wrestling / TV Reports
Tremendous Tirades: ROH Best in the World 2014
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 Best in the World 2014
Winner Earns a TV Title Shot: ACH vs. Takaaki Watanabe vs. Caprice Coleman vs. Tadarius Thomas vs. BJ Whitmer vs. Tommaso Ciampa – ACH wins (12:00): Tadarius Thomas and BJ Whitmer are members of the Decade stable, and they teased on commentary that they will have the advantage. They are doing one on one, with Lucha like tag rules, you can either tag or if you get sent to the floor, someone else can pop in to replace you. It is one fall to a finish. As you would expect this broke down into the “everyone kicks everyone’s ass” style match, which was both fun and sloppy at times. We got the dives, which really popped the crowd, and that led to ACH hitting a sweet dive onto the pile, rolling his former partner Tadarius Thomas into the ring, hitting a 450 on him and scoring the win and title shot. I figured that this match would open the show, and in many ways it was a good choice to do so. It had good action and dives and a hot crowd, everything you want to get things started. It was a bit sloppy and not nearly as crisp as other matches, and I also feel that ROH failed at introducing the men involved properly to possible first time viewers. ACH winning was the right call, as he is a guy that they should and need to start moving up the card.
Match/Segment Rating: ***
ROH TV Title Match: Jay Lethal © defeated Matt Taven (10:00): Due to his history of interference, Truth Martini will be handcuffed to a ringpost. Martini teased getting cuffed, and finally accepted his fate. Although one thing that kills this stipulation is the fact that Seleziya Sparx is at ringside with Martini, but she isn’t handcuffed. Makes no sense to me, especially when she gets involved and distracts Taven. This was monumentally frustrating. Late in the match Taven had wiped out Lethal and Sparx with a dive, and looked to attack Martini. Martini paid off the head of security, who them made Taven look like a goof by stopping his attack with a chair and posing to show off his jacked physique. Lethal took a nap during this, so Sparx broke the cuffs and rescued Martini by taking him to the back. Taven then ate knees on the frog splash because Lethal’s nap was over, and the Lethal Injection connected and Lethal retained. This was unnecessarily overbooked, and killed the stipulation completely. I suppose allowing two guys to have a good match without the bullshit was way too much to ask for. ROH also continues to give me no reason to care about Taven and I don’t think they’ve made him a sympathetic enough character to make fans care about him actually getting revenge on Martini.
Match/Segment Rating: **
Submission Match: Cedric Alexander defeated Roderick Strong (17:00): Adam Page and Tadarius Thomas were with Strong. This will be a challenge, because without near falls, you have to carefully craft a submission rules match to illicit the proper crowd reactions you want. Early on Strong hit a backdrop on the floor, sending Alexander back first to the apron. This was the early heat to set for the Stronghold, as Strong focused on the back. They worked a great pace, and really delivered emotionally as they got across that they hated each other. Alexander hit a back breaker on the buckles and then another, into Strong’s own Stronghold submission to score the victory. This was a big win for Alexander, which was the design of the match going in. Early on I felt things were a little hit or miss, they settled into the match and Alexander did well in the match that was set to make him look good. I especially enjoyed the finish, as it was impactful and definitive with Strong tapping almost immediately. The only real criticism was that they never built a submission for Alexander to be taken seriously with heading into the match.
Match/Segment Rating: ***½
NO DQ MATCH: The Briscoes defeated Matt Hardy w/Nick Searcy & Michael Bennett w/ Maria Kanellis (21:00 total): Maria Kanellis’ “shorts” get smaller each time I see her. This is not a complaint, simply an observation. The story here is that Jay Briscoe wants his “world title” back, which Hardy now holds (Cole gave it to him) and named the ICONIC Championship. Hardy also claims to have invented the “ROH Style” table matches, ladder matches, TLC matches and takes credit for all of ROH’s ratings and buyrates. After a few minutes, Bennett ran in and hit Jay with the ICONIC title, causing the DQ. The crowd shit on this. Jay asked Nigel to give the people what they wanted to see. Nigel appeared and restarted the match as a NO DQ match. The Briscoes then ran wild and started to kick as, using chairs (they tossed like 10 into the ring) to take over the match. Ladders and chairs were also introduced. Shit broke down into a wiled brawl; the Briscoes hit a doomsday device on Bennett on the floor to take him out. Actor Nick Searcy tried to save Hardy, but got beat down and took a froggy bow from Mark Briscoe. Bennett got placed on a table on the floor, and Mark hit the froggy bow from the top rope onto Bennett. Matt Hardy climbed a huge ladder, Mark used a fire extinguisher and then Jay hit a superplex through a table onto Hardy. The Jay Driller followed and finished off Hardy. Jay had gotten his title back, but Maria stole the belt back. Obviously changing the stipulation after the false finish made things better, as the crowd instantly got into things. The story was the heels finally getting their comeuppance, which they did as the Briscoes put them through hell (and tables). If Hardy is on the way out (due to TNA commitments) he went out well as the Briscoes got their revenge. Your enjoyment of the match will depend on how much you appreciate and like the hardcore/TLC style they ended up working. I ended up enjoying the match, it was different from the rest of the stuff on the show, and the live crowd loved it. If you liked the Briscoes in their element, doing what they do best, you’ll enjoy this.
Match/Segment Rating: ***½
Kevin Steen defeated Silas Young (13:00): With Steen rumored to be WWE bound, and only having a few ROH booking left, you would have to imagine no matter the result that the goal here is to get Young over as a possible top star. Great and intense start to the match, playing off of what started the feud when Young blasted Steen for being a pussy family man and such. Steen is crazy over with the ROH crowd, but the problem was that when Young got the heat I felt that the crowd got very cold. They got back into it with Steen’s comeback, and overall the match was good and well laid out. Steen fought back with a superplex out of the corner and then hit the package piledriver for the win. Steen winning is mildly surprising, but with the dates Steen has left and the post match angle, there is still more to come. This was another quality match, but the night has not provided anything really great as of yet.
Match/Segment Rating: ***
ROH Tag Team Title Match: reDragon © (Fish and O’Reilly) defeated Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian (17:00): I am really looking forward to this, reDragon has been on a roll and Daniels and Kazarian are great and out to prove that they can still be a great tag team. ReDragon got the heat on Kazarian, and worked the left arm, which would be a weakness for Kazarian the rest of the match. Kazarian had the near fall off the Flux Capacitor, but Fish pulled the ref to the floor. Kazarian would survive chasing the dragon late, but O’Reilly immediately got the arm bar and Fish kept Daniels on the floor, and Kazarian had to tap. The match was a damn good match, but it feels as if the crowd is burnt out as they were out of it during the middle portion. Tremendous work by all, Daniels seemingly refuses to age as the dude can go with anyone. The finish was good, and the tag champions looked strong but had to use some shenanigans to overcome Daniels and Kazarian. In front of a hotter crowd this is better, unfortunately they did lose them for a while for whatever reason. The storytelling was well done, and Daniels and Kazarian felt like stars, which is good for ROH. They do have good chemistry already, and look forward to more matches down the line.
Match/Segment Rating: ***½
ROH Title Match: Michael Elgin defeated Adam Cole © (22:00): It’s been a good show so far, but is missing that great match to really push things over the top, so the main event has to deliver here. They had extra referees for the pre-match intros incase Elgin went wild on Cole. Nice touch. I felt that the commentary team did a good job of not only calling the match, but telling the story of Elgin’s long journey to the title, the fact that they know each other so well along with Cole’s antics getting in Elgin’s head. We got a ref bump late (UUUUUUUUUGH), Elgin hit the buckle bomb and then the Elgin bomb for the visual pin as the crowd chanted to 10. Bennett and Hardy then ran in and beat down Elgin. Elgin fought them off, and Nigel let it all happen as he sat ringside. Elgin then powerbombed Cole onto Hardy and Bennett on the floor. Hansen and Rowe made the save after hardy hit Elgin with the title, and allowed Cole to hit the Florida keys on the floor. They teased the countout finish, Elgin returned. Maria tossed in the belt, McChif appeared and misted her. Elgin then hit the buckle bomb and the Elgin bomb for a close two. The crowd bit hard for it and threw streamers. They then chanted “we fucked up,” I laughed. Cole worked the knee, figure four on the post included. Cole later hit a Canadian destroyer for a near fall. He then tried another, but Elgin hit three consecutive buckle bombs for the win and the title. Tons of streamers and confetti for Elgin as he celebrates the title victory. The match was overbooked, but in a way it did make sense as Elgin has been battling the odds and did so here. I wish they would have cut the overbooking of the TV Title match, as it would have made this feel more important. The other thing that hurt it was they had all of this shit go down and Nigel, the guy in charge, is sitting right there and not doing a damn thing. Prior to the match I was thinking that Elgin needs to win or he feels like early Lex Luger. On the other hand, Cole has been good in his role and I’d almost hate to see them cut the run off now. But then you consider that this their first live PPV, and they need to deliver something of importance. They did that with the title change and got the monkey off of Elgin’s back, and told a good story. They have had better matches.
Match/Segment Rating: ***¾
The Tirade
ROH made their debut on live PPV, and overall it was a good show. The title change is memorable, which is a good thing, but entering into the PPV market, I felt that ROH had to deliver a show that set them apart from WWE and TNA. I did not feel that they did that here. There was a lot of good wrestling, with nothing bad, but at the same time there was nothing to really set ROH apart from the other products out there. Overall a good and entertaining show for $25, but in my opinion, not the homerun that ROH needed.Show Rating: 7.0
As a reminder, I will be going by the 411 scale…
0 – 0.9: Torture
1 – 1.9: Extremely Horrendous
2 – 2.9: Very Bad
3 – 3.9: Bad
4 – 4.9: Poor
5 – 5.9: Not So Good
6 – 6.9: Average
7 – 7.9: Good
8 – 8.9:Very Good
9 – 9.9: Amazing
10: Virtually PerfectAs a reminder, this is not a basic “how good was the show” number like a TV show, as I have always felt that a PPV is very different from a regular show. I have always judged PPV on how they built to a match, the match quality, crowd reactions to matches and angles, the overall booking, how the PPV leads into the future, PPV price and so on and so forth. I have added this in here for an explanation since so many have asked, and I have previously discussed it on podcasts. I understand that this may seem different, but that is how I grade. Obviously your criteria may be different.
Larry Csonka is a Pisces and enjoys rolling at jiu jitsu class with Hotty McBrownbelt, cooking, long walks on the beach, Slingo and the occasional trip to Jack in the Box. He is married to a soulless ginger and has two beautiful daughters who are thankfully not soulless gingers; and is legally allowed to marry people in 35 states. He has been a wrestling fan since 1982 and has been writing for 411 since May 24th, 2004; contributing over 3,000 columns, TV reports and video reviews to the site.
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