BRM Reviews ROH Glory By Honor XIII

[Big Red Machine]

ROH Glory By Honor XIII (11/15/2014)- San Antonio, TX

TOMMASO CIAMPA vs. THE ROMANTIC TOUCH- 5.75/10
Very fun match with lots of comedic antics as well.

FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL MATCH: BJ Whitmer vs. Hanson vs. Mark Briscoe vs. Moose (w/Veda Scott & “Ramon”)- 6/10
Veda accidentally knocked over one of the big pillars by the entrance. Whoops.
Apparently all Four Corner Survival matches now have lucha rules. I’m not a fan. At that point why not just call it “Four Man Scramble?”
This was a fun match with a few little stories weaved throughout it. There were some good Moose-Hanson teases (which led to a bit of a payoff in this match, but nowhere near enough to make you feel like you’ve already seen a singles match between the two, so that’s still fresh), good stuff from BJ as a heel, and good action in general. Moose is still limited in the ring, but he’s definitely improving, and they are doing a good job of letting him play to his strengths in his matches, this one included. The only thing I didn’t like is Hanson’s cartwheel spot. It’s nice that such a big guy can do one, but he did twice in this match, and both times it felt entirely pointless and like it would have a made a lot more sense to just hit the guy with a clothesline.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- okay.
Hanson’s tag team partner, the injured Raymond Rowe, came out and they celebrated together. The fans chanted for them, and Rowe cut a nice home-town guy promo (well… not exactly hometown, but it is where he has made his name) and then promised that they would win the tag titles when he gets better.
Then Michael Elgin came in from the crowd (complete with an unnamed lackey who I recognize from various ROH live shows) following him with a handheld camera and recording him. He warned them that success could be fleeting, accused them of not having his back when he needed them, and told Rowe to worry about himself, not about the team because Hanson will abandon him if he gets the chance for a singles title. Elgin’s attempt to stir dissension between these two came off as totally random and really not very good.
Elgin’s lackey then attack Hanson from behind, so Rowe punched the lackey out with his good arm. Elgin then hit Hanson from behind (though it really wasn’t much more than enough to make him stumble forward), then walked off. War Machine then hit the lackey with some moves, which he took good bumps for.

RODERICK STRONG vs. FRANKIE KAZARIAN- 6.75/10
A very good match, but I really didn’t like the overbooking for two reasons. Firstly, it is overbooking and this is ROH. The Adam Page vs. Roderick Strong match at Final Battle didn’t really need any more heat, and even if it did, this came across as such a bland way to get it.
The second reason I didn’t like this is because of the specific match-up here. We all know that Kaz is a great wrestler, but ROH really hasn’t yet given him the chance to put on a truly awesome match. This is Glory By Honor in a strong new market and against a guy who can have awesome match with anyone and everyone. This was the time and the place, and ROH didn’t let it happen.

ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: reDRagon(c) vs. The Kingdom (Matt Taven & Michael Bennett) (w/Maria Kanellis)- 7/10
A fun match with lots of great heel antics all around and some very good nearfalls.

WILL FERRARA vs. ADAM PAGE (w/BJ Whitmer)- 4.25/10
They did some decent stuff, then Ferrara won with a roll-up when Adam Page was distracted by Roderick Strong coming out and giving BJ Whitmer a backbreaker. Page attacked Ferrara after the match, but Roddy made the save. Then Whitmer got involved and the heels had the advantage until Ferrara made the save. Roddy showed Ferrara respect with a handshake afterwards.

ROH TV TITLE MATCH: Jay Lethal(c) (w/Truth Martini) vs. R.D. Evans (w/Veda Scott & “Ramon”)- 6.25/10
The New Streak now stands at 173-0, which means this will be a huge night for R.D., but a sad night for me as it dashes all of my hopes of seeing R.D. Evans vs. Goldberg at Final Battle with Goldberg coming out of retirement to try to prevent R.D. from surpassing his famous streak.
Speaking of Goldberg, one fan had a great sign which declared that “This is R.D. Evans’ Georgia Dome.” All of this Goldberg talk has made me realize how awesome it would have been for R.D. to end just one of the matches in the New Streak with a Spear and Jackhammer combination (edit: how little I knew).
Anyway, they had a match with a lot of shenanigans and also some good nearfalls. Lethal winds up getting the win when Moose turns on R.D. “Ramon” was also in on it. It turns out his name is actually “Stokely Hathaway.” They both did some sort of salute, but not one I recognized, so it doesn’t look like this is some vengeful plot of Prince Nana’s coming to fruition. Veda has also abandoned R.D., but not as part of this group.

ADAM COLE vs. CHRISTOPHER DANIELS- 8/10
The classic match-up of the grizzled old veteran proving he can still go at the highest level against the brash, disrespectful young punk. Fantastic selling by Daniels as well. Cole worked over both Daniels’ knee and his head, and eventually picked up the win with the Jay Driller to send a message to Jay Briscoe before their ROH World Title match at Final Battle 2014.

ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Jay Briscoe(c) vs. ACH- 7.75/10
The story of this match was Jay forcing ACH to fight a very hard-hitting, brawling, smash-mouth Briscoe-style match rather than rely on his usual athletic, high-fling, flippy stuff, as a result of this, made all of the cool moves that ACH usually does feel a lot more important than they usually do.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Jay Briscoe and ACH showed each other respect after the match. Then Adam Cole came out and cut a promo saying he would win the ROH World Title at Final Battle. He challenged Jay to make the match a Fight Without Honor, and Jay accepted.
Then the thing that I had been waiting for this entire time finally happened: Michael Bennett and Matt Taven jumped Briscoe and ACH from behind. They beat both guys down until Mark Briscoe and Hanson came out to make the save. They wound up brawling on the outside while Jay and ACH were in the ring selling, until ACH dove onto the pile, leaving Jay alone (and hurting) in the ring.
Then Michael Elgin came out and had a brief stare-down with Jay. Tommaso Ciampa came out to go after Elgin, who bailed to the outside, resulting in Jay and Ciampa accidentally bumping into each other and getting in each other’s faces before Ciampa grabbed the ROH World Title belt, which provoked Jay to start throwing punches, and we wound up with a big giant brawl to end the show.

A great show from ROH, with a lot of fun wrestling on the undercard and a great double main event.