Csonka’s ROH TV Review 5.04.16

ROH TV 5.04.16

OFFICIAL RESULTS
– Michael Elgin, Moose, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Tomoaki Honma defeated Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga, Yujiro Takahashi & Cody Hall @ 11:38 via pin [***]
– Jay & Mark Briscoe defeated Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows @ 8:23 via pin [***]

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– Matches come from the ROH Honor Rising Night One, which took place on February 19th. It seems a bit silly to be airing them now, here are my review from when they aired.

Michael Elgin, Moose, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Tomoaki Honma defeated Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga, Yujiro Takahashi & Cody Hall: In a way it felt like the usual NJPW multi-man tag, but that’s not a complaint, because it had good action, the right guys pairing off at the right time, and just felt like a much better match than the other matches so far. Moose played well to the fans and was seemingly accepted well, he had a face off and some back and forth with Fale, which got the “oohs and ahhs” because they were big. Moose scored the win here, spearing Cody Hall, and giving him some momentum as he heads into the 14th anniversary show to face Okada. Also, Tama Tonga was a ton of fun as always, and I hope his partner will be someone fun as he looks to take over for Anderson and Gallows in the tag ranks. (Well, I was wrong, because it was fucking Camacho.)

– They finally showed some up to date shit that has to do with the PPV, when we got to see highlights from Lio Rush vs. Jay Lethal (Super Card on Honor Night One, and well worth your time) as well as the return of Colt Cabana. That’s nice, since he’s main evening the PPV.

– We also got some videos with Truth Martini and Jay Lethal in Tokyo, and then Dalton Castle went to a cat café, which is the most Dalton Castle thing ever

Jay & Mark Briscoe defeated Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows: Jay & Mark Briscoe picked up some more momentum as the defeated the former IWGP tag champions. The Briscoes have been solid as part of the six man champions, although I think that Mark has been more fun over all, working hard and really looking like he has something to prove. Anderson and Gallows put in another good effort on the way out. They kept it short; they got in and got out, and worked at a very friendly pace and I liked it. The froggy bow on Anderson finished things off. I’m going to miss New Japan Karl.

– We got a wrap up video from the company’s time in Japan

* End scene.

* Thanks for reading.

“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia.”

3.0

The final score: review Bad

The 411

The matches are good and enjoyable, but as a go home show for one of their biggest PPV’s of the year, the show is a failure as they ended up wasting three weeks of TV. Three weeks of TV with good matches from two months ago, shown with next to no context and one video package for the biggest angle the company has shot in years. Just showing matches from Japan to hype a PPV with Japanese competitors does nothing when you don’t sell that fact. These shows should have been full of video packages, setting up the announced matches and then shooting to these matches, “and now, you get to see Bullet Club in action as a preview to Sunday’s PPV.” Instead, it’s just ROH in Japan and “OH HAI WE HAVE A PPV ON SUNDAY WITH SOME OF THESE GUYS, PLZ BUY IT OK!” That’s a pretty poor way to sell your product. Also, “hey ROH fans that wanted Colt Cabana back but skipped SCOH because it took too long to get on VOD, Colt Cabana is back!” This was just an exercise in poor planning, or laziness, I can’t quite decide.