BRM Reviews the 4/6/2023 ROH (a terrible sign)

[Big Red Machine]

After returning at Supercard of Honor 2023, Nigel McGuinness is back on the commentary team with Ian Riccaboni and Caprice Coleman.

EARLIER TODAY, CHRISTOPHER DANIELS CHALLENGED KATSUYORI SHIBATA TO AN ROH PURE TITLE MATCH- good
His reasons for why he should get a title shot were mostly logical- every time he has been in a ring with Shibata, he as won. I checked on his, and there are two. One was a random undercard tag match in 2015 in which the person who got pinned was young-boy Jay White, and the other was with Daniels as Curry Man all the way back in 2002. It would have been nice if Daniels hadn’t lost every match he has had against anyone above undercard level in this new ROH, though. You couldn’t have had Sydal be the one to lose to Kingston a few weeks ago and had Daniels get a win?

WORKHORSEMEN & SHANE TAYLOR vs. MARK BRISCOE & LUCHA BROS. (w/Alex Abrahantes)- 6.25/10
The announcers simultaneously pushed the idea that Mark’s dream is to be the ROH TV Champion and built Taylor up by talking about how has Taylor has accomplished Mark’s dream and Mark hasn’t. I really hate this “it’s Mark’s dream to be the TV Champion” makes Mark look dumb. First of all, who dreams of winning a silver medal instead of a gold one? You’d have to be some kind of Batman-villain-level nutjob who is obsessed with silver to dream of winning a silver medal and not a gold one.
In Mark’s case, this is made even worse by the fact that when Mark was growing up (he was born in 1985, so let’s assume he doesn’t have much in the way of real memories until 1990) there really weren’t many prominent TV Champions out there, and it was already an era where the world champion was on TV all the time. It feels like adult veteran Mark Briscoe decided that he’d just never be good enough to win the ROH World Title, so he decided to make becoming TV Champion his dream instead, and that’s not something I want to support at all. This very talented athlete has given up on himself. That’s sad.
They Lucha Bros. did a spot that had both Nigel and Ian calling for a DQ, but to me it looked like a flying dropkick to the butt (or top of the thigh), and that’s how Anthony Henry sold it, too. Did Nigel and Ian look away from their monitors at the moment of contact?
Q.T. Marshall and Will Hobbs were shown watching from the front row. They’re getting an ROH World Tag Team Title shot tomorrow at AEW Battle of the Belts VI.
The match was good, but was FAR too short for the talent involved.

ROH PURE TITLE MATCH: Katsuyori Shibata(c) vs. Christopher Daniels- 6.25/10
Ian noted that Daniels had suffered an eye injury in a match against the young Bucks “a few months ago.” That match took place in Mid-May 2021.
This was another fun little match that went a disappointingly short ten minutes when you consider the talent involved. Daniels should have lasted longer than that, especially if you want us to see him as someone who still has the potential to be a champion (which they clearly do, or else they wouldn’t have put him and Sydal back together). In just these ten minutes and not doing anything particularly flashy, Daniels managed to get me really rallied behind him.

CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI INTERVIEW- fine
He points out that at Supercard of Honor, things happened exactly as he said they would. He successfully defended the ROH World Title against Eddie Kingston, then Eddie “imploded,” grabbing a microphone and cursing up a storm. Claudio claims that this shows that Kingston is unfit to represent ROH (“you can’t air that anywhere. You can’t print that”). He says he will defend his title against anyone who proves themselves worthy.

ORTIZ vs. BRIAN CAGE (w/Prince Nana)- 6.5/10
Ian immediately wonders if Ortiz has followed Eddie Kingston to ROH. Good. It’s nice to know that that storyline in AEW wasn’t just dropped and they’re now moving Ortiz over to ROH, too, and are expecting us to not ask questions. A shared universe allows for a lot of greatness if it is done well, but it is not easy to do so and requires a lot if vigilance and maintenance.
This was yet another match in the that eight-to-ten-minute range that was good for the time it got, but felt like it could have been so much more.

DARIUS MARTIN vs. JAY LETHAL (w/Sonjay Dutt & Satna Singh)- 6/10
Maria Kanellis joined the commentary team for this match. The Kingdom stood behind them. She tried to take credit for Dante Martin’s injury at Supercard of Honor by saying that the Kingdom were the ones who set up the tables that someone else much later propelled through- well… sort of- and Dante badly injured his ankle while landing. I thought this made Maria (and, but extension, the whole Kingdom) look somewhere between stupid and desperate for attention, and either of those are good.
The match was excellent for the five and a half minutes it got. All action, but at a pace that didn’t feel like they were rushing to get in as many spots as they could. Taven interfered on the finish, attacking Darius. I liked that Lethal thought there was an equal chance that Taven would be coming to attack him, due to their history, but that was the only aspect of this finish I liked.
This is f*cking ROH and it’s Jay Lethal vs. the lesser half of an up-and-coming tag team. Just let Lethal win cleanly! I understand wanting to continue this feud. I really do. But sometimes fate just gets in the way, and if there is no real revenge that the babyface needs to get and the heels have some sort of out, you can just end the feud with the heels saying that they proved they were better by getting through the big Ladder match without getting injured or something like that. Or just book a singles match between Darius and the member of the Kingdom he didn’t lose to before (Bennett, I think), have Bennett win clean, and be done with it. You can always find way to bring them back together when Dante is healthy again.


THE INFANTRY vs. LFI (Rush & Dralistico) (w/Jose the Assistant & Preston Vance)- 1/10
This went less than four minutes. The first minute was way too even for me to call this a squash.

TRACY WILLIAMS vs. DANIEL GARCIA- 5/10
Ian claimed that about ten years ago, Tracy Williams had to choose between being a “technical wrestler,” a “striker” or a “sports entertainer.” I have no idea what Ian is talking about (it’s clearly not leaving CHIKARA, based on the timeline), but Ian is making it sound like sports entertainment is a style of wrestling, in which case why should anyone have to choose just one? Lots of people wrestle multiple styles. It’s part of being a well-rounded combat athlete.
Some of the fans chanted “WE WANT TABLES!” Any fan who does that in a random match should get ejected from the building.
Garcia won cleanly in a little over six minutes. During these six minutes, he gave up an advantage because he was playing to the crowd, and he survived both of Tracy’s finishers. So the AEW guy comes in and basically buries the ROH guy in six minutes? If Tony wants people to think ROH is important, this is exactly the kind of thing he needs to avoid doing.

WILLOW NIGHTINGALE vs. NOTORIOUS MIMI- 0.5/10
This was too competitive for a squash. I could have done without the comedy in the beginning, too.

STEPHEN AZURE & STEVE SOMERSET vs. THE RIGHTEOUS (Vincent & Dutch)- squash
What goes through Tony Khan’s mind when he decides to bring in an act like the Righteous? I don’t think I have ever heard anyone say “I like the Righteous. They’re a good act.” Ever. Does he think it makes this feel more like an “authentic” ROH product? He’s already got Claudio Castagnoli, Jay Lethal, Matt Taven, Matt Sydal, Christopher Daniels, Samoa Joe, and Mark Briscoe! He’s already got long-time undercard role-players like Rhett Titus and Prince Nana, representatives of a more recent era like Shane Taylor, Rush, Dalton Castle, Tracy Williams, Josh Woods, and Mike Bennett. He’s got access to Adam Cole, the Young Bucks, Adam Page, Bandido, and BRYAN F*CKING DANIELSON. Even without that last crop of guys I mentioned, that is easily enough to have a product that feels like an authentic continuation of ROH. Now you just have to act like an authentic version of ROH, and an authentic version of ROH (i.e. Gabe or Pearce, or Delirious when he actually gave a sh*t before about mid 2016) would give up on act that isn’t working well instead of wasting time on that act, it would give more time to guys with the talent of the WorkHorsemen and Shane Taylor!
Their opponents were goofs in argyle sweaters and other ugly things, and apparently go by the name of the “Even Stevens.” Someone please inform Disney’s legal department.
The Righteous are feuding with Dark Order. Hopefully they’ll have their first match next week and it will be a Winner and Loser Leave Town match.

KONOSUKE TAKESHITA vs. TONY NESE (w/Mark Sterling, Josh Woods, & Ari Daivari)- 7.25/10
Holy crap! Something actually worth watching! Nese worked over Takeshita’s midsection. Paul Turner clearly saw Daivair interfering, but didn’t call for a DQ or even eject him from ringside. Takeshita overcame the odds and got the win. I was shocked that he didn’t get jumped after the match.

ROH WOMEN’S WORLD TITLE MATCH: Athena(c) vs. Miyu Yamashita- 7.5/10
They were on the outside for WAY too long without getting counted out, but other than that, this was great. Athena continues to be the best thing in ROH, and tonight she really felt like the only person worth paying attention to.


This was absolutely not what this show needed to be. This is the first show after the first PPV of the “new” ROH, and it felt like I was watching AEW Dark. The main event was the only match to go more than eleven minutes (and only it, the Pure Title match and Nese vs. Takeshita got past ten) nothing felt important, only Claudio cut a promo for anything that wasn’t quickly setting up a match for this show, all of the winners were easily predictable, there was very little that actually felt like follow up to the PPV… I could go on and on, but I will just finish this up by saying that Mark Briscoe and Eddie Kingston not cutting promos felt like a major mistake, considering the emotional highspots on the PPV.