January 9, 2016
Episode 225
(taped December 19, 2015)
City: Philadelphia, PA
Venue: 2300 Arena
Commentary: Kevin Kelly, Nigel McGuinness
Ring Announcer: Bobby Cruise
Intro Video
“War Zone” by 615 Music
Match 1
Roppongi Vice (Rocky Romero & Beretta) vs All Night Express (Kenny King & Rhett Titus)
(referee: Paul Turner)
Result: Kenny King pins Beretta with a schoolboy after making a blind tag
Time: 8:21 (1 break)
Match Thoughts
Good match. Roppongi Vice was definitely the more exciting team with their flying and double team moves. Both Beretta and Romero had some nice dives. Trent hit a corkscrew moonsault from the barricade that was one of the highlights. King and Titus were good too, but they didn’t stand out as much. King in particular played to the crowd a lot and gave his opponents too much time and space, something that McGuinness pointed out a few times.
The ending was pretty good, but it was marred a little by a questionable call from the referee. It was a call on a tag that didn’t seem very consistent with tag team wrestling. I mean, you can’t really make a tag if you’re not in your corner, right? Still, I guess it added controversy to the match.
Ring Area
The Kingdom makes their way to the ring with security. Adam Cole talks about beating Kyle O’Reilly. He also tells Taven and Bennett that they dropped the ball by losing the tag titles. reDRagon comes out. Bobby Fish talks and Kyle O’Reilly paces. Fish wants the tag titles and is willing to go through The Kingdom to get a title shot. McGuinness makes a match for next week.
Just as he does, the Young Bucks come out to the ring. They want a match with The Kingdom. McGuinness adds them to the match next week and makes it a street fight.
Match 2
The House of Truth (Joey Daddiego & Donovan Dijak w/ Truth Martini) vs War Machine (Hanson & Raymond Rowe) (ROH Tag Champs)
(referee: ?)
Result: Hanson pins Dijak after Fallout (belly to back suplex/diving leg drop combo) to get the win for War Machine
Time: 3:32
Match Thoughts
This was a pretty quick and one-sided match. Dijak started out strong and did an impressive springboard corkscrew dive to the floor, but his advantage was very short-lived. War Machine dominated this match and destroyed their opponents with lots of power and surprising quickness. It’s a fun match to watch if you want to see a couple of guys get beat up for a few minutes.
It was interesting that Dijak got some support and even seemed to dismiss Truth Martini by kicking away the book of truth when Truth tried to pass it to him for him to use. Other than that this was a pretty straight-forward exhibition for War Machine.
Ring Area
After a commercial break, Dijak is still down in the ring. Truth Martini gets on the mic. He calls Dijak the weak link of the House of Truth. Truth slaps Dijak. Dijak grabs Truth, but Daddiego attacks Dijak. Dijak lifts Daddiego and hits him with a knee as Truth backs away. Truth fires Dijak as he walks away. Prince Nana shows up at ringside and claps.
Backstage
reDRagon talks about the strret fight next week. O’Reilly wants revenge on a tree. Fish talks about mean streets.
Match 3
Four Corner Survival Match
Dalton Castle w/ The Boys vs Moose w/ Stokely Hathaway vs Matt Sydal vs Jay Briscoe
(referee: Todd Sinclair)
Result: Dalton Castle pins Matt Sydal after Bang-A-Rang (spinning double leg facebuster)
Time: 8:27 (1 break)
Match Thoughts
Good match. Everyone looked pretty good. The crowd seemed to be behind Moose a lot, but I didn’t really see anything in this match that made him stand out. Sydal had some good spots. It wasn’t a very chaotic match which you might expect with this kind of stipulation. It was really a lot of one-on-one battles.
Show Impressions
This was a pretty good show. The matches were good, not great. It did set up a nice main event for next week. Other than that there wasn’t a whole lot on this show that really stood out. I don’t really care about Dijak or the House of Truth stuff. Not yet anyway. Maybe they’ll make me care later. The opening match was good but the ending bugged me, the second match was basically a squash, and the main event was good but had potential to be more than it was.
Match of the Night
Dalton vs Moose vs Sydal vs Jay Briscoe
It kind of wins by default, but it really was an entertaining match. It could have gone longer and maybe had a little more chaos, but I liked it.