To help promote ROH’s first show back in Philadelphia in a year (!!!??!?!?!), ROH needed the help of local favorite CHIKARA to help draw a house on account of ROH having no actual buzz and ROH having written off the market yet again.
It’s a LOT of fun.
Beyond just that it’s the rare ROH match with all great wrestlers, it’s one actually helped by the booking. The match is more or less worked as a face/face match, but they lean into the CHIKARA guys being local favorites compared to the Briscoes, who align with ROH (as they ARE Ring of Honor at this point). Jigsaw and Hallowicked are the perfect picks for a match like this, as they were in ROH once, but used as enhancement talent for the most part and abandoned despite the obvious talent. Jigsaw, in particular, has a bone to pick after he was unmasked in ROH and exposed in every possible way. So, they have something to prove, and work like it.
The Briscoes are great at being very casually dominant. They clearly don’t get “it” and despise this entire deal, but they’re not really mean about it. When they get mean, it costs them. It’s a nice little story. When Jigsaw gets put through a table, Jay gets into it more and they play with the food. The CHIKARA roster comes down in support, and Jay Briscoe takes offense to Saturyne being there for some reason. He punches out Dasher Hatfield and rolls the girl in. Jay ducks a Fire Ant springboard that buys the girl time to roll out, but it’s actually just a set up. Jigsaw hits a Superkick and grabs a side cradle for the BIG upset on Jay Briscoe. Absolutely the right call, even if the specific distraction only made me wish for The Briscoes vs. The Colony instead.
Yet again, it doesn’t go far enough and stops right when it’s getting VERY interesting. ROH being ROH at this point inhibits matches at something like a three-boy ceiling so often, but like Strong/Cole earlier in the night, this bumped right up against that.
I still liked it. Good things are good.
***
HANDWERK 