wrestling / TV Reports

Csonka’s ROH Supercard of Honor IX Review

April 4, 2015 | Posted by Larry Csonka
Image Credit: ROH
8.4
The 411 Rating
Community Grade
12345678910
Your Grade
Loading...
Csonka’s ROH Supercard of Honor IX Review  

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.

 photo ROH-Supercard2_zpsvvbd9w8l.jpg

ROH Supercard of Honor IX Review 3.27.15

OFFICIAL RESULTS
– Mark Briscoe defeated ACH @ 11:22 via pin [***¼]
– Michael Elgin defeated Frankie Kazarian @ 10:46 via pin [***]
Six-Man Mayhem Match: Matt Sydal defeated Tommaso Ciampa, Moose, Cedric Alexander, Caprice Coleman & Andrew Everett @ 10:26 via pin [****]
No DQ Match: BJ Whitmer defeated Jimmy Jacobs @ 15:41 via pin [**½]
– Roderick Strong defeated Christopher Daniels @ 11:57 via submission [***¾]
ROH Tag team Title Match: Champions reDRagon defeated The Kingdom @ 17:47 [****]
ROH TV Title Match: Champion Jay Lethal defeated Jushin Liger @ 15:02 via pin [***¾]
ROH Title Match: Champion Jay Briscoe defeated Samoa Joe @ 19:58 via pin [***½]


Mark Briscoe defeated ACH: ACH is a really fun performer, and Mark Briscoe is always over with the ROH faithful, so this was a good choice for the opener. They had a good back and forth match, using some fun striking exchanges, a little bit of comedy, some good pinning combos and good action that kept the crowd invested in the match. Briscoe countered a sunset flip to get the Summerlsam 92 ode to the Bulldog finish. I hate ACH losing; it feels as if they have no clue what to do with the guy. He lost to El Patron when he came in, he lost to Joe recently, and he lost to AJ on PPV. Sure you can make the argument that he had good matches and got experience, but then he loses again on a big stage and comes off as a guy that constantly chokes in the big matches. Briscoe didn’t need to win here, and is so over that at this stage he needs to be putting guys like Moose (which he already did) and ACH over. While I question the booking, action wise this was a good way to kick off the show.

Michael Elgin defeated Frankie Kazarian: They worked the speed vs. power theme early, with Kazarian being able to gain control. The power of Elgin then came into play as he countered the slingshot DDT and he hit the hangman’s neck breaker. From there, Elgin was a cheating bastard (posting Kazarian with a chair wrapped around his head) and worked over the neck of Kazarian. The general work on the neck by Elgin was good, as was the douche bag vibe he gave off. Overall another good match here, it was a bit clunky in parts and could have been better with those parts worked out. The other criticism is that I felt that they did a bit too much. The sitout DVD off the top would have been a great finish, there was no need for the kick out and then having Elgin hit a powerbomb to score the win.

* Post match Elgin looked as if he was going to shake hands, but Daniels was out to check on Kazarian and didn’t buy that. Elgin the got a chair and laid out Daniels with it. A powerbomb for Mr. Daniels and Elgin then attacked Kazarian with the chair again.

Six-Man Mayhem Match: Matt Sydal defeated Tommaso Ciampa, Moose, Cedric Alexander, Caprice Coleman & Andrew Everett: This is the one that starts with two men in the ring and you have to tag in from there, which always breaks down into a bunch of insane shit. This was just a great, balls to the wall match and was exactly what it was supposed to be in terms on pacing and action. Everett looked good in his return, Moose continues to impress and Sydal winning is perfectly ok with me. This was extremely entertaining.

No DQ Match: BJ Whitmer defeated Jimmy Jacobs: This was Jimmy Jacobs’ going away match as he heads to the WWE to work on the creative team. He and Whitmer have had wars in the past, and they tried to recreate that here. I thought that they were on their way to a really good match, but they lost some steam in the work and I felt that even though they tried, they just never got me emotionally invested in what they were doing. They lost the crowd late ( I just think they went too long), and Whitmer scored with the exploder through chairs for the win. It just completely fizzled down the stretch, which is unfortunate. Whitmer refused to shake hands and then Colby Corino (Whitmer’s “young boy”) attacked Jacobs. This led to the return of Lacey, who saved the day and allowed Jacobs to have his Macho Man style send off. It was a cool moment, but I feel a lot of those attending were newer ROH fans and didn’t really know who she was.

Roderick Strong defeated Christopher Daniels: I really liked this match. Daniels is really good, and Strong has been one of the most consistent performers on the independent scene for years now. You put two guys like this together, give them their time and let them hit the ring and do their thing and you get a very good match. Strong won with the strong hold; he only real criticism here is that I felt that Daniels didn’t play up the earlier beat down as much as he should have; he appeared too fresh in the match, which is surprising because Daniels is really good and also really pays attention to the small details that tend to make a match really good. Add that story into the match and I feel it ends up even better. But this was very good, as expected.

ROH Tag team Title Match: Champions reDRagon defeated The Kingdom: We had back-to-back very good matches here as reDRagon defeated The Kingdom to retain the tag team titles. Bennett & Taven continue to improve and evolve as a team, and I feel that overall this is the best work they have done in ROH. I have no use for them as singles competitors, but the team is great. They got a long time to work and filled it well with at times simple, but effective tag team wrestling. Bennett & Taven did very good work as heels, reDRagon continue to deliver the goods with their style and everything just worked well. The KRD guys got involved and attacked Fish, but the tag team champions retained. Again, this was another very good match and exceeded my initial expectations.

ROH TV Title Match: Champion Jay Lethal defeated Jushin Liger: It’s funny, I watch Jushin Liger all the time in New Japan and while I am a fan, he’s usually just a guy. He’s 50 years old, he works tons of multi-man tags because he’s looked at as a legend and then works some singles from time to time. But he just exists there for me. But then Jushin Liger comes to the US, and it’s like he’s a different man. His has the star aura and the crowd treats him like a big deal, he works so much harder and with all of his experience also works very smart. And then you pair him with Jay Lethal, a man who is having a great ROH run, and you get another very good match. Lethal is just excellent, and I hope he gets to be the man that dethrones Briscoe for the world title. I want to see what he can do as the top guy. If it were anyone other than Lethal (due to how good his run has been) I would have said that they should have changed the title. Liger was coming back for the four shows in May, and he could have lost it back to some one then. I think it would have been a great surprise for the live crowd, but I get why they didn’t do it.

ROH Title Match: Champion Jay Briscoe defeated Samoa Joe: It had been reported, and was obvious, that Joe tweaked his knee early in the match (like first two minutes early) but he worked his ass off, and it didn’t appear to hamper him all that much in the match. The crowd seemed out of it early; either not that interested, tired or both, but to the credit of both men they got them back into things down the stretch. The work was good, and I felt that the layout and pacing also worked; but they never got me to really buy that Joe was going to win the title. That was going to be the real trick here, they tried, but without that it disappointed as the main event.

* End scene.

* Thanks for reading.

* You can read my Evolve 39 Review at this link.
* You can read my Evolve 40 Review at this link.
* You can read my King of the Indies (Night One) Review at this link.
* You can read my SHIMMER 71 Review at this link.
* You can read my WWN Supershow – Mercury Rising Review at this link.
* You can read my King of the Indies (Night Two) Review at this link.
* You can read my NJPW Road to Invasion Attack Review at this link.
* You can read my WrestleMania 31 Review at this link.
* You can check out my complete WrestleMania week match ratings at this link.

 photo fe36ffd0-0da4-4e3b-a2d3-b026b341dd87_zps41ef5d61.jpg
“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”

8.4
The final score: review Very Good
The 411
The commentary was done in postproduction, and at times you could really tell as it had that “canned” sound. That being said, I enjoyed Adam Cole’s work. Overall ROH Supercard of Honor IX was a very good show, one of the best of the Mania weekend. There was a lot of good wrestling up and down the card, and is certainly a show you should watch as at this time it is one of the top 5 best shows of the year.
legend