By Haydn Gleed
ROH TV Hits
Cody’s Promo: A heel generating a heel reaction from an Ring Of Honor, which deserves a hit alone for it’s sheer novelty. All joking aside, this promo was very effective in not only putting over how much of an arrogant jerk Cody is, but also mocking the fans. The line asking Kevin Kelly to tell the fans that he wrestled in Japan and they will cheer was masterful and had more than a grain of truth to it. It made me as a viewer want someone to put Cody in his place which is exactly what a heel should do.
Lio Rush and Donovan Dijak: These two were the stars of the opening match and in my opinion are two of the brightest stars on the ROH roster and were given the opportunity to display this in the contest. Donovan throwing the Rebellion around and his dive from the top rope at the tail end of the match were both highly impressive. Rush similarly had passages of the match to show off his flair and dazzling offense. They are both wrestlers that people will pay to see, whether it’s in ROH or elsewhere. Oh by the way, I still hate the Rebellion gimmick.
Marty Scurll vignette: A great introduction video for The Villain, which was enough to get the viewers interested but not give too much away. Having seen a huge chunk of his work it doesn’t look like he’s reinventing the wheel with the character in ROH, and that is certainly not a complaint. With the promise that he would be making his first proper appearance next week, it gave the viewers the push to make sure they tune in, which is what you want from a TV show. I was pleased all round with the advertising for next week, although if I want to be ultra nitpicky, I would have had Kevin Kelly hype the three-way between Dragon Lee, Kushida and Will Ospreay for next week a lot harder than he did as that could be one hell of a TV match but I’ll take any hype for the next TV show from Ring Of Honor at this point.
Jay Lethal vs Jushin Liger: A minor hit. The match wasn’t a classic but I would argue it was probably the best match in this Decade Of Excellence tournament so far.
ROH TV Misses
Steve Corino, Kevin Sullivan, and BJ Whitmer payoff: To tone down my actual outload verbal reaction to the great swerve with the “one brother will be sacrificed” angle, what the flipping heck was all that about?! It simply didn’t make any sense, and describing it as trying to fit a square peg in a round hole is not a strong enough metaphor with how awful this payoff was after months and months of build. Added to this was Kevin Kelly’s awful reactions which didn’t make any sense of a storyline that didn’t make any sense. His slow reveal of his thoughts, saying one sentence at a time as if was Hercule Poirot trying to build up the tension was just painfully bad. It got to the point that I actually laughed out loud. I guess one positive thing I can say about it is that it fit into the overall ludicrous nature of the 75 year angle between Steve Corino and BJ Whitmer.
As always, feel free to get in touch with me either through email haydn.gleed@gmail.com or through twitter @haydngleed if you want to discuss anything ROH or wrestling related, always happy to chat about either subject.
Be the first to comment