Tony Khan Buys ROH

[TheBurningRed]

Is Honor Club worth getting? I see the app is on the fire stick but I’d want to know how good the quality it is running the older shows etc before making a purchase. 

[Fatty Facesitter]

👍 Eddie K’s promo - Heartfelt, logical reflection on the Cesaro match, almost a conversation rather than a promo. As real as it gets. Love the uncut nature of his words (the piece is heavily edited with video bells and whistles but the actually dialogue has all the mumbles, stumbles, new trains of thought, etc). 

👍 Shibata/Coughlin vs Workhorseman - Really enjoyed this one. Two top moments - Shibabta breaking up a submission and then kicking his own partner in the chest to get him to stop fucking about (😂) and Coughlin lifting up his opponent into a suplex from a seated position on the mat. Lovely jubbly. 

👍 Athena with another onslaught of violence and gobbing off at the crowd, security etc. Tidy. “Welcome to Ring of Honor, bitch!” @JLM will have enjoyed this one. 

👍 The Joel Gertner-esque intros from Mark Sterling for Davari “He’s got more cars than the people in this crowd have teeth!” 🦷🚗 and Nese “He hails from an actual island, strong island New York!” 

👍 Other good matches/angles - Briscoe vs Davari was a solid opener, Bennett vs Martin was short but hard-hitting, Yuta vs Williams was a little ripper, Grayson vs Nese was decent as well (also it will be interesting to see if Grayson joins up with the Righteous), main event was fine even though you didn’t feel like the title was ever in jeopardy. Also, more promos and angle advancement this week which is something I moaned about last week. 

👍 Willow Nightingale is my other half’s new favourite wrestler and called her ‘pleasantly plump’ 

👎 Sky Blue? More like…Sky GREEN AM I RIGHT?!?!? 

Overall - Another decent show bell to bell with some more promos and angle advancement this week compared to last. The Shibata tag and Eddie’s promo are probably the two main bits to check out but lots to enjoy overall.

[ReturnOfTheMack]

I want to like Sky Blue, I really do. 

[Fatty Facesitter]

5 hours ago, ReturnOfTheMack said:

I want to like Sky Blue, I really do. 

Me too. She’s young though and will hopefully improve with more matches against experienced opponents. I can see potential there even if she’s a bit raw at the minute. 

[JLM]

Loving this show, it's hitting a nice sweet spot for me as a compliment to the main shows. More meat on it than Dark/Elevation but an easier watch than the flagship shows. I don't think I've praised the Riccaboni Coleman partnership before either. Riccaboni is like Mauro dialled down several notches. He has a perfect voice for commentary, he knows his shit inside and out and he tells the stories but usually maintains his serious/sports broadcaster style. Despite that I don't find him boring and he has good chemistry with Caprice. Caprice for his part does a nice blend of colour and pundit-style analysis, which is exactly what the former wrestler should be doing. Taz/Excalibur is still my favourite duo but these two do a consistently excellent job. 

Agreed on the Skye Blue match being a low point. She needs the reps but for a subscription show I don't think there should be straight up Youtube show matches on the card. Same with the Willow match. 

Shibata a highlight once again. What a perfect entrance theme he has too. Could not be more fitting. The most stoic and zen man with a hidden fire inside him. As @Fatty Facesitter  mentioned, the highlight was Coughlin being stuck in a submission and Shibata's response. Watching for an age giving his trainee a chance to get out of it himself. Then the anger and disappointment at realising he wasn't going to, then looking resigned and pissed off that he was going to have to break it up, then giving Coughlin a boot as penance for his failure. So fucking good. Coughlin also got to redeem himself later when Shibata made a mistake and ate a big double team and had to be saved by Coughlin.

The Workhorseman are also ideal for this show. They are incapable of having a bad match and I'd be happy to see any tag team against them.

Alex Coughlin has a fantastic look and the insane beefy hoss power to match it. Never seen him before but man he was impressive throwing JD Drake about, the deadlift gut wrench suplex especially. Also that vertical suplex from a seated position up to standing was outrageous.

Also loved the way they broke down the match ups; Coughlin has the power to match JD Drake but he gets out-wrestled by Anthony Henry. Shibata can out-wrestle Henry but Drake is a problem for him and he keeps losing the numbers game. Then in the end, Coughlin takes out Drake permanently and it leaves Henry 1 vs 1 against Shibata, and it's game over immediately. 

This is way too much rambling for a ten minute TV match but god damn it was a lot of fun. Shibata vs Coughlin will be great.

Yuta match was a belter. He's a funny one to place for me. He's great as the little shithead in BCC and he has a very weird vibe on the microphone where it's hard to get behind him when he's being a babyface. When he's in a match like this though it's hard not to root for him. You can tell he's having a blast when he's against an opponent who meshes with hm and he has really good fire. He really felt like an athlete celebrating a hard fought win at the end. I think the heel role suits him at the moment anyway, maybe needs a slightly less heroic sounding theme song though. 

Kingston doing some real analysis of the match as well as taking the loss on the chin was fantastic stuff. Nothing feels more real than Kingston in this kind of setting, and establishing that he is taking notes from his losses as well as being mad about them is a perfect addition to his character. The man is proudly the biggest wrestling nerd, so it makes sense for his character, but also shows how seriously he's taking Ring of Honour when this move has been perceived as a demotion or punishment for him. 

The Righteous are intriguing so far. Sort of Manson cult/Evangelical nutter mash up. Early Wyatt family feel to the promos, except they also clearly stated what their intentions are so there is direction and a story. It's possible to do both! 

Don't know what more I can say about Athena.  Caprice's call of the week "she is cancelling her Christmas, going straight to Easter with every one of those kicks Riccaboni!" Ashley Damboise was great too. Very game opponent, bumped like a champ, had a lot of sauce behind the small amount of offense she got in. I didn't realise that lasting until a time limit draw against the champ also gets you the shot in an eliminator match. Think they could have a lot of fun with that, if Athena finds an opponent who gets a shot purely by refusing to die it could do wonders for them. I eagerly await Athena's next proper challenger. 

Fine main event but was hard to get invested in a filler defense for Claudio. Again I think for a paid subscription show the main event should be something a bit more substantial. I know it's their top title being defended but I'd rather see something like a number one contender's match get the main event spot as there are real stakes to it. 

Still enjoyed the show overall once again. Always at least a couple of highlights, the match ups are usually well chosen and will create some sleeper hits, and anything else isn't given a chance to outstay its welcome. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 18, 2023 by JLM

[Infinity Land]

Really hoping there's a return to the studio soon. Post-Supercard things have devolved into Dark/Elevation. Matches for matches sake with little carry over from episode to episode.

The studio tapings had more in-ring promos and video packages that would help break up otherwise meaningless matches. One episode would have at least some segments that would build to the following episode.

 

[gmoney]

Just watched Takeshita go about 20 minutes with Lee Moriarty. I can't really complain about the athleticism, but it was laid out like epic PPV main event - it wasn't even the main event of this show. With Lee Moriarty of all people kicking out of sick looking head drops. And because it was Moriarty there was near silence for his near falls. Very strange booking. 

[DavidB6937]

25 minutes ago, gmoney said:

Just watched Takeshita go about 20 minutes with Lee Moriarty. I can't really complain about the athleticism, but it was laid out like epic PPV main event - it wasn't even the main event of this show. With Lee Moriarty of all people kicking out of sick looking head drops. And because it was Moriarty there was near silence for his near falls. Very strange booking. 

Sounds like a true ROH match.

[LaGoosh]

5 hours ago, gmoney said:

Just watched Takeshita go about 20 minutes with Lee Moriarty. I can't really complain about the athleticism, but it was laid out like epic PPV main event - it wasn't even the main event of this show. With Lee Moriarty of all people kicking out of sick looking head drops. And because it was Moriarty there was near silence for his near falls. Very strange booking. 

All of Takeshita's matches are like this.

[gmoney]

I guess so. I feel like they're usually against worthwhile opponents though. This was completely ridiculous against such a jobber. 

Edited April 22, 2023 by gmoney

[Infinity Land]

Moriarty isn't really seen as a jobber in AEW, certainly not ROH. He's in that group of Garcia and Yuta that are seen as prospects. He's just had those competitive losses to OC and Darby.

Thankfully they've announced a weekend of tapings start of May back at Universal studios. It's not the greatest, but it's far better than the on the road tapings.

 

[Fatty Facesitter]

Overall - 11 matches is far, far too many for this length of a broadcast and as a result there were a ton of skippable elements this week. Two weeks ago I commented on the lack of angle advancement and promo time. Last week they addressed this and there was much more of a balance. This week, we've gone back to hardly any promo or angle advancement and it was essentially a match-fest. I know complaining about too much wrestling on a wrestling forum is perhaps an odd complaint, but I do think variety is important especially when we're trying to establish the brand again and maintain interest. That said, check out the three matches I left a thumbs up for as those are some gems amongst the batch. 

👍 Vikingo/Gringo Loco - Butter my bollocks, I enjoyed the shit out of this. Easily the most exciting match on the show and an absolutely great spectacle to watch. Vikingo is just mesmerising to watch and has real star quality. Gringo Loco was also fantastic here - his ring gear and overall aesthetic don't look like much, but it's proof that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover because he put in a fine performance here. Some really beautifully executed spots in this one right from the start. A minor criticism might be that if anything they were going too fast at times and they ran the risk of blowing a spot or two. But the effort and majesty of some of the moves and transitions here were fantastic to watch. An absolute bobby dazzler. 

👍 Takeshita/Moriarty - Damn, this was great. A nice story told with Takeshita selling the arm and Moriarty trying to pull off the upset. I take @gmoney's point about Takeshita having these epics on free TV against opponents who quite clearly aren't on his level in terms of star power - that's something I think they should cool down on and this perhaps didn't need to stretch past ten minutes. At the same time, this was fantastically physical, eye-catching and Takeshita hopefully moves another step closer to a possible showdown with Cesaro down the line for the strap. 

👍 Athena/Heather Reckless - Short, sweet, packed with physicality and personality from both sides. Despite getting dispatched in quick fashion, Reckless showed great fire in standing up to the dominant champion before selling the beating with aplomb. Athena's personality continues to radiate through the screen and she continues to look like a proper star - easily one of the best acts in ROH. 

👍 Samoa Joe/Colt Cabana - Short but sweet and didn't outstay it's welcome. Good to see two ROH legends main eventing. Not a classic but one of the more fun encounters of the evening. 

👎 Kingdom vs Martin/Andretti - A rare one from me, because usually I'm all about tag team matches to open the show and get the crowd fired up. But this one just didn't have any zest about it or any sense of jeopardy. The Kingdom are a perfectly solid and dependable heel duo and it's an improved act for having Maria in tow, but this one just didn't get the juices flowing and as a result it made for quite a mediocre start to the show. 

👎 Willow/Renegade - Not a bad showcase again for Willow who shows great potential as a babyface act, but we've seen the same thing for the last three weeks or so and we now need to move her closer to a showdown with Athena or to pop her back on Dynamite or Rampage for a couple of weeks to freshen things up. Also, she looks like a total mug for going to the code of honour post-match, not only because the heels tried to cheat her out of the win, but knowing full well that Charlotte was still lurking at ringside once the match had concluded. 

👎 Lance Archer/Jah-C - Again, perfectly fine as a squash and a good showcase for Archer, but they immediately ruined the brilliant opening. Archer battering his opponent literally during the entrance looked great, but then Jah-C composed himself and went for the code of honour?! Why would you knowingly go to shake the hand of someone who has just unceremoniously battered you? That's twice ROH has made a babyface look like a total putz on this show. 

👎 Brian Cage/Joey Jett - Hometown hero Jett got the crowd invested but overall this was pretty dull and one of many matches tonight that could have been removed from the card to trim the fat. 

👎 Dark Order vs Johnson/Karter - I like John Silver and he's always fun to watch, but generally there were no stakes to this match and it's yet another item that could've been cut from this line-up. 

👎 Penta/Nick Comoroto - Another non-essential and easily skippable match. 

👎 Iron Savages vs Lynch/Jones - Skip!

Edited April 22, 2023 by Fatty Facesitter

[Fatty Facesitter]

ROH TV 27/4/23

👍 Blake Christian vs Gringo Loco - American lucha libre is it? Don’t mind if I do. This was great to watch and a good example of not judging a book by the cover - Blake Christian might have a generic look and name, but fuck me can he move. Gringo Loco’s attire wouldn’t look out of place in a trainee match in somewhere like the King’s Lynn leisure centre, but he wrestles like he's headlining in front of a sold out crowd crowd in Mexico City. There’s been some really good booking throughout this show in terms of putting pairs of performers together who have some excellent chemistry with one another and this is one of many examples. Cracking main event. 

👍 Athena vs Lady Frost - Another hard-hitting Athena contest as she continues to be the MVP of recent ROH output - a great way to open this week’s broadcast. Who knows where this title run is going for Athena, but presently they’re knocking it out of the park with her booking and she’s responding in kind with top performances. 

👍 Kingdom Vignette/other promos - A well put-together piece which puts over their history in the company and their current mission, which is essentially getting revenge against the teams in the Supercard of Honor ladder match. Really you could have put this out on the first show after the PPV, but it’s a welcome explainer all the same. Also thought the other backstage bits with Christopher Daniels and Rocky Romero were simple, to the point and welcome advancements. There was much more of s balance this week between angle advancement and throwing too many matches at the booking sheet. 

👍 Brian Cage/Leon Ruffin - Much more fun than recent Cage showcases thanks to the energy and enthusiasm of the comparatively diminutive Ruffin, who also sold beautifully for his foe. 

👍 Dark Order/Trustbusters - Short but sweet again, with the backdrop of The Righteous keeping tabs on Stu Grayson adding intrigue. Sonny Kiss is such a unique performer - probably been said multiple times but it feels like there’s a lot of untapped potential there that nobody’s quite sure how to mould. 

👍 Skye Blue vs Diamanté - Much better outing for Skye this week - another example of two performers with chemistry which ultimately making for a better show case for both of them. Interesting to see Athena pop out to say hello at the end - I wouldn’t say Skye Blue is ready for a title match at this juncture but it’s good to see any kind of ROH angle advancement on a very match-heavy TV show. 

👍 Lee Moriarty vs Rockey Romero - Decent little ripper here and at the risk of repeating myself, another example of a pairing booked together with really good in-ring chemistry. They clearly see something with Moriarty as they seem determined to keep pursuing with him in this longer-form matches. 

👎 Rush/Vance vs Infantry - Squash, feel free to skip this one. 

👎 Best Friends vs Occasio/Summers - Too short to mean anything of note - another one you can skip and not lose any sleep over missing. 

Overall - Plenty to like about this week's show. 11 matches last week was simply too many, and although we still had 9 this week there was a much better balance between the in-ring content and angle/storyline advancement, in some case forming the backdrop or aftermath of the matches themselves. This show should also serve as a good booking template moving forward in terms of booking together compatible pairings who collectively help each other to raise the bar and showcase themselves in a very positive manner. An enjoyable and recommended watch this week for the duration. 

[JLM]

I am behind but have been scribbling some thoughts on these shows as I catch up. 

20/04

Kingdom vs Andretti and Darius was decidedly skippable. The less good one from Top Flight and Action Andretti is a crushingly dull babyface team. Andretti by far the worse of the two because he is somehow both bland and dislikeable at the same time. 

Athena following up with a fiery promo woke me up after that. The Alpha, The Fallen Goodess, The Gatekeeper, The Joshi Killer. Yes. 

Another squash for Willow. The Renegades attacking her post match is... something, but the Renegades are not very good. Willow vs the other one or Willow and partner vs both are not very enticing and Willow deserves much better.

Brian Cage vs jobber was the sort of Youtube show filler match I've already complained about in this thread.
Same with Silver/Reynolds vs Lee Johnson and Cole Karter. No thank you. I like the Silver/Reynolds team a lot but I've seen them do this 1000 times on Dark. Lee Johnson somehow MORE boring after The Factory disbanded. Impressive. Nick Comoroto vs Penta is also a pass. 

I've seen Lance Archer do the same squash match 100 times. I feel like it's all I've ever seen him do. I still liked it because I enjoy jobber squashes to a perhaps unhealthy degree, but it would be nice if he got to do anyting else. I am a sucker for the rolling the jobber to the ring before the match move. I like it more when the ring announcer says "Dragging his opponent to the ring" though. 

I liked Iron Savages more when they were called Bear Country and they were both fat. There, I said it. I respect the man wanting to get in shape but you're now a fat guy tag team missing a fat guy. Heavy Machinery had exactly the same problem. The thinner Tucky got, the less Heavy the Machinery overall. You can have a big guy and small guy tag team, but you can't have a fat guy tag team where one of them isn't fat. I feel very strongly about this. It wasn't Earthquake and Marty Jannetty calling themselves the Natural Disasters now was it? 

Athena vs Heather Reckless was loads of fun as expected. These eliminator matches against jobbers could also be pointless Youtube filler matches in another context, but Athena is the absolute master of them, and they were in fact how she got on this astounding run of form in the first place. Caprice does a lot of his best work during Athena's match ups. Here he was great explaining that she does way more work than a champion needs to, offering these eliminator matches just to keep exerting her dominance every week when she doesn't have to. The Gatekeeper indeed. The bopping of the opponent's face onto the title post-match is fast becoming my favourite spot in wrestling. 

Reckless was very game and made for a great plucky underdog. Feel like it's a fairly tough night's work by jobber squash standards. As a jobber I would much rather be squashed by Brian Cage than Athena if I had to choose. 

Moriarty/Takeshita was a good match. They worked hard, had good chemistry, they told a good story with Moriarty trying to take out the arm and neuter Takeshita's offense. However, I do agree that Moriarty's lack of credibility meant that it was a weirdly unwarranted epic battle between them.

Vikingo/Gringo Loco was a fun nutty spotfest. It's going to be diminishing returns with Vikingo, but the novelty hasn't worn off for me yet and he had some stuff I hadn't seen before here. He has a much deeper bag of tricks than Komander, so as long as I don't see him *too* often I'll enjoy it. The sit out press slam from the top from Gringo Loco was bananas. Thought he was a great base for Vikingo here, though he still had to stand around waiting for spots to happen for just that bit too long. 

Absolutely fine with Joe dominating and winning quickly again. Makes a lot of sense to have Cabana added to the list of victims, fun to draw on the ROH history. This was fine, I love Joe. 

Probably my least favourite episode of this so far. No story progression, barely any promos, lots of skippable filler. The high points weren't as high as the previous weeks either. 
 

[Infinity Land]

This weekend will be the tapings at Universal studios. Should at least give some more progression and storylines time to develop. My worry is that after that they will go week to week again. As I just don't have the same investment in a dead AEW crowd with the odd decent match.