Ring of Honor
Date: November 19, 2011
Location: Davis Arena, Louisville, Kentucky
Commentators: Nigel McGuinness, Kevin Kelly

We’re at the first show of the third taping set with the road to Final Battle being pretty clear now. Last week saw Edwards busting out some new tricks to use on Richards which Richards hasn’t seen before. That should make for a pretty interesting big show match but as for TV, Richards is killing me. Let’s get to it.

On the opening recap video, there was a message from the station saying that on 1/1/12, this channel may no longer be available. It’s not for sure but it’s possible I guess.

The main event is Richards vs. O’Reilly in a Team Richards showdown. Oh freaking great.

Mike Mondo says he doesn’t know his own strength.

Mike Mondo vs. Alex Silva

Silva recently won his second OVW TV Title. To be fair he lost it like 9 days later but he did win it so points for that. We’re told that we’re going to find out who Edwards’ trainer is going to be later tonight. They chop it out and do a ridiculous leg lock thing where their legs are tied together and stand on their heads to chop each other. They head to the floor where Mondo hits a big dive.

Edwards’ trainer is Dan Severn. For you people that are saying “who is Dan Severn?” that would be because he never meant anything in mainstream wrestling but was a big deal in the very early days of UFC. Why he was picked is beyond me, but I’m sure it’ll be declared AWESOME. They slug it out and Silva grabs a spinebuster for two. Mondo grabs an armlock but Silva grabs a rope. A second spinebuster is countered into a facejam. A double arm DDT gets the pin for Mondo at 5:00.

Rating: C-. It was better than Mondo’s first match. Silva is only 20 so it’s not like this is going to be his last match. Mondo….I’m just not a fan of the whole Crash Holly “I’m big” thing he’s got going on. He isn’t that good and it shows really badly for him at times. Not a horrible match, but it would have been better served as a dark match.

Cornette says he doesn’t have an official response for Steen yet but on a personal level he says that he’s innocent and will officially respond next week.

Lethal vs. Generico next week for the TV Title.

Lethal says whatever Mike Bennett is up to, it’s not going to work. Bennett had his shot at more time but ran, so Generico gets the next shot.

Jamin Olivencia vs. Mike Bennett

Bennett says this is a TV Title match despite a lack of a title for Bennett. A spinebuster puts Jamin down and Bennett is barely breaking a sweat here. Off to a chinlock as Olivencia is the hometown boy. He’s an upper midcard face in OVW if I didn’t mention that. A running knee by Jamin sets up his comeback and a clothesline gets two. Jamin jumps into a boot but grabs a rollup for two. A sitout Rock Bottom (Box Office Smash) ends Olivencia at 3:34.

Rating: C. Just a squash here which is fine for something like this. Three matches per show is far better than the usual two that they have so I’ll give them points for that. Not a great match at all or even a good one, but it’s hard to grade squashes as there’s just nothing to talk about for the most part.

The reveal of Edwards’ trainer was on Edwards’ Twitter. Richards is mad about it being Severn because Edwards stole it from Richards or something.

We talk about the All Night Express for no apparent reason.

The Briscoes want Coleman and Alexander to show that they’re better than the tag champions and that challenge is accepted.

Kyle O’Reilly vs. Davey Richards

This is getting like 20 minutes isn’t it? Davey says the fans are here for American Strong Style, which is ROH style. Great. Truth Martini is on commentary for no explained reason. They trade kicks and strikes as the kickboxing and martial arts begin. Richards takes him down but there’s no malice here. They both hit dropkicks to give us a stalemate. They hit the mat for leg locks which goes nowhere.

Richards kicks him in the face so they slug it out a bit more aggressively here. Now we talk about Edwards stealing Severn as a training partner. Martini talks about how Edwards is lost and he could give Edwards the guidance he needs. O’Reilly throws on rolling butterfly supelexes and off to a cross armbreaker. They slug it out and Richards kicks him down. A running kick to the face of O’Reilly gets two as we take a break.

Back with O’Reilly getting two and we slug it out even more. The champ takes him down with a clothesline but here are more strikes and kicks. Richards says bring it on so they slap each other a lot. A running knee to the chest gets two for Kyle. A leg trap suplex gets the same and Kyle goes up, only to get knocked to the floor. Richards misses a kick and hits the post by mistake, letting O’Reilly hit a running dropkick off the apron. Missile dropkick gets two and it’s off to a guillotine choke.

Richards rolls into an ankle lock which is reversed into a tornado DDT and back into the choke. Off to a standing version of said choke and Richards grabs the ankle. Kyle rolls through into one of his own but Richards rolls through into one of his own and the other member of Team Richards throws in the towel at 16:30.

Rating: C. The kicks are still annoying. Richards shrugged off the kick to the post and the ankle lock came out of nowhere, which isn’t a good thing because it all the kicks go completely against the style the match had so far. But hey, they kicked and struck a lot so the match had to be good right? Not a fan of Richards and this style at all.

Richards beats up Martini post match.

Overall Rating: C. The three matches helped a lot but at the same time….I just don’t care about most of these feuds. Honestly if I lose ROH TV soon after this I’m not going to care in the slightest. These stories aren’t interesting me at all and the matches are nothing special to see either. I don’t get all the hype this company gets, because this show has been weak since day one.

Results
Mike Mondo b. Alex Silva – Double Arm DDT
Mike Bennett b. Jamin Olivencia – Box Office Smash
Davey Richards b. Kyle O’Reilly via corner stoppage

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Ring of Honor
Date: October 15, 2011
Location: Frontier Fieldhouse, Chicago Ridge, Illinois
Commentators: Kevin Kelly, Nigel McGuinness

It’s week four of this show and I believe the final episode in this batch of TV tapings. After this the show will be out of the Davis Arena in Louisville for a few weeks which is the home arena of OVW. I’m curious to see how they change things at the next batch of tapings but we have to go through with the original here still. Let’s get to it.

We open with a highlight package of last week’s world title match.

Here’s another video because this is a highlight show right? It’s about the Briscoes and how awesome they are and how much better they are than the All Night Express.

The All Night Express talk about how they’ve fought the Briscoes time after time and get closer to beating them every time.

Briscoe Brothers vs. All Night Express

This is for the #1 contendership. I have no idea which Briscoe is which but it’s Jay according to the announcers. Kenny King and Rhett Titus are the Express. King is the guy from Tough Enough 2. Kenny is sent to the floor quickly and it’s double beatdown time until Titus runs over for the save. This is a big feud with a bunch of hard hitting matches in it. Off to Titus who is getting double teamed now.

We’re into the heat segment here I guess as Titus gets beaten down for awhile. The Tweet of the Week talks about how this is wrestling, not sports entertainment. They head up to the corner where Titus is set for a superplex. He manages to counter into a Snake Eyes onto the buckle and it’s double hot tag. King cleans house with some decent flipping style moves. The Express hits a double team plancha, sending Titus over the top to take out the Briscoes.

A spinebuster by King sets up a double kneedrop off the top for two. A Briscoe hits a falcon arrow on King and the other hits a frog elbow for two. Titus and Mark fight over the announce table as Kenny gets kicked low and a small package by Jay is enough for the pin at 8:07.

Rating: C+. Decent match here but with the weeks of buildup I was expecting a little more than an eight minute match. The match was decent and the Briscoes are flashy enough to have something good going on, but their promos and gimmick gets annoying fast. Not bad here and a pretty entertaining match, but it needed more drama.

Post match the referee asks if Jay kicked him low and he says no. Titus gets up and is beaten down again as we go to a break.

After a break we establish that yes indeed, the clear low blow earlier was in fact a low blow.

Here’s a package on Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team because why have them wrestle a match when you can talk about how great they are? Both of them list off their amateur accomplishments and it takes up WAY too much time.

After a break, Jim Cornette says neither team is the #1 contenders, making that match totally pointless.

Time for Inside ROH which is about the House of Truth and the possibility of Edwards vs. Richards II. The idea here is that Martini is a manipulator and everyone other than his boys think that. Michael Elgin, the power guy of Martini’s House of Truth Martini says Martini is awesome.

Richards and Edwards say they’re hunters and beating the other will be that next achievement.

Michael Elgin vs. Eddie Edwards

They grapple for a bit and then it’s time to strike each other a lot and no sell all of it! Elgin gets knocked down and then gets a delayed vertical suplex for two. Kelly said it felt like an eternity. It was really more like about 9 seconds but that’s an eternity of selling in this company so I guess that’s acceptable. Edwards snaps off a rana and goes to a half crab which is an Achilles hold according to him.

Lionsault gets two. And there goes the selling as Elgin grabs a spinebuster out of the corner for two as we take a break. Back with, and brace yourself for this, Edwards hammering away with forearms which don’t work as Elgin gets a side slam for two. Edwards fires off two superkicks and a suplex kind of move to put both guys down. Missile dropkick gets two.

Edwards hits a dive on the floor into the barricade and Kelly is overselling this way too strong. They start slugging it out and Kelly starts talking about the website. They actually CUT AWAY TO A GRAPHIC OF A WEB BROWSER TYPING THE WEBSITE’S NAME. I mean, we missed part of the match so we could see how to spell ROHwrestling. WOW. Elgin takes over and they go to the apron. Edwards hits his fourth superkick out there and a double stomp to take over.

Edwards tries his leg trap suplex but gets caught in a buckle bomb. That doesn’t work so well though. Not because it’s not a devastating move, which it was. However, Edwards was up and fine a few seconds later and hitting superkick #5. That lets him hit the Diehard (leg trap suplex which would be a lot more effective if it made sense as Elgin had to work with him to make it work) for the pin at 14:04.

Rating: C-. Not the worst match they’ve ever had but Edwards is more or less a Davey Richards clone with all of the strikes and the no selling and stuff like that. I don’t want to imagine a match betwee them but I think it’s been booked for the main event of the Final Battle show. Not much to see here.

Post match Roderick Strong comes out and gets in Edwards’ face. McGuinness gets in to make the save from the non-attack.

Overall Rating: C. Well it was a little better but at the same time there was nothing interesting here for the most part. It’s nice to see them actually having some stories, but we don’t need to have the 15 minutes of videos to establish these feuds through talking. A third match per show would do wonders for these guys to put it mildly. Not a horrible show but it’s the same uninspired stuff they’ve done for a month now.

Results
Briscoe Brothers b. All Night Express – Small Package
Eddie Edwards b. Michael Elgin – Diehard

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Ring of Honor
Date: October 8, 2011
Location: Frontier Field House, Chicago Ridge, Illinois
Commentators: Kevin Kelly, Nigel McGuinness

Hopefully the third week gets a bit better than the previous two. I’d imagine we’ll see more of a focus on the tag team scene which has been the theme of the show so far. It’ll also be interesting to see if the shows are the same for everyone so far. The final thing they need to do is have a third match. That would fix a lot of problems as it would fill in some of the holes. Let’s get to it.

The Briscoes open the shows in an interview with Cornette. I’m starting to see the issues with the production values as you can’t really hear what Cornette is saying. In short, the Briscoes want the title shot at Haas/Benjamin and they have to beat the All Night Express next week for the title shot. The Briscoes are rednecks from Delaware and are the most successful tag team in ROH history.

We get a focus on the Dominant Male, Tomossa Ciampa. He’s undefeated and part of the Embassy which is a long running heel stable that has only been kind of successful. It’s leader is Prince Nana who claims to be a prince from Ghana who finances the team with his tax collections. He lost his money and got rich again through Obama’s stimulus package. I can’t say they’re not getting creative. Basically Ciampa trains a lot and is tough. There you go.

Andy Ridge vs. Tomossa Ciampa

Steve Corino is on commentary for this match. Ridge likes to kick a lot. The first bell rings at about 17 minutes into the match. Ridge fires off some kicks but Ciampa suplexes his way out of it. They go to the apron and it’s chops vs. kicks. Ciampa gets sent to the floor but he pulls Ridge off and sends him into the barricade in a hard shot.

Off to a head scissors which is a lot harder than it sounds. Ridge fires off a kick (shame we were looking at Nana at the time. It might have been a chacha contest for all I know) and hits a slingshot cutter. And never mind as he takes a bunch of knees to the head in the corner. A powerbomb into a backbreaker ends this at 4:45.

Rating: C-. Just a squash here and I don’t think anyone expected anything else. It was nothing great but Ciampa looked good and that’s what it was supposed to do. Ciampa is a guy that in a company like WWE would be built up and fed to Cena or Hogan back in the 80s but for this, I’m not sure I can see him going anywhere. For one thing, there’s no real storyline on this show. It’s random matches with a title match at the end. Oh and the finisher is called Project Ciampa.

A fan is asked about the main event and says bring back Kevin Steen, who is a wrestler that lost a mask vs. career match like 10 months ago. They’ve been building to his return for awhile.

Roderick Strong says winning the title is like being the captain of the football team. Richards talks about his grandfather having cancer while he was winning his first title and then trying to get to the hospital when he passed away. I know they’re trying to make Richards this feel good story but I’m just not buying it. Granted I’m not a fan of his at all.

ROH World Title: Roderick Strong vs. Davey Richards

Strong is part of the House of Truth which is Truth Martini’s heel stable. There’s a lot of time for this, provided they don’t end three minutes before the hour again this week. Feeling out process to start and Richards hooks on a modified surfboard which I remember Pillman using a few times. Strong counters it and we get this idiocy: Kelly: “Look at this!” That sounds fine, but they cut to a shot of Martini as he said it. Brilliant guys. Brilliant. They speed things up and Richards is sent to the floor as he tries an ankle lock.

They head to the floor with Richards missing a baseball slide so that Strong can take over. They chop it out because you have to have at least three strike exchange sequences in an ROH match. Martini distracts Richards and Strong gets in a shot for two as we take a break. Back with a video of more striking during the break. Richards gets a belly to back suplex and both guys are down.

More strikes and Strong goes down this time. Out to the floor and there’s a big suicide dive by Richards and then a missile dropkick gets two. More striking and we get it: they can throw forearms at each other. Crucifix gets two for Richards and then Strong fires off a kick for two. We head to the apron where Richards takes a belly to back suplex on the apron for two. They strike some more which Richards no sells and then a clothesline takes Strong down.

I know I say this a lot, but here are more strikes which take up a lot more time than it should. Richards fires off kicks in the corner but Strong shrugs them all off and hits a gutbuster for two. The fans say it’s awesome and I’m going to think I disagree. A superplex into a falcon arrow gets two for Richards and it’s into an ankle lock which is one of Richard’s finishers I guess.

Martini gets on the apron and Strong taps but Richards, ever the face idiot, lets it go to chase Martini. Strong gets a big boot and puts on the Strong Hold (Boston Crab) but Richards rolls through to the ankle lock. That is escaped also so Strong spits on him, gets kicked a lot and the ankle lock ends it at 22:14.

Rating: C-. This match sums up everything I don’t like about Davey Richards and ROH. There was no flow, there was no story, there was ZERO psychology, the selling was all over the place and as someone else I read talking about this match, you could watch the last thirty seconds and get most of the match. The striking is so repetitive it’s unreal and when they just stop selling them and hit something else it makes my eyes roll.

Then we get to the finishers. Here’s the thing: a hold like the ankle lock is stupid to use as a finisher (and yes Kurt, I’m talking to you too) if you don’t try to use it from the very beginning of the match or work on the ankle throughout the match. In short, if you can get the submission that fast on an ankle lock, why would you get your brains kicked in for twenty minutes beforehand? Look at someone like Ric Flair: he uses a leg lock but before he goes for it, he at least uses a knee crusher and a chop block to soften it up. It’s about building to a finisher rather than just hooking one all at once which is what makes a match work.

This was all about striking each other in the head and trying to make a match flashy without putting any real thought into it. “But KB! That makes it more realistic!” Good for it. Here’s the thing though: PRO WRESTLING IS NOT REAL! Also, look to something like UFC: when people get hit in the face over and over again, THEY GO DOWN. It doesn’t make it look realistic. It makes it look stupid and goes against the point of pro wrestling in general. I could go on for days about how stupid these matches are but I’ll cut myself off here.

Overall Rating: D+. I know some people will say how great the main event was and while it had some cool spots, it really wasn’t great or even that good. The rest of the show was the usual ROH formula: talk a lot, short match, talk some more, talk about the main event, commercial before main event, main event, go off the air with 5% of your show left. I know they taped these all at once, but this is a good example of why that’s a bad idea. They need to make a lot of changes at the Louisville tapings but I’m not sure if they knew the issues before they taped there. I hope so.

Results
Tomossa Ciampa b. Andy Ridge – Project Ciampa
Davey Richards b. Roderick Strong – Ankle lock