1. Man, poor Roderick Strong can’t get more than a couple of sentences during the House of Truth match mentioning his title victory? Tyler Black always got some footage or at least screen shots the shows after his iPPV title matches. Why not extend Roddy the same treatment?
2. If you don’t think I looked online for Austin Aries’ “make awkward sexual advances, not war” t-shirt, you don’t know me very well. I think I still prefer the “break dance, not hearts” one I saw at the Rangers-Yankees game this past Saturday.
3. Nice opener between Daniels and Titus, as ROH continues to make Titus look like more than just a comedy act. Kudos to Daniels for helping the guy look strong, as I even bought the near fall on the sit-out spinebuster.
4. I get that ROH, for storyline progression, needs to give the House of Truth air time and have them look strong, but these squash matches just haven’t gotten me to care about them. I certainly haven’t seen anything from them so far that makes me want to see them square off against a legitimate team.
5. I wouldn’t describe Davey as a great promo (I don’t think I have ever heard anyone else do so, either), but I always find myself liking his interviews. Why? Because they sound (and probably are) unscripted. He actually thinks and sounds like a real person, and not a caricature.
6. Still on Davey – I really like watching him in the ring. I do. He’s fast-paced, hard-hitting, and there is obviously very little, if anything, that he can’t do. But sometimes it seems like he’s so intent on getting all his stuff in during a match that it actually detracts from the match. I would be happy to see him sacrifice a move here and there for the sake of taking the time to sell, say, a half-nelson suplex. Sometimes, less really is more.
7. Aforementioned selling issues aside, REALLY good match between the Super Smash Bros. and the Wolves tonight. I hadn’t been too high on SSB before this, but in their defense, they’d never really been given a chance to shine on HDNet. Player Dos, in particular, looked like a star tonight. I think I still like Cheech & Cloudy a little better, but there’s no reason those two teams can’t occupy a similar place on ROH’s roster.
8. Good, not great match between Austin Aries and Delirious. I really like both guys, but have found their matches against each other to be merely OK, as they just seem to miss that extra gear together.
9. I do, however, like the fact that the feud has followed a natural progression. The story has been that, since injuring Delirious’ throat, Austin Aries has been able to avoid payback, either by hightailing or through All-Night Express interference. The Lumberjack Match was meant to remedy that, but Aries got one over on Delirious again. The next step? A cage match. It’s nice to have gimmick matches mean something, instead of being scheduled simply because the PPV name says so.
10. Perfectly enjoyable show tonight. Other than the House of Truth squash, which was too short to detract too much from the show, the focus was definitely on the in-ring action, and everything was quality. I never thought I’d say this, but my only real complaint about this show is . . . it was missing a video package. A two-sentence mention of Strong’s title win just isn’t enough to make the title look important.
