Metalhead’s Thoughts on ROH Global Wars 2015 (Day 1)

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Before I start, a  little word of explanation. Metalhead’s Riff takes a little break this week, but, instead you will be getting reviews on all NJPW/ROH Supershows and a special Ten thoughts on Payback. I know, I know, I’m too kind. Just to be clear, only one NJPW/ROH event was actually a PPV, the rest were taped, this is why Global Wars Day one is reviewed before the others. As soon as the rest is made available, more reviews will follow.

That being said, let’s jump right into things!

Gedo and Moose vs. Silas Young and Takaaki Watanabe:

This was fun. Not great but still fun. Gedo was up to his usual tricks and had some good exchanges with Watanabe at the start, Moose’s push continues as this match was designed to get him ver and Young managed to berate everyone, including his own tag team partner, which ended up costing him the match as he walked into a Moose Spear. On a side not, do we really need another muscular guy using the spear as his finisher? I didn’t think so. Post match Young destroyed Watanabe to a big crowd pop. Expect a match between those two soon.

Acceptable opener.

Chris Sabin vs. KUSHIDA vs. Kyle O’Reilly:

Normally Sabin/KUSHIDA was supposed to be the opener, but, due to Bobby Fish not making it on time, Kyle O’reilly was added to this match and the ROH Tag Team championship match was (obviously) changed as well. Some great spots in this one, and KUSHIDA  had the star role here. Sabin worked well with both men and seems to have find his stride in ROH already (his alliance with the Addiction doesn’t hurt either). And if O’reilly and Fish continue to perform like this in singles match, ReDragon might be headed to splits-ville soon. My only complaint was the time allowed. At just under ten minutes, this match certainly would have deserved at least 15 minutes, but I’m nitpicking. Good stuff from all involved, KUSHIDA made Sabin tap out for the much deserved win.

Good, if a bit short match but well worth watching (even if I would have preferred KUSHIDA/Sabin or KUSHIDA:O’reilly instead of a triple threat, but,again, I’m nitpicking.

Jushin Thunder Liger and Matt Sydal vs. The Kingdom (Bennett and Taven) with Maria:

To be honest, I still don’t know what to make of the Kingdom (I wasn’t really impressed with their recent efforts against Bullet Club) and I think that a Sydal/Liger match would have been better here, but, the crowd gave much respect to Liger during and after the match and he even got to rub his  face into Maria’s boobs… Before walking right into a double superkick. The ending sequence was fine, the superkick counter to a Sydal Shooting Star was damn impressive and, after that, The Kingdom hit their Hail Mary on Sydal for the pin.

Nothing wrong with this one, was kept short and sweet.

Cedric Alexander vs. Kazuchika Okada:

Part of this match was (literally) obscured by the fact the lights and commentary went out but aside from that, those two gave us an excellent match-up. Kudos to Alexander who showed he can hang out with a star like Okada. The result was never really in doubt, of course, but both worked hard to give the crowd what they wanted and succeeded admirably. Okada, in particular, seemed to have much fun making Alexander look like a star, before delivering the inevitable rain Maker for the victory. Great stuff, Alexander deserves a big push, either in ROH or in NJPW.

WATCH!

The Addiction (Daniels and Kazarian)vs. The Decade (Whitmer and Page) vs. Roppongi Vice (Baretta and Romero):

Pity ReDragon wasn’t there for this one, but this didn’t stop those three teams to enter an excellent showing. Especially Daniels shone trough for me here, but, not to be outdone, all others involved enetred an insane spotfest that had the crowd going wild (and me on the edge of my seat). That being said, with all due respect for The Decade, the match I really wanna see now is The Addiction vs Roppongi Vice, and if I read the crowd reactions correctly, I wasn’t the only one. RPG Vice seemed to have things well in hand after hitting their finisher on Page but The Addiction managed to steal the pin and win. Post-match O’Reilly ran in and attacked The Addiction to remind them ReDragon was still out for revenge.

Good stuff, watch.

ACH vs. Shinsuke Nakamura:

Nakamura really had his working boots on here, trying hard to please the crowd and still allow ACH to shine. Like the Okada match, the winner was never really in doubt, but both managed to let the audience forget about that  and draw them into the action. And said action was great, with a little harmless fun thrown into the mix here and there. If I’m being entirely honest, perhaps Nakamura and ACH weren’t a perfect match for each-other, it seemed as if a little something was missing to make this a truly great match, but it’s so much fin seeing Nakamura in action (who has to be number 1 in the world right now), that this is, once again, nit-picking. Nakamura scored the Boma Yé for the win.

WATCH!

ROH TV Championship – Jay Lethal  vs. Tetsuya Naito:

I haven’t exactly been giving Naito glowing reviews about his performances lately (not entirely his fault, he’s been lost in the shuffle, booking-wise, for months now), but kudos to him for making us believe he could actually pull this off, this was perhaps his best performance since his match against AJ Styles at WK. Lethal continues playing on his claims that the TV Title is the most prestigious ROH has, and entered another spirited performance in an attempt to prove this (he doesn’t really succeed but that’s beside the point). That being said, beating someone of the caliber of Naito certainly can’t hurt. Only complaint here is that I really could have done without Dijak’s interference.

In what is turning into a pattern for this show, good, if not great.

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Michael Elgin:

VERY slow start to this one, it must be said, but once it picked up speed, it turned into a very enjoyable outing. Much like Nakamure and Okada earlier, Tanahashi did a great job of pleasing the crowd while still managing to make Elgin look great. Elgin, I don’t know, he seems to suffer from a lack of direction lately, but here, once he shifted into high gear, he entered a really good performance. Good action, good chemistry between the two, the ending sequences were awesome with Tanahashi finishing it with the High Fly Flow. Very good stuff once you get past the opening minutes.

WATCH!

Bullet Club (A.J. Styles, Doc Gallows, Karl Anderson & The Young Bucks) vs. ROH All Stars (Hanson, The Briscoes, Ray Rowe &  Roderick Strong):

Don’t expect anything subtle, or much in-ring psychology here, just go with the flow and the action and you’ll will be in for a treat. A wildly entertaining 17 minutes of non-stop action, everybody had their working boots on and was determined to give the crowd a fitting main-event. And they succeeded admirably. Not a dull moment in sight, this was chaotic madness at its most enjoyable. In a mad ending sequence Matt Jackson took a  Jay Driller and Froggy Bow for the hugely popular ROH All-Stars win. Post match jay lethal ran in and decked BOTH Jay Briscoe (ROH Champion) and AJ Styles (IWGP Champion) with the TV Belt. Well, that’s one way to prove your point…

Great stuff, WATCH!

I must say, I can’t call this an outstanding show, like I, perhaps hoped to do. Nothing bad, mind you, everything ranged from above average to good, but I felt they were missing a couple of great matches to make this one for the ages. I partly blame the booking and the decision to go with 4 Supershows in one week for that. The simple fact is that some of the macth-ups on the other cards were simply more appealing than what was presented here. Don’t get me wrong, this was still loads of fun and well worth your time. I dare say they still presented more interesting matches than a certain Stamford based PPV will ever be able to do.

It gets Metalhead’s Stamp of Approval!

See you guys soon for more War of the Worlds/Global Wars reviews!

 

 

 

I've been following wrestling for almost 30 years now, and the metal scene for even longer. And let's just say that all that head-banging has left me with some weird ideas that i will share with you from time to time. Aren't you glad?