Ring of Honor’s 15th anniversary show takes place on March 10, 2017, in Las Vegas and as such the go-home episode of ROH TV focused entirely on the matches that will make up the show. That isn’t to say the show wasn’t without surprises and important developments, however, as the episode ended with Frankie Kazarian turning on his best friend and tag team partner Christopher Daniels and siding with Bullet Club ahead of Daniels challenging Adam Cole for the ROH World Championship at the anniversary show.
The turn came at the climax of an excellent TV main event that pitted Jay Lethal, Bobby Fish and The Briscoes against the Bullet Club team of Adam Cole, Cody and The Young Bucks, the best by far of three matches on the show. The show also featured a number of different performers joining Ian Riccaboni on commentary.
The show opened with a promo from Jay Lethal and company hyping the main event eight-man tag match before Dalton Castle joined Riccaboni at the desk to start the night. Castle and The Boys will challenge The Kingdom for the ROH Six-Man Tag Team Championship at the anniversary show and as such Castle was out to scout the champions, who defended the belts against The Rebellion (Caprice Coleman, Kenny King and Rhett Titus) in the first match of the night.
ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship – The Kingdom vs. The Rebellion
After a quick opening Rhett Titus suffered what looked to be a severe injury, leaving his Rebellion partners with a 3-on-2 disadvantage against the champions. This led to Lio Rush coming out to even the odds, a move that the referee was seemingly fine with, and Rush unleashed a flurry of offence on the champions before shockingly hitting his new partner King with a cutter, allowing The Kingdom to hit their triple power bomb and retain the titles. They will now go on to face Dalton Castle and The Boys at the anniversary show.
Jay White and Jay Briscoe delivered duelling taped promos after the match, with both referring to their recent 15-minute time limit draw in Philadelphia. The two will face each other on ROH TV in a couple of weeks time, with Briscoe scheduled to team with his brother and Bully Ray to take on War Machine and Davey Boy Smith Jr. at the anniversary show. As of right now, Jay White is not booked for the pay-per-view.
ROH Top Prospect Tournament First Round Match – Raphael King vs. Brian Milonas
Previous winners of the Top Prospect tournament include Mike Bennett and Hanson, so needless to say it can act as a true launching pad for any young star’s career. Both King and Milonas get pre-match promos to establish their characters, with King taking the frat boy heel route and Milonas referring to himself as the irresistible force and the immovable object.
King’s wife was ringside running frequent distraction but it wasn’t enough to see her man progress, as the super heavyweight Milonas picked up the win after a backwards senton. Milonas will now face either Josh Woods or Chris Lerusso.
Ahead of the main event a video promo airs hyping up a No DQ match for next week that will see War Machine go up against BJ Whitmer and Punisher Martinez before Christopher Daniels talked about his long and storied ROH career before joining Riccaboni on commentary for the main event.
Jay Lethal, Bobby Fish & The Briscoes vs. Bullet Club (Adam Cole, Cody, The Young Bucks)
Eight of ROH’s biggest stars went at it in the main event of the evening in what was a great little television match. Things kicked off at high speed and the referee struggled to gain control of the match, something that is true of pretty much every Young Bucks bout in the modern age. Things started breaking down for Team ROH when Lethal accidentally hit Fish with a superkick, leading to some serious dissension between the two men who will face each other in Las Vegas tonight.
Lethal and Fish subsequently brawled all the way to the back leaving Jay and Mark all alone against the four Biz Cliz members, and the numbers game proved too much for ‘Dem Boys’ as Mark was eventually hit by a barrage of finishers ending in the Meltzer Driver and the win for Bullet Club.
Daniels confronted Cole after the match, and just when it seemed as though Daniels was about to cut the champion’s hair out came Kazarian to give him a helping hand. Kazarian removed his hoody to reveal a Bullet Club shirt, however, flashing a Too Sweet at his now-former tag partner who then turned around into superkicks from the Bucks. Frankie Kazarian is now a member of Bullet Club.
Will Daniels finally get his hands on the ROH World Championship tonight at the pay-per-view? With his former best friend now on the side of the champion it seems as though the odd are stacked against The Fallen Angel but never say never in the wacky world of professional wrestling.
