ROH Review: 6/20/15

By Nathan Neumann Twitter @Headliner5

Hello once again Eyes On The Ring faithful. Did you miss me? Well probably not...but I am Nathan and I would like to apologize for my absence last week as I had a prior commitment that I had to deal with but I am back this week with another Dose of Honor. Best In The World was Friday night and this is the first show that featured the fall out from that show (well at least they made mention of it but nothing from Best In The World actually continued so that’s saved for later I guess).

There were three matches this week all from the ROH/NJPW Super Shows that took place in May.  These matches took place more specifically at ROH/NJPW Global Wars night 2 so without any further hesitation from yours truly lets get down to the action.

Match 1: Roderick Strong vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

Thoughts: The two start the match off by feeling each other out and matching each other hold for hold and move for move with neither man gaining a significant advantage.  The first real move of the match came when Strong dazed Nakamura enough to hit an Olympic slam to score the first near fall of the match.

Nakamura recovers and hits two different variations on his own Boma Ye Knee as Strong is tied up in the apron.  The two make their way to the outside of the ring and Nakamura hits another running knee on Strong while Strong had his back against the guardrail as we go to commercial.

Back form commercial and both guys have found their way back to the ring and are trading forearms in the center of it.  Strong grabs Nakamura and delivers a double knee backbreaker to score a near fall.  Both men reset and Roderick forces Nakamura in the corner and sets him up on the top turnbuckle.  Nakamura tries to fight Roderick off of him but Roderick maintains control and delivers a running knee of his own. Nakamura recovers after shaking off the impact from the knee and jumps off of the second rope and hits Strong with another Boma Ye Knee. 

Roderick recovers once again and catches Nakamura and locks him in the Strong hold but Nakamura manages to make it to the ropes to save the match for himself for the time being.  Both men are back up and Strong runs off of the ropes and hits Nakamura with a Sick Kick and follows it up with End Of Heartache but Nakamura is out at 2.  Nakamura makes it back up to a vertical base and catches Strong with a Super Kick to the face when Strong was coming off of the ropes to deliver another Sick Kick.  After the Superkick Nakamura is able to pick up the win via pinfall.

Match Result: Shinsuke Nakamura defeats Roderick Strong via pinfall after a Superkick.

Match Rating: ****1/4

Note: This might be the highest star rating you’ll ever see from me for a TV match but this match was excellent and you need to go out of your way to see it. This is probably the best match that will air on free TV this week and only one match from this week even comes close to that and it happened on Wednesday on Lucha Underground.

From here we go to the second match of the night.

Match 2: Michael Elgin vs. Gedo

Thoughts: Ugh Michael Elgin I don’t know what happened to him for me because when I first saw him in ROH I hated him because I didn’t think he was that good.  Then I went on to eventually like him and now I’m back once again to not liking him.. at all! I probably dislike him more this time than I did the first time. Personal thoughts on him aside, lets get down to what actually happened in this match. 

The two men lock up and Elgin easily overpowers the much smaller Gedo, Gedo recovers and tries to figure out how to best Michael Elgin and what his strategy for this match should be.  In the mean time Elgin hits Gedo with a Samoan drop to pick up a near fall. 

Elgin maintains control over Gedo and picks him up for a suplex but leaves Gedo in the air for a half a minute before dropping him down to the mat.  Gedo manages to recover and hits a desperation super kick to score a near fall of his own in which may be his only bit of effective offense in this match.  From there Elgin goes into full Elgin mode (whatever that means, don’t ask me because I just made it up) and hits Gedo first with a buckle bomb and then with an Elgin Bomb to pick up the win via pinfall.

Match Result: Michael Elgin defeats Gedo via pinfall after an Elgin Bomb.

Match Rating: **1/2

From there we go to a commercial, once we get back we are treated by the presence of Mandy Leon and Inside ROH where she quickly recaps both nights of Global Wars and both nights of War Of The Worlds to try and sell some DVD’s.  Hey Mandy I’ll buy whatever it is that you’re selling.

After that segment (and my awkwardness in my last sentence before this one) we head on into the main event which is a six man tag team match featuring the Stars of New Japan Pro Wrestling.

Main Event – Match 3: Kazuchika Okada, Rocky Romero, and Trent Barreta vs. AJ Styles, Matt Jackson, and Nick Jackson

Thoughts: The match starts off with AJ Styles representing his team while his challenger for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Dominion in July Kazuchika Okada starts it off for his team.

Both men take a minute to get a quick feel for one another but these two have wrestled so many times before so it doesn’t take them long to start bringing out the big guns.  Styles goes for the Styles Clash and Kazuchika Okada goes for the Rainmaker but both moves are blocked as it is still too early for them to work.  Barreta gets tagged into the match as does Nick Jackson on the other side.  Barreta catches Nick coming into the ring with a northern lights suplex to pick up a near fall.  Barreta makes his way on to the apron but before he can do anything Matt Jackson delivers a superkick sending Barreta to the floor. 

Barreta gets back into the ring and at this point Matt draws Okada into the ring in order to distract the referee so he can gain an unfair advantage on Barreta with a double team maneuver behind Red Shoe’s back.  Barreta recovers and hits a double stomp on Matt Jackson in the corner.  Rocky Romero gets tagged into the match and meets Both Young Bucks in the ring and hits a Hurricanranna on the both of them. 

Barreta and Romero deliver a doomsday device on Matt Jackson on the outside of the ring.  Meanwhile on the inside of the ring AJ Styles hits Okada with Bloody Sunday for a near fall.  Okada recovers and hits AJ Styles with a Tombstone piledriver for a near fall of his own.  Matt Jackson comes into the ring and makes his way to the top rope but Barreta meets him up there and delivers a German Suplex off of the top rope.  The Young Bucks recover and hit a succession of super kicks and AJ hits a drop kick.  The match ends when the Young Bucks hit the Meltzer Driver on Barreta and AJ Styles follows it up with a Styles Clash to pick up the pinfall victory.

Match Result: AJ Styles and The Young Bucks defeat Kazuchika Okada and Roppongi Vice after a Meltzer Driver/Styles Clash combination.

Match Rating: ***1/2

That’ll do it for me and this review of Ring Of Honor Wrestling Television.  A great week for ROH TV as it was one of their best episodes in a while the first match on this show is a must see match but if you can watch the entire hour go ahead and do so you wont be disappointed. 

In closing make sure to follow me on Twitter @Headliner5 and make sure to follow Eyes On The Ring @EyesOnTheRing.  Also make sure to check out the home to my ROH reviews as well as everything else that the EOTR team brings you each and every week over at http://www.EyesOnTheRing.com as we bring you the latest news, views, and reviews from inside of the ring. 

Please make sure to listen to Eyes On The Ring radio as we presented live each and every Sunday night as part of the Elite Podcast Network located over at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ElitePodcastNetwork as we once again bring you the week that was pro wrestling through our own Eyes.

Finally make sure to like us on Facebook at http://www.Facebook.com/EyesOnTheRing For now I am Nathan saying so long and I will see you right back here next week.  Later Ringers!