ROH Raising The Bar: Night 1
ROH Raising The Bar: Night 1 (3/7/2014)- Milwaukee, WI
OPENING SEGMENT- very good.
Adam Cole comes out and says that the ROH World Title picture is as hot as it is right now. He name drops all of the top challengers: Chris Hero, Michael Elgin, Kevin Steen, Jay Briscoe… with each eliciting a progressively bigger pop from the crowd (though Steen’s and Jay’s were pretty much on par). He then says that it sucks to be the fans in Milwaukee because instead of one of those marquee match-ups, they are getting a â€"warm-up†title defense against Matt Taven.
Cole then started to cut a promo on Hero (who he defends against tomorrow night in a Ringmasters Challenge) but is interrupted by Taven. Taven tells Cole not to look past him, and reminds everyone that Cole has never beaten him, and that the last time they faced each other, just over a year ago, Taven pulled off a major upset and won a title from Cole. Cole responds by saying that the only reason anyone ever paid attention to Taven was because he had â€"two average-looking girls and a guy with a funny haircut†in his corner. Calling the Hoopla Hotties â€"average-looking?†That’s how you get some good heel heat (and, on a more insider level, one of the â€"average-looking girls,†Kasey Ray, is Taven’s girlfriend). Taven responds by saying that Cole is â€"hiding behind a fat has-been†(Matt Hardy)… except that Matt hasn’t been at any shows since January, and he won’t be at this weekend’s shows either, so saying that Cole is hiding behind him seems a little silly.
Cole takes a swing at Taven but Taven gets the best of him and Cole runs off. Taven promises the crowd free shots at a local bar if he wins. This was an effective segment that reminded us why we shouldn’t just dismiss this as a random title defense with a foregone conclusion, both in and out of kayfabe. The crowd responded very well to Taven’s babyface verbiage, which is a good sign for him going forward because there was some truth (no pun intended) to Cole’s claim that when people looked at Taven, all they really saw was Truth Martini and the Hoopla Hotties.
JAY LETHAL vs. SILAS YOUNG- 6.75/10
HUGE hometown pop for Silas despite being a heel and facing a very popular babyface with years of mainstream TV exposure behind him. The crowd soon got into Jay, too, so it wasn’t that completely awkward Bizarro-World situation.
Lethal hit his series of repeated suicide dives, pushing Silas farther back up the ramp with each one. That was much better than his standard â€"just run and hit the move in the same place four straight times.â€
Truth Martini came out to ringside to watch the match, and that was a good decision on his part because this was a great opener. I wasn’t thrilled with Jay giving Silas a receipt for the low blow, but it is well within his character to do so.
TYSON DUX vs. MICHAEL BENNETT (w/Maria Kanellis)- 4/10
Pretty dull. I’ve seen both guys have much better matches in the past. The set-up for the finish would have been cool if it hadn’t been executed so slowly.
On commentary, Kevin Kelly and Nigel were referring to Dux being â€"young†and wondering if he had the experience necessary to not get nervous wrestling in a prestigious promotion like ROH. Dux is 35 years old and has appeared in ROH before. Don’t try to sell me that this is some young guy trying to make a name for himself when the hype for his match tomorrow night is that he was a mentor of one of the top guys on the roster!
Nigel was mostly playing the role of the heel on commentary, which really bothered me, considering that he is supposed to be the official matchmaker of ROH and the guy whose big push was all about â€"restoring honor†to ROH.
INSTANT REWARD PROVING GROUND MATCH: ROH World Tag Team Champions reDRagon vs. Adrenaline Rush vs. Outlaws Inc.- 6.75/10… but see below.
Chaotic, but in a good way. ACH pins Bobby Fish. Outlaw Inc. didn’t like this one bit, so they assaulted both teams after the match (ACH took the brunt of the beating, though). Because of the â€"instant reward†concept, we then got…
ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: reDRagon(c) vs. Adrenaline Rush- on its own, I’d give this about a 4/10, but it flows so seamlessly out of the Proving Ground match that as a total, I’d give it about an 7.25/10
ADAM PAGE & CEDRIC ALEXANDER vs. JIMMY JACOBS & BJ WHITMER- 6/10
Nigel left to go deal with Outlaws Inc., so Steve Corino replaced him on commentary. Roderick Strong also did commentary for this match. They pushed the idea that Page was much more hesitant to stand up to the bullying veterans than Cedric is, and the guys in the ring told that story as well, so mission accomplished.
Cedric once again pointed directly at Roddy before using the backbreaker Roddy is upset about Cedric using because it looks too much like one of his signature backbreakers. Fortunately for me, ROH has now decided to give this move a name so that I won’t ever have to type that mouthful again. Unfortunately for Cedric, the name they gave it is kind of lame: the Lumbar Check.
The finish saw Whitmer fake a neck injury. Cedric saw through it, but Page wanted to give BJ the benefit of the doubt, which cost his team the match. The finish did a great job of getting to me want to see Page get some revenge on Jacobs and Whitmer.
Babyface announcer Kevin Kelly criticizes an entire generation of parents for being soft.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- okay
Jacobs tells Page that he shouldn’t listen to Cedric Alexander and that he should listen to the Decade. Jacobs yells at Cedric and orders Page to hold the ropes open for him and Whitmer, and Page complies. This would have been good, but I have a hard time accepting that Page would accede to their demands after that finish. It pretty much squashed the interest in Page that the match built up for me.
CHRIS HERO vs. RODERICK STRONG- 7.25/10
Hero and Roddy put on a great match with some great exchanges, but the finish felt kind of out of nowhere (though I think that was due more to the fact that it was a ref stoppage than the flow of the match).
Jimmy Jacobs joined the commentary team for this match and he and Corino had a fantastic back and forth. Jacobs brought up the story of Adam Pearce and CM Punk giving him a swirly for f*cking something up in a match with Ricky Morton as an example of how veterans are supposed to treat young guys. Corino countered by telling the story of their first match against each other in which Jacobs broke Corino’s nose and Corino didn’t didn’t punish Jacobs in any way for it. Jacobs counters by claiming that this was because he not only apologized to Corino profusely, but also because he bought him cake and booze, because that is what you do if you are a young boy and you hurt a veteran. Great stuff for the Decade storyline.
KEVIN STEEN & THE YOUNG BUCKS vs. THE BRISCOES & MICHAEL ELGIN- 8.5/10
Like a PWG six man, but with less crazy action, more selling, and the ref actually gives a sh*t who the legal man is.
I don’t know if this is intentional or not, but Mark Briscoe actually looks like the Geico cavemen. One of the Jackson brothers tried to take Michael Elgin down with a shoulder tackle. That worked about as well as you would expect.
Corino referred to the Bucks cartwheel into a back-rake as a â€"modified old-school back-rake.†That made me laugh.
ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Adam Cole(c) vs. Matt Taven- 6.75/10
I was very disappointed with this match, and while the dirty finish (Truth Martini distracted Taven) didn’t help, that wasn’t anywhere close to being a major problem. What was a major problem was that they didn’t let Taven get in even so much as a good false finish. If they had let this go twenty-five or thirty minutes it could have been the type of match that got Taven over to that next level. Instead, it was just what Cole claimed it would be in the opening segment: a warm-up match for his defenses against guys like Hero, Elgin, Jay, and Steen. And speaking of those guys…
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- bad
One at a time, Jay, Elgin, Steen, and Hero came out surrounded the ring. Then they all moved in on Cole, with the heel Cole looking for all the world like a babyface avoiding an assault by a heel faction. When Cole ran, they didn’t even bother to chase him, so why even come out here to do this?
Then Hero cut the standard show-ending â€"thank you for coming, we do all of this for you great fans here in Town X.†Hero then put himself and the other babyface challengers over.
Overall, a very good show from ROH,brought down by an extremely disappointing main event.
OPENING SEGMENT- very good.
Adam Cole comes out and says that the ROH World Title picture is as hot as it is right now. He name drops all of the top challengers: Chris Hero, Michael Elgin, Kevin Steen, Jay Briscoe… with each eliciting a progressively bigger pop from the crowd (though Steen’s and Jay’s were pretty much on par). He then says that it sucks to be the fans in Milwaukee because instead of one of those marquee match-ups, they are getting a â€"warm-up†title defense against Matt Taven.
Cole then started to cut a promo on Hero (who he defends against tomorrow night in a Ringmasters Challenge) but is interrupted by Taven. Taven tells Cole not to look past him, and reminds everyone that Cole has never beaten him, and that the last time they faced each other, just over a year ago, Taven pulled off a major upset and won a title from Cole. Cole responds by saying that the only reason anyone ever paid attention to Taven was because he had â€"two average-looking girls and a guy with a funny haircut†in his corner. Calling the Hoopla Hotties â€"average-looking?†That’s how you get some good heel heat (and, on a more insider level, one of the â€"average-looking girls,†Kasey Ray, is Taven’s girlfriend). Taven responds by saying that Cole is â€"hiding behind a fat has-been†(Matt Hardy)… except that Matt hasn’t been at any shows since January, and he won’t be at this weekend’s shows either, so saying that Cole is hiding behind him seems a little silly.
Cole takes a swing at Taven but Taven gets the best of him and Cole runs off. Taven promises the crowd free shots at a local bar if he wins. This was an effective segment that reminded us why we shouldn’t just dismiss this as a random title defense with a foregone conclusion, both in and out of kayfabe. The crowd responded very well to Taven’s babyface verbiage, which is a good sign for him going forward because there was some truth (no pun intended) to Cole’s claim that when people looked at Taven, all they really saw was Truth Martini and the Hoopla Hotties.
JAY LETHAL vs. SILAS YOUNG- 6.75/10
HUGE hometown pop for Silas despite being a heel and facing a very popular babyface with years of mainstream TV exposure behind him. The crowd soon got into Jay, too, so it wasn’t that completely awkward Bizarro-World situation.
Lethal hit his series of repeated suicide dives, pushing Silas farther back up the ramp with each one. That was much better than his standard â€"just run and hit the move in the same place four straight times.â€
Truth Martini came out to ringside to watch the match, and that was a good decision on his part because this was a great opener. I wasn’t thrilled with Jay giving Silas a receipt for the low blow, but it is well within his character to do so.
TYSON DUX vs. MICHAEL BENNETT (w/Maria Kanellis)- 4/10
Pretty dull. I’ve seen both guys have much better matches in the past. The set-up for the finish would have been cool if it hadn’t been executed so slowly.
On commentary, Kevin Kelly and Nigel were referring to Dux being â€"young†and wondering if he had the experience necessary to not get nervous wrestling in a prestigious promotion like ROH. Dux is 35 years old and has appeared in ROH before. Don’t try to sell me that this is some young guy trying to make a name for himself when the hype for his match tomorrow night is that he was a mentor of one of the top guys on the roster!
Nigel was mostly playing the role of the heel on commentary, which really bothered me, considering that he is supposed to be the official matchmaker of ROH and the guy whose big push was all about â€"restoring honor†to ROH.
INSTANT REWARD PROVING GROUND MATCH: ROH World Tag Team Champions reDRagon vs. Adrenaline Rush vs. Outlaws Inc.- 6.75/10… but see below.
Chaotic, but in a good way. ACH pins Bobby Fish. Outlaw Inc. didn’t like this one bit, so they assaulted both teams after the match (ACH took the brunt of the beating, though). Because of the â€"instant reward†concept, we then got…
ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: reDRagon(c) vs. Adrenaline Rush- on its own, I’d give this about a 4/10, but it flows so seamlessly out of the Proving Ground match that as a total, I’d give it about an 7.25/10
ADAM PAGE & CEDRIC ALEXANDER vs. JIMMY JACOBS & BJ WHITMER- 6/10
Nigel left to go deal with Outlaws Inc., so Steve Corino replaced him on commentary. Roderick Strong also did commentary for this match. They pushed the idea that Page was much more hesitant to stand up to the bullying veterans than Cedric is, and the guys in the ring told that story as well, so mission accomplished.
Cedric once again pointed directly at Roddy before using the backbreaker Roddy is upset about Cedric using because it looks too much like one of his signature backbreakers. Fortunately for me, ROH has now decided to give this move a name so that I won’t ever have to type that mouthful again. Unfortunately for Cedric, the name they gave it is kind of lame: the Lumbar Check.
The finish saw Whitmer fake a neck injury. Cedric saw through it, but Page wanted to give BJ the benefit of the doubt, which cost his team the match. The finish did a great job of getting to me want to see Page get some revenge on Jacobs and Whitmer.
Babyface announcer Kevin Kelly criticizes an entire generation of parents for being soft.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- okay
Jacobs tells Page that he shouldn’t listen to Cedric Alexander and that he should listen to the Decade. Jacobs yells at Cedric and orders Page to hold the ropes open for him and Whitmer, and Page complies. This would have been good, but I have a hard time accepting that Page would accede to their demands after that finish. It pretty much squashed the interest in Page that the match built up for me.
CHRIS HERO vs. RODERICK STRONG- 7.25/10
Hero and Roddy put on a great match with some great exchanges, but the finish felt kind of out of nowhere (though I think that was due more to the fact that it was a ref stoppage than the flow of the match).
Jimmy Jacobs joined the commentary team for this match and he and Corino had a fantastic back and forth. Jacobs brought up the story of Adam Pearce and CM Punk giving him a swirly for f*cking something up in a match with Ricky Morton as an example of how veterans are supposed to treat young guys. Corino countered by telling the story of their first match against each other in which Jacobs broke Corino’s nose and Corino didn’t didn’t punish Jacobs in any way for it. Jacobs counters by claiming that this was because he not only apologized to Corino profusely, but also because he bought him cake and booze, because that is what you do if you are a young boy and you hurt a veteran. Great stuff for the Decade storyline.
KEVIN STEEN & THE YOUNG BUCKS vs. THE BRISCOES & MICHAEL ELGIN- 8.5/10
Like a PWG six man, but with less crazy action, more selling, and the ref actually gives a sh*t who the legal man is.
I don’t know if this is intentional or not, but Mark Briscoe actually looks like the Geico cavemen. One of the Jackson brothers tried to take Michael Elgin down with a shoulder tackle. That worked about as well as you would expect.
Corino referred to the Bucks cartwheel into a back-rake as a â€"modified old-school back-rake.†That made me laugh.
ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Adam Cole(c) vs. Matt Taven- 6.75/10
I was very disappointed with this match, and while the dirty finish (Truth Martini distracted Taven) didn’t help, that wasn’t anywhere close to being a major problem. What was a major problem was that they didn’t let Taven get in even so much as a good false finish. If they had let this go twenty-five or thirty minutes it could have been the type of match that got Taven over to that next level. Instead, it was just what Cole claimed it would be in the opening segment: a warm-up match for his defenses against guys like Hero, Elgin, Jay, and Steen. And speaking of those guys…
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- bad
One at a time, Jay, Elgin, Steen, and Hero came out surrounded the ring. Then they all moved in on Cole, with the heel Cole looking for all the world like a babyface avoiding an assault by a heel faction. When Cole ran, they didn’t even bother to chase him, so why even come out here to do this?
Then Hero cut the standard show-ending â€"thank you for coming, we do all of this for you great fans here in Town X.†Hero then put himself and the other babyface challengers over.
Overall, a very good show from ROH,brought down by an extremely disappointing main event.