By Jason Powell
Ring of Honor TV
Taped August 26 in Atlanta, Georgia at Center Stage
Aired in syndication over the weekend, Mondays on the FITE TV app
The show opened with a recap of The Kingdom attacking Bully Ray, Jay Briscoe, and Mark Briscoe at the end of last week’s television show… The opening montage aired… The broadcast team was Ian Riccaboni and Marty Scurll, who checked in briefly on camera…
Bully Ray headed to the ring for a promo and spoke about accomplishing a lot of things in his career, but noted that this was the first time he was in Atlanta with ROH. Bully talked about being a fan of ROH since day one. He noted that Jay Briscoe “is a little crazy” lately, but added that they will be on the same page when the face The Kingdom at the pay-per-view, and then they will go on to regain ROH Six-Man Tag Titles…
The broadcast team spoke about Bullet Club and then hyped Cheeseburger vs. Will Ferrara for after the break… [C]
Powell’s POV: A nice promo for the live crowd, but it seemed like an odd choice to have an upbeat Bully Ray promo coming off last week’s beatdown angle that closed that show and opened this one. By the way, the venue looks great even though ROH continues to be consumed with pointing the hard camera at the stage even when there’s an impressive looking crowd.
A Will Ferrara promo aired while footage of his run with Cheeseburger aired. He complained about Cheeseburger having him wear “that stupid hat” and called him a charity case…
1. Cheeseburger vs. Will Ferrara. Ferrara tried to blindside Cheeseburger, but he saw him coming to start the match. The fans chanted for Cheeseburger. Riccaboni said everyone can relate to Cheeseburger because he’s an every man and everyone has been told they are not good enough. “Not me,” Scurll said. Ferrara slammed Cheeseburger face first onto the apron heading into a break. [C]
Cheeseburger came back with the Liger slap that knocked Ferrara off the ropes. Cheeseburger performed a nice springboard swanton for a two count. Cheeseburger performed a nice Saito suplex for another near fall. Cheeseburger applied an ankle lock, but Ferrara spun out of it. Ferrara was rolled up for another two count off a missed clothesline. Later, Cheeseburger went for another spingboard move, but Ferrara caught him on the way down with a Codebreaker. Ferrara performed a Flatliner for a near fall. Ferrara acted shocked by Cheeseburger kicking out of the move.
Ferrara spat at Cheeseburger, who returned the favor and worked him over with forearms. Cheeseburger performed a Flatliner and a kick, then threw a nice Dragon Suplex. Cheeseburger performed a tombstone piledriver for a two count. Cheeseburger performed a top rope double stomp and covered Ferrara, who put his foot on the bottom rope. In the end, Ferrara clotheslined Cheeseburger and then applied a crossface. The referee called for the bell…
Will Ferrara beat Cheeseburger.
After the match, Ferrara reapplied the hold. Rhett Titus came out to call him off. Ferrara shoved him. Titus told him to go ahead and then they took turns putting the boots to Cheeseburger. They seemed to bicker again for a second before they simultaneously kicked him…
Powell’s POV: A fun match. Some of the near falls were a bit much with both guys kicking out of some major moves, but the crowd ate it up and loved Cheeseburger. Ferrara going over was logical at this early stage in the feud.
Caprice Coleman stood in front of his new Pulpit talkshow set. Coleman encouraged viewers to use a hashtag to send in their questions for the show… [C] The broadcast team hyped Jay Lethal vs. Silas Young in a Last Man Standing match for the Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view…
2. Silas Young (w/Beer City Bruiser) vs. Chase Brown. Bruiser wore a brace and used a cane to sell his knee injury. Brown offered a handshake, but Young kicked his hand away. Riccaboni noted that Chuck Taylor challenged Scurll to a match on Twitter. Scurll said that’s embarrassing and Taylor isn’t in his league. However, he accepted the challenge and said he would make him tap out. Young hit Misery for the win…
Silas Young defeated Chase Brown.
Young continued to work over Brown after the match. Jay Lethal ran out to pull him off. Security hit the ring and they had a pull apart brawl. Lethal took the mic and said Young was taking out their issues on someone else. He said he would make sure Young never put someone in the hospital again. Lethal said they didn’t have to wait until Death Before Dishonor. Young said the golden boy is used to getting everything he wants, but he’s beaten Lethal in all sorts of matches. He said he could beat his ass, but he was waiting until the pay-per-view so that everyone could see what he’s going to do to him…
Powell’s POV: A squash win for Young with a nice post match angle to keep the momentum of the Lethal vs. Young feud going. They are doing a nice job of focussing on the pay-per-view on this show after mostly neglecting it last week.
Backstage, Matt Sells(?) interviewed ROH Champion Cody about his match against Minoru Suzuki. Cody said he doesn’t regret issuing an open challenge. Cody told Sells to kiss his ring. Sells complied… [C]
Footage aired form backstage at the ROH War of the Worlds event on August 20 in Edinburgh, Scotland. The Young Bucks, Hangman Page, and Marty Scurll saw Dalton Castle sitting on the floor and mocked him. They kept walking, but Cody attacked Castle from behind. Cody took Castle outside the venue and ran him into a dumpster, then ran a plastic container into his head. “You’re a novelty act,” Cody screamed. “I’m the world champion”…
Riccaboni and a laughing Scurll discussed the footage and hyped Cody vs. Suzuki for the pay-per-view. They also hyped Jay White vs. Punishment Martinez in a street fight for the pay-per-view… A video package hyped the additional pay-per-view matches and featured commentary from some of the wrestlers…
Ring entrances for the main event took place. Scurll stood up and danced for the entrances of his fellow Bullet Club members… [C]
3. “The Young Bucks” Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson and “Guerrillas of Destiny” Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa vs. Chris Sabin, Alex Shelley, Jay White, and Jonathan Gresham. The Bucks performed simultaneous dives onto the Machine Guns and then did the too sweet bit with Scurll at ringside. The wrestlers are bunched up on the floor and then Matt Jackson performed a big running dive off the stage and onto the pile. Later, Gresham performed a shooting star press, but Tama caught him with what appeared to be a cutter on the way down. The Bullet Club members played to the crowd while standing on the ropes as the show went to its final break. [C]
Scurll called White a loser. Riccaboni asked if he could be “a little bit impartial.” Scurll said he used to like the Machine Guns when he was a kid. “That’s how old they are,” Scurll said. Late in the match, the Bucks set up for the Meltzer Driver, but White pulled Nick off the apron. The Guns worked over Matt with a series of double team moves. Sabin covered Matt for the win…
Chris Sabin, Alex Shelley, Jay White, and Jonathan Gresham beat The Young Bucks and Guerrillas of Destiny.
Scurll threw a fit on commentary about the Bullet Club members losing. Riccaboni hyped the Young Bucks vs. Motor City Machine Guns for the ROH Tag Titles at Death Before Dishonor…
Powell’s POV: The Young Bucks and Bullet Club in general are always attractions, but nothing says meaningless tag match quite like the Search and Destroy faction. They are all talented wrestlers, but there’s just something vanilla about the group, which seems to lack purpose. That said, the match was big spot entertaining and the live crowd was hot for the Bucks. Overall, the show was entertaining and did a nice job of consistently hyping the pay–per-view. Hopefully that continues with the go-home edition that will air this weekend. However, this was a rare case at least in recent months where they didn’t bother to advertise anything in particular for next week. I will have more to say in my member exclusive audio review later today.
Be the first to comment