Nathan's ROH Review - Aftershock Tour 7/11/15

Hello Ringers! Nathan here with another Ring of Honor review. We are doing something a bit different this week. I attended the ROH Aftershock Tour this weekend as they were in Hopkins, Minnesota. It was a pretty good show for the most part. Out of the four shows I’ve been to since they started running this venue, I’m not sure quite yet where this one ranks, but something about it felt like it lacked in some areas. But, I will get to that as the review goes on.

I went to this show with a friend of mine (the same friend I attend all of the wrestling shows I go to with--you can follow him on Twitter at--@SuperProLando). We were in the third row in Section C. This show unlike the last one I attended in April wasn’t a TV taping which meant it wasn’t as exhausting (the last show didn’t get out until 11:00pm this one got out an hour earlier) but even with that I thought the last show may have been a bit better than this one.  Well enough of my rambling let’s get to the actual important part of this review.

Dark Match
The Romantic Outlaws beat Paco & Danny Aaron
Thoughts: Not much I can say about this match, because out of everyone involved I only knew who The Romantic Touch was. I think I may have recognized Paco from the last Hopkins show, but I could be wrong about that. There wasn’t much to this match it was your typical average dark match to get the crowd going a bit and the Romantic Outlaws got the win.

Result: The Romantic Outlaws win the match.

Match 1
Mark Briscoe vs. Danny Duggan

Thoughts: This match was solid for an opener. Mark Briscoe, while I like him, can be very hit and miss when it comes to singles competition but I thought he was fine here. It was good to see Danny Duggan on the show once again as he seems to be a guy that they like using when they come to the Hopkins area and if they keep using him on these shows I have absolutely zero problem with them doing so.

Duggan stands out because he wears a Mr. Perfect type singlet this time it was orange but the last time it was green.  The crowd was super into Mark, which is the usual per a Hopkins crowd or any other crowd for that matter. This was a decent match. But, I would like to see Mark have more substance going forward. Because as of now ROH seems to be more invested in Jay Briscoe while Mark is stuck doing a bunch of grunt work and randomness. He still puts out good quality matches with what he’s given but if he’s going to be taken seriously like Jay is? They need to do more with him. The finish of the match happened when Mark caught Danny in a fisherman buster and pinned him for the 1-2-3.

Result: Mark Briscoe defeats Danny Duggan via Pinfall with a fisherman buster

Match 2
Silas Young and Beer City Bruiser vs. War Machine (Hanson and Raymond Rowe)

Thoughts: This match was highly entertaining. I’m a big fan of Silas Young and Hanson and Rowe are great as well and I enjoy their tag matches whenever I’ve seen them live. What I didn’t like about this match was Beer City Bruiser. He sticks out like a sore thumb and not in a good way. To me, he doesn’t fit the mold of Ring Of Honor at all. But, I think I’ve said that before and I’m probably starting to sound like a broken record. Silas Young did all he could and so did Beer City Bruiser but the chemistry between War Machine vs. the non-chemistry of a team that was just thrown together in Young and Bruiser proved to be the deciding factor in this one as War Machine hit a Suplex/top rope leg drop combo to score the win after pinning Silas Young for the 1-2-3.

Result: War Machine defeats Silas Young and Beer City Bruiser via Pinfall with Fall Out

Match 3
ACH vs. Dalton Castle

Thoughts: This match was very good; this was one of the matches I was really looking forward to on this show. So, I am glad it delivered in a big way. ACH is always on with everything he does and half the things he can do I can’t figure out how he even does them. This was my first time seeing Dalton Castle live and I wasn’t disappointed. The guy may have a ridiculous gimmick (in fact it’s not ridiculous; it’s awesome!). But, once you get past that and see what a great wrestler he is (if ridiculous gimmicks aren’t quite your thing), then he’s a pleasure to watch in the ring as he does what it is that he does which is put on a show to entertain the masses. The match came to an end when ACH hit the downed Dalton Castle with a 450 splash to score the win via pinfall.  Like I said earlier really good match part of me wishes that Dalton would have won but I completely understand why he didn’t.
Result: ACH defeats Dalton Castle via pinfall with a 450 Splash

Match 4
Michael Elgin vs. Matt Taven

Thoughts: I don’t know what it was about this match but it did absolutely nothing for me. I like Taven and Elgin is capable of being good in the ring. But ever since Elgin started doing this new character that he’s been doing? His entertainment value has taken a turn for the worse. There was about a three month period when I thought he was getting really good. In fact, he was really good. But since then he has really fallen off and I’m not sure quite what happened.

This match was slow, methodical and just plain boring. The thing that really killed this match for me was the fact that the entire time I was watching it I didn’t once think that Taven might win. He came close on a few occasions. But, I knew at the end of the day that Elgin was going to win which he did with an Elgin Bomb to score the pinfall victory. This match could have been two minutes shorter and it would have been a lot better in my view.

Result: Michael Elgin defeated Matt Taven via pinfall after an Elgin Bomb

After the match, Elgin got on the microphone and said that he is about to hop on a plane and go over to Japan to compete in this year's G1 Climax. This got a lot of boos from the crowd.
The only thing good that may come from this is that once Elgin comes back to ROH he will be more accepted but we will have to see how that whole thing plays out.

Match 5
Michael Bennett vs. Will Ferrara vs. Cheeseburger vs. Moose
Four Corner Survival Match

Thoughts: Okay, I’m kinda getting sick of there being a four-way match on every single show that I’ve been at. These matches at least to me have always came off as “hey these are the last four guys that got put on the show and we have nothing for them...so let's just put them in a four way match." I’m not a huge fan of that. And although I don’t like either Cheeseburger or Will Ferrara they deserve more than to be put in throw away matches, but I digress.

The star of this match was Michael Bennett as he did a great job at playing a heel. From the start of this match, I automatically assumed that Moose would be the one to win the match. However I was wrong as Michael Bennett ended up winning the match with a weird looking piledriver on Cheeseburger to score the pinfall victory.

Result: Michael Bennett wins the match pinning Cheeseburger after hitting a piledriver.

Match 6
Adam Cole vs. Bobby Fish

Thoughts: WOW!!! What a match, the bell rang to signal the start of the match and the crowd as going insane for the first two minutes and they hasn’t even touched each other up until that point. They had a nice mixture of comedy and pure pro wrestling which was nice to see.  I’m not a huge fan of comedy wrestling but when it’s done right it can be great and this was done right and it was great. There was a lot of fan participation in this match as well while the two guys were on the outside as Cole ran the head of Fish into a kid's foot.
Before they got back into the ring ,Cole told another kid to move out of the way and when the kid did he acted as if he was going to throw Fish in to the kid's chair but then did a full rotation before tossing Fish back into the ring to continue the match from the ring.  Cole then got back on the outside of the ring to taunt the same kid before going back into the ring to try and finish off Fish.  The finish of the match came when Adam Cole hit Bobby Fish with a brainbuster onto his knee in a very good match and a match that gets my vote for best match of the night.

Result: Adam Cole defeats Bobby Fish via pinfall after a Brainbuster onto the knee.

Match 7
Jay Briscoe and ODB vs. Jay Lethal and Truth Martini

Thoughts: This match did a great job in marrying two things together, first off the ongoing feud between former ROH World Champion Jay Briscoe as well as current ROH World Champion and ROH Television Champion Jay Lethal. Plus, it continued on with the story of Truth Martini vs. ODB. If you remember during the last show I attended in Hopkins (Review Here), ODB and Truth Martini had a one on one match.  This match was decent enough and the live crowd was totally into both Briscoe and ODB.

ODB got a nice hometown reaction, and as always Jay Briscoe is a total pro when it comes to getting the fans to not only respond to him but the match as well.  One of the more ridiculous spots in this match came when Lethal forcibly kissed ODB only to have ODB do it to him later on in the match. The finish of the match came when ODB grabbed her flask took a drink from it and spat it in the face of Truth Martini to blind him and pick up the win via pinfall. Truth was great in this match as he is each and every time I’ve seen him because he knows exactly what needs to be done and more importantly than that he knows how to accomplish it.

Result: Jay Briscoe and ODB defeat Jay Lethal and Truth Martini via pinfall with alcohol to Truth Martini’s face by ODB

Going into this match, I kind of knew that Jay Lethal wasn’t going to take the pinfall loss; if he did that would have been a bad decision on ROH’s part. So, I’m glad to see it didn’t happen.

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

Main Event – Match 8
AJ Styles vs. Kyle O’Reilly vs. Roderick Strong

Thoughts: I’m not sure exactly what to say about this one, I was really looking forward to it but there was something about it that felt off to me. It started out hot and all three guys were putting their best work forward. This was more of a WWE style three way match than a ROH style three way in the sense that there were at most times in this match only two guys fighting it out while the other was recovering out on the floor.  There was a lot of things they did in the match that were very well done and the match for the most part was really good but the end of it was when it all fell apart for me.

Strong suplexed O’Reilly onto his knee and got the pinfall victory seemingly out of nowhere while Styles was out on the floor. I understand that Strong is the number one contender and everything so having him win makes perfect sense but having AJ Styles not even be in the ring while the deciding fall took place seemed a bit weird although I knew that AJ wasn’t going to take the fall.  The only thing that could have made this a bit better from my point of view was if it was an elimination style match but if that were the case then AJ would have had to get pinned at some point (if Roderick was still going to win) and they may have not of wanted that to happen.

Result: Roderick Strong defeats Kyle O’Reilly and AJ Styles when Strong suplexes O’Reilly on to his knee to get the pinfall victory.

A good show if not a great one (I’ll have to watch it back when I can to truly decide that) but overall it was a fun time and it’s definitely worth checking out once it makes it to DVD for the Cole vs. Fish match alone.

A return date was announced for November 14, 2015, which will be the third time Ring Of Honor has the Hopkins Eisenhower Community Center in the year. Minnesota is definitely the place for wrestling once again and I can’t complain.

The show on November 14 will be night two of Survival Of The Fittest. So I’ve already marked my calendar and started making plans for it, because I don’t ever want to miss an ROH show in Hopkins.
That however will do it for me and this special ROH Review. This will be a recurring thing where if I am going to a live ROH Event, an event review will be posted in place of the TV show that airs that same night. Overall, this was a good show and you should definitely check it out once it’s released on DVD.

In closing make sure to follow me on Twitter @Headliner5 and also make sure to follow the Eyes On The Ring main account over @EyesOnTheRing. Make sure to check out http://www.EyesOnTheRing.com for more of these reviews plus make sure to check out everything that the Eyes On The Ring team writes throughout the week.

Finally make sure to check out Eyes On The Ring radio each and every Sunday night as we come to you live via http://www.blogtalkradio.com/elitepodcastnetwork at 11:00pm Eastern Standard Time. Also make sure to check out and like us over at http://www.Facebook.com/EyesOnTheRing for now I am Nathan saying so long ringers thanks for reading and keep your Eyes On The Ring.

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Eyes on the Ring 7:44 AM  No comment

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

Nathan's ROH Review: 3/21/15

By Nathan Neumann (Follow Nathan on Twitter at @Headliner5)

Hello Eyes On The Ring faithful, Nathan here with another dose of Honor with your weekly ROH TV review. We’re getting closer to Supercard of Honor IX and this show featured three matches, along with some good progression towards building to SCOH.  The video intro plays and we head into the arena and pan around the building to get a good look at all of the fans in attendance. We go to ringside and Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino who welcome us to the show and they send it immediately to ringside for the first match of the night.

Match 1

Bobby Fish vs. Roderick Strong

Thoughts: The match starts with the two feeling each other out in the early going Roderick gets the upper hand on fish around the three minute mark while Fish is on the ground when he puts him in a surfboard stretch for the submission attempt. Roderick rolls Fish into a pinning predicament for a near fall. Fish recovers and both men stand up, Fish grabs Strong and delivers a suplex for a near fall. Strong kicks out and recovers and hits a backbreaker for a near fall of his own as we go to a commercial break.

Back from commercial and Strong hits Fish with a knee in the corner and then follows it up with a backbreaker for a near fall.  Fish recovers and gets the upper hand momentarily in order to hit a falcon arrow on Strong for a near fall.  Fish hits a tilt a whirl backbreaker and follows it up with a moonsault for a near fall.

Strong recovers and the two men make their way over to one of the corners of the ring, Strong sets Fish up on the top turnbuckle and comes off of the top rope with a superplex. Roderick follows it up with a double knee gut buster for a near fall. The finish of the match came when Roderick Strong comes off of the ropes with a sick kick and follows it up with End Of Heartache to get the win and defeat one half of the current ROH World Tag Team Champions.

Result: Roderick Strong defeats Bobby Fish via pinfall with a Sick Kick followed by The End Of Heartache.

Match Rating: **3/4

We then go into the next match of the night which features the 2015 Top Prospect Tournament winner. It was supposed to be a match between Donovan Dijak (Ed. Note: check out our interview with Donovan tonight on Eyes on the Ring) as he challenged Jay Lethal for the ROH World TV Title. However, that’s not what we got.

Truth Martini got on the microphone and put over Jay Lethal as the greatest first-generation wrestler alive today. Truth then went on to say that he doesn’t want Donovan Dijak to wrestle Jay Lethal in this match...and instead wants him to join the House Of Truth. Dijak thinks it over, and ultimately shakes the hand of Truth Martini making the deal of a lifetime. We now have a new member of the House Of Truth: 2015 Top Prospect winner Donovan Dijak.

From here, Dalton Castle makes his way down to the ring, human chair in tow. Castle gets on the microphone and says that he wants Dijak’s title opportunity and proceeds to challenge Lethal to a match, which Lethal declines at first. However, Castle goads Lethal into it by saying that Lethal wouldn’t fight him that he knows another Jay who will, referring to Jay Briscoe..

Match 2

Dalton Castle vs. Jay Lethal (C)

ROH World Television Championship Match

Thoughts: The match starts and Castle goes on the offense immediately when he hits Lethal with a few punches and delivers a backdrop to the champion as we go to a commercial break.  Back from commercial and we are outside of the ring where Castle whips Lethal into the apron and then catches Lethal coming off of the apron with Huricanranna. Lethal recovers and downs Castle with punches. He then runs into the ring under the bottom rope and runs off of the farthest rope to deliver a suicide dive to Castle not once not twice but three times in a row.

Castle then rolls into the ring and starts getting up as Lethal who at this point has made his way to the top rope comes off and gets caught by Castle. From here, Castle grabs Lethal in a front face lock and delivers a suplex. Castle then takes to Lethal’s back and delivers a German suplex, which gets a near fall for the challenger. After the near fall, Dijak pulls Castle to the outside of the ring and hits him with Feast Your Eyes (a Burning Hammer into a knee). Dijak rolls Castle back into the ring where Castle recovers just long enough to get caught by Jay Lethal who comes off of the ropes with a Lethal Injection to score the victory by pinfall to retain his ROH World Television Championship.

Result: Winner and Still ROH World Television Champion Jay Lethal after defeating Dalton Castle via pinfall after a Lethal Injection.

Match Rating: ***

From here, we go into the main event of the evening for the ROH World Title.

Main Event – Match 3

Jimmy Jacobs vs. Jay Briscoe (C)

ROH World Championship Match

Thoughts: The match starts and Jacobs comes through the ropes to the outside of the ring and hits Briscoe who hasn’t made it into the ring yet. He then capitalizes on the fallen Briscoe by bashing his head into the barricade at ringside. Jacobs climbs the top of the barricade and hits the Contra Code on Briscoe. Jacobs rolls Briscoe back into the ring. Later, Briscoe, who’s recovered, picks Jacobs up in a press slam position, drops Jacobs on his shoulders and then follows through with a Death Valley Driver. Briscoe gets up and waits for Jacobs to recover in order to deliver a neckbreaker and a near fall.

Jacobs kicks out and recovers long enough to hit a desperation spear on Briscoe to get a near fall. Jacobs hits a flurry of offensive maneuvers with a Contra Code, a Sliced Bread, and a Spear and then finishes off the sequence by locking on a submission hold. The referee checks Briscoe’s hand but it comes up before dropping for the third time signaling for the match to continue. Jay Briscoe recovers and hits Jacobs with a Jay Driller to score the pinfall victory and retain his championship.

Result: Winner and still ROH World Champion Jay Briscoe via pinfall after a Jay Driller.

Match Rating: ***

After the match, both men recover and stand face to face in the ring and shake each other’s hands as the show goes off of the air for the week.

That’ll do it for me and another one of my Ring Of Honor Wrestling TV Reviews for EyesOnTheRing.com.  In closing make sure to follow myself @Headliner5 as well as the official Eyes On The Ring account @EyesOnTheRing on twitter.  Also be sure to check out the site for more 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 as we come to you at 11:00pm Eastern Time.  This week we are having the 2015 Top Prospect Winner Donovan Dijak on the show as we present Part Two of our ROH Showcase. Finally don’t forget to like us on facebook at Facebook.com/EyesOnTheRing. For now, I am Nathan saying so long for now and I will see you right back here next week.

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Eyes on the Ring 3:57 PM  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

Nathan's ROH Review 3/7/15

Ring Of Honor Wrestling Review 3/7/15
By Nathan Neumann Twitter @Headliner5

Hello ladies and gentleman (and more importantly Ringers), we are officially one week removed from the ROH 13th Anniversary Show (for my review, click here), but now it’s back to your regularly scheduled reviews of ROH TV, so lets get it going. The show opens up live from the 2300 Arena (Former ECW Arena) in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. We pan around the arena and go to the commentary booth where Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino welcome us to the show. From there, they send us to the ring for our first match of the evening.

Match 1 Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian vs. Jay Lethal and J Diesel

Thoughts: The match starts with Lethal and Kazarian as they trade a few offensive moves, until Lethal tells Kazarian, “I want the old guy”.  From there Kazarian makes his way towards his corner and tags in his partner, which brings Christopher Daniels into the match.  Lethal quickly tags in Diesel, but Daniels clotheslines Diesel and Diesel falls to the mat. From there, Kazarian capitalizes by delivering an elbow drop to score a near fall for his team. 

Later on Diesel hits Daniels with a backbreaker for a near fall situation  before tagging in Lethal. Kazarian is positioned on the outside of the ring and Lethal uses his partner as a launching pad as he dives over Diesel onto Kazarian. Lethal gets back into the ring and Daniels slingshots over the top rope to deliver an Ace Crusher. Diesel tags in and hits a Fall Away slam on Daniels as Lethal follows it up with Hail To The King, but Kazarian quickly breaks it up before a pin can happen. The finish of the match comes when Lethal rolls up Daniels after Daniels gets distracted by one of the members of the Knights Of The Rising Dawn, who made his way out to the ringside area sometime during the match.

Result: Jay Lethal and J. Diesel defeat Daniels and Kazarian when Lethal rolls up Daniels thanks to a distraction from one of the KRD members.

Match Rating: **

From here, we go to the second match of the night, which is the finals of the 2015 Top Prospect Tournament.

Match 2
Donovan Dijak vs. Will Ferrara
2015 Top Prospect Tournament Final

Thoughts: The bell rings and the two waste absolutely no time in going at one another. The two men trade lock ups and move into one of the corners of the ring where the much bigger Dijak gets the upper hand over the much smaller Ferrara. Dijak maintains control over Ferrara and sends him into the ropes and delivers a big boot to the face for a near fall as we go to a commercial. Back from commercial and Dijak sends Ferrara off of the ropes and kicks him down once again for another near fall. Ferrara recovers and manages to get Dijak down on the mat where he locks him in a short-armed scissors for an attempted submission.  From here,  Veda Scott, Stokely Hathaway and the Decade make their way to ringside. Meanwhile, back in the ring, Dijak hits a springboard elbow drop on Ferrara for a near fall. Ferrara recovers and gets the upper hand on Dijak and delivers a huge Tornado DDT out of the corner for a close 2 count.  Ferrara rolls out to the floor and Dijak manages to hit a moonsault to Ferrara on the outside of the ring.  The two make their way back into the ring and reset momentarily before Dijak is able to hit Feast Your Eyes (burning hammer into a facebuster) on Ferrara to get the pinfall victory and secure the win in the 2015 Top Prospect Tournament. This was a very good match, I’m happy with how this tournament turned out since it was so poor in the beginning.

Result: Donovan Dijak defeats Will Ferrara via pinfall after Feast Your Eyes to become the 2015 ROH Top Prospect Winner.

Match Rating: **3/4

From here, Veda Scott makes her way to the ring along with Truth Martini and they both vie to be his manager.  I loved this because it’s a great way to put instant importance on the guy and I’m intrigued to see where he goes in 2015. The dude impressed the hell out of me during the Top Prospect Tournament and I can’t wait to see what he can do when he gets his TV title opportunity against Jay Lethal in the coming weeks.

Next up? Our main event, a tag team match this week.
Main Event – Match 3
BJ Whitmer and Adam Page vs. Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly {C}
ROH World Tag Team Championship Match
Thoughts: The match starts when the Decade jumps both members of reDRagon from the bell. ReDRagon quickly get the upper hand, causing both Page and Whitmer to make their way to the outside of the ring.  From here, reDRagon launches themselves over the top rope simultaneously to hit stereo planchas on their opponents. Back in the ring and the bell finally rings, as O’Reilly gets Page on the ground and drives a knee into his face. O’Reilly picks Page up and Fish puts his boot on the top rope. From here, O’Reilly grabs Page by the head and runs him face first into Fish’s boot. O’Reilly tags in Fish who hits a float over suplex for a near fall.  Fish quickly tags O’Reilly back into the match and O’Reilly grabs Page by the arm and ties him up in the ropes with an armbar.

Meanwhile, on the outside of the ring, Whitmer traps O’Reilly in the apron as he tries to come to the outside. From here, Whitmer and Page both take turns kicking O’Reilly in the head as we head to a commercial break. After the break, we are back in the ring and Whitmer hits O’Reilly with a powerslam and gets a 2 count.  Whitmer picks up O’Reilly and delivers an exploder suplex, but Fish runs in before a pin can even occur.  Whitmer tags out to Page, and as Page comes in, Fish catches him with a falcon arrow and gets a near fall.  Fish hits a tilt a whirl backbreaker on Page and O’Reilly follows it up by coming off of the top rope with a knee for a 2 count.  The finish of the match comes when O’Reilly makes Page tap out to an armbar to gain the submission victory and retain their tag team championships in the process.

Result: Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish defeat Adam Page and BJ Whitmer by submission, when O’Reilly makes Page tap out to an armbar to retain the ROH tag team championships.

Match Rating: **1/2

After the match, Corino makes his way into the ring and gets into it with Whitmer. The two start brawling with one another and we go off of the air for the week with everyone that’s in the ring trying to pull them apart.

That will do it for me and the ROH Review. Hopefully you enjoyed the double dose of ROH this week as I presented both this show and the anniversary event.

Make sure to follow @EyesOnTheRing on twitter and be sure to follow me @Headliner5. Also be sure to check out EyesOnTheRing.com your one stop shop for everything from the Eyes On The Ring Team including myself.  Last but not least be sure to check out the radio show each and every Sunday night over at blogtalkradio.com/ElitePodcastNetwork at 11:00pm Eastern Time.  Also, be sure to like us on facebook at Facebook.com/EyesOnTheRing and I will see you next week with another exciting review for Ring Of Honor television. Finally, don't forget to support the merchandise at www.dartees.spreadshirt.com

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Eyes on the Ring 9:39 AM  No comment