BRM Reviews Terminus 2

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews Terminus 2

Post by Big Red Machine » Mar 5th, '22, 16:50

Terminus 2 (2/24/2022)- Atlanta, GA



TERMINAL ELIMINATOR MATCH: Chris Sabin vs. Leon Ruff vs. Tre Lamar vs. Kenny Alfonso- 6/10
In addition to the “tag match that turns into a three-way that turns into a singles match” rules from last time, there are now no count-outs in these Terminal Eliminator matches, and the winner will earn the right to choose his/her next opponent.
The starting teams here were Sabin & Lamar vs. Ruff & Alfonso. Lamar eliminated Alfonso with a big elbow drop almost ten minutes in, leaving us with just over five minutes for the final two falls. Ruff pinned Lamar with a cutter with a minute and a quarter left. Sabin pinned Ruff with a flurry of big moves ending in a Cradle Shock a minute later. The match was exciting, but there were way too many spots (especially involving Lamar) that felt more like I was watching people do pre-planned spots that trying to win a match.
I like the graphic with the countdown clock, but they need to ditch the wrestlers’ names if they can’t figure out a way to change it in the middle of the match. Here they just left the original tag graphic up the whole time. It looked like someone fell asleep at the wheel.

QUEEN AMINATA vs KILLA KATE- 5.5/10
“The African Woman Wrestler” has to be the single least creative nickname I have ever heard. She has a great look, though, and has the “disdainful superiority of royalty” look down perfectly. Both women looked good here. I was quite impressed by Aminata’s personality during the match. The problem is that it felt like a completely different personality than the one she came to the ring with. Be consistent.
Aminata won a back-and-forth match with a roll-up in eight minutes. I would very much like to see a rematch at some point down the line. Aminata limped to the back, and even called a security person over to help her. Hopefully she’s just selling.

JOE KEYS & DANTE CABALLERO vs. DANIEL GARCIA & KEVIN BLACKWOOD- 7/10
Garcia and Blackwood started off as the heels, but it was Keys who did the big spot where he committed the foul behind the referee’s back. It’s hard to get behind the babyfaces when they make the hot tag if the way the babyface in peril was able to create the chance to make the tag is by cheating.
Despite that issue, this got quite good. We know Garcia is great, but I’m also really becoming a believer in Joe Keys, and the others more than held their own. Keys and Caballero got the win, but Keys and Garcia kept brawling afterwards and had to be broken up. They had quite the heated segment during the match as well, with Keys bleeding, which was the first blood we’ve seen here in Terminus.

SERENA DEEB vs. LIIZA HALL- 6/10
Hall could have sold her knee a lot better, but other than that, this was solid. A minute and half for a scheduled overtime seems comically short. I guess the idea here is that Hall lasted a long time against Deeb, but if you’re trying to get that across, I think it would have been better to just end it after the fifteen-minute time limit with Deeb having Hall in the Serenity Lock but Hall not tapping than to do that and start and overtime, only for Hall to get rolled up in less than thirty seconds.

DAVEY RICHARDS vs. SHANE STRICKLAND- 7.5/10
Great technical wrestling. Strickland won by count-out after hitting the Killshot on the apron, knocking them both to the floor, but with Davey unable to get back in the ring before getting counted out.

JAY LETHAL vs. BARON BLACK- 7/10
You’ve only got fifteen minutes here, Jay. Don’t waste it doing gaga with the crowd who want to see you do Ric Flair schtick.
Lethal got a warning for tossing Black over the top onto the apron, even though he didn’t directly get throw to the floor. Good to know that that’s how the rules work. Lethal was upset about this, and I can see where he’s coming from. So could the fans, as they got on the referee about this.
Lethal offered Black a handshake to show that he didn’t mean to do something illegal. Black accepted the handshake… and then yanked Lethal in for an inverted atomic drop, taking advantage of Lethal.
The match was solid and got quite exciting towards the end, but there was no particular story to it. Lethal won cleanly in overtime, so Black has now called out bigger names twice and lost twice here on the first two Terminus shows.

PURE RULES MATCH FOR THE ORIGINAL ROH WORLD TITLE: Jonathan Gresham(c) vs. Santana- 7.75/10
Santana cut a promo before the match saying that unlike Gresham’s previous opponents, he is here to fight rather than wrestle, because “I ain’t with that wrestling sh*t.” Dude… did you read the rules? If you “ain’t with that wrestling sh*t,” you’ve come to the wrong place… and doubly so to have called out a guy who has announced that he will defend his title under Pure rules.
That being said, they did a wonderful job of telling the story of each combatant trying to force the match to his preferred style, and having to adapt and overcome and bring it back when things wound up in the opponent’s preferred style. I don’t know if this was something we were specifically supposed to pick up on or not, but it seemed to me that Santana adapted to the wrestling much better than Gresham adapted to the brawling, but it’s possible that was more perception because Gresham did the better job controlling the style.
Anyway, the match was going along wonderfully… until someone (not sure if it was one of the wrestlers or the referee) botched the finish pretty badly. What happened was Gresham had things won with a roll-up, and the referee counted to two… and then just stopped counting for some reason until Santana kicked out. They both got up, Gresham got a jackknife pin and floated over into a bridge, and this time it looked like Santana kicked out right at three, and the referee called that the finish.
(I assume “Santana kicks out right at three” was supposed to be the finish, which would make two straight shows with a controversial finish in a Jonathan Gresham Original ROH World Title main event.)

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- “What the f*ck was that?”
Gresham- who owns and I believe also books the promotion (along with Baron Black)- grabbed a mic and asked “what the f*ck was that?” He then asked the crowd if they would rather see the referee fired, or see Gresham face Santana in a rematch. The fans seemed evenly split, so Gresham and Santana each chose a fan, and those fans determined what would happen via a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors, resulting in the referee being fired. I swear I’m not making any of this up.
Then they both shook hands, and Santana gave a big, inspirational babyface speech.


Inside the ring, this was a very good show from Terminus, but nothing stand-out, either. Through two shows, it’s clear that they have some stories in mind, but they are taking their time telling them. This is a direct result of the rules they have chosen to use. That’s a risky strategy, but I can certainly respect them for sticking to it and giving the art that they want to make a chance to deliver, rather than throwing the atmosphere they’re trying to cultivate for their universe aside in a panic. I also think that, on the whole, the rules are working, although I would like to see some matches go up to twenty or thirty minutes rather than fifteen (the opening four-way elimination match and Davey vs. Swerve being the two that really stuck out to me on this show).
That being said, I do want to throw up one caution flag. Acting under the assumption I mentioned above about what I think the finish was supposed to be, both shows have now ended in a main event with a finish that felt quite inconclusive, and that’s absolutely not a reputation you want to develop. Even with that asterisk, though, I do like what they’re doing overall, so I will certainly be back for Terminus 3.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

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