Ring of Honor TV – September 21, 2016: They’re Here To Stay
Ring of Honor
Date: September 14, 2016
Location: Sam’s Town Hotel and Gambling Hall, Las Vegas, Nevada
Commentators: Steve Corino, Kevin Kelly
We’re getting closer to All-Star Extravaganza and for once they’re actually setting up some stuff for the pay per view in advance. Now that being said, a lot of the card is going to be built around the Six Man Tag Team Title tournament so they can throw a lot of it together at their own leisure. Let’s get to it.
Opening sequence.
Steve Corino gets his own entrance to do commentary. As expected, he’s rather happy to be back.
Guerillas of Destiny vs. All Night Express
The announcers call them the All Night Express but they’re part of the Cabinet because that’s still a thing. Tama and Titus get things going and a pull of the hair takes the monster down. Loa tags himself and it’s time to start the beating. The Tongans snap Titus’ throat across the top and we take an early break. Back with Loa suplexing Titus as this is still one sided. We hear about a four way for the #1 contendership to the Tag Team Titles at All-Star Extravaganza (with the Express as the only team mentioned) as it’s off to King for some house cleaning.
A string of kicks to the head have Tama in trouble but it’s time for the big two on two slugout. King takes over with a slingshot corkscrew plancha but it’s Tama with a jumping neckbreaker on Titus. A powerbomb/neckbreaker combo gets two on Titus and the Tongans have to deal with Caprice Coleman. Not that it matters as a double inverted DDT (Guerilla Warfare) puts Titus away at 10:38.
Rating: C. This was fine while it lasted but as usual I have no interest in the Cabinet as I’m sick of the election being part of everything and how almost everything in ROH has to be some kind of a stable or a group. The match was fine enough for a TV match and it’s always good to see the Cabinet take a beating.
Coleman says they’re not done with the Bullet Club.
We look back at Tetsuya Naito and Evil turning their backs on Jay Lethal last week.
Lethal calls last week the second worst day of Naito’s life. The worst is going to be All-Star Extravaganza when Lethal gets his hands on Naito.
Shane Taylor talks about Ray Rowe teaching him to wrestle in Cleveland. Then War Machine happened and Taylor had to deal with all of the enemies Rowe had created. I’ve heard worse.
Shane Taylor/Keith Lee vs. Ken Phoenix/Ricardo Rojas
The much smaller Phoenix goes after Lee and is picked up with one arm. A dropkick to the side of the head only ticks Lee off so he headbutts Phoenix in the chest. Rojas comes in and hits Lee in the back but it doesn’t actually change anything. Taylor adds a middle rope splash to crush Ken at 1:53.
Taylor and Lee want War Machine while the fans chant for the Young Bucks. Cue War Machine with Rowe talking about taking care of Taylor for years. Tonight isn’t about that though because War Machine is here for violence.
War Machine vs. Keith Lee/Shane Taylor
Rowe knees him in the face to start but discuses into a right hand to actually put him down off a single punch. You don’t see that happen too often. Rowe gets beaten into the corner and blasted with big forearms and right hands. Sometimes you don’t need to do anything other than keep it simple.
More right hands get Rowe out of trouble and the hot tag brings in Hanson to fire off even more right hands. Hanson gets in a reverse powerslam on Lee and Rowe runs in with the shotgun knees to take out Taylor. They start trading the suplexes with Lee hitting an AA into a powerslam to put Hanson on the floor. A chair is brought in for a LOUD shot and that’s a DQ to give Lee and Taylor the win at 4:25.
Rating: C+. I like this feud more and more every time as it’s just so different than everything else they do on this show. They’re not trying to be the Bullet Club or flying all over the place because they’re just beating the heck out of each other for full matches with big power moves and that makes for entertaining TV.
The match is called a no contest for reasons unclear. Rowe gets powerbombed through two chairs to put him out.
Matt Taven is on commentary for the main event and says the new Kingdom will be part of the Six Man Tag Team Title tournament. Partners to be announced.
Roppongi Vice/Kazuchika Okada vs. Kamaitachi/Addiction
Kamaitachi and Romero start things off but we get an Okada request. That’s fine with Okada who puts Kamaitachi up against the ropes and calmly pats his chest. Addiction charges in and get a flapjack each to send us to a break. Back with Romero hitting a long string of running clotheslines on the Addiction and it’s off to Beretta for his running flip dive onto the Addiction (and piles of Okada Bucks). Things finally settle down with Daniels driving knees into Beretta’s head and Kamaitachi getting a very fast head start for a running seated dropkick.
Daniels hammers away at the head and we take a second break. Back again with the hot tag bringing Okada in again for the house cleaning. A top rope elbow crushes Daniels but Kazarian breaks up the Rainmaker. White Noise onto a knee gets two more on Daniels, only to have Kazarian come in with a slingshot DDT. Kazarian cuts off Strong Zero and it’s the Best Meltzer Ever (a moonsault spike tombstone) to put Beretta away at 12:45.
Rating: C+. This was fine and a decent enough way to build towards the six man tournament where the matches will have almost no stories to them but at least they’ll be for titles that the company doesn’t want but it makes them more like New Japan and that’s the point of the whole thing. It’s a watchable enough match but I have little reason to care about most of these people.
Overall Rating: C. Not bad for a show with the B crew this week and assuming you can accept that the New Japan guys are the norm instead of a special attraction, this was more than watchable. All-Star Extravaganza isn’t exactly looking like anything interesting but it’s hard to say what you’re going to get on one of their shows these days. This didn’t do much to set up the pay per view but it’s fine for an hour of wrestling.
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