BRM Reviews the 4/25/2015 ROH (great)

[Big Red Machine]

OPENING VIDEO PACKAGE- oooohh… foreshadowing.
Great promo by The Addiction, but some of the visual effects were annoying. Aside from the visual effects, I think I would have at least included some comments by reDRagon simply because this all but screams “TITLE CHANGE!” Maybe it would have been better if Kaz and Daniels had talked up what might happen if they lose (they’d give up being a tag team or something like that). Daniels’ “I am not insane” definitely showed that there were some possibilities if they lost (like snapping and going nuts, or Daniels turning heel on Kaz and finding himself a new tag partner), but with all of the focus here on The Addiction and reDRagon not even getting a single line, I thought it was almost too subtle because the whole things shouted “WE ARE WINNING THE TITLES TONIGHT!”

FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL MATCH: Caprice Coleman vs. Will Ferrara vs. BJ Whitmer (w/Adam Page) vs. Moose (w/Stokely Hathaway & Veda Scott)- 5.75/10
Good action, but not much else. Ferrara almost botched the Code Red. Does anyone actually see anything in this guy other than a generic dude?
Moose and Whitmer had a post-match confrontation because Whitmer stole Moose’s pin. Whitmer called him a “big goofy bastard.”

ADAM PAGE PROMO ON ACH- decent. Page definitely has some work to do, but he’s got some good potential. Actually, the more that I think about it, the more it sounded like Jimmy Jacobs wrote most of this promo.
Page tried to set fire to an ACH shirt, but ACH came out and stopped him (and Whitmer) from doing so. ACH then cut a great promo, but he referenced some sort of legit backstage thing that seems to have happened that got him a lot of heat at some unspecified point in the past which we fans had no idea about, so there was this general feeling of “what the hell is he talking about) (if I had to guess, it must have happened sometime in the early fall of 2013, because I remember being similarly confused about some references that Kevin Steen and Kevin Kelly were making at Charm City Challenge, and I think there also might have been some comments from someone on a PWG DVD around that time as well. ACH’s delivery still made this promo great, though, and it resulted in…

ACH vs. ADAM PAGE (w/BJ Whitmer)- no rating. Decent segment to set up their match at Conquest Tour: Hopkins, and also to set up Matt Sydal & ACH vs. Page & Whitmer at some point in the future.

COMMERCIAL FOR ROH/NEW JAPAN SHOWS- good.

MICHAEL ELGIN PROMO- GREAT! He’s bringing in the Killer Elite Squad to face War Machine. Also, if Elgin does impress the New Japan office at the ROH/New Japan shows, his comment about having “friends in high places” who are loaning him K.E.S. lays the groundwork for Elgin to be a member of Suzuki-Gun.

This week on the ROH Codeline (stupid name and an outdated idea), you can find out who is in line for a tag title shot: War Machine or Roppongi Vice. It had better not be Roppongi Vice, considering that they lost a tag title match at Conquest Tour: Chicago. Actually, War Machine shouldn’t be getting a title shot, either, considering that they haven’t actually won a tag team match since last June. And now that I think about it, what have The Addiction done to earn the tag title shot they’re getting tonight? They are on a one-match winning streak, and their last win before that one was back in November.
And now that I think about it, while War Machine shouldn’t be in line for a tag title shot, Hanson definitely should be in line for a World Title shot considering that he was in the world title four way at the 13th Anniversary Show and not only didn’t get pinned, but had the winning pinfall essentially stolen from him. You could actually make a similar argument that Michael Elgin deserves a title shot, too, but not a peep has been heard about him as a possible contender for Jay Briscoe. Step it the f*ck up, Lizard Man!

ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: reDRagon(c) vs. The Addiction- 7.75/10
The match was awesome, though I took 0.25 off for the finish. Said finish involved a member of the Knights of the Rising Dawn interfering, and (seemingly) inadvertently kicking Kyle O’Reilly even though he had been aiming for Christopher Daniels. This led to the Addiction picking up the win. Bobby Fish managed to tackle the KRD guy and unmasked him, revealing… CHRIS SABIN!
Daniels and Kaz then attacked reDRagon and it was revealed that Kaz, Daniels, and Sabin had been the KRD all along. My question is: why did they go through so much trouble to misdirect us? Why have Daniels come out last week to help stop an attack on Bobby Fish? Why spend so much time getting people to think The Kingdom were behind it when everyone knew that Adam Cole had just had shoulder surgery? Why so a risky maneuver that requires split second timing (like the interference spot in this match) just to make us think that the superkick was meant for Daniels instead of Kyle? The risk of screwing up seems way too great for the reward of… what, exactly? Fooling everyone? How does misleading us help you when no one suspected you in the first place? It was a little too Russo-esque for my tastes.
That being said, both the title change and the reveal got HUGE pops and felt like they were HUGE deals, so I can’t deny that it all worked very well.
Kyle got busted open during the post-match attack, but the blood was blurred out, which was not only lame, but also worries me that if someone bleeds during an actual match we’ll have to watch the remainder of the match with one of the wrestlers looking like a suspect on Cops.
Bobby Fish cut a great angry babyface-ish promo after the match, and we were promised some form of follow-up on next week’s show.

A great show from ROH. Not up to the standard they’ve been setting for the past nine months or so, but only because that standard has been ridiculously high.

[Bulletclubfan2014]

ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: reDRagon(c) vs. The Addiction- 7.75/10
The match was awesome, though I took 0.25 off for the finish. Said finish involved a member of the Knights of the Rising Dawn interfering, and (seemingly) inadvertently kicking Kyle O’Reilly even though he had been aiming for Christopher Daniels. This led to the Addiction picking up the win. Bobby Fish managed to tackle the KRD guy and unmasked him, revealing… CHRIS SABIN!
Daniels and Kaz then attacked reDRagon and it was revealed that Kaz, Daniels, and Sabin had been the KRD all along. My question is: why did they go through so much trouble to misdirect us? Why have Daniels come out last week to help stop an attack on Bobby Fish? Why spend so much time getting people to think The Kingdom were behind it when everyone knew that Adam Cole had just had shoulder surgery? Why so a risky maneuver that requires split second timing (like the interference spot in this match) just to make us think that the superkick was meant for Daniels instead of Kyle? The risk of screwing up seems way too great for the reward of… what, exactly? Fooling everyone? How does misleading us help you when no one suspected you in the first place? It was a little too Russo-esque for my tastes.
That being said, both the title change and the reveal got HUGE pops and felt like they were HUGE deals, so I can’t deny that it all worked very well.

I can at least see some logic in them trying to get people to believe the Kingdom were behind it because if you remember there win a few weeks ago was due to help from the KRD so they decided to make it seem as unlikely as they could they were behind it before they started using the KRD to benefit them without them being suspected of being part of it. but yea I agree the execution here was a little off. Also they said on the ROH website that The Addiction got the title shots because Daniels and Kazarian were never the kind of guys to se the fact they're veterans in the wrestling world to get what they want and this was a rare occasion that they did ask for something so Nigel granted it to them because of how little they ask for things without earning it first.

[Big Red Machine]

ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: reDRagon(c) vs. The Addiction- 7.75/10
The match was awesome, though I took 0.25 off for the finish. Said finish involved a member of the Knights of the Rising Dawn interfering, and (seemingly) inadvertently kicking Kyle O’Reilly even though he had been aiming for Christopher Daniels. This led to the Addiction picking up the win. Bobby Fish managed to tackle the KRD guy and unmasked him, revealing… CHRIS SABIN!
Daniels and Kaz then attacked reDRagon and it was revealed that Kaz, Daniels, and Sabin had been the KRD all along. My question is: why did they go through so much trouble to misdirect us? Why have Daniels come out last week to help stop an attack on Bobby Fish? Why spend so much time getting people to think The Kingdom were behind it when everyone knew that Adam Cole had just had shoulder surgery? Why so a risky maneuver that requires split second timing (like the interference spot in this match) just to make us think that the superkick was meant for Daniels instead of Kyle? The risk of screwing up seems way too great for the reward of… what, exactly? Fooling everyone? How does misleading us help you when no one suspected you in the first place? It was a little too Russo-esque for my tastes.
That being said, both the title change and the reveal got HUGE pops and felt like they were HUGE deals, so I can’t deny that it all worked very well.

I can at least see some logic in them trying to get people to believe the Kingdom were behind it because if you remember there win a few weeks ago was due to help from the KRD so they decided to make it seem as unlikely as they could they were behind it before they started using the KRD to benefit them without them being suspected of being part of it. but yea I agree the execution here was a little off. Also they said on the ROH website that The Addiction got the title shots because Daniels and Kazarian were never the kind of guys to se the fact they're veterans in the wrestling world to get what they want and this was a rare occasion that they did ask for something so Nigel granted it to them because of how little they ask for things without earning it first.

Huh. I guess I need to read the website more carefully.