ROH HITS & MISSES 11/1: Comments on future of ROH, Halloween miss, women’s match steals the show, more

I must take a moment here to address the decision by ROH (and parent Sinclair) to shut things down after the December PPV for a few months to reorganize and figure some things out. I hope that ROH does return, but I have to say that if it returns in its current form, I am not sure it will succeed.

If they must find 200 people, have them Covid tested and put in quarantine to be the live audience at one of their extended tapings, then they better pony up and do so. I commend ROH for not wanting to cram a bunch of people into a small venue, shoulder to shoulder, while the pandemic is still with us, but they have to find a way to get some excitement into their programming, both for the wrestlers to play off of and for the viewing audience to take their cues from.

I do not have all the answers: proof of vaccine, a negative covid test, required mask wearing, and/or pay an audience to quarantine after testing and do two days of taping in a row (that’s probably at least six hours of TV programming). They have to do something. If they come back and nothing has changes then ROH may go down as the ultimate miss in the current wrestling environment.

Hits

– As I have noted before, I must 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.

QUINN MCKAY & ROK-C vs. MIRANDA ALIZE & MAX THE IMPALER (with Amy Rose)

Rok-C and Alize started off the match just swinging at each other, and while it set the tone for the match, the punches did not look good, just a bunch of flailing arms. Quinn tagged in and after only a few moves the match went to break. After the break Alize was still in the ring taking shots from and giving shots to both Quinn and Rok-C. Alize finally tagged in Max, who just over-powered both of the babyfaces. After quick tags on both sides, Max was once again in against both Quinn and Rok-C and just dominated. Alize tagged in and took advantage of the knocked-out Quinn to pin her for the win. It was a good way to give Alize a win without sacrificing Rok-C and continue to build up the animosity between Alize and Rok-C.

– While on the whole, I am not a big fan of the Max character, can we please move on from Road Warrior (the movie not the wrestlers), it was almost 50 years ago for goodness’ sake. It does not really add anything to the wrestler, let’s face it Max would be imposing in just regular ring-wear and a clean face. All this said, the match was passable, and did help to add tension to the building rivalry between Alize and Rok-C (the match is obviously going to be on the December PPV before ROH goes on hiatus). So, a conditional Hit here, just OK, but watchable.

Misses

THE SHOW OPENING

A major miss this week. They had Quinn do a silly spot where she starts picking out names from a jack-o-lantern for the big trick or treat match, mentions EC3’s name and then the spot speeds up and the rest of the names are unintelligible (oh it must be a surprise-ugh). Quinn then says since she is in a tag team match with Rok-C she can’t do the pre-show desk spot she hopes they picked someone good, not Bruce Johnson, she pleaded. Well, she runs off and we are subjected to Delirious doing the desk spot, speaking unintelligibly, while the match ups are flashed on the screen. This was just totally cringe inducing. A complete and total Miss for what is usually a not half bad spot on the telecast. Sigh!

FOUR-CORNER HALLOWEEN SURVIVAL MATCH: DEMONIC FLAMITA & O’SHAY EDWARDS vs. SILAS YOUNG & REY HORUS vs. WORLD FAMOUS CB & EC3 vs. FLIP GORDON & MATT TAVEN

All of the teams were put together at random so, of course, there will be a ton of intra-team conflict. I am not sure why it stood out some much here, perhaps the lack of the backstage quick promos during the entrances, but I really noticed the lack of a crowd here, with no reaction to the entrances. Really put the match at a deficit from the start.

Things started out pretty normally between CB and Silas Young, but things quickly broke down as the Lucha rules let people come in at random and we were basically subjected to the wrestlers pairing up in the ring, getting their spots in and then moving on to the next duo. This match lost my interest about three minutes in and really never got it back. As the pairing were random and the wrestlers were allowed to enter without tags, there was no story to follow or get involved with.

As the insanity continued, Silas Young finally was able to steal the pin from his own partner (Horus), what? Huh? And by pinning CB was able to claim the great pumpkin with $10K in cash (but supposed to be split by the winner team??). This whole match from the inability to set up the parameters, to the crazy mixing and matching of wrestlers, and ultimately to the weird ending was a great big splat of a pumpkin landing on the sidewalk (it was a miss folks!).

WORLD SIX-MAN CHAMPIONSHIP: DANHAUSEN, SLEDGE, & PCO vs. THE CHAMPIONS – SHANE TAYLOR, MOSES, & KAUN

– The match started out with Danhausen getting beaten up by each member of the opposing team, which I guess is his function. Danhausen is very good at taking bumps and sells very well. I will say however, it got a bit old as he tried to chokeslam Shane Taylor, just kind of stupid. With Danhausen finally out of the ring, the big guys, Taylor and Sledge started mixing it up throwing heavy shots. As with many ROH matches the first act is somewhat slow and methodical before picking up steam in Act Two and Act Three.

In this match, the action picked up with PCO tagged himself in and started beating everyone up including his own team, until he dove out of the ring onto no one, setting himself up to get worked over by Taylor and Moses. I am sorry, the whole PCO thing is just stupid.

– At this point the match broke down as PCO ran wild again, taking out Sledge and leaving Danhausen alone to face the other three wrestlers. Of course, Taylor, Kaun, and Moses got the win by decimating Danhausen with Taylor getting the pin.

– This one was a miss as well, as rather than having a match with a solid story, they went for including PCO and the idiocy that brings. With his antics in a multi-man match, it just destroys any continuity to the story telling and ultimately works against the enjoyment that a match between six big men could have had.

CATCH-UP: Ring of Honor announces upcoming hiatus, talent reportedly released from contracts