ROH TV results: Cheeseburger shines in holiday ten-man tag

A holiday-themed episode of Ring of Honor television from the Nashville Fairgrounds featured a “Christmas surprise” ten-man tag team match. Elsewhere on the show, ANX have a showcase match while Truth Martini displays his holiday cheer and his dastardly side. Also, Prince Nana hands out another envelope.

Prince Nana joined Kevin Kelly on commentary. Nana himself would actually be involved in the story of the first match. The backstory is for several months Nana has handed out envelopes to both Caprice Coleman and Will Ferrera, but the contents of the envelopes are unknown.

Before the opening match, Caprice Coleman cut a promo on Ferrera using a play on words talking about getting the mail. He said he and Ferrera had the same mailman. However, Coleman went on to say no matter what mail Ferrera or any other “jive turkeys” receive, his stack of mail is bigger. He cackled and said all of his mail will always come priority.

Will Ferrera vs. Caprice Coleman ended in a no contest

After a tense handshake, a slugfest ensued. Kelly noted on commentary how these two technical wrestlers with seemingly no issues between them were brawling. The only connection was the mysterious envelopes and Nana was gleefully watching the violence escalate.

Ferrera did a tope to the outside, where he grabbed a chair. Coleman rammed Ferrera into the guardrail then dropkicked him into it as well. Caprice executed his “Trinity” which is his trifecta of northern lights suplexes. Ferrera cut him off and slammed him off the top turnbuckle.

Ferrera brought a chair into the ring as did Coleman. They began dueling with the chairs and the referee called for the bell, throwing out the match and ruling it a no contest. Officials poured into the ring to separate the two.

Backstage, ROH world champion Jay Lethal was joined by Truth Martini and Taeler Hendrix. Martini wore Santa hat complete with a fake white beard and they all were surrounded by Christmas presents. Lethal was excited to open a present. Martini cautioned him this was serious. Lethal was the team captain of the upcoming Christmas surprise tag team match. Opening one box would reveal a member of Lethal’s team.

Lethal picked the biggest box because he was confident that signified Moose. He allowed Taeler to open the envelope. She looked disgusted at what it revealed. She would not say who it was so Lethal snatched it away from her. He freaked out when discovering it was Cheeseburger. Lethal threw a tantrum and stormed off.

After a commercial break, Turth Martini was in the ring with Donovan Dijak and “Outlaw” Ken Phoenix. Truth was cheerful and referenced the holidays. He said he bummed a cigarette from Phoenix earlier in the day. In return, he would consider letting Phoenix join the House of Truth if he impressed Martini in what he described as “the right way.”

ANX (Kenny King & Rhett Titus) beat Donovan Dijak & Ken Phoenix (with Truth Martini)

Titus had the early advantage until Dijak low-bridged the top rope and Titus spilled to the outside. Dijack jumped him, allowing his team to start getting heat on Titus. Phoenix was in the ring but refused to tag out even when ordered to do so. This allowed Titus to escape the clutches of the heels and make a hot tag to King.

King came in running wild and Dijak made the save on a pin attempt. Moments later King did a dive to the outside after Titus made a blind tag. Titus dove off the top rope and Dijack caught him then did a chokeslam into a backbreaker. Phoenix tagged himself back in the match. He and Dijak argued over it, allowing the ANX to do some double team moves and eventually to finish off Phoenix. King pinned him for the win.

Afterwards, Truth teased giving a thumbs up to Phoenix only to swerve him and give him the thumbs down. So, Dijak executed the “feast your eyes” on Phoenix and left him laying. Prince Nana gave Dijak an envelope and he took it although Martini was unaware.

Kevin Kelly interviewed Steve Corino. Wearing a neck brace, Corino talked briefly about his surgery and not letting it get him down. He thanked the fans for their support. He then warned BJ Whitmer that one day he will pay for the torment he caused Corino.

For the Christmas surprise ten-man tag main event, the team captains were ROH world champion Jay Lethal and ROH TV champion Roderick Strong. Everyone got a full entrance as that was part of the surprise revealing of the teammates. Cheeseburger was the only name revealed beforehand except for the respective team captains.

Veda Scott, Stokely Hathaway, Nick Jackson, Truth Martini, Taeler Hendrix, BJ Whitmer and Colby Corino all appeared as seconds but were all ordered to the back during a commercial break.  

Roderick Strong & Mark Briscoe & Cedric Alexander & Moose & Matt Jackson beat Jay Lethal & Jay Briscoe & Cliff Compton & Adam Page & Cheeseburger

This was quite action packed. There was a great series of exchanges by Lethal and Alexander followed by a brawl involving Compton and Mark Briscoe. Mark suggested they take it to the floor so they did. They began to brawl at ringside. When a chair and table became involved, referee Todd Sinclair broke it up and ordered them back into the ring before a commercial.

After the break, Cheeseburger (the smallest) squared off with Moose (the largest), which didn’t end well for Cheeseburger. Roddy Strong bodyslammed his entire team one-by-one to top of Cheeseburger. Eventually somehow the underdog Cheeseburger made a comeback and countered three consecutive back suplexes to make a hot tag to Jay Briscoe.

Following some exchanges with Moose where Briscoe gave him a death valley driver, Jay squared off with brother Mark. They had a short but great slugfest. By this point, the crowd started chanting “this is awesome.” Adam Page did a shooting star press off the apron to the floor. Matt Jackson and Moose double-teamed Page then gave him a double superkick before another commercial break.

When the show returned from break, Moose was giving Page a Liger bomb and Matt did a 450 splash off the top rope. Cheeseburger made the save on the subsequent pin attempt. Cheeseburger was surrounded with five-on-one odds. He smacked Moose and dove under some legs to miraculously escape. Then, Cheeseburger was a house of fire with a flurry of offense. He hit several balm strikes only for Moose to cut him off with a spear.

Lethal jumped in to hit Moose with the lethal injection. Things got crazy from there with superkicks, a lariat, a sick kick, more kinds of kicks, a brainbuster, a Michinoku Driver and more. Compton climbed to the top turnbuckle but was superkicked and fell through a table at ringside.

For the finish, Strong did his falling backbreaker and Mark Briscoe jumped off with the froggybow on Page to score the pinfall. Afterwards, the winning team all offered a handshake to Cheeseburger and the announcers put him over.