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BRM Reviews the 6/18/2021 ROH

Posted: Jun 27th, '21, 01:12
by Big Red Machine
QUINN MCKAY OPENS THE SHOW-

BANDIDO PROMO- fine

BATEMAN PROMO- This was so good that when he said he would win the Roh World Title and present it to Vincent, it made me wonder why the f*ck Vincent is leading this stable instead of Bateman, who comes off like much less of a caricature.
Also, if this guy says he is going to hand someone else the world title if he wins it, ROH really shouldn’t be booking him. That goes for most promotions, but it’s especially true when you’re trying to present yourself as the “this is a sport” promotion.

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST QUALIFYING MATCH: Bandido vs. Bateman (w/Vita VonStarr & Dutch)- 6.75/10
Vita VonStarr and Dutch came out to ringside with Bateman, but were ejected from ringside immediately. Ian Riccaboni said it was because they weren’t licensed to be at ringside “for this particular match, at least.” You have to renew your manager’s license for every single match?
Bandido won clean. I was expecting a little more from these two in the time they got.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- meh
Vincent is back. He says that during his time away, he had a “revelation:” The ROH World Title is important to him. You needed time away and “revelation” to realize that? Really? That’s the pay-off to Vincent going away for three months after beating Matt Taven at the PPV? Really?
Bateman has failed Vincent, so Vincent is giving him the gift of rebirth via death. Bateman signaled that he wouldn’t defend himself, and allowed Vita to tackle him and punch him in the face a bunch of times. Eventually, Dutch pulled Vita off of Bateman, then picked Bateman up and hit him with a spinning side slam out of a Cobra Clutch position. Vincent and Vita then cared for Bateman.
Look… I’m not going to pretend that there aren’t some very good ideas on display here with the execution of the characters, but if you want me to care, you have to give me a signal that these people are actually going somewhere interesting.

They actually told us where, how, and when to watch Week By Week. Hooray (it premiers every Tuesday at 1:00 pm Eastern on their YouTube page).

RHETT TITUS VS. DANHAUSEN VIDE PACKAGE- I skipped this as soon as I saw Danhausen’s face. If Delirious would stop putting his penis in goats, he wouldn’t keep getting caught doing it by useless losers like this who photograph him and then use the pictures to blackmail him into booking them.

BRISCOES SEGMENT- bad
MORE THAN A FULL MONTH AFTER THE MATCH, the Briscoes cut a promo about losing to the team of EC III and Flip Gordon. Jay blames Mark for the loss because Mark was the one that got pinned. A whole month has gone by! Are you telling me that Jay still doesn’t know that Flip hit Mark with a foreign object? Or, if he does know, why is he being such a dick?
Mark quite rightly took offense to this, so they argued. Poppa Briscoe stepped in to tell them that they should settle it the “old-fashioned way,” and then we were told that in two weeks, these two have a “Fight on the Farm.” This feels like someone really wanted to do a cinematic match, so they came up with the laziest possible storyline to get there.

DRAGON LEE PROMO- meh

TRACY WILLIAMS PROMO- GREAT!

TONY DEPPEN PROMO- snore
You’re upset because people say you’re “the least violent member” of your group that has “violence” in the name? Really?


At the beginning of the main event, we got some match announcements for Best in the World 2021 on the bottom of the screen. They were Jay Lethal vs. Brody King and Josh Woods vs. Silas Young. Both should be quite good, but Silas vs. Woods really should have some sort of minor gimmick to it t this point, like a second referee outside the ring to stop Silas from cheating or something like that.


ROH WORLD TV TITLE MATCH: Tony Deppen(c) vs. Dragon Lee vs. Tracy Williams- 7.5/10
This is the two most recent champions getting their rematches at the same time. Dragon Lee wouldn’t shake hands before the match. Deppen and Tracy did.
These guys did a great job of making the idea that “you can’t take your eyes off the third man or else he’ll make you pay” feel like it was the real story of the match as opposed to it just being a consequence of this being a three-way.
The finish saw Dragon Lee hit Tracy in the groin after a ref bump but Deppen steal the pin. Dragon Lee could have broken the pin up but decided not to. I’m not crazy about the idea of someone just letting someone else win a title match, but this worked for me because very shortly before that, someone made sure that Ian Riccaboni noted a key piece of information: Tracy had broken up a Dragon Lee pin on Tony Deppen three different times in this match. And the pre-match graphic also let us know that Dragon Lee is undefeated against both of these men in ROH. And in Dragon Lee’s promo he noted (and the announcers reiterated during the match) that it was not Dragon Lee who got pinned when he lost the title. He was injured, so Kenny King was substituting for him. And, of course, Deppen then won the title from Tracy. All of this adds up to the following: In a one-on-one situation, Dragon Lee would have Deppen beat, while Deppen has proven that he is able to beat Tracy. Therefore, in Dragon Lee’s mind, he would rather let Tracy get pinned here and then argue that he should get a singles match against Deppen, which he would surely win.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- good
The Foundation came out, then VLNCE UNLTD came out. Then Kenny King came out and cut a good promo explaining that Dragon Lee’s plan was simply not to get pinned, and goading, demanding, and then threatening Deppen’s family to get him to put the title on the line against Dragon Lee at the PPV.


An okay show from ROH.