Ring of Honor
Date: March 9, 2016
Location: Nashville Municipal Auditorium, Nashville, Tennessee
Attendance: 675
Commentators: Kevin Kelly, Mr. Wrestling III

It’s another stand alone show as we wait the first tapings from after the Anniversary Show. This week is a big week as we have the finals of the Top Prospect Tournament, though the most interesting prospect has already been eliminated. Other than that we don’t have a lot going on but one big match is better than none. Let’s get to it.

Dalton Castle talks about drawing a bath the other night when he realized he was hungry. Not for food though, but rather victories. He’ll be taking the moon starting tonight with Christopher Daniels.

Opening sequence.

Top Prospect Tournament Finals: Brian Fury vs. Lio Rush

They take their time to start with the bigger (though still average sized) guy shoving Rush around with ease. Rush takes him to the mat for some technical stuff as the crowd is eerily silent here. It’s almost like there’s no reason to care about either guy and it’s based entirely on their work. Fury gets knocked to the floor for a suicide dive as commentary is gone for some reason. A hiptoss counters a charge to send Rush into the barricade as we take a break.

Back with Rush doing the same kind of strike sequence that almost every indy wrestler does. Fury nails a headbutt to set up the Pop Up Powerbomb, only to be countered with a hurricanrana. A DDT gets two for Rush but Fury grabs a Gory Special into a faceplant for two of his own. Fury reverses a sunset flip and puts his hand on the rope for two but gets caught by an actually competent referee. The Pop Up Powerbomb gets two on Lio so he comes back with the C4 for the pin and the tournament at 9:02.

Rating: C+. The match was fun and if they’re so obsessed with Lio then so be it but I still don’t get it. Fury wasn’t much better as an option due to his age but I would have liked to see someone different instead of someone who screams INDY WRESTLER. It’s not a bad match or anything here so good enough, just nothing that interests me due to the names in there.

ReDRagon is ready for a tag team gauntlet match next week.

Moose vs. Kongo

Kongo is overweight and his singlet looks torn. No Stokely Hathaway for Moose here. They slug it out to start with Moose getting the better of it off a dropkick. Kongo is sent hard into the barricade but he sidesteps Moose to send him in as well. Back in and Kongo crushes him with a pair of splashes as this is WAY more competitive than it should be.

Moose headbutts him a few times before no selling a suplex. A discus lariat gets two on Kongo but he comes back with a Pounce of all things (minus the actual pouncing) for his own near fall. Moose bicycle kicks him in the face and runs the ropes for a cross body which was more like a standing splash to the face. The spear puts Kongo away at 5:04.

Rating: D-. Horrible stuff here as Kongo was a horrible option here. This should have been Kongo hitting a few fat man forearms to the back and then getting speared down for the pin in thirty seconds. Not every match needs to be some drawn out affair that wastes this much of our time on a boring match. Bad booking here and it showed horribly.

The Young Bucks are ready for the gauntlet match.

Earlier today, Mike Posey and the Get A Long Gang (seriously) rapped a lot until Cheeseburger came out to beat them down with a bunch of palm strikes.

Ad for War of the Worlds and all the New Japan stars who are coming in again.

We recap Jonathan Gresham turning down Veda Scott’s offer of money in exchange for a TV Title shot and his departure from the company.

Cedric Alexander vs. Adam Page

Scott is in her wrestling gear here which is rather fetching. Never mind as BJ Whitmer comes in and beats Page down. Alexander joins in until Gresham runs out for the save, possibly setting up a tag match next week.

We recap Silas Young/Beer City Bruiser beating the Boys last week which lead to Dalton Castle being beaten down.

Dalton Castle vs. Christopher Daniels

Silas Young is on commentary. They shove each other around to start until Silas stands up for a distraction. Young: “I’m just adjusting my pants!” Castle offers a clean break in the corner but stops Daniels in his tracks with a peacock chest thrust. They trade shoulders and it’s a standoff over who can bend backwards further.

Daniels can’t get as deep so Dalton gutwrenches him down before slowing down again. Castle’s running knee puts Daniels on the floor but he drives Dalton back first into the barricade. Kazarian offers an unnecessary distraction and we hit the waistlock to keep Dalton in trouble.

Back from a break with Castle hitting a running clothesline, followed by a pair of suplexes. A bridging German suplex gets two on Daniels as they’re still just trading moves with no particular rhyme or reason. Dalton misses a high cross body but Kazarian punches one of the Boys. That goes nowhere so Daniels grabs Angel’s Wings for the pin at 11:11.

Rating: D. I really wasn’t feeling this one as Young and Kazarian screwed up whatever they might have gotten going. It doesn’t help that these two have no reason to be fighting, much like Castle has no reason to still be fighting Young. Those two have been feuding for months and there’s really no reason for it to keep going. It’s not like it’s done Castle any good either as he was one of the hottest acts on the show and now he’s just there.

Post match Castle says everyone knows he’s better than Silas and it’s time for some titles. That can’t happen though because Castle can’t stop focusing on Silas. They should be done with each other so let’s have a Fight Without Honor.

Overall Rating: D. This was pretty easily the worst show they’ve had in months and there’s little to blame other than the way the show was put together. I’m really not sure why the tournament opened the show when the announcement of the Fight Without Honor wasn’t the strongest ending in the first place. Just a bad show with only one watchable match and very little interesting as far as storyline development. I expected a lot better than this from ROH.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of the Complete Monday Nitro Reviews Volume IV at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

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Ring of Honor
Date: March 2, 2016
Location: Nashville Municipal Auditorium, Nashville, Tennessee
Attendance: 675
Commentators: Kevin Kelly, Mr. Wrestling III

We’re officially in one of those weird periods where the pay per view has passed but we’re still not done with the old taping cycle so this will be a lot of stuff that has nothing to do with the Anniversary Show or its fallout. We do however had a big match with Silas Young/Beer City Bruiser vs. Dalton Castle’s Boys. Let’s get to it.

Opening sequence.

Silas Young/Beer City Bruiser vs. The Boys

The Boys are Brent and Brandon (named a few weeks back but not mentioned here). Before the match, Dalton Castle sneaks in from behind and gets in a few cheap shots on Young and Bruiser but the Boys stand back and let them regroup on the floor. Great, so now they’re mad. Castle is escorted out and we get down to a regular match. Before the action starts, Young rips on the Boys for failing every task he gave them. There is no fairy tale ending tonight though and Young is so confident he and Bruiser will win that he’ll put his career on the line in this match.

We get a second bell so I’m not sure if the match just started or if we’re two minutes in. Bruiser starts with we’ll say Brent as the announcers preview the show and ignore the match. Brent can’t do a thing with Bruiser so it’s off to Brandon for a double clothesline. That goes nowhere either so it’s a double Eat Defeat to stagger the big man. Bruiser smacks Brent down and we take a break. Back with Brent flipping out of a rollup and bulldogging Young down. The hot tag brings in Brandon and everything breaks down with Bruiser getting DDT’ed for two.

Young catches Brandon in the DDT into the bottom buckle but Bruiser’s top rope splash is countered with….well it was supposed to be a cutter but looked more like a jumping uppercut. Either way it only gets two, followed by Brent flipping off Brandon’s shoulders to take both guys down at once. Brandon follows with a big moonsault and a faceplant gets two on Young. Not that it matters as the Bruiser comes back in and crushes both Boys in the corner with a Cannonball, giving Silas the pin at 8:30.

Rating: C+. It’s the power vs. speed dynamic working again, as if there was any doubt it was going to. The Boys looked like any given jobber team coming into this but they wound up being a surprisingly decent high flying team. I’m not sure how long they can have the Boys as valets when it’s clear they can wrestle well enough but the Castle character has evolved well so far so hopefully the trend continues.

Dalton tries to run in post match but gets taken out as well.

Adam Cole is ready for Matt Sydal tonight.

Top Prospect Tournament Semi-Finals: Brian Fury vs. Action Ortiz

Ortiz takes him down to start and runs the smaller (though still good sized) Fury over, knocking him out to the floor. A big flip dive over the top crushes Fury (or at least his shoulder as Ortiz didn’t make perfect contact) for two back inside. Brian dropkicks the knee out and Ortiz is in trouble for a bit, only to come back with some right hands to the jaw. Another right hand drops Fury but he raises his boot on the way down for an “accidental” low blow. A sitout Sky High gives Fury the pin to advance at 4:05.

Rating: D+. Fury, who reminds me of Test (in a good way), was the better option here as Ortiz is really just an update on Bam Bam Bigelow. This whole tournament is kind of hard to get a handle on as the characters are being built from the ground up, which is a very tricky move to pull off. The match wasn’t the best in the world either as Ortiz was yet another big guy who can fly while Fury is a fairly generic guy with some decent power. Fury isn’t much but I liked him a lot better than Ortiz.

Fury doesn’t care who is in the finals with him because he hasn’t shown us anything yet.

Top Prospect Tournament Semi-Finals: Lio Rush vs. Punisher Martinez

Martinez has impressed me more than anyone else in this tournament and definitely has a presence about him. Lio slugs away to start and has to escape from the sitout chokeslam. Punisher misses a running big boot and they head outside with Lio getting in a running kick to the chest to drop Martinez for the first time. A springboard is quickly countered as Lio gets caught in a jawbreaker and the beating is on.

Lio rolls back out to the floor, only to have Punisher dive over the top for a great looking plancha. It would have looked even better if it had come close but at least it was a great dive. The apron Last Ride is escaped but Rush jumps up to the apron for a springboard into a tornado DDT (because everyone gets to use the tornado DDT) onto the floor. Back in and Punisher shrugs it off (granted it wasn’t much of a DDT) to set up a super chokeslam, but Lio counters into something resembling a C4 (landing on his own head in the process) for the pin at 6:04.

Rating: C. So much for Punisher getting to show off. I mean, we have ACH Jr. and that’s what matters around here. For the life of me I do not get the appeal of Rush while Martinez is a monster with a great look. Hopefully he gets hired by someone soon because I had a good time watching him. There’s a future for him either on his own or as a bodyguard and it should be awesome.

During the pin, you can see A LOT of empty seats opposite the camera. That’s a rare slip up from ROH.

Rush (who sounds like a Briscoe) is ready for the finals.

Matt Sydal vs. Adam Cole

Feeling out process to start as they have a lot of time to spend here. Cole takes him into the corner but Sydal trips him up and grabs an Indian Deathlock with a chinlock. The bridging forces Sydal to break the hold after a few seconds though and Cole takes over with a jawbreaker. Sydal gets shoved off the top for a big crash onto the apron and it’s time for Cole to take over. We hit the chinlock for a bit before taking an early break.

Back with Cole walking into an enziguri, followed by a standing moonsault for two. Sydal tries to fly around too much though and dives into Cole’s arms, allowing Adam to slam him into the apron and take over again. A Shining Wizard gets two on Matt but he hurricanranas Cole off the ropes to break up a Canadian Destroyer. Cole shrugs that off as well and grabs the Figure Four but it’s countered as fast as any other Figure Four. Back up again and Cole scores with two straight superkicks so Sydal takes him down with a reverse hurricanrana. The Shooting Star puts Cole away at 12:30.

Rating: B-. The match was fun and they’re setting up Sydal for his big house show title match, though I would have liked it to be against someone a little less important than Cole. It was entertaining though and a very ROH style match which isn’t exactly my thing most of the time but at least Cole looked awesome. Sydal as a house show challenger is fine enough but there are too many people who wrestle that style on the roster at the moment.

Overall Rating: C+. The wrestling helped make up for the mostly non-existent storyline advancement. That’s the thing you have to get used to in Ring of Honor though and I can’t really say I’m surprised. These stand alone shows are very hit or miss most of the time so this could have been a lot worse and the mostly decent wrestling helped get them through the hour.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of the Complete Monday Nitro Reviews Volume IV at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01AXP08DK

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6