ROH TV Recap: Bullet Club's Newest Member, Cody Vs. Kazarian, Jay Lethal In Action, PPV Fallout

By Leon Milici

Ring Of Honor TV Episode #297
Taped at The 2300 Arena in Philadelphia,Pa

This week's show opens with a video recap of what took place at the conclusion of the Adam Cole-Tanahashi match at the War Of The Worlds pay-per-view. Which saw Kenny Omega appear on the video wall, kicking Adam Cole out of The Bullet Club, followed by the unveiling of 'The Villain' Marty Scurll as it's newest member. The package ends with The Villain standing over Adam Cole with The Young Bucks by his side.

This is the very first episode of ROH TV, that is a direct follow up to their pay-per-view back on May 12th. The last two weeks saw the tail end of April's tapings and an Honor Rising recap show from back in February...... Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana are on commentary for this show.

The Bullet Club's theme hits and The Young Bucks and Hangman Page make their way to the ring. Matt Jackson gets on the mic. He calls this a new era in The Bullet Club and brags about how they shocked the world at the pay-per-view. He jokes that no one saw it coming unless you watch The Bucks youtube series "Being Elite". Matt Jackson hypes up and then introduces The Villain, as he makes his way to the ring. Marty Scurll thanks The Bucks and boasts about what they did in New York. How they caused "a spot of bother". Marty then invites the crowd to join him in a tea party. Scurll then calls out for officials to bring crumpets and tea to the ring.

Adam Cole's music hits instead and he makes his way onto the stage. He gets a large pop and chant from the crowd. Cole cancels the tea party for story time with him. Adam calls The Bullet Club morons for kicking out the only 3 time ROH world champion. Cole says that at only 27 years old, he is the franchise of ROH and the best wrestler on the planet. He then states that The Bullet Club kicking him out, will end up becoming the biggest mistake of their lives...... Hangman Page gets on the mic and says that the Bullet Club may have run Cole out but he plans on running him out of Ring of Honor completely. Cole takes this as Page challenging him to a future match and he accepts. The segment ends with Cabana and Riccaboni stating that this week's tv lineup is full and they wonder when the Cole/Page match will take place.

Josh 'The Goods' Woods vs. David Starr

This match is taking place, as a result of David Starr attacking Woods, after he won ROH's Top Prospect tournament...... Both these guys are relatively new to the industry. Starr has been wrestling for 5 years. He's a local PA guy with an amateur wrestling background. Starr's also made a name for himself internationally and on the independents. Woods is a former national champion collegiate wrestler and UFC fighter, who has also spent some time in NXT. He's only been a pro wrestler since 2015..... Starr mockingly offers to adhere to the code of honor handshake. Woods obliges briefly and then puts Woods in the corner and he hits him with multiple strikes. The fans boo Josh Woods for this. Presumably because he didn't adhere to the code but they also may have forgotten about the story leading into this. David Starr battles back early and sends Woods to the outside with a springboard clothesline. When Starr attempts a suicide dive, he gets caught in mid-air with a high knee strike from Woods.

Josh Woods then fall away slams Starr on the outside. Josh then picks up Starr on his shoulders and carries him to the ring apron. He sets up to give Starr a death valley driver but Starr breaks free. Both men battle on the apron and Starr DDT's Woods from there. A nice sequence follows between these two after a brief striking exchange, Woods counters Starr with a judo throw but David bounces back up and connects with side winding suplex and a martial arts kick. When Starr attempts to cover Woods for the pinfall, Josh counters into a seated cross face submission. Starr gets to the ropes to break the hold. A series of forearm strikes are exchanged by both men following this. Starr gets the better of Woods with a high knee. Moments later with Woods grounded, Starr gets caught sleeping and is put into a heel hook submission. Starr counters it into a pinfall attempt to break the hold. More stiff striking between these two. Starr gets Woods to buckle to his knees and then attempts a straight jacket german suplex but Woods elbows his way out of it. Josh fires up and hits a running stiff high knee on Starr in the corner. He then rolls Starr down to the mat and clamps on his "end of bar" submission. Starr can't escape and is forced to tap out.

Josh Woods defeats David Starr by submission

During the break, an ad airs for the upcoming NJPW G1 special scheduled for Saturday July 1st. Which will air live in California on AXS TV. The event will take place over two days and will include ROH stars. The headline being the crowning of the first ever IWGP United States Champion in a round robin tournament.

After the break. A Punishment Martinez vignette airs..... Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana then announce at ringside, that next week on ROH TV. Adam Cole will take on Hangman Page in the main event. The preview video can be seen below:

'The Last Real Man' Silas Young makes his way to the ring with The Beer City Bruiser. As they make their way to ringside, Footage is shown of Young's locker room attack on Jay Lethal a few weeks back, where Silas Young took exception to Jay Lethal injuring him and being the promotion's golden boy.

Silas gets on the mic. He mocks Jay Lethal and all the accolades that he has gotten in the company. Silas doesn't think that Lethal is special or any better than him. Young touts beating Lethal clean in the ring over a month ago. Silas takes exception to people saying that he attacked Lethal unprovoked. He says that Lethal had been running his mouth and he simply just shut it for him. Silas brags about beating up guys just like Lethal all his life and how he has Jay Lethal's number.

Jay Lethal's music hits and he limps his way into the ring, selling his injury from The War of The Worlds ppv. Lethal has a mic in his hand, Young and Bruiser retreat to the outside. Lethal says that he feels silly for having a mic. Jay says that ROH isn't the kind of company where wrestlers talk about their problems, it's where they settle them in the ring. Lethal calls on referee Todd Sinclair to get in the ring, so that they can have a match right now. Silas tells Lethal that just because he's the golden boy of ROH and is used to getting things served to him on a silver platter, it doesn't mean that Lethal is going to get what he wants. Silas says that Lethal will get what he gives him. Silas then tells Lethal that he is getting The Bruiser now instead.

Jay Lethal vs. The Beer City Bruiser w/Silas Young

Beer City tries to sneak up on Lethal, as the ref calls for the match to start. Both men trade blows as Silas joins the broadcast team at ringside. He takes credit for Lethal's injured left knee and for losing in The World Championship match at the pay per view..... Lethal takes the fight to Bruiser despite selling his injury heavily throughout. Jay beats down on Bruiser on the outside of the ring. Lethal sets him up in a steel chair next to the barricade and then cannonballs into The Bruiser.

When the show returns from the break. The action is back inside the ring. Lethal has The Bruiser grounded and he attempts a figure four leglock but it is blocked. Seconds later, The Bruiser targets Lethal's injured left leg with a chop block. Beer City then spends the next couple of minutes of the match, going after Lethal's injured knee. Lethal eventually rallies with a hip toss, followed by a handspring into a basement dropkick. This buys him time to recover. Bruiser then attempts to splash Lethal in the corner but misses. Jay then attempts to suplex Bruiser. After teetering back and forth, Lethal finally executes the move. Jay then heads to the top to hit 'The Hail to The King' elbow drop but Bruiser wisely rolls to the outside. Jay re-adjusts and hits a tope on top of the big man on the floor. Lethal then punches Silas Young, while he is in mid sentence on commentary. Both men start brawling at the broadcast table. Referee Todd Sinclair calls for the bell.

Jay Lethal and The Beer City Bruiser's match is ruled a no contest

Lethal and Silas brawl into the ring. The Bruiser sneaks up behind Lethal and takes out his knee. Young and Bruiser then beat down on Lethal and his injured knee. Bobby Fish runs down to the ring with a steel chair and saves Jay Lethal. Silas and Beer City retreat.

Highlights air of The WOTW championship main event leading into the break. The highlights end with a dejected Cody being shown at ringside, after failing to win The ROH World Championship..... A replay of the pay-per view is promoted following this.

ROH TV MAIN EVENT
'The American Nightmare' Cody vs. 'The Heavy Metal Rebel' Frankie Kazarian

Prior to the main event starting. Cody gets on the mic. He talks about the disappointment of not becoming ROH World Champion at the pay per view. He says that he should have been gazed upon as being god like at this point. Cody then puts over how smart Christopher Daniels is. He says that Daniels used Lethal and Cody's animosity to play into his favor in their triple threat match and how it led to Daniels sneaking away with the title.... Cody then blames Sinclair Broadcasting for not being The ROH World Champion right now. He says that the board of directors and top brass of ROH, is scared to death of a man who is not signed to their company, becoming their world champion. How they would never want to see a free agent or outsider like him be on top of the company...... Cody then calls Colt Cabana "to the stand". Cody then makes his way to ringside to get Colt Cabana. Cody says that Cabana said something brilliant at the end of the pay per view. When Cody prompts Cabana to repeat the line, Colt seems confused and says Daniels is the "new champion". Obviously that's not what Cody was looking for, nor did it make sense since Daniels was the current champ.... Cody gets Cabana to relay what he said during the deciding pinfall in the main event. When Colt gets to the part of how Lethal was flat on his back from Cody's figure four. Rhodes cuts him off and thanks Cabana for his contribution. Cody says that this is proof that he should be The ROH Champion because Lethal was pinned by him before Daniels got the pinfall victory to retain his title.

Frankie Kazarian makes his way to the ring and the main event officially starts. He gains the early advantage with a hurricanrana on the outside. Cody then gets thrown onto the timekeeper's table. Cody is reeling. He tries to get back into the ring but Kazarian greets him with a guillotine leg drop, followed by a springboard leg drop inside the ring. Kazarian stays in control with a swinging neckbreaker, as the show heads to the break.... When the show returns, both men are battling on the outside. Cody grabs a beer from a fan at ringside and smacks Kaz upside the head with it. Cody takes control of the match for the next couple of minutes after this. He ends up hitting a delayed vertical front face suplex on Kazarian. Frankie tries to battle back but gets hit with an Alabama slam. Cody then attempts to pin Frankie with one foot. Cody continues to disrespect Frankie and taunts the crowd, as the match continues. Cody ends up sending Kazarian to the outside with the beautiful disaster kick. He then tries to follow it up with a springboard tope but Frankie gets out of the way. When Cody attempts to kick him, he misses and accidentally kicks a security member seated at ringside. Kazarian then splashes Cody into the security guy and the barricade at the same time. The show goes to it's final break with both men trying to crawl their way back into the ring after the collision.

The action is back inside when the show returns. Kaz hits a springboard elbow. Cody recovers quickly and drapes Frankie over the ropes and low blows him. Cody then connects with the beautiful disaster kick for a near fall. Moments later, Frankie battles back with a back stabber and an unprettier for a near pin fall. Frankie then comes close again to securing the victory after nailing Cody with a springboard cutter. Cody rallies and tries to hit The Cross Rhodes and The Beautiful Disaster but Frankie blocks both moves and gets Cody into a grapevine submission hold. Cody breaks free and both men struggle back to their feet. After a frantic finish sees several counters and reversals by both men, Cody finally hits the Cross Rhodes on Kazarian and secures the victory.

Cody defeats Frankie Kazarian by pinfall

After the match, Hangman Page makes his way to the ring to celebrate with Cody. They get set to double team and beat down Kazarian, when Christopher Daniels runs out to save his partner. Cody and Hangman Page retreat to the back as the show comes to an end.

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