Csonka’s ROH TV Review 4.22.20

Csonka’s ROH TV Review 4.22.20

OFFICIAL RESULTS
– From ROH War of The Worlds Grand Rapids 2019: Champion Matt Taven defeated Mark Haskins @ 25:52 via pin [****]
– From ROH TV 7.04.18: Matt Taven defeated Ultimo Guerrero @ 14:15 via pin [***¾]

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– Matt Taven is featured this week. He talks about how bad his 2016 was with injury. But during his time off, he says he made it his goal to become ROH World Champion. He looked at Adam Cole as the standard he needed to meet, and after a visual pin over then-ROH World Champion Dalton Castle, he talks about introducing the purple ROH Title belt and calling himself the real world champion, and then talks about the 60 minute draw with Jay Lethal at the anniversary show in 2019. His greatest moment was winning the ROH World Title at Madison Square Garden at the G1 SuperCard. But rather than watch these matches, they’ve picked some off the radar stuff, which is thankfully good.

Champion Matt Taven vs. Mark Haskins: Taven tries to attack with the belt but Haskins cuts him off and runs wild, hitting a suicide dive and then working him over on the floor. The apron PK follows and back in, Taven finally cuts him off with a shoulder tackle. They work into counters and Haskins hits a dropkick for 2. Haskins starts focusing on the knee of Taven, and locks on an Indian death lock. Haskins then picks him up and hits a spike DDT for 1 as Taven makes the ropes. Taven now stuns Haskins off the ropes and posts him, as he now focuses on the arm and shoulder. It’s all Taven now as he takes control on the floor. Back in and Taven grounds the action, still focusing on the arm and shoulder. Taven follows with divorce court and covers for 2. He again grounds things, as he keeps attacking the arm. Taven now arm bars him in the ropes, and then slams him into the stairs on the entrance. Taven looks for a countout win, but Haskins makes it back in. Haskins keeps fighting back, but Taven arm bars him again. Haskins fights for the ropes and barely makes it; Taven is frustrated now. Haskins fires up, absorbing strikes and throwing with everything he has left. He follows with a leg lariat and both men are down. Haskins fights to his feet, hits running elbows, but Taven stuns him off the ropes but Haskins fights back in and follows with a suicide dive. Back in and Haskins counters the climax into the arm bar, but Taven makes the ropes. Haskins now counters a cradle into the crossface, but can’t keep the hold so he transitions into the rings of Saturn. Taven makes the ropes, Haskins hits a dragon screw but Taven cuts him off and hits just the tip for 2. Taven follow with an enziguri and blue thunder bomb for 2. The frog splash misses and they trade pin attempts until Haskins hits the roll into the Michinoku driver for 2. They both look for a dropkick and work into the double down. They now trade strikes from the mat, Haskins follow with from Haskins with love and the double stomp connects for a great near fall! Taven hits the apron climax, just the tip and the frog splash… for 2! Haskins is alive! Haskins counters climax and rolls into the sharpshooter. He pulls Taven center ring, the crowd rallies him as Bully FUCKING Ray arrives and distracts Haskins. This allows Taven to low blow Haskins and hit the climax to retain. Champion Matt Taven defeated Mark Haskins @ 25:52 via pin [****] This was a great late addition to the card due to the PCO injury. This really great with Taven thriving in the heel role as well as Haskins delivering once again and thriving in the resilient challenger role. The final few minutes were really, really well done minus the final 10-seconds with Bully Ray. Fuck that guy.

Matt Taven vs. Ultimo Guerrero: Taven & have feuded on and off for well over a year; TK is out with Taven. No handshake. They lock up and Taven immediately takes Guerrero down. Guerrero counters out and back to the feet they go. The crowd is hot and loves Guerrero. Guerrero chases TK away because TK’s a dick. Back in and Taven attacks and beats down Guerrero in the corner. Guerrero battles back, trips up Taven and dropkicks him to the floor. Guerrero follows with chops and tosses Taven into the barricade and then does so to TK. Guerrero now tosses Taven into TK and heads up top and wipes out TK as Taven moves. Taven dropkicks him to the barricade and takes control. Post break, and Taven has the action grounded. Guerrero fights to his feet, but Taven stuns him over the ropes and hits kickoff the king, sending Guerrero to the floor. Taven then hits a tope and accidentally takes out TK, allowing Guerrero to attack. Guerrero sets them both in a chair and hits the running cross body to both. Back in and Guerrero lays in chops as this crowd is wild, insanely hot for an ROH TV match. Guerrero is fired the fuck up as he lights up Taven. They work up top and Guerrero hits the gourd buster off the ropes for 2. Guerrero lays in more chops and then hits the senton de la muerte for 2. Taven counters the powerbomb into a RANA and hits just the tip for 2. Post break, and Taven battles back and hits a blockbuster and lionsault for 2. Taven takes Guerrero up top and Guerrero counters the super RANA into a superbomb for a great near fall. Guerrero lays in rights but Taven hits kick of the king and heads up top but Guerrero cuts him off and takes out TK. Vinny arrives and distracts Guerrero, allowing Taven to hit the climax for the win. Matt Taven defeated Ultimo Guerrero @ 14:15 via pin [***¾] This was a very, very good main event, with a super hot crowd, making for a great atmosphere. They were on their way to a great match, but the finish with the interference came off very flat and hurt the match for me. Still, this was a ton of fun and certainly worth the watch.

– In closing, Taven talks about how he needs to get back to the top of ROH, but he’s interrupted by a video package from Vincent, reminding him that he forced Taven to the hospital once, and he and Righteous are more than happy to do it again. I dig that they used the close to keep a current feud going.

The 411 on Wrestling Podcast returns to the 411 Podcasting Network for episode 109. On the show, 411’s Larry Csonka & Steve Cook look at the latest news, breakdown NXT vs. AEW (4.22.20), while Jerome Cusson joins to talk Dark Side of the Ring Jimmy Snuka & The Death of Nancy Argentino. The show is approximately 145-minutes long.

* Intro
* News Roundup: 2:10
* AEW Dynamite (4.22.20) Review: 32:05
* NXT (4.22.20) Review: 56:55
* The Head to Head Comparison: 1:25:10
* Dark Side of the Ring: Jimmy Snuka and The Death of Nancy Argentino Review: 1:31:06

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– End Scene.

– Thanks for reading.

8.0

The final score: review Very Good

The 411

This week’s episode of ROH TV featured a look at Matt Taven, and was a really good show with some different choices for matches, and a nice tie into the current angle with VINCENT.