1. I noticed that Cole and O’Reilly, when talking about the other tag teams in ROH, only had negative things to say about the All-Night Express. Cole and O’Reilly have looked good since joining ROH, but I’m not sure they’ve been around long enough or accomplished enough to talk about Kenny King and Rhett Titus still have a ways to go.
2. This “Grandma’s Boys” gimmick for the Bravado Brothers doesn’t exactly scream “long-term success”, but at least it gives them a character, and the promo was actually kind of funny, especially when they talked about what an honor it was to wrestle the world’s best tag team “from eight years ago.” They are, however,going to need to change their entrance music to fit their new persona.
3. Wow, I never thought Cole and O’Reilly’s first loss on HDNet would be to the Bravados! Maybe they’re more serious about them than I thought. The two teams put on a very solid opener – probably the best match of the night. Cole and O’Reilly are a very fundamentally sound team, the Bravados were more than game, and they gave us really nice near falls going both ways at the end.
4. MsChif looked extremely impressive in her HDNet return last week and adds a new dimension to the Women of Honor “division”, but her promo was . . . interesting. I suppose it suits her character, but it reeked of 80’s cheesiness, with the shrieking and all.
5. Speaking of bad promos, Homicide’s face-to-face interview with Cornette was pretty bad – at least from Homicide’s end. He seems to be going for the anti-authority, “don’t trust ‘The Man'” thing, but he just sound paranoid. And incoherent.
6. I’ll at least give Homicide the benefit of the doubt on his match, since the guy he was in there with didn’t seem like any great shakes, but it was yet another lackluster effort for the Notorious 187 on HDNet. I don’t know if his house show/iPPV stuff has been better, but I hope so. Otherwise, I hope he picks up his game soon, as he can be a valuable piece of the top of the card when he is at his best.
7. Looks like it’s going to be incumbent upon Daniels to put Mike Bennett over. I don’t have much of an issue with this, as Daniels doesn’t really need the Television Title, whereas Bennett can benefit greatly from it. I haven’t seen Bennett’s house show/iPPV work, but I hope he is up to the task. ROH fans can be pretty demanding about the quality of their wrestling, and would turn on the guy pretty quickly if he’s not up to snuff.
8. Kenny King and Shelton Benjamin showed some nice chemistry in the portions of the main event where they went up against each other. They could put on a great athletic showcase in a singles match, and I hope we get to see it sooner rather than later.
9. I had no problem with the Kings of Wrestling interference factoring into the finish of the main event. Both teams needed to be kept strong, and at least we were still given a winner. Plus, it shows that the KoW do regard the All-Night Express as a legitimate threat. The match itself was good – not great – and told a good story, with the ANX clearly being a step behind in skill and experience, but keeping up with Haas & Benjamin because they were so determined to prove they belong.
10. Mixed bag tonight for ROH, with a surprisingly really good opener, some middling angle advancement in the middle, and a decent main event. Put down the clicker if you’re channel surfing and it happens to be on (though I’m not sure if HDNet does replays), but no need to go out of your way to look for it, although Cole & O’Reilly vs. Bravados was a nice treat.
