Because I’ve been sick for the better part of the past week, I was unable to do any podcast recording. However, I wanted to catch you guys up with my thoughts on the current product.
First of all, Ring of Honor had a tremendously well produced pay per view event on Sunday night celebrating the 13th Anniversary of the company. Start to finish, this is a card worth checking out. Below are the results of the card with the time length of the match as well as my rating of each match. Feel free to share your agree/disagree thoughts in the comments below!
^Author’s note: If you’re loyal to WWE but want a better wrestling product, this is the sort of pay per view you should check out to consider alternative options. No one is forcing anyone to stop watching WWE, but do yourself a favor and be open to QUALITY professional wrestling!
Cedric Alexander vs Matt Sydal 9:38 ***1/2 – Hot opening start. I almost went 3.75, but it just wasn’t long enough to get the next notch.
Moose vs Mark Briscoe 5:15 **1/4 – Moose is a beast, and he showed his brute strength here. Mark is a trooper for the beating he sold on those barricades.
Matt Taven/Michael Bennett vs The Addiction(Daniels and Kazarian) vs Karl Anderson 11:58 *** – This was a lot of fun despite Anderson being a man down(Gallows had travel issues and missed the show). The IWGP Tag Champs were essentially pinned with a just cause that doesn’t hurt nor help them. Solid action.
Roderick Strong beats BJ Whitmer 10:57 ***1/2 – Physical and slower than I expected, but still a damn good hard hitting matchup. The right man won in Mr. ROH.
ODB(One Dirty Briscoe)/Maria 5:20 * -This is not what I expect for women’s wrestling. That aside, it was a wildly entertaining segment.
AJ Styles Beats ACH 15:30 **** – Best singles match on the card, without question. This could have been the main event with ten minutes tacked on to be a match of the year candidate. I didn’t expect Styles to lose, but I didn’t expect the announcers to make such a big deal of ACH keeping up with the IWGP World Champ. Loved this match!
reDRagon beat the Young Bucks 15:40 ****1/4 to retain the ROH World Tag Team Titles- I loved the match here, as I always love it when these two teams lock up. What’s it going to take to get them to that top notch five star level? That’s a very good question, but I love watching them reach that for that bar every time they face off in the squared circle! Match of the night, no doubt.
Jay Lethal beats Alberto El Patron 12:33 ***1/2- This one was a lot slower than what I expected, and it was a weird pacing for the story told. However, the ending really grabbed me from two guys that worked hard. Hopefully their styles mesh a little more the next time they meet in the ring.
Jay Briscoe wins main event against Hanson, Tommaso Ciampa, and Michael Elgin in a Four Corner Survival Match to retain the ROH World Title. Raymond Rowe returns during the match to fend off the red-masked men. 16:21 ***1/2 – It was wild, crazy and fun. But, it wasn’t a typical ROH World Title main event and that really did hurt the overall value for me. I’ve never seen such an overbooked finish for ROH on a major show(then again, I haven’t seen every show). Jay winning was the right move.
Samoa Joe came out and addressed the crowd before the main event. He said he wanted the ROH World Title. Joe came back out after Jay retained and the two faced off. The rumor is that Joe is going to sign with WWE, but that he needed something to do(Ring of Honor) while his final TNA TV shows aired on Destination America. I don’t know what to make of all the news, but I’m thrilled that Joe is free to WRESTLE again at the moment and hope we get some great action in 2015 because of it.
NXT this past week(the 2/25 edition) was incredibly weak. Nothing stood out for me. I’m not writing a show review of something that I didn’t enjoy in the slightest. Fortunately for us, there are some good cards ahead.
The Mania Card is being built:
Undertaker is working with Bray Wyatt- I like it if they can give us something special, but I have my doubts.
Sting vs Hunter – Same as above.
Brock Lesnar vs Roman Reigns – Same as above.
John Cena will end up facing Rusev – I liked what they did at Fastlane, so I’m sure I’ll like the rematch(despite Cena winning).
Andre the Giant Battle Royal – Memorial has been removed from the name of the match when people use it now, so I find that interesting. Guess memorial makes it sound old, no? Ryback is a front runner. Kane and Show will be in it but won’t win it. Cesaro won’t win it two years in a row, if he’s even in it(tag match is more likely). Zack Ryder is in, and I’d bet Jack Swagger joins up as well. We’ve also got Miz and Mizdow entering, where I could definitely see Mizdow getting his career back on track by winning(if he wasn’t such a comedy act, that is).
IC Title Ladder Match: Barrett defends against R-Truth, and most likely Dolph Ziggler, Daniel Bryan and Dean Ambrose. I wouldn’t be surprised to see other names get added here(possibly even NXT guys or in the battle royal), but basically it’s a battle of underrated talents to make a certain audience happy.
There will be a divas match and a tag title match most likely added here. Should be a solid card IF things go better than expected in the main event scene. Nothing screams epic about the card.
You guys have been asking a lot about my writing schedule. Many of you have been very understanding of my work-consumed life. Many of you haven’t been so patient. I appreciate the ones who still support me and tell me to do things at my own pace. In a bit of news, the podcast is far from dead and is only just getting started. I didn’t intend to miss last week’s show, and I actually intended to record three or four episodes over the weekend to build towards WrestleMania. Unfortunately, mother nature and flu season whooped my candy ass. That stuff aside, no need to worry! The podcast episodes are coming, and the reviews of GOOD WRESTLING SHOWS are coming down the line as well.
I’ll be reviewing a quality wrestling show this week and finally getting those new episodes posted(first one by Saturday night!). With WrestleMania 31 just on the horizon, ThunderStruck in 2015 is just heating up!
facebook.com/jthunder89 – add me
