ROH ON SINCLAIR RESULTS-7/6/2014 (WHITMER VS HAAS)
Ring of Honor Wrestling on Sinclair
July 7, 2014
Dayton, OH (Montgomery County FairgroundsDayton Ohio)
Commentators: Mike Hogewood, Kevin Kelly
Recap by: Jay Hoyer of Wrestleview.comBefore the usual intro video , we see Truth Martini backstage. “Be the change we wish to see” Truth says, attributing the quote to Buddha (though its actually a misattribution of a a misattributed quote; usually attributed Mahatma Gandhi, though actually Arun Gandhi summarizing his grandfather’s philosophy, but who’s counting, right?). Martini repeats what he’s been saying about breaking up the House of Truth for weeks. He promises that the change he’s been promising to bring to ROH will begin next week.
The usual intro follows, and we get Kevin Kelly in the ring. Kelly, speaking over a vocal crowd chant of “We Want Steen!” acknowledged the recent resignation of former ROH owner and President Cary Silkin. Kelly issued a statement on behalf of ROH and all of the ROH fans thanking Silkin, and wishing him well. Kelly then introduced the acting president of Ring of Honor, describing him as a “Hall of Fame wrestler and champion the world over”: Lima Ohio’s own: Al Snow (EDIT: a little google based research shows that Snow was in fact inducted into the hall of fame of an indy promotion in Wheeling, West Virginia… So technically, Kelly’s introduction was accurate). Snow got a nice reaction from the crowd, who stopped chanting for Steen for a little while. Snow acknowledged the Steen situation, though never mentioned the champion by name. Snow declared the Ring of Honor World Championship vacant, and stated that there would be an announcement about the future of the title in the coming weeks.
“Cochise” began to play, and out came former Television champion BJ Whitmer. Whitmer welcomed Snow to Ring of Honor, and then immediately demanded a rematch against Charlie Haas for the Television title, pointing out that he did not lose the title match last week, but rather Matt Jackson did. Snow said he liked Whitmer’s “moxie” (no, really, he said moxie. I rewound the tape to make sure I hadn’t imagined it.) and made the match, but, added a stipulation that if Whitmer lost, he would not get another shot at the title as long as Haas was champion.
Segment Grade: B Minus. Firstly, I’m glad to see that long tease of whatever Truth Martini is going to be doing seems to be coming to an end. Snow is an interesting hire for the on air authority figure role, and now that he’s done with TNA, should add an interesting element going forward. So long as he’s not shoved down are throat week after week… I’d hate to see ROH turn into Smackdown with Snow as Vickie Guerrero. The TV Title rematch should come as no surprise as last week’s hot shot booking of the belt onto Haas has been largely seen as an over correction in response to Kevin Steen walking out.
COMMERCIALRhett Titus Vs. “No Fear Mike MondoCode of Honor handshake before the match. Titus started strong, hitting Mondo with a tough right hand, then nailing him with an inverted overdrive and the Sex Factor for a couple of near falls. Mondo took over when the action spilled out of the ring and never looked back. Titus kicked out at two and a half on a buckle bomb, a face buster and the first time Mondo hit his double underhook DDT, but the second No Fear DDT put Titus away. After the match, we got another handshake.
Winner: “No Fear” Mike Mondo by pinfall (double underhook DDT)Segment Grade: C. Mondo looked good here, though Titus did not. Hogewood, speculating as to the future of the World Heavyweight championship, hyped this match as potentially impacting both men’s chances of participating in a tournament to fill the vacant title… He didn’t even laugh or anything.
COMMERCIALAfter the break we see footage from last week as Rhino defeated young Adam Cole after Roderick Strong distracted the referee.
Roderick Strong w/Rhino Vs. Adam ColeFun match here; with Cole getting the shine early on by hitting a pair of cross bodies for near falls. Rhino got involved, allowing Strong to turn the tide. Roddy set up Cole for the Strong Hold b nailing the End of Heartache, which got a big reaction from the largely pro-Strong crowd. Roddy put Cole in the Strong Hold, causing him to tap out, with Rhino pulling the bottom rope out of his reach in a classic bit of heel douchebaggery,
Winner: Roderick Strong by submission (Strong Hold) Segment Grade: B. Another good match between Cole and a former House of Truther. No signs of dissension between Strong and Rhino for the second straight week, which makes me wonder if they have decided to go in another direction with these two.
COMMERCIALComing back from commercial, we get an odd video package. Audio clips of ROH play-by-play play over a black screen as slowly the below image faded in:
Members of the IWC with far more time on their hands than me immediately took to twitter and message boards to identify to identify the various play-by-play clips. Most of them are from matches involving former ROH performers who are now under contract with the WWE, including former World champion Tyler “Seth Rollins” Black and former tag team champion Claudio “Cesaro” Castagnoli. This, as one might expect, has some all in a flutter, but I’ll have to wait to see what plays out before getting my panties in a bunch.
Main Event: Ring of Honor Television Title Match: Ring of Honor Tag Team Champion & Television Charlie Haas w/Shelton Benjamin Vs. BJ WhitmerThis match was kind of an odd duck. Haas is clearly not all that comfortable in singles action, which isn’t surprising for a tag team specialist. These two never really got into a good flow. It was more along the lines of “You do four moves, then I do four moves”. Whitmer got the pinfall and regained his championship after hitting the Wrist-Clutch Exploder for the second time in the match.
Winner(And new ROH Television Champion): BJ Whitmer by pinfall (Wrist-Clutch Exploder)After the match, Benjamin hit the ring and nailed Whitmer with the tag team title. Haas and Benjamin then used the Leap of Faith of Whitmer. They set him up for another one, but The Young Bucks ran out and made the save. Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team high-tailed it, and Nick Jackson went to check on Whitmer… Who then promptly nailed Jackson with the Television title belt.
Segment Grade: B. Not really sure what to make of all this. The match itself was kind of a train wreck, and seemed to only serve the purpose of un-doing last week’s hot shot with another hot shot. But then the post match stuff left me totally confused. Was this a BJ/WGTT double turn? Was this WGTT getting payback for BJ trying the go after Haas last week with a chair? Is Whitmer going to get a partner and get himself added to the Young Bucks/WGTT angle? And then there’s the Suicide Kings thing, which I’m totally intrigued by but will have to wait to see it play out.
Overall Grade: B Minus. This was a big improvement over last week’s show. The introduction of Snow as the new on-air authority figure makes for a promising start, and I look forward to seeing what they decide to do with the World Heavyweight Championship. The in-ring stories are progressing nicely in the absence of Steen, but Whitmer/WGTT/Young Bucks isn’t a program that can carry the main event week after week.