ROH TV
airdate: May 22nd 2017 (Fite App)
Tokyo, Japan
This week on Ring of Honor television, matches were from the company’s shows from Tokyo in late February. In addition to wrestlers from ROH, many NJPW stars were featured as well.
1. NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championships
Delirious, Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask vs. Sanada, Bushi, & Evil (Los Ingobernables)(c)
Surprisingly, the only ROH wrestler in this match was Delirious, and he’s actually the ROH booker. He likes to wrestle when they go to Japan though, so he was on the card here.
Sanada and Delirious ended up being the two legal wrestlers in the ring at the end of the match. Delirious looked like he was a little too unorthodox for Sanada, but Evil bashed Delirious in the head with a chair when the refs back was turned.
After that, Sanada put him in the “Skull and Bones” and made him tap for the win.
Winners: Los Ingobernables ( 1st title defence- later lost titles to “Taguchi Japan”)
2. NEVER Openweight Championship
Hirooki Goto (c) vs. Punishment Martinez
35 year-old Luis “Punishment” Martinez is a 13-year pro who is just now starting to get a break. Originally trained at the Monster Factory in New Jersey, Martinez wrestled the indies until heading to Ring of Honor’s school for additional training in 2015. He has since had a short-lived alliance with Kevin Sullivan that boosted his name value some.
He got a big opportunity here in a match against a well-known NJPW champion. While Goto has since dropped the title to Minoru Suzuki, he is a 3x NJPW Cup winner, 1x IWGP Intercontinental champion, and multi-time tag team champion as well.
Goto countered the “South of Heaven Chokeslam” into the GTR to retain the championship.
Winner: Hirooki Goto (1 of 3 successful title defences he had before losing the title to Suzuki on April 27th 2017)Â
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6IIURNdHlI
3. Kenny Omega, Cody & the Young Bucks (Bullet Club) vs. The Briscoes, Will Ospreay & Kazuchika Okada (CHAOS)
There were lots of really innovative spots between the Young Bucks and Will Ospreay early. When Ospreay was dazed on the apron the Bucks would both super-kick him off, only for him to fall into the arms of Cody and Omega, who placed him back on the apron to be super-kicked again. This happened a few times.
Ospreay ended up taking a lot of Bullet Club offence before making a hot tag into Okada, who cleaned house, followed by Mark Briscoe doing the same. As with most Young Buck matches, there was a lot to keep track of.
Mark Briscoe and Okada gave Omega consecutive elbows from the top, leading to Okada attempting a rainmaker clothesline on his challenger from WrestleKingdom 11. Omega countered the rainmaker with a jumping knee however, but then ran right into a standing spanish fly by Ospreay. Okada tagged in Ospreay and Omega tagged in Cody, and they would be the final two legal wrestlers in the match.
Ospreay hit a hesitation dropkick in the corner followed by a Falcon Arrow for a near-fall. After dodging a diving attack however, Cody countered Ospreay’s springboard cutter into the Cross Rhodes and got the pin.
Winners: Bullet Club (Cody pinned Ospreay)
