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Views from the Hawke’s Nest: Reloaded Tour – Dearborn, MI

December 1, 2015 | Posted by TJ Hawke
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Views from the Hawke’s Nest: Reloaded Tour – Dearborn, MI  

Dearborn, Michigan
September 11, 2015

Commentators: Kevin Kelly, BJ Whitmer, & Stokely Hathaway

 

Bobby Fish vs. Will Ferrara

This match accomplishment nothing of value. It did not produce excitement, crowd-pleasing action, or a compelling in-ring story. Ferrara did not come out of this looking like a bigger star or someone with more potential. Bobby Fish did dominate the match on his way to a television title match. What were possibly the goals of the match? Fish at least won cleanly with the Fish Hook. I did not care for this in the slightest. (3/4*)

 

Samson Walker vs. Moose (Stokely Hathaway)

This was a noble effort from two guys whom I would not normally expect goods things of together. This felt like a cliche PWG match where they just threw everything at each other. I would like to give them credit for that but context is important. Was a match between two of the biggest guys on the show really been worked like that? I’m not so sure. To their credit, they did get the crowd to care somewhat, and there were a handful of spots that popped me. It was not enough though for me to really care about or like the match. Moose won after hitting a spear. (**1/2)

 

Kyle O’Reilly vs. Silas Young

Silas Young in 2011-2012 was someone I considered to be one of the most under-appreciated independent professional wrestlers. He truly carried himself like a bad-ass and a main eventer. That was something unique on the indies at the time, and I was beyond overjoyed to see Ring of Honor bring him in full-time a few years ago. He just seems toast and is missing nearly everything that made him great and unique while carrying AAW. Kyle tried to keep the match together with work on the left arm of Silas to set up the cross armbreaker finish. The work was too sporadic for my tastes unfortunately, and it never got me sucked in. Much like the Samson/Moose match, I never got interested in this one but appreciate some moments here and there. (**1/4)

 

Roderick Strong vs. Adam Cole

Despite Roderick Strong’s awesomeness in 2015, there is no overcoming an extended singles match that Adam Cole works on top of ever. Adam Cole is an excellent babyface work (especially in a tag team), but he does not control matches in a compelling manner. It can sort of work if his over-the-top heel act is fresh and the match is kept short. Neither of those things were at play here, and the match predictably suffered a lot as a result. Much like the last two matches on this show, I found this disappointing overall with pockets of fun to keep me from disliking the match. Roddy won cleanly with a Sick Kick/Orange Crush Backbreaker combo. (**1/4)

 

Hakim Zane vs. Jake Something

This started off as a fun jobber match with both guys just throwing out a bunch of stuff as quickly as possible. The match slowed down though and so did the intrigue of this match. Zane won after a double stomp. This match was on its way to being a pleasant surprise. (**)

They did a post-match segment with Adam Page in order to transition to…

Jay Briscoe vs. Takaaki Watanabe

Hey! It’s a match that I really dug! This was exactly what it needed to be for these two in this spot. It was a nine-minute sprint with loads of action. The short length prevented the match from ever feeling like a no-sell, meaningless bout. There was even a neat in-ring story going on. Jay took most of the match, but it never felt like a squash. Watanabe came out of this match looking tougher and looking like a real solid midcarder. Thumbs up for this one! Jay won cleanly with the Jay Driller. (***1/4)

 

Matt Sydal vs. Attitude Charisma Heart

This was the first match in their best of five series. They did a ton of stuff and basically threw out almost all of their arsenal at each other. The steadily got the crowd more and more invested as they did cooler and cooler things in and out of the ring. Sydal won cleanly with the shooting star press. Given that it was match #1 in a series, it seemed odd that they do *so* much stuff and have one guy win cleanly with his finisher. The match was at least 50/50 so it sets up some potentially interesting avenues to explore going forward. Am I interested in seeking said matches out? Ehhhhhh (***)

 

Defy or Deny for the Ring of Honor Television Championship
Cedric Alexander vs. Dalton Castle vs. Jay Lethal (w/Taeler Hendrix & Truth Martini) vs. Mark Briscoe

If Lethal wins the match, none of the other wrestlers in the match can ever challenge him for the ROH TV title again. If one of the other wrestlers wins, they would get a TV title shot.

The gimmick is a bit convoluted, but I think it opens up a lot of cool story possibilities and gives everyone a clear purpose in the match. The execution here was not what it needed to be though. The opening portion of the match was mostly dull and useless without setting up anything interesting for later in the match. Cedric lost first for some reason after not paying attention to who was legal and then becoming easy prey for Dalton’s bridging German. Briscoe was the next eliminated after taking the Lethal Injection. The match then came down to Lethal and Castle in the hottest portion of the match. Unfortunately, it was not a satisfying blowoff to an extended four-way as they decided to have Lethal win after a low blow (to set up the Lethal Injection). There were more fun moments in this match than most matches on the show, but it should have been more overall. The finish killed any chance the match had to deliver something meaningful. (**3/4)

 

No Rules
The Young Bucks (Nick & Matt Jackson) vs. reDRagon (Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish)

Unfortunately, these two teams have just worked each other too much in ROH and NJPW to really care about another match between them. Luckily for ROH (and us), this was an impromptu “No Rules” match after The Kingdom had travel issues. As a result, these two teams just had a tornado tag sprint that totally delivered more than what you would have expected from a Kingdom/Bucks main event. It was non-stop action, spot fest, and it worked without a shred of doubt. The Bucks eventually finished Fish with the Meltzer Driver. More matches should be worked as short sprints. Tell the world. (***3/4)

 

Watch ROH for free!

Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness [One of the best ROH matches]

Samoa Joe vs. Low Ki

KENTA vs. Nigel McGuinness

Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Bryan Danielson

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Mike Bennett

Bryan Danielson vs. Claudio Castagnoli

Bryan Danielson vs. Tyler Black

The Kings of Wrestling vs. The Briscoes

Adam Cole vs. Roderick Strong [REALLY good.]

AJ Styles & Matt Sydal vs. Roderick Strong & Austin Aries

Kevin Steen & El Generico vs. The Young Bucks

Chris Hero vs. El Generico

Matt Sydal, Atsushi Aoki, & Ricky Marvin vs. Naomichi Marufuji & The Briscoes

The Briscoes vs. War Machine

Michael Elgin vs. Adam Cole

Davey Richards vs. Kyle O’Reilly

5.0
The final score: review Not So Good
The 411
Someone recommended this show to me based on my fondness of *the* ROH Atlanta show from February 2015. That is probably an unfair expectation for any ROH house show at the moment, as things just do not go that well that often for ROH given how lucky that whole show was when you think about it. That being said, if the Kyle/Silas and Roddy/Cole matches sound like things that you will enjoy, I can absolutely see someone putting this show on Atlanta's level. Regardless, it was actually fun to step back into ROH for a show and see how the wrestlers are looking these days. This was not the best showcase for them, but it was not a bad outing to say the least. If you can watch the three matches I liked somehow, I recommend that you do so.
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article topics :

Ring of Honor, TJ Hawke