Official Best In The World 2015 Thread

[ROHWorld_Harry]

I was only a few years off when I kept taking a stand and saying Lethal would win the belt!

[Marketh.]

Would the Bullet Club stop with the SUCK ITs if someone actually did? If so, I'm willing to put Corino forward as a volunteer. That's how much I want this gimmick to end.

[Robareid]

I was only a few years off when I kept taking a stand and saying Lethal would win the belt!

He had the Killer Instinct, it was inevitable.

[AlexROH]

Awesome show, I really love it! Everything was good. The first hour hasn´t had a great match but was enjoyable. The last two were fantastic with two of the best matches we´ve seen this year. Crowd was hot all night.

My ratings:

- Donovan Dijak vs Mark Briscoe **1/2
- The Decade vs ACH & Matt Sydal **3/4
- Dalton Castle vs Silas Young ***1/4
- C&C Wrestle Factory vs War Machine NR
- Moose vs Roderick Strong vs Michael Elgin ***1/2
- Bullet Club vs The Kingdom ****1/4
- reDRagon vs The Addiction ***1/2+
- Jay Lethal vs Jay Briscoe ****1/2

I thought FB 2014 was ROH´s best PPV but this Best in the World 2015 was better. Final rating: 8.75

[Wilson]

I was there live and Burnside provided a really great impression of the show. Instead of reiterating his thoughts (many of which I share), I'll instead post it below, only so a few more eyes can perhaps glean through it.

Spoiler: show

My thoughts as I watch.

Mark Briscoe d Donovan Dijak - Mark Briscoe might actually be the better of the two brothers in the ring at this point. He takes a SICK flat-back bump as Dijak just tosses him over the top to the floor (think X-Pac's elimination from the 2000 Rumble). Moratorium or no moratorium, Donovan Dijak will get a developmental offer as soon as Vince McMahon finds out he exists. Sloppy but fun and didn't overstay it's welcome. ***. Mark winning here pretty much means Lethal is winning the belt. He needs opponents bro.

Page & Whitmer d Sydal & ACH - Sydal's stupid song is now a mark-out moment for me. I INVENTED COMPUTER MAN! THE HOLY GHOST! This show has a terrible boom cam aiming straight down on the ring instead of a hard cam. Crowd hates Whitmer. Everybody plays their roles perfectly here. Sydal is the MVP. I wish they wouldn't job him so much. Solid mid-card tag match. Probably **3/4 maybe 3 if you're generous.

I need to go to the Brooklyn show I guess.

Dalton Castle d Silas Young - The main riff of Castle's theme song is - I won't even call it a rip-off of "I Want It All" by Queen, because it's more of a straight cover. Match is fine but has like no heat. Should have done an angle to build this. Peacock cheerleaders are great. Both these guys are really good and have such solid characters. If it would have been possible to have an effeminate babyface character in 80s WWE, Castle would be it. Castle with kind of a cheap roll-up win after Silas gets into an argument with Sinclair. Young kills one of the boys post-match so now we have the feud angle. **3/4 and would have been higher but finish sucked.

War Machine d New Combination - I'm pretty sure Coleman & Cedric lost a stip match in early 2014 that said they couldn't tag anymore. Starts hot as C&C jump them at the bell but it quickly breaks down as they can't get on the same page and Cedric's being a bossy dick. Cedric wants to beat somebody with a wrench but Coleman isn't having it. This leads directly to Caprice losing. **. More of an angle than a match really. Post-match, Cedric resists attacking Caprice but tells him he's not tagging with him again.

Strong d Elgin & Moose - I predict this match will go too long. Moose has elaborate entrance (by ROH standards) with punky cheerleaders and silly football gear. Equal parts goofy and awesome. Roddy comes out super-motivated and bouncy which he usually does when he's booked to win the match. This is probably the biggest Roddy has even been - he looks as big as Elgin. Winner will main event DBD. Roddy's definitely winning. Moose does Dusty elbows. Elgin's little Karl Pilkington heel smirk is great. Lots of mutants in the crowd tonight. 65% cheering Roddy, 35% cheering Moose, 0% cheering Elgin. "This is awesome!" I mean...it's fine, guys. Elgin very impressive belly to back suplex on Moose. Moose sucks and doesn't know how to sell half of this shit. Now a "Moose sucks" chant. Elgin destroying Roddy with strikes and power moves in a great sequence. Corino subtly burying Moose on commentary. Roddy beats Moose with the Sick Kick. *** in a good match that will be widely overpraised.

Post-match, Veda slaps and berates Moose for his failure. Moose is about to spear her but Cedric Alexander and his wrench save the day and Veda gets a new client.

Bullet Club d Kingdom - With every NJPW tour, Taven & Bennett get better gear. New implants for Maria? I will try to inspect closer and provide an update. Weird somber music for Bullet Club. Unleash the spots. Match is so much fun. Adam Cole is a genius wrestler. AJ Styles is the most professional thing ever. False alarm, it's just a good bra. Faces finish Cole with a Meltzer Driver and Styles Clash. Kind of surprising as he's the only guy in the match who's under contract.***3/4

Post-match they lay the seeds for the Cole face turn as the other two look disappointed and annoyed with him. Now I get it.

Tag team titles promos. Daniels is a GREAT heel promo and should probably be leading a stable.

Addiction vs reDRagon - heels working like they have something to prove here. 30 seconds in Fish is bleeding from the mouth. Chairs and ladders, which is the first time we've seen garbage all night so it's effective. Crazy Memphis-style brawl. O'Reilly making cool use of the no-DQ with tarantula-style moves in the ropes that he doesn't have to break on 5. Different kind of match for these teams. Convincingly vicious. Addiction's gear is based on Venom from Spider-Man. Kaz chairshots Fish, then holds up chair: "God, I love my job!" Fish taped to the ropes so it's 2 on 1. Did Cornette lay this match out? This is great. I usually hate garbage matches but these guys are actually talented and are doing stuff that looks great but isn't actually harmful. Fish is loose so here's the big comeback. Sabin in to save Daniels from a pin after chasing the dragon. No DQ so keeps going. Celebrity rehab finishes Fish. ***1/2 and would have been a lot higher but weak finish. I'm taking off like half a star for that finish. That's the kind of power I have. Everybody saw the Sabin finish coming weeks ago for this match and frankly since it was no DQ he might as well have been out there helping them the whole time.

Lethal vs Briscoe - It's stupid when wrestlers wear gas masks. Lethal is listed as 6' 0". They've been listing him as 5' 10" for four years, which was already an exaggeration. Dijak and Diesel get a "you get the fuck out of here" from Sinclair almost immediately after a trip attempt. Crowd gets the inevitable "Lets go Jay" chant out of the way early. Crowd is 60/40 for Briscoe. Briscoe and Lethal families both in the crowd. Briscoe never looks like he's faking anything. I think Lethal is winning, but honestly if I were them I'd be tempted to keep the belt on Briscoe because ROH is in a growth period and Briscoe has more charisma. Maybe the Briscoes will transition into feuding with the Addiction. Ugh, Briscoe has visibly re-aggravated that shoulder injury. Bone is popping up next to collarbone and he can't do much of anything with his left arm. They should cut this short. Lethal puts him in the koji clutch. Rope break. Martini on the apron, but Nigel sends him to the back. Jay Driller puts Lethal through a table at ringside. High gear now, Briscoe gutting it out. Crowd heating up, feels like 50/50 split. Lethal Injection, kick-out. Everybody standing, sensing a title change. Lethal hits Briscoe with his own Jay Driller, then Lethal Injection. Clean pin in the middle. New champ; Briscoe's first pinfall loss since March 2013. ****

Briscoe put Lethal over super strong. Clean handshake post-match. Lethal genuinely crying.

Really good show. Varied matches, nothing was bad, great characters. Hope Briscoe isn't on the shelf again.

I suppose my quick takeaway from the PPV involves the significant finish to the main event. I'll eat crow and admit that I thought that the big match would have as much pablum as we have seen in the three prior PPVs, but what we witnessed was practically a facsimile of a face vs. face dynamic. Only a few times in my life have I seen the face of the company give a big, indisputable, career-making rub to a rising star. I don't think we have witnessed anything on this scale since Aries dethroned Joe, and that comprises many, many great "favors" in ROH history. Perhaps I'm not as high as the majority of the forum is on the overall quality of the match (with that crowd, the two could have gone and given a ***** performance on Sunday), but that moment is one of the greatest we've had in a while, probably since Final Battle 2010 in my opinion.

I am very optimistic for Lethal's reign and do think he deserves it. Have to wonder when and where he is going to drop the TV Title and if he can make it through 2015 as World champion.

[Big Red Machine]

I'd like to see Lethal hold both for a month or two but has to defend them separately, and someone takes the TV title off him but he keeps the world belt. You could explain it in kayfabe by saying that with the strain of fighting off two sets of challengers he was bound to take a loss sooner or later, maybe one of his world title challengers interferes to cost him the TV belt or something. I think Lethal's TV title reign has been built up too much for him just to vacate, and they need a secondary title to help elevate talent.

This would be a great idea.

[Big Red Machine]

Am I the only one who had Lethal and Briscoe at less than ****?

[Burnside]

Am I the only one who had Lethal and Briscoe at less than ****?

I had it at exactly ****. That's the lowest rating I've seen for it.

[Northwoods_Nightmare]

Managed to avoid spoilers and just watched the show. What a great event! I think the whole flow of the show was booked very well. The atmosphere for the main event seemed tremendous. What a great match. Watching it, it genuinely felt like a big historic moment.

Mark Briscoe is insane.

Anyone else here order the VOD on the website and have freezing/buffering issues in the second half of the show? I ended up not being able to watch the end of BC vs Kingdom and part of reDRagon vs Addiction. It really sucks to pay $35 for a replay, and you can't even watch the whole thing, and it goes days without being fixed.

[Big Red Machine]

Managed to avoid spoilers and just watched the show. What a great event! I think the whole flow of the show was booked very well. The atmosphere for the main event seemed tremendous. What a great match. Watching it, it genuinely felt like a big historic moment.

Mark Briscoe is insane.

Anyone else here order the VOD on the website and have freezing/buffering issues in the second half of the show? I ended up not being able to watch the end of BC vs Kingdom and part of reDRagon vs Addiction. It really sucks to pay $35 for a replay, and you can't even watch the whole thing, and it goes days without being fixed.

I had this problem, too.

[AssShooter]

As always, nothing will be fixed before monday.
I even read that the VOD on the website was really bad with a ton of buffering, the audio out of sync and an awful definition.

[JigsawVs.Jason]

very good PPV, not as good as Final Battle, but every match pretty much delivered, the main Event really surprised me. Let's give Briscoe his due, that was a hell of a match, he went out with a bang and delivered the first really good Singles match in Ages just when he needed to the most.

- Donovan Dijak vs Mark Briscoe *** Dijak is like the talented Moose, really imrpessed, if that match would have gone longer it would have eclisped the three star Benchmark.

- The Decade vs ACH & Matt Sydal *** Another really good match, but an abrupt finish, wasn't expecting it, but makes room for the final Showdown between ACH and Page.

- Dalton Castle vs Silas Young ***1/4 This was just really good and the scary thing is they can do even better, much looking forward to their rematch.

- C&C Wrestle Factory vs War Machine ** More of an angle, but since the pay-off later on was really good this had ist purpose.

- Moose vs Roderick Strong vs Michael Elgin ***1/2 Very good match, although not even the three-way rules could avoid Moose's deficiencies getting exposed

- Bullet Club vs The Kingdom ****1/4 Absolutely outstanding, even though this was slightly less awesome as the Main Event of WotW Night 2.

- reDRagon vs The Addiction *** 3/4 Really surprisingly good match, absolutely wasn't expecting that.

- Jay Lethal vs Jay Briscoe ****1/2 What an awesome main Event, and I have to admit Briscoe was good in this, great pacing, goosebumps inducing atmosphere, rabid crowd, great storytelling, amazing finish, there really is nothing they could have done better.

[Sandy Fork]

Has there been any reports about the "Terminal 5 experience" this time round? Better or worse for people in attendance?

[Wilson]

It looked like some things were improved. Adding TVs near the soffits was a good idea (Mr. Koff himself took a quick check to see what people thought of this). I also think it looked cleaner that night.

However, I was in GA and it was even more crowded than FB. Crowding is always going to be an issue in that building. As a tight person, I would really like it if they move back to one the Ballrooms.

[Ladrao12]

For me personally, I made sure to get a seat on the stage, as I felt that was probably the best view, and I was mostly right (though there is a row right in front of the bar that I think may offer both comfort and good price).

I noticed the GA wasn't nearly as packed as it was for Final Battle, so the reputation of the building is getting around. I'd prefer they also run a different venue, but I am starting to find some familiarity with the seating.

[KL_]

Any info about the number of attendance in Terminal 5 ?

[Wilson]

For me personally, I made sure to get a seat on the stage, as I felt that was probably the best view, and I was mostly right (though there is a row right in front of the bar that I think may offer both comfort and good price).

I noticed the GA wasn't nearly as packed as it was for Final Battle, so the reputation of the building is getting around. I'd prefer they also run a different venue, but I am starting to find some familiarity with the seating.

I think it was just as crowded, if not more. Maybe you couldn’t see, but there was a significant amount of shorter people sitting on the floor and watching through the guardrails because it was an ‘easier’ viewing experience for them. These may have looked like vacant spots from below.

Terminal 5 is not a great venue.

[WHG]

Curious what people thought of the venue on TV this time. I thought they did a MUCH better job with ring lighting this time around and they didn't wash out the crowd behind the ring with the blue light. On top of that, I think in general this looks much better than the typical flat seating ROH venues and the triple level ceiling height has a cool look to it.

The biggest negative for me is the hard cam placement being off center and looking down from the 2nd level. if they could find a way to position the hard cam on a scaffold behind the Floor Level seating like they do for other venues I think it'd look 10x better.

[Sardonic Artery]

I'd like to see Lethal be the longest reigning champ, period, but he'd have to hold his TV title for another 200 days to surpass Joe.

[DieHard]

- Donovan Dijak vs Mark Briscoe **1/2. I really like Dijak, and Mark Briscoe was good as usual. The finish was kinda weird but other than that pretty good opener.

- The Decade vs ACH & Matt Sydal **3/4. Solid match, could've been better imo.

- Dalton Castle vs Silas Young ***1/4. Very good, and I just realized Dalton is Ashley Remington from Chikara, which kinda makes me happy because he was one of the new guys in Chikara that impressed me during KOT. Hopefully ROH will let him to do his thing naturally without trying to make him cool too hard (in other words, make him ROH's version of Fandango).

- C&C Wrestle Factory vs War Machine NR

- MOOSE vs Roderick Strong vs Michael Elgin ***1/2. First and foremost, MOOSE. I'm a huge fan, I guess I'll never understand the hate he gets. Strong's having an amazing and deservingly getting the title shot. Lethal/Strong is a fresh match (other than few matches in 2012) which is good.

- Bullet Club vs The Kingdom ****1/4. Fantastic

- reDRagon vs The Addiction ***1/2. I had bigger expectations, but I can't be too disappointed given that they followed-up that insane 6-man.

- Jay Lethal vs Jay Briscoe ****1/2. Couldn't have been better. JVJ's review for this match sums it up perfectly. Amazing match, and yet another strong MOTYC from ROH after Strong/Tanahashi last month. Lethal def deserves it.

Awesome show, loved every second of it. For the first time I also felt like an ROH PPV had great booking. So glad Lethal won, perfect time to pull the trigger.