ROH Supercard of Honor X: Night 1
ROH Supercard of Honor X: Night 1 (4/1/2016)- Dallas, TX
Apparently, among those in the crowd for this show were: Dave Meltzer, Savio Vega, and Teddy Hart. There’s a pretty disparate group for you.
CHRISTOPHER DANIELS vs. BOBBY FISH- 7.75/10
Fish worked the leg and knee, Daniels worked the arm, and they told a great story with it of two men who just plain did not want to tap away this match.
RODERICK STRONG vs. MOOSE (w/Stokely Hathaway)- 7.5/10
These guys had a really great match that was a lot meaner and grittier than most other Moose matches are. Granted Roddy had more to do with that than Moose, but Moose did a fine job of following Roddy’s lead. GREAT finish, too.
Bobby Fish was on commentary for this match, and at one point Roddy and Moose were fighting on the outside and Roddy ducked a boot from Moose that caught Fish in the head. Roddy won clean, but Fish jumped him after the match and sent Roddy scampering away. Fish offered Moose a handshake to show that there were no hard feelings and Moose accepted.
Oh my G-d this Cheeseburger t-shirt commercial is f*cking horrible, and even worse, it just keeps going ON AND ON AND ON AND ON!
BJ WHITMER PROMO- he comes out for his match but he isn’t dressed to wrestle. He brings Taeler Hendrix and Joey Diesel Daddiego, who is dressed to wrestle, out with him. Everyone saw where this was going, so of course it took BJ f*cking forever to get to the point. I understand that the crowd was booing him to the point where they weren’t letting him talk, but he could have cut at least a good ninety seconds off of this if he hadn’t done that whole â€"This is the biggest weekend of the year†part in the beginning.
Basically, Whitmer said that the House of Truth has issues with Donovan Dijak so he has sold his spot in the match to Daddiego. A few problems here:
1. So we are taking BJ Whitmer, a perfectly fine pro wrestler out of a match… and replacing him with J. f*cking Diesel?! That’s one hell of a downgrade! And before anyone says â€"it’s a six-way. It’s not going to affect the match,†I’d like to say that I honestly think it will affect the match because Daddiego f*cking sucks.
2. I get that the angle is supposed to be that the truth is that Whitmer is afraid to face Adam Page and so he is trying to get out of this match, but you could have gotten that point across WITHIN the story of the match by having Page chase Whitmer and always having other people stop him from getting to him, which would not only give the fans the advertised match, but would also wouldn’t open up the following can of worms:
3. This is now the second time in a few months that Whitmer has sold his spot in a match. Why is ROH management okay with this? He’s f*cking up their booking! If he is doing this, what is to stop him (or anyone else) from doing the reverse and paying some nobody to take his spot in a match he doesn’t want (like, say, the Street Fight he has coming up with Adam Page in a few weeks)?
And now ROH is just going to let him do commentary for this match instead? WTF?!
SIX MAN MAYHEM MATCH: Frankie Kazarian vs. Cheeseburger vs. Adam Page vs. Dalton Castle (w/the Boys) vs. Donovan Dijak (w/Prince Nana) vs. Joey Diesel Daddiego (w/Taeler Hendrix)- DUD!
Yeah, I know that Dalton Castle was obviously going to get the biggest reaction, but if you want to push Dijak as a star, I would have had him enter last. Not just because â€"the biggest star enters last†but because if you want to push this guy as some sort of specter of death for the House of Truth, it should be his entrance that heralds the beginning of the action. Having him enter third and having him and Daddiego just stand across the ring from each other patiently waiting for the rest of the competitors to make their entrances does not scream â€"heated feud†to me.
First of all, there was WAY too much stupid comedy in here. I thought that the low blow thing was almost clever, but then they did the spot with Kaz which was completely idiotic. It’s not even physically possible for five different people to kick the same guy in the genitals at the same time. Their feet just wouldn’t fit. And is stupid comedy really the sort of thing that your new monster Donovan Dijak should be involved in? Or even angry young babyface Adam Page?
And why the f*ck is Dalton Castle, who is doing absolutely nothing right now, winning this match instead of Donovan Dijak, our big angry guy who is clearly being built up for a shot at the world title? (And I think this one is a nit-pick but this match put me in that mood so I’m going to say it: If we’re going to portray Dijak as a big angry guy now, can we please try to use his size to help do that? He doesn’t need to be taking random German Suplexes from Dalton Castle. And he certainly shouldn’t be getting floored by a shotei from f*cking Cheeseburger).
In many ways, this whole match and segment were a microcosm of almost everything wrong with ROH right now: Too much comedy, too much Cheeseburger, bad booking on the finishes, pointless angles that should actually open up a lot of kayfabe problems but are never even mentioned, not using large guys effectively, the presence of J. Diesel… hell, even the commentary was all full of dumb sh*t about Kazarian being fined for saying bad words, something that no fan gives a sh*t about but the announcers always have to make reference to these fines for bad words on every f*cking show.
There was also literally not interaction between Page and Whitmer from the moment Page came out and Whitmer hurried out of the ring to sit down at the commentary table. It felt like this whole thing was done so that they could almost ignore the feud for tonight as opposed to doing something with them IN the match, which would feel like part of the story.
POST-MATCH ANGLE- Diesel takes out Dijak’s ribs with a chair. This was almost good.
KYLE O’REILLY vs. MATT SYDAL- 8/10
One guy works the arm, the other guy works the leg, and some REALLY well-done false finishes.
ADAM COLE vs. ACH- 8.25/10
These two have had two or three matches over the years that just haven’t lived up to my expectations of what these two should be able to do together. This match was much more like what I was hoping for. Cole worked over ACH’s head and neck while ACH worked over Cole’s head. There was one spot I didn’t like (the â€"he kept the ref’s hand up instead of kicking out†spot), but other than that an awesome match.
WAR MACHINE & THE BRISOCES vs. SILAS YOUNG, THE BEER CITY BRUISER, & THE ALL NIGHT EXPRESS- 6.5/10
Fun brawl. The Briscoes and War Machine got in each other’s faces after the match.
ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Jay Lethal(c) (w/Taeler Hendrix) vs. Lio Rush- 7.25/10
Kevin Kelly refers to the Top Prospect Tournament winner getting a TV Title shot as a â€"Supercard of Honor tradition.†Such a match has NEVER taken place at Supercard of Honor. It has sometimes happened on the Anniversary Show and sometimes on TV.
For some reason Will Ferrara is doing commentary for this match. Also, apparently he and Lio Rush are good friends. Between his full but still short beard and this camouflage bandana, he looked like a small, lame Briscoe brother. I will be unspeakably furious if we wind up getting a f*ck finish with WILL FERRARA getting involved.
Rush is one hell of an underdog babyface, and Lethal certainly carried his part, with his arrogance on full display, but the post-match handshake he offered Rush also felt completely in-keeping with his character.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- AWESOME!
Lethal cut a promo claiming that he had beaten everyone in ROH during his title run. Steve Corino made a similar statement during the match. This statement is utterly ridiculous. Just off the top of my head there is Mark Briscoe, ACH, Sabin, Shelley, Dalton Castle, Raymond Rowe, Bobby Fish (he didn’t lose their TV Title match clean), Jay Briscoe needs his rematch, Dijak, Adam Page, and just about every single heel in the company.
Of course, this was all done to set up for the return of Colt Cabana to ROH after an absence of almost five years. Cabana cut a f*cking AWESOME promo. Lethal responded with another great promo and then Colt responded with yet another awesome promo.
YOUNG BUCKS vs. MOTOR CITY MACHINE GUNS- 8/10
It was exactly what you’d expect, and it was all great aside from one spot where one of the Guns didn’t get DQed for blatantly grabbing on the Buck’s scrotums right in front of the referee. Making this even worse is the fact that I’m almost certain they did the exact same spot in the exact same way on the last show, too. The Bucks won here, so MCMG have already been beaten cleanly in just their third match back.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- too much.
The Addiction came out and attacked both teams. This was good. Then The Briscoes came out and made the save, to build to tomorrow night’s four-way #1 contendership match. That was fine. Then MCMG and the Bucks gave Daniels a quadruple superkick. Then someone picked Daniels up again and this time all six babyfaces superkicked him because I guess a quadruple wasn’t enough. Why even do a quadruple if you’re going to do a sextuple right after it? And why do this sh*t at all? All it does is take away the Addiction’s heat.
An awesome show from ROH with high-quality action consistently up and down the card (aside from the one dud), and a HUGE moment in Colt Cabana’s return to ROH. Definitely one you should pick up.
Apparently, among those in the crowd for this show were: Dave Meltzer, Savio Vega, and Teddy Hart. There’s a pretty disparate group for you.
CHRISTOPHER DANIELS vs. BOBBY FISH- 7.75/10
Fish worked the leg and knee, Daniels worked the arm, and they told a great story with it of two men who just plain did not want to tap away this match.
RODERICK STRONG vs. MOOSE (w/Stokely Hathaway)- 7.5/10
These guys had a really great match that was a lot meaner and grittier than most other Moose matches are. Granted Roddy had more to do with that than Moose, but Moose did a fine job of following Roddy’s lead. GREAT finish, too.
Bobby Fish was on commentary for this match, and at one point Roddy and Moose were fighting on the outside and Roddy ducked a boot from Moose that caught Fish in the head. Roddy won clean, but Fish jumped him after the match and sent Roddy scampering away. Fish offered Moose a handshake to show that there were no hard feelings and Moose accepted.
Oh my G-d this Cheeseburger t-shirt commercial is f*cking horrible, and even worse, it just keeps going ON AND ON AND ON AND ON!
BJ WHITMER PROMO- he comes out for his match but he isn’t dressed to wrestle. He brings Taeler Hendrix and Joey Diesel Daddiego, who is dressed to wrestle, out with him. Everyone saw where this was going, so of course it took BJ f*cking forever to get to the point. I understand that the crowd was booing him to the point where they weren’t letting him talk, but he could have cut at least a good ninety seconds off of this if he hadn’t done that whole â€"This is the biggest weekend of the year†part in the beginning.
Basically, Whitmer said that the House of Truth has issues with Donovan Dijak so he has sold his spot in the match to Daddiego. A few problems here:
1. So we are taking BJ Whitmer, a perfectly fine pro wrestler out of a match… and replacing him with J. f*cking Diesel?! That’s one hell of a downgrade! And before anyone says â€"it’s a six-way. It’s not going to affect the match,†I’d like to say that I honestly think it will affect the match because Daddiego f*cking sucks.
2. I get that the angle is supposed to be that the truth is that Whitmer is afraid to face Adam Page and so he is trying to get out of this match, but you could have gotten that point across WITHIN the story of the match by having Page chase Whitmer and always having other people stop him from getting to him, which would not only give the fans the advertised match, but would also wouldn’t open up the following can of worms:
3. This is now the second time in a few months that Whitmer has sold his spot in a match. Why is ROH management okay with this? He’s f*cking up their booking! If he is doing this, what is to stop him (or anyone else) from doing the reverse and paying some nobody to take his spot in a match he doesn’t want (like, say, the Street Fight he has coming up with Adam Page in a few weeks)?
And now ROH is just going to let him do commentary for this match instead? WTF?!
SIX MAN MAYHEM MATCH: Frankie Kazarian vs. Cheeseburger vs. Adam Page vs. Dalton Castle (w/the Boys) vs. Donovan Dijak (w/Prince Nana) vs. Joey Diesel Daddiego (w/Taeler Hendrix)- DUD!
Yeah, I know that Dalton Castle was obviously going to get the biggest reaction, but if you want to push Dijak as a star, I would have had him enter last. Not just because â€"the biggest star enters last†but because if you want to push this guy as some sort of specter of death for the House of Truth, it should be his entrance that heralds the beginning of the action. Having him enter third and having him and Daddiego just stand across the ring from each other patiently waiting for the rest of the competitors to make their entrances does not scream â€"heated feud†to me.
First of all, there was WAY too much stupid comedy in here. I thought that the low blow thing was almost clever, but then they did the spot with Kaz which was completely idiotic. It’s not even physically possible for five different people to kick the same guy in the genitals at the same time. Their feet just wouldn’t fit. And is stupid comedy really the sort of thing that your new monster Donovan Dijak should be involved in? Or even angry young babyface Adam Page?
And why the f*ck is Dalton Castle, who is doing absolutely nothing right now, winning this match instead of Donovan Dijak, our big angry guy who is clearly being built up for a shot at the world title? (And I think this one is a nit-pick but this match put me in that mood so I’m going to say it: If we’re going to portray Dijak as a big angry guy now, can we please try to use his size to help do that? He doesn’t need to be taking random German Suplexes from Dalton Castle. And he certainly shouldn’t be getting floored by a shotei from f*cking Cheeseburger).
In many ways, this whole match and segment were a microcosm of almost everything wrong with ROH right now: Too much comedy, too much Cheeseburger, bad booking on the finishes, pointless angles that should actually open up a lot of kayfabe problems but are never even mentioned, not using large guys effectively, the presence of J. Diesel… hell, even the commentary was all full of dumb sh*t about Kazarian being fined for saying bad words, something that no fan gives a sh*t about but the announcers always have to make reference to these fines for bad words on every f*cking show.
There was also literally not interaction between Page and Whitmer from the moment Page came out and Whitmer hurried out of the ring to sit down at the commentary table. It felt like this whole thing was done so that they could almost ignore the feud for tonight as opposed to doing something with them IN the match, which would feel like part of the story.
POST-MATCH ANGLE- Diesel takes out Dijak’s ribs with a chair. This was almost good.
KYLE O’REILLY vs. MATT SYDAL- 8/10
One guy works the arm, the other guy works the leg, and some REALLY well-done false finishes.
ADAM COLE vs. ACH- 8.25/10
These two have had two or three matches over the years that just haven’t lived up to my expectations of what these two should be able to do together. This match was much more like what I was hoping for. Cole worked over ACH’s head and neck while ACH worked over Cole’s head. There was one spot I didn’t like (the â€"he kept the ref’s hand up instead of kicking out†spot), but other than that an awesome match.
WAR MACHINE & THE BRISOCES vs. SILAS YOUNG, THE BEER CITY BRUISER, & THE ALL NIGHT EXPRESS- 6.5/10
Fun brawl. The Briscoes and War Machine got in each other’s faces after the match.
ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Jay Lethal(c) (w/Taeler Hendrix) vs. Lio Rush- 7.25/10
Kevin Kelly refers to the Top Prospect Tournament winner getting a TV Title shot as a â€"Supercard of Honor tradition.†Such a match has NEVER taken place at Supercard of Honor. It has sometimes happened on the Anniversary Show and sometimes on TV.
For some reason Will Ferrara is doing commentary for this match. Also, apparently he and Lio Rush are good friends. Between his full but still short beard and this camouflage bandana, he looked like a small, lame Briscoe brother. I will be unspeakably furious if we wind up getting a f*ck finish with WILL FERRARA getting involved.
Rush is one hell of an underdog babyface, and Lethal certainly carried his part, with his arrogance on full display, but the post-match handshake he offered Rush also felt completely in-keeping with his character.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- AWESOME!
Lethal cut a promo claiming that he had beaten everyone in ROH during his title run. Steve Corino made a similar statement during the match. This statement is utterly ridiculous. Just off the top of my head there is Mark Briscoe, ACH, Sabin, Shelley, Dalton Castle, Raymond Rowe, Bobby Fish (he didn’t lose their TV Title match clean), Jay Briscoe needs his rematch, Dijak, Adam Page, and just about every single heel in the company.
Of course, this was all done to set up for the return of Colt Cabana to ROH after an absence of almost five years. Cabana cut a f*cking AWESOME promo. Lethal responded with another great promo and then Colt responded with yet another awesome promo.
YOUNG BUCKS vs. MOTOR CITY MACHINE GUNS- 8/10
It was exactly what you’d expect, and it was all great aside from one spot where one of the Guns didn’t get DQed for blatantly grabbing on the Buck’s scrotums right in front of the referee. Making this even worse is the fact that I’m almost certain they did the exact same spot in the exact same way on the last show, too. The Bucks won here, so MCMG have already been beaten cleanly in just their third match back.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- too much.
The Addiction came out and attacked both teams. This was good. Then The Briscoes came out and made the save, to build to tomorrow night’s four-way #1 contendership match. That was fine. Then MCMG and the Bucks gave Daniels a quadruple superkick. Then someone picked Daniels up again and this time all six babyfaces superkicked him because I guess a quadruple wasn’t enough. Why even do a quadruple if you’re going to do a sextuple right after it? And why do this sh*t at all? All it does is take away the Addiction’s heat.
An awesome show from ROH with high-quality action consistently up and down the card (aside from the one dud), and a HUGE moment in Colt Cabana’s return to ROH. Definitely one you should pick up.