ROH Recap: 31/01/15

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February 9, 2015 by mrlahhh

At the top of the show, there’s a promo from Jay Lethal, hyping tonight’s Main Evcent: a triple threat match, for the TV Title between Lethal, Matt Sydal and ACH. Lethal admits that the deck is stacked against him in this handicap match, referring, of course, to how his two opponents narrowly lost to reDragon at Tag Wars ’14. ACH pops into the promo and advises that he’s looking to claim the title and we’re off to a running start.

Moose (w/Veda Scott & Stokely Hathaway) vs. The Romantic Touch
For those who aren’t familiar with The Romantic Touch, he’s essentially a Lucha mash-up of Val Venis & WWE‘s Fandango – his air guitar performances drive the women in the arena wild. Unfortunately, in the ring, he needs all the help he can get, particularly here in what is essentially a squash match.

During Moose‘s entrance we’re treated to a refresher of what happened at Final Battle, when Moose Veda defeated R.D. Evans after costing him The New Streak at Glory By Honor XIII. No doubt this story hasn’t run its course yet, either.

Romantic Touch starts the match with some fairly weak offence, attempting to build a bit of momentum against the 320lb Moose, who is in no mood for romance and is quick to break the hold when his opponent starts provocatively grinding on him as he is held in a two-handed choke lift.

Veda, who has been on commentary up until now, decides to leave her position at the first sniff of offence from RT, joining Hathaway at ringside. Romantic Touch is knocked to the outside and, sensing an opportunity for foul play, Hathaway removes his shoe and attempts to strike him with it.

The Romantic Touch

Veda then attempts to get involved and is picked up by The Romantic Touch, who throws her into Hathaway’s arms and drop-kicks the pair of them.

He re-enters the ring and is taken down by a shoulder block from Moose, followed by a Spear for the win

Next up we have The Decade (Jimmy Jacobs, BJ Whitmer and Adam Page) cutting a promo about ROH being the house that they built, with reference to Alberto El Patron being a newcomer, Kevin Steen leaving the company for bigger and better things, and AJ Styles coming and going as he pleases (he’s actually scheduled to appear on ROH in two weeks’ time). Jacobs addresses former member Roderick Strong and declares the group are ready for a new “young boy”. The terminology is not the best, it sounds a tad creepy, but nevertheless it sets up our next match as a try-out for a potential new member of The Decade.

The Decade (Jimmy Jacobs & Adam Page) & Chris Larusso vs. Leon St. Giovanni, Shahim Ali & Chris Chambers
BJ Whitmer decides to forego his participation in this match in favour of Chris Larusso so that The Decade has four potential new recruits to scout, instead of three. As a result, Whitmer spends the entire match interrupting Steve Corino on commentary, culminating in him breaking Corino’s headset.

The whole segment is messy; Larusso starts in the ring for The Decade but all three of the young hopefuls get their chance at some point, with Chambers getting a nice drop-kick in before being blind-sided by Page, who hits him with a fallaway slam. There’s a smattering of back and forth but ultimately The Decade take over and dominate. Ali hits a nice Suplex only to be clotheslined viciously by bAdam Page, Jacobs then spears Gio and Page hits the Adam’s Apple (kneeling back-to-belly piledriver) for the win.

Page steals the win for The Decade

Whitmer, who has spent the entire time being a nuisance, attacks Larusso after the match, putting him in the Strong Hold, thereby sending a clear message to Roderick Strong.

The Decade

The best thing about this segment is arguably the announcement that, on March 1st at the PPV, The Young Bucks will challenge reDragon in a Lucha rules match for the tag team titles. Lucha rules, for the uninitiated, basically mean that as soon as the legal man touches the outside, his partner can enter the match and take his place, thus, in theory, a tag never has to take place. This should be excellent, we’ve seen these two teams in Japan relatively recently, and the stipulation will increase the pace and action significantly

A taped promo from The Briscoes airs next, where they discuss ODB “training on a chicken farm for a chicken head” for next week’s Main Event: The Kingdom (Taven & Bennett) & Maria vs. The Briscoes & ODB.

Before the next match kicks off, Kevin Kelly also announces that the bout between Alberto El Patron & Jay Lethal at the PPV will take place regardless of the result of tonight’s three-way dance for the title, effectively saying the belt may not be on the line if it changes hands tonight.

The ROH World TV Title carries prestige (it’s one of the few that still do) and having El Patron take on Lethal at the PPV without the belt on the line would negate everything that’s happened between the pair to date and detract from this prestige.

Top Prospect Tournament Round 1: Ashley Sixx vs. Dalton ‘The Peacock’ Castle
If you haven’t seen Dalton Castle’s entrance already, then I suggest you get on it fairly sharpish – he comes out in a shiny gold one-piece disco suit (complete with flares), flanked by two half naked dudes with feathers, which they use as fans that Dalton appears through.

He uses one of his man-servants as a step into the ring only to fan out his arms like the glorious peacock he is. He then strips down to trunks and boots. It’s pretty bizarre, he’s like a mash up between a 1970s disco queen and a Persian Emperor. It’s different and that goes a long way in this business.

Ashley Sixx

Sixx extends the Code Of Honor handshake only for Castle to offers his hand to Sixx for some kind of regal kiss. Sixx bites Castle’s hand and goes on offence in the corner with a flurry of strikes. It doesn’t take long for The Peacock to find his stride, hitting a backdrop and splash for two, followed by a snapmare and reverse chin-lock. Sixx takes far too long in coming from the top rope and is subsequently caught by Dalton and flipped into a decent Northern Lights Suplex, again for two. Ashley Sixx manages to regain the upper hand and hits Castle with the ‘Coke Zero’ clothesline, and, as Castle is left reeling on the ropes, Sixx hits the Skidmark Slide through to the outside.

Castle catches Sixx with the Bang-a-rang for another two count and we see two mysterious red masked individuals in the crowd. Neither competitor seems to notice, with Castle cawing like a bird and missing Sixx in the corner.

Sixx finishes Castle off with a Sixx Year Itch and progresses to the next round.

A decent match with nothing spectacular, Castle has a bit more about him than Sixx, who looked hesitant in some spots. That said though Castle can take the loss better and will no doubt continue being as fabulous as ever.

Hoping to rectify that, it looks as if we’re going to get an Adam Cole segment as the main himself is in the ring with microphone in hand. Unfortunately he doesn’t really do much, menacing the ringside crew and Steve Corino with the fans getting involved in warring chants for both men. Cole places a chair in the ring and sits down. He then drops the microphone and gives the middle finger, before making his exit.

Main Event: Triple Threat Match For The ROH World TV Title: Jay Lethal w/Truth Martini vs. ACH vs. Matt Sydal
Lethal displays his class to all – but especially El Patron – by offering his opponents the Code of Honor handshake, which they graciously accept. He’s also announced by Bobby Cruise as “the greatest first generation wrestler”, a tagline that gives Lethal an identity relevant to the heritage of his nemesis, and deepens their rivalry heading to the PPV.

The match starts off as Lethal feared, with ACH and Sydal seemingly siding together against Lethal who, wise to this, slides out of the ring in order to force the two to fight. They grapple briefly until Sydal dives over the top rope onto Lethal, teaming with ACH for a big double drop-kick.

Jay Lethal and Truth Martini

Following the commercial break, Lethal begins a solid spot of offence on ACH, culminating in a snap Suplex for two. He then throws both opponents outside to opposite sides of the ring and hits both with a topé suicida one after the other. Lethal is looking particularly strong here, with some vicious chops on the guardrail.

Jay hangs ACH upside down on the turnbuckle but before he can utilise this position, Sydal – who has barely been involved up until this point – bounces off the top rope for a very nice springboard hurricanrana on Lethal, followed up by a baseball slide to the face and a standing moonsault on ACH for a two count. All three men take to the top and tease a sunset flip/Superplex combo that never actually materialises.

ACH goes on some impressive offence, hitting a double foot-stomp and Sydal off the top rope. He then catches Lethal with a spinning elbow into a German Suplex, only for Sydal to recover and break the count at two. With Sydal and Lethal on the outside, ACH takes the opportunity for a massive step-up senton onto the pair.

He lands on his feet from an attempted 450 Splash but Sydal catches him with a massive knee and proceeds to stack Lethal on top of ACH in the ring and shooting star press the pair of them. Lethal then moves in and breaks Sydal’s pin attempt with a superkick followed swiftly by the Lethal Injection, as Sydal rolls out of the ring.

Truth Martini shouts on as Lethal picks ACH up and delivers the Lethal Injection again for the win

Jay Lethal spits on an Alberto El Patron shirt and proceeds to beat down on a helpless ACH, only for El Patron himself to come out and make the save. Cleverly, they’re kept apart and not much happens as The House of Truth high-tail it out of the arena, a good tease for the PPV.

Altogether a much more sedate show than last week, The Kingdom and Briscoes feud put on the back-burner in favour of the Jay Lethal/Alberto El Patron angle, in order to further their rivalry, with Lethal picking up an impressive title defence.

 

The Ring Of Honour TV show is available to watch on ROHWrestling.com for Ringside Members