BRM Reviews Terminus All. Roads. Lead. Here.
Posted: Jan 19th, '22, 22:17
Terminus All. Roads. Lead. Here. (1/16/2022)- Atlanta, GA
Suge D and Faye Jackson are our hosts and backstage interviewers. They did some interviews and hyped up the show, but audio problems made this completely unwatchable.
JOSH WOODS vs. LEE MORIARTY- 6.5/10
Moriarty wins a clean grappling match with some strikes thrown in.
TERMINAL ELIMINATOR FOUR-WAY MATCH: Adam Priest vs. JDX vs. Invictus Khash vs. Daniel Garcia- 6/10
This starts out as a four-way with tags needed until the first elimination, at which point the tags cease being necessary.
During the first match I was thinking it would have been great if we had a clock to tell us the time left in the match, and now they’ve got one! Not only that, but it’s got the wrestlers’ names on the graphic, too, like you’d see watching a sporting event on TV. HOORAY!
JDX was the first man eliminated, when he did a single-leg take-down but managed to get hit in the ground by the falling Garcia’s leg and got pinned. That made him look like an idiot. Garcia pinned Priest with a flash pin soon after, leaving him and Khash, but not for long, as he knocked Khash out with a palm strike, so a big push for Garcia.
After the match, Garcia grabbed his unconscious opponent’s arm and mockingly shook his hand and clapped.
MIKE BENNETT vs. MOOSE- 5.5/10
Matt Taven joined Dave Prazak and Lenny Leonard on commentary for this match.
They had a good little match telling a story about Bennett overcoming Moose’s size advantage. Moose got DQed for throwing Bennett over the top rope twice.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- fine
Alex Coughlin, who was originally booked but had to pull out due to injury, confronted Moose at the curtain.
DIAMANTE vs. JANAI KAI- 5.75/10
A good battle of the striker against the wrestler. Diamante got the win.
IMPACT WRESTLING DIGITAL MEDIA TITLE MATCH: Jordynne Grace(c) vs. Kiera Hogan- 6/10
Title matches in other promotions are contested under the rules of that promotion. The ring announcer announced this as the ROH World Title match at first and then corrected himself. Oops.
Grace won clean to retain her title.
BARON BLACK PROMO- mixed
This was a pre-tape rather than an in-ring interview. I figured I should mention that because this is the first promo we’ve had during a Terminus show.
The first part of this was him just dropping buzzwords and references, and it was quite painful. The second part, where he was talking about actually wrestling (and taking the ROH World Title from) Bandido was excellent.
ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Bandido(c) vs. Baron Black- 6/10
They apparently couldn’t get rid of he graphic with the fifteen-minute clock, so we had that on the screen even though this match had a sixty-minute time limit. Oops.
This wasn’t bad or anything, but never felt like it got out of second gear. Bandido won cleanly, and we got a nice show of respect after the match.
FRED YEHI & TRACY WILLIAMS vs. JOE KEYS & DANTE CABALLERO- 7.25/10
This was the best match on the show so far. I was pleasantly surprised to see the youngsters be given the win, but it did a great job of establishing them as players here in Terminus. Piggybacking on the idea of Catchpoint to have them beat an established team rather than just a random pair of big names was a good idea as well.
JONATHAN GRESHAM PROMO- okay
He was a little too over the top. It was too much of a speech.
JOSH ALEXANDER PROMO- very good
He did a better job at coming across as dramatic without giving too much of a speech.
PURE RULES MATCH FOR THE ORIGINAL ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Jonathan Gresham(c) vs. Josh Alexander- 7.5/10
Both guys worked the knee and they had an exciting Pure Rules grappling contest… and then someone made the bizarre decision to end it with a double-pin. I get that it builds to a rematch and that it now adds a third person with a claim to the ROH World Title, but don’t do this in the freakin’ main event!
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- bad
Gresham and Alexander shake hands and Gresham leaves. Bandido then came out. I was expecting him to cut a promo saying that his ROH World Title is the valid one and Gresham losing tonight while Bandido won proves it, but instead he just offered Gresham a handshake. Gresham went to accept, but then someone’s music played and out came… Santana from LAX. That was random.
Santana cut a promo putting the promotion over and putting over his history with Gresham. It was nice to hear him say those things, but he went on for WAY too long. He challenged Gresham for Gresham’s title on the next show.
Gresham got the mic and started to cut a promo, and I assumed he would say something along the lines of he’d be glad to wrestle Santana, but he can’t, in good conscience, put the title on the line until he cleanly beats Josh Alexander, but no. He just went on accepting the challenge as if he didn’t just get pinned. Between this weirdness and the fact that their big surprise to be the hook for the next show is a midcard tag team guy, this whole thing fell completely flat to me.
This was a decent first show from Terminus. The production issues were certainly not a good thing, but they weren’t the sort of thing that got in the way of enjoying the show (well… the main show with the wrestling, anyway), and presentation was very fun. Prazak and Lenny were great (although towards the end Prazak did get a little too… Prazak-y), and it felt like a place where you could go to see a slightly different side of a Daniel Garcia or Mike Bennett or Santana, and a place that is going to do its best to identify and push good young talent like Keys and Cabellaro. People were worried going in that the rules would get in the way, but that didn’t feel like the case at all here (although the “if another promotion’s title is on the line we’ll use their rules and time limits” thing did help there, and I certainly wouldn’t mind if they raised the time limits). Honestly, the biggest shock to me is that coming out of the first show, the biggest question mark feels like the booking. But they certainly showed me enough to get me to commit to watching at least the next show, even without a card announced, and that’s pretty much the best a promotion can do for its first show.
Suge D and Faye Jackson are our hosts and backstage interviewers. They did some interviews and hyped up the show, but audio problems made this completely unwatchable.
JOSH WOODS vs. LEE MORIARTY- 6.5/10
Moriarty wins a clean grappling match with some strikes thrown in.
TERMINAL ELIMINATOR FOUR-WAY MATCH: Adam Priest vs. JDX vs. Invictus Khash vs. Daniel Garcia- 6/10
This starts out as a four-way with tags needed until the first elimination, at which point the tags cease being necessary.
During the first match I was thinking it would have been great if we had a clock to tell us the time left in the match, and now they’ve got one! Not only that, but it’s got the wrestlers’ names on the graphic, too, like you’d see watching a sporting event on TV. HOORAY!
JDX was the first man eliminated, when he did a single-leg take-down but managed to get hit in the ground by the falling Garcia’s leg and got pinned. That made him look like an idiot. Garcia pinned Priest with a flash pin soon after, leaving him and Khash, but not for long, as he knocked Khash out with a palm strike, so a big push for Garcia.
After the match, Garcia grabbed his unconscious opponent’s arm and mockingly shook his hand and clapped.
MIKE BENNETT vs. MOOSE- 5.5/10
Matt Taven joined Dave Prazak and Lenny Leonard on commentary for this match.
They had a good little match telling a story about Bennett overcoming Moose’s size advantage. Moose got DQed for throwing Bennett over the top rope twice.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- fine
Alex Coughlin, who was originally booked but had to pull out due to injury, confronted Moose at the curtain.
DIAMANTE vs. JANAI KAI- 5.75/10
A good battle of the striker against the wrestler. Diamante got the win.
IMPACT WRESTLING DIGITAL MEDIA TITLE MATCH: Jordynne Grace(c) vs. Kiera Hogan- 6/10
Title matches in other promotions are contested under the rules of that promotion. The ring announcer announced this as the ROH World Title match at first and then corrected himself. Oops.
Grace won clean to retain her title.
BARON BLACK PROMO- mixed
This was a pre-tape rather than an in-ring interview. I figured I should mention that because this is the first promo we’ve had during a Terminus show.
The first part of this was him just dropping buzzwords and references, and it was quite painful. The second part, where he was talking about actually wrestling (and taking the ROH World Title from) Bandido was excellent.
ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Bandido(c) vs. Baron Black- 6/10
They apparently couldn’t get rid of he graphic with the fifteen-minute clock, so we had that on the screen even though this match had a sixty-minute time limit. Oops.
This wasn’t bad or anything, but never felt like it got out of second gear. Bandido won cleanly, and we got a nice show of respect after the match.
FRED YEHI & TRACY WILLIAMS vs. JOE KEYS & DANTE CABALLERO- 7.25/10
This was the best match on the show so far. I was pleasantly surprised to see the youngsters be given the win, but it did a great job of establishing them as players here in Terminus. Piggybacking on the idea of Catchpoint to have them beat an established team rather than just a random pair of big names was a good idea as well.
JONATHAN GRESHAM PROMO- okay
He was a little too over the top. It was too much of a speech.
JOSH ALEXANDER PROMO- very good
He did a better job at coming across as dramatic without giving too much of a speech.
PURE RULES MATCH FOR THE ORIGINAL ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Jonathan Gresham(c) vs. Josh Alexander- 7.5/10
Both guys worked the knee and they had an exciting Pure Rules grappling contest… and then someone made the bizarre decision to end it with a double-pin. I get that it builds to a rematch and that it now adds a third person with a claim to the ROH World Title, but don’t do this in the freakin’ main event!
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- bad
Gresham and Alexander shake hands and Gresham leaves. Bandido then came out. I was expecting him to cut a promo saying that his ROH World Title is the valid one and Gresham losing tonight while Bandido won proves it, but instead he just offered Gresham a handshake. Gresham went to accept, but then someone’s music played and out came… Santana from LAX. That was random.
Santana cut a promo putting the promotion over and putting over his history with Gresham. It was nice to hear him say those things, but he went on for WAY too long. He challenged Gresham for Gresham’s title on the next show.
Gresham got the mic and started to cut a promo, and I assumed he would say something along the lines of he’d be glad to wrestle Santana, but he can’t, in good conscience, put the title on the line until he cleanly beats Josh Alexander, but no. He just went on accepting the challenge as if he didn’t just get pinned. Between this weirdness and the fact that their big surprise to be the hook for the next show is a midcard tag team guy, this whole thing fell completely flat to me.
This was a decent first show from Terminus. The production issues were certainly not a good thing, but they weren’t the sort of thing that got in the way of enjoying the show (well… the main show with the wrestling, anyway), and presentation was very fun. Prazak and Lenny were great (although towards the end Prazak did get a little too… Prazak-y), and it felt like a place where you could go to see a slightly different side of a Daniel Garcia or Mike Bennett or Santana, and a place that is going to do its best to identify and push good young talent like Keys and Cabellaro. People were worried going in that the rules would get in the way, but that didn’t feel like the case at all here (although the “if another promotion’s title is on the line we’ll use their rules and time limits” thing did help there, and I certainly wouldn’t mind if they raised the time limits). Honestly, the biggest shock to me is that coming out of the first show, the biggest question mark feels like the booking. But they certainly showed me enough to get me to commit to watching at least the next show, even without a card announced, and that’s pretty much the best a promotion can do for its first show.