ROH TV Episode 324

12/2/17

Lakeland, FL

Marty Scurll vs. Beer City Bruiser

Though the fans were behind “The Villain”, he couldn’t move the much larger Bruiser. So Scurll opted for some British style trickery when it came to his grappling to set up a finger stomp in preparation for the dropkick. Bruiser rolled to the floor, pulling Marty with him. Scurll was bobbing & weaving to land strikes that put BCB in position for something against the guardrails. Spending too much time playing to the crowd, Scurll ran into a kick that left him in the same position BCB was in just seconds ago. Marty was able to avoid the cannonball to send Bruiser propelling into the barricades prior to the commercial break.

Bruiser slapped Scurll in position for a release suplex when the show returned. BCB climbed to the top rope, but missed the frog splash just as Jay Lethal stepped onto the entrance ramp to watch Scurll utilize an arm breaker in the ropes. It was all about the arm work including a tornado divorce court topped by the apron-assisted super kick for Scurll. Once again it was playing to the crowd that cost Scurll as a follow up attack ended with him taking a clothesline. Scurll somehow fought through the pin and a mounted punch in the corner to power bomb BCB in position for the rope-assisted cradle the referee saw Scurll’s illegal pinning combination, causing “The Villain” to leave the ring with Bruiser in hot pursuit. Bruiser came flying off the apron with the senton in mind when Scurll sidestepped him and sent BCB’s body careening to the floor for a sickening fall. Scurll wanted the count-out when Bruiser made it back in right before the twenty count. Bruiser, though hurt, was doing everything in his power to avoid the Chicken Wing and splash Scurll in the corner. Instead of hitting his opponent, BCB squashed the referee to a loud, “You deserved it!” chant for him catching Scurll’s illegal activity earlier. With the referee out, Scurll saw his chance to win by cracking BCB on the head with his infamous umbrella; but The Bullet Club member had reservations as Lethal started approaching the ringside area. Lethal suddenly stopped, allowing Scurll to crack Bruiser on the head with the umbrella and knock BCB out for the three count. Lethal looked pleased with the outcome.

There was a recap of Dalton Castle’s win to become the first-ever Soaring Eagle Cup Tournament winner on his road to “Final Battle”.

In a sit-down interview, Dalton Castle looked back on his career not just in ROH, but also his time as an amateur where he found who he was & still is when he was twelve years old: a wrestler. After working so hard to get into ROH by being a part of the Top Prospect Tournament, Castle worked his way to glory. Ironically enough, before Castle’s first World title shot, Cody played dress-up as one of The Boys during a ROH live event to kick him in the groin to avoid facing Castle like a man. A month later when Castle came up short in defeating Christopher Daniels to become the new ROH World champion, Cody attacked “The Peacock” post-match by kicking him in the groin again. During the summer, Cody put Castle out of action with a backstage attack and threw The Boys into equipment boxes to ship them off to who-knows-where. Castle, wishing this was a simple wrestling match between two men simply fighting for superiority, felt an anger inside of him that would see “The Peacock” kick Cody in the groin when it’s all said & done.

In Ft. Lauderdale, The Briscoes called out Bully Ray prior to deciding to make an uninvited appearance at the Team 3D training school. A few of Ray’s students were in the ring training when The Briscoes arrived with a request as to where were The Dudleyz. When the trainees said Ray wasn’t here and formally introduced themselves, The Briscoes attacked them. As a female student called the cops, The Briscoes found a wall of framed photos featuring The Dudleyz and people like Terry Funk and The Hardyz before throwing them against the wall featuring a painted picture of Ray & Devon. Using their phone as a camera, The Briscoes executed 3D on one of the trainees after Jay Briscoe cut a promo on a Bully Ray poster that listed all the injuries Ray had suffered throughout his career and Jay wondered out loud how someone like Ray would let Jay take him out without a fight.

This week’s “Coleman’s Pulpit” was all about … Caprice Coleman! Doing a little Faces of Foley, Coleman interviewed himself with Caprice stating his intentions of defeating Kenny King next week to become the new Television champion weren’t personal, but just the opportunity he’s been working toward his entire career. After calling King a, “…ho,” Coleman promised to become the new TV champion.

ROH World Tag Team Championship: The Motor City Machine Guns (c) vs. The Kingdom

This bout was from the “ROH Elite” event that occurred the night before. Pearl Harbor job by The Kingdom during the in-ring introductions ended with The Matching Guns sending their challengers to the floor after a little do-see-do. The fans were loudly behind the champs, only The Kingdom to turn the tables and put Chris Sabin on the floor while Alex Shelley was left to fight both men by himself as Sabin recovered. Shelley was successful, setting up some Poetry in Motion action before kicking Vinny Marseglia to his knees prior to placing TK O’Ryan on his own partner’s shoulders for a Sabin missile dropkick that drove both opponents face first against the canvas. The champs were not only focusing on the previously injured leg of O’Ryan, but also putting both opponents in figure four leg locks. O’Ryan clawed his way to the ropes as the referee finally gained some measure of order and got one partner each on the apron. O’Ryan left the ring, luring Shelley into a sneak attack while Sabin tried to fight off Marseglia. O’Ryan reentered the ring, pitching his own partner through the ropes to wipe out Shelley so both challengers could retrieve the Tag title belts to pose before the commercial break.

Shelley found himself on the wrong part of town as the show returned, only to sidestep a spear by Marseglia to send him into his own partner. Shelley made the leap, tagging out to a fired up Sabin. Kicking O’Ryan off the apron, Sabin utilized another missile dropkick on Marseglia before diving on both opponents on the floor courtesy of the tope. Once again it was TK that gained the attention of the champions, only for Sabin to get caught with the Ode to the Hardyz … that gave O’Ryan a near fall!

The Kingdom had a double team superplex in mind when Sabin fought through it. Unfortunately for Sabin he was still in position for Red Rum … that ended in a two count thanks to Shelley’s intervening!

Marseglia was desperate, grabbing his infamous axe while O’Ryan retrieved his baseball bat. The referee removed the axe, only for O’Ryan to hit his own partner with the bat when Sabin sidestepped the swing. Marseglia was prone to the double team Cradle Shock and the three count.

ROH World Six-Man Tag Team champion Adam Page vs. Flip Gordon

“The Hangman” pie-faced Flip Gordon when he refused to follow the Code of Honor and potentially be welcomed to Ring of Honor. Page didn’t let the heckling of a fan asking where Joey Ryan was distract him for long, but couldn’t hit a back flipping Flip. Flips were breaking out as they tried to hit each other on the floor with a dive. Gordon had to simplify things and dropkick Page in position for the moonsault off the top rope to a nice ovation. Taking a page out of Page’s playbook, Gordon wanted to somersault into the ring for an attack when he jumped into the big boot. Gordon was cornered & prone to knife-edge chops before being put in the tree of woe on the outside. Page placed an open chair for a springboard to dropkick the hanging Gordon prior to the commercial break.

Pumphandle suplex didn’t end this one for Page as the show returned. Avoiding a running attack in the corner, Gordon was able to kick his way to an advantage and almost a pinning combination off the sunset flip. Gordon’s frankensteiner connected and was topped by the running shooting star press … to gain a near fall!

Back dropping an incoming Flip to the floor, Page pulled off his own moonsault off the top rope. “The Hangman” demanded Gordon to fight back when he action returned inside, only to be super kicked. Gordon used the reverse Finlay roll to hit a springboard O-Face to pin one-third of the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team champs. As the replay of Flip’s win was shown, Matt Jackson ran in with a referee’s shirt on to replace the real ref. Nick Jackson slipped into the ring, using the distraction to super kick Gordon after Matt asked the question, “Where do you think you’re going?”

The camera panned from the ring to the production truck where Cody stood to say Gordon is delusional by thinking he’ll win the Six-Man title at “Final Battle”, “Just as delusional as Dalton Castle thinks he’s taking (the ROH World title) from me.”

Overall: ROH is not getting enough credit for producing a memorable build toward its biggest event of the year – easily the best all around work in regards to the road to “Final Battle” since the Sinclair era of ROH began six years ago. There were various interviews including a fantastic sit-down with Dalton Castle that really add not only depth to his character, but also established the history between Cody and himself that people might not realize as they’ve come into contact a lot over 2017. But no segment was better than The Briscoes invading the Team 3D school. Words can’t describe just how raw and almost ECW-like the segment was (as was Cody’s closing segment). While this episode didn’t have the must-see match like last week’s main event, it did deliver in the storytelling department with consistently good action happening at three varying points of the episode. ROH is giving fans every reason to be at least interested in what’s going to happen in two weeks time on PPV.