Alberto El Patron made his first television appearance on this week's episode of Ring of Honor wrestling that also saw heavy weight Champion Jay Briscoe in Action. He would face the Kingdom’s Matt Taven as the headlining match from Nashville Tennessee. Cedric Alexander, the prospect tournament and Jay Lethal would all make appearances on the taping. How would the ROH faithful respond to the arrival of El Patron and what does Nigel McGuinness have in store for the announcement of the number one contendership where all questions that were answered this week.
Cedric Alexander faced off against The Addictions Frankie Kazarian to kick off the show. Both guys mix it up nicely with Cedric gaining winning most of the back and forth late. An attempt at top rope placed Alexander in the arms of Kazarian who finished Cedric with a neck breaker. It was a good win for Frankie to remind us what he can do in singles competition and two straight losses for Alexander.
The prospect tournament moves on with a battle of two giants in New England indie stand out Donovan Dijak and a guy from my own back yard St. Louis native Jake Dirden. These two powerhouse showed off their patent skill sets and even had the Dynasty’s attention. Donovan clearly held the athletic advantage and dropped a vicious finisher on Dirden to win the match. Jake has a great presence so we are sure he will be seen again.
The next portion of the show was more geared towards next weeks episode with both the introduction of Alberto El Patron to the ROH audience and Nigel McGuinness decision on who would be the number one contender. Jay Lethal had some words for Patron and wanted to remind him who he thinks the number one guy in ROH is. Sounds like the makings of a match for the TV title at the upcoming pay per view where we could see Patron capture his first gold. Jay Briscoe also wanted to make sure he had some saying in his fate by interrupting or better yet making the plans for Nigel McGuinness. Instead of having Michael Elgin, Hanson and Tommaso Ciampa battle it out for the number one contender Jay wants them all to be contenders to put the title on the line in a four way fatal match. It should be a classic match and one of the better ones across promotions for 2015.
The concluding match of the night was between Jay Briscoe and Matt Taven for the ROH Heavyweight title. Taven held his own against the champ with not too many distractions coming from the other Kingdom members. Jay eventually caught Matt after call out his missing Kingdom member Adam Cole. After he was pinned by Briscoe the Kingdom began their assault until brother Mark came to his aide. He also told the Kingdom that he was sick of dealing with them and next week they are settling this once and for all. This is all gearing up to be one of the most anticipated tapings of sometime and we can’t wait to see what’s all in store.
Rating 3 / 5