ROH THe Homecoming 2012
ROH The Homecoming 2012 (1/20/2012)- Philadelphia, PA
HAAS & BENJAMIN PROMO- a standard heel promo establishing that the hostile reaction they got from the crowd at Final Battle 2011 officially turned them heel
WRESTLING’S GREATEST TAG TEAM vs. FUTURE SHOCK- 6/10
This match ended about ten minutes before it should have. It really felt like they were just getting into gear when the finish (WGTT take advantage of O’Reilly accidentally hitting Cole in the corner) came.
GRIZZLY REDWOOD PROMO- the Phillies hat killed it for me. You can’t be a lumberjack and wear a Phillies had. Those two things just don’t go together.
FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL MATCH: â€"The Prodigy†Mike Bennett vs. Grizzly Redwood vs. Andy â€"Right Leg†Ridge vs. Tommaso Ciampa (w/the Embassy)- 5.5/10
COLE & O’REILLY BACKSTAGE- Cole kind of came off like a dick in the beginning of this, which seems backwards to me because Kyle was going to be the one who turned heel and had already been acting like a dick in the Eddie-Davey feud.
THE EMBASSY BACKSTAGE- did a good job of establishing the differences in priorities between R.D. Evans and Prince Nana. Ciampa also cut a good little promo hyping up both tonight’s World Title match and his Proving Ground match tomorrow night against Jay Lethal.
KEVIN STEEN & STEVE CORINO SEGMENT- this did an excellent job of planting the seeds in Corino’s mind that would eventually result in his heel turn after Steen won the belt. Steen also took some VERY stiff verbal shots at Cornette. The whole Steen vs. Cornette angle is the closest you will ever possibly get to a real â€"worked shoot†because (according to Steen on his Highspots shoot), they had planned what Steen would do during the feud, but they rarely had any idea what he would say, and the emotions in this thing were pretty damn real.
KEVIN STEEN vs. KENNY KING (w/Rhett Titus)- 6.5/10
I was really expecting more out of these two, especially in Steen’s first match back as a member of the official roster. After the match Steen tries to hit Kenny King with a Package Piledriver, but Rhett makes the save by hitting Steen with one of his crutches. Steen no sells it, then goes after Rhett’s injured knee and locks him in the Sharpshooter until Kenny gets back up and makes the save.
CHRIS HERO vs. MICHAEL ELGIN (w/Truth Martini)- 6.75/10
Before the match we got a nice little segment with Shane Hagadorn coming out and offering to manage Hero to counteract Truth Martini (whose meddling had cost Hero his match at Final Battle 2011) but Hero turns him down, saying that he has to do this himself. This is as close as Hagadorn has ever been to being a babyface so if you are, for some reason, a Shane Hagadorn fan and would like a like a glimpse of what he might be like as a babyface, pick this up.
The match was pretty good, but nothing great. Hero did some of his obnoxious athletic show-off stuff from 2007. As it turns out, a distraction by Truth Martini does indeed cost Hero this match, so Hagadorn comes out and berates Hero until Hero knocks him out with a rolling elbow. This was a nice post-match segment, but I am extremely disappointed that ROH didn’t give Hero the chance to give a goodbye speech. The good bye speech is always a great moment for the fans and the wrestlers alike, and is one of the things that makes indy wrestling feel more intimate than WWE or TNA. I can understand guys like Aries, Necro, and Cabana not getting goodbye speeches because the assumption was that they would be back at some point, and I can understand wanting to keep kayfabe and not giving Tyler or Claudio goodbye speeches because they went out as heels, but having Hero back for these two shows as a babyface gave ROH an opportunity to give its fans a moment we hadn’t had in over two years, to give a man who had spent the last seven years been one of the most hated heels in the history of the indies the chance to thank the fans.
KEVIN STEEN PROMO- Steen says that he will be the ROH World Champion at the end of 2012, and he will destroy anyone who is put in his way until Jim Cornette gives him a shot at Davey. He also tells Kenny King that the only way he will ever reach is full potential is if he dumps Rhett Titus as a tag team partner and goes out on his own. I guess Kenny didn’t realize it was a work.
TRUTH MARTINI & MICHAEL ELGIN BACKSTAGE PROMO- decent
NO HOLDS BARRED MATCH: Adam Cole vs. Roderick Strong (w/Truth Martini)- 7.25/10
This was originally supposed to be Roddy taking on Eddie Edwards but Eddie had a staph infection and couldn’t compete. Roddy came out and said that because Eddie was injured and everyone else was already booked tonight, he should be given an automatic win, but Adam Cole came out to challenge him. Roddy also announced his intention to go after both singles titles.
Some of Cole’s offense here looked weak, but otherwise the match was good. I really liked Roddy hitting Cole with the Book of Truth while yelling at him to listen to what Truth Martini says. It really got across the cult leader aspect of Truth’s gimmick by having his disciples say that everyone should listen to him, which is something we don’t often see.
VEDA SCOTT INTERVIEWS THE BRISCOES- Mark Briscoe should not be allowed to talk. Jay was good.
TRUTH MARTINI & RODERICK STRONG BACKSTAGE PROMO- okay
PROVING GROUND MATCH: ROH World Tag Team Champions the Briscoe Brothers vs. Jigsaw & Hallowicked- 7.25/10
The CHIKARA locker room coming out got a big pop. On its own, this was very good, but the finish here (it saw multiple CHIKARA guys get in the ring, but not actually touch anyone, as a result of one of the Briscoes turning Hallowicked’s mask around so he couldn’t see) should have led to a more heated issue between ROH and CHIKARA than what we eventually got. The Briscoes cut a post-match promo calling the finish as BS. UltraMantis then cut a promo saying that the Briscoes disrespected their lucha culture and thus CHIKARA will take the tag titles from the Briscoes. I really felt that this promo should have come from Quack, and having someone of suspect morals like UMB (who even introduced himself as â€"the great and deviousâ€) didn’t fit.
DAVEY RICHARDS PROMO- bad. Davey talked way too quickly and didn’t really say much of anything.
ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Davey Richards(c) vs. Jay Lethal- 7.5/10
They started off really well with Davey working over Jay’s arm, but at one point they forgot about it for the rest of the match. Roddy’s interference was done purely to set up a rematch on TV (that’s right; they used a show people have to pay to see to build up to a rematch on free TV). The finish, unfortunately, felt kind of silly. Jay did one of those spots where he responds to a kick to the head by shouting a telling the other guy to give him his best shot… so Davey kicked Jay in the head a few more times, then covered him for the win... which just made Jay look silly. Don’t get me wrong, the match was great, but I expect more out of an ROH World Title match and an ROH main event, especially when the rest of the card was so disappointing.
Overall, a disappointing show from ROH. Everything was at least good, but I expected a lot more from ROH’s first show of the year and their big return to Philly. This was a typical Cornette Era show, with only the main event being allowed to deliver, and as a result, if the main event is not good, the show feels disappointing.
HAAS & BENJAMIN PROMO- a standard heel promo establishing that the hostile reaction they got from the crowd at Final Battle 2011 officially turned them heel
WRESTLING’S GREATEST TAG TEAM vs. FUTURE SHOCK- 6/10
This match ended about ten minutes before it should have. It really felt like they were just getting into gear when the finish (WGTT take advantage of O’Reilly accidentally hitting Cole in the corner) came.
GRIZZLY REDWOOD PROMO- the Phillies hat killed it for me. You can’t be a lumberjack and wear a Phillies had. Those two things just don’t go together.
FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL MATCH: â€"The Prodigy†Mike Bennett vs. Grizzly Redwood vs. Andy â€"Right Leg†Ridge vs. Tommaso Ciampa (w/the Embassy)- 5.5/10
COLE & O’REILLY BACKSTAGE- Cole kind of came off like a dick in the beginning of this, which seems backwards to me because Kyle was going to be the one who turned heel and had already been acting like a dick in the Eddie-Davey feud.
THE EMBASSY BACKSTAGE- did a good job of establishing the differences in priorities between R.D. Evans and Prince Nana. Ciampa also cut a good little promo hyping up both tonight’s World Title match and his Proving Ground match tomorrow night against Jay Lethal.
KEVIN STEEN & STEVE CORINO SEGMENT- this did an excellent job of planting the seeds in Corino’s mind that would eventually result in his heel turn after Steen won the belt. Steen also took some VERY stiff verbal shots at Cornette. The whole Steen vs. Cornette angle is the closest you will ever possibly get to a real â€"worked shoot†because (according to Steen on his Highspots shoot), they had planned what Steen would do during the feud, but they rarely had any idea what he would say, and the emotions in this thing were pretty damn real.
KEVIN STEEN vs. KENNY KING (w/Rhett Titus)- 6.5/10
I was really expecting more out of these two, especially in Steen’s first match back as a member of the official roster. After the match Steen tries to hit Kenny King with a Package Piledriver, but Rhett makes the save by hitting Steen with one of his crutches. Steen no sells it, then goes after Rhett’s injured knee and locks him in the Sharpshooter until Kenny gets back up and makes the save.
CHRIS HERO vs. MICHAEL ELGIN (w/Truth Martini)- 6.75/10
Before the match we got a nice little segment with Shane Hagadorn coming out and offering to manage Hero to counteract Truth Martini (whose meddling had cost Hero his match at Final Battle 2011) but Hero turns him down, saying that he has to do this himself. This is as close as Hagadorn has ever been to being a babyface so if you are, for some reason, a Shane Hagadorn fan and would like a like a glimpse of what he might be like as a babyface, pick this up.
The match was pretty good, but nothing great. Hero did some of his obnoxious athletic show-off stuff from 2007. As it turns out, a distraction by Truth Martini does indeed cost Hero this match, so Hagadorn comes out and berates Hero until Hero knocks him out with a rolling elbow. This was a nice post-match segment, but I am extremely disappointed that ROH didn’t give Hero the chance to give a goodbye speech. The good bye speech is always a great moment for the fans and the wrestlers alike, and is one of the things that makes indy wrestling feel more intimate than WWE or TNA. I can understand guys like Aries, Necro, and Cabana not getting goodbye speeches because the assumption was that they would be back at some point, and I can understand wanting to keep kayfabe and not giving Tyler or Claudio goodbye speeches because they went out as heels, but having Hero back for these two shows as a babyface gave ROH an opportunity to give its fans a moment we hadn’t had in over two years, to give a man who had spent the last seven years been one of the most hated heels in the history of the indies the chance to thank the fans.
KEVIN STEEN PROMO- Steen says that he will be the ROH World Champion at the end of 2012, and he will destroy anyone who is put in his way until Jim Cornette gives him a shot at Davey. He also tells Kenny King that the only way he will ever reach is full potential is if he dumps Rhett Titus as a tag team partner and goes out on his own. I guess Kenny didn’t realize it was a work.
TRUTH MARTINI & MICHAEL ELGIN BACKSTAGE PROMO- decent
NO HOLDS BARRED MATCH: Adam Cole vs. Roderick Strong (w/Truth Martini)- 7.25/10
This was originally supposed to be Roddy taking on Eddie Edwards but Eddie had a staph infection and couldn’t compete. Roddy came out and said that because Eddie was injured and everyone else was already booked tonight, he should be given an automatic win, but Adam Cole came out to challenge him. Roddy also announced his intention to go after both singles titles.
Some of Cole’s offense here looked weak, but otherwise the match was good. I really liked Roddy hitting Cole with the Book of Truth while yelling at him to listen to what Truth Martini says. It really got across the cult leader aspect of Truth’s gimmick by having his disciples say that everyone should listen to him, which is something we don’t often see.
VEDA SCOTT INTERVIEWS THE BRISCOES- Mark Briscoe should not be allowed to talk. Jay was good.
TRUTH MARTINI & RODERICK STRONG BACKSTAGE PROMO- okay
PROVING GROUND MATCH: ROH World Tag Team Champions the Briscoe Brothers vs. Jigsaw & Hallowicked- 7.25/10
The CHIKARA locker room coming out got a big pop. On its own, this was very good, but the finish here (it saw multiple CHIKARA guys get in the ring, but not actually touch anyone, as a result of one of the Briscoes turning Hallowicked’s mask around so he couldn’t see) should have led to a more heated issue between ROH and CHIKARA than what we eventually got. The Briscoes cut a post-match promo calling the finish as BS. UltraMantis then cut a promo saying that the Briscoes disrespected their lucha culture and thus CHIKARA will take the tag titles from the Briscoes. I really felt that this promo should have come from Quack, and having someone of suspect morals like UMB (who even introduced himself as â€"the great and deviousâ€) didn’t fit.
DAVEY RICHARDS PROMO- bad. Davey talked way too quickly and didn’t really say much of anything.
ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Davey Richards(c) vs. Jay Lethal- 7.5/10
They started off really well with Davey working over Jay’s arm, but at one point they forgot about it for the rest of the match. Roddy’s interference was done purely to set up a rematch on TV (that’s right; they used a show people have to pay to see to build up to a rematch on free TV). The finish, unfortunately, felt kind of silly. Jay did one of those spots where he responds to a kick to the head by shouting a telling the other guy to give him his best shot… so Davey kicked Jay in the head a few more times, then covered him for the win... which just made Jay look silly. Don’t get me wrong, the match was great, but I expect more out of an ROH World Title match and an ROH main event, especially when the rest of the card was so disappointing.
Overall, a disappointing show from ROH. Everything was at least good, but I expected a lot more from ROH’s first show of the year and their big return to Philly. This was a typical Cornette Era show, with only the main event being allowed to deliver, and as a result, if the main event is not good, the show feels disappointing.