3/31 ROH TV RESULTS: The Kingdom vs. Villain Enterprises for the six-man titles, Mark Haskins vs. Rush, G1 Supercard promos

ROH TV REPORT
MARCH 31, 2019
LAS VEGAS, NV AT SAM’S TOWN
AIRED ON SINCLAIR AFFILIATES & ROHWRESTLING.COM
REPORT BY HARLEY R. PAGEOT, PWTORCH CONTRIBUTOR

Commentary: Ian Riccaboni, Caprice Coleman

We opened with a recap of Marty Scurll introducing Brody King and PCO as his new “friends” after being confronted by The Kingdom upon The Elite’s departure and the subsequent Villain Enterprises-Kingdom feud.

-Opening theme.

-Dalton Castle was on commentary for our first match.

(1) RUSH vs. “OVERKILL” MARK HASKINS

Rush ran Haskins into the guardrail going into an early break. [C]

Haskins turned the tranquilo pose into an armbreaker but Rush fought out. Rush with a buckle bomb. Death valley driver from Haskins. They traded boots. Simultaneous kicks left them both down. Rush with his running dropkick in the corner.

WINNER: Rush in 10:30

-Rush blew off the code of honor from Haskins. He and Castle stared each other down at ringside. [C]

(Pageot’s Perspective: Good match but a bit sloppy at times, possibly due to the language barrier. There were at least three instances I noticed where they didn’t seem to be on the same page and had to quickly redo a sequence. Not a big deal but more noticeable than usual.)

-Video footage from Honor Rising on February 23 in Tokyo. The Briscoes (then ROH tag team champions) suggested them vs. IWGP tag team champions Guerrillas Of Destiny in titles vs. titles. This was followed by footage of The Briscoes losing their titles to Villain Enterprises at 17th Anniversary.

-The commentators talked about some of the G1 Supercard matches and then threw to footage taped at an unknown time and never before aired. Jay Lethal, Marty Scurll, and Matt Taven were in the ring. Lethal had his world title back despite Scurll leaving 17th Anniversary with the belt. Lethal suggested a triple threat match for Madison Square Garden. Taven refused, saying he’s not going to be in a match that Scurll or Lethal could lose for him. Scurll agreed and said he doesn’t want to lose because one of them gets beat. One on one is what he deserves. Lethal said they are both rightfully deserving and if they don’t want a triple threat, then there’s no triple threat. They should find out who the better man is in MSG, though. Lethal alluded to a type of match becoming famous in MSG 25 years ago and suggested they do a ladder match. It has of course subsequently become official. [C]

(Pageot’s Perspective: This segment should have taken place a month ago to really give time to build up hype for G1 Supercard. But that wouldn’t have lined up with 17th Anniversary and nobody could be bothered to come up with a different timeline that would make sense so instead we got the world title match of the biggest ROH show in history announced on social media. Then, three weeks later, we finally get to see how it came to be. Sigh.)

-ROH World Television Champion Jeff Cobb was backstage. For six months he’s been undefeated in ROH. The one time he was pinned it was in a tag team match – at Honor Rising by Will Ospreay. He said he hasn’t been able to sleep since then.

-Video recap of Mayu Iwatani defeating Kelly Klein to retain the Women Of Honor World Championship at 17th Anniversary. A vignette followed on Klein wondering if the person she sees herself as is who she really wants to be. Maybe she took Iwatani too lightly because she beat her both times in their first two encounters. Iwatani has beaten her twice since so they’re tied up in their series. She said this is the biggest match in WOH history.

(Pageot’s Perspective: Two very good promos there. We never get to hear Cobb speak and he more than delivered. The Klein vignette was also great. Production-wise it was simple: her speaking from a couch interspersed with clips of past matches. But she was very confident and provided justification for another rematch. There are a lot of wrestlers on the roster who could benefit from vignettes like this and NXT has shown how even brief backstage segments, interviews, and videos like this can really make you invest in a wrestler and care more about the show as a whole.)

-The two trios made their entrances for our main event. [C]

(2) THE KINGDOM (Matt Taven, Vinny Marseglia, & TK O’Ryan) vs. VILLAIN ENTERPRISES (Marty Scurll & ROH World Tag Team Champions PCO & Brody King) – ROH WORLD SIX-MAN TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP

King hit a flip onto all three Kingdom members on the floor. Scurll was isolated out of the gate. PCO got the hot tag at 5:30. [C]

Scurll wound up isolated again. Marseglia shoved PCO off the top turnbuckle to prevent a moonsault. King fell to some double-team offense. Rockstar Supernova to King but Scurll was the legal man. PCO blocked suicide dive attempts from the henchmen and took out Taven with a cannonball through the ropes. [C]

Marseglia powerbombed PCO onto the entrance ramp. Scurll with the chicken-wing to O’Ryan. King prevented Taven from breaking it up and O’Ryan tapped.

WINNERS: Villain Enterprises in 15:51 to capture the six-man titles.

-Taven was stunned as Villain Enterprises celebrated with both sets of tag titles.

(Pageot’s Perspective: This seemed like an inevitability when VE first debuted but things got confusingly complicated when PCO & King started wrestling two-man tag matches as well and won those titles. But perhaps that was just a small detour because I can’t imagine they’ll be capturing the IWGP tag titles too this Saturday. For the six-man titles Shinobi Shadow Squad and Lifeblood are set up as potential challengers down the line while I assume this means Taven will focus exclusively on singles matches going forward with Marseglia & O’Ryan likely going after the traditional tag titles instead. That half of things all makes perfect sense.)