SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
HITS
Consistency of Past Show Recaps: When you’ve only got one hour of TV weekly, that develops some challenges even though I think a one-hour wrestling show is the sweet spot as far as time goes per each week in a wrestling product. In 2017, I feel like ROH has done a good job of sprinkling in recaps that helps fans and viewers remember things that may not be mentioned weekly. During this week’s episode, we were shown plenty of recaps of recent happenings in the feuds between The Briscoes & Bully Ray vs. The Kingdom, Jay Lethal, Silas Young, and Beer City Bruiser, and Cheeseburger and Will Ferrara. I think small clips like the ones we’ve been shown throughout not just this week but previous weeks makes the overall shows better.
Bull Ray Speaks: I thought Bully Ray’s promo to kick off the episode was solid. He talked about when he came into ROH and what some of his goals were. He addressed what has happened with he and The Briscoes over the last few months and he promised that he and The Briscoes would regain the 6-man titles and be on the same page going forward. This was as I like to say, short, sweet, to the point, and effective.
Cheeseburger vs. Will Ferrara: As I mentioned earlier, I thought the recap they did regarding this feud was needed and good since it’s been going on for a while. From the start, this match was on fire and the people were very much into it. In fact, the crowd never died during the entire match. I felt like when you watch this you realize that this is how wrestling should be done. Are Ferrara and Cheeseburger megastars at this point in their careers? Not at all but that didn’t stop the crowd from being into this from the start given how the story has been built between these two former friends that have become bitter rivals. Unfortunately for Cheeseburger, he once again came up on the short end by losing to Ferrara but this is far from over as they build towards their next encounter. Additionally, after the match concluded and Ferrara won, Rhett Titus comes out like he’s about to help Cheeseburger who breaks up the submission. But then Titus and Ferrara turn to putting the boots to Cheeseburger as we close out the segment. Titus has come out previously when Cheeseburger and Ferrara are going at it but the direction of where Titus fits into this is not known yet. Still this was a very good match that the crowd enjoyed the heck out of.
Coleman’s Pulpit: This is so absurd that I like it. It’s like the 2017 version of the Brother Love show in ROH and I believe that Coleman is the right guy to do it. Coleman doesn’t do much here but call for the ROH fans to tell him who they want to hear on the Pulpit. This segment is still young in the making on ROH but I’m giving it a chance to see where it goes. I hope the company and the fans give this a chance because I think some good segments could be produced with this.
Silas Young (w/Beer City Bruiser) vs. Chase Brown: Young does what you would expect here and that is take care of business against Chase Brown. It takes less than five minutes for Young to hit Misery on Brown and defeat Brown. Young continues pounding Brown with punches after Young has won. Jay Lethal hits the ring and goes after Young while security does their best to break the two men up. Both men get on the microphone and cut a couple of nice promos leading up to their match at Death Before Dishonor in a few weeks. Lethal challenges Young to a match right now but Young refuses to give “Golden Boy” Jay Lethal the pleasure of fighting tonight and says he’ll do his fighting in the Last Man Standing match at the PPV. This feud continues to build to a boiling point to me and I feel like there’s not much more that they can do to make this any better. Great segment and great build as we look towards the PPV.
Cody Attack Dalton Castle: Part of me liked this and part of me didn’t. I guess if you’re imagining Cody as this loose cannon type “American Nightmare” then this works for you. I put this in the Hits section but it could have easily been placed as a Miss. I was very much cold on this segment. You could’ve left it out and the show would’ve been fine.
MISSES
Cody Kiss This Ring: I try to gauge after I write these weekly hits and misses if I am off base on the various segments. I want to see things from both sides as far as if there are others who have a difference of opinion. I say this because I noticed out in social media that there are people who did like this segment this week. For me, I just thought it was average at best. Nothing about it excited me as I look towards Cody vs. Suzuki at the next PPV. What did I miss? Please sound off below in the comments because I do value other points of view on these things.
Search and Destroy (Jay White, Motor City Machine Guns, and Jonathan Gresham) vs. Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tanga Roa) & The Young Bucks: I get it by now. There are some things in ROH that I just don’t like and I’m the old guy that needs to realize wrestling is just different in 2017. I’d argue that point because I also don’t always hate matches with tons of flips, dives, superkicks, etc. There’s been plenty of ROH matches that I have liked from all of the guys in this match with the exception of Guerrillas of Destiny (only because I don’t think I’ve done a review of there’s in ROH). With all that said, all 8 guys worked hard and had a very good match but it simply did nothing for me. That’s not a knock on any of the talent because the athleticism on display was exceptional. I just don’t enjoy most 8-man matches where it’s just chaos with no form of rules being adhered to such as tagging in and out as one example. Therefore, once again this was a good match but it wasn’t for me and it lands in the Miss category this week.
Final Thoughts
I thought the overall show was good and I like how they built towards Death Before Dishonor for much of the episode. The Young and Lethal feud continues to be a great one and Cheeseburger and Ferrara also progressed things in their feud. Lastly, Ian Riccaboni and Marty Scurll was another solid duo on commentary. Once again Riccaboni has a good episode with yet another person in the booth with him.
Mike Mills is the PWTorch.com ROH TV Hits and Misses Specialist, providing his point of view on ROH TV weekly. You can follow Mike at @BTT_Podcast and @Mike504Saints on Twitter.
NOW CHECK OUT LAST WEEK’S COLUMN: ROH HITS & MISSES 9/2: Bruiser vs. Lethal No DQ Street Fight, Coleman’s Pulpit with Daniels & Kazarian, Howie Timberché vs. Ferrara, Mark Briscoe, Bully Ray
Any match the Young Bucks are in is usually the highlight of the show.