ROH 13th Anniversary Show
ROH 13th Anniversary Show (3/1/2015)- Las Vegas, NV
OPENING VIDEO PACKAGE- bad.
Okay. You’re in Las Vegas, WE F*CKING GET IT ALREADY! You can stop with the damn gambling references! How about using this time to HYPE UP THE MATCHES?!
In much better news, ROH now has a Spanish Announce Team! Corino cracked a joke about the tag team of the same name from the early days of ROH, which long-time fans will get a kick out of, but I'm sure left a lot of others scratching their heads.
CEDRIC ALEXANDER vs. MATT SYDAL- 7/10
Sydal wanted to have a friendly match, but Cedric was very aggressive because he really wanted to pick up a win. Cedric was devastated by this loss, but he still followed the Code of Honor. You can tell that a heel turn is coming, though.
MARK BRISCOE PROMO- GREAT!
MARK BRISCOE vs. MOOSE (w/Veda Scott & Stokely Hathaway)- 5.75/10
Corino rather accurately described Hathaway’s attire by asking â€"did Spike Lee and Urkel have a baby that I didn’t know about?â€
The match was short but quite fun. This was a fun reminder that Mark Briscoe can be quite the high-flyer, even after the Briscoes’ big bulk-up during their year and a half off back in the mid-2000’s. As for Moose, learned that his vertical leap is UTTERLY F*CKING RIDICULOUS! He could put Shelton Benjamin to shame, and Moose has got to be at least sixty pounds heavier than Shelton ever was.
Veda Scott advised Moose to not follow the Code of Honor. Hathaway seemed to disagree with this, but deferred to Veda’s opinion.
TRIPLE THREAT TAG TEAM MATCH: The Kingdom (Michael Bennett & Matt Taven) vs. The Addiction vs. Karl â€"Machine Gun†Anderson &… nobody- 6.25/10
Doc Gallows’ flight got cancelled because of bad weather so he couldn’t make the show, so Anderson wrestled by himself. This was a little odd in that it seems like it’d be a lot easier to just throw… well… ANYONE out there with him. I don’t know who they brought along but if Jay Diesel or Adam Page or Jimmy Jacobs or some competent student are in the house, why not use them in this spot so that they can eat the pin? I understand not wanting to us Samoa Joe in this spot, but why not Steve Corino?
The match was okay. The Kingdom of all people are being built up for an IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Title shot. I hope that they don’t waste the Bullet Club’s appearance at the ROH/New Japan shows with that match.
RODERICK STRONG vs. BJ WHITMER (w/the Decade)- 6.25/10
MARIA PROMO- good.
SINGLES MATCH FOR MIKE & MARIA’S TITLE OF LOVE: Maria Kanellis(c) (w/Michael Bennett) vs. ODB (w/Mark Briscoe)- 4.25/10
I have no idea when this â€"Title of Love†stipulation got added on, but it really feels like it got tacked on at the last moment because the booker forgot about it when the â€"Last Time Ever†stip was added to the Tag Team Armageddon match at Winter Warriors Tour: Atlanta.
The match was fine for what it was, and Corino was fantastic on commentary.
AJ STYLES vs. ACH- 7.25/10
A great match, but I was hoping for more. ACH was cocky. AJ worked over his knee.
ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: reDRagon(c) (w/Shayna Baszler) vs. The Young Bucks- 8/10
Rocky Romero joined Kelly and Corino on commentary. Kevin Kelly described him as â€"one of the all-time greats.†That’s a hell of stretch right there. No disrespect to Rocky, because he’s a great wrestler, but he is not even close to being an all-time great. He announced that Trent Baretta will be his new tag team partner, and that they will debut in ROH at Milwaukee-Chicago doubt shot in two weeks.
The match was great, with these guys pulling out a lot of crazy stuff as always, and as always, they managed to find some cool new stuff to throw in as well. That being said, I wasn’t happy with Shayna Baszler being as physically involved as she was. I get that it gives the Bucks an excuse for a rematch, but she should have been ejected from ringside LONG before she screwed the Bucks out of the titles. THIS IS RING OF HONOR!
ROH TV TITLE MATCH: Jay Lethal(c) (w/the House of Truth) vs. Alberto El Patron- 7.5/10
Heel interference again. Well… at least they didn’t do a count-out to protect Alberto for AAA, because I was quite afraid that they would. The match was good, but I was really expecting better, especially with an actual pinfall as a finish.
SAMOA JOE PROMO- decent
THUNDEROUS pop for Joe! His promo was pretty generic. â€"ROH is great.†â€"ROH is wrestling for true wrestling fans.†Etc. etc. The people ate it up. Then he said he was going after the ROH World Title and everyone went nuts again.
FOUR WAY MATCH FOR THE ROH WORLD TITLE: Jay Briscoe(c) vs. Michael Elgin vs. Hanson vs. Tommaso Ciampa- 6.5/10
Ciampa is wearing a mask and cape get-up for his entrance that looks REALLY F*CKING STUPID. Even worse than Elgin’s wizarding robe.
So they were having this really good four-way… and then the overbooking started.
First Tod Sinclair took a ref bump. Then Hanson got a visual pin on ROH World Champion Jay Briscoe, who hasn’t been pinned in over two years. Then the Knights of the Rising Dawn jumped the barricade and attacked people. No security came out from backstage to help. One of them hit Mat Taven’s Climax, a second one hit the Twist of Fate, and then together they all hit a triple superkick to suggest to us that it’s the Kingdom under those masks.
Raymond Rowe made his big return from injury to make the save. When he showed up, the Knight of the Rising Dawn ran away, but Rowe managed to grab one of the masked men! Did he unmask him and give us a big reveal on our big PPV? No. Did he at least lay the guy out for attacking his tag partner? Nope. He just tossed the guy out of the ring... essentially sending the guy exactly where he was trying to go anyway! SOOOOO DUMB!
Then Michael Elgin hit Jay Briscoe with a Jay Driller through a table (to mirror what Jay did to Elgin in the match where Jay won the title from him), which was the only good part of this. Realizing that he couldn’t get a pin because the ref was out, he got some chairs and went to give Jay a solo Con-Chair-To, but Nigel McGuinness got up to stop him. This is the same Nigel McGuinness who sat on his ass when masked men jumped the barricade and attacked his wrestlers.
This was done to set up a spot when Elgin was going to attack Nigel, but Tommaso Ciampa saved Nigel (who Ciampa has been angry with because Ciampa believes he is being treated unfairly). Ciampa then hit Elgin with a chair, and Nigel, who had Ciampa under â€"zero tolerance policy†for rule-breaking, did nothing (presumably as repayment for being saved).
People recovered, and Hanson hit his big spinning kick of doom on Jay, but Elgin immediately pulled Hanson out of the ring and while they brawled on the outside, the pretty much unconscious Jay just fell onto Ciampa for the pin.
This finish made Jay look like an unworthy champion, and killed Ciampa, who has been campaigning for a one-on-one title shot for months, as a title contender (the guy to take the fall should have been Hanson, whose tag partner is just returning from injury who would still be elevated simply by being in such a big spot, while keeping both Elgin and Jay alive as top challengers for Jay).
I get what they were going for here: A big confluence of multiple storylines that would be a big nexus from which the future of the world title picture would shoot off in various directions… but while watching this entire thing, I just couldn’t help but think â€"WHAT THE F*CK IS THIS TNA SH*T DOING ON MY ROH PPV?!â€
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Samoa Joe came out and bumped into Elgin in the aisle, grabbed the belt and looked at it longingly before handing it over to Jay.
Was the wrestling on this show great? Indisputably. But at the same time, none of the marquee matches hit the level I was really hoping for, and I think that is because they tried to fit too much stuff onto this one show. They tried to fit NINE matches into three hours, including four top matches that really should have gone at least twenty minutes each. The three-way tag, Roddy vs. BJ and especially Maria vs. ODB really didn’t need as much time as they got. Roddy vs. BJ could have easily gone six minutes and had Whitmer with a a low-blow and a roll-up to set up a bigger match for either the upcoming Chicago show or Supercard of Honor IX. Hell… Joe’s entire speech didn’t need to happen here, and not doing it would have saved both time and the expense of bringing Joe in. These things all took away time that the top of the card really needed.
The other thing that really bugged me was Kevin Kelly’s commentary. I absolutely HATE when promotions do a show in Las Vegas and decide that ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING must have a Vegas theme, and the thing that annoyed me the most here was Kevin Kelly talking about â€"the odds-makers.†He’s never mentioned any odds-makers before, so why is he treating them their opinions are important now? Every time he brought them up, I just screamed â€"WE GET IT! YOU’RE IN VEGAS! SHUT UP ALREADY!â€
Anyway, a very good show in the ring, but as a big PPV, I personally found it to be very disappointing.
OPENING VIDEO PACKAGE- bad.
Okay. You’re in Las Vegas, WE F*CKING GET IT ALREADY! You can stop with the damn gambling references! How about using this time to HYPE UP THE MATCHES?!
In much better news, ROH now has a Spanish Announce Team! Corino cracked a joke about the tag team of the same name from the early days of ROH, which long-time fans will get a kick out of, but I'm sure left a lot of others scratching their heads.
CEDRIC ALEXANDER vs. MATT SYDAL- 7/10
Sydal wanted to have a friendly match, but Cedric was very aggressive because he really wanted to pick up a win. Cedric was devastated by this loss, but he still followed the Code of Honor. You can tell that a heel turn is coming, though.
MARK BRISCOE PROMO- GREAT!
MARK BRISCOE vs. MOOSE (w/Veda Scott & Stokely Hathaway)- 5.75/10
Corino rather accurately described Hathaway’s attire by asking â€"did Spike Lee and Urkel have a baby that I didn’t know about?â€
The match was short but quite fun. This was a fun reminder that Mark Briscoe can be quite the high-flyer, even after the Briscoes’ big bulk-up during their year and a half off back in the mid-2000’s. As for Moose, learned that his vertical leap is UTTERLY F*CKING RIDICULOUS! He could put Shelton Benjamin to shame, and Moose has got to be at least sixty pounds heavier than Shelton ever was.
Veda Scott advised Moose to not follow the Code of Honor. Hathaway seemed to disagree with this, but deferred to Veda’s opinion.
TRIPLE THREAT TAG TEAM MATCH: The Kingdom (Michael Bennett & Matt Taven) vs. The Addiction vs. Karl â€"Machine Gun†Anderson &… nobody- 6.25/10
Doc Gallows’ flight got cancelled because of bad weather so he couldn’t make the show, so Anderson wrestled by himself. This was a little odd in that it seems like it’d be a lot easier to just throw… well… ANYONE out there with him. I don’t know who they brought along but if Jay Diesel or Adam Page or Jimmy Jacobs or some competent student are in the house, why not use them in this spot so that they can eat the pin? I understand not wanting to us Samoa Joe in this spot, but why not Steve Corino?
The match was okay. The Kingdom of all people are being built up for an IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Title shot. I hope that they don’t waste the Bullet Club’s appearance at the ROH/New Japan shows with that match.
RODERICK STRONG vs. BJ WHITMER (w/the Decade)- 6.25/10
MARIA PROMO- good.
SINGLES MATCH FOR MIKE & MARIA’S TITLE OF LOVE: Maria Kanellis(c) (w/Michael Bennett) vs. ODB (w/Mark Briscoe)- 4.25/10
I have no idea when this â€"Title of Love†stipulation got added on, but it really feels like it got tacked on at the last moment because the booker forgot about it when the â€"Last Time Ever†stip was added to the Tag Team Armageddon match at Winter Warriors Tour: Atlanta.
The match was fine for what it was, and Corino was fantastic on commentary.
AJ STYLES vs. ACH- 7.25/10
A great match, but I was hoping for more. ACH was cocky. AJ worked over his knee.
ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: reDRagon(c) (w/Shayna Baszler) vs. The Young Bucks- 8/10
Rocky Romero joined Kelly and Corino on commentary. Kevin Kelly described him as â€"one of the all-time greats.†That’s a hell of stretch right there. No disrespect to Rocky, because he’s a great wrestler, but he is not even close to being an all-time great. He announced that Trent Baretta will be his new tag team partner, and that they will debut in ROH at Milwaukee-Chicago doubt shot in two weeks.
The match was great, with these guys pulling out a lot of crazy stuff as always, and as always, they managed to find some cool new stuff to throw in as well. That being said, I wasn’t happy with Shayna Baszler being as physically involved as she was. I get that it gives the Bucks an excuse for a rematch, but she should have been ejected from ringside LONG before she screwed the Bucks out of the titles. THIS IS RING OF HONOR!
ROH TV TITLE MATCH: Jay Lethal(c) (w/the House of Truth) vs. Alberto El Patron- 7.5/10
Heel interference again. Well… at least they didn’t do a count-out to protect Alberto for AAA, because I was quite afraid that they would. The match was good, but I was really expecting better, especially with an actual pinfall as a finish.
SAMOA JOE PROMO- decent
THUNDEROUS pop for Joe! His promo was pretty generic. â€"ROH is great.†â€"ROH is wrestling for true wrestling fans.†Etc. etc. The people ate it up. Then he said he was going after the ROH World Title and everyone went nuts again.
FOUR WAY MATCH FOR THE ROH WORLD TITLE: Jay Briscoe(c) vs. Michael Elgin vs. Hanson vs. Tommaso Ciampa- 6.5/10
Ciampa is wearing a mask and cape get-up for his entrance that looks REALLY F*CKING STUPID. Even worse than Elgin’s wizarding robe.
So they were having this really good four-way… and then the overbooking started.
First Tod Sinclair took a ref bump. Then Hanson got a visual pin on ROH World Champion Jay Briscoe, who hasn’t been pinned in over two years. Then the Knights of the Rising Dawn jumped the barricade and attacked people. No security came out from backstage to help. One of them hit Mat Taven’s Climax, a second one hit the Twist of Fate, and then together they all hit a triple superkick to suggest to us that it’s the Kingdom under those masks.
Raymond Rowe made his big return from injury to make the save. When he showed up, the Knight of the Rising Dawn ran away, but Rowe managed to grab one of the masked men! Did he unmask him and give us a big reveal on our big PPV? No. Did he at least lay the guy out for attacking his tag partner? Nope. He just tossed the guy out of the ring... essentially sending the guy exactly where he was trying to go anyway! SOOOOO DUMB!
Then Michael Elgin hit Jay Briscoe with a Jay Driller through a table (to mirror what Jay did to Elgin in the match where Jay won the title from him), which was the only good part of this. Realizing that he couldn’t get a pin because the ref was out, he got some chairs and went to give Jay a solo Con-Chair-To, but Nigel McGuinness got up to stop him. This is the same Nigel McGuinness who sat on his ass when masked men jumped the barricade and attacked his wrestlers.
This was done to set up a spot when Elgin was going to attack Nigel, but Tommaso Ciampa saved Nigel (who Ciampa has been angry with because Ciampa believes he is being treated unfairly). Ciampa then hit Elgin with a chair, and Nigel, who had Ciampa under â€"zero tolerance policy†for rule-breaking, did nothing (presumably as repayment for being saved).
People recovered, and Hanson hit his big spinning kick of doom on Jay, but Elgin immediately pulled Hanson out of the ring and while they brawled on the outside, the pretty much unconscious Jay just fell onto Ciampa for the pin.
This finish made Jay look like an unworthy champion, and killed Ciampa, who has been campaigning for a one-on-one title shot for months, as a title contender (the guy to take the fall should have been Hanson, whose tag partner is just returning from injury who would still be elevated simply by being in such a big spot, while keeping both Elgin and Jay alive as top challengers for Jay).
I get what they were going for here: A big confluence of multiple storylines that would be a big nexus from which the future of the world title picture would shoot off in various directions… but while watching this entire thing, I just couldn’t help but think â€"WHAT THE F*CK IS THIS TNA SH*T DOING ON MY ROH PPV?!â€
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Samoa Joe came out and bumped into Elgin in the aisle, grabbed the belt and looked at it longingly before handing it over to Jay.
Was the wrestling on this show great? Indisputably. But at the same time, none of the marquee matches hit the level I was really hoping for, and I think that is because they tried to fit too much stuff onto this one show. They tried to fit NINE matches into three hours, including four top matches that really should have gone at least twenty minutes each. The three-way tag, Roddy vs. BJ and especially Maria vs. ODB really didn’t need as much time as they got. Roddy vs. BJ could have easily gone six minutes and had Whitmer with a a low-blow and a roll-up to set up a bigger match for either the upcoming Chicago show or Supercard of Honor IX. Hell… Joe’s entire speech didn’t need to happen here, and not doing it would have saved both time and the expense of bringing Joe in. These things all took away time that the top of the card really needed.
The other thing that really bugged me was Kevin Kelly’s commentary. I absolutely HATE when promotions do a show in Las Vegas and decide that ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING must have a Vegas theme, and the thing that annoyed me the most here was Kevin Kelly talking about â€"the odds-makers.†He’s never mentioned any odds-makers before, so why is he treating them their opinions are important now? Every time he brought them up, I just screamed â€"WE GET IT! YOU’RE IN VEGAS! SHUT UP ALREADY!â€
Anyway, a very good show in the ring, but as a big PPV, I personally found it to be very disappointing.