I tuned in about half-way through this match so I can't give my thoughts on it as a whole although what I saw was very good. So good that I might try to catch the replay of this week's show so I can watch the entire thing from start to finish. In the few minutes that I did watch, there was a sick move where Mark was hanging from the second rope about to fall to the floor and Roddy grabbed his legs and slung him up in the air and Mark came crashing down on his neck on the apron. Brutal bump! This looked like a great action packed opening bout.
After the match, Roderick Strong gets on the mic and declares his intentions to win the ROH World Title again. That's something I'd be on board for, especially if Roddy is the heel. His work in PWG and Evolve has been superb as of late.
Nigel McGuinness was in the ring when we came back from commercial. He called Ciampa to the ring to discuss what happened at Final Battle. For those who don't know, there's a no tolerance policy for laying hands on officials after past incidents and at Final Battle, Ciampa accidentally bumped into the ref during his match and it ended up costing him the bout to Michael Elgin. Thankfully, Nigel said he wasn't fired, but that Ciampa owed him one. Ciampa begins cutting a fantastic promo here where he says Jay Briscoe owes him one because he had him beat at a PCW event last November, but the ref wasn't conscious. This leads to Michael Elgin coming out which leads to the main event of this week's show being made a triple threat number one contender's match between Michael Elgin, Hanson, & Tomasso Ciampa. Great mic work from both Elgin & Ciampa, they had my attention the entire time.
2) J Diesel vs. Will Ferrara
This was a first round match in this year's Top Prospect Tournament. My interest wasn't peaked in this tourney last year however after seeing the success of last year's winner, Hanson, I'm pretty intrigued by it this go round. This bout in particular really caught me by surprise. Both guys impressed me as they put together quite the match. Ferrara picks up the win after a hard fought match.
Match rating - **3/4
3) Michael Elgin vs. Tomasso Ciampa vs. Hanson - #1 Contender's Match
I was pretty pumped for this collision. Three of the biggest and hardest hitting competitors in ROH in one ring? That's a recipe for awesomeness and it certainly delivered as such. The action here never slowed down and they delivered a great main event match. Some highlights include Elgin deadlifting Hanson out of a pinning predicament, Elgin hitting a hurricanrana/moonsault combination off the top turnbuckle and a number of multi-man exchanges involving all three men. The bout ended in a no contest after Hanson dove out of the ring onto Elgin, Ciampa and the referee. Things really broke down from there and the new referee called for the bell. It looks like they are setting up for a possible four-way match at the 13th Anniversary show. Briscoe/Elgin/Ciampa/Hanson? I'd totally be down with that. But where does that leave Roddy who declared his world title intentions? The ROH World Title picture is certainly a crowded one and this match left me wanting to tune in next week to see what happens. Really good match despite it ending in a no contest.
Match rating - ***1/2
Overall thoughts: A very solid episode of ROH TV to start off the new year. The opening match was super entertaining, the in-ring segment was quality storyline advancement, the top prospect tournament match was surprisingly good, and the main event delivered. I'd recommend checking out this week's show if you missed it.
Twitter - @EthanPWT ; @ThePWTruth
No comments:
Post a Comment