ThunderStruck: ROH Wrestling Recap And Thoughts 03/16/12

It’s that time of the week again, 4AM on a Saturday morning with Ring of Honor Wrestling on my tv set. Last week’s show was taped before Young Wolves Rising, despite it airing after the pay per view. This week’s show is the first taped show after the ppv. We get a flashback from Young Wolves Rising with Kevin Steen putting himself over and telling Davey Richards that he will be his own personal nightmare until Jim Cornette gives him a title shot.

 


 

Adam Cole comes to the ring and a backstage promo of his is shown from earlier where he tells Kyle O’Reilly he is going to make him respect him. Cole is going one on one with Chris Silvio. Kyle O’Reilly joins KK and Nigel for commentary. Cole dominates the early part of the match and dives to the outside onto Silvio while landing on his feet. Silvio gets the upper hand and nails a running neckbreaker on Cole, but misses on a follow up elbow drop. Silvio applies a crossface on Cole after they battle but Cole fights out of it. Cole hits a samoan drop on Silvio and then a neckbreaker. Cole with a huge dropkick from the top rope on Silvio. Cole does his modified backbreaker on Silvio. Cole bounces Silvio off the ropes and hits a german suplex into a bridge pin and three count victory. O’Reilly tells Cole all he is to do is beat him on day two of SITS on March 31st to earn his respect.

^Decent opening match here from Cole and Silvio. It was nice to see somebody else using the crossface. It’s a great move also used by Daniel Bryan in a modified version; it shouldn’t be taboo to use just because of Chris Benoit. Silvio reminds me of a modern Billy Graham or Jesse Ventura with how he dresses. Cole is just an impressive performer for his smaller size. It’s hard to believe Cole and O’Reilly were such a good tag team just months ago. It’s almost like an HBK/Jannetty split.

We get highlights from Jimmy Jacobs/Kevin Steen from Young Wolves Rising. That match was absolutely brutal. KK calls Steen to the ring for an interview. KK asks Steen about his entrance music changing and having a Davey Richards mix to it. Steen holds up the tennis racket he brought to the ring and says this is what Cornette’s racket would look like if he were allowed to carry one now. It has a picture of Davey Richards on it with the World Title. Steen talks about his match with Eddie Edwards on day two at SITS. Steen says no matter what Cornette wants, he will eventually become ROH World Heavyweight Champion. He says he is going to make Cornette kiss his feet, kiss his ass, and kiss his ba…interrupted by Jim Cornette. Cornette says he doesn’t mean to interrupt. Cornette says Steen doesn’t have an opponent for day one yet. He tells him he does now. He tells Kevin his opponent on day one at SITS is going to be El Generico. He tells Steen he is not going to make it to Saturday because he will suspend him if he uses the piledriver on El Generico. Steen says anybody who gets in his way to the ROH World Title will get taken out and that includes Cornette.

^You can see how young Steen is when he cuts a promo, but the guy has so much potential to be even better than he already is. I can’t wait to see him challenge for the World Title in the months to come. Cornette is an awesome authority figure for the show. He has great chemistry with anybody he duels with on the mic.

A pre taped segment from Lance Storm is shown. Storm talks about how he was training for wrestling before Mike Bennett was born and for Bennett not to take him lightly for their match at SITS.

We get another flashback shown of Tomasso Ciampa stealing the TV Title from Jay Lethal at the ppv, despite Lethal still being champion. Roderick Strong is out for his March Mayhem $24,000 tournament match. The winners of the four March Mayhem matches over the next three weeks will face off in a four way match on April 7th to crown a winner. Strong is going one on one with Jay Lethal(a little odd considering they have a ppv match coming up in two weeks). Strong and Lethal wrestle a really good back and forth contest. Lethal kicks out of a gutbuster near the finish of the match. Lethal hits the Lethal combination on Strong and Elgin tries to interfere while Martini distracts the ref. Lethal pushes Strong into Elgin and then gets the rollup pinfall on Strong for the three count! Lethal celebrates as ROH goes off the air.

^Another great Jay Lethal match here. TNA Wrestling made a big mistake letting Jay Lethal go. The guy is going to be a huge performer in the business for a long time to come. Roderick Strong is an incredible athlete who also puts on stellar matches every time he competes. The high level of quality shown here is what makes me tune in every single week. This particular episode only had two matches, and one was pretty typical of a regular match. The other was a really good main event. You also got the heat between Steen and Cornette, which has been an ongoing rivalry for months now. I love it! I’ll be back with at least one more column before Raw on Monday. Until next time, you’ve been ThunderStruck!

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