Cero's Mid-Week Wrestling Review (July 9, 2015)

[cero2k]

Good: Vaudvillians winning, not because I think the gimmick is awesome, but because putting them in the title contention means that it changes up the title scene a bit, and could potentially lead to some much needed development in their gimmicks.

Bad: The women's build up. Several things i didn't like. (1) Why make both (and only) heels submit clean ? (2) Team BFF shouldn't be all super happy friendly all of the sudden, Sasha shouldn't trust Charlotte just like that, (3) Charlotte's 'promo' sucked, and (4) while i'm guessing it'll be Charlotte's goodbye match, why are we going back to Charlotte vs Sasha again?

Change: WWE needs to capitalize on Marcus Louis and graduate him to the main roster ASAP as Wyatt's creature-lacky, he has the whole Hills Have Eyes/Texas Chainsaw Massacre thing going on, perfect for Wyatt.

Good: THAT FUCKING ENDING!! YES!!

Bad: The whole idea for the Mil Muertes congregation vs Trios Champions is awesome, the backstage segment was perfect, BUT the match itself was poorly executed, or better said, it shouldn't have been like that. Son of Havoc shouldn't be getting so much offense over the unstoppable monster that is being built up for the title, this should have been like Grave Consequences, where Muertes completely dominates the match and every now and then, Son of Havoc would have a super kick or a dive, but then immediately get cut off again. This should had been a beating to a point where Ivelisse and Angelico actually look concerned, Son of Havoc shouldn't have played the crowd when he saved Angelico and Ivelisse, and lastly, I would have liked to see Angelico try to fend off the minions before getting his ass kicked. I just felt this was way to balanced of a match. Also, no Dario Cueto this episode.

Change: The Vampiro/Pentagon Jr interview. Pentagon Jr was amazing, Vampiro was for the most part good, but the whole environment was not the best idea to further this story, I think there could have been a better way to make this interaction other than the sit down interviews.

Good: I usually give it to Dalton Castle, but I'm gonna give it to his BOYS tonight, the chants, the expressions, the fanning, that chair structure. Perfect!

Bad: Production. The same complain I always have. They took sooooo long to give us follow up on Lethal winning the title, that the opening video feels like it's unnecessary because it's been so long, but at the same time, if fells like it's missing so much since we haven't heard shit since either.

Change: If you're doing a segment (e.g. Castle vs Silas), END THE FUCKING SEGMENT! That's my change, end the segment, this was worst than TNA having Lashely walk out while ECIII was barely leaving the ring.

Good: I'm a sucker for shows ran by the heel wrestler just messing around with all faces. So ECIII made my night tonight.

Bad: Aunt D is back. Without lapdog Spud, there is no point in Dixie being on screen again. On the bright side, she said TNA doesn't belong to her, it belongs to me, and immediately effective, The Serotonin is to be reinstated.

Change: No need to run half of ECIII's gauntlet in the middle of the show and then do the 3rd match as the main event. Change it to have everything during the same segment.

Promotion of the Week: NXT was really lacking in the in ring department, ROH was a week late and felt outdated, and Impact didn't really touch on anything other than ECIII's first day as champ, SO Lucha Underground take the week for giving me some good action, follow up on some stories, and Pentagon Freaking Junior.
Rankings: LU (1st), TNA (2nd), ROH (3rd), NXT (4th)

MVP of the Week: E C III

[Big Red Machine]

Totally agree on the first two.

With ROH I think you're WAY too hung up on this timing thing. I think they did it as best they could so that they would be able to really push the replay last week.

I also totally disagree with you about Dixie. She's not coming back as a character. They are using her like WWE occasionally uses Vince as someone to come in and precipitate a change to the status quo. Except that unlike WWE, they actually let her explain the fact that she was turning.

[cero2k]

Totally agree on the first two.

With ROH I think you're WAY too hung up on this timing thing. I think they did it as best they could so that they would be able to really push the replay last week.
It really bothers me that from all these 4 shows/promotions (which are all pre-taped months in advanced), ROH is the only one that fails at continuity of what they air and feels outdated. NXT did post editing to fix Zayn getting hurt in RAW, in this week, they showed Balor vs Owens again; TNA while their tapings are a mess, didn't spoil anything between Slammiversary and Bell to Bell and continuity made sense. ROH not only takes a while to address storylines, they show guys with titles that they don't have anymore or guys that were in the promotion for 1 week more than a month ago.

I also totally disagree with you about Dixie. She's not coming back as a character. They are using her like WWE occasionally uses Vince as someone to come in and precipitate a change to the status quo. Except that unlike WWE, they actually let her explain the fact that she was turning.
Hopefully you're right, my initial reaction (along with the plans of the GFW/TNA feud) that Dixie would be the one to be antagonized by Jarrett.

[Big Red Machine]

Totally agree on the first two.

With ROH I think you're WAY too hung up on this timing thing. I think they did it as best they could so that they would be able to really push the replay last week.
It really bothers me that from all these 4 shows/promotions (which are all pre-taped months in advanced), ROH is the only one that fails at continuity of what they air and feels outdated. NXT did post editing to fix Zayn getting hurt in RAW, in this week, they showed Balor vs Owens again; TNA while their tapings are a mess, didn't spoil anything between Slammiversary and Bell to Bell and continuity made sense. ROH not only takes a while to address storylines, they show guys with titles that they don't have anymore or guys that were in the promotion for 1 week more than a month ago.

TNA had that stuff ready because they taped out of order and KILLED ALL INTEREST IN THEIR PPV. And I would argue that they didn have things out of order because of the PPV. How about Magnus saying this was the last time he and Storm would wrestle in TNA... and then they're out there feuding again on TV.
ROH taped in order and because of that, it would have been completely impossible for them to have footage ready for the week after the PPV because by the time the show would have aired on most Sinclair affiliates, the tapings hadn't finished yet. There was literally ONE WEEK where it would have been possible for ROH to provide new content when they instead chose to provide something else, and they used that time to not only show awesome matches and plug a DVD/VOD for sale, but also to build up the replay of the PPV.
RE titles they don't have anymore, what are you referring to? AJ and the IWGP title? That's on New Japan, not ROH.

NXT has WWE's money and personnel behind them, and all they did was edit one segment into a show. What ROH would have had to do was put an entire TV show together in less than a week (it depends when the Sinclair affiliates all need their tapes by). And I'm not saying that's impossible. I'm saying that with ROH's limited budget, I think they did not only an acceptable job but a job that helped their business as best they could by plugging the PPV. They had new graphics and voice overs by Kevin Kelly plugging not only the replay, but plugging that the new champ would be on TV next week.

[cero2k]

Totally agree on the first two.

With ROH I think you're WAY too hung up on this timing thing. I think they did it as best they could so that they would be able to really push the replay last week.
It really bothers me that from all these 4 shows/promotions (which are all pre-taped months in advanced), ROH is the only one that fails at continuity of what they air and feels outdated. NXT did post editing to fix Zayn getting hurt in RAW, in this week, they showed Balor vs Owens again; TNA while their tapings are a mess, didn't spoil anything between Slammiversary and Bell to Bell and continuity made sense. ROH not only takes a while to address storylines, they show guys with titles that they don't have anymore or guys that were in the promotion for 1 week more than a month ago.

TNA had that stuff ready because they taped out of order and KILLED ALL INTEREST IN THEIR PPV. And I would argue that they didn have things out of order because of the PPV. How about Magnus saying this was the last time he and Storm would wrestle in TNA... and then they're out there feuding again on TV.
ROH taped in order and because of that, it would have been completely impossible for them to have footage ready for the week after the PPV because by the time the show would have aired on most Sinclair affiliates, the tapings hadn't finished yet. There was literally ONE WEEK where it would have been possible for ROH to provide new content when they instead chose to provide something else, and they used that time to not only show awesome matches and plug a DVD/VOD for sale, but also to build up the replay of the PPV.
RE titles they don't have anymore, what are you referring to? AJ and the IWGP title? That's on New Japan, not ROH.

NXT has WWE's money and personnel behind them, and all they did was edit one segment into a show. What ROH would have had to do was put an entire TV show together in less than a week (it depends when the Sinclair affiliates all need their tapes by). And I'm not saying that's impossible. I'm saying that with ROH's limited budget, I think they did not only an acceptable job but a job that helped their business as best they could by plugging the PPV. They had new graphics and voice overs by Kevin Kelly plugging not only the replay, but plugging that the new champ would be on TV next week.

How exactly did they kill the interest of their PPV? nothing was spoiled, continuity was kept, the only argument would be to push matches to Impact, but that has nothing to do with continuity and taping disorder. Yeah, Magnus made a comment that made the match feel a lot more special, and then i got swerved on impact, nothing bad about that.

the only difference in ROH is that they still think like an indie, they cater to their (limited) live audience, their primary focus is on those 1000-5000 max people that can go watch them live, not to those other million ones trying to follow on TV, trying to get into the product now that it's widely available.

That opening segment for the Jays likely took like one hour to do, they were pictures with a filter, they could have had that ready before the finished taking apart the ring, an intern can do that, you don't even need a budget for that

[Big Red Machine]

Totally agree on the first two.

With ROH I think you're WAY too hung up on this timing thing. I think they did it as best they could so that they would be able to really push the replay last week.
It really bothers me that from all these 4 shows/promotions (which are all pre-taped months in advanced), ROH is the only one that fails at continuity of what they air and feels outdated. NXT did post editing to fix Zayn getting hurt in RAW, in this week, they showed Balor vs Owens again; TNA while their tapings are a mess, didn't spoil anything between Slammiversary and Bell to Bell and continuity made sense. ROH not only takes a while to address storylines, they show guys with titles that they don't have anymore or guys that were in the promotion for 1 week more than a month ago.

TNA had that stuff ready because they taped out of order and KILLED ALL INTEREST IN THEIR PPV. And I would argue that they didn have things out of order because of the PPV. How about Magnus saying this was the last time he and Storm would wrestle in TNA... and then they're out there feuding again on TV.
ROH taped in order and because of that, it would have been completely impossible for them to have footage ready for the week after the PPV because by the time the show would have aired on most Sinclair affiliates, the tapings hadn't finished yet. There was literally ONE WEEK where it would have been possible for ROH to provide new content when they instead chose to provide something else, and they used that time to not only show awesome matches and plug a DVD/VOD for sale, but also to build up the replay of the PPV.
RE titles they don't have anymore, what are you referring to? AJ and the IWGP title? That's on New Japan, not ROH.

NXT has WWE's money and personnel behind them, and all they did was edit one segment into a show. What ROH would have had to do was put an entire TV show together in less than a week (it depends when the Sinclair affiliates all need their tapes by). And I'm not saying that's impossible. I'm saying that with ROH's limited budget, I think they did not only an acceptable job but a job that helped their business as best they could by plugging the PPV. They had new graphics and voice overs by Kevin Kelly plugging not only the replay, but plugging that the new champ would be on TV next week.

How exactly did they kill the interest of their PPV? nothing was spoiled, continuity was kept, the only argument would be to push matches to Impact, but that has nothing to do with continuity and taping disorder. Yeah, Magnus made a comment that made the match feel a lot more special, and then i got swerved on impact, nothing bad about that.

Because they took the matches designed to sell said PPV and put them on Impact, then filled the PPV with matches that didn't matter at all?


the only difference in ROH is that they still think like an indie, they cater to their (limited) live audience, their primary focus is on those 1000-5000 max people that can go watch them live, not to those other million ones trying to follow on TV, trying to get into the product now that it's widely available.
Why do you assume they aren't catering to those people? If they weren't, they wouldn't be doing these Road Rage shows like the one they did the filler week.
They're not thinking like an indy. They're thinking like a business. They are showing you the great matches you can get on the DVDs or how cool it will be to pay for a ticket to go to a live show in your area or trying to get you to buy their PPV. ROH is making more money now than they have at any other point in their history, have more markets growing faster than other point in their history, and have bigger crowds on average now than any other point in their history (and that even includes the loss of their biggest building). Why do you assume that the same strategies that have worked in Sinclair markets won't work in DA markets (especially when the biggest DA markets are NY and Chicago where ROH runs more often than almost anywhere else?

That opening segment for the Jays likely took like one hour to do, they were pictures with a filter, they could have had that ready before the finished taking apart the ring, an intern can do that, you don't even need a budget for that[/color]
Except that giving away the finish of the match the PPV was build around would kill the replay. It made a lot more sense to plug the replay hard and promote that "the world champion coming out of BITW would be on TV next week."