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Csonka’s ROH All Star Extravaganza Review 9.18.15

September 19, 2015 | Posted by Larry Csonka
6.6
The 411 Rating
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Csonka’s ROH All Star Extravaganza Review 9.18.15  

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ROH All Star Extravaganza Review 9.18.15

OFFICIAL RESULTS
ROH TV Title Match: Champion Jay Lethal defeated Bobby Fish @ 14:05 via pin [***½]
The Boys vs. Silas Young Becoming a Boy: Silas Young defeated Dalton Castle @ 11:02 via pin [**¾]
– The All Knight Express defeated The Briscoes @ 8:35 via pin [***¼]
No DQ Match: Moose defeated Cedric Alexander @ 13:15 via pin [***]
Best of 5 Series Match #3: ACH {2} defeated Matt Sydal {1} @ 16:33 via pin [***½]
ROH Tag Team Title Match: The Kingdom defeated The Young Bucks and Champions The Addiction @ 14:07 via pin [**¾]
#1 Contender’s Match: AJ Styles defeated Adam Cole, Roderick Strong and Michael Elgin @ 14:35 via pin [***¾]
ROH World Title Match: Champion Jay Lethal defeated Kyle O’Reilly @ 14:00 via pin [***½]


* Good show open, with a nicely put together opening video and then some solid work from commentary to hype some of the bigger matches.

* Kevin Kelly notes that MMA fighters Jessamyn Duke and Shayna Baszler, friends of reDRagon, are in the crowd tonight.

ROH TV Title Match: Champion Jay Lethal w/Truth Martini vs. Bobby Fish: lethal is the current world and TV champion, and has to defend both titles tonight against the members of reDRagon (Fish and O’Reilly). Fish works his submission game early, leading to Lethal looking to get to the ropes and powder as commentary notes that O’Reilly is not out here to second Fish. Nice and smooth work early, Martini tried to get involved and that led to Lethal hitting a lethal injection in the first five minutes. He was able to roll to the floor, but Lethal was awesome here and beat the shit out of him and slimmed him to the barricades near the entrance several times. This led to a great near count out, and also made sense as far as Lethal trying to save himself for the world title match. I really enjoyed the match, the pacing, energy and overall work, Fish was doing exactly what he said he would do, work his submission game, while Lethal was able to survive. Commentary actually did a good job of discussing the mindfuck Lethal is going through, “does he surrender so that he can fight and defend the world title later tonight?” I thought that was a good story to go along with the work. They had some great back and forth down the stretch, with Lethal teasing tapping a few times, but he was able to counter the final heel hook attempt into a roll up of sorts (with the tights) to escape with the TV Title. Overall the match came off as I expected and as it should have in execution. A bit surprised that Lethal won, but not shocked. Now we have to see how the fact that Lethal had to work the opener and had his leg worked on plays into the main event.

The Boys vs. Silas Young Becoming a Boy: Dalton Castle w/His Boys vs. Silas Young: I have really enjoyed the feud between these two, it’s fun and wacky and it just works. They have also developed a pretty good in ring chemistry, so this has been just great overall. We had a lot of shenanigans from the Boys, fanning away and Silas chasing them. It felt as they lost the crowd part way through, also the crowd feels like they are VERY poorly mic’d. Late in the match Castle went for a dive, but Young pulled the boys in the way and Castle took them out accidentally. Young was trying his best to win; pulling he tights, threatening to use his knee brace and hitting a low blow (when one of the Boys was trying to help), which finally got him the win. Well this should lead to some fantastic TV, there is so much potential for weeks and weeks of vignettes. It also allows for possible elevation of Castle, because the Boys are fun but can also hold him back. The match was good, but lacked the energy of the opener. But it was good enough to get the angle across, and again, it should provide some great TV.

* We get a video with The Briscoes discussing their greatness as a tag team and the stacked ROH tag division.

* BJ Whitmer and Adam Page arrived, so that they could kill all of the fun. Whitmer says they aren’t the opponents because they are injured, and Whitmer will be on commentary.

The Briscoes vs. The All Knight Express: The Romantic Touch then came out, he’s been stalking the Briscoes and getting his ass beat. The Brisoces kicked the shit out of him and tossed him, and the lights went out. Then the All Night Express of Kenny King and Rhett Titus reunited and hit the ring to a pretty good reaction. Titus taking out the fake Romantic Touch as he entered was a nice touch, while commentary made note that the ANX never lost the tag titles because King left ROH. These guys worked a damn fun match, with a ton of energy and a total back and forth effort. The ANX picked up the huge win by hitting the doomsday blockbuster on Mark. The ANX had to win here for this to actually mean something, and their addition to the roster adds to an already deep ROH tag team division. Post match Adam Page attacked Jay and worked him over, until the All Knight Express returned to make the save. They then shook with the Briscoes to show respect. That was a really enjoyable segment overall.

No DQ Match: Cedric Alexander w/Veda Scott vs. Moose w/Stokely Hathaway: Moose speared Alexander right away and they brawled as the bell rang. Moose used his football helmet on Alexander as they brawled on the floor, which was a nice touch. Moose set Alexander on a ladder and looked for a flip dive from the ring, but Alexander moved and Moose crashed and burned. Hathaway got taken out by the heels, and then Alexander controlled for a while, using the chair and then Moose made a comeback using some of his freak athleticism. Alexander, with an assist from Scott, did the Vanterminator to Moose for a new fall. They then brought in a table and set it in the corner. Scott got involved a few times to cut off Moose, Alexander later took a backdrop onto the ladder in the corner, which looked really cool because Alexander got sick height. Alexander ran wild with corner dropkicks, and then got a larger wrench but Hathaway helped make the save and Scott then attacked him. This led to Alexander accidentally nailing Scott, Hathaway punching Alexander with the wrench and Moose hitting a spear through the table for the finish. This was a fun car crash match, with both guys working hard. My main complaint is that the match felt as if it was more about Hathaway and Scott at times, which took away from it a bit. If they could have kept the focus more on Moose and Alexander, I feel that it would have came off better. Also, I have concern about the fans actually being into the Moose victory, as I am not sure this really did anything for him because it felt as if the fans were responding more to the weapons and extra curriculars than Moose actually getting his revenge. Moose is really improving, he has great size and does some very athletic things for a big guy and there is a lot of potential with him.

* I have heard from those in attendance live that the crowd is red hot, but it is not coming across that way on the PPV feed. Again, ROH really needs to mid the crowd better. That being said, it’s been a strong show so far.

Best of 5 Series Match #3: ACH {1} vs. Matt Sydal {1}: They are tied at one match apiece, and all reports say that the matches have been very good. Sydal has been fun since returning, and ACH always works hard but hasn’t been booked well by ROH and has felt like the guy that always loses the big match. They worked a really slow beginning, basic mat wrestling with both men looking to be cautious since the series is tied. They worked a lot of counters to play into the fact that they are starting to know each other very well, which I appreciate. I felt that from the story side of things that they did a good job telling the young and hungry up and comer vs. the veteran that used to be that guy trying to prove that he’s still worth your time. Sydal grounded ACH, working the knee to ground the young highflier, which by default allowed him to play the subtle heel role. The contrast in styles, as compared to the last match, also felt like a good idea. ACH made his comeback and his selling of the leg was shit. He would run full speed at times, did a double stomp off the top and never even acted like the knee was bothering him afterwards. I mean, he didn’t even really try. Throw me a bone dude, you don’t have to act like you are shot, but pay some mind to it. ACH got a near fall off of a 2nd rope 450 late, continued to no sell the leg and then hit a top rope 450 for the win. They had the right game plan, and were working the right match here. This was on its way to being great and the act that ACH won on PPV is huge, but the fact that he completely abandoned selling the leg really hurt this for me. There was a lot to love here until he stopped that, which took away from the work and story being told. This was still a good match, they were telling a good story and from the reports I read of the previous matches, they seemingly played off of them well. Doing this series should do a lot for ACH’s evolution as a performer.

ROH Tag Team Title Match: Champions The Addiction vs. The Kingdom w/Maria Kanellis vs. The Young Bucks: This was originally the Addiction vs. The Kingdom, but the heel steams were dicks and the Kingdom cost the Bucks the titles on TV, so they got added to the match. We had the usual multi-man match stuff at the beginning until it settled down and they got the heat on the Bucks. They then made their comeback, hit superkicks and all of their usual non-big move trademark stuff. Maria tried to distract them, which worked and allowed Taven and Bennett to attack. It didn’t last for long as the Bucks were able to kick their asses, and then the Addiction returned. It was the segment with the Addiction vs. Bucks that made me really want this to be a regular tag. It broke down into the big move buffet, superkicks, finishers and EVERYONE in the match was down. Then we got more superkicks and finishers, Maria’s ass appeared and Daniels took her out, which pissed of Bennett and we got a ref bump…. UGH. A man in a red mask arrived and mocked being Chris Sabin, and attacked the Addiction. The Bucks ran wild, hit the Meltzer driver but Taven had blind tagged in and picked up the pin off of a roll up. The match just didn’t play to me due to the bullshit. I love the Bucks, I love car crash matches, but this just felt like doing shit, and then the ref bump, the KRD deal, and then the least interesting team won the titles. The live crowd seemed to really like it, and I didn’t think it was bad at all but I personally never got into the match like I thought I would. Unfortunately it was a lot of what I thought it would be. It was fun and there was constant movement, but it got to a level, stayed there and then the shenanigans took me out of it. Basically there was too much going on, and I have just had my fill of overbooking.

#1 Contender’s Match: Michael Elgin vs. Adam Cole vs. Roderick Strong vs. AJ Styles: The match is loaded with talent, but even for the best four-ways can be tricky so we’ll see what happens. For a lot of this match it was the Michael Elgin show; no selling, stiff striking, power game throwing Big Michael Elgin. They worked in a lot of counters and reversals involving multiple guys and largely avoided the get guys to the floor so we can work a single match bullshit that always happens. There were a few hiccups during the match, they were trying to keep a frantic pacing and it largely worked but they sacrificed smooth execution at times to do so. It came down to four men beating the shit out of each other, and while fun from a work perspective, I never felt any sense of drams. It became a collection of moves, with some fun near falls down the stretch We had a great segment with Styles and Cole near the end, which ended with Styles hitting bloody Sunday and the clash to pick up the win and #1 contender’s spot. It was a good call back to their match earlier in the year, but sometimes one guy is just better and that is Styles right now. It was a very enjoyable match, and overall I liked it the most so far. It just lacked that thing that can pull you in, that little bit of drama. But on the level of four guys trying to kill each other for a title shot, it worked.

ROH World Title Match: Champion Jay Lethal w/Truth Martini vs. Kyle O’Reilly: Lethal came to the ring, looking rough and limping from the opener. The work from the opener is acknowledged here, which I appreciate. They did some very nice counter wrestling early, and that led to a tease of O’Reilly getting a submission. This may sound odd at first but follow me here, the one thing I really loved was Lethal’s selling as he was on offense. You may think I mean O’Reilly, who did well as always, but lethal was so good selling the affects of the earlier match. There’s a point where he takes control and looks to go for his triple dives, but instead he hits one dive and is slow to get up, selling the leg a bit and starting to breathe a bit heavy. The slight delays in his execution, which were clearly an intentional choice from him, were very well done. O’Reilly of course would continually fight back with his submission game, as Nigel and Corino did a nice job discussing the things that would be bothering Lethal wrestling a second time. O’Reilly had a sweet counter, leaping and catching Lethal during the lethal injection for a submission. Lethal again tried to counter with the tights, similar to the opening match, but O’Reilly escaped. Great call back there, although I feel that they should have done more with the leg psychology from the opener. O’Reilly hit a brainbuster and started to stomp the shit out of Lethal, took out Martini and then got the triangle but then Martini pulled out the ref. Nigel tossed Martini so the match could continue, O’Reilly ran wild and then… ANOTHER REF BUMP! Bobby Fish ran in and stopped Lethal from using the belt, and then Dijak an in. Jesus. Dijak took out Fish with the belt, Cole hit the ring and took out Dijak. Cole then superkicked O’Reilly, allowing Lethal to hit the injection to retain. The story of ROH recently, good matches ruined by overbooking.

* Post match, Adam Cole is back with the Kingdom and they beat down O’Reilly. Was Cole the masked man earlier? It’s interesting, but the overbooking is really getting to be too much for me with ROH as of late.

* End scene.

* Thanks for reading.

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“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”

6.6
The final score: review Average
The 411
First things first, the squeaking turnbuckles/ropes along with the up and down sound levels pissed me off during this show. Anyway, the best way to describe the show was a strong in ring effort hurt by overbooking. Unfortunately that’s been an issue for ROH as of late, and it doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon. If you’re a fan of the ROH product and the performers, you’ll enjoy a lot of the show. If you’re sick of overbooking, run ins and ref bumps, you’ll likely come away annoyed. This felt like an exercise in the booking hurting instead of helping in several ways, and when you're asking people to pay $35, that's an issue. Clean up some of the booking and this is a much better show.
legend