ROH Road to Best in the World: Night 1
ROH Road to Best in the World: Night 1 (6/6/2014)- Carbondale, IL
Kevin Kelly is alone on commentary. The crowd looks to be pitifully small (for ROH, anyway). I’d say about 200 at most, so it looks like this first show in Carbondale will be the only one. Let’s see how it goes...
TOMMASO CIAMPA vs. ETHAN GABRIEL OWENS- 5/10
After the match Ciampa looked into the camera and cut a good promo to build up his ROH World Title shot tomorrow night.
SIX MAN MAYHEM MATCH FOR A SHOT AT THE ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH LATER TONIGHT: ACH vs. Caprice Coleman vs. Cedric Alexander vs. Matt Taven vs. Kyle O’Reilly vs. Silas Young- 6/10
In a previous review I noted that Kyle O’Reilly has the best spaghetti legs ever. Well that it is still true, but ACH, has the second best. This was the standard Six Man Mayhem spottiness. ACH picks up the win, but Cedric would have if the Decade hadn’t screwed him.
BOBBY FISH vs. THE ROMANTIC TOUCH- 4.5/10
This went on longer than it needed to. If RT isn’t going to make any sort of comeback or have a match that will elevate him in any way, then why spend so much time on the match?
THE BRISCOE BROTHERS vs. THE DECADE (BJ Whitmer & Tadarius Thomas)- 7/10
Good, solid, professional wrestling. This was the sort of match I wish they’d been having with the Romantic Touch. Even though he took the loss, it felt like this match elevated Tadarius a bit.
TRUTH MARTINI PROMO- He cut a good promo informing us that Jay Lethal is issuing an open challenge for the ROH TV Title to the first person to come down to the ring. That challenge is answered by… SELEZYIA?!
This was pretty surprising as not only is Selezyia a former member of the House of Truth, but she is also a she. Kevin Kelly was also surprised by this and referred to it as â€"a horse of a different color†which really disappointed me because it would have been utterly fantastic if he had instead said â€"a horse o a different gender.â€
OH F*CK! It’s a swerve. I should have seen it coming. Selezyia lies down for Lethal (NOT LIKE THAT!) and they all celebrate together, including a Trutharooni!
CHEESEBURGER SHOWS UP! Then he recites some scripted insults, and while he didn’t manage to make them sound good, he did manage to make them sound semi-natural, so good for him.
Cheeseburger says that fans paid to see a TV Title match. Jay then offers Cheeseburger the chance to put his money where his mouth is by challenging Jay for the TV Title right here, right now. The fans cheer loudly! And Jay Lethal, being awesome, immediately says â€"do you hear that? All of these people want to see you die†and warns Cheeseburger that if he gets in the ring, he will be destroyed.
CHEESEBURGER SLAPS LETHAL IN THE FACE! AND WE HAVE AN…
ROH TV TITLE MATCH: Jay Lethal(c) (w/Truth Martini & Selezyia) vs. Cheeseburger- 4/10
Good for what it was, but it really would have been better if Jay had won clean, rather than using a low blow. It’s only Cheeseburger. He’s the new Grizzly Redwood, but not as fun or as good in the ring. Just lasting against Jay elevates him a bit. If you’re not building to a rematch between them, there is no reason for Jay not to win cleanly.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- The House of Truth beat Cheeseburger down after the match until Matt Taven made the save. Taven turned his back for a second, so Jay got back in the ring and tried to jump him, but Taven fought him off. Good build to the TV Title match at Best in the World 2014.
DELIRIOUS vs. MICHAEL BENNETT (w/Maria Kanellis)- DUD!
A really boring comedy match with a lot of stalling, too. When they tried to do some actual wrestling it really wasn’t much more exciting than the failed comedy.
The crowd did go nuts for it, though, which completely shocked me, because for me, the end couldn’t come quickly enough. There was some stuff in here that would have actually been decently enjoyable if they hadn’t already completely killed the match for me with the painfully boring first three quarters of it.
They wasted about four minutes with Delirious sitting in the corner and Bennett being afraid to shake his hand, and one the bell rung, the match went over twenty-three, and then another three and a half minutes of Delirious shaking hands with fans and soaking up their (at this point, to me, inexplicable) love for him. From the beginning of Bennett’s entrance until the time Delirious back through the curtain, this lasted THIRTY-FOUR MINUTES… on a match between an upper-midcarder who really isn’t very good, and a guy who was almost always an undercard comedy guy who now rarely wrestles anymore because he is the booker. Just an ENORMOUS waste.
Kevin Kelly claimed that the Bennett vs. Tanahashi match at War of the Worlds â€"damn near stole the show.†Well… Kevin is entitled to his clearly wrong opinion.
MICHAEL ELGIN vs. JIMMY JACOBS (w/Tadarius Thomas)- 8/10
They told a great story of Jacobs using a combination of speed, momentum, and dirty tricks to counteract Elgin’s massive advantage in size and power. There were on or two spots that looked a little slow and one spot that could have probably been a DQ, but otherwise a GREAT match!
ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Adam Cole(c) vs. ACH- 7.5/10
Not going to lie: I was hoping for a lot more from this match. They told a good story with ACH working over Cole’s arm, forcing Cole to use a lot of leg-based moves like superkicks and the figure 4, but then they kind of abandoned that for the Florida Key finish (which culminated the other half of this story of this match, which was Cole working on ACH’s head and neck.
A pretty good show from ROH, all things considered although the main event was a bit disappointing and the Bennett-Delirious match was terrible.
Kevin Kelly is alone on commentary. The crowd looks to be pitifully small (for ROH, anyway). I’d say about 200 at most, so it looks like this first show in Carbondale will be the only one. Let’s see how it goes...
TOMMASO CIAMPA vs. ETHAN GABRIEL OWENS- 5/10
After the match Ciampa looked into the camera and cut a good promo to build up his ROH World Title shot tomorrow night.
SIX MAN MAYHEM MATCH FOR A SHOT AT THE ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH LATER TONIGHT: ACH vs. Caprice Coleman vs. Cedric Alexander vs. Matt Taven vs. Kyle O’Reilly vs. Silas Young- 6/10
In a previous review I noted that Kyle O’Reilly has the best spaghetti legs ever. Well that it is still true, but ACH, has the second best. This was the standard Six Man Mayhem spottiness. ACH picks up the win, but Cedric would have if the Decade hadn’t screwed him.
BOBBY FISH vs. THE ROMANTIC TOUCH- 4.5/10
This went on longer than it needed to. If RT isn’t going to make any sort of comeback or have a match that will elevate him in any way, then why spend so much time on the match?
THE BRISCOE BROTHERS vs. THE DECADE (BJ Whitmer & Tadarius Thomas)- 7/10
Good, solid, professional wrestling. This was the sort of match I wish they’d been having with the Romantic Touch. Even though he took the loss, it felt like this match elevated Tadarius a bit.
TRUTH MARTINI PROMO- He cut a good promo informing us that Jay Lethal is issuing an open challenge for the ROH TV Title to the first person to come down to the ring. That challenge is answered by… SELEZYIA?!
This was pretty surprising as not only is Selezyia a former member of the House of Truth, but she is also a she. Kevin Kelly was also surprised by this and referred to it as â€"a horse of a different color†which really disappointed me because it would have been utterly fantastic if he had instead said â€"a horse o a different gender.â€
OH F*CK! It’s a swerve. I should have seen it coming. Selezyia lies down for Lethal (NOT LIKE THAT!) and they all celebrate together, including a Trutharooni!
CHEESEBURGER SHOWS UP! Then he recites some scripted insults, and while he didn’t manage to make them sound good, he did manage to make them sound semi-natural, so good for him.
Cheeseburger says that fans paid to see a TV Title match. Jay then offers Cheeseburger the chance to put his money where his mouth is by challenging Jay for the TV Title right here, right now. The fans cheer loudly! And Jay Lethal, being awesome, immediately says â€"do you hear that? All of these people want to see you die†and warns Cheeseburger that if he gets in the ring, he will be destroyed.
CHEESEBURGER SLAPS LETHAL IN THE FACE! AND WE HAVE AN…
ROH TV TITLE MATCH: Jay Lethal(c) (w/Truth Martini & Selezyia) vs. Cheeseburger- 4/10
Good for what it was, but it really would have been better if Jay had won clean, rather than using a low blow. It’s only Cheeseburger. He’s the new Grizzly Redwood, but not as fun or as good in the ring. Just lasting against Jay elevates him a bit. If you’re not building to a rematch between them, there is no reason for Jay not to win cleanly.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- The House of Truth beat Cheeseburger down after the match until Matt Taven made the save. Taven turned his back for a second, so Jay got back in the ring and tried to jump him, but Taven fought him off. Good build to the TV Title match at Best in the World 2014.
DELIRIOUS vs. MICHAEL BENNETT (w/Maria Kanellis)- DUD!
A really boring comedy match with a lot of stalling, too. When they tried to do some actual wrestling it really wasn’t much more exciting than the failed comedy.
The crowd did go nuts for it, though, which completely shocked me, because for me, the end couldn’t come quickly enough. There was some stuff in here that would have actually been decently enjoyable if they hadn’t already completely killed the match for me with the painfully boring first three quarters of it.
They wasted about four minutes with Delirious sitting in the corner and Bennett being afraid to shake his hand, and one the bell rung, the match went over twenty-three, and then another three and a half minutes of Delirious shaking hands with fans and soaking up their (at this point, to me, inexplicable) love for him. From the beginning of Bennett’s entrance until the time Delirious back through the curtain, this lasted THIRTY-FOUR MINUTES… on a match between an upper-midcarder who really isn’t very good, and a guy who was almost always an undercard comedy guy who now rarely wrestles anymore because he is the booker. Just an ENORMOUS waste.
Kevin Kelly claimed that the Bennett vs. Tanahashi match at War of the Worlds â€"damn near stole the show.†Well… Kevin is entitled to his clearly wrong opinion.
MICHAEL ELGIN vs. JIMMY JACOBS (w/Tadarius Thomas)- 8/10
They told a great story of Jacobs using a combination of speed, momentum, and dirty tricks to counteract Elgin’s massive advantage in size and power. There were on or two spots that looked a little slow and one spot that could have probably been a DQ, but otherwise a GREAT match!
ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Adam Cole(c) vs. ACH- 7.5/10
Not going to lie: I was hoping for a lot more from this match. They told a good story with ACH working over Cole’s arm, forcing Cole to use a lot of leg-based moves like superkicks and the figure 4, but then they kind of abandoned that for the Florida Key finish (which culminated the other half of this story of this match, which was Cole working on ACH’s head and neck.
A pretty good show from ROH, all things considered although the main event was a bit disappointing and the Bennett-Delirious match was terrible.