Image provided courtesy of Ring Of Honor.

By Nicholas Jason Lopez

“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 6/24/15)

Hard Hits And Superkicks 

– Now, here’s what sucks with ROH’s TV and Pay-Per-View schedule: they had a big company moment when Television Champion Jay Lethal defeated ROH World Heavyweight Champion Jay Briscoe at the end of Best In The World. ROH had plenty of momentum coming from that show into this one. It had to suck if you were a casual fan who watched the PPV hoping to see some form of fallout/aftermath and were promptly left empty-handed on that front. That said – ROH cleverly filled the hour with mostly top-notch quality wrestling that was entertaining regardless of what happened at Best In The World. Still though, it would’ve been nice to see some sort of highlight reel or teaser video for what happened from the show. Or promos. Something. Anything. That’s what happens when you see a show air in June taped in May after a buzz-worthy PPV. Things opened up with the Roderick Strong-Shinsuke Nakamura match thankfully. Nice to see Nigel McGuinness join the commentary booth with Kevin Kelly and King Corino, as he had a lot of veteran expertise to hand down as far as ring positioning and differences between American and Japanese styles of pro wrestling. At least they glossed over Best In The World with a few mentions, but it just seems odd that there wasn’t more than that with all of the hype they gave the show. This match saw both guys feel each other out, so the start was a bit slow, but once things settled in, we got very good, hard-hitting action. Props for that finishing sequence that saw Nakamura go over – a questionable booking decision based on the pacing of the PPV where we saw Strong become the new Number One Contender, which obviously didn’t get a mention since it was outdated. Still, Strong looked great in defeat and lost nothing. If you’re able to check out the match, do so.

– It’s really hard to put your finger on exactly what kind of character Michael Elgin is. It’s almost as if he’s the Ryback of ROH. He has a lot of power moves and can easily dominate his opponents with muscle alone, but he’s a man of few words and has a serious demeanor about him, which hurts his charisma factor. The crowd buys his moves, but not as much his presence. At least it was good to see him in dominance mode against Gedo, as TV viewers got their true first taste of what Elgin brings to the table.

– Just when you thought you’ve seen it all, ROH throws us yet another quality main event. As far as the Okada/Roppongi Vice-Young Bucks/AJ Styles match, this had everything. Bullet Club on anything ROH-related is guaranteed to be a fun match. It’s a proven concept for success already, with these matches to back it up. This was entertaining all the way through, with the momentum constantly shifting to the point where your head spun trying to figure who would come out on top. You had your good share of hard hits, superkicks, outside dives and quality “crash”-style tag team wrestling. Bullet Club winning kept their momentum going strong. Good call. This is the one match to check out surely.

Quick Results

– Shinsuke Nakamura def. Roderick Strong via pinfall

– Michael Elgin def. Gedo via pinfall

– The Young Bucks/AJ Styles (w/Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows) def. Okada/Roppongi Vice via pinfall