ROH 14th Anniversary Show
ROH 14th Anniversary Show (2/26/2016)- Las Vegas, NV
ROH TV TITLE MATCH: Tomohiro Ishii(c) vs. Bobby Fish vs. Roderick Strong- 6.25/10
Not much of a reaction for any of these three, which I was quite surprising, especially considering that this is the opener.
WHAT THE F*CK?! This is a TITLE MATCH on PPV and they didn’t even go ten minutes! I thought was watching Ring of Honor, not a Divas Title match from 2012!
The match was a disappointingly generic three-way, and both Fish and Ishii could have sold better at times.
ADAM PAGE vs. BJ WHITMER- 5.75/10
Kevin Kelly told us that this frustration with BJ Whitmer had been festering â€"inside†Adam Page for a long time… and therein lies the problem with this story. We can’t see what is going on inside Adam Page’s mind, so to us, this appears to be completely out of nowhere. Nothing was done to give us a hint of this building frustration. It just happened that one day Steve Corino called up Adam Page and said â€"want to turn on BJ Whitmer? And Page said â€"yeah! I secretly hate that guy!†We didn’t even get a promo from Page explaining himself.
They brawled for a bit before Page tried to use a chair. The ref stopped him, and while the ref was disposing of the chair, Whitmer kicked him in the nuts and cinched in a small package for the pin. After the match, Page tried to attack Whitmer and attacked the security guys who tried to stop him. This felt like a TV segment, not a PPV match.
DALTON CASTLE PROMO- it was a good promo, but it was just really frustrating to have to watch a promo for a meaningless match when the TV Title match went less than ten minutes.
HIROOKI GOTO vs. DALTON CASTLE (w/the Boys)- 6.25/10
Another short and very blah match. It was fine, but that’s about it
ALEX SHELLEY vs. CHRISTOPHER DANIELS (w/Frankie Kazarian)- 5/10
Brian Kendrick has joined Kevin Kelly and Mr. Wrestling III on commentary for this match.
Blatant groin-shot from Shelley is not a DQ? Neither is Kazarian grabbing Shelley and holding his arms behind his back right in front of the referee. In fact, it felt like the entire story of the match was people (mostly Kaz) doing things that should have resulted in a DQ, but didn’t. Kaz was never even ejected from ringside. Then, when Daniels was going to hit Shelley with some sort of foreign object, Chris Sabin made the save and hit Daniels with an enzugiri, allowing Shelley to get the win. This was felt extremely underwhelming given how they built up the whole â€"whose side is he on?†angle.
So… the Motor City Machine Guns are back together. It’d be nice if having all of these tag teams lying around would actually lead to some sort of undercard tag team feud to be used to build up challengers.
BRISCOES PROMO- same as the issue I had with the Dalton Castle promo.
MICHAEL ELGIN & HIROSHI TANAHASHI vs. THE BRISCOES- 7/10
The match was great (if a little short). They announcers were pushing that this would put Elgin and Tanahashi in the running for a tag title shot, either in ROH or in New Japan.
KAZUCHIKA OKADA (w/Gedo) vs. MOOSE (w/Stokely Hathaway)- 5.75/10
Yeah… this is why everyone was unhappy when they announced that Okada was going to be facing Moose as opposed to… well… ANYONE ELSE ON THE ROSTER.
NEVER OPENWEIGHT SIX MAN TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Elite(c) vs. KUSHIDA, ACH, & Matt Sydal- 8.25/10
FINALLY! Something that belongs on PPV! This was exactly what you’d expect it to be, except a little less all over the place and a little more creative.
NO DISQUALIFICATIONS MATCH FOR THE ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLES: War Machine(c) vs. the All-Night Express- 7/10
Kevin Kelly made such a big deal about this being the first time anyone has ever kicked out of Fallout… and I don’t think anyone else in the building even reacted. Sh*t got serious when that ladder came out, though. They had an average weapons match with two HUGE bumps in it.
ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Jay Lethal(c) (w/the House of Truth) vs. Adam Cole vs. Kyle O’Reilly- 8/10
The music they chose for this video package is terrible. It’s just one or two steps up from being elevator music (no doubt part of their pointless Vegas theme). I also thought Lethal looked like a f*cking idiot talking to the title belt.
They told the standard three-way story of the third guy coming in to break up moves, which worked perfectly with Cole’s vow to not let O’Reilly become champion.
Despite having two awesome matches on it, this was yet another ROH PPV that have big issues with. Just like Final Battle, they didn’t give any of the matches time to really do much. The only match that went more than fifteen minutes was the six man tag. The world title match didn’t even get to go fourteen. Short matches are not only less exciting, but they make things feel small. The first two thirds of this PPV felt like I was watching the regular weekly TV show. I would suggest that ROH limit themselves to seven matches per PPV in order to let all of the matches have the time they need.
ROH TV TITLE MATCH: Tomohiro Ishii(c) vs. Bobby Fish vs. Roderick Strong- 6.25/10
Not much of a reaction for any of these three, which I was quite surprising, especially considering that this is the opener.
WHAT THE F*CK?! This is a TITLE MATCH on PPV and they didn’t even go ten minutes! I thought was watching Ring of Honor, not a Divas Title match from 2012!
The match was a disappointingly generic three-way, and both Fish and Ishii could have sold better at times.
ADAM PAGE vs. BJ WHITMER- 5.75/10
Kevin Kelly told us that this frustration with BJ Whitmer had been festering â€"inside†Adam Page for a long time… and therein lies the problem with this story. We can’t see what is going on inside Adam Page’s mind, so to us, this appears to be completely out of nowhere. Nothing was done to give us a hint of this building frustration. It just happened that one day Steve Corino called up Adam Page and said â€"want to turn on BJ Whitmer? And Page said â€"yeah! I secretly hate that guy!†We didn’t even get a promo from Page explaining himself.
They brawled for a bit before Page tried to use a chair. The ref stopped him, and while the ref was disposing of the chair, Whitmer kicked him in the nuts and cinched in a small package for the pin. After the match, Page tried to attack Whitmer and attacked the security guys who tried to stop him. This felt like a TV segment, not a PPV match.
DALTON CASTLE PROMO- it was a good promo, but it was just really frustrating to have to watch a promo for a meaningless match when the TV Title match went less than ten minutes.
HIROOKI GOTO vs. DALTON CASTLE (w/the Boys)- 6.25/10
Another short and very blah match. It was fine, but that’s about it
ALEX SHELLEY vs. CHRISTOPHER DANIELS (w/Frankie Kazarian)- 5/10
Brian Kendrick has joined Kevin Kelly and Mr. Wrestling III on commentary for this match.
Blatant groin-shot from Shelley is not a DQ? Neither is Kazarian grabbing Shelley and holding his arms behind his back right in front of the referee. In fact, it felt like the entire story of the match was people (mostly Kaz) doing things that should have resulted in a DQ, but didn’t. Kaz was never even ejected from ringside. Then, when Daniels was going to hit Shelley with some sort of foreign object, Chris Sabin made the save and hit Daniels with an enzugiri, allowing Shelley to get the win. This was felt extremely underwhelming given how they built up the whole â€"whose side is he on?†angle.
So… the Motor City Machine Guns are back together. It’d be nice if having all of these tag teams lying around would actually lead to some sort of undercard tag team feud to be used to build up challengers.
BRISCOES PROMO- same as the issue I had with the Dalton Castle promo.
MICHAEL ELGIN & HIROSHI TANAHASHI vs. THE BRISCOES- 7/10
The match was great (if a little short). They announcers were pushing that this would put Elgin and Tanahashi in the running for a tag title shot, either in ROH or in New Japan.
KAZUCHIKA OKADA (w/Gedo) vs. MOOSE (w/Stokely Hathaway)- 5.75/10
Yeah… this is why everyone was unhappy when they announced that Okada was going to be facing Moose as opposed to… well… ANYONE ELSE ON THE ROSTER.
NEVER OPENWEIGHT SIX MAN TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Elite(c) vs. KUSHIDA, ACH, & Matt Sydal- 8.25/10
FINALLY! Something that belongs on PPV! This was exactly what you’d expect it to be, except a little less all over the place and a little more creative.
NO DISQUALIFICATIONS MATCH FOR THE ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLES: War Machine(c) vs. the All-Night Express- 7/10
Kevin Kelly made such a big deal about this being the first time anyone has ever kicked out of Fallout… and I don’t think anyone else in the building even reacted. Sh*t got serious when that ladder came out, though. They had an average weapons match with two HUGE bumps in it.
ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Jay Lethal(c) (w/the House of Truth) vs. Adam Cole vs. Kyle O’Reilly- 8/10
The music they chose for this video package is terrible. It’s just one or two steps up from being elevator music (no doubt part of their pointless Vegas theme). I also thought Lethal looked like a f*cking idiot talking to the title belt.
They told the standard three-way story of the third guy coming in to break up moves, which worked perfectly with Cole’s vow to not let O’Reilly become champion.
Despite having two awesome matches on it, this was yet another ROH PPV that have big issues with. Just like Final Battle, they didn’t give any of the matches time to really do much. The only match that went more than fifteen minutes was the six man tag. The world title match didn’t even get to go fourteen. Short matches are not only less exciting, but they make things feel small. The first two thirds of this PPV felt like I was watching the regular weekly TV show. I would suggest that ROH limit themselves to seven matches per PPV in order to let all of the matches have the time they need.