Official ROH Discussion Thread

[Dearly Devoted Dexter]

I was up most of last night due to a brisk bout with insomnia, so he done this :

 

Ten Disappointing/ Crap ROH Main Events

 

(in no particular order)

 

1) SOTF Final - Survival of the Fittest 2010

Whenever I watch an Eddie Edwards match, I hold my breath when he goes for an elbow suicida. Not because it's a particularly breath-taking move; but because he's twice managed to injure himself while executing it - and both right before huge ROH matches. The first occurred the night before Ladder War 2; the second in Edwards qualifier for SOTF 2011, which he was booked to win. Instead of changing the outcome, they sent him out to win anyway and tried to work around the bad arm. The results were awful, with a six man elimination that lasted less than 20 minutes, and Edwards make King tap to a single leg crab applied with his bad arm. The first major booking gaffe of Delirious reign; it wouldn't be the last.

 

2) Steve Corino vs. Homicide - The Bitter End, 4/11/06

 

The feud really should have ended at War of the Wire; but Homicide wanted another match. They had the match at Steel Cage Warfare where Homicide suffered the shoulder injury that would plague him for years. Then, in order to give Homicide something to do while waiting for his World title shot at Final Battle, they resurrected the feud in late 2006. The resulting Fight Without Honor match was fabulously dire. My review at the time ran thus; It was like one of those old 70

[Only_The_Strong_Survive]

Finally Go Fight Live have got there act together and got all of SDITS Night 2 up! Have to get watching that tonight.

[Big Benny HG]

ROH: Manhattan Mayhem IV (19 March 2011)

 

 

I skip Defy or Deny from the night before (Roderick Strong beating all his previous challengers, Jay Briscoe, El Generico and Homicide, in a 4-way elimination match) and jump straight to ROH's first big New York City event of 2011. Despite being held in their current 'major' venue (the Manhattan Centre, former home of Monday Night Raw), this event was recorded exclusively for a DVD release and was not broadcast on iPPV.

 

Adam Cole & Kyle O'Reilly open a New York show for the second consecutive time, but the crowd is initially slow to get into their tag bout against new House of Truth combo Michael Elgin & Mike Mondo. They come alive for some of Elgin's impressively powerful offence, though, and Elgin looks great here in a fun little tag scrap.

 

A newcomer who doesn't fare as well is Tomaso Ciampa (who I believe I've previously seen on a bonus 4-way pre-show DGUSA match) He's the latest recruit for the 47th relaunch of The Embassy (YAY! THE EMBASSY ARE BACK! Hmmm), but he's like a crap version of UK wrestler CJ Banks. Here, he looks bland, dull and personality-free in a poor match against perennial Embassy opponent Grizzly Redwood. I am interested in this new version of the heel group, however, and the most notable aspect of this bout is the antics of Prince Nana, Princess Mia, RD Evans and Ernesto Osiris as entertaining supporting acts at ringside.

 

The opposite end of the charisma scale to Ciampa is Mike Bennett, who again exudes presence and star quality in his match with Steve Corino. The match itself isn't that good, and Bennett does need plenty of polish (that an FCW run would probably sort out...), but it remains interesting in Corino still trying to fight his instincts and refrain from taking shortcuts that present themselves. Another key storyline point is that absolutely no-one comes out to save Corino from an extended post-match beatdown, as he still struggles to win back any friends following his antics of 2010.

 

The first match that really catches fire is that which pits The Briscoes against the All Night Express. There's plenty to get your teeth into and digest here, as the Briscoes display a much more nasty, ruthless and aggressive edge as they try to step up their game after being knocked out of title contention by Haas & Benjamin last month. By default, just like in their courageous effort against the champions at the Anniversary Show, ANX therefore fall into the traditional babyface role and draw great crowd support. I'm really starting to buy into Titus and King as plucky and fiery fan favourites, a side of them I'd never previously seen. All of this makes for a really good, well presented and exciting tag encounter, by the end of which the double-turn is solidified. A big, wild post-match brawl leave me keen to see more of these two teams going at it in their new roles.

 

El Generico and TJ Perkins are two talented wrestlers that don't really have any specific direction in ROH at present, but they come together for a really enjoyable, fun, throwaway little mid-card bout. The show continues its strong run with Kings of Wrestling against Homicide & Hernandez, which is yet another supreme tag team offering from the Kings. Despite Homicide seemingly losing his way recently, he still has a great dynamic with Hernandez (who long-time ROH viewers may remember appearing in the early Murphy Rec Centre days of the promotion and CZW as Hotstuff Hernandez, from the Texas Wrestling Academy). The chemistry between both sets of partners really makes this one work, as you really get the sense that this is two well-oiled duos going at it. I can't say it's as good as the future Kassius Ohno and Antonio Cesaro's blinding efforts against the Briscoes, Motor City Machine Guns or World's Greatest Tag Team, but this is still a wonderful example of great tag team wrestling.

 

The semi-main event sees Davey Richards take on Television Champion Christopher Daniels in a non-title match (so much for the storyline where Richards was having to start from the bottom again). There's no getting away from the fact this is set up to be one of those Wanky-Wanky-Workrate PURE ATHLETIC SPORTING CONTEST-type bouts (and they even dust off the old ROH Pure rules for the occasion) and the 3 rope breaks rule means that it follows a very rigid, formulaic and predictable structure. This all means there is virtually zero character or personality on offer to engage you, and this one didn't really capture my interest at all.

 

The disc ends with the World Title contest between Roderick Strong and Eddie Edwards, which brings the curtain down on the former's 6-month reign as champion. In many ways, this was very similar to just about every other ROH World Title bout in the Manhattan Centre, but that isn't necessarily a criticism since there have been some corkers. They start slow with the live fans offering polite applause at various points, before they pick up the pace and the audience gets more into it. I can't believe many of them honestly thought they would see a title switch here and just thought they would get an exciting match, telling the story of a challenger raising his stock by coming close but ultimately failing. Towards the end, however, after they build it up and throw in some cool false-finishes, everyone starts waking up to the idea that Eddie may actually just do it, and the final few minutes are excellent. The pop at the end is genuine, and the show closes with a subtle nod towards the direction to come.

 

All-in-all, this is another very strong 2011 DVD release from ROH. Like the '9th Anniversary Show', it lacks that one or two spectacular, 'Match of the Year'-level bouts you might expect from a major ROH event, but that being said the output here is almost consistently very good. 'Mahattan Mayhem IV' is more of a set-up event for bigger shows coming up, but it still well worth going out of your way to see.

 

I'm also pleased that my decision to only pick up certain ROH events from 2011 seems to be paying dividends, since I am not subjecting myself to all the pointless, meaningless and completely irrelevant shows they put out like I did in 2009 and 2010 and, as a result, am enjoying what I do see. At this point, I'm enjoying ROH...

 

Full show results:

<-- click on 'spoiler' to show/hide the spoiler

Adam Cole{W, German suplex} & Kyle O'Reilly beat Michael Elgin & Mike Mondo{L}

 

Tomasso Ciampa beat Grizzly Redwood with a backbreaker

 

Mike Bennett beat Steve Corino with 3 side-slams

 

All Night Express (Rhett Titus{W, victory roll} & Kenny King) beat The Briscoes (Jay{L} & Mark)

 

El Generico beat TJ Perkins with a brainbusta

 

Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli{W, European uppercut} beat LAX (Homicide{L} & Hernandez)

 

Pure Rules Match: Davey Richards beat Christoper Daniels with a roll-through

 

Eddie Edwards beat Roderick Strong with a cradle to win the ROH World Title

 

[close spoiler]

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Up Next: ROH heads to Atlanta for WrestleMania 27 weekend and 2 iPPVs from Centre Stage Theatre.

[gadge]

You'll have to put up with my face in the crowd on night 1, I suppose...

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Why didnt TNA just bring Homicide back? Sure, I've heard he's shit now, but he cant possibly be worse than the discount version of him that is currently teaming with Hernandez in Mexican America.

 

LAX (the original with Konnan) were one of the best teams in the last 10 years. Great entrance, great music, great chemistry. They were like the Hart Foundation. They had a manager who could talk, a big man who wasn't great (at the time) but had enough muscle to bring legitimacy to the small bloke who was doing all the work. Just a well put together team who complimented each other.

[PowerButchi]

TNA must be desperate. Homicide is terrible. Not as bad as DevotedDexter, who I'd happily watch his parents drown, but pretty fucking bad.

 

Kevin Steen needs to sort it out though. He has that much vaunted It. But he needs to get into the gym, he's better than the bush league wrestling with a short Chris Benoit without the psychology. Mike Bennett will be ready for FCW in a year or two as well. He's got a future.

[gadge]

TNA must be desperate. Homicide is terrible. Not as bad as DevotedDexter, who I'd happily watch his parents drown, but pretty fucking bad.

 

Kevin Steen needs to sort it out though. He has that much vaunted It. But he needs to get into the gym, he's better than the bush league wrestling with a short Chris Benoit without the psychology. Mike Bennett will be ready for FCW in a year or two as well. He's got a future.

Had a few drinks last night then, Butch?

[Professor Paul's Bin]

I'm sure Homicide wasn't happy in TNA during the Hogan/Bischoff take over and didnt want to be with TNA anymore.

[PowerButchi]

TNA must be desperate. Homicide is terrible. Not as bad as DevotedDexter, who I'd happily watch his parents drown, but pretty fucking bad.

 

Kevin Steen needs to sort it out though. He has that much vaunted It. But he needs to get into the gym, he's better than the bush league wrestling with a short Chris Benoit without the psychology. Mike Bennett will be ready for FCW in a year or two as well. He's got a future.

Had a few drinks last night then, Butch?

 

One or two...

[Philjax]

Any idea how many people are watching the TV show each week ON TELEVISION, as oppose to on the website? I'm sure I read Cornette saying a million or something stupid recently.

[Philjax]

Richards Vs Elgin - I had to give this a watch. I haven't seen any ROH since the HDNet days and not a DVD release since April '07. I think we can all agree that this is quite far removed from a 5 star match. Baffling how anyone could hold this up against some of the classics from the first 5 years of Honor. I'd probably throw it a mercyful ***3/4 for the effort but i've never seen so much stuff mean so little and sold so badly, not even badly, not at all. The only thing remotely ***** about it is the fact that Elgin still has the ability to walk after the top rope german suplex head drop at the 17 minute mark. Elgin actually impressed me and i'd like to see more of him but probably not in ROH. I had no idea how bad Davey had got. I always liked him when he debuted in '06. So many different finishers being kicked out of it was impossible to suspend belief especially when the actual finish was a rather weak kick to the head. If this is the best ROH has to offer these days I don't think I need to tarnish my memories and DVD collection of '02-'06 by watching any further to be honest. Sad times.

[Up Chuck]

The 5* rating came from Alvarez seeing it live, did it not? I'm sure I remember hearing him talk about it being fantastic towards the end because it woke up a previously dead crowd. Stuff like that never holds up as well on tape.

[Only_The_Strong_Survive]

Fit Finlay has been added to Best In The World 2012, Elgin vs Finlay please.

[Dearly Devoted Dexter]

Not as bad as DevotedDexter, who I'd happily watch his parents drown, but pretty fucking bad.

 

 

 

You seem to spend an awful lot of time obsessing about me. It's not healthy. How about finding some sort of hobby to while away the evenings?

[PowerButchi]

I do. Drinking. You're just the worst person in the history of the world though, who writes the world's worst wrestling reviews. Not at all enlightening or interesting. They're just dead pointless. You take a 9 month old card, say about two lines about everything and that's it. You're terrible. You're the cancer killing the roh thread. No-one likes you. Everyone wishes you'd get quite ill.

Edited April 25, 2012 by PowerButchi