2/22/14 TV Tapings

[DXvsNWO1994]

Well that sounds a bit better than the last TV Tapings in Philly. I think it was expected that it would be lower.

[Will Schweitzer]

This was the first ROH show that I've been to in almost 6 years (the last one being the Mar. 2008 show in Dover when they filmed The Wrestler). I haven't really kept up with wrestling since (mainstream or indy) for a variety of time an economical reasons (went back to college, got married, bought a house, etc), and a plain old case of being burned out after spending '05 through the end of '07 going to practically every ROH and Chikara show in PA, NJ and NY. I brought two friends to this show who've only ever really been exposed to WWF/E and WCW, so it was fun to see this show from their perspective.

I was happy to see some familiar faces like Strong, Whitmer, Jacobs, Titus, Briscoes, Steen, 'Cide, Kingston, Lethal, Nigel and Styles. Some of the new faces (or at least new-to-me) are pretty damn impressive.

So anyway, here's a brief review from an out-of-touch fan:

1. The show started off with a women's match that was exclusive to fans who subscribe to whatever perks program that ROHWrestling.com offers. If this is all you get, save your money. I'm not trying to be mean to these two ladies, but this match was borderline embarrassing.

2. Raymond Rowe & Hanson vs Will Ferrara & Bill Daly: Apparently, the new trend in wrestling is beards. Everybody and their sister these days has a six foot carpet of Sweet Chin Shag hanging from their face. That being said, it was enjoyable. Hanson is pretty damned agile for a guy his size. Ferrara & Daly had some sort of forgettable Body Donnas gimmick (how many failed fitness guru gimmicks have to happen before this schtick is retired). Mike Elgin (who my friend thought was a bulked up Matt Hardy for the first two minutes) came out to give them a pep talk.

3. Kevin Steen challenged Cliff Compton (no idea who that is), but Eddie Kingston & Homicide came out instead. Interesting entrance theme. I honestly wondered for a second if they were trying to bring Special K back. Homicide is very difficult to take seriously in the goofy homeless getup with the shirt and hobo mask. Kingston talked too much (some things never change).

4. Kevin Steen vs Homicide: they wrestled a good match until Kingston caused a DQ finish (uggh). Cliff Compton came in for the "save". Now, I have no idea who this guy is or what the ongoing storyline is, but it seems pretty obvious that this is a swerve that will lead to Compton joining up with Kingston and Homicide. I mean, his name is Compton for christ sake. The "Straight Outta Compton" gimmick writes itself here.

5. Holy crap, Nigel looks tiny these days. I love the idea of doing a Wrestlemania X "who's the real champion" ladder match. No idea who Adam Cole is, but all you had to say was Jay Briscoe and ladder match to sell this mark.

6. Tommaso Ciampa vs. Jay Lethal: Ok, add mohawks to the list, right below beards. Never say Ciampa before, but he's damn good. Pretty awesome, old school match, complete with pinfall behind the ref's back.

7. BJ Whitmer, Jimmy Jacobs & Roderick Strong vs Andrew Everett, ACH & TaDarius Thomas: Incredible six man tag. At first, I thought Jacobs might have been hurt (he didn't really get knocked around much for the first half of the match), but that theory got shot to hell. Didn't know what to expect from Everett/Adrenaline Rush, but they were damn good.

8. RD Evans vs The Romantic Touch. Rhett is an awesome guy, so it was funny as hell to see him with this gimmick. Maybe it was the pink/purple or maybe the fuzzy trim, but Evans looked like he was trying to pull off Larry Sweeney's look, so that didn't sit too well with me at first, but I quickly realized that it's a dopey thing to get annoyed about. As for the match, I guess Rhett molested the valet under the ring and got counted out. Twenty seconds was enough of a romp to enjoy a post-coitus cigarette. Evans keeps his win streak while his girl takes one for the team. Umm....not sure what to even say. Wouldn't have been my first booking choice, but it was what it was. Just don't let the Tumblr social justice/rape culture/feminist crowd find out that they're making light of sexual assault.

9. Cedric Alexander vs. Adam Page: Solid match. Cederic seems like the real deal. It's pretty apparent that they're setting up a feud between he and Strong. I'd be interested in seeing that.

10. Briscoe Bros vs Adam Cole & Michael Bennett: I was hoping to see a Briscoes tag team match, so I marked out like a 12 year old the whole time. Cole and Bennett both seem pretty good, though I was shocked that Cole is their champion - not that he couldn't wrestle, but he just didn't come across like an ROH champion - more like a Steve Corino student/clone. I didn't even realize that Maria was from the WWE until my friend pointed it out.

11. Silas Young vs Taka Watanabe vs Caprice Coleman vs Matt Taven: I've never been a big fan of fatal four way matches. So, I guess Silas Young is doing some sort of hybrid of a Jeff Foxworthy look combined with William Regal "Man's Man" gimmick (sand hardhat), with an old fashioned strap thrown in for good measure. Felt like the randomizer was pressed on a wrestling video game that has a "create wrestler" feature. Pretty good match all in all. Again, I just don't dig on the fatal four way format (just too damn busy with no clear focus...like why the hell is it done in a tag format instead of just a four way brawl? Why the concept of the "legal man" if there is no team?). No disrespect intended to the work of any of these guys... none of them looked bad at all.

12. Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly vs Bob Evans & Cheeseburger: I feel bad saying this because I'm sure the dude works hard, but what the hell are they doing with this Cheeseburger guy? I was told good things about the tag team champs (is it re-Dragon or Red Dragon?), but none of it was justified by what I saw. A really annoying fan kept shouting "Kyle" like a lovesick tween girl (which might have been funny if he didn't repeat it 83 times in five minutes). It had a couple funny spots, but no real highlights that I can remember. Maybe I was just too annoyed by the douchebag fan. I don't know.

13. AJ Styles vs. Michael Elgin: Awesome match that ended with a time limit draw. I can't lie; I liked the Briscoe match more, but it was a close call. Elgin can definitely move; dude is a Kevin Steen 2.0, which isn't a bad thing. Some dopey fans cheapened the experience right off the bat. Seriously, who the hell chants "Match of the Year" two seconds after the opening bell? I don't begrudge people going to a show to have fun and get rowdy, but that was just plain f'n stupid. Show ended with the dime store heel champion took a few cheap shots and split. I may be overly critical of Cole here - he was pretty damn good in the tag match, but I have a really difficult time seeing this guy as the dominant heel champion. Maybe if I saw more of his work I'd feel differently, but based on this one show, it's like they took one random guy and decided to book him as the champ.

So, I guess this comes across as a bit negative. Please believe me when I say that this wasn't my intention. It was a hell of a good show and I had a lot of fun. I guess I just know more ways to write critically than to write praise. If I say "awesome match", just pretend that it's worth a paragraph of gushing praise because I really just don't have the ability to go into further detail. Again, if I was more familiar with some of these guys and more up-to-date on the storyline, I'd probably be a bit less critical of some of the gimmicks, but from the viewpoint of a guy who hasn't kept up, this show keeps pace with the ROH that I remember from 2005 through 2007.

[ROHFan25]

Adam Cole is the PWG World Champion too...he's fucking awesome.

[Will Schweitzer]

I'm not saying that he sucks, but at first glance (without knowing any of his previous work), he comes across as generic.

[ROHFan25]

Yeah I guess that is true. He shows way more personality in PWG as well. Only 24 years old though, still room to grow

[YimYac]

Rowe/Hanson/Elgin has a lot of potential as a great trio. Glad to see Rowe and Hanson sticking around

[JSP]

Yeah I guess that is true. He shows way more personality in PWG as well. Only 24 years old though, still room to grow

In what way does he come off as generic? Ever? I guess having an ass-ton of charisma and charm is generic.

But you know what they said about El Generico...

[JSP]

And Will, you might want to get some context on the show before you type up a report. I understand you haven't been around the product but most of your negativity is woefully misplaced here.

[Will Schweitzer]

And Will, you might want to get some context on the show before you type up a report. I understand you haven't been around the product but most of your negativity is woefully misplaced here.

My lack of current context sort of was the whole point of my review - someone who is very familiar with the company, but has been away for a while, giving feedback of a single show standing on its own. And in all fairness, when I went to my first few shows in 2005, I wasn't familiar with the company or its talent, but by the time I left, I was sold.

Also, I don't really think I was overly negative (except for the womens match, which was awful). As for Cole, hey, maybe I'm selling the kid short. Maybe he has a ton of charisma, but my review was based on a single show (not his entire career, which I know nothing about), and I didn't see anything special at that show. He seemed like the typical suit-wearing, cocky heel champion that you'll find at practically every indy promotion across the country. Not bad, per say, just bland. The only reason I'm at all interested in seeing his upcoming work is the fact that he's feuding with Briscoe.

Also, I'm comparing him a bit to the ROH champions that I remember. In my day, we had Punk, Gibson, Danielson, 'Cide, Morishima and McGuinness - all of whom had star quality. Next to these guys, Cole seemed to me like a guy who might be training new hires at a call center; like the company said "Oh hell, we lost most of our older talent, so we might as well give this kid from PWG a go".

Star quality is the ability to get over and to hook you from the beginning. Based on this show (and only this show), I don't see Cole as being in that class. The best analogy I can use is to music. If you ever hear a song for the first time and you find that you want to hear it again, it's a good song. If you have to be exposed to it a few dozen times before you start to like it, it's not that great of a song; it's just familiar, so you grow to like it over time. Adam Cole is the latter. If I went out of my way and downloaded some of his matches and promos and worked hard to familiarize myself with his work, I might grow to appreciate what he has to offer and find little nuances of his personality and ring work that I admire, but based on the first impression, I'm really not inspired to go through any of that. I'm definitely interested in learning more about Ciampa, Adrenaline Rush and Elgin, but not so much with Cole or Redragon based on Saturday night.

[YimYac]

Homicide looks more like a star than Cole?

Oh come on now.

[DBSommer]

I just watched a couple of mid-late 10 matches with Cole. When he first popped up he was a slender generic looking babyface that looked a bit better than the usual slender generic babyface. As he got experience, he got better in everything, though looking back he definitely need the added mass more than Sydal did. Once you hear some of his smarmy promos you'll realize he's the real deal.

And it could be a lot worse, you could have tried the product in early to mid 12, pretty much the low point in a while.

[rohfreak]

I miss the blood in roh

[rohfreak]

I was at the tapings and the crowd was chanting tag team when Compton saved Steen