ROH TV Review 10.15.16
Location: Lowell, Massachusetts inside Lowell Memorial Auditorium
We open with a video package recapping some of the high spots from Ladder War VI at All Star Extravaganza. Go watch it folks, it terrific!
After the opening video package airs, The Bullet Club come on down without delay! The Young Bucks, Adam Cole (BAYBAY!), and Hangman Page seem to have some words for us. Matt Jackson talks about how great The Young Bucks are, and how winning Ladder War has made them the greatest tag team of all time. Story time with Adam Cole! Cole highlights all of the accolades that they accomplished at All Star Extravaganza, and goes on to talk about how they have the World Title, and the World Tag Team Titles. The rest of the belts that RoH has to offer will soon be in there hands. “And that is just… Too Sweet!”. Solid promo. We know that some form of The Bullet Club will be in the Six Man Tag Team Title Tournament, and Page has his eyes on the World Television Title.
We get another video package hyping up some of the happenings that occurred during the Reloaded Tour, which happened while they were airing Field of Honor. Silas Young won the Honor Rumble, and earned a title shot. However, the last guy he eliminated was Jay Lethal, who happens to be his opponent in the main event tonight. Jay Lethal gets a brief promo to hype up the upcoming match.
Tag Team Action!
War Machine (Ray Rowe & Hanson) vs. Shane Taylor & Keith Lee
Winners: War Machine after Rowe hits Lee with a Destroyer!
Well, I’m never gonna complain about these guys going at it. In fact, I struggle to think of a bad match they’ve had together. War Machine with stereo dives to start us off! The hatred between all of these guys is palpable. They certainly display it in the opening six or seven minutes. They fight on the floor, and toss each other into the barricades, all the while landing some huge moves that would rock any normal human being. The match eventually finds itself back in the ring, and they are just teeing off on each other. There’s maybe two tags the entire match folks. Hanson gets busted open somewhere along the way.
Shane Taylor kicks out of Fallout, and Hanson kicks out of the Spirit Bomb from Taylor and Lee. They then put it all on the line for the finish, but after three of the boys find no water in the pool, Rowe finally puts Lee away. Post-match, Taylor grabs a chair, and levels both members of War Machine! What a savage brawl! Taylor and Lee taste defeat for the first time at the hands of War Machine! These guys are bound for a huge match at Final Battle, and I can’t wait to see it. Both teams have left me wanting me more after every match they’ve had. *** and ¼ *
Caprice Coleman cuts a promo about how The Cabinet are sweeping the nation, and are up for election to win the Six Man Tag Team Titles! Their match is next!
Six Man Tag Team Tournament Match!
The Cabinet (Caprice Coleman, Rhett Titus, and Kenny King) vs. Team Top Prospect (Leon St. Giovanni, Jason Kincaid, and Shaheem Ali)
Winners: The Cabinet via Caprice Coleman hitting the Sky Sitter on Leon St. Giovanni
The winner of this one meets KUSHIDA/ACH/Jay White in the next round. Surprisingly, Team Top Prospect get a lot of time to show what they can do. I kinda hope they keep Kincaid and Giovanni around. Ali still needs some work, but the other two guys looked very impressive throughout the match. Kincaid loves these odd moves, and they really make him stand out. Giovanni seems very smooth for how little a time he’s actually been around. However, we all know that The Cabinet were going to get past these guys, but that doesn’t stop this match from being entertaining. Team Top Prospect absolutely destroy Rhett Titus with a Triple Coast to Coast dropkick. Leon St. Giovanni goes for a Phoenix Splash, but eats a pair of knees from Rhett. Giovanni gets finished off from there. ** and ¾ *
Main Event!
“Professional Wrestling’s Last Real Man” Silas Young vs. Jay Lethal
Winner: Jay Lethal via School Boy
This one should be interesting to see how they treat Silas here with them hyping up the World Title match he has coming to him. Lethal, too, has a World Title match during the UK Tour in November. It’s fairly even early on until Jay Lethal takes over with his usual offense. He sends Silas to outside, and hits his trio of dives. Adam Cole comes out for commentary, and the focus goes away from the match to talk about a couple of interesting things.
First, Steve Corino took offense to some stuff that Adam Cole said to him during commentary during the Honor Rumble match, and he ended up entering it at #11. In fact, Corino says he found the number resting on his bag, and Kevin Kelly wonders who #11 actually would have been. I smell Sullivan and company at work there, and I hope that gets touched on. Secondly, Cole continually calls Corino a joke, which I wonder if this will feed into Corino’s possible metamorphosis that Sullivan keeps pressing Corino into doing. Lethal hits the Lethal Combination and Hail to the King for a near fall.
Cole decides it’s time to get a closer look, and out come Kyle O’Reilly to attack him on the entryway! The brawl eventually distracts Silas, and Lethal takes advantage to get the cheeky pinfall! Everybody starts brawling after the bell! The match was fine, but it played background to everything else swirling around the RoH World Title. For example, both commentary and Cole announce that Kyle already has the title shot for Final Battle. What the hell are we doing Survival of the Fittest for then? Does Kyle get to win that too, are we going to build another challenger for Cole? **
Overall Rating: 6 out of 10 Ultimately, we get a fine episode here. We know the Bullet Club are hunting titles, Lee & Taylor vs. War Machine was a great match, and the feud took another step towards its inevitably bloody conclusion that should take place at Final Battle. The wrestling wasn’t all that bad, and the six man world tag team title tournament continues to roll on. Not must watch, but if you follow Ring of Honor, it’s certainly worth your time.