Ring of Honor Episode #285 Review

This show was taped on February 13th at Stage AE in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The show begins with a promo from Bobby Fish, Jay Lethal, and the Briscoes, setting their eight-man tag team match against the Bullet Club. Jay Briscoe stays in the back, silent. Lethal says that they have an answer for everything that they can throw at them and refers to his foursome as the ROH Dream Team. He tells Cody he has his eyes on him. Fish called out Cole, and said that in the moment he chose, he would end him.

The traditional show opening airs. This has changed a whole lot in the past year.

Ian Riccoboni and Dalton Castle are on commentary.

The Kingdom (Matt Taven, TK O’Ryan, and Vinny Marsailia) vs The Rebellion (Caprice Coleman, Kenny King, and Rhett Titus) for the ROH World Six Man Tag Team Titles

Castle is hilarious on commentary for this match. O’Ryan and Titus start. Titus seems to tweak his knee on a leapfrog and tags out. Marsailia and Coleman tag in and proceed to step on each other’s foot at the same time, catch each other’s legs going for a sucker kick, and stereo poke each other in the eye. Taven and King tag and they have a nice exchange. Titus tags back in and begins to favor his knee again, collapsing in the pain. The ref temporarily stops the match. Commercial Break.

We come back to see Titus to be carried to the back and the Kingdom isolating Coleman. The ref missed one tag to King. Coleman dropped two of the Kingdom with a double dropkick. King got taken out and suddenly Lio Rush appeared on the apron in fatigues and a face mask. Coleman tagged in Rush, and the ref just let ago. Rush cleaned house with a double handspring elbow on the Kingdom and a pair of topes to the outside. King tagged in and just what it was looking good for the Rebellion, Rush laid out King with a RKO! Rush split and the Kingdom hit their modified triple powerbomb for the win. They will face Dalton Castle and the Boys for the titles at the 15th Anniversary Show.

Winners: The Kingdom in nine minutes

Next we see a promo from Jay White. He talks about how he is undefeated in ROH, but he hasn’t won every match. We see clips of a match he had with Jay Briscoe that went to a time limit draw and he talks about how he took the former champ to the limit and begs the company for a rematch. We get an immediate rebuttal promo from Briscoe, with a barn as a backdrop. He takes exception to White’s comment that he had taken Briscoe to limit. He says that when he went undefeated for three years, that he was beating Top Prospects. He said that if he had remembered that the time limit was only fifteen minutes, he would have turned White into “dog food.” They will meet in a rematch in two weeks!

Before he leaves the broadcast booth, we get a brief promo from Castle. He says he will purse the ROH World Heavyweight Championship one day, but for now, he wanted gold for his boys and said he would make the Kingdom pay for putting their hands on them. He sends a bunch of insults the Kingdom’s way, including calling them “fart eaters.” He vows that they will the Six Man Titles in Las Vegas.

Raphael King (with Devin Nicole) vs Brian Milonas in the first round of the Top Prospect Tournament

“Brutal” Bob Evans” replaces Castle on color commentary. Milonas is a 6’5, 395-pound guy from New England and all fat. King is a 6’4 African American with good size as well, from Georgia and doing a fraternity brother gimmick. King gets off to a fast, hit and run start, until Milonas catches him with a few corner avalanches and a big cross body block for a near fall, but missed a second rope legdrop. King went for a Boston Crab but got kicked away. Devin pulled King away from a Milonas shoulderblock and King hit a big knee. Vick slapped Milonas and King got him with a big urange for a close near fall. King went for it again, but Milonas blocked it and hit a big sidewalk slam, followed by a running senton for the pin to advance to the next round of the tournament.

Winner: Brian Milonas in less than four minutes

We see that we are getting War Machine vs BJ Whitmer and Punishment Martinez next week in a No DQ match.

Main Event Time. Christopher Daniels is now on commentary.

The Bullet Club (Adam Cole, The Young Bucks, and Cody) vs The ROH Dream Team (Bobby Fish, The Briscoes, and Jay Lethal)

Cody teases starting with Lethal, but tags in Matt Jackson. Lethal ends up decking Cody anyway and hitting with a tope to the outside and this breaks into a brawl within the first thirty seconds of the match. Everything is all over the places until the Bucks hit stereo superkicks on the Briscoes and take out Lethal with a double superkick, then hit stereo tope con hilos to everyone else on the outside. Lethal came back with a tope con hilo on the pile, but then Cody cut off Jay Briscoe and hit a ridiculous superplex on Briscoe to the pile on the outside. Just insane. Commercial Break.

We come back with the Bullet Club securely in control, with Jay Briscoe stuck in their corner. At one point, Cody held up Cole for a suplex and Cole shouted “I love you, Cody,” before he dropped Cole belly first onto Briscoe for a two count. Cole went for the Panama City Sunrise, but Briscoe blocked and hit an iconoclasm to get the hot tag to Lethal. Lethal cleaned house on the whole Bullet Club, including topes to both Jacksons, but when he went to hit Cody, Cody moved and he hit Bobby Fish, whom he faces at the 15th anniversary show! Lethal superkicked Cody and hit the Lethal Combination on Cole on the outside. He was about to go for the Lethal Injection, but Fish came and interrupted him and they started brawling all the way into the crowd, with the Briscoes trying in vain to break it up. Second Commercial Break.

We come from the break with Lethal and Fish still fighting and the Briscoes somehow holding their own in the ring against all four members of the Bullet Club. They hit a powerbomb/neckbreaker combo on Matt for a near fall. They went for the Doomsday Device, but Matt landed on his feet and it’s Superkick party time. They double superkicked Mark into a Cross Rhodes by Cody and hit a Slapshot/double superkick combo on Jay. The Bucks hit the Meltzer Driver on Mark while Cody and Cole posed to get the win.

Winners: The Bullet Club in fifteen minutes

Cole was celebrating in the ring with the belt, when Daniels left the broadcast table and went to confront Cole, speaking of “party favors.” It turned immediately into a brawl and Daniels hit the Angel’s Wings on Cole. Daniels then pulled out a pair of clippers and a pair of scissors and even did a Brutus Beefcake strut. Frankie Kazarian then came down to assist his partner. But when Daniels back was turned, Kazarian took off his hoodie to reveal a Bullet Club shirt!!! Daniels turned out and saw it, and Kazarian slapped the clippers away. Daniels and Kazarian argued and Daniels yelled “eighteen years and you’re gonna do this to me?” Kazarian responded with a Too Sweet and Daniels turned around a double superkick from the Bucks. The rest of the American Bullet Club came out and stood over Daniels and Kazarian vowed to kill his career as the show ended.