Views from the Hawke’s Nest: Ring of Honor Winter Warriors Tour – Atlanta

Ring of Honor is no longer a “DVD company.” They are a live event business that uses television to sell us on attending shows and buying live iPPVs/PPVs. As such, your average ROH house show is far from must-see viewing these days. Occasionally you will hear about one of their “minor” shows being a home run though; “ROH Atlanta” (which is basically how this show has been referred to in the corners of the internet that I visit) is one such show. Perhaps then it is fitting that the best matches that make this show such a surprise success in the post-“DVD company” phase are not the matches on the cover of said DVD. We are no longer in an era of Ring of Honor when you can count on Bryan Danielson, Nigel McGuinness, or Samoa Joe delivering a main event that can sell a show on its own. Ring of Honor is now a company where the champions are no longer remembered as fondly (if they are remembered at all). With Steen firmly in the rear-view mirror, there really is no one performer coming close to carrying the company on its back. Instead, the best the company has to offer is often random midcard matches with wrestlers that the company does not push heavily/consistently (Roddy) or with performers who are only occasionally present (ADR/NJPW). It would be great if the main acts of the company were booked better and delivering the best stuff, but we must take our pleasures where we can. Otherwise, we might miss out.

 

February 21, 2015
Atlanta, Georgia

Commentators: Kevin Kelly, Stokely Hathaway, BJ Whitmer, Cheeseburger

 

Mike Posey took on Caprice Coleman in the opening contest. Posey is playing white guy that is appropriating black culture (and doing it poorly). At least he is a heel. Caprice won this movez-heavy match that did not overstay its welcome. Feel free to skip this one. (**1/4)

 

Corey Hollis and Jonathan Gresham were scheduled to have a singles match, but they ended up teaming against BJ Whitmer and Adam Page when The Decade interfered.  Hollis declined to use the chair that Page offered him, and BJ decided it was time to attack. Hollis and Gresham were having a solid little match that I would like to see continued one day.

I liked how Hollis and Gresham decided *they* wanted the tag match instead of the regular roster members making the call or some authority figure. That gave them agency which always makes them more interesting than your typical outside-the-company undercarders or just going the Teddy Long route. Hollis of course called The Decade bitches though, which kind of nullifies the interesting part. You take what you can get though. ANYWAY, this was a great tag match. The pre-match angle was brilliant and really gave everyone in the match a reason to be there and a reason for the crowd to care about who won. Every step of the match was executed well, with Gresham’s hot tag and fire late in the match being the two best moments. (Gresham might have genuinely applied the best ankle lock that I have ever seen late in the match. The production crew also deserves credit for capturing it perfectly. You will understand what I mean when you see it.) ROH will likely not have many matches better than this all year. The only way this could have been better was if Hollis/Gresham managed to win the match, but who could have anticipated them getting as over as they did. I am at a loss for words at how great this ended up being. Gresham and Hollis deserved to get many more opportunities in the company after this performance. (****)

 

The next match was Matt Sydal vs. Delirious. Despite these two working each other a million times before, it is a match that has not happened in so long that it is automatically fresh. While they could not really follow the previous match in the slightest, they manage to put together some strong sequences and the consistent struggle Sydal had to go through to survive long enough to win the match made for a nice story. There was some wackiness though, as Sydal hit the SSP for the win merely seconds after eating a cobra-clutch suplex. Stuff like that kills the impact of big movez. (***1/4)

 

They were followed by Kyle O’Reilly taking on the best wrestler in the world, Roderick Strong. Roddy is just on another level right now in terms of greatness in the ring compared to just about everyone else in the world (with the exception of Sasha Banks). I do not know what snapped with him, but he is clearly working with a sense of purpose and intensity that has been missing form his matches for years now. You really need to be seeking out all of his matches from this year.

The match was largely what you expect. Roddy went after the back. Kyle went after the left arm. They brilliantly combined physicality and speed; these two proved that “working fast” is not a bad thing at all if you know what you are doing. The only thing missing from this match to put it over the top would have been for Kyle’s work on Roddy’s arm being paid off in a significant way (instead of just sporadically affecting Roddy). This is a common problem with Kyle’s matches in my eyes. On one hand, by working over his opponent’s left arm, he avoids dealing with opponents constantly no-selling it because most of his opponents are right-handed. On the the other hand, the work on the left arm is hard to pay off in a significant way unless Kyle wins via a submission on that arm. It’s not a *huge* issue (here or in general), but it holds his matches back to varying degrees. Anyway, Roddy won this after a Sick Kick and the Orange Crush Backbreaker. (****)

 

ACH then took on Moose (who was accompanied by John Abraham and Stokely Hathaway). This match continued the trend that is helping to elevate this whole show: variety. They worked a completely different match than the previous two singles matches, and the match stood out more as a result. Moose still has a long way to go, but he’s got so much potential. He’s like if Matt Morgan had talent. They worked the big-man/little-man dynamic very well, and the story helped to cover for Moose’s sporadic awkward moments. Both guys looked great here overall though. ACH made Moose look like a beast, and there is something special about seeing an athlete like Moose find himself in the ring. Moose won after the spear. ACH got his heat back after the match by giving Stokely a superkick and a 450. (***3/4)

 

We interrupt this review to encourage you check out this delightful and very accurate preview of tonight’s ROH iPPV!

 

We were then treated to a six-men-mayhem: Will Ferrara vs. Cedric Alexander vs. Hanson vs. Michael Elgin vs. Tommaso Ciampa vs. Jay Lethal (w/ J. Diesel). This match had some nice “highs,” but it went on for way too long for this type of match. It did not help that the peak of the match in terms of excitement and heat was probably the Lethal tope suicida sequence and that came at around the halfway point. Hanson ended up winning the match with the spinning heel kick. As with most of these types of the matches, this was forgettable. (**3/4)

 

The semi-main event was the reigning IWGP Heavyweight Champion, AJ Styles, vs. Bobby Fish. This was a very AJ Styles, big singles match, as it went a very long time and did few things that I found interesting or entertaining. It was merely there. If you have enjoyed AJ’s singles main events over the last eighteen months, you will probably like this a whole lot more than I did. I was hopeful this would be a bit better with AJ working underneath, but Fish did not do anything of real note while in control. AJ won clean of course after the Styles Clash. (**1/2)

 

The main event was The Briscoes (Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe) vs. The Kingdom (Mike Bennett & Matt Taven w/ Maria) in a 2/3 falls match. The first fall was a very basic tag match that the Briscoes won after a pair of Doomsday Devices. Nothing of note happened. The second fall was a Tables Match that gave the match some much needed energy. The Kingdom won after a spiked piledriver through a table. The final fall was contested under Falls Count Anywhere rules, and it was all about a couple of big spots. Mark Briscoe jumped off something high onto Taven through a table, and the Kingdom then gave Mark a Doomsday Device on the floor where Taven did the lariat on a Deadman suicida. They were able to pin Mark to win the match after that fantastic spot. Despite this being a battle between two teams I have a hard time caring about, this ended up being solid as a main event. (***)

 

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

 

Need a great podcast to listen to??? Well, keep looking. This podcast is pretty fun though.

 

8.5

The final score: review Very Good

The 411

While it would probably be unrealistic (if not unfair) to expect Ring of Honor to produce shows like this every time out, this show really does prove how much potential the company still has to produce must-see programming. Matches two through five on this show came together to make one of the most purely enjoyable stretches of wrestling that I have watched this year and possibly last year. A little bit of creativity turned a meaningless Decade match into a low-end ROH MOTYC. Sydal and Delirious showed how the company can trade on indie nostalgic. Roderick and Kyle was an exercise in world-class grappling in 2015. ACH and Moose proved that they can work around weaknesses and put the spotlight on performers' strengths. With all of those matches, the crowd probably only elevated the match with The Decade. The other three matches were about talented wrestlers telling stories. You cannot tell me that most ROH shows are not capable of things like that regardless of the kind of crowd they are working in front of on any given show. While the show certainly loses momentum after that stretch, this is undeniably a show of the year contender. You are doing yourself a disservice if you do not seek it out.