BRM Reviews ROH Best in the World 2021 (... f*cking Delirious never learns)

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews ROH Best in the World 2021 (... f*cking Delirious never learns)

Post by Big Red Machine » Jul 12th, '21, 13:34

ROH Best in the World 2021 (7/11/2021)- Baltimore, MD


BRIAN JOHNSON PROMO- TREMENDOUS heel stuff. He’s got the perfect mix of mean, annoying, and entertaining. P.J. didn’t tell him off for this, so I guess he’s turned heel since his return (which has only happened on YouTube shows, so I haven’t seen him yet). Then again, with an ugly beard like that, he’d have to be.

BRIAN JOHNSON & P.J. BLACK vs. THE BRISCOES- 6.75/10
A good action opener that used the Briscoes’ newly reunited status to create a strong false finish or two coming off of a Briscoes miscue. The Briscoes overcame and won in the end, with Mark showing no ill will towards Jay for the errant punch. At the end of last week’s show they said they were back on the same page. After this match, we know they are.

EC III vs. FLIP GORDON- 6.75/10
Ethan picked up the clean win despite Flip working his knee over. Flip is getting a title shot next month, so I presume he’ll spin tapping out here as preserving his body for that match. Ethan offered a handshake after the match but Flip responded with a slap in the face. Another offer of a handshake led to another slap, and a third let to Flip spitting in Ethan’s face and leaving.

ROH WORLD SIX-MAN TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Shane Taylor Promotions(c) (w/O’Shea Edwards) vs. Dak Draper, Eli Isom, & Dalton Castle (w/the Boys)- 6.5/10
When the hell did Castle, Draper, and Isom become a team? The last time we saw them on TV, they were turning into a three-way feud! And even the announcers are saying that they haven’t teamed before, so how the hell did they wind up with a title shot?
Also, when did O’Shea Edwards join STP? They didn’t mention it in the video package they did on him about a month ago for Survival of the Fittest.
We got some decent action here. Kaun and Moses of STP have come along quite well. The big note here was that Dalton and Isom got into fights (both instigated by Dalton) because Dalton wanted to see more showboating and Isom just wanted to win. That answers the question of what this match does for the narrative, but that is not a reason to make it a title match or to put it on PPV instead of the regular TV show. If this was a non-title match on the regular TV show, it would have made a lot more sense, and also wouldn’t have spent time on a PPV that could have been better spent on a bigger match. It feels like the only reason this was both on PPV and was a title match is because the office wanted to have the titles defended on the PPV, and that devalues titles.
Also… I love Ian and Caprice, but them screaming about how “THIS COULD BE AN UPSET!” when Eli Isom clearly isn’t the legal man because we saw him break up a Shane Taylor pin on Draper fifteen seconds ago really annoyed me.

TERRIBLE, GOOFY, HONOR PALS ADVERTISEMENT- Don’t advertise merch aimed at kids on a PPV, and don’t have your stars look like goofs in the commercial, either.

LAST MAN STANDING MATCH: Josh Woods vs. Silas Young- 7.5/10
When did this become a Last Man Standing match? Did they actually do things on the TV show that airs the weekend of the PPV? They usually don’t do that.
Ian said that Silas won a Last Man Standing match at Supercard of Honor XII by putting Kenny King through a table, which is technically true… but I think the much bigger issue was that Beer City Bruiser then taped Kenny’s feet together so that he couldn’t stand. This sort of thing kills a babyface announcer’s credibility by making it look like he or she is trying to hype up the wrestlers and will omit whatever details don’t fit the desired narrative, rather than being the honest observer and audience viewpoint character that the babyface announcer is supposed to be.
Woods jumped Silas from behind during his entrance to start things off hot. They did lots of stuff with weapons and built to a big finish. I’m not a big fan of Last Man Standing matches because I find that it’s hard to make the false finishes feel exciting, so you might enjoy this more than I did (which isn’t to say that I didn’t enjoy it, because I obviously did. Just look at the rating. But you might enjoy it more). Woods getting the win felt like a big deal for him, especially in what the announcers pushed as a gimmick match that Silas has an excellent record in.

RECAP OF AN ANGLE FROM HOUR ONE AND MATT TAVEN PROMO- EXCELLENT!
An excellent promo to let us know just how much this newly-signed cage match between Matt Taven and Vincent means to Taven, and how far Taven is willing to go in getting revenge on Vincent.

BRODY KING vs. JAY LETHAL (w/Tracy Williams)- 5.75/10, but good for what it was.
It was nice to see Tracy at ringside after getting hit by a car recently (that’s why he’s not wrestling tonight), but that all-black get-up he was wearing was horrendous. Speaking of horrendous, Caprice Coleman compared the atmosphere for this match Andre vs. Hogan. Why would you even say something that sounds so clearly ridiculous and false?
They spent WAY too much time on the outside without Todd Sinclair even trying to count them out. You can’t be the company that cares about rules if you’re just going to ignore rules all willy-nilly.
This wasn’t intended to be a match so much as it was an attempt to get Brody King over by having him dominate Lethal, and it certainly worked. Jay was on the defensive for 90% of the match, and when he hit Lethal Injection (which was, granted, early on in the match), Brody kicked out at one. Brody eventually won with a lariat and two straight Gonzo Bombs, the second of which seemed quite unnecessary (Ian didn’t think so, but I completely disagree. Lethal looked totally out of it after the first one). Brody shook the downed Lethal’s hand after the match in what could easily be interpreted as a mocking manner (especially considering the way his group taunted a fallen Lethal the last time they were in a ring together).

ROH PURE TITLE MATCH: Jonathan Gresham(c) vs. Mike Bennett- 8.75/10
Now that’s what I’m talking about! Tremendous stuff here! Gresham worked the arm (which Bennett sold very well) and Bennett chased the piledriver, but the more important story was Bennett slowly earning Gresham’s respect with his ability as the match went on, with Gresham cutting out all of the show-boating. The spot where Bennett finally hit the piledriver and seemed to have the match won but Joe Mandac spotted Gresham’s foot under the rope for his final rope-break just after his hand hit the mat has me extremely excited for a rematch down the line.

Kenny King came out to do commentary for the next match, but he was almost immediately interrupted so we could cut backstage for “news on another change” in the ROH World Tag Team Title match. Due to Tracy’s injury, Lethal was originally scheduled to team with Rhett Titus tonight, but Lethal is now injured, so Rhett Titus asked Jonathan Gresham- who just got done wrestling- to step in for Lethal, and Gresham agreed. We were also told that to give Gresham some time, we’re switching the card around and the tag title match will go on after the TV Title match instead of right now as originally planned.

ROH WORLD TV TITLE MATCH: Tony Deppen(c) vs. Dragon Lee (w/Bestia del Ring)- 7.75/10
This was another great match that was intense the whole way through. This was so intense that I thought they really earned that fighting spirit spot where they kept getting up after the German Suplexes, and that’s a spot I usually hate when you do it for more than one suplex each. I still hated the “take turns hitting each other spot,” though.
They also did the most amazing sunset flip powerbomb you’ll ever see. The match is worth your watching just for that. I’m definitely warming up to Deppen, and Dragon Lee has learned how to work as a heel while still being Dragon Lee. Kenny King caused a distraction that didn’t lead to the finish. Dragon Lee eventually got the win, reclaiming the title he never lost.
After the match, Kenny King started to taunt Deppen, so Homicide and Chris Dickinson came out to protect him. This felt like it was an excuse to cut a full-length entrance out in order to save time. Gresham and Titus charged into the ring and started throwing punches, letting us save more time by skipping the formal introductions for the…

FIGHT WITHOUT HONOR FOR THE ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLES: The Foundation (Rhett Titus & Jonathan Gresham, substituting for Tracy Williams)(c) vs. VLNCE UNLTD (Chris Dickinson & Homicide)- 7/10
They did weapons stuff. Homicide pinned Gresham to win the belts. I hope they actually do something with Homicide and Gresham out of this rather than just using it to give the Foundation a reasonable excuse for their loss.

MARIA KANELLIS AND THE RETURNING LENNY LEONARD PLUG THE WOMEN’S TITLE TOURNAMENT- Maria announced that Vita VonStarr would be replaced by Chelsea Green. There is your winner right there, and she cut a promo to prove it.

ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Rush(c) vs. Bandido- 6.5/10
Rush hit his finisher right away and went for a boot-on-the-chest pin but then stopped and kicked Bandido out of the ring to beat him up on the outside and do all of his usual stupid crap that should be a DQ but isn’t. Because G-d forbid we do something different in a match instead of copy the same boring-ass formula that has made New Japan undercards unwatchable for the past five years.
Anyway, they did their stuff. When it was in the ring, it was good, when it was on the outside (which was too much of the time) it was meh. I also HATED the finish, which saw Rush have an advantage, but instead of following up, he ripped at Bandido’s mask. Todd Sinclair told him off so he shoved Sinclair, but when he went back to Bandido, Bandido had recovered enough to roll him up for the win. The combination of this, opening spot that I mentioned where Rush hit his finisher but didn’t go for the cover, the fact that Rush kicked out of Bandido’s finisher, and the fact that Rush controlled a good 75% of the match felt like it really undermined Bandido.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- hated it
Rush attacked Todd Sinclair, and LFI came out to beat Bandido down while Rush posed with the belt. I was expecting to see the Foundation come out to make the save, as Bandido is a babyface and a former member of the similarly-oriented LifeBlood faction with Tracy Williams, or maybe Bandido’s Mexi-Squad buddy Rey Horus, or maybe Homicide, PCO, and Matt Taven would come out as former ROH World Champions to make the save for the sake of respect for the belt (I’m assuming Lethal is still too injured), but no one did. It doesn’t even feel like Bandido is the champion. It felt like just another LFI beat-down after a title match.


This was a good show from ROH, but it really felt like it needed to be more. The disappointing main event in particular hurt it, but the booking of that match and the relatively short time that the other big titles matches were given were also an issue. So once again I find myself writing than an ROH show would have been a lot better if Delirious had better time-management and wasn’t such a f*cking lazy storyteller. This three-way feud has been happening for three and a half months now (and LFI vs. Foundation for longer than that) and despite SIX title changes (three each of the TV and tag belts) it feels like nothing has moved forward in any way, and even though Rush lost the world title, it still feels like he’s the champ because our show-closing imagine is him and his group beating up Bandido. Management realized that Delirious needed to be replaced when they gave Marty Scurll the book early last year. Just because Scurll had issues that rendered him unemployable doesn’t mean that Delirious’ faults have suddenly disappeared. FIND SOMEONE ELSE! Shane Hagadorn seems to have good ideas on his podcast, plus he understands the ROH ethos and worked in the office under Gabe, Pearce, and Delirious when Delirious wasn’t a screw-up. Bring him in. How about Kevin Eck? He already works for you. Are you telling me that absolutely none of these CHIKARA guys learned anyone of use from Mike Quackenbush? There is so much talent in this company and such poor management of it!
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

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