Ring of Honor TV – April 4, 2018: I Want To See Them Fight
IMG Credit: Ring of Honor Wrestling
Ring of Honor
Date: April 4, 2018
Location: Sam’s Town Hotel & Gambling Hall, Las Vegas, Nevada
Commentators: Ian Riccaboni, Colt Cabana
So this is the go home show for Supercard of Honor, which must have made for an odd taping. The stuff that can give away storyline advancement and results likely stopped right in the middle, but at least we’ll be getting something important tonight. Expect a lot of Bullet Club, which you should be used to by now. Let’s get to it.
Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.
Briscoes vs. Kenny King/Dalton Castle
Non-title with Marty Scurll on commentary. Dalton tries to suplex Mark to start but gets taken into the corner for a stomping. Kenny and Jay come in with Briscoe actually trying a sleeper of all things. That goes nowhere as Kenny flips away and we take a break. Back with Dalton throwing Jay down but Mark getting in a slam to take over.
Jay elbows Dalton in the face as everything breaks down with the Briscoes beating Castle down on the floor. Back in and Jay breaks up the hot tag as Marty is in his glory by ripping on everything Castle does. The Briscoes knock them outside in a heap again and we take a second break.
Back again with Dalton fighting out of a bearhug and diving over for the hot tag to King. A spinebuster gets two on Jay but a hard lariat gets the same on Kenny. Jay’s superplex into Mark’s Froggy Bow gets two with Kenny making the save, sending Marty into hysterics at the cheating. Cue Silas Young to yell at King and the distraction sets up the Jay Driller to end Kenny at 16:18.
Rating: C+. This was more of a spectacle than a big match and that’s perfectly fine. There’s something cool about having all of the champions in a single match, even if the Briscoes didn’t have a real threat here. At least it wasn’t a title match, which wouldn’t have made much sense. As a bonus, they used the match to set up something at Supercard of Honor. Well done, even if the match wasn’t anything great.
Post match Marty loads up a belt shot but hands it to Castle instead.
Quick recap of the Kingdom’s issues with Bully Ray.
Cheeseburger vs. Kikutaro
Kikutaro is a masked Japanese comedy guy and the Dawgs are on commentary. They pose to start and Kikutaro grabs an early rollup for two. The referee gets whipped into the corner but raises a boot to stop Kikutaro with the announcers calling this garbage. Kikutaro grabs a suplex but stops to do his own commentary, bringing the Dawgs in for the DQ at 2:43. Thank goodness.
Ray comes out for the save.
Women’s Title tournament recap.
Women of Honor Title Tournament Quarterfinals: Mayu Iwatani vs. Deonna Purrazzo
They hit the mat for an early standoff until Deonna runs her over and grabs a running hurricanrana for two. That earns her a running dropkick to the floor but Iwatani’s charge hits a raised knee. Back from an abrupt break with a chop off with Iwatani putting Purrazzo down. A big dive to the floor is countered into a Fujiwara armbar with Purrazzo letting go in a hurry. As Colt asks, why would you let that go when you can do it until eighteen or nineteen?
Back in and some rolling German suplexes have Iwatani in more trouble but she gets in a dragon suplex for a breather. Mayu slugs away until Deonna pulls her down into the Fujiwara. A rope is grabbed though and the bridging dragon suplex sends Iwatani to the semifinals at 9:43.
Rating: C+. Purrazzo is one of those wrestlers who can give you a good match but doesn’t really stand out all that much. She’s certainly good and knows how to handle herself in the ring but I can barely remember anything she’s done. Iwatani’s Stardom resume alone guaranteed her a semifinal spot, which is kind of annoying given how big a deal Purrazzo was to the early days of the division.
The Briscoes are ready to beat two great singles wrestlers at Supercard of Honor.
Jay Lethal wants the Tag Team Titles.
Kenny King wants to keep the TV Title.
Silas Young wants to win the TV Title.
Adam Page is VERY intense about beating up Kota Ibushi.
Punishment Martinez promises to send Tomohiro Ishii south of Heaven.
The Young Bucks drew a big house and now they’re tearing it down.
Marty Scurll is ready to take the World Title.
Dalton Castle will look fantastic and retain.
Here’s Cody to insist that Bullet Club is FINE. This Saturday he’s facing Kenny Omega and has a question: can you name a great Omega match that didn’t involve Chris Jericho or Kazuchika Okada? Omega is that great indy band that you swear is awesome but can’t remember any of their songs. The reality is that Cody leads the Bullet Club while Omega says Cody is a reject from WWE. Omega is a reject from its developmental system.
That gets a BIG gasp (as it should) but here’s Omega to interrupt. He liked that Bullet Club is fine line, but wants to know why Cody didn’t bring it up with the leader of the team. As for Brandi, who kissed him at the 16th Anniversary Show, he was confused. It went on so long that Omega thinks she wants to do it again. The brawl is on with security and the Bullet Club running in for the save to end the show. Cody was on fire with that promo and the segment made me want to see them fight so well done.
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Overall Rating: C+. I liked parts of the show but at the same time it didn’t feel like much of a go home episode. Cody vs. Omega was good but other than that, I’m having to think of what’s actually on the pay per view. As usual, there’s a good chance that this was taped before a lot of the matches were announced, making this more of a last episode before the pay per view than a go home show. That’s rather annoying, but not exactly shocking. It’s not bad though and did well enough, which is better than you can expect at times.
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