ROH TV results: Jay Briscoe and Jay Lethal take Center Stage

Both intentionally and unintentionally, Ring of Honor television from this past week summoned the spirit of World Championship Wrestling with the first in a series of episodes taped at Center Stage Theater in Atlanta. That same venue for years hosted countless tapings for WCW Saturday Night.

Marketed with the tagline “Saturday Night at Center Stage,” the tapings in Atlanta were the first episodes taped in 2017 for ROH. The vibe of the episode almost felt like a heated episode of WCW Saturday Night.

For a time in the early 1990s, WCW would plug their major house shows at the Omni in Atlanta even though the matches would rarely air on TV. From this taping at a former home of WCW, ROH did the same on this episode. Plugs on TV kept pushing the house shows in Texas this weekend, even though those dates are not televised (aside from online VOD viewing later on).

Also similar to WCW in that a broadcasting company owned the wrestling promotion, ROH continues to improve the production of their TV shows even amid recent departures and uncertain futures for some personnel.

The audio of the crowd was very much improved on this show. That could also possibly be a product of the environment. The theater seating and intimacy of Center Stage allows for better acoustics than the usual flat floor seating arrangements of many ROH shows.

The episode from this past week opened with a video package recap highlighting the ROH World title match at Wrestle Kingdom 11 in the Tokyo Dome. Adam Cole won the title by defeating Kyle O’Reilly. Footage of the match was mixed with a Cole promo boasting about himself being the first three-time ROH World Champion. Cole also indicated that was the end of his feud with O’Reilly.

The Tempura Boyz (Sho & Yo) defeated Coast 2 Coast (Shaheem Ali & Leon St. Giovanni) and Cheeseburger & Will Ferrara in a three-way tag match

Still on excursion from New Japan, Yo and Sho look to be getting a small push on these tapings as the focus of this match was making the Tempura Boyz into contenders. Everybody got to shine in this match and it got wild despite being short on time.

Cheeseburger did a dive to the outside after springboarding off the top rope. Sho followed that with a flip dive to the floor. Giovanni then did a crazy 450 splash on a pile of bodies. With that, The Young Bucks appeared on stage as the show cut to commercial.

After the break, Nick and Matt Jackson were providing guest commentary alongside Kevin Kelly when they announced the winners of this match would get a shot at their ROH tag team titles.

Ali and Giovanni got their moment to shine as they hooked Ferrara in the tree-of-woe. They then delivered stereo missile dropkicks into the corner. In doing so, Giovanni leapt into his dropkick after springboarding off the top rope going “coast to coast” to the opposite corner, hence their tag team name.

Soon thereafter, Yo and Sho singled out Ali and executed their Shock and Awe finisher. Sho covered Ali for the pinfall.

Afterwards, The Young Bucks got in the ring to congratulate the Boyz. The Bucks offered them a title shot for the ROH World tag titles “next week.” As The Tempura Boyz high-fived each other, Nick and Matt superkicked them.

After the superkick party, the Bucks introduced Adam Cole and he sauntered to the ring for a promo. During “story time with Adam Cole, BAY BAY,” Cole ran down his list of potential challengers and dismissed them all.

When mentioning the Decade of Excellence tournament, it was notable that he failed to mention Christopher Daniels.

ROH World TV Champion Marty Scurll defeated Juice Robinson to retain his title

Alex Shelley provided guest commentary. In the match itself, Scurll and Robinson began by having exchanges to showcase their technical wrestling abilities. When the action spilled outside of the ring, Scurll dropped Robinson with a soccer kick as the show went to a commercial break.

After that break, Robinson had the advantage as he jumped off the top rope with a flying headbutt for a near fall. Robinson followed with a few more near falls. Scurll cut him off and hoisted Robinson for a brainbuster.

Robinson made a comeback and got another near fall with a falling powerbomb after he blocked Scurll from applying his submission finisher. Robinson rolled through when Scurll gave him a superplex, and Robinson cradled Scurll for a near fall. Moments later as they battled on the floor, Scurll moved out of the way as Robinson cannonballed into a guardrail.

Back in the ring, Scurll used a piledriver, and Robinson kicked out. Scurll hushed the crowd so they could listen as he snapped the fingers of Robinson. Still, Robinson fought back. As he went for his Pulp Friction finisher, Scurll countered and trapped Robinson with a crossface chicken wing. Robinson tapped out and Scurll retained via submission.

Following the match, Scurll got the house mic to cut a promo about wanting more competition. Scurll said he was declaring an open challenge. Chris Sabin led a group on stage that included Jay White, Jonathan Gresham, Lio Rush, and Donovan Dijak. They all glared at Scurll.

After a commercial break, Kevin Kelly conducted an interview with all the prospective challengers that Sabin led out. They will have a six-person match on the next episode to determine a challenger for the TV title.

Jay Lethal defeated Jay Briscoe to advance in the Decade of Excellence tournament

In the rotating guest commentator role, Frankie Kazarian was in the announce booth for color commentary on this match. As the match began, Adam Cole appeared on the stage and would eventually also provide guest commentary at ringside.

Early on, Briscoe hit a Jay Driller and Lethal kicked out. During the match, Kevin Kelly noted that Lethal was like kryptonite to Briscoe, in that Jay had rarely ever beaten the other Jay. That played into the story of the match with Briscoe finally overcoming a Lethal obstacle.

Briscoe definitely got his licks in, and he dove outside with a tope suicida at one point. From there, Briscoe dominated on offense for a while. Lethal cut him off and dropped Briscoe with a Diamond Cutter. Lethal followed that with a Lethal Combination for a two count. Briscoe also kicked out of a couple more near falls.

Lethal countered an attempted superplex to knock Briscoe off the top rope, setting up Lethal jumping off the top attempting Hail to the King. Briscoe put a boot up to block it only for Lethal to land on his feet, grab Briscoe’s boot, and apply a figure four.

In the closing moments, Briscoe kept going for his finisher and Lethal would counter. Briscoe also countered a Lethal Injection as they traded moves. Briscoe finally delivered a roaring elbow and a lariat to cover Lethal for the pinfall.

Briscoe and Lethal shook hands afterwards as Cole stared them down. Cole said on commentary that he figured Briscoe would win the tournament. Or will he? Find out in the coming weeks on ROH TV.

On the next episode of ROH TV, a six-man scramble match to determine a number one contender for the World TV title. Plus, The Young Bucks defend the World tag team titles against The Tempura Boyz.

The latest episode begins airing this weekend in syndication. The show is then available Monday evening via the FITE TV app before airing on Wednesday at midnight ET on Comet TV, including that channel’s online live stream. The episode is then available to watch on Thursday via the official ROH website.