Cero reviews ROH Death Before Dishonor XI

[cero2k]

ROH Death Before Dishonor XI
September 20, 2013
Philadelphia, PA

Briscoe's 'Rock Bottom' Promo -The whole video was good, Jay's final promo was well delivered, but kinda weird. i find it really poetic that the culmination of this storyline would be at 'Death Before Dishonor'

Corino's Boycott Promo - Awesome!

OPENING VIDEO - Perfect. Made the tourny seem special and each semifinalist got over.

Jay Briscoe in-ring promo - Was it really important for him to come out with dirty pants ? It was a great promo, but I hate to see Nigel sad. It took a Briscoe to hit rock bottom to deliver a legible promo.

Silas Young vs Jay Lethal - 6/10
Good match, but nothing special from it. Young connects a great german that looked a bit dangerous.

Adam Cole and Tommaso Ciampa Promos - short but did it's work.

ROH World Title Tournament Semifinal
Adam Cole vs 'The Sicilian Psychopath' Tommaso Ciampa - 7.5/10
Great match, full of fast paced action from the very start. Ciampa as always really vicious and all over the place. Cole seems to be playing the underdog, or at least the commentary table sold him that way. I'm not sure how to feel about the finish, it's like all these crazy spots, and he loses like that.

Kevin Steen and Michael Elgin Promos - again, short,but it did it's work.

ROH World Title Tournament Semifinal
'Mr. Wrestling' Kevin Steen vs 'Unbreakable' Michael Elgin - 7/10
Great match, but crowd kinda killed it for me, they're mostly dead and i felt it diminished how awesome this was. Announcers failed to sell that Elgin finally defeated Steen when it counts.

ROH Tag Team Title Scene - Just confirming those titles are in a current 'hot potato' situation.

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title Match
American Wolves vs Forever Hooligans - 7.5/10
It's in Kozlov's contract that the Russian National Anthem gets sang every show. LOVE IT. Davey meanwhile does some of his sleazy dancing behind them. 'ROCKY IV' chant! Great fun match, a lot of the Hooligan's comedy shtick plus the Wolves playing to it. Wrestling was at the level of both teams, bunch of double team combinations and fast paced action.

R.D. Evans and Veda Scott Promo - Great! Adam Page interrupts and challenges.

Adam Page vs R.D. Evans w/Veda Scott - N/A
Nigel, as match maker, tried to get involved just to make the match 'official', but everyone inside the ring ignored him and made things really awkward. Match lasted less than Evan's promo.

Roderick Strong vs Ricky Marvin - 6.5/10
Great technical showing for Ricky Marvin. There's a dropkick that he made from the ropes that made me go 'WHOA!', don't want to spoil it, you'll know which one i'm talking about. Good showing for Roderick too. Finish was weird.

BJ Whitmer Retires - That video they did before Whitmer came out was just terrible. Good heartfelt speech, I was expecting a Mark Henry swerve, never happened. Whitmer then gets Jimmy Jacobs reinstated.

C&C Wrestling Factory and Adrenaline Rush vs Mike Bennett w/ Maria, Matt Taven w/House of Truth, and reDragon - 6.5/10
The bad guys intro made me go back to the Special K days, and how the hell is anyone gonna focus on this match with sooo much booty out there!? Maria is on commentary, she's good, playing her character greatly. Lots of great action from everyone, but really hard to follow.

OUTLAW Inc attack - ok promo, but nothing came out of this

ROH World Title Finals
Adam Cole vs Michael Elgin - 8/10
Right off the bat, i don't like that they're playing that Elgin is injured and that Cole is ok, sure Elgin took on Steen, but Cole took on freakin' Ciampa! There are three judges (Silkin, Joe, and Nana) in case there is a time limit draw, just wondering, why not simply make the match No Time Limit? Great match overall, but I really didn't see the point in the ref bump, why not just a false finish to make Cole look better? Anyway, at least the finish was clean and good.

AFTERMATH - AWESOME! ADAM COLE BAYBAY!

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Great show from ROH, truly at the level of what ROH and DBD has always delivered. Worth checking out from top to bottom.

NOTES:

- Not sure if I'm watching way to much PWG, but the crowd seemed dead for a lot of the matches tonight. Or it could be the armory, but it just felt silent for most of the time.

- The ice packs and ref interference after every match. Someone has been watching Puroresu at ROH.

[Big Red Machine]

ROH Death Before Dishonor XI


ROH World Title Finals
Adam Cole vs Michael Elgin - 8/10
Right off the bat, i don't like that they're playing that Elgin is injured and that Cole is ok, sure Elgin took on Steen, but Cole took on freakin' Ciampa! There are three judges (Silkin, Joe, and Nana) in case there is a time limit draw, just wondering, why not simply make the match No Time Limit? Great match overall, but I really didn't see the point in the ref bump, why not just a false finish to make Cole look better? Anyway, at least the finish was clean and good.

The purpose of the ref bump was to give Elgin a semi-legitimate claim to also being champ. Elgin got a visual pinfall on Cole. If there hadn't been a ref bump, Elgin would be champ. It gives Elgin a reason to claim that he deserves to be the champion even though he lost without any sort of cheating or interference on Cole's part (because they didn't want to do cheating in the match to crown the champ because I guess that would be un-ROH-ish.

[cero2k]

ROH Death Before Dishonor XI


ROH World Title Finals
Adam Cole vs Michael Elgin - 8/10
Right off the bat, i don't like that they're playing that Elgin is injured and that Cole is ok, sure Elgin took on Steen, but Cole took on freakin' Ciampa! There are three judges (Silkin, Joe, and Nana) in case there is a time limit draw, just wondering, why not simply make the match No Time Limit? Great match overall, but I really didn't see the point in the ref bump, why not just a false finish to make Cole look better? Anyway, at least the finish was clean and good.

The purpose of the ref bump was to give Elgin a semi-legitimate claim to also being champ. Elgin got a visual pinfall on Cole. If there hadn't been a ref bump, Elgin would be champ. It gives Elgin a reason to claim that he deserves to be the champion even though he lost without any sort of cheating or interference on Cole's part (because they didn't want to do cheating in the match to crown the champ because I guess that would be un-ROH-ish.

ok, i see the point, it makes sense. I just felt it was un-ROH-ish to have something like that, it's not like Elgin wouldn't be able to get a challenge again, or if you're gonna do that stupid thing about the judges, have that be relevant. I guess this comes from Cole being booked as the underdog that is surprising everyone by getting to the finals, at least that's how i felt they sold him, so i really wanted Cole to cleanly and without a doubt be the better man.

[Big Red Machine]

ROH Death Before Dishonor XI


ROH World Title Finals
Adam Cole vs Michael Elgin - 8/10
Right off the bat, i don't like that they're playing that Elgin is injured and that Cole is ok, sure Elgin took on Steen, but Cole took on freakin' Ciampa! There are three judges (Silkin, Joe, and Nana) in case there is a time limit draw, just wondering, why not simply make the match No Time Limit? Great match overall, but I really didn't see the point in the ref bump, why not just a false finish to make Cole look better? Anyway, at least the finish was clean and good.

The purpose of the ref bump was to give Elgin a semi-legitimate claim to also being champ. Elgin got a visual pinfall on Cole. If there hadn't been a ref bump, Elgin would be champ. It gives Elgin a reason to claim that he deserves to be the champion even though he lost without any sort of cheating or interference on Cole's part (because they didn't want to do cheating in the match to crown the champ because I guess that would be un-ROH-ish.

ok, i see the point, it makes sense. I just felt it was un-ROH-ish to have something like that, it's not like Elgin wouldn't be able to get a challenge again, or if you're gonna do that stupid thing about the judges, have that be relevant. I guess this comes from Cole being booked as the underdog that is surprising everyone by getting to the finals, at least that's how i felt they sold him, so i really wanted Cole to cleanly and without a doubt be the better man.

I totally agree about the judges. It wasn't relevant in any way.
I actually wanted the opposite of what you wanted for Cole. If he is going to go heel, I'd rather him turn heel during the match to have him win the belt that way, but they couldn't do it because of the whole thing with Jay.