BRM Reviews the 2/2/2013 ROH

[Big Red Machine]

TOP PROSPECT TOURNMANET FIST ROUND MATCH: “The Promise” Antonio Thomas vs. Tadarius Thomas- 4/10
I didn’t realize these guys were so old (34 and 31 respectively). Unfortunately, neither was particularly impressive.

JAY LETHAL PROMO- good hype for the 11th Anniversary Show.

We then get a video-package recapping the pre-show match from Final Battle 2012 between Q.T. Marshall and Grizzly Redwood. Conveniently, they have edited out all of the crowd noise for the clips of the match because, for most of the match, the live crowd was chanting “end this match!” Apparently R.D. Evans is trying to get this match stricken from the record because it was never officially sanctioned, meaning that Grizz is involved in some sort of angle again. YAY!

GRIZZLY REDWOOD vs. RODERICK STRONG- 3.75/10
Mike Mondo was on commentary for this match, and apparently commentary is just one more place that I don’t want to see Mike Mondo. Mondo says that one thing that he and Grizz have in common is that they both fight and scratch their way to victory. Hey Mondo, want to know what you and Grizz don’t have in common? People actually care about Grizz.

MICHAEL ELGIN vs. “THE PRODIGY” MIKE BENNETT (w/Maria Kanellis & “Brutal” Bob Evans)-6/10.
Brutal Bob is dressed like a TV burglar from the 1960’s, while Maria is dressed… really, really, really f*cking hot.
Anyway, this match was very good for the time it got, but I’m really not sure why it happened at all. Bennett kept signaling for the Cradle Piledriver, but he’s done with Jerry Lynn so I’m not sure what that was all about. The analytical part of my brain really questions having Elgin kick out of a Super Box Office Smash in a totally meaningless match, but I won’t deny that I popped pretty big when Elgin kicked out of it, so I guess it did its job as an extremely convincing false finish.

INSIDE ROH SEGMENT- The Lethal-Steen recap was good. Whitmer’s promo was pretty good, too. He really came off sounding like a grizzled veteran.

GAUNTLET MATCH FOR AN ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE SHOT AT THE 11TH ANNIVERSARY SHOW: American Wolves vs. The Bravado Brothers vs. Jimmy Jacobs & Steve Corino vs. Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly- no rating
They only had thirteen minutes for this whole match, so they tried to protect things as much as they could. The Bravados got beaten in about five minutes, then the Wolves got a roll-up on SCUM and SCUM hit them with weapons afterward, allowing Fish & O’Reilly to come in and pick up the pieces like the dirty heels they are… except that the Wolves fight back, so we do get an actual match at the end, which was nice, so I will give them a pass on not having a main event quality match in this spot.

Overall, a decent episode of ROH, but they really should have taken the Bennett vs. Elgin match out of the show. It was a very good match, but the time really could have been used better by giving it to the main event.