BRM Reviews ROH War of the Worlds 2015: Night 1

[Big Red Machine]

ROH War of the Worlds 2015: Night 1 (5/12/2015)- Philadelphia, PA

ADAM COLE PROMO- a surprisingly babyface promo from a guy who is still a heel.

DELIRIOUS vs. GEDO- 5.25/10
Can you imagine what a disaster the rest of this week would have been if one these two had decided to double-cross the other on the finish?
So… the first match of the big Ring of Honor vs. New Japan Pro Wrestling week of shows is a comedy match and had a ref bump. I certainly didn’t expect that.

RODERICK STRONG vs. KUSHIDA- 9/10
NOW THAT’S MORE LIKE IT!
Holy f*ck was this awesome. Pissed off Roddy is always an awesome Roddy, and boy did KUSHIDA piss Roddy off. Hard strikes, great reversals, an awesome story, and Roddy busted out this ridiculous Ore Ga Taue/Face Eraser hybrid that looked totally sick. Definitely my ROH MOTY so far.

TAKAAKI WATANABE vs. JAY LETHAL (w/the House of Truth)- 6.25/10
I think it would have made more sense for Jay to disrespect Watanabe in the beginning to lead to Watanabe’s hot start, instead of the other way around. Watanabe proved that he is certainly not a young boy anymore. After the match, Jay Briscoe showed up, looking for a fight, but Jay Lethal wouldn’t give him one.

THE KINGDOM vs. THE ADDICTION vs. THE YOUNG BUCKS- 7.5/10
Spotty, but totally great, and a very interesting finish.

VEDA SCOTT DEMANDS THAT MOOSE GET AN ROH WORLD TITLE SHOT!- also, she yelled at Stokely Hathaway and declared herself to be in charge of their unit. Stokely looked dejected, while Moose just stood there looking like a big, dumb mute.

MICHAEL ELGIN vs. TETSUYA NAITO- 7/10
A great power vs. speed match, but not up to the level of the power vs. speed matches that Elgin has had with others. We also got a post-match segment that was both poorly conceived and poorly executed, which resulted in Elgin getting dumped over the top rope.

reDRagon vs. JUSHIN “THUNDER” LIGER & HIROSHI TANAHASHI- 6.75/10
I was hoping for a lot more here, especially between reDRagon and Tanahashi.

AJ STYLES vs. ADAM COLE- 8.5/10
An awesome match that will have you clutching your own head in sympathy pain the whole way through!

THE BRISCOES vs. CHAOS (Shinsuke Nakamura & Kazuchika Okada) (w/Gedo)- 7.5/10
A great match, but disappointing, considering the talent involved. I’d have given it a 7.75/10 if the Rainmaker at the end hadn’t looked so bad.

I really want to say that this was an awesome show, and with Roddy vs. KUSHIDA and Cole vs. AJ, it’s really not fair of me to say that it wasn’t, but there were a whole bunch of other matches that really didn’t feel like they lived up to their expectations.