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| Different event, same teams |
Matches:
Future Shock (Kyle O'Reilly and Adam Cole) vs. the Bravado Bros. (Harlem and Lancelot) on ROH Television - Fun tag team match between two up and coming tag teams. I love the Bravados. They have so much personality that it hurts sometimes (mainly because they just job their asses off). I really dug some of the double team stuff from FS early on, especially the double interlocking armbars on the Bravados. The face in peril stuff was good, as Cole did a good job channeling Ricky Morton. It helped that the crowd was hot. After the hot tag, I thought the match went on a bit too long, although it did produce a pretty amazing spot where O'Reilly went crashing into one of the Bravados against the guard rail. FS wins with a Total Elimination (called Ride the Lightning). Decent opener.
The World's Greatest Tag Team (Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas) (c) vs. the Kings of Wrestling (Claudio Castagnoli and Chris Hero), ROH World Tag Team Championship Match on ROH Television - This was the perfect main event for the first show, at least for me. ROH is going to miss the Kings of Wrestling so much, and in a perfect world, I'd probably think they'd be wishing it was the American Wolves who went to WWE and not the Kings. Is that my bias showing through? Yeah, probably, but guess what? I AIN'T CARE. Anyway, this was a perfectly-structured tag match. The Champs got the advantage early, and both Benjamin and Haas were good at showcasing athleticism and really outclassing the larger, more imposing Kings early on. The face-in-peril sequence was really well-done. I am invoking his name again because it's my blog and I can, but Benjamin really channeled Ricky Morton well here. My favorite bit was when he was about to make the tag and then Hero sped around the ringside to pull Haas off the apron. I'm a huge fan of those kinds of antics though. The end sequence worked for me as well. Just an all around solid first main event for their TV show.
Brian Kendrick vs. Alex Shelley vs. Kid Kash vs. Jesse Sorensen vs. Zema Ion, Five Way Ladder Match for X-Division Contendership on Impact - Okay, let's forget the fact that they threw a ladder match out there for no real reason other than to do it. I've learned to live with that. This match was fine wrestling junk food faire. Lots of big spots, bodies crashing everywhere, Kid Kash acting like a prick, it was great. The best spot for me was Sorensen climbing the ladder and Kash winging the chair at him. Kendrick winning was predictable but exciting no less.
Madison Rayne vs. Tara, Queen's Qualifier Match on Impact - This was a ridiculously fun match thanks to Madison Rayne and her flirtations with Earl Hebner. If it weren't for that trope, this would have been a nondescript match, which is odd for these two ladies. Rayne is one of the best pure heels in any company, and seeing her schmooze Hebner was hilarious, especially given how much of a withered troll Hebner looks like. Him allowing Tara to have her way with Rayne after an errant kick made me chuckle. Rayne winning with her legs on the ropes is good to get her into a title match, but given that they showed a reel recapping their feud pre-match, it didn't feel like it should have fit. Still, entertaining stuff.
Robert Roode vs. AJ Styles on Impact - Another stellar main event for Impact, two weeks running in a row. It's to be expected since they're both really awesome at doing this thing called wrestling. I liked how they played off the fact that those two know each other, and they executed that fact in a way that flowed well. Sometimes, that happens, and it's ham-handed and looks like they're trying too hard to dodge each other. I really dug that Roode "injured" his leg on an offensive maneuver rather than on a move he took from AJ. Styles working the leg was slick, especially during that bridging Indian deathlock. The finish was really well done, with the missed Pele segueing into the crossface for Roode's win. Good stuff.
Jack Swagger vs. Evan Bourne on Smackdown - We've seen this match a million times, but the mark of a good in-ring feud is that no matter how many times they wrestle, the matches are good. This match was good. Bourne bumped and sold for Swagger, and when he made his comebacks, they looked damn good. I really like Bourne's knee strikes. The shenanigans were really cool here, but I like rampant heel skulldrudgery. I thought that it was too good to be true to have Bourne get the win in his hometown, but hey, no shame in giving SWAGGAH BOMBU the win here.
Cody Rhodes (c) vs. Sheamus, Intercontinental Championship Match on Samckdown - Whoever says WWE doesn't have good wrestling should watch this match and eat shit. Cody Rhodes worked the arm. Sheamus sold it. I mean, it was subtle, but Rhodes just kept throwing moves into the direction of Sheamus' left arm, and no matter where they exactly hit, Sheamus held that limb and shoulder like he was about to keel over in a heart attack. This is the kind of faire WWE gives its audience every week. FU haters. There were some nice spots too, especially on Sheamus clubbing the balls off Rhodes out of the Beautiful Disaster attempt. The finish was a cocktease, but I can see where they were coming from with Christian blatantly interfering. Still, the journey to the end was really, REALLY well-done.
Christian vs. Randy Orton on Smackdown - It never fails. Every time these two get in the ring with each other, they produce great matches. I can see why there are people who put their smarkish whining about the inequity of the wins and losses, because Jesus Christ, it's been one of the best in-ring feuds of the year. I'd say in terms of WWE, only Cena/Punk has been better, but that's been with far fewer matches. Christian's smarts and Orton's raw intensity seem to go together like olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette. I think they did a good thing here going for the double countout to set up the big brawl at the end though. Fresh looks are always good.
Shows:
ROH Television - Better late than never, right? I really liked this show a lot. The set up was nice, both matches were really solid at the very least, and everything seemed to flow a lot better than the old HDNet show did. While Kevin Kelly really wouldn't be my first choice as voice of any wrestling company I owned, I thought he was certainly a step up from Mike Hodgwood. Nigel McGuinness clearly has some catching up to do to be a competent color commentator, but it was good to hear his voice, and given his competition in his field includes Tazz and Jerry Lawler, I'd say he's already starting out on a good foot. I could tolerate the recaps too, because hey, it's their first show, and they needed to get people who might be watching for the first time up to speed on the company. In that vein, I really liked the "Inside ROH" segment, as well as all the sitdown interviews they had. In the future, I hope all of them don't come off as dry and straightforward as Future Shock's and Jay Lethal's did (the Bravados were fucking awesome, let's be real about this, okay?). That being said? I really hope they tone down all the phony grandeur about referencing themselves as "TEH BEST IN THE WORLD!!" or "REAL COMPETITION" or whatever else they're trying to brand themselves as. It's not that it's a bad narrative, because it fits them well. It always has. That being said, that kind of thing is proven through actions, not words. Hollow words are what WWE uses. If ROH wants to be different, their actions should be the things that speak for them in the future.
Impact - Another decent show, although it was a decided step back from last week. I think the biggest example of that was in the segment with the Jarretts, Kazarian and Traci Brooks. I mean, it reeked of stale, fecal shooting over matters that never mattered in storyline in the first place and had liberal helpings of slut-shaming Brooks. It was like a disgusting time capsule from the Impact of a few months ago opened in the middle of a movement within a company trying to do right by itself. Absolutely awful. That being said, there was a lot of good. The wrestling was really solid for a second straight week, the Hulk Hogan promo at the end came off as very heartfelt (which made me wonder why they'd have Sting snark on it backstage... unless they're turning him heel), and even though the segment after the Roode/Styles match felt as ham-handed as the match that preceded it felt smooth, I generally liked the stuff surrounding the main event angle.
Smackdown - Really tight show this week. Mark Henry keeps on proving he's the best in the world with everything he's doing. See, ROH keep saying they're best in the world, but Henry acts like he is. From threatening Booker T to Pillmanizing Khali's ankle, everything he's done has been so lights-out awesome. I also really liked how they did the post-match on Kelly Kelly vs. Nattie Neidhart. They finally did something to make the Divas of Doom look like more than fluke-loss garnering chumpettes. I don't think any of this matters if Phoenix doesn't win tomorrow, but hey, baby steps I guess. Cody Rhodes again came up huge on the stick. He's slowly becoming the WWE's Phantom of the Opera. I'd love it if he started hanging out in boiler rooms and started having random interactions with Mankind. God, these are sentences that prove why I should never be let near booking for any sane wrestling company. One thing I really didn't like though was Triple H coming in and confronting Funkhauser. Okay, I get why he did, but referring to his meetings with David Otunga's clientele as "secret" when they were on camera? It's stuff like that that makes me want to punch kittens. Ugh.
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
