‘Ring of Honor’ Wrestling Review (August 5th 2018)
Welcome to this week’s Ring of Honor television review, right here on Nerdly. I’m Nathan Favel and we have a night of Velvet Sky’s former boy-friends fighting men with mustaches. I’m not kidding… with.
Match #1: Chris Sabin beat Silas Young
This was an excellent match that got Sabin back in the singles groove. Sabin was, once upon a time, one of wrestling’s best singles stars, with several title reigns as X-Division champion and one short run as the TNA/Impact World Heavyweight Champion, which he had won from Bully Ray, who is now dating his girl-friend at the time, Velvet Sky. That reminds me of how Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis switched partners with, I believe Laura Dern and some-one else… maybe that didn’t happen.
Any-way, the action was smart and crisp, with Young even throwing in a magnificent flip out of nowhere. I’ve wanted to see these two wrestle for a while. Young is great at playing a jerk, which is the kind of wrestling character that Sabin excels at working with, as he’s a very cheeky fellow. I sound like a Victorian prude in that last sentence. The peasants should apologize for the smell… all that wafting! Their destitution is pathetic! Well… I should avoid talking like at all costs.
Sabin wrestling without a tag partner is some-thing that hasn’t happened on a regular basis since 2013, which is a shame, but since he was working in the Motor City Machine Guns with Alex Shelley, I think I can let it go. How-ever, Shelley is currently on sabbatical and a possible retirement, as he’s been injured too many times for his liking. Shelley is going to finish college and possibly choose to return to the ring in a few years, from what I’ve heard, we won’t know his decision for some time. Sabin has endured a lot of injuries over the years but has been able to keep his body together, so I would think his latest singles run will work out well for him.
Getting back to the match itself, there was a nice sequence where Young and Sabin ran the ropes and came out even, which made Young want to do it again. I thought the sequence was a little out of character for Young, but it was for Sabin’s benefit, so I at least understand why they did that. This match was meant to bring the winner closer to contention to the Ring of Honor Television Title. Over-all, I’d say this match was a success in terms of purpose and content.
Match #2: Marty Scurll beat Hurricane Helms
The angle here is that this is hero and villain locked in combat to decide the winner of good and evil. The reality of this match was that it was a very technical affair that focused on the smallest of transitional techniques. I love the matches that veer towards mat work, even though I enjoy the various spots that every-one else loves (Canadian Destroyers open cans). What I liked about this match is that it was a patient fight that was in no hurry to get to the goods.
Scurll has been great in Ring of Honor so far, as he’s been a perfect blend of macabre and gritty elements from his bizarre promos to his aggressive offense. As a product of the new British Invasion of wrestling, Scurll has made huge strides in America in just a few years, going from TV champion to Bullet Club member to World Title contender like it is a breeze. It’s a blast to see a new face have a reason to smile as soon as it arrives, because I’m so used to the way things are run in the WWE, where a new wrestler almost seems to be enduring a hazing process of having to lose for no reason. Scurll would not have been able to do this on the WWE main roster, even though he would have had a certain amount of success in NXT.
Hurricane Helms has had an odd career, having started off his national television run with World Championship Wrestling as Shane Helms in the Cruiserweight division (the real one, not the WWE versions) and then the WWE as The Hurricane and, later on, Gregory Helms. Helms has always tried to be a lighter personality, helping to popularize the idea of wrestlers using the internet as a way to make new fans with his web-site along the way. There haven’t been too many wrestlers that can use comedy in their work, but Helms has always managed to make a proper blend of action and humor.
This match utilized the best aspects of each athlete and gave us a very different match than we normally get from Ring of Honor. The fighting was on the canvas and didn’t leave it very often. Where there would have been edgy risks there was, instead, locks and holds that were gradually entered and reversed with careful precision and timing. This was the perfect example of how execution can alter the perception of what is happening. Every move meant some-thing and each move was its own reward. I wish more matches could be like this one.
Match #3: Main Event – Los Ingornables De Japon (EVIL, Bushi, Sanada) beat So Cal Uncensored (Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky) and The Bullet Club (Adam Page, The Young Bucks [Nick Jackson and Matt Jackson]) – Triple Threat Six-Man Tag Team Match
This match had a wealth of talent to utilize and it did so beautifully. Well, lad-dee-frea-kin-dah. Actually, I enjoyed this whole thing, as it was thrill after thrill. The Young Bucks have made a career out of being in wild melees that get the crowd running on their own fumes and that was the case here. De Japon is a house of fire that you can’t put out. So Cal is doing really well with this new face turn and they really have the crowd on their side. I’d go longer with my description of this match, but these guys work at such a fierce pace that I’d just be describing slams on the mat instead of actual wrestling. This was a blast.
News Of The Night:
- The card for next week was pushed ahead of time, but it went by so fast I wasn’t able to write it down. Maybe they shouldn’t go so fast next time. There were three matches and they were all tag bouts. The Briscoes will be there and so will Bully Ray and Punishment Martinez and we’ll drink tea and kiss boys! Yeah, this is what happens when you go too fast to get the names of the people in these matches.
- The Briscoes interfered in the main event, which opened the door for LIJ to get the victory.
Final Verdict: This was an excellent card with lots of great action. I look forward to seeing what the Briscoes do next. Hail Sabin!
