Destination America Picks Up ROH

In a move that's both perplexing and applause-worthy, Ring of Honor has been picked up by Destination America in what one can only assume, for now, is a syndication deal similar to ROH's deal with NESN (or possibly something similar to NJPW's deal with AXS).

Yep, that's right. The same network who was cancelling TNA picked up another wrestling program. But, what does that mean?

Well, two of the top alternatives to WWE are on the same network, for starters. Whether that proves to be a good thing in the long run remains to be seen. We could see TNA pick up the slack, we could see ROH pick up its production values. Or, we could see people still flock to NXT because, while the WWE Network isn't free, it's still more readily available than Destination, thus rendering this move somewhat moot.

Destination America is, in theory, available in half of America's households. But most still don't know how to get to it--or care enough to watch. Now, if the rumors are true and this is a syndication deal, and even if only a couple hundred thousand people tune in, it's progress for ROH and Destination. This could push Destination to open the floodgates and push its brand for mass consumption. Granted, I don't want to watch "Hillbilly Blood" or whatever other shows they have. But, if TNN (Spike's predecesor) could do it, for a while, with ECW and WWF/WWE on their airwaves...why not?

More wrestling's always a good thing. Except when it sucks. I'm looking at you, Three Hour RAW. But...what will it mean for TNA? I guess we'll have to wait and just...keep our eyes on the ring.

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Eyes on the Ring 1:25 PM  No comment

Ring Of Honor Wrestling Review 5/9/15

By Nathan Neumann, Twitter @Headliner5

Hello Eyes On The Ring readers, Nathan is back at it once again with another one of my reviews for Ring Of Honor Television.  This show only featured two matches and it was a pretty solid hour of wrestling. So, before I get to carried away and begin rambling on and on about nothing let's get into the action! The show starts and as we head inside the arena, Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino both welcome us to the show. Not long after, Adam Cole makes his way down to the ring and grabs a headset and joins the commentary team for the night.  From here, we go to the first match of the night.

Match 1
Chris Sabin vs. Kyle O’Reilly

Thoughts: Chris Sabin makes his way through the curtain and begins to make his way down to the ring, only he stops halfway and goes off to the side of the entrance where we can’t see him.  Kyle O’Reilly comes out with a huge bandage on his head from an apparent laceration that he suffered in a previous match and gets attacked by Sabin who was lying in wait for O’Reilly. Sabin had complete control over the match in the early going and repeatedly began whipping O’Reilly into the steel guardrails on the outside. Approximately two minutes later, both men make it into the ring to signal the start of the match.

Immediately after the bell rings, Sabin again slides out of the ring and is followed by O’Reilly.  This time O’Reilly manages to get the upper hand and whips Sabin onto the floor, O’Reilly then locks on an Armbar but Sabin escapes.  Later on in the match, Sabin again gets the advantage and hangs O’Reilly’s head on the bottom rope. Sabin who is on the outside of the ring runs and kicks O’Reilly in the head as we go to a commercial break. Upon returning from break we get a warning that reads “unsuitable content featured in the next segment."  From here we go back to the match where Sabin unwraps the bandage from O’Reilly’s head to work on the head wound that O’Reilly has. O’Reilly gets busted open immediately and due to this show being on basic cable I am then forced to watch the rest of the match in beautiful black and white like I’m back in the 50’s or something.

O’Reilly manages to come back with a trio of butterfly suplexes followed by locking on an armbar but Sabin makes it to the ropes before he is in any real danger.  Later in the match the two men make it to the corner of the ring and Sabin hits O’Reilly with a tornado DDT to pick up a near fall. O’Reilly then comes back and takes Sabin’s head off with a rebound clothesline and follows it up with a brainbuster to score a near fall of his own.  The finish to the match came when Chris Sabin defeats Kyle O’Reilly with the Cradle Shock after interference from the other two Knights Of The Rising Dawn members (Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian).

Match Result: Chris Sabin defeats Kyle O’Reilly via Cradle Shock due to interference from Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian better known as The Addiction.

Match Rating: **1/2
And now, we return to color!

From here, we are treated to a video package hyping the ROH vs. NJPW War Of The Worlds and Global Wars events. Afterward, Mark Briscoe comes on the screen and threatens to slap my mom if I dare change the channel.
...Happy Mother’s day to you, too, Mark.

We then find out that, next week, ACH will take on Adam Page in a one on one match.
From here we head back into the arena and into the next match of the evening.  Alberto El Patron makes his way out to the ring for the next match, which is a six-man tag team match.

Main Event – Match 2
Alberto El Patron, ACH and Matt Sydal vs. Roderick Strong and The Briscoe Brothers (Mark and Jay)

Thoughts: The match starts and Mark Briscoe starts things off with ACH, they don’t do much of anything until El Patron enters the ring along with Jay Briscoe and Alberto hits Jay with a hip toss for a very quick early cover that barely gets a two count.  ay tags Mark back into the match and Mark quickly takes control of the match by stomping away at El Patron, ACH tags in (as does Roderick Strong) but ACH finds himself backed into a corner getting chopped in the chest by Mr. ROH, Roderick Strong. Matt Sydal comes off of the top rope and Strong catches him in mid air to deliver a devastating back breaker. Sydal makes his way onto the apron and jumps off but gets caught by Roderick once again and this time he gets slammed into the barricade on the outside of the ring.

Back in the ring, Roderick kicks ACH in the face and picks up a near fall. Strong tags in Jay Briscoe, but ACH presses the advantage and gets Jay in a venerable position in order to deliver a double foot stomp off of the top rope to the back of Jay’s head. Sydal tags back into the ring and is in there with both Briscoes, he grabs both of them and hits one with a chin breaker and the other with a leg drop as the other was on the mat. ACH comes back into the ring and hits a springboard flatliner for a near fall on Mark Briscoe. ACH tags in Alberto El Patron and Patron hits Mark Briscoe with a double footstomp while Mark Briscoe is tied up in the tree of woe. El Patron tags in ACH and Matt Sydal comes off of the top rope with a 450 splash while ACH hits a shooting star press to pick up the pinfall victory over a fallen Mark Briscoe.

Match Result: Alberto El Patron, ACH and Matt Sydal defeat Roderick Strong, Jay and Mark Briscoe after a shooting Star Press from ACH to Mark Briscoe.

Match Rating: ***
After the match, Alberto El Patron, ACH and Matt Sydal celebrate their victory as the show comes to a close for the week.

That will do it for another Ring Of Honor TV reviews for EyesOnTheRing.com.  This show was highly enjoyable especially for me when you have Alberto El Patron featured in a match because he is my favorite wrestler in all of wrestling right now. We had two matches this week and both more than delivered, my only complaint is that the first match had to be shown in black and white for the last half. But, that’s not a knock on ROH but the network that they are on.

Be sure to follow me at @Headliner5 and make sure to follow Eyes On The Ring at @EyesOnTheRing. Also make sure to check out EyesOnTheRing.com as I continue to bring you my thoughts and analysis on Ring Of Honor each and every week.  Plus the entire Eyes On The Ring team brings you all we can as it pertains to pro wrestling.

Last but certainly not least make sure to check out Eyes On The Ring radio as we come to you live via the Elite Podcast Network over at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/elitepodcastnetwork each and every Sunday night at 11:00pm EST.  We will bring you the entire week in wrestling as well as all of the other stuff that we decide to ramble on about.  Finally be sure to head on over to Facebook.com/EyesOnTheRing and like us.

As a final, final parting note, I just want to mention that there will most likely not be a review of Ring Of Honor from me for next week as they will be showing matches from the Conquest Tour show in Hopkins, Minnesota. I already reviewed this leg of the tour right here.

But, for now this has been Nathan saying so long, and until my next review make sure to keep your Eyes On The Ring.

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Eyes on the Ring 8:23 AM  No comment

Ring Of Honor: Conquest Tour 4/25/15

By Nathan Neumann (Twitter: @Headliner5)

Hello Ringers, Nathan is here with another one of my ROH reviews, this one in particular is not a review of a TV show but instead a review of a show I went to this past Saturday night.  This will not be one of my traditional reviews meaning that I wont be able to break down the matches move by move but it will provide my general thoughts and reactions to each match as they happened.  This will also not be a 5,000 word marathon essay like my ROH 13th Anniversary show review was but it will at least give you some flavor to how the show was.

I went to this show with a friend; we were in the second row in section D.  The hard camera was to the left of us in section C.  Some of these matches will likely be used for upcoming episodes of ROH TV.  Not sure if it was an entire taping because it didn’t seem like it but if it was then I’m fine with it.

Lets get to the action shall we?

Dark Match
Danny Adams and Paco Gonzalez vs. Brandon Espinosa and Curt Stallion

Thoughts: This was your basic Indy match and it was nothing special, the problem with these matches is that they don’t tell you who anyone is which is why I have no clue who any of these guys are, I had to go to another site to get their names because ROH didn’t mention these guys by name.  The match was decent but in the end it was pretty much a spot fest where these guys were trying to get all of their cool moves in.  I get it because they are trying to impress the ROH management but this type of match has never appealed to me and probably never will.

Result: Danny Adams and Paco Gonzalez defeated Brandon Espinosa and Curt Stallion

Match 1
Ariya Daivari vs. Bobby Fish

Thoughts: This was a solid opener, Fish always goes out of his way to impress me and the guy that he wrestled is someone I am very familiar with, as I have worked shows with him in the past, as he’s a local guy from the Minneapolis Area.  If you know Shawn Diavari who was formally of WWE and currently in Lucha Underground you will know Ariya as his brother.  The match ended when Bobby Fish hit a sit out brainbuster to score the pinfall victory.

Result: Bobby Fish defeats Ariya Daivari after a pinfall via Sit out Brainbuster

Match 2
The Romantic Touch vs. Will Ferrara vs. Beer City Bruiser vs. Cheeseburger

Thoughts: This match was weird to me due to the fact that this was just a match between four random guys.  It wouldn’t surprise me if that when this show was being booked that these four guys were left on the table so the match makers just decided to throw them in a random four way match.  ROH seems to like to throw a four way on every show that they do to get use out of everyone, which is fine.  But compared to the one that I saw at the 13th Anniversary (The main event) this one served no purpose other than to get guys a payday.  The match ended when Will Ferrara hit a code red to score the win via pinfall.

Result: Will Ferrara wins the match via pinfall after a Code Red

Match 3
Michael Elgin vs. Caprice Coleman

Thoughts: Hopkins Minnesota is officially the “We Hate Elgin Club” which I’ll be a proud member of any day of the week.  He’s a good wrestler but his attitude and the way he thinks of himself is something I have issue with (that’s not why I’m here so I’ll leave it at that).  This match was a lot better than I thought it was going to be, Elgin has been on the rebound ever since losing the World Title in September of last year to current champion Jay Briscoe at All Star Extravaganza 6 in Toronto Ontario Canada.  Caprice Coleman is another guy that ever since he broke away from C and C wrestle factory and Cedric Alexander hasn’t been able to gain any sort of real momentum.  The match concluded when Michael Elgin hit his patented spinning sit out Powerbomb to score the pinfall victory.

Result: Michael Elgin defeats Caprice Coleman via pinfall after an Elgin Bomb

Match 4
Adam Page vs. ACH

Thoughts: this match looked great on paper and I’m glad it was able to translate well in the ring, ACH is a guy that you should be watching and Adam Page although I wasn’t a fan of his at first has really come into his own ever since becoming the “Young Boy” in the decade and ultimately joining the Decade.  The finish of the match came when Adam Page hit ACH with a low blow, which I didn’t particularly like, but it’s a good way to get some heel heat on Page which is what you want to do because you aren’t supposed to like him.  That’s a problem that I have with some heels in Indy wrestling because they aren’t focused so much at being a heel as much as looking cool.  Adam Page completely understands the concept that he’s a heel and he’s supposed to be hated and he’s pretty good at getting you to not like him, which is what a heel is supposed to do.

Result: Adam Page defeats ACH via pinfall after a low blow

Dark Match #2
Arik Cannon vs. Hot Shot Danny Duggan

Thoughts: I didn’t see much of this match as it was during intermission and I had to go use the rest room.  I came back and the two were in the ring, Danny Duggan had a green singlet akin to Wrestlemania 5 and Mr. Perfect vs. The Blue Blazer.  Arik Cannon is another guy I’m familiar with as he’s a local guy in Minnesota, I’ve reffed a few matches of his and I’ve been around him a lot so I know what to expect out of him.  From my vantage point I could tell that Cannon was pretty much controlling the match and feeding Duggan his spots but it was a decent match from what I saw of it and Cannon got the win with a modified Suplex variation.

Result: Arik Cannon defeated Danny Duggan via Suplex variant.

Match 5
Truth Martini vs. ODB

Thoughts: This was dubbed as a “Women of Honor” match although only one participant in said match was an actual woman.  My guess is they had someone lined up and they had to cancel last minute or this was the plan all a long.  Either way the concept of the match was weird given the announcement and the match we got.  This was pretty much a Truth Martini ass whipping courtesy of ODB but it was very entertaining.  I had my doubts about this one but it exceeded my expectations but lets be honest my expectations can’t be very high when they change things on the fly.  Either way still a good match and I once again have to give props to Martini for getting in the ring and being willing to do work.  The match ended when Truth Martini got a momentary upper hand, The referee got distracted and Jay Lethal ran in and kicked ODB in the face to allow Truth to pick up the victory.  That’s literally the only thing that Truth did in this match otherwise it was all ODB up until the end.

Result: Truth Martini defeated ODB via pinfall after Jay Lethal runs in and hits ODB with the Lethal Injection.

Match 6
Silas Young vs. Roderick Strong

Thoughts: This match was awesome, Silas Young did everything he could in order to hang with “Mr. ROH” and he did a great job at doing it.  A lot of people tend to sleep on Silas Young’s in ring ability but he’s very capable and every time he’s in Hopkins or anywhere I’ve seen him for that matter he puts on a hell of a show both in the ring and with his body language and mannerisms.   There was a kid a few seats down from where I was seated who was yelling at Todd Sinclair the entire time and appeared to be a huge Roderick Strong fan.  I love seeing stuff like that because it reminds me that wrestling is still real to some people and that contrary to popular belief (and something Triple H once said) Kayfabe is NOT dead to all people.  Anyways Roderick Strong won the match after running off of the rope and hitting Silas Young with the Sick kick to pick up the win via pinfall.

Result: Roderick Strong defeated Silas Young via Pinfall after the Sick Kick.

Match 7
War Machine (Hanson and Raymond Rowe) vs. The Briscoe Brothers

Thoughts: This was another hell of a match, I really was excited to see this one in person because it had two guys in it from the high stakes fatal four way match that I saw in Vegas for the World Title in Hanson and current ROH World Champion Jay Briscoe.  It was also nice to see Raymond Rowe back in the ring because as of March 1st and the 13th Anniversary he still wasn’t back to the grind of wrestling.  These guys went all over the place in the match and Hanson even managed to kick out of a Jay Driller during the entire thing.  If it was a perfect world and I had my way nobody would kick out of that move ever but I digress.  Mark Briscoe did all of this crazy stuff too the Redneck Kung Fu and even the diving elbow off of the apron onto the floor.  The finish came when Jay Briscoe hit Hanson with 2nd Jay Driller to pick up the win via pinfall.

Result: The Briscoe Brothers defeated War Machine via pinfall after a Jay Driller from Jay to Hanson.

From here we go to the main event of the evening.

Main Event – Match 8
Kyle O’Reilly vs. Jay Lethal {C}
ROH World Television Championship Match

Thoughts: This gets my vote for match of the night, there were some really good matches on this show but this one was by far the best in my humble opinion.  These two went all out from the first bell to the last bell.  It was great to not only see Kyle O’Reilly get a World TV Title shot but it was also great to see the Television Championship defended in the main event by the “greatest first generation wrestler alive” in Jay Lethal.  This match was very back and forth and it looked like Kyle O’Reilly was going to win the match and perhaps the title (although I should have known better).  At one point in the match Kyle caught Lethal with an armbar and had it in pretty deep before Lethal made it to the ropes to save himself the match.  The two would wrestle some more until O’Reilly locked on the same maneuver but instead of making it to the ropes Todd Sinclair called for the bell to signify a 30 minute broadway (time limit draw)

Result: Time limit draw (30 Minutes) as a result Jay Lethal keeps the Television Championship.

I hope this match makes air on TV and if that’s the case I hope we see more matches from O’Reilly and Lethal.  This match was very good but I feel it could be leading to Kyle O’Reilly perhaps winning the TV title at some point.  It may not happen because he’s in a tag team with Bobby Fish but I would like to think of it as a possibility in the future.  Either way I would like to see Jay Lethal lose the ROH World TV title not because I don’t like him (that’s far from the case I think the guy is awesome) but because I believe Jay Lethal will be the guy to dethrone Jay Briscoe and win the ROH World Title.  In order to do so he’ll probably have to drop the TV title and if that happens I hope they book a triple threat match so Lethal doesn’t have to be pinned to lose the title.  That way Lethal doesn’t get pinned and it still makes him look good going into the World Title picture.

After the match was over, both guys wanted five more minutes however it didn’t happen.  This brought out Jay Briscoe who told Kyle O’Reilly that if he wanted five more minutes that Jay Briscoe would put his World Title on the line right here right now.  The bell rang to start the match (O’Reilly vs. Briscoe for the world title) but as soon as it did Jay Lethal ran into the ring and hit Jay Briscoe with the Lethal Injection to cause a disqualification.  This is leading to something, now it’s up to us as fans to sit back and see where it’s going.

This brought out ODB who earlier in the night lost to Truth Martini, she wasted no time in going after him.  She attacked him and positioned him on a table in the ring and dove off of the top rope to put him through it but the table didn’t break.  Instead one of the legs of the table broke so they propped it up in the corner and Jay Briscoe drove Truth Martini through the table as the show drew to a close.

And that will do it for me and this bonus review of sorts, I figured If I couldn’t review last night’s ROH show (which as of now I still have yet to see) I’d do ya one better and review the show that I went to.  This kind of presents a future problem though because if any of these matches air as part of ROH TV I am not going to review them again so it will create a bit of a hole in my review history for a few weeks.  

Make sure to follow me on twitter @Headliner5 and also make sure to follow the official Eyes On The Ring account @EyesOnTheRing.  Don’t forget to check out EyesOnTheRing.com for more of these reviews from myself as well as everything else from the entire EOTR Team.

In closing make sure to check out Eyes On The Ring radio each and every Sunday night as we bring you all of the latest news and views from the week in wrestling.  Last but not least be sure to head on over to Facebook.com/EyesOnTheRing and like us.  For now I am Nathan saying so long Ringers and make sure to keep your Eyes On The Ring.

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Eyes on the Ring 10:53 AM  No comment

ROH Review: 3/14/15

Ring Of Honor Wrestling Review 3/14/15
By Nathan Neumann, Twitter @Headliner5

Hello Ringers, Nathan here with another ROH TV review which has become a signature of mine for Eyes On The Ring. We are now two weeks removed from the 13th Anniversary show and things are gaining steam going into the next IPPV offering, Supercard of Honor IX. The show had only two matches this week. But as I've said beforelonger, less matches usually means we get longer, better quality matches. Although sometimes lengthy matches don't always equate to equal quality in said matches. We pan around the William J. Myers Pavilion in Baltimore, Maryland and then head to the commentary booth where Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino welcome us to the show and send us over to the ring for the first of only two matches for the night.

Match 1
Matt Sydal and ACH vs. Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian

Thoughts: This match was pretty fast paced to the point where it was hard to take notes during. However, I'll do the best I can. 

Daniels starts off the action against Matt Sydal and quickly grounds the high flyer. From there, Daniels hits one of many moonsaults to come to score a near fall on Sydal. Sydal crawls over to his corner and tags in his partner ACH, meanwhile Daniels tags in Kazarian. ACH immediately hits Kazarian with a picture perfect dropkick to pick up a near fall. Daniels tags back in and hits a moonsault to the outside on ACH.  

Daniels grabs Sydal, who, at this point, is on the ground on the outside and sends him barreling into the protective wall at ringside. Daniels picks ACH up and tosses him back in the ring, which allows his partner Kazarian deliver a drop kick to pick up a near fall. Kazarian tags in Daniels and Daniels hits ACH with a side suplex for a near fall. Kazarian gets tagged back in and hits ACH with a leg drop while ACH is grounded to pick up the near fall. ACH recovers long enough to tag in Sydal who comes into the ring, he grabs both Kazarian and Daniels and delivers a combination chin breaker, leg drop.  Both Kazarian and Daniels go down and Sydal covers Kazarian for a near fall. 

ACH then climbs to the top rope and hits a double foot stomp off of the top to the back of Daniels head while Daniels was leaning forward in the ring to pick up a near fall.  Daniels rolls to the outside of the ring and ACH capitalizes by hitting him with a vaulting body press to the outside to Daniels, which brings out one of the members of the Knights Of The Rising Dawn. The KRD member distracts Sydal long enough for Daniels and Kazarian to capitalize and finish the match off with a double team back suplex/Jawbreaker combo for the deciding fall.

Result: Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian defeat ACH and Matt Sydal after a double team suplex/Jawbreaker combo.

Match Rating: ** 

Back from commercial and the ROH World Champion Jay Briscoe makes his way out to the ring with two championship belts. The first is the traditional ROH World Championship and the second is his personalized "Redneck" World Title which was recovered by ODB at the conclusion of her match with Maria at the 13th Anniversary show (I think it's actually a new version of the title...but I'm going with what ROH is telling me).

Jay Briscoe says that he successfully retained his title at the 13th Anniversary show against three very formidable opponents.  He wants to know whom his next challenger will be. This brings out Samoa Joe.

Samoa Joe gets into the ring and grabs a microphone, he says that both of the Briscoe's have manned up since Joe left the company. Joe then goes on to say that he wants a World Title match with Jay Briscoe at Supercard Of Honor IX.  From here, Jimmy Jacobs makes his way down to the ring and gets on a microphone, he berates Samoa Joe for leaving Ring Of Honor when the company needed him the most. Jacobs then goes on to say that Joe is no longer relevant in ROH because the last person he defeated in the company was Tyler Black, which happened years ago. Jimmy then says he wants a title shot and says that things are changing and something has to give and that something is the ROH World Title.

Thoughts: This overall was a decent segment, as everyone involved got to say what they needed to say which made for a great segment and exchange between the three. I'm not sure where Jacobs fits into the business of Joe and Jay but I'm interested to see where it will lead.

From here we go to the second match of the night, which also happened to be the main event of the night.

Main Event - Match 2
Matt Taven and Michael Bennett vs. Matt and Nick Jackson

Thoughts: The match starts off fast as both teams look to gain the advantage early on.  They feel each other out for a bit until The Young Bucks hit the first real move of the match after hitting a duel dropsaults to Michael Bennett.  Bennett manages to come back and waits for Nick to get out of the ring; from here Bennett hits a dropkick to Matt to pick up a near fall. Matt Jackson recovers and Michael Bennett tags in Matt Taven. 

Taven comes in and Matt capitalizes quickly with a flurry of punches, which forces Taven into the corner.  From here Matt (Jackson) grabs Taven and comes off of the top rope with a diamond dust on Taven for the near fall. Taven kicks out and Matt Jackson turns his attention to Michael Bennett who is on the outside of the ring by hitting him with a moonsault. Taven who has since recovered runs off of the ropes inside of the ring and launches himself to the outside of the ring to take out Matt Jackson. 

Taven and Bennett roll the fallen Matt Jackson into the ring and Bennett hits a twist of fate and Matt Taven who at this point is positioned on the top rope comes off with a senton splash which gets a near fall. Taven gets up and Bennett comes off of the ropes with a spear attempt on Nick Jackson but Nick moves out of the way which causes Bennett to spear Taven his own partner. The Young Bucks get the upper hand and go for a spike piledriver on Bennett but as they are coming down to complete the move Matt Jackson gets kicked in the face.

This brings out one of the members of the Knights Of The Rising Dawn who distracts Nick Jackson just long enough for both Bennett and Taven to capitalize by hitting Matt Jackson with a spike piledriver allowing The Kingdom to pick up the win. In defeating the Young Bucks, Matt Taven and Michael Bennett have earned a future shot at the ROH World Tag Team Titles, which will come against reDRagon at Super Card Of Honor IX.

Result: Matt Taven and Michael Bennett defeat The Young Bucks via top rope spike piledriver.

Match Rating: **3/4

After the match, the Kingdom celebrates their hard fought win as another episode of Ring Of Honor wrestling television comes to an end which in turn brings an end to this review.

In closing be sure to follow @EyesOnTheRing on twitter as well as @ElitePodcastNet and get in line with the #EPNERA. The Elite Podcast Network is growing by the day and we just added 4 Corners Radio to the great selection of shows and coverage that are at your disposal.  Also be sure to follow myself @Headliner5 and check out EyesOnTheRing.com for my future ROH reviews as well as other great content from the rest of the EOTR team.  

In closing be sure to check out the radio show each and every Sunday night over at blogtalkradio.com/ElitePodcastNetwork at 11:00pm Eastern Time.  Last but certainly not least be sure to like us on facebook at Facebook.com/EyesOnTheRing.  For now this has been Nathan saying so long and I will see you right back here next week for another one of my Ring Of Honor reviews.

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Eyes on the Ring 10:45 AM  No comment

ROH 13th Anniversary Review

Ring Of Honor 13th Anniversary show review
By Nathan Neumann, Twitter: @Headliner5

Hello ringers, it is I, Nathan your Ring Of Honor guy for Eyes On The Ring, here to provide you with my latest and greatest review.  I was live in attendance for this show at the Orleans hotel in Las Vegas Nevada, so it’s only appropriate that I write the review for this show.  I would like to thank Jon for handling the predictions for this show this past week. I would have liked to jump in, but I was super busy. Because of that, this is another reason why I feel this review was made for me to write other than the fact that I WAS THERE!

The show started with a brief video intro. The video had a Las Vegas theme and featured a voice over by Steve Corino as it cuts to shots of various ROH performers throughout the package  We see a birds eye view shot of the Las Vegas strip as we head into the arena and are greeted at ringside by Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino. Kelly and Corino proceed to run through the matches and cleanse our pallet for what we were about to witness.

From here we go to the opening match.

Match 1
Cedric Alexander vs. Matt Sydal

The match starts with the Code of Honor as Cedric grabbed Sydal and pulled him towards as the two talked trash. Sydal hit a beautiful flying knee press from the ring apron to Alexander on the floor.  From there, Alexander took control as we went back into the ring where he slowed the pace of the match down. Alexander put in a few kicks to Sydal and then looked out to the crowd as they booed in response.  Sydal came back with a flurry of kicks and put the exclamation point on that sequence with a dropkick. Sydal set up for a standing moonsault, however Alexander rolled him up prior to Sydal hitting the move. From there, Sydal was able to properly execute the move to get a two count. Sydal delivers a pump handle slam to get another two count at about 7:00.  The fans began chanting “This is awesome.”  Alexander came back with a kick from the second rope and followed it up with a powerbomb for a near fall at the 7:30 mark. From there the two recovered and traded chops in the middle of the ring.  Alexander dodged a kick from Sydal and dropped Sydal onto his knee and covered him for a close two count, which seemed to irritate Alexander. Sydal comes back with a knee press for a two count.  A kick from Alexander doesn’t connect which causes him to crash and burn in the corner. Sydal hit a shooting star press to pick up the win. After the match, Alexander reluctantly shook Sydal’s hand and appeared to not be happy with the loss.  It will be interesting to see where Alexander goes from here.

Winner: Matt Sydal via pinfall with a shooting star press.

Rating:****

A perfect way to start off the night and set the tone for what the show would become. The two men told a perfect story and it would appear that Matt Sydal is once again 100%, which is good to see because it’s been a while since he has been able to say that.

From here we go into a Moose video package followed by a promo from Mark Briscoe. He talked about how long he has been wrestling and that while he was here, Moose was in the NFL. He said Moose Hunting season has begun.

Match 2
Mark Briscoe vs. Moose

Briscoe starts off by connecting with a forearm off of the second rope, but Moose was able to maintain his balance. About a minute later, Moose sets Briscoe up in a seated position on the top rope and throws a nice dropkick that knocked Briscoe out to the ringside area. Moose follows Briscoe to the floor, grabbing him by the legs, and throws him into the guardrail three times with a giant swing.

Back in the ring and Moose hits an awkward looking running head butt  for a meaningless two count from the referee. Moose ran at Briscoe, who held the ropes down, which caused Moose to fall to the outside of the ring and land on the floor. Briscoe jumped towards Moose from the ring apron, but was caught and thrown into the barricade with a fall away slam.

Briscoe comes back and kicks Moose to the outside of the ring through the ropes. Briscoe followed it up with a running flipping neckbreaker from the ring apron that took Moose out to the floor.  Briscoe recovered and followed it up with a Cactus Jack elbow drop off of the ring apron to Moose. Back in the ring, Moose recovers long enough to hit his flipping spear on Mark Briscoe to cover him for the win.

After the match Mark Briscoe went to shake the hand of Moose, and while it looked like the Big Man was about to respond, Veda Scott stopped him from doing so.

Winner: Moose via pinfall after a Flipping Spear

Rating: **

From here we see a graphic of the next match which is the Triple Threat tag match. The Kingdom made their way out to the ring followed by the Addiction.  Karl Anderson comes to the ring without Doc Gallows and grabs a microphone to inform the crowd that his partner couldn’t be there due to travel issues. Ring Of Honor formally announced this a few hours before showtime, but this announcement from Anderson confirmed what we pretty much already knew.  Anderson said he was a man short, but that he got super drunk last night and feels great.  He said that people have been asking him who his replacement partner is going to be, but that he’s Bullet Club for life and because of that doesn’t need a partner and will go at this match solo.

Match 3
Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian vs. Mike Bennett and Matt Taven vs. Karl Anderson in a Triple Threat tag team match

According to the rules of this match and all triple threat tag team matches, there are only to be two legal men inside of the ring at a time which places one full team on the apron at any given time during the match.  I’ve always hated triple threat tag team matches for this reason because the formula is a bit off to me. This created a new problem in this match with Doc Gallows not being there. Because Karl Anderson didn’t have a partner, he was pretty much stuck outside of the ring for most of it. For this reason, this match didn’t work well with me, but it’s not ROH’s fault, as this is probably not what was originally booked.

Daniels went to tag Kazarian, but he was knocked from the apron, so Daniels tagged in Anderson to a great reaction from the live crowd.  Kazarian eventually ended up being tagged in and came in with a flurry of offense on multiple wrestlers. Kazarian slingshotted Anderson into the ring and hit him with an Ace Crusher on the way down for a near fall. Taven came in and hit Anderson with a kick and then Bennett hit a spear on Anderson.  The finish of the match came when The Kingdom hit a spike piledriver on Karl Anderson for the win.

After the match the Kingdom posed with Anderson’s half of the NJPW Heavyweight Tag Team Titles over Anderson, who was still down on the mat.

Winner: Mike Bennett and Matt Taven via pinfall after a Spike Piledriver on Karl Anderson

Rating: **1/4

From here a video package aired to hype up the next match, which was BJ Whitmer taking on Roderick Strong.

Match 4
Roderick Strong vs. BJ Whitmer (w/Adam Page and Jimmy Jacobs)

The match starts and Strong wastes no time going after Whitmer with punches. The two brawl initially and Strong gets the best of the exchange. After this, Whitmer hits a beautiful spinebuster on Strong.  From here, Whitmer took control on offense and taunted Strong by slapping him in the face twice. Strong came back with a kick to Whitmer’s head when Whitmer was on the second rope. Strong then followed up with a superplex. Strong executes a nice running closeline and follows it up with a drop kick.


Whitmer comes back with a fisherman’s suplex and receives a two count for his efforts. Strong came back by taking out Page, who was at ringside, with a kick and then caught Whitmer with a side kick for a near fall.  The two men make their way over to the ropes and Whitmer hits a facebuster for a two count. Strong recovers and comes back with a jumping knee, a forearm smash, another jumping knee and puts the exclamation point on with a Strong Breaker for a clean victory.

Winner: Roderick Strong via pinfall after a Strong Breaker

Match Rating: *1/2

This match to me was the weakest of the show and in the end really seemed pointless. The Decade members were at ringside, but didn’t do anything and stood by looking like morons while Roderick got the clean win. I honestly thought the booking of the whole thing was weird and it could have been executed a lot better.

From here we go to video package hyping the next match, which was the women’s match. It focused on Maria, who called ODB a man and that she was going to be the MANipulator.  She said that ODB can underestimate her all she wants, but that she is the queen and ROH is her castle.

Maria makes her way out to the ring carrying the “Title Of Love”. ODB and Mark Briscoe make their way out next.  Maria grabbed the mic and said that it’s bittersweet for her because she really wanted to wrestle this match.  She goes on to say that she met with a doctor and found out that SHE’S PREGNANT. Suddenly Bennett appeared and superkicked Mark Briscoe and Maria attacked ODB.

Match 5
Maria Kanellis (w/ Michael Bennett) vs. ODB (w/Mark Briscoe)

The match starts and Maria catches ODB with a super kick for an almost immediate two count. Bennett enters the ring and tries to superkick ODB but ODB ducked it and Bennett inadvertently hit Maria with the kick.  ODB threw Maria onto Bennett and Briscoe who were both at ringside, then dove off of the top rope onto Maria and Bennett and all three crashed to the floor. About a minute later, Bennett had another miscommunication with Maria and speared her off of the ring apron.  Outside of the ring,  Briscoe perched Bennett up on his shoulders and ODB came off of the ring apron for a closeline/Doomsday Device on the floor, which drew “holy shit” chants from the audience.  Back in the ring ODB puts Maria on her shoulders and delivers a Death Valley Driver which gets ODB the win via pinfall.

Winner: ODB via Pinfall after a Death Valley Driver

Match Rating: *1/2

Note On The Match Rating: A *1/2 star rating isn’t a good rating by any means, but I’ll give these women their due. They did what they could to put on the best match that they were capable of putting on, so I commend them for that. This being a one and a half star match still makes it better than anything that the Divas can produce out of WWE.

Match 6
A.J. Styles vs. ACH

Styles made his way out to the ring without the IWGP Heavyweight Title, but he got a great reaction from the crowd. Both wrestlers were greeted with streamers flying into the ring during their respective entrances. The fans began dueling chants for both men as the two shook hands and the bell rang for the match to start.

They started off by trading arm drags and takedowns, then Styles goes for the Styles Clash but ACH manages to slip away. ACH hits a flurry of offense and a short time later, as ACH is coming off of the ropes, he gets hit with a dropkick from A.J. ACH recovers and goes for a running springboard move, but Styles grabbed the ropes which caused ACH to CRASH AND BURN!

ACH hits a corkscrew senton over the top rope onto Styles on the Floor.  Later in the match, Styles performed his springboard forearm onto ACH.  About a half a minute later, ACH came back with a kick to the face, but Styles was able to maintain control with a snap suplex in the corner.

Styles picked ACH up and slammed him down. ACH grabbed the leg of Styles, but Styles fought him off and went to the top rope, then ACH recovered and knocked Styles down with a kick. ACH made his way to the ropes but Styles recovered and chopped him.  Styles goes for the Pele kick, but ACH manages to move out of the way and follow it up with a double stomp.

ACH makes his way to the top rope and goes for a 450 Splash, but Styles avoided it and applied the Calf Killer.  ACH rolls up Styles for a pin attempt to break the hold, which gets a two from the referee. ACH and AJ fight for position until Styles hits a nasty DDT. From there, Styles follows it up with the Styles Clash to score the pinfall and pick up the victory.

Winner: A.J. Styles via Pinfall after the Styles Clash

Match Rating: ****1/2

This is the first time since 2006 that I was able to see AJ Styles wrestle live and it more than lived up to my expectations.

From there we see a video package to set up the next match for the Tag Team Titles. The entrances for the match took place and Rocky Romero made his way down to the commentary booth.  ReDRagon were accompanied to the ring by MMA fighter Shayna Baszler, fresh off of Ronda Rousey’s 14 second victory against Cat Zingano the night before at UFC 184.

Match 7
The Young Bucks vs. Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly (w/Shayna Baszler) {C}
ROH World Tag Team Championship Match

Matt Jackson and Kyle O’Reilly both took knees from their opponents partners while coming off of the ropes, which caused both to turn and knock their respective opponents off of the ring apron.

The Bucks got the upper hand on reDRagon early in the match while on the floor.  They went back into the ring and celebrated, while Baszler stood on the apron and crotch chopped the Bucks. Fish made his way back into the ring and took out both Bucks  thanks to the distraction.

The Knights Of The Rising Dawn made their presence known in the crowd and were right by me.  Meanwhile back in the ring, Nick makes the tag to Matt. Matt begins working over O’Reilly and hits Fish with a dropkick to send him through the ropes to the outside.  Matt gets O’Reilly down in the ring and goes to the floor and superkicks Fish.  Back in the ring Matt sets up for a top rope move but O’Reilly avoids it by making his way out to the floor.

O’Reilly catches Matt with an armbar over the top rope, but Nick breaks it up with a kick. From there, Nick does a flip off of the top rope and onto Fish, who was positioned on Matt’s knees.  The Bucks line up for superkicks but Fish gets out of the ring by rolling to the floor, so that him and O’Reilly can both catch their breath. The Bucks hit a superkick/powerbomb combination that sends Fish into O’Reilly who was already against the barricade.

One of the Bucks dives onto O’Reilly, but O’Reilly catches him in a triangle on the way down. The Bucks team up and break the hold, then Fish hits a moonsault off of the top rope and broke up a pinfall attempt from the Bucks. Fish brought O’Reilly to their corner for a tag, but the Bucks take out Fish, as O’Reilly hits a double leg whip on both Bucks.  O’Reilly gets superkicked through the ropes and into the waiting arms of Matt Jackson.

From here, the Bucks hit the Meltzer Driver on the floor. Back in the ring, the Bucks got the upperhand on Fish and delivered reDRagon’s signature move “Chasing The Dragon” for a near fall.

About a minute later, the Bucks had the match won, but Shayna Baszler pulled the referee to the outside of the ring. The Bucks followed out to the floor and she told them to bring it on.  O’Reilly hit the Bucks with knees from the ring. Meanwhile back inside, Fish executes a superplex, then he and O’Reilly hit Chasing The Dragon before Nick kicks out at two.

Matt made it to his feet and did the “suck it” motion, but reDRagon came back and threw Matt out to ringside.  Fish told the fans to suck it before he and O’Reilly hit Chasing The Dragon again on Nick for the win.

Winner and Still ROH World Tag Team Champions Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly via pinfall after Chasing The Dragon

Match Rating: ****3/4

This match, although very good didn’t top their match at War Of The Worlds from May of last year.  That match set the bar really high, and while I think they wanted to top it, there was no way they could. This was a great match, and this is coming from someone who isn’t a fan of the Young Bucks at all.

Next, we get a video package which sets up the ROH World Television Championship Match.

Match 8
Alberto El Patron vs. Jay Lethal (w/Truth Martini and Jay Diesel)
ROH World Television Championship Match



Bobby Cruise mentioned that Jay Lethal is the “greatest first generation wrestler," during the ring introductions. El Patron and Jay Lethal went to shake hands to signify the start of the match, but Lethal pulled back his hand after the handshake was complete. J Diesel shoved El Patron who then superkicked J out of the ring.  El Patron and Lethal fought each other to ringside where Lethal crashed into the barricade three times.

Lethal took control once the two returned to the ring and caught El Patron with a few kicks.  Lethal landed some punches to the head of El Patron, but moments later, El Patron caught Lethal with a Cross Arm Breaker over the top rope.  Diesel distracted Patron briefly to allow Lethal to superplex El Patron off of the rope for a two count.

From here, the red masked men made their presence known once again and distracted El Patron. Moments later, Lethal locked in an Armbar on El Patron and sent him to the floor before hitting him with a few dives. Lethal started bleeding from the mouth. A dive from Lethal knocked Patron into the front row. The referee began his count, but before El Patron could get back in the ring completely, Lethal started putting the boots to his  opponent.

At 9 and a quarter, Patron caught Lethal in the tree of woe and followed it up by jumping off the top rope with a double foot stomp. Alberto attempted a super kick but Lethal blocked it. From there, the two traded punches.  Lethal hit the Lethal combination for a two count and went up to the top, but was caught with a kick from El Patron on the way down.


Martini tried to interfere by hitting Patron with the Book Of Truth, but Patron was able to duck and put Truth in a cross arm breaker. Lethal dove onto Patron, but was caught in another cross arm breaker. From here, Truth distracted the referee and Lethal hit Patron with the Book of Truth to get a near fall. A minute later, Truth hit Patron with the book once again and Lethal was able to capitalize on it with the Lethal Injection for the win.

Winner and Still ROH World Television Champion Jay Lethal via pinfall after the Lethal Injection

Match Rating: ***

This match fell victim to poor placement, although if I were putting the show together, I wouldn’t know where to put this match because the card was so stacked. While I like having all three title matches back to back to back in order of importance, sometimes it doesn’t necessarily end up being a good idea due to crowd burn out. I’m really happy that I was not only able to see El Patron wrestle live in ROH, but that I was also able to meet the guy because he is a class act in every sense of the phrase.

Now, Nigel McGuinness joins the broadcast team.

Samoa Joe’s entrance music played and the crowd went bonkers with the pop of the night. I’m surprised my head didn’t explode. Joe made his way to the ring wearing street clothes and slapped hands with fans at ringside.    The fans chanted “Welcome Back” and Joe responded by asking “Who says you can’t come home?”.

Joe went on to say that 13 years ago, ROH started in a crappy rec center in the worst part of Philadelphia. A group of wrestlers came together and started a movement to revitalize the business and bring true pro wrestling back. Joe says that they are now in Las Vegas for the 13th anniversary and that the revolution is both alive and well, which brought out a loud “Fuck TNA” chant.

Joe couldn’t help but smirk as he then turned his focus on the main event.  Joe went on to say that the four men in the match will go through hell because they believe in pro wrestling. He went on to say, “Just remember, whoever walks out of the ring with the belt, your ass belongs to me.” Joe starts to close out by yelling that he is back and he will be the ROH World Champion. He finishes his promo with “And I am Pro Wrestling.”  The fans chanted for Joe as he made his way to the back.

From here, we went into the ring entrances for the main event. Hanson made his way out to the ring followed by Ciampa, who entered with a metal mask and a black hood that looked awesome. Elgin made his entrance to crickets along to his terrible entrance music. ROH Champion Jay Briscoe made his way out last to a sizable reaction, as the broadcast team put over the fact that Jay Briscoe hasn’t been pinned in two years.

Main Event – Match 9
Hanson vs. Tommaso Ciampa vs. Michael Elgin vs. Jay Briscoe {C}
Four Corner Survival Match for the ROH World Championship



The three challengers wasted no time going right after Briscoe at the start of the match. Elgin quickly turned his attention towards the other two and it got down to the point where it was finally every man for himself. Ciampa and Briscoe went at it with a nice back and forth exchange, which ended with Briscoe clotheslining Ciampa.  Briscoe then clotheslined Hanson over the top rope and followed him out as the fans chanted “Man Up”.

Briscoe went under the ring to look for something and finally pulled out a table. Elgin hit a somersault off of the second rope onto the back of Ciampa’s head, where he was hanging over the ropes.  From there Elgin hits a double Death Valley Driver on both Ciampa and Briscoe, which was really cool to see and impressed the hell out of me.

There was a weird spot where Hanson was on all fours in the corner and Elgin slowly climbed his back awkwardly onto the second rope before hitting a double stomp. Briscoe got back into things with a sunset flip powerbomb attempt on Elgin, who held the ropes to go for a splash. However, Briscoe moved out of the way, which caused  Elgin to sit down on the apron.  Ciampa got back into it with a near fall on Briscoe and Elgin broke it up by blasting Ciampa with a kick, followed by Hanson kicking Elgin.

Over in the corner, Hanson stacked Ciampa and Briscoe on top of one another and then slammed his fist down ten times as the fans counted in unison. Briscoe came back by hitting a Death Valley Driver to Hanson onto Ciampa in the corner.  Briscoe threw some uppercuts at Elgin and then tried going for a kick but Elgin caught his leg and hit a spinning closeline.  Briscoe regained control briefly and it was there that we noticed that he was bleeding a bit from the right side of his face.

Briscoe attempted to go up to the top,  but Ciampa made sure it didn’t happen.  Hanson pulled Ciampa down, but Ciampa hit him with a clothesline and performed a move on Briscoe off of the second rope for a two count.  Ciampa attempted to dive onto Elgin, who caught him and performed a High Cross bomb into the guardrail, which got a loud “Holy Shit” chant. Briscoe flipped over the top rope onto Elgin.  Hanson then came off the top with a flip onto both Briscoe and Elgin on the floor.

Hanson rolled Briscoe to the inside of the ring, and Briscoe accidentally bumped the referee off of the ring apron after a brief back and forth. I honestly hope Todd Sinclair is okay after that because it looked rough.  With the referee being down, Hanson hit a move but there was nobody there to count the pinfall. Then the three red masked men known as The Knights Of The Rising Dawn hit the ring and took turns executing moves on Briscoe, Ciampa and finally Hanson. They were doing all of the Kingdom’s moves and if they are the Kingdom, then that’s really dumb and pointless.

Ray Rowe hit the ring and two of the masked man immediately took the high road. Rowe tossed the third to ringside and the masked man ran through the crowd and Rowe followed through the crowd after him.

From here Elgin grabbed Briscoe and performed a Jay Driller from the ring apron through a table on the floor which looked extremely unsafe, so again, I hope Briscoe is okay. Elgin threw Briscoe inside of the ring and covered him, but the referee was still down at ringside.

Elgin went under the ring and grabbed a chair from a pile of streamers. Elgin set Briscoe’s head on the chair and picked up another for a Conchairto, but Nigel McGuinness left the broadcast booth to make sure that it didn’t happen.  Elgin listened to McGuinness, but tried it again when Nigel wasn’t looking. However, Nigel somehow managed to see it and stopped him again. It looked like Elgin was going to hit Nigel with a chair but Ciampa intervened. This whole thing didn’t make sense to me, given the history that Nigel and Ciampa have had recently. It made zero sense from a storyline perspective.

Meanwhile Ciampa had another pinfall but there was still no ref. Referee Paul Turner came out and took over the match for the fallen Todd Sinclair.  Ciampa hit a powerbomb on Elgin and had him pinned, but Briscoe broke it up. Ciampa hit Project Ciampa on Briscoe who kicked out at two and 9/10ths. Elgin recovered and hit an Elgin Bomb on Ciampa but it was broken up by Briscoe.  Elgin rolled up Briscoe and held his tights, but Briscoe still managed to kick out. Hanson ran in to hit the spin kick of doom on Briscoe (I hate that move. Not so much the move itself, but a guy as big as Hanson should have a different finisher) who fell on Ciampa.  Elgin pulled Hanson from the ring and Briscoe got the pinfall victory after pinning Ciampa to retain the ROH World Championship.

Winner and Still ROH World Champion Jay Briscoe by pinfall after falling on top of Ciampa.

Match Rating: **3/4

After the match Elgin was pissed, and as Samoa Joe walked out, he stopped to have a brief moment with a smirking Elgin. Joe entered the ring and picked up the ROH World Title to get a good look at it.  Joe shoved the belt into Briscoe’s chest and then shook his hand. Joe pulled Briscoe towards him for a stare down. As the two locked eyes, Briscoe held up the ROH World Title as the show came to a close.

This match was very weird to me as far as the booking was concerned. It was the match that I was most looking forward to, and it didn’t live up to the hype in my opinion. It was passable, but for the most part it didn’t work from a booking and psychological stand point.

Finally, to close the show, a video hypes that ROH returns to Pay Per View for Best In The World, where every title will be on the line Friday June 19th from New York City.


Overall I enjoyed this show a lot. It may be the best live wrestling show I have ever been to, and that’s on a resume that includes a live ECW pay per view and a Wrestlemania, which says a lot for how good this show really was. Was it a perfect show?  Absolutely not, but it did what it needed to do. I’m glad I was able to go to Vegas to see the show live and I’m happy to be able to bring you this review.

I apologize for the chore of the read as this ended up being over ten pages long, which doubled my NXT Rival Review.


However, until next time ringers, make sure to keep your eyes on EyesOnTheRing.com for all the latest and greatest news, views and results within the world of professional wrestling from myself and the rest of the team.

Also make sure to follow @EyesOnTheRing on Twitter, where you can also follow me @Headliner5.  I would like to know what you thought of the show if you got to see it, so be sure and let me know.  Don’t forget to tune into our weekly radio show each and every Sunday night over at Blogtalkradio.com/ElitePodcastNetwork at 11:00pm Eastern Time. Finally make sure to like us on facebook over at Facebook.com/EyesOnTheRing and support our merchandise over at www.dartees.spreadshirt.com as well.

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Nathan's ROH Review 2/21/2015

By Nathan Neumann, Twitter @Headliner5

Hello Ringers, another week down and another review from myself. We are now one week away from ROH’s 13th Anniversary show which will be live on PPV on Sunday March 1st.  I will be there live and will hopefully write a review of that PPV when I get back from my trip for EyesontheRing.com. This week’s show was what WWE fans commonly know as the “go-home show.” Quite frankly, the one hour go-home show that we got on Saturday night was a lot better than the three hours of TV that we got last week on RAW headed into Fast Lane.

Now you may be wondering, “but Nathan there’s another Saturday before March 1st isn’t there?” Well, yes...but ROH isn’t doing a normal show next week. They will be doing an in-studio show to hype the PPV which means that there will not be a review next week.  But enough of my rambling because eventually I have to get in to talking about the wrestling so let’s get down to business.
This week’s show kicks off with Alberto El Patron making his way to the ring for a match with ACH. We are joined this week on commentary by Truth Martini who is filling in for the absent Steve Corino.

Match 1
ACH vs. Alberto El Patron

Thoughts: The two lock up and both men go immediately to the corner, ACH corners El Patron and begins chopping him but Alberto turns it around putting ACH in the corner where he delivers some of his patented kicks.  From there ACH dumps El Patron out of the ring and follows him out, El Patron hits ACH with an enziguri on the outside that echoed throughout the arena.  Back in the ring and ACH hits El Patron with a high cross body off of the top rope to score a near fall.  El Patron recovers and gets ACH in the corner and sets him up for a reverse suplex, which is successful on ACH for a near fall.

ACH recovers and makes his way to the top turnbuckle.  From here ACH hits a double stomp to the back of El Patron’s neck for a near fall.  El Patron recovers and takes over on the advantage and kicks ACH in the face when ACH is on his knees on the mat to score a near fall.  El Patron rolls to the outside and ACH comes off of the ropes and takes out Alberto with a corkscrew vaulting body press.  The finish came when both men were back in the ring.  Alberto El Patron grabbed ACH’s arm and locked on the cross arm breaker, which forced the tap out from ACH and allowed Alberto El Patron to pick up the submission victory.

Result: Alberto El Patron defeats ACH via submission with a cross arm breaker.

Match Rating: **1/2

Great showing from both El Patron and ACH. We already know what ACH can do inside of an ROH ring but now we are growing accustomed and ROH fans who may be seeing Alberto El Patron for the first time (if you’ve been living under a rock) are getting a good introduction to him.  El Patron will do great things for ROH (where the wrestling is the most important thing) and I look forward to seeing how he progresses as a talent in this company.

We then go to a video package, which shows The Briscoe brothers training with ODB ahead of their respective matches at the ROH 13th Anniversary show next weekend.
Back in the arena and we are set for our next match of the evening.

Match 2
Michael Elgin vs. Mark Briscoe

Thoughts: The match starts off with some red neck kung fu from Mark he knocks Elgin to the outside of the ring and goes for an Elbow drop from the apron to the floor on the outside of the ring but Elgin rolls back into the ring in order to prevent Briscoe from hitting the move.  Back in the ring and Elgin takes over when he gets on the top rope and hits a flipping leg drop to Briscoe who was hung up in the middle rope to get a two count.  Elgin hits an exploder suplex and goes to the top rope for a moonsault but it misses.  Briscoe recovers and hits an exploder suplex of his own for a near fall.

Mark picks Elgin up and hits a roll through Death Valley Driver.  Elgin recovers and hits a springboard foot stomp from the outside of the ring to the inside of the ring.  Elgin follows it up with a splash on the ground for a near fall.  Mark makes it to the top rope and jumps off but just as he’s about to hit Elgin, Elgin catches Briscoe with a powerbomb.  Elgin hangs on and picks Briscoe up for another powerbomb and then picks him up yet again this time to hit Mark with his brothers own move the Jay Driller to score the pinfall victory.

Result: Michael Elgin defeats Mark Briscoe via pinfall with a Jay Driller.

Match Rating: **1/2

Elgin then takes the turnbuckle rod (that somehow came disconnected from the ring) and tries to fish hook Mark’s mouth with it. Jay Briscoe runs in for the save of his brother. Elgin grabs the world title and hits Jay with it and poses with said belt. Tommaso Ciampa runs into the ring and knocks down Elgin and poses with the belt, which brings out Hanson. Hanson, Elgin, and Briscoe all make it out to the floor. Ciampa flies from the top rope to the outside of the ring to take out both Briscoe and Hanson with a splash...but Elgin side steps the move as to avoid it.  This brings an end to that whole thing. A good way to get people interested in the main event and perhaps ordering the PPV which if I wasn’t going to be there live this would have definitely sold me on ordering the show.

Main Event - Match 3
Roderick Strong vs. Jay Lethal
Non-Title match

Thoughts: Before the match can get underway, Jimmy Jacobs makes his way out to the ring to get a closer look at the man that BJ Whitmer will be facing come Sunday.  The match starts off in the ring with Roderick catching Lethal off of the top rope for a backbreaker, which he gets a near fall from.

Strong rolls to the outside of the ring which allows Lethal some time to recover and hit Strong with three consecutive suicide dives on the outside of the ring.  Back in the ring and Strong hits Lethal with an Olympic slam for a near fall.  Lethal recovers and hits the Lethal Combination and turns it into a Koji clutch to try and get a submission but Roderick makes it to the bottom rope to force the break. BJ Whitmer runs into the ring while the referee has his back turned and delivers an Exploder suplex to Roderick Strong first in the ring and another one on the floor.  From here the match is thrown out but later restarted, the two men reset and Roderick forces Lethal into a corner of the ring and sets him up on the top rope for a superplex which is successful and that gets a two count from the referee.

Roderick Strong locks Lethal in the Stronghold (Boston crab). But, Lethal makes it to the bottom rope to force the referee to break it. Jay Lethal recovers and makes it to the top rope, from there he hits the hail to the king but Roderick Strong manages to kick out at two. Roderick then recovers and runs off of the ropes and delivers a sick kick for a near fall. Jay Lethal manages to regain the upper hand and eventually wins the match after defeating Roderick Strong with the Lethal Injection.

Result: Jay Lethal defeats Roderick Strong via pinfall with a Lethal Injection.

Match Rating: **3/4

From here we cut randomly to the backstage area to see both Roderick Strong and BJ Whitmer beating on each other in the back. Meanwhile, back in the ring, El Patron runs down and starts pounding on Jay Lethal. Jay Lethal exits the ring to the outside and makes it up the ramp with Truth Martini and his TV title as the show goes off of the air for the week.

Good show a perfect way to send the fans into a PPV, they got a lot done in this hour and it shows how much time and effort they put into the hour of TV that they are allotted each and every week. That however will do it for me and this review of Ring Of Honor Wrestling television, just an FYI there will not be a review from me next week because 1. I’ll be in Vegas and 2. They are having a hype show for the PPV itself.

So until next time Ringers be sure and keep your eyes on EyesOnTheRing.com for all of the great news views and results within the wrestling world.  I am going to try to do a ROH 13th anniversary review once I get back but it may not get posted until later in the week if I do it at all (because I may not have time).  Make sure to follow @EyesOnTheRing on twitter where you can also follow me @Headliner5. Also be sure to check EyesOnTheRing.com for all things wrestling from myself and the rest of the team.  Finally don’t forget to tune into our weekly radio show each and every Sunday night over at blogtalkradio.com/ElitePodcastNetwork at 11:00pm Eastern Time.  Last but not least make sure and go like us on facebook at Facebook.com/EyesOnTheRing.

See you later Ringers.

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Eyes on the Ring 1:46 PM  No comment

Nathan's ROH TV Review 2/14/15

By: Nathan Neumann

Twitter: @Headliner5

Hello Eyes On The Ring readers. Another week means another review of Ring Of Honor Wrestling.  We are drawing closer to Las Vegas, Nevada and the 13th Anniversary show by the week (I’ll be there live and I can’t wait) and the event will be available for viewing live on Pay Per View.  This week’s show progressed us further down the road to the 13th anniversary.  

I should also mention that this is my  first ROH review as part of the brand new EyesOnTheRing.com. It’s quite an accomplishment from where we were when we first started to where we are now and I’m happy to be a part of it.

Now that all of the housekeeping is out of the way, lets get to the review shall we?
The show opens with the current ROH World Champion Jay Briscoe making his way to the announcer’s desk to join both Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino.  All three of the men that Briscoe will be facing at The ROH 13th Anniversary show will be in action tonight so he’s there to get a closer look. From there, Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino welcome us to the show, which is emanating from the 2300 arena (The former ECW Arena), which has gone through some extensive renovation.
We now head to the ring for the first match of the night.

Match 1
Jimmy Jacobs vs. Tommaso Ciampa

Result: Tommaso Ciampa defeats Jimmy Jacobs via referee stoppage.

Thoughts: As both guys were in the ring ready for the match to start, Ciampa went to the outside of the ring and started mouthing off to Jay Briscoe at the announcers table.  Meanwhile in the ring, Jimmy Jacobs gets sick of waiting for him to enter the ring, so he runs against the ropes and dives out through the top and middle rope to try and hit Ciampa, but Ciampa who has recently grabbed a chair throws it right at the face of the oncoming Jacobs. Back in the ring, the match finally gets underway and Jacobs delivers a flying head scissors which sent Ciampa through the ropes back to the outside of the ring. Jacobs gets on the apron and dives to the floor to hit a downed Ciampa with an elbow drop. As the two recover and get back in the ring, Jacobs positions Ciampa in the corner and hits a sliced bread for a near fall. Ciampa rolls back to the outside of the ring and is followed by Jacobs, as Ciampa takes control on the outside and delivers a few punches to the face, which puts Jacobs in a seated position right in front of the guardrail.  Ciampa runs to the opposite end and runs back at Jacobs full speed and delivers a knockout knee.  From here referee Todd Sinclair stepped in to stop the match.

Match Rating: **

This was the perfect way to build Ciampa as an unstoppable monster headed into his match in Vegas.  He’s the only guy I could realistically see defeating Jay Briscoe to win the title and that’s if there ends up being a title change.  Hanson is good but he’s nowhere near ready and is in the match as more of a place holder. and with the direction that Michael Elgin’s character has been headed as of late I don’t see him winning because it wouldn’t make much sense with the story they are trying to tell (although I’m still trying to figure out what that story is).
From here we go to the next match and out comes The Romantic Touch, it’s fitting that he was on the show considering it was Valentines Day and his character is perfect for it so I can’t complain.  Plus I like the gimmick even though I shouldn’t given that it’s a bit over the top and I don’t necessarily like that but they do it right with him.  Romantic Touch gets into the ring and there were two women with him who had a bottle of wine along with a few wine glasses.  Instead of drinking the wine from a glass like a gentleman he grabbed the bottle and chugged it, which was pretty funny.
From there Hanson made his way out to the ring and we are set for the next match.

Match 2
Hanson vs. The Romantic Touch
Result: Hanson defeats The Romantic Touch via pinfall with the Spin kick of doom.

Thoughts: There wasn’t much to this match at all. Romantic Touch had a piece of chocolate in his hand and when the bell rang he tried to hand it off to Hanson who was having nothing of it.  Hanson proceeded to deliver the spin kick of doom to The Romantic Touch, which sent the chocolate flying.  Hanson picks up the win via pinfall from here.

Match Rating: N/A. I can’t give this match a real rating because it wasn’t really that much of a match.
From here we go into the third match of the night.

Match 3
Moose vs. Michael Elgin

Result: No winner due to interference from Jay Briscoe, Tommaso Ciampa.

Thoughts: Michael Elgin made his entrance in a full Karate gi accompanied with weird music, I really don’t know what they are trying to accomplish with him at this point but I guess I’ll see where it goes. Elgin grabs Moose and lifts him up for a hanging vertical suplex where he had Moose up in the air for thirty seconds while the crowd was counting along. After said 30 seconds Elgin drops Moose but Moose immediately got up from the mat and dropkicks Elgin.  Moose takes over and delivers a running sit out powerbomb from the corner to the center of the ring for a near fall.  Elgin recovers and takes over on offense and downs Moose near the apron from here Elgin leaps over the top rope with a double foot stomp.  As Moose tries to recover Elgin ascends to the top rope and goes for a splash but Moose moves out of the way which causes Elgin to CRASH AND BURN.  Elgin recovers and whips Moose into the ropes; he catches an oncoming Moose with a pop up powerbomb.  Elgin hangs on and delivers another powerbomb after pulling Moose up from the ground, which gives Elgin a near fall when Moose kicks out at 2.  Elgin gets distracted when he goes after Jay Briscoe. Briscoe gets mad and it draws the champion into the ring.  From here Moose accidentally spears Briscoe and the referee calls for the bell to signal a DQ with no winner.

Match Rating: *3/4

Ciampa then runs to the ring and Elgin, Ciampa, and Briscoe start brawling.  Mark Briscoe runs to the ring and wastes no time diving out over the top rope onto everyone who was crowded around one another with the exception of Moose who remained in the ring.  Mark recovers and gets back in the ring and is immediately caught by Moose with a Spear back in the ring.  This might mean that we get Moose vs. Mark Briscoe at the 13th anniversary show, which will be weird...but at least Mark gets a spot on the card.  I honestly have no idea what happened to Hanson during all of this whether he did anything or completely disappeared because there was too much action going on to keep track of.
I didn’t really like this finish, not so much the finish itself but the way they accomplished it because it was a mess not to mention confusing because at first I wasn’t sure who got disqualified but I think it was a double DQ which I understand because they want to protect Moose and his undefeated streak while also protecting Elgin as he heads to the main event at the ROH 13th anniversary show.
This match probably would have gotten a better rating from me but the finish dragged it down a bit.

From there we get a lead up video to the Alberto El Patron vs. Jay Lethal match that will be taking place in Las Vegas at ROH’s 13th Anniversary Show.
Immediately after that we head straight into the main event.

Main Event – Match 4
Team ROH: Matt Sydal, ACH, and Tadarius Thomas vs.  Team Bullet Club: AJ Styles and The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson)

Result: The Bullet Club defeats Team ROH via pinfall after a Styles Clash/Duel Super kick combination.

Thoughts: The match started out very slow and there weren’t to many noteworthy things in the early going other than the fact that ACH can do a mean headlock takedown.  Matt Sydal who is the legal man at this point hits a spin kick to Styles and then grabs both of the Bucks by their respective heads to deliver a face buster/Flatliner combination.  AJ Styles recovers and hits Matt Sydal with a back breaker, The Bucks hit another double team maneuver where Matt delivers a neck breaker to Sydal, which puts Sydal on the waiting knee of Nick in a cool combination.  From here AJ Styles follows up with a jumping knee that sends Sydal off of Nick’s knee to the mat.  Sydal gets worked over a bit but manages to recover long enough to hit a desperation hurricanranna after which he tags in ACH.  ACH comes into the ring and wastes no time by hitting AJ Styles with a flying head scissors.  Nick Jackson who is on the apron springs onto the top rope and catches Cedric Alexander with a face buster.  A powerbomb double knee combination from Sydal and Alexander onto one of the Bucks gets team ROH a near fall.  The bucks recover and make it to their feet, the bucks hit Alexander with a double super kick and AJ hits Sydal with a Pele kick.  AJ and ACH both make it to the outside of the ring where ACH hits AJ with a hurricanranna.  Back in the ring The Young Bucks hit the Indytaker on Sydal followed by a Styles Clash.  Styles sets Sydal up for the Styles Clash.  From here the Young Bucks hit Sydal with Duel super kicks while Sydal is hanging upside down in the hands of AJ.  Once the Bucks hit their super kicks AJ Styles hits the Styles Clash on Sydal and rolls over in a pinning position to score the pinfall victory.

Match Rating: **3/4
This match was very good I actually enjoyed it for the most part but whenever the Young Bucks are in a match they always manage to go overboard on the amount of super kicks they hit per match.  I understand that that’s their gimmick but they’ve completely killed the meaning of that move for me on the indie scene.  Others contributed to doing this as well because a lot wrestlers on the indie scene do the move but the Bucks go overboard on too many occasions, which is one of many reasons why I don’t like them and why they don’t appeal to me as a wrestling fan.
That however will do it for me and this review of Ring Of Honor wrestling television.  This show did a lot of good things and had some very good progression towards the Pay Per View on March 1st.  I made mention of this to a friend of mine that I was watching the show with that I was enjoying the build to the PPV because they are doing it right.  That’s one problem I have with WWE nowadays because since the WWE Network launched on February 24 of last year PPV’s have seemed to lose their meaning a bit.  However this has a completely different feel to it and even I wasn’t going to be at the 13th anniversary show live I would gladly pay the price tag for the PPV because Ring Of Honor has done a great job in selling it to me.
I hope you enjoyed the read on the brand new website be sure to update your bookmarks and visit us often as we bring you all of the results, news, and views within the wrestling world.  Make sure to follow us on twitter @EyesOnTheRing where you can also follow me @Headliner5.  Be sure to check out EyesOnTheRing.com your source for all things wrestling.  Also don’t forget to tune into our weekly radio show each and every Sunday night over at blogtalkradio.com/ElitePodcastNetwork at 11:00pm Eastern Time.  Last but not least go like us on facebook at Facebook.com/EyesOnTheRing

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Eyes on the Ring 2:46 PM  No comment