wrestling / Columns

Csonka’s ROH Death Before Dishonor 2018 Takeaways

October 2, 2018 | Posted by Larry Csonka
ROH Delirious Image Credit: ROH

WELCOME back to column time with Larry! Today, I am going to discuss the ROH Death Before Dishonor 2018 event. The show had a lot of potential on paper, and a lot of people were excited heading into the show. But the PPV didn’t have much buzz, which is ok because many times the ROH PPVs with lack of buzz tend to deliver. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case with ROH Death Before Dishonor 2018. The early part of the show was really flat with a crowd that didn’t care because they were here to see the NJPW stars and Bullet Club. I have some takeaways from the show I’d like to discuss today. Feel free to share yours in the comment section. Thanks for reading! It’s wrestling, we love it and will disagree. The only rules are to “have a take, be respectful, and don’t be a dick.” Thanks for reading.

All In & MSG Gave ROH a False Sense of Security: The quick sellouts of All In & MSG gave ROH a false sense of security, as after two-years, they moved Death Before Dishonor from the modest 1,100 seat Sam’s Town Live venue to the 9,500 seat Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. While they set a Las Vegas attendance record, reportedly around 2,000, it proved to be a poor move. They didn’t have the card to move major tickets, they didn’t have the talent on hand to do so, and with the show date and location being so close to the NJPW Fighting Spirit event, you were splitting your audience (a mistake by both ROH & NJPW). The other thing is that while ROH was part of the All In & MSG sellouts, those shows sold out because they weren’t an official ROH/NJPW/WWE/anything event. Those events had buzz, felt special, and were a case of fans sending a message that they wanted to support something new. Unfortunately, ROH Death Before Dishonor 2018 wasn’t a special show on paper or execution, and it showed on all fronts. While I appreciate ROH looking to expand, you have to know when to stay in your lane sometimes. The building looked nice, but some of the camera shots exposed the empty building, and it hurt the overall sound from the crowd when it was into things. You live and you learn, but this was a big miss for the company.

 photo Colt Cabana_zpsgxe9zkj2.png

Colt Cabana Was Greatly Missed on Commentary: One of the bight spots of ROH over the last year has been the growth of Colt Cabana and Ian Riccaboni as the ROH commentary team. They have slowly developed into a great commentary team, one of the best in wrestling, and not only are they good at calling the action, but they do the most important job of a commentary team, they constantly add to the product that they are calling. The thing that reminds me of how good they are together and at their job is when Cabana has to be away for some reason and BJ Whitmer or Caprice Coleman have to replace him. I am not a fan at all of Whitmer’s commentary, and while Coleman is a fun and energetic guy, I found his commentary on the PPV largely bad. He added next to nothing, and was largely just blurting out excited phrases. While I appreciate the excitement, that doesn’t make for a good commentator. Instead, Cabana was working the tables match as the only guy involve din the Bully feud that has gotten over at all because ROH fans love him and get excited when he gets physical these days. That’s all well and good, but Cabana didn’t add much to the match and when you consider how much he would have added to commentary as compared to the match, it comes off as a big miss.

Flip Gordon is Bully’s Bitch: Going into Death Before Dishonor 2018, I predicted that Bully & Silas would win the tables match to continue the Bully angle, leading to Flip vs. Bully at Final Battle in the final blow-off where Flip finally overcomes the jaded vet to “get the rub.” If that is the plan and ultimate goal, I can appreciate the long-term booking, but I still don’t believe that the angle has been good, and I feel that it has really hurt and stifiled Flip’s momentum. Flip is a guy that started getting over due to his flashy style and then due to his appearances on Being the Elite and relationship with the Young Bucks. A good NJPW BOSJ run followed and Flip was on the rise. And then he started to get involved in the Bully angle, trying to make saves for Burger and the Dojo kids that Bully was destroying. But while Flip would get flashes of offense and even look like he was about to get one over on Bully, he’d get kicked in the balls and get his ass kicked time and time and time and time again. And that has continued for months, and sure, it’s all part of the angle and build but along with that, the other thing that has been happening is the diminished interest and crowd reaction for Gordon. Gordon was on the rise, was building fan support, but the angle with Bully, combined with continued losses in major matches, and has seen Gordon’s profile fade. He may very well beat Bully at Final Battle, he may stand tall, and he may kick his fucking ass and get full revenge. My worry is that after being Bully’s bitch for months and months, will it be too late? I hope not, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t concerned.

 photo Jay Lethal vs. Jonathan Gresham ROH_zpsgmb67tac.jpg

How Was Jonathan Gresham Left Off The PPV?: On the September 12th edition of ROH TV, ROH Champion Jay Lethal and Jonathan Gresham put on the best ROH TV match of 2018 and an easy top 5 ROH match for the year. Those who follow Gresham already know that he’s a great wrestler and overall worker who is extremely consistent and when given the chance, never disappoints. But this match was a star-making performance, his best ROH match to date, and he had the crowd behind him, willing him to win down the stretch. So of course when you have a guy that gets over huge and delivers one of the best matches that the company had all year, you completely leave him off of the PPV. And no, the main event run in and ass-kicking doesn’t count. I do not understand how you don’t book Gresham on the show. Give him an easy win in a quick opener, hell, give him a pre-show match (not a dark match), something to make it appear that they will do something with him. Having him not on the PPV or given any follow up was just a bad idea.

 photo ROH Delirious_zpseqbo6gal.jpg

It’s Time to Oust The Lizard Man as The Booker Man: Time for me to sound old here, but back in the day, one of the things that happened a lot was the bookers in the territory days were routinely cycled out every 12-18-24 months so that they didn’t get stale or complacent. But that was also during a time that you had to book in order to draw to keep your job. Delirious was made ROH booker back in 2010, replacing Adam Pearce, who was replacing Gabe Sapolsky. I have never made it a secret about my general dislike for the Lizard Man’s booking over the years. He’s too complacent, he fails to pull the trigger at the right time on many talents, the rumors are that most of the talents that have departed over the recent years have done so partly out of frustrations with his booking and overall use of talent. While ROH has seen increases in PPV & live event numbers over the last 2-3 years, this has been done in spite of Delirious’ booking skills and can be attributed to the NJPW alliance. If you look back, the increases started with AJ & The Bucks during their run, and escalated with more NJPW inclusion and the rise of Bullet Club & The Bucks. This was all due to smart business moves by ROH. Look back over the last eight years, Delirious is just holding serve, he’s done nothing that can be credited to him for the rise of ROH. He’s stale, creatively bankrupt, not making stars and seemingly doing the bare minimum to keep his job these days; ROH needs a new creative vision badly. It’s time for the Lizard Man to go, and the sooner the better.

– End Scene.

– Thanks for reading.

 photo fe36ffd0-0da4-4e3b-a2d3-b026b341dd87_zps41ef5d61.jpg
“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”