Posted in: ROH Ring of Honor TV Results 12/3/11 By Romeo Dec 3, 2011 - 4:04:42 AM

Ring of Honor Wrestling 12/3/11
Davis Arena
Louisville, Kentucky

- The show begins with a recap video of last week’s main event, Jay Lethal vs. El Generico for the TV Championship. Mike Bennett, wearing a TV championship belt of his own, came out to distract Jay Lethal, causing another time limit draw. It ends with El Generico diving on both Bennett and Lethal.

- Announcers Kevin Kelly and Nigel McGuinness run down tonight’s card. The main event is a tag match between the Young Bucks and Future Shock. For our first match, though, we go to comments from Prince Nana and Tommaso Ciampa.

- Ciampa says that he’s not the guy who finds a lot of things funny, but if he were he’d find it funny that everyone else is saying that they’re the best in the world. Ciampa says he’s the best and he’s the toughest man in the world as the video shows him training. Ciampa says nobody can beat him, and Nana says until somebody does, Ciampa will always be the Dominant Male.

Match #1: Shiloh Jonze vs. “The Dominant Male” Tommaso Ciampa (with the Embassy)

- Ciampa really, REALLY needs his own different music. Coming out to what I assume is Prince Nana’s hip-hop theme is absolutely killing his heat.

Jonze offers his hand as he follows the Code of Honor, but as always, Ciampa disregards it as he opens with a huge knee to Jonze’s head. Ciampa batters Jonze down with more knees, and hits elbows to Jonze’s head in the corner. Ciampa tries to hit a quick slam on Jonze but Jonze lands on his feet, and starts getting back into the match with offense of his own. The two try to trade shots, but Ciampa sends Jonze to the ropes only to eat a huge lariat on the way back.

Ciampa dominates, hitting a huge slap to Jonze’s chest, and proceeds to rain some elbows down for a two count. The announcers mention that Jim Cornette already has a settlement offer for Kevin Steen. Ciampa tries to dominate Jonze in the corner but Jonze manages to counter and get to the top rope, and successfully hits what looks like a diving axe handle. Jonze hits a forearm to Ciampa on the corner, but cannot capitalize as Ciampa dropkicks Jonze in the legs, taking back control with a knee to the head.

Ciampa hits his signature running knees to the head in the corner to poor Jonze, and hits Project Ciampa for the win.

Winner, by pinfall: Tommaso Ciampa in 4:05

Thoughts: This match proves that ROH can put on a very decent four-minute match like the WWE can. However, Ciampa really needs somebody to feud with as he’s just going around, squashing jobbers. If T.J. Perkins really is with ROH, let these two feud so we can have something fun to watch in the undercard. Also, Ciampa really needs some new music. 2.5 stars out of 5.

- We go to a video promo from the Briscoes, who are recapping their match last week against Caprice Coleman and Cedric Alexander, where WGTT, with steel chairs, saved the rookies from a beatdown by the Briscoes. Mark complains that WGTT can use chairs, but when they do it, they get punished. Jay says they don’t need chairs because they’re going to win the belts back.

It’s the All-Night Express’s turn, and they’re still complaining about being overlooked. ANX is challenging WGTT to a Proving Ground match next week.

Thoughts: Really, who’s buying ANX right now when they lost two straight matches to the Briscoes? The bookers haven’t even thought of re-establishing the team with a win over a lesser team before they thought about having them brag that they’re the best. If they win the Proving Ground match (which I think they will, to be added to Final Battle), that’s when you start having them run their mouth.

- We go now to the Cornette/Steen segment. Kelly, McGuiness, and Cornette are in the ring with Steve Corino and Jimmy Jacobs. Kevin Steen comes down… to a fairly quiet crowd, which in theory was supposed to be chanting for his return for a long time now.

Cornette starts by saying that this is against his better judgment, and even rips on Steen’s lawyer Christian Mascagni. (How you doin’, boss.) Cornette puts over Steen as a great wrestler and a draw, saying that he would love for him to work in ROH, except that he’s crazy. Cornette says he doesn’t know what Steen is going to say and do. Cornette says that Steen is impossible to deal with and that he thinks the universe revolves around him, and that’s why he’s not working in ROH.

Steen undermines Cornette’s insults by saying that they’re the nicest things he’s heard all week. Steen says that he’s a great wrestler and agrees that he’s crazy, but he says he’d rather be crazy than be hypocritical. He says how could Cornette say he’s a great wrestler when Cornette hasn’t been paying attention to him. Steen takes a shot at Davey Richards. Steen says Cornette’s mad because he can’t control him and that Cornette didn’t make him. Steen says he didn’t need Cornette’s help in becoming a star. Steen finally asks Cornette’s offer.

Cornette says he won’t make the offer because it was Steve Corino’s idea, so Cornette lets Corino have the floor. Corino says he created all this mess. Corino says that after Steen was kicked out of ROH, he decided it was time to change, saying that everything he did in wrestling was wrong. Corino warns Steen that if he continues this, Steen’s future will be like Corino’s present.

Steen says what’s sad is that Corino let everybody cut his balls off. Steen addresses Jimmy Jacob and says that he also cut his balls off for to appease everyone, and finally calls Cornette pathetic. Corino says Steen’s words hurt but it’s okay, saying that he was once like Steen. He says this is his salvation, and finally makes his settlement offer: Kevin Steen vs. Steve Corino at Final Battle, with Steen being reinstated if he wins.

Corino says that Steen won’t be facing the Steve Corino of the past year; instead, Corino will be an evil person again for just one day. Steen says he hopes that’s exactly what happened. Cornette says that he also added one more stipulation: the special guest referee will be Jimmy Jacobs. Steen says he loves it because he can’t wait to see the look on Jacobs’s face when he wins. Steen says that he also wants Jim Cornette watching ringside because Cornette was watching last year as Steen lost his job.

Steen says that when he gets his job back, it will be Kevin Steen’s Ring of Honor, where there won’t be any room for people like Cornette. Steen spits on Corino’s face, but everyone holds him back.

Thoughts: Very, very strong segment. The match was just made tonight, and it’s already a lot more over than the Richards/Edwards title match.

- We go to Inside ROH. First off is a development on the TV title feud, with the title match at Final Battle now becoming what seems to be a three way dance between Jay Lethal, Mike Bennett, and El Generico.

Thoughts: Okay, we already got that from the opening video. We couldn’t get a promo from Lethal or Bennett to advance the angle?

- Next up is a segment on #1 Contender Eddie Edwards and his new trainer, Dan “The Beast” Severn. Edwards says that true rivalries in combat sports are trilogies, referencing Frazier/Ali. He says that it’s been proven that both men can win, but what hasn’t been proven is that who is the better man. Severn says that he understands Eddie, making a reference with his rivalry with Ken Shamrock, which only went two matches. He says nobody ever found out who was better. Severn says both Richards and Edwards deserve to know who the better man is, and if Eddie wins the title, he will have done his job. Edwards says it’s time for him to step out of Richards’s shadow, which he said he returned to after he lost the title to him. Edwards says he needs that light, to prove that he can stand on his own.

Davey Richards says his problem is that he feels he doesn’t know Eddie Edwards anymore. He knows how Severn walks, and expects Eddie to be a whole different opponent when they get in the ring. He says that while he can prepare for different moves and fighting styles, he can’t prepare for a completely different person. He says that everyone’s been telling him that Edwards has a dark side, but he doesn’t want to believe that.

Thoughts: While the whole Dan Severn angle is definitely very interesting, oh my god is this feud really underwhelming. Eddie Edwards cannot talk worth a damn, and if anything, Severn should be his mouthpiece instead. We need Steen in the World Title scene posthaste.

- Next is a Roderick Strong segment. He’s in a bar with some blank-looking girls drinking beer. He says nobody on his level has accepted the Roderick Strong challenge yet. He says that he’s going to Final Battle, but cannot handle watching Richards and Edwards fight over the World title. He says that if one of them doesn’t die, he’s going to come down there, beat them up, and ask for a refund of his plane ticket.

Thoughts: Get Roderick Strong all the way out of here. Why didn’t I vote for him in that category?

- We return to OVW’s Blossom Twins shilling ROH merchandise. Before the main event, we go to a promo from the Young Bucks.

- Jeff Hardy Buck, aka Nick Jackson says that everyone’s told them to show respect to everyone backstage, but where’s their respect? They say that they’re young and they’re the real stars, and rips on veterans and “retirement home wrestling companies,” saying they’re tired of wrestling people as old as their father. They name-drop Booker T and call him jealous because they can’t hang with the Young Bucks. They mention the Code of Honor and say they only shake hands with their equals, at which they proceed to shake each other’s hands.

Thoughts: Oh my god, get these guys all the way out of here with Strong too. While they’re better talkers than the original Hardy Boyz, it’s like they completely intended to jack their early 2000s look. I called that guy Jeff Hardy Buck because he literally looked like Jeff Hardy, and Matt Hardy Buck’s name is actually Matt! And really running with the lack of respect angle? AND having the balls to name-drop Booker? This is going to get them more X-Pac Heat than anything, and I’ll laugh my ass off when Booker T does go on to wrestle a better match with Cody Rhodes than these two punks could ever do.

Main Event: Future Shock (Adam Cole & Kyle O’Reilly) vs. the Young Bucks

- The match begins after a commercial break. Future Shock offer their hands, and the Bucks fake it, shaking with themselves instead. Adam Cole and Nick Jackson begin the match quickly and Future Shock has control first, hitting a double team kick to the back and a dropkick with lots of running around. O’Reilly isolates Nick in the corner, and gets into a running sequence that sees a flurry of offense from O’Reilly, ending with a leg sweep. O’Reilly tags in Cole and Nick tags in Matt, and Matt goes to the top rope only to jump into kicks from Future Shock. Matt tries to fight back but walks into a double team flapjack and bulldog combo for one.

Cole takes control and tags O’Reilly in, hitting a double northern lights suplex for two. (Apparently, Cole tagged O’Reilly in without actually tagging him.) O’Reilly dominates the offense but Nick takes him outside and the Bucks taking control, finally managing to hit their own double team move. Matt is now in control and the Bucks isolate O’Reilly in the corner as Nick is tagged in. O’Reilly fights back, but falls to another double team move, a rope-hung neckbreaker and flipping senton for a two count. Nick tags Matt back in and O’Reilly tries to fight back, but the show cuts to the last commercial break.

After the break the Bucks are still in control, which they maintained over the break. Matt taunts Adam Cole in the present, tempting Cole to try to get in and the referee to be distracted, with Matt takes advantage of by putting a boot to O’Reilly’s neck. Matt continues to taunt O’Reilly, sarcastically shaking his hand, but O’Reilly counters that into a cradle pin for two.

The Bucks exchange quick tags twice as they continue to dominate O’Reilly. The Bucks try to charge O’Reilly at the corner, but O’Reilly starts to counter and fight back. The two Bucks are in the ring as O’Reilly crawls to Cole for the hot tag, and Adam Cole clears both out with a double missile dropkick. Cole fires back with dropkicks on Matt and hits a quick enzuigiri. Cole goes to the apron but is caught by Nick, who catches him with an elbow. Cole counters a baseball slide attempt into a sick wheelbarrow suplex to the apron.

Matt tries to grab Cole’s hair from the outside, but is countered. Adam Cole hits a top-rope crossbody for a near fall. Matt gets out of a fireman’s carry from Cole, but Cole counters with a quick jawbreaker and he tags O’Reilly in. O’Reilly hits his signature rolling butterfly suplexes on Matt and then Nick, with the last being a double team assisted butterfly DDT to wheelbarrow suplex.

O’Reilly tags Cole back in, going for their tag team finisher called Ride the Lightning, but Matt miraculously survives and dodges the rest of the maneuver. Nick also miraculously survives as he gets back into the fray, with the Bucks hitting stereo kicks on Future Shock. Matt hits repeating powerbombs to Adam Cole, followed by a turnbuckle bomb, followed by stereo superkicks from both Bucks… for a near fall.

The Bucks attempt More Bang For Your Buck on Adam Cole, but he manages to counter and roll out of the way. Future Shock capitalizes and hits their tornado DDT to suplex to superkick to guillotine choke. Cole tries to keep Nick from getting inside the ring, but Nick manages to do get back in anyway and break the hold. Nick tries to hit O’Reilly but it apparently isn’t enough to break the hold. O’Reilly spits on Nick, causing him to go hit a Yakuza Kick, which still doesn’t break the hold. A few more strikes is finally enough to break the hold, but Cole takes Nick out of the ring and O’Reilly reapplies the hold. O’Reilly gets close to the rope and it is close enough for Nick to get back in and hit a springboard reverse DDT. The Bucks hit More Bang For Your Buck again on O’Reilly for the pin and the win.

Winner, by pinfall: The Young Bucks in 11:58

Thoughts: This match embodies everything about indy wrestling people hate. 2.25 stars out of 5.

- Next week, WGTT goes up against the All-Night Express in the Proving Ground match.

Overall Thoughts: Let’s see… a decent opening match, a very strong segment in the middle versus a main event that didn’t deserve to be a main event and three flat segments. The show’s success really relies on the ability to show a third match to advance whatever other plot needs to be advanced, instead of relying on video packages. And the Steen/Cornette/Corino segment should’ve gone on last to close out the show strong. ROH managed to get an A- two weeks ago, and this time it’s not even touching B-. The weaknesses of taping weeks’ worth of shows in one night is starting to really reveal itself here. C-