By Darren Gutteridge
ROH TV Hits
Red Dragon vs. Jay Lethal and Adam Cole: What wasn’t surprising here was the quality. The action was crisp and well laid out, particularly the finish. They blended in nice little touches throughout, such as Cole and Lethal’s pettiness as future opponents, and Red Dragon’s cohesion as a team vs. the single minded nature of Lethal and Cole. What was surprising was the finish. I fully expected Fish to take the loss as the odd man out, but instead they gave O’Reilly a pinfall win over Cole. I didn’t see that coming, but I much prefer it to Fish taking the 1-2-3, as it is more meaningful in the build to the 14th Anniversary show.
Punisher Martinez vs. Colby Corino: While this may only be a minor Hit, the match still had some positives moving forward. For one, Colby showed a little something outside of being the Decade’s young boy. He sold like a champ as always, but his brief flurry of offense was better than expected. And I liked Martinez’s look. He looked dominant when he was bullying Colby, so I’m interested to see how he looks when the match-up is more even in the second round of the Top Prospect tournament.
Overall Show: While this wasn’t a stellar show, the main event and the surprisingly fun Top Prospect match made it enjoyable. Even the Whitmer/Corino stuff, while still groan inducing and maddening, was better than usual! Just skip the opening match (see below).
ROH TV Misses
Roderick Strong vs. Masada for the ROH TV Title: Oh death match wrestlers, how you baffle me. Why is ROH, arguably the premier in-ring company, muddying their hands with this? Masada had some moves early on, but the match quickly got sloppy before the inevitable “props” came out (bamboo sticks in this case). Garbage.
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