BRM Reviews ROH Supercard of Honor 2022 (AWESOME!)

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews ROH Supercard of Honor 2022 (AWESOME!)

Post by Big Red Machine » Apr 2nd, '22, 21:19

ROH Supercard of Honor 2022 (4/1/2022)- Garland, TX


ZERO HOUR:
Ian Riccaboni and Caprice Coleman were on commentary.

COLT CABANA vs. BLAKE CHRISTIAN- 6.5/10
Cabana won clean with the Chicago Skyline. Christian was given enough to look credible if they want to keep using him.

WORLD TITLE MATCH VIDEO PACKAGE- meh

AQA vs. MIRANDA ALIZE- 5.5/10
AQA won clean.

DENISE INTERVIEWS THE FOUNDATION- meh
This was Rhett Titus (who pronounced Minoru Suzuki’s name wrong), Josh Woods, and Jonathan Gresham. None of them were very good, but not terrible either. Just bland. Quite frankly, it was people’s wrong stereotypes of what an ROH promo sounded like in mid 2000s.

TULLY BLANCHARD PROMO- good
He’s got a new team, which he will presumably eventually go after FTR with. The “Gates of Agony” name is pretty terrible, but so was the “Authors of Pain,” and we all got used to that. I would like to get more of an explanation at some point of why Kaun left the unit of Shane Taylor Promotions.

SHINOBI SHADOW SQUAD (Eli Isom & World Famous CB) vs. THE GATES OF AGONY (Toa Liona & Kaun) (w/Tully Blanchard)- no rating, good squash
Two minor negative notes. The first is that I would have preferred an even more dominant squash, though I understand wanting to respect Burger and Isom’s history (and Isom’s future potential). The second is that it’s 2022, and that stupid Thumb Spike finisher needs to go.
Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but this felt to me like Tony Khan’s version of (the idea behind) Da Hit Squad vs. Christopher Street Connection segment that opened The Era Of Honor Begins. This was a statement that “that stuff you’ve been seeing and either are sick of or never liked in the first place is not what we’re doing here.” Like I said, I’m very open to the idea that I’m reading WAY too much into this, that is what this felt like to me. Time will tell.

TULLY BLANCHARD POST-MATCH PROMO- good
Tully tells us that there is a third member of the new Tully Blanchard Enterprises, who will be revealed later tonight.

INTERIM WOMEN’S WORLD TITLE VIDEO PACKAGE- not good
Mercedes Martinez was great, as always. Willow Nightengale came off as the kind of person I’d like to see Mercedes obliterate, but I think she was supposed to be a babyface, so that’s not good. Most importantly, though, they failed to explain the question that has been on everyone’s mind, which is why the hell we need an interim title at all. Both women talked about how they would win this match and go on to face Deonna Purrazzo, so why not just make this a #1 contendership match? If she’s injured or something like that, just say so!

JOE HENDRY vs. DALTON CASTLE (w/the Baby Chicks)- 6.75/10
Hendry refused Dalton’s pre-match handshake. Dalton won a very good match cleanly. Just solid wrestling and two guys matching power.

DENISE INTERVIEWS BANDIDO… & CHAVO GUERRERO JR.- good… but worrying
Chavo says he is here because Bandido was unfairly stripped of the title (even though ROH seems to have had no problem with him running around with the belt and defending it), and so he will help Bandido reclaim what is his “by any means necessary.” Bandido makes Chavo promise “no cheating” and Chavo swears it.
I see and appreciate all of the various storyline possibilities being set up here, but I REALLY don’t want to see any of that stuff on this first show, and if we absolutely must do this sort of thing Chavo is just the wrong person to do it with. He’s old and he has that stink of failure on him. I’m sure there are plenty of other Luchadors who could have been used for this role who would get people a lot more excited than 2022 Chavo Guerrero Jr.

MAIN SHOW:
ALEX ZAYNE vs. SHANE “SWERVE” STRICKLAND- 8.25/10
I absolutely LOVED this match. I loved that they were able to have an athletic, flippy match while not going at a pace that made the moves feel like fake spots just designed to be impressive. I loved that they never forgot the damage done to Zayne’s knee, and I loved how that they came up with a way to make it feel relevant to the finish even though the finish was a move to the head (which Strickland had also been working over).

NINJA MACK vs. BRIAN CAGE (w/Tully Blanchard)- F*CKING AWESOME SQUASH!
The crowd was happy to see Cage. Me… not so much.
Ninja Mack bumped around like a motherf*cker for Cage! This was absolutely tremendous, with a great use being made of the size difference. If anyone from WWE is watching this match, they should offer Ninja Mack a big contract just to be a squash guy.

JAY LETHAL vs. LEE MORIARTY (w/Matt Sydal)- 8.5/10
WOW! Now THIS is the Lee Moriarty I’ve been wanting to see on Dynamite, and Lethal was excellent as always. The storytelling here was excellent, both with Lethal working on Moriarty’s knee, and with Moriarty having Lethal scouted and Lethal’s desperation as the match went on, leading him to hit Moriarty with a low blow to set up the finish.
The booking here was wonderful. Lethal had been upset about losing by cheating in AEW, but if the idea is to turn him heel, it needs to be in a situation where we can’t sympathize with him, so it was key to have him do it against someone wrestling completely cleanly, so that he’s not fighting fire with fire in this match, but rather he is fighting fire with fire in an attempt to move up the AEW rankings, and it is Moriarty who is suffering as the end result of Lethal’s frustration and Adam Cole, reDRagon, and Team Taz’s cheating, and, most importantly, of Lethal’s decision here. To fight cheat against someone who is cheating against you is one thing, but to cheat against an innocent- to take a shortcut for the sake of keeping up with others who are taking shortcuts- that is truly the embodiment of “those who would do battle with monsters should take care lest they become monsters themselves.” And Jay Lethal knows that, because after hitting Moriarty in the nuts, he cried. And then he went for the pin anyway. wonderful booking by Tony, and amazing emotion from Lethal. I bumped this up by .5 just for the finish.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- meh
Okay, this I didn’t like nearly as much. Matt Sydal got into the ring to yell at Lethal, at which point Lethal kicked his crutch out and started to punch him. Sonjay Dutt and some referees had to pull him off. That was Lethal going too far for me. Maybe if Sydal had been yelling at him for a few minutes straight, but that wasn’t the case here.
On commentary, Ian told us that even when Lethal used to cheat, he “never resorted to low blows.” I don’t know if this is actually true, but I REALLY hope it is, because Ian should know better by know than to make an absolute statement that is most likely false.

SINGLES MATCH TO CROWN AN INTERIM ROH WORLD WOMEN’S CHAMPION: Mercedes Martinez vs. Willow Nightengale- 6/10
Mercedes won clean in a perfectly fine undercard match… which is not what a title match should feel like. Willow nearly killed Mercedes with a moonsault.

ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Briscoes(c) vs. FTR- A PERFECT 10/10!
The atmosphere here was just insane from the get-go, and then they went and ramped it up with the simplest little things, telling the story of which team would lose their cool and get angry and make a mistake first. This started with FTR’s lack of handshake at the beginning, and they did a such a great job of ramping it up with little things. The moment Dax throws that first actual punch was one of those magical moments that we only get a few times a year… and the match only got BETTER from there. This match was brutal and hard-hitting, built well, told a story, and everything in it felt like people doing nothing but trying to win a match. This is everything I want pro wrestling to be!
For those wondering, I was fine with the amount of time they were on the outside. If Turner had been counting the whole time, I don’t think he would have gotten to twenty, and I don’t have a problem with the referee spending a little bit of time telling people to get back into the ring before that. I also had no problem with FTR giving Jay the James Storm vs. Chris Harris slingshot into the underside of the table, as it falls into the category of a whip into the ringsteps to me, where it’s part of the environment, so making someone go into it is okay, but picking it up and hitting someone with it is not.
If you haven’t seen the match yet, GO WATCH IT NOW, SO THAT WHAT I TYPE BELOW DOESN’T SPOIL ANYTHING FOR YOU!





POST-MATCH SEGMENT- mostly great
We got a wonderful show of mutual respect. FTR headed off with the belts, and the fans were now left to wonder if this was the Briscoes retiring. Then the Young Bucks showed up and attacked them, with FTR returning to make the save, not just adding some fuel to the fire of FTR vs. Young Bucks for Wednesday’s Dynamite, but also setting up a Young Bucks vs. Briscoes match for some point in the future.
Then we got the part of this that I didn’t like, which was FTR offering to give the Bucks a title shot right now… and then the Bucks turning down this match in which they would have a major advantage… for no logical reason other than to get heat from the crowd for not letting them see a match live.
I also didn’t like Ian scolding the Young Bucks for saying “pricks,” but not having an issue with FTR calling the Bucks “pussies.”

ROH TV TITLE MATCH: Rhett Titus(c) vs. Minoru Suzuki- 5.5/10
Suzuki won a short match cleanly. They did the best they could with the time they were given while respecting the idea of Suzuki’s dominance because he’s Suzuki and Rhett is… well… Rhett. My hope is that Suzuki will just discard the title and that will be the end of its existence.

ROH PURE TITLE MATCH: Josh Woods(c) vs. Wheeler YUTA- 7/10
A great Pure Rules match which YUTA won. I guess this means that Woods isn’t sticking around?
Ian seemed to be under the impression that YUTA was already part of the Blackpool Combat Club. I didn’t think that was the case.

ROH WORLD TITLE UNIFICATION MATCH: Jonathan Gresham(Original ROH World Champion) vs. Bandido (ROH World Title) (w/Chavo Guerrero Jr.)- 8.5/10
Bandido was in all black gear, as opposed to his usual gear, which is mostly white. That’s some worrying foreshadowing right there. Fortunately, he didn’t turn heel. When Chavo got involved, Bandido rejected it and ordered the referee to eject him from ringside. They then continued to wrestle clean, with Gresham picking up the clean win via a fancy roll-up that started as a springboard. This is what an ROH World Title match should be (minus the Chavo stuff, of course).

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- decent
Gresham went to give a speech, but he was interrupted by Jay Lethal, asking for the first shot at the title. Gresham said that Lethal had changed, so Lethal played the “no one would know who you are if it wasn’t for me” card and shoved him. Gresham went back at Lethal, and Sonjay Dutt came out to keep them apart, but he eventually took a cheap shot at Gresham, and they both started to beat Gresham down. Lee Moriarty came out to make the save, but he got beaten down as well.
Lethal posed with the belts, but then SAMOA JOE came out to a HUGE pop. Lethal backed down. Sonjay tried to get Lethal out of the ring. Joe grabbed Sonjay and choked him out, while Lethal was too afraid to make the save. Lethal left, and then Joe shook Gresham’s hand. Ian told us that he just got word from Tony Khan that Samoa Joe will be on Dynamite on Wednesday.
The execution here was very good. My issue with this segment is that, like earlier, Lethal’s actions feel like they are too far over the line someone who turned heel less than two hours ago, and was crying about it when he did. What at the time was an amazing, dramatic, and very human moment has now been reduced to feeling like someone flipped the switch in Jay Lethal’s brain from “good” to “evil.”
I realize that Tony Khan probably wanted to have some sort of big angle to go off the air with and to set up for a next show, but I think just having Joe come out and shake Gresham’s hand, but then tell him that he was coming for the belt would have been fine. In the time between now and the next show you can have that same Lethal/Gresham segment (perhaps on Dynamite at some point) with Joe making the save, then the next week you can have Joe cut a promo on Lethal saying something along the lines of “if it wasn’t for me, no one would know who Jay Lethal is” to turn the tables on Lethal, and you use that to set up Joe vs. Lethal in a #1 contendership match on the next show (Lethal cheats to win) while Gresham wrestles someone else, and then do Gresham vs. Lethal on show three while you start building Joe up for a title shot.


This was an EXCELLENT show from ROH. I’m still not sold on Tony Khan running ROH, but the BS was kept to a minimum here, the matches were given appropriate time, there was no comedy BS, and the wrestling was excellent, so I am optimistic going forward.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

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