SUPERCARD OF HONOR X: NIGHT 2

April 2, 2016

Rhett Titus . . . continues to be the most underappreciated member of the ROH roster, by attempting to make something useful out of a meaningless tag match.

Will Ferrara . . . tries to avenge his Top Prospect Tournament loss from the previous year.

Kyle O’Reilly . . . gets another chance for revenge on his former partner, and shuts him up about who the better member of Future Shock was.

JAY LETHAL © vs. CHEESEBURGER (ROH World Heavyweight Title)

This is mostly a squash for Lethal, with precious little of anything to give the idea that the title is in jeopardy. That would normally be a bad thing, but, ‘Burger is so low on the pecking order that there shouldn’t be any reason to think that Lethal won’t be able to win. ‘Burger gets in a few shots, but springboards himself right into a superkick, with his body language giving away what was going to happen, and that allows Lethal to hit the Injection. Lethal’s refusal to give the fans what they want, and give Cheeseburger a second Injection, is supposed to make him heelish. But, it actually babyfaces him, if anything, with the notion that did what was necessary to win and doesn’t need to showboat or hurt his opponent any more than he needs to.

JAY LETHAL vs. COLT CABANA

While this is obviously a lot more competitive than the previous match, it’s really not all that much better. This time it’s Lethal who gets beaten like a drum, as Cabana levels him with Bionic Elbows. Lethal tries taking a powder to the floor, and Cabana follows him outside with a dropkick through the ropes and keeps up the onslaught. And, like Cheeseburger, Lethal only gets a few token spots in, like his suicide dive and an attempt at the flying elbow. The one nice aspect to this, which puts it over the previous match, is that they establish Cabana’s propensity of outwrestling Lethal. Cabana always has a counter or reversal ready, like the small package out of the figure four or the sequence that ends with Cabana trapping Lethal in the Billy Goat’s curse, and that’s what leads to Lethal’s undoing, he telegraphs the Injection and Cabana rolls him for the pin. There’s only one moment that really comes off bad, which is when Lethal kicks out of one of Cabana’s cradles and Cabana does an overblown sell and bump into the corner. It just looked way too hokey when the purpose here is to establish Cabana as a legit title contender.

RHETT TITUS/KENNY KING vs. ACH/MATT SYDAL

I appreciate the fact that ACH is from Texas. But, his performance isn’t anything more than his usual go-go-go spotfest. The dives are great, and the athleticism is amazing, but, he doesn’t do anything to make it matter. Titus is the only one that tries to make something out of this, between his early attempts to get heat and the far too short control segment of ANX working over Sydal’s midsection. Sydal makes the hot tag to ACH, and the spots commence to give the hometown guy the win.

DONOVAN DIJAK vs. WILL FERRARA

Even though this is the first match that both tells a story and gets adequate time to tell that story, this is still underwhelming. They’re both equally at fault. Ferrara is sorely lacking in credible offense to seem like he can beat the big man. As fired up as Ferrara is, he’s just as often to be found throwing punches to the face as he is shoulder tackles into Dijak’s taped up ribs. The only things from Ferrara that looked credible enough to potentially win was his lone submission hold and his counter to Feast Your Eyes, and that didn’t even necessitate a cover. Instead Ferrara just picks him back up for some nondescript move, so that Dijak can counter back into Feast Your Eyes and get the pin.

Dijak’s inconsistent selling doesn’t help matters either. He’s fine when Ferrara is doing something, but, then he’ll just spring to action when it’s his turn, like he does when he gives Ferrara the big boot. For all the talk from the commentators about how hurt Dijak is, he sure doesn’t show it with all the big spots he pulls off like the chokeslam, moonsault, and the Feast Your Eyes. You would think that Ferrara would be able to get in more than one counter, or at least escape something by throwing a kick or an elbow at the midsection. You would also think that Dijak might struggle a little to hit all those big spots, but, he pulls them off effortlessly. The only argument one could make is the dropkick being botched because of his injury, and, it says a lot when the only consistent selling is the blown spot.

BOBBY FISH vs. RODERICK STRONG (#1 Contender’s match for the ROH World Television Title - 2/3 Falls)

Aside from establishing Roddy’s jumping knee and End of Heartache as a lethal finishing combo, this fall doesn’t accomplish much. It’s almost entirely comprised of Bobby being in control and focusing on the midsection, but, it doesn’t last long enough to feel like it’s going to let Bobby win the first fall, and it doesn’t seem to hamper Roddy all that much. Bobby more or less dominates Roddy, but walks into the knee and End of Heartache and loses the fall. The second fall is the same basic idea, only with the roles reversed. This time it’s Roddy trying to press his advantage by focusing on the midsection, and smartly trying to win by countout. They briefly start trading strikes, with Roddy getting the short end of the stick, so he goes back to what worked before with a big suplex. Roddy prepares for another knee, but Bobby learns from his mistake and avoids the knee and ties the match with a flash cradle. The actual wrestling may not be anything amazing, although I appreciate that they’re trying to tell a story. But, they’re doing a bang-up job in establishing how much of a jerk that Roddy is.

And, any semblance of story disappears for the last fall. The midsection being worked over is forgotten by both of them, even when they had chances to make it matter, like Bobby’s near fall from the moonsault. Roddy does the half-nelson backbreaker to set up the Stronghold, and Bobby gets a very quick rope break, when he’d have been better served to linger and struggle for a bit. Early in the fall, when they were brawling on the floor, Roddy misses a knee and hits the post, but that doesn’t go anywhere either, even though Bobby wins the fall by submission. The near countout was due to them being too busy brawling, rather than Roddy not being able to make it back into the ring. Their intensity is great, and it’s nice to see Bobby close the book on this feud by tapping out Roddy clean in the middle, after what had happened in December. But, this is a case of them being too worried about how much they can do, rather than trying to make what they do actually matter.

HANSON/RAY ROWE © vs. SILAS YOUNG/BEER CITY BRUISER (ROH World Tag Team Titles)

It’s impressive that all four of them can move so well for being such big guys, but, this is another case where the wrestlers seem more concerned with getting in as much as they can and very little of it mattering to any great degree. The one really nice storytelling element to this was Silas working over Rowe’s back. He dropped a bunch of elbows on him, and then used a crossface and STF to keep wearing him down. But, once Rowe managed to make the hot tag and the match broke down, it was forgotten about. Hell, at one point Rowe picks up Bruiser and slams him down, so his back couldn’t have been that hurt. There are a few other nice things to see, like Hanson using his agility to cartwheel and avoid Bruiser, and Silas got a great near fall on Rowe toward the end with the flash cradle. The finish is somewhat smart, with Silas getting pinned after Fallout, but, only after Hanson makes sure that Bruiser can’t intervene, since the first attempt at it got thwarted. But, it’s hard to appreciate moments like that very much, when the bulk of the work doesn’t give the viewer any reason to truly care about it.

DALTON CASTLE vs. BJ WHITMER

Honestly, this match is more or less a microcosm of this entire undercard. The work itself is fine, for the most part, but there isn’t anything that creates a genuine emotional connection to the match. BJ throws some mean strikes, especially that elbow to the back of the neck and the short-arm lariat. Dalton had a couple of nice suplex spots, especially the spot where he bridged up to escape the pin and then turned it into a German suplex. Dalton’s Exploder counter was another clever spot, and, with Whitmer having recently had knee surgery it would have made a good finish. But, neither of them does much of anything to actually build the match and tell a story, they both just do stuff until it’s time to end things. One could argue that Whitmer was working over Dalton’s neck, but Dalton didn’t do anything to show that it was wearing him down, and the super backdrop didn’t feel like an especially important spot. It says a lot when Dalton’s posing, and Whitmer stealing one of the boys’ masks gets a bigger pop and bigger heat than almost anything else that came before it.

JAY BRISCOE/MARK BRISCOE vs. MATT JACKSON/NICK JACKSON vs. ALEX SHELLEY/CHRIS SABIN vs. CHRISTOPHER DANIELS/FRANKIE KAZARIAN (#1 Contenders Match for the ROH World Tag Team Titles)

There isn’t a single moment of this match that feels natural. Everything feels scripted and choreographed. There’s the perquisite spot that requires all eight to get involved, which is the four-way vertical suplex. There’s several instances where someone dives to the floor with several of the wrestlers conveniently there, like Nick’s moonsault when the Meltzer Driver is broken up, and Mark giving the superplex to Kazarian while both the Bucks and Machine Guns are out there. And, there’s campy moments for laughs, like Shelly’s dual groin claw on both of the Bucks, and the Bucks and Machine Guns all hitting superkicks on each other. The one nice touch is that they give respect to the superplex spot by having it keep everyone except Mark on the floor, which lets the Briscoes hit their Doomsday Device and pin Daniels. But, there aren’t any meaningful exchanges between either team or anything during the match to suggest that Daniels may be a weak link to give finish any deeper of a meaning. Aside from getting all four teams on the card, there isn’t even any reason to have a match like this to determine the next challengers. The Bucks had beaten the Machine Guns the night before, the Briscoes were on the winning side of an eight-man tag, and both Daniels and Kazarian had lost their respective matches. Why not just have a straight tag between the Bucks and Briscoes to get to the same place?

ADAM COLE vs. KYLE O’REILLY

The best way to sum this up would be to paraphrase what Corino said on commentary: It’s a shame that it had to come to this. Two of the better workers in the company, with plenty of experience working against each other, cap off a rather underwhelming card with a very underwhelming match. The match seems like it’s going to start hot and heavy with Adam attacking Kyle during his entrance and bouncing him off the guardrails. But, they don’t show that same sort of hatred or fire until nearly the end of the match. They have their moments to remind you of how good they are, like Kyle’s selling after elbowing the chair into Adam’s face, and a finish that not only works as far as putting over the brutality of their feud, but also perfectly plays off their finish from December. Their familiarity with one another shows up a few times, such as when Adam is swinging the chair, but Kyle keeps on dodging it, until Adam is finally able to fake him out and connect with the chair.

Unfortunately, rather than make their good moments meaningful, they’re more concerned with getting chairs and tables involved and doing the same, predictable, spots that one could find almost anywhere else. These two are capable of a whole lot more. Adam wedges a chair in the corner and, to the shock of nobody, he winds up getting rammed into it. For all the effort they put into teasing the big table bump, that ended with Kyle’s superplex, it was just another bomb with no more meaning than anything else. The other table bump, when Kyle inadvertently DDT’s Adam off the apron while he’s got him in the guillotine, actually comes off much better. Kyle having trouble with his kicks due to Adam working over the leg is a fine idea, but, it doesn’t come out until far too late in the match to matter. Kyle had already thrown enough kicks to show that Adam working the leg wasn’t that bad. Not to mention that, right before the finish, Kyle loses his mind and starts no-selling chair shots to the back and then pops up after a big suplex, so they can do the hair grab and punching bit that they seem to be so in love with. There’s enough good here to make this the match of the night, but, this is easily the worst singles match that I’ve seen these two have together, and it’s fitting (in the wrong way) to end a very lackluster show with a very lackluster main event.

Conclusion: When Cole vs. O’Reilly isn’t good enough to save a show, you know you’re in big trouble. There’s just no reason at all to bother with this.