By Jason Powell
Ring of Honor TV
Taped October 20 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at 2300 Arena
Aired in syndication over the weekend, Mondays on the FITE TV app
ROH opened with The Bullet Club members discussing the main event eight-man tag and joking about what the Flop Gordon led team would call themselves. Marty Scurll did the bulk of the talking and it closed with the group saying, “Welcome to Ring of Honor”… The opening montage aired… The broadcast team was Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana…
1. Silas Young (w/Beer City Bruiser) vs. Jonathan Gresham for a shot or a spot in the ROH TV Title match at Final Battle. ROH TV Champion Kenny King sat in on commentary for the match. Gresham was in offensive control heading into a commercial break. [C] Coming out of the break, footage aired of Bruiser tripping up Gresham on the apron and putting Young on the offensive.
Gresham came back and got a two count off a high cross body block. He eventually applied the octopus hold. Bruiser slid his empty beer keg inside the ring. As the ref removed it from the ring, Bruiser broke the hold by punching Gresham. Bruiser got involved again, but this time Gresham took him out with a suicide dive. Gresham went up top, but Bruiser recovered and distracted him long enough that Young was able to recover and avoid a cross body block. Young performed Misery for the win…
Silas Young defeated Jonathan Gresham to earn the final spot in the ROH TV Title match at Final Battle.
The ROH TV Title match at Final Battle match will be Kenny King vs. Silas Young vs. Shane Taylor vs. Punishment Martinez in a four corner survival match…
Powell’s POV: Gresham gets over with live crowds to some extent due to his in-ring style. It’s time for creative to do him a favor by letting fans get to know him on some level. We never hear from the guy and they’ve offered no background information on him. He’s just that fourth guy in the vanilla Search and Destroy faction. As such, they made the right call creatively in going with Young for the TV Title match. King was in nice guy mode on commentary and came off as a nice, yet fairly bland guy.
Backstage, The Kingdom cut a promo to hype their ROH Tag Title match against Motor City Machine Guns for next week. It will be the first show from the Florida taping…
A video package recapped the great angle involving Bully Ray, The Briscoes, Tommy Dreamer, and Velvet Sky from last week… Riccaboni sounded sad as he spoke about how the Briscoes showed their true colors. Cabana said it was sad…
Powell’s POV: Riccaboni and Cabana get it. This is how you put heat on the heels. You don’t react to it like every other angle on the show, and you act disappointed by the actions of the heels while expressing concern for the babyfaces. I wish WWE took the same approach more often.
“War Machine” Hanson and Raymond Rowe made their entrance for a match when they were attacked from behind by “The Addiction” Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian. Rowe picked up Kazarian on his shoulder and tossed him into the crowd while knocking down a female “fan” in the crowd. A man checked on the woman, who had a bloody nose. “I hope you’re happy,” Riccaboni scolded The Addiction duo…
Caprice Coleman hosted the Coleman’s Pulpit segment with Kenny King returning as his guest. Coleman said he’s proud of King for still being ROH TV Champion, then brought up his Final Battle match. King recalled saying he was going to be a fighting champion. Coleman said he had a surprise for King, who said the last time it happened someone brought his daughter out. Coleman acted like she was there, but then said she was not.
Coleman said King was being used by ROH for ratings. Coleman said King really thinks he’s a king. He implied that ROH was using King and his daughter. He said that where he comes from, they call it pimping. King got pissed off and was censored as he got in Coleman’s face. King said Coleman is a false prophet. King said he didn’t have time for his garbage. He said what he had time for was putting up his title against Coleman in Florida. Coleman kept his cool and said, “I guess I have a TV Title shot” before closing out the segment…
Back in the arena, Jay Lethal made his entrance to join the broadcast team on color commentary for the main event… [C]
Powell’s POV: A good segment with the Coleman character showing his true colors. He continues to be very good as the manipulative talkshow host.
Footage aired from last week’s Cody and Dalton Castle angle with Cody leaving Castle lying following the Castle vs. Adam Page match… Ring entrances for the main event took place with the babyface group out first. They didn’t get much of a reaction, but they still got the streamer treatment. The fans popped big for Bullet Club’s entrance. Cody took the mic and mocked the idea of Gordon’s team winning. He compared their chances of winning to Dalton Castle beating him at Final Battle… [C]
2. “The Bullet Club” Marty Scurll, Adam Page, and “The Young Bucks” Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson (w/Cody) vs. Flip Gordon and Scorpio Sky and “Coast 2 Coast” Shaheem Ali and Leon St. Giovanni. Lethal was on commentary. Referee Todd Sinclair tossed Cody early in the match for standing on the ring apron. Fans booed and then changed “no” in response. There was a fun spot with Nick attempting to superkick Gordon repeatedly, only Gordon would pop back on his hands and pop himself back to his feet to avoid the kicks. [C]
Nick offered Gordon a handshake. Matt entered the ring with a mic and grabbed Gordon’s hand while asking, “Where do you think you’re going.” Scurll entered the ring and did the finger break spot. Matt welcomed Gordon to ROH, then Nick superkicked him. Fans chanted “this is awesome.” Okay. Anyway, Page checked in and dropkicked Ali while flipping himself over into a standing shooting star press on LSG. Fans cheered.
The Bullet Club members set up for a Scurll Terminator dive, but Gordon cut it off with a superkick, which the fans booed. Gordon went up top and did a big dive onto opponents and partners at ringside. There was a fun spot with the Bullet Club members performing running clotheslines on Sky. They did this repeatedly and he took clotheslines from three members, yet booted Scurll in the face each time. Sky charged the Bullet Club members and ate a four-man superkick heading into a break. [C]
It was rapid fire spot time coming out of the break and it resulted in all eight men down on the mat. Gordon showed off some of his amazing acrobatic skills. Coast 2 Coast performed a double version of the Coast 2 Coast. Gordon had Nick pinned after a 450, but Page and Scurll broke it up. Fans chanted “this is awesome.” Lethal sounded like the calmest man in the building on commentary.
Scurll set up for his finisher, but Gordon caught him with a Pele Kick and tagged in Sky. The Bucks worked over Gordon and superkicked both members of Coast 2 Coast. Sky avoided big moves from his opponents, but they recovered and performed what Riccaboni described as an double Indy Taker Meltzer Rite of Passage before Page pinned Sky…
Marty Scurll, Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson, and Adam Page defeated Flip Gordon, Scorpio Sky, Shaheem Ali, and Leon St. Giovanni.
Powell’s POV: It’s times like this when I wish the Bullet Club was a true heel faction. The young foursome certainly benefitted from working with Bullet Club, but the fans cheered the stars and the stars encouraged it, whereas a traditional heel stable would have the fans rallying behind an upstart babyface team. There’s no denying that this works for the Bullet Club members, but it’s tough for their babyface opponents. That said, I could see a scenario where this babyface foursome could help turn the tide if they have additional matches with Bullet Club and they come closer and closer to beating to the point that fans really want to see it happen. In other words, I hope this was not a one off match.
Overall, another quality show to close my favorite block of ROH TV tapings of 2017 and perhaps ever in the company’s television history. They did a very nice job of setting up the Final Battle pay-per-view via the television taped at 2300 Arena and had some strong and memorable television segments. We’ve come a long way from the days of three mostly random matches on television and very little in the way of character development or storytelling. There are still a number of undercard players, including all four guys on the babyface side of this main event, that don’t get enough creative attention, but the shows are episodic and enjoyable.
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