We enter into the 2nd month of the Ring of Impact project. This month sees the start of ROH premiere live shows into the mix. In the before times, we’d have to shuffle over to the merch table and plunk down $20 per disc for ROH live DVDs. Now they’re all streaming on Honor Club with a quick click. Will this be what ROH needs to pull ahead of TNA in the rankings once and for all?
TNA Impact Wrestling #655 Open Fight Night 2/2/2017
TNA Impact Wrestling #655 Open Fight Night 2/2/2017
1. Lashley (c) vs. Brother Nero - TNA World Heavyweight Title Match - 7
2. Brooke vs. Sienna (w/Maria) - 3
3. Decay (Abyss & Crazzy Steve) (w/Rosemary) vs. The Death Crew Council (Bram, James Storm & Kingston) - Three on Two Handicap Falls Count Anywhere Match - 7
4. Drew Galloway (c) vs. Rob Ryzin - IMPACT Grand Title Match - IMPACT Grand Title Match - 2
5. DJ Z (c) vs. Trevor Lee (w/Gregory Shane Helms) -TNA X-Division Title Ladder Match - 4
6. Eli Drake (w/Tyrus) vs. Ethan Carter III - 2
Average Score: 4.2
Open Fight Night implies that some of those who won briefcases in the Race for the Case match a couple weeks back will be cashing in on their opportunities. Brother Nero is the first and wants Lashley’s TNA World title. Another in a series of really good Lashley matches. While Hardy is good in tag settings he really shines here as a solo guy. Hardy is a great sympathetic babyface as he’s not afraid to kill himself out there. There were several big bumps in this one most notably Hardy taking a powerbomb on the steel ring steps. Sienna continuing to be dominant force in Knockouts division. Crazy Falls Count Anywhere bout between DCC and Decay. Love that stip. And similar to the Monster’s Ball match from last week’s episode involving Decay member Rosemary, this one had thumbtacks (Kingston got about 60+ embedded into his back), a barbwire board (Abyss took the bump on it), a dive from the 2nd tier of the stands, and a match-ending piledriver through a table that was bridged between the ring apron and guardrail that almost killed Crazzy Steve.
Open Fight Night implies that some of those who won briefcases in the Race for the Case match a couple weeks back will be cashing in on their opportunities. Brother Nero is the first and wants Lashley’s TNA World title. Another in a series of really good Lashley matches. While Hardy is good in tag settings he really shines here as a solo guy. Hardy is a great sympathetic babyface as he’s not afraid to kill himself out there. There were several big bumps in this one most notably Hardy taking a powerbomb on the steel ring steps. Sienna continuing to be dominant force in Knockouts division. Crazy Falls Count Anywhere bout between DCC and Decay. Love that stip. And similar to the Monster’s Ball match from last week’s episode involving Decay member Rosemary, this one had thumbtacks (Kingston got about 60+ embedded into his back), a barbwire board (Abyss took the bump on it), a dive from the 2nd tier of the stands, and a match-ending piledriver through a table that was bridged between the ring apron and guardrail that almost killed Crazzy Steve.
Drew sarcastically challenges “this guy!” he proclaims as out walks generic Ryzin who gets squashed in the 1st round. DJ Z worked an injured wheel gimmick so held this back a bit but cool to see one of my personal faves Trevor Lee get the title. Main event, maybe it’s a me problem, but I fell asleep, rewound it, repeat multiple times, then even watched it again fresh the next morning and whatever they were going for just didn’t work. I didn’t fully understand the machinations of the plot but I think Tyrus wasted Eli's briefcase cash-in to beat up a street clothes wearing Ethan Carter? EC3 had this horrendously bad purple bruise painted on his hip that my daughter who was walking by even laughed at the preposterousness of.
ROH Undisputed Legacy 2/3/2017
ROH Undisputed Legacy 2/3/2017
1. Jonathan Gresham vs. Will Ferrara - 3
2. The Addiction (Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian) vs. The Tempura Boyz (Sho & Yohei) - 3
3. The Kingdom (Matt Taven, TK O'Ryan & Vinny Marseglia) (c) vs. Jax Dane & War Machine (Hanson & Ray Rowe) - ROH World Six Man Tag Team Title Match - 5
4. Jay Lethal vs. Bobby Fish vs. Dalton Castle - 5
5. Romantic Touch vs. BJ Whitmer - 3
6. Keith Lee & Shane Taylor vs. The Briscoes (Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe) - 6
7. Cody vs. Donovan Dijak - 7
8. Jay White, Lio Rush & The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin) vs. BULLET CLUB (Adam Cole, Hangman Page, Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) - 7
Average Score: 4.9
Full length live shows! I think part of my investment in getting Honor Club and TNA+ was to catch up on all these ROH live events, honestly, and in TNA’s case their marquee pay-per-views, but really felt it’d be doing a disservice to not get fully immersed in the ongoing storylines etc. by following all the TV too thus here we are. I noticed afterwards I grade a bit on a curve. For TV comparatively I grade a bit higher. Live shows allow stuff to breathe and again, are really what I’m most excited to delve into, but since they have a bigger canvas I’m going to need to see stuff bypass basic to get higher, recommendable marks.
I think with these premiere live events it’s also noteworthy how they are as a whole. Because this isn’t dropping a choice single on Spotify or Bandcamp, this is releasing a whole record album and the expected way of experiencing it is playing it in full. I’ve often thought of wrestling shows in that manner like a music album or movie. They have ebbs and flows, but they are booked to give a fan a cohesive enjoyable singular experience. And this gives me a taste of where Ring of Honor was in that realm. Starts in a lower gear, gradually picks up, then ends with a full throttle drag down Main St.
Let’s look at some highlights. War Machine and Jax Dane who I was unfamiliar with but fits right in with those hoss’ and the Kingdom was good. Lots of high-impact offense and Kingdom bumping around well for the big brutes. Three-way held intrigue but wasn’t in slot to blow doors off and was surprised to see Lethal take the clean pinfall. The Romantic Touch match isn’t even listed on cagematch which is a rarity as I’ve never seen them get a listing wrong before. I really wanted to score Briscoes vs. Lee/Taylor even higher but the non-finish kind of popped that balloon. Great, physical stuff though and no surprise Keith Lee would break out in a big way in NXT in the near future. Dijak and Cody were the match/segment of the San Antonio show. I need to mention my two favorite moments. Late in the match Donovan powerbombed Rhodes over the guardrail into the first row of chairs. These were the hardest looking plastic chairs imaginable, like built for max stability and had zero give to them. I also loved the post-match sooooo much. Cody sat Dijak in a chair in the center of the ring, then got a running start, and swung a steel chair directly into his face Barry Bonds homerun style! This was so ’99 Rock/Mankind level and unnecessary and thus amazing. Main event I may be slightly overrating. And I’m grappling with that. I’m going to be seeing a TONS of these big multi-men BULLET CLUB bouts in the next couple years. So, this style of bout may lose its luster but as a standalone match this is a hyperdrive hustle; Lio Rush actually stole the show with his blinding speed and reckless dives.
TNA Xplosion #646 2/4/2017
Andrew Everett vs. Davey Richards – 4
I liked this slightly more than the Richards vs. Kingston bout from Xplosion a couple weeks prior, but not enough here to push its score any higher.
Ring of Honor ROH TV #281 2/4/2017
Full length live shows! I think part of my investment in getting Honor Club and TNA+ was to catch up on all these ROH live events, honestly, and in TNA’s case their marquee pay-per-views, but really felt it’d be doing a disservice to not get fully immersed in the ongoing storylines etc. by following all the TV too thus here we are. I noticed afterwards I grade a bit on a curve. For TV comparatively I grade a bit higher. Live shows allow stuff to breathe and again, are really what I’m most excited to delve into, but since they have a bigger canvas I’m going to need to see stuff bypass basic to get higher, recommendable marks.
I think with these premiere live events it’s also noteworthy how they are as a whole. Because this isn’t dropping a choice single on Spotify or Bandcamp, this is releasing a whole record album and the expected way of experiencing it is playing it in full. I’ve often thought of wrestling shows in that manner like a music album or movie. They have ebbs and flows, but they are booked to give a fan a cohesive enjoyable singular experience. And this gives me a taste of where Ring of Honor was in that realm. Starts in a lower gear, gradually picks up, then ends with a full throttle drag down Main St.
Let’s look at some highlights. War Machine and Jax Dane who I was unfamiliar with but fits right in with those hoss’ and the Kingdom was good. Lots of high-impact offense and Kingdom bumping around well for the big brutes. Three-way held intrigue but wasn’t in slot to blow doors off and was surprised to see Lethal take the clean pinfall. The Romantic Touch match isn’t even listed on cagematch which is a rarity as I’ve never seen them get a listing wrong before. I really wanted to score Briscoes vs. Lee/Taylor even higher but the non-finish kind of popped that balloon. Great, physical stuff though and no surprise Keith Lee would break out in a big way in NXT in the near future. Dijak and Cody were the match/segment of the San Antonio show. I need to mention my two favorite moments. Late in the match Donovan powerbombed Rhodes over the guardrail into the first row of chairs. These were the hardest looking plastic chairs imaginable, like built for max stability and had zero give to them. I also loved the post-match sooooo much. Cody sat Dijak in a chair in the center of the ring, then got a running start, and swung a steel chair directly into his face Barry Bonds homerun style! This was so ’99 Rock/Mankind level and unnecessary and thus amazing. Main event I may be slightly overrating. And I’m grappling with that. I’m going to be seeing a TONS of these big multi-men BULLET CLUB bouts in the next couple years. So, this style of bout may lose its luster but as a standalone match this is a hyperdrive hustle; Lio Rush actually stole the show with his blinding speed and reckless dives.
TNA Xplosion #646 2/4/2017
Andrew Everett vs. Davey Richards – 4
I liked this slightly more than the Richards vs. Kingston bout from Xplosion a couple weeks prior, but not enough here to push its score any higher.
Ring of Honor ROH TV #281 2/4/2017
1. BJ Whitmer & Damian Martinez vs. War Machine (Hanson & Ray Rowe) - 4
2. Joseph A'Gau & The Bruiserweights (Corey Hollis & John Skyler) vs. The Kingdom (Matt Taven, TK O'Ryan & Vinny Marseglia) - 3
3. The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) (c) vs. The Tempura Boyz (Sho & Yohei) - ROH World Tag Team Title Match - 4
4. Chris Sabin vs. Alex Shelley vs. Jonathan Gresham vs. Donovan Dijak vs. Jay White vs. Lio Rush - ROH World Television Title #1 Contendership Six Man Mayhem Match - 5
Average Score: 4
For the sake of my sanity (only a few thousand shows to go – no big deal, right? Right?) going to trim some write-ups to more capsule reviews. Call me the Jonathan Rosenbaum of the wrestling cognoscenti. War Machine on my TV reminds me of seeing Steiners squashes back in the day. You know people about to get tossed around. Bucks and Boyz was nice appetizer – surpassing pretzel bites but not quite spinach artichoke dip. Main was constructed the week prior to give mean ol’ Marty Scrull a proper contender and Dijak came out the clear winner, but everyone got a chance to SHINE and we’re not talking that ’96 mental breakdown pianist flick.
ROH Honor Reigns Supreme 2017 2/4/2017
For the sake of my sanity (only a few thousand shows to go – no big deal, right? Right?) going to trim some write-ups to more capsule reviews. Call me the Jonathan Rosenbaum of the wrestling cognoscenti. War Machine on my TV reminds me of seeing Steiners squashes back in the day. You know people about to get tossed around. Bucks and Boyz was nice appetizer – surpassing pretzel bites but not quite spinach artichoke dip. Main was constructed the week prior to give mean ol’ Marty Scrull a proper contender and Dijak came out the clear winner, but everyone got a chance to SHINE and we’re not talking that ’96 mental breakdown pianist flick.
ROH Honor Reigns Supreme 2017 2/4/2017
1. Dalton Castle vs. Donovan Dijak - 5
2. Andy Dalton & Rhett Titus vs. War Machine (Hanson & Ray Rowe) - 4
3. The Addiction (Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian) vs. BULLET CLUB (Adam Cole & Cody)
4. Jay Lethal vs. Hangman Page - 4
5. Jonathan Gresham vs. Sho vs. Jax Dane vs. Will Ferrara - Four Corner Survival Match - 3
6. Bobby Fish vs. Lio Rush - 5
7. The Kingdom (Matt Taven, TK O'Ryan & Vinny Marseglia) (c) vs. Jay White & The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin) - ROH World Six Man Tag Team Title Match - 5
8. The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) (c) vs. The Briscoes (Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe) - ROH World Tag Team Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match - 8
Average Score: 4.9
Good opener. Dawned on me ROH really embodies the puro style without parading it. Like in that opener you’ve got sick release Saito suplexes and stiff forearms exchanges. But its built organically into their overall in-ring presentation. It’s not ostentatious. Makes me think many took ROH for granted over the years because the in-ring work was so uniformly good over such a long span of time. First-time I’ve seen Dalton who works an angry small guy persona whose lack of fear may overpower his smarts, so think Crash Holly characterization but Pete Dunne in appearance. And sure enough, his bravado booked him and an unsuspecting Rhett Titus into a match with the massive War Machine.
Bit disappointed with the BULLET CLUB/Addiction tag. Cody was on absolute house show mode stopping proceedings dead in their tracks to do some heel 101 mic work crowd play. They’re building to main event of upcoming 15th Anniversary show being Christopher Daniels finally going for his 1st ROH World championship against Cole, yet Daniels goes down here clean to a random superkick? I thought that was more of a transitional move in the Club’s repertoire. Lethal and Page was better. Jay started the match out with six (!) consecutive suicide dives! Post-match Cody, Cole and Page are run off by the returning Addiction. Daniels cuts a weak go home promo basically calling the Bullet Club “poopy heads” or some such nonsense.
Sashaying through the back-half of this show to focus on the main event. They had an extra stip on the 2 out of 3 Falls bout where each individual fall had its own stipulation/rules. I liked how they played that out. Briscoes got the first fall then the announcer said over the PA, “The 2nd Fall will be contested under Lucha rules”. Jay was like “What’s lucha rules?” and bashed the Bucks with a steel chair to cause the immediate disqualification. Yes, that evened the score to 1-1 but the 3rd fall if needed was scheduled to be a No DQ match which led to the Briscoes’ advantage. This had all the stunts and superkicks you’d associate with the Bucks’ act, but the combined effort of both teams pushed this into something worthy of a main event slot.
Who won?
Looking at statistical data the average score per show was only marginally higher for Ring of Honor. But their tour through Texas with San Antonio and Dallas live events added a little more oomph to their offering this week. And even with a much bigger sample size, nothing on ROH was as bad as the worst aspects of Impact this week. So ROH ties it up at (3-3) on the overall scorecard. “Oh, radio, tell me everything you know” ;)
Good opener. Dawned on me ROH really embodies the puro style without parading it. Like in that opener you’ve got sick release Saito suplexes and stiff forearms exchanges. But its built organically into their overall in-ring presentation. It’s not ostentatious. Makes me think many took ROH for granted over the years because the in-ring work was so uniformly good over such a long span of time. First-time I’ve seen Dalton who works an angry small guy persona whose lack of fear may overpower his smarts, so think Crash Holly characterization but Pete Dunne in appearance. And sure enough, his bravado booked him and an unsuspecting Rhett Titus into a match with the massive War Machine.
Bit disappointed with the BULLET CLUB/Addiction tag. Cody was on absolute house show mode stopping proceedings dead in their tracks to do some heel 101 mic work crowd play. They’re building to main event of upcoming 15th Anniversary show being Christopher Daniels finally going for his 1st ROH World championship against Cole, yet Daniels goes down here clean to a random superkick? I thought that was more of a transitional move in the Club’s repertoire. Lethal and Page was better. Jay started the match out with six (!) consecutive suicide dives! Post-match Cody, Cole and Page are run off by the returning Addiction. Daniels cuts a weak go home promo basically calling the Bullet Club “poopy heads” or some such nonsense.
Sashaying through the back-half of this show to focus on the main event. They had an extra stip on the 2 out of 3 Falls bout where each individual fall had its own stipulation/rules. I liked how they played that out. Briscoes got the first fall then the announcer said over the PA, “The 2nd Fall will be contested under Lucha rules”. Jay was like “What’s lucha rules?” and bashed the Bucks with a steel chair to cause the immediate disqualification. Yes, that evened the score to 1-1 but the 3rd fall if needed was scheduled to be a No DQ match which led to the Briscoes’ advantage. This had all the stunts and superkicks you’d associate with the Bucks’ act, but the combined effort of both teams pushed this into something worthy of a main event slot.
Who won?
Looking at statistical data the average score per show was only marginally higher for Ring of Honor. But their tour through Texas with San Antonio and Dallas live events added a little more oomph to their offering this week. And even with a much bigger sample size, nothing on ROH was as bad as the worst aspects of Impact this week. So ROH ties it up at (3-3) on the overall scorecard. “Oh, radio, tell me everything you know” ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment