bradhindsight

A good comedy/shtick match built around Liger's arm, which he sold magnificently throughout - all in a setup to the final chicken wing. Scurll was even able to block the palm strike due to the injured arm also. Liger broke out two different spots than he had in the BOSJ so far: the top rope rana and the top rope superplex. An enjoyable *** bout.

Baby face BUSHI! Desperado's is right back with the chair here, but Bushi comes out like a house of fire with two big dropkicks. He uses his shirt, but Desperado takes advantage of the ref's distraction and plasters Bushi with a chair to the face on his dive through the ropes. I really do enjoy the frantic ring announcer telling the crowd to move - it's quite tense. Desperado throws him in the chairs, but he avoids the countout. Now we move to knee work on BUSHI, and this is fairly well done and the selling is there. You especially see this with a charge into the corner by BUSHI where he's limited and doesn't get much of the double knees. Springboard rana to the outside looks good too. Despy works the mask untying - a BUSHI staple used against him! - and gets it off at one point. This all plays into the finish, BUSHI's last comeback features his destroyer, but Despy slips off the mask and covers him for the win as panic ensues. Post match BUSHI goes after him, as he should, which pops the crowd. I dug this ***1/2

Fun little match with KUSHIDA working on top to set up the hover lock. This had an extra level at the end where you presumed the match was over, but we get a dramatic submission attempt that Tiger Mask escapes from. He plays off KUSHIDA doing the handspring back elbow earlier by kicking out his knee the second time and then hitting the tiger bomb (for 2) and then the Tiger Driver for the win (!). Worth checking out from day3. ***1/4

I may have liked this on par with their more famous match, and from a style standpoint liked this better with it being more mat-based with a large sprinkling of callbacks. This was f'n crisp too - especially that destroyer sequence into the finish. Beautiful. ****1/4

Man I loved this. Liger surprises him out of the bell with the big palm strike and then takes him outside and hits the somersault off the apron and the brainbuster. He's at first content with a countout win and then says, nah, and goes and gets him. Hiromu gets his big stuff in too - seated dropkick, powerbomb on the apron. He takes over, and I love him going for the mask, but then when he messes around with the one tip on the mask (couldn't see what he was doing, presumably using his tongue), Liger is like fuck no and pops right up and smacks him. There's still more back and forth, Liger tries for the ropes but can't escape being hit with a release german but then SUPER LIGER HULK UP and man that was great. Another palm strike into a Liger bomb gets ....two (man, what a nearfall). Then another brainbuster and I completely bought this but another 2.9999 kickout (credit Hiromu - both were excellent kickouts timing wise). Time bomb says goodnight ****

Marty's NJPW debut so you get a bit more character and fan interaction as he looks to get his gimmick over. And it works for the most part; fans were whooping before he even appeared. These two have wrestled a ton, and I, again, enjoyed these guys and their chemistry. I liked their ROH match from last year better - the rating there being dependent on how much Ospreay sells (not much if at all here). I did like how they at least set the shoulder up and it did play into the finish. A new stage for Scurll and thought he acclimated himself fine. ***3/4

Their New Beginning match was balls-to-the-wall nonstop action, where here they worked a bit of a different pace. Strikes plus some early submission work set the tone, but they eventually sped back up into a nice callback spot with the apron powerbomb. The german sequence was new and if anyone kept score on things like this, at least Dragon Lee protected himself with his elbow. Good callback finish and a super clean win too. These guys will always get to 4* seemingly, although i didn't like this as much as their earlier match this year. ****

Yep, this did rule. Nearly flawless from a technical standpoint from both guys too. Good built in drama with the submission and eventual break. ***1/4

Maybe Volador thought he was working the original Tiger Mask or something, because a lot of his stuff seemed like a stretch for old TM to pull off. The arm drag spot off the top rope for one, and thankfully no one got hurt or in the ropes for the spanish fly to finish. This was not particularly good - although I did like both the tombstone and the tiger bomb - both were stiff. Weird clash of styles and limitations here and it fell flat for me **1/4.

I'll link Dave's piece on this match: http://placetobenation.com/chip-day-vs-trevor-lee-a-modern-classic/ A CWF staple is a big main event with near-perfect booking and escalation. Nothing ever feels out of place or as filler. All the strikes here built on each other and felt even bigger as fatigue set in late. Trevor Lee's title reign is an all-timer at this point. The strongest of recommendations ****3/4

Pretty cool matchup on paper and this was pretty exciting right off the bat with the umbrella shot. It's an exhibition so we get a lot of super kicks plus a teased sunset powerbomb to the outside, which was nice. They fight to the entrance way for a suplex and a couple more kicks. Finger snap -> into an awful chicken wing but Takahashi gets his arm up on 3 and powers to the ropes. Two time bombs ends it. Nothing memorable, fun and good for what it was. ***

Most telling will be when he returns to action. i don't think the entire injury is a work, right?

i was having a hard time expressing a similar sentiment, but my thought process was like "Well, if that had to happen, that's definitely the match he wanted to have it happen in". Not condoning the headbutt either, as it wasn't even semi-critical to the match and story they were telling. That should be the end of headbutts like that (not just from him).

I liked the overall story here, it's very similar to what we've seen with Okada vs Omega and vs Suzuki. He wrestles Shibata's match and overcomes him in the end. I thought Shibata was tremendous in this match, and I felt his strikes and the urgency he had was even greater than the WK match with Goto and anything I'd seen from him this year. Maybe some credit goes to Okada there too (who I liked better than the Omega match, but not as much as his performance against Suzuki). I was not a big fan of the opening stretch here, and this is coming from someone that had little issue with the opening stanza of Okada/Omega. The grappling sucked, let's be honest. The seemingly random limb work went nowhere and was never sold. That's a 180 from the Suzuki match for Okada. Into the meat of the match and that's Okada absorbing a ton of punishment and I was nearly convinced the belt was changing hands - especially after (what I thought was) the PK late in the match where Shibata then grabbed the wrist and started that narrative. I was actually imploring him to cover him - there were only a handful of kickouts iirc, one weird random one halfway through when Shibata rolled him back into the ring and maybe one late? Shibata was certainly bent on destroying him and then choking him out, which was a different kind of drama vs. kickout/kickout/kickout to make Okada look great. I actually liked this aspect a good bit in hindsight. No issue with the first semi-missed Rainmaker, that's pretty standard from Okada and he didn't go for the cover. The last one was the KO, and I liked it much more than the one shot he got in to take out Suzuki. I don't think you get a better singles performance out of Shibata, and it's bittersweet that he's now out after the year he's had. ****1/2

The surprise swanton pre-bell was a nice callback to their Wrestle Kingdom match (and a helluva jump too). KUSHIDA slams the shoulder, big running drop kick. Now the bell rings and we get a couple more KUSHIDA staples to soften that arm up. But the big surprise is the vicious sunset flip bomb to the outside which is the catalyst for Hiromu to run through his finishing sequence and win. The only issue I have with the quick power match with these guys is that Takahashi/Dragon Lee did the same stuff to each other and killed themselves for 12 minutes (including a sunset flip powerbomb off the apron). So it kind of dings KUSHIDA, but I think even with the commentary you see the path for a long redemption story - which I'm totally into.

My biggest takeaway here was how much the Sumo Hall crowd was into Zack's arm work. That was really cool to see as things escalated during the match. I think they tip-toed the line just about perfect on how much damage Goto could realistically handle here as Zack threw everything at him and he'd either just get the ropes, and then later was able to counter these holds (logically this makes sense as it's the second or third time he's been in them) into power moves. Suzuki-gun stuff was meh, but did let Goto finish real strong in overcoming them and then putting Sabre away. Really fun. ***3/4

I don't disagree with you Mad Dog re: going outside the box and general frustration. I haven't watched much this year myself. And you're right, the Hardys helped draw that number. But unlike TNA, ROH was up against NXT (and Mercury Rising) and people had to travel to Lakeland. Will be interesting to see how the crowds are for the rest of the year. WrestleMania weekend is right place, right time, but they at least took advantage of it (and had by all accounts another great show).

This was a tough spot for all four women as they had limited time and had to work this in an elimination fashion, after regularly having long TV and PPV matches against each other. The turnbuckle stuff was a good shortcut to get around the time issue, although Charlotte not getting it off completely muffled it a bit (Graves covered brilliantly on commentary). What they laid out was fine, but this was rushed and nothing particularly memorable. **3/4

The camera cut to Goldberg delivering the first spear on an unsuspecting Lesnar was one of the best angles the WWE has ever produced. Sure, they knew the big spots here (they were all big spots), and they made sure the production matched also. I struggle with rating shorter matches, but this easily hits **** for me and was a match I re-watched the next morning, which in itself is rare and speaks to how good this was.

I tweeted this right after also, but I thought broken down Taker was fine playing a broken down old man in a match where the story told was that he was a broken down old man. I saw comments after that Reigns "disgust" look after the match was him knowing he had a clunker match and had lost the crowd, which is a complete miss of the story. I don't think Reigns was perfect in getting everything across, and I don't think that Jim Ross helped him much (he just carried on about this being a marquee career win for Reigns), but you could really see him transition into the mercy killing aspect at the end, imploring Taker to stay down, but not over-acting like HBK did at 28. I could really see this match not connecting to the live audience though (being at the show for 28, I had a similar experience with the Cell match).

Probably not casual in the loosest definition, they have to have an inkling to want to explore other wrestling so there is definitely a barrier. I think after 15 years of being around, social media and all, they've had to ingrain themselves more. And as WWE has increased in popularity of late as a part of geek culture - plus coverage on mainstream sites (which ROH has had also - ESPN, Rolling Stone, VICE) - they've grabbed more eyes. I would guess a bunch of people watch for free on either the FITE app (which I recommend, since it casts in HD) or the ROH website.

SCOH XI was their largest attendance ever. Here's the thing with negative perceptions and what I like to think is vacuum buzz - it's pretty clear, just like with WWE to an extent, that ROH's audience isn't just hardcores as maybe it once was (when they would have gone bankrupt had they not sold to SBG). They've appealed to casuals/normal fans through being available in syndication - and I think the Bully Ray signing was another move to appeal more to that maybe more serious Busted Open Radio / Tazz Show fan that isn't at PWO. The talent leaving - if not replaced - will catch up to them by end of year one would think. But they put out a good weekly TV show, and their PPVs - priced traditionally to play off your investment of watching 8 weeks of TV - are very good. In addition, their house shows are always solid so the output is still there. Meanwhile, the FloSlam funded WWN drew 250 people to their Mercury Rising Supershow Saturday night where they crowned their first champion. It's another example of how ROH and PWG absolutely dwarf Evolve when it comes to being on wrestling fan's radars. I don't know what FloSlam has done to appeal to any other fans other than hardcores. They'll eventually bail when they're tired of losing money.

I don't think anyone is trying to compete with the WWE Network value, and no one expects their price point (or FloSlam's) to compete there. Just different scales of companies. I think they could have leveraged the FloSlam $20 group if they went at $15 (meaning people would feel comfortable having FloSlam but spending again for ROH at that point), but I also won't pretend to know the production costs around iPPV. I figured $20.

Supercard of Honor will be available live on rohwrestling.com or through the FITE app. I was hoping they'd go the $20 price point here, but looks like it's $30. That's a big miss by them as there's better bang for your buck that weekend. I skipped the 15th show, and there are a couple matches I'm pretty interested in here. The FITE app is HD and can cast, a much more ideal avenue than their limited website viewer.

Didn't Daniels have a contract with them? They just didn't have anything for him so he wasn't brought in.