ROH TV Recap (1/8): The Young Bucks Answer Broken Hardy's Challenge, Decade Of Excellence Tourney

Ring Of Honor TV
Episode #277
Taped @ 2300 Arena In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

- A lot has transpired since ROH's Final Battle pay-per-view in December of last year. The company has been going through some changes, and it is expected to continue in the new year. The departures of what many can refer to as the heart of ROH, behind the scenes in Steve Corino and Nigel McGuinness. To the potential departure of some of ROH's other talents. Late 2016 and early 2017 has seen The Young Bucks, Jay Lethal and Christopher Daniels re-commit themselves to the company. While the arrivals of UK standouts like Will Ospreay and Marty Scurll have helped plant the seeds for the future. The biggest news story since Final Battle, however is Adam Cole regaining The ROH world title from Kyle O'Reilly at WrestleKingdom 11. O'Reilly's rise and reign as ROH Champion has come to an end, and his future is up in the air. While Adam Cole has cemented himself historically as the first ever 3-time ROH Champion.

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- In the past month of ROH TV, The company's tv shows have been stop and start since The Final Battle ppv. With the majority of the shows reflecting on the past year. This week's show takes a step forward in setting the stage for the first part of the year in Ring of Honor.

- ROH TV kicks off with highlights from Christopher Daniels victory over Mark Briscoe in the 1st round of The Decade of Excellence tournament. The highlights are followed with a promo by Daniels. In it, Daniels talks about Ring Of Honor being the dream of what wrestling could be, and how that dream became a reality in 2002. He credits himself for making that dream a reality. Christopher goes on to state that destiny doesn't have an expiration date, and that his destiny has always been to become The Ring Of Honor World Champion. Daniels says that his victory over Mark Briscoe in the tournament puts him one step closer to realizing that destiny.

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- After The ROH TV Opening, Kevin Kelly and Nigel McGuinness are on commentary and provide the opening intro. A week from now Nigel McGuinness is set to make his WWE debut during The United Kingdom tournament on The WWE network...... Here, McGuinness and Kelly go over ROH's current Decade of Excellence tournament. An 8 man tournament with the winner getting a shot at The ROH Championship on March 10th, at their 15th anniversary show in Vegas. The qualification for the competitors in this tournament, is having been with ROH in the last decade. As mentioned earlier Christopher Daniels has already advanced to the semifinals by defeating Mark Briscoe. He will face the winner of this show's main event. In the other bracket, Jay Lethal will face Jushin Thunder Liger, and the winner will take on the victor of this next match.

Decade of Excellence Tournament
1st Round Match
Jay Briscoe vs. BJ Whitmer w/Kevin Sullivan & Punishment Martinez

A Jay Briscoe promo airs after both men are introduced. Jay talks about being in ROH since day one, and he promises to win the tournament. No code of honor handshake by these two Ring Of Honor vets. The match starts off like any Briscoe match with some heavy brawling. Jay wins that battle with Whitmer. With the momentum on his side, Kevin Sullivan intervenes. He grabs Jay's leg from under the bottom rope. Briscoe goes to the outside after Sullivan but Punishment Martinez steps in front of his "master" to protect him. This distraction enables Whitmer to attack Jay Briscoe from behind. He then sends Briscoe into the barricade. Whitmer now has the advantage, as the show goes to it's first break.

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Back from the break, BJ Whitmer has the ref distracted inside the ring. Sullivan and Martinez grab Briscoe by the legs and ram him into the ringpost. BJ Whitmer now has control of the action for the next few minutes. Jay eventually fights back and goes on an offensive flurry. He hits multiple uppercuts on Whitmer and then knocks him to the outside. Jay Briscoe then leaps onto Whitmer with a suicide dive. He follows that up by bringing Whitmer back into the ring, and hitting a neck breaker. This results in the matches first near pinfall. Jay Briscoe starts to beat down Whitmer. Throughout the beating, Whitmer smiles and laughs, as if he is enjoying the pain. This throws off Jay and leads to Whitmer taking Briscoe down with an exploder suplex. Whitmer is then handed a golden spike from Kevin Sullivan. As BJ sets up to hit Jay with the spike, out comes Jay's brother Mark to make the save. Mark stops BJ and then leaps onto Punishment Martinez on the ringside floor. A recovered Jay Briscoe avoids another attempt by Whitmer to hit him with the golden spike. Jay grabs Whitmer and nails him with The Jay Driller to get the victory.

Jay Briscoe defeats BJ Whitmer by pinfall to advance to the semifinals of The Decade of Excellence tournament

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- After the match. BJ Whitmer is on the mic while sitting in the middle of the ring. He says that a sacrifice is coming and will take place next week.

'The Last Real Man' Silas Young & The Beer City Bruiser vs. Alex Reynolds & Jon Silver

Reynolds and Silver surprisingly have a real competitive showing here against Young and The Bruiser. They hit a lot of tandem moves early on and have the momentum until Jon Silver attempts to suplex The Bruiser. His back gives out and The Bruiser suplexes him instead. The tables have turned, and Silas and "Beer City" hit a german suplex/lariat combo on Reynolds, that leads to the matches first near fall. Reynolds gets beat down for the next few minutes but is able to escape and tag in Silver. A fired up Jon Silver gets into the ring and takes out Silas Young. He then attempts to suplex the jumbo sized Bruiser again, but this time he succeeds. Impressive feat by a very short but obviously powerful guy. Silver and Reynolds now team up and turn their attention to Silas Young. Young is able to fight Reynolds off and remove him from the ring. A recovered Bruiser attacks Silver from behind. Young and The Bruiser now double team and knock down Silver. "Beer City" then goes to the middle ropes and leaps off Yokozuna style and flattens Silver. Silas Young cleans up the mess with a successful jackknife pin attempt to get the victory.

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Silas Young & The Beer City Bruiser defeat Alex Reynolds & Jon Silver

- After the match ends, Silas Young gets on the mic. He says that he and The Bruiser have been looking for a partner to make a run at the new ROH 6-Man championships. Young says that he has a surprise for The Bruiser, and that he thinks this man might be the perfect fit for them. Out comes Bull James, formerly known as Bull Dempsey in NXT. When Bull gets into the ring, Silas says that James is a no nonsense guy just like them. That he is a real man who likes to drink a lot of beers. Then in true swerve fashion, After teasing that Bull James is the right partner for them. Silas Young looks at The Bruiser and they nod in agreement, Silas says that Bull is not the right guy and they attack James. Bull gets roughed up in the corner by both men. James is then laid out in the ring. The Bruiser heads to the top and leaps off with a splash onto James.

Six-Man Match- Non Title
The Kingdom (Matt Taven, TK O'Ryan & Vinny Marseglia) vs. Cheeseburger, Will Ferrara & Joey Daddiego

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The Kingdom attacks The Cheeseburger trio during the code of honor handshake. They attempt to get the quick victory with their triple power bomb move known as "SuperNova". Cheeseburger actually bites his way out of it, as Daddiego and Ferrara come into the ring to save him. Cheeseburger is then used as a human weapon by his partners. When he is flung into all 3 Kingdom members. The show goes to break but when it returns. The Kingdom are now in control. They have Will Ferrara isolated in their corner. He gets triple teamed for the next few minutes. TK O'Ryan ends up accidentally spearing Matt Taven. This enables Ferrara to escape and make the tag to Cheeseburger.

Cheeseburger then sets up for his patented palm strike but he is intercepted by Taven. All 6 men are now in the ring battling. Back and forth sequence which finally sees Cheeseburger connect with "Shotei" on Taven. The final sequence of the match sees Cheeseburger get raked in the eyes while The ref is distracted. The Kingdom then triple teams him and hits a trifecta of high impact moves. TK O'Ryan hits an over the shoulder driver, it's followed by a swanton dive by Marseglia, and then capped off by a frog splash from Matt Taven for the victory.

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The Kingdom defeats Cheeseburger, Will Ferrara & Joey Daddiego

- Next on the show. Footage is shown from Final Battle below. Where Broken Matt Hardy appeared and laid down a challenge to "The Bucks of Youth" in the "honorable ring".

- After the footage airs, The Young Bucks make their way to the ring. Matt Jackson gets on the mic first, and apologizes that he has nearly lost his voice. He says that it is a result from screaming for joy, after he and his brother Nick signed the most lucrative contract in ROH history. The fans chant "Thanks For Staying" at The Bucks.
Nick Jackson is next on the mic. He states that they are the best tag team champs in ROH history. That they proved it when they beat The Briscoes at Final Battle. Nick says that when they were celebrating their victory. The lights went out....... The fans start chanting "Delete"...... Nick says that as "spot monkeys", The Bucks can't be "Broken" and won't be "deleted". All of sudden, the lights go out in The 2300 arena, and Vanguard One appears. VG1 starts flying to the ring. The Bucks start selling fear as if VG1 may start firing at them. When Vanguard lowers into the center of the ring, Matt and Nick Jackson superkick VG1 to a loud pop from the crowd. The Bucks then celebrate conquering VG1 by doing a dual delete suck it chant.

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ROH TV MAIN EVENT

Decade Of Excellence
1st Round Match
Colt Cabana vs. Chris Sabin w/Alex Shelley

- The winner of this match will go on to face Christopher Daniels in the semi-finals. Alex Shelley joins Nigel and Kevin on commentary. During the match, Shelley puts down Colt Cabana for being a jerk behind the scenes, but puts him over for his contributions to Ring Of Honor over the years.

Colt has to put his working shoes on for this match. Sabin's fast paced style forces him to keep up. Sabin has the early advantage until Colt uses referee Todd Sinclair as a shield to help turn the match back in his favor. The show heads to it's final break, and when it returns. Cabana is still in control. A clip is shown of what took place during the break. Cabana beat down Sabin in front of Alex Shelley at the broadcast table. Colt even did some quick commentary describing what he was doing to Sabin. Back to the ring, Colt starts going into his bag of tricks. Playing directly from the heel playbook. Sabin tries to fight fire with fire by biting Cabana but Colt shuts him down. Cabana then heads to the top rope. He attempts a splash but misses. Chris Sabin then knocks Cabana to the outside with a missile dropkick.

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Moments later, Chris Sabin has Colt back in the ring. He hits a tornado DDT on him for a near fall. Sabin then takes Cabana up to the top rope. When both men are up there, Cabana counters Sabin and gets him on his shoulders. Setting him up for The Chicago Skyline. Sabin is able to break free and both men end up getting down from the top rope. Cabana hits a leaping hip attack on Sabin and it nets him a near pinfall. Just then, out comes Dalton Castle's boys. They start distracting Cabana by fanning him from ringside with their feathers. Sabin sneaks up from behind Cabana and traps him for the pinfall victory with a tornado small package.

Chris Sabin defeats Colt Cabana by pinfall to advance to the semifinals of The Decade Of Excellence tournament

- Chris Sabin will face off with Christopher Daniels in the semi-finals. Jay Briscoe will take on the winner of the final first round match between Jay Lethal and Jushin Thunder Liger. Kevin Kelly hypes this for next week, as the show comes to an end.

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