SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
HITS
Kenny King vs. Christopher Daniels: Nice promo from King before the match began. King teases Daniels in regard to Daniels having one foot out of the door because his contract is just about up. King tells Daniels he’s going to give him one more ass kicking before he leaves the promotion. This match was good. Nothing exceptional but good. King finishes off Daniels with a punt to the groin and then King hit Daniels with the Royal Flush. King gets the win in a good but short match between the two.
Dalton Castle: Castle lets Matt Taven know that the title Taven currently “holds” is fake. Which, it obviously is. Castle’s message delivered here though is his ultimate goal of eventually regaining the ROH World title but before doing so he will go through Taven. Solid promo from Castle leading up to his match with Taven at Final Battle.
Jeff Cobb vs. Josh “The Goods” Woods: Although we have not seen Woods in a while, I thought Ian Riccaboni did a nice job of telling us that Woods has been out competing in Brazilian Ju Jitsu. Short match but effective. Cobb finishes off Woods with Tour of the Islands and gets the 3 count. Cobb getting a decisive win is exactly what you would expect to see leading into Cobb’s title match against Adam Page at Final Battle.
Adam “Hangman Page” vs. Façade: Page made his way to the ring right after Cobb defeated Woods. Page told Cobb to get out of his ring and to watch how he handles business in his match which was next on deck. A couple of quick notes on Façade. We have seen Façade a few times this year and for the little we have seen of him, he has been very impressive to me. He has not won a match but when given TV time to shine he certainly looks good. During the match, Façade gets in a little offense and looked good although in short bursts. Unfortunately for Façade, Page takes down Façade as Cobb watches the match from the entrance stage. Page wins with Right of Passage to move on to his match against Cobb at Final Battle. Cobb and Page are nose-to-nose as we go to commercial. Page looked good as usual. He and Cobb should have a really good match at Final Battle. Nice little final build to it with this week’s matches both were involved in.
Jay Lethal Discusses His History With Cody: Lethal walks through he and Cody’s first match and the Bull Rope match that the two had a while back. Lethal really puts over Cody as a great wrestler but Lethal claims that he has Cody figured out and knows all of Cody’s shortcuts. Lethal promises to defeat Cody at Final Battle. This was a solid promo/video package leading up to their match at the PPV. I am really looking forward to this one.
Matt Taven and The Kingdom: I would say this was fine. Taven repeats his message he has been delivering lately which is his claim that he is the real ROH World champion. Taven also mentions once again that Castle crumbled under the pressure of being a champion. It was smug and cocky which is exactly what you would expect from Taven before he and Castle do battle.
MISSES
Marty Scurll and Christopher Daniels: Scurll defeated Daniels at Survival of the Fittest in November giving Scurll a future shot at the ROH World title. In this backstage segment, Daniels has challenged Scurll and asked him to put his title shot on the line meaning that if Daniels can beat Scurll at Final Battle then Daniels would get a future ROH World title shot. This feels thrown together at the last minute to get Daniels in a match at the PPV. Not that I oppose Daniels vs Scurll because I think it will be an outstanding match. It just has the feeling of a last second match with no build to it. Logically, why would Scurll do this? He has nothing to gain but everything to lose by giving Daniels another chance. It just does not add up.
Later in the show, after the main event (discussed below) Daniels cuts a promo in the middle of the ring and tells the live crowd about his match at Final Battle against Scurll. Daniels calls it a chance to redeem himself and stay with ROH because if he defeats Scurll then Joe Koff surely has to give him a contract since then Daniels would be due a future ROH World title shot. Daniels’ promo was excellent. However, once again Scurll has nothing to gain by wrestling Daniels. If I am Scurll, I turn Daniels down. Like I said above, this will be a very good match between these two but Scurll looks rather unintelligent risking something he already earned.
SCU (Scorpio Sky & Frankie Kazarian) vs. Guerrero Maya Jr. & Stuka Jr.: I appreciate Ian Riccaboni educating us as viewers on who Maya Jr. and Stuka Jr. are. I had no idea who they are or why I should believe that these guys had a chance against SCU who are the ROH World Tag Team champs. I applaud Riccaboni and the commentary team for also trying to sell us on Maya & Stuka having a legitimate chance at winning the titles, but I just could not buy it. After last week, I do not think anyone watching this believed SCU would lose. SCU losing would mean Maya Jr. & Stuka Jr. would be in the ladder war at Final Battle and I think we all realized that was not going to happen. That does not mean this was not a good match. I was very impressed and really enjoyed it. Maya & Stuka were very impressive. Having never seem them before, they definitely put on a good showing.
Final Thoughts…
I cannot get past the Daniels and Scurll stuff in this episode. It makes no sense. Scurll looks crazy putting his title shot on the line against Daniels while Daniels is risking nothing. Do not let my thoughts on the main event being a miss stop you from enjoying it. That match was an excellent TV match with a couple of guys in SCU that we are very familiar with and two guys from CMLL that I think most are not familiar with, but it was an excellent match. I only marked it as a miss given that none of us thought the CMLL team would win. Overall this was an average episode as ROH builds to its last PPV of the year.
Mike Mills is the PWTorch.com ROH 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
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.