| Simon Watches ROH - 2013 | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jul 26 2014, 06:10 PM (4,873 Views) | |
| Big Tuna | Aug 6 2014, 11:59 PM Post #41 |
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The Master and Ruler Of The World
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ROH World Champion: Jay Briscoe, Since 4/5/2013 ROH World Tag Team Champions: reDRagon, Since 3/2/2013 ROH World Television Champion: Matt Taven, Since 3/2/2013 ![]() ROH Reclamation Night 1 July 12th, 2013 Milwaukee, WI Match #1: Adrenaline Rush vs. Mike Sydal/Zizou Maddox I'm glad ACH and TD get another showcase instead of doing the losses for the top guys circuit again, but this didn't need to go nine minutes when the jobbers suck and everyone knows the result. Kelly claims the jobbers are named #PartyBoys, but I refuse. ACH beats Sydal with the 450 Splash. *1/2 Match #2: MsChif vs. Athena This ruled, relatively speaking. They got 10 minutes, so they got to have the best match they were going to have. MsChif is still past her prime, but is decent enough, and Athena has cool highspots. Some sloppiness, but whatever. Athena hits the awesome Flying Ace Crusher to get another win over MsChif. **1/4 Post-match, MsChif sprays mist in her face. Match #3: BJ Whitmer vs. Mike Bennett w/ Maria This generally happens again. It's moderately better, but still real boring and routine. PORDIGY at least brought back his good Double A Spinebuster. There's some Maria distractions at the end and the ref misses BJ having the match won. Bennett goes to the eyes and then hits a Piledriver for the win. ** Match #4: Eddie Edwards vs. Kyle O'Reilly This was super fucking great, and it's basically all because of Eddie. I'd said before how great Kyle could be if he has a brain, but Eddie has one hell of a wrestling brain and reigns in Kyle more completely than anyone else and gives the best Kyle singles match ever. Opening matwork is good, and then it's a chop vs. kick deal. Kyle then goes after the arm, and Eddie puts on one of his best sell jobs ever. Kyle's arm work isn't anything special, it's just competent stuff, but Eddie sells it so well throughout the match, making it into an issue even during parts where Kyle is ignoring the arm to do head kicks and suplexes. The best was when Eddie was leaning over with his hands on his knees, and shook his left arm because that was even hurting it. Eddie eventually gets the Achiiles Lock on, only with his good arm, and he stomps on Kyle's head until the ref stops it. ***1/2 Match #5: Tommaso Ciampa vs. Rhino This was a lot of fun for what it was, I guess. At nine minutes, it's not long enough to be more than an obvious Ciampa showcase, but they do well anyways. Rhino does his usual fun power stuff, but then runs full force into a knee from Ciampa to stop the Gore, and that gives Tommaso the win. Credit to Rhino for running into that at full speed, but I would have liked some more out of this. **1/2 Match #6: Kevin Steen vs. Silas Young Fun Steen showcase. Crowd is again super hot for Silas in his hometown, even if this is his worst performance in ROH since he came back in 2012. Less focused and general clubbering here, but Steen did his thing and won with the Package Piledriver. **1/2 Match #7: Michael Elgin vs. Adam Cole vs. Jay Lethal vs. Matt Taven w/ The House of Truth Ruled. They start slow, but there's never really a moment here when I think they're obviously just killing time. The finishing run happens, and it is pretty crazy. This is what I meant with Elgin/Ciampa where Milwaukee is really crazy for 95% of what they do, and it elevates it a lot. Finishing 30 seconds is killer. Cole Superkicks Lethal on the top rope to crotch him, and then Taven tries the Headlock Driver, BUT ELGIN SAVES WITH A ROLLING BACKFIST. ELGIN BUCKLE BOMBS COLE INTO LETHAL ON THE ROPES. THEN HITS THE SPIRAL BOMB TO WIN! *** Match #8: Davey Richards vs. Bobby Fish Lord beer me strength. This was actually better than I expected before it became terrible, because the first quarter or so was on the mat and they don't go too insane until the end. It wasn't the best thing ever, since Fish is at least competent at doing holds if nothing else, and Davey has it in him to be a solid mat guy for short bursts. Fish is then super fucking boring on offense, and tries to do a striker bully type deal WHEN ALL OF HIS STRIKES ARE FUCKING TERRIBLE. Davey tries to then work a strike battle stiff fest type epic, which doesn't work when neither of them is really connecting in a way that you need to for any kind of a brutal striking epic to work. They work a HORRIBLE epic nearfall run too without any kind of focus, and Fish totally whiffs on the head kick KO finish, but pins Davey anyways to win. * |
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| Big Tuna | Aug 7 2014, 03:13 PM Post #42 |
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ROH World Champion: Jay Briscoe, Since 4/5/2013 ROH World Tag Team Champions: reDRagon, Since 3/2/2013 ROH World Television Champion: Matt Taven, Since 3/2/2013 ROH Wrestling July 13th, 2013 Baltimore, MD Match #1: Tommaso Ciampa vs. QT Marshall w/ RD Evans I'm glad this is being blown off now and not stretched out. I like that the company can now seemingly give up on guys, like they did to Mondo and are doing with QT. Not sure why they haven't done it to Bennett. Ciampa badly messes up the rope hanging upside down spot to transition to QT's offense, so that's a bummer. QT has some surprisingly good knee work including an awesome slam on the floor with his knee hitting an open chair. Ciampa sells really well and there's some brutal spots, and holy shit, this is great? Some quality nearfalls, and Corino does a great job saying the Air Raid Crash didn't work this time because of the hurt knee. RD Evans gets hit with Project Ciampa, which allows for another QT nearfall due to the pain on the leg. Ciampa hits a great knee to the face with his good one, then as a fuck you, he hits him with a knee to the face with his bad one and sells it during the pin to win. ROH 2012-13 Ciampa and PWG Ciampa are like night and day. *** INSIDE ROH: -Jay Briscoe vs. Matt Hardy for the ROH Title is next week -Steve Corino says he couldn't have planned it any better, and Mark Briscoe hurt his head and is out of Steel Cage Warfare, and Jay Briscoe hurt his back and reinjured his shoulder. Corino says destiny shines on SCUM in one week and his best friend Matt Hardy is about to win the ROH Title, and they made it so much easier for them. Then in two weeks, they take over and kill ROH. -The Nigel/Steen segment from last week is recapped with Steen joining the team -They hype the August 3rd debut at a new venue in Toronto, and it's the old Maple Leaf Gardens, now renamed the Mattamy Athletic Center. That seems ill-advised unless they advertise super well, book a killer show, AND the building is downsized. Not looking forward to another sad Hara Arena level debacle. Match #2: Mike Bennett w/ Maria & Bob Evans vs. Nick Merriman PORDIGY runs through him and wins in like a minute with the Box Office Smash. 1/2* Post-match, Mike gets on the mic and asks if he should stay or go. He presents an official ROH contract and says this place needs him just like the fans, and he doesn't need any of them. He says this contract is for a long time, which makes no sense because he's terrible and they've been picking up good people over the last few months. Bennett brings in Cheeseburger and asks if he wants the contract, and then attacks him. Brutal Bob randomly pulls Bennett off of the kid, so Bennett lays out Bob Evans with the Box Office Smash and leaves with Maria. Bennett says the Prodigy is dead. Jay Briscoe comes out with his arm all taped up and says a lot of people wonder about his health, but he's still breathing. He says Matt Hardy is crazy if he thinks he's forfeiting this title, and the only way he ever touches this is if he pries it from his cold dead hands, bitch. Match #3: reDRagon [c] vs. Caprice Coleman/Cedric Alexander [ROH World Tag Team Championship] This is a thing. Fish makes Kyle actively worse and more boring. This is at least only like 10-11 minutes and nobody has to see Fish or Kyle try for an epic. Cedric Alexander is once again easily the best dude in this. Kyle has good moments, but 90% of things Fish does look completely fake and choreographed. reDRagon also screws up basic fucking formula as C&C control this for some reason, and Kyle and Fish then randomly work face after seven months of working heel, only to go back to heel stuff at the end. Chasing the Dragon then pins Coleman. *1/2 |
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| Big Tuna | Aug 7 2014, 04:47 PM Post #43 |
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ROH World Champion: Jay Briscoe, Since 4/5/2013 ROH World Tag Team Champions: reDRagon, Since 3/2/2013 ROH World Television Champion: Matt Taven, Since 3/2/2013 ![]() ROH Reclamation Night Two July 13th, 2013 Dearborn, MI Match #1: Kyle O'Reilly vs. Tadarius Thomas This is better than their 2012 match, because both are better. Kyle still has some cringeworthy wannabe MMA/shootstyle moments, but TD has improved a lot and makes this not totally horrible. TD ducks a kick and gets a schoolboy for the kind of upset. ACH and Thomas could probably carry reDRagon. ** Match #2: Athena vs. MsChif vs. Jenny Rose vs. Leah Von Dutch The other two are jobbers and really bring this down, when it should have just been Athena/MsChif II. Neither really looked amazing here, dealing with these two girls. As it was, they didn't get to fight nearly enough given what happened the night before, and MsChif ends up beating one of the jabronesses with the Desecrator. 3/4* Match #3: Tommaso Ciampa vs. Silas Young This was another good but not great Silas effort. Maybe now that he's largely earned a job, he's just over the concept of trying to have a great match all the time? I don't know, it was kind of weird. Dearborn isn't particularly a great crowd either, and Silas has benefited a lot from Milwaukee being insane for him. There's still a lot of good stuff here, it's just super average as a whole. Silas hits Tommaso with the ring bell hammer for the win. Nigel then comes out to re-start it because HONOR~ or whatever now that SCUM is dead (spoilers), and Ciampa then quickly wins with Project Ciampa. Cool, nobody gains anything. **1/2 Match #4: Adam Cole vs. BJ Whitmer Another average one. BJ hasn't really been the same since the insane bump at Final Battle. I was talking to Ford the other day about BJ and a theory was floated that he's actually a corpse and can't reasonably expected to be more than average. Look at the amount of times he's died since 2003, and you probably need 2-3 hands to count them. the Homicide match, a few bumps in the Second City Saints feud, so many things vs. CZW and Jacobs/Albright, and the header through a table was the last straw. Anyways, this is sort of just a thing and another match more about Cole's transformation than anything else. He hurts his leg near the end, but sees the opportunity when BJ stupidly checks on him, and rolls him up to win. He's not quite faking it, but is learning to take advantage of stuff. **1/4 Match #5: Mike Bennett w/ Maria vs. Bob Muscat Squash for PORDIGY. He wins with the Piledriver. This was at least appropriately timed for a squash at three minutes, but still not good. Bad wrestlers don't tend to have good squashes unless they're big reckless power dudes like a Nord or Kozlov. 3/4* Maria orders another, but Rhino comes out to save! Rhino challenges Bennett to hurt him if he wants to try and make a name, and Maria accepts on Mike's behalf. Match #6: Rhino vs. Mike Bennett w/ Maria God DAMNIT. Rhino is the latest guy to put on a great performance to try and carry this talentless sack of shit, and then job in the end, because ROH is just obsessed with trying to get any kind of heat or reaction on this fucking guy. It's been two and a half years, guys. Elgin was getting them in six months. Cole and Kyle around them too. Bobby Fish is a terrible wrestler, but he's at least getting SOME heel heat by now. It's time to cut your fucking losses and just admit defeat with this dude. Bennett is now throwing Superkicks too, which answers the question of who throws the worst Superkicks in wrestling. He hits three, and pins Rhino with his bullshit Box Office Smash. *3/4 Post-match, Rhino hits him with the Gore. Match #7: Bobby Fish vs. ACH On the other end, ACH does what he can to carry Fish, but it isn't possible, I don't think. The crowd is so bored during Fish's control segment that they chant for Kevin Kelly. A LIVE CROWD CHANTED FOR KEVIN KELLY INSTEAD OF RESPONDING TO THE MATCH. HOLY SHIT. ACH did some good highspots and stuff, but the crowd has just been murdered. Fish's stuff all looks super terrible again. He has the accuracy of Kofi Kingston, but without the energy and recklessness. Fish totally whiffs on the finishing head kick for the second night in a row. Bobby Fish is the worst wrestler regularly making tape. *1/4 Match #8: Kevin Steen vs. Matt Taven w/ The House of Truth They now have a new muscular lady named Seleziya Sparx. This was fun, but too short at only 10 minutes. They probably could have done a match similar to the Eddie/Taven match in early June, where Taven gained a lot with a loss. Instead, this is a generic interference laden match with none of it being super inspired, and them not having enough time to really fit it all in properly and build everything up right. So stuff happens, and Taven gets a stupidly booked upset with a schoolboy. Steen is basically bulletproof now as the reigning King of the Indies (in the same way that Punk could put over Jimmy Rave a million times in 2005 and Danielson could drop any falls in 07-09 and still be a god to people), but it's still dumb. **1/4 Steen challenges Truth after that, and Nigel comes out to make it happen. Match #9: Kevin Steen vs. Truth Martini This is a squash. Taven and the girls interfere a bunch to try and stop Steen, but he winds up taking them out and he hits Martini with the Package Piledriver for the win. *1/4 Match #10: The American Wolves vs. Michael Elgin/Jay Lethal This is ALSO disappointing. Davey seemed to care a lot less, and he was in for most of the finishing run. Given that this was an all action type match, that meant this suffered a lot. The crowd was also pretty dead from this mediocre ass show, so a lot of the stuff really didn't work and this match is the kind that needs a hot crowd to be actually great, given that it went too long and had a lot of back and forth spotty type stuff. Lethal and Eddie were both great, but Davey sucked and Elgin tried out a lot of fighting spirit type no-sells that were not very good. They do just far too much, and Eddie beats Lethal with the Achilles Lock. **1/4 |
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| Big Tuna | Aug 7 2014, 10:57 PM Post #44 |
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The Master and Ruler Of The World
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ROH World Champion: Jay Briscoe, Since 4/5/2013 ROH World Tag Team Champions: reDRagon, Since 3/2/2013 ROH World Television Champion: Matt Taven, Since 3/2/2013 ROH Wrestling July 20th, 2013 Baltimore, MD TONIGHT: JAY/MOTT FOR THE TITLE Adam Cole is supposed to have a showcase against some jabrone, but Roderick Strong comes out. Strong says at Best in the World, Adam made a decision that wasn't as honorable as he says he is. He likes to shake everyone's hand and talk about being friends, but he could have done the right thing in their match, and he didn't do it. He's not mad, he's just disappointed. Cole says he's prided himself on fighting with honor and he saw an opportunity for a big win, and he took it. They always say wins and losses matter more in ROH than anyone, and he lived up to that, and he's sorry if he feels "disrespected", and says he'll fight him again right now. They dismiss the jobber. Match #1: Adam Cole vs. Roderick Strong This is very much a good match, but just a lot of stuff happening. Some cool spots, but yeah, another match from Cole that was basically some pro wrestling before a finish more about the character. Which is fine, but you can have great matches and then go into that the end. There's very much a feeling that the angle is more important, which is a little annoying when you know these dudes have a great match in them and have had them in the past. There's a ref bump, and Corino slides a chain in. Strong gets it first and goes to use it, and that's all Cole sees. Cole takes it away and hits Strong with it, but the referee sees that and DQ's Cole. **1/2 Clips air from before the show of SCUM arriving in a limo and they yell at people to make way for the last ROH Champion. He offers some fan like $500 to tear up a pro-Steen sign, so Compton takes the money and tears the sign up. Match #2: Jay Briscoe [c] vs. Matt Hardy [ROH World Championship] On commentary, Corino says this is going to be the combined JFK assassination and 9/11 of ROH. This is not very good, because Jay is pretty badly hurt. They work the arm and Jay sells pretty well. They kick out of WAY too much to get fans into it finally, and Jay somehow survives three Twists of Fate, and Mott kicks out of the Jay Driller. Matt starts throwing some awesome punches at the end finally. Jay blocks a fourth Twist of Fate into an inside cradle for the win. **1/2 Post-match, Rhino runs out and hits the Gore. Mark Briscoe comes to save, but Corino hits him with the Ten Dollar Punch. Jay is alone, and they hit Mark with a conchairto. Matt starts wearing the title, and then they put Jay's arm in a chair. Corino tells everyone to finish Jay Briscoe, and the rest of SCUM comes to keep ROH at bay. Matt jumps of the top onto the arm and Jay's arm is broken to end the show. |
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| Big Tuna | Aug 8 2014, 12:58 AM Post #45 |
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ROH World Champion: Jay Briscoe, Since 4/5/2013 ROH World Tag Team Champions: reDRagon, Since 3/2/2013 ROH World Television Champion: Matt Taven, Since 3/2/2013 ROH Wrestling July 27th, 2013 Baltimore, MD TONIGHT: THE END IS FINALLY HERE Match #1: The American Wolves vs. Mike Sydal/Zizou Maddox This happens. Davey keeps trying to give the jobbers offense, and they are so fucking sloppy and inexperienced. The Wolves win with the Double Double Stomps. * A hype video airs for Steel Cage Warfare. Match #2: Kevin Steen/Michael Elgin/Jay Lethal/BJ Whitmer vs. Jimmy Jacobs/Rhino/Rhett Titus/Cliff Compton w/ Steve Corino [Steel Cage Warfare] There is NO good fucking reason for Corino to not be in this. Jimmy at least starts this, so there's someone competent in this for the entire match. BJ Whitmer starts for ROH, and it's these two in a cage, so that rules. Lots of really good punches and chops and cage violence. Rhett is in next, so that blows, but at least this is the end. Elgin is in after that for some good throws. This is where Nigel's bullshit and the entire anti-blood thing ruins a lot of stuff because how THE FUCK do you have an eight man cage match where nobody bleeds? Compton is in next, then Lethal, then Rhino. Steen comes in to clean house and many things happen. CORINO THROWS A FIREBALL AT ELGIN HOLY SHIT! Jacobs eliminates him after that, and it's Jimmy and Steen. That final part rules, so this is basically a turd sandwich in wonderful bread. Corino waves Matt Hardy down and it's 3 on 1. CORINO POURS LIGHTER FLUID ON STEEN, AND JACOBS FINALLY TRIES TO STOP IT, BUT CORINO HITS HIM! NIGEL COMES TO SAVE, AND HITS CORINO WITH THE LARIAT! MATT GETS THE PACKAGE PILEDRIVER, AND THEN JIMMY TOO, AND SCUM IS FINALLY DEAD. Awesome booking on this, but thanks to the array of turds SCUM assembled to ruin the body of this, this was super average. **1/2 |
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| Big Tuna | Aug 8 2014, 02:07 PM Post #46 |
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ROH World Champion: Jay Briscoe, Since 4/5/2013 ROH World Tag Team Champions: reDRagon, Since 3/2/2013 ROH World Television Champion: Matt Taven, Since 3/2/2013 ROH Wrestling August 3rd, 2013 Providence, RI Match #1: Adrenaline Rush vs. 3.0 3.0 are better than the usual showcase match rubes, so this is good. 3.0 has some fun offense, and they also stooge in their usual entertaining manner to let ACH and Tadarius shine. 3.0/2.0 isn't the best when they're asked to be top level type babyfaces, but as supporting players or heels, they're fantastic. ACH hits the Big Bang to win. **1/4 In the ring, Nigel McGuinness says this is unprecedented, but because of the injuries suffered by Jay Briscoe two weeks ago, he's been forced to strip Jay Briscoe of the ROH World Title, and for the first time in 11 years, the title is vacant. He says the war is over and SCUM is dead, and Jay Briscoe was the biggest casualty. He says it was a hard decision and wasn't entirely his decision either, but after how his career was shortened by a bad shoulder and arm injury during his reign, he didn't want the same thing to happen again. Nigel announces a sixteen man tournament for the title that will end at Death Before Dishonor XI in September. He says he's bringing more emphasis to the Tag Titles in the meantime, and reDRagon come out. Bobby Fish says they're big draws so they're here to do him a favor. They have Forever Hooligans tonight, and they're willing to put their titles on the line to save ROH again. Nigel approves it, and the American Wolves come out. Davey says that takes a lot of balls and says they're both NOT in the World Title tournament, because they want the Tag Team Titles. NEXT WEEK: STEEN/ELGIN/CIAMPA VS. WHITMER/WOLVES INSIDE ROH: -Kelly recaps the title being vacated again -Michael Elgin says any man can win one match, but it takes a real man and true champion to win four matches and that's what he's going to do Match #2: Silas Young vs. Adam Page vs. QT Marshall w/ RD Evans [ROH Title Tournament Qualifying Match] This is a match that generally happens. Lots of moves in a short span, and it's not that bad. QT shoves Adam Page off the top to the floor and then Silas cradles him when he gets back in to win and get in the tournament. ** Match #3: reDRagon [c] vs. Forever Hooligans [ROH World Tag Team Championship] This is pretty solid. It's not great because there's too many flawed wrestlers in there, but it's a nice spotfest and there's nothing that awful happening here. reDRagon have it obviously won and go for Chasing the Dragon, but Koslov cuts Fish off before he can hit the probably whiffed kick to the head part, and Romero gets out and into a backslide for the upset title win. **1/2 |
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| Big Tuna | Aug 8 2014, 10:08 PM Post #47 |
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ROH World Champion: Vacant ROH World Tag Team Champions: Forever Hooligans, Since 8/3/2013 ROH World Television Champion: Matt Taven, Since 3/2/2013 ![]() ROH All Star Extravaganza August 3rd, 2013 Toronto, Ontario, Canada Match #1: Adam Page vs. KUSHIDA Fun opener. KUSHIDA was trained and mentored by Tajiri before heading to NJPW, so he's got some solid kicks and a good presence. This is kind of ruined by a crowd guy, as there is a dude in this opening match just hollering at poor Adam Page and KUSHIDA and yelling THIS IS A FUCKING HOUSE SHOW, WHY IS THIS HAPPENING? and YOU'LL NEVER MAKE IT TO THE BIG LEAGUES, YOU FUCKING SUCK AND HE'S GOT SLANTY EYES. They do things, and KUSHIDA hits his Skytwister Press, named the Midnight Express, for the win. **1/4 Apparently there were some 1st round matches on the TV taping in Providence, so some of these Quarterfinal matches are going to spoil stuff on TV. God damnit, ROH. Even when you do so many things right, you can't stop with the basic continuity errors. And also yeah, this building isn't very full. They did alright, but sometimes you see the row of bleaches behind the floor section and it's mostly empty. Not sure why they ran this building, unless the Ted Reeve Arena (their usual Toronto venue) was getting too crowded last time. It's not AS bad as the Hara Arena debacle though, as they at least packed the floor section. Match #2: Tommaso Ciampa vs. Silas Young [ROH Title Tournament - 1st Round] This is fairly obvious for Ciampa, who's on a hot streak lately and super over, but Silas looks good too in defeat. It's not quite great because it's just a lot of stuff and not all of it is particularly amazing, but it's a very good parade of stuff. Ciampa catches Silas off a pop up and hits the Project Ciampa to win. **1/2 Match #3: BJ Whitmer vs. Michael Bennett w/ Maria [ROH Title Tournament - 1st Round] Bennett has now been renamed for some reason. This is the rubber match, and this is where the incident happens. These two have their match again and it's the best of the three due to BJ putting on his best showing since the neck injury at Final Battle 2012, and Bennett hits the Piledriver on the apron. BJ is badly hurt in the neck, and they stop the match. Bennett is awarded the victory. **1/4 Given that BJ was able to come back in 4-5 months, this is either not the broken neck as feared, or a total work. If this was a work, they did a really good job convincing people it was legit, but was probably a bad idea overall. I haven't actually seen the shows yet, but I don't recall him getting more actual heel heat, so much as people disliked him even more, now thinking he's a sloppy fuck who injured a long tenured well liked dude and ended his career. Before the next match, Nigel says Scarlett doesn't have a manager's license while the other one does, so he makes Scarlett sit next to him at commentary. You sly dog. Match #4: Roderick Strong vs. Matt Taven w/ The House of Truth [ROH Title Tournament - 1st Round] Nigel immediately does this the wrong way by rebuking Scarlett's offer of "favors" for the right to be with the rest of the House. This is really good though. Basic heel/face stuff done reasonably well before a good finishing run. Nigel stops Truth from interfering anymore and then Strong moves when Taven charges, and Taven superkicks Truth. Finishing run back inside, and Strong hits the Sick Kick and then the End of Heartache to win. *** Match #5: Michael Elgin vs. Paul London [ROH Title Tournament - 1st Round] This is great. It's more mindless finishing run from the start type stuff from Elgin. It's sort of frustrating because we know he can do more than these types of matches, but he's pretty good at laying these out so big stuff is spaced out and builds up well, so I'd rather have him doing these rather than anyone else in ROH at this point besides maybe Eddie. This is 20 minutes that feels like 10 or 15, so it's hard to complain that much. Some big moments here, and Elgin hits the Buckle Bomb and Spiral Bomb to win. *** Match #5: The Young Bucks vs. Caprice Coleman/Cedric Alexander vs. Adrenaline Rush ALL THESE SPOTS. This is a perfect spot/movefest. Only went about 10 minutes too, so this has the benefits of no overkill and a really hot crowd, in addition to four of the best highspot dudes in US wrestling. Caprice Coleman and Tadarius Thomas are also good, I guess. Bucks do some solid control stuff before it breaks down entirely. People do crazy stuff, and ACH shines in a big way. Probably not surprising that he debuted in PWG a month or two after hanging with the Bucks in an insane spotty finishing run. One of the Bucks gets their knees up on C&C's Overtime, and ACH pulls off the upset with a 450 Splash onto Cedric. *** Match #6: Kevin Steen vs. Brian Kendrick [ROH Title Tournament - 1st Round] Kendrick rarely shows up anywhere these days, but this was like all his showings since he left WWE. He shows up and delivers a super aggressive under 15 minute heel performance and a really tight heel/face type deal. My favorite of these was his PWG match in 2009 where he destroyed Roderick Strong's chop hand. This lacks the same focus, but Kendrick looks like one of the best dudes in the world when he's in control. That's the tragedy of post-WWE Kendrick (not counting TNA) and London, that they wrestle so rarely, but they always look really great and like they have so much to contribute when they do. anyways, Kendrick takes some awesome bumps too, and Steen wins with the Sharpshooter. *** Match #7: Adam Cole vs. Jay Lethal [ROH Title Tournament - Quarterfinals] So obviously both dudes win their first round matches on TV. This is the kind of low level great face/face match you would probably expect from these two. It's not impressive psychologically or anything, but by the end of it, you realize this has been a pretty great match so far. Escalating nearfalls done right, and Cole had a nice moment of playing possum to progress his storyline in 2013. Cole wins with the Florida Key. *** Match #8: Forever Hooligans [c] vs. The American Wolves [ROH World Tag Team Championship] This ends the surprisingly long streak of great matches, as it's an unnecessarily long 27 minutes. A lot of the first half is filler. It's decent enough and they don't do anything like ridiculous limbwork we all know they'll blow off besides Eddie and it's nothing bad, but it's super obvious filler. Finishing run has a mix of good and bad stuff due to some bad Davey stuff, and the Wolves win the titles back with the Powerbomb/Lungblower bombo on Romero. **1/2 |
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| Big Tuna | Aug 8 2014, 11:23 PM Post #48 |
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ROH World Champion: Vacant ROH World Tag Team Champions: The American Wolves, Since 8/3/2013 ROH World Television Champion: Matt Taven, Since 3/2/2013 ROH Wrestling August 10th, 2013 Providence, RI Match #1: Michael Bennett w/ Maria vs. Bob Evans Bob had a surprisingly fun explosion of offense before he got shut down, and it made this better than I expected. Bennett hits the Box Office Smash, and then the TKO for the win. *1/4 Post-match, Bennett finally signs his ROH contract. Cheeseburger tries to save, but Bennett beats him up. Match #2: MsChif vs. Bonesaw Brooks Bonesaw is just a fat black lady who couldn't saw anybody. She's super bad and MsChif eventually wins with the Desecrator. 1/2* INSIDE ROH: -Silas Young talks about his match in the tournament WHICH HE'S ALREADY LOST BY NOW SO WHO GIVES A SHIT -Next week for ROH's 100th episode, it will be Roddy and Lethal doing commentary on some of the best ROH TV matches so far. Holy shit, Roderick commentary for an entire episode. Match #3: Kevin Steen/Michael Elgin/Tommaso Ciampa vs. The American Wolves/BJ Whitmer This is Beej's last match until the end of the year. This is really good for what it is. It's all cool stuff and big moves since ROH as a company has basically abandoned stories in matches seemingly, but Steen and elgin and Eddie are all really good at laying matches out so that everything builds well and has a quality flow. There's too much Davey at the end and meaningless filler to make this go 20-25, so it's not quite great. Elgin beats Davey with the Spiral Bomb. **3/4 |
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| Big Tuna | Aug 9 2014, 01:40 AM Post #49 |
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ROH World Champion: Vacant ROH World Tag Team Champions: The American Wolves, Since 8/3/2013 ROH World Television Champion: Matt Taven, Since 3/2/2013 ROH Wrestling August 17th, 2013 THE INTERNET The matches they show air Generico/Lethal for the TV Title, Briscoes vs. Strong/Elgin, and then the SOTF Finals |
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| Big Tuna | Aug 9 2014, 07:00 PM Post #50 |
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The Master and Ruler Of The World
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ROH World Champion: Vacant ROH World Tag Team Champions: The American Wolves, Since 8/3/2013 ROH World Television Champion: Matt Taven, Since 3/2/2013 ![]() ROH Manhattan Mayhem V August 17th, 2013 The HammerSTEEN Ballroom New York, NY Prince Nana is on commentary tonight, and announce he's an official ROH talent scout now. Match #1: Silas Young vs. Adam Page Fun opener. Not amazing or anything, but it followed the vein of their previous matches well enough with a few cool things, and Silas working the gimmick well. Page has some decent flippy do's and then Silas wins with the Silas Young Corner Moonsault. **1/2 Before the next match, Steve Corino tries to come down to do commentary. Security takes him out since he no longer works here. Match #2: Caprice Coleman/Cedric Alexander vs. Adrenaline Rush [Scramble Rules] This isn't what it could be because the rules mean they can do WHATEVER they want, and two of these guys badly need the structure of tag formula. Also it's only like eight minutes. Still, ACH vs. Cedric is fantastic and they need a singles match asap. C&C end up getting the win over the secondary flippy black team again with the Overdrive on ACH. Not sure why ACH is the fall guy of the team lately. **3/4 Match #3: Matt Taven w/ The House of Truth vs. Mike Mondo Solid enough showcase for the champ. This is one of those matches where Mondo tries super hard and it actually works. Then you get a little bit sad, because if Mondo came in organically and wasn't pushed so hard by Cornette, he might have had a shot to be slowly built up and earn a shot. Then you remember that he's only slightly above average and his spot can be filled by so many people. There's some interference and Taven wins with the Headlock Driver now named The Climax. **1/2 Match #4: The Young Bucks vs. Forever Hooligans The Bucks not surprisingly get the best ROH match out of the Hooligans, but it STILL wasn't great due to how much time the Hooligans waste early on doing meandering opening half stuff that goes nowhere and isn't very good. This was more of a Hooligans match than a Bucks match, but the Bucks fit in better than other teams due to having cooler stuff to offer. Finishing run happened, and the Hooligans won with the Contract Killer. **3/4 The team of Marshall Law comes out and RD Evans says there is injustice happening in ROH. RD cites how Nigel failed to deal with MsChif for injuring Veda Scott, and then says another injustice is how they aren't booked and demand a match. Prince Nana gets up and in the ring. He repeats that he is the new talent scout, and his first two acquisitions will end them. Two dudes in shirts and ties and shitty clown masks attack them, AND IT'S HOMICIDE AND EDDIE KINGSTON! This is NYC, so they could have just come out with the sirens and got a HUGE pop. Match #5: Homicide/Eddie Kingston vs. Marshall Law This immediately gets fucked up by ROH being so stupid about little things. It's Homicide and Eddie Kingston. That's one of the most violent dudes in ROH history and one of the most violent guys outside of ROH for the last generation of indies, and instead of running through a jobber team, they work a normal five minute formula tag, and immediately look far lesser and less dangerous for even having these goons put up a fight. Kingston beats Marshall with the Sliding D. Nana dubs them Outlaw Inc. *3/4 They shake hands post-match, but Homicide breaks RD Evans' finger instead. Match #6: Tommaso Ciampa vs. Michael Bennett [ROH Title Tournament - Quarterfinals] This is the best Bennett singles match I've ever seen. It's not great because holy shit can he still kill a crowd on a control segment. He works on the leg of Ciampa with some super generic stuff, and the very goodness of this is pretty much all Ciampa. He has some awesome attacks before the knee stuff, and then some good sells of the knee too. He hits an Air Raid Crash on the floor and then rolls him in for the win. **3/4 It is now Ciampa/Cole in the semi-finals. Match #7: Kevin Steen vs. Roderick Strong [ROH Title Tournament - Quarterfinals] This is basically the thing about when two great wrestlers meet and do stuff, it'll be a great match. They throw big bombs for 12-13 minutes, and it's great because Steen is really good about reigning in Strong and laying this out so it's the best possible match they could have at the time. Steen blocks the End of Heartache and hits the Package Piledriver for the win. *** Match #8: Michael Elgin vs. Karl Anderson [ROH Title Tournament - Quarterfinals] This is a lot alike their match from May, but just generally better. They do more here, living up to the promise their first match seemed to have. The crowd is hotter too, because this is a one-off show and not a long TV taping. And then yeah, the actual stuff they do is cooler here, and it's the same type of Elgin match we've seen a lot in 2013. I would like to see him change it up soon, because there's a real risk of this becoming stale eventually. But it works for now. Elgin gets his win back with the buckle bomb and then Spiral Bomb for the win. *** The other semi-final is now Steen/Elgin II. Real good job here, as the semi-finals are a match between two hot up and comers and then a rematch of a super highly acclaimed match from 2012. Match #9: The American Wolves [c] vs. reDRagon [ROH World Tag Team Championship] Blegh. This is very much just a thing. It's WAY too long at 27 minutes, and so much of that is filler. Eddie is the only one in this who seems to understand anything about match construction and the idea of storytelling instead of shitty kicks and matwork that goes nowhere. Like halfway through, they target Davey's arm. He sort of sells it. The one good part of this is taken out with a bump through the timekeeper's table. Davey is all alone. THE DRAMA. He kicks out of lots of stuff and then taps out to the Cross Armbreaker from Kyle to drop the belts back. This was the worst of their three matches. ** |
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| Big Tuna | Aug 9 2014, 09:11 PM Post #51 |
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The Master and Ruler Of The World
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ROH World Champion: Vacant ROH World Tag Team Champions: reDRagon, Since 8/17/2013 ROH World Television Champion: Matt Taven, Since 3/2/2013 ROH Wrestling August 24th, 2013 Providence, RI Match #1: Vinny Marseglia vs. Bryan Fury vs. Kongo vs. Hanson [TV Title #1 Contender's Match] Why? They are all either pretty green or bad. Kongo is a super fat vaguely islandish dude in half face paint. We've seen Marseglia before on the show as a jobber, and he's not much. Hanson looks like peak Mike Knox physically AND DOES A TOPE SUICIDA. FUCK IT, HE'S COOL. This still blew though. Of course, because he actually showed promise he doesn't get to win. Fury beats Vinny with a Black Tornado Slam. Lame. 3/4* Match #2: Caprice Coleman/Cedric Alexander vs. Mike Sydal/Zizou Maddox This is very much a thing. C&C do stuff, and win with the Overtime. *1/4 INSIDE ROH: -Steve Corino tries to come on the set and said he's contracted and Kevin tells him to talk to Nigel -Death Before Dishonor XI is announced for 9/20 in Philadelphia -Coleman and Cedric says not to forget about them, and ask for a fair chance and Cedric says you don't have to bring in all these teams when the next Tag Team Champions are already right here -The switch from Hooligans to Wolves back to reDRagon is shown -Kelly asks Adam Cole about the criticism he's gotten lately. Adam says for weeks, all he's talked about is wins and losses, and asks if he was supposed to throw Roddy back in the ring or let Roddy hit him with the chain. He says he did what he had to do. Kelly asks about Corino and Adam Cole says he has no allegiances to him professionally, but when a veteran like that offers him advice, of course he's going to take it, and he's not focused on that, he's focused on the ROH Title and nothing anybody else has to say. Match #3: Jay Lethal vs. Sonjay Dutt [ROH Title Tournament - 1st Round] I'd complain that the 8/3 show spoiled this match, but it's not like they were going to let a one-off like Dutt actually advance. It was stupid to bring him in for that reason and because he sucks. At least with Brian Kendrick, he's a great wrestler and was in the first ROH Title tournament in 2002. This proves that TNA didn't hold their feud back at all, because it was never going to be a good match because holy shit, Sonjay Dutt is so bad. Lethal tried, but yeah, not happening. Lots of shitty sloppy stuff, and Lethal wins with the Lethal Injection. *1/2 |
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| Big Tuna | Aug 9 2014, 10:05 PM Post #52 |
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ROH World Champion: Vacant ROH World Tag Team Champions: reDRagon, Since 8/17/2013 ROH World Television Champion: Matt Taven, Since 3/2/2013 ROH Wrestling August 31st, 2013 Providence, RI Match #1: Matt Taven [c] w/ The House of Truth vs. Bryan Fury [ROH World Television Championship] This is a showcase match disguised as a title match, since there is no doubt at all who wins. Hence even more of the stupidity of giving it to four jobbery jobbers instead of actually using this to bring someone in. At least they don't try and make this too long. Taven wins with The Climax. *1/4 In the back, Mark Briscoe says he ain't no casualty and says he done recuperated from this concussion. He's coming tonight for pretty Adam Cole, and that title is coming back to the Briscoe house where it shoulda been all this time for the last month. Michael Elgin comes out and he gets on the mic. He says his words about how he's going to win the ROH Title. Kevin Steen comes out and says he doesn't know if he's seen the bracket yet, but they're in the same block, and that means that not only will he not win, but he won't even make it to the finals, because he's the only man in ROH lately that knows how to beat Michael Elgin, and that's what he and his stupid mullet should be afraid of. Elgin says he beat him 10 months ago, but he had to hit a piledriver off the top to do it, and he can't do it again. PORDIGY and Maria come out and Steen says HEY IT'S MARIA EVERYBODY AND SOME GUY WITH HER. Bennett says to make jokes and says the two of them get title shots and opportunities all the time and it's his time now. He says he's the future of ROH, and Tommaso Ciampa comes out. He stares them all down and announces himself as the next champion. He leaves and referees make everyone else leave. Match #2: Karl Anderson vs. ACH [ROH Title Tournament - 1st Round] THIS KILLS IT. Really perfect kind of underdog match based around ACH. Karl had some cool spots here and there and certainly held up his end, but you could have plugged most generally talented veteran types into this and it would have been awesome due to ACH. Great bumping and some amazing comebacks. DAT DIVE happens and then a surprisingly good finishing run given that we've known who wins this for two weeks. Anderson eventually hits the Gun Stun for the win. *** Match #3: Adam Cole vs. Mark Briscoe [ROH Title Tournament - 1st Round] Despite how we all know the result, this is still real good stuff. The story here is that Mark is still clearly hurt and came back too soon. Cole's offense usually goes to the head anyways, so this works out really well mostly. Mark's selling goes between logical stuff with some good ideas and over the top theatrical, which was a little off putting. The referee tries to keep Cole back while Mark gets up, but Cole shows the aggression again with a Superkick as he gets up, and then hits a Jay Driller for the win. **3/4 |
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| Big Tuna | Aug 9 2014, 11:42 PM Post #53 |
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ROH World Champion: Vacant ROH World Tag Team Champions: reDRagon, Since 8/17/2013 ROH World Television Champion: Matt Taven, Since 3/2/2013 ![]() ROH The Road to Greatness Night 1 September 6th, 2013 Chatanooga, TN Match #1: Roderick Strong vs. Raymond Rowe Rowe looks a lot better here than he did in his last appearance. He has a great look as a big thick dude with a massive beard, a lot like Hanson, so it's no wonder they got teamed up in 2014. Rowe throws some awesome forearms and moves really fast. Strong then made a good comeback for the finishing run, and fuck it, this is a surprisingly great match. The local impressed a lot and they got in and out before they wore out their welcome. Strong hits the Death by Roderick and Sick Kick to win. *** Match #2: Adrenaline Rush vs. Alabama Attitude This is alright. AA are pretty decent, but they're in kind of an annoying spot. They're good enough to deserve an occasional spot as local talent, but not quite good enough to deserve any kind of spot full time and them for 10 minutes is kind of pushing it. Still, ACH and TD are pretty fun. TD hits a sweet Bridging Half Nelson Suplex to win. ** There's some angle with QT Marshall and a local DJ. Veda Scott now manages QT, and is a heel all of a sudden. Okay then. Cheeseburger comes to the defense of the local DJ and a match happens. Match #3: Cheeseburger vs. QT Marshall w/ Veda Scott Cheeseburger is over as fuck, but he is not very good, and this is an overlong squash. QT wins with God's Gift. 3/4* Match #4: Davey Richards vs. Matt Taven w/ The House of Truth This goes 17 minutes and that is probably too long, but it got going eventually. Taven is pretty decent in a midcard spot. He's capable of some cool stuff physically, but isn't good enough to build anything by himself beyond a basic level, which usually means Davey would force him into something shitty, but Davey has a surprising amount of focus in the finishing run on the leg of Taven with the Ankle Locks actually being repeated instead of a thing he does after a suplex for no reason. He survived the interference and then hit a Double Stomp to the ankle off the top before putting the Ankle Lock back on for the tap out. Not a great match, but better than anyone intelligent probably could have expected. **3/4 Match #5: Jay Lethal vs. Luke Hawx You may remember him from WSX or his early-mid 2000s indy career as Altar Boy Luke. He was always horrible and is still horrible and this goes 10 minutes and is SO bad. Lethal doesn't know how to carry or guide anyone, and works his usual face/face match, completely unaware of how badly this is dying or how completely out of his depth Luke is. Jay Lethal may be an actual robot. Jay finally ends it with the Lethal Injection. 3/4* Match #6: Bobby Fish vs. Caprice Coleman WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS?! Both partners are on the floor, and this is pretty shitty. Caprice Coleman is a blank slate completely and will generally be as good or bad as the opponent. So when he faces the worst wrestler employed by ROH or any company that makes actual TV or any form of PPV, Bobby Fish, this is a bad match. Fish is a great character as an obnoxious faux-intellectual jerk, and if he was just Kyle's manager, it would be a better act. His strikes are all hit or miss, there's not real aggression like there should be, etc. Coleman at least makes the finishing run decent with some highspots. Fish hits a head kick to win, and finally connects this time at least. *1/4 Match #7: Kyle O'Reilly vs. Cedric Alexander This is much better, but still has problems. It's too long for them as they run out of interesting stuff to do with about 3-5 minutes left out of the 17-18 this gets. Kyle has decent arm work again, but suffers from his usual problem of just fucking forgetting about the arm work to do other stuff. I've heard the defense that this is realism because you can't always go back to it, but he's on offense a lot AND HOLY SHIT, THIS ISN'T REAL. THERE ARE PRE-ESTABLISHED RULES. YOU WOULDN'T FUCKING IRISH WHIP A PERSON IN REAL LIFE EITHER. Anyways, Ced's selling is okay, but he also forgets about it by the end, and they don't do cool enough stuff to make up for this. Also, Kyle goes back to it at the end with the Cross Armbreaker to win. So hey, I guess C&C aren't getting any title shots then. **1/2 Match #8: Kevin Steen/Michael Elgin vs. Adam Cole/Tommaso Ciampa This was disappointing, and sort of just happened. They killed a ton of time doing stuff in a kind of house show mode, which is fine, but then why even hold a show at this point if the main eventers are holding back for the iPPV? Steen gets in finally at the end and the match lights up a lot, since his force of personality winds up lighting things up even if he doesn't intend to. Steen/Cole is very good, and Steen wins with the Package Piledriver. **3/4 Post-match, Cole refuses to shake Steen's hand, since he lost. |
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| Big Tuna | Aug 9 2014, 11:44 PM Post #54 |
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ROH World Champion: Vacant ROH World Tag Team Champions: reDRagon, Since 8/17/2013 ROH World Television Champion: Matt Taven, Since 3/2/2013 ROH Wrestling September 7th, 2013 Toronto, Ontario, Canada Ciampa vs. Silas opens the show. Then Bennett/Whitmer. And Elgin/London is the main event. |
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| Big Tuna | Aug 11 2014, 05:23 PM Post #55 |
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I accidentally loaded Netflix up in this window and not another one. I went back and fucking bullshit communist ZetaBoards didn't save my review of Night 2 of this b-show weekend, and I was in the middle of the main event. So, fuck it. Tommaso Ciampa vs. Luke Hawx - *1/2 Kevin Steen vs. QT Marshall - ** Michael Elgin vs. Raymond Rowe - *** Davey Richards vs. Mike Bennett - ** Jay Lethal vs. Matt Taven - **1/2 reDRagon vs. Adrenaline Rush vs. C&C vs. Alabama Attitude - **1/2 Adam Cole vs. Roderick Strong [Ringmaster's Challenge] - ***1/4 -Cole wins the iron man part of this 2-1, and actively runs the clock out at the end to hang onto his lead in another great heel leaning tactic. |
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| Big Tuna | Aug 11 2014, 05:27 PM Post #56 |
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ROH World Champion: Vacant ROH World Tag Team Champions: reDRagon, Since 8/17/2013 ROH World Television Champion: Matt Taven, Since 3/2/2013 ROH Wrestling September 14th, 2013 Toronto, Ontario, Canada Roderick Strong vs. Matt Taven airs. Then Steen vs. Kendrick. Then Cole vs. Lethal ends the show. |
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| Big Tuna | Aug 11 2014, 11:54 PM Post #57 |
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ROH World Champion: Vacant ROH World Tag Team Champions: reDRagon, Since 8/17/2013 ROH World Television Champion: Matt Taven, Since 3/2/2013 ![]() ROH DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR XI SEPTEMBER 20TH, 2013 PHILADELPHIA, PA Jay Briscoe comes out to open the show with the ROH Title, and holy shit, he looks fucking INSANE. His beard and hair are both grown out and he's in a baggy Carhartt t-shirt, jeans, and hunting boots (with one pant leg tucked in). Jay asks if they wanna hear some shit and says you've gotta work hard to be successful, and the harder you work, the better off you're gonna be. A company is only as good as its workers and 11 years ago, this company opened down the road at the Murphy Rec, and he's spent his adult life busting his ass to make this company the best damn company it could be. He asks why he can't defend his shit with one arm when Nigel defended his with no arms, but Nigel's only the fall guy and this ain't his fault. From the bottom of his heart, he thinks this is bullshit, but he can't live in the past and not look forward. He says if the new champion wins this bitch like a man, then he'll have to come down and hand this bitch over. He says as soon as he's cleared to wrestle, he's getting a shot, but until then, all four guys better man up. Match #1: Jay Lethal vs. Silas Young Neither of these guys is really doing much because ROH forgot what undercard feuds were at a point in 2013. Jay Lethal is now doing a stupid variation on Big Bossman's slide out punch spot where he does a dropkick instead. It's not like Lethal will probably ever earn a gig bigger than ROH, so whatever, but it's still pretty dumb. Silas is pretty average again, since he only ever tried hard trying to earn a job, I guess. Lethal average's it right up with him, so this goes back and forth between dull and exciting. Lethal wins with the Lethal Injection. **1/4 Match #2: Adam Cole vs. Tommaso Ciampa [ROH Title Tournament - Semi-Finals] THIS RULED. They waste zero time with hard strikes and Cole does a Tope Suicida maybe 30 seconds in. Ciampa hits a sweet Ole Ole Knee. They slow it down some in the middle, and I have the thought that what made Ciampa a killer midcarder in 2012 kind of holds him back in 2013 as a top guy. He stood out huge amongst most of the Cornette jerk off hires because he was actually intense and violent, but working longer stuff makes you realize he's not much more than a guy who works super stiff, despite that he can do some quality knee sells. This is probably the reason all his PWG matches have sucked, because he has more freedom there. In ROH, he's less free and reigned in more, except for a few matches. When he's pushed, Cole goes after the bad leg. Ciampa fights it and can hit Project Ciampa, but he can't get up again after that. Cole superkicks his knee a lot and puts on the Figure Four. He uses the freer leg to kick Ciampa in the head a bunch too in a real cool spot, and he gets knocked out and pinned. *** Match #3: Kevin Steen vs. Michael Elgin [ROH Title Tournament - Semi-Finals] This was SUPER disappointing. They sort of listlessly traded stuff. I know the hot crowd helped them a good deal in their 2012 match, but they also put a lot more into that one, physically. Elgin has to work twice, but then maybe they should have done what Cole and Ciampa did, and went nuts for 10 minutes instead of an average 20 minute match. Elgin keeps going to a Crossface, and gets out of a Package Piledriver into the Crossface, and Steen taps. It seems like the bubble has burst on Elgin for the time being, so ROH made the right call with the result of the tournament. **1/2 Elgin favors his neck after the match. Match #4: Forever Hooligans [c] vs. The American Wolves [IWGP Junior Tag Team Championship] This is again a match that happens. All three of these matches have basically been the same. Opening goes nowhere, there's some decent control stuff from the Hooligans, but nothing special or with any manner of focus. Finishing run has some super fun stuff again, but it's not really anything new. If they left this at just the match from March, this might be better thought of and not Rocky Romero again proving his unyielding averageness and mediocrity. They beat Davey with the Contract Killer. **1/2 RD Evans and Veda Scott come out after intermission, and RD has an open challenge that Adam Page accepts. Match #5: Adam Page vs. RD Evans w/ Veda Scott This is like a minute, and Page hits a Jig n' Tonic for the win. 1/2* Match #6: Roderick Strong vs. Ricky Marvin Hey, Ricky Marvin! He was super awesome in NOAH in the 2000s. He is now fatter and older, but that happens to a lot of Mexican wrestlers. The crowd is kind of dead for this, but they eventually wake them up with a great 10 minute parade of cool spots. Roddy throws it back with the Death by Roderick, Sick Kick, and Gibson Driver in a row for the win. Not totally sure why they brought Marvin back. Dude was solid enough, but no more than most other competent guys of his level. **3/4 In the ring, Nigel McGuinness brings out BJ Whitmer for an update on his condition. BJ thanks anyone who sent well wishes and he thanks Les Thatcher for being his trainer and since this is his speech, he's sorry, but he also has to say thank you to Gabe Sapolsky for giving him the opportunity in ROH. That gets a weirdly large cheer. He says he's going to step away and end his in-ring career, and thanks ROH for the opportunity to end his career with this last year and a half and not the way he went out originally five years ago. He warns Nigel that he asked someone to be here for this and it's a loose end he has to tie up face to face, and asks Jimmy Jacobs to come to the ring. He comes from the crowd into the ring and says there's never been a more violent feud in ROH than theirs and thanks him for being at his side when he was in the hospital not knowing if he would walk again. He says he has more heart than anyone he's ever met and has a favor to ask of Nigel. He says he's asking Nigel to give Jimmy a shot to prove that he's honorable and points out that Jimmy Jacobs stopped Steve Corino at the end of Steel Cage Warfare. Nigel says he's caught him off guard and then tells Jimmy to show up to the TV taping tomorrow with his gear. BJ and Jimmy then shake hands for the first time in like 7 years. Match #7: Caprice Coleman/Cedric Alexander/Adrenaline Rush vs. reDRagon/Michael Bennett/Matt Taven w/ Everyone This happens. All the heels make sure to put on a super boring and average first two-third where nothing interesting or relevant to a story of any note happens. Highspots happen at the end as the flippy dudes get to do a lot of stuff. ACH hits the crazy dive and C&C hit Kyle with Overtime for a win over the champs. ** Post-match, Kyle and Fish attack them. Outlaw Inc. makes the save and runs of reDRagon, and I guess they're faces now? This is all very messy. They invade commentary and yell that they want the titles. Match #8: Adam Cole vs. Michael Elgin [ROH Title Tournament - Finals] Kevin Kelly tries to claim Adam Cole went to an ROH show when he was 9, had a dream, and is now 23-24 and about to do it. And yet you just had an 11th Anniversary Show this year. MATH IS IMPORTANT. As for the match, this shouldn't have been 26 minutes given that they had like 15 minutes of cool stuff. Elgin comes in holding his neck, but they don't focus on that at all. Cole works the knee briefly, but they also abandoned this match. This match is really upsetting because they clearly have better stuff in them. The first 10ish minutes are all back and forth filler and then they have a good finishing run. The crowd doesn't care, but they didn't give them anything to care about here either. Camera work was pretty shitty too, really exposing a lot of the leg slapping behind a lot of the striking sounds. It's one of those things you know is happening, but if you're not getting slapped in the face with it, it's easy to ignore. They trade big moves and the crowd comes alive for that. Without a lot of drama, Cole hits another Florida Key to win the title. **1/2 Jay Briscoe comes out to hand the title over. He shakes his hand and turns to leave, AND COLE SUPERKICKS JAY IN THE BACK OF THE HEAD! He then hits Elgin with the title and celebrates with the belt to complete the heel turn. That's pretty weird, why would he turn heel AFTER winning the title and getting everything he wanted? Either do it in the match or during defenses like Danielson did in 2005. |
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| Big Tuna | Aug 11 2014, 11:58 PM Post #58 |
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ROH World Champion: Adam Cole, Since 9/20/2013 ROH World Tag Team Champions: reDRagon, Since 8/17/2013 ROH World Television Champion: Matt Taven, Since 3/2/2013 ROH Wrestling September 21st, 2013 New York, NY Ciampa vs. Bennett airs first. Then Strong vs. Steen. Then Elgin/Anderson II in the main event. |
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| Big Tuna | Aug 12 2014, 12:11 AM Post #59 |
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ROH World Champion: Adam Cole, Since 9/20/2013 ROH World Tag Team Champions: reDRagon, Since 8/17/2013 ROH World Television Champion: Matt Taven, Since 3/2/2013 ROH Wrestling September 28th, 2013 Philadelphia, PA Cole vs. Ciampa opens the show in clipped form. Steen vs. Elgin then airs. |
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| Big Tuna | Aug 12 2014, 09:22 PM Post #60 |
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ROH World Champion: Adam Cole, Since 9/20/2013 ROH World Tag Team Champions: reDRagon, Since 8/17/2013 ROH World Television Champion: Matt Taven, Since 3/2/2013 ![]() ROH A New Dawn September 28th, 2013 Hopkins, MN Adam Cole comes out for the customary new champion promo, and is in a suit. He says he's the real world champion, not Jay Briscoe or Michael Elgin, and he beat two men in one night to win the most important title in all of pro wrestling, and he became a man. He'll do whatever he has to do to be the best. Cole says there's an Honor Rumble tonight for a title shot later on, but nobody can ever take this away from him. He says whoever the winner is will leave this town a loser, because he's going to beat them just like he beat Michael Elgin. He says Elgin makes excuse after excuse, but he will always be #2 to his #1. He says Jay Briscoe is the one who couldn't MAN UP like him, and he's just a little bitch. JAY BRISCOE COMES OUT ASKING WHO HE'S CALLING A BITCH! Adam runs away and says they do things on his terms from now on. Jay says as soon as he's cleared, he's in the cross hairs and he's taking his belt back. Match #1: reDRagon vs. Monster Mafia [Ethan Page/Josh Alexander] MM are super generic, so this is a match that ABSOLUTELY takes place. I definitely watched this happen, and I have no recollection of anything they did. Alexander and Page had some decent spots in the finishing run but they don't bring a whole lot to the table. Of course, they offer more than Bobby Fish because their strikes at least connect. Kyle is again the best dude in a really shitty match while having a ceiling of average himself most times. Chasing the Dragon ends it. *3/4 Match #2: Mark Briscoe vs. Silas Young This is a decent eight minutes. It's mostly back and forth and while there's some good ideas, they never really get going with anything besides a decent match before Mark jumps off the top and into a sunset flip for the win. **1/4 Post-match, Silas attacks Mark and his injured head or whatever. Match #3: Michael Elgin/Jay Lethal vs. Adrenaline Rush Something awesome happens. Really godo 15 minutes. TD and ACH get to do a whole lot, but eventually get isolated because of Elgin's power. Big finishing run and while they could have used more offense by the young guys, especially ACH, it wasn't TOO one sided. Elgin catches ACH and hits the buckle bomb and Spiral Bomb again for the win. No idea why ACH is in this position while Bobby Fish and Matt Taven hold titles. *** Match #4: The Honor Rumble This is again not good. Rumbles shouldn't be that hard to lay out, but ROH fails every single time. There's again no real story or feud highlighted during this. Jay Lethal goes the distance again, and he's not expressive enough (read: at all) to get anything out of an endurance run. Also, this is only 25 minutes. ROH keeps trying to half-ass this match. If you're gonna do a Rumble, fucking commit to it and don't try to be half pregnant. Mark Briscoe eliminates Robert Fish last with kung fu, and Mark gets the title shot. *3/4 Match #5: Eddie Edwards vs. Michael Bennett w/ Maria By now, Eddie and Davey are doing tryouts and shopping around and trying to get out of ROH. So thusly, they're being jobbed out because ROH got petty with them and nobody else about this. But then ROH hasn't had any idea how to actually use Eddie Edwards on his own since like 2012, so it's not too surprising. Really weird that a company priding itself on pure wrestling theoretically cannot find a real place for Mr. Consistency. Anyways, this is a bag of whatever. Maria botches tripping Eddie, so they run it again and she gets it right and PORDIGY hits a Poyledriver to win. ** Since it hasn't aired yet, I should recap. Nigel is giving Jimmy Jacobs a five match trial series. If he wins more than he loses, he gets his job back AND a title shot in Dearborn in November. This is billed as in his hometown, despite it being again on the other side of the state as Grand Rapids. Wrestling promotions assume all of Michigan is within a 50 mile radius of Detroit, which should be proven wrong any number of times ROH has run the state since 2005. Match #6: Kevin Steen vs. Jimmy Jacobs [Trial Series - Match #2] Jacobs is 1-0 so far. This is only four and a half minutes, but is AMAZING. It's like ROH's version of Owen/Kid at KOTR 94 in that it's constant action, but there's still some hint of a story with the big/small thing. Both men take some dangerous stuff like Steen hitting a Fallaway Slam into the railing or Jimmy hitting the spear off the apron to send Steen bouncing off the timekeeper's table instead of through it. Finishers back in, and Steen hits the Package Piledriver for the win. *** Post-match, Bennett comes out and hits Steen with his Piledriver. UGH. Match #7: Matt Taven [c] w/ The House of Truth vs. Roderick Strong vs. Davey Richards [ROH World Television Championship] This was generally just a match. A lot of moves happened and it was alright, but nothing special, like this show and a lot of fall 2013 ROH so far. There's some good nearfalls and a lot of House of Truth interference. Davey puts the muscley girl from HoT into the ankle lock, but then Taven schoolboys Davey out of that and gets the pin to retain. They seemed like they were doing the right thing with Taven over the summer, but it's back to stuff now that does him no real favors. **1/2 Match #8: Adam Cole [c] vs. Mark Briscoe [ROH World Championship] This is only 11 minutes, so that helps this a lot. Kevin Kelly now rightly says Cole went to an ROH show at the age of 13, which means that while technically correct now, he's grown 4 years since the story was first told. Cole is significantly lesser as a babyface, because he's in that camp of dudes that thinks it has to mean slower and boring. That works if you're actually good at the kind of slow pounding and chinlocks type Orton/Flair/peak Triple H type steal, but holy shit, he is not. He has a certain heel charisma with his hateable pretty face and fucking smirk, but it doesn't translate so well to the ring here. I'm not writing it off yet, because this is a b-show, but yeah. Mark has a decent comeback and shit ,and Cole wins with the Floriday Key. **3/4 Post-match, Jay Briscoe tries to come out, but security holds him back. Michael Elgin then also comes out to run Cole off. |
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6:53 PM Jul 10