Honor Reigns Supreme 2019 Official Thread

[AlexROH]

Great show again! It didn't had the highs of the Atlanta one, but still such a good one with no bad match. Everything feel super fresh right now, the amount of talent out there is amazing and ROH has finally find some personality as a product. Everybody is working hard, the tag division is great again and the stable war with VE and La Faccion Ingobernable is a fantastic program.

I'm all in for ROH 2020.

Everett vs. Horus 1/2
Briscoes vs. Hendry/Castle vs. Johnson/Black 1/4
Dak Draper vs. Danhausen
Alex Zayne vs. Bandido 3/4
Lifeblood vs. Vincent & Bateman 3/4
Bouncers & Silas/Woods vs. Lethal/Gresham/Maff/Cobb 1/2+
Flamita vs. Flip Gordon 1/2
VE vs. La Facción Ingobernable 3/4

Final rating: 8/10.

[kovs27]

It was pretty good show. Not on the same level as Saturday, but still a fun/exciting show.

Rey Horus vs.Andrew Everett 3.5
Joe Hendry & Dalton Castle vs. The Briscoes vs. PJ Black & Brian Johnson 3.0
Sumie Sakai vs Nicole Savoy - TBD
Dak Draper def Danhausen 3.0
Alex Zayne def Bandido - 3.5 -3.75 (Little sloppy, Very spotty, crowd was kinda quiet to start, good finish with some awesome moves)

LifeBlood (Tracy Williams &Mark Haskins) vs. Vincent & Bateman (with Vita VonStarr & Chuckles) 2.5
Jeff Cobb, Dan Maff, Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham vs. The Bouncers (Beer City Bruiser & Brawler Milonas) & Two Guys, 1 Tag (Silas Young & Josh Woods) 3.5
Flip Gordon vs. Flamita 3.5
La Faccion Ingobernable (RUSH, Dragon Lee & Kenny King) (with Amy Rose) vs. Villain Enterprises (PCO, Brody King & Marty Scurll) 3.75-4.0

Overall i'd give a 7.0-7.5 /10. About 4 good to very good matches, and everything else was pretty good, but nothing to go out of your way for.

Zayne's match was certainly the most interesting of the night. He slipped a little bit and there, which imo took down the grade a bit. That being said, him and bandido pulled off some really good moves. Not sure if it was nervous, or just getting his footing. Have to imagine we'll get more Zayne, and likely a rematch between him and Bandido.

Other thoughts.... Shane Taylor saying he's going to VIP wrestling to wrestle Nick Gage was odd. I assume he will be per appearance until they work something out.

Vincent fits so much better with Ring of Horror and his own faction than with the kingdom. Not that i want them to be a focal point of ROH, but they used be a lower card act.

Tag Division is getting stacked. Liking Woods/Young and Maff/Cobb quite a bit. I assume Cobb/Maff is kind of short term, but either way they are fun to match.

Also, really liking Josh Woods recently.

https://twitter.com/AlexZayne/status/12 ... 7441147906

Alex Zayne did rip the toe nail off his big toe the night before in a match with Chris Dickinson. It still ended up being a very good match for a guy who wasn't at 100%.

[Zhuge1]

Zayne over Bandido? Shocked!

I honestly at first thought it may have just been an unplanned quick ending because it looked as though Bandido may have actually been hurt at the end of the match. Maybe not. Regardless, although it was a good match, there were a couple of botches that could have ended much worse.

Andrew Everett was impressive in his match. Didn't see the Atlanta card, so not sure how he looked there.

The crowd was really into Danhausen.

[AlexROH]

Zayne over Bandido? Shocked!

I honestly at first thought it may have just been an unplanned quick ending because it looked as though Bandido may have actually been hurt at the end of the match. Maybe not. Regardless, although it was a good match, there were a couple of botches that could have ended much worse.

Andrew Everett was impressive in his match. Didn't see the Atlanta card, so not sure how he looked there.

The crowd was really into Danhausen.

I think the plan is to book Zayne on a regular basis. They do not create a entrance video for one night only things.

[famicommander]

Michael Jackson and apartheid references on commentary for this show. Caprice reacted right away saying "we don't need that" when Ian brought up MJ.

And it's never good when commentary has to clarify the company's stance on apartheid.

Nothing to make a huge fuss about, just a few awkward moments.

[IanRiccaboni]

Michael Jackson and apartheid references on commentary for this show. Caprice reacted right away saying "we don't need that" when Ian brought up MJ.

And it's never good when commentary has to clarify the company's stance on apartheid.

Nothing to make a huge fuss about, just a few awkward moments.

I'll open up for a second here as I don't think the above is necessarily out of context but I don't believe it is fully represented either.

On MJ:

We have come close to singing too much of a song in the past and being warned if we crossed a threshold we would have to pay rights fees for it. As I was describing the action, I walked backwards into the cadence of Michael Jackson's "Remember the Time". This was one of the first tapes my mom bought me, the album Dangerous, and makes me smile. Caprice and I also have listened to MJ together in the car. I'm not sure what else to tell you other than we had a fun moment because we knew we'd get a nudge if I took it further because of some guidance we had been given. I've never made it a secret that I have been a fan of Michael Jackson, the musician.

Colonel DeBeers was a South African apartheid character that was mentioned in a discussion of birthdays by a colleague. I would have preferred to have avoided Colonel DeBeers but since he was mentioned in a non-maliciois way, and the man that portrayed DeBeers by all accounts is a nice, anti-apartheid man from Missouri, wanted to be absolutely sure everyone knew that we did not support his character or what it stood for. Perhaps overly cautious but had I not done that, I was fearful in the moment that I would have received the opposite of your reaction had I not addressed it.

Sincerely,

Ian

[famicommander]

Nothing wrong with being a fan of Michael Jackson's art but regardless of any rights fees I just thought it would be inappropriate to reference him on commentary given his serial child molestation. I like Rock and Roll Part 2 but they don't play it at the Avs games anymore because of what Gary Glitter did, despite the song's deep rooted status in Colorado hockey culture.

And of course nobody supports apartheid, never in any way meant to imply anyone did. It was just a bizarre thing to have brought up any references to it in the first place (I know you weren't the one who did).

[Shanahan]

Nothing wrong with being a fan of Michael Jackson's art but regardless of any rights fees I just thought it would be inappropriate to reference him on commentary given his serial child molestation. I like Rock and Roll Part 2 but they don't play it at the Avs games anymore because of what Gary Glitter did, despite the song's deep rooted status in Colorado hockey culture.

And of course nobody supports apartheid, never in any way meant to imply anyone did. It was just a bizarre thing to have brought up any references to it in the first place (I know you weren't the one who did).

You need to relax. It seems you go out of your way to be offended by everything. Lucky that Ian is super nice guy and calmly explained everything, others would of just ignored you.

[famicommander]

Nothing wrong with being a fan of Michael Jackson's art but regardless of any rights fees I just thought it would be inappropriate to reference him on commentary given his serial child molestation. I like Rock and Roll Part 2 but they don't play it at the Avs games anymore because of what Gary Glitter did, despite the song's deep rooted status in Colorado hockey culture.

And of course nobody supports apartheid, never in any way meant to imply anyone did. It was just a bizarre thing to have brought up any references to it in the first place (I know you weren't the one who did).

You need to relax. It seems you go out of your way to be offended by everything. Lucky that Ian is super nice guy and calmly explained everything, others would of just ignored you.

I said in my post that it wasn't anything to make a fuss over and made clear I understood they were just awkward moments. Nobody is offended.

[Shanahan]

Nothing wrong with being a fan of Michael Jackson's art but regardless of any rights fees I just thought it would be inappropriate to reference him on commentary given his serial child molestation. I like Rock and Roll Part 2 but they don't play it at the Avs games anymore because of what Gary Glitter did, despite the song's deep rooted status in Colorado hockey culture.

And of course nobody supports apartheid, never in any way meant to imply anyone did. It was just a bizarre thing to have brought up any references to it in the first place (I know you weren't the one who did).

You need to relax. It seems you go out of your way to be offended by everything. Lucky that Ian is super nice guy and calmly explained everything, others would of just ignored you.

I said in my post that it wasn't anything to make a fuss over and made clear I understood they were just awkward moments. Nobody is offended.

Why even post it is my point..it was a big enough deal to come on the site and type it out. Last few days all you have posted about is how racist and transphobic the NWA is and now you start talking about Ian's "awkward" moments...that are, sorry to break it to you, not awkward.

[famicommander]

You need to relax. It seems you go out of your way to be offended by everything. Lucky that Ian is super nice guy and calmly explained everything, others would of just ignored you.

I said in my post that it wasn't anything to make a fuss over and made clear I understood they were just awkward moments. Nobody is offended.

Why even post it is my point..it was a big enough deal to come on the site and type it out. Last few days all you have posted about is how racist and transphobic the NWA is and now you start talking about Ian's "awkward" moments...that are, sorry to break it to you, not awkward.

It's definitely awkward to sit there and try to explain why a commentary partner went off into an apartheid tangent on a wrestling show. It's definitely awkward when one commentator starts singing a song and the other one immediately hushes them up. He was hushed up for a different reason than I had assumed but given a recent Emmy winning documentary, it's not hard to understand why my first thought was something else.

There has not been a single criticism of Ian by me at any point in my history on this website. You're the only one upset by this.

[Montana]

Nothing wrong with being a fan of Michael Jackson's art but regardless of any rights fees I just thought it would be inappropriate to reference him on commentary given his serial child molestation. I like Rock and Roll Part 2 but they don't play it at the Avs games anymore because of what Gary Glitter did, despite the song's deep rooted status in Colorado hockey culture.

And of course nobody supports apartheid, never in any way meant to imply anyone did. It was just a bizarre thing to have brought up any references to it in the first place (I know you weren't the one who did).

You need to relax. It seems you go out of your way to be offended by everything. Lucky that Ian is super nice guy and calmly explained everything, others would of just ignored you.

This!

[Reaper G]

Nothing wrong with being a fan of Michael Jackson's art but regardless of any rights fees I just thought it would be inappropriate to reference him on commentary given his serial child molestation. I like Rock and Roll Part 2 but they don't play it at the Avs games anymore because of what Gary Glitter did, despite the song's deep rooted status in Colorado hockey culture.

And of course nobody supports apartheid, never in any way meant to imply anyone did. It was just a bizarre thing to have brought up any references to it in the first place (I know you weren't the one who did).

You need to relax. It seems you go out of your way to be offended by everything. Lucky that Ian is super nice guy and calmly explained everything, others would of just ignored you.

This!

X2

[Big Red Machine]

ROH Honor Reigns Supreme 2020 (1/12/2020)- Concord, NC


The show opens with Nick Aldis and members of his Strictly Business faction taking over commentary so that Aldis could cut a promo Marty Scurll. Aldis is angry that Scurll showed up on NWA Power recently. He is tired of people showing up to the company that he has rebuilt and trying to get famous off of his work because he’s the “real world champion.” So yeah. We’re stilling doing this in 2020. Was there ANYONE who showed up in ROH from the NWA last year who put on a great match? I can’t remember a single one, other than that Aldis vs. Scurll match at the Crockett Cup, but I think that was technically an NWA show, not an ROH show.
Brody King and Flip Gordon eventually showed up and chased Strictly Business away, as security tried to separate them.

REY HORUS vs. ANDREW EVERETT- 6.75/10
A solid athletic opener.

THE BRISCOES vs. JOE HENDRY & DALTON CASTLE vs. P.J. BLACK & BRIAN JOHNSON- 2/10
Brian Zane joined Ian and Caprice on commentary for this match. Said match was originally scheduled as just Briscoes vs. Dalton & Hendry, but Brian Johnson came out and complained about not getting booked for the second show this year. He cut angry promos on everyone telling them to get out of his ring. He also calls himself “the Mecca,” which really doesn’t make sense, as that is metaphor we apply to places, not people. Between this, being yet another person using the “X vs. Everyone” catchphrase in pro wrestling, and him being so full of bluster despite having never won a televised match in ROH (his only wins have come in dark matches, and even if you include dark matches, his record is 6-20-1… 5-18-1 if you don’t count Future of Honor shows… and aside from a Future of Honor win back in November, he hasn’t won a singles match in almost a year), he came off like a total clown.
P.J. Black- who has appointed himself Johnson’s mentor whether Johnson likes it or not- came out to take the microphone away and tell Johnson “that’s not how you do this.” I like the idea of P.J. finding a young arrogant Punk and trying to teach him how to go about things “the right way,” but I wish ROH had actually given Johnson some credibility first that I think P.J. actually sees potential in this kid rather than him just wanting Johnson to stop being so loud, which is how I feel about this pairing at the moment.
Jay Briscoes demanded that Johnson get his ass in the ring so it could get beaten, so this turned into a three-way tag. The first 45% or so of the match was spent with Johnson first talking trash that we all knew he couldn’t back up, then getting his ass kicked by the Briscoes until he decided to just give up and walk off, and when P.J. Black stopped him from doing so, Johnson was immediately kicked in the head by a flying Briscoe.
He would also later go for a diving crossbody, only for Joe Hendry to just casually walk out of the way like Samoa, making Johnson look like a goofball. In fact, I believe that Johnson got only one offensive move in all match, which he hit on Jay Briscoe, and then proceeded to talk trash to his own tag team partner, resulting in Hendry and Castle hitting him with their finishers and him being pinned. And I’m supposed to believe that this guy who has lost three quarters of his matches even though he has mostly been facing other dark match guys or the very bottom of the undercard is a “great athlete who deserves to be here” like Ian and Caprice claim? F*ck off.
Ian Riccaboni shouting “COCKADOODLE-DOO!” when Mark Briscoe hit a dive has earned the commentary team five minutes on mute.

On a related note, while researching Johnson’s record on CageMatch.net, I noticed that his most recent match happened last night, when he and P.J Black lost to the Bouncers in a dark match. This match surely would have presented the Johnson/Black dynamic to the audience as well as given the Bouncers a victory (and also justified their presence in the building last night), wo I have to wonder why the hell this wasn’t presented as part of last night’s show?

SUMIE SAKAI vs. NICOLE SAVOY- 2/10
Sumie jumped the bell on Savoy. The story of the match was Sumie abusing the five-count for illegal holds like she was Bryan Danielson. Unforuntately this included Todd Sinclair turning into an incompetent New Japan referee and letting Sumie go on well past four on an armbar in the ropes, then when Sumie locked a theoretically legal armbar in on the outside, Sinclair followed them out, ordered Sumie to break the hold, and started counting.
Getting back in the ring after this incident, Sumie kicked the ropes into Todd Sinclair’s nuts. Distracting herself with this pointless and risky action allowed Savoy to hit a kick to the head and a suplex for what was only a visual pinfall because the ref was down. Sumie then got a chain and beat Savoy up with it and got the pin. This match WAY too repetitive during the heat.

DAK DRAPER vs. DANHAUSEN- 4/10
It took the big, powerful Dak Draper FAR too long to beat this goofasaurus. At one point Danhausen pried Draper’s mouth open and the referee stood there and watched as Danhausen took something out of a jar and dumped it in Draper’s mouth. How is that not a DQ?

BANDIDO vs. ALEX ZAYNE- 6.5/10
Maybe I was expecting too much after everything I had heard about Alex Zayne, but I was expecting to be blown away by him and wasn’t. He’s certainly good, but he didn’t strike be as being any sort of game-changing talent. He’s a good guy to have on the roster, but if we never see him again, I’m not going to think “boy, I bet ROH are really kicking themselves for letting this guy go.” But that part is probably a moot point, as I highly doubt they would have let him beat Bandido here if they didn’t have plans to bring him back.

SHANE TAYLOR PROMO- fine
He comes out and says that he won’t show up in ROH again until Joe Koff gives him an answer about the terms of the contract he proposed last night. Well… Taylor isn’t currently under ROH contract, so that’s a completely fair thing for him say. He went on to plug his match later this month against Nick Gage in VIP wrestling, because I guess someone thinks that plugging a match in another promotion against a guy who isn’t in ROH will make us think this is all a shoot.

LIFEBLOOD (Mark Haskins & Tracy Williams) vs. BATEMAN & VINCENT (Vita VonStarr & Chuckles)- 5.75/10
The heels jumped the bell on LifeBlood. They went for about ten minutes, with Vinny’s goons interfering. The babyfaces were about to win when Chuckles ran in and hit Haskins with a wooden block for the DQ. They tried to injure him worse after the match but Williams made the save with a chair.

DAN MAFF, JEFF COBB, JONATHAN GRESHAM, & JAY LETHAL vs. SILAS YOUNG, JOSH WOODS, & THE BOUNCERS- 7.5/10
They went about twenty minutes, which was nice… but I also expect more than just 7.5/10 out of an eight-man tag that goes twenty minutes. Maff & Cobb did the work for the win but Gresham and Lethal were jerks and jumped in the way of the camera to take the attention away from their celebration. Silas & Woods tried to go after Lethal & Gresham but got punked out, but Maff used this distraction to snatch one of the tag title belts. Todd Sinclair eventually came out and ordered him to give it back, but the groundwork for a feud was successfully laid, even with Maff giving the belt back (which he should have done anyway because he’s a babyface).

RHETT TITUS PROMO FROM AFTER FINAL BATTLE- didn’t like it
Rhett apologized to his wife and infant son for letting them down. His wife did the usual “you didn’t let us down. You did your best” shtick. Rhett talked to the baby the way that you would talk to a baby, promising him that this wasn’t over, then tried to switch to angry Rhett to deliver the same message to Kenny King through the camera, but it just came off as WAY too weird to here him try to be intimidating by saying the same thing we had just heard him say in the calming tone one uses to talk to a baby.
(Author’s note: I instinctively typed “babyface” instead of just “baby” at least three times in the above paragraph. This is what happens when you spend a decade of your life typing up reviews of wrestling shows).

BULLY RAY COMES OUT TO WASTE MORE TIME- better than last night, but still bad
He starts off by saying he is going to apologize to Bobby Cruise for pushing him last night. Everyone in the world sees through this, so it doesn’t get any “how dare Bully Ray do this heat” so much as it gets “stop wasting everyone’s time, you fat sack of lard” heat, which is not what a good heel should be getting.
He then brags about putting Maria Manic through a table and tells us she’s in the hospital and thus won’t be here. To the shock of no one, Maria Manic came out and attacked Bully. The Allure ran in and they went to once again put Maria through a table but she made a comeback and hit Bully with a low blow before… um… turning the tables on Bully and putting him through it. At least things feel like they’re moving forward, but I’m still not happy with the idea that our up-and-coming babyface had to go below the belt to beat the washed up old chickensh*t heel.

FLIP GORDON vs. FLAMITA- 6.5/10
Because we spent ten minutes on Bully Ray, there one thirty-five minutes left in the show when the bell rang for the beginning of our semi-main event. As a result, this match between two very talented up-and-comers got a criminally short SEVEN AND A HALF MINUTES. Flip won clean, then ripped Flamita’s mask off. Usually when someone rips a luchador’s mask off, that person parades around with the mask. Flip just ripped it off, then just tossed it away on his way to back. I thought that was great, as it came off as an additional level of disrespect.

VILLAIN ENTERPRISES (Marty Scurll, Brody King, & PCO) vs. LA FACCION INGOBERNABLE (Rush, Dragon Lee, & Kenny King) (w/Amy Rose)- 7/10
LFI win a match with lots of action, but no real story other than “two teams trying to win.” Basically, it was a bunch of moves strung together in an entertaining order.


This was a disappointing show from ROH. Yes, some minor storyline things happened, but this was a show whose main selling point was the potential strength of matches, and it greatly disappointed in that regard. After the first weekend of the Marty Scurll Era (maybe), the only real way to tell there has been a booking change is the fact that Marty’s best friend the NWA World Heavyweight Champion is back to feud with him. Yes, the recap packages are better now, but my guess is that that was something that was already in place.

[GardenStateSaint]

Whats the consensus on Alex Zayne's performance from this show?

[kovs27]

Whats the consensus on Alex Zayne's performance from this show?

Not his best night but worth another look.

[GardenStateSaint]

Plenty of room for "worth another look" right now.

[AlexROH]

Whats the consensus on Alex Zayne's performance from this show?

He didnt have a great night but the work was solid and he should come back at some point.

[ertooso]

Really quick opener that lets the ROH guys hit a few spots and that's it pretty much. Might have been better as a non-televised live opener or something.