to some crew members, which led made Jim Cornette come out and fine them $2500. Some fans started “We Want Steen” chants at the sight of Cornette. Cornette cut a promo where he said that “Ring of Honor will not do business with Kevin Steen.” More like Ring of Honor won’t do business without Kevin Steen: HEY YO!!!!!!!!!!

Inside ROH: Kevin Kelly says that ROH has narrowed down their choice for the World Title challenger at Final Battle 2011 to two wrestlers, Jay Lethal and Eddie Edwards. Both guys cut promos about wanting the match. Shouldn’t they just wrestle to decide who challenges for the title…

The segment continues with Kevin Kelly introducing the “Proving Ground” series. Caprice Coleman and Cedric Alexander will face Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin next week. I hope Caprice gets live mic time before the match starts, because the man is better on the stick than 90% of the ROH roster already.

Steve Corino joins the commentary table before a Tommaso Ciampa squash match. Corino apologizes for Kevin Steen, but Kelly cuts him off and says they can’t talk about Steen

Alex Silva vs. Tommaso Ciampa (w/ The Embassy [Prince Nana, and Ernesto Osiris]
Ciampa jumps Silva early and works him over for a while. Silva comes back with a step-up enzugiri, but Ciampa cuts him off quickly. Silva hits a kick and actually gets a nearfall for some reason. Ciampa nails Silva repeatedly with a running knees, before he hits Project Ciampa to get the win.

Much like Mike Mondo last week, why on earth did a local OVW geek get any credible offense on a guy ROH is trying to build up?
Match Rating: Where is R.D. Evans?

The Briscoes (Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe) vs. All Night Express (Kenny King & Rhett Titus): Winner gets the ROH World Tag Title shot at Final Battle 2011
I am really annoyed that ROH has completely ignored the Ladder War between these two teams at Death Before Dishonor. The All Night Express won a main event on the last iPPV in New York City. Shouldn’t they pretty much automatically get the tag title shot at the next iPPV in New York City from just a logical-business standpoint?

The match immediately starts as a Tornado Tag-style brawl, but Todd Sinclair is able to establish some order. ANX were in control early, but the Briscoes were able to cut them off to the delight of the crowd (after all, ROH doesn’t really seem interested in getting the Briscoes over as heels). As King crawls to make a hot tag, the fans chant “MAN UP.” Briscoes worked over King some more; they hit a cool double team Ace Crusher move, which the crowd popped for. Finally, Titus made a hot tag and the crowd went…mild. The teams went back and forth for the finishing sequence. Mark hit a springboard Ace Crusher on Rhett, King hit a springboard blockbuster on Mark, and Jay hit a snap-DDT on King. Titus got Mark on his shoulders, only to have Jay do a Doomsday Device clothesline on his own brother so that Mark could roll through and get the three count.

Sigh. The Briscoes challenging Shelton/Haas does nothing for me, but that has more to do with the recent performances of the champions than it does with the Briscoes. As for this main event, it didn’t really jive with the crowd as they clearly saw the Briscoes as stars and ANX as nothing special. Maybe if ROH actually tried to get over the Ladder War victory by ANX, that wouldn’t be the case.
Match Rating: **1/2

Final Thoughts: Wow, this was a weak episode of TV for ROH. The action of the two main matches were fine, but the poor and sometimes illogical booking of the current product really seemed to stick out this week. If Lethal and Eddie are the two choices for facing Davey at Final Battle, then those two should absolutely have a TV match to determine who is the challenger. End of Discussion. Tommaso Ciampa should not have to survive nearfalls against some OVW geek. And finally, ROH should not book Ladder Wars just to create a number 1 contender for a DVD taping that they are not even promoting on TV. On top of all those logical problems, ROH just wasn’t very fun this week.

Top Ring of Honor TV matches in the Sinclair Broadcast Group Era:

1.) Davey Richards© vs. Roderick Strong for the World Title: 10.8.2011 (***3/4)
2.) Jay Lethal vs. El Generico© for the TV Title: 10.1.2011
3.) Shelton Benjamin & Charlie Haas© vs. Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli for the Tag Titles: 9.24.2011 (***1/2)
4.) Eddie Edwards vs. Michael Elgin: 10.15.2011
5.) Jay Lethal© vs. Mike Bennett for the TV Title: 10.22.2011 (***1/4)
6.) Adam Cole & Kyle O’Reilly vs. Lancelot & Harlem Bravado: 9.24.2011 (***)
7.) Roderick Strong vs. Kyle O’Reilly: 10.29.2011
8.) Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe vs. Kenny King & Rhett Titus: 10.15.2011

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