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| Tyler Black's Final Televised ROH Match |
I watched what I couldn't watch live on my DVR this week. Here's what stood out:
Matches:
Davey Richards vs. Tyler Black on ROH on HDNet - A lot of people were really pimping the hell out of this match. I liked how the entire HDNet hour was built around it. I liked that they made a big deal out of a match, and yes, I did like the match for what it was. However, I feel like it dragged a bit too much for me to give it the high praise that it was getting online. Again, Black needs to be in there with a guy like Bryan Danielson or Nigel McGuinness to be effective. Richards was reined in, but it still felt boring in spots. It was good enough to make the honor roll though. They made it feel special. They made Black leaving seem like a big deal and then that put Richards' win over that much more.
AJ Styles (c) vs. The Pope, TNA Television Championship Street Fight on Impact - This is on the honor roll for what happened before the ending rather than when Abyss came out and fucked things up. It was a pretty good street fight, with AJ Styles really playing up the prick heel role. Any match that has someone locking in a fishhook is alright by me. The end ruined it though. Fuck these bookers.
CM Punk vs. Edge on Smackdown - This was a very good free TV match with a smart use of a DQ finish. Punk worked over Edge's gut (which he was no-selling by the time the post-match brawl came about, but I'll forgive that since the match was over), and Edge had some smart counters. Punk is the best all-around wrestler in the world right now, and maybe the best in-ring guy not named Bryan Danielson in the WWE. He led Edge by the nose and Edge did keep up for the most part.
Shows
ROH on HDNet - I liked this show a lot in that it was an hour-long paean to a wrestling match. While that may seem trivial to the people who hate the idea of wrestling as sport, I think for ROH it works. They're supposed to be the brand that is all about the in-ring, so why not go balls out and tell the story about how Davey Richards is seeking respect and closure, and Tyler Black is having none of it. Richards had to insult Black's pride to get what he wanted, and the story that was told by the match, while not the best match I've seen even on HDNet, hit the spot.
Superstars - Well, the good was that we had three okay matches this week and they actually tried to tie an angle in with the recap adn PPV rundown. The bad was that each match was fatally flawed enough that they were all kept out of the honor roll. The opening match really only had one standout performer in Kozlov, the middle match had William Regal do his best to carry Darren Young, but Young's greenness be too much, and the main event had too much MVP slopping up the joint. Still, you're not going to get a great show every week.
Impact - Seriously, how can you have non-finishes or fuck finishes to most of your main matches every week and expect people to take the product seriously? Everything's overbooked, and the reality TV element goes way too overboard to try and get me to care about anything. Also, Katie Lea Burchill debuting as someone only Angelina Love can see? BEYOND LAME. Not a strong episode, but they only really have a few strong episodes a year.
Smackdown - Smackdown always seems to have a much stronger go-home show for the PPV than RAW because it's mostly built around wrestling matches and building heat for PPV blowoffs that way. This close to the PPV, those snippets of confrontation in the ring do the best to whet the appetite. However, knowing what I knew about Bragging Rights (having aired the night before I watched SD), it felt a bit anti-climactic to have Smackdown whitewash RAW. I would have booked it a little more evenly, or at the very least had more than just one match with a DQ or countout finish. Still, it was a strong show, punctuated by solid wrestling and a few good promo segments. By the way, I laughed out loud at Layla's Jim Neidhart get up.
Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein - Please visit his site to view the plentiful amounts of pictures he's taken for DGUSA, ROH and other indie feds: Get Lost Photography
Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!
