Jay Briscoe vs. Adam Page, ROH Wrestling (10/21/2015)

This was a No Disqualification match.

It’s the end to another of these very fun smaller Ring of Honor storylines from the mid 2010s peak. After beating ACH in July and after Jay Briscoe was finally beaten in June, ambitious shithead Page tried to go after Briscoe. If you’ve seen wrestling, you’ve seen something like this before, but ROH makes better use of it than most by not having Page get funny about it or produce shirts saying PAGE – 2, BRISCOE – 0 or anything like that. Shit talk, a beatdown gained through unscrupulous means, and then a meeting where Jay can get his revenge.

Like the feud itself, the match is a wonderfully uncomplicated thing.

The weaknesses of this match are the ones that seem unavoidable. It’s on television, so they can only go so long and so far. It’s on one of those marathon ROH TV tapings, so while they can get the crowd into it, it’s hardly a white hot crowd like you could get at a normal or bigger show. It’s also a match like this in 2015 ROH, so despite every positive quality the match has, it’s denied the blood that always pushes matches with a story like this over the top.

However, great is great, even if there’s a lower ceiling on it than the thing deserves.

Page gets his ass kicked, but shows something and isn’t immediately destroyed. There’s a great progression from the Page/ACH match to this, as now Mark Briscoe stops the use of BJ Whitmer’s crutch at ringside, forcing Page to do it on his own. With ROH, you can never tell what’s one of their excruciatingly long term plans or what’s just circumstance, but the result is progression from the kid, saved for the spot where it would mean the most. Gaining an advantage cleanly on ACH would be fine, but it means more if he does it to Jay Briscoe, especially in a match like this. He still winds up getting destroyed by the end, but in another show of forward progress, he’s able to show some spirit RIGHT before the very end, only to be distracted by BJ Whitmer and Steve Corino bickering at commentary. Jay Briscoe is probably always capable of shutting him down at any point, but it’s here where it happens, meaning Page also gets the minor rub of being able to say it was only because of Whitmer, furthering their long overdue split.

The match’s plays on Page/ACH aren’t always forward though, which is also great. While Page beat ACH with the Rite of Passage off the apron and through a table, Jay Briscoe isn’t ACH. He’s able to get out of it through experience and invention, before hitting the god killer Jay Driller through a table and another back inside to win. Page’s gripe is ultimately a minor one. In the end, he wasn’t good enough yet to back it up, and got the beating he earned.

Mechanically, it’s yet another stellar Briscoe brawl.

Everything looks and sounds as nasty as possible. There’s some innovation, such as the Hangman’s Neckbreaker using a chair, or the way Briscoe escapes Hangman’s Rite of Passage off the apron near the end by grabbing a chair lying on the apron and using it, but it’s mostly all those comfortable routines. Chairs thrown into the face, a double stomp through a table, passionate punches thrown in a flurry outside, the Jay Driller through the table at the end. It’s nice and easy and feels incredibly good, and on top of the great match, it’s a wonderful quality for a match to have.

Another success from the ROH TV hit machine, one they’ll run back a few more times to greater success, as they do.

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