BRM Reviews ROH Death Before Dishonor IX

[Big Red Machine]

ROH Death Before Dishonor IX (9/17/2011)- New York, NY

MATCH TO EARN A QUALIFYING MATCH IN SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST 2011: Grizzly Redwood vs. Andy “Right Leg” Ridge- 4.25/10

BRISCOES PROMO- standard semi-coherent Briscoes rambling

HOMICIDE & JAY LETHAL vs. TOMASSO CIAMPA & RHINO (w/The Embassy)- 5.25/10

SHELTON BENJAMIN vs. MIKE BENNETT (w/”Brutal” Bob Evans)- 5.5/10

ELIMINATION MATCH: The Young Bucks vs. The Bravado Brothers vs. Future Shock (Adam Cole & Kyle O’Reilly)- 8/10. Fast-paced, hard-hitting, and awesome. We also got some “JUSTIN BIEBER!” chants aimed at Harlem Bravado!

EL GENERICO vs. JIMMY JACOBS- 6/10 “LITTLE JIMMY!” chants aimed at Jimmy Jacobs!

KEVIN STEEN STARTS A BRAWL- AWESOME (the spots with Cary and Cornette were particularly great)… but the stupid smarky crowd almost ruined it for me. They should be booing the hell out of Steen. He has been publicly trashing ROH!

CHARLIE HAAS vs. MICHAEL ELGIN (w/Truth Martini)- 6.25/10 The finish fell pretty flat. When the hell has Charlie ever used a lariat as a finisher?

RINGMASTERS CHALLENGE: Eddie Edwards vs. Roderick Strong (w/Truth Martini)- 9.25/10. AMAZING! I particularly loved the last minute of the Iron-man segment. I marked out for everything from Truth holding Eddie’s legs down until Eddie got the pin back on Roddy.

LADDER WAR FOR A SHOT AT THE ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLES: The Briscoe Brothers vs. The All-Night Express (Kenny King & Rhett Titus)- 8.75/10. Lots of violence here, which fit in with the feud, and they told a much different story than is normally told in ladder matches, but I think that this derailed the match a bit. I really didn’t like the lack of “near-falls” (or maybe “teases” would be a better word), and the ladders felt insignificant. This could have been a regular old No DQ’s match with very few changes. I think that ROH went to this stip too quickly. It was only at the last show that the ladder was introduced, and ROH made a whole big deal about how they didn’t want to have one. Then the wrestlers said “the violence won’t stop until we get a ladder war… and they just went right to a ladder war without showing us (or ROH officials) that the violence wouldn’t stop.

I would have had the two teams have different matches on this show, but have the Briscoes jump ANX before their match, leading to a brawl (ANX lose because of their injuries), and have the Briscoes also attack them right after their match. Then I would have had ANX to the same to the Briscoes in retaliation. Then, on the upcoming Collinsville show, I would have had them have Relaxed Rules match which ends in a double DQ (I think that a DQ in a Relaxed Rules match is an awesome way to show that the level of hatred and violence has gone too far), then have ROH Officials give in and have the Ladder War at Glory By Honor X, with the winners getting an ROH World Tag Team Title shot at Final Battle 2011 (delaying title match like this also avoids the current situation with Future Shock’s upcoming ROH World Tag Team Title shot in Collinsville, as having the challengers after them already set up and having just come out of a brutal, violent feud that needed ROH’s ultimate gimmick match to finish off pretty much eliminates any chance of anyone thinking that Future Shock have a snowball’s chance in hell of beating WGTT for the belts).

Overall, a GREAT show from ROH, especially considering some of the major absent starpower (Davey, Claudio, Hero, Cabana, and Daniels and lack of any title matches at all). Both the Ladder War and Roddy vs. Eddie are well worth the money alone, and rest of the show ranged from solid to awesome.

[cero2k]

CHARLIE HAAS vs. MICHAEL ELGIN (w/Truth Martini)- 6.25/10 The finish fell pretty flat. When the hell has Charlie ever used a lariat as a finisher?

I personally felt like it was the same booking for the Shelton/Bennett match, with the heel manager getting involved and all.

LADDER WAR FOR A SHOT AT THE ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLES: The Briscoe Brothers vs. The All-Night Express (Kenny King & Rhett Titus)- 8.75/10. Lots of violence here, which fit in with the feud, and they told a much different story than is normally told in ladder matches, but I think that this derailed the match a bit. I really didn’t like the lack of “near-falls” (or maybe “teases” would be a better word), and the ladders felt insignificant. This could have been a regular old No DQ’s match with very few changes. I think that ROH went to this stip too quickly. It was only at the last show that the ladder was introduced, and ROH made a whole big deal about how they didn’t want to have one. Then the wrestlers said “the violence won’t stop until we get a ladder war… and they just went right to a ladder war without showing us (or ROH officials) that the violence wouldn’t stop.

I agree and disagree.

I understand that there wasn't a lot of ladder climbing during the match. These guys were not there to win a title shot, they were there to kill each other. It's up until the end that you consider going for the title shot. Which is why i think that LW and LWII had much more ladder match spot, cuz the titles we're actually on the line, but here it was just the title shot.

But I do agree that the match was a bit hasted, they could have left it for GBH. I'm gonna have to go back to see what other matches they've had. I kinda fell like they should have done a "fight without Honor" first or something, I know they had many other matches already, but it does feel like we're missing one.

[Big Red Machine]

CHARLIE HAAS vs. MICHAEL ELGIN (w/Truth Martini)- 6.25/10 The finish fell pretty flat. When the hell has Charlie ever used a lariat as a finisher?

I personally felt like it was the same booking for the Shelton/Bennett match, with the heel manager getting involved and all.

That didn't bother me as much, because that is what heel managers are supposed to do, and Bennett and Elgin have different enough personalities that it didn't feel like the same match to me. I was, however, extremely surprised that Haas won at all. I was certain that some interference by Truth was going to cause him to lose, building up to a tag team title shot for Elgin & Roddy.

LADDER WAR FOR A SHOT AT THE ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLES: The Briscoe Brothers vs. The All-Night Express (Kenny King & Rhett Titus)- 8.75/10. Lots of violence here, which fit in with the feud, and they told a much different story than is normally told in ladder matches, but I think that this derailed the match a bit. I really didn’t like the lack of “near-falls” (or maybe “teases” would be a better word), and the ladders felt insignificant. This could have been a regular old No DQ’s match with very few changes. I think that ROH went to this stip too quickly. It was only at the last show that the ladder was introduced, and ROH made a whole big deal about how they didn’t want to have one. Then the wrestlers said “the violence won’t stop until we get a ladder war… and they just went right to a ladder war without showing us (or ROH officials) that the violence wouldn’t stop.

I agree and disagree.

I understand that there wasn't a lot of ladder climbing during the match. These guys were not there to win a title shot, they were there to kill each other. It's up until the end that you consider going for the title shot. Which is why i think that LW and LWII had much more ladder match spot, cuz the titles we're actually on the line, but here it was just the title shot.

But I do agree that the match was a bit hasted, they could have left it for GBH. I'm gonna have to go back to see what other matches they've had. I kinda fell like they should have done a "fight without Honor" first or something, I know they had many other matches already, but it does feel like we're missing one.

In my mind, though, the story was slightly different. Based on the last two promos leading into this match, to me, in addition to the hatred, I thought it was more Jay and Mark trying to prove that King and Titus couldn't hang with them in "their" match, and Rhett and Kenny were trying to prove that they could hang with the Briscoes by surviving the match and dishing out some punishment. The titles took on only a secondary importance, based on what happened at the TV tapings, but for King and Titus, winning the match was still extremely important.

It wasn't just the lack of climbing, though. The ladder rarely ever took on more importance than the other weapons. They used tables just as much, and for bigger spots. The first two (especially the first one) felt like Ladder Wars where as this one felt like a No DQ's match or a TLC match.

[badnewzxl]

I'm gonna get this late; but I'm gonna get this! I don't like it when the Briscoes lose but I LOVE it when they get violent...