BRM Reviews the 2/1/2019 ROH (very good)

[Big Red Machine]

DAVID FINLAY JR. vs. TRACY WILLIAMS- 6.5/10
Juice Robinson was on commentary with Ian and Colt and was extremely annoying. I don’t care if it’s something you do in everyday life and/or you think it makes your friendship seem more kayfabe authentic. Calling Finlay by your stupid little nickname for him (Debbie-Chan) is only going to hinder his ability to get over for the TV audience by making him seem like a joke. This was only one of Juice’s annoyingly quirky comments. Between him and Ian’s forced musical references, the commentary was very difficult to listen to. Why don’t any announcers just call the moves anymore?
This was a solid opener, and it was nice to see Tracy actually given some credibility with a victory. We got a nice post-match handshake.
We got a little commercial hyping up Mark Haskins and Bandido before the announcement that they would be wrestling each other next. I don’t ever recall seeing ROH do this before, but I thought it was an excellent idea and is something that should be done not just for new faces but for a lot of others as well.

THE KINGDOM PROMO- Corny, generic crap that never should have aired. They’re feuding with Villain Enterprises, so they took an umbrella and wrote “Taven Enterprises on it.” Quite the geniuses they are.

MARK HASKINS vs. BANDIDO- 7/10
Juice was still on commentary and was still very annoying. The match was certainly great, but was nothing crazy like some people have talked it up as.

NICK ALDIS PROMO- boring

TV TITLE #1 CONTENDERSHIP TOURNAMENT FINALS: Silas Young vs. Eli Isom- 7/10
Silas picked up the clean win here, but Isom had a great showing. I really hope that this is a touchstone point in what turns into a long-running story for Isom where he will later be built up and defeat Silas to earn a TV Title shot and then go on to have a competitive match against Cobb to show us how far he is come when contrasted with the squash loss he suffered against Cobb in Cobb’s second match back at last year’s Glory BY Honor.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- fine, I guess
Silas Young cut a relatively generic promo on Cobb, calling him a “disappointment” to his friends, family, and country. Cobb came out and had a stare-down with Silas Young. Shane Taylor showed up, and after several unnecessary moments off Cobb turning from one heel to the other to have a stare-down, they finally started to brawl. Cobb got hit with a low blow and laid out with a Fire Thunder Driver from Taylor (does anyone know what he calls it?). Despite this total heel ending, Ian Riccaboni inexplicably still decided to sign off with his usual “happy wrestling, everybody.” Any time you have to use a mournful tone to say something, you should probably avoid wishing people a “happy” anything.

This was a very good episode of ROH in the ring, and the promos, while not good at all, were at least kept short. The biggest negative on this show was Juice Robinson’s horrendous commentary. I don’t ever want to hear him do commentary again. If he even so much as steps towards the booth, Colt or Caprice or whoever should knock him out.