BRM Reviews the 1/10/2015 ROH (AWESOME!)

[Big Red Machine]

MARK BRISCOE vs. RODERICK STRONG- 7/10
Just plain solid professional wrestling. The perfect way to start off the year in Ring of Honor.
Roddy promised us that 2015 will be his best year yet and said he wanted to regain the ROH World Title (well, he actually said he wanted to regain his “crown as the king of Ring of Honor," but that is how both Kevin Kelly and myself interpreted his statement).

JAY BRISCOE PROMO- he offers to put his ROH World Title on the line next week if the Decade put his vanity belt (now being promoted as Michael Bennett & Maria Kanellis’ “Title of Love”) on the line.

NIGEL MCGUINNESS & TOMMASO CIAMPA SEGMENT- Ciampa won’t be fired because he hit the referee by accident at Final Battle. Nigel tells Ciampa that the zero tolerance policy is still in effect, and also that Nigel put himself on the line convincing the executives not to fire Ciampa, so Nigel says that Ciampa owes him one. Nigel kind of came off like a dick here.
Ciampa tells everyone that he pinned Jay on the UK shows, so he deserves a title shot… which means that ROH promoting Jay as “unpinned” for two years going into Final Battle was a lie. Why would you make this the angle? Why would you shoot your company’s credibility in the foot for no reason? Why not just have Jay lose by count-out or something? Ciampa can still demand a title shot, but this way THE COMPANY ISN’T LYING TO US!
Elgin comes and they have a confrontation. They actually traded some stiff verbal back-and-forth. Elgin suggests making tonight’s #1 contendership match a three-way. The fans like it, so Nigel approves it.

Nigel keeps referring to Hanson as “WarBeard Hanson” like WWE always says “the Demon Kane.” It’s really annoying.

MARIA RPOMO- she says that Jay will never get the title back because ROH will never let him put his hands on her.

CLARIFICATION ABOUT THE CIAMPA-BRISCOE MATCH- it turns out it was just a visual pinfall, which alleviates all of the problems that I ranted about above… but shouldn’t Nigel, Corino, and Kelly known about this and pointed it out to us already? Corino and Kelly were acting as if they had never seen the footage before.

TOP PROSPECT TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: Will Ferrara vs. J Diesel (w/Truth Martini)- 5/10
Both guys looked impressive. This year, instead of an RON TV Title shot at the anniversary show, the winner of the tournament will get his title shot at the TV tapings in Baltimore in March.

#1 CONTENDERSHIP MATCH: Tommaso Ciampa vs. Hanson vs. Michael Elgin- 8.5/10
An AWESOME match that would have been even more awesome without the stupid non-finish. This match combined two of my favorite things: cool, innovative spots, and big strong men hitting each other really hard. I also totally loved the spot where Elgin used Todd Sinclair as a human shield to protect himself from Ciampa. That finish, though… SO STUPID! Why would they throw the match out just because a referee took a bump? That happens ALL THE TIME.

Anyway, ROH starts off 2015 the way it ended 2015: putting on AWESOME TV shows.

[Bulletclubfan2014]

NIGEL MCGUINNESS & TOMMASO CIAMPA SEGMENT- Ciampa won’t be fired because he hit the referee by accident at Final Battle. Nigel tells Ciampa that the zero tolerance policy is still in effect, and also that Nigel put himself on the line convincing the executives not to fire Ciampa, so Nigel says that Ciampa owes him one. Nigel kind of came off like a dick here.
Ciampa tells everyone that he pinned Jay on the UK shows, so he deserves a title shot… which means that ROH promoting Jay as “unpinned” for two years going into Final Battle was a lie. Why would you make this the angle? Why would you shoot your company’s credibility in the foot for no reason? Why not just have Jay lose by count-out or something? Ciampa can still demand a title shot, but this way THE COMPANY ISN’T LYING TO US!

I was surprised you didn't get pissed at Nigel saying the "Higher ups" in ROH didn't watch Final Battle which is supposed to be the biggest show of the year of the company they own

[Big Red Machine]

NIGEL MCGUINNESS & TOMMASO CIAMPA SEGMENT- Ciampa won’t be fired because he hit the referee by accident at Final Battle. Nigel tells Ciampa that the zero tolerance policy is still in effect, and also that Nigel put himself on the line convincing the executives not to fire Ciampa, so Nigel says that Ciampa owes him one. Nigel kind of came off like a dick here.
Ciampa tells everyone that he pinned Jay on the UK shows, so he deserves a title shot… which means that ROH promoting Jay as “unpinned” for two years going into Final Battle was a lie. Why would you make this the angle? Why would you shoot your company’s credibility in the foot for no reason? Why not just have Jay lose by count-out or something? Ciampa can still demand a title shot, but this way THE COMPANY ISN’T LYING TO US!

I was surprised you didn't get pissed at Nigel saying the "Higher ups" in ROH didn't watch Final Battle which is supposed to be the biggest show of the year of the company they own

I took it as meaning Sinclair people, not ROH higher-ups. It thought he just said "higher-ups" rather than "ROH higher-ups."