ROH TV 3-30-13

S.C.U.M. TV, baby!

Correction from last week: It turns out that the Cole/Hardy match from last week was ruled a no-contest thanks to the majority of the locker room coming out for a huge brawl, not a Cole DQ victory. I don’t see how that makes any sense with Rhino hitting Cole with the Gore well before the brawl started (and with the ref looking right at him), but at any rate it sets up a Cole/Hardy/Taven 3 way for the TV title at Friday’s PPV.

We open with clips of Mike Mondo, Grizzly Redwood, and Veda Scott getting jumped by S.C.U.M. from last week.

Kevin Steen is out for a promo, but before he can get any words out Jay Briscoe joins us with his arm in a sling. ROH is how he feeds his family and he doesn’t take too kindly to people fucking with his livelihood, and he’s walking out of Supercard of Honor with the title, bitch! Steen says “And as far as S.C.U.M. goes” before he gets cut off by Steve Corino. Steen gets him to shut up for a second and tells Jay that he’s beating both him and his brother to retain his title and walks off. That leaves Corino with Jay, and Jay pulls out a big screwdriver or some sort of shank out of his sling, Cliff Compton, Jimmy Rave, and Rhett Titus come out of the crowd to save Corino, and Mark Briscoe and Coleman & Alexander come out of the back to save Jay. They brawl for a bit before ref comes out to ring the bell (what is this, ECW?), giving us:

Cliff Compton & Rhett Titus vs. Caprice Coleman and Cedric Alexander: I believe that this is Compton’s (the former Dice Domino from WWE) ROH debut. The faces clear out everyone but Titus and run through their usual double-team moves. Titus distracts the ref and Compton gets the ringpost ballshot on Alexander and the heels take over. They work over Alexander in the corner, Titus gets a huge clothesline and Coleman makes the save. Alexander gets the tepid tag and Coleman is in with punches and a pretty neat looking spinning axe kick as we go to commercial.

We return with Titus nailing Coleman from behind as he was about to dive out to the floor at Compton, Coleman reverses an Irish whip and hits Titus with a leg lariat in the corner, and his momentum takes him over the top rope and into Compton on the floor. Alexander nails Titus with a kick from the top rope and C+C hit a facebuster/top rope legdrop combo for 2. Alexander goes up top but here’s Jimmy Rave again to knock him off (and he takes an absolutely VICIOUS bump onto the edge of the ring), Jimmy Jacobs is out to hand Compton some powder, Coleman takes it in the face and Titus pins him with a single dropkick at 5:38 shown. **, a couple nice spots make this OK, but I’m not crazy about that ending, laying down for a dropkick just makes you look like a total jobber. And there’s no reason a match that short should be interrupted by a commercial.

S.C.U.M. beats down Coleman and Alexander, Mike Mondo makes the save and clears out everyone but Jacobs, and here’s another ref…

Jimmy Jacobs vs. Mike Mondo: This is Mondo’s first match (or first TV match, anyway) since breaking his leg at Glory By Honor back in October. He hits a bulldog on Jacobs, then heads outside to take care of Jimmy Rave, tossing him over the barricade and into the crowd. Jacobs misses a plancha, Mondo doesn't miss a corkscrew senton plancha. Nice! Back in it only gets a 1 count. Jacobs goes up top but gets caught and Mondo takes the cap off of the top of the ringpost and jams Jacobs’ arm down into the post and kicks away. Well, that was different, I’ll give him that. And we go to commercial. Again. What the fuck, am I watching ROH or Raw?

We return with Jacobs catching Mondo on the top rope, he tries a superplex that Mondo blocks before he gets knocked to the floor in an ugly looking spot. Jacobs comes off the apron with an elbow and sends Mondo into the barricade a couple times. He grabs a chair, sits Mondo down on it, and hits the Bret Hart dive through the ropes to the seated Mondo. Mondo hides under the ring (the commentators noting that the ref can’t start the count because he can’t see him strikes me as oddly funny), he finally pops back out with some punches and some of the loosest kneestrikes I’ve ever seen, and a modified Diamond Cutter gets 2. He tries something off the second rope that misses but lands on his feet and hits an STO for 2. Jacobs hooks a guillotine choke, Mondo turns it into a suplex for 2, but Jacobs still has the hold locked in and turns it into a dragon sleeper. Mondo powers out and tries a DDT, Jacobs blocks it but can’t hit Sliced Bread #2, and a back and forth rollup sequence ends with Jacobs getting the pin while holding the ropes at 6:37 shown. *1/2, match had an awkward feel to it, which isn’t really that surprising seeing as how it’s Mondo’s first match in nearly 6 months.

Inside ROH: Steve Corino hosts this segment, making it Inside S.C.U.M. He explains the new guys' reasons for joining S.C.U.M. (short version: ROH was treating them like shit). Kevin Steen cuts a quick promo saying that he doesn’t care about S.C.U.M. and is only concentrating on Jay Briscoe, so Corino cuts off the promo and yells at an unseen production guy for playing it. This was… odd, to say the least.

BJ Whitmer, Michael Elgin, and Jay Lethal vs. Steve Corino, Rhino, and Matt Hardy: According to Corino (who’s wrestling in a suit) Steen was supposed to be in this match, but Corino is giving him the night off and will take his place. Big brawl to start, everyone but Corino and Lethal ends up on the floor and Corino pulls out a S.C.U.M. shirt and offers Lethal a spot in the group. Lethal declines, of course, and kicks Corino’s ass, even breaking his glasses. They end up on the floor, Elgin and Hardy are back in the ring and Elgin controls with his power stuff and hits a delayed vertical suplex for 2. Everyone brawls some more and we go to break.

Back from commercial the rest of S.C.U.M. is now on the outside and an even bigger brawl breaks out. Lethal and Elgin end up handcuffed to the ropes, and Whitmer is left alone in the ring. He does pretty well for himself for a while, but eventually the numbers are too much. Gore, Twist of Fate, see ya at 8:05 aired. This was more of an extended beatdown than an actual match, so I’m not going to rate it. Elgin and Lethal somehow get loose and chase S.C.U.M. off, Jay Briscoe comes out to cut a promo but doesn’t say anything new. We close out the show with a bunch of the Supercard of Honor participants cutting brief promos.

This wasn’t exactly a good show (commercial breaks during matches might be my biggest pet peeve in wrestling, and it happened in all 3 matches), but it was so different than the usual ROH TV show that it’s worth checking out for that reason alone. The PPV is Friday night, here’s my predictions in the order I think the card will happen:

ACH & TaDarius Thomas vs. QT Marshall & TBA: No idea who the mystery partner is (though R.D. Evans would be a safe bet), but I’m thinking ACH/Thomas go over no matter what.

Shelton Benjamin vs. Charlie Haas: There’s a big question as to whether or not this will even happen, as Haas supposedly showed up at the house show last night drunk, cut a shoot promo (see the video below), and retired. I think it’s a work, but who knows. Haas wins it if the match ends up taking place.

Roderick Strong vs. Karl Anderson: Anderson is sticking around for at least a little while (he’s booked for the TV tapings on Saturday), so he’s likely going over.

#1 Contender match: Jay Lethal vs. Michael Elgin: This is the toughest one to call. I’m guessing Elgin wins just because Lethal just had a shot at the last PPV, but it could go either way. S.C.U.M. will probably factor in the finish somehow.

Tag titles: American Wolves vs. reDragon (c): All 3 belts are being held by heels right now, so I’m thinking the Wolves win here to restore the balance a little.

TV title: Adam Cole vs. Matt Hardy vs. Matt Taven (c): Not sure if this is elimination rules or WWE style. Either way, Taven just got the belt and hot-shotting belts around isn’t ROH’s style (with the exception of the recent tag title switches), so Taven retains.

Team ROH (BJ Whitmer, Mark Briscoe, Mike Mondo, Caprice Coleman & Cedric Alexander) vs. Team S.C.U.M. (Jimmy Jacobs, Cliff Compton, Rhett Titus, Jimmy Rave & Rhino): This should really go on last given that Jay Briscoe has about the same chance of beating Steen as I do, but ROH has that “The champ always goes on last” mentality so it probably won’t. Not sure about the rules in this one either, but S.C.U.M. wins no matter what.

ROH Title: Jay Briscoe vs. Kevin Steen (c): Steen wins, period.

Next week: reDragon vs. the Forever Hooligans for the tag titles, and a Women of Honor 4 way match.