BRM Reviews the 4/23/2021 ROH

[Big Red Machine]

DAK DRAPER PROMO- great

ELI ISOM PROMO- fine

Ian told us that Dak Draper has asked to be moved from the Pure division into the TV Title division.

ELI ISOM vs. DAK DRAPER- 6.5/10
A good, solid, time-limit draw.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- didn’t like it.
They were about to start a five-minute overtime when the lights went out and Dalton Castle appeared on the stage. Why did management agree to continuing the match if they wanted Dalton to come out? And if they didn’t want Dalton to come out, who turned the lights off and play his music?
Dalton had four Boys with him. He signals to them with a “peacock call” noise. He did a dance and then cut a promo, putting both men over. He also said that “everyone is so focused on being a competitor that they forgot that about the viewer.” This is one of those lines that should NEVER be said, because the implication is that wrestling is boring. It’s not. It’s the thing that’s supposed to be driving everything that happens!
Dalton kicked both guys in the nuts. Draper got kicked second, and was an idiot for not seeing it coming. Dalton then said he was “busy” and left. This doesn’t feel at all connected to where Dalton was when we last saw him (getting his much sought-after win over Josh Woods, albeit via interference from Silas Young).

VIOLENCE UNLIMITED PROMO- excellent!
Holy f*ck where did Brody King suddenly get all of this charisma from? (The others were good, too).

CLIP OF AN ANGLE FROM SOMETHING CALLED “ROH WEEK-BY-WEEK”- good
Beer City Bruiser beat Joe Keys clean, then was going to attack him with a beer bottle when Keys’ fellow ROH Dojo trainees ran in to stop him. The one who got the Beer Bottle away from BCB decided to turn on his friends and join BCB.
See, AEW? That’s all you need to do.

QUINN MCKAY INTERVIEWS KEN DIXON & THE BEER CITY BRUISER- great!
Dixon has turned because he doesn’t “fit in” at the pure wrestling-oriented ROH Dojo.

RIGHTEOUS PROMO- good for what it was supposed to be, but I’m still not confident in the group
We’ve got Bateman, Vita VonStarr, and the new large guy, Dutch, but no Vincent. Ian tells us that we haven’t heard from Vincent since the 19th Anniversary Show. Bateman cut a promo saying that Vincent is still guiding them, even though he’s not here. Vita then read a prepared statement from Vincent talking about this being necessary for his “righteous rebirth.” Bateman is good at being extremely creepy-looking.

LFI PROMO- great
Kenny King did most of the talking. He said that he had history with Homicide, but I have absolutely no memory of what that history is. Rush was also good.

LA FACCION INGOBERNABLE (Kenny King, Bestia del Ring, & Rush) vs. VIOLENCE UNLIMITED (Brodie King, Chris Dickinson, & Homicide)- no rating, good segment
They started brawling right away. Rush did his usual choking with a camera cable and slamming the barricade door on Brody’s head, but this time they made sure the referee didn’t see it. Hooray! Stuff happened. They gave Dickinson the chance to shine as a babyface. He eventually got overwhelmed, but Brody King caused a DQ via chairshot. They kept brawling. Eventually the Foundation came out to fight everyone because I guess they don’t like Violence Unlimited’s disrespect for the rules. That’s fine. They brawled for a while. Ian and Caprice ran away because it was too chaotic, but the violence wasn’t anywhere near them. With no announcers, we soon cut to a…

TONY DEPPEN VS. TRACY WILLIAMS VIDEO PACKAGE- This was good build to next week’s title match, and did a good job of helping to draw a contrast between the two groups.

This was an okay episode of ROH. It was definitely intended to be just a set-up show, though, so that’s fine.