Random ROH Thoughts Thread

[AnHonorableMention]

Maybe koff finally losing it

Spoiler Alert: He never had it.

Please go listen to: https://anhonorablemention.wixsite.com/ ... e-hagadorn

Educate yourself on what's going on with Ring of Honor management in 2019

[AnHonorableMention]

Nobody talking about tonight's show? What a taping! Everything from Gresham/Lee to GOD/Briscoes was tremendous. Good things happen when none of the matches tank the show, IE women's matches, Bubba Ray Dudley, etc. Bravo ROH!

[Wrestlingisback]

So, watching this week’s TV, is Gresham’s new direction a metaphor for the company as a whole?
He tried to restore the honor back to the company, realized no one cared about that anymore so he failed and has decided, since everyone else wants to go a certain route, he’s going to do the same and try to do it better than anyone else

[dhads7161]

Milontits is horrible. Always been a fan of Bruiser feel as if he should have been transitioned into singles himself after the split with Silas Young. Pretty sure they ripped the gimmick from an independent tag team from my region that are way better called Beer:30.

[alexsmellzzz]

So insane that Matt Taven is still the champ. This company is wild.

Your title match for upcoming Supercard show in Toronto is Taven vs Shelley? Yikes

[classic-cabana]

So insane that Matt Taven is still the champ. This company is wild.

Your title match for upcoming Supercard show in Toronto is Taven vs Shelley? Yikes

Never been that high on Taven myself but he came acroos really really well last night, during the match and his in ring promo earlier. He's definitely growing into the role, he's so much better when he's on his own.

Rush HAS to be the champion in waiting, hopefully they don't hold off on him too long

[malek]

So insane that Matt Taven is still the champ. This company is wild.

Your title match for upcoming Supercard show in Toronto is Taven vs Shelley? Yikes

I'm a huge fan of Shelley, and I'm sure that motivated Alex Shelley can have great run with the company.

His last run left a lot to be desired. It was directionless, poorly booked and most importantly didn't deliver in the ring as well as it should have been expected from such a talented ring veteran.

Still, motivated Alex Shelley with ROH behind him giving him good push could (and should) work great.

Hope he beats Taven and wins the title.

[maxx_powerz]

I'm pretty surprised they are running Taven / Shelley in Toronto too, although since it looks like they'll be headlining with a Briscoes / GOD ladder match it makes a little more sense.

For me, this match feels a little like ROH trying to replicate Lethal / Cabana from 2016. Which seems like a decent thing to try and copy, I remember being stunned at how hyped the crowd was for Cabana, even if it was Chicago. And since they don't run Detroit anymore, you would think a "smart" crowd that appreciates what Shelley used to be might be his best chance of getting a big reaction. But I'm skeptical that he'll be over enough even as a one off, let alone for an extended main event run. I certainly don't see anyway you can put the title on him right now. If you are ROH management and feel like you need to get the belt off Taven asap, you hot shot it to Rush I think.

2004-05 (15 years ago, wtf) Shelley is some of my favorite ROH stuff ever (especially the promos) and he obviously had a great run as a tag team guy with Sabin and then Kushida in other companies. I'd love it if Shelley is able to roll back the clock and have a run here like he's James Gibson or something, but I think he has to prove he can a) have great (or at least very good) matches still and b) get a crowd reaction for this to be anything more than a one off at the top of the card. The indifference when his name came up on the screen before he walked out in Philadelphia was cringe-worthy imo. I'm rooting for him, but he has a lot to prove I think.

[Thelone]

I said it in passing somewhere else before, but Shelley is pretty much a has-been/never-was at this point, especially as a main event talent. I remember shrugging when he came back the first time as a full-time wrestler in 2016, and now we're three years later and the guy has done nothing noteworthy during this period, so no wonder we have even more shrugging now.

I do think the same about Kenny King I might add.

[Lynx]

I don't feel like posting in separate threads so I'll just post some thoughts after last two shows here.

Rush/Dalton II did not work for me, felt like they had idea of where they should go, but didn't really figure out how to get there. I guess we now are going to get third, NO DQ match? I understand that they probably want to do Taven/Rush at Final Battle, but I think they need to add something new here or Rush will get stale by the time he gets there.

On one hand another GoD/Briscoes match makes sense, on the other hand I felt like MM had very good "ending" to their feud, that could be revisited one year later or something like that. But instead we are probably getting another chapter next month. Well I hope they deliver just as good ending as they had in MM.

I noticed that Gresham was wearing CCK hat, was he always wearing it and I noticed it only now or is this a teaser of whats to come?

Shelley looked okay in the ring, but I don't think that I'd even want him as a TV champ. At this point I have hard time taking anyone seriously who claim that Taven is a bad champ and at the same time think that one last run by Shelley would be a good thing.

I liked that King's title shot was used up during MM. Last year RoH had something crazy like 4 or 5 people having title shots and half of them got injured before they even managed to cash them in. Now, if I'm not mistaken, nobody has a title shot asides of Shelley at Toronto?

Speaking about King, so Amy speaks Spanish and they are both (Amy was not confirmed, but revealing that she speaks Spanish would look pointless if she wasn't coming) now going to CMLL. This feels like an extended run and not for Gran Prix or Anniversario weekend. I like that looking back to G1 Supercard, and what came next, we can see a story with King and Amy getting together. What with her helping him around when he was "blind", then supposedly helping Kenny by accident against Lethal and now Dragon Lee. In the end it clicked and didn't feel like "where that came from?". On the negative side, his Rumble win now looks kinda meaningless? Muta could have misted him anyway, his best of the 3 series against Lethal would have made more sense without him having a title shot and he still could have inserted himself into championship match at MM due to his win over Lethal. So in the end it feels like 2 steps forward and 1 backward.

I don't feel Lifeblood/VE feud. Injuries do not help, but I actually enjoyed Lifeblood/Bully more than this. Main problem for me here is that VE are cool pandering heels that are more popular than the good guys. I doubt that Lifeblood will get over by feuding with VE.

Overall MM was a strong show, while MH was noticeably weaker and felt more like a Road To Supercard show, but probably thats what it was designed to look like in the first place.

[malek]

In my opinion Shelley looked good, especially considering that this was his first match after spending year out of wrestling.

In his promo in Philadelphia, he called himself "talent on loan from God", and that was how he called himself back in 2005.

He clearly played heel in this matched, used old Embassy hand sign, and won the match with his "old" finishers Shellshock and Border City Stretch.

I'm quite sure Shelley is turning heel, but is he bringing The Embassy back ?

[christopherclinton55]

I may be alone but I would love to see more Stuka Jr in ROH he is in my top favorites this year.

[AnHonorableMention]

In my opinion Shelley looked good, especially considering that this was his first match after spending year out of wrestling.

In his promo in Philadelphia, he called himself "talent on loan from God", and that was how he called himself back in 2005.

He clearly played heel in this matched, used old Embassy hand sign, and won the match with his "old" finishers Shellshock and Border City Stretch.

I'm quite sure Shelley is turning heel, but is he bringing The Embassy back ?

He's been using the embassy signal for a long time, even outside of ROH. You're looking for stuff that isn't there my guy, even though I love the idea.

[malek]

In my opinion Shelley looked good, especially considering that this was his first match after spending year out of wrestling.

In his promo in Philadelphia, he called himself "talent on loan from God", and that was how he called himself back in 2005.

He clearly played heel in this matched, used old Embassy hand sign, and won the match with his "old" finishers Shellshock and Border City Stretch.

I'm quite sure Shelley is turning heel, but is he bringing The Embassy back ?

He's been using the embassy signal for a long time, even outside of ROH. You're looking for stuff that isn't there my guy, even though I love the idea.

I've seen most of his matches last few years, in NJPW, on indy scene, as well as in ROH and I never noticed it (I fully accept that I might be totally wrong).

Last couple of years he mostly persisted with that Attack on Titan stance.

[AnHonorableMention]

In my opinion Shelley looked good, especially considering that this was his first match after spending year out of wrestling.

In his promo in Philadelphia, he called himself "talent on loan from God", and that was how he called himself back in 2005.

He clearly played heel in this matched, used old Embassy hand sign, and won the match with his "old" finishers Shellshock and Border City Stretch.

I'm quite sure Shelley is turning heel, but is he bringing The Embassy back ?

He's been using the embassy signal for a long time, even outside of ROH. You're looking for stuff that isn't there my guy, even though I love the idea.

I've seen most of his matches last few years, in NJPW, on indy scene, as well as in ROH and I never noticed it (I fully accept that I might be totally wrong).

Last couple of years he mostly persisted with that Attack on Titan stance.

It's usually done in ROH and when he gets in the ring, unless Sabin is around, then the do the MCMG michigan hand point. But yeah, don't anticipate a return of Nana again sadly.

[Chrisvegas27]

Is bully ray friends with Vince Russo?

[monster mafia]

Who cares!

[alexsmellzzz]

Yeah, they are ruining Rush with this Dalton Castle stuff. Once Dalton's contract is up, I hope he hits the road. He's been on cruise control since the last Vegas match he had with Lethal.

Rush started off super hot. Beat Bandido decisively a few months ago. BANDIDO, a guy that they should also do more with. The whole group thing makes for decent matches, but dude the roster is so thin, why are all the good guys in one match?

[BurningHammer]

Personally think this has been the strongest, most sensible booking in a while, very much enoying the Dalton/RUSH, it's probably been Dalton's best feud and his intensity has increased which is great to see, Taven has reached a good level and should only get better, there needs to be that one feud with Taven where the ROH title really feels like the current mood for the tag titles but I think that's coming. Even though they aren't my bag at all the Bouncer, Kingdom stuff has been good for what it is, Gresham is starting to develop something deeper now which is good to see. Taylor needs that one feud to really set him up but he's been possitioned well now. The three man titles actually has something strong to develop from, I hope they add some single matches to the Summer Supercard for VE and Life Blood to deepen their on going feud, Maria has been set up, now she needs that match/win just make it stick, I hope Rivera and Steelz stick around, as they've come in quick and made a good impression. SOS are quitely moving but they need more televison visual and mic time to be anything signifcant but that could happen if they are going to be the next match up for the Briscoes, hopefully it clicks.

Overall I think ROH managed to exit a few things that weren't working and move people on in different directions without much hassle, Promo's all round have be the best they've been in quite some time. . I hope whatever happens ROH just continues on this path for everyone involved, this is has been the point where we have previously seen things suddenly stop or flip flop to something else. There still needs to be a much better selection of quality throughout the mid and undercard in all areas, if a few moves come off it will start to get there.

Apart from Cody's stuff with his brother, previous MLW stuff and Impact's use of LAX, ROH has delivered better multiple stories than probably any other American promotion right now, and as much as I enjoy NJPW a lot of stuff just isn't clicking for me right now, people saying this is a great G1 just haven't been watching a lot of G1's it seems and don't get me on how they are using Cobb, any work ROH has done has been very rapidly undone.

[Chrisvegas27]

I agree with everything you said and I'm very curious how the weekly t.v. format changes I have heard it's going to be like new japan t.v. on axs going forward but Kevin eck said that this new format will make the weekly t.v. more exciting and compelling