Honorable Mention
ROH TV April 4th 2015
By Mark Adam Haggerty [@TapeTraderz]
Wait a minute, what’s that coming up ahead? Might we be looking at—for the first time since the Thirteenth Anniversary Show in Las Vegas—a brand new edition of Honorable Mention, right here at www.Cheap-Heat.com? Jesus Louis’s—I can hardly believe this! Ladies and gentlemen my name is Mark Adam Haggerty and the rumors are true, I am back from hiatus with a brand new installment of Honorable Mention: ROH TV for April 4th, 2015.
This week’s show kicks off with a vignette from the previous episode featuring BJ Whitmer and Adam Page of the Decade in their search for their next “Young Boy.” BJ tells Adam that he knows exactly who it’s going to be—a second generation kid who was abandoned and neglected by his father—and invites Steve Corino’s 18-year-old son Colby to join the Decade. Corino goes ballistic and storms the ring to stop his son from hugging the wily Whitmer. Decade founder-turned-WWE Creative member Jimmy Jacobs also has a problem with what BJ is doing, but it’s too late—Colby holds the ropes and walks off as the new Young Boy for the Decade
The “live” show opens inside the William J. Meyers Pavilion in Baltimore, Maryland—with Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino at ringside. Things start immediately as Top Prospect runner-up Will Ferrara makes his way down to ringside to do battle against the former Ring of Honor World Champion, Michael Elgin. Elgin has been hit or miss with me throughout his career, but his showings over WrestleMania weekend were ALL hits, and I’m excited for Elgin now that he seems to have cleared the proverbial hump in recent months. Not only does Michael Elgin engage the young Ferrara in the “Code of Conduct,” but he claps along with the crowd for the heart shown by Will Ferrara since debuting with ROH. As soon as the bell rings however, the cordial Canadian demeanor fades and in its place is a man who is truly “Unbreakable.” He hits Ferrara with a hard clothesline and goes to work dismantling the 5-year pro—taking him into the corner and dissecting him both physically and psychologically. Ferrara tries to gain some offense by rolling the former champion up from the ropes, but loses the battle and receives a kick for his effort. Elgin captures Ferrara in a sleeper hold and works him down to the mat, but is outwrestled by the younger Ferrara. He becomes entangled in the flurry of moving body parts and succumbs to a jawbreaker by Ferrara. Ferrara is now firing up, requesting the support of the studio audience, and receiving—none. Elgin lifts Ferrara for a vertical suplex, but fails to deliver, spilling to the outside in the reversal process. Upon reentering, Elgin is once again rolled up by Ferrara, this time for a one-count, followed by Ferrara’s very impressive 360-degree standing signature maneuver for a near fall. Elgin stood and caught Ferrara dead in the jaw with a thunderous SPINNING right hand; Ferrara was presumably knocked out but still answered the pinfall before three. Elgin was through “jerking the curtain” and sought to end this match once and for all. He hit Ferrara with another spinning right hand followed by a set of power bombs for a decisive victory.
Tonight we get to see the return of the “Modern Day Road Warriors,” War Machine. Raymond Rowe returned to Ring of Honor at the Thirteenth Anniversary Show after a vicious motorcycle accident left Hanson without a partner for months. Hanson of course, was far from unhappy in the interim, as he as part of the main event for the world championship at the pay-per-view in Vegas. Their opponents tonight are the much smaller twosome of Anthony Greene and Cam Zagami, who appear absolutely petrified to say the least. Seriously—these guys look SHOOT SCARED as they stand in the ring with their goofy Can-Am Connection Tights. Zagami—what the fuck is that? What ever happened to creating a persona? That’s not a WWE tradition, it’s part of the professional wrestling industry. Although I can’t blame the up and coming talents for NOT changing their names. If Cam Zagami gets big in Ring of Honor, he’ll lose his name in NXT anyway, so what’s the difference? Better to be known by 2 names than 3—especially if one of them is your real name. Both teams appreciate the “Code of Honor,” but it’s not before long until Rowe and Hanson are ready to fight. Before the match begins, Kevin Kelly plugs his hotline—yeah you heard that right, let me say it again in case you misread it. KEVIN KELLY IS PLUGGING A RING OF HONOR PHONE NUMBER IN 2015—I’m not making fun, I actually think it’s kind of cool. Ray Rowe is first to begin and wastes absolutely no time in demolishing my man Cam Zagami. He tears Cam apart with a gut wrench-back breaker combination into a jackknife power bomb. Cam tags out to his almost-unwilling partner, Anthony Greene, who is all the sudden thrust into a belly-to-belly situation with one-half of War Machine. Rowe tags out to Hanson so that his partner can get some sort of offense as well. Hanson continues the barrage against the guys who have Facebook Thumbs Up’s on their butts. Hanson dismantles Green with a clothesline, and tags his partner Raymond Rowe. Cam Zagami enters again, trying to help his team mate, but receives a double chokeslam courtesy of War Machine. They finish the match with their finishing move—a top rope leg drop by Hanson with Ray Rowe waiting below. You know the more I say it, the more I like it—Zagami. Zagami, Zagami, Zagami, Zagami. It’s got a ring to it.
The match concludes and out of nowhere we hear: “I’m not done yet!” From the shadows emerges the eccentric Michael Elgin, who sees it fitting to reenter the arena following the impressive return of Ray Rowe. “After the Thirteenth Anniversary,“ Elgin began with an eloquence not often seen on the independent circuit—or anywhere in wrestling for that matter. “Nigel McGuinness said he was going to ‘PUNISH ME’; well the only thing I see fitting to do is return the favor and ‘PUNISH’ Ring of Honor. Hanson, Rowe—you know, as a young kid my mom always use to say something to me and it went something like this: ‘I brought you into this world, I can take you out.’ And you two are standing there as a team because of me. So how about you two bearded fellows against me? And I get the job done right now.” The announcers at ringside question whether or not Elgin has lost his mind, and we’re forced to take a commercial break. When we return, Hanson and Rowe are in one corner—and in the opposite is the man who just issued the handicap challenge, Michael Elgin. Hanson begins the match against Elgin, but Elgin kicks things off with a cheap shot to Rowe on the apron. After a split-second of back-and-forth and a Spin Kick of Doom attempt by Hanson, Elgin exits the ring and notifies his opponent that he’s finished with the match. Ray Rowe has other plans however, and comes out of left-field with a huge right hand to Elgin, and proceeds to return the challenger to the ring. Hanson keeps up the pace against Elgin, and Rowe enters the match—without a tag—to perform a double team maneuver. Hanson then tagged Rowe for real, and War Machine continued the assault. Elgin hit Rowe with a nasty double foot stomp in the corner, but it wasn’t enough to ward off the imposing ‘Machine. Elgin returned to the ringside area again and introduced a chair to the fight. The referee called for the bell while more officials arrived to separate the parties.
My favorite wrestler in the entire world is “God’s Gift” QT Marshall, and tonight he’s going one-on-one with a man who’s said to have peaked the interest of important people in Stamford—ACH. It would be cool if ACH went to NXT, because then his name could stop being ACH. Granted, they’d name him something like “Jerome Dolittle,” and then send him up to the main roster as “Dolittle.” Marshall is the first competitor of the evening who doesn’t participate in the “Code of Honor.” Things turn ugly in a hurry as the heelish QT removes the action from the ring and takes things to the outside. Upon reentry, QT Marshall remains in control, working over the exceptionally talented ACH, sending him from corner to corner with outlandish Irish Whips. He poses for the camera, flexing his biceps, but is quick to return to action with a string of stiff European Uppercuts. The commentary on this show is absurd; Steve Corino is talking about watching “Black-ish”—during the ACH match. And Kevin Kelly is talking about Young MC—during the ACH match. Being racist is one thing, but being oblivious is something entirely different. It’s still funny though. QT Marshall maintains the lead throughout the match and opts to finish the job by stealing ACH’s patented high risk maneuver. He misses—of course—and plummets to the ground, leaving him vulnerable for the real thing from the man himself. 1-2-3 and ACH is victorious over my favorite wrestler, “God’s Gift” QT Marshall.
After the match BJ Whitmer, Adam Page, and Colby Corino join ACH in the ring. “Let me shoot straight with you Albert,” BJ called him by his real name. ”Nobody in the back likes you and nobody in the back respects you. Yet you are getting chances and opportunities that you don’t deserve.” BJ says that he has been given chances that belong to a guy like Adam Page—Page looks just as surprised as ACH by this news. “You know when your mother looks you in the eyes, she sees nothing but a failure.” Out of nowhere, Colby Corino attacked ACH from the back, making absolutely no difference except to distract ACH from the more imposing Whitmer, who followed up with a most impactful attack of his own.
Mark Briscoe cuts an—uh—interesting promo on the IWGP Heavyweight Champion AJ Styles. He says that AJ “walks around like a COCK-STRONG dominant rooster,” and assures the champ that he’s “ready to scrap with him.”
It’s always a pleasure to see AJ Styles wrestle, and if you haven’t seen his match with Kota Ibushi from Invasion Attack—do yourself a favor and—GO WATCH IT! AJ doesn’t always wear the IWGP belt to the ring, but it’s such a joy to see it when he does, especially over here on American soil. This match kicks off with a classic tie-up in the middle of the ring sending both men back toward their corners. They go at it again, this time with AJ around back, and the action proceeds to hit the ground and spring back up. AJ and Mark pace back and forth and tie up for a third time, as Briscoe achieves a side headlock on the champ. AJ turns it around with a hammer lock, but Mark is back again, this time with a sleeper hold. Mark is a very good wrestler, but he’s entirely too obvious when he’s making calls in the ring. AJ hits Mark with a back body drop but Briscoe lands on his feet and brings the champ back down to the canvas. The fans are cheering for both men, waiting for things to kick into the next gear. They crisscross the squared circle and AJ Styles gets the upper hand, but celebrates for too long, leaving the opening necessary for Briscoe to turn the tables. AJ goes to the outside and Mark capitalizes with a rolling offensive maneuver off the apron, which was then reversed by the IWGP champion. We go to commercial with both men on the outside—Briscoe on his back and AJ in control—and when we return, AJ is on his back inside the ring. AJ turns things around quickly however, hitting Briscoe with a big body slam and following up with his signature running knee. AJ continued to work on the left knee of Mark Briscoe, hoping to ground the otherwise aerial practitioner of Redneck Kung Fu. More fans get behind Briscoe as AJ picks up the pace in breaking down the injured leg of Briscoe. Mark Briscoe hits AJ Styles with an incredible brain buster and goes for the cover, only to receive a two count. Both competitors attempted a variety of high spots—none of which panned out—until things spilled to the outside once more. Both men were flat on their backs following a series of unnecessary fighting around the guard rails. The referee counted and Mark Briscoe was the first to return at ten—AJ Styles remained on the floor until the count of seventeen. When the action returned to the ring, Briscoe was in control and went sky high with a flying elbow drop on Styles. The “Phenomenal One” was ready however, lifting his knees to block the blow. He was on his feet in no time and hit the ROH mainstay with a snap brain buster, followed by the “Styles Clash” for the victory. Obviously AJ isn’t going to lose a match in Ring of Honor while he’s holding the IWGP championship. And as a 2-time IWGP champion, he probably isn’t going to get pinned on the independent circuit in America for much of the foreseeable future. A good match, albeit confusing and sort of clunky for a promotion as refined as Ring of Honor. I give the main event 3 Stars.
Unfortunately, as I’ve mentioned before, Ring of Honor doesn’t have a syndicated broadcast here in Southern California so I have to rely heavily on the wholly unreliable ROH website. That leaves me two weeks behind in some cases, and I refuse to believe anybody wants to read a review of a show that’s two week’s old. Therefore I cannot promise you I’ll be back each and every week, but will try to cover Ring of Honor as often as I can.
Make sure to check out all of my show reviews here at www.Cheap-Heat.com including those for Raw (Highlight of the Night), Lucha Underground (Viva La Lucha Libre), Smackdown (What’s Cookin’) and TNA Impact (Total Nonstop Analysis).
Remember: NEW “B+ Player Podcasts” are added all the time including both the flagship show each and every Monday afternoon, as well as the news program “B+P: Insiders Edge” on Sunday mornings. Until next time this has been Mark Adam Haggerty [@TapeTraderz] reminding you to keep it here at Cheap-Heat for all the latest and greatest in professional wrestling.
