Once again ROH is coming to you from the Davis Arena in Louisville, KY and this week’s episode is highlighted by the main event featuring the student versus the teacher as team Richards member Kyle O’Reilly will face his mentor and training partner the ROH world champ Davey Richards!
We start off the show with a promo from Mike Mondo. The self proclaimed “biggest man in ROH” cuts a classic bully-like promo with plenty of cocky one liners and is set to take on fellow ROH newcomer Alex Silva in this week’s opening bout.
Mike Mondo VS Alex Silva
[adinserter block=”2″]Alex Silva is a newcomer that we have seen once on TV and each one of these guys has one loss already and can’t afford to lose another match. These two put together some cool sequences where they are trading chops and tying one another up in some leg locks and are eventually un-tied by referee Todd Sinclair. Mondo shows great agility for a big guy hitting a cork-screw plancha onto Silva on the outside. Silva hits a gut-wrench powerbomb that Mondo counters with a cool transition into submission attempt courtesy of a fuji-wara arm bar. The end comes in the form of a double under-hook DDT as Mondo picks up a much needed win and hopefully this isn’t the last that we’ve seen on the 20 year old Canadian Alex Silva
Your Winner – Mike Mondo
The latest installment in the on-going saga involving Kevin Steen and Jim Cornette is next as Cornette says that he’ll issue his public statement regarding the matter next week but for now he issues a personal statement and he vehemently denies any and all allegations being made by Steen and his lawyer. I guess we’ll see what his public statement involves next week and I’m curious to see if Steve Corino will make his presence felt.
Jamin Olivencia VS “The Prodigy” Mike Bennett
This is the ROH TV debut of Jamin Olivencia. It’s worth noting that Olivencia has the home field advantage so to speak as he is in fact a former Ohio Valley Wrestling heavyweight champion. He is facing a man who calls himself the ROH TV champ in Bennett. Some great action between these two as Olivencia is pulling out some innovative offense in hopes of win or lose earning a regular spot on the ROH roster. Nigel McGuiness dropped the best line that I’ve heard so far to explain/defend ROH wrestling to anyone and that was “ROH is not sports entertainment, it’s an entertaining sport”.
[adinserter block=”1″]That is such a excellent way to describe the action and I this ROH blogger really wishes that he’d thought of it first!!! I can definitely see that on the back of a ROH t-shirt. Bennett’s experience is the deciding factor and he picks up the win with his box office smash finisher. Bennett really has all the tools and is the total package as he can definitely get in done in the ring and is great on the mic also. You can really see that Bennett is a champion in the making and let’s hope that the ROH brass take their time in grooming him for a belt of some sort. All signs are pointing to the TV title has this feud with current champ Jay Lethal is continuing.
Your Winner – “The Prodigy” Mike Bennett
Inside ROH
We take a closer look at the upcoming rubber match between Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards. It was revealed this week on Twitter courtesy of Davey Richards that Eddie Edwards new trainer is MMA legend Dan “The Beast” Severn!!!! We also learned that it was actually Richards idea to train with Severn and Edwards has decided to do so to try to get one up on former partner Richards and needless to say Richards feels betrayed and this has only poured fuel on the fire and caused this rivalry to heat up!!!! Next week we’ll see footage of Edwards actually training with Dan Severn at his camp in Michigan.
Also the Briscoes issue a challenge to Cedric Coleman and Caprice Alexander as a way to get at the champs Haas & Benjamin. The Briscoes note the fact that it took Haas & Benjamin 13 minutes to beat Coleman & Alexander and they vow to beat them much quicker and we’ll have this match next week.
Time for this week’s main event, The team Richards challenge.
Kyle O’Reilly VS ROH world champion “American Wolf” Davey Richards
These two did not disappoint as they absolutely tore the house down!!!! I could devote an entire blog to this match alone. I find myself saying that about pretty much every match that I watch involving Richards. This match was wrestled with an American strong style feel from the opening bell. Both wrestlers were trading brutal forearms and super crisp kicks the entire time. You could hear the kicks being delivered by both wrestlers just echo throughout the arena. Truth Martini did join the announce table to let everyone know that if he had Richards in his house of truth then this match wouldn’t have gone for as long as it did. One cool sequence saw Richards trap O’Reilly’s arm with one leg and lock in a Texas cloverleaf at the same time. This match featured many high spots and innovative offense from both combatants. Richards is an absolute buzz saw!!!!
O’Reilly wasn’t giving up easy and he locked in multiple guillotine attempts and even garnered a near fall reaching a 2.5 count courtesy of a Chris Benoit like side suplex. Another cool spot saw O’Reilly apply a standing guillotine and Richards applied an ankle lock…at the same time. Richards would ground O’Reilly and lock in the ankle lock in a more traditional fashion and O’Reilly was holding on and in a move that no one saw coming fellow team Richards member Tony Kozina actually threw in the towel.
Your Winner – ROH World Champion “American Wolf” Davey Richards
My closing thoughts
What more can I say about this main event. I mean this match exemplified every thing that I love about ROH wrestling. You had a storyline of student vs teacher. It’s no secret that Kyle O’Reilly is my favorite wrestler right now and he definitely impressed me even more (if that was possible) in this match. O’Reilly went toe to toe with Richards all throughout this match and was in it ’til the end. We are left with the question as to why Tony Kozina threw in the towel and I’m curious to see where this is going. Richards showed why he’s the champ and the best worker in the business right now hands down. This was without a doubt the most exciting wrestling on TV last night and yes it was free!!!!
Looking ahead next week we have the public response to Kevin Steen from Jim Cornette. Also the main event will be the rematch between current ROH TV champion Jay Lethal and the former champion El Generico.
Happy Holidays Everyone!!!!!
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