BRM Reviews the 1/17/2019 ROH

[Big Red Machine]

TV TITLE #1 CONTENDERSHIP TOURNAMENT SEMIFINAL MATCH: Façade vs. Ryan Nova- 4/10
The announcers claimed that Façade was “in the TV Title hunt” but I find that hard to believe when his record in ROH is 0-4-1. The idea that he has been put in the same kayfabe league as a guy who has recently defeated Christopher Daniels makes absolutely no sense to me. Someone who had no ROH record so far (like Mike Law, who also appears on these tapings) would have been a lot easier for me to swallow.
The match was fine for the time it got. Isom won.

KELLY KLEIN PROMO- She says she’s so confident in her abilities that from now on, any singles match she is in will be a title match. Didn’t she cut a promo where she said the same thing two weeks ago?

JAY LETHAL PROMO- He says that he’s not happy with Matt Taven claiming to be the real world champion “every time you’ve tried to step on my toes and pretend to be something you’re not.” He tells Taven that “maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but our paths will cross and, Matt Taven you’re going to get exactly what you’ve got coming to you.”
This would have been a fine promo for Lethal to have cut back in August, but at this point it’s been SIX MONTHS since Taven started calling himself the “Real ROH World Champion” and WELL OVER THREE MONTHS since the first time Taven assaulted Lethal and disrespected his belt (at the end of Death Before Dishonor XVI. Jay should be well past the point of cutting this particular promo. He should have been demanding a match against Taven after the first attack. Now they’ve had a second brawl (on TV two weeks ago) that started because Taven spit on Lethal’s championship… and Lethal is still in “I’ll deal with you when I get around to dealing with you” mode? Really?
Lethal should be calling Taven out for a title vs. title match. Taven’s argument that he deserves a title shot because he got screwed out of winning the title by an incapacitated referee is not invalid so you’d think management should be happy to give him a shot and that Lethal would want to head off any dispute over his championship’s legitimacy. Plus, Lethal- who already has three challengers lined up and turned away a fourth over the weekend- being willing to offer Taven a title shot would show Lethal to be the honorable fighting champion in contrast to Taven who has claimed that no one in the locker room is worthy of a shot at this title, and only put it on the line against Dalton Castle at Final Battle to feed his own ego and try to bring his fake belt some legitimacy.
And the thing that perhaps makes all of this the most frustrating is that there actually could have been a simple kayfabe solution to all of this. If, after Taven cut his promo at Honor For All declaring himself to be the “Real ROH World Champion” and refusing to participate in an advertised match with Marty Scurll, ROH management had made a statement on the website that they had been listening to Taven’s complains and had previously told him that they would work to schedule a match, but his actions at Honor For All have shown him to not only be unreasonable (they were working on a scheduling a title match for him, but between his scheduled six-man title defense the next night and then his CMLL-heavy schedule over the next few months, finding a date for the match was not something they were going to be able to do right away, but Taven ignored this and jumped to the conclusion that there was a “conspiracy at work against him) but also showed no respect for the fans by refusing to participate in his highly-anticipated match against Marty Scurll, ROH management has now decided that Mr. Taven will not be receiving a world title shot.
This would one change would have fixed most of the logic issues in this story. Instead of both management and the legitimate ROH World Champion being completely silent about the fact that another wrestler is running around and claiming to be the “Real ROH World Champion,” management now speaks up in an intelligent and timely manner, and in a way that mostly absolves Lethal of the need to speak up about it (and Lethal could cut a promo in the UK saying he understands why management said what they said, but he’d have no problem defending the title against Taven, and have management overrule him). It also explains why management never tried to book Lethal vs. Taven for the title when not only is that the obvious response to a claim like Taven’s but Lethal really should want to refute Taven’s claim in the ring as well and explains why management won’t give Taven a title shot even though he really does have a legitimate point. This would also make Taven’s whole “conspiracy” shtick into the actual heel gimmick it’s supposed to be rather than turning it into a combination of crazy ramblings and a couple of things that make me say “Taven’s got a point here. Why is management not doing their jobs and trying to correct this injustice?”
The only thing it really doesn’t solve is them pulling the trigger on Taven attacking Lethal months before they were going to actually book anything about it, but this could have been solved with Lethal demanding a match and Koff once again saying that he doesn’t want to reward Taven’s bad behavior or something like that. It also gives Taven even more incentive to hold his bogus “title defenses” and to do whatever he could to convince Dalton to pick him as a Final Battle opponent and not Lethal.
You might say that I’m using the advantage of hindsight, but I really don’t think it should take the benefit of hindsight to figure that if someone shows up (especially after a match with some refereeing controversy) and claims to be the “real” world champion and says that the recognized champion is illegitimate then the promotion’s management really should come out and say something about it.

The announcers tell us that Villain Enterprises will challenge The Kingdom for the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Titles next week.

RUSH vs. T.K. O’RYAN- 5.75/10
The personalities were good, but the match was a little disappointing, considering he hype around Rush. Not that I’m blaming Rush for it, but if you’ve got a new guy coming in who you’ve made a big deal out of, you want his first match to either be a squash, or a really memorable awesome match where he gets to show how great he can be. This was neither.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- fine
The Kingdom attack Rush with weapons setting up a feud. Based on that series of chairshots at the end, I’d imagine there is some sort of concussion angle coming out of this to help explain why he’s not booked on any shows for a while.
I have no problem with that part of it, but can someone please explain to me what benefit there is to having Vinny Marseglia come out from underneath the ring instead of coming out of the crowd or down the ramp like everyone else? The “it makes him stand out” argument doesn’t hold water due the fact that all of the other goofy horse-sh*t he does makes him stand out, and quite frankly, I don’t think that standing out in a way that makes me say “really? You want me to believe that this guy hides under the ring all show?” is a positive. A wrestler who spins around in a circle three times before he does every move would stand out, too, but that doesn’t make it a good idea to have him on your show.

BEER CITY BRUISER CUTS A PROMO ON SILAS YOUNG- He is angry at Silas for saying that their friendship meant nothing so now he wants a no DQs match. Tod Sinclair checked with Silas and Silas okayed it, so their tournament match was now a…

TV TITLE #1 CONTENDERSHIP TOURNAMENT SEMIFINAL NO DISQUALIFICATIONS MATCH: Silas Young vs. Beer City Bruiser- 7/10
Rhett Titus replaced Caprice Coleman on commentary for this match. Apparently that trophy he has been lugging around is for being “Mr. Survival of the Fittest 2018.” Was this a kayfabe real bodybuilding competition or not? Because if it wasn’t, then why is ROH putting this clearly delusional individual on commentary?
This was a great weapons match. Silas won clean despite interference from Brian Milonas. Said interference made the guys who were supposed to be the babyfaces feel like the heels. I would be perfectly okay if this is the beginning of a quick end for BCB and particularly Milonas in ROH. Keep BCB around for a bit to put people over, then cut him loose. He’s a one-note character that has run his course, and with the influx of great talent over the past two months (Tracy Williams, Rush, Bandido, Jeff Cobb, Brody King, PCO, P.J. Black) and the rumors of increased involvement from Juice Robinson and David Finlay Jr., we need space on the roster for these guys. Yes, Bullet Club and SCU left a lot of empty space to fill, but part of feeling new is getting rid of acts that have run their course.


Overall, this was a decent episode of ROH. It wasn’t particularly good, but at least it moved its stories along sufficiently.