Fave Five 6/15/15-6/21/15
1) Jay Lethal: Honestly, there is literally no other possible choice to top the list this week. The Best in the World main event between Jay Lethal and Jay Briscoe was billed as the biggest match in ROH history and it had a claim to that title. The ROH Television Champion of over 440 days took on the ROH World Champion in a title vs. title match. Not only was it a damn good match, but they pulled the trigger and Lethal became the 20th World Champion. Lethal snapped an incredibly impressive but unheralded streak by becoming the first person to pin Briscoe in over 800 days. That is pretty ridiculous. Lethal has been one of the best heels in wrestling over the past two years. Seeing him go from Special K to Black Machismo to this is something special. You could see it in his eyes when he held both titles high. "You deserve it" indeed.
2) Prince Puma: In a week dominated by the ROH Best in the World Pay-Per-View, two men shined in Lucha Underground. One was Johnny Mundo but the bigger star was again, Prince Puma. Lucha Underground had an entire show based around one match, which lasted the duration of the program. Mundo has been solid in his new heel role, but Puma has been THE MAN since day one. The match was not only great, but held my attention throughout the entire hour (or 38 minutes of actual wrestling time). It was an impressive feat and another moment to solidify how vital Puma is to Lucha Underground. He has been an excellent champion and this may be the defining moment of his reign.
3) Roderick Strong: Yea, it's hard to find pictures from the ROH PPV so I used an old one. In 2015, there have been very few, if any, better than Roderick Strong. The man just continues to have great performance after great performance. His match with Zach Sabre Jr. at PWG's "Don't Sweat the Technique" is one of my favorite matches of the year. While the triple threat match at Best in the World against Moose and Michael Elgin wasn't a classic, it still kicked off the second half of the show, which was great. Roddy impressed more than anyone and won to become the number one contender. That sets up what should be another great match against Jay Lethal at the next PPV.
4) Kevin Owens: It's basically a given that Kevin Owens will be on this list each week. The guy just continues to absolutely deliver with every given opportunity. After losing to John Cena at Money in the Bank, he had two of the better segments on Raw. First, he beat Dolph Ziggler in a good match before stealing the show and making headlines by powerbombing special guest Machine Gun Kelly off the stage. Then, on NXT, he faced Samoa Joe in a non-title match. There was no winner but it was a nice preview of what those two can do with more time on a bigger stage. Lastly, on Smackdown, he was challenged by Cesaro. They went out and had a slightly disappointing match, but Owens was able to win. The man faced Ziggler, Joe and Cesaro in a week, while having a big time interaction with a guest star. That's a pretty damn good week if you ask me.
5) The Addiction: Here's another example of not being able to find the right photo. Oh well. I've always enjoyed Christopher Daniels and I dig the pairing with Frankie Kazarian. At Best in the World, they had a No Disqualification Tag Team Title defense against reDRagon. As usual, these two teams were able to put on a good showing and I dug the No DQ rule. The Addiction won with an assist from Chris Sabin. They busted out some ladders, leading me to believe this will all culminate in a Ladder War. Regardless of how it ends, they came out on top this week, earning them a spot on this list.
This list is a bit more accurate than last week's. In place of Prince Puma (sounds like a forgotten character out of an old NES wrestling game), I'd have gone with EC3 just cause TNA needs some semblance of acknowledgment and with Jay Briscoe falling he holds the longest active unbeaten streak in wrestling. (Unless we throw Brock in since nobody has pinned him since The Mania That We Hope Time Forgets two years ago.)
ReplyDelete- Lethal I think has been 'The Heel That Most Everyone Has Forgotten' and most of it has to do with the fact that ROH hasn't until recently popped up on the national TV map. Now that they have, I do think more folks will get eyes on him. Not surprisingly after he beats Briscoe, do I read that the WWE wants him as they continue to milk ROH for its talent. Yay- for feeder systems right? Still, he definitely deserves this and I'm HOPING he stays put.
- EC3. The shoddy booking of him last week aside (both in the match against Lashley which centered way too much on Tyrus plowing through refs and NOT PUTTING HIS MATCH AGAINST ANGLE AT THE TOP OF THE SLAMMIVERSARY CARD), he has been easily the most impressive act in an otherwise dismal promotion. I'm failing to see how they can have one of their biggest PPVs of the year and not have easily the biggest match headlining it. (Yes, I get how important the X Division Title is, but this is inexcusable.) I reckon this is TNA's equivalent of Hollywood/Goldberg circa 1998 and well, you know how the rest of the story worked out for WCW after that.
- Kevin Owens is crushing it like nobody I've seen in recent memory. It's almost a certainty he will end Cena's run as US Champion at Summerslam. After that, he's probably gonna find unique and innovative ways to do with the US Title what Savage did for the IC Title in the mid 80s. (You read it here FIRST.) Oh and since it's all but a GIVEN that Brock's getting his belt back, Kevin Owens is exactly what they NEED going forward. The not quite top guy that everyone wants to shut down, while Lesnar makes his appearances every few months to defend the big strap.
- The Addiction kinda spun their wheels in ROH for a bit until they hit us all with that KRD thing with Sabin. I'm finding it ironic that just as I started to get into reDRagon, they lose the tag straps. (E did the same thing with The Black Champs, so eh.) Daniels absolutely killed me coming out Friday night in that General garb. As you stated and I'm inclined to agree, this likely ends at Final Battle with Ladder War. (Oh and my other prediction for Final Battle, if we don't end up with Briscoe/Lethal II...I'm reasonably certain we're getting Styles/Lethal for the ROH World Title.)
Good list.