Csonka’s ROH TV Review 6.22.16

ROH TV 6.01.16

OFFICIAL RESULTS
– Dalton Castle defeated Gedo @ 6:10 via pin [**]
– Tomohiro Ishii defeated Will Ferrara @ 4:05 via pin [**]
– Roderick Strong, Jay Lethal, Jay Briscoe and Mark Briscoe defeated Bullet Club @ 12:25 via pin [***¼]

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– Commentary runs down the card for Best in the World, which is Friday night.

Dalton Castle w/The Boys vs. Gedo: Gedo’s reaction to Castle was great, staring at him like some endangered species that he’s seeing for the first time. This was a lot about the antics of Castle, and the reactions of Gedo to them, which made for a fun exercise. Gedo then ate a suplex, and was sent to the floor. The Boys were polite and fanned him, Gedo slimed and then thumbed them in the eyes and took the heat on Castle as they worked through a commercial. Castle quickly made a comeback, and they went into some back and forth, where Gedo hit the superkick for a near fall. the Boys distracted Gedo, poked him in the eyes, and Castle hit the bang-a-rang to score the victory. This was fun, solid work at times, but the antics from both were fun although I would have liked more Memphis Gedo here. I hated the finish, we’re days away from a PPV where Castle has a TV title shot, and he needs help to win over the low man (as far as wrestlers go) on the NJPW totem pole. There is no reason for Castle not to win clean here. This is another example of bowing too much to NJPW, leading to things that hurt the ROH main booking.

– We get a video package for the Corino vs. Whitmer feud.

– Adam Cole cut s promo, promising to wait until Lethal vs. Briscoe is over. He will then pick the scraps and become the champion, noting that it would be too sweet.

– We see the final moments of Lethal vs. Briscoe from last year, where Lethal won the ROH World Title. This leads to recent footage, where Briscoe has lethal defeated in a big tag match but the referee was not there to count. They are hyping this as the most anticipated rematch in ROH history, and Jay Briscoe has had like two televised singles matches if the always reliable CageMatch database is correct. If only there had been some real fallout to that last PPV with the clusterfuck ending that people kept telling me to wait and see on.

Tomohiro Ishii vs. Will Ferrara: Ferrara cam out all full of piss and vinegar, chopping away at Ishii and even taking him down after a flurry of moves. Ishii fought back, but again Ferrara took control and hit a Samoan drop for a near fall. This crowd is shit here, not reacting at all. You’d think that the little man getting some run on Ishii would get them going a bit, but they do not care. Ferrara kept fighting back, but Ishii was just too much for him and hit the brainbuster to put him away. The work was solid and I liked that Ferrara got some run and wasn’t straight up squashed, but the crowd did not care. Also, this comes across as poor planning to even have this match on TV this week considering that neither man is booked for the PPV on Friday.

– The Briscoe cut a promo about tonight’s eight-man tag, it was a typical wacky Briscoes promo, which I liked.

Steve Corino Promo Time: Corino was here to cut the big final promo before his match with BJ Whitmer on Friday. Corino is an evil man, who attacked Terry Funk with a barbed wire and manipulated Steen into turning on Generico: he accused Dusty Rhodes of cutting Magnum TA’s brake lines because he’s an evil man and he never apologized. He’s never apologized for who he is. He tried to change but he is no good, and the father told him who he really was. BJ Whitmer is the biggest piece of trash he’s ever met, but Whitmer is right about one thing, Corino does wear a mask. Not as Mr. Wrestling III, but in the suit and glasses he wears on commentary. The hair which he dyed black to fit in Corino; knows he’s going to hell because he’s already there and will take Whitmer with him. He also says Whitmer will never be in ROH after Best in the World. Hell of a promo from Corino there, the guy can talk and we all know that, I just wish that it was about a feud that I cared about. I was never all that hoot on the Corino vs. Whitmer feud, and the long delay due to the various injuries of the two guys involved did not help.

– Jay Lethal cut a promo about tonight’s main event, Bullet club always has the number and says he may not like Strong and the Briscoes, but tonight the odds are even.

Roderick Strong, Jay Lethal, Jay Briscoe and Mark Briscoe vs. Bullet Club (Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson, Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa): Solid back and forth to begin, and then we got a Jay Lethal and Kenny Omega face off, which woke up the crowd big time. So of course, Omega tagged right out to Tanga Loa. Damn you Kenny Omega. Loa worked over lethal for a bit, which led to Omega being a dick in general as he worked over Lethal. The faces then worked some quick tags, with the Briscoes gaining momentum for their team. It broke down, everyone brawled and went to the floor and then to the commercial break. Post break, we got a lot of back and forth including more REALLY GOOD stuff between Lethal and Omega, which really made me want to see a match between them and soon. It started t break down from there as they went into the home stretch, Lethal accidentally saved Jay Briscoe walking into some superkicks. After the big clear out, this all led to Briscoe hitting the Jay driller on Loa to pick up the win for team ROH.

– We get a series of Best in the World promos to close out the show, not quite the old ECW closing, but not a bad idea.

* End scene.

* Thanks for reading.

“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia.”

6.0

The final score: review Average

The 411

Overall a solid show, but a pretty weak final sell for Friday’s big PPV. I keep waiting for better fallout and better builds to these PPVs, but it doesn’t seem to be in the cards for ROH