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 7/15/15)

General Shenanigans

– When it comes to ROH television, it’s another case of quality wrestling and storylines packed into an hour. Thankfully this time, we got a lot of hype for the Death Before Dishonor XVIII iPPV on July 24. The Adam Page-Matt Sydal match had the storyline background of Sydal looking for revenge after how he lost at Best In The World. With the two heels on the outside, you had to know shenanigans would be had. King Corino did a good job of complaining on commentary about how his son was being taken advantage of and you could feel the blood pressure practically rising. The in-ring action was pretty good with some impressive clotheslines. It was surprising this had a clean victory for Sydal. Nevertheless, had to see the post-match heel attack coming, which set up ACH to make the save and get caught by the chair. The Rite Of Passage on the chairs was a big move. Whitmer/Page are just general jerks, so it really works here. Best heels besides House Of Truth right now in ROH.

– Also hyped/announced for Death Before Dishonor XVIII: Four-Corner Survival for the ROH Tag Belts between The Addiction, War Machine, reDRagon and The Kingdom, ACH vs. Adam Page in No DQ and Cedric Alexander vs. Moose. All sound card-worthy.

– Veda Scott’s promo was well-delivered and gave good hype for her recent backing of Cedric, insulting Moose and going into how she wanted someone more aggressive and how both that and she made a difference.

– The Silas Young-Will Ferrara match was okay while it went on and both guys showed off well, though it was mainly memorable for the result where Dalton’s Boys caused a distraction for Young to get pinned, when he got revenge by laying one out. Good progress at least, though subtle. They’re cleverly keeping the two away from each other physically.

– The Television Title match between Mark Briscoe and Jay Lethal already sounded good on paper and was a smart first defense for the recent undisputed Champion, carrying on the Briscoe-House Of Truth feud. Roderick Strong was also on commentary to scout out Lethal for the DBD XVIII main event, which made sense in a lot of ways. He didn’t say anything amazing, but got across the fact that he was a challenge that Lethal would need more than dirty tactics to win. Speaking of dirty tactics, they were on full display and ultimately played into the finish, which cleverly brought out both Jay Briscoe and ODB to combat Donovan Dijak and J. Diesel. House Of Truth got the nod here, as Lethal successfully defended in a ruthless manner. The eight-person tag match for next week’s show is going to be a great way to send us off on to DBD XVIII and the 200th TV episode.

Quick Results

– Matt Sydal def. Adam Page (w/BJ Whitmer, Colby Corino) 

– Will Ferrera def. Silas Young via pinfall

– ROH Television Championship – Jay Lethal (Champion) (w/Truth Martini) def. Mark Briscoe via pinfall