Hey everybody thanks for reading this review of the most recent ROH show on HDNet and if you haven’t been able to see it yet you can definitely see the episode in full over at www.prowrestlingponderings.com in the video section.

So opening this show you had what was supposed to be Tyler Black having some promo time which was cut short not only by ROH world Champion Austin Aries but also Nigel Mc****ss, both of who question Black’s ability to win the ROH title. Later in the show we also had the announcement in two weeks that Nigel would be facing Black in what should be a barn burner.

Opening the show this week was the tag team of Kenny King & Rhett Titus with their valet who may or may not be from the U.K. against Kenny Omega and Erick Stevens.
Definitely a decent opening match up that showcased some of the great young talent in ROH while also getting over that King and Titus could be a future danger to the ROH tag team title scene. King and Titus get the win with some dastardly tactics, albeit in a win is a win and most likely this isn’t the end of this HDnet feud.

We have Kingston taking on a man who should have started this match with a burst of fire, Orange Cassidy. Unfortunately Cassidy got around one percent offense in this match and the rest of the time Kingston was imagining Chris Hero as he mercilessly took him out with the dreaded back fist.

Throughout the episode we had back story build with Roderick Strong, D’Lo Brown, and Jay Briscoe. This all lead to the main event with these three mid card guys going at it for pride and the win.

Really this was a great main event and I do believe it should get these three over with the general ROH fanbase. All three guys were working hard and none of them would look bad in a feud with current ROH champion Austin Aries. These guys definitely put on a fast paced, hard hitting main event despite the lack of high impact spots, we had some great wrestling and great striking moments that really made these guys look as tough as they should look. The ending was great as we had a reversal from Strong on D’Lo into a power bomb into a prawn hold to get the three and a great win for Strong. Strong is on his way to teaming with his Hybrid Dolphins partner Danielson and KENTA in ROH, but he could make an argument that a singles run could happen.

Good show for the mainstream audience and I don’t think that any ROH faithful could really complain persay about the in ring work. Thanks for reading guys and thanks for checking out the site.
Please def leave a comment at the website [url=http://nationalsportsreview.com/sports/us/pwp/2009/08/03/roh-reviews-08012009/]here[/url].

We have the opening segment of guess who, Legacy alongside Triple H and John Cena.  What a surprise, we have Orton demanding that he make the main event a  handicapped match.  Guess all wrestling champions are seemingly getting more “power” from the belts they hold.   Of course the faces accept, I will note that this is obviously a chance for them to cripple Orton before the big three way.  So this could work in their favor though I will say that reminding everyone that two years ago we had already seen this match doesn’t help their case that they are doing new and exciting stuff.  It really doesn’t.

We then had what was supposed to hype up the big 6 Pack Challenge of US champ Kofi, Primo, MVP against Big Show, Jack Swaggar, and Carlito.  Now why Miz couldn’t be in this match is beyond me, despite the fact that he showed up later on but they are trying to get the most out of the brothers Colon mini feud so I guess it makes sense.

We had a semi decent match with the obvious end of getting The the Big Show over.  Even to the point that after the match he destroyed his own partners which is fine.  Big Show is a decent talent and should be in some title chase at some point though his limited mobility should also suggest using him at special times a la Undertaker.

The Brian Kendrick was quickly shown jaw jacking with Cole and King when finally he had to get in the ring for his match.  Needless to say Jerry wasn’t going to take this **** from a youngin and with the unlimitless power that the announcing team has made an impromptu match against Kendrick and soundly defeated him with the classic heart punch.  Needless to say the debate of what is more deadly, the Heart Punch or MVP Ballin elbow is still up in the air.

Mark Henry oddly enough after nearly 13 years is finally getting some fan response and honestly I don’t mind.  The man is legitimally one of the strongest men on the plant having won multiple awards including a Hummer from my governor.  Jericho played to point of being scared perfectly and honestly this match really did what it was supposed to which is showcase that Henry can work with main event level players and still seem unstoppable.  The chair spot and code breaker attempt I feel went over well with the crowd and hopefully Mark will at least get  a tag title shot as him teamed with someone with a mouth is always good.  Kofi and Henry for Tag Champs is going to be my goal for him.

Hornswaggle vs Chavo is just a waste of life and honestly how this BS comes across to these writers/bookers as comedy is beyond any intelligent reasoning.

Alicia Fox and Rosa had a “Legs” match against Gail Kim and Kelly Kelly.   For all the males watching this episode of Raw, obviously this was directed at them and it did what it was supposed to.  I don’t see why Gail is being wasted in this kind of a role but I’m sure she’ll get a shot at the Divas title at some point.

The legendary Shaq is going to be next weeks host.  Well at least this doesn’t make the fed look out of touch so we’ll just have to see.

The strongest segment of the entire night had Rhodes and DiBiase confront Jericho with how they are going to beat him at NoC.  Greatest line of the night where Jericho, after taking a verbal beating and a threat that Orton could take him out with the dreaded punt to the head had Jericho propose that possibly Orton could be his partner.

Finally we have the main event of John Cena and Triple H vs Legacy.

A good match leading up to the Night of Champions.  The tension between Triple H and Cena was obvious and of course deserved as both are challenging for the same title.  Orton and Legacy looked strong and did look like they were targeting Triple H which actually made sense.   I have to say that this is the match I was hoping to see over the weekend and yet never got from that other company and even though I don’t agree with the booking WWE proves once again that their professionals seemingly can actually work the finales of their matches without looking like complete ****.

ROH Reflections

by chrisgst on Jun.26, 2009, under Uncategorized

I would like to take this time now to welcome myself, Chris GST to the PWP universe of writings.  I have decided to take this opportunity to introduce myself to the PWP wrestling community. Obviously, a pro wrestling fan of several indy federations and I have been given the task of reviewing most ROH shows and releases alongside give opinions.   For this first shot in the dark writing that I'm putting forth I am going to set the tone throughout my writings right now...

I DON'T BOW DOWN TO THE INTERNET WRESTLING COMMUNITY

I have one major online screen name and under that screen name I post regularly on many wrestling based forums.  Now I have to point out that I've been on message boards since roughly 1997, and not entirely all wrestling forums so through the years the "forum etiquette" has been thrown around and seemingly is non-existent on wrestling forums.  Thus I've been through many a wrestling debate/argument/heated spamming and I do know that I don't always have the proto-typical look at the world of pro wrestling.  I'm warning you now that if you disagree with anything I say, feel free to post it, feel free to rant off on me, as long as you know that it's open grounds for me to rant on your opinion as well.  Lets keep it P.C. and try to stay on topic but fun and ranting has been a staple of the IWC and I'm not going to hinder it.

So for this first debut column, I'm going to bring up the one thing that has been  bothering me, which is a perfect example of how the IWC can be fickle which should be  a given,  about how some of the IWC have stated that they want TNA and WWE to go back to the old school booking style of pure white and black hat characters.  Good guys and bad guys.  Heels and faces.  They want WWE to bring back the style of booking that they we've been conditioned to accept, but then, when it comes to a guy who is booking that old school kind of style in Adam Pearce they will **** all over it.  Let me repeat that, they **** all over it.

Why?  Now I've been a ROH fan since the first show.  Round Robin Challenge 1 wasn't even out on DVD yet from what I knew when I found The Era of Honor Begins in a San Francisco Virgin Megastore discount bin and had heard of ROH from online and PWI magazine.  Instantly bought it and the moment I got home that night, I put it in and have been hooked ever since.    So I'm not a new fan nor am I a ROHbot.  I have criticised them and even had been banned once from the ROH message board until I argued my case and was allowed back after a few months.   So what is it that Pearce is doing that is so different from what a "verbal minority" of the IWC is begging TNA and WWE to do with their booking?

Yes, he has slowed down the paces of the matches, he has made the first half and the second half of the shows seemingly different from the Gabe Era which should be expected.  He's not Gabe and that's not good or bad, it is what it is.  He's openly stated that he is going to book more along the style of the 70s and 80s.   When we actually had clear cut black and white, bad and good characters.  A theme that those of the IWC have been clamoring for the "big two" to take another look at and we have it here in ROH, the arguably third most well known wrestling promotion in the United States,  and you're still not happy.

I'll be the first to admit that Adam Pearce shouldn't sacrifice those of us that have stuck with the promotion from the beginning and totally have revamped what it is that we loved about ROH and that was the hard hitting, almost puro-esque style, and drew us in.  But, in his defense, I'll play devil's advocate and flat out say that sometimes things have to progress and if this new style is easier for newer fans to come into and understand and then it evolves back into the style that ROH started out with then I'm going to sit back and still support ROH.

If you were to give new ROH fans that did see the PPVs or watch the ROH on HDnet eps and got into the product the DVD At Our Best, they may not even like it.  They may not seemingly understand that the talent of those days have now moved on to better things or at the very least have evolved beyond those styles of matches and now want to focus more on in-ring character building than hard hitting, in your face matches.  Is this good or bad?  Can we accept that perhaps now we have to develop characters in ROH in order for it to continue to grow?  That days of being the no nonsense/minimal characters (cause there were always great characters in ROH, even Gabe has stated that in several interviews) has gone by the wayside to now we have a building of clear cut heels and faces...or are we going to continue to expect something different out of ROH than the other two successful promotions and still expect ROH to succeed?

I am still puzzled as to why Mike Knox is even on Raw. Raw is the flasgship show and should be for the elite talent group. Mike is horrible in the ring, he can't tell a decent story within the squared circle to save his life and really is a poor man's version of Snitsky, who they already have on Raw.

God it annoys me as to how Knox got a deal with the fed. Why not bring out Tomko, we all know he's back.