1. ROH disappointed again in hyping Tyler Black’s title win. With as much filler as there was in tonight’s show, they could have peppered the show with highlight clips of the match and capped it off with footage of the celebration, without giving away too much of the match. With all the build that went into Black’s quest for the title, ROH would have been well-served to make a bigger deal of it than they have the past two weeks.
2. If ROH is going to effectively tell the story of how Steen’s actions are affecting El Generico, it needs to do so consistently. Having Generico wrestle a match as if everything was normal, only to have him have a “woe is me” moment with absolutely nothing to trigger it, is not effective.
3. The opener tonight was decent, and showed Rhett Titus could do more if given the chance. I’m not talking World Title, or even TV Title, but he could be a credible threat. Increasing his on-screen association with Aries and Kenny King, while having the announcers subtly point out things he is learning from those two, would be a good place to start.
4. I no longer have much hope of Colt Cabana stepping into one of the vacant main event babyface slots in ROH, as it looks like they don’t intend to tone down his comedy wrestling and turn up the intensity. The fans dig it though, so assuming ROH has a plan for its main event picture, it’s hard to complain.
5. It looks like Necro Butcher’s (overly) lengthy feud with the Embassy is reaching a crescendo, which is a good thing. For one, we may finally see a final, proper blowoff (hopefully in a violent brawl worthy of ending such a feud). Second, Eddie Kingston’s involvement has given him something to do, now that Chris Hero has moved on to better things.
6. The Briscoes have been the rock of the ROH Tag Team division for so long for a reason. I love the way they blend old-school tag-team fundamentals (frequent tags, double-team offense, cutting the ring in half) with new-school offensive maneuvers. I think both WWE and TNA (mostly the latter, since it still takes its tag division somewhat seriously) have really missed the boat on the Briscoes, but I’m glad they have, since I don’t know that either fed would book them properly.
7. Speaking of, I hope the Young Bucks don’t aspire to be more than a (very) entertaining X-Division exhibition act in TNA. If the Motor City Machineguns, a bigger and more polished team, have never broken through the glass ceiling, I don’t think the Young Bucks will.
8. And if they don’t, at least they’ve given us two wonderful television matches on their way out the door. Tonight’s main event was outstanding – every bit as good as last week’s Wolves-Bucks match.
9. While it takes longer to set up than the Doomsday Device, I’d love to see the Briscoes use the Splash Mountain/Neckbreaker combo to finish matches once in a while. It looked absolutely brutal, and I had it pegged as the finish before Nick Jackson broke up the pin.
10. Not a bad show this week, but it had the potential to be so much better if they had properly filled up the time before the main event. Last week’s show suffered from a similar problem. This was a little better, but now as good as it could’ve been, especially if they had dedicated more time to treating Black’s title win as something special, which needs to happen SOON.
