Ring of Honor TV – October 4, 2017: Bad Business As Usual
Ring of Honor
Date: October 4, 2017
Location: Center Stage, Atlanta, Georgia
Commentators: Ian Riccaboni, BJ Whitmer
It’s World Title week here as Frankie Kazarian is getting a shot at Cody after winning last week’s Honor Rumble. That’s quite the turnaround but you can’t expect them to give him the shot on a pay per view as a spot like that is reserved for people from real promotions like New Japan. Let’s get to it.
We recap last week’s Honor Rumble with the Addiction cheating to give Kazarian the win.
War Machine vs. Coast to Coast vs. Tempura Boyz
One fall to a finish and War Machine’s IWGP Tag Team Titles aren’t on the line. There are no tags either so this is going to be a heck of a mess. War Machine cleans house to start and Rowe throws both Boyz at the same time just because he can. Hanson throws Rowe at LSG and it’s pure dominance to start.
Coast to Coast gets their faces punched in on the floor but the Boyz are up with double dives to the floor as we take a break. Back with War Machine down for a bit, only to come back in with Rowe slamming Sho onto Yo. The monsters are sent outside though and it’s Yo hitting a cutter on LSG. Rowe is back in though and a knee to the head sends Yo outside. Most of the participants wind up on the floor so LSG hits a flip dive, only to have Hanson hit a flip dive onto EVERYONE, leaving Sho to take a clothesline/German suplex combination.
Ali dives in for the save and it’s Yo getting put into the Tree of Woe but War Machine breaks up the Coast to Coast. The Boyz grab a spike piledriver for two on Rowe, who pops up and powerbombs both Boyz at the same time. A pop up powerslam plants Yo and a series of backbreakers sets up a top rope splash from Hanson for the pin at 11:24.
Rating: B. Everyone was working here and my general indifference to the Boyz was made up for by the awesomeness that is War Machine. They’re just big monsters who can do cool moves and that’s really all you need most of the time. Really solid match here as Coast to Coast continues to impress as well.
Post match, War Machine complains about Ring of Honor treating them badly and not giving them a title shot in over a year. They were supposed to have a shot at the Young Bucks but another team was added to the match to keep War Machine from getting a fair shot. They’re tired of playing nice and you won’t like this version. This didn’t sound like a heel turn but more like them just being aggressive.
Video on Flip Gordon.
Corey Hollis vs. Flip Gordon
Flip, uh, flips out of a wristlock to start and nips up off a shoulder block. The handstand walk gets Flip out of trouble and a dive to the floor takes Hollis out. A flip dive misses though and Gordon gets dropped ribs first onto the top. Back from a break with Hollis working on an armbar. Gordon fights up and hits a flip Sling Blade followed by a running shooting star press for two more. Hollis catches him in the corner again but Flip is right back up with a springboard kick to the face. A springboard 450 (with the knees landing on Hollis’ chest) gives Flip the pin at 9:30.
Rating: D. Gordon is a one note character and there’s really nothing wrong with that. He’s not hiding what he’s doing out there and that’s kind of refreshing. Unfortunately he’s also really sloppy with that ending looking terrible. Reign him in a bit and have him do things a bit more slowly and accurately instead of throwing in everything he can and he’ll look a lot better in a hurry.
Kazarian says he wants to win the title to tick off the fans and ROH.
Long video recapping the Women of Honor. I’m going to put this as politely as I can: no one cares. Like really, no one cares. There are great women’s divisions around the world but Ring of Honor’s is just not on that list. It never gets any kind of attention and the handful of specials they’ve had aren’t enough to make me care about a four or five woman division. If ROH cared about them like they said they did, these people would be on the regular shows and not stuck on YouTube.
Kelly Klein says she’s ready to beat anyone put in front of her.
ROH World Title: Frankie Kazarian vs. Cody
Cody is defending and wins the early feeling out process. A release gordbuster drops Kazarian and it’s back to the standoff. Cody trips him down again and we hit the Figure Four but Kazarian is right next to the ropes. They’re certainly not wasting time early on. A dragon screw legwhip over the middle rope looks to set up a dive to the floor but Kazarian is back up with a slingshot hurricanrana.
Back in and Cody gets backdropped to the apron, setting up a kick to the head to drop him again. Kazarian scores with a spinning springboard Fameasser and we take a break. Back with Cody armdragging him off the top for a heck of a crash to put both guys down. The Beautiful Disaster connects but Kazarian grabs the slingshot cutter for another near fall. Cody is right back with a snap powerslam (well to be fair Goldust and Randy Orton both use it) and a YES Lock of all things. I’m not sold on Bryan coming back to ROH but they’re teasing the heck out of it.
Cue Daniels for a distraction but Marty Scurll comes out to even things up. Not that it matters as Scurll gets posted, allowing Kazarian to miss a belt shot. Now it’s a ref bump because ROH loves to overbook. Daniels gets in the belt shot to set up the Unprettier for a VERY close two.
Marty is back up to shove Kazarian off the top though and Daniels is thrown inside. Somehow the now conscious referee doesn’t think any of this is a DQ, including Daniels taking Cody down. Scurll superkicks Daniels to take him out, leaving Cody to grab Cross Rhodes to retain at 11:43.
Rating: C-. This match wasn’t even twelve minutes and had two people interfering, a belt shot and a ref bump. There’s no reason whatsoever that a match should do so much nonsense, nor should it need to. They were having a perfectly good match until the screwiness started up and then it was a completely different everything. If you just have to do something like that, do ONE THING and nothing more. Why is that so hard to understand?
Overall Rating: C. I’ve seen worse shows but it felt like they were cramming in as much stuff as they could into a single show. I believe this is the last episode of the taping cycle, meaning there’s almost no way of knowing what we’ll be seeing next week. Maybe we can even talk about the pay per view for a change. It would be nice to actually be caught up for once.
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