BRM Reviews the 2/6/2016 ROH

[Big Red Machine]

ALEX SHELLEY vs. FRANKIE KAZARIAN (w/Chris Sabin)- 7.25/10
What was good? This match. In fact, it was great. Once again, though, we seem to have this disconnect between the actual booking, what the booker is trying to get us to think, and what the announcers are saying.
Between Sabin’s commentary and his actions during this match, it seems pretty clear that he is siding with the Addiction and against Shelley. Previously, the booking in this feud seemed to be trying to show us that Sabin is conflicted, and the announcers keep pushing that story as well.

The most infuriating thing, though, was the part of this match where Steve Corino “called in.” Somehow, from his phone, Steve Corino managed to break into the announcers headsets and cut a promo on BJ Whitmer say thing “someone has to do something” and “this was has gone on long enough” and saying that he would be here next week and some other stuff I couldn’t hear because of the poor audio quality. While this was happening, the cameras showed us the announcers sitting there and listening. Meanwhile, there was action going on in the ring.
Ignoring the ridiculous high-tech BS Corino somehow used to achieve this feat… what was the point of this promo? To tell us that Corino will show up next week and do something about Whitmer? Why not just have him cut a short promo the normal way? And if the answer is that this would make your show too full, well then just cut some time from the DQ we’re getting in the main event. It’s already going to be a disappointment? Or even better, cut the stupid commercial for the Corino DVD which COMPLETELY GOES AGAINST THE ANGLE YOU ARE TRYING TO PORTRAY!

DALTON CASTLE (w/the Boys) vs. JOEY DIESEL DADDIEGO (w/Truth Martini)- 3.5/10
To get us excited for this match, they showed up footage of one of the wrestlers (Daddiego) getting destroyed by Donovan Dijak. The match was pointless. I have seen Castle do the same antics for a year now. They’re old. He needs to actually start developing as a character. Daddiego… well… he just sucks and ROH needs to stop booking him.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- great!
Silas comes out and reveals the Boys’ real names (Brent and Brendan). Beer City Bruiser restrains the Boys while Silas beats up Dalton. He tells the Boys they must choose to either be men or boys. They make their choice known by attacking Silas and the Bruiser, but Silas and the Bruiser fight back and beat them up. This buys Castle enough time to recover and he attacks Silas and Bruiser, but the numbers game catches up to him and he gets beaten up, too.

TOP PROSPECT TOURNAMENT FIRST-ROUND MATCH: Leon St. Giovanni vs. Action Ortiz- 4/10
Mechanically the match was fine and there was even a bit of a story here, but something rubbed me the wrong way, especially about Ortiz. He comes off as your standard early 2000’s fat indy guy that wants to fly (complete with a big goofy bald head and big goofy facial expressions, like a cross between Dan Maff and Ryback), and… it’s not that he wants to fly but can’t, because he certainly can, but the way the portrayed it within the story of the match made it seem like a detriment to him instead of an asset.
The first spot of the match was him missing a standing dropkick, so immediately he looks like an idiot. He also appeared to be blown up from that point on, but I’m pretty sure that was just selling (dear G-d I hope that was selling. I don’t think I would be blown up after just one dropkick). Then stuff happened (including Leon St. Giovanni hitting a really flippy, impressive dive), but Ortiz got the advantage and went to the top rope for a Frog Splash but he missed again. At this point you’re probably having the same thought I was: “okay. Story is the other guy keeps avoiding his flying stuff until he finally hits it and wins.” Then he won with a really lame backdrop driver-type move, which pretty much meant that story of the match was “fatty looks like an idiot every time he tries to fly, so he just uses a regular move and wins,” which really doesn’t get me excited to see him again.

STOKELY HATHAWAY PROMO- Moose is challenging Okada to a match at the 14th Anniversary Show. This sounds laughable.

ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: War Machine(c) vs. The All-Night Express- 4/10
ANX comes out and the announcers keep pushing the idea that they are challenging for “the titles that they never lost” except that they have lost so many times since coming back that this claim of theirs doesn’t mean sh*t anymore (and they lost two more times on the Winter Warriors Tour, including getting pinned BY War Machine!).
Rather than pay attention to this ROH World Tag Team Title match, Kevin Kelly randomly started to talk about Matt Taven’s injury and put Taven over for being tough and brave. To make things worse, he then used this indirectly bring into question whether or not War Machine would have won the titles if Taven hadn’t gotten hurt.
He also talked about War Machine wanting to “cement their legacy” as tag champs. Don’t you think it’s a little early for that? This is only their first title defense!
The bell rang with barely ten minutes left in the show… and yet there was still a commercial break in the middle of it.
They teased someone going through a table, so of course the f*cking idiots in the crowd all started to chant “WE WANT TABLES!” in the middle of a REGULAR MATCH! Yes. The crowd wanted our World Tag Team Title match main event to end a disqualification. In the Ring of Honor: the company that was founded specifically to give fans a place where sh*t like that wouldn’t happen! Sorry, assholes, but you have lost the right to call yourselves “Ring of Honor fans.” I hope ROH doesn’t come back to Charlotte for a long time. There have got to be other, more deserving markets that could get their shows (Toronto and Columbus both immediately come to mind, and a return to Boston would be good, especially now that ROH is has been on NESN for a while).
So we get a ref bump (with the announcers debating whether Kenny King caused it on purpose), and Kenny orders Rhett to get a table… which, of course, makes the idiot fans cheer for a heel’s dastardly cheating. I don’t want to keep picking on the crowd, but they are really driving me nuts. Five minutes ago they were going nuts for all of War Machine’s stuff, but now that ANX are going to use an illegal object on War Machine, they are cheering, too? Look… wrestling is supposed to be a combat sport, just like MMA. You should either pick a side and root for that side, or maybe root for a good, competitive match. What these fans are doing is like someone who watches MMA to watch people hurt one another. That’s not being a fan. That’s being a sadist.

So ANX go to put Rowe through a table, but he blocks it and winds up putting Kenny through a table for the DQ and the moron fans cheer. If you like DQs so much, go watch WCW, assholes. Rhett brawls with first Rowe and then Hanson and then security swarms the ring and we got a big pull-apart with security guys getting beaten up left and right, and all I can think was “where the hell were these guys when Silas and the Bruiser were assaulting Dalton and the Boys?

I really didn’t like this. Even without the crowd, this whole thing felt so cheap. Like they (and I’m really blaming the booker in this rather than the wrestlers) didn’t earn this whole thing. It feels like they did this DQ because that’s what was booked, and it feels like the DQ was booked specifically for the purpose of doing some sort of weapons match or something at the PPV, and it feels like that weapons match is happening just for the sake of having a weapons match, and I REALLY don’t like it. There was no build-up for ANX’s sudden heel turn (I’m assuming that’s what this was because that’s how Kevin and Nigel were pushing it). Nothing to show us that they were getting desperate enough to resort to this. Also, them immediately rushing to a weapons match for War Machine’s first title defense has me worried that Delirious just seems them as big brawling guys and that we are going to be getting a lot more of this as their title reign goes on.

A very frustrating show from ROH.

[Bulletclubfan2014]

Anyone else think after seeing Stokely Hathaway's promo that Moose will be feuding with Jay Lethal in the near future?

[Big Red Machine]

Anyone else think after seeing Stokely Hathaway's promo that Moose will be feuding with Jay Lethal in the near future?

It certainly seems possible. They were planting seeds back in the early fall (September in particular) but then seemed to back away from, which is exactly what Delirious has done for quite a few challengers recently (Hanson's TV Title shot and Kyle's World Title shot in particular).
I also think that they definitely like Moose enough to try to make the big mistake (IMO) of building a PPV around him going for the world title.