On ROH Episode 405, Kenny King wrestles Jay Lethal in the second match of their best of 3 series. NWA National Champion, Colt Cabana defends his title against Mark Briscoe. Silas Young proves he’s the best technical wrestler in ROH. It is the go home show for ROH’s Best in the World pay-per-view. How did they build to the show? Continue reading to find out what we thought of the build.
Quick Results:
NWA National Title Match: Colt Cabana defeats Mark Briscoe
Silas Young defeats El Hijo del Squid Jr.
Jay Lethal wins by DQ over Kenny King
NWA National Title Match
I do love the concept of a 15 minute time-limit NWA enforces on these National Championship matches. It provides you with a potential finish as we saw a couple weeks ago with James Storm. It adds the potential of drama. This match didn’t need the 15 minutes though. The story in this match wasn’t the match itself but the post match angle.
Cabana showed off his technical wrestling ability in the first portion of the match. However, Briscoe takes control after knocking Cabana off the top rope to the outside. Briscoe hits the flying elbow and sets up a chair. As Briscoe goes to hit Cabana, Cabana reverses it into a back body drop on the chair. Once they were back in the ring, Cabana hits a splash for the win.
After the match, Jay attacks Briscoe. The Briscoes, who’ve been out to get the NWA since getting disqualified at the Crockett Cup, attack Cabana 2 on 1. Unfortunately, no one came to make the save. Aldis, Cabana’s partner at Best in the World, was in the UK defending his title.
Now Cabana has been announced as unable to wrestle at Best in the World. Who will Aldis find to be his partner? I’ll have more on my thoughts on this in my Best in the World Preview, but I do think James Storm is a likely candidate. This match served a purpose. I liked they had a finish and did the run-in post match. This is so much more effective than having so many screwy finishes.
Video Packages
As we’re heading into Best in the World, ROH begins airing pre-recorded videos and vignettes. We get Shane Taylor talking about his match with Bandido. Taylor claims he will break all of Jay Lethal’s TV Title records. We’ll see. If it were me, I’d put the title on Bandido. However, ROH seems to be very high on Taylor. This is one match I am definitely looking forward to on Friday.
Next, The Allure imply they are making their debut at Best in the World because that is exactly what they are. Boy, everyone seems to be wanting that nickname. Love and Leon will take on Kelly Klein and Jenny Rose.
I fear NO Luchador!
I've never been more prepared for a match in my life.WATCH NOW: https://t.co/eMUdftgguF
At Best in the World, @dragonlee95 doesn't stand a chance. #BITW @ringofhonor 🦚 pic.twitter.com/uUPltHnz5k
— Dalton Castle (@theDALTONcastle) June 21, 2019
We also get video packages covering Dalton Castle and Dragon Lee and Flip Gordon and RUSH. Later on, we get the announcement from LifeBlood about a 6 man tag match. LifeBlood and PJ Black will face Villain Enterprises for the ROH Six-Man Tag Team Championships.
Silas Young versus El Hijo del Squid Jr.
Silas Young cuts a promo about how he’s proven he’s the best pure wrestler today. Young will face Gresham in a Pure Rules match at Best in the World. Young says he will prove it in that match too.
With that said, Young brings out his opponent. Young announces he will be facing a second-generation wrestler avenging his father’s loss. We get El Hijo del Squid Jr. Young wins with an Abdominal Stretch. He then lit a victory cigarette.
I fine the El Hijo del Squid Jr. stuff really dumb. However, they are trying to create some excitement around this match. They’ve been giving Young a lot of time. Consequently, this should be a really good match and a different style than everything else on the card.
Best of Three Series
Kenny King channeled another Kenny and brought a broom to the ring. No, he’s not cleaning up ROH. Instead, he’s planning on sweeping the series. The match started off hot. Lethal charged King. King lifted him and crotched Lethal on the top rope. King then dropkicks Lethal to the floor. Next, King hit a nice corkscrew dive on to Lethal.
Eventually, Lethal gains the momentum. Lethal hits his 3 suicide dives. As a result, King had enough. King starts walking to the back. For that reason, the ref starts counting him out. Lethal chases him down. King grabs a mic and drills Lethal in the head. Due to the mic shot, King gets disqualified.
King continued his attack. King hits Lethal low. Also, King puts Lethal’s arm in the chair and hits a leg drop smashing Lethal’s arm. After another some trash talking, King stomps Lethal’s elbow in the chair one more time.
The match was pretty entertaining, albeit short. We’re getting match number 3 at Best in the World. I’m not sure who will get the win in this match, but with the champion currently being a heel, it would make sense to have Lethal win to establish himself as a contender again. On the other hand, if Cobb is going over, then maybe King picks up the victory to become a World Title contender.
Matt Taven Demands TV Time
In a backstage segment, Matt Taven said we’ve had to listen to weeks of Jeff Cobb and now we get a star on camera. He said Best in the World is named after him. In a nice line, he said we’ve had to hear about Cobb’s accomplishments, but no one’s accomplished more in ROH than him. He listed all his resume bullets. He then claims to successfully defend at Best in the World.
Final Thoughts
I guess we have to give ROH some credit. Certainly, they tried to build to Best in the World. With this TV taping happening at the same time some of the NJPW Best of the Super Juniors, some of the stars who we would want to see in the build weren’t available. Sadly, it has hurt this build.
However, Taven and Cobb weren’t gone. Consequently, I’d have to agree with Taven. We haven’t seen enough stars on camera. Cobb and Taven had little interaction heading into Best in the World. Instead of building to the biggest match on the card, a ton of ring time has gone into the NWA/Briscoe’s feud, Gresham vs. Young, and the LifeBlood vs. Bully Ray feud.
The card for Best in the World is really exciting. Gordon vs. RUSH, Castle vs. Dragon Lee, Bandido vs. Taylor, Villain Enterprise’s is planning on announcing a 4th member, Taven vs. Cobb, and LifeBlood vs. Villain Enterprises are great matches. Very little has gone into the majority of storylines.
Hopefully, we’ll see some clear direction and a path for them after this pay-per-view. This show gets a 2 out of 5. Two decent matches, but one had a worthless finish. Everyone knew it wasn’t going to be a sweep. Having a squid man is still dumb. If I didn’t have Honor Club, this “go home” show and this build would not make me want to buy it. However, I’m expecting this card to deliver.
What did you think of the show? Let us know in the comments below or hit me up on Twitter @nobodyaskednate
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