ROH Road to Best in the World 2015: Oklahoma City
ROH Road to Best in the World 2015: Oklahoma City (5/30/2015)- Oklahoma City, OK
CAPRICE COLEMAN vs. â€"DIRTY†ANDY DALTON (w/â€the Outlaw†Ken Phoenix)- 4/10
Neither one of the Dirty Outlaws appeal to me in any way whatsoever. They’re guys who can do some basic moves and they have dumb characters. Oh. Your name is â€"Dirty†Andy Dalton… so you lick your own boot? Well that’s f*cking stupid. To make matters worse, Dalton in particular looks like a complete and total jobber with his very small stature (even for the indies) and his dorky tattoos. I have no desire to ever see either one of these men in ROH (or any other promotion) ever again.
WINNER GETS A SHOT AT THE ROH TV TITLE LATER TONIGHT: Matt Taven vs. Mark Briscoe vs. Raymond Rowe- 6.5/10
They did a very good job of using the three-way stip, and if this weekend has succeeded in anything, it is getting Mark Briscoe’s super-awesome Fisherman’s Buster over with me as a finisher.
SILAS YOUNG vs. THE ROMANTIC TOUCH- 6/10
Probably should have been a 5.75, but I totally marked out for Corino marking out for RT using the disappearing thumb trick.
WINNER GETS AN ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH LATER TONIGHT: BJ Whitmer vs. Hanson vs. Michael Bennett (w/Maria Kanellis)- 7/10
Some fans gave Whitmer the Jimmy Rave toilet paper treatment. This MUST become a thing.
They told your standard story where the two heels team up against the babyface but their alliance breaks down when it comes to figuring out who should get the pin. Hanson picked up the win here, which really made me realize how disappointed I’ve been with Delirious’ handling of him ever since the 13th Anniversary Show. In the main event of that show, Hanson appeared to have the world title won, and he didn’t wind up eating the pin. Hanson easily could have been built up as a big contender for Jay Briscoe (especially if he had pinned Mark in the Briscoes vs. War Machine match at Conquest Tour: Hopkins instead of the Briscoes going over), and they could have given him that title shot at one of the other Road to Best in the World 2015 Tour shows, to make those shows actually feel important in some way, which none of them do. But instead Hanson is just another guy who won a title shot the same night because he won a random three-way that they were doing solely for the sake of having the world champ and TV champ do the same thing on the same show to show how both guys are equal.
RODERICK STRONG vs. WILL FERRARA- 7.5/10
Remember what I said last night about Jay Briscoe not being a good ROH World Champion because he can’t pull guys to that next level in matches? Well that’s exactly what Roddy did here, pulling Ferrara to BY FAR the best singles match of his ROH career.
MICHAEL ELGIN vs. DALTON CASTLE (w/his boys)- 6.5/10
I’d normally hate that dueling German Suplexes Fighting Spirit spot, but their facial expressions made it mostly work. That being said, this match was given a lot of time and Castle once again really failed to impress me. This is ROH. You can have a whacky character but more than anything, you need to be able to back it up in the ring at an ROH level. Castle hasn’t shown that he can do that yet.
ADAM COLE vs. ACH- 7.75/10
Cole worked over ACH’s head, but unlike last night, ACH’s antics did come off as a bit too douchy, making him not quite as effective a babyface.
ROH TV TITLE MATCH: Jay Lethal(c) (w/Truth Martini) vs. Mark Briscoe- 6.75/10
Not only was the match disappointing, but I was also quite disappointed with the way the announcers handled it. They focused way too much on the â€"Jay Lethal vs. Jay Briscoe’s Brother†aspect of the match and spent no time at all on what seemed to me to be the more important aspect for tonight’s show: both the world champ and the TV champ are doing the same thing. The build to this Lethal vs. Jay Briscoe title vs. title match at the PPV has been all about Lethal’s claim that he has made his belt more prestigious than the ROH World Championship. By doing the same exact thing tonight with both belts, both belts are being placed on an even footing, and the announcers totally missed that.
For that reason, I think Mark’s victory tonight was a big mistake. Mark challenging Lethal was already set up last night with his win, so why not give this title shot to someone else to focus on the Belt vs. Belt aspect tonight, then have Mark challenge for the TV Title next weekend (for a more thought-out version of this scenario, see here: viewtopic.php?f=27&t=15352#p84471).
ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Jay Briscoe(c) vs. Hanson- 7.75/10
These guys knew that with their styles, the best type of match they could have together would be a knock-down, drag-out slobber-knocker, so that’s what they had. A great main event, although I thought that the tease of interference by Lethal (and Mark and Rowe showing up to stop him) hurt the match by interrupting its flow.
A good show from ROH, but nothing that can really be called great, especially with the disappointing Lethal vs. Briscoe match and the failure to get across the concept of what they were trying to do with the two title matches and two three-ways to qualify for said title matches. In the end, this is a show that has some very good wrestling on it, but is totally skippable.
CAPRICE COLEMAN vs. â€"DIRTY†ANDY DALTON (w/â€the Outlaw†Ken Phoenix)- 4/10
Neither one of the Dirty Outlaws appeal to me in any way whatsoever. They’re guys who can do some basic moves and they have dumb characters. Oh. Your name is â€"Dirty†Andy Dalton… so you lick your own boot? Well that’s f*cking stupid. To make matters worse, Dalton in particular looks like a complete and total jobber with his very small stature (even for the indies) and his dorky tattoos. I have no desire to ever see either one of these men in ROH (or any other promotion) ever again.
WINNER GETS A SHOT AT THE ROH TV TITLE LATER TONIGHT: Matt Taven vs. Mark Briscoe vs. Raymond Rowe- 6.5/10
They did a very good job of using the three-way stip, and if this weekend has succeeded in anything, it is getting Mark Briscoe’s super-awesome Fisherman’s Buster over with me as a finisher.
SILAS YOUNG vs. THE ROMANTIC TOUCH- 6/10
Probably should have been a 5.75, but I totally marked out for Corino marking out for RT using the disappearing thumb trick.
WINNER GETS AN ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH LATER TONIGHT: BJ Whitmer vs. Hanson vs. Michael Bennett (w/Maria Kanellis)- 7/10
Some fans gave Whitmer the Jimmy Rave toilet paper treatment. This MUST become a thing.
They told your standard story where the two heels team up against the babyface but their alliance breaks down when it comes to figuring out who should get the pin. Hanson picked up the win here, which really made me realize how disappointed I’ve been with Delirious’ handling of him ever since the 13th Anniversary Show. In the main event of that show, Hanson appeared to have the world title won, and he didn’t wind up eating the pin. Hanson easily could have been built up as a big contender for Jay Briscoe (especially if he had pinned Mark in the Briscoes vs. War Machine match at Conquest Tour: Hopkins instead of the Briscoes going over), and they could have given him that title shot at one of the other Road to Best in the World 2015 Tour shows, to make those shows actually feel important in some way, which none of them do. But instead Hanson is just another guy who won a title shot the same night because he won a random three-way that they were doing solely for the sake of having the world champ and TV champ do the same thing on the same show to show how both guys are equal.
RODERICK STRONG vs. WILL FERRARA- 7.5/10
Remember what I said last night about Jay Briscoe not being a good ROH World Champion because he can’t pull guys to that next level in matches? Well that’s exactly what Roddy did here, pulling Ferrara to BY FAR the best singles match of his ROH career.
MICHAEL ELGIN vs. DALTON CASTLE (w/his boys)- 6.5/10
I’d normally hate that dueling German Suplexes Fighting Spirit spot, but their facial expressions made it mostly work. That being said, this match was given a lot of time and Castle once again really failed to impress me. This is ROH. You can have a whacky character but more than anything, you need to be able to back it up in the ring at an ROH level. Castle hasn’t shown that he can do that yet.
ADAM COLE vs. ACH- 7.75/10
Cole worked over ACH’s head, but unlike last night, ACH’s antics did come off as a bit too douchy, making him not quite as effective a babyface.
ROH TV TITLE MATCH: Jay Lethal(c) (w/Truth Martini) vs. Mark Briscoe- 6.75/10
Not only was the match disappointing, but I was also quite disappointed with the way the announcers handled it. They focused way too much on the â€"Jay Lethal vs. Jay Briscoe’s Brother†aspect of the match and spent no time at all on what seemed to me to be the more important aspect for tonight’s show: both the world champ and the TV champ are doing the same thing. The build to this Lethal vs. Jay Briscoe title vs. title match at the PPV has been all about Lethal’s claim that he has made his belt more prestigious than the ROH World Championship. By doing the same exact thing tonight with both belts, both belts are being placed on an even footing, and the announcers totally missed that.
For that reason, I think Mark’s victory tonight was a big mistake. Mark challenging Lethal was already set up last night with his win, so why not give this title shot to someone else to focus on the Belt vs. Belt aspect tonight, then have Mark challenge for the TV Title next weekend (for a more thought-out version of this scenario, see here: viewtopic.php?f=27&t=15352#p84471).
ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Jay Briscoe(c) vs. Hanson- 7.75/10
These guys knew that with their styles, the best type of match they could have together would be a knock-down, drag-out slobber-knocker, so that’s what they had. A great main event, although I thought that the tease of interference by Lethal (and Mark and Rowe showing up to stop him) hurt the match by interrupting its flow.
A good show from ROH, but nothing that can really be called great, especially with the disappointing Lethal vs. Briscoe match and the failure to get across the concept of what they were trying to do with the two title matches and two three-ways to qualify for said title matches. In the end, this is a show that has some very good wrestling on it, but is totally skippable.