BRM Reviews the 5/11/2023 ROH (great wrestlig, but still a mess)

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews the 5/11/2023 ROH (great wrestlig, but still a mess)

Post by Big Red Machine » May 15th, '23, 17:18

MARK BRISCOE vs. SHANE TAYLOR- 7/10
Won cleanly in a strong match. He cut a promo saying he was coming for Samoa Joe’s ROH World TV Title.

TRACY WILLIAMS & RHETT TITUS vs. BLACKPOOL COMBAT CLUB (Claudio Castagnoli & Wheeler YUTA)- 6.75/10
The heels cheated to win. It infuriates me that these guys are now doing the exact same thing they fought against Jericho for doing, and there has been no explanation for why they have changed their attitude.

ROH WORLD TV TITLE MATCH: Samoa Joe(c) vs. Blake Christian- 4.25/10
This was the beginning of a great match with Christian using his speed and athleticism to avoid getting caught by Joe and working over Joe’s knee… and then Joe hit the Muscle Buster and won in less than four minutes. Joe showed Christian respect after the match.

DASHA GONZALEZ INTERVIEWS MARK STERLING, THE TRUSTBUSTERS, & THE VARISTY ATHLETES- snore
Clowns waste time talking about their undercard feud in which most people involved are clowns (basically everyone but Josh Woods and Tony Nese, and they just feel like jobbers by association). Apparently the Dark Order having been fighting over which of them will get to wrestle (because I guess the powers that be are lazy and just say “some guys from Dark Order” instead of actually picking the specific wrestlers they book in matches), so Sterling claims that this team he has assembled that has never teamed together will defeat them. Also, Ari Daivari spoke. He came off like a goof playing pro wrestler.

THE INFANTRY vs. THE RIGHTEOUS (Vincent & Dutch)- 4/10
The Righteous gave their opponents awkward hugs before the match. Stu Grayson came out onto the apron to distract the Righteous, who have been trying to recruit him. He did a good enough job that these jobbers got what felt like at least 40% of the offense. He also distracted the cameraperson to the point where they were cutting to him every thirty seconds, which was quite annoying.
The Righteous overcame the distraction and won the match cleanly. Then they went up the ramp and tried to recruit Grayson and again, and he seemed willing to hear them out. If Grayson wanted to hear their pitch, why did he come out and distract them I the middle of a match instead of just going up to them backstage, or meeting them before the show, or giving them his cell phone number?

THE KINGDOM VS. ACTION ANDRETTI & DARIUS MARTIN VIDEO PACKAGE- This was pretty good and the idea behind it makes sense, but… are you really going to spend the first Fight Without Honor of the Tony Khan Era of ROH on THIS? And not even on a PPV?

VERTVIXEN vs. ROBYN RENEGADE (w/Charlette Renegade)- squash
Vertvixen remains a loser.
After the match, Robyn shook Vertvixen’s hand, but just as a distraction that Charlette could push her.

DASHA’S INTERVIEW WITH THE MOGUL EMBASSY IS INTERRUPTED BY DALTON CASTLE- bad
Only Prince Nana and the Gates of Agony are here. The Gates will face the Boys later. Nana wonders if the Boys will be available. At that point Dalton Castle (and one of the Boys) barged in and yelled about how one of the Boys was “covered in bruises.” Dalton accused Nana and the Gates of Agony of attacking said Boy. Nana denied any involvement, and Dalton believed them. Then Dalton called them “silly gooses.” I know that sounds bad, but it was actually worse because he tried to do so in an angry manner. Dalton and the Boy left, and then Nana revealed that they had been behind the attack.
On the third show these guys and Brian Cage beat Dalton and the Boys cleanly and decisively. Why are you now trying to have them feud, Tony? And this right here is episode #11. You have done NOTHING with the six-man tag champs. And the best you could come up with is to start an issue between them and guys they already squashed?


WILLIE MACK vs. NINJA MACK- 6.75/10
Willie Mack won a solid match cleanly.

ADAM PRIEST, LUCKY ALI, & VICTOR BENJAMIN vs. MOGUL EMBASSY (Brian Cage, Toa Kiona, & Kaun) (w/Prince Nana)- pointless squash

TONY DEPPEN vs. KYLE FLETCHER (w/Mark Davis)- 7.25/10
This went a lot longer than I thought it would. Deppen kicked out on the finish (or at least tried to), but they called for the bell anyway. That was odd. Sadly, it felt like it was only there to give Fletcher a win heading into the title shot against Orange Cassidy that we all know he’ll lose.

A.R. FOX vs. ANTHONY HENRY (w/J.D. Drake)- 7/10
Henry worked over Fox’s neck early on. He did enough piledrivers and brainbusters to the point where it felt a little excessive (and Nigel and Caprice both seemed to feel this way as well from their commentary). Fox came back and got the win.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- fine
The WorkHorsemen jumped Fox after the match. Shane Taylor came out to help them beat Fox up, but FTR came out to make the save. The heels bailed, but Eddie Kingston came out to cut off Anthony Henry’s escape up the ramp. Henry, apparently being an idiot, didn’t realize that he could just hop the guardrail, so he ran back into the ring to get laid out, so where’s the heat?
This segment really didn’t work for me, and FTR were the reason. I love those guys to death and I would be so happy to see them wrestle the WorkHorsemen, but their lack of a regular presence in ROH makes them feel like big names being randomly thrown into this spot to get a pop from the crowd, and that is ultimately not productive for ROH.

DARK ORDER (John Silver, Stu Grayson, Evil Uno, & Alex Reynolds) vs. JOSH WOODS & THE TRUSTBUSTERS (Silm J, Sonny Kiss, & Jeeves Kay) (w/Mark Sterling & Ari Daivari)- 6/10
They did moves. The finish saw Grayson and Uno hit a double-team move, then Reynolds shoved Grayson out of the ring en route to making the cover. Grayson was upset by this, and rightfully so, but mostly because there was no need for Reynolds to shove him out of the way that hard. Reynolds was the legal man and didn’t want to waste any time in making the cover, but there was no need to shove Grayson so hard he went half way across the ring and the out of it… which is irritating to me because it felt like the only reason that happened was so they could set up the shot of the other three in the ring celebrating while Grayson was outside, and as I’ve said millions times before (and too many people- chief among them Tony Khan- don’t seem to understand), logic trumps getting your cool symbolic camera shot. You could have set up the same situation by simply having a miscue between Reynolds and Grayson right before the finish when Reynolds accidentally hit Grayson.

DASHA GONZALEZ INTERVIEWS SKYE BLUE LAST WEEK- mostly good
This set up the title match we’re going to see next. Skye Blue’s emotion was good, but she used a bunch of big words in the beginning to describe what Athena was doing that she didn’t like, it sounded phony. They were fine words, but she said them in the most awkward order.

ROH WOMEN’S WORLD TITLE MATCH: Athena(c) vs. Skye Blue- 7.75/10
Once again, Athena is the absolute highlight of the night. She is so great at playing this aggressive, cocky bully heel. Skye Blue… actually looked like a credible wrestler here instead of the joke she usually comes off as.



This was a great show from ROH in the ring, but the same problems that drove me away a month ago remain. In fact, quite frankly, there was very little that felt different from now to a month ago, and many storylines don’t feel like they have moved forward at all. The tag champs are absent, there is no one being built up for Claudio or Shibata, there is way too much time being spent on acts that either feel like complete and total wastes of time (everyone I the semi-main, and to a lesser extent, the Righteous) or acts that feel like they’re really just here to this week to service an AEW need or to throw ROH an AEW bone (FTR, Aussie Open).
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

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