ROH Review 10/10/15

Ring Of Honor Wrestling Review 10/10/15
By Nathan Neumann Twitter @Headliner5

Hello ringers, long time no see it’s been two weeks now since I provided my last ROH review but we are back in the swing of things.  All Star Extravaganza took place live on PPV on September 18th and on October 10th (almost an entire month later) we finally pick back up with the show that took place the night after the PPV at least timing and continuity wise. 

The show features your ROH regulars plus Watanabe of New Japan fame and San Antonio Texas is the home for tonight’s matches.  The show begins and the commentators waste little time in getting us to the ring for the first match of the night.

Match 1
Matt Sydal vs. ACH
Match 4 in the Best Of 5 series

Thoughts: Really good match to kick off the show but I question it’s placement a bit because to me it should have been the main event but whatever.  ACH is up 2-1 in the series heading into this match so it produced a must win situation for Matt Sydal one thing that wasn’t mentioned was that in wrestling when you have a best of five or sometimes even seven series it almost always goes to the deciding match so going in to the match it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that Matt Sydal would win this match but we will get to that later.

The two men adhere to the code of honor to start although you can clearly see building tension between the two adversaries given how deep we are into this series.  The two start the match off with some mat wrestling and neither man can get a clear-cut advantage throughout that part of the match.  Sydal knocks ACH out of the ring and follows him out and they brawled in front of the crowd Sydal whips ACH into the guardrail but ACH recovers right away as they both return back to the ring.

ACH hits a double foot stomp to the back of Sydal’s head from the top rope to get a near fall.  We get a few more near falls from each man before heading to a break.  Back from break and Sydal is now outside of the ring and ACH who is in the ring nails Sydal with a sliding dropkick right in front of the announcers table.

The two make it back into the ring and ACH goes for a top rope move but Sydal nails him with a kick while ACH was in midair.  Sydal chops ACH down with knees and then hits a leg lariat for a near fall.  ACH makes it back up to a vertical base and then falls to the mat once again as the ref goes in to check on him.  Sydal jumps ACH before the referee can attempt to check on him.

ACH recovers and nails a running Elbow in the corner and follows it up with a bridging German suplex, which gets him a near fall.  Sydal hits a top rope hurricanranna but ACH lands on his feet in a really awesome spot.  ACH hits a roaring elbow and then follows it up with a swinging neckbreaker for a near fall. 

ACH goes to the top rope and sets up for the Midnight Star (450 splash) but Sydal quickly rolls to the outside of the ring.  ACH hits a Fosbury flop style dive to the outside of the ring.  Back in the ring and Sydal hits two jumping knees to the head and then makes his way to the top rope.  ACH hits a dropkick from the ground to the top to knock Sydal off of the ropes. 

ACH capitalizes with a brainbuster and goes to the top rope to set up for the Midnight star to which Sydal responds by getting his knees up.  Sydal gets the advantage and hits a standing Hurricanranna that dropped ACH right on his head.  Sydal then ascends to the top rope and hits a Shooting Star Press to pick up the win via pinfall and tie the series 2-2.

Match Result: Matt Sydal defeats ACH via pinfall after A Shooting Star Press.

Match Rating: ***
Fantastic match I can’t wait for match 5 of this series.

After it was all said and done the two shook hands and then were jumped by the Addiction and Chris Sabin and both men get taken out with Celebrity Rehab as we head to commercial break.

After break the Addiction are still in the ring Kazarian is mad because the World Tag Team Titles were stolen from Daniels and himself.  Kazarian rips on Texas to get some heat and then says that Texas believes in Justice and that they want Justice to be served.  Daniels grabs the mic and says he’s not addressing the fans because they’re beneath him.  Instead they are talking about whoever was dawning the red masks in their match at ASE 7 which cost them the tag team titles.

They say that they weren’t pinned therefore were never beaten and therefore are still the champions.  They then told the champions to bring their belts out to the ring and give them back to their rightful owners.  Instead of the champions coming to the ring the All Night Express of Kenny King and Rhett Titus made a surprise appearance.

Kenny King claimed that they are still the tag team champions because they never lost them (well they did and that’s Kenny King’s fault...but he will never admit it as they were stripped of the titles because he left ROH for TNA).  So it looks like they are putting ANX in the tag team title picture, which means that ANX might actually get a proper run with the belts this time around and hopefully Rhett doesn’t get screwed over again.

Up next Silas Young comes out to the ring with the Beer City Bruiser and the Boys.  Silas yells at them for still wearing Dalton’s stuff when he told them to wear real wrestling gear.  Because the boys failed to listen to their new owner (that sounds weird but I’m going with it) so their first lesson is to learn how to take a beating like real men.

Match 2
Silas Young and Beer City Bruiser vs. The Boys

Thoughts: At the start of the match Young orders Bruiser to do his dirty work as Silas leaves the ring.  Bruiser listens to his tag team partner and dismantles both of the boys for a few minutes.  Bruiser goes up top for a splash but the boys are able to move out of the way.  The boys ride bruiser like a horse in a way that is “unmanly” according to Silas.  This brings Silas into the ring and Young lays out both of the boys and hits Misery on one of them to pick up the win via pinfall.

Match Result: Silas Young and Beer City Bruiser defeat The Boys via pinfall after Silas hits one of the boys with Misery.

Match Rating: N/A: This wasn’t really that much of a match therefore I am not going to rate it even though I could give it the old one star rating which I’m not going to do because it was a match to further a storyline so it makes complete sense.

After the match Bruiser and Young carry both of the boys to the back over their shoulders.  Jay Lethal and Truth Martini cut a backstage promo hyping up Jay Lethal’s defense of the TV Title against Takaaki Watanabe in the main event.

From there we go inside ROH with Mandy Leon as she talks about The Kingdom and specifically Adam Cole turning his back on his former partner and friend Kyle O’Reilly.  ReDRagon cuts a very scathing promo on Cole and O’Reilly says he trusted him but now he feels bad for him.  He says that after reDRagon is done with Adam Cole that Cole will be eating through a straw. 

Cole comes back with a promo of his own which was outstanding he explains his actions by talking about his shoulder injury and saying that he got sick and tired of hearing people say that Kyle O’Reilly would be the next ROH World Champion.  Cole says that he will be the next World Champion.  Adam Cole then goes on to call O’Reilly the Marty Jannetty of Future Shock (He didn’t use that exact phrase but it’s pretty much what he said). 

The segment closes with highlights of the match where The Kingdom won the titles.

Out of that we go to the third match of the evening, which also happens to be the main event.

Main Event – Match 3
Takaaki Watanabe vs. Jay Lethal {C}
ROH World Television Championship Match

Thoughts: Before heading to the match we see highlights of the gauntlet match that Watanabe won which earned him this shot at Jay Lethal and the TV title.  The match starts by the two men obeying the code of honor.  Watanabe gets the first advantage of the match early on before Lethal powders to the outside.  Watanabe realizing the situation he’s in follows the champ out and rolls Lethal back inside of the ring.  Lethal pokes Watanabe in the eye and then Truth Martini takes over with some interference to put the advantage to Lethal.  Lethal uses a trio of suicide dives to Watanabe on the outside of the ring and poses on the top rope as we head to break. 

We return from break and head back to the action as Lethal screams at Watanabe “I’m the Ring Of Honor Champion” as the fans respond accordingly.  Lethal takes the advantage once again and has his way with Watanabe by using some illegal tactics.  The referee admonishes Lethal but Lethal doesn’t care because he’s too cool for school.  Lethal throws Watanabe to the outside of the ring and then stops to have a full-blown mid match conversation with Martini because he can.

Watanabe gets the advantage albeit brief as Lethal stops him by kicking him in the head.  Lethal nonchalantly covers Watanabe for a two count.  Lethal acts as if he’s going to go for a running kick on the grounded Watanabe but he stops and puts on a headlock and the crowd loves it.  Watanabe whips Lethal into the corner five times in a row to get the advantage, he then successfully hits an overhead suplex with a release but Lethal comes back soon after with a bicycle kick and sets up for the Lethal Injection. Watanabe breaks up the attempt and locks on a Full Nelson.

Lethal powers out of it before hitting some elbows but Watanabe takes Lethal’s head off with a short armed lariat.  Watanabe covers Lethal but only manages to get a near fall.  Martini slides the Book of Truth into the ring and while the referee is distracted by it and trying to get it out of the ring, Lethal hits Watanabe with a low blow and follows it up with a Lethal Injection to pick up the win via pinfall.

Match Result: Jay Lethal defeats Takaaki Watanabe via pinfall after the Lethal Injection to retain the ROH World Television Championship.

Match Rating: ***

Good match and a good showing from Watanabe who’s stay in ROH has really benefited him in a great way.  Lethal celebrates his win as the fans in the arena chant for AJ Styles as Lethal gets annoyed and leaves the ring to close out the show.  AJ Styles won a number one contender four way match at ASE 7 so it’ll be Styles challenging Lethal for the World title as Lethal’s next program as World Champion.

That however will do it for this week’s airing of ROH Wrestling and also bring an end to another one of my reviews for http://www.EyesOnTheRing.com.  Very good show this week, the opener and the main event are both worth your time and if you can’t spare an hour you can afford to skip the second match.

In closing make sure to follow me on Twitter @Headliner5 and feel free to drop me a tweet or two so we can talk some ROH or whatever wrestling you would like to talk about at any given time.  Also check out the Eyes On The Ring twitter account @EyesOnTheRing.

Finally make sure to check out Eyes On The Ring radio each and every week (sans last week because we didn’t do a show) on Sunday night at 11:00pm EST as we bring you the entire week that was professional wrestling via http://www.BlogTalkRadio.com/ElitePodcastNetwork.  Also be sure to like us on facebook over at http://www.Facebook.com/EyesOnTheRing.  Until next week Ringers I am Nathan saying so long and make sure to keep your Eyes On The Ring!