ROH HITS & MISSES 9/30: Four-Corner Survival Match, Solow vs. Martinez, Coast 2 Coast Update, Bully Ray & Young, ROH World Six-Man Tag Title Match

HITS

Eli Isom vs. Shane Taylor vs. Flip Gordon vs. Chris Sabin: I had genuine intrigue into how this match would turn out. Isom is really looking good to me lately as one of the newer talents in the promotion. Gordon continues to impress every time he is out there. Sabin’s new singles run is something I am into and lastly, Taylor is a powerhouse with good potential who has been around for a while now. Given the four participants, I had no clue who would get the win since I felt all four had a chance. That said, this was very enjoyable to watch. I felt Isom looked good again as he has looked during many of his TV appearances lately. The finish was very quick. Isom took a knock out punch from Taylor. Gordon delivered a big kick to Taylor. Taylor then countered with a big knee to Gordon as Gordon came off the ropes. As Taylor stood over Gordon gloating, Isom rolled up Taylor and got another victory. It was a big victory for Isom but after the match Taylor attacked Isom. Sabin tried to help but Taylor dropped Sabin as well. Gordon regains his senses though and Gordon sends Taylor retreating as we go to commercial. Good match. We will have to see if this leads to more between Taylor and Gordon and if there is any other fallout from the aftermath of the match.

Dojo Pro and Aaron Solow Video Recap: This was a short recap that was needed. Ian Riccaboni threw us to the short video showing Solow winning and earning his match against Punishment Martinez for the ROH World TV Title.

Marty Scurll Promo: Scurll cuts a quick promo talking about his match next week against Shane Helms. These two have been going back and forth for a while now. Storyline wise, it’s been a nice TV feud. I thought the promo was effective leading up to their match next week.

Punishment Martinez (ROH World TV Champion) vs. Aaron Solow (Match for the ROH World TV Title): Good match. I thought Solow looked good. I loved the Magnum TA reference from Ian Riccaboni when Solow delivered a belly-to-belly to Martinez. Martinez recovered though and ends up delivering a devastating chokeslam to Solow. Martinez gets the victory. Solow put up a great effort in defeat though.

Coast 2 Coast Video:Quick video package of Coast 2 Coast. I felt these guys were on a roll before Shaheem Ali was injured a few months ago. It is good to see that they will be returning soon.

Bully Ray and Silas Young Backstage: I really liked this brief video. Bully is belittling Young here and saying that he is going backwards in his career. He went from being in a big-time match to teaming with two schmucks (Beer City Bruiser and Brian Milonas). Bully then tells Young “good job” in the most sarcastic manner. Now, this was recorded well before Death Before Dishonor (I would assume), but what made it great was that it seemed seamless after seeing what happened at the PPV.

The Bullet Club (Matt & Nick Jackson and Cody) with Brandi Rhodes and Burnard The Business Bear) vs. The Bouncers (Beer City Bruiser & Brian Milonas) and Silas Young: Before the match, they showed a recap of Cody along with Matt & Nick Jackson defeating The Kingdom for the ROH World 6-Man Tag Team titles. On to the match we go, I really enjoyed this one. As a traditional tag team, I think there is plenty of potential in Milonas and Bruiser. They are huge and different than anything else ROH currently has. As a trio with Young, they are even better although by the end of this I do not think we will be seeing them pursue the 6-man titles. Put them against the ROH World 6-Man Tag Champs and it’s a recipe for a great match and they delivered. I say the same thing in nearly every 6-man tag in ROH and that is that the action is always non-stop. From the time the bell rang, these six never stopped. It was one big moment after another. While the outcome was never in doubt, that does not mean you would not be invested while watching it. Towards the end, Milonas and Bruiser set up Cody for Last Call but as Bruiser came off the top rope to deliver the frog splash, Bruiser was super kicked by the Bucks’ Milonas is then super kicked. When the Bucks went to super kick Young, Young bails on his team and leaves. The Bucks deliver one more super kick to Milonas who sells is perfectly before Cody then hits Milonas with his Crossroads finisher. It then took all 3 guys to pin Milonas to make sure he was down and out. This was a solid main event that was enjoyable. In the end, it appears Young may have bailed completely on Bruiser and Milonas, so we will see what happens there but overall it was a very good main event as we close out this week’s show.

MISSES

See below in my final thoughts.

Final Thoughts…

I was not sure what I would make of this episode when I started it. Sometimes when it is the week of or week after the weekend of a PPV, the episodes come across as a placeholder until the post-PPV tapings begin to air. Most of what happened during this week was self-contained, with the exception of Young bailing on his team during the main event and the exchange with him and Bully Ray in the middle of the episode. While nothing new in terms of post-PPV storylines happened, I thought it was a good episode with an excellent main event.

Mike Mills is the PWTorch.comROH TV Hits and Misses Specialist, providing his point of view on ROH TV weekly. You can follow Mike at @BTT_Podcast and @Mike504Saints on Twitter and you can check out his old school wrestling podcasts at tinyurl.com/BTTPod

NOW CHECK OUT THIS PREVIOUS COLUMN: ROH HITS & MISSES 9/23: Best Friends vs. The Boys, King vs. Page, Jeff Cobb, Lethal & Gresham vs. Ray & Young