wrestling / TV Reports

Csonka’s ROH TV Review 7.29.15

July 31, 2015 | Posted by Larry Csonka
5
The 411 Rating
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Csonka’s ROH TV Review 7.29.15  

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ROH TV 7.29.15 – Episode 201

OFFICIAL RESULTS
– The Kingdom defeated Corey Hollis and Jonathan Gresham @ 4:20 via pin []
– Moose won a six-way @ 13:10 via pin [**¼]
– Bobby Fish defeated ACH @ 12:55 via [***]


The Kingdom (Taven and Bennett) w/Maria vs. Corey Hollis and Jonathan Gresham: Maria was on commentary for this. This was an extended squash for the Kingdom, who controlled with ease and only lost control when they made a mistake and Taven hit Bennett. This led to Hollis and Gresham getting a fun comeback spot, but the Kingdom won with the Hail Mary. This was a perfectly fine opener, but felt that they really missed the chance for Maria to add anything to the Kingdom story on commentary. She mostly said nothing, so it came off as a missed opportunity.

Caprice Coleman vs. Silas Young vs. Moose vs. Dalton Castle vs. Cheeseburger vs. Bob Evans: Why are they having this match? No reason, it’s a six-person match for the sake of having a six-person match. They have the chance to tell good stories here with Castle/Young & Cheeseburger/Evans being in established feuds. They really didn’t do that here, they did minimal interaction between those with issues and it felt pretty lazy from a storytelling perspective. The match went long to go long, because we need time to tell a story with six people, but we didn’t tell any real stories here, we just did stuff. Mind numbingly average stuff. Castle was the star of the match as far as making me care, but this lacked any real energy or juice to it. The closing stretch was fine, but also lacked that big homestretch feel that can often take a match of this type to another level. Moose won with the spear on Brutal Bob, who is in fact brutal to watch. I wouldn’t call it bad, it was entertaining at times, but this wasn’t the right collection of guys to work this match; I am not a fan of Cheeseburger or Bob Evans and do not think either are very good. I get what they are doing, and can even appreciate it to a point, but I also feel that we’re spending too much time on an angle between Whitmer and an announcer. I get why Lucha Underground is doing an angle with Vampiro, because their fans treat him like a God. But they are also wasting Pentagon Jr on that feud, when he should have been pushed as one of the biggest stars in the company. In ROH it’s just Whitmer and Corino, who the crowd likes but doesn’t treat him anywhere near the level like Vampiro gets treated. Bottom line, I draw the parallels because I get why they are doing both angles, but I am not a fan of either.

Bullshit With The Decade: Speaking of acts I have no time for, the Decade is out. Whitmer praised young boy Colby Corino, who he looks at as a son, and wanted to reward him with another chance to prove himself in ROH. So he booked him in a gauntlet match against four guys. Whitmer kept egging on Steve Corino with all of the father and son talk, and brought out four guys from the latest ROH training camp to face Colby. Steve Corino finally had enough and tried to convince the four guys not to face his son, and then got into the ring when Whitmer asked if he was actually going to be a father for once. Whitmer then asked when Steve would be leaving his new wife and kid, and we almost had a brawl but Nigel came into stop it.

ACH vs. Bobby Fish: This was an overall good main event, that in a vacuum I could have enjoyed more. But the fact is, and I have discussed this several times, ROH has given me no reason to care about or invest in ACH. I discussed this during the Death Before Dishonor iPPV report, ACH is a fun performer and does some great things, but he ALWAYS loses the big match. He’s athletic guy that the crowd likes to react to live and that they can count on for a quality effort on any show. He has no direction; the company has no clue what to do with the guy and I have become conditioned to expect him to lose. This hurts my enjoyment of his matches, because I never buy into his near falls in anyway. At the end of the day, it was a fun match and worked for a TV main event spot as far as delivering a fun and action filled match. Fish scored with the falcon arrow off the top for the win. I should be surprised when the “tag team specialist” picks up the big win. But when I saw this on the lineup all I could think is, “ACH can’t lose again, can he”. Yes, yes he can.

– End scene.

– Thanks for reading.

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“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia.”

5.0
The final score: review Not So Good
The 411
This felt like a lifeless show in many ways. The Kingdom in a squash and a wasted chance with Maria on commentary; the meaningless six-way match with the wrong performers, the Whitmer/Corino angle that feels like time they could be using on other feuds and then a fine main event with the perennial guy that loses in every important match. Overall, this was not a good show this week.
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