Photo: Ring of Honor
As ROH ‘Best In The World’ came to its conclusion, one man stood alone in New York City holding both major titles as the top heel in that promotion amongst a sea of streamers and confetti. That man is someone who just over five years ago was portraying a Macho Man comedy character, coming out of a low card tag-team with the currently named Xavier Woods and trying to wipe the stink off of an awful feud with Sonjay Dutt over So-Cal Val. That man was Black Machisimo. He is now just Jay Lethal.
Now do not take ‘just’ as a slight on him, the fact he is ‘just’ Jay Lethal means that he is the biggest heel in the second biggest wrestling company around right now. Jay Lethal has pretty much been a face his entire career (he had a small heel run in 2005 turning on Samoa Joe) so for him to ultimately turn heel in 2014, beating Tomasso Ciampa and joining up with the devious Truth Martini to regain the Ring Of Honor Television Title was a big gamble for him, and my oh my did it pay off. He went from the fiery young babyface to the devious but talented heel, defending his title against all comers, from Matt Sydal to ACH, from Caprice Coleman to former champ Matt Taven. This was tippified by him knocking off Alberto El Patron at the 13th Anniversary Show. In March of this year, Lethal became the most successful reigning TV Champion ever in regards to title defences, and in April he became the longest reigning TV Champion ever.
Of the best parts is that he is that legitimate heel, he has back-up but he does not need it – he is a tremendous wrestler with a fantastic moveset. His finisher, The Lethal Injection (a handspring off the ropes into an RKO) is a fantastic flashy but high impact move and he can do it all – fly, go to the mat, strikes; a real all-rounder. His promos as heel are fantasic, he comes off as a real prick which makes you hate him, something that really is lacking in modern day wrestling. Definitely got that Ric Flair champion swag; must have rubbed off when working with the Nature Boy in TNA.
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Then we get to last month, the title vs title match with all-conquering ROH World Champion Jay Briscoe. The build-up to this phenomenal; Lethal proclaiming he is the real world champion and that Briscoe is a ‘cretin’ and said that Briscoe meant used toilet paper – amazing heel work. In May, Lethal debuted a new World Television Championship belt, which omitted the word “Television” and now read simply “ROH World Champion” which lead to match-maker Nigel McGuinness making the match with both titles on the line. He then went on to beat Jay Briscoe, a man who had not been pinned in two years, to become the double champion and the man in Ring Of Honor.
Ring Of Honor has brought the world some of the best wrestlers out there – CM Punk, Brian Danielson/Daniel Bryan, Jimmy Jacobs, Kevin Owens (nae Steen), Adam Cole (bay bay) and now Jay Lethal. You can see Lethal running at the top of the card for a while to come, and with another wrestler in the form of his life in Roderick Strong coming up for him at Death Before Dishonor, I am so excited to see ‘the best wrestler on television’ go up against ‘Mr. ROH’.
We are only in July, and Lethal is making a serious play to become the wrestler of 2015 and with rumours abound that he is being looked at by WWE officials – this could well be Jay’s year.
Not bad for the original Macho Mandow.