The ROH Thread

[Newb82]

Judging by twitter, RoH employees are bound and determined not to learn anything from Whitmer's injury, except for maybe Bennett.

I fully expect Bennett to tease the apron piledriver his next match and inevitable rematch with Whitmer.

[cool arrow]

 

Did anyone else read that and think Whitmer was getting fired?

I should have written "discharged".

 

 

Not your fault, I've just been conditioned to equate released with future endeavored.

[JRGoldman]

Isn't BJ's ROH career just defined by crazy spots whether botched or not?Re: spot with Jimmy, the barbed wire match, and him just being stupid stiff at times?

Don't forget the German suplex off the apron on to the table against CM Punk really early in his career.

[S.K.o.S.]

I fully expect Bennett to tease the apron piledriver his next match and inevitable rematch with Whitmer.

 

I take it you're aware that Davey teased the apron headstomp in the Wolves-Hooligans match.

[Newb82]

I remember reading it now that you mention it, but it didn't come to mind when I wrote that.

[cool arrow]

 

I fully expect Bennett to tease the apron piledriver his next match and inevitable rematch with Whitmer.

 

I take it you're aware that Davey teased the apron headstomp in the Wolves-Hooligans match.

 

Teasing it is one thing. Actually doing it is something else.

[SovietShooter]

Doing a piledriver when it isn't the finish is dumb to the nth degree. So doing it on the apron if a countout was not the finish is mindblowing.

The Richards apron stomp was stupid, sure, but at least apron stomps are more common in lucha.... Just in safer ways. Richards is more reckless and careless for his opponents safety, whereas the Benett/Whitmer spot was just..... really fn dumb.

[TimWresPowr]

Some ROH notes coming out of the Mid-Atlantic Fanfest.--Briscoes are planning to return this fall. They were all but signed with WWE when Jay made his twitter remarks & the offer was pulled. Jay is not having shoulder surgery, they are just taking time off to sell the storylines at this point.--Notes from Cornette's Q&A: The Steen DVD has been pulled from distribution (if this had been widely reported, I missed it). He said "that weasel" video guy Ross and Shane Hagadorn shot this interview & released it without Delirious' knowledge and it has since been pulled from distribution. I had noticed it wasn't on Highspots or ROH a week or 2 ago when I went looking for a match list (I just assumed the search function wasn't working right). I thought it was really ironic at the time that ROH would have an official release where the guy goes into detail about how they faked & set up the whole feud, and essentially that was the company's thought as well. He said they are fine with that kind of thing from a 3rd party distributor. That and apparently some of the stuff he knocked Cornette for was Delirious' decisions. Cornette harped on how Steen was fat & should have lost weight like they asked him to in order to be taken seriously as an athlete. He went into all the stuff from his previous podcasts about how they asked he & Generico to tone down their stuff due to sponsors, etc. He said Steen was a pain to deal with unless he's getting his way, that Gabe had warned Pearce of him & Pearce warned him of it. Sounds like he never wants to deal with Steen again.As far as his opinion on Colt Cabana, it seems his issue isn't with Cabana's comedic ring style itself, as he actually says he's a very good showman who really should be in WWE as they like that kind of thing there. He mentioned how it didn't fit in with what they were trying to present with Davey, Eddie, Roddy, etc. but the main issue is with Cabana's involvement with $5 Wrestling. He buried this concept as heavily as I've heard him badmouth anything talking about how WWE, TNA, Russo etc. have parodied the business so much over the years & killed its credibility that he takes great offense at people promoting a line of videos expressly making fun of wrestling as its main selling point. He basically cussed out Highspots, Jake Manning, and Colt for their involvement & creation of the whole thing. Rather ironic too given that Jake was sitting there producing this Q&A for Highspots PPV.Basically while not spelled out, Cornette said the experiment has failed & wrestling can't be taken seriously again after all the damage done. But he did admit all the frustrations that ROH was run on such a shoestring budget by Sinclair that they really hamstrung the whole thing from the start saying they routinely questioned minor expense reports, etc.

[Ace]

Didn't Corney mock some of the matches on Wrestling Gold? That being said, his Cabana explanation is still complete bullshit. "We realize that you're charismatic and over with the crowd, but you're not cosplaying Benoit & Malenko like the rest of these guys."

[TimWresPowr]

Yeah I think ROH of that era desperately needed some variety on the card.  Most people thought there was too much of the Davey/Eddie/Roddy/faux MMA stuff even if they were fans of it.  The $5 Wrestling point I hadn't heard brought up before but I can totally see how that connection soured Jim on Colt forever.  I think Colt's portrayal of "funny doesn't equal money" is too simplistic.  Sounds like Jim's issues with Colt were his outside of ROH pursuits rather than anything he did AT the shows.

[cool arrow]

By the way, does anyone know why they had the Cole-Lethal match on the Toronto show?  Seems kinda weird to just do one match from the quarterfinals and save the rest for the next big show.

[caley]

-Really dug the 3.0-Adrenaline Rush match: While ACH (who until now I've always presumed was pronounced "Ach!" like a Scottish guy not "A.C.H.") and Thomas had the flashier moves, I thought 3.0 had the better execution.  They sold well and had good solid double-team moves.  AR looked more like your 'WWE two stars thrown together because we're not sure what else to do with them' team (a la Truth and Kofi, or Bourne and Kofi, Rhodes Scholars etc.).  Thomas is a perfect guy for a WWE developmental deal because he's got some really neat innovative offence, but he needs to be taught when to back off of it and just settle down so that it doesn't look as contrived.  ACH is entertaining, but really green.  Still this was pretty good, except the finishing sequence which came too quick and out of nowhere.

 

-Page-Marshall-Young was pretty entertaining as well.  I thought Young looked head-and-shoulders above the other two guys with good selling and nice crisp execution and surprising high-flying moves.  Page had too many moves where he stood still waiting for people to get into position.  

 

-Hooligans-Red Dragon (I refuse to use that spelling) wasn't bad.  Do Hooligans always do this much comedy?!  The Cossack Kicks were funny, the move where one guy picks up the other guy and runs across the ring carrying him to do a kick was stupid.  I thought RD looked like a much better team here, so obviously my POV means nothing.  Fish, or whatever his name is, seemed like a pretty solid wrestler/character.

 

Top 3 performances

3. Thomas/Fish: Fish had a solid promo then a solid match.  Thomas had some great awe-inspiring moves.

2. Young: I thought this guy had a tremendous presence and looked good all match, whether on offence or defence.

1. 3.0: I don't remember which guy is which but they both looked really polished and good.  Kept the crowd interested right from their entrance through to the ending.

 

Worst 3 Performances:

3. ACH: You can tell all the skill is there, it's just about putting it together better and knowing some pacing.  He's kinda here by default as the least impressive of the guys who were reasonably impressive.

2. Romero: For a NJPW guy, I was expecting a lot more.  Instead he looked kinda like Muta when he'd come to America to get his knees drained, kinda half-assed.

1. Page: Whiffed on a number of moves, stood around waiting for guys to get in position.  Not a good night.

[Newb82]

RoH just announced Bennett as the winner of his match against Whitmer, so he advances in the tournament to face Ciampa at Manhattan Mayhem V.

[alan]

Didn't Corney mock some of the matches on Wrestling Gold? That being said, his Cabana explanation is still complete bullshit. "We realize that you're charismatic and over with the crowd, but you're not cosplaying Benoit & Malenko like the rest of these guys."

 

Yes. The Chief Jay in a shark cage match, also buried Bob Sweetan for being ugly (really James?) and probably committed some cardinal sin against the piledriver in the discussion too. Lost that set a long time ago though memory fails.

[Big Fresh]

caley's ACH opinions are the craziest thing I've ever heard.

[caley]

caley's ACH opinions are the craziest thing I've ever heard.

He's not bad, but some of his stuff really strains that "suspension of disbelief" thing.

[rzombie1988]

I reviewed this week's ROH TV here:
http://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2013/08/ring-of-honor-tv-8102013-results-and.html

Overall thoughts: The last two matches were good, so this gets the thumbs up from me. The main went around 25 minutes and was fun stuff.

Some shots from the show:

[Petey]

That middle screen shot makes it look like there is a safe professional wrestling maneuver being performed at that Ring of Honor show.

[cool arrow]

Looking back, why would an old-schooler like Cornette throw his lot in with a company that's all about the MOVEZ?  (I mean besides the fact that he burned his bridges with everyone else.)

[Petey]

Just speculating of course, but I think it's because Cornette is a wrestling guy, loves the business and wants to be in it by any means possible. And since he burned his bridges with WWE and TNA as you noted, ROH was the best bet even if it didn't necessarily fit his philosophy for professional wrestling. I also think it's easier for him to stomach MOVEZ~! as opposed to the Russo-like angles as Jim might think the spots/stunts are the lesser of two evils.

[Big Fresh]

Good lord, I hated that 6-man. Just the drizzling shits.

[Newb82]

I want to watch that match with Nikita, just to see his head explode SCANNERS-style when the superkick/tombstone combo only gets two.

[SovietShooter]

I want to watch that match with Nikita, just to see his head explode SCANNERS-style when the superkick/tombstone combo only gets two.

 

I believe what actually happened was me shaking my head in disapproval, and then tweeting:

 

 @SovietShooter

This trios match lost me when Elgin kicked out of a piledriver. #ROH

 

 

[Stuttsy]

I think Cornette's concept was that the other TV wrestling products were SO gimmicky and silly that he wanted to eliminate any aspect of that in his wrestling and present it as serious, straight forward and sports like as possible. I think he saw the faux MMA stuff as the last ditch effort to accomplish that so he latched onto it. This falls in line with things he's said in interviews, his lack of interest in acts like Cabana, Generico and Steen, etc.

 

RE: Lethal/Cole, with independents its usually a scheduling issue, I'd wager one of them was unavailable on the Manhattan date, especially considering neither is on the advertised card at this point.

[TimWresPowr]

Been working on catching up on ROH TV this week. I watched the 8/3 show last night. Very good show. I didn't like the opener (3.0 vs. Adrenaline Rush) as much as some reviewers I've seen. I prefered the Wolves/Party Boys match from the previous week. Interview segment with Nigel, Redragon, Wolves came off well. Inside ROH did a pretty good job condensing several weeks of online stories into a few minute recap of the title tourney situation. I still wish they could make steps to make the TV more timely. Even if they tape matches for 3-4 weeks at once there's no reason they have to post produce all the shows immediately following. If they post-produced 1-2 at a time instead they could make them more current with what's going on online. 3-way with Young/Page/Marshall was pretty good, high action and about all you could ask of these guys. I'm not sure how over Young is but I would like to see him be used & pushed more. Main event was a really good TV match, *** range, maybe a bit higher. Match quality wise this show seemed like a throwback to the HDNet days. ROH seems to be hitting their stride in-ring wise right now too bad there are reports they are struggling behind the scenes.

 

As for the Cornette talk, it's not like he had no history with ROH prior to his latest run.  He had worked with them a couple stints before dating back to 2003 or 4.  So he kind of had a link to them all along so it was more a natural return to a company he had been with before than him coming in cold to the biggest company left that would give him a job.  Based on Cornette's latest Q&As it sounds like he was really disappointed in how the company was run after he basically sold Sinclair on buying the thing.  It seems since he left they are moving back towards an indy dream card kind of model & not really worrying about growing so much, just providing the best product they can with whatever budget they have for as long as SBG feels like footing the bill.