ROH HITS & MISSES 10/4: The Briscoes bring intensity in tag team action, Rok-C misses with championship promo, more

– Quick note on the start of the show with a backstage promo with VLNCE UNLTD. It was a pretty standard promo, nothing really special so a neutral grade for this.

Hits

– As I have noted before, I have to give an overall HIT to ROH’s pre-recorded pre-match promos they play during the wrestlers’ entrances. These quick shots help to put the match in context and are used to help build the story for the match if there is not some long standing story line behind it. Keep it up ROH, the other promotions could learn a lot from these.

TAYLOR RUST & ALEX ZAYNE VS. THE BRISCOES

This match has somewhat of a mismatch in size and style with Rust and Zayne the trimmer with a more “athletic” move set when compared to The Briscoes. As the match started, I wondered why the Briscoes were allowing the other team to do lots of mat wrestling and joint manipulation, rather than coming out strong with their more brutal style. Ultimately as the match progressed, The Briscoes started beating down Rust and Zayne who sold very well for the “heavy” shots they were receiving from The Briscoes.

I also have to give the Briscoes some credit because they also sold where appropriate, rather than just no selling everything. This helped keep me in the match as despite the obvious advantage, The Briscoes had in talent and impact of their moves, there always seemed to be a “chance” the underdogs could get it done.

As the match entered its third act Rust and Zayne got a couple of near falls, and near submissions, the brutality of The Briscoes ultimately overcame the “plucky” underdogs and got the win. A very good match with all four wrestlers putting out a great effort creating a really fun match to watch. This one was a total hit.

Misses

ROK-C IN-RING PROMO

This was a pretty standard wrestling in-ring promo with the new champ. Rok-C is impressive when wrestling, but standing in the middle of the ring with the announcer, she came across as very nervous and so “White Bread Baby Face” that it was painful. Of course, during this, I kept waiting for her to get interrupted by heels and of course she was interrupted by the Allure, who insulted Rok-C. They weren’t very good. Then Alize entered the ring followed by Trish Adora, Willow, Allison Kaye, and ultimately Maria Kanellis, who of course used the opportunity to set up several matches that would lead to one of the women getting a title shot at the next PPV. This was so standard and WWE-ish, that I just couldn’t take it seriously. If Rok-C had been a bit better on the mike I could have given this a hit, as it was it was a mild MISS. I will also note that none of these matches were on this show but are being set up for the future.

DANHOUSEN, SLEDGE, DEMONIC FLAMITA, & PCO VS. VLNCE UNLTD

Okay, just to start off, the entrances took about five minutes, really, these guys are not Roman Reigns (that is a joke based on Reigns’ ridiculously long entrances). This match seemed to be set up as part joke and part action, action, action. And right from the beginning lost my interest as Homicide start the match versus Danhausen.

The match continued as you would expect as each wrestler entered the ring got in many of their signature moves before the other wrestler was able to tag out and the whole sequence would repeat. As Sledge took a prolonged beating, the viewer was waiting for PCO to get tagged in which he was, and he then knocked everyone down until it was Brody King vs. PCO as they just beat on each other.

Things took a really stupid turn when King dropped PCO on his head and PCO had a “malfunction” and thought he was on the same team as King and went after his own teammates. He finally realized what he was doing and started beating up the right people. By this point the match had gone on way to long and there was not even an attempt to maintain who the “legal” men were. Ultimately, King hit Sledge with a powerbomb to get the win. I have to say that five minutes less of this would have been good and while some of the action was good, there were several clearly missed spots (a PCO moonsault that totally missed), and all together gave us a match that was a near-MISS, a little editing and a little more concentration on the moves and this could have been a hit. I will admit here that some people may see this match differently, but it was just not my cup of tea.

While the pre-match promos are a strong point for ROH, this week there was a lot of backstage stupidity this week as wrestlers tried to form a four-man team to face VLNCE UNLTD. These segments were misses, sorry ROH.

CATCH-UP: 10/4 RING OF HONOR TV REPORT: VLNCE UNLTD in tag team action, The Briscoes vs. Rust & Zayne, more