BRM Reviews the 2/22/2019 ROH (great)

[Big Red Machine]

SUMIE SAKAI vs. JENNY ROSE vs. MADISON RAYNE- 5.75/10
A decent three-way. Madison has a new finisher.

JAY LETHAL, JONATHAN GRESHAM, JEFF COBB, FLIP GORDON, & DALTON CASTLE (w/the Boys) vs. LIFEBLOOD (Mark Haskins, Juice Robinson, Tracy Williams, Bandido, & David Finlay Jr.)- 8.25/10
I know I often complain when WWE doesn’t show wrestler’s entrances, but sitting though ten straight entrances for this match was just plain boring. That’s not excusing WWE doing it, as they usually either cut out a wrestler’s entrance to show us another wrestler cutting a promo making the other wrestler look like a lesser star rather than someone’s entrance getting just not making it on TV because it happens to happen during a commercial break, but any sort of introducing someone as “already in the ring” makes that person look like an afterthought. We couldn’t have stuck someone’s entrance during a commercial here and had the announcers just not his/their presence afterwards instead of having an entire segment of the show devoted solely to entrances?

Tenille Dashwood joined the commentary team for this match. Both she and Cabana were upset about Lethal running in to break-up a pinfall and at Gresham for doing so to break up a submission. I’m certain LifeBlood themselves have done this at times, and if they haven’t, it should be pointed out to me by the announcers. All three announcers seemed to agree that the non-LifeBlood guys were acting dishonorably by doing this, which feels like something of a stretch to me, compared to the usual standards we’ve seen in ROH over the years. I don’t ever remember such things being considered dishonorable at any point in company history, which means it doesn’t actually fit into the honor LifeBlood is supposedly trying to restore.
Also, if they’re going to complain about that, then Mark Haskins should not be running over while he is the legal man and knocking all of the other team’s non-legal partners off the apron.
Other than that, the match was an awesome half hour of wrestling and definitely felt like the big moment it was portrayed as being.

A great episode of ROH, although a rather minimalist one. Shows like this should happen every few months just to keep this sort of pure wrestling competition in the back of people’s minds as something that ROH stands for at its most ideal when things aren’t kayfabe “going wrong” via those dastardly heels causing trouble.