Poncho Man here. This might be a few months late and I know that The Marshall has already covered this but I’m going to review RING OF HONOR BORDER WARS!! I’m working on getting a bunch of their iPPVs. Honestly I try to keep up with ROH. It’s probably been my favorite all around promotion for a few years now. About every 6 months or so I randomly decide to find some and watch the hell out of it. So lets break it down.
Rhino vs. Eddie Edwards. I’ve always been a fan of Rhino. What I like about him is that he’s always in the henchman role, but he’s good and scary…unlike say…Umaga. Umaga wasn’t ever impressive to me. It’s nice that he took a pay cut because he realized TNA sucks and put on a pretty solid match. In any promotion on tv…they would have made this match a total squash. That’s what I love about ROH, monsters can still loose to normal shaped/sized guys.
All Night Express with TJ Perkins vs. Young Bucks and Mike Mondo. I heard Mondo was maybe coming to WWE. The Young Bucks remind me of a more annoying version of Spanky’s WWE gimmick. For some reason I can’t remember Spanky’s WWE/TNA name. I don’t have a lot to say about this match. It becomes a crazy spot fest toward the end which I was expecting. So yeah…a not very important to me ROH match is better than a not very important WWE/TNA match.
Tamasso Ciampa vs. Jay Lethal. If The Marshall remembers….the catapult into the Section C sign needs to become a Jay Lethal move. They should capitalize on how funny that was and the pun. ANYWAY….I don’t know about the rest of this rivalry, but the announcers really do a good job of selling this. They made it really intense and I really want to see the rest of this fued and for it to continue, but I have a weird feeling Lethal might be going after the ROH Title.
Mike Bennett vs. Lance Storm. I thought Storm was retired so I was stoked to randomly see him. Maria as a heel is kinda awesome. I think one of the best parts of ROH is they don’t go after the HUGE named guys WWE or TNA gets rid of….they go after people like Finlay and Storm..both teachers of wrestling and guys like Haas and Benjamin who were always so solid but can’t really do good promos for their life. This was a solid match and it was great to see Lance Storm come in and really make a young guy look good.
Adam Cole vs. Michael Elgin. Elgin looks like he won’t be in ROH very long. Can he do a promo? He reminds me of Perry Saturn. Built like a brick tank and fairly innovative. His power-bomb is ridiculous and beautiful.
Roderick Strong vs. Fit Finlay. Finlay takes one of ROH’s biggest stars to school. Go watch this.
The Briscoes vs. Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team. One of the last times I was really excited about ROH was when Haas and Benjamin made their debut. It was a great tag match….I think it was against Chris Hero and Claudio Castignoli. Anyway….Shelton Benjamin. Remember when he had that “Doing it for momma” gimmick? It always made me mad that he wasn’t the greatest talker….but they wouldn’t just turn him heel, where a suit and call him Mr. Benjamin. It’s all about Mr. Benjamin baby. The Briscoes are scary and they’ve always bugged me. They’re like smaller versions of New Jack. This match was booked ECW style and I really don’t think it really utilized what Haas/Benjamin do. Still pretty fun.
Davey Richards vs. Kevin Steen. I think I’ve said this before or that I wanted to but Kevin Steen is great. He started in a tag team with El Generico and over a few years they built an amazing feud. The feud would be over in 2 weeks in WWE, but ROH made it awesome. It went through a few different companies. It started during the ROH/CZW feud. Kevin Steen will probably never make it to WWE because he’s chubby. I don’t think I’ve seen much Davey Richards. Was he a guy that when ROH changed all their tv stuff that they thought would be a “pretty face” for the company? He’s not bad, but I don’t’ really feel like he has a personality. Match was solid but Kevin Steen needs guys that are more intertaining than Richards to face as champion.
In the end….I can’t believe I just watched 3 and a half hours of wrestling without fast forwarding, without being bored, and without seeing any skits. I’m just so happy that this company exists.
PS. AJ is the most interesting female in wrestling since Mickie James. Nice to see a great promo from her.
PPS. I was glad to see Sid back. He was legit scary when I was a kid. He didn’t look as good as Vader…but he’s never been as good as Vader. Slater better get a push when this gimmick is over. He’s so annoying that he’ll be a great foil for a Christian or face Cody Rhoades.
Some notes on your notes:
ReplyDeleteTomasso Chiampa- It seemed like Border Wars was his "break out" match. I think it was when he debuted that mohawk/bleached beard look. Before that he just had the 'hawk and was cutting Orton-esque promos that didn't win him any favor from the ROH crowds. The white beard came with a renewed intensity, and he's been way cooler since.
Michael Elgin- Promo under construction. He keeps them short and sweet, not sure if he can really sell an angle, but he is pretty young and has some time to figure it out. Wait til you see his match at Showdown in the Sun. As an appreciator of beautiful power-bombs, that match will make your day. It was almost sad when Finlay took him to school at Best in the World-- but how awesome is Finlay!?
Haas and Benjamin are doing fine promo-wise these days. They're almost definitely the most hated heels on the roster.
If you need to be won over by the Briscoes, look no further than their shot-from-home promos on youtube, they are hilarious.
Davey Richards- I really didn't like Richards for a while because he had an MMA gimmick where he'd come out in a robe with a dozen or so non-wrestlers called Team Richards, and he wrestles with a mouthguard. Even after Team Richards was phased out, his gimmick was a major turn-off. Once he tweeted that pro-wrestling was just something he did in between jiu jitsu training, which pissed a lot of fans off, myself included, since Richards was the ROH Champ at the time. To answer it, Steen called him a "Jiu Jitsu jackoff". Regardless, I've never seen Richards in a bad match, and I'd say about half of his matches are outstanding. Point is, the character sucks, but the matches are world class.
I'm still on the fence about Steen. I like his character, but his matches are always so violent. I'd like him more if he did more technical stuff, but then I guess he wouldn't be Kevin Steen. I guess I do like him, I just don't look forward to his matches the way I do with some of the other ROH guys.