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ROH TV REPORT
FEBRUARY 24, 2019
ATLANTA, GA AT CENTER STAGE
AIRED ON SINCLAIR AFFILIATES & ROHWRESTLING.COM
REPORT BY HARLEY R. PAGEOT, PWTORCH CONTRIBUTOR
Commentary: Ian Riccaboni, Colt Cabana, Caprice Coleman
Opening theme.
-Our opening contest was a Women Of Honor babyface three-way.
(1) MADISON RAYNE vs. SUMIE SAKAI vs. JENNY ROSE
Rose had the early offense due to the size advantage. Sakai locked a Boston crab on Rose but Rayne grabbed her in a sleeperhold. Sakai let go of Rose and flipped Rayne over and into an armbar. [C]
Sakai kicked Rayne to the floor but missed a moonsault on Rose. Rayne hit the Rayne Check on Rose and another on Sakai but Sakai kicked out. Sakai hit a running dropkick off the apron into both women at ringside. Rayne hit an inverted DDT for the win.
WINNER: Madison Rayne in 8:48.
(Pageot’s Perspective: Maybe it’s just me but I’ve yet to see anything special from Rayne. I just find her very bland. Even that finishing move there didn’t look impactful enough to put away Sakai. This was also a tough match in that we’ve seen Kelly Klein defeat all three women in the past couple months so it’s hard to conceive of any of them jumping back into the title picture any time soon, although having a new champion in Mayu Iwatani mixes that up a little. There are just definitely a lot of people suspecting that Iwatani’s reign will be a short one. If she makes it out of the 17th Anniversary PPV with the title in tact that will assuage a lot of the skepticism. Maybe then the idea of Iwatani vs. Rayne will be more believable.)
-Video recap of the formation of Lifeblood and their challenge to Jay Lethal on last week’s show. [C]
-Tenille Dashwood joined commentary for her stable’s main event match, replacing Coleman. Each member of Lifeblood entered individually to their own music. Ring announcer Bobby Cruise introduced each member of the opposing team, rather than Lethal as you would have expected. [C]
(2) ROH WORLD CHAMPION JAY LETHAL, ROH WORLD TELEVISION CHAMPION JEFF COBB, DALTON CASTLE, FLIP GORDON, & “THE OCTOPUS” JONATHAN GRESHAM (w/The Boys) vs. LIFEBLOOD (Juice Robinson, Bandido, Mark Haskins, Tracy Williams, & David Finlay)
Lethal and Robinson started as captains for their teams. A bunch of short exchanges and tags between various partners followed. Gresham and Williams were stalemated going into a break. [C]
Lethal vs. Finlay. Haskins vs. Cobb. Bandido vs. Gordon. [C]
Lethal had Bandido down and tagged in Castle. Castle with a gutwrench slam. He suplexed Bandido back into his corner and tagged Gordon. Bandido immediately took him out with a kick. Tag to Williams. Tag to Haskins. Facelock to Gordon. Gresham broke it up. The commentators were all over Team Lethal, essentially accusing them of not being as honorable as Lifeblood. Tag to Finlay. Tag to Bandido. Tag to Finlay. Springboard slingblade from Gordon. Tags to Haskins and Lethal. They both cleared the opposing teams off the apron. Lethal with a hip-toss into a dropkick. [C]
Haskins avoided Hail To The King. Robinson with two clotheslines and a cannonball on Lethal. Full nelson slam. Everyone took turns taking out everyone else, one at a time. Everyone wound up at ringside waiting for Gordon to flip onto them. Then they stood back up so that Bandido could too. Lethal and Gresham teamed up to take out Haskins but Finjuice broke up the pin. Tag to Castle. Haskins countered Bang-A-Rang into a sharpshooter. The rest of Lifeblood prevented Lethal from breaking things up and Castle tapped.
WINNERS: Lifeblood in 24:36.
-Dashwood hit the ring to join the rest of Lifeblood. They all shook hands with Lethal, Gresham, Cobb, and Gordon. Castle and The Boys were nowhere to be found.
(Pageot’s Perspective: There was no way on earth Lifeblood wasn’t winning this one but at least the finish also furthers Castle’s losing streak. I can’t say these kinds of matches do a heck of a lot for me. Ten people is too many for one match and there’s no story to any of it. It’s just a bunch of moves in a row. Around the halfway point it seemed like the story the commentators were telling was how Lethal and Gresham were quick to break up pinfall and submission attempts, whereas Lifeblood was too honorable to do that sort of thing. But they quickly ended up resorting to the same tactics and having illegal members jump into the ring as well. So in the end there wasn’t any real difference between the teams. The only big omission was Castle disappearing before the post-match handshakes.)
-Next week: it’s Jeff Cobb vs. Silas Young for the TV title.
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