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Csonka’s ROH Best in the World Review 6.19.15

June 20, 2015 | Posted by Larry Csonka
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Csonka’s ROH Best in the World Review 6.19.15  

Introduction
As a reminder, this will not be another traditional recap, but instead it will be a mash up of the Rs, Instant Analysis and my usual Twitter ramblings I would do during the shows; completely uncensored and as the ideas flow unfiltered to the old keyboard. Remember, this is a review; and I am here to review the show. As always, I encourage discussion and even disagreement, just do so in a respectful manner. I will be doing the review for Raw and most PPVs and iPPVs going forward.

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ROH Best in the World 6.19.15

OFFICIAL RESULTS
~ Mark Briscoe defeated Donovan Dijak @ 8:57 via pin [**¼]
~ The Decade defeated ACH & Matt Sydal @ 9:07 via pin [**½]
~ Dalton Castle defeated Silas Young @ 11:02 via pin [**]
~ War Machine defeated C&C Wrestle Factory @ 3:32 via pin [*]
~ #1 Contender’s Match: Roderick Strong defeated Moose and Michael Elgin @ 13:00 via pin [***½]
~ Bullet Club defeated The Kingdom @ 15:00 via pin [****]
~ ROH Tag Team Title No DQ Match: Champions The Addiction defeated reDRagon @ 14:50 via pin [***¼]
~ Champion vs. Champion Match: Jay Lethal defeated Jay Briscoe @ 27:36 via pin to retain the ROH TV Title and to win the ROH World Title [****¼]


Mark Briscoe (w/ODB) vs. Donovan Dijak (w/Truth Martini): ODB is with Mark tonight, which makes sense because they previously established the relationship and also because she can be the counter to Truth Martini. Early in the match Dijak just picked up Mark and tossed him to the floor, and the director missed the initial shot. Dijak got the heat from that, mark tried to make his comeback and Martini got involved on the floor. ODB cut him off and ripped up the Book of Truth as Mark continued his comeback, but his back gave him issues due to the earlier attack of Dijak. Mark managed to fight through the pain and hit the froggy bow to get the win. I like Mark settling into a lower card performer, working PPV matches with guys like Dijak and Moose. They worked a perfectly fine, but forgettable opening match. I enjoy wacky mark Briscoe, but Dijak hasn’t done much to impress me during his ROH run to this point. He’s big and has a good look, but needs work.

ACH & Matt Sydal vs. The Decade (Page & Whitmer) w/Colby Corino: Whitmer was greeted by “Fuck You Whitmer” chants. The main feud here is ACH and Page, and the early story was that Page wanted no part of ACH. Sydal “jammed his knee” early on a float over, allowing the Decade to get the early heat and work him over. It was a short heat as ACH got a hot tag but got cut off and the Decade went to work. The heat was really bland, Sydal got the hot tag and ran wild on Page and got a near fall off a shooting star press, but Colby Corino pulled him to the ropes. The Decade then took control and Page hit the right of passage to get the win on Sydal. ACH & Matt Sydal had some really fun and great athletic spots here, but the middle was completely bland. It was fine overall, but I had hoped for more.

* KUSHIDA, Okada and Nakamura will return for shows on August 21st and 22nd. That’s really cool.

Dalton Castle vs. Silas Young: For those of you not familiar with either man, Silas Young calls himself the last real man in wrestling and takes no shit from anyone. Dalton Castle is flamboyant, has manservants and is wrestling’s Freddie Mercury; but has an amateur wrestling background and can be serious when he needs to be. There was a fun spot when Castle went for the sunset flip, Young was refusing to go down and the boys were fanning at him to try and make him fall down. This was slow, with Young working over Castle for most of the time. I wouldn’t really call it a heat segment, because there was none. Things picked up when Castle started to make his comeback, including a battle on the apron and Young hitting a spear to the floor. Castle’s gimmick is a lot of fun, and he had the wrestling background and some freak strength, doing deadlift Germans and such. Castle got crotched late, Young argued with the ref and Castle hit a low blow and roll up for the win. Post match Young laid out one of the boys with his spinning TKO, so I guess this feud must continue. It went too long, the finish was poor, they had issues keeping the crowd and I never felt that it settled into something that I would call a cohesive flow.

C&C Wrestle Factory (Caprice Coleman and Cedric Alexander) vs. War Machine (Hason and Rowe): C&C Wrestle Factory attacked right away, showing off the new mean streak following Alexander’s win over Moose where he fully went heel. It didn’t last long, as War Machine was able to isolate Coleman and work him over. Alexander had found another wrench (like he used against Moose) and Coleman saw it, he and Alexander argued, and that led to War Machine winning with the fallout. Alexander never tried to make the save because he was pissed at Coleman. Alexander teased attacking Coleman post match, but instead told him they were done and bailed. This felt like a TV angle to advance the Alexander angle and give War Machine a win (which both work) but it didn’t feel as if it belonged on a PPV.

* It’s been a forgettable first hour, not bad but it felt like a TV taping and not a PPV.

ROH World Title #1 Contender’s Match: Roderick Strong vs. Moose vs. Michael Elgin: Moose is a great athlete and has been coming along well as a performer. Elgin is a guy that can have good matches, but I feel that the ROH faithful have stopped caring about him. Strong, despite having shitty little boots, has been great in 2015; he’s been having some great matches with a lot of different guys. Commentary says that the winner here faces the winner of the main event at the July 24th Death before Dishonor show (on iPPV) for the title. As said, Moose is a good athlete, but looked to be afraid on the spots on the top rope, nearly causing issues as he held on during superplex spots. That’s dangerous not only for him but for the other man as well. Roderick Strong was the man here, the match had some flow issues at times, but he was the man that kept this thing together and was just on tonight; seriously if you’re not watching Roderick Strong in 2015, you’re doing wrestling wrong. He’s having such a great year, and from a match quality standpoint, he was certainly the right man to win. This was an overall good, but not great match. Post match Veda Scott slapped Moose because he shook hands with Strong. She berated him and called him a loser, and when it appeared that Moose was going to spear her, Alexander returned and KO’d Hathaway and Moose with the wrench and then presented it to Veda. He ranted that he should have been in the match and got a good heel reaction for that. Veda left with Alexander so at least the loss on this week’s TV makes sense. Alexander is full heel with Veda, Moose is headed to full-blown face territory, Strong is challenging for the title and Elgin was there too.

The Kingdom (Adam Cole, Michael Bennett & Matt Taven w/Maria Kanellis) vs. Bullet Club (AJ Styles & Young Bucks: This is a rematch from the ROH/NJPW War of the Worlds Night Two show, which was a really good match. This had a ton of energy in the ring and from the crowd, way more than anything else on the show. These guys work really well together. They played off of the previous match well, revisiting spots and also countering them as well. They teased superkicking Maria again, but she got saved and later got to kick Matt Jackson. Cole was down late holding his shoulder and Taven and Bennett got taken out. Maria got involved and ate the triple team kick again. Cole was left alone to fight off Bullet Club, but ate a triple team Indy Taker, into a styles clash and that was it. Bennett and Taven were not pleased with Cole post match, and combined with Maria eating another superkick should be leading to a breakup. This was a crazy fun match, as the crowd was into everything once they showed the graphic for the match. Everyone played their roles well, and this was just as wild and enjoyable as their previous match; it was a wild exhibition and was completely different than anything on the card. This was easily the best thing on the show.

ROH Tag Team Title No DQ Match: Champions The Addiction (Daniels & Kazarian) vs. reDRagon (Fish & O’Reilly): No handshake as they started the fight right away, which I appreciated. Fish & O’Reilly took the fight to the champions, as they fought a lot on the floor and even used chairs to punish the champions. I appreciated this because it made Fish & O’Reilly stray from their typical match formula and sold the rage and thirst for revenge of the feud. O’Reilly did that great spot again where he counters a moonsault into the triangle choke, which I love. They taped Fish to the ropes, and the Addiction worked over O’Reilly, including a powerbomb onto a piece of the barricade that was bridged on some chairs. Fish eventually escaped and he and O’Reilly made a big comeback. Kazarian was suplexed onto a ladder, and his foot was caught allowing Fish and O’Reilly to control and get a near fall until Sabin arrived to pull the ref out. After that O’Reilly got taken out, allowing the Addiction to low blow Fish and score the win with Celebrity Rehab. It was a good match, but they had a hell of a time getting the crowd invested due to the previous match. That’s a layout issue there. They worked hard, and while I am not a big fan of the interference, it made sense in the no-DQ setting. They worked really hard and also worked the right kind of match for this stage of the feud. You have to think that with the ladder tease that they could possibly be teasing a “ladder war” finale.

Champion vs. Champion Match: Jay Briscoe vs. Jay Lethal (w/Truth Martini, Dijak and Diesel): Jay Lethal and Martini are out in some sweet white outfits, and martini has a new book of Truth, complete with white cover. Jay Briscoe is out alone and is dressed in some awesome “Doomsday Preppers” gear. Both competitors’ parents were at ringside for this, which they mentioned and made sure to show their reactions though out the match. The match started at 11:18 PMET, so they have a lot of time to play with; I imagine that this goes 30-minutes. Dijak and Diesel got tossed by the ref almost right away, which I appreciated. Lethal used some Larry Zbyszko style stalling before they finally got to action. As with many longer matches, they started on simmer and worked a methodical opening stretch, including fighting on the floor. The action escalated as both men hit some dives, and then Martini tripped up Briscoe to allow Lethal to get the heat. At about the 15-minute mark, they were doing the slow back and forth punches spot and selling the exhaustion. They brawled on the apron later and Martini distracted the referee, allowing Lethal to low blow Briscoe. Nigel then finally did his job and got up from commentary and sent martini to the back. Briscoe fought back and hit the Jay Driller through the timekeeper’s table at ringside. This led to a near fall for Briscoe. They really started to pick up the action late as Briscoe was destroying Lethal with stiff lariats and the crowd really came alive. Lethal then came back with the lethal injection for a really good near fall after surviving the attacks of Briscoe. They then did a series of reversals, Lethal hit the Jay Driller and then the lethal injection to score the win and both titles. The match was the exact opposite of say, the Kingdom vs. Bullet Club match. They worked a more methodical style, they didn’t go over the top with the false finishes and they tried to make everything matter. I was also glad that they were serious about the champion vs. champion thing and didn’t find a way to screw it up.

* Lethal celebrated with the House of Truth post match. They shook hands post match and then lethal continued his celebration. Lethal vs. Strong will headline Death Before Dishonor, in what should be a hell of a match.

* End scene.

* Thanks for reading.

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“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”

8.0
The final score: review Very Good
The 411
The first hour was soft (and under-delivered in many ways), but the second half more than made up for it. They did a lot of storytelling stuff on the show, they set up the next iPPV main event with Strong as the title challenger and finished off the show will a well done main event. All in all this was a very good PPV effort from ROH.
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