BRM Reviews the 6/25/2021 ROH (SOTF 2021 Finals)

[Big Red Machine]

QUINN MCKAY OPENS THE SHOW- Why are we wasting time on recaps of the finishes of the qualifiers. SOTF itself shouldn’t got less then thirty minutes, and you’re already wasting time by sticking this Matt Taven vs. Dutch match on the show. Stop wasting more time!

BATEMAN IN-SET PROMO ON BEHALF OF DUTCH- meh
So Vincent makes his big return last week… and now he’s not here again? Really?

MATT TAVEN vs. DUTCH- 5/10
Taven charged right at Dutch to start things off hot. Ian Riccaboni pointed out that Taven has been ignoring his personal grooming because he’s so obsessed with getting revenge on the Righteous.
Ian Riccaoboni keeps saying things like “Dutch is programmed to feel only what Vincent wants him to feel. I’m sure Ian is correctly conveying the gimmick, but I don’t think we have anywhere near enough information in kayfabe to even guess in that direction. He just seems to be a large dude who serves Vincent, just like Bateman and Vita.
Vita came out and interfered while Dutch distracted the ref, so Maria Kanellis came out and told her she was now out of the women’s title tournament. Apparently Vita had been warned about this before, but didn’t think Maria was serious. What an idiot.
Taven made a comeback and hit the Aurora Borealis but Dutch kicked out at one. Taven managed to hit the Climax, but then allowed himself to get distracted by the presence of Vincent and lured into an ambush for the DQ. Mike Bennett came out to make the save, and security came out to break it up. This feud feels like it’s not going anywhere, and having Taven lay Dutch out with a finisher before getting distracted made Dutch look a lot weaker than was necessary.

VINCENT PROMO- boring
He answered “maybe” so some question that I guess Taven asked during the break, but no one ever old us what it was. I assume it was a challenge for a match. He said that the thing Taven cared about the most was other people caring about him. Whatever.

JAY BRISCOE PROMO- awesome!
He’s going to knock Mark out in their “Fight on the Farm.”

2021 SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST FINALS: Demonic Flamita vs. Eli Isom vs. Bandido vs. Chris Dickinson vs. Brian Johnson vs. Rhett Titus- 7.25/10
Survival of the Fittest is using Lucha rules this year because… um… why not?

The big dive spot with Bandido and Flamita looked WAY too much like they were working together.
The first man out was Flamita, who was eliminated via roll-up by Bandido. He attacked Bandido afterwards, putting him through a table and using a chair on him. Where are all of those security people we saw before? Shouldn’t they be coming out to put a stop to this? Eventually Rey Horus came out to defend Bandido, and Flamita just decided to walk away instead of attacking Rey Horus as well.
Rhett eliminated Brian Johnson next, followed quickly by Dickinson making Rhett tap. At this point Bandido, who had been attended to my medical staff at ringside, got back into the match. Dickinson began to work over his injured arm. Isom got involved and Dickinson started to take it to him instead until Bandio came in and hit the Twenty-One-Plex for the pin. Isom and Bandido had a better final two than I was expecting before Bandido inevitably got the win.
This was an extremely underwhelming SOTF finals, and that was entirely due to the lack of star power. Bandido was the only person in this match who I could see headlining a PPV, and when that’s the prize, it kills a lot of the suspense in the match.