ROH is returning to England

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Big Red Machine
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Re: ROH is returning to England

Post by Big Red Machine »

ROH Reach for the Sky Tour: Liverpool (11/18/2016)- Liverpool, UK

FRANKIE KAZARIAN vs. LIO RUSH- 6.5/10
Solid opener. Kaz wouldn’t shake hands before the match but was willing to do so afterwards.

NIGEL MCGUINNESS ADDRESSES THE LIVE CROWD- Nigel is growing a beard. It looks very strange on him. He reminisces with the crowd a bit, puts over the product, and announces to the crowd that the originally-scheduled Proving Ground match between ROH TV Champion Bobby Fish and Will Ospreay has been changed to a title match with the consent of both wrestlers.

“LOCAL HERO” JOE HENDRY vs. DONOVAN DIJAK- 6.25/10
The announcers built this up as a big match, with Dijak finally free of the “pressure” Prince Nana put on him (which we never saw on screen aside from one segment) and Joe Hendry having impressed ROH officials at a tryout camp. Then they proceeded to ignore the match and joke about Corino claiming to have recently spoken to British wrestling legend Big Daddy, who died almost twenty years ago. They would continue to ignore the match for other pointless discussions throughout the match, including but not limited to why referee Paul Turner isn’t on this tour, what American sports are not popular in the UK, and the fact that Bobby Cruise thinks that Jimmy Jacobs & Steve Corino had one of the worst tag title reigns in ROH history. I gave this some thought, and the conclusion I have come to is that Bobby Cruise is right. Their matches were extremely sub-par and filled with bullsh*t. Off the top of my head the only reigns that I remember being worse were title reigns were the absolute shortest, and at least most of those had some sort of artistic idea behind them that required them to be so short (the idea of the “cursed” belts in late 2003, trying to show that the three teams were all equal at Round Robin Challenge III, the Briscoes being shocked by losing the belts in their first defense fueling them to get the belts back and have the longest reign in history up until that point in 2007, or the idea that ROH management wanted the belts off of the Age of the Fall so they put them in tough matches which caused them to lose quickly). Excluding things like that, the only worse reigns I can come up with are the short reign of the Carnage Crew in 2005 and the Jacobs & Whitmer reign that followed it, Maff & Whitmer’s 2005 reign (which ended due to Maff leaving the company) and ANX’s reign (which ended due to Kenny King leaving the company). Even WGTT’s much-maligned 2012 reign or some of the shorter reigns with fewer defenses that one could argue 100% shouldn’t have happened all had at least one match that was much better than Jacobs & Corino’s best defense.

The match was pretty decent. This is my first exposure to Hendry, and I just don’t see it. He’s not bad or anything, but he doesn’t seem to be much better than any generic guy you could bring in. What I do know is that someone needs to book him against Chris Hero in Dayton.

CHRISTOPHER DANIELS vs. JAY WHITE- 7.75/10
Not quite as good as their match two months ago in Pittsburgh, but still GREAT! This time it was White’s mid-section that got worked over. He was a great babyface once again, and Daniels is always great. Daniels put White over on the mic after the match and White returned the favor. Also, set up for a rematch, which, based on their first two encounters, should be awesome.

CHRIS SABIN vs. JAY LETHAL- 7/10
Sabin works over Lethal’s head but Lethal picks up the win.

MARTY SCURLL vs. DALTON CASTLE (w/the Boys)- 7/10
This match was a fine introduction to “The Villain” for ROH fans who might not be familiar with Marty’s work. Also, Marty Scurll’s CaryTron looks REALLY cool.

ROH TV TITLE MATCH: Bobby Fish(c) vs. Will Ospreay- 8/10
A wonderful blend of the different styles that these guys wrestle, culminating in a huge and shocking moment.

KYLE O’REILLY & THE BRISCOES vs. BULLET CLUB (Adam Cole & the Young Bucks)- 8.25/10
There are one or two spots early on that are kind of grating if you are looking for Bullet Cub to try to be actual heels, but once they start focusing on the standard babyface in peril story and the few Cole vs. O’Reilly bits then the match really starts to get awesome.

An awesome show from ROH, with quality wrestling from top to bottom making this one of ROH's best shows of the year on consistency alone. This was ROH’s first show in the UK in close to a decade so there was no way they weren’t going to deliver here and they sure did, both in terms of action and in terms of a big, special moment for the fans.

STUPID ANNOUNCER QUOTES:
1. Kevin Kelly- “there’s a difference between not shaking hands and not adhering to the Code of Honor.”
No there isn’t. The first rule of the Code of Honor always been “shake hands before and after the match.” How the hell does the LEAD BABYFACE ANNOUNCER not know this?
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Brada
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Re: ROH is returning to England

Post by Brada »

STUPID ANNOUNCER QUOTES:
1. Kevin Kelly- “there’s a difference between not shaking hands and not adhering to the Code of Honor.”
No there isn’t. The first rule of the Code of Honor always been “shake hands before and after the match.” How the hell does the LEAD BABYFACE ANNOUNCER not know this?
Kevin Kelly is a bafoon.
monster mafia
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Re: ROH is returning to England

Post by monster mafia »

BRM you da man,thanks

also..final uk show,york hall in london is up!
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AlexROH
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Re: ROH is returning to England

Post by AlexROH »

I've just watched the last three matches of the London show. Some quick things:

- The production made the York Hall looked great for the show. Awesome work from the Ring of Honor crew, I would say during all the tour.

- Crowd was very bad, men. I think there was a group of stupid or drunk people there just saying stupid things every minute. Plus, I hate how the crowd sings so many songs during the matches. I mean, a little, at the beggining of the match, is ok, but doing it during the final parts... it really hurts the match climax.

- Great little exhibition by Travis Backs. Fast-paced match with Kyle. Crowd was kindda dead because it was the first match after the Bucks-Briscoes, but still a fun match [***1/4]

- I cannot believe that Will Ospreay and Marty Scurll are part of the ROH roster yet. It's awesome, but so strange at the same time haha. Their match was greaaaaaat. You know, there is no structure in their matches, nothing make sense, but they are so good and wrestle in such a beautiful way that it doesn't matter. I will always say that when the moves are awesome and well done, a spotfest is always great. For my surprise, Marty looked very strong and defeated Will clean, in a very strong way. We'll see how this two work in the USA [****].

- Finally, the day has arrived, after months of bad performances in the ring, Adam Cole had an awesome title defence. The Cole-Lethal II was FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC. I love that ROH is starting to give again more minutes to the big title matches (25 for Silas-Cole and now 28 for Lethal-Cole). Jay Lethal looked, one more time, as a big star. This one was another stellar performance. He did absolutely everything in the match, his wrestling was fine, his facial expresions were great, his selling looked credible and he was able to tell an emotive story during the match. Adam Cole's leg work was great too. Finally, Cole didn't looked like a bland wrestler, he was motivated and the result was almost perfect. The crowd, as I said before, almost ruined this fantastic match. I would love to re-watch it with a regular non-chanting crowd. Best singles match of the year in ROH, better than Kyle-Cole from SCOH and Lethal-Cabana from Duluth. [****1/4]
BurningHammer
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Re: ROH is returning to England

Post by BurningHammer »

Glad to hear the two events came off well on VOD, they were great to attend, it's interesting to see how highly the 3man tag is rated especially when I felt the crowd was more into the Lethal/Sabin match. Just to say Alex the Bucks/Briscoes match really did deliver.

Glad to see someone else really enjoyed the main event as I felt it deserved a much better appreciation from the crowd , which I did highlight in my own review. I did think the angle with the leg, knee came maybe too late into the match, especially when the guys needed emotion from the crowd it wasn't from some as many just wanted a different match. With regards to crowd in London, especially for the main event it had pretty much blown up by that point as it had given it's all to the Ospreay/Scurll match. You also had a lot drinks flowing through the night and a lot of people trying to get themselves over, there was one guy in particular that really got a lot of shit from many of us.
Last edited by BurningHammer on Thu Dec 01, 2016 5:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
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AlexROH
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Re: ROH is returning to England

Post by AlexROH »

Yeah, there was a guy during the main event saying stupid things. But the thing that I hated the most was the part when Cole and Lethal were fighting in the apron. It was a cool and emotional moment seeing both wrestlers, after 20 minutes, throwing strikes like that, but the crowd was singing a shitty song all the time -_-

When Cole started with the leg work it felt like it was a litte too late, but in the end it made so much sense. First, Lethal was the dominant wrestler in the first minutes. Second, the match went long and the leg work had great consecuences in the match. However, my favourite thing were the last two minutes with the drama of the Figure Four, Lethal's resurection and Cole's awesome final moves.
BurningHammer
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Re: ROH is returning to England

Post by BurningHammer »

AlexROH wrote:Yeah, there was a guy during the main event saying stupid things. But the thing that I hated the most was the part when Cole and Lethal were fighting in the apron. It was a cool and emotional moment seeing both wrestlers, after 20 minutes, throwing strikes like that, but the crowd was singing a shitty song all the time -_-


When Cole started with the leg work it felt like it was a litte too late, but in the end it made so much sense. First, Lethal was the dominant wrestler in the first minutes. Second, the match went long and the leg work had great consecuences in the match. However, my favourite thing were the last two minutes with the drama of the Figure Four, Lethal's resurection and Cole's awesome final moves.
There was a song that came from the crowd relating to Cole and in all honesty I enjoyed it just for it's spontaneity even though it didn't really fit the match at all.

Yeah I completely understand why it went the way it did, just for the crowds sake it needed the big moments to pop and that moment needed to happened sooner just to save the crowd. Unfortunately My view was kind of tainted by the camera man on my side so I couldn't Lethal's reaction but the whole aspect of that end was great. Overall it's great that the drama and work of those guys came through because they both went at it full pelt, Lethal looked like he had spent a day in a sauna and gone a few rounds in a real fight.
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AlexROH
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Re: ROH is returning to England

Post by AlexROH »

There was a song that came from the crowd relating to Cole and in all honesty I enjoyed it just for it's spontaneity even though it didn't really fit the match at all.
Hahah, yes, that little Cole song. I know, in Liverpool we did the same with Marty and Dalton, but I think that match wasn't as serious and worked as the final Lethal-Cole. It's always fun to enjoy a wrestling show and having a good time, but sometimes, I hate how the crowd starts to do his thing and forget about the match, especially when is a big match.
BurningHammer
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Re: ROH is returning to England

Post by BurningHammer »

AlexROH wrote:
There was a song that came from the crowd relating to Cole and in all honesty I enjoyed it just for it's spontaneity even though it didn't really fit the match at all.
Hahah, yes, that little Cole song. I know, in Liverpool we did the same with Marty and Dalton, but I think that match wasn't as serious and worked as the final Lethal-Cole. It's always fun to enjoy a wrestling show and having a good time, but sometimes, I hate how the crowd starts to do his thing and forget about the match, especially when is a big match.
Yeah I think matches like Marty/Dalton can handle something like that and with the characters involved humour isn't a massive issue for me but like you say in a match like Cole and Lethal it didn't feel right, some guys were trying to shout it down, others just went with it. When though you have such a great match previously with everyone just going all out from the wrestlers to the crowd there was always going to a come down for the next match I didn't think it would be so big and I wish the crowd could have stayed with it.

The crowd was at times encouraged as you have guys like Kazarian saying he is having a great time with all the chants, songs and other shit being shouted. The best part of the chanting had to be during the Ospreay/Marty match, when the back rows started chanting seat the fuck down at the front row for a good while and then Marty during a period of dominance goes outside the ropes goes and just seats on the apron, I couldn't help but love that. Although when Daniels basically said fuck know to doing the BME after the crowd chanted for it at the Liverpool show came a close second.
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AlexROH
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Re: ROH is returning to England

Post by AlexROH »

Kevin Kelly confirmed in last's week ROH TV that Ring of Honor will be returning to UK next year. More details will be announced in the next phew weeks, Awesome news!
Big Red Machine
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Re: ROH is returning to England

Post by Big Red Machine »

Can't believe I forgot to post my reviews of the other two shows:

ROH Reach for the Sky Tour: Leicester (11/19/2016)- Leicester, UK

“LOCAL HERO” JOE HENDRY vs. JAY WHITE- 6.25/10
Solid, but not much more than that. Hendry comes off as kind of douchy to me.

JAY LETHAL vs. ALEX SHELLEY- 6/10
Steve Corino says that “Jay Lethal started off as a member of Special K and Alex Shelley started off with Prince Nana.” OH COME ON! How the hell does someone remember that Lethal was a member of Special K- where he wrestled under a different name and wasn’t even a prominent member of the group- but not remember that Alex Shelley was the leader of Generation Next? Corino even wrestled Shelley while Shelley was part of Gen. Next (Punk & Corino vs. Shelley & Strong at Final Battle 2004), and I’m certain he never wrestled Lethal was while Lethal was in Special K.
The match was shorter than I expected. It was fine. The placement on the card was a little curious. Between this being early on the card and decently short for a match between ROH main eventers (about ten minutes), and Shelley not being on the card at all last night I’m wondering if that injury that caused him to miss the first night of SOTF and not wrestle on the second night might have been real instead of the work it was assumed to be. Lethal picks up the win to build momentum for his ROH World Title shot tomorrow night and then cuts a promo to build it up.

DONOVAN DIJAK vs. LIO RUSH- 6.75/10
I don’t think I could ever get tired of seeing these two wrestle. Rush’s style works best when he is facing a much larger opponent and Dijak is athletic enough that they can do more than Rush can do with most other guys.

THE BRISCOES vs. reDRagon- 7.75/10
Would have been an 8/10 if not for the finish, which saw the Young Bucks come out to distract the Briscoes, resulting in reDRagon getting a win. It’s Bucks vs. Briscoes. You’re not going to sell any more PPV buys for Final Battle by having them do a distraction finish! This is Ring of Honor! Do a f*cking clean finish with the team that is challenging for the tag titles at the PPV getting the pin on the guy who we all know has no chance of winning the title he is challenging for at the PPV because he just lost the belt last night.

NIGEL MCGUINNESS SPEECH- nowhere near as cool as last night.

THE ADDICTION vs. DELIRIOUS & DALTON CASTLE (w/the Boys)- no rating, very funny comedy match.
During this match the announcers wondered if Dalton Castle was in line for an ROH World Title shot soon and talked about his many big victories recently. As a singles wrestler he actually hasn’t had any big victories recently. What he has done, however, is pin the world champion during Champions vs. All-Stars, which should automatically earn him a world title shot, but none of the announcers even mentioned the fact that he pinned the champion.

CHRIS SABIN vs. ADAM COLE- 7.5/10
They started off roughly, not only taking WAY too much time on the outside, but also doing a spot where a child in the audience was allowed to chop Adam Cole, which should have been a DQ but wasn’t. Fortunately, Nigel McGuinness was smart enough to immediately say that ROH does not endorse or advise fans to attack the wrestlers.
I can see some people thinking they kicked out of too much stuff in here (or really more that Sabin kicked out of too much stuff) and on one level I don’t disagree, while watching the match it didn’t feel like he was kicking out of too much. Unfortunately, the reason it didn’t feel like he was kicking out of too much stuff was that none of the announcers were reacting to certain moves (particularly Cole’s Shining Wizard and Sabin’s CSV2) as if they were finishers whereas a well-informed announcer would have been doing so. Hell… even Kevin Kelly’ call of Sabin kicking out of a Canadian Destroyer was underwhelming. Kevin Kelly always does a terrible job at selling emotion because he comes across as so dispassionate. He’s like a father watching the show with his child (us at home) and trying to tell us how we should be reacting rather than reacting himself, so he never feels like he is really into it and every time he does show emotion it is measured to the point of feeing fake.
I also really disliked the heel finish here. Chris Sabin is a tag team wrestler who is not really even being pushed right now. Adam Cole is the ROH World Champion about to end his year with the two biggest title defenses of his reign. There is no reason he should need to rely on a low blow to get the win.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Cole teases wanting to defend the title against Jay lethal tonight instead of tomorrow night. No one buys it except for Jay Lethal, which made Lethal look dumb. Lethal cut another saying the same thing he said earlier. This was a waste of time.

THE BUCKS OFFER TO PUT THE TAG TITLES ON THE LINE- This wasn’t originally supposed to be a tag title match, but completely out of character the Young Bucks offered to put their belts on the line. Nigel okayed it, so now we’ve got a tag title match. I don’t see the point of this. Firstly, it just takes suspense away from the match because we all know they’re not going to take the belts off of the Bucks with such a well-built title defense against the Briscoes coming up at Final Battle (and especially if Ospreay also has to defend the TV Title at Final Battle), while if you keep this match non-title it is completely believable that Ospreay & Scurll will win to set up them getting a title shot against whoever comes out of Final Battle with the belts.
Secondly, as I said above, it’s completely out of character for the Young Bucks to do this. They themselves have clearly given up on trying to be heels in the ring, but now we’ve got the booker booking them to do dastardly things sometimes but then having them do total babyface things like this, which doesn’t help when the crowd is already cheering them for doing heel things.
Thirdly, if, for whatever reason, you really want this to be a tag title match, then just announce it as one in advance and maybe you’ll sell a few extra tickets. Doing it this way serves only one purpose: to get one extra random pop on the show… and as I’ve said other places, that is something that Delirious’ booking seems to show him being overly concerned with, to the point where in most matches on non-televised shows he puts over the most over babyface in the match instead of putting over the person or team who should go over for the benefit of the product as a whole, or wasting potentially big main events by booking them on the fly that night like he did by turning the Champions vs. All-Stars match into Cabana and Castle’s title shot when a more sensible booker would have put Cabana and Castle over in Champions vs. All-Stars to build up their title match main eventing a different show.

But onto the match itself…
ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Young Bucks(c) vs. Will Ospreay & Marty Scurll- 9.5/10
This is going to be one of those really frustrating scores where I tell you that I just can’t quite put my finger on why I didn’t rate it higher. Like with my rating TLC I the full 10 but TLC II 9.5 even though if you told me I could only watch one of them I would choose TLC II every time, the only answer I can give you is that this “just felt like it was missing something” to me, even though I can’t possibly tell you what that something is.
There was tons of crazy, athletic stuff in here, and they told their story of Scurll and Ospreay managing to work together despite hating each other only for them to fail due some unfortunate coincidences. One of those was the finish, which was a stroke of utter genius.
In the interests of fairness, I probably would have given this a 9.75 at most, which is a rating I reserve for matches that would have been 10/10 if not for some flaw that prevents them from being perfect, like someone fumbling with the belts at the top of a ladder for so long that they’re obviously stalling for someone else to get into position for the next spot. In this match the thing I didn’t like was Ospreay eventually giving in to the temptation of trying to use umbrella. I think it achieves the same purpose for the story for him to stop Marty from using the umbrella and thus the Bucks take over than it does to have him swing at the Bucks but accidentally hit Marty, and I didn’t like the bit of comedy on the superkick that followed. But other than that this was TOTALLY F*CKING INSANE and you should definitely do everything in your power to see it.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT #1- The Briscoes came out to have a stare-down with the Bucks, then put over Scurll and Ospreay on the mic. The real reason this was good was that it gave Ospreay time to recover so that he could believably be involved in...

POST-MATCH SEGMENT #2- Scurll blames the loss on Ospreay and challenges him to put the TV Title on the line tomorrow night. Ospreay accepts and Nigel makes it official. This was good, but I thought it would have justified this randomly becoming a tag title match if Scurll had included some sort of line about how Ospreay cost him a title tonight so Ospreay should make it right to him by putting the TV Title on the line tomorrow.

Another night of solid wrestling from ROH in the UK, with a main event that would probably have been an MOTYC most other years (it is my runner up for best tag team match of the year this year, down only to the Ladder War). If Gabe or Pearce were still in charge, this show would be “Tag Title Classic III,” and if you know your ROH history, you know that a name like that is one of the highest compliments a match can receive.





ROH Reach for the Sky Tour: London (11/20/2016)- Bethnal Green, Greater London

LIO RUSH vs. DALTON CASTLE (w/the Boys)- 5.5/10
Could have been a lot more if they didn’t waste time stalling with Dalton’s stupid bullsh*t in the beginning.

THE ADDICTION vs. MOTOR CITY MACHINE GUNS- 7.25/10

DONOVAN DIJAK vs. JAY WHITE- 6.75/10
Kevin Kelly went WAY overboard putting Dijak over as being “in consideration for the MVP of this tour,” which is utterly ridiculous when you consider what Bobby Fish, Kyle O’Reilly, Adam Cole, the Briscoes, Marty Scurll, and especially Will Ospreay and the Young Bucks have done… and that’s just the ones that I remember having performances that have been multiple levels above Dijak’s without even checking my notes. Because Kevin Kelly has now pissed me off, I am, in fact, going back to check my notes, and not counting tonight’s matches, I think we can firmly say that Chris Sabin and Jay White have also had better tours than Dijak, and depending on your feelings about last night’s comedy match, Christopher Daniels as well. By the end of tonight’s show I’m sure we’ll be adding Jay Lethal to that list, too, and possibly Kazarian.
I just don’t understand why anyone would even say this! The guy had two pretty good matches, yes, but you can’t possibly have watched these last two shows and thought he had a better tour than guys like Cole, Ospreay, and the Bucks, who have been wrestling heavily-hyped main event matches. It’s like Kevin always feels the need to put someone over so he comes up with these completely bullsh*t grandiose ways to do it when all he needed to say was that Dijak has had a good tour so far, picking up two wins in very strong matches.
Anyway, Kevin attributes this newfound success to the fact that he isn’t with Prince Nana anymore, stating that “Dijak and Nana never really got on the same page.” Really? I don’t remember one single instance of this even being hinted at. And if I’m wrong and such a thing happened on one of the (very few) shows I haven’t seen yet, then Kevin should be TELLING ME WHAT HAPPENED because otherwise it just seems like he’s making sh*t up!
The match itself was great while it was going on, but it ended about ten minutes too early with an abrupt crucifix roll-up from White when Dijak tried to escape from a submission. Here’s an idea: if you’re trying to show that Dijak is doing better now that he isn’t with Nana anymore, how about not having him lose to a guy he also lost to last month when he was still with Nana?

THE BRISCOES vs. THE YOUNG BUCKS- 8/10
This was supposed to be separate singles matches but Jay wanted to just do a tag team match and the Young Bucks agree. If you want to do a tag match just announce it as a tag match! These two teams facing off in a tag match is going to draw a lot more interest (and tickets, and VOD sales) than advertising it as two singles matches.
Anyway, the match was awesome, like we all knew it would be. Now I’m super-hyped for Final Battle. Unfortunately, it had to end in the…

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- utterly moronic.
The Briscoes grabs the title belts and start celebrating, and despite the fact that it was never announced as such, The Briscoes, the crowd, and the announcers all started acting like this was a title change. Then Nigel had to come out and wave it off and explain that this was a non-title match, so of course the crowd booed. Why would you do this? It made the announcers (who are both babyfaces) as well as our top babyface tag team look like complete and total morons, and resulted in the crowd booing a lack of title change that no one (them included) ever should have thought was a title change in the first place.

KYLE O’REILLY vs. TRAVIS BANKS- 6.5/10
I was pretty much expecting a squash, but they actually had a competitive match. Banks looked quite good. I’d much rather see him come to the US than Joe Hendry.

KYLE O’REILLY PROMO- very good.

ROH TV TITLE MATCH: Will Ospreay(c) vs. Marty Scurll- 9/10
It’s these two. They’re like Tanahashi and Okada or Dragon and Nigel. You put them in the ring together and you’re guaranteed to get something amazing.

ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Adam Cole(c) vs. Jay Lethal- A PERFECT 10/10!
There were a lot of beautiful little intricacies going on here in addition to the obvious story of Cole working over Lethal’s knee and head. Chief among them (and the announcers actually did a fantastic job of pointing this out for once) was the fact that in their last ROH World Title match when Cole won the belt from Lethal, the story was that whenever Lethal was calm and collected he was winning, but then Cole would do something to enrage him and he would make a mistake and Cole would take over. In this match that same dynamic was at play again, but they made an effort to show that it took A LOT more for Cole to piss Lethal off by having Lethal brush off Cole’s taunts throughout most of the match.
The telling of that particular story, as well as some of the others in this match was helped tremendously by the amazing facials of Jay Lethal. Another example of Jay’s facials coming into play was after they did a double-down on the outside and Lethal got into the ring first… but then realized that Cole probably wasn’t going to make it back into the ring in time and the match would end in a count-out and Jay tried to get back out of the ring to break up the count but his leg was too injured for him to move fast… and as the realization of what was about to happen dawned on him, Jay was almost crying.
Jay didn’t make it to the outside of the ring, but he did make it close enough to referee Tod Sinclair to grab him and prevent him from counting twenty. Sinclair, of course, demanded to know what Jay was doing and Jay pled to Tod not to DQ him for grabbing him but also not to count Cole out… and all the while he was using Sinclair to pull himself closer to the ropes and eventually he slipped through them so that Sinclair would have to start the count over again.
This idea of how much this match meant to Lethal and wanting to have the match won and lost inside the ring would play into a later spot where Lethal was about to dare to try the Lethal Injection on his bad knee but Cole just kicked him in the nuts from behind right in front of Sinclair then quickly hit the Last Shot and went for the pin but Sinclair refused to count and basically told Cole that he wouldn’t let him get away with that sort of bullsh*t.
Because of this one spot, this was the match I have struggled the most with in trying to decide whether it deserves the full 10 or the 9.75 that I reserve for matches would have been the perfect 10 if not for some flaw that prevents them from being the prerequisite “perfect.” After a lot of contemplating, I finally decided to give it the full 10/10, with two major reasons supporting that. First of all, ROH Matchmaker Nigel McGuinness was on commentary and kept saying that DQs in matches like this are at the referee’s discretion. Even so I would normally think letting someone get away with a low blow is too much discretion but in this case they managed to make this feel like a rather organic part of the story of the match. They did so by first establishing the idea that perhaps Sinclair would be lenient on something like this with Lethal’s pleading before, and then by actually using this new wrinkle to tell a new story to set up their next spot. That spot saw Cole grab the ROH World Title belt to use as a weapon, figuring he will either get DQed to keep his title or that he won’t get DQed and will still be doing damage to Lethal, even if Sinclair won’t count the pin right away. This led to Sinclair taking the belt away, and of course while he was putting it back Lethal rolled Cole up and got a visual pinfall, setting Lethal up as a challenger for either Cole or O’Reilly after Final Battle (the idea in the O’Reilly match would be that they are finally getting to have the pure, fair title match they were robbed of back in June by Bullet Club’s assault on O’Reilly).
Anyway, YOU MUST GO WATCH THIS MATCH. It was an amazing rollercoaster ride of emotion, with Jay Lethal giving the performance of a lifetime with his brilliant facials and beautiful selling, and fantastic babyface fire.

ROH closes out their tour of the UK with a third straight night of outstanding wrestling. BUY THIS SHOW!

STUPID ANNOUNCER QUOTES:
1. The announcers refer to Jay Lethal as “the first ROH World Champion to not totally unravel after losing the title.”
Dude… Jay Briscoe, the guy Lethal himself won the belt from, didn’t go nuts after his loss. Even just in the Sinclair Era, FIVE OUT OF SEVEN ROH World Champions didn’t “unravel” after losing the belt. And then, of course, there are the FIFTEEN champions before that who also didn’t go insane after losing the belt… but that won’t stop Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino from trying to make up these moronic, untrue, non-existent narratives to talk about instead of doing their jobs and calling the match.
dhads7161
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Re: ROH is returning to England

Post by dhads7161 »

Jay Briscoe went nuts after vacating it. Atr we forgetting how he created his own belt and obsessed over Adam Cole for two years?
Big Red Machine
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Re: ROH is returning to England

Post by Big Red Machine »

dhads7161 wrote:Jay Briscoe went nuts after vacating it. Atr we forgetting how he created his own belt and obsessed over Adam Cole for two years?
It was barely a year. He seems perfectly back to normal after the Ladder War. The second part of that feud was Cole chasing him. And the second time he lost the belt he seemed so unphased by it that he didn't bother asking for a rematch for ten months.
But my point is that Jay Briscoe's behavior after he lost the title the first time is the very rare exception, not the rule, and yet the announcers are acting as if it is the other way around. They are telling an easily disprovable lie, and doing so for no reason. That's exactly the sort of thing your announcers should avoid doing at all costs, but the ROH announcers do it all the time.
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KL_
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Re: ROH is returning to England

Post by KL_ »

From PWInsider:
There are plans for another UK tour in the summer of 2017
Big Red Machine
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Re: ROH is returning to England

Post by Big Red Machine »

KL_ wrote:From PWInsider:
There are plans for another UK tour in the summer of 2017
Which is actually a great time to do it because if you are missing one or two key members of the roster because they're in the G1, you can now supplement them with local UK guys.

That being said, hopefully NJPW will start being nice and not demanding that guys like Ospreay and the Bucks and Roppongi Vice (and even KUSHIDA) work the G1 undercards because those matches never mean anything or matter anyway and it's not like they're the draws so it would make sense to let ROH and CMLL use those guys until the final weekend of the G1.
BurningHammer
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Re: ROH is returning to England

Post by BurningHammer »

If it's anything like this year it will be great set of shows and I will certainly look to get to as many as I can. I would hope that ROH would run before the G1 as if they wont to reach or break the numbers like this year they are going to need a full roster, if ROH does look at the UK market they are going to have act quickly and make the right choices.
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