The story of a Lethal head shaving in three acts
Ring of Honor television wrapped up a series of episodes taped in Concord, NC, with a major angle. In doing so, ROH World Champion Jay Lethal is now cemented in a role as the babyface protagonist opposing the heel antagonist Bullet Club. However, Lethal is also now bald after a dastardly deed.
ACT I: The Decree
On a previous episode of ROH, Kyle O’Reilly was set to challenge Jay Lethal for the world title. Adam Cole, along with the Bullet Club, vowed that O’Reilly would never be champion. The Bullet Club attacked O’Reilly, with Cole smashing a chair on O’Reilly’s shoulder. An injured O’Reilly looked to be out of the title match.
Medical personnel taped up O’Reilly’s shoulder and he promised to wrestle for the title. Lethal looked concerned about going through with the match. Still, he defended the title against O’Reilly. They had a lengthy match where O’Reilly worked with basically one arm.
Just as he would appear defeated, O’Reilly fought back. Nevertheless, overcoming the injury was too much for O’Reilly, who fell victim to a Lethal Injection and was pinned.
After the match, the Bullet Club ran in and once again attacked O’Reilly. They were pummeling him when Lethal ran back down the aisle, joined by Bobby Fish to make the save. O’Reilly laid in a heap as the Bullet Club smirked and sneered as they backed away.
Fed up with the attacks by the Bullet Club, authority figure and matchmaker Nigel McGuinness made an official decree. He said that as long as he is in charge, Cole will never get another shot at the world title.
ACT II: The Challenge
On the following TV show after McGuinness made his decree, Lethal opened the show with an in-ring promo. Lethal has seemingly been slowly turning babyface over the last few months. He definitely was no longer a heel. On this promo opening the show, he most definitely was the protagonist.
Lethal said the Bullet Club attack on O’Reilly just wasn’t right, and he wanted to correct things. He noted the main event on this episode was The Young Bucks vs. The Briscoes. Lethal asked McGuinness to make the match a six-man tag. Lethal wanted to himself and Cole added to the match.
McGuinness agreed and the main event became a six-man tag match. That would be rising action for the main plot as other subplots developed.
ACT III: The Dastardly Deed
Jay Lethal & The Briscoes defeated Adam Cole & The Young Bucks
Matt Taven provided guest commentary. He was decent enough, but him being out there distracted from the main story. During the Bullet Club entrance, Cole hinted at the deed to come when he spoke into the camera. The match itself was action-packed in the beginning before it settled down, only to get wilder by the finish.
The action built to Nick Jackson shoving Mark Briscoe off the top rope. Mark crashed through a table at ringside. Sold as him being too injured to continue, security tried to remove him from ringside. Mark struggled to free himself, though he still looked too injured to continue.
McGuinness stopped doing commentary after saying he would ensure Mark is taken away for medical attention. So, the authority figure exits the scene.
With Mark out of the match, the Bullet Club has a three-on-two advantage against Lethal and Jay Briscoe. This reinforces Lethal as the babyface protagonist to the heel antagonists. Though he is worked over some, he and Briscoe still make a comeback.
When the match breaks down and everyone starts brawling all at once, Lethal delivers the Lethal Injection to Cole. Lethal then used a schoolboy to roll up Matt Jackson for the deciding pinfall.
Done with commentary, Taven left ringside. Therefore, the only ROH personnel on the scene were Kevin Kelly and an inadequate security team. The Bullet Club attacked both Lethal and Briscoe after the bell. Cole grabbed a steel chair and struck the outnumbered Jays. Cole gave Briscoe a Jay Driller on a chair, laying him out.
The Bullet Club hit Lethal with a triple superkick. Cole then retrieved a black bag. First, he pulled out scissors and cut off the the long braids of Lethal. Then, he grabbed electric clippers and shaved Lethal’s head. Cary Silkin even made a cameo appearance trying to stop the Bullet Club, but to no avail.
As the show closed, the world champion was bald.
On the next episode of ROH that begins airing this weekend, Lethal defends the ROH World Championship in a rematch with Colt Cabana.