ROH Reloaded Tour: Atlanta
ROH Reloaded Tour: Atlanta (8/29/2015)- Atlanta, GA
PRE-SHOW BONUS MATCH: Slim J vs. P-Dog (w/his posse)- 2.25/10
P-Dog is the former Mike Posey of Alabama Attitude doing a white rapper gimmick. It’s embarrassing. He now has a large posse with him (all black) including a few chicks (one of whom is carrying some sort of bedazzled paddle), a dude with â€"suave†written across his sunglasses (which must make it impossible to see), and another dude in a fur coat who has a muscular woman on a leash. The fans in the building despise this, as do I.
What the f*ck did I stumble onto? This feels like one of those terrible Special K segments from 2002-2003. P-Dog’s posse are all dressed in exactly the sort of wacky get-ups that Special K used to dress in (minus Lit’s fur hat), while Slim J looks like he actually might have been a member of Special K (and the name doesn’t help much, either).
The match wasn’t very good, but I did enjoy P-Dog’s group’s dog and pony show stuff, so there’s that.
CEDRIC ALEXANDER vs. COREY HOLLIS- 6.5/10
During the match, the announcers casually discuss Corey Hollis’ private medical information. That seems highly unprofessional. Wait… no. They’re discussing his Diabetes because he has apparently named his finisher the â€"Insulin Shot.†That is completely f*cking stupid.
WILL FERRARA & TAKAAKI WATANABE vs. THE KINGDOM (w/Maria Kanellis)- 5.25/10
Maria joined the commentary team and instead of paying attention to the match, they just talked this â€"new†Women of Honor push. They put over the ODB vs. Nanae Takahashi match from Aftershock Tour: Las Vegas, which was a great match. Unfortunately, as I sit here watching this show three months later, this renewed focus on the Women of Honor has only gone downhill from there, and it went downhill quite quickly.
BJ WHITMER PROMO- Corino choked him a few weeks ago in NYC, so he threatened Sinclair with a lawsuit for an â€"unsafe working environment,†which is an angle they would do just a few months later with Cedric Alexander. To resolve this, Sinclair has hired BJ his own personal security who would only appear on this one show.
MICHAEL ELGIN vs. ADAM PAGE (w/BJ Whitmer)- 6.75/10
Elgin started by blocking some forearms with this face. What a f*cking stupid spot. The match got a lot better from there, but then it ended in a pointless count-out. Whitmer’s security then attacked Elgin for no reason and they all got powerbombed. Corino described Elgin as â€"a great babyface†in those exact words.
ACH & MATT SYDAL vs. WAR MACHINE- 7.75/10
The classic story of power vs. speed. Sydal and Rowe both looked particularly impressive.
P-DOG SEGMENT- oh G-d, not these f*ckers again. He’s got two more guess with him this time, one of whom has had the bottom half of his shirt shredded to fringes. Posey introduced his pals by name, but I refuse to validate their horrible, boring gimmick with any further attention.
MICHAEL ELGIN HAS COME OUT TO SAVE US! Posey sends his henchmen after Elgin one at a time like really bad AI in a video game, and one by one, Elgin kicks them in the gut and powerbombs them. Being the leader, P-Dog also got to eat a lariat. Elgin taunted the female members of Posey’s group with one of the one dollar bill that the male members of the group had been throwing at each other. One of the ladies gets in his face. Elgin tries to walk away multiple times but she keeps yelling at him. She tries to slap him, so he blocks it and powerbombs her as well. This was boring.
MARK BRISCOE PROMO- barely intelligible, but from what I gather, he was supposed to wrestle Cliff Compton but Cliff can’t wrestle tonight for medical reasons, so Mark is making an open challenge (as a â€"preview of the Briscoes open challenge at the upcoming All-Star Extravaganza VII PPV, so we got…
MARK BRISCOE vs. THE ROMANTIC TOUCH- 5.25/10
The jewel case actually bills Mark Briscoe has â€"the Sussex County Chicken†because apparently we’re not supposed to take him seriously. I mean really! What would your first reaction be if you picked up a DVD from that hot indy you’ve heard so much about over the years… and you saw that there was a guy named â€"the Sussex County Chicken.†Yes, I know that Mark called himself that on this show, but it’s still not something you should put on the advertising (and, IMO, not even something Mark should be saying because it’s so goofy and dumb).
They had a mediocre match.
RODERICK STRONG vs. CAPRICE COLEMAN- 7.25/10
Kevin Kelly claimed that Roddy has had â€"a history of elbow problems.†I’ve seen over a decade’s worth of Roderick Strong matches, and I can’t remember him being injured anywhere, much less in his elbow.
One of Roddy’s worst matches of the year, which, of course, means it was above TV main event quality.
KEVIN KELLY INTERVIEWS STEVIE RICHARDS- decent segment.
Stevie comes out wearing a DDP Yoga shirt which surprised me because he doesn’t have a podcast. Apparently he has been legit working for DDP Yoga as a guest trainer. Kevin asked Stevie when we would see him in ROH. Stevie put over all of the great talent in ROH, naming the Briscoes, Elgin, Sydal, and a few others… but of course he forgot ROH World and TV Champion Jay Lethal, which led to Lethal coming out and interrupting his interview. Lethal feels disrespected and they wind up brawling.
JAY BRISCOE vs. MOOSE (w/Stokely Hathaway)- no rating, good segment.
We get a fun few minutes between Jay and Moose but then Adam Page attacks Briscoe and Cedric Alexander attacks Moose and the match is ruled a no contest. Stokely Hathaway cut a good promo which resulted in a fantastic retort from Whitmer. More words were exchanged (including Stokely calling Cedric Alexander â€"Cheeseburgerâ€), which resulted in…
CEDRIC ALEXANDER & ADAM PAGE (w/BJ Whitmer) vs. JAY BRISCOE & MOOSE (w/Stokely Hathaway)- 6.5/10
Fun and exciting.
WHITMER TRIES TO PROVOKE CORINO- good stuff. Whenever this match happens, it will be epic.
ADAM COLE, BOBBY FISH, & KYLE O’REILLY vs. THE ADDICTION & JAY LETHAL (w/Taeler Hendrix)- 8.25/10
Veda Scott wasn’t at tonight’s show, so I guess they had to bring in Taeler Hendrix to meet some sort of minimum quota for hot redheads on the show. Actually, she has joined the House of Truth. Um… sure. Why not?
With talent like these this, you knew there was no way this wasn’t going to deliver. Taeler was also rather entertaining with her valeting antics. After the match, The Kingdom came out to get flipped off by Kyle and then have a minor confrontation with the Addiction.
A very good show from ROH, and with stuff that would actually matter to storylines as well. It’s towards the bottom half of the shows this year, but that’s because so many of the others have been so great.
PRE-SHOW BONUS MATCH: Slim J vs. P-Dog (w/his posse)- 2.25/10
P-Dog is the former Mike Posey of Alabama Attitude doing a white rapper gimmick. It’s embarrassing. He now has a large posse with him (all black) including a few chicks (one of whom is carrying some sort of bedazzled paddle), a dude with â€"suave†written across his sunglasses (which must make it impossible to see), and another dude in a fur coat who has a muscular woman on a leash. The fans in the building despise this, as do I.
What the f*ck did I stumble onto? This feels like one of those terrible Special K segments from 2002-2003. P-Dog’s posse are all dressed in exactly the sort of wacky get-ups that Special K used to dress in (minus Lit’s fur hat), while Slim J looks like he actually might have been a member of Special K (and the name doesn’t help much, either).
The match wasn’t very good, but I did enjoy P-Dog’s group’s dog and pony show stuff, so there’s that.
CEDRIC ALEXANDER vs. COREY HOLLIS- 6.5/10
During the match, the announcers casually discuss Corey Hollis’ private medical information. That seems highly unprofessional. Wait… no. They’re discussing his Diabetes because he has apparently named his finisher the â€"Insulin Shot.†That is completely f*cking stupid.
WILL FERRARA & TAKAAKI WATANABE vs. THE KINGDOM (w/Maria Kanellis)- 5.25/10
Maria joined the commentary team and instead of paying attention to the match, they just talked this â€"new†Women of Honor push. They put over the ODB vs. Nanae Takahashi match from Aftershock Tour: Las Vegas, which was a great match. Unfortunately, as I sit here watching this show three months later, this renewed focus on the Women of Honor has only gone downhill from there, and it went downhill quite quickly.
BJ WHITMER PROMO- Corino choked him a few weeks ago in NYC, so he threatened Sinclair with a lawsuit for an â€"unsafe working environment,†which is an angle they would do just a few months later with Cedric Alexander. To resolve this, Sinclair has hired BJ his own personal security who would only appear on this one show.
MICHAEL ELGIN vs. ADAM PAGE (w/BJ Whitmer)- 6.75/10
Elgin started by blocking some forearms with this face. What a f*cking stupid spot. The match got a lot better from there, but then it ended in a pointless count-out. Whitmer’s security then attacked Elgin for no reason and they all got powerbombed. Corino described Elgin as â€"a great babyface†in those exact words.
ACH & MATT SYDAL vs. WAR MACHINE- 7.75/10
The classic story of power vs. speed. Sydal and Rowe both looked particularly impressive.
P-DOG SEGMENT- oh G-d, not these f*ckers again. He’s got two more guess with him this time, one of whom has had the bottom half of his shirt shredded to fringes. Posey introduced his pals by name, but I refuse to validate their horrible, boring gimmick with any further attention.
MICHAEL ELGIN HAS COME OUT TO SAVE US! Posey sends his henchmen after Elgin one at a time like really bad AI in a video game, and one by one, Elgin kicks them in the gut and powerbombs them. Being the leader, P-Dog also got to eat a lariat. Elgin taunted the female members of Posey’s group with one of the one dollar bill that the male members of the group had been throwing at each other. One of the ladies gets in his face. Elgin tries to walk away multiple times but she keeps yelling at him. She tries to slap him, so he blocks it and powerbombs her as well. This was boring.
MARK BRISCOE PROMO- barely intelligible, but from what I gather, he was supposed to wrestle Cliff Compton but Cliff can’t wrestle tonight for medical reasons, so Mark is making an open challenge (as a â€"preview of the Briscoes open challenge at the upcoming All-Star Extravaganza VII PPV, so we got…
MARK BRISCOE vs. THE ROMANTIC TOUCH- 5.25/10
The jewel case actually bills Mark Briscoe has â€"the Sussex County Chicken†because apparently we’re not supposed to take him seriously. I mean really! What would your first reaction be if you picked up a DVD from that hot indy you’ve heard so much about over the years… and you saw that there was a guy named â€"the Sussex County Chicken.†Yes, I know that Mark called himself that on this show, but it’s still not something you should put on the advertising (and, IMO, not even something Mark should be saying because it’s so goofy and dumb).
They had a mediocre match.
RODERICK STRONG vs. CAPRICE COLEMAN- 7.25/10
Kevin Kelly claimed that Roddy has had â€"a history of elbow problems.†I’ve seen over a decade’s worth of Roderick Strong matches, and I can’t remember him being injured anywhere, much less in his elbow.
One of Roddy’s worst matches of the year, which, of course, means it was above TV main event quality.
KEVIN KELLY INTERVIEWS STEVIE RICHARDS- decent segment.
Stevie comes out wearing a DDP Yoga shirt which surprised me because he doesn’t have a podcast. Apparently he has been legit working for DDP Yoga as a guest trainer. Kevin asked Stevie when we would see him in ROH. Stevie put over all of the great talent in ROH, naming the Briscoes, Elgin, Sydal, and a few others… but of course he forgot ROH World and TV Champion Jay Lethal, which led to Lethal coming out and interrupting his interview. Lethal feels disrespected and they wind up brawling.
JAY BRISCOE vs. MOOSE (w/Stokely Hathaway)- no rating, good segment.
We get a fun few minutes between Jay and Moose but then Adam Page attacks Briscoe and Cedric Alexander attacks Moose and the match is ruled a no contest. Stokely Hathaway cut a good promo which resulted in a fantastic retort from Whitmer. More words were exchanged (including Stokely calling Cedric Alexander â€"Cheeseburgerâ€), which resulted in…
CEDRIC ALEXANDER & ADAM PAGE (w/BJ Whitmer) vs. JAY BRISCOE & MOOSE (w/Stokely Hathaway)- 6.5/10
Fun and exciting.
WHITMER TRIES TO PROVOKE CORINO- good stuff. Whenever this match happens, it will be epic.
ADAM COLE, BOBBY FISH, & KYLE O’REILLY vs. THE ADDICTION & JAY LETHAL (w/Taeler Hendrix)- 8.25/10
Veda Scott wasn’t at tonight’s show, so I guess they had to bring in Taeler Hendrix to meet some sort of minimum quota for hot redheads on the show. Actually, she has joined the House of Truth. Um… sure. Why not?
With talent like these this, you knew there was no way this wasn’t going to deliver. Taeler was also rather entertaining with her valeting antics. After the match, The Kingdom came out to get flipped off by Kyle and then have a minor confrontation with the Addiction.
A very good show from ROH, and with stuff that would actually matter to storylines as well. It’s towards the bottom half of the shows this year, but that’s because so many of the others have been so great.