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 3/30/16)

Hit By The Truth 

– The Four Corner Survival match between Roderick Strong, Moose (w/Stokely Hathaway), Adam Page and Matt Sydal gave us a decent ensemble of clashing personalities. Page was angry, Roddy was cocky, Moose was fancy and Sydal liked to fly. It just worked. Good near-falls down the stretch. Page drew close to a win, but a BJ Whitmer distraction allowed Strong to hit him with a knee strike and win.

– These days, it feels like Adam Cole has done anything and everything in ROH. That said, the ending of his feud (perhaps?) with Kyle O’Reilly left him in the open, but coincided with the return of his old Kingdom buddy, Matt Taven. Their in-ring segment established that Taven essentially “dumped” the slumping Cole out of The Kingdom and would rebuild it under his vision. Taven had logical reasoning behind his decision, also throwing in a brash line about keeping him relevant the whole time. Were we supposed to feel sorry for Cole or admire Taven, who also used a line that despite blowing out his knee in the first minute of his match at Final Battle, wrestled for 10 more minutes afterwards? That line got some cheers as you’d imagine, so we’re a bit confused as far as who we’re supposed to root for. That said, this was a decent way to advance things. With Taven coming back, we figured him and Cole would team up as a two-man Kingdom, but a feud also works.

– Will the Fight Without Honor match between Dalton Castle and Silas Young finally be the end of their feud? Who knows, but Castle’s backstage promo to hype the match two weeks out was good for what it was, saying it in his own Castle way.

– Everybody loves Cheeseburger. Everybody hates The All Night Express. It was smart to combine these two facts in one angle in an attempt for ANX to draw heat. Cheeseburger took on Foxx Vinyer in a mainly unspectacular match, since ANX attacked Vinyer to give Cheeseburger the DQ loss and then tried to convince him that despite giving up your body to entertain the fans, they still won’t like you, a dilemma they know too well. Also liked the little twist of ANX reading mean tweets a la Jimmy Kimmel and threw in insults for other tag teams before eventually coaxing Cheeseburger in for a deliberate heel attack, which drew out both The Briscoes and ROH World Tag Team Champions War Machine to make the save and run ANX out. “He’s just a Cheeseburger” was undoubtedly line of the night. Things elevated when The Briscoes picked up WM’s belts. Perhaps we’ll get a multi-team tag match for the belts down the road?

– ROH World Champion Jay Lethal’s backstage promo with Taeler Hendrix and Truth Martini was mainly creative play on words using his challenger Hirooki Goto’s last name as for reasons why he’ll retain the Title. As for the match itself, it was a nice little effort from both involved, but Lethal’s dominant stature atop the card left us little doubt that Goto would be the one to beat him, which was how it played out, as Lethal ended it with a Lethal Injection after Goto avoided attempts from both Martini and Hendrix to physically interfere. The payoff coming from this was Donovan Dijak coming out with Prince Nana to confront Lethal and they traded blows, as the show ended with Martini getting laid out by Dijak. Nice turn of events.

Quick Results

• Four Corner Survival – Roderick Strong def. Moose (w/Stokely Hathaway), Matt Sydal and Adam Page via pinfall
• Foxx Vinyer def. Cheeseburger via DQ
• ROH World Championship – Jay Lethal (Champion) (w/Taeler Hendrix, Truth Martini) def. Hirooki Goto via pinfall to retain