2011 was perhaps the most pivotal year to the future of Ring of Honor, as the promotion was sold by Cary Silkin to media conglomerate Sinclair Broadcasting. Sinclair have a sizeable imprint on local TV stations across the Midwest and South of the United States, known for their incessant pushing of suspect social and political views, not that that really needs to be dug into today. For the purpose of this post, let's just talk about what the Sinclair purchase meant for ROH, and on the outset of the new deal, it seemed promising. Sinclair have built a mini-empire, flush with cash and holding plenty of reach for ROH to find new viewers, which began to slowly expand the promotion over the coming years. It's around this time when I first discovered the company, and my introduction would come through many of their newest stars, many of whom have found a solid foothold in the business.
- The first match of this post comes from ROH's fourth Manhattan Mayhem event in March of 2011, where Roderick Strong defending the ROH World Championship against Eddie Edwards, who is chasing the company's new version of their Triple Crown, adding the Television title, of which Edwards was the first champion. I don't know how hot of a take this truly is, but I think this match is the best wrestling match I've seen out of Ring of Honor to date. Strong and Edwards are on point with their strikes, move fluidly through counters and hold exchanges, and don't step a foot wrong the whole way, not even during a potentially risky spot where Edwards counters a Tiger Driver on the apron and sends Strong tumbling to the floor with a big hurricanrana. That spot was executed to perfection, and really, everything is in this match, including the final spot where each man fights for a Boston Crab on the mat, only for Edwards to roll through and tie up Strong's legs while holding a cradle pin to get the three count. They both even managed to win over the crowd by having Edwards kick out of both the Sick Kick and End of Heartache, with the final pinfall resulting in a huge pop for Edwards and loud "Eddie" chants, somewhat of a recreation of the ending to WWE's No Way Out 2004. From a pure wrestling sense, I don't think there are any holes I can pick in this one, which is an impressive feat given they went 25 minutes, plenty of wrestlers might not be able to make it through 10 or 11 minutes without throwing a noticeably weak strike or struggling through a certain spot. This is the textbook definition of a perfect match, and yet, it's not even close to being my favorite ROH match I've watched for this series, which is not in anyway meant to be a criticism towards these two men, the competition is just that stiff. These two men simply can't match the audience connection or story-telling prowess of something like Samoa Joe's matches with Kenta Kobashi and CM Punk, those were truly revolutionary works of art, and there's no chance this could compete. That being said, it's still in the top percentile of great matches I've seen, so if you haven't watched it yet, I strongly recommend you do so.
- On the complete opposite end of that gorgeous display of intricate wrestling, we now move to a visceral slugfest between Kyle O'Reilly and Adam Cole, going on in the midcard of ROH's Best in the World 2012. The company was hoping to add intrigue to this clash of former tag partners by making up a set of "Hybrid Fighting" rules, but the stipulation doesn't figure into the match at all really, as both men end up completely abandoning the pretense of actually wrestling each other for something far more interesting, as Cole gets booted in the mouth by O'Reilly, opening a gash that turns into a waterfall of Cole's own blood. Cole is just drenched in the stuff, and plays perfectly into this clash, as the fresh-faced Cole is the clear cut babyface in this contest, a rarity for him. The crowd goes absolutely nuts for the sight of so much blood, rallying behind Cole, who gets a tremendous pop for a Patella Brainbuster. O'Reilly shows off his brilliant selling for that move, crumpling into a heap after his skull connects with Cole's thighbone, and despite kicking out, Kyle still seems to be rocked, collapsing to his knees after an Irish Whip. It's all part of a fantastic performance from O'Reilly, who may not have gotten the praise he deserved for this clash, given how great Cole looked battling from underneath, but O'Reilly is the more polished performer by far and cycles through his hard-hitting offense at an unreal pace. O'Reilly even uses his selling to his advantage in the match, as it turns out that fall after the Irish Whip was just him playing possum, as when Cole pauses to soak in the crowd response, O'Reilly springs up to nab a cross armbreaker. The crowd is completely hooked as both men tussle on the canvas, with Cole revisiting his earlier work on O'Reilly's leg by applying a Figure Four for the win. This may not be picture perfect wrestling contest you'll ever see; if you want that, just watch the last match, but it really reinforces what I said about the importance of audience connection. Adam Cole, especially in 2012, was nowhere near as technically proficient as Eddie Edwards and Roderick Strong, but he didn't need their innate talent to achieve ground-breaking results. On this night, Adam Cole became a potential megastar.
- One year later, at ROH's Supercard of Honor 7, the promotion looked to shift into a brand new era, as Jay Briscoe captured the ROH World title for the very first time, taking it off Kevin Steen in the main event. This was all part of ROH's shift in philosophy, embracing an "invasion" storyline that fit within their embrace of a more "sports-entertainment" oriented product. The over-arching story for the past year had been Steen's S.C.U.M. faction (also featuring Steve Corino, Jimmy Jacobs, Rhino, and many others) battling against the rest of the ROH locker room, with Jay Briscoe becoming the valiant hero to finally dethrone Steen, now beginning his path as a main event player. There wasn't a whole lot to the actual match, some decent work on the arm by Steen and a few big neckbreakers by Briscoe, before all the wrestling gets overshadowed by shenanigans outside the ring. All the ROH babyfaces brawl with members of S.C.U.M., as the match turns into intentional chaos, to try and increase excitement for a few dramatic near falls. I don't love the booking of the ending to this match, as Jay is unable to get the job done on his own, which doesn't exactly get over how dominant he's intended to be as the new champion. Instead, Jay needs a distraction via Matt Hardy, who comes in to attack the challenger, only to be tossed out of the ring by Steen, signaling a face turn as Kevin prepares to depart the company. Steen falls to a Jaydriller, marking a changing of the guard atop the ROH card. I'm happy for Jay that he got this moment, but everything about the way this was handled didn't sit right with me. I'm sorry, but the Ring of Honor I've come to love should never feature a million run-ins for a main event, it's not what the promotion has done best at and really portrays them as a "WWE-lite".
Next time on my dive into Ring of Honor, the Young Bucks play a featured role, starring in two separate tag matches. Plus, AJ Styles returns to the promotion he helped build for a world title match with Jay Lethal.
- Henry
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