ROH Road to Best in the World 2015: Nashville
ROH Road to Best in the World 2015: Nashville (6/6/2015)- Nashville, TN
HOUSE OF TRUTH SEGMENT- Truth has somehow booked a three-way for a shot at the ROH TV Title later tonight. Delirious got REALLY f*cking lazy on this tour.
WINNER GETS A SHOT AT THE ROH TV TITLE LATER TONIGHT: Mikey Posey vs. Corey Hollis vs. Samson Walker- 2.75/10
So this match is not listed on the jewel case… but the winner vs. Lethal is, so nice job spoiling sh*t ROH. And even if this hadn’t happened, Lethal was on commentary (they had a booth set up, but no one as there so Truth and Lethal did commentary) and he put over that he was afraid of Walker (who is large and scary) but not of the other two, who are small.
Why does ROH still book Hollis and Posey? It’s been years and have failed to get over both as a tag team and as singles wrestlers. Posey completely failed to sell the camel clutch, even while he was IN the move! They all had a boring and uninteresting match which all but killed my enthusiasm for this show. Maybe it was supposed to be a pre-show match that they didn’t bill as one because while we got the short form of the opening before the match, we got an extended one after it and found Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino doing commentary as usual.
DANNY ADAMS & PACO GONZALEZ vs. THE KINGDOM (w/Maria Kanellis)- pointless squash
Adams and Gonzalez got no entrances. It seems like the only reason this match even happened was because Adams and Gonzalez were trained by Michael Elgin and he wanted them to get a shot on the show.
So the Kingdom squash these two nobodies, then cut promos saying they want to be in tonight’s main event. Even Maria was bored during this. Why not just have the Kingdom be in the main event in the first place and let Elgin’s kids actually show what they can do by wrestling each other on the pre-show?
By now we are twenty-five minutes into the show- TWO MATCHES- and I feel like everything I have seen so far was a waste of time.
WILL FERRARA vs. ADAM PAGE (w/BJ Whitmer)- 6.5/10
They had a good match, but I’d have liked to see this used as an opportunity to give these two some more time. After the match Whitmer beat Ferrara up a bit, then initiated a shouting match with Corino.
FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL MATCH: Silas Young vs. Cheeseburger vs. BJ Whitmer (w/Adam Page) vs. Moose (w/Stokely Hathaway)- 6.5/10
Adam Page dropped by on commentary except that they didn’t have a headset for him so you could barely hear him.
Moose steals a pin from Whitmer to repay Whitmer for stealing a pin from him at an earlier show (TV taping, I think). This happened over two months ago and I, a hardcore ROH fan, was not aware that this feud was even going on. A poor job of storytelling on behalf of Delirious, the announcers, or both.
RODERICK STRONG vs. DALTON CASTLE (w/his boys)- 8/10
Roddy proves he can have an awesome match with anybody. I’m not saying Castle is bad because he’s not. He’s obviously got a lot of talent. I’m just saying that in this match, it felt like he was simply playing the role of â€"the guy in there with Roddy.â€
ROH TV TITLE MATCH: Jay Lethal(c) (w/Truth Martini) vs. Samson Walker- 3/10
I know it was decently early in the math, but would it really have made a difference if this nobody kicked out of Lethal’s finisher at two instead of one?
The match wasn’t bad for the time it got, but the time it got was very short.
ODB PROMO- she says she has already had more than few drinks before coming to work tonight. That’s professional. She said should make an open challenge tonight, and she wants the person (she specified that she didn’t care if it was a â€"girl or a boy or a manâ€) with â€"the biggest balls†to come out and â€"get the BAM†and as she said â€"BAM†she thrusted her vagina forward. At this point I’m not sure if she wants to wrestle the person who comes out or have sex with him/her. The challenge was answered by the Romantic Touch, which doesn’t help clarify things.
ODB vs. THE ROMANTIC TOUCH- 1.5/10
They had a comedy match that went on for too long before Jay Lethal showed up to give ODB a superkick. Jay Briscoe showed up to chase Lethal off because THIS was the best way they could come up with to build what they are calling the biggest feud in ROH history.
For those wondering: yes, it is actually possible to play the bongo drums on ODB’s breasts. RT did so in this match.
MICHAEL ELGIN vs. MATT SYDAL- 7.75/10
FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL MATCH: The Addiction vs. The Briscoes vs. War Machine vs. The Kingdom (w/Maria Kanellis)- 8.25/10
The jewel case listed this as a tag team title match, but on the show it was non-title. That’s false advertising right there, and that’s not cool.
The match was the sort of mayhem filled match you’d expect and it was quite awesome.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- didn’t like it.
The heels had a staredown with each heel team holding up their tag titles. Unfortunately, given Delirious’ track record so far, I have very little faith that anything will come of this (and the fact that they didn’t do anything to build up the possibility of that match before Taven and Bennett lost the IWGP tag titles all but confirms this fear).
Then the babyfaces all attacked the heels from behind for no reason. This was done to create some sort of chaos so that Jay Lethal could sneak in to brawl with Jay Briscoe to build up their big title match at Best in the World. I know I complained earlier about how lame the build to this match was in the earlier segment, but this still came off as dull to me. It was completely unimaginative and really just felt like something we’d seen from this feud a million times before (even if that’s not quite true). Lethal ran away, and Briscoe cut a short promo on him.
Like the previous night’s show, this show had a lot of good action (this show definitely had higher highs, but it also had much lower lows), but it feels almost entirely unnecessary. The only thing that appears to have been even close to important is the finish to the four corner survival (and if you really want to argue it, the continuation of the House of Truth vs. ODB feud, but the less said about that, the better). Get it if you’re looking for action, but if you’re more of a storylines person, I’d stay away.
HOUSE OF TRUTH SEGMENT- Truth has somehow booked a three-way for a shot at the ROH TV Title later tonight. Delirious got REALLY f*cking lazy on this tour.
WINNER GETS A SHOT AT THE ROH TV TITLE LATER TONIGHT: Mikey Posey vs. Corey Hollis vs. Samson Walker- 2.75/10
So this match is not listed on the jewel case… but the winner vs. Lethal is, so nice job spoiling sh*t ROH. And even if this hadn’t happened, Lethal was on commentary (they had a booth set up, but no one as there so Truth and Lethal did commentary) and he put over that he was afraid of Walker (who is large and scary) but not of the other two, who are small.
Why does ROH still book Hollis and Posey? It’s been years and have failed to get over both as a tag team and as singles wrestlers. Posey completely failed to sell the camel clutch, even while he was IN the move! They all had a boring and uninteresting match which all but killed my enthusiasm for this show. Maybe it was supposed to be a pre-show match that they didn’t bill as one because while we got the short form of the opening before the match, we got an extended one after it and found Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino doing commentary as usual.
DANNY ADAMS & PACO GONZALEZ vs. THE KINGDOM (w/Maria Kanellis)- pointless squash
Adams and Gonzalez got no entrances. It seems like the only reason this match even happened was because Adams and Gonzalez were trained by Michael Elgin and he wanted them to get a shot on the show.
So the Kingdom squash these two nobodies, then cut promos saying they want to be in tonight’s main event. Even Maria was bored during this. Why not just have the Kingdom be in the main event in the first place and let Elgin’s kids actually show what they can do by wrestling each other on the pre-show?
By now we are twenty-five minutes into the show- TWO MATCHES- and I feel like everything I have seen so far was a waste of time.
WILL FERRARA vs. ADAM PAGE (w/BJ Whitmer)- 6.5/10
They had a good match, but I’d have liked to see this used as an opportunity to give these two some more time. After the match Whitmer beat Ferrara up a bit, then initiated a shouting match with Corino.
FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL MATCH: Silas Young vs. Cheeseburger vs. BJ Whitmer (w/Adam Page) vs. Moose (w/Stokely Hathaway)- 6.5/10
Adam Page dropped by on commentary except that they didn’t have a headset for him so you could barely hear him.
Moose steals a pin from Whitmer to repay Whitmer for stealing a pin from him at an earlier show (TV taping, I think). This happened over two months ago and I, a hardcore ROH fan, was not aware that this feud was even going on. A poor job of storytelling on behalf of Delirious, the announcers, or both.
RODERICK STRONG vs. DALTON CASTLE (w/his boys)- 8/10
Roddy proves he can have an awesome match with anybody. I’m not saying Castle is bad because he’s not. He’s obviously got a lot of talent. I’m just saying that in this match, it felt like he was simply playing the role of â€"the guy in there with Roddy.â€
ROH TV TITLE MATCH: Jay Lethal(c) (w/Truth Martini) vs. Samson Walker- 3/10
I know it was decently early in the math, but would it really have made a difference if this nobody kicked out of Lethal’s finisher at two instead of one?
The match wasn’t bad for the time it got, but the time it got was very short.
ODB PROMO- she says she has already had more than few drinks before coming to work tonight. That’s professional. She said should make an open challenge tonight, and she wants the person (she specified that she didn’t care if it was a â€"girl or a boy or a manâ€) with â€"the biggest balls†to come out and â€"get the BAM†and as she said â€"BAM†she thrusted her vagina forward. At this point I’m not sure if she wants to wrestle the person who comes out or have sex with him/her. The challenge was answered by the Romantic Touch, which doesn’t help clarify things.
ODB vs. THE ROMANTIC TOUCH- 1.5/10
They had a comedy match that went on for too long before Jay Lethal showed up to give ODB a superkick. Jay Briscoe showed up to chase Lethal off because THIS was the best way they could come up with to build what they are calling the biggest feud in ROH history.
For those wondering: yes, it is actually possible to play the bongo drums on ODB’s breasts. RT did so in this match.
MICHAEL ELGIN vs. MATT SYDAL- 7.75/10
FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL MATCH: The Addiction vs. The Briscoes vs. War Machine vs. The Kingdom (w/Maria Kanellis)- 8.25/10
The jewel case listed this as a tag team title match, but on the show it was non-title. That’s false advertising right there, and that’s not cool.
The match was the sort of mayhem filled match you’d expect and it was quite awesome.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- didn’t like it.
The heels had a staredown with each heel team holding up their tag titles. Unfortunately, given Delirious’ track record so far, I have very little faith that anything will come of this (and the fact that they didn’t do anything to build up the possibility of that match before Taven and Bennett lost the IWGP tag titles all but confirms this fear).
Then the babyfaces all attacked the heels from behind for no reason. This was done to create some sort of chaos so that Jay Lethal could sneak in to brawl with Jay Briscoe to build up their big title match at Best in the World. I know I complained earlier about how lame the build to this match was in the earlier segment, but this still came off as dull to me. It was completely unimaginative and really just felt like something we’d seen from this feud a million times before (even if that’s not quite true). Lethal ran away, and Briscoe cut a short promo on him.
Like the previous night’s show, this show had a lot of good action (this show definitely had higher highs, but it also had much lower lows), but it feels almost entirely unnecessary. The only thing that appears to have been even close to important is the finish to the four corner survival (and if you really want to argue it, the continuation of the House of Truth vs. ODB feud, but the less said about that, the better). Get it if you’re looking for action, but if you’re more of a storylines person, I’d stay away.