Ring of Honor TV – June 27, 2018: One Of The Best Shows They’ve Ever Done
IMG Credit: Ring of Honor Wrestling
Ring of Honor
Date: June 27, 2018
Location: Hammerstein Ballroom, New York City, New York
Commentators: Ian Riccaboni, Colt Cabana
It’s the go home show for Best in the World and since this is Ring of Honor, there’s a good chance that this is going to be one heck of a crash course on the way to the pay per view. We know some of the card, but around here it tends to be a very fast final push towards the show, which doesn’t exactly interest me in the bigger shows. Hopefully they surprise me so let’s get to it.
Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.
Well of course the go home show is the start of a new taping cycle. Heaven forbid they GET THIS STUFF STRAIGHT FOR ONCE and don’t make us wait the better part of a month before we get any storyline advancement.
Here are Dalton Castle and the Boys to get things going. The fans are happy to see him, at least partially because this is where he became World Champion. He’s been working harder than ever and at Best in the World, he’s putting the title on the line against two members of Bullet Club. People have been asking him why he’s doing that. Well why not? He used to play semi-pro Jai alai in Tampa so he’s not scared of anything.
Castle has props for the match, so one of the Boys hands him a pretzel. He says it’s a metaphor….and then admits that he doesn’t know what a metaphor is. He’ll fight Cody, Marty Scurll, or a Frankenstein wolfman in there and he’ll drop them all. Castle is the best wrestler in the world and in Baltimore, the two of them are going to regret doubting him. This title is going to be his for a long time. Good, fired up promo from Castle here, which is becoming a strong suit for him.
Jay Lethal recaps his quest to get back to the World Title, which starts by defeating all of the people who have recently beat him. He doesn’t care how many times he has to fight, because he’ll fight forever to be champion again.
Jay Lethal vs. Chuckie T.
Chuckie pinned Jay in a triple threat match last month. Lethal works on a wristlock to start and easily flips out of a hammerlock. A snapmare puts Lethal down though and we have a required standoff. They fight over a hiptoss with Chuckie sending him outside for all of a second. Back in and Lethal misses a middle rope crossbody with Chuckie just stepping to the side ala Samoa Joe.
We hit the Black Widow for a good while until a dropkick sends Lethal down and us to a break. Back with Lethal nailing the basement dropkick, followed by the triple suicide dives as the announcers name the fans. Chuckie kicks him in the head though, only to walk into a double clothesline. Lethal gets sent outside and catches Chuckie in a cutter (minus the backflip of course) for a big drop.
That’s only good for a nineteen so Lethal superkicks him for two more. The Lethal Combination is broken up and Chuckie gets two off a rollup, earning himself some kicks to the head. This time it’s Lethal’s turn to charge into a boot though, setting up the stuff piledriver for two. The Awful Waffle is broken up though and the Lethal Injection gives Jay the pin at 13:28.
Rating: B. Chuckie is starting to grow on me as he’s been having actual good matches instead of just doing the comedy stuff over and over again. Lethal is of course great against anyone and I could go with him eventually (emphasis on that word) moving back up to the World Title scene, where he really belongs.
They shake hands post match.
Video on Bully Ray vs. Flip Gordon, with Ray being a jerk to the smaller guys, including Gordon.
Best in the World rundown.
Adam Page is ready to finish Punishment Martinez.
Jay Lethal is ready to break the tie against Kushida.
The Briscoes are over the Young Bucks and know they’re the best team of this generation.
Dalton Castle is ready to throw bodies left and right and he has plenty to pick from.
Cody is ready to get the title back at the same show he won it at in the first place.
Marty Scurll says it’s time to become World Champion.
As usual these were short, to the point, and worked fine.
Punishment Martinez/Briscoes vs. Bullet Club
Page and the Bucks here, as you probably guessed if you were paying attention in the interviews of course (they always come back to haunt you). Nick and Mark get things going with Nick running the corner into a spinning armdrag. Jay throws a chair in for a distraction so he can low bridge Nick to the floor. Of course that means a flip dive from Matt, leaving the power guys to slug it out in the ring. Back in and Matt has to save Nick from a chokeslam and a double dropkick puts Martinez on the floor.
The flips and kicks have the Club rolling with a pair of dives taking the Briscoes down again. Martinez isn’t about to be outdone (except for when he’s being outdone) so he climbs onto the post for a huge flip dive and a big reaction. It takes a lot to get cheered in a Club match but they did it here. Martinez grabs a table but Nick avoids a running powerbomb through his brother through the table. The referee gets distracted by the appearance of a kendo stick, allowing Jay to get in a chair shot. Mark’s top rope elbow puts Nick through the table and we take a break.
Back with a normal six man having broken out with Nick elbowing Martinez in the face. Of course he can take the Briscoes out on his own but thankfully the diving hot tag is broken up. One heck of a springboard flip dive from Matt takes the Briscoes down and NOW the tag brings in Page to slug away at Martinez. That just ticks Martinez off so Page spits in his face (Colt: “That’s disgusting.”) and sends him outside for a huge moonsault down to the floor.
Back in and the top rope splash/moonsault/running shooting star sequence gets two on Martinez and it’s off to the stereo Sharpshooters on the Briscoes. The Buckshot Lariat drops Martinez and Nick hits the 450 for two more. A double clothesline puts Page and Martinez down though and we take another break.
Back with Matt charging into a snap Death Valley Driver…but he just lands on his feet when he takes the Doomsday Device. So yeah just no selling the biggest tag team finisher ever. Martinez goes up and hits a spinwheel kick on Page, who is nice enough to sell the thing for a change. There’s the running Blockbuster off the apron to Nick and the Stomp crushes Matt for two more.
A great looking superkicks rocks Jay and a double version each have Matt and Martinez down. The triple superkick rocks Jay but Mark dives off the top to cut off a Meltzer Driver. The Jay Driller gets two with Page making a save and everyone is down. Page breaks up a Doomsday Device with a powerbomb to put Martinez through a table, leaving Matt to victory roll his way out of another Doomsday Device for the pin on Jay at 17:44.
Rating: A-. So you remember how I said last week that it’s hard for me to get invested in a Bucks match because they’re always going to win in the end? Well that was the case here too but sweet goodness this was a heck of a match with a bunch of people I like so it’s hard to seriously complain. Well save for the Doomsday Device not working because Matt just flipped when he got clotheslined. That’s never going to work and they would have been fired for trying it on the Road Warriors. Or just beaten to non-PG bloody pulps.
Post match Cody runs in to save his buddies from a beatdown. They have to be healthy for All In you see.
A Best in the World ad ends the show.
Overall Rating: A. Well that was awesome. The weaker match on the show was just shy of pay per view quality and they even got some promotion for the pay per view in there. Sure it was just promos and the taping schedule is going to be another mess but my goodness this show was great and probably the best episode of Ring of Honor I’ve ever seen. Check this one out for sure.
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