411’s Ring of Honor TV Report 01.21.12

Welcome to Week 14 of the Ring of Honor television show. My name is Shawn S. Lealos and you have entered my world…

Champions:
World Champion: Davey Richards
Tag Team Champions: Briscoe Brothers
TV Champion: Jay Lethal

It has been almost a month since Ring of Honor had a new show air, instead showing greatest hits shows and one episode with an older eight man elimination match. Finally, this is the first new show since Final Battle 2012.

The show opens with a look at the Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards match from Final Battle, which Richards won despite The House of Truth coming down and brawling with Richard’s students. It ended with Kevin Steen coming out and saying he was back and is going to take the title off Richards

We start off and have a brand new look to the show. The video is tremendously better than it was before and the sound is improved too. Nigel McGuinness said that The Young Bucks injured Rhett Titus.

We get backstage comments from Mike Mondo and this was a lot better than the last time I heard him talk. Mondo has the opposite hairdo of Alex Shelley, with the sides bright blond and the top black. Eddie Edwards was up next and said he was going to work hard to get back in the title picture.

MATCH 1: Mike Mondo (1-1) vs. “Die Hard” Eddie Edwards (3-1)

Hey, we can actually hear the music now. They have really improved the production values since they went on break. The crowd is solidly behind Edwards in this match. The two start off the match with some grappling. Mondo gets a headlock and then throws Edwards into the ropes and hits a shoulder tackle. Mondo flexes, giving Edwards a chance to rebound and whip Mondo into the ropes. Edwards hits two arm drags and the locks in an arm bar. Mondo with a punch to break the hold. Mondo whips Edwards into the ropes but is caught with a kick. Edwards gets Mondo wrapped up int eh tree of woe and hits a running baseball slide. Edwards heads out to the floor and wants to hit a move but the cameraman is standing between the two. Edwards finally gets the cameraman to move and charges across and leaps to the apron with a unique baseball slide kick to Mondo. Edwards gets two.

Edwards moves in but Mondo gets in the ropes. The ref separates them and Mondo with an eye poke. Mondo hits a shoulder breaker and starts kicking the arm that Edwards has the pins in. Mondo starts wrenching Edwards’ bad arm, trying to wear him down. Mondo works on the arm until Edwards chops back to stop him. Mondo with a nice move as he kicks Edwards’ bad arm while he is attempting a chop. Edwards won’t give up and delivers some big chops Mondo went for a big knee but Mondo ducked his head and speared Edwards in the midsection. Both men into opposite ropes and Edwards hits another big knee. Eddie gets a two count because his arm was too weak to lock the legs. Edwards with some solid rapid fire chops. Edwards sends Mondo into the buckle but Mondo flips up and over Eddie and then hits another shoulder breaker. Mondo gets a two count. Mondo wants a superplex and the fans chant “You’ve got spirit!” Edwards pushes Mondo off to the mat and this a double stomp to the back. Edwards up and hits the Die Hard for the three.

Winners: Eddie Edwards by pinfall in 5:43 (***) (That was a nice match and probable the best I have seen from Mike Mondo, ever. That is not a surprise since he was in there with Eddie Edwards and Eddie sold the work that Mondo did on his arm. I am curious where Edwards goes from here now that he has lost to Davey Richards twice. It was a nice match to kick off the new year for ROH.)

Next up, we get the footage of Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team destroying the Briscoe Brothers with chairs and more before their Final Battle match. Then we see the Briscoe Brothers winning the tag team titles.

We get a pre-recorded interview with Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team and this is the first time I have seen them deliver a great promo in ROH. Haas said they lost because the Briscoe Brothers took them out of their game. Benjamin then called the Briscoe’s hillbillies and said that the New York fans were stupid for falling for the Briscoe brothers stunts. Haas then said that no one complained when the Briscoes beat them down but now that they did it, they are the bad guys. Shelton then called the New York fans stupid again and Haas finished by saying anyone who doesn’t consider them the best tag team can go to hell.

Next up, Jim Cornette said he fined the Briscoe brothers for unprotected chair shots to the head and he fined Shelton and Charlie for the same thing. He said that it is an automatic $5k fine for any unprotected head shot in the future. Cornette also said he can’t believe the Briscoe Brothers have fans, but then again, so did Charles Manson.

We are back in the ring and Jim Cornette calls out the Briscoe Brothers for an in-ring interview. The fans love the Briscoe Brothers. Jay Briscoe mentioned Haas and Benjamin and the crowd booed. Jay then said if the WGTT were fined, the should get the money since they got hit with the chairs. Jay then said that if they got $5k everytime they get hit with a chair, he wants the entire locker room to come out and hit him in the head with a chair so he could have a great retirement party. Cornette asked about the fans turning on WGTT and Jay said people just love dem boys because they keep it real and have been there since day one. Jay got the crowd chanting “Man Up” at the end of the interview.

MATCH 2: Roderick Strong (2-2) vs. “Havana Pitbull” Ricky Reyes (0-0)

Reyes is already entering the ring when we come back from commercial. Strong comes out with Truth Martini and Michael Elgin. I was surprised that Reyes got as little reaction as he did, as a ROH alum. Strong and Reyes shake hands and Martini explains that the House of Truth believes in the Code of Honor now. Strong with a headlock to start and then ends up in back to back armdrags and an armbar. Strong breaks the hold and hits an elbow. Reyes with a kick and hits a back suplex. Reyes with a kick. Strong with kicks while Reyes hits chops. Reyes with a flying forear b then misses a kick and Strong hits the backstabber for two. Strong with some rest holds. Reyes elbws ou but Strong hits a knee and a side suplex for two. Strong with a back suplex for one. Strong back with a rest hold. Reyes with a cradle for two. Reyes with a springboard elbow and then a neckbreaker for two. Reyes blasts Strong and then hits an ensiguri. Short armed DDT for a two count. Reyes with a roll up for two btu Strong rolls through with a handful of tights for the three count.

Winners: Roderick Strong by pinfall in 4:13 (** 1/2) (This was a short, but very fast moving match, that served its purpose. It allowed Strong to pick up a win after losing to Chris Hero at Final Battle and let him do it over a ROH veteran.

Inside Ring of Honor: We start off with the footage of Kevin Steen injuring Steve Corino, Jimmy Jacobs and El Generico at Final battle. Next we hear from Steen. Steen is wearing his and Generico’s old shirt and he said Generico would never have gotten hurt if Jim Cornette had done the right thing from the beginning. He will be on ROH TV in two weeks and said those three injuries were just the start. He said he will take the company hostage until he gets what he wants.

There is a new co-owner in the Embassy. Prince Nana began to talk about how he was the reason the Embassy was great because of him but Barrister RD Evans interrupted him. Barrister is an attorney and spokesman for an investment firm that has bought into the Embassy. He said Nana has done great things in Ring of Honor but now it is all about Tommaso Ciampa and he is the new center of the Embassy, which seemed to make Nana happy.

Next up is a lock room interview with Davey Richards and Kyle O’Reilly. Next week, Richards and O’Reilly teams to face the C&C Wrestling Factory. We start off with Richards talking about how being world champion means he does not wrestle much in tag teams anymore. He then blathered on about Eddie Edwards has his issues right now. He called their team, “Team Ambition.” O’Reilly said his Future Shock partner was good with this but asked if he and Richards could maybe be the next American Wolves.

MATCH 3: Kenny King (1-3) vs. Matt Jackson (3-0)

At Final Battle, the Young Bucks injured King’s partner Rhett Titus and he will be out for awhile to heal his knee. In this match, Titus is with King at ringside on crutches. Nick Jackson is in the corner of Matt. Matt and Nick both nock Titus’ injury before the match gets underway. King starts off roughing up Matt but Matt with a headlock and then a strong shoulder tackle. King with a single leg takedown and a chin lock. King pounds away on Jackson. Nick pulls out Matt to save him from King. Matt back in but King hits two armdrags and an armbar. King with a bodyslam. King tries a big move but Nick interferes. King with a suicide dive onto Nick but then Matt flies out with a missile dropkick.

Back in the ring and Matt with a dropkick and a kneelift to King. Matt working on King with a chinlock. King goes for the Pele but Matt kicks him in the face in the middle of the move. Awesome counter. Matt sets up for a superkick but King ducks it and hits an exploder suplex. Matt misses a Stinger Splash and King with two straight clotheslines, an STO, an elbow drop and a standing moonsault gets a two count or King. A spinwheel kick and a spinebuster gets a two count for King. Matt reverses out of a move and hits a superkick out of nowhere. Matt hits a big spinning DDT. Kenny King moves to the outer ring apron, Matt races over leaps onto the top buckle and flies at king, hitting a big DDT all the way to the floor! They can’t have meant for that to miss the apron like that. That was sick. Back in the ring and Matt gets a two count. Matt misses a 450 and King hits the Coronation for a two count. Nick Jackson runs over and steals one of Titus’ crutches. The referee is too busy yelling at Titus to pay attention to the fact Nick stole his crutch (stupid). Titus hits a hot shot on Matt but when he leaps to the top rope, Nick smashes him with the crutch. As the show erny ogg hr sir, the Young Bucks surrounded and closed in on Titus while the officials came down to separate them. King and Matt fought as the show ended.

Winners: Matt Jackson by pinfall in 9:13 (** 1/2) (The match kind of fell apart at the end. I can’t understand why the referee would continue to yell at Rhett Titus when it was Nick Jackson who stole his crutch. Then the use of the foreign object was pretty weak as well. Before that, it was a decent match though)