Views from the Hawke’s Nest: Samoa Joe & Alberto El Patron in 2015 Ring of Honor

While I am not all that interested in Ring of Honor anymore, some aspects of the company do manage to get my attention. The fact that ROH booked the artist formerly known as Alberto del Rio and the returning Samoa Joe in 2015 absolutely captured my interest. Here is what I discovered after watching all the matches each man had before leaving.

 

Alberto El Patron first took on Christopher Daniels. This was the perfect way to introduce El Patron to the company. He and Daniels worked a fast-paced match that was heavy on action and light on story. In the context of this match and 2015 ROH, that was perfectly fine. There was little in the way of downtime, and they went the perfect amount of time. El Patron tapped Daniels out with the cross armbreaker to win this damn-fine television match. (***1/2)

 

After winning his ROH debut, Alberto El Patron battled ACH. This started out fairly hot, as El Patron was mostly just running through ACH. The match’s momentum died for a bit though when ACH got control for a few minutes, and they never recaptured the flow/energy fully. There was some fun stuff down the stretch at least to end it on a higher not. ACH hit a great Fosbury Flop, and El Patron reversed a 450 into a cross armbreaker to pick up the win. (***)

 

Alberto El Patron then took on Roderick Strong in one final match before his ROH Television Championship match.  They worked a much different match than El Patron’s first two in ROH (which is something that I always appreciate). Roddy controlled the great majority of the match, and they kept teasing an El Patron comeback. That’s a match structure that I appreciate more and more as the years go on, because it keeps the timing of the match unpredictable to a certain degree. Roddy was really on point here, as he would just pounce on El Patron every time the latter would play to the crowd. This was the type of performance that made me realize Roddy still had the capability of being one of the best in the world (El Patron being just a dynamite babyface certainly helped though). He sold his injured shoulder well. El Patron consistently went for the injury, and it ended up giving him an opening late in the match to finally apply the cross armbreaker fully (which won him the match). Truly one of the best matches of the year, and it’s my likely ROH MOTY for 2015 when it’s all said and done. (****1/4)

 

After three victories, Alberto El Patron finally got his shot at Jay Lethal (w/ Truth Martini & J. Diesel) for the ROH Television Championship. While the previous matches took place on house shows and television tapings, this actually happened on PPV. Unfortunately, this match did not even come close to the level of the Daniels match let alone the Roderick match. There was an awkwardness to this match that is hard to describe. The flow and energy that El Patron’s previous matches had just were not there his time. Things picked up a tad in that regard towards the end of the match, but that came as a result of annoying Truth Martini interference. Lethal really did not impress me here. He did not do anything interesting while dominating the match. There was also a weird selling inconsistency towards the end. The work done on his arm by El Patron prevented him from executing the Lethal Injection once but then he was able to do it less than a minute later. Just weird. Have a backup finisher or something. It was especially annoying that the latter Lethal Injection won him the match. This was a disappointment. (**1/2)

 

Alberto El Patron had one final match in this ROH run. He teamed up with ACH and Matt Sydal to take on Roderick Strong and The Briscoes (Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe). Ring of Honor has really started executing these all-star trios matches quite well in recent months (note: this review was written shortly after the match took place). This one was just about as fun as the one in Philly in 2015 and the one from Final Battle 2014. It would be nice if the heat segments in these matches would have some sort of payoff, but that has been the only thing holding these matches back. El Patron did not stand out in this match (that honor belongs to the red-hot Roddy Strong), but he also did not look out of place. It was a damn fine way for his brief run in ROH to end. (****)

 

 

Samoa Joe’s first match was against Kyle O’Reilly (managed by Bobby the Fish) This match was worked in a surprising and interesting way. Joe took most of the match, and he (in a pleasant surprise) did not rely too heavily on his trademarked spots. Kyle kept the match competitive by continuously going for the left arm to set up the various arm submissions he has at his disposal. While Joe came into the match like the obvious winner, the match was worked to give Kyle a believable path to victory. That story was worked very well and kept me interested in the match the whole way. They could have built to the finish a bit better (muscle buster after Joe connected on a series of strikes), but everything else about this was very good. Joe obviously looked rounder and moved a bit slower. He worked smartly here though, and it made me more interested in watching more of him in 2015. (***3/4)

 

After defeating O’Reilly, Samoe Joe next took on ACH. 2005 Joe vs. 2012 ACH would probably be one of the best independent wrestling matches ever. While this was clearly not that, it still worked out pretty well. Joe dominating a match does not create the same environment from earlier in his career, but he still knows how to execute it well. ACH effectively used his speed to believably keep the match competitive, and the crowd rallied behind him at all the right moments. Much like the Kyle match, the finish was not built to well. It’s like Joe has forgotten how to have a dramatic closing stretch. (***1/2)

 

The night after defeating ACH, Samoa Joe faced off against Michael Elgin. After liking Joe’s first two matches from ROH in 2015 and hearing about Elgin performing much better in 2015 than in recent years, I was fairly optimistic about how good this could be. I left the match disappointed sadly, as the match made clear to me that Joe is far better off at this point working against much-smaller wrestlers who are able to bounce off of him and whatnot. It seems that gone are the days when Joe can work an exciting match with someone around his size. The action was fine; I just did not find it especially interesting or entertaining. Elgin passing out to the Coquina Clutch was a good finish at least. (**1/2)

 

So, after winning three matches in a row in his return to the company, Samoa Joe got to challenge Jay Briscoe for the latter’s Ring of Honor World Championship. Their cage match for the ROH title in 2004 was fairly infamous for the blade job that Jay did, and it was a great match beyond that. They were not able to come close to matching that, let alone topping it.  It was still a fun, back-and-forth match though with Joe clearly fighting through a leg injury that limited his mobility. Jay does not really work for me as a world champ at this stage, but this is a cool title defense for him to have on his resume. (***)

 

Much like Alberto El Patron, Samoa Joe came back after his title match loss for a tag team exhibition match. He and AJ Styles took on The Addiction (Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian). This was essentially an epilogue on all four of these guys’ journey with TNA. With Samoa Joe heading to WWE, they had one more chance to be in the ring together. (While I personally had no nostalgia for Kaz in TNA or even associate him with AJ or Joe in any way, I can see why the other three guys would value him way more than I ever could.) While this was far from any of their best efforts, it was a fun (and surprisingly fresh) contest. The structure was basic (quick shine for AJ & Joe, heat on AJ, quick back-and-forth before going home), but that did not get in the way of me enjoying it. It basically felt like an extended house show match for these guys but with a handful of cool spots to give it some flavor. If the idea of that appeals to you, seek this out. If not, you’re not missing out on anything special. AJ won the match for his team after a Styles Clash on Kaz. (***)

 

Free matches!

Samoa Joe vs. Sting

Samoa Joe vs. Kurt Angle

Samoa Joe vs. Takeshi Morishima

Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles

Samoa Joe vs. Jushin Liger

Samoa Joe vs. Necro Butcher

Samoa Joe vs. Low Ki

Samoa Joe vs. Daniel Bryan

Alberto del Rio & Matt Hardy vs. The Young Bucks

7.5

The final score: review Good

The 411

Ring of Honor utilized these two guys in very effective ways this year. They delivered some unique matches that most companies would not have been able to put on, and ultimately used them to put over one of their champions cleanly in a high-profile(-ish) title match. The fact that some of the matches did not really deliver on their potential was of course disappointing, but enough of them were fun for me to consider Joe and ADR worthwhile creative investments for ROH in 2015.