ROH Flyin' High Review

[DXvsNWO1994]

Watched the show earlier today. For some reason the "Add DVD" Option wasn't available, but whatever...

ROH Flyin' High
Dayton, Ohio 3/22/14

1.) The Decade (with Adam Page) vs. Adrenaline RUSH & Caprice Coleman: ***1/2

Actually think this is the best trios match The Decade has been in to date. Great action here. ACH changed it up a bit and did the "Tyler Black-Backwards-Running-Flip-Dive" instead of his usual "Air Jordan" which was pretty cool.

The segment with Cole coming out with Bennett & Maria impersonating The Briscoes was actually entertaining to see. Jay & Mark come though the crowd and a brawl breaks out.

2.) Four-Corner Survival - The Romantic Touch vs. Silas Young vs. "Barrister" RD Evans vs. Kyle O'Reilly: **1/2

Kinda average by Four-Corner Survival standards. Silas Young threw RD Evan's 61-0 sign and it hit Kevin Kelly in the eye. Corino was alone on commentary for a bit but Kelly returned by the end of the match. Towards the end, Silas started attacking everyone with the leather strap he's been carrying around since Final Battle. The ref disqualifies him from the match but it continues three-way. Evans escapes with the win.

For those wondering, his two finger taunt he's been doing in his videos has gotten over with the crowd pretty quickly (a good number of people were doing it) and people were chanting "Streak" so that's good to see.

3.) "Unbreakable" Michael Elgin vs. Cedric Alexander: ****3/4

THIS....FUCKING....MATCH!!! I'm going to say it right now...this match tops reDRagon/Young Bucks. It's true. It was seriously amazing. My Ring of Honor MOTY. Cedric got put over REALLY strong here.

4.) Kevin Steen vs. Bobby Fish (with Kyle O'Reilly): **

This was mostly Steen & Fish exchanging holds for five minutes with Steen making fun of Fish. He actually got the fans to chant for the ropes and Steen said they were more popular than Fish. This leads to Steen shooting a snot rocket at reDRagon and O'Reilly attacks Steen for the DQ. RD Evans makes the save with a ridiculous briefcase and they cut a great promo where Steen calls Kyle O'Reilly an "Illegal Weapon" (which the got over with the crowd big time) and led to the tag match.

5.) Kevin Steen & "Barrister" RD Evans vs. reDRagon: ***

Even with the DQ finish, this was really fun. I mean, how can you go wrong with four of the most entertaining characters in ROH in one match. We got a "Stretch Bobby Stretch" Chant and the Steen/Evans team got in some good tandem offense. Steen goes to pin Fish after the Package Piledriver but O'Reilly breaks up the pin with a chair for the DQ.

Afterwords, Steen puts over #TheNewStreak

6.) ROH World TV Title - "Sicilian Psychopath" Tommaso Ciampa vs. Matt Taven: ***1/4-***1/2

A fine match, but the crowd was kinda quiet in certain parts and of course Truth Martini got involved by getting Seleyzia Sparx to low blow Taven. Ciampa wins with an inverted Project Ciampa from an Electric Chair Position (basically he drops him gut first instead of back first).

7.) Chris Hero vs. "The Phenomenal" AJ Styles: ****1/2

It can not be understated how HARD Chris Hero kicks people. There were at least three times in the match where Hero kicked Styles so hard that it looked like he either lost a tooth, broke his jaw, knocked him out, gave him a concussion, or a combination of all those things. Seriously brutal stuff, but at the same time, AJ fought back hard. I really enjoyed this, personally. This might be Hero's best match since coming back to the indies. Same for Styles.

The Decade attack Chris Hero after the match.

8.) The Briscoes vs. ROH World Champion Adam Cole & Michael Bennett (with Maria Kanellis): ***3/4

I think this was definitely better than their match from TV recently (which was taped in Philly). They got more time and it really made the match better. Corino noted that this was Bennett's first time Main Eventing an ROH show. Bennett puts Mark though a table with the Box Office Smash and Jay battles Cole for a few minutes afterwords which leads to Jay pinning Cole again. The heels attack post match.

Overall: 8.75/10

People thought we were going to get a throwaway show. Instead we got one of the best house shows of the year. Elgin/Alexander and Hero/Styles alone are well worth your money. While you might not like the prospect of two straight matches ending in a DQ, it actually worked really well (mainly because it involved four of the most entertaining characters in ROH). Steen, Evans, and reDRagon are just so much fun to watch. The main event was a great build to Supercard of Honor VIII. In short, this was a pretty great show.

[ROHFan25]

Thanks for the review man, was going to skip out on this show but I'm going to give it a shot. You tend to rate matches higher than me, but I have to see that Cedric/Elgin match. Really curious to see if it actually does top Bucks/ReDragon which I thought was phenomenal.

[DXvsNWO1994]

Thanks for the review man, was going to skip out on this show but I'm going to give it a shot. You tend to rate matches higher than me, but I have to see that Cedric/Elgin match. Really curious to see if it actually does top Bucks/ReDragon which I thought was phenomenal.

I said in another thread that some might see my rating of Elgin/Alexander as a bit high but that my reflects my enjoyment of the match. Personally, I loved it. Some might feel differently after they see it, but that's the beauty of this star ratings system. It's completely subjective.

[SteenMark23]

Literally just got done watching Hero/AJ no less than two minutes ago, and it was so great that I'm wasting no time to get on here and rave about it. Let me just say that this match solidifies Chris Hero as one of the best wrestlers in the world right now. He's been killing it everywhere, and I cannot WAIT for him and Masato Tanaka to beat the shit out of each other. Take nothing away from AJ, he was great in this, but Hero's performance was all sorts of wonderful. Loved the mat work to start things out, only for Hero to say the hell with that and pound AJ's face in with a series of DEVASTATINGLY stiff kicks. It really gave it that feel of, any one of these can end the match. AJ's burst of offense were great, with that desperation pele being the highlight of the match. Ending was hot as well. Wow, this post was a lot longer than I intended/expected, but man, this match just left no meat on the bone. Can't say enough about it.

Best ROH match in years.

[supersonic]

A shame the DVD won't be available in NOLA.

[BigTChamp]

I had a hell of a time at this show live.. it's a very close contender for my favorite live event, so it's good to hear it holds up on VOD/DVD. Probably the biggest Dayton crowd in years, too.

[Mr. Orange]

Just finished watching the show and it was pretty good. I gave Cedric vs. Elgin ****1/4 and Styles vs. Hero ****

[The Dragon Saga]

Just about to finish the show, have paused near the end of the main event, and while I agree it's a great show I do have one complaint/criticism, which is the crowd. The crowd is pretty horrible, in-fact it's the worst of the year thus far. In Nashville, Pittsburgh, San Antonio, Philly, Chicago and Milwaukee they were all hot, go to Dayton and for the majority of the night they sit there with their hands underneath their asses and when they do make noise it's only like half the crowd.

I'm not asking for rabid enthusiasm, but go to a wrestling show and interact, that's the entire point. I've been to one ROH show my entire life which was Unified in Liverpool, and I left with no voice, I'm pretty audible on the DVD too. Again, not saying go crazy, but don't sit there like an old Japanese crowd is all I'm saying.

[DXvsNWO1994]

I had a hell of a time at this show live.. it's a very close contender for my favorite live event, so it's good to hear it holds up on VOD/DVD. Probably the biggest Dayton crowd in years, too.

I heard the attendance was around 700 mark which is incredible when you consider that ROH hasn't run the Montgomery County Fairgrounds since Survival of the Fittest 2011.

Just about to finish the show, have paused near the end of the main event, and while I agree it's a great show I do have one complaint/criticism, which is the crowd. The crowd is pretty horrible, in-fact it's the worst of the year thus far. In Nashville, Pittsburgh, San Antonio, Philly, Chicago and Milwaukee they were all hot, go to Dayton and for the majority of the night they sit there with their hands underneath their asses and when they do make noise it's only like half the crowd.

I'm not asking for rabid enthusiasm, but go to a wrestling show and interact, that's the entire point. I've been to one ROH show my entire life which was Unified in Liverpool, and I left with no voice, I'm pretty audible on the DVD too. Again, not saying go crazy, but don't sit there like an old Japanese crowd is all I'm saying.

Really? Didn't get that impression at all. I thought the Dayton crowd was fine. Not the best crowd of the year, but nowhere near the worst.

[supersonic]

It's going to take a lot of work and numerous top-notch shows to repair that market's enthusiasm.

[TYFDK]

Just about to finish the show, have paused near the end of the main event, and while I agree it's a great show I do have one complaint/criticism, which is the crowd. The crowd is pretty horrible, in-fact it's the worst of the year thus far. In Nashville, Pittsburgh, San Antonio, Philly, Chicago and Milwaukee they were all hot, go to Dayton and for the majority of the night they sit there with their hands underneath their asses and when they do make noise it's only like half the crowd.

I'm not asking for rabid enthusiasm, but go to a wrestling show and interact, that's the entire point. I've been to one ROH show my entire life which was Unified in Liverpool, and I left with no voice, I'm pretty audible on the DVD too. Again, not saying go crazy, but don't sit there like an old Japanese crowd is all I'm saying.

As apart of that crowd, I was pretty upset that there weren't more people doing the RD Evans "STREAK!" finger pointing when he was out. Not to sound like I'm trying to bring attention to myself, but if you saw a guy in the third row in a green Mountain Dew shirt, that was me. I think I made it on camera once or twice as it was pointed at my buddy and I.

But yeah, I wouldn't say the crowd was terrible. It wasn't as bad as Cincy, honestly.

[BigTChamp]

I thought the crowd was pretty good.. there have been hotter, sure, but people were hardly sitting on their hands. Cincy last December was pretty dead for most of it. This crowd was fairly enthusiastic throughout. 700 sounds about right, maybe even 800. I didn't do an exact count but I'd say there were a dozen or so rows of 15-20 seats on three sides of the ring, then factor in the seats by the entrance way and a large number of people standing. There were a very few scattered empty seats but way more people standing than there were empty chairs.

[AssShooter]

Another great show !
I would have preferred a longer and competitive match between Steen and Fish but the tag match was a lot of fun.
Not sure if it was exactly that, but the "#RightInTheDingDing" moment was cool too !
I think the matches were in the correct order, with the worst between two really good ones.
The crowd was not into everything, but pretty good in my opinion.

[The Dragon Saga]

Oh no, Cincinatti was crap, but I was just speaking in comparison to 2014's shows so far. Again, show itself was really good, Styles/Hero from reports was made to sound like it lasted 5 minutes and that Styles was knocked genuinely loopy, not that the story of the match was Hero using his striking to wobble AJ in-order to get a win. Alexander/Elgin was really good and if they keep building Cedric like this then eventually he has to get a TV title shot. Comedy from Steen/RD and redDRagon was witty and funny (remember when people here would always make fun of O'Reilly for being super serious? Dude is the total opposite), the "Don't you call him that!" "Don't call him an illegal weapon? You are an illegal weapon!" "Don't listen to him, Kyle!" "It's okay, I know what I am, I can live with it."

Main event was good, really liked their TV match and I think this was as good. While I don't see Jay winning the title at SCOH, I do think hes benefited form this feud a lot. But there are more possibilities with Adam as champion.

[sg86]

The crowd was fine most of the night. What kept them from being over the top good was that there seemed to be a bunch of people there for AJ Styles who didn't know much of anything about anyone else on the card. A lot of kids and some others in AJ TNA shirts that you could tell weren't too familiar with ROH.

[Lone Wolf]

The crowd seemed really good to me. Elgin/Cedric was MOTN and could well be my ROH MOTY so far. Need to give it a rewatch but its up there with the Briscoes/Elgin vs Bucks/Steen(again need to give that a rewatch)

Hero/Aj was good as well just felt it was a tad short. A very enjoyable show.

[NaddaLot01]

Cedric Alexander vs. Michael Elgin - ***1/2 - This is being immensely overrated. It was really fun for the 13-15 minutes it lasted. If the crowd had been into it more, maybe I could justify a higher rating. KO/Cedric from last September was much better and yet rated significantly less by most. Can't help but feel part of my underwhelming feeling is the tremendous hype.

[DBSommer]

Cedric Alexander vs. Michael Elgin - ***1/2 - This is being immensely overrated. It was really fun for the 13-15 minutes it lasted. If the crowd had been into it more, maybe I could justify a higher rating. KO/Cedric from last September was much better and yet rated significantly less by most. Can't help but feel part of my underwhelming feeling is the tremendous hype.

Or is it being immensely underrated by those that didn't like it?

[NaddaLot01]

That's for you to decide.

[NaddaLot01]

AJ Styles vs. Chris Hero - ***1/4 - Another baffling hype train. Slightly above or on part with the Lethal match from 12YA.