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 10/12/16) 

Grand Slam Survival 

– With this the second episode to come from “Field Of Honor” taped in late Aug., Coney Island’s MCU Park was in for a treat (as well as us we guess with two marquee main events) as we flushed out the last of the pre-All Star Extravaganza world. The Kyle O’Reilly-Katsuyori Shibata match with ROH World Television Champion Bobby Fish on commentary looked like a pleaser on paper, but it developed quickly into a tangible success. There was nice chain wrestling to start, while Fish was cleverly tied in since he recently successfully defended his belt against Shibata and could attest to what it was like in the ring with him. Early on, they traded technical moves and avoided each other’s kicks. Shibata zeroed in on O’Reilly’s arm and no-sold a flurry of retaliated forearms. While sometimes we zone out when Fish talks, his commentary was uber effective here, especially when he got into the details of why Shibata’s submissions were painful. Things picked up around the time both guys traded German suplexes and they worked each other into a frenzy as they laid each other out. The crowd stood and applauded this. O’Reilly and Shibata have that similar “pound on their feet, ground on the floor” technical style and it could’ve gone either way. We were iffy about the finish since Tiger Tory stopped it when O’Reilly had a submission locked in for 40 seconds to “save” Shibata, but it was what it was. On the plus side, it protected both men and kept O’Reilly looking good. No sportsmanship after the bell, as they traded words.

– The Four-Corner Survival match for the ROH World Championship between Testuya Naito, Champion Adam Cole, Jay Lethal and Hiroshi Tanahashi was also great on paper, but lacked something in execution. We liked that it mixed the Lethal-Cole and Lethal-Naito feud, with crowd favorite Tanahashi in the middle. The ring action worked around the tag-in rule (which still baffles us, especially if you have the World Title on the line, who’d want to tag in somebody else?) and stuck to the feuds. Naito and Cole each avoided taking Cole on one-on-one and tagged their way in to fight each other instead. The mock exchanges between Naito and Cole were funny and expected, with their huge egos. Another highlight was Lethal’s separate suicide dives on his opponents. Afterwards, Cole and Naito worked over Lethal, until he tagged in Tanahashi. The finish itself was well-done, as it showed Lethal on the way to a possible regain, but Naito’s plan to bring in the World Title gave Cole a chance to distract the Referee, superkick Naito before he could use it and lay out Lethal with the Last Shot to win. We weren’t big fans that Cole retained with a cover over Lethal, but we suppose that would add fuel to Lethal’s fire. Good match, just felt like it missed something.

Quick Results

• Kyle O’Reilly def. Katsuyori Shibata via Referee Stoppage 
• ROH World Championship – Four-Corner Survival – Adam Cole (Champion) def. Jay Lethal, Tetsuya Naito and Hiroshi Tanahashi via pinfall to retain