Ring of Honor TV – April 13, 2016: If You Build It, The Fans Will Stay Through The Taping
Ring of Honor
Date: April 13, 2016
Location: Sam’s Town Hotel and Gambling Hall, Las Vegas, Nevada
Commentators: Kevin Kelly, Mr. Wrestling 3
It’s a very big show this week with the Tag Team Titles on the line, a major star from New Japan making an appearance and a Fight Without Honor for the first time ever on ROH TV. I know these staggered shows get annoying but they’ve actually got a big card here and that’s a rare sight on an hour long TV show. Let’s get to it.
Tag Team Titles: War Machine vs. Roppangi Vice
Vice (Trent Barreta and Rocky Romero) is challenging and knocks Hansen and Rowe off the apron before the bell. Rowe says ring the bell but gets beaten down in the corner to start. A standing moonsault doesn’t have much effect though and it’s Hansen back in for rights and lefts of his own. Romero is kicked out to the floor as Wrestling 3 tells stories of “joysting” (not jousting but joysting), whatever that is.
We take a break and come back with Hansen taking Rowe’s shotgun knees by mistake, followed by Romero kicking Rowe in the face. A quick Superman punch puts Romero down but Trent dropkicks both champs down to save his partner in a nice spot. Two double knees to the face drops Hansen but War Machine gets tired of these pests and lifts them up for powerbombs, only to slam the challengers into each other. That’s a new one. The Path of Resistance is broken up though as Romero hurricanranas Hansen down. A flip dive is countered into an apron bomb though and Fallout puts Romero away at 9:56.
Rating: C+. This was fine despite me not being a big fan of Barreta and Romero. There wasn’t much of a surprise here as they had been setting up the Briscoes challenging for the titles over the last few weeks but at least we had something other than a squash to get us there. Nice little match here.
Prince Nana brings out Donovan Dijak, in a Jay Lethal shirt, for something to say. Let’s get right to it with the envelopes: you’re not going to find out because you don’t need to know. Nana talks about how Dijak is enlightened while Donovan talks about being tired of spending the last year guarding Jay Lethal. This brings out Lethal for a brawl that security has to break up.
Dalton Castle says his goal is different again tonight because this time he wants to hurt Silas Young.
ACH vs. Kenny Omega
Omega, whose Intercontinental Title isn’t on the line here, is the head of the Bullet Club in New Japan and he has some awesome entrance music. Kenny is called the Cleaner so of course he comes out with a broom, along with the Young Bucks. As expected, the fans are almost entirely behind Omega.
Feeling out process to start with ACH doing all his flips as the announcers explain the latest issues in New Japan. An elbow to the head drops Omega and a dropkick puts him out on the floor. Naturally the numbers become an issue though as Omega distracts the referee, allowing a superkick to put ACH down. In a funny bit, Matt throws out a banana peel to offer an explanation.
We take a break (and get a promo from Adam Cole about how he created the Kingdom, meaning Matt Taven has no right to reform the team) and come back with ACH holding Omega in a headlock, only to be countered into what looked like a one man More Bang For Your Buck. That goes nowhere and ACH gets up a boot in the corner, followed by another kick to the face to put Omega on the floor.
The Jordan dive takes out the Bucks and Omega to a nice reaction as it’s not all Omega fans for a bit of a surprise. Back in and a top rope double stomp to the back gets two on Kenny and a brainbuster is good for the same. A 450 misses though and Omega gets in a hard knee to the ribs to take over. ACH comes back again and gets in a Stunner, giving us a Rock style sell job. The Midnight Star misses though and the One Winged Angel (electric chair into a forward piledriver) puts ACH away at 13:31.
Rating: B. I’m not a fan of ACH but this was pretty easily his best Ring of Honor match to date. I’ve heard a lot of great things about Omega over the last few months and he was definitely entertaining here but not quite as great as he’s been made out to be. I can go for ACH far more easily if he’s acting like a wrestler instead of a guy doing scripted out flips.
Dalton Castle vs. Silas Young
Fight Without Honor, basically meaning street fight. Castle has the Boys with him but they go to the back before he hits the ring. That’s the right idea for something like this. The fans are behind Castle as he clotheslines Silas to the floor while the streamers are still all over the ring. A suicide dive takes Young out again but Castle misses a running knee on the apron and gets shoved out to the floor. This hasn’t gotten violent yet but you can feel a different vibe.
Back up and Castle chops the post by mistake to give Young his first target. Castle tries another chop but fakes Young out and sends him into the barricade for a smart move. We take a break and come back with Young setting up a table on the floor to go with the ladder already in the ring. Neither of those are good enough for him though as he powerbombs Castle onto two open chairs instead.
A slingshot elbow gets two on Dalton and it’s time for some simple choking. For some reason Young lets him loose though and tries his slingshot moonsault but only hits ladder. They slug it out from their knees and then their feet with Castle getting the better of it until Young grabs a cutter for two. Misery gets the same so it’s time for a trashcan lid and some yelling on the mic.
Silas wishes the Boys were out here to see this beating so here they come, only to have one of them jump on Young’s back. That ticks Castle off all over again but he misses a running knee to send him outside. The Boys take a suicide dive to protect Dalton, who slides into the ring for a hurricanrana to send Young onto the floor again.
Back in and the Bang A Rang is countered so Dalton throws him over the top and down through the table for a YOU JUST KILLED HIM chant. Somehow that only gets two, followed by Silas hitting him low for the same. Not that it matters as the Bang A Rang onto the chairs gives Dalton the pin at 16:42.
Rating: B. This would have been a lot better if it had happened back in say……December. It was a good brawl and a very strong win for Castle but this story went on WAY too long to have the impact they were going for. I still like the feud and it’s a good blowoff match this could have been so much more if they had done it a long time ago.
Overall Rating: A-. A one hour show having two strong matches is about as easy of a layup as you’re going to get. This was the first time in a long time that a show felt like something big and a lot of that is due to how much time they spent building up Young vs. Castle. No they didn’t have amazing promos that made me want to see it, but just saying “it’s in three weeks” made me want to see where the match was going. You don’t get that in most promotions and it was a really nice change of pace which wound up working. Well done ROH, which isn’t something I’ve been able to say lately.
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