Ring of Honor TV – January 10, 2018: It’s a Shame to Waste a Perfectly Good ROH
Ring of Honor
Date: January 10, 2018
Location: 2300 Arena, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Commentators: Colt Cabana, Ian Riccaboni
We’re FINALLY at the post Final Battle tapings and that means it’s time to get on with the stories. There are some big issues coming out of the pay per view with Dalton Castle winning the World Title at the top of the list. It should be interesting to see where the fallout goes, including perhaps a new challenger for Castle. Let’s get to it.
We look at some clips from Final Battle, naturally focusing on the title change more than anything else.
Opening sequence with Castle more prominently featured.
Here are Castle and the Boys to get things open, as is tradition around here. The fans chant for the Boys until Castle, now with a rather white microphone cube, talks about making mistakes in the past. Like investing money in the sparkling water business. People kept telling him he would never be World Champion but it turns out that there’s a long time between now and ever.
Now he’s the World Champion and as long as he holds the title, the world is going to know that he’s not just a big fish in a little pond. This brings out Jay Lethal, who would be a logical first challenger (though I would have bet on Punishment Martinez). Castle: “THIS IS SHOCKING!”. In the years that Castle has been here, Lethal has never even given him the time of day. Lethal hasn’t even sent him a friend request on Facebook! Dalton isn’t sure what Jay could possible want from him now Castle: “I’m puzzled. It seems there could be so many things you could want.”.
Jay does want to congratulate him on his accomplishments and that title makes him the best in the world right now. To get to the point though, Jay wants his shot. That’s not what Castle was expecting and sits down on one of the Boys to think it over. The other Boy offers Jay a seat which he accepts, after wiping the Boy’s back down first. Jay can’t do it so the fans tell Jay to try it again. Castle: “It’s a shame to waste a perfectly good Boy.”
Dalton throws his feet on the other Boy’s back but Jay gets to the point, saying he wants to be at the top of Castle’s list. The champ agrees and Jay bails in a hurry. With the ring to himself, Dalton says this title is for the Boys. With Castle ready to leave, Punishment Martinez, who is owed a title shot due to winning the Survival of the Fittest, comes in for a chokeslam to lay Dalton out.
More often than not, a new champion will start their reign off by saying it’s a new era or something like that. For once, Castle’s actually does feel different. The stuff with the Boys is something we’ve seen before, but Castle was in regular street clothes here and having the Boys being used as chairs by a guy you might see anywhere was quite the odd visual. I buy him as champion and it feels different enough that I care, which is a great sign for him going forward.
The Kingdom says they’re coming for all the titles. My goodness shut up with this same stuff already. It’s been the same promo for WAY too long now and Taven not being a great talker doesn’t help either.
TV Title: Silas Young vs. Simon Grimm
Young is defending after winning the title at Final Battle. Grimm comes out in a mask for a rather different look, which might actually work. They hit the mat to start with Grimm getting the better of a wristlock. Young flips out of a snapmare as they seem to be trying to do a fast paced cruiserweight sequence but are a bit too big. It doesn’t look bad and it’s a well done change of pace, but it does look a bit awkward.
They fight over a pinfall reversal sequence until Grimm powers him up, only to get hurricanranaed right back down. A clothesline puts Grimm on the floor and we take a break. Back with Young still in control as the camera makes sure to look at Beer City Bruiser. Grimm gets in some uppercuts (because that’s what so many wrestlers use these days) and a bridging suplex gets two. Not that it matters as Misery retains the title at 7:31.
Rating: C-. Simple title defense for Young here to get him off on the right foot while we wait on the real challenger. They took their sweet time on giving Young a run with anything so it’s nice to finally see this pay off in any way. Young could make for a good TV Champion, even if he doesn’t hold the title all that long. Grimm is better than he was given credit for in WWE but I’m not seeing any great potential that the company missed.
Post match Kenny King with a beer bottle, just like the one that Silas had to use to take the title from him. Sure Silas beat Martinez on his own but it took a beer bottle to beat King. He’s already signed up for his rematch but thanks to the eight beers he’s had tonight, he’s ready to fight Young right now. Referees are right there but this was fine to set up the obvious rematch.
Stills package of Bully Ray/Tommy Dreamer vs. the Briscoe Brothers. Bully left his boots in the ring after the loss.
Clip of the Women of Honor Title tournament being announced.
Briscoes vs. Ryan Nova/Eli Isom
New music for Mark and Jay. The Briscoes jump the jobbers during the video package and Jay takes Isom’s head off with a clothesline. Mark does the same and the Froggy Bow ends Isom at 1:34. These guys are awesome heels, partially because they look like they could snap your neck at a moment’s notice.
Post match the Briscoes brag about ending Bully’s career. They want the Tag Team Titles back because no one is on their level right now. The Briscoes destroying the Guns would be as appropriate as anything else at the moment.
Silas, with his hair looking cleaner than it has in years, isn’t happy with what King did. The Beer City Bruiser wants to win the Tag Team Titles and even has a partner in mind. Silas gives him his blessing. This would have been more effective if the Briscoes hadn’t just squashed a team and challenged for the titles as well.
The Young Bucks and Adam Page aren’t happy with the Addiction and Scorpio Sky (now known as SoCal Uncensored). They can have a shot at the titles if that’s what they really want. Another year, another team crammed together for the sake of creating challengers for the titles.
Flip Gordon vs. Marty Scurll
Scurll’s IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title isn’t on the line. During the entrances, Scurll says he wants a shot at Castle too because he helped Lethal reach his inner villain. I completely support this. The fans are almost entirely behind Scurll as they fight over a wristlock to start. Gordon flips him down to start and Marty isn’t sure what to make of it. The handstand walk turns into Flip’s dance, followed by the multiple nip ups to avoid a clothesline.
It’s Flip getting in the first hard shot to send Marty outside, allowing Flip to stand on the top on one foot just because he can. Back from a break with Flip keeping the pace fast (Colt: “Fast and furious. Too fast and too furious!” Get your movies straight dude. It was Fast and THE Furious first. Fast and Furious was the fourth.) until Marty gets in a dropkick to take over. It’s already off to the cross arm choke and a Backstabber gives Marty two.
The near fall leads to a shoving match with the referee where the ref shoves him down (it worked for HHH back in the 90s and it would work here too). The referee gets BOOED for defending himself but the fans are distracted by a superkick to Gordon, despite him doing a handstand at the time. They rock each other with forearms until an enziguri gives Gordon his first offense in a good while.
A 619 around the corner has Scurll in trouble and a springboard Sling Blade is good for two. The standing shooting star gets the same and we take an abrupt break. Back again with Marty hitting the apron superkick and giving a rather evil sneer. Some spinning kicks are countered into a rollup, followed by some exchanged superkicks. Scurll’s Ghostbuster (Adam Cole’s Last Shot) gets two but Gordon sends him outside for a very big flip dive. A 450 gives Gordon two more and a Falcon Arrow gets the same. Scurll is done with this though and hits a second Ghostbuster for the pin at 13:40.
Rating: C+. Gordon is someone who interests and frustrates me at the same time. The athleticism is great but there comes a point where there’s just too much of it. Unfortunately Gordon hits that point about five minutes into his matches and it gets silly in a hurry. The last few minutes of this one showed that he can do more things than just flips and that would make the athletics look that much better. Mix is up a bit and learn to make those spots mean more and he could get a lot further.
Overall Rating: B. Now that’s how you do a first shot back. Three titles get challengers set up and there’s a good opening sequence plus a strong squash. The wrestling wasn’t bad either and there’s a lot of stuff to pick from around here. This is a lot better than the normal stuff you get around here and Marty going towards the World Title makes me rather smiley indeed.
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