BRM Reviews the 9/11/2020 ROH

[Big Red Machine]

QUINN MCKAY GIVES US THE WHOLE SPIEL- The history was good and I liked that they flat-out said “because of the pandemic” and put the medical stuff out front. Doing that in an “official announcement” setting instead of having the announcers put it over made it feel more sports-like to me.
I like that we have alternates, but I’m really worried about the fact that one of them is goofball Brian Johnson.
The one negative about this was the choice to put that CGI microphone on the screen as if I was a microphone on a stand she was speaking into. It looked like something you’d find on Instagram so you can pretend you’re giving a press conference. Either have her speak into a real microphone, or just use whatever off-screen mic where this is being shot from, or have her use a lapel mic. That’s professional. Having something that looks like an Instagram filter is horribly amateur.



The only difference between these and the classic pure rules are the second closed-fist punch to the face is an automatic DQ now instead of costing you a rope-break and being a DQ if you don’ have any left. I think the old rules allow for more possibilities and are thus better.
Also for the duration of the tournament, anyone who interferes in a match will be FIRED. This is one of those can of worms things where I have to ask why they don’t make that the rule for every match. The idea of a “Pure” Title seems like it should provide a bit more cover for this than usual, but I think that is negated by the fact that the promotion is called “Ring of Honor.”

For the tournament, we also have judges in case this goes the time limit. Those are Gary Juster, Will Ferrara and Sumie Sakai. Do Sumie and Ferrara have blackmail material on Delirious or something? That’s the only explanation for why either of them have managed to hang on to jobs with ROH for so long despite their being tons of wrestlers out there who are just so much better than either of them.

One nit that I absolutely have to pick: If you’re doing an elimination tournament, they’re brackets, not blocks!


JAY LETHAL VIDEO PACKAGE/PROMO- TREMENDOUS!
Jay explained why he thinks he’ll win the tournament (he has had the chance to learn from Samoa Joe and be in the ring with guys like Joe, Dragon, Nigel, Spanky and AJ, which others in the tournament haven’t), what is motivating him to win (he wants to become the first two-time ROH Pure Champion), and why this opening round match-up in particular is important to him (he wants to redeem himself for losing to Dalton Castle when the ROH World Title was on the line at the 16th Anniversary Show)… and Lethal talking about the various legends served as a fine excuse to put them on the screen. I can see some people thinking that this went too long, but I was enjoying seeing the short snippets of old footage so much that it didn’t bother me at all.

DALTON CASTLE VIDEO PACKAGE/PROMO- AWESOME!
He wants to remind everyone how dangerous he can be.

ROH PURE TITLE TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: Jay Lethal vs. Dalton Castle- 6.75/10

Jay being 3-0 in his last three matches against Dalton kind of undermines the whole “I want to redeem myself for losing to him” point, doesn’t it? And doubly so when you consider that Lethal actually pined Dalton to win the ROH World Title from him.
I really enjoyed watching this match, but the fifteen-minute time limit in the first round of this tournament, combined with the awesome build-up made it almost impossible for them to deliver something as great as what was promised while following what was clearly a directive from the booker to wrestle a style light on big flying moves and head drops. Lethal worked over Dalton’s knee so they had a story and I really enjoyed it, but the hype had me feeling like I was about to watch something epic.
Also, this being the first match of the tournament (and only about the fifth pure rules match in the past fourteen years), I was shocked that they didn’t tell a story more focused around the Pure rules. It seemed like they were going there with Lethal using a rope-break early on instinct and thus being down a rope-break right away, but they didn’t go that direction. It felt they were almost deliberately trying to wrestle a normal match that just happened to be under Pure rules and letting Ian and Caprice do the work, pointing out that they were using forearms to the face and not punches and stuff like that. And even Ian and Caprice seemed to purposely be taking the approach as if to portray this match as something normal instead of trying to announce like they were showing video tape for Pure Rules 101. It worked me for and I enjoyed it, but I’m someone who loves Pure rules and has been an ROH fan for a very long time. If I were booking this, I definitely would have had both the wrestlers and announcers go in more of a Pure Rules 101 direction.

WHEELER YUTA VIDEO PACKAGE/PROMO- very good

JONATHAN GRESHAM VIDEO PACKAGE/PROMO- very good
Like Lethal did earlier, Gresham said he thought he and Lethal would wind up in the finals, so they’re definitely pushing that idea hard.

ROH PURE TITLE TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: Wheeler Yuta vs. Jonathan Gresham- 6/10
Unlike Lethal, Gresham didn’t bring his tag title belt to the ring. The announcers said this displayed that he was “hyper-focused” on the Pure Title. They wrestled and both tried to work the leg. Gresham was more successful at it, though. They did a spot which I absolutely adored, where Gresham claimed he was stuck a couldn’t break a hold in the ropes (and they got into it in a way where it believable that that might be the case) and so he had the hold locked in for a while as the ref tried to untangle them, and when Yuta got up he was furious and punched Gresham in the face and got a warning for it. Not only did I like them planting a seed that maybe Gresham isn’t competing in the up-and-up (he and Lethal were still heels last we saw), but I was just so impressed by them managing to come up with a spot that works so well in the Pure rules that I had never even thought of before, and I have seen every Pure rules match ever.
They kept going with Gresham working the knee and he got Wheeler to quit by just repeatedly smashing his knee into the mat, which I also loved.

I really loved this show. It was just good, fun, interesting wrestling, and some great video packages to get you into the characters. Ian Riccaboni and Caprice Coleman were excellent on commentary, and their style of just calling the moves and pointing things out to you rather than trying to be PRO WRESTLING ANNOUNCERS was really well suited to an atmosphere with no fans. It had a much more intimate feeling, like they were pointing things to me personally rather than to the generic public and they weren’t bickering or arguing or trying to get something over other than the wrestling.