By Chris Shore

ROH Wrestling on SBG stations
Taped in Houston, Texas

A video recapped the Jay Lethal vs. Davey Richards main event from last week...Kevin Kelly and Nigel McGuinness were in the ring. They put over Roderick Strong vs. Eddie Edwards number one contender's match for the main event and then cut to promos from the first match participants. Mike Bennett and Maria cut a promo about Bennett facing Lance Storm during the WrestleMania weekend shows. TJ Perkins said Bennett was looking past him...

1. "The Prodigy" Mike Bennett (w/Maria and Brutal Bob) defeated TJ Perkins at 6:25. Perkins started quickly with a back drop and arm drag. Perkins tossed Bennett to the floor and went to dive. Maria distracted him, and that allowed Bob to grab Perkins's leg and Bennett take control.

Bennett lost control quickly and Perkins hit a drop kick in the ropes that spilled Bennett back to the floor. Bob checked on him and Perkins dove on them both. Back in the ring, Perkins hit a pop-up powerbomb for two. Perkins locked in a STF on Bennett. Bennett reached for the ropes and grabbed Maria. Perkins broke the hold and dragged Bennett from the ropes, which dragged Maria into the ring. Perkins told her to get out and turned around into a fireman's ace crusher from Bennett for the victory...

Shore's Slant: Not a great match from these two. I saw better from them in Greensboro last year. Perkins didn't look crisp and Bennett looked uninspired. Plus the Maria being dragged in the ring gimmick was very similar to the one they did the next night (or last nights as I writing this) at the 10h Anniversary Show. And yes, this episode takes place before the iPPV in the storyline universe.

Kevin Kelly interviewed Jay Lethal backstage as hype for the 10th Anniversary show and his match with Tomasso Ciampa. Ciampa cut a promo backstage with Veda Scott about their match as well...

2. Tomasso Ciampa (w/The Embassy Ltd) defeated Guy Alexander by referee stoppage at 2:34. The tale of the tape showed Guy Alexander's stats, but Cedric Alexander's face. Oops. Ciampa attacked when Guy offered his hand for the code of honor and hit a German suplex. Ciampa worked the back and Kelly told us Guy had recent back surgery. Guy rolled to the floor and Ciampa followed and whipped him back and forth from the apron to the barricade on the back. Ciampa rolled Guy back in the ring and hit three running knees in the corner. He looked in the camera and said this was for Lethal. He hit three more and the ref stopped the match...

Shore's Slant: Total squash from Ciampa. I think the guy is great and will get a good look from WWE soon. This was the perfect match to set him up for the iPPV.

The first "Inside ROH" segment was go home videos for the 10th Anniversary show. The Briscoes and Kevin Steen both put over their matches. The second segment was hype for the March 30-31 iPPVs in Florida. The ANX and Young Bucks hyped their two matches over the two days, a street fight the first night and a tornado match the next. Kelly also put over the CHIKARA involvement...

Shore's Slant: Color me surprised for mentioning CHIKARA on the TV show. I still have no idea why ROH would agree to this idea, but I'm all for it. It should be wild to watch play out.

3. Roderick Strong (w/Truth Martini) fought Eddie Edwards to a no contest in a number one contender's match in 16:50. The winner will face Davey Richards on March 30 on iPPV. Strong offered his hand first and the two men jawed during the code of honor. Both men broke clean on lockups that went to the rope and then shoved each other. Strong hit a leg lariat, but Eddie came back with a baseball slide drop kick to take control. Strong came back with a ton of chops and tried to suplex Eddie, but Eddie reversed and hit a high knee...[C]

Strong hit a dropkick as soon as the action returned. A video showed Martini pulling the ropes down and spilling Edwards to the floor during the break. The crowd chanted for both men. Eddie came fighting back and they traded strikes, chops, and kicks in the middle of the ring. Eddie finally hit a big overhead throw that caused Strong to land awkwardly on his knee.

Edwards hit a fisherman's buster for two. He followed with a codebreaker for another near fall. Edwards setup for the backpack chinbuster, but Strong fought out and hit a front suplex on the ropes for two.

Strong hit a backbreaker/gutbuster combo for two. Strong tried for a move off the top rope with Edwards, but Eddie reversed into a ranna. He hit the chinbuster finally and covered. Strong kicked out into the Achilles lock. Strong made the ropes and both men hit several kicks on each other.

Eddie went to the top rope and Truth grabbed his leg. Adam Cole ran out and superkicked Truth. Michael Elgin ran out and took out Cole. Eddie and Strong ended up diving on everyone. Strong rolled in the ring and put something on his foot. He hit a sick kick on Edwards and referee Todd Sinclair counted the pinfall.

Referee Paul Turner came out and told Sinclair what happened. Sinclair didn't care and said Strong won. Eddie attacked Strong and lifted him for the diehard suplex. Strong's feet hit Sinclair when Eddie hit it, so Turner counted a pinfall and the bell rang again. Turner raised Eddie's hand, but Sinclair threw it down. And the show went to commercial...[C]

Back from commercial, the wrestlers and referees were joined by Kevin Kelly and Jim Cornette. They showed the replay of what happened and Cornette said the match on March 30 would be a triple threat. To try and build tension, he said they not only had to beat each other, but they had to beat, "This man" and pointed at the entrance. Davey Richards was standing there pointing and his music hit to end the show...

Shore's Slant: A good match from these two. I guess you could call it a good TV main for ROH. I don't mind the triple threat so much, but the attempt at drama at the end by Cornette didn't work. ROH TV main events are starting to look like TNA PPV main events with 154 run ins on every show. Cornette used to complain about that stuff didn't he?

My real problem with this is that in the main event of the go home show for one PPV you are booking the main event of a different PPV. That takes all the heat of off the 10th Anniversary show. The mismanagement of this company continue to wow me each and every week. Thanks for watching along with me.

Questions? Comments? Anyone, anyone? Let me hear from you. Email me at css3238@gmail.com or tweet me @TheShoreSlant with whatever is on your mind.

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