Jason Namako’s Ring of Honor TV Review
June 10, 2015
Recap by: Jason Namako of Wrestleview.com
After last week’s debut on Destination America, would Ring of Honor deliver another good one hour of pro wrestling, or would they fall into the proverbial “sophomore slump” on week 2? Let’s find out, shall we, after a virtual Code of Honor to start us off, of course.
Addiction opening promo – Good promo and effective way to showcase the new darker, calcuated side of Daniels & Kazarian. Gone are the bombastic, flashy, showman ways of The Addiction that TNA fans saw in their Bad Influence run and now replaced with a more intense, harder edge to them as part of the Knights of the Rising Dawn faction with Chris Sabin.
The Addiction vs. Kyle O’Reilly – With Bobby Fish not able to be there due to border issues, this quick fix of booking with the DQ and post-match attack on O’Reilly by The Addiction did allow to make effective due of what they had to work with them with a last-minute wrinkle thrown into things. O’Reilly looked very good here as the fighting babyface trying to overcome the odds and get revenge on The Addiction, while The Addiction were solid as the wily heels, using cheap tactics to save their titles. Set-up to the announced No DQ rematch at the PPV was done nicely, but unfortunately, while the parameters around the booking made sense in the story they were trying to tell, it was a tell-tale of what was to come on this show from a booking standpoint that may unfortunately turn fans off.
Mark Briscoe promo – Just pure wackiness from Mark, while at the same time, hyped up his match with Dijak for the PPV in one nice, neat and wacky package. Good stuff.
Dalton Castle vs. Jushin Liger – Real fun match here. Castle got to showcase his persona in front of a hot Toronto crowd, while at the same time, impressing some of the New Japan folk and Liger with his offense. Liger posing with Castle’s boys was a pop-worthy moment and bringing back some of the classic Liger offense with the Liger Bomb and Brainbuster was cool to see for longtime Japanese wrestling fans. Castle continues to bring out a great, healthy mixture of wrestling and character to his presentation and has quickly become an act ROH fans can’t wait to see. Big, bright spot in the first half of the year. Loved every second of this, go check it out when you get the chance.
Liger/Cheeseburger segment – Real cool deal here for Cheeseburger to interact with Liger in a backstage skit. Liger praising Cheeseburger’s weak Shoten was hilarious as well.
Brutal Bob Evans vs. Cheeseburger – Short sprint of a match that had a lot of nice intestity to it. Cheeseburger is a great cult low-card act to have on a roster and Evans as the curmungedonly veteran is a nice foil for Cheeseburger to play off of. Side slam table spot at the end was INSANE and the non-finish sets up a rematch for TV with maybe a stip behind it. Unfortunately, this was the second non-finish on this show and the not last either, but for what it was, I enjoyed it.
Lethal & Briscoe promos hyping up next week’s contract signing – Good, simple promos from both guys to hype up the big go-home segment next week. The build to this main event for the Best in the World PPV has been executed to perfection and I’m looking forward to seeing what transpires next week.
The Kingdom vs. Gallows & Gun – Another short sprint and good for a main event, also both teams’ best match with one another so far in their feud, but this was definitely hurt by being the third non-finish on the show out of four matches and most certainly, the one that the Toronto crowd was very unhappy the most about. Post-match with Gallows & Gun laying out the Kingdom was good and was an effective catapult for their rematch at the July 5 New Japan Dominion iPPV in Osaka, but for here in ROH, after coming off two previous non-finishes, this was the proverbial swing and a miss. In a vacaum, the booking of this match was perfectly fine, but as part of the overall show, it was one too many non-finishes on a show that already had one too many non-finishes. The other reason why this didn’t work was because the Toronto crowd was super into the Bullet Club, but how they did this match and especially the post-match was done to make The Kingdom babyfaces, as they are in New Japan. Unfortunately, The Kingdom for the last year in ROH was such a hot heel act that its gonna take a lot of time and energy to be able to actually turn them babyface. On recent shows, there has started to become a small contigent of ROH fans who are starting to get behind them, but its a clear minority right now and I don’t know, on the ROH side of things, if a babyface turn is gonna play out well for The Kingdom. In New Japan, I think it could work and has worked well so far as champions, but in ROH, it could be a stretch. Solid main event, good post-match, booking just didn’t work for the overall show.
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Overall, because of the overuse of non-finishes on this show, I would have to say that this was a definite step-back on week 2 of ROH on Destination America. If you look at each thing on this face and take into account what is to come from a storyline standpoint for each angle on this show, it would make sense to the viewer. But to a viewer that is all about being entertained and looking for blowaway, which appeared to be the case for last week, this definitely fell short of delivering from that very-high expectations by those section of fans. Me personally, I enjoyed the show and like where things are going in both ROH & New Japan storylines, heading into their next big shows respectively, but to those section of fans looking for the best show ever, it wasn’t that this week, sorry.
After one more virtual Code of Honor, I bid you aideu for this week. Hope you enjoyed reading and I’ll see you next week, back in Toronto, for more Ring of Honor Wrestling on Destination America! Have a good one!
What did you think of this week’s Ring of Honor television? Please comment below.
Jason Namako recaps and reviews the weekly Ring of Honor TV, as well as all ROH iPPVs, PPVs and VOD releases for Wrestleview.com.
Twitter: @Jason_Namako
E-Mail: jason@wrestleview.com