Jason Namako’s Ring of Honor TV Review
June 17, 2015
Recap by: Jason Namako of Wrestleview.com
Week 3 of ROH on Destination America, its the go-home show for this Friday’s Best in the World PPV. Virtual Code of Honor out of the way, let’s get to the review, shall we?
The Decade vs. War Machine – Angle more than a match to continue The Decade’s manipulation of Steve Corino’s son, Colby, to add more sizzle to the long-standing Corino/Whitmer rivalry. Raymond Rowe was great here at not wanting to lay waste to Colby, this was his best performance from a character standpoint to date in ROH. As a way to continue the Corino-Whitmer rivalry, this was very well done.
Cedric Alexander vs. MOOSE – Solid match and another effective angle with the finish. MOOSE loses his undefeated streak because Veda Scott was too concerned with getting revenge and vindication on ROH and it cost her client and Cedric, who has been on a losing streak and tettering on the brink, takes advantage to end MOOSE’s streak and jumpstart an eventual heel turn. Will be interesting to see how it plays out with Cedric going forward, especially adding in his former tag partner, Caprice Coleman, at the PPV and moreso, how the “Angel & Devil” storyline continues on with MOOSE, Veda & Stokely. Real good storyline continuation, solid match, one of MOOSE’s best to date in ROH.
ACH & Matt Sydal vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Tetsuya Naito – Simple, fun tag match. Odd to see Tanahashi & Naito play the heels in this as the crowd was more into them than the ROH team. Good showcase of Tanahashi & Naito to the American audience on Destination America and ACH & Sydal continue to gel well as a team.
Best in the World PPV Main Event Contract Signing – Good, final angle for Friday’s main event. Both Lethal & Briscoe’s short promos were very good, LOVED Briscoe’s Black Machismo line and even more so, the final line by Lethal of “That title made you, I made this title!” That final line really drove home how big and important the Title vs. Title main event is for ROH on Friday night. The build to this match has been so simple, but yet so damn effective, it really highlights that its not that hard to get people to care about a main event, yet other companies do so much complicated things to try and hype matches nowadays that it becomes counter-productive. Both Briscoe & Lethal have been dominant champions and have not lost in a long time in ROH, both think they are the best and that their title is the best title in ROH and now they due battle to determine who is the best champion in ROH. This has been the best build to any match so far in pro wrestling in 2015 and I DARE someone to tell me otherwise, I bet you’d be wrong. Cannot wait to see this match on Friday night and I firmly believe that Briscoe & Lethal will meet the high expectations laid out for them. Great close to the show.
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Overall, ROH this week was all about the final angle to hype the PPV main event. The rest of the show had good wrestling and nice storyline development for things after this Friday’s PPV. Closing angle was a towering drive of a home run, highly recommended viewing for the open-minded wrestling fan.
After one more virtual Code of Honor, I bid you aideu for this week. Hope you enjoyed reading and I’ll see you this weekend for the Best in the World PPV in New York City, then next week, back in Toronto, for more Ring of Honor Wrestling on Destination America! Have a good one!
What did you think of this week’s Ring of Honor television? Please comment below.
Jason Namako recaps and reviews the weekly Ring of Honor TV, as well as all ROH iPPVs, PPVs and VOD releases for Wrestleview.com.
Twitter: @Jason_Namako
E-Mail: jason@wrestleview.com