Csonka’s ROH TV Review 6.17.15

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.

ROH TV 6.17.15 – Episode 195

OFFICIAL RESULTS
– Was Machine defeated The Decade @ 2:10 via pin [NR]
– Cedric Alexander defeated Moose @ 9:15 via pin [**¾]
– Tanahashi and Naito defeated ACH and Sydal @ 15:50 via pin [***½]

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The Decade (Adam Page & Colby Corino w/BJ Whitmer) vs. War Machine (Hanson & Rowe): It has been explained, but in case you’ve not been watching here are the details. Colby Corino has been the “young boy” of the Decade, which has not pleased his father and ROH announcer Steve Corino. Two weeks ago, Whitmer pulled out of a match with Moose and had Colby face him and he was promptly destroyed as he father had to watch on. Whitmer again graciously “gave up his spot” so that young Colby could wrestle again. Whitmer said that Steve Corino just didn’t understand and that is why he is doing this. Colby has the most generic gear here, which works perfectly for this. Page tagged out immediately and sent Colby to the slaughter. Rowe tried to tell Colby he wasn’t ready, and tried to talk him out of this. Colby threw strikes and kicks, but Rowe just beat his ass. Page wouldn’t tag in and Corino did a better job of showing emotion for his son this time around as he took his beating. Whitmer laughed as War Machine hit their doomsday leg drop on young Colby to win the match. Post match Whitmer talked trash and Corino started to take off his jacket, but Kelly tried to talk him out of it as they went to commercial. The match was just a device to further the angle, which I felt was well done overall. The question is, how long will it be until Steve Corino snaps?

* Cedric Alexander did a promo, stating that last year at this time he was the break out star but now he has to start proving that the time is now. He has to win, and challenges the undefeated Moose.

Moose w/Veda Scott and Stokley Hathaway vs. Cedric Alexander: Alexander was working amore aggressive style here as they worked through the commercial. Alexander constantly showed frustration when he had a near fall or Moose would get out of trouble, but was trying to maintain his composure in an effort to show how badly he needed the win. Alexander cut off Moose as he tried to run up the ropes in the corner and went on the offence with repeated corner attacks to take down the bigger man. Veda pulled out a wrench to give it to Moose after he hit a desperation spear as Hathaway distracted the ref. Moose refused, but Alexander decided to use the weapon, which led to the surprise victory and full heel turn. This was a fun match as far as the work goes. Moose is undefeated, and is set to be in a #1 contender’s match at the PPV on Friday. On one hand I question the booking here of having him lose, even with shenanigans, because I feel that it really hurts the momentum that they have built for him. The relationship between Moose and Veda has been strained due to her shenanigans, and you’d have to think that this will play into that. But I also feel that they really should have used someone else to give Alexander the big win, due to the timing of the PPV match for Moose. I can see what they are doing and can appreciate it, but I feel the timing is highly questionable.

ACH and Matt Sydal vs. Tanahashi and Naito: Since these TV tapings were on the final night of the ROH/NJPW swing of shows, we get a treat here as Tanahashi and Naito team up. Sydal and ACH are obviously great highfliers, so this has the makings of a fun match. The opening stretch was well done, with a fun pace and ACH and Sydal getting the better of things. They went to a commercial as Tanahashi slammed ACH to the barricade. After the break, Tanahashi and Naito got the heat on ACH and controlled until ACH countered a superplex and then hit a double stomp onto Naito. Sydal got the hot tag, which was a lot of fun as he ran wild until Tanahashi countered a standing moonsault into a German suplex. They worked some good near falls down the stretch, including ACH mocking Tanahashi’s air guitar. After some really fast and furious action, Tanahashi hit the sling blade and high fly flow on ACH to pick up the win. This was a really fun and overall good match, although they had some small flubs and communication issues at times. Not major stuff really, but enough that you noticed. For me that kept it from being a great match. Also, while ACH is a really fun performer, the guy never wins the big match so his near falls rang a bit hollow for me and the crowd. Overall a really good TV match for sure, if they could have smoothed some of the small stuff out it could have been great.

Main Event Contract Signing: Nigel McGuinness hosts our main event contract signing. Jay Lethal appears to be wearing a lovely crushed velvet jacket as he enters with Truth Martini, Jay wears his own merchandise as his brother Mark accompanies him. Nigel makes it clear that both titles are on the line at the PPV, and that the match has a 60-mimuet time limit. They sign the contract and McGuinness says that due to their histories and the titles involved that the match is the biggest match in ROH history. They had a brief back and forth as Lethal says he needs Briscoe at his best so that there will be no excuses. He adds that by signing the contract Briscoe made a big mistake, like his parents did 31 years ago. Briscoe promised to beat Lehal’s ass so bad that he’ll had to go back to being Black Machismo. They then did the big stand off and held their titles in the air and talked trash. Overall this was a good go home segment to sell the big match, they avoided the regular traps of the contract signing and kept this all about the men and the titles that they were going to fight for on Friday. I felt as if it lacked a bit of energy from the crowd, but I liked it overall.

* End scene.

* Thanks for reading.

“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia.”

7.5

The final score: review Good

The 411

Overall this was easily the best effort by ROH since coming to Destination America. The go home angle was strong, the ROH vs. NJPW tag match was really good and the Whitmer angle with Corino really worked well this time around. Whitmer is a complete asshole and is impossible to like, while Corino did a much better job showing his emotion this week. My complaints this week are that 1) I really felt that this show should have had more stress on the PPV, it wasn’t badly done but I feel that they needed to hammer that PPV home in a big way. 2) The Moose loss is really questionable to me, we’ll see where it goes but an undefeated guy losing in an unadvertised TV match days before his #1 contender’s match is not something I look at as good booking. Again, the best show so far on Destination America and lets hope that they can keep this up.