10 Thoughts on ROH on HDNet – 03.15.2010

Reviews, Shows, TV Shows

1. I don’t know why it hasn’t occurred to either Aries (who is best served by a one-on-one rematch) or Cornette (who is supposedly trying to assert his authority and act in ROH’s best interest) to argue that, while Aries has a contractual right to a title shot, Strong is not entitled to a title match, as Black has no match-making power. And it’d likely make Strong go even farther off the deep end if he was denied a rematch on that basis, thus making the story even more compelling.

2. I liked that Colt Cabana was more serious than usual tonight, thus conveying the magnitude of the Television Title Tournament. I’ve been waiting to see that from him and hope to see more of it, especially during his involvement in the Steen/Corino/Generico feud.

3. The Edwards-Cabana match was pretty disappointing and the weakest of the four first-round matches. I liked Steen-Titus better from a technical standpoint, even though it was hurt by a lack of crowd heat.

4. Strong debut promo from Daivari, disavowing all prior gimmicks and establishing himself as someone whose main concern is to make a living as a wrestler. Maybe if they’d tried something similar with Sonjay Dutt, his ROH run wouldn’t be such a letdown (although granted, he doesn’t have the same background to draw from that Daivari does). Still, I had to chuckle when the supposedly “smarter” ROH crowd serenaded Daivari with a “USA” chant, which is as simplistic as it gets.

5. I thought, at least at first, that the point of the Kyle O’Reilly-Tony Kozina match was to showcase O’Reilly. However, I was far more impressed with Kozina, who hit a couple of nice high-flying moves. O’Reilly didn’t really stand out here.

6. If Prazak is going to openly, although somewhat subtly, acknowledge the alleged Monday Night Wars, he should point out that ROH actually comes on before RAW and iMPACT, thus allowing viewers to get some pro wrestling before moving on to sports entertainment. See, I just wrote his tagline, free of charge!

7. That said, I do find it humours that a company that professes to denounce “sports entertainment” has among its key players a guy who hails from “the edge of sanity” and speaks in grunts.

8. Pretty outstanding match between Davey and Delirious – just about what I expected from these two. I’m REALLY looking forward to the Davey-Kenny King semi-final match. Kenny has been on a real roll lately, and Davey is Davey.

9. Prazak and Hogwood are really playing up the possibility of an all American Wolves final, which just about telegraphs that this is exactly what is going to happen. Not that I’m complaining, because the match should be good if Eddie brings his A-game. Plus, it’s what makes most sense from a storyline standpoint, especially if Cabana or Generico cost Steen his match against Edwards.

10. Given ROH’s penchant for lengthy title reigns and the time and effort spent towards Black’s journey to the title, there is no chance in hell he is dropping the belt on April 3rd. Knowing that, ROH has done as good a job of building up the triple threat match as it possibly could. Black’s and Aries’ promos tonight were solid (Strong’s, not so much), and the video package at the end of the show was EXCELLENT.