Ring Of Honor TV Recap (8/28): ROH Tag Title Match, The Addiction Vs. The Young Bucks And More

RING OF HONOR TV

EPISODE #258

TAPED AT THE 2300 ARENA IN PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA

AIRING IN SYNDICATION, AT ROHWRESTLING.COM, THE FITE TV APP ON MONDAYS AND ON COMET TV WEDNESDAY NIGHTS

* This is the final set of ROH TV tapings that took place in Philly prior to The Death Before Dishonor PPV 9 days ago. This episode features a World Tag Team Title defense by The Addiction against The Young Bucks, a 6 man tag with members of The Cabinet facing Dalton Castle and his boys, A 4 corners survival match and a tag team battle between War Machine and Shane Taylor & Keith Lee.

- Kevin Kelly welcomes the audience to the show. On the voiceover, He briefly mentions the aftermath of the Death Before Dishonor PPV and plugs that there will be exclusive comments by Adam Cole later in the show. At ringside, Kelly also hypes this week's TV lineup. Matt Taven joins Kevin Kelly on commentary.

War Machine Vs. Shane Taylor and Keith Lee

- Prior to the match. Kevin Kelly tries to give the background of the reason for this feud between these two teams. Adam Taven claims that this all started in prison with Ray Rowe. Kelly quickly shoots down Taven's bogus prison tale. Kelly explains that Shane Taylor was a protégé of Ray Rowe's and was trained by him. When Rowe got signed by ROH, He neglected Taylor and stopped training him. So Taylor's entry into ROH and attacks on War Machine are all a part of Taylor's revenge against Rowe for abandoning his career.

- For those who are not familiar with Taylor & Lee. Think Authors of Pain in NXT, just more athletic and bigger. This was definitely not your standard tag team match. Very few moments where there was actually just 2 wrestlers in the ring with their partners staying in their corners waiting for tags. This match was all about high impact moves. All 4 big men going against type. By executing monkey flips, suicide dives, flying knees, spin kicks and various other moves that show off these two teams agility. Prompting The Philly crowd to chant, "This is Awesome" on several occasions.

- The final sequence saw Hanson and Rowe attempt their fallout finish on Lee. Taylor saves his partner. Lee hits a power bomb on Rowe followed by a top rope splash by the nearly 400 pound Taylor. They turn their attention to Hanson. This leads to a top rope assisted sit out powerbomb that ends up with Keith Lee pinning Hanson for the victory.

Shane Taylor and Keith Lee defeated War Machine

4 Corners Survival Match

Cheesburger vs Tim Hughes vs David Starr vs Joey "Diesel" Daddiego

- As the match gets started, BJ Whitmer comes down the aisle and joins the broadcast team on commentary. Whitmer spends the majority of the match playing up his new "Purple Haze" character. Speaking in cryptic tones and trying to channel Kevin Sullivan circa 1982.

- As the action continues in the ring. The lights go out in the arena. A video airs of Kevin Sullivan speaking of having two sons and having to sacrifice one. How a new Purple Haze will emerge. In the video package, a hooded Kevin Sullivan is laughing while flashing images of Whitmer and "The Punisher" are shown laughing along with him.

- The lights go back on in the arena and Whitmer is on the apron and Punisher Martinez enters the ring. Martinez has red blood painted under his eyes as tears. He does a curb stomp on Hughes in the ring. Then power bombs Starr. He then grabs Cheeseburger and hits him with a variation of a chokeslam, He calls "South of Heaven". BJ Whitmer and Punisher pose mid ring as the match is ruled a no contest.

Cheeseburger, Tim Hughes,David Starr and Joey Daddiego battled to a no contest

* Just some quick background on Punisher Martinez. Being billed as 6'6 253, He is a graduate of The famous Monster Factory and has been training in the ROH dojo for over a year. He was involved in the 2016 Top Prospect tournament where he defeated Colby Corino. Steve Corino's son. He is an impressive looking athlete with a martial arts background who has been playing a darkside type character for a while now on the indy circuit. So this storyline fits and suits his character.

- A NJPW on AXS TV ad airs. This is followed by a Young Bucks promo in front of The ROH banner. They talk about being 2 sweet and 4 Life. Matt states that they will invite The Addiction later tonight to a superkick party and win the ROH tag titles. Nick Jackson pretends to super kick the camera as the promo ends.

- The Cabinet arrives to the ring with their "supporters" and secret service members. Both Kenny King and Rhett Titus pretend kissing babies that are actually dolls at ringside and then dabbing with them in their arms. Dalton Castle and his boys are introduced next. A less elaborate but flashier entrance by their opponents for this next 6 man tag.

Dalton Castle & His Boys VS The Cabinet

- The buildup on ROH TV for this match is that The Cabinet are on a crusade to make wrestling great again. They have targeted Dalton Castle and think his flamboyant style is bad for the sport. Just a silly comedy match here.

- Castle is super over with this crowd. Even his boys get a chant from the crowd. Castle appeases the crowd early on by tagging in one of his boys to start the match. The boys are twins and in this match, They are referred to as Boy #1 and Boy #2. The Boys electrify the crowd early on with their aerial tactics before tagging back in Castle. Matt Taven cracks up Kevin Kelly on commentary by stating that Number 1 and Number 2 were all over Rhett Titus.

- More comedy, Caprice Coleman is now in the ring with Dalton Castle and they both get into a pose down contest. With fans cheering for Castle and of course booing Coleman. They eventually get back to wrestling. Castle hits a german suplex on Coleman which takes him outside the ring. Dalton then launches both of his boys over the top rope and onto The Cabinet. The show goes to break.

- Back from the break. The Cabinet now has the advantage. They are working over The Boys. It is determined on commentary that Boy #2 has pig tails. The Cabinet triple teams Boy #2. After a few minutes of heel tactics by The Cabinet. Boy #2 rallies and makes the eventual hot tag to Castle. Dalton takes out all 3 cabinet members with suplexes. Castle tags in the Boys and they start hitting tandem moves on Titus. Castle suplexes Boy #1 on him and then Boy #2 hits a flying double foot. Castle goes to the top rope. He is pushed off by King and falls to the outside. With Castle taken out. The Boys are left alone in the ring now with The Cabinet. Kenny King hits a superplex, Titus and Coleman hit a flying leg drop/frog splash combo for the victory.

The Cabinet defeats Dalton Castle & His Boys

-Adam Cole is in front of The ROH banner with his newly won ROH World Title. Cole talks about how last week was a celebration for him. How he became 2 time ROH World Champion. Cole says that Kyle O'Reilly ruined his party. That Cole thought he was done with O'Reilly. He then talks about how, Kyle has been a thorn in his side for years. Cole states that he is better than O'Reilly because Kyle has never won the world title and now that Cole is champ. He can personally guarantee that Kyle will never be world champion.... Very convincing promo by Adam Cole. Good stuff.

ROH TV MAIN EVENT

ROH TAG TITLE MATCH

The Addiction vs The Young Bucks

- Veda Scott joins Kevin Kelly and Adam Taven on commentary for this match. The tag champs arrive to ringside first. As soon as The Young Bucks entrance theme hits. Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian go by the rampway and wait for The Bucks to arrive to try and sneak attack them. It backfires when The Bucks sneak up behind them and greet them with superkicks.

- The action started off on the outside of the ring and stays there in the opening minutes. The Bucks are in full control. They get a table out from under the ring and set it up to put Kazarian through it. Kazarian gets out of his predicament by hitting the Bucks with a double clothesline. Kaz gets another table out and pulls a ladder out from under the ring. The Bucks recover and hit a double superkick on Kaz while he is carrying the ladder.

- Back from the break. The Bucks are in control. Matt has Kaz draped on his shoulders. Nick goes to the top rope. A recovering, Christopher Daniels pushes Nick off of the top and he crashes into the table at ringside. Matt goes to check on his brother and gets hit with a springboard cutter by Kaz.

- The Addiction now control this match for the next few minutes. Double teaming Matt while Nick is on the outside laid out. The Addiction taunt The Young Bucks by doing their signature poses. Veda Scott on commentary is anti-bullet club and pro addiction. She spends the majority of the match complaining about ROH matchmaker, Nigel McGuinness. Matt Taven sides with Veda and states that The Kingdom will one day rise again and take out The Bullet Club.

- Matt eventually finds a way to tag his recovered brother Nick into the match. Nick gets the hot tag and takes on both members of The Addiction. He hits several aerial moves to the delight of the crowd. He then tries a Jeff Hardy swanton bomb but Daniels lifts his knees up at the last second and tags in Kazarian. Matt saves his brother Nick from defeat. Nick hits a 450 splash on Kaz for a near fall before it is broken up by Daniels.

- Frantic finish to end this match with all four men in the ring. Both teams all hit their individual finishers on each other. With a superkick party thrown in for good measure at the end. This 2 minute sequence ends with all 4 men laid out in the ring and they receive an applause from the crowd. Kamaitachi runs out to interfere but The Motor City Machine Guns run out to prevent him from doing so. The Bucks see this going on at ringside and Nick Jackson dives onto Kamaitachi and Alex Shelley. Meanwhile, Kazarian gets a hold of a steel chair and has it in the ring. Chris Sabin takes the chair away from Kaz. He goes to hit a charging Daniels with it but he ducks and Sabin accidentally strikes Matt Jackson with the chair instead. Kaz gets on top of Matt and pins him for the victory.

The Addiction defeated The Young Bucks to retain The ROH Tag Team Titles

- This week's show concludes with The Addiction celebrating at ringside while the commentary team debates what just took place.

Show Closing Thoughts

* The run of great episodic ROH TV came to an end last week because of the back dated nature of these tapings. All things considered. This was a fairly entertaining 1 hour show. The last half hour being where the real quality took place. The Castle 6 man, Adam Cole's promo and the main event. The first half hour featured mostly undercard performers who were not a part of the Death Before Dishonor PPV. Next week's TV show was taped in Vegas one day after the ppv and should be more of a true follow up to that show than the last 2 ROH TV shows have been. The most compelling and interesting character right now in ROH is Jay Lethal. He's the long time champ who finally lost his title after 400 plus days of holding it. Because of the nature of taping shows far in advance. Some steam has been lost for the epic Lethal story that was previously being told leading into the ppv. I am very curious to see what direction, Jay is going to be involved in with ROH going forward. Especially now with Cole tied up with O'Reilly. That story needs to be told.