By Jason Powell, Prowrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Ring of Honor TV
Taped June 30 in Fairfax, Virginia at Eaglebank Arena
Aired in syndication on August 4 and Mondays on the FITE TV app
The ROH opening video aired… Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana checked in from their desk near the stage and hyped Marty Scurll vs. Shane Helms and the main event. Bobby Cruise was the ring announcer…
1. Silas Young vs. Chris Sabin for a shot at the ROH TV Title. Alex Shelley was on commentary. They cut to a break early in the match. [C] Sabin avoided a Misery attempt and got a couple of near falls off rollups. Sabin performed Cradle Shock and scored the pin. Riccaboni said it was a mild upset if only because Sabin had been working tag team matches. Shelley said it proves there’s more to the Guns than just tag matches. Punishment Martinez walked onto the stage and glared at Sabin… [C]
Chris Sabin defeated Silas Young to become No. 1 contender to the ROH TV Title.
Powell’s POV: It felt odd that Sabin was given a No. 1 contenders match when that the majority of his in-ring work in ROH has been as part of the Motor City Machine Guns tag team. The crowd was flat for the majority of the match and there was only mild applause for the finish. All of that said, I hope ROH creative can breathe some life into Sabin and Shelley, who were booked as the most vanilla tag team in the company during their latest run in ROH.
2. Marty Scurll vs. Shane “Hurricane” Helms. Helms wore the Hurricane garb, including his own Hurricane title belt. Scurll threw a bandana at Helms and called him a phony. Helms picked it up and threw it back at Scurll. Cabana questioned why this match wasn’t the main event of all of wrestling. The wrestlers played up the hero and villain dynamic and poses. Scurll spat in the face of Helms and then they traded punches. A short time later, Helms was on the floor and ate a superkick to the face from Scurll, who then stomped on his hands heading into a break. [C]
Riccaboni and Cabana noted that Scurll started wearing black tights with green trim and wearing back eye makeup since Helms arrived in ROH. Scurll did the finger breaking spot to both hands. Helms came back and performed a neckbreaker off the top rope for a near fall. Scurll went for his finishing hold a short time later. Helms avoided it, then Scurll shoved him into referee Paul Turner. Scurll hit Helms with a kick to the balls while the ref was turned around and then pinned Helms…
Marty Scurll defeated Shane “Hurricane” Helms.
Riccaboni hyped the main event going into a break… [C]
Powell’s POV: Good silly fun. It’s not the type of feud one would normally expect to see in ROH, but the Hurricane is a popular character and the hero vs. villain dynamic wrote itself. This was fun for a one-off if that’s all it turns out to be, but I wouldn’t mind seeing them keep this going with Helms becoming an occasional thorn in the side of Scurll going forward.
Ring entrances for the main event took place… [C]
3. “The Hung Bucks” Adam Page, Matt Jackson, and Nick Jackson vs. Evil, Sanada, and Bushi vs. “SoCal Uncensored” Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian, and Scorpio Sky. The rules allowed two wrestlers in the ring at one time. Sanada and Daniels started. Nick reached in and tagged Sanada to tag himself into the match. It didn’t take long before all sorts of wrestlers were in the ring at once. Referee Todd Sinclair didn’t seem to mind.
Kazarian performed a cool powerbomb on Bushi from the ropes, then Sky ran up and performed a huracanrana to pull Nick off the ropes. Sky did a flip dive onto some of his opponents, then Kazarian performed a huracanrana on from the ring onto Sanada on the floor. Daniels performed an Arabian moonsault onto a group of opponents. SCU stood tall in the ring for a moment, but then the Hung Bucks hit them with simultaneous superkicks. The Hung Bucks were in offensive control heading into a break. [C]
It was rapid fire spot time and then Bushi accidentally sprayed black mist into the eyes of referee Sinclair. Daniels and Kazarian hit Celebrity Rehab on Bushi. Kazarian grabbed the arm of Sinclair and counted for him. Bushi kicked out and Kazarian stopped the count. Cabana questioned why Kazarian didn’t just continue the count since Sinclair couldn’t see. Funny and true.
The Hung Bucks went on a roll with superkicks, including Sanada leaping into a triple superkick. Page hit an inverted cradle piledriver and had the visual pinfall. Referee Paul Turner ran out to make the count, but Sanada kicked out at two. The Hung Bucks performed a spike Rite of Passage on Sanada, but the pin was broken up by Evil and others. Nick did a big dive onto opponents on the floor. Matt set up for a dive of his own, but Bushi caught him with a kick and hit a Japanese (Canadian) Destroyer.
Kazarian caught Page on the ropes. Page recovered and suplexed Kazarian onto the group of wrestlers on the floor, which brought out the “this is awesome” chants. Daniels set up Bushi for Angel’s Wings suplex, but he let it go when Jay Briscoe came out and distracted him. Mark entered the ring from behind and hit Daniels with a chair. The ref turned too soon and saw Mark in the ring and had to turn back around to play dumb. Bushi performed a Codebreaker from the middle rope on Daniels and pinned him…
Evil, Sanada, and Bushi defeated The Hung Bucks and SoCal Uncensored.
Riccaboni hyped that next week’s show will feature Bully Ray, Shane Taylor, and Punishment Martinez vs. Cheeseburger, Josh Woods, and Flip Gordon in a six-man tag match, and Tenille Dashwood vs. Karen Q vs. Madison Rayne vs. Kelly Klein in a four corner survival match to determine the No. 1 contender to the Women of Honor Championship, and ROH Tag Champions The Briscoes vs. “The Bouncers” Beer City Bruiser and Brian Milonas…
Powell’s POV: A good spot-fest that closed this batch of television tapings. There wasn’t much in the way of storyline developments on this show aside from Sabin becoming No. 1 contender and the Briscoes getting a measure of revenge on SCU. ROH had a long gap between live events and there’s not an upcoming pay-per-view, so it’s understandable that there’s not a ton of storytelling taking place. Plus, it was an entertaining hour with something at stake in the opener, the hero vs. the villain match, and the crowd pleasing main event. Haydn Gleed will be by later today with his audio review of the ROH television show that is available weekly for Dot Net Members.
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