BRM Reviews the 8/13/2021 ROH

[Big Red Machine]

HOLIDEAD VIDEO PACKAGE/PROMO- okay
I would have said this was good if it didn’t go on for too long with her saying essentially the same things over and over.

MAX THE IMPALER VIDOE PACKAGE/PROMO- good
Amy Rose did the talking here and kept it short. She said what she needed to in a concise manner. Then Max took off her mask and screamed at the camera.

ROH WOMEN’S WORLD TITLE TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: Holidead vs. Max The Impaler (w/Amy Rose)- 6.75/10
This was the best match of this tournament so far. My guess is that if I had seen what had happened during the commercial I would have gone up to a 7/10. I REALLY like the way Max sells. They do a very good job of retaining their big scary monsterness while showing enough vulnerability as they sell to tell us that it’s not impossible for the babyface to overcome them if the babyface keeps working at it. Hopefully they plow through Angelina Love in the next round. This division needs some credible new blood, and Max definitely helps with that.

Max does the kind of Sabu-esque dangerously violent but not totally uncivilized monster gimmick. I don’t love that sort of thing, but if the execution is good, I can go along with it. Part of that, though, is having a manager that fits… or, if the manager doesn’t seem like an obvious fit, explaining how the pairing came together. I want to know how Amy Rose came to Max The Impaler’s manager, because Max The Impaler does not seem like the sort of person who goes around looking for representation and then signs a contract.

MATT TAVEN VIDEO PACKAGE/PROMO- GREAT!
He managed to get me excited for his cage match with Vincent. Also, that atrocious beard is gone!


TEAM ROH CHAMPIONS (Bandido, Jonathan Gresham, Dragon Lee, Chris Dickinson, & Homicide) vs. TEAM ROH ALL-STARS (Flip Gordon, EC III, Josh Woods, & the Briscoes)- 7.25/10
We’re back to the one-fall format of the original match rather than the elimination format, which is a good when you’ve only got half an hour left in the show for a match involving ten of your top stars. That being said, I don’t like an annual match switching its rules year-by-year depending on what the booker needs at the time. Part of making an annual match a big thing is the consistency of the concept. I also don’t like that the six-man tag champs aren’t involved. Those belts already feel irrelevant, and this amount to the company snubbing them. I’m sure this will be used as fodder for Shane Taylor to complain about, but I don’t think that justifies doing it if 1) you actually do treat the belts like they’re irrelevant, and 2) the Shane Taylor complains and the way management treats him story never goes anywhere (just like that story didn’t with the Cabinet/Rebellion, and just like it didn’t SCU when they were doing that as heels. The only reason it came close to going anywhere was because fans decided they liked their stupid Being The Elite catchphrase and started cheering them so ROH turned them babyface, but then the direction they tried to take the story in either made no sense or had management acting like petulant heels, neither of which are good).
Action-wise, this was a good ten-man tag, and they did a good job with the tension between the teams (Flip and EC III on the all-stars’ side and Dragon Lee and Bandido plus the representation of LFI, the Foundation, and VLNCE UNLTD on the champions’ side) and on the opposing sides building up upcoming matches, but the relatively short length didn’t allow the match to have the gravitas that Champions vs. All-Stars should. Flip pinning Homicide was a good strong win for him over not just a current champion but a former ROH World Champion as he goes into his ROH World Title shot.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- meh
The Briscoes kept brawling with Dickinson on the outside because they want the tag titles. This felt a little forced, but my real problem with it was that the Briscoes got to double-team poor Dickinson because Dickinson’s partner was the one who just got pinned.
Ethan stared at Flip after the match. I hope he doesn’t interfere in Flip vs. Bandido.


RUNDOWN OF THE CARDS FOR BOTH NIGHTS OF GLORY BY HONOR- Hooray! Now I know what’s on the big shows!

A good show from ROH.