ROH Review for 10/25/14 Show

Ring Of Honor Wrestling Review – Airdate: 10/25/14

By Nathan Neumann (@Headliner5 on Twitter)

Hello once again wrestling fans, Nathan here to provide you with your weekly dose of Ring Of Honor in the form my review of this weeks episode of ROH TV.  It was another good show from the company this week so without any further ado lets get going.

We open this week with a promo from the current reigning and defending Ring Of Honor World Heavyweight Champion Jay Briscoe. He he has some words for his opponent for the evening, Michael Bennett. Jay Briscoe simply asks Bennett if he is ready for their match tonight?  It was a simple but perfectly acceptable way to set up tonight’s bout between the two men.

This week’s episode of Ring Of Honor Television was dubbed “Championship Night,” meaning that every single title was on the line in the hour. If my memory serves me correct, tonight was the first time something like this was done in the almost three year history of the show.

From there, we go to the first match of the evening, which was for the Ring Of Honor World Tag Team Title’s as Roderick Strong and Jimmy Jacobs of the Decade challenge the champion’s reDRagon (Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish).

Match 1

Roderick Strong and Jimmy Jacobs vs. reDRagon (Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish) {C}
ROH World Tag Team Championship Match

Result: reDRagon defeat Jimmy Jacobs and Roderick Strong after hitting Strong with Chasing The Dragon to retain the ROH World Tag Team Titles.

Thoughts: This was a really good opener. Although, I’m not a fan of the current storyline going on with The Decade (although Jimmy Jacobs is killing it in the role), the stable didn’t play too much of a factor in this one. Early on, Jacobs hit a flying head scissors on O’Reilly followed by some double team maneuvers from Strong and Jacobs.  At one point Jacobs picked up O’Reilly and tossed him into Roderick Strong’s Knee to a huge reaction from the crowd in the arena. The finish came when reDRagon hit Roderick Strong with Chasing The Dragon (Brainbuster head kick combination) to score the win and retain the titles.  

This match was perfectly acceptable and it allowed reDRagon to show everyone what they are capable of doing. reDRagon should be a solid contender for “Tag Team Of The Year” on anyone’s ballot because if I was to do a Ballot they would probably be my number one pick because they have had some great matches this year.  If you don’t believe me go back to ROH War Of The Worlds from this past April and check out their match against the Young Bucks. It’s a match that is highly touted as one of the best matches of the year. Even though I don’t like the “Indy Darlings” known as the Young Bucks, that match was damn good.

From there we go to a commercial break and seriously ROH stars need to stop doing commercials for their sponsors.  I understand that ROH is a business and they want it done but some of them are terrible. For instance, here’s Jay Lethal promoting the Health Alert Hotline.

Hilarious stuff.

From there, we head back into the arena for the second match of the evening, which was for the Ring Of Honor World Television Championship as recent ROH Dojo graduate Will Ferrara challenged current ROH TV champion Jay Lethal for the title.

Rating: **

Match 2

Will Ferrara vs. Jay Lethal {C}
ROH World Television Championship Match

Result: Jay Lethal defeats Will Ferrara with the Lethal Injection to retain the ROH World Television Championship

Thoughts: The first thing I noticed prior to the match even getting underway was the absence of one Seleziya Sparx, which automatically causes this match to lose a star rating (just kidding).  Bobby Cruise does the announcements for this match and he announces Jay Lethal as being the “greatest first-generation wrestler ever.” The two start the match and Jay quickly knocks Will out of the ring. Ferrara nearly dies on his way out of the ring after hitting the outside of the apron badly.

He was fine but that looked like it could have been a bit dangerous. Still, he’s okay so the match continues. Back in the ring, Ferrara attempts a Tornado DDT but Lethal reverses it and delivers the Lethal Combination (Modified backbreaker/Flatliner combo).  Later on, Ferrara hits a German suplex on Lethal for a near fall. The conclusion of the match came when Lethal hit Ferrara with the Lethal Injection (handspring ace crusher) to pick up the victory and his title retention. Nothing wrong with that match, it was perfectly acceptable and Ferrara had a good showing, which is nice.

Rating: **1/4

Back from a commercial, the main event is up next, which was for the Ring Of Honor World Championship as Michael Bennett challenged the champion Jay Briscoe for the title (as mentioned earlier in this review).

Match 3

Michael Bennett vs. Jay Briscoe {C}

Ring Of Honor World Championship Match

Result: Jay Briscoe defeats Michael Bennett with the Jay Driller to retain the ROH World Championship

Thoughts: First things first, I’ll admit that even though I’m not a fan of Michael Bennett (and probably never will be), he actually went a long way in impressing me in this match so there’s that. The match started off when Todd Sinclair rang the bell, immediately following that Bennett slapped Briscoe, which made Jay very angry. Jay proceeded to chase Bennett around the ring and to the outside.  

The two men go back inside of the ring to try and have a normal match but things quickly break down once again and the two men head back to the outside of the ring.  This time they make their way to the top of the ramp where Bennett tried to give Briscoe his patented piledriver. Jay however was able to reverse it and backdrop Bennett on the ramp.  Back in the ring Bennett locks on the Anaconda vice on a fallen Jay Briscoe teasing that Jay a man who hasn’t been pinned or submitted in a full two years might do so here. That however doesn’t happen as Jay reaches out and grabs the bottom rope with his right arm to force the break.  

The two wrestle to the outside of the ropes where Jay Briscoe picks Michael Bennett up and delivers a Death Valley Driver on the ring apron to a huge pop. The move was cool but those spots seriously need to stop happening. It does nothing but get a pop (which is its exact purpose), but it’s not worth risking permanent injury to your body in order to do those types of things.

Later in the match Michael Bennett attempts a pin on a fallen Jay Briscoe after hitting a blockbuster and gets the nearest of near falls. The finish of the match saw Jay Briscoe hit the Jay Driller to Michael Bennett to pick up the pinfall victory and the retention of his championship.

This was a perfectly acceptable match for Bennett. It’s probably the best I have ever seen him in (but the guy still leaves a lot to be desired at least for me while in the ring). Still, he went a long way in impressing me during this match. I think he may have succeeded in doing so. But, one match isn’t going to change my opinion on the guy.  Everyone is capable of having good matches because it all depends on who they’re in the ring with.

Rating: **3/4

After the match Bennett attempted a Twist of Fate on Jay Briscoe. Maria then got in the ring and Adam Cole ran down to save her from a Jay Driller. Mark Briscoe comes out followed by Matt Taven in a suit; Matt nails Mark with the “Title Of Love” and joins the Kingdom. It turns out that Matt Taven was the “Matt” that Adam Cole was referring to in the past few weeks. That means that Taven is a heel once again (but they honestly didn’t know what to do with him as a face. So I am fine with it, although it took a lot to get there).  The show closes with The Kingdom posing over both of the fallen Briscoes with both the “Title Of Love” and the ROH World Title as we go to black for the week.

That’ll do it for me and another one of my signature ROH Reviews here at EyesOnTheRing.blogspot.com.  Sorry that this review went on a little long but the more detail the better right?  Until next week wrestling fans I am Nathan saying so long and be sure to keep your Eyes On The Ring for more great articles from myself and the entire Eyes On The Ring Team. Also if you could please head on over to facebook.com/EyesOnTheRing and like us and follow us on twitter @EyesOnTheRing