Last weekend ROH did a doubleshot in Florida to the best reviews of any two consecutive nights since Adam Pearce took over. Shenanigans in main events were down and more matches impressed than usual, giving the impression that they’re out of “transition period.†Richards Vs. Black was a surprise in the main event slot of Night 1, but to all reports was high quality, while D-Lo Brown got a warm reception on Night 2. This also came during the doubleshot when HDNet was visiting the company, and directly after rumors that the channel wanted ROH to be more sports-based than Pearce had been booking. Was that weekend the start of a trend? We can’t say, but it is appropriate this week as we look at Bound By Hate.
It was the second show of the Pearce Era. Where the first one got a quiet response, this was trashed by live reports and even moreso by people who read them. The biggest point of contention was McGuinness’s title defense against the Necro Butcher. The match went about ten minutes of garbage brawling and poor technical wrestling attempted by both men, kept very slow for Butcher’s leg injury. McGuinness looked poorer than ever with the most awkward Ankle Lock in recent memory. It was epitomized in the “wrapping†on Butcher’s injured leg, which looked to be made of bathroom rowels and electric tape. This did not look like something an uncouth wrestler threw together; it just looked goofy. Nut shots, belt shots, the ring bell and chairs all came into play before the Age of the Fall ran in for a run-of-the-mill run-in. It was a pathetic end to a pathetic match, and anybody that paid to see it had a right to be upset.
At the time, many fans said this spelled doom for the company. It’s good to look back on it now and realize there hasn’t been an ending like it in a World Title match since. Perspective is a funny thing.
The rest of the show is surprisingly strong on DVD. It opened like Pearce’s first show should have. No, not with fans booing the announcement of the new 20-count rule on the floor, but with Jerry Lynn and Davey Richards stepping up for an athletic contest that immediately let you know good wrestling still mattered in the company. It was a little slow to start, but had the right moves with enough technique and heart, and most importantly, a clean finish, serving as a quality opener that set an athletic tone for the show.
Strong and Stevens tagged very well together against Go Shiozaki and Eddie Edwards, building their match slowly to where they had the crowd at a fever pitch for counters and potential finishes at the end of their match. The crowd banged the guardrails and cheered for them to be together, forgiving ROH’s decision to hotshot their reunion after their bloody feud. Even if you don’t like how fast this moved, you can recognize that it worked for the live audience, and that the guys work really well together. If the tag division ever becomes more of a focal point in ROH again, they could make very promising challengers.
Of course, there was also Kenny King & Rhett Titus Vs. Delirious & Brodie Lee. Two heel tag teams booked against each other for no reason, with no idea of what to do, ending when the legal man chased the illegal man to the back for ROH’s first regular count-out loss. That was silly, and just like the outcome of McGuinness/Butcher, there’s good reason it hasn’t been repeated.
One of the three bigger matches on the show was Austin Aries Vs. Jimmy Jacobs, continuing their Best of Three series with a Dog Collar Match. Here there were issues with the wrestlers and the production. Jacobs refused to put on the collar and abused Aries at every turn in tried and true heel fashion, blatantly ignoring the primary rule of the match for about the first third of it. It could have worked with proper framing, but the commentators only made it worse. They focused on how silly it was, with Prazak speculating that the referee might not count a pinfall for Jacobs until he had the collar on. Prazak in particular sounded like he couldn’t care about this gory match, and it really hurt moments like Jacobs taking two minutes to tie up Aries in the corner, who for his part had to stand there and wait. It was a flawed match that emerged from its flaws to deliver a very passionate second half, and the men bled a disgusting amount to help deliver. More than anything that weekend, this match deserved better from commentary.
Prazak’s commentary continued to be an issue on this show as he swung between impartial play-by-play and deadpan heel, complete with bad jokes that he seemed to recognize as bad but couldn’t be brought to care about. The lack of emotion whenever he magically switched heel hurt it even worse. The worst offense was when he simply called Kenny Omega a “terrible partner†for Kenny King the previous night and Lenny Leonard sat in silence, not disagreeing. So essentially the commentary consensus was that Kenny Omega was a bad wrestler, end of story. Lenny Leonard went quiet whenever he was challenged or mocked, even when facts were on his side. ROH could use dynamic commentators. This is not what they need.
The second of the three notable matches on the show was Danielson Vs. Black Vs. Omega. It was the only match of this doubleshot to make it onto the Riren 100 and is absolutely worth paying to see. Danielson opened things up with some playful wrestling, actually getting both guys down for a double Cattle Mutilation. He soaked up the adoration of the crowd and transitioned well between a jocular attitude at the beginning to a killer approach that was necessary later as Black pressed him and Omega turned out to be more resilient than expected. Omega looked like a star, gradually standing up to his more seasoned opponents and earning a couple of moments as the only man standing, showing his promise even in defeat. Danielson and Black structured some great spots and story around Omega’s uprising, such that all three men shone. This was the kind of match that would create Omega fans, and with three obviously defined roles from the opening bell, was also the best example of what the new ROH might hope to be. Cue ROH faithful claiming it was all Danielson’s doing.
The main event was Kevin Steen & El Generico defending their tag titles against the Briscoes. It did not measure up to their 2007 feud at all, nor did it try. It started quickly, then simmered down and slowly built up with decent action. It stayed decent, never getting hot in a way that felt deliberate, like they were setting up a new series of matches. Gabe Sapolsky had intended to do just that here, and the guys might have been under that impression. Unfortunately hindsight shows us they only met up one other time, and that didn’t last ten minutes.
The Briscoes spent much of the match as brawling aggressors with lower-octane offense and more attitude, setting into the role of jerk heels much better than Steen and Generico did for much of their half of the feud back in 2007. The promise here was huge, and it is a fine main event. That’s the thing, though. It’s fine. Not great, not particularly good, existing on the promise of much better things later. That we know they didn’t come hampers the excitement.
But a fine ROH main event sitting atop a bloody Dog Collar Match, a wicked triple threat and a good undercard makes this a really fun show. Here at Pulse Wrestling Jake Ziegler also gave it a buy recommendation, and the DVD Lounge’s Danny Cox raved over it. Yes, the World Title match was disappointing. That’s probably why they haven’t done that again, and God willing, it’ll stay that way. If you watch Bound By Hate and read live results from the Florida doubleshot, you’ve got to wonder if it’s all that bad.
The common rebuttal is that this isn’t as good as the old ROH. I’ll admit, I’d rather pop in Return of 187 to see that great double main-event. Even without guilding our memories of Sapolsky’s booking, it could be better than this.
But that ROH doesn’t exist anymore. The reality is that you have Raw, ECW, Impact and Smackdown on television, and $40 Sunday PPV’s. If you like wrestling and what’s on TV doesn’t do it for you, you have to ask yourself if this ROH can. Bound By Hate is a good show to test your feelings.
Next week we’ll look at Escalation, the infamous Dayton show. You can get it at rohwrestling.com if you’d like to join in the discussion here on the Pulse.
