2016 Thoughts and analysis

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Montana
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Joined: Sun Mar 04, 2012 6:53 am

2016 Thoughts and analysis

Post by Montana »

So I just finished watching the 2016 season of ROH DVDs, and certainly an interesting time for the company, and some questionable booking around the ROH world title.

Here are a few thoughts and analysis:

ROH world title picture. From a dominant world title reign by Jay Lethal, to dropping it to the bullet clubs new leader Adam Cole. Then Kyle O Reily came up for the Final Battle title match and won. (Only to lose the title back to Cole in NJPW at Wrestle Kingdom a few weeks later) Certainly in retrospect, it wouldn’t have gone down this way. Again this is just from DVD, but I didn’t see of ton of build for Cole vs. O’Reily and felt more like it was because they had history in future shock, and a long standing rivalry. I can’t help but wonder, what others ways this could have went down. Even Briscoes vs. Young Bucks in the main event at Final Battle.

Colt Cabana’s Return – A pretty big moment for ROH for Colt Cabana to return. I just admit, he didn’t feel out of place, and had quite a few good matches. Really liked the Colt/Castle team, and the heal turn. I know the fans weren’t behind Cabana 100% in terms of popularity, but from a storyline perspective, it seemed like he never got a fair shake at the champ. (maybe it was done on TV) I can’t help but wonder if Colt would have gotten a ROH title run.
You also had guys like Silas Young, Dalton Castle, and Christopher Daniels that could have been considering in the title picture in 2016. Daniels/Kaz were at final battle and didn’t even Wrestle. Daniels could have easily been inserted into the match.

2016 also saw the break out years for Lio Rush and Donovan Dijak. I see why WWE scooped them up quickly. Too bad for ROH as these guys had bright futures, and hopefully aren’t too over shadowed in NXT.

No Roddy, no issues? I was concerned with ROH losing Roderick Strong, one of my favorite singles wrestlers for YEARS. Although as 2016 passed (and some 2017) Jay Lethal is basically the Mr. ROH/ Franchise/ Cornerstone wrestler.

Will Ospeay , Marty Scrull, Jay White were critical/impactful additions.

Was Keith Lee’s last ROH match beating War Machine?!? (I Assume there was a TV match after) If not, that’s pretty surprising he turned down the deal. ROH let them out at it, in a big way, and made it seem like they’d stick around.

Reach the Sky Night 3 arguable could have been final Battle. Lethal vs. Cole the Rematch. Briscoes vs. Young Bucks, and Ospeay vs. Marty. Good stuff!

Also loved the Lethal vs. Cody match at Final Battle. Booked perfectly!

What was your thoughts on 2016? How would you have booked the World Title in 2016? Like/dislike??

Side Note; I REALLY wished ROH's DVD filled you in on what went down at TV tapings ( specifically like Undisputed Legacy in 2017, where there was basically no mentioned of Kyle O reily losing the belt back to Adam Cole) The PPV's had nice recaps, but other than that, the story doesn't seem to flow that well.
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AlexROH
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Re: 2016 Thoughts and analysis

Post by AlexROH »

2016 was 50/50 for me. The first 6-7 months of the years wans't that good (outside the stellar WM Weekend with 2 awesome SCOH shows), with average shows and some bad and lazy booking. The second half of the year, on the other hand was pretty solid and the in-ring level raised.

I didn't like Kyle winning the title at FB. One of the weakest and less emotional world title victories in ROH. They builded better the Cole-O'Reilly matches for FB 2015 and SCOH X than the did for the big title change.

As a Cabana fan, I liked what he did. The feud with Castle helped Dalton a lot. And I persnally liked his rivalry with Lethal. The fist match was OK with the BC thing at the end of the PPV but their matches at the Philly tapings in Summer and, specially, during the Duluth show from the Reloaded Tour were great.

Lee left bc he wanted the have a big year as a singles wrestler. ROH offered him a contract with a big push in the tag team scene, but he was looking for a singles run. ROH booked Pretty Boy Killers well, but that was more a Lee decission. I was really looking foward to the Briscoes-PBK program and a possible Lee/Taylor title run, tbh.

And yeah, Reach for the Sky London was amazing. My fav. show of the year. The ME was one of the best world title matches in recent memory.
Big Red Machine
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Re: 2016 Thoughts and analysis

Post by Big Red Machine »

AlexROH wrote: Mon Nov 13, 2017 8:07 am 2016 was 50/50 for me. The first 6-7 months of the years wans't that good (outside the stellar WM Weekend with 2 awesome SCOH shows), with average shows and some bad and lazy booking. The second half of the year, on the other hand was pretty solid and the in-ring level raised.

I didn't like Kyle winning the title at FB. One of the weakest and less emotional world title victories in ROH. They builded better the Cole-O'Reilly matches for FB 2015 and SCOH X than the did for the big title change.

As a Cabana fan, I liked what he did. The feud with Castle helped Dalton a lot. And I persnally liked his rivalry with Lethal. The fist match was OK with the BC thing at the end of the PPV but their matches at the Philly tapings in Summer and, specially, during the Duluth show from the Reloaded Tour were great.

Lee left bc he wanted the have a big year as a singles wrestler. ROH offered him a contract with a big push in the tag team scene, but he was looking for a singles run. ROH booked Pretty Boy Killers well, but that was more a Lee decission. I was really looking foward to the Briscoes-PBK program and a possible Lee/Taylor title run, tbh.

And yeah, Reach for the Sky London was amazing. My fav. show of the year. The ME was one of the best world title matches in recent memory.
Aside from WM weekend, I really disliked everything from the beginning of the year up until November aside from ASE, but I thought that everything from November on was pretty great.

I'd like to echo the sentiments about Cabana. He did wind up with a title shot on TV, but it didn't get anywhere near enough time to be as good as it could have- and should have- been.

As for the Dalton feud, I think it's major failing was that once the turn happened, it just became a generic wrestling feud with Colt as a generic heel rather than following through on the premise of the turn itself, which was that Cabana felt that Dalton wasn't a serious enough wrestler and thus Colt would never be able to succeed to the level he wanted to with Dalton acting as an anchor weighing him down. Colt should have behaved like a complete and total babyface in every situation that didn't involve Dalton Castle because he would still see himself as a babyface- as someone who cares about the fans and respects the rules and wants to proudly represent ROH as a champion. But with Dalton he would jump him and be overly violent because he wants Dalton to just stay away from him, but Dalton, always out for vengeance, obviously wouldn't leave him alone. You could almost frame it (or at least have Cabana frame it to himself) as trying to help Dalton by teaching him to be serious. It'd be like WWE actually following through on that angle they teased on NXT with Emma and Bayley when Emma was first sent back down. In Cabana's mind, he'd be giving Dalton his own version of the Homicide feud. You could even do a "Pick Your Poison" type of thing with Colt bringing Homicide as a mystery opponent to face Dalton. That would have been kind of cool for the Anniversary Show or a show in New York.

PBK/Briscoes being aborted is definitely on Lee, but I'm surprised that ROH didn't try to court them as a package deal, saying "we want both or neither."
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