Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

By Nicholas Jason Lopez

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

(Aired 2/27/17) 

Honor Rising Night Two 

– The KUSHIDA/David Finlay-Silas Young/Jado match began similarly to the previous night as Young did his “Why am I so disrespected?” schtick, though he at least acknowledged the language barrier. Did anybody still understand him? Doubt it. We got it though, Young. You’re cool peoples. Rocky Romero was back on commentary with Kevin Kelly for the night. They brought up the idea of this “Last Real Man” list from the heels, which was funny. A cheap shot from Young to start. Young taunted KUSHIDA and paid for it with a plancha. Jado took a boot to the face and powered through to not fall to the mat. Young broke out that nice sit-down springboard moonsault from the headstand position on the ring post. It should be noted that Finlay and Young had some great chemistry here. A singles match between them would kill. Eventually, Young hit Misery on Finlay to score the pin. Some more good stuff from Young, as we also liked that Kelly speculated that perhaps Young fits in that CHAOS mindset down the road. Solid opener to set the pace.

– The 10-Man Tag between Delirious/Dalton Castle/Jushin Thunder Liger/Tiger Mask/Ryusuke Taguchi and IWGP Intercontinental Champion Tetsuya Naito/SANADA/EVIL/BUSHI/”Ticking Time Bomb” Hiromu Takahashi was star-studded to say the least. Never hurts to have Los Ingobernables de Japon lead the way. The face did the bit again with Castle’s “Boys” being played by his partners. Taguchi even had his own green peacock rope and did Castle’s strut. LIJ rocked their entrances of course, as Naito again taunted Romero at the table with his belt. That’ll be a spectacle match someday. Meanwhile, Taguchi and Takahashi got in each other’s faces. In smart heel fashion, Naito tied Delirious by his mask to the railing in the crowd. So damn hardcore. Tiger Mask messed up on an attempt to hit an arm drag on Takahashi off the top rope, but they seemed to recover well enough. The vibe got better once Taguchi picked up his offense, as they basically mixed fun antics with LIJ’s dastardly tactics. Takahashi did a belly-to-belly suplex that brought Taguchi into the corner post. Castle and Evil had a cool exchange. It was Evil who would get the victory for the team with his finisher on Delirious. Post-match, LIJ did more evil things (pun half-intended) as Takahashi removed Tiger Mask’s mask, which was thrown into the crowd by Naito. Oh snap. To put the icing on the cake, Naito even went after Referee Tiger Tory. If you want to see what LIJ’s all about, we got it there.

– The War Machine-Guerillas Of Destiny match seemed like it could go either way on paper. Certainly a manly matchup, as we expected a lot of intensity. GOD’s music was popping, which naturally led to Romero promoting his own music, set for release on Mar. 7. Headed in, WM was also fresh off a victory over ROH World Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks. To the action – the first notable spot was Hanson using his own beard to beat up his opponent. Can’t possibly see how that hurts, but okay. He did his running charges later on. Rowe kicked out of the headbutt/frog splash combo. Hanson did a cartwheel and then a great clothesline. WM broke out Fallout as a counter to the Gun Stun. That was a great finish for what was best described by commentary as a “powerhouse match.” Post-match, Rowe proclaimed they’d return to Japan with one goal – the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championships, currently held by Tomohiro Ishii/Toru Yano. That got a pop from the crowd. Hanson said similar things in the promo, but we already got the gist of things. Either way, that was some good stuff that should lead to a WM-Ishii/Yano match in the future.

– The Six-Man Tag between Jay Lethal/Hiroshi Tanahashi/Juice Robinson and Bad Luck Fale/Yujiro Takahashi/Hangman Page was the second consecutive Bullet Club appearance, The poor ring announcer got thrown to the mat by Fale. The babyface’s altered music was actually really cool. We wonder what it dubbed over. Commentary addressed Robinson’s busted nose the previous night and how it could be a potential target for the heels. We would hope so, anyways. Fale threw Robinson aggressively into the barricade. The action picked up as the faces did some solid double-teams. Fast finish as Page got the pin over Lethal with a whopping lariat after a Lethal Injection attempt was thwarted from Fale on the outside. Lethal probably shouldn’t had yelled out his finishing move before he went for it. It also didn’t look like the three-count was actually the three-count until the bell rang. Post-match, Takahashi laid out Robinson. Poor Juicy Juice. Probably the weakest bout of the night, but still quality.

– The NEVER Openweight Championship match between Champion Hirooki Goto and Punisher (not Punishment?) Martinez was the first of two Title matches of the night. Unorthodox may be the right word to describe this on paper. That said, Martinez was hyped well enough the night before to have a fighting chance here. Martinez jumped onto the apron for some agility purposes, more like Brock Lesnar style. Still though, nothing flashy in the early going. This was until they had a good exchange of forearms and elbows. Martinez laud out Goto with a lariat and then made some odd Ultimate Warrior faces. A Falcon Arrow by Martinez scored a two. Does anybody ever win with that damn move? Martinez broke out a swan dive over the top rope a la Undertaker, but over the corner post. That was sweet. He hit a big spin kick from the top rope for a close two. That was actually the first time it felt like Goto’s reign was in jeopardy. As quickly as that built up though, it dissipated when Goto hit the GTR as a counter to the chokeslam to escape with the belt. Much better than anticipated, this may be the first time we see true potential in Martinez in singles competition.

– The ROH World Championship match between Champion Adam Cole and YOSHI-HASHI has been anticipated ever since YH scored a pinfall over Cole at New Year’s Dash. YH was at the top of Cole’s long challenger list, which also included Bobby Fish and Christopher Daniels. We already felt that YH had no chance to beat Cole at this point, but it could still be an excellent match if done right. Interestingly, the fans chanted for Ring Of Honor at the bell. YH did his own mocking of Cole’s “Bay-Bay” catchphrase. Cole targeted YH’s back as he threw him into the barricades. People love to do that in Japan. Wow. Cole played to the crowd nicely. Fluid chemistry in the final stretches as YH came seconds away from the new gold. A YH senton attempt failed as he landed on Cole’s unprotected knee. YH had Cole in a shoulder hold and as Cole was about to pass out, he put his foot on the rope. Excellent tease. The senton was delivered, but only a two this time. Cole hit the destroyer for a two. Oh damn. A two on a pin attempt by YH in counter to the Last Shot. Two superkicks by Cole and a Shining Wizard with the exposed knee for a two. Cole immediately followed that up with the Last Shot to get the win. Awesome match though that personified YH’s resilience and we got another glimpse into what Cole will do when he’s backed into the corner to keep his belt, all within the rules per se this time.

– The Eight-Man Tag between The Briscoes/IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada/Will Ospreay and Kenny Omega/Cody/YB was rightfully called a “dream become reality” with the lineup we had here. As expected, it was chockfull of flashy, entertaining spots since Ospreay can keep up with YB and vice versa. Mixed in that was more tension between Okada and Omega and then Cody/Briscoes to balance it all out. At one point, Ospreay was double superkicked off the apron and landed into Cody/Omega’s arms, who then hoisted him back to the apron to get superkicked again. Nick Jackson topped off the spot as he hit a somersault off the apron onto Ospreay when he was held by Cody/Omega again. Ospreay hit an incredible Satellite DDT on Omega and followed up with a cartwheel backflip plancha to the outside on the heels. Cody hit a superplex to the floor that landed on everyone below. This left Okada and Omega together alone. The Elite did a triple superkick to Okada. It was like a literal war zone here. Jay Briscoe did a double clothesline on YB. Omega took a trifecta of top rope moves from Briscoes/Okada. Electric studs that rightfully built off the Wrestle Kingdom 11 classic. Ospreay broke in and did a One Man Spanish Fly on Omega that looked somewhat botched. Ospreay attempted the Oscutter on Cody, but ended up in the Cross Rhodes as BC was victorious. A fun, fast-paced match. Post-match, Omega got on the mic and did a promo where he questioned “good guys and bad guys” and that they were the best in the world. It was typical tongue-in-cheek stuff, more for shock value than anything of true substance. We’d say the true juicy stuff came in the brief press conference segment BC did after. Omega called Tanahashi “an old fucker” and that he/BC were to be treated like Gods. YB also sent a profanity-laced message to TNA World Tag Team Champions The Broken Hardys, which would be their opponents on Apr. 1 at ROH Supercard Of Honor.

Quick Results 

• Silas Young/Jado def. David Finlay/KUSHIDA via pinfall 
• 10-Man Tag – SANADA/EVIL/BUSHI/Tetsuya Naito/”Ticking Time Bomb” Hiromu Takahashi def. Delirious/Jushin Thunder Liger/Dalton Castle/Ryusuke Taguchi/Tiger Mask via pinfall 
• War Machine def. The Guerrillas Of Destiny via pinfall 
• Six-Man Tag – Hangman Page/Yujiro Takahashi/Bad Luck Fale def. Jay Lethal/Hiroshi Tanhashi/Juice Robinson via pinfall 
• NEVER Openweight Championship – Hirooki Goto (Champion) def. Punisher Martinez via pinfall to retain 
• ROH World Championship – Adam Cole (Champion) def. YOSHI-HASHI via pinfall to retain 
• Eight-Man Tag – The Young Bucks/Kenny Omega/Cody def. The Briscoes/Kazuchika Okada (w/Gedo)/Will Ospreay via pinfall