By Haydn Gleed
Will Ospreay vs Dragon Lee vs Kushida: Wow, just wow. If you enjoy athletic, high speed and breathless action go out of your way to watch the main event of ROH TV this week. All three men put in a hell of a performance. Will Ospreay is a walking, talking, real life version of the arcade game Tekkan. The man is crazy talented and he faced the best like for like wrestlers in terms of style from Mexico and Japan respectively and they created magic. One word of caution for ROH however, Ospreay is in the middle of an excellent heel run in Progress wrestling against Jimmy Havoc, so he has shown elsewhere that he can be effective in a heated program. Let’s hope ROH don’t just use him as a “spot monkey” and instead after these initial matches to wow the crowd they realize what a talent they have and maximize his potential.
Marty Scrull debut: Scurll’s American TV debut match against Jonathan Gresham on this show was average, not bad but not a home run either. There is certainly room to improve there, but he has got it in him. This strong hit is for ROH putting Marty over as a huge star and getting over what a get he is for the company. The video hype at the start of the show combined with the unique but eye catching entrance video, lighting, and music made him look like a million dollars.
Christopher Daniels vs Chris Sabin in an Decade Of Excellence Match: On paper, if someone had told me I have to watch only one match from semifinals, I would have chosen Lethal against Jay Briscoe that will air next week. With that being said, this was the best match from the tournament so far with both men working hard and putting together an extremely entertaining match. The talk on commentary is starting to telegraph the fact that Daniels is going to win the tournament. They spend so much time talking about how Daniels has never reached the top and this this is his last chance. I’m not as convinced as others that this will lead to a win of the ROH Title because I think they are telling the story of a veteran who’s trying to get what he’s never had and being so close to living out his dream, only for his best friend to turn on him at the last minute. Whether I think a Christopher Daniels vs Kazarian feud is the best thing for either men is a subject for another time, but it feels to me they are planting the seeds.
Wrestle Kingdom 11 highlights: A very minor hit, mostly because it should have been addressed on TV before now. I could have done without the highlights breaking up the excellent main event match, but at least they finally addressed the ROH Title situation. I understand ROH is in a difficult position with having to turn in their show roughly a week before airs, but I still don’t buy that they couldn’t go to the TV network, who own the company, and say we need to air this special two minute video to explain what’s been going on. But that’s another subject for another day.
ROH TV Misses
Steve Corino, Kevin Sullivan, and BJ Whitmer nonsense: If it wasn’t for this two minute backstage video, this show would have got no misses. As it was, I found myself looking at the brick wall outside my house wondering if doing a Goldberg and drawing blood from my forehead by headbutting it would be more enjoyable than this rubbish. This makes no sense, is not entertaining, and seemed setup only for the punchline of get the golden one. No, no, it’s actually really clever, they are talking about sacrificing one of Dusty Rhodes’s sons and they couldn’t get Cody so they will get, Dustin, Goldust, the golden one, get it?!?!?! Just stop this nonsense ROH.
I will be taking a couple of weeks away from Prowrestling.net, but I will still be available for a chat on twitter @haydngleed or via email haydn.gleed@gmail.com. Thanks for reading the ROH Hit List and I’ll see you all in a couple of weeks!
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